We’re trying something new chez Gibbs: watching a classic film together on Monday night after the kiddos go to bed. It would seem more natural to do this on the weekend, but there seem to be all sorts of things that pop up on weekends and Monday night is usually not too busy for husband. Someone loaned us the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die and it has provided all sorts of ideas for things to watch. (Ideal bathroom reading, if I may say so.) Plus, husband organizes the monthly Classic Film Society at school so this kind of sort of counts as research. I don’t think I need to go into a big long explanation about why I think it’s better to watch good movies than bad ones or why I simultaneously believe that you shouldn’t get all snobby about it and that occasionally watching something like Twilight or 2012 isn’t going to kill you (at least, it hasn’t killed me). But I will say that we don’t watch nearly as many movies as we used to, so there’s been a growing desire to make it count when you decide to lose the sleep take the time.
Husband and I saw some pretty good new-to-us movies in 2010. Some that come to mind (in no particular order) were: Stalker, The Sacrifice, Solaris, Sans Soleil, Wings of Desire, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, Tokyo Story, Jane Eyre, Bright Star, Barcelona, The Island, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show, The Iron Giant, The Darjeeling Limited, and The Myth of the American Sleepover. We also polished off all the available episodes of Mad Men and Downton Abbey. There were also a lot of good repeats that one or the other of us saw for the second (or third!) time, like La Jetee, The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Red Shoes, A Life Less Ordinary, Lover Come Back, 24 Hour Party People, On the Waterfront, A Serious Man, and a bunch of others that I can’t remember right now. We have a reasonable existing film repertoire (husband’s is better than mine), but I think it’s safe to say that both of us could stand to become more well-rounded in both American and foreign films. And if you can become more well-read, why not more well-watched?
So, we started last week with my pick (Forbidden Games), and tonight is husband’s choice (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold). We plan to go back and forth like that because, to be honest, I have an easier time accepting someone else’s choice then finding something that we both “feel” like watching. Between our excellent local university film library and Netflix streaming, it will be a long time before we run out.
What are your favorite classic films?
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If I can remember, I’m going to keep a running log of the movies we watch here so I won’t have so much trouble remembering what they were at the end of the year.
The 2012 Notable Film list:
Forbidden Games
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
A Handful of Dust
Out of the Past
The Bicycle Thief
Mafioso
Ikiru
Melancholia
Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy
Dirty Harry
Days of Heaven
Serpico
Never on Sunday
Jessica
Chinatown
Apocalypse Now
The Black Stallion
Alien
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Love With the Proper Stranger ~ Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood (she and Audrey Hepburn are my all time 2 favorite actresses). I especially love the scene done in the bathroom about 20 minutes into the film. The directing in that scene alone is fantastic.
I was surprised at how much I liked The Alamo and Winchester 73, which were cowboy-crazy-Henry’s pick from the local library. Turns out that I love old westerns too.
Secret of Kells was fun, especially because Jane would sing Ashley’s song all the day.
Dad and I watched Raising Arizona about a month ago and I loved it! I personally think the Coens love to throw in a dose of Greek tragedy and certainly irony. We watched Vitus a couple of weeks ago and it was kind of a triumph of the human spirit scenario, but the piano performances were amazing. Also, the conundrums of what to do with a very bright child were interesting…