If you are like me chances are that you're more likely to stay at home and rent a movie to watch after the kids have gone to sleep than to go out and spend better than $50 at a theater. However, I've found that it's always a dilemma to decide what to pick--after all, you want to get your $3.50 worth. To help out, I found a handy little tool available from the bishops:
Often a quiet night at home with a good movie is just what's needed at the end of a long week. It's not that I'm planning on staying in. Quiet the contrary, there's something to hoot about happening at my kids' Catholic school tonight. But afterward, when the little ones have turned in, there are several great suggestions for a Friday night movie that get the mark of approval in a year-by-year top ten list.
I'm guessing that "Millions" will be one of your first picks?
Posted by: H | October 27, 2006 at 09:32 AM
Up the Down Staircase. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Rachel, Rachel. Born Free. Gosh, this link is amazing, and bringing back lots of wonderful memories.
Posted by: Gabrielle | October 29, 2006 at 12:08 AM
You're right H, I loved Millions, I would also have to put A Beautiful Life on my list.
Posted by: Deacon DW | October 29, 2006 at 09:29 AM
Hmm, DDW.. do you mean Life Is Beautiful, with Roberto Benigni? If not, I've never heard of the other, but Life Is Beautiful was perhaps one of the most poignantly loving I've ever seen. While running and hiding from danger at times as a child, I could've used Papa's fun-and-games, but I made my own, like counting ceiling tiles or the swans or flowers in fleur-de-lis wallpaper..
I rarely watch movies even for myself, and there are some I will see only if I should happen to grow up. Mostly, because I get that awful lump in the throat that hurts, I stick with classics or comedies, and for the others, I generally just read the book. I'm not sure I'll ever be old enough to view many of the blockbusters.
Oh Gabrielle, now you're both making me want to go through the lists and start jotting things down. With winter coming on, perhaps movies will help speed us through. :-)
Posted by: H | October 30, 2006 at 09:12 AM
Yes, H...that's the one. I should have checked the list to see if it was there before guessing at the title!
Posted by: Deacon DW | October 30, 2006 at 05:15 PM
Or finding faces in the patterns on the linoleum floor...
Posted by: Gabrielle | October 30, 2006 at 08:37 PM
Oh Lord, Gabrielle, for a moment, I thought I had typed that.. you, too? :-(
Posted by: H | October 31, 2006 at 09:23 PM
I do it too, though not on the floor. I tend to see faces on the ceiling, which probably means I spend too much time lying in bed on Saturday morning. Once a parishioner came to me with a most serious report. She was seeing the Blessed Virgin on the new tile floor we had just put in.
This is actually a very interesting perceptual phenomenon. It tells us that we seek familiar patterns pre-reflexively, that is, before actually intending to do so. We look for meaning without even knowing that were doing it. It also tells us that the face is somehow primary in communicating meaning.
This actually ties in well to the subject of movies--how all those millions of frames flashing before our eyes all come together to draw us in to the experience being presented, and like the tiles on the floor or the ceiling, or whatever, some meaning is imparted to us. Interestingly, it is something that we anticipate, something that lies waiting to be given, received, shared... meaning.
Posted by: Deacon DW | October 31, 2006 at 10:01 PM
Holy mackerel.. you're right!
Posted by: H | November 01, 2006 at 12:03 AM
Well deacon dan, I think if anybody deserves to lie in bed a little bit on a Saturday morn, it would be you.
Would it ever have occurred to us that we were seeking familiar patterns and meaning? I doubt it. You are quite remarkable, dd.
Posted by: Gabrielle | November 01, 2006 at 10:05 PM