(no subject)

[skygiants]

So yesterday while doing my bookstore volunteering, I spent quite a lot of time sorting through old VHS tapes that people had donated, with the perhaps predictable result that I now have an overwhelming urge to organize a giant Classic Film marathon party, complete with popcorn and fancy cocktails and a makeshift red curtain constructed out of old sheets around the tv, and maybe a costume requirement for good measure.

Sadly, I do not think I know enough people in the New York area who love old movies like I do to organize such a party in reality. Also I suspect I will not even have enough time to indulge myself in such a marathon for a while. (For my satisfaction, it has to be a marathon with time and foodstuffs properly set aside for marathoning; it is nowhere near as much fun otherwise.)

Instead, I will indulge my cravings by asking you guys to talk to me about old movies that you love, perhaps regardless of actual quality! I exercise my power as Owner of the Journal and disallow anything that came out more recently than the 1980's. (With the random exception of Ladyhawke, because that was one of the cassettes I sorted yesterday and now I have a craving to rewatch that too. That was 1980's, right?) Black-and-white is best!

Comments

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I think that An Affair To Remember has the best first kiss of all time, and you can only see the bottom half of both of them. HOW DOES THAT WORK? Also, you should do this when I inevitably come and visit you. I WILL WEAR A TUX.

[skygiants]

Sometimes the bottom half can be super sexy!

....uh. Not in that way, that is not what I meant! ANYWAYS. You have talked to me about An Affair to Remember before, yes? I seem to remember this and putting it on my mental to-watch list and not getting around to it!

Also, YES. <3 I will dig up a Glamorous Gown and possibly a fedora! It will be AWESOME.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

^^; One of my favorites is Breakfast at Tiffany's. Except for Mickey Rooney, that just wasn't cool. But other than that, it's a magnificent film.

Ladyhawke is one of my favorite movies of all time, and one I am very nostalgic for. ^_^ It also contains an awesome cast.

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I know very little about old movies. But are you aware that Kage Baker is blogging about classic movies (http://www.tor.com/index.php?blogger=Kage_Baker) on tor.com?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm serious now. I will come visit you maybe next year, and there WILL be marathoning. I bet I can even scare up a glamorous date. :DX <--- my tux

I really think you should watch that film, it makes me inordinately happy.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

Ohgod. Alright, I must be focused.

Among the things that I consider it part of my mission in life to expose people to are:
Casablanca (I have problems choosing a favorite movie, so I just say it's this one, because it's that awesome.)
His Girl Friday (I do believe it's the funniest movie I know of.)
Trouble in Paradise (Okay, this is the other funniest movie I know of!)
The Third Man (see the end of this post (http://elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com/39594.html#cutid1))
Ninotchka (More Lubitsch for the win.)
The Haunting (1963. THERE IS NO REMAKE.)

I'm cutting myself off now.

[skygiants]

Oh Breakfast at Tiffany's! Absolutely - I don't even like the plot of the film all that much, but I love Audrey Hepburn so much I don't even care. (But I have to just bury my head in my hands and pretend I am somewhere else every time Mickey Rooney is onscreen, yes.) My favorite Audrey Hepburn film is probably Charade, though. The best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never wrote!

I last saw Ladyhawke when I was awfully small and pretty much going 'ha ha Ferris Bueller!' so I am very curious to see it as a more grown-up person.

[jezrana.livejournal.com]

I would marathon old movies with you if a trip to New York in the near future were anywhere in the cards! Alas, it is not.

But anyway, my first response to "talk about old movies you love" is ANYTHING WITH GREGORY PECK. OR KATHERINE HEPBURN. OR PETER O'TOOLE. OR BETTE DAVIS. OR LON CHANEY, and so on, ad naseum.

So to name an actual movie, the other day I was randomly thinking about Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058213/) and how I really want to watch it again.

[skygiants]

...*SHINY EYES* NO I DID NOT.

(You probably have already guessed that my mental image of the ideal Silent Film Party is heavily drawn from the Intolerance screening in Mendoza in Hollywood, yes? Uh, without the bit where everyone goes off to the hills to have crazy screaming time at the end.)

[areyoumymemmy.livejournal.com]

I remain hopelessly addicted to the following Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant films: Bringing Up Baby, Holiday, and the Philadelphia Story.

For some reason, Holiday in particular is one of my comfort movies. Rich people snared by the expectations of their society and the lure of money! Backflips! Sadly alcoholic brothers! A toy giraffe! More acrobatics! Eccentric professors and puppet shows!

It is amazing.

[jezrana.livejournal.com]

The Haunting remake does not exist to me, either! \o/ Seriously, why would you remake that movie?

[skygiants]

I SO VERY SUPPORT THIS PLAN 150%, MAYBE EVEN 200%! :D :D :D Also you and your tux will be the most glamorous date there is. *dances happily*

I am convinced, I will put it on reserve at the library! It will make a chance from the five million books I have out that I have not yet gotten around to . . .

[skygiants]

I have seen AND ADORED the first two on this list but not the last four, and those are so going on my to-watch list now!

Casablanca was one of the movies I totally grew up on; that and Apocalypse Now are the films my dad considers Required Viewing. (Though, uh, I saw the one long before the other.) It is so genius! If it is not my ultimate movie, it is definitely in my top ten. And I love His Girl Friday for so many reasons, but maybe especially because I totally did not expect a movie made at that era to emphasize the importance of a woman being badass at her job and doing that job instead of settling for domestic bliss. SURPRISE AWESOME IS AWESOME.

[skygiants]

*makes sadfaces at you* I was almost going to be in New Orleans in a couple weeks, too, for work! And then my company ran out of money and instead of getting a trip to New Orleans, I, uh, got fired. BUT ANYWAYS. You should totally come to NY at some point in the far future, at least, to get kidnapped for old movies FULL of Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole and Betty Davis and Lon Chaney AND EVERYONE. Although probably not all at once, since that might be tricky.

Ooh, I do not know that movie! *investigates*

[wakeupnew]

I was going to say An Affair to Remember, too; it's one of my favorite movies, old or not.

Also, Becca, Sabrina and Roman Holiday. ♥♥♥

[ceitfianna]

I would be there with bells on!! Somewhere in storage I have Flying Down to Rio because I love Astaire and Rogers so much.

[skygiants]

Holiday is the only one of those I have not seen or even heard of and clearly I MUST! Because the other two I have seen, and adore to a ridiculous degree. CARY GRANT BEING A DORK. KATHARINE HEPBURN AND BABY TIGERS. <33333

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

I DO NOT KNOW. You have this movie that was impeccably directed and acted, and you want to remake it? Is it that hard to find a genuinely new screenplay?

[skygiants]

YES. Especially Sabrina, oh man; I always feel like the Audrey Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart thing should skeeve me out with the age difference and his heartless schemings and all, and yet, and yet, I cannot help but be charmed regardless! HIS TINY COLLEGE SWEATER.

[sdelmonte]

Casablanca, of course. Not the greatest film ever made, but probably the one that epitomizes what Hollywood could be.

Bridge on the River Kwai, despite being color, IS the greatest film ever made. Or so I thought when I saw it may years ago. I need to rewatch it and confirm that Guinness and Holden and the rest were as good as I recall and the film was as harsh and as affirming as I recall.

The Philadelphia Story is utterly charming and a bit cynical and has Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart in the same film!

Bad Day at Black Rock - again, from the 1950s and thus color - is a spare, brightly light, unrelentlessly harsh melodrama that shows Spencer Tracy at his best.

So do any film with him and Hepburn, especially Pat and Mike.

While Hitchcock had a few clunkers, it's really hard to go wrong with his collected works, especially Vertigo, Psycho, and Rear Window.

Interesting, by the way, that there is a lot of Jimmy Stewart here, as well as Tracy and Hepburn. I would like to have more Cary Grant and Clark Gable, but I their performances often were better than their films (Gone With the Wind is a mildly racist, overblown melodrama, but Gable is great in it.)

[skygiants]

Well hey, maybe next time you are up in New York I will stock up on some old movies then! :D

Oh Flying Down to Rio - it is such a strangely bizarre movie, but awfully fun! I actually got to see it in the old movie theater near my college campus, which does in fact have red curtains and an ORGAN IN THE FLOOR (which is something that never fails to fill me with joy) and as an experience that was pretty fabulous.

[jezrana.livejournal.com]

>:( Getting fired is not a good replacement for a trip to New Orleans, employers.

And everyone all at once would be tricky, but you can get Gregory Peck and Katharine Hepburn together, and Katharine Hepburn and Peter O'Toole together? Which is still pretty awesome.

And you should totally see Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte! It strikes me as a very you movie.

[gramarye1971]

Guilty love for classic action/adventure serials here -- the kind where every other part ends on a terrific cliffhanger where Our Intrepid Hero is hanging by his toes from a biplane and using an elephant gun to shoot the vicious man-eating tiger that has been chasing the Fair Love Interest through the jungle for the past two episodes (as her dress becomes more and more artfully torn), and the Sinister But Uncomfortably Racially Stereotyped Villain cackles gleefully from atop his super secret mountain fortress where he is watching the whole thing through some ancient scrying mirror/pool/television....yeah. ^_^

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen very much Audrey Hepburn, but I definitely intend to remedy this at some point. And yes, Breakfast at Tiffany's is amazing, and this doesn't have much to do with the story, although I still like the plot of it quite a bit. It's just incredibly well done.

Ladyhawke actually came out before Ferris Bueller, but only by a year. It also has Michelle Pfeiffer! And Rutger Hauer! And there's a song about it!

My tresses are fear and my hood my own lies,
My wings pinned to ground by my thieving
Each evening I swear, that tomorrow I'll fly,
But each dawn breaks not believing.

I'm a mouse among men with no goals, no dreams
No reckon of right or of wrong.
But a magical maiden, more real than she seems
Fills my soul with the glory of song.

Ladyhawke, Ladyhawke
Fly bravely on,
Wings spread at each morning's light.

Ladyhawke, Ladyhawke
From dusk to dawn,
Teach me the magic of flight.

For more old movies, I adore the Godfather movies, or at least the first two. My Dad's tomato sauce recipe came from it, apparently. And the entire cast is Italian-American! Or, well, those that are supposed to be. In the 60s, that's kind of an accomplishment.

Also, Bringing Up Baby is hilarious and awesome.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

Haha, your dad sounds like my dad, those two are both ones he required me to see too. XD
I quote Casablanca all the time, and I specifically bought it before coming to college so I would have my own copy to convert people with.
And His Girl Friday is the best screwball comedy ever. ...Except maybe Trouble in Paradise. :P And yes, Hildy is so much of its awesome. She's a newspaperman!

OH, I forgot my favorite of the Fred Astaire movies I've seen. Shall We Dance. Because Astaire and Rogers dancing on rollerskates is kind of hard to beat.