We’ve been having fun with a monthly movie night at our place for the past while. It’s a good opportunity to have friends over and watch various “classic” ((Our rule for the definition of “classic” is that the movie must be old enough to run for president.)) movies or movies that everyone should see. So far, over the course of a year, we’ve watched:
- Vertigo
- The Godfather
- Dr. Strangelove
- Bringing up Baby
- The Day the Earth Stood Still
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Double feature of The Italian Job and the Thomas Crown Affair ((With a Triple Feature because both of those movies had such terrible endings, we watched the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair with Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan, just so we could watch an ending.))
- An American in Paris
- Nosferatu ((By the way, if you watch Nosferatu, make sure to get the digitally fixed and remastered version. The one that’s on Neflix and Amazon Prime will give you motion sickness.))
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- Miracle on 34th St. with a special edition of Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas
- Breakfast at Tiffany’s
These have been themed about half the time. For example, with Griffin coming due in July, Snow White was deemed appropriate for an early-childhood-memory food theme. For Breakfast at Tiffany’s we did breakfast food and PJs. For An American in Paris, we did French food.
Unfortunately, speaking for myself and not being into the Scholarship of Cinema, I’ve disliked several of these films. Vertigo got a thumb down from me and Bringing up Baby made me want to strangle Katherine Hepburn so she would just. Shut. Up!
After watching Snow White for the first time since childhood I realized that that movie is kinda crazy. There’s all this buildup and then it just skips to the end with the prince. What the hell?
I’ve already mentioned that The Italian Job and The Thomas Crowne Affair got universal panning from the people who viewed it with me. It’s like the director of The Italian Job was on speed while the director of The Thomas Crowne Affair was on downers. Neither movie made a whole lot of sense to my modern movie sensibilities.
And I just tweeted the other day about Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
We watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s last night and I was shocked (truly) by Mickey Rooney’s 1961 depiction of the Japanese neighbor. Racist^3.
— Bill Ruhsam (@bruhsam) January 7, 2014
I also kept wanting the guy in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to get a life and move on and don’t mess around with this obviously broken woman. I was done with her when she kicked the cat out of the car.
However, we’re not watching these necessarily because we expect to like them. We are watching to experience some old movies with friends and have something to talk about while eating and having fun.
Next month is The African Queen, which I happen to know I like. I’m looking forward to it.
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