History of SCFZ

[sally]

https://web.archive.org/web/20110416075 ... pics/14084

is that me? did i call myself tren de garsas for a while? why?

i found brian R to be really funny. (possibly not intentionally funny, but)

[rischka]

that is you. dennis brian was cool

i remember i texted apursansar when i was in buenos aires and he informed me he could see my hotel from his apartment

i'd forgotten cecil and duncan gray...

[Umbugbene]

Wow all of this makes me feel, if not more connected, at least more familiar with the gang here. Thanks for all your replies and reminiscences. Seems like the folks who claim to have limited memories actually have the most to share. You should give yourselves more credit.

Surprising that there used to be a Filipino contingent... I wish they were still around, as I don't know any film lovers here in the Manila area. I've only been living here less than two years.

It's a shame if we can't ever hold a physical reunion, but eventually I'd love to meet some of you in person. WBA, I keep thinking I'll be in your area within a year... Frankfurt's like a second home to me, but I haven't been back in 9 years. I hope to get back in 2021.

[sally]

i remember i texted apursansar when i was in buenos aires and he informed me he could see my hotel from his apartment

lol, that was him, so phlegmatic, no way was he actually going to suggest meeting up with you hahaha


i thought a lot about meeting a few people once but came to the conclusion that it would be too weird. fine if it's someone you barely talk to online, or have only had a few interactions with, but people you've 'known' for years.....my one experience of meeting someone from another forum was, well, bad. never again.

also i just read a whole arduous paragraph from peabody and i'm quite cured of my nostalgia. gonna go watch an actual movie

[sally]

okay last post. but this is why i loved the auteurs

https://web.archive.org/web/20100130163 ... opics/7324

everyone immediately takes the piss, like2sleep was adorable, got picked on by some rage guy who didn't get the joke, dimmy steps in being dimmy, puns are made and i can't tell how it ends because i can't look at page 2. this i miss

[...]

I don't know what to think about all that drama that somehow I mostly missed out on. I only had a couple people that irked me, but that was all on the forums, like with Dr Frank and the bizarre poet guy who "fell in love" with one of the other Mubi-gang and was kicked off after some big psycho-drama posting spree. Jeez, how did I miss all that other stuff?'

Heh, phlegmatic is the perfect way to describe Apursansar. I was never really sure what to make of my interactions with him. Oh, and the forum didn't close suddenly. They provided a decent warning, which gave me a chance to save all my old conversations before it was deleted. I still have photo page views of them all on one of my computers. I've gone back to look things up in them from time to time, if a conversation reminds me of one.

[Holymanm]

ally-watching

i still use this term all the time, even in RL

Frankfurt's like a second home to me, but I haven't been back in 9 years. I hope to get back in 2021.

ooh... i know some people in frankfurt and hope to go there one day. hope to go anywhere in 2021!!

[Holymanm]

i think you're talking about the life cinematic... what's ymdb

the less said about TLC . . .

ymdb = your movie database. i don't think i ever really used the site itself, but the forum, yes. i believe nonfiction got me into it, and i remember phil, olof (the absolute madman), maybe a few others. it morphed into YMDB part deux (maybe similar to forum troubles here), and then scenedeux. it still exists, though isn't quite very active anymore...

[MrCarmady]

tlc was a weird place, pretty toxic but also compelling and responsible for a lot of my taste as roujin said. i was an annoying teen but i still think the way some of the people there treated me was fucking awful. much prefer the calmer vibes here. funnily enough, one of the most toxic users there was todd, and also the first one i met in real life, and he was much, much nicer in person. if anyone from here is ever in london (flip and silga used to live here if i understand correctly?) i always enjoy meeting online cinephiles for a beer, did that a bunch on the other forums i used to post on.

speaking of which, if we're adding to the film forum lore, i started out on the empireonline and rottentomatoes forums as a teenager, both were eventually axed in mubi fashion, rt migrated to corrierino which is still active but without the bulk of the users i associate with it, it's more mainstream now in terms of film tastes but still a pretty good community. empire migrated to some random message board which i got banned from pretty quickly, the guy who launched it and moderated seemed to turn on me all of a sudden which was weird as i always thought we got on back in the empire days. and i found tlc through the top 1000 they did back in 2011 or so, which funnily enough i think the very same moderator shared on empire. as for scfz, i was always aware of the existence of the auteurs but only found you guys randomly through some icm list which is great because it happened just before the lockdown and helped me get back to my cinephile ways, i've been slacking a bit in the last few years.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

I only had a couple people that irked me, but that was all on the forums, like with Dr Frank and the bizarre poet guy who "fell in love" with one of the other Mubi-gang and was kicked off after some big psycho-drama posting spree. Jeez, how did I miss all that other stuff?'

I was just thinking about that the other day... because he wasn't a poet, but a published film theorist/historian named Justin Vicari. A few years back when I was writing my Master's thesis I had a digression about male bisexuality in Cinema, and found that one of the few texts ever published on the subject was a book by Justin Vicari. Sort of mind-blowing moment. I didn't end up reading the book because the topic proved unhelpful towards the overall paper, but it'd be interesting to look into some day.

I was around since Mubi was called The Auteurs. Name shifted slightly a few times. Mubi was great for an active community willing to discuss films both in-depth and superficially. The Director's project that Kuxa Kanema was leading (that was unceremoniously killed off with the forums) was a major highlight. I also had great "private" convos on people's walls that were often really engaging.

[...]

Sort of mind-blowing moment. I didn't end up reading the book because the topic proved unhelpful towards the overall paper, but it'd be interesting to look into some day.

I wouldn't trust anything that guy wrote. He had all sorts of fucked up ideas on sexuality and misogyny. Gay men couldn't be misogynists, teenage girls had more power then men because men desired them, and so on. He made a big deal about being published, didn't listen to anyone, and generally just thought he had the answers to everything, even in the face of complete lack of reason. Just tells me what was already kinda apparent. Just cuz someone's a published writer, doesn't mean they know what they're talking about.

[sally]

oh gosh, i forgot about him. and quite happy carrying on forgetting

for some reason now i have a hankering for us all to do an old fashioned let's-all-watch-a-film thing and analyse it to death, scene by scene frame by frame. except it would have to be a film that could withstand that scrutiny and i'm not sure we'd ever agree on which film

[Curtis, baby]

Interesting thread. I forgot all about Justin Vicari

As has been mentioned I have met flip and nrh (and Seema). Good times!! If anyone's ever in Vancouver let me know... Love getting brews with Internet peeps

Wigwam/hirtho was on this forum for a while too

I've talked to Brian riss on Skype before, dude is mindblowingly dull and midwestern

Todd is great, I miss him. Mr Mxy (who has an account here) has been in touch with him relatively recently I believe

I stayed in touch with pinhead and olof for about a year after tlc shut down but I've lost track of them. I miss them the most. They are pure souls

[thoxans]

oh yeah, justin vicari... now there's a blast from the past. like2sleep was great. just a straight up genuine, nice person, basically the exact opposite of 90% of 'personalities' on forums. i really miss karthik. rischka introduced us, and that dude was super smart and well-read and could spellbind you with lots of peripheral info that made talking about movies more fun than 'eh nice mise en scene.' shamus- is another one i miss. had some great convos with him about carp back in the day. arsaib was weird. he would follow me (my profile was almost always private), unfollow me after a day or two, and never allow me to follow him back. also, forgot about falderal. he had a wealth of knowledge about japanese cinema, but then kinda got jaded and weird toward the end iirc. john calvin story was another huge resource for me back then, but don't think he spent much time on the forum; i mostly just crept on his profile on my own. good times. this whole thread has been like one amazing acid flashback

[MrCarmady]

Interesting thread. I forgot all about Justin Vicari

As has been mentioned I have met flip and nrh (and Seema). Good times!! If anyone's ever in Vancouver let me know... Love getting brews with Internet peeps

Wigwam/hirtho was on this forum for a while too

I've talked to Brian riss on Skype before, dude is mindblowingly dull and midwestern

Todd is great, I miss him. Mr Mxy (who has an account here) has been in touch with him relatively recently I believe

I stayed in touch with pinhead and olof for about a year after tlc shut down but I've lost track of them. I miss them the most. They are pure souls

i'm pretty sure i'm friends with pinhead on fb, as is mxy. i do miss olof and philip, they were always fun. the one i miss the most is the other james, agent_knight, who's sadly no longer with us

i've also met seema, didn't realise she posted on here as well

[rischka]

jiri says he's sent his application to join after reading this thread lol. approve him bure/curtis

[greennui]

So much drama lol. i can barely even recall a heated exchange during the two years I've been on here.

[niminy-piminy]

hello everyone! special salute to Rischka!
i would like to contribute to the search of lost time by shedding some light on two Mubians (one already mentioned, one not yet) whom i met in person in real life.

i met on various occasions "Eva of various names" and maybe Sally will be interested to hear that once it happened on the Isles of Brave which is now (for a few years already) Rapciune's homeland. one peculiar detail of staying together in London was the fact we were accomodated in Kennington and only recently i figured out in our neighbourhood must have been London Cinema Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_Museum_(London) however, as the true cinephiles we were absolutely not aware of it. nowadays, she is moving (or has already moved - i am not completely updated) from the ceremonial county of Kent northwards to the city of York (and considering her restless and adventurous nature, i expect she will be cruising in the widest possible perimeter around York). despite i don't know, Sally, your specific residential place, within my perception you are a girl of the British north and thus i can imagine once you will be roaming the heather in full bloom, on the thin path in front of you, all of a sudden it might appear a gal towards whom you will feel (for mysterious reason) a strange affinity. in such a case, i suggest to ask the unknown gal if she had possibly an account on Mubi and the surprising outcome might be the happy Mubi reunion in the midst of the moorland with Rapciune.

the other Mubian whom some of you might recall and whom i met i person is BY. in real life we met only once, but virtually we communicate quite often, cuz she conceived a cinephile website called Kinometer https://www.kinometer.com/ which lately became my main cinephile playground (and one of the reasons of my absence here in the forum). somehow, i have more passion for tagging films (the main feature of Kinometer) than for making polls. but i don't wish to portray Kinometer as some dark place which will put the spell on your SCFZ soul. onwards, i expect to post a note here, alongside tirelessly tagging all the films i watch there. the tag library there is well organized and ultimately i expect clicking a tag on Kinometer will put in shame clicking a tag on IMDB.

last but not least, i don't visit letterboxd very often, but whenever i do visit it, i do read your reviews, Lencho! (i should prolly make it more explicit by not being lazy to click a "like" bellow the review) and i do search for german masterpieces on your profile, WBA! i would say, one third of all the films i watch are spoken in german and i would watch near to half, if more ppl on KG would claim my pots for german subs. currently i desperately wish someone would subtitle "Christian Bau - Die kritische Masse - Film im Untergrund, Hamburg '68 aka La Masse Critique (1998)". Anyway, that's all for now.

[Angel]

Kenji took me to The Auteurs from the imdb's CFB. I was never very active there, but I found its varied and international community really appealing... and a source of potential doublers. Apparently I wasn't following many of you, but the migration to scfz was a logical step, just followed the yellow brick road.

[sally]

she is moving (or has already moved - i am not completely updated) from the ceremonial county of Kent northwards to the city of York (and considering her restless and adventurous nature, i expect she will be cruising in the widest possible perimeter around York). despite i don't know, Sally, your specific residential place, within my perception you are a girl of the British north and thus i can imagine once you will be roaming the heather in full bloom, on the thin path in front of you, all of a sudden it might appear a gal towards whom you will feel (for mysterious reason) a strange affinity. in such a case, i suggest to ask the unknown gal if she had possibly an account on Mubi and the surprising outcome might be the happy Mubi reunion in the midst of the moorland with Rapciune.

yeah i'm in hebden bridge, that's pretty close to york (well, in relative terms that is, since, because i don't drive, i haven't been 10 miles out from hebden since march, york might as well be on the moon) york's a beautiful place, lucky her, would have a town house there if i was a gajillionnaire (and so close to scarborough!) but it's moors aren't as moors-y as mine, so i will definitely accost all the young women i meet wafting around the heather (altho, it's mostly men out there for some reason) and wink at them before i get too uncomfortable and run away

baba yaga was russian wasn't she?

anyway nice to see that most people are still alive

[niminy-piminy]

i will provide abridged account of this thread to Rapciune, so she would know what to expect in moors.
BY is half-russian long-time resident of new york city.

[rischka]

give her my regards plz we need more girls. ofrene i hope you're a girl

[greennui]

ally the maniac listmaker. i think she's a Qanon now. she blocked me cuz i didn't believe in 'spirit-cooking'

Ally was always insane. i remember wigwam coined the term ally-watching whenever she would say she "watched" something but was really doing something else. That and "comfy towels" movies (applied to like nancy meyers? The stuff that sticks to you...

Isn't she the one with the vegan alerts on letterboxd? I can never understand if those are tongue in cheek or not.

[rischka]

vegan alerts? i've somehow missed this but i lost track of ally awhile back lol

please show an example

[MrCarmady]

https://letterboxd.com/allisoncm/film/wounds/

"Vegan alert:
Milk prominently featured on the breakfast table"

Pretty sure she's taking the piss. 20,000 films logged, though, wowzers.

Olof was active on KG yesterday, good to know he's still kicking.

[Curtis, baby]

can you PM me olof's KG name?

[Roscoe]

I'm a little late to the conversation here -- my memories jibe with what a lot of folks have posted. But here.

I don't know how I found MUBI. I'd been posting on a yahoogroup called Classic Movie Fans, and having a grand old time. The moderator, Crystal, was the very model of movie group moderator -- her one inviolable rule was "Attack Movies, Not Each Other." You could say whatever you wanted about CITIZEN KANE (and people did) but call someone mentally defective (which someone did to me when I asked him to be more specific about exactly how THE SOPRANOS "glorified violence") and you were out, and do let the door hit you on the way out.

MUBI was a great time by and large. Discussions were vibrant and heated, and I'm sure I got too competitive on them and would have done better to just leave some discussions be after a while. TREE OF LIFE, for example. I remember fighting with Dimitris, and the special buzz of having his posts deleted while my posts which contained his insults were allowed to remain. His not-veiled-threat to me that I would "face the consequences of my actions" (by which he meant calling him "Dimmie Dearest") is the kind of thing that I'm so glad doesn't happen round here.

Nice to see some names from the past. Whatever happened to good old Matt Parks?

I also post on Goodreads, mainly in a group devoted to movies "Movies We've Just Watched." One of the other members of that group has become a dear and valued friend, we've seen movies together when I head cross-country to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, and he even put me and my husband up when we made the trip to Berkeley to see NAPOLEON, and he's a great guide to jazz, and as far as I'm concerned the whole Internet Thing is entirely justified by that kind of thing. Any New Yorkers round here?

[wba]

WBA, I keep thinking I'll be in your area within a year... Frankfurt's like a second home to me, but I haven't been back in 9 years. I hope to get back in 2021.

drop me a line or send me a PM when you know you'll visit, and maybe we can meet up or something, if I'll still be living in the area.

[wba]

and i do search for german masterpieces on your profile, WBA! i would say, one third of all the films i watch are spoken in german and i would watch near to half, if more ppl on KG would claim my pots for german subs. currently i desperately wish someone would subtitle "Christian Bau - Die kritische Masse - Film im Untergrund, Hamburg '68 aka La Masse Critique (1998)". Anyway, that's all for now.

wow, great to know! I always wonder who might read my quite esoteric recommendations on German cinema, which are often extremely hard to find, if you don't have repertory cinemas playing old German movies near you.
Unfortunately I don't do subtitling (anymore) and haven't been on KG for a long time (one or 2 years, by now). But it's great to know you're into German cinema. There's really so much to see and to unearth, a lifetime wouldn't be enough for it.
Gonna watch some obscure German horror-comedy from the 40s right now at the cinema.

[Aureliu]

oh yeah, justin vicari... now there's a blast from the past. like2sleep was great. just a straight up genuine, nice person, basically the exact opposite of 90% of 'personalities' on forums. i really miss karthik. rischka introduced us, and that dude was super smart and well-read and could spellbind you with lots of peripheral info that made talking about movies more fun than 'eh nice mise en scene.' shamus- is another one i miss. had some great convos with him about carp back in the day. arsaib was weird. he would follow me (my profile was almost always private), unfollow me after a day or two, and never allow me to follow him back. also, forgot about falderal. he had a wealth of knowledge about japanese cinema, but then kinda got jaded and weird toward the end iirc. john calvin story was another huge resource for me back then, but don't think he spent much time on the forum; i mostly just crept on his profile on my own. good times. this whole thread has been like one amazing acid flashback

Did John ever make a Letterboxd and/or is active anywhere else?
What about Cedric? The Brazilian one. Another genuine, nice person. Does anybody remember him, and knows if he's still logging somewhere?

And thoxans, what was your Mubi name? I don't think I remember that name.