What is a film buff?

Have you ever had this conversation before? You’re talking to someone about movies and they declare themselves to be a major film buff, so you start talking flicks. In the process of the conversation you mention a film, say Lawrence of Arabia. They look at you with sort of a puzzled look so you can tell they have no idea what you’re talking about. So you say, “You know, Lawrence of Arabia. The David lean film starring Peter O’Toole?” They’re lost. “I’ve never heard of that movie” they say. You say, “It’s only considered by most to be one of the greatest films in history.” They respond, “When did it come out?” You then say, “1962”. Then they say, almost with relief, “Well of course I haven’t heard of that, it came out like 15 years before I was born.” My response is always the same. “Have you ever heard of George Washington?” I say. They say “Well of course”; then I say “Interesting, he died WAY before you were born.”

There are those that innocently have yet to explore films outside of those noticed by popular culture. While I get this to some degree, it’s hard to say you’re a film buff when you haven’t seen most of the truly great films in history. There are others, like my wife, who actually refuses to watch anything made in a different language than her own or anything before 1980. Now for my wife, she escapes my mockery because she doesn’t call herself a film buff even though she watches a lot of movies. She likes what she likes and she’s cool with that. But I can’t count the amount of times I've had the above conversation with self proclaimed film buffs who haven’t seen the majority of important works. I don’t mean this to sound self righteous, but it works with all manners of discipline. It’s hard to proclaim yourself a football buff if you’ve never heard of Johnny Unitas, or a music buff if you’ve never listened to Robert Johnson, a man declared by many great musicians to be the most influential musician of the past 100 years.

Again, I’m not attempting some form of snobbish elitism. I actually hate that kind of thinking. But this is a matter of importance to me because its sad to see so many great films, that are so accessible through DVD, go so unnoticed even by people who think they really “know” film. If you don’t want to explore the great treasures of film than that’s your choice and I have no problem with that, but just be honest about the extent of your fandom and know that to be a film buff means to broaden yourself out through the scope of film both historical and international.