The Movie List ~ Ferris Bueller's Day Off

I know I know, for people of a certain age liking this is like saying "I like top 40 music"

Still, I do like it. But...

I mentioned before seeing a movie at the "right" time can make the experience profound, magical, or really funny.
I had somehow missed this, which is surprising because, don't think I ever missed a $2.50 Tuesday while in Vancouver, when this was released, but... somehow... missed it.
So I rented it while house sitting, in Putaruru - in 1989, profoundly by myself - you know, at the end of the "year of melancholy."
It was the wrong time to see it. I actually remember thinking, I would have loved this, had I seen it, years ago.
Still it came to mind in the time alloted so it makes the list - I think however John Hughes recent death may have unfairly advantaged it in the pile of stuff in my brain.

Seen on my own 1989 on video in Putaruru.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Movie List

The Movie List ~ The Navigator

The second movie from my year of melancholy is a New Zealand/Australian collaboration before there was really any kind of "A Grade" film industry. In my personal estimation it was the best New Zealand film to that date. Typically the NZ film industry was really B type stuff.
I remeber going to see a NZ movie in Vancouver that was so bad it made me not want to go home.

Unlike The Glass Menagerie I remember this film very well, beautiful in it's imagery, wonderful in it's story.
The criteria for this list was the first movies that quickly come to mind, which this did, but this movie would also make my all time top 20.

Seen on my own in 1989. Hamilton movie theater.
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
The Movie List

OF NOTE: When I first started to court Laurie in 1991 I wanted to share this movie with her. She had already seen it - and liked it. This was one of a long list of things that made me think, "she's so cool".

The Movie List ~ The Glass Menagerie

The second chapter of melancholy was drawing to a close.
I was on my own, in Putaruru, once a week I'd catch a bus into Hamilton, for some company at my sisters flat. I would also watch a movie. I saw three movies that have made the list during this period.

I have never seen it since, and can only remember a few fragments of the actual movie. What I really remember is thinking, that it was really, really good. I shall have to see it again...



Seen on my own in 1989. Hamilton movie theater.
Glass Menagerie
The Movie List

The Movie List ~ Groundhog Day

I saw this on video in the early 90's after overhearing someone talking about the plot. I view this movie like scripture. I find it deeply metaphorical of mortality and the purpose of mortal life.
We can take only what we learn with us, and even more significantly, we take us, with us. There are many other profound insights into the human condition, and what brings lasting happiness.

Oh, and very funny.

Saw with Laurie, 1993. In 1920's apartment that was our first residence together.
Ground Hog Day
The Movie List

The Movie List ~ Room With A View

Things become more perfect in the past, happy pasts.
This was one of the movies that makes my list - not because it's a throughly enjoyable movie - which it was, but because it was a romance, and there in my life, if not romance, something very much like it for the first time.
So I feel, an echo of that when I watch it.

Watched in Vancouver 1987 - with Su-Lin and Tina.
Notable aside, full frontal male nudity, much to the mirth of the girls.

Room with A View
The Movie List

Movies that came to mind

One of the the many, chain-letter/virus/game things that have flown about face book was - list your favorite movies without thinking about it - 15 in 15 min. Well this was my list pulled from my mental files in less than 10 minutes but greater than 15 in number.

Like music, movies are an emotional code. A secret language that if you find another that speaks it, they are raised to a level of emotional regard that would usually take months of regular interaction.

Yet, movies will be given emotional significance because of the time, place and where you are at emotionally when you watched them. If watched at another time, they would be hardly remembered.

I feel each deserves it's own post - so starting with the first they shall.

1. A Room With A View
2. Groundhog Day
3. The Glass Menagerie
4. The Navigator
5. Ferris Bueller's Day Off