Earliest film memory?

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Back when I was a know-nothing youth, I had little interest in who directed what film

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This would be an interesting sub-topic. When DID you start taking notice of the director?

Myself, I was aware of Spielberg and Lucas due to their enormous popularity, but I didn't start "taking names" until Stone's The Doors. Sad to say, but I became a film fan for real in 1991 (age 16). I knew that this was the guy who directed Platoon, but I was still oblivious to the say, Kubricks & Coppolas of the world. Then I started to know Cameron (T-2), Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands), Tarantino, etc.
Now I could probably list 200 directors and 3 films by each easily.

What kicked it into overdrive:
a friend lent me A Clockwork Orange and it was all over but the cryin'.

This Is Cinerama" was produced in 1952 three years before I was born showing a wide-angle 146 degree, tri-panel panoramic picture using three projectors and showing the sensation of riding on a roller coaster. How the West was Won (1962) was also shot in this same format. Both these movies required large, big theaters and The Villa which still operates, though not the same screen, was one of the precursors to stadium seating built probably somewhere in the 1950s. I imagine that I must have been around six or seven years old when I was my first movie This Is Cinerama" at The Villa where there was even an intermission and popcorn stands on wheels would be wheeled out in the aisles of the theater.

I was about 8 when ET came out, that's my first film memory. My grandmother took me to the theater to see it. My parents took me to see it a second time, at the drive-in (which is now gone! So sad, the demise of the drive-in). It was a double feature: ET and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. ET was first. I remember struggling to stay awake during the second feature. It didn't work. So The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a blur. I'm guessing I didn't miss much there ...

Another first was the first time I had a real Film Experience ... can anyone relate to this? The first time a movie was a revelation and stayed with you for a long time afterwards ... when you first realized that there was something to this movie thing. That was when I was in fifth grade and went to see Amadeus. Actually, a friend's mother dragged us to it. All we knew was that it was about Mozart, I thought it was going to be some boring old black-and-white movie. (At that age, black-and-white always meant really boring.) I was so enthralled. I remember the feeling really well, my heart was racing and my throat was dry.

- Marina

Marina--

Interesting… were these experiences in France? -- just curious about growing up with film in countries other than the U.S.

Wait Until Dark when I was in junior high school had the biggest earliest impact. It was played in the junior high school and I was sitting amongst hundreds of other students in (what would be considered old now) theater in the front row of the balcony. The theater was constructed in such a way that the screen was relatively close and sitting in the balcony it was closer (at least that is what I recall) when Wait Until Dark was being shown. By the climax, there was utter silence throughout the entire auditorium, pitch black, practically no light. It was scary!

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Originally posted by docraven
Marina--

Interesting… were these experiences in France? -- just curious about growing up with film in countries other than the U.S.

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No, I'm American and grew up in the US. I'm just here in Paris researching for a while. It's the best city I know for film buffs ...
you couldn't find enough time in the day to go to all the great movies playing.

- Marina

Marina - It was suspicious that your English was so good. I hope your French isn't to bad either.

I'm planning a trip to Paris this year and making my own documentary/home movie. I'm well aware of the film scene in that city-they have more theatres per capita than any other city on earth.
I plan on taking shots of famous film graves: Ophuls, Truffaut, Signoret, Montand, Guitry, Bernhardt, etc.. The film museum there has the robot from Metropolis on display.

I'm sure "I'll have a lovely time" to quote The Beatles...

How interesting that the film museum in Paris has the robot from METROPOLIS! I wonder how that came about.

Three years ago I visited the UFA studios in Babelsberg near Potsdam. A film theme park that attracted crowds on the order of a very small Disney World was attached. While at the theme park you could take a tour of the studios. At the time I was there they were making a film about Marlene Dietrich and had reproduced her California home as a set. There was also a set for a film about the Berlin Wall.

At the UFA Film Museum several miles away there were many interesting memorabilia displays about the studio before Hitler's time -- THE BLUE ANGEL, METROPOLIS, CALIGARI, FAUST, etc. The UFA studios were located in what became East Germany after the war. Since the fall of the wall there has been some effort to restore the stuio and the museum.

I have been looking for the two films I mentioned, but have not seen any reference to them here in the U.S. Has anyone heard about any recent releases from the restored UFA, especially ones that might deal biographically with Dietrich, or that might involve escapes over the wall from a German perspective?

Historically, France and to some extent Germany were leaders in the motion picture industry. France had the reputation of being in the forefront of leading edge film making with the original development of movies at the end of the 19th century. There must be some great historical treasures over there in Europe and many "earliest memories preserved" for movie fans.

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Originally posted by Johann
I'm planning a trip to Paris this year and making my own documentary/home movie. I'm well aware of the film scene in that city-they have more theatres per capita than any other city on earth.
I plan on taking shots of famous film graves: Ophuls, Truffaut, Signoret, Montand, Guitry, Bernhardt, etc.. The film museum there has the robot from Metropolis on display.

I'm sure "I'll have a lovely time" to quote The Beatles...

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That sounds like an interesting project. If you do come, I can give you the names of some wonderful theaters. (In general, it's really easy to find that stuff anyway -- there are guides put out every week with all the movie listings. The best one is called Pariscope, you can buy it at any Parisian newsstand for 40 cents. You can also find it at pariscope.fr.)

- Marina

Marina- thanks for the tips.

I plan on visiting the great Grand Rex and the Cinemateque Francais, as well as a chinese pagoda that screens films.

Yes Doc, the museum has the robot and a set from Children of Paradise- a landmark of french cinema. can't wait, really. I wanna sit on that bench behind the Notre Dame that was featured in Bitter Moon.

So I dreamed about a movie I saw a long time ago and perhaps this is my earliest/creepiest film memory. I dont know the title but perhaps someone else does:

The film was the cinematic equivalent of one of those depressing inspirational posters ("A team breeds success" etc) that you find in offices, meant to rally the troops. It was basically about some BMX kids who had a long standing rivalry. The ultimate build up was that one fell in front of the other as they neared the finish line of some big race. Instead of finishing the race, and winning, the kid who was still riding stopped and helped the other back up, and they both ended up losing. But he did the right thing apparentally. I think I was mostly confused. Seemed like falling was a big part of racing to me....

Anyways, I watched this super 8? projected on a wall at church with a bunch of other 4 year olds, eating sugar cookies, and all probably wondering the same thing.

Not my brightest film memory but perhaps the earliest.

Empire Strikes Back. 1981. Yoda in the swamp. Do or no do, there is no try.