Camp film library - ideas?

[DexterTCN]

Kitsch: Art in pretentious bad taste; Of a display that is tawdry or vulgar

Gay: "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage"; Bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer

Camp: Something that is considered amusing not because of its originality but because of its unoriginality; Providing sophisticated amusement by virtue of having artificially (and vulgarly) mannered or banal or sentimental qualities

 

[Pseudopsycho]

The Lost Boys

 

[mango5]

Kitsch: Art in pretentious bad taste; Of a display that is tawdry or vulgar

Gay: "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage"; Bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer

Camp: Something that is considered amusing not because of its originality but because of its unoriginality; Providing sophisticated amusement by virtue of having artificially (and vulgarly) mannered or banal or sentimental qualities

All good Maybe missing something in the definitions of 'gay'?

 

[Reno]

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Paris is Burning
Mommie Dearest
Johnny Guitar
The Bad Seed
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Magnificent Obsession
Showgirls

 

[vauxhallmum]

Kitsch: Art in pretentious bad taste; Of a display that is tawdry or vulgar

Gay: "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage"; Bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer

Camp: Something that is considered amusing not because of its originality but because of its unoriginality; Providing sophisticated amusement by virtue of having artificially (and vulgarly) mannered or banal or sentimental qualities

OK, all mine were definately kitsch then, sorry.

 

[mango5]

Anthony and Cleopatra

 

[Badger Kitten]

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

 

[Reno]

To those who mentioned movie classics like Psycho, Spartacus, Gone With the Wind and 2001: Something doesn't automatically become camp just because it's over 30 years old.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Anthony and Cleopatra

Eh? Which? How?

 

[Badger Kitten]

Dreamgirls
The Devil Wears Prada
Bitter Moon

 

[Badger Kitten]

To those who mentioned movie classics like Psycho, Gone With the Wind and 2001: Something doesn't automatically become camp just because it's over 30 years old.

Gone with the Wind is camp as tits. The outfits, the melodrama, the heaving corsets, Ashley, the sheer never say die bitching cooing manipulating attitude of Scarlett, the face-slapping, the technicolour sunsets...


I agree 2001 and Psycho are not camp.

 

[vauxhallmum]

Anthony and Cleopatra

Ah, you mean Richard Burton/ Elizabeth Taylor? I thought that was just called 'Cleopatra' which is admittedly overblown campness of the highest proportion.

For a minute I thought you meant Shakespeare which is not alot of laughs, if I remember rightly.

 

[mango5]

Eh? Which? How?

Just Cleopatra, sorry. Stupid common mistake

 

[Badger Kitten]

Samson and Delilah with Victor Mature is bonkers camp as well.

 

[mango5]

.... camp as tits

What does that mean, exactly? I've never heard it

 

[ebonics]

I think that above all, camp is in the eye of the beholder. There is no platonic ideal of camp; nor is there some objective standard by which something either inhabits "campness" or does not.

For me, 2001 is camp (or perhaps more honestly, has a multitude of campy moments) because it strives so sincerely and earnestly for grandiosity but manages to be ludicrously overblown so often.

So, yeah, I get that just because something is "retro" doesn't make it camp. I didn't just toss off a bunch of old titles to see what would stick.

 

[Disaster]

Haha I knew Some Like It Hot would be up there even before I read it.

 

[Disaster]

Could Barbarella be considered camp?

 

[Badger Kitten]

What does that mean, exactly? I've never heard it

It's erm, a phrase inferring hi-campness. You have to be fairly camp to use it. Not sure if it is polari -era but it is fairly established

 

[ebonics]

Could Barbarella be considered camp?

I take it back: there is a Platonic ideal of camp, and its name is Barbarella.

 

[golightly]

Could Barbarella be considered camp?

I think that one's very camp. It's now on our list.

 

[Badger Kitten]

Spartacus is more gay than camp,though it is camp as well.

 

[Badger Kitten]

Susan Sontag tries to define camp. (Boy, she doesn't half bang on)

 

[golightly]

Some of the films I think of as camp could be seen as gay. I guess my definition of what constitutes 'camp' isn't that clear, but seeing your post above I think I'll leave my definition as a bit vague.

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Crimson Tide
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot

 

[Badger Kitten]

Susan rambles on a bit but she is on the money

In naïve, or pure, Camp, the essential element is seriousness, a seriousness that fails. Of course, not all seriousness that fails can be redeemed as Camp. Only that which has the proper mixture of the exaggerated, the fantastic, the passionate, and the naïve.

24. When something is just bad (rather than Camp), it's often because it is too mediocre in its ambition. The artist hasn't attempted to do anything really outlandish. ("It's too much," "It's too fantastic," "It's not to be believed," are standard phrases of Camp enthusiasm.)

25. The hallmark of Camp is the spirit of extravagance. Camp is a woman walking around in a dress made of three million feathers. ..<sniip>

 

[mango5]

Desperately Seeking Susan
Caravaggio

 

[golightly]

By that definition could Peter Greenaway films be included?

 

[mango5]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
St Trinians (with Alastair Sim)

 

[golightly]

Stop cheating!