When I see the words “cult films”, my instant understanding differ quite a lot from its actual definition. Learning with a second language, I check online that the Chinese translation is “小众电影”, which has a similar meaning as how Umberto Eco explained it. After the reading, I know that a cult film is a film that is loved by a group of people, who is called as fans. The film is usually not a mainstream production and it creates a fully furnished world. However, I suppose since cult movies has a cult following, then productions like Doctor Who, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Trek can also count as cult films except for the fact that they also attract mainstream audiences.
To think back, the reading discussion on the movie Casablanca, saying that it is a cult film, is worth pondering. I have watched that film only once (I usually watch any films or shows at least twice), so I don’t quite remember the content. Saying that it is a cult film, the author suggests that it is the intertextual archetypes that has made it a cult film. So I try to comprehend the concept using the films that I have watched.
According to my research, Breakfast at Tiffany’s is cult film. How so? In my opinion, it first does has the quality to be loved by a small group of people (me, for example.). It also establishes its own world as in the society Holly and Paul live in. As for the intertextual archetypes, it does have a lot. For example, the plot of how Holly and Paul meet is a kind of archetype. The situation is seen before in other forms of texts and it’s romantic. The story gives us a feeling of de ja vu: ordinary but unique in its way. The look of Holly is so typical that it has become a classic. I suppose, this is what a cult film is.
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