All right. Sal’s question in the comment section on my last post set me a’thinkin’. Asks Sal:
Here’s another question: who else likes films about a specific subject, within a genre? For example, I love movies about submarines, in spite of the fact that I would no more actually go down in one than fly to the moon. But I’m a complete sucker for any movie that takes place on one.
So what’s your fancy? Writing/authors, fashion, survival tales, a sport, what?
So blatantly using that as my jumping-off point (Thanks, Sal!), and after thinking about my own movie-watching habits, I offer up some of my favorite subjects:
I DO gravitate to movies about writers, actors, musicians, or the creative process in general. Some favorites:
Amadeus (F. Murray Abraham was genius in that movie)
Iris (about writer Iris Murdoch and her descent into Alzheimer’s — starring some actors I love: Judi Dench, Kate Winslet, and Jim Broadbent)
Adaptation (LOVED IT!)
Quills (Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade — amazing — oh, and Kate Winslet and Joaquin Phoenix, too)
Finding Forrester (I really liked Sean Connery in this movie)
The Shining (well, pretty much the scariest movie ever — and remember, besides being a murderer, Jack’s a writer … although, admittedly, it’s more about him as a lunatic than anything else, so this one’s kind of a cheat)
Shakespeare in Love
Tom and Viv ( about T. S. Eliot and his wife, with Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson)
Almost Famous (plus, the kid was a writer, no?)
Shadowlands (Oh, that Anthony Hopkins as C. S. Lewis. LOVE. THIS. MOVIE.)
The Dresser (a kind of modern retelling of “King Lear,” played out in a touring theatre company, starring the wonderful Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay)
Moulin Rouge (saw it once, hated it, saw it again, LOVED IT!)
All About Eve (rent it, rent it, rent it — Bette Davis, whew! And for you men, there’s Marilyn Monroe)
Singin’ in the Rain (my all-time favorite pick-me-up movie, considered the greatest movie musical of all time — and source of my sure-to-be lifetime crush on Gene Kelly)
Sunset Boulevard (Sweet Moses! Sunset Boulevard! William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Billy Wilder! A masterpiece, really)
All right, that’s off the top. I KNOW I’m forgetting some.
I’m also embarrassingly partial to movies about dancing/dancers:
Strictly Ballroom (SO much fun!)
Centerstage (a guilty pleasure, well, many of these are that, watched just for the dancing, even fast-forwarded to the DANCING!)
Save the Last Dance
Dirty Dancing
Saturday Night Fever
The Red Shoes
Okay. I’m done — mostly because I gotta run here. I’m sure I could go on and on, given more time. Now it’s your turn.
What specific subjects do you gravitate to in movies?
And if you’ve got a blog, you can list them there, if you’d like. Just lemme know!
Love this question, Sal! And I love that you love movies about submarines. It’s just so … wonderful and quirky.
I’m so honored!
Yes, it is a little quirky: my eldest d. once reduced a party to silence when one of the guests mentioned ‘Das Boot’ by announcing “Oh, that’s one of my mom’s favorite movies.”
Umm – tell us more about your mother, dear.
Your list includes another of my favorite sub-categories: “Let’s put on a show!”
Forget the smoochy-face in “Shakespeare in Love” – more theater scenes, please!
“42nd Street”, “Babes in Arms”, “Summer Stock”, “The Producers”, “The Dresser”.
And “Bullets Over Broadway”, the best ever.
How could I forget Bullets over Broadway and The Producers — yes!
I like the scene in Crimson Tide when the officers are talking about their favorite submarine movies. That’s what this reminded me of.
-M@
This is a fun question. I like movie about baseball, The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, A League of their Own. Pretty much any baseball movie.
Center Stage is one of the greatest guilty pleasure films ever made. There can be no rational argument about this fact.
I watch it over …
and over …
and over …
Red — Okay. Thank GOD I’m not alone!!!
I bawled in Shadowlands. I just recently saw it for the first time. And the scenery, OH the scenery.
I love films filmed in the English countryside -Emma, Shadowlands, Sense and Sensibility, and the ones filmed in London too – Notting Hill, etc.
tracey – I know it’s manipulative – but i still get choked up EVERY SINGLE TIME the anorexic girl shows up at her boyfriend’s doorstep in the middle of the night and asks him if he liked her because she was a ballerina or because she was herself?
Tears. Weepy sloppy tears every time I see it.
And I loooooove the tough girl who eventually is the best dancer in the school. She’s great.
GREAT MOVIE. I will watch it this weekend. 🙂
red — I know — There’s just something about that anorexic girl.
And, it’s true, I do so love that dance sequence at the end.