I have an ongoing love affair - with movies.
The other day I tried to explain why they call it 'netflix' to my 5 year old. They used to call them flicks, because in the early days of movie projectors the images would flicker on the screen. I'm not sure my explanation really worked but it reminded me of my college years.
See, in college I studied films and television, and I would have minored in film studies had it not been for ONE class that was only offered every TWO YEARS.....not that I'm resentful, it was a really good program and I learned a lot about how what we see is created and not just 'filmed'.
These days with two kids I don't really get to see much in the theaters, but I do try to watch as many classics as I can. I'm of the opinion that these movies were great once, maybe they are still great, and I'd like to find out.
Some movies I've seen this way:
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (fantastic! truly holds the test of time)
- Easy Rider (yeah, not so much. didn't really connect with this one)
- Roman Holiday (I'm a fan of that cheesy romantic comedy 'Only You' and this movie is mentioned and likely used for some inspiration. Roman Holiday was better, and hey, y'know, Gregory Peck. :)
Have you seen a movie from before your time, that you loved? That you hated?
2 comments:
This year I only watched two movies that weren't from the past decade. One was "Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" - which is kind of horribly suffocating but that's kind of the point, so I guess that means it succeeds in its aims, but I had a hard time with it. It's long (three hours and thirty five minutes) and a lot of it follows the protagonist's daily life in excruciating detail - there's one scene in particular where she's making a meatloaf that just feels endless - but it's also visually incredibly well-composed. But yeah, I wouldn't exactly recommend it, though the way it focuses on the daily experience of someone whose life is very routine-driven is interesting. The other movie I watched this year that's older than me was "The Bakery Girl of Monceau," which is short (twenty-three minutes) and also not my favorite, I guess because the focus feels like a very 1960s bit of gender relations that I was't that interested in.
On a more positive note, I really liked Roman Holiday, though I haven't watched it recently!
I too liked Sierra Madre. That was something! Bu the first movie that comes to mind when thinking of classics that are still great is "Casablanca".
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