It all started in the summer of 2000, in between junior high and high school for me. My parents had gotten me a subscription to MovieLine magazine, the first magazine I regularly read that wasn't Highlights or Seventeen. I pretty much loved all the features and profiles they did on movies and actors. That summer, craving some reading material, I made my way to the Jamestown branch of the St. Louis Public Library and found myself entranced by a coffee table book - Vanity Fair's Hollywood. The book contained great pictures (and some text) from the history of the movie business. As it was listed as a reference book, I couldn't check it out and spent hours at the library combing through its glossy pages. The image I remember the most from that book is an early shot of Bette Davis - as a blonde. I had already started to become a fan of her and her films due to TCM, but something about the picture and the fact that she used to be a blonde (which I am as well) made me appreciate her even more.
As I wrote in part two, Roger Ebert also played a fairly big part in my decade under the influence of cinema. It started with the TV show, but I soon became a bigger fan of his writing, both on his website and in his books. I've read most of them, and I own The Great Movies and Awake in the Dark. The Great Movies became a guide for me in seeking out movies to watch, and there was a period of time when I'd trust Ebert's word on films more than anyone else's. I don't feel that way anymore, but I will always have a very deep appreciation for Ebert, his writing and his plain, old love for cinema.
It's no secret that my love of cinema was maximized in college. After looking up books for one of my classes freshman year, I decided to look up movie books to see if I could find something to read for fun. So after getting a little lost, I finally found the hidden room that is 3 Central in Ellis Library and the movie book section. I was in awe - I was surrounded by hundreds of books on different film-related subjects. I was overcome with a ridiculous desire to read them all, but I settled on three to start. The first was Quentin Tarantino Interviews, a collection of interviews with the filmmaker, as I was in the middle of my obsession with him. The second was I Lost It at the Movies by the film critic Pauline Kael, as I had never read any of her books and always wanted to do so. The third was an absolutely random pick, Totally Tenderly Tragically: Essays and Criticism from a Lifelong Love Affair with the Movies by Phillip Lopate. The title grabbed my attention, so I picked it up, climbed up on the giant step ladder, sat down and read the introduction. I was immediately reeled in, as some of this guy's experiences mirrored my own. I checked it out with the other two, and it was only a matter of a day or two before I'd finished reading it. The honesty and the way it parallels some of my own stories, especially as I've re-read it over the years, have kept it as one of my favorite books.
Throughout high school and for most of college, I subscribed to both Entertainment Weekly and Premiere magazines. EW was (and still is) a good way to keep up on all aspects of entertainment and pop culture, and I especially remember loving to read Stephen King's column "The Pop of King." Premiere was entirely devoted to movies and I absolutely love it - the features, the lists, Glenn Kenny's reviews and, most of all, Libby Gelman-Waxner's column, "If You Ask Me." (I've even read the book of the same name, a collection of some of the columns, and consider it a favorite.) In April 2007, I went to check my mail, and much to my dismay, I received a card saying that Premiere had stopped producing their monthly magazine. I was devastated - they still have their website, but it just isn't the same as having that magazine to flip through and read every month.
More recently, I've been reading a lot about movies online. Of all the movie websites and blogs, I'd have to say that Cinematical is without a doubt my favorite. In addition to standard film reviews and news, they have great movie-related lists and features on stand-out performances and films. I also read The New York Times' Arts section and The Guardian's film section online frequently.
From Vanity Fair's Hollywood to Cinematical, reading about film has been a very valuable part of my decade under the influence of cinema.
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