[u][color=#800000]MASHA[/color][/u] wrote:I must admit that I do not know if it is a good thing for you to understand me as it is common for lunatics to understand each other well even although no one else does.
No worries on that score Masha. I always suffer from temporary insanity when I talk about movies, and snap back into reality as soon as I turn on MSNBC.
I have read a case history in which a person suffered retrograde amnesia with systematized loss of episodic memory due to trauma.
The major presentation was that he had no memory of any books which he had read.
I must wonder what it would be like to forget having watched any movies. There are movies which I feel were so significant to me that I can to some small degree say that my life was divided between the time before I watched the movie and the time after.
My mother currently suffers from dementia. It is really rough to see our family’s bookkeeper no longer able to do numbers or not remember visiting my apartment. Or where she put her glasses. Or that she already did a thing she already did five times before the five times she did it before that. My mother pretty much lives in the moment. Moment to moment. Disheartening to my family, and probably very scary to her, if she could even admit that something is wrong. So reading your question ( and I’m glad you were able to articulate what you were trying to express to us ) hits home because memory loss strikes at the heart of being a critical thinking being. I hope I won’t be in danger of this affliction, but heredity must be taken into account. Your question is interesting food for thought if this fate
does befall me. I'd hate to lose movies.
[u][color=#BF0000]PROFESSIONAL[/color][/u] [u][color=#BF0000]TOURIST[/color][/u] wrote:For myself, if I were to lose my memory as described here, I don't think I'd wish to rebuild the same personality I have now. I think I'd be better off starting fresh, rather than to try to re-create my old self through documentation of what films or books were formative to my original personality.
I like the train of thought you bring up, P.T. because what
IS to say that if we could recreate ourselves, we'd
want to recreate ourselves in the same image we were in before, and not in a different image we have of ourselves. This might be our chance.
Masha, you have broken up your question into two categories:
1) Create a list of approx. four movies whose significance could be used as nearly a definition of who you were.
2) Create a list of approx. six movies which you would treasure the opportunity to watch as if for the first time.
My list simultaneously reflects both your questions, Masha. Please don’t flog me with a wet noodle for not exactly categorizing my film choices. I’m not 100% sure if my list would tell someone who I am as a person, but moreso about the topics that attract me. Also built into the list are my awe inspiring reactions to seeing something I’ve never seen or experienced before.
My list contains spoilers. But hey, if you lose your memory, you won’t remember what I gave away:
“MEMENTO” ( 2001 )
GUY PEARCE
This movie is a case in point. I saw it when it was originally released, but I don’t remember the details of it. It makes me imagine what memory loss must be like. The only difference is this gentleman
KNOWS he has short term memory issues. He's chasing himself over and over again in this.
* * * * *
“PSYCHO” ( 1960 )
ANTHONY PERKINS
It was seeing the Anthony Hopkins movie about Hitchcock that crystallized for me how the story of “Psycho” was a shocking shocking thing for audiences of 1959/1960 and something audiences diddn’t expect from Hitchcock. Shock ‘n awe this film is. I've seen slasher horror films since. ( Not that “Psycho” is that. ) How shocking, that murder in the shower. How creepy the house and the music and Norman in that old lady get-up. I've seen its perfection for years now. How I wish I could see it for the first time, again to discover it. I can only do it through others.
* * * * *
“STAR WARS” ( 1977 )
HARRISON FORD & A WOOKIE
When I took off from work that day in ‘77 ( feigned illness ) and saw “Star Wars” I literally felt what it must have felt like for my father to see “Flash Gordon” in 1936 when he was a little boy. Yes, I’ve seen sci-fi films before. ( Still hadn’t comprehended “2001: A Space Odyssey” so I didn't know
what I was seeing with
that one. ) The ships, the sets, the graphics were just so amazing. But the scene where the Millennium Falcon jumps into hyperspace had me OUT OF MY SEAT!! The audience was cheering and screaming. What the heck was that?!!!
How innovative of Lucas to show speed this way. I have tiny nephews who haven’t seen this movie yet. Would they sit through it even if it’s not a Lego movie? I'll give it the good ol' college try. The last 'new car' feeling I got was looking at “The Matrix.”
* * * * *
“JAMES BOND” ( 1962 )
SEAN CONNERY
When my mother took us to see “Thunderball” my sister thought it was a movie about a boy and his horse. We hadn't seen “Dr. No.” Boy did
this blow our pre-teen little minds. Well, mostly it was Sean Connery who was the mindblower, though we hadn’t the proper words to express what we were “feeling.” I was hooked. He was so handsome, sexy, suave, self-assured, commanding. And the places he traveled to were exotic and glamorous. Something totally far and away from two little girls in Harlem. I’m used to the settings, and the beddings and the grand locations now. I wish I could see them again with wide-eyed wonder and wish to be a Bond girl.
* * * * *
“THE SIXTH SENSE” ( 1999 )
HAYLEY JOEL OSMENT
I’ve already discovered the secret of the movie, hiding in plain sight for all of us to decipher and still tricking me. I think seeing this movie a second or third time actually changes this movie. I want the secret of this movie to be new again for me. “The Usual Suspect” is in this vein too. I like movies that hide in plain sight.
* * * * *
“BLAZING SADDLES” ( 1974 )
CLEAVON LITTLE
I guess
“Blazing Saddles” represents a time for me when comedies gave me bellyaches of laughter. The funniest movie I ever saw was “The Odd Couple.” My sister and I saw it at Radio City Music Hall and left in tears from laughing so hard. I saw the movie years later and it totally lost its funny bone quotient. WAH!!! Wha' happened?! Mel Brooks and Woody Allen had a spate of comedies that just slayed me back in the 70's. Woody’s films made me feel smart ( like the New Yorker that I yam. ) Mel’s movies were just plain riots. I want those laughs back. ( Even on my
next viewing of this movie at TCM’s upcoming film festival, I know the movie will be like an old friend. I can't wait to see Cleavon Little's palomino again. Absolutely gorgeous. Almost prettier than Kirk Douglas' horse in “Lonely Are the Brave.” Almost. )
* * * * *
“OUT OF THE PAST” ( 1947 )
ROBERT MITCHUM & JANE GREER
Aren’t there some movies you just don’t remember seeing them the first time; like they’ve always been there as part of your consciousness? I feel that way about
“Out of the Past.” Actually the movie doesn’t even have to be new for me. I just want to watch Mitchum and Greer. But I must admit this, I would like to watch it with someone with the patience and good sense to watch a good film noir. I want to hear them gasp when Mitchum’s voice over announces: “
He had followed her.”
Nice sexy spin “Against All Odds” put on the story. But I’ll take Jane Greer walking in out of the sunlight.
* * * * *
“SILENCE OF THE LAMBS” ( 1991 )
The sheer horrifying terror of using a serial killer to catch a murderer. I was horrified throughout. Oh that doesn’t mean I looked away. No no. Jodie Foster guided me through that entire movie, the one normal thing to cling to. Hopkins was brilliant, and the movie was perfectly cast. I want to discover its brilliance all over again. Even if I have to go through Dr. Lechter.
* * * * *
“TYRONE POWER”
TYRONE POWER
You know what Tyrone Power represents to me? Discovering ‘old movie stars.’ Seeing them for the first time. One clear recollection I have is seeing Merle Oberon for the first time in “The Cowboy and the Lady.” ( Who is that? I already knew Gary Cooper. And my sister introduced me to the charms of Paul Newman. ) With Power, I’ve almost just stopped watching his movies for their plot and just gaze at him. ( This just happened recently with seeing “Johnny Apollo.” ) He’s just absolutely so blazingly and elegantly good looking. I remember seeing a very innocuous little comedy called “Meet the Stewarts”...
...and being absolutely bowled over by Frances Dee. I’ve since come to know her ( thank you Ingenue wherever you are for the fifty Frances Dee films you sent me!! ) and in better movies. But that first time...
I guess I just want to discover my movie stars all over again.
* * * * *
Memory loss is a terrible terrible thing. Events just wash over you like water. You can’t grab onto anything. You can’t hold onto anything. But then again, everything is new to you.