Movie Meme

I thought to participate in this one and was surprised at how hard it was to write.

Total number of films owned: I own a lot of movies, too many to count. I buy them the way I buy books, often. I don’t watch them repeatedly. I do like to keep them, glad to have them around for me to watch when I feel like it.

Last film bought: Kill Bill, Vols. 1 and 2.

Last film watched: Into the West on TNT (but perhaps made-for-television doesn’t count) in which case, the last film-film (flick released into theaters) I watched was Star Wars.

Five Favourite Films That I Watch Frequently or That Mean A Lot To Me: The Big Chill – I love the music and the characters – for the longest time, my sister and I knew lines from it and would often repeat them at fitting moments, in particular when we found ourselves using similar dialogue in our own actual conversation. Now, why the movie so captured our hearts and minds, I cannot tell you. We simply enjoy the movie every time we watch it, loving in particular the warts of the film.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – The movie with Gene Wilder is funny, lasting, fantastical. Charlie himself has never lost his appeal in all the years I’ve watched it – never do I see it as dated, or out of style. I love the shifting concept of “honesty” in the film, the fluid nature of it, how you can find it lurking in all the characters and find it just as lacking equally so. As a child, I enjoyed the antics of the children, as an adult, I love Wonka and the antics of the parents. How well both sides are captured! And they’re captured in such a way that is timeless. Other children’s movies I’ve loved and still love include Toy Story, Iron Giant, Shrek, Finding Nemo, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Wizard of Oz and the Aristocats.

Like Water for Chocolate – A beautiful movie that is both hunger-inducing and imagination-satisfying. I love the humor, the storytelling, the fantasy. I’m reminded of my own heritage in the food and the characters, I’m reminded of the passion in the stories I was told as a child about love and heartbreak. This one just…has me. I really enjoy foreign films as a whole, especially those coming from Chinese filmmakers such as Farewell My Concubine and Raise the Red Lantern.

American History X – An excellent drama that’s hard to watch and the kind that draws you into its heart with the agony of race conflict. The story’s amazing and so are the actors who created the tale. In fact, Edward Norton to this day has not matched the intensity he possessed nor the pathos in this film. Other dramas I’ve loved include Clint Eastwood’s films (spaghetti westerns and all), Requiem for a Dream (this movie gets the award as having one of the most terrifying sequences in film, that of the Ellen Burstyn’s Sarah Goldfarb’s inadvertant final and total descent into amphetamine addiction), Jesus' Son, To Kill a Mockingbird and some other "legal" films.

Young Frankenstein – My favorite comedy ever – I can watch this one repeatedly and never get tired of it nor not laugh. The kind of movie you stick in the player when you need a lift. Other comedies I’ve loved include those with Steve Martin, the Pink Panther movies, the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Albert Brooks, and Danny Kaye movies.

I’m sure as I come across other movie memes, I’ll say, “Oh yeah…that too!”