*the* film for me that kind of sparked my interest in filmmaking was Boogie Nights by Paul Thomas Anderson. The reason is pretty simple actually, 1) It was the first film I had seen at the time that I could not pick apart and say "I could shoot that better", or "I wouldn't have done that" or "The acting could have been better in this scene". 2) I was so startled that the movie I had heard was about Porn or about the Porn Industry was in fact completely about the dramatic rise and fall of an average joe in the porn industry, and of course the close-knit family that used to exist in the porn film industry at the time.
And so I couldn't stop watching it, and watched it again and again and every time I did I picked up new things, 1) How f'ing great is Phil Hoffman, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore.. hell the whole cast? 2) I really respected and learned to love the wide shots, the long takes, the dolly in, the steadicam featured in the film. So I guess you could say I fell in love with this film, PTA, and then film in general.
I then looked into other PTA films - Hard Eight (Which was awesome and I love Phillip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gweneth, Sam Jackson, etc.), and eventually saw Magnolia which again just plain blew me out of my seat.
And I dunno, I guess it was just because I grew up listening to chums talking about how great Jurrassic Park, Terminator, and other mainstream crap was (actually JPI was pretty good but you get the point) that I was turned off completely from the industry because nothing I saw in any of these supposedly great films were personally touching me. Boogie Nights changed all of that for me... again maybe it was because I was expecting another mainstream crap movie about the superficialities of the porn industry and instead was nailed to my seat watching an incredibly hip, reflective, and personal film... for a loooong time.
So now I watch Altman and Demme(s) and of course tons and tons of older films on TCM and AMC watching for exactly those things that I found interesting in Boogie Nights. Also, if you're thinking about getting into filmmaking, you'd be best to get the deluxe or platinum or whatever editions of DVDs of films you like and listen to the director's commentaries. You can learn so much more about how/why of a film just by listening to those commentaries I think I heard PTA say he learned most of his directing techniques from listening to commentaries.
EDIT: just a few of my more favorite films at the moment that I can remember (and see in my DVD collection: Pulp Fiction, The Basketball Diaries, Requiem of a Dream, Blow, American Beauty, Titanic, Casino, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Bowfinger, most original versions of silents that later were remade like Ben-Hur, any Boris Karloff flick, etc. Hell I could just go on forever.
