Now that I’m older and more conscious of time well-spent and time wasted, there are movies I would gladly buy—and those I wouldn’t. I hate silly romances and comedies that feature the Marx Brothers, Red Skelton and Jerry Lewis. I like the early films of Tom Hanks and the sophisticated comedies of William Powell and Joan Bennett.
My DVD suki knows I also prefer European films and classics from the late ’40s and ’50s. Sometimes though, he mistakes a classic for a new production of it—like the latest version of “Tom Sawyer,” which I returned because the characters in it were speaking in German! After watching it three times while reading the subtitles, I gave up!
But, I was interested in a scene where Tom and Huckleberry Finn watch their own wake—I found that amusing. Because I have shades of Tom and Huck, I’m rather conscious of what people might say about me when I’m gone.
Amusing stories
I love films with amusing stories. I prefer “bang-bang” films to excursions into the afterlife. Dracula’s bloody antics and other stories bore me. I don’t like films that leave me feeling dirty—that’s one reason why I didn’t enjoy the “Lord of the Rings” series, whose characters and locales look grimy. I felt muddy and dirty after viewing them!
Since I don’t like bats and devilish creatures, I also didn’t enjoy the “Harry Potter” movies. I hate howling dogs and high-pitched screams, which I find predictable. I prefer ships and Columbus and Magellan to interplanetary aliens and their spaceships.
I also like romances such as “Casablanca,” “An Affair to Remember,” and “Three Coins in the
Fountain.” I love biopics like “Essex and Elizabeth,” “Viva Zapata,” and “Desirée.” I adore movies that examine relationships, like the Judi Dench-Cate Blanchett drama, “Notes On A Scandal.” I don’t like talky films like “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
I enjoy Nazi-Jewish tales—so I absolutely loved “Schindler’s List” and “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I relate to the problems of their characters—could I have been Jewish in a past life?
Subtitles
Even as a child, I enjoyed Errol Flynn’s adventures involving Jewish concentration camps. Recently, when I bought a copy of a film titled, “Lebanon,” I was surprised that it was about a Russian concentration camp! I thoroughly enjoyed “Confucius,” starring Chow Yun Fat, though the subtitles were hard to read because they were too tiny.
I like films that center on children’s point of view, which is why I love “E.T.” For the same reason. I’m enthralled with Charles Laughton’s “Night of the Hunter,” in which a widow’s children are hunted by a sadistic preacher, chillingly portrayed by Robert Mitchum. I truly love watching old films—but I enjoy watching those grand MGM musicals the most!