14 March 2011

A while back, Kyle wrote this and posted it to the PubGuys website:

10 Movies That I’ve Seen More than 10 Times
Everyone has favourite movies. Even if you don’t really like movies all that much, you still have a favourite or two. You probably also have movies that you have seen over and over again whether through choice or happenstance. I’m hoping that your favourite movies are in that list of rewatches, but maybe they’re not. Below are 10 movies that I have seen more than 10 times and an approximate count. I’m not nearly so OCD that I have actually catalogued which movies I have seen multiple times and their counts. It’s also very possible that there are other movies that I have seen more than the 10 listed here. But, these are 10 movies, in no particular order, that I can definitely say without a doubt I have seen more than 10 times.

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And, then, of course he provided his list.  And, a wonderful list it is,too.  With reasons and insight and humorous anecdotes about Kyle.  And, it inspired me.

I was planning to create MY list of favourite movies weeks ago, and life got in the way.  And, I’ve watched a couple of movies half a dozen times more since then!  But the main reason I’m just getting around to it, is that it’s hard to limit the list to only ten.  So, I am cheating a little bit.  Here’s my list:

1.    Excalibur.  This has been my all-time favourite movie since I saw it in the theatre.  Three times.  For me, director John Boorman had taken all the wonderful romanticism of the Arthurian legend and made it real.  It brought to life for me, moreso than any version I’d ever read in print, the iconic characters I’d been in love with for most of my childhood.  Listening to the director’s commentary is a hoot!  And what fantasy geek didn’t memorize the Charm of Making?  “Anal nathrach, orth’ bhais’s bethad, do che’l de’nmha.”

2.    Young Frankenstein.  My favourite Mel Brooks movie ever.  I mean, how many quotable lines can one movie have?  Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn and cameo by Gene Hackman—all comedic genius. I’m sure few would argue if I said this perfect spoof on the classic horror film genre is the funniest movie of all time.  “Put. The Candle. Back.”

3.    Airplane.  Most of my friends, at one time or another, have seen me take a random object, usually after someone has asked “what is it?” and place it on my head and then my chest before flapping it through the air while saying, “a hat, a brooch, a pterodactyl?”  I should probably be embarrassed that this movie is on my list … but, I’m not.  I find it to be as perfectly stupid and mindless and campy as it could possibly be.  And, sometimes, that’s just exactly what the doctor ordered.  Its inclusion here is all the more interesting because I don’t actually own a copy!  I’ve seen it so many times because I feel a moral imperative to watch it every time it shows up on the television!

4.    The Princess Bride.  Long on my favourites list, but only just recently can I say I’ve seen it more than ten times.  Five of those times were one day last week!  Sometimes, when I’m working, I can’t really “watch” so much as I “listen” and glance up every now and then.  And, it’s way easier to keep hitting ‘play’ on the remote control, than it is to choose another DVD and switch them.  Another film absolutely famous for its one-liners, its comedic timing, and a phenomenally beautiful score.  And, one of the best romances, ever.  Kyle and I chose a piece of music from this soundtrack for use in our wedding.  I can remember being beside myself with glee when I first learned of the making of this film.  I had, as assigned reading, been introduced to William Goldman’s book in the tenth grade!  If you love the film, you MUST read the book!

5.  Dangerous Beauty and Shakespeare in Love.   Okay, here we go with the cheating.  This is my favourite Renaissance duo of films; both historical romances; both set in the time period I know and love the most.  Dangerous Beauty is a fabulous film version of the story told in the autobiography of Veronica Franco, a sixteenth century Venetian courtesan and poet.  The chemistry between actors Catherine McCormack and Rufus Sewell is a beautiful thing to watch. The cinematography is lovely, the soundtrack divine.  And, from this film comes my favourite movie quote, ever.  Shakespeare in Love is the brilliantly woven tale of William Shakespeare, playwright and poet, and a woman he may have loved.  The most artful part of this film is the way the screenplay (another brilliant work by Tom Stoppard) weaves together and twists into one, the story of Shakespeare and Viola’s love, and the parallel story of Romeo and Juliet’s love—the play he’s currently writing and producing.  Magical for those who know Shakespeare’s works, and beautiful romance even for those who do not  Both of these films have wonderful soundtracks, scripts, actors, settings, costumes.   And, really, I’ve decided after dozens of viewings, that they tell the same story.  Courtesan/Playwright.  Venice/London.  She falls in love with a man above her station that she can’t have/He falls in love with a woman above his station that he can’t have.   That man is forced to marry someone he doesn’t love/That woman is forced to marry someone she doesn’t love.  They have each other anyway, though they know it cannot be.  Courtesan faces death, imprisonment/Playwright is believed to be dead.  Happy reunion occurs, only to have circumstances come between them once again.  Courtesan faces the Inquisition and her lover and the people come to her rescue.  The film ends with them together, but still separated by marriage vows.  Playwright faces potential failure of a play and theatre closing and his lover and ultimately, the Queen comes to his rescue.  The film ends with them together in the pages of his next play, but separated by marriage vows … and an ocean.

5-1/2.  Moll Flanders.  Another in my collection of historical romance type flicks.  I love this version of Daniel Defoe’s story, although it bears little resemblance, really, to the original.  A fact for which I, at least, am thankful.  If the book from which it is drawn scares you away from the film like it originally did me, Robin Wright Penn, Morgan Freeman and Stockard Channing are three wonderful reasons to give it a go.  I love the love stories within it, I love the narrative style, and I love the twist at the end.

6.   The Incredibles and Cars.   Both of these phenomenal works are by Disney/Pixar and both deserve to be in any collection of great films.  I have chosen to list these two movies together because I watch them for the same reason:  I want a fun, exciting, light-hearted film that will guarantee I get to both laugh and cry.  Cars is a totally brilliant example of the successful anthropomorphizing of  inanimate objects—motor vehicles, enhanced by the top-notch voice acting of many well-known and beloved actors.  It also has the charming aspect of being a retrospective of a younger, happier America.  An America before interstate highways and six-lane bypasses.  Travel was still about the journey, rather than the destination and Route 66 was the place to get your kicks.  I can remember that when we first heard about the film, we were underwhelmed … I mean, how can you get emotionally involved with a car?  Watch it and see!    The Incredibles is a rare and beautiful thing in that it is a fresh, original story about superheroes!  It contains some of the best one-liners ever, some great life lessons and like another groundbreaking Disney favourite of mine, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, it spawned some super fun animated shorts.  It also introduces one of my favourite supporting characters of all time:  Edna!  I am working on memorizing her lines!

7.    An Ideal Husband.  My favourite November movie.  We girls of the Ostentation have long had a bit of a tradition in that we absolutely must watch An Ideal Husband to properly get in the mood for our annual holiday weekend at Dickens on the Strand in Galveston.  Perhaps, some would argue, that we ought instead, to be watching some film version of  a Dickens classic, the obvious choice being A Christmas Carol.  And, truth be told, I do plenty of that, as well.  But, it is this wonderful film version of the  Oscar Wilde classic that best captures the pomp and circumstance of our Galveston weekend each year.  We are inspired by the clothing, the dialect, the language—but mostly the humour.  Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett and Minnie Driver more than adequately put us in the par-TI-cularly correct frame of mind for our festivities.  And, this is another DVD that once in the player, almost never gets “watched” only once.

8.   Chicago and Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge.  These are my sing-along movies! Chicago has a fabulously memorable soundtrack that is so much fun to sing along with.  And the two co-stars, Rene Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, as well as Richard Gere, do an awesome job of bringing their roles to life—including doing their own singing and dancing. And the book and choreography are Bob Fosse at his best.  Phantom of the Opera I include in my list because although not a huge Andrew Lloyd Weber fan, I do adore this version of the show.  I have seen it on stage and not been impressed.  We own the soundtrack from the London cast, and do not choose to listen to it often.  But, the film version is exquisite.  The cinematography is outstanding, the casting is far better than in either London or New York, and the costuming is second to none.  Except maybe  Moulin Rouge.  Easily one of the most innovative films of all time, I love everything about this movie.  From the stellar performances by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor to the brilliant costume and set design of Catherine Martin to the artful re-writing and inclusion of modern music, writer/director Baz Luhrmann has gifted us with a lush, unique film experience that simply cannot be fully appreciated in just one viewing.  In fact, I recently had a day when I watched this movie four times!   So, if you somehow missed this one, move it to the top of your queue.  And if you’ve seen it before … see it again.  I promise you’ll see something new!  Now, “everybody can-can!”

9.    My Fellow Americans.  This is one of those films that I find many have missed.  It stars Jack Lemmon, James Garner and Dan Ackroyd as U.S. presidents—past, past, and present.  Much of the film is simply Lemmon and Garner, political enemies thrust together in their quest to clear their names and solve a series of conspiracy-related crimes.  From their competition over the big chair to their march in the gay pride parade, it is two great actor/comedians playing perfectly off each other.  The film gives a poignant look at the back-stabbing, cut-throat world of  the denizens of Washington D.C.  At times it evokes great American pride … at other times disgust.  But, at all times, it is wonderfully funny. Someday, I should watch it with an ear for how many insulting names the two ex-presidents come up with for each other!

10. All That Jazz and Groundhog Day.  I know—this is an odd pair.  I’ve grouped them together because they share the same message—We only get one chance, really, to live life to its fullest!  All That Jazz is the autobiographical, comedic tragedy of Bob Fosse—one of Broadway’s best and brightest.  Brilliantly acted by Roy Schieder, it’s the story of a man who rarely made “the right” choices, but who lived big.  In fact, he lives so big that the little things that are really the big things fall to the side.  He ultimately dies with regrets about the priorities he chose.  It has long been a favourite of mine both for its message and for the world-class writing, choreography and direction of Bob Fosse, himself.  I laugh, I cry, I dance.  Groundhog Day is Bill Murray’s best work, in my opinion.  Trapped in a loop, Murray’s character is forced by means unknown, to repeat the same day—February 2—over and over and over again, presumably until he gets it right.  I find this movie to be just as funny every time I watch it, and just as life-affirming.  I love its message—to me it says each day is precious; each moment worth making the right choices.  Tomorrow may never come—all we have is today.  And, again, I get to both laugh and cry!  It’s all good.

11.  I know … this is a list of my ten favourite movies, and it’s already at sixteen … but, it didn’t seem right  for me to leave off my list, these three “collections,” if you will, of genre films that I adore and have watched more times than I can even count.

The first is quite literally anything from Walt Disney Studios.  I had amassed a nearly complete collection of their animated films before DVDs became the thing to collect.  And, now, I have a bookshelf devoted to a VHS collection I don’t even still have the equipment to view!  But, view them I did!  The timeless classics like Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, Dumbo, The Fox and the Hound, 101 Dalmatians, and the newer The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid— even The Black Cauldron—entertainment at its best.  They now taunt me from their large, padded boxes on the shelf.  I miss those old friends and hope someday again, to own copies I can watch.

The second genre for my list is Christmas movies.  I am a self-proclaimed sap when it comes to movies about the human condition and the inspirational messages in Christmas movies.  My all-time favourite: Scrooge.  This is a 1971 musical version of Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol (one of my favourite-ever books).  I actually have quite the thing for film versions of this story, having seen dozens of them and owning at least seven different tellings, and yet, still, this one is my favourite.  It captures so much of what I believe was Dickens’ original spirit. Another favourite is the much more recent Scrooged, starring Bill Murray.   Other favourite Christmas movies I’ve seen more than ten times would include both the old and new versions of A Miracle on 34th Street,  It’s a Wonderful Life (it doesn’t get better than that!), White Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original animated Boris Karloff version, of course … I prefer to try to forget about the Jim Carrey version) and the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I’ve seen most of those old animated Christmas shows from the sixties, more than ten times (by the time I was a teenager, even), but the rest of them are less than favourites.  New favourites whose times watched haven’t reached the number ten, yet, but are notable, nonetheless include The Polar Express.

The third categorical entry would have to be musicals.  I didn’t include any classic musicals in my 1-10 list, because there are so many!  I was raised on musical theatre, and as such, these were my favourite movies as a child.  Back in the days before DVDs and even before VHS, you didn’t “own” your own movies.  You watched what came on TV or you went to the theatre.  And before cable and before the Disney Channel and HBO and video on demand, you didn’t have that many choices.  Disney movies were hotly guarded by the studio; the animated classics were re-released every seven years on the big screen and the family gathered ’round the TV on Sunday nights to watch things like Pollyanna or That Darn Cat.  The other movie studios’ products came to television seasonally.  The Wizard of Oz—every Thanksgiving.  Ben Hur and Easter Parade—every Easter.  White Christmas—every Christmas Eve.  And, between the big holidays was all the other stuff; a lot of it classical musical theatre on film. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma, South Pacific,  The King and I and of course, The Sound of Music.  Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon (where I first fell in love with the kilt and the Scots dialect), My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Gigi.  And of course, every Danny Kaye, Donald O’Connor, Fred Astaire, or Gene Kelley movie ever made, with Singing in the Rain at the top of the list!  I adore them all, and am in the process of building my collection of DVDs so I can watch them for the seventy-eleventh times!

As I look back at my list, there are certainly themes … romance, history, song and dance, life and death, laughter and tears.  There are obvious repetitions of a few favorite names.  And of my sixteen in my primary list, ten of them are set in a time period prior to the twentieth century. And even though I allowed my list to swell beyond ten titles,  I’ve probably left something important out.  But as it seems right now, these are my “go to” movies.  The ones I reach for time and time again.

I really have no idea how Kyle got his list whittled down to only ten!

~MB

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