So much of the film industry is based on instant gratification. The most expensive time to watch a movie is opening weekend. There is this frantic energy around each new release. I’m not sure if I’m just aging out of the target market or if I don’t want to be a Slave to the Now anymore, but there isn’t much out there to compel me to trudge out to a theater on opening weekend. I can wait a few weeks, and voila! Netflix brings the movie to me.
Netflix is for people who want entertainment on their terms, not the terms of the movie marketers. Because it delivers movies through the mail, there is a built-in cooling down period. There is no way to see a movie the day it comes out. There is no way to get instant gratification. Instead you learn patience. And with patience comes curiosity towards what is known in the industry as… “the catalog titles.” These are consistently steady sellers. They may not turn up on the sales charts, but they don’t go out of print. Think
There are over 100 years worth of movies out there, and time works wonders with the movie-watching experience. For example, I have the same experience with every Ron Howard movie – I enjoy it when I watch it, but the next day, the film evaporates completely from my mind, leaving only this vague residue of OKness. Good movies stick with you, and great movies compel you to revisit them.
Some movies have built-in expiration dates. A year from now, what movies will you look back and remember fondly? Five years from now? Ten? Twenty?
When I watch films that have remained entertaining, accessible, and popular for more than 50 years, I am overwhelmed. It is like time has filtered out 99.99% of the crap. I am sure there were crappy movies made 80 years ago, but none of them turn up on Favorite Movies of All Time lists.
Since Netflix can’t feed the hyperactive “Guaranteed In Stock New Release” mentality fostered by most video establishments, it has to rely on the catalog. It has to foster an interest in something beyond the now. It has to make people aware of all that is available out there.
Currently in the Rentlist Word document:
- Z
- Funny Bones
- Hype
- Into the Arms of Strangers
- Spider
- Hair
- Paper Moon
- The Last Detail
- Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
- Landmarks o/Early Film
- Afterglow
- Night and Fog
- Sexy Beast
- Bitter Moon
- The Contender
- Les Miserables
- Schizopolis
- Pretty Devils
- L’Auberge Espagnole
- Knife in the Water
- The Silence
- I Don’t Know Jack
- Scarface
- Umberto D
- La Strada
- The Horse’s Mouth
- Double Suicide
- Honeymoon Killer
- Quai des Orfevres
- The Element of Crime
- Jubilee
- Written on the Wind
- Down by Law
- Closely Watched Trains
- Persona
- Shame
- The Passion of Anna
- Hour of the Wolf
- The Serpent’s Egg
- Lilies of the Field
- The Organization
- For Love of Ivy
- Saboteur
- Jamaica Inn
- Number 17
- The Paradine Case
- Secret Agent
- The Skin Game
- To Catch a Thief
- Topaz
- Under Capricorn
- Born Yesterday
- Now, Voyager
- Gods and Generals
- The Good Thief
- Man on the Train
- Man without a Past
- Decline o/t American Empire
- Barbarian Invasions
- The Dish
- All the Real Girls
- Miracle
- Stone Reader
- Femme Fatale
- The Leopard
- Smiles o/a Summer Night
- War Photographer
- Bus 174
- Pather Panchali
- Aparajito
- The World of Apu
- My Girl
- Intolerable Cruelty
- Uptown Sat. Night
- Story of Flotn Weeds
- Hour of the Wolf
- Shame
- Goodbye, Mr. Chips
- Doctor Faustus
- Man without a Past
- Picture Bride
- Trekkies 2
- The Man Who Knew Too Little
- Short Eyes
- Last Samurai
- Goodbye Lenin
- Mean Girls
- Eddie Murphy: Raw
- The Bad Seed
- Slacker
- Early Summer
- Golden Coach
- Elena and Her Men
- Funny Haha
- In the Soup
- Derrida
- City Lights
- The Towering Inferno
- Monsieur Verdoux
- When Mountains Tremble
- Human Resources
- Stir of Echos
- Home Movie
- Zardoz
- Duel
- Man w/t Movie Camera
- Heroic Trio
- I’ll Sleep when I’m Dead
- The Hunger
- He Knows Your Alone
- That’s Entertainment 1,2,3
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