Your Rules for Movie-Going

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Case in point to principle 1: Ordinary People took the Oscar in 1981 rather than Raging Bull.

There are lots of really cringe-worthy examples. My favorites are How Green Was My Valley beating Citizen Kane, and Oliver! beating 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[mc ukrneal]

Once upon a time, my wife and I would see a film a week, sometimes more, usually foreign or independent, though not invariably so.  We were once advocates of that 50's era billboard: "Enjoy Life! Go to the Movies!"   Now it's a mere handful of films per annum, usually titles we've judged to be inherently "cinematographic," ones we'll best appreciate seeing on the big screen (eg: Terrence Malick; Wong Kar-wai) vs. the little one at home. But there are also several directors whose work we'll go see no matter what, eg:  Mike Leigh.  I can pinpoint the very day our cinema-going slowed nearly to a complete halt.  We scheduled a day off together and decided to "live it up" by seeing two films in one day.  We'd both looked forward to these :  the Royal Tenenbaums and Gosford Park; both were so disappointing to us - all the more devastating for being a double whammy - that, while we laugh about it now, I estimate that since then those two films have cost local cinemas roughly $5K of our formerly spendthrift movie-going ways (not counting popcorn!) 

Gosford Park is one of my favorite films. It is an outstanding film. I cannot fathom why you might have disliked it unless the pacing was too slow (although that is one of the reasons I loved it).

Case in point to principle 1: Ordinary People took the Oscar in 1981 rather than Raging Bull.

Sorry, what is the point? Both are great movies, albeit completely different.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Sorry, what is the point? Both are great movies, albeit completely different.

If you feel that Ordinary People is "great," that is fine. I do not think it anywhere close to "Raging Bull" in originality or power. That is the point.

[Bogey]

I was scarred as an 11 year old when Annie Hall beat out Star Wars.   However, that does not keep me away from the theater and having fun watching a flick with a group of other movie goers.

Speaking of which, I want to try to start heading to a local film house that shows re-releases of older classics.  I bet it is a blast to catch an older film with a room full of fans of that film. 

Here are some examples:

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Midnights/Esquire_mid_2015_0626_0815_Web.pdf

If you are there at midnight for a Hitch or other film here, you must be a fan.

[Karl Henning]

I was scarred as an 11 year old when Annie Hall beat out Star Wars.

Tangentially, thanks for reminding me that I want to watch Manhattan again 

[Bogey]

Tangentially, thanks for reminding me that I want to watch Manhattan again 

I knew my comment would have harsh consequences.   Good morning, Karl.

[Karl Henning]

Cheers, Bill!  (Is it in Manhattan where one of the characters dismisses Mahler as "over-rated"? and Woody Allen's character reacts with typical slow-burn histrionics . . . .)

[Bogey]

Cheers, Bill!  (Is it in Manhattan where one of the characters dismisses Mahler as "over-rated"? and Woody Allen's character reacts with typical slow-burn histrionics . . . .)

Roll 44 second clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOyw6Q8qWpM

[Karl Henning]

You are a marvel, sir!

http://www.youtube.com/v/fOyw6Q8qWpM

[Cato]

A few general principles:

In most cases, the Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards, and sometimes at Cannes, is nowhere near the best film of its respective year, and is likely to be a disappointment.

Any film purposely made in black & white after color became the norm probably deserves a look. As does any film that eschews complex special effects, or those horrible CGI effects.

Any film which played in only a few art house cinemas and didn't make it out to the mass-market-plex is probably worth seeing.

With regard to actors, only one rule: any film with Catherine Keener in it is likely to be the sort of offbeat, quirky, thoughtful production that I generally like.

Yes, not unlike my original rules at the beginning of this topic!  Another actress who avoids the typical is Parker Posey, who creates the rule that any movie with her is also worth seeing.

This was incomprehensibly deleted from Waiting for Guffman: it takes a few moments to get going, but ends up being hysterical!

https://www.youtube.com/v/7jQ0SbWYdgQ

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Gosford Park is one of my favorite films. It is an outstanding film. I cannot fathom why you might have disliked it unless the pacing was too slow (although that is one of the reasons I loved it).
Sorry, what is the point? Both are great movies, albeit completely different.

Its mise-en-scène was lovely but its exposition so tediously slow in developing, about an hour if memory serves (curious, we don't mind this in Rohmer films) we couldn't appreciate it.  However, on your trusted recommend, I will try it at home.

[Ken B]

Its mise-en-scène was lovely but its exposition so tediously slow in developing, about an hour if memory serves (curious, we don't mind this in Rohmer films) we couldn't appreciate it.  However, on your trusted recommend, I will try it at home.

I love it too, one of my favourites of the past 15 or so years. Filled with good things. Especially the scene with the music. And Ms Watson at the peak of her odd but overwhelming sex appeal.

[Cato]

There are lots of really cringe-worthy examples. My favorites are How Green Was My Valley beating Citizen Kane, and Oliver! beating 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Inexplicable, except that the voters of the day were traditionalists.  Certainly Citizen Kane did not have the curious ending of 2001, a movie I saw 6 or 7 times when it first appeared in Cinerama.

I still recall seeing a beatnik (not a hippie) standing in the back of the theater, staring at the screen, holding his beret and sunglasses in one hand, and stroking his goatee with the other in deep beatnikey    thought! 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Inexplicable, except that the voters of the day were traditionalists.  Certainly Citizen Kane did not have the curious ending of 2001, a movie I saw 6 or 7 times when it first appeared in Cinerama.

Actually it's quite explicable, if you know that Citizen Kane was savagely attacked by the Hearst newspapers, which had a lot of clout in Hollywood.

[Cato]

Actually it's quite explicable, if you know that Citizen Kane was savagely attacked by the Hearst newspapers, which had a lot of clout in Hollywood.

True, still, one would have thought (hoped) that such clout did not affect a secret vote.

Hmmm...unless the voting was rigged!  Sounds like we could  have the plot for a movie!  0:)

[Bogey]

So, what is the first movie you can remember ever seeing in a theater?

Mine was an Elvis movie.  I believe it was this one, as I remember him in a black leather jacket.  The rest of the movie escapes my memory, but I am guessing I could roll out the general plot based on the poster.



We were living on an air base in Goose Bay, Labrador and I could have been 3 or 4 and was probably a re-release, or as those of you that grew up on a base back in the day, the base would get movies after their initial run.

[Ken B]

So, what is the first movie you can remember ever seeing in a theater?

Mine was an Elvis movie.  I believe it was this one, as I remember him in a black leather jacket.  The rest of the movie escapes my memory, but I am guessing I could roll out the general plot based on the poster.



We were living on an air base in Goose Bay, Labrador and I could have been 3 or 4 and was probably a re-release, or as those of you that grew up on a base back in the day, the base would get movies after their initial run.

Mary Poppins

[North Star]

So, what is the first movie you can remember ever seeing in a theater?

The Lion King. I slept a fair bit of it, and was scared by the loud noises. Obviously I was rather young then - not that I have become that much less sensitive to loud noise, thankfully.

[Karl Henning]

So, what is the first movie you can remember ever seeing in a theater?

The Sound of Music

Mary Poppins

That is the first movie I remember watching in a drive-in.  (No, I wasn't driving.)

[Cato]

The first movie I ever saw was on an early 1950's television set, and it is a classic still, better than the attempts at remakes:

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In 1955, at a small neighborhood theater, the first movie I recall seeing:

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The second theater movie was:

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Curiously, my parents went to see this at a drive-in, with me in the back seat: apparently they thought I would not understand it.  I vividly recall a scene with Robert Ryan pulling a spindle from a front-porch railing and beating another character with it.

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The summary from Amazon says it all:

Hard to believe that Erskine Caldwell's God's Little Acre was, for years, the bestselling novel ever published. This 1958 film adaptation gives little reason for that status, being a curiously inert combination of sweaty Southern passion and rustic comedy. Thanks to director Anthony Mann's exacting eye for outdoor photography, the film is a pleasure to look at, and Elmer Bernstein's score makes it swell to listen to. Robert Ryan, always good at obsessives, plays a patriarch convinced gold is buried on his farm. He's aided by a gallery of future TV stars: Tina Louise (Gilligan's Island) as the lip-lickin' sexpot every living male tries to seduce; Jack Lordand Vic Morrow as her husband and brother; Buddy Hackett as a would-be politician; Michael Landon as an albino (thus giving new meaning to the term "white trash"). This gumbo has some fun flavors, but they don't quite blend. --Robert Horton