Wednesday, February 11, 2009

movie night

the seventh seal
hero
children of heaven
monty python and the holy grail
grand illusion
punch drunk love
searching for bobby fischer
dead of night
ghostbusters
amelie
m
the shawshank redemption
citizen kane
yojimbo
babel
casablanca
wild strawberries
little miss sunshine
rushmore
lost in translation
lawrence of arabia
traffic
the abyss
vertigo
the royal tenenbaums
dr. strangelove (or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb)
rashomon
ikiru
raiders of the lost ark
the man who planted trees
fanny and alexander
the sting
duck soup
my neighbor totoro
double indemnity
groundhog day
the dark crystal
spirited away
uhf
singin' in the rain
millions
bill and ted's excellent adventure
the cup
to live
32 short films about glenn gould
mystery science theater 3000: the movie
the muppet family Christmas carol
not one less
firefly
pieces of april
blood diamond
dreams
joe vs. the volcano
minority report
shall we dance
mirrormask
raising arizona
mr. smith goes to washington
he loves me, he loves me not

it all began two years or so years ago, when i would hang around after church and talk with our executive secretary, who served his mission in sweden.  i mentioned that there was a swedish director i liked, and, after weeks of saying we should, we did get together one night and watched the seventh seal.  trevor, mark, and i enjoyed it enough that we got together the next week and watched hero.  another friend came.  then some girls wanted to come.  thus, movie night was born.

for me, it's a chance to watch my favorite movies with my friends.  for them, it's a chance to see something they probably would otherwise never see, a chance to get together, or time to catch a nap.  and, since tim and i went to best buy in july, it's a chance to play rock band afterward.
i try introduce the movies with a few notes or insights, to put the movie into context, help people understand why it's "great", or give things to look for.  when i'm off on a movie, mark and tim take over as host.  and, showing my roots as a byu film grad, i try to have a discussion about the film afterward.  sometimes it goes well; lost in translation brings plenty to talk about, and traffic's discussion went in a different direction than i planned.  other weeks, no one really has anything to say and we break out the guitars and drum set.

for the sake of the variety of interests, i try to balance between the black and white art film and movies that are more mainstream but may have been overlooked.  it took a lot of courage to show solaris, yet everyone who came really liked it.  there are people who want to see the ponderous international films and others who generally prefer color and, if possible, english.
and while everyone comes at their own free will, if people aren't enjoying the show, it's hard for me to enjoy it.  as a result, showing 2001 a few weeks ago didn't go quite so well.
uhf was, i think, the least popular.  thankfully, my dad reassured me that the movie is, indeed, a classic.  conversely, babel is, by far, the most popular.  it's been shown at least four times, and people always want to see it yet again.  he loves me, he loves me not kind of freaked out a friend (as it's prone to do on occasion) and made fans of a few others.

the attendees have rotated through at least two full times, as is prone to happen in a the young single world of provo, with the exception of mark, who has been here since the beginning.  i used to worry i'd run out of movies, yet the turnover rate allows me to show my favorites again, and i still seem to have a plentiful list to keep it going for quite a while.

7 comments:

Jaime said...

yea for movie night!

Mark A. said...

Of that list I've only missed five. :)

Jack said...

I've only attended a few times, but am glad to have enjoyed most of those movies with you on other occasions. That is a seriously dang list. The ones i haven't seen, i would like to see. way to be awesome!

The Former 786 said...

I am appalled that people would even QUESTION the greatness of UHF! It's a classic!! A masterpiece!!

And what's with them liking Solaris? Did they have nothing better to do for four hours that night? (I kid. . .kind of)

Seriously, though, I'm jealous. It looks like a lot of fun and I, too, love showing people movies that they normally wouldn't see.

Keep up the good work, Jeff.

--jeff * said...

for the record, 786, mark once showed "hot fuzz" (i forgot to put that one on the list). due to the "liberality" of editing of cleanflicks, it received mixed reviews (i think it's a great movie, but i would appreciate it a little more thoroughly edited).

and i seriously dug your link to "the touch". i once showed "transformers: the movie" (for my half-birthday party). you have to watch it with the right people. and if you're ever in provo.... ; )

Em said...

sounds lovely.

Bri, Steph, Whit, Tay, James, Ben, Sam said...

I kind of like to think that the original roots to this actually stem from doing The Dark Side of the Rainbow in the "bachelor pad" and then later with the Hitchcock Festival. But I have long been jealous of the long running continuity of it's current incarnation. And the fact that you waited until I moved out before doing it!