The Movie Man(ia)

The thing is I know why he has done this!

A couple of days back I had posted a link to the Viksters "Bald & Beautiful(???)" mugshot on my blog.

I am now being made to pay the price for that indiscretion.

He tags me! And not just a nice fun tag about food or stuff that makes me go hmmmm...

He asks me to go through a list of 102 movies and list the ones that I have seen!!

Me! I am an extremely discriminating movie person. I am not inclined to go and see a movie just because some schmuk paid shit loads of money to another guy to waste on celluloid.

I am probably the only fag in Mumbai who has not attended a single one of the Gay Bombay Movie screenings. (and at last count I think Sopan has held about 12 - 15 of them) (and Dibs I know what you are going to say but sleeping through half a movie after a Hash run and Beer does NOT count).

I am the kind of guy who finally managed to rent Geisha last week and am blunt enough to admit that I fell asleep at some point in the middle.

I like my movies to have lots of great music and I notice that not too many of those feature on this list.

I would rather watch Chicago than Casablanca.
I would prefer Evita (yes I have seen that one) to La Dolce Vita
Moulin Rouge (the new version) is something I can never miss when it shows on Cable.
Even as I write, I have the Soundtrack from Rent going on in the background and "I'm lovin it". West Side Story - now that one, works for me.
A Star is Born - Not the original though I prefer the Barbra & Kris version.

If I have to choose a John Travolta movie for the list it would certainly NOT be Pulp Fiction. Compared to that even Look Who's talking Too would be a better option (and we all know how bad that was). For me the choice would be Grease from his musicals and Face Off or The Generals Daughter from his later stuff.

Not a single Tom Hanks movie on the list?? Now how odd is that???

Having said all of that there are still some movies that I can never resist seing over and over again. The list of my all time favourites would include Mr. Hollands Opus, Captain Corellis Mandolin (in fact any of Nicholas Cages movies), Everyone says I love you (The Woddy Allen movie that I would have on the list), 8 mm (Nicholas Cage again), The Man of La Mancha (Peter O'Toole), The subject was Roses (an obscure Martin Sheen beauty), Fiddler on the Roof...

Some of these movies are gems that I first collected as part of the "Sterling Matinee Habit". Which is what made me sad when I read last week that the theatre was shutting down. I hope that they will reintroduce the system when it re-opens. They owe it to the coming generation of college students to get them hooked on to great movies.

I guess to a very large extent my problem is that I like to see "movies". I am not a "Cinema" buff. LS though it may seem, personally I can nver see myself at any of the Film festivals to get me a slice of "New Age World Cinema". Sorry but for me anything with subtitles is a huge NO-NO!!

The other thing is that I am not a huge fan of the whole "Celluloid as a vehicle of Social change" funda. I liked Rang de Basanti as a movie for the beautiful way it merged the past with the present. The whole premise of cowboy vigilantism - Sorry can not buy that part. Can even less endorse that as a means to an end.

Movies to me are about entertainment - sometimes mindless sometimes dramatic. Which is why I can always sit through both Sugarland Express as well as Death becomes Her with Housesitter thrown in for good measure.

From the List of 102 movies that have been listed I have probably seen about 10 - 12. And while that may not make me competent to "have a meaningful discussion of any kind about movies". I have no regrets about that. I have no intentions of going to Cannes or Karlov Vary during festival Season (Been to both places off season).

I go to the movies to be transported to a different place and a different life for a few hours. I do not go to see something so that I can discuss and debate over it for hours on end after the event.

A couple of hours in a galaxy far far away that's what drives me to the movies.

Any why do we not have Driving Ms. Daisy in the list??