Marion Ryan has started a theme going on over at her Appreciate 2008 blog, and I posted my appreciations but I forgot to include all the wonderful films I have seen in 2008 and why I love the cinema. I always mean to write down the films I've seen, to keep a record; perhaps I will get around to that in 2009. Because I haven't kept a list of 2008, it's hard to remember how much escapism and pure entertainment I've enjoyed up the local multiplex.
I remember The Bucket List, 27 Dresses, Caramel, The Visitor, Then She Found Me, Made of Honour, Sex & The City, When Did You Last See Your Father?, Mamma Mia, In Search of a Midnight Kiss, Nights in Rodanthe, Happy Go Lucky, Quantum of Solace and Young @ Heart. I am sure there are some I have forgotten.
There are certainly those I would rather forget, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Women, My Best Friend's Girl and 4 Christmasses.
I missed out on Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Leatherheads, Wall-E, The Duchess, Changeling, I've Love You So Long and Easy Virtue, although there's still time to catch a couple of those in the cinema in December.
I'm looking forward this weekend to The Secret Life of Bees (loved that book) and Australia on Boxing Day, though I'm not sure why as I don't much like Baz Luhrman, Hugh Jackman or Nicole Kidman but hey ho, you've got to keep an open mind, haven't you? And I want to see Madagascar 2 even though I haven't yet seen Madagascar 1 - do you have a copy you can lend me for watching during December please? I will return it... promise!
My Mum loved the cinema. She brought me up to love it too. We used to watch epics on the black & white television when I was growing up, she loved Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas (action men), I steered more towards Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra (smoothies and crooners). I will never forget when she took me to see Gone With The Wind at the cinema when I was 16. It was Easter holidays from school and I had a friend staying. It seemed like four hours at the cinema, we took sandwiches for the interval, it's surreal now, isn't it. I also remember going with her to see Mary Poppins. She could watch the same ones over and over again on the telly years later and still love them. I'm the same now that I come to think about it. Thanks to my mum, I think I've lived my life like Scarlett O'Hara, thought without being quite such a bitch about it methinks. Both My Mum and I prefer a film which makes you cry.
Favourite films of all time? Tricky, I keep changing my mind though there are some stalwarts forever in my Top 10, ones where I am word perfect. Apollo 13, Field of Dreams, Steel Magnolias, Room With A View, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, As Good As It Gets, I could go on and on and on: "Is this Heaven?" "No, its Iowa". Wonderful stuff.
Films worth seeing - favourite actors and actresses and film directors - Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson, Colin Firth, Richard Gere (although he's a pretty rubbish actor), the new James Bond preferably running hard, George Clooney (although he's not much of an actor either), Denzel Washington (love those teeth), Gene Hackman, Brad Pitt, Paul Newman, Nicolas Cage, Kevin Spacey, Cate Blanchett, Susan Sarandon, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates, Julia Roberts, Bette Midler and Meryl Streep.
Cor Blimey. What a plethora of talent! What an abundance of Fun In The Dark. It seems to me there has been a renaissance in the cinema. It was big when my Mum was a girl, and again when I was, then it fell off for what seemed like a couple of decades and then it's come thundering back again in the last fifteen years or so, which is odd when you consider the options for watching movies at home. It just ain't the same, trust me. If you ever wax lyrical about one of your favourite films only to find that someone you know, like and trust didnt appreciate it, lean in close and ask "did you see if on the big screen?" The answer is invariably "no". Ha ha! I thought so! You didn't see it as the director intended.
Some films are made for the big screen and the dark. Yes, I know, the rest of the audience are a pain - rustling, talking, phoning and these days ordering curries - I kid you not, I was there at Marble Arch once when this actually happened! I nearly had to shout at a group of kids yesterday, but I contained myself. Relax, Judith, you're on holiday.
And finally, its the score. Film scores make or break a movie - just try turning the sound down when watching at home, it's not so scary, so thrilling, so emotional, so lovely, so romantic, so exciting. It's nothing without the music. Favourite film score of all time? Let me get back to you on that one, Out of Africa's got to be in the running for me. The interesting thing about a film score is that the reverse of what I have said is often true. Buy the music to listen to later at home and its not the same without the pictures either, although it can be very evocative of the emotions you were feeling at the time.
What's your favourite films of all time? What was your favourite film of 2008?
I've going to go for Field of Dreams and Young @ Heart respectively.
For now.
Comments