Ever since I was a kid, I’ve dreamed of inventing online microtrends. My colleague Serena said,Hot Rodent Boyfriend” This post became a hot topic on social media and in newspapers. Guardian, The New York Times,Furthermore USA TodayA few decades after the euro ended, Brat And even if the election of Keir Starmer turns out to be meaningless, historians will look back on this period as the Summer of the Hot Rodent Boyfriend. I wanted it for myself: the accolades, the fame, the multi-million pound royalties and, above all, the chance at immortality.
I got out my notebook and started racking my brain. I’m a boy (or rather, a grown man) and I thought putting “girl” in the name of my microtrend would work better. I’ve been eating a lot of nectarines lately, so how about “Nectarine Girl Summer”? Not bad. I think nectarines are better than their overrated relative, the peach. But it wasn’t enough to bite into. Earlier this month, I was hit by a truck and suffered moderately severe head injuries, and then I learned that Princess Anne was hospitalized with the same condition. Could “Concussion Girl Summer” have the power to do that? This one looks more promising. It definitely has the ring of something that could go viral. But I couldn’t think of a third celebrity who’s had a concussion, other than me and the good Princess, so I couldn’t claim it was a trend. Finally, inspiration hit me like I’d been hit by a truck again. But this time in a good way. It’s BFI Girl Summer!
For the uninitiated, a quick rundown: BFI Girl Summer is an event where you watch films that would be shown in London cinemas or on online screening platforms. These include Ingmar Bergman, Rainer Fassbinder, Akira Kurasawa, Federico Fellini, Andrei Tarkovsky, Yasujiro Ozu, and many more. (Americans can also read this as “Criterion Girl Summer” and it still means the same thing.) It doesn’t matter where you watch these films, but there are some conditions. Martin Scorsese: World Cinemaembodies the spirit of BFI Girl Summer more than anyone else, casino or Good Fellows It is not counted. It’s about watching movies that make it onto “greatest movies of all time” lists chosen by notable directors, not readers. Empire Magazine – With Respect dark KnightAnd just because I invented this trend five minutes ago for cynical reasons, doesn’t mean it’s not real.
reason I BFI Girl Summer has only just begun because I’ve been stuck at home for a month, but it’s hard to infer wider trends from my own situation. But I do think there’s something bigger going on – or at least I can pretend to think so in order to justify the existence of this trend. Barbie and OppenheimerBut the simultaneous release of these two films last year was a real event. It felt like pop culture history was being made right before our eyes. I’m a total hater, and while I may have complained about the “Barbie Heimer” meme at the time, looking back, I didn’t realize how blessed I was. This summer’s cinema landscape was so different from previous ones, with one flop after another. No one is going to look back in 20 years and remember seeing this movie. ScapegoatCertainly, there are some films that capture the cultural zeitgeist. The Challengers and I saw the TV light up There are no big hits among them If people find mainstream Hollywood productions so uninspiring, why don’t they reject them and look elsewhere? To the distant past? To foreign lands? To the BFI?
BFI Girl Summer was about forcing myself to hone my own tastes, and realising that my reasons for doing so were misplaced from the start. Being a BFI Girl doesn’t come naturally to me. My tastes are thrill-seeking and border on basic (closer to John Carpenter than Jean-Luc Godard). I don’t have much focus on anything that could be described as “difficult” and my skills as a film critic are limited to saying “Wow, that actress is so pretty!” But as BFI Girl Summer progressed, I began to realise that I was genuinely enjoying these films. Not simply enjoying the idea that I was that kind of person, but that these films weren’t uplifting or important or “good” in any abstract sense, but were fascinating, terrifying, beautiful, funny and heartbreaking. To name a few highlights: Fassbinder’s Ants: Fear eats away at the soul.“The Great Gatsby,” a melodrama about an older German woman who falls in love with a Moroccan immigrant decades younger than her, moved me to tears more effectively and deeply than any Netflix romantic comedy. And Bergman’s Persona Not only are they innovative, experimental, and intellectually ambitious, but they’re also as gripping as psychological thrillers. Surprisingly, there’s a reason these films are all critically acclaimed: they’re just great movies.
The true spirit of BFI Girl Summer is to do it for its own sake, rather than thinking that it might help you gain cultural capital. No one is going to check that you’ve done your homework, and no one is going to think that if you’re over a certain age, you’re “precocious” for watching BFI Girl Summer. Andrey RublevSo maybe it’s time to give up on that sort of thing for now: “film bros” have become an unfairly maligned entity in recent years, but the BFI Girls Summer is the exact opposite of that most unpleasant caricature: it’s not about flaunting or mocking other people’s tastes, but about approaching the infinitely vast and inspiring world of film with an open mind.
Anyway, as I understand it, BFI Girl Summer is not mine. It is my legacy, my gift to the world. Take it and use it as you like. Accept it, reject it, redefine it. And please, please, please write an opinion column condemning it as elitist. Come on guys, let’s make this trending!!!
