Last night I got together with friends to inaugurate a little film club where each of us shows the others a favourite film, projected onto the living room wall with a proper DVD projector, very exciting.My friend the Guardian journalist showed us an Italian film called Dear Diary, written, produced, directed by and starring Nanni Moretti as himself. Not nearly as self-indulgent as this sounds, the film was in thee parts: the first, a meditative section in which Moretti quietly rides his moped around Rome, backed by a beautiful selection of music including Leonard Cohen and Keith Jarrett; the second, a more narrative section in which Moretti and friend tour a series of Italian islands, looking for a place where they can work in peace, before the friend goes insane for lack of access to his favourite soap operas (I can sympathise); and the third, a true recounting of the year Moretti spent searching for a cure for a mysterious itch, getting misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis before discovering that he has cancer. Crossing boundaries between fiction and documentary, the film had a dream-like quality but also a healthy amount of Woody Allen-like humour and I enjoyed it very much. Then again, I have had proper training in watching boring films in which nothing happens (otherwise known as my Visual Anthropology MA) so my views on non-narrative film should be taken with a healthy shake of salt.
My choice? The Princess Bride. I had obviously not counted the number of Guardian journalists in the room (two, or to put it another way, 50% of participants). Either that or I care nothing for my credibility, and I refer you to the Strictly Come Dancing posts on this blog for you to decide. Anyway, for those who have not seen it (why? why?) The Princess Bride is a fabulous, over-the-top fairy tale pastiche comprising everything you'd hope for, from pretty floaty blondes in long dresses to pirates, giants, sword fights, albino masters of torture, and rodents of unusual size. It's also got a great selection of cameos from the likes of Peter Cook and Billy Crystal, and the worst special effects you will ever see (check out the very human-shaped rodent feet.) And I adore the script. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." I think I managed to convince both Guardian writers but the other film clubber (barrister) merely offered: "I can see why it's a cult classic, because it is so bad". Hmm.
Afterwards I was thinking about my choice and why it is that I had gone for a film I loved when I was 12, given that that was ahem years ago now. I have seen better films in the interim, sharper scripts, more striking cinematography, better acting (Cary Elwes takes a lead role, need I say more.) In the end I realised that for a film to be a "favourite" I need to have seen it several times, so that it goes from appreciated to loved. It needs a chance to become a part of me. When I was a child and a teen, if I loved a film I watched it over and over again - films like When Harry met Sally, or Withnail and I. These days I almost never watch a film twice. there are too many fresh films I want to see. So while I might be bowled over by, say The Lives of Others, I am not going to buy the DVD and watch it until I can do all of the dialogue in the original German with my back to the screen.
How about you? What's your favourite film and how old were you the first time you saw it?
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29 comments:
As you have first dibs on The Princess Bride, I'm going to go for one of my other favourites, "Clue".Supposedly based on the board game Cluedo, Tim Curry hams it up, there are terrible puns, ridiculous running from room to room and the most tenous links to murder motives you've ever heard. I first saw it at a girly teenage sleepover. It's a terrible film really, but I still love it to bits and it makes me laugh.
So hard to choose a favorite film, but I think you're right about seeing them at a time when you can watch them again and again making a big difference. I was a sickly child, so my film loves were partly determined the films that were on bbc2 during the day. There are a lot of films I still think are black and white, just because I saw them in B&W then. Singing in the rain is definitely a favorite from those days - nowadays I watch it when I'm happy, sad , bored or just feel like it. The other film is The Red Shoes. I was taken to see it at the NFT by a very glamorous family friend at about 9, and loved it. It became one of those films that lurks in the back of your mind, but you don't really know what it is...until I went to college to study drama, and on our lovely cinema screen, there in front of me, was The Red Shoes. After that I ended up writing an epic essay on it, and watched it so many times that it go to the point that I would only have to slide the video into the machine and I would start crying, because I knew how it was all going to end.
For my birthday this year - a full 25 years after the first time I saw it, I got the remastered dvd as a present. I'm currently stockpiling tissues in preparation for a rewatching...
I think you're right about films hitting at a certain point and then you watching them over and over. On that basis my favourite film of all time remains Casablanca, the bit when Humph says three people's problems ain't worth a hill of beans, gets me every time!
Childhood films still love 101 Dalmatians (first film I ever saw) and Jungle Book.
Have seen Last of the Mohicans dozens of times and cry every time.
But have yet to say The Princess Bride in its entirety because my rotten family keep watching it when I am cooking lunch. They have all benefitted from your recommendation though and am sure it is going to be a much loved film from their childhood.
Recent much loved films include A Knight's Tale which I have watched endlessly, and Pirates of the Caribbean cos its fun and silly. And oh yes, Stardust. Wonderful wonderful wonderful.
Not big on arthouse movies, but I did love German film called Run Lola Run, where heroine has to save her lover, and has three different versions of how she gets to do it.
(Formerly TCMJ) I forgot to mention Ferris Bueller and Who Framed Roger Rabbit...
Oh, I love The Princess Bride. It was on Five yesterday afternoon, so I watched it with my flatmate, who had never seen it before. At first she spent most the time reading the Sunday Times, but by the end she was watching intently. Great film, and some awesome lines.
My favourite film as a teenager and 20-something was Blade Runner, but I have somewhat soured on it recently, due I think to a changing attitude towards the inevitability and desirability of a completely dystopian world.
Now, I would have to say my favourite film is Office Space by Mike Judge. I originally saw this film in the theatre (one of the few, I think). The theatre was packed with teenagers, drawn probably by the fact that Mike Judge was the creator of Beavis and Butthead. I was the only one who had every probably worked in an office, so a lot of the jokes that had me rolling the aisles were lost on the teenage crowd. I would highly recommend Office Space to anyone who has ever worked in an office. Then you too can bond with co-workers over jokes about PC Load Letter, TPS reports, meetings with the Bobs and (of course) Swingline staplers.
AS... YOU... WISH!
(ha ha...)
Yes, I certainly have a soft spot for Princess Bride. I am a pretty nostalgic creature actually, so there are several movies from childhood that I am still fond of. I was a big Jim Henson fan so naturally things like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth would make the list. I also loved all those 80s films where the misfits prevail... things like Goonies and pretty much everything directed by John Hughes. ET is one of the first movies I can clearly remember seeing in the theater, and I loved it (I was about 6, I think?). The original Star Wars trilogy would have to be there. And, Christmas nerd that I am, all the classic yuletide tales would be on my list too.
It is sad though that a lot of them are far better in my memory than they are when I sit down to re-watch them now. So many of those are full of cheeseball humour and camp! And I can still appreciate them on that level, but something of that nostalgic shine inevitably wears off.
One that never seems to loose its nostalgia-factor is the CBC Anne of Green Gables series.
A few of my favourite nowadays films are Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Garden State, Stranger Than Fiction, The Royal Tenenbaums ... generally the quirkier the better. : ) I still love a great animanted film too, so I was a big fan of Coraline (in 3D!).
Personally, I believe that Inigo Montoya is the Doctor's real name...
It also features one of the deeper lines in cinema: Life is pain. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. I think Cary Elwes was wonderful in it. Those Guardian people are being unspeakable snobs.
My favourite? Harold and Maude. I saw it some years after it was made, when it had become a cult classic. I first saw it in French because I was in an immersion course in Trois-Rivières at the time, and it was playing at the local arts cinema in a double bill with (God help me) Jonathan Livingstone Seagull. (Harold and Maude works in French; JLS doesn't even work in English.)
Harold and Maude is my go-to movie when I'm miserable. When I first saw it at age 19, I didn't understand Maude's motives, as much as I loved the film. As I grow older, I understand her better and better. Lots of flaws in this story, but so much charm, and fabulous camera work and editing.
It's OK Persephone, I won the Guardian writers over to the cause of The Princess Bride. They're not snobs. I have it on good authority that one of them even likes 'One Fine Day', which is, well, inconceivable.
Thanks for all the favourite films, I have seen lots of them (Harold and Maude for the first time last month) and am excited at checking out the rest. I remember being a bit so hat about ET when the babysitter took me to see it when I was 7. Maybe I should give it another try.
I love Princess Bride too, but Labyrinth ticks all my boxes. A young David Bowie, a fantasy theme and a load of furry puppets :) I know it off by heart, including the soundtrack, and still watch it if I am ill and/or at Christmas. Even my dog is named Ludo.
I also love Beaches with Bette Midler, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest and Naked by Mike Leigh. They're all from my childhood and teens, further confirming your theory.
In my comment: "I was a bit so *what*" [etc]
Alicey: YES to the joys of Labyrinth. David Bowie in skintight leggings = major early constituent of my sexuality. Can I sue them for therapy?
Oh yes Labyrinth! I was too old for kids films then allegedly, but love it.
Also had forgotten Star Wars. Only time in childhood I was cool and trendy courtesy of cousin who did the sound effects & took us to see it at Leicester Square before anyone else did. Awesome.
Have I ever mentioned I'm related to Cary Elwes?
"MAH-widge..." (as Peter Cook's demented chaplain pronounces "marriage" in "The Princess Bride)
Talking of Mr Cook, my favourite film is "Bedazzled", the original one, not the dreadful re-make with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. The original one, starring Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Eleanor Bron, and featuring the likes of Frobisher & Gleason ice lollies, Barry Humphries (as Envy) and Raquel Welch (as Lust). Brilliant.
Have any of you read the book on which "The Princess Bride" is based? Just as good as the film. Rather, the film does justice to the book, which is so rarely the case. I encourage all lovers of the flick to rush out immediately and find an old copy of the book. Starts off radically differently (it's a disenchanted, disconnected old fart of a Dad sharing the story with his unappealing progeny, for starters) then segues into wonderfulness. Weird thing is, the book came out so long before the film but the casting was so spot-on, it's as if William Goldman created his characters with these actors in mind.
MediumRob, I'm not sure if you have. I was at school with his sister. Cary Cary all around...
Bangkok Expat Mama, yes, I love the book. I missed the things that didn't make it into the film (the Zoo of Death) but there were improvements too (sharks becoming shrieking eels.) In Goldman's Which Lie Did I Tell there's a great account of how he turned the book into a film.
I think Labyrinth just beats out the Princess Bride, after all it does feature Academy Award Winner Jennifer Connolly.
The Princess Bride script is better though: "You should never get involved in a land war in Asia." Sound advice that,
Why does "At school with Cary's sister" sound like a horror movie waiting to be made?
Bankok Expat Mama, props on your recommendations. The book is indeed a different kind of wonderful, and the original Bedazzled ("The magic word -- Julie Andrews!")is on my list of my 35 favourite movies (the most recent of which is Snow Cake with the marvelous Alan Rickman).
I love The Princess Bride so much! And I don't even have the excuse of seeing it as a child - I was introduced to it on video by a friend when I was in my early twenties. For me, a favourite film has to have the feel-good factor, so while there's lots of films I really enjoy, they might not be the DVD I'd want to go home to watch after a bad day. Real favourites include An Affair to Remember, You've Got Mail (not the world's best rom-com, but there's just something about it!) and Apollo 13. I admit it, I like happy endings! :-D At the other end of the happy ending scale, I also love Shadowlands, but I can't watch it often - far too much of a weepy!
I realised this the other day, that really good films, and books, are best if you've seen/read them more than once. Then I despaired because I don't have enough time! I'm going to die in 40 odd years. I'd better get on with it.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, definitely.
Watched it thousands of times as a kid, knew all the classic lines, then later understood them when I watched it as a teenager. I wanted Matthew Broderick's hair from age 11.
Now it's hard to make me sit through anything longer than half an hour. What's up with that?
I loved the book "The Princess Bride", and the movie is good too. I got a huge thrill out of seeing the Cliffs of Moher because I knew I was seeing the "real" Cliffs of Insanity.
My family didn't have a TV until I was 6, so the first real movie I saw was in a theater at 3 or 4("Follow That Bird", thank you Sesame Street.) and my little brother who is 2 years younger screamed through the whole thing. So that movie is mostly a blur of loud crying, darkness and a giant yellow bird. (Amazing I still go to movies after that.)
First movie that is my favorite and remember fully, seen at the age 7 of was "The Great Race". It has Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, and Peter Falk...and I loved it. Epically long, a cute hero, comedy and a pie fight for good measure.
I love The Princess Bride, on so many levels. The cameos by the guest stars are played for laughs, but the leads are all deadly serious, which just adds to its charms. The book is a cracker, too.
My daughter and I share a love for Stardust, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and the wonderful Willow (so much so that her dissertation focused on fantasy films). Age has little to do with it in our case, although I agree that familiarity breeds content.
Having said that, a favourite from my childhood, and one shared by all my siblings, so much so that we frequently quote favourite lines at each other, is The Court Jester with Danny Kaye. 'Get it?' 'Got it.' 'Good.'
Two films I can - and do - watch over and over again: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (with John Wayne and the wonderful Andrew MacLaglen, first seen when I was a child at my mother's knee) and Cabaret, during my first year at university. Go figure. Or maybe it's wiser if you don't.
Oh yes, and all three Naked Guns.
I came across your blog somewhere through Baklava Shed I think.
Now you won't have heard of my favourite but please take a few minutes to watch the trailer.
http://www.underourskin.com/
Then go into press and you will see other excerts
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3C5106098A596981
All sounds very melodramatic but I assure you as one who sufferred over 6 years with this illness but am now 100% after controversial treatment on just long term antibiotics, it is not over exagerated.
What's worse there are thousands of people in UK struggling for diagnosis and treatment because of IDSA flawed Guidelines.
One day the media in UK will start to take notice of what is going on and one day this or other similar UK films will get into the public domain and more people will get help for their chronic illnesses of unknown cause.
Do pop over to my blog and read more and enjoy watching the trailer more dramatic than many a science fiction but sadly real.
My Favorite movie is Before Sunset, and I think I was 14, or 15 when I first watched. It is a sequel to Before Sunrise, but when I watched it the first time I did not know that and even then I really loved the movie. I guess what caught my atention was the fact that almost nothing really happens on this movie, it consists of one, long conversation in real time. It was the first time I saw a movie like this, and it made an impact. And then years later the movie kinda helped a very special boy to have the courage to "make his move", making it even more important to me.
Blimey, does this thread make me feel old! Someone was 11 when Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released -- good Lord, I had a driver's licence then! Someone was 14 when Before Sunset came out -- I was hitting mid-30s then, much less when Before Sunrise! The worst, though, is that I forget specifics about things that I love, like the details Marie mentions from the book I recommended (Sharks? Uh...). At 40, I remember mainly how a book or film made me feel but the sparks of details fade fast. It's a bit scary! Anyway I'm jotting down many of the films people have raved about here. Am particularly intrigued by Snow Cake, Labyrinth, The Great Race and The Court Jester. Good thread, interesting comments...I'm off to apply anti-ageing eye cream now. ;)
Oh, mine is The Princess Bride too, although I'm a teensy bit older than you. Ahem. I have bought it 4 times for myself over the years, and foisted copies on many an offspring of cousin and friend. Also Spirited Away - just magic. Other favorites are It Happened One Night - screwball superb - The Red Shoes, The Legend of Billie Jean, The Breakfast Club, Heather, sex lies and videotape and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. So youth has a lot to do with sticking power, but some, few and far between, do manage to grab hold. And I never give up on finding the next one :)
Think I've seen the Dear Diary film you're talking about. I was shown it at university whilst studying Italian and remember it to be fairly amusing. Mind you, the only thing which sticks in my mind about it is that the main character had a fascination with Jennifer Beales from Flashdance and was on some sort of quest to find her!
Love all your Strictly blogging by the way!
Bingo! That's the one. Jennifer Beals turns up in the film and is almost impossibly beautiful.
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