Well, the Sydney Writers' Festival came to a close tonight, which can only mean Vivid Sydney and the Sydney Film Festival are on their way. What better time to pull out a movie meme..? The first topic is: Name a film that you have seen more than 10 times.
I can name at least four: The Last Unicorn, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Life of Brian and The Sound of Music.
My family had a pirated version of The Last Unicorn on video given to us by a well meaning Malaysian relative who had also bought us the copy of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (the animated 1961 version). Both got a massive workout over the late 1980s to early 1990s when family friends came over for dinner and we had to entertain their kids. I thought they would get sick of it "again?"-style, but actually they seemed to look forward to coming over to see either of these two films. We didn't own any other decent children's videos.
I actually don't remember very much of The Last Unicorn, despite having seen it so many times. I remember an incompetent magician, a witch and the titular character having to wear a false horn in some sort of circus. I remember the scary fire bull and then a sea of unicorns.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians I remember much better, probably because I was heavily into trying to get my parents to agree to a pet dog at the time. In those years I also read the novel by Dodie Smith, which would've consolidated the main plot points of the film, although I know there are some major differences; for example the book has three adult dogs, while the movie has two (the extra dog is a female who helps nurse the puppies in addition to the dog couple).
Monty Python's Life of Brian I have seen many a time, by itself and whenever a friend hosted a Monty Python movie marathon. In more recent years it has become staple Christmas viewing. My family groans whenever I pull it out (I also watch It's a Wonderful Life, though I've probably only seen that five or six times) but they all inevitably sit down to watch it by a few scenes in. My favourite part is the graffiti scene, which rivals the Philosophers' Football Match as my top Monty Python segment of all time.
The Sound of Music is one of my mother's favourite films. She absolutely loves Julie Andrews. As I sort of implied above, we never had a lot of videos when I was growing up (we tended to borrow or hire them rather than buy them) and we never owned The Sound of Music. However, it was an annual event to show it on TV. So from the age of about 6 to probably 22, I watched The Sound of Music every year on TV. To this day I can tell you where the ad breaks were. At school, you could tell who had watched it on TV by who was trying to do the best yodel.
The last time I saw it was at a special event 'Sing-A-Long-A Sound of Music', which involved dress-ups, vocal audience reactions (hissing at the Baroness, for example) and karaoke for the musical numbers. The whole shebang makes the already long movie a 4.5-hour experience. I clearly remember, when I was younger, that I had to go to bed when the children sung 'So Long Farewell'. I'm not sure whether my parents were protecting me from the Nazi bits or whether it pushed into my bedtime due to the ad breaks. I have since bought my mother the special edition version on DVD.
When I went to Austria in 2005, I stopped in Salzburg for a couple of days and did the Sound of Music tour, which takes you to the locations where the film was shot. The guide, whose name happened to be Maria, said for years the locals had no idea why all these English-speaking tourists kept trying to sing on the hills. They soon cottoned on and now make a pretty penny with the guided rides.
Day 02 - Name a film that you’ve seen multiple times in the cinema.
Day 03 - Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a film.
Day 04 - Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a film.
Day 05 - Name a film that you can and do quote from.
Day 06 - Name a film musical that you know all of the lyrics to all of the songs.
Day 07 - Name a film that you would recommend everyone see.
Day 08 - Ever walked out of a film?
Day 09 - Name a film that made you cry in the cinema.
Day 10 - Name a film that you liked that everyone hated.
Day 11 - How often do you go to the cinema (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Day 12 - What’s the last film you saw in the cinema?
Day 13 - What’s your favourite/preferred genre of film?
Day 14 - What’s the first film you remember seeing in the cinema?
Day 15 - What film do you wish you had never seen?
Day 16 - What is the scariest film you’ve seen?
Day 17 - If you could be any character portrayed in a movie, who would it be?
Day 18 - Favourite movie hero?
Day 19 - Favourite movie villain?
Day 20 - Favourite movie adaptation (from book, play, musical, graphic novel etc)?
Day 21 - Favourite movie quote?
Day 22 - Favourite documentary?
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.
Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.
17 May, 2011
#30: Your favourite book of all time
I'd like to pretend I dallied and drew this meme out to coincide with the opening night of the Sydney Writers' Festival but I'm too honest and the truth is that I've been hella busy this last week or so and therefore rather neglectful of my digital life.
The book I am about to mention comes laden with baggage. Which is to say my boyfriend bags out anyone who can categorically say that something is their 'favourite' anything.
This meme and I have gone through our ups (favourites for various reasons) and downs (hates and overratedness) and have skirted around naming the one book to rule them all (and in the bookmaker's workshop, bind them).
I've mentioned the book, of course. But will the favourite book of my favourite author prevail over the favourite book of my favourite series? Will childhood triumph over my favourite book turned into a movie? Well none of this matters because the book I most consistently name my favourite is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, which I mentioned back on Day #2 as a book I've read more than three times.
Just so you know, I don't have a permanent favourite, but Catch 22 regularly turns up in my top 3 list more often than any other book, albeit not always at the top, so it's my ersatz pick. For the others that often rotate in that top 3—have you been reading this meme?
Anyway, I like it because it's different every time I read it. No matter how many times I read it, and no matter how often I think I 'know' it, it never gets old. Heller never came close with his other writing, but that's almost part of what makes Catch 22 as brilliant as it is—he put all his mojo into this.
"[Yossarian] had decided to live forever or die in the attempt."
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
The book I am about to mention comes laden with baggage. Which is to say my boyfriend bags out anyone who can categorically say that something is their 'favourite' anything.
This meme and I have gone through our ups (favourites for various reasons) and downs (hates and overratedness) and have skirted around naming the one book to rule them all (and in the bookmaker's workshop, bind them).
I've mentioned the book, of course. But will the favourite book of my favourite author prevail over the favourite book of my favourite series? Will childhood triumph over my favourite book turned into a movie? Well none of this matters because the book I most consistently name my favourite is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, which I mentioned back on Day #2 as a book I've read more than three times.
Just so you know, I don't have a permanent favourite, but Catch 22 regularly turns up in my top 3 list more often than any other book, albeit not always at the top, so it's my ersatz pick. For the others that often rotate in that top 3—have you been reading this meme?
Anyway, I like it because it's different every time I read it. No matter how many times I read it, and no matter how often I think I 'know' it, it never gets old. Heller never came close with his other writing, but that's almost part of what makes Catch 22 as brilliant as it is—he put all his mojo into this.
"[Yossarian] had decided to live forever or die in the attempt."
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
14 May, 2011
#29: A book everyone hated but you liked
I mentioned William Golding's Lord of the Flies in passing on Day 9 and it's the first one that comes to mind for this topic.
I can think of plenty the other way around, ie 'a book everyone liked but you hated' (Jane Austen books come to mind...), but this topic is a difficult one seeing as I generally buy and read books that come via recommendations, therefore 'a book everyone hated' is too narrow considering the field from which I have to choose.
A lot of my friends detested the books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. I quite liked them, despite their flaws, but to say everyone hated them is wrong because I know a number of other people enjoyed them.
Hard one to answer! Tomorrow's will be even harder!
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
I can think of plenty the other way around, ie 'a book everyone liked but you hated' (Jane Austen books come to mind...), but this topic is a difficult one seeing as I generally buy and read books that come via recommendations, therefore 'a book everyone hated' is too narrow considering the field from which I have to choose.
A lot of my friends detested the books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. I quite liked them, despite their flaws, but to say everyone hated them is wrong because I know a number of other people enjoyed them.
Hard one to answer! Tomorrow's will be even harder!
Day 30 – Your favourite book of all time
I'd like to thank Sarah Jansen for her tweet about this, as well as The Literary Gothamite and Confessions of a Book Lush for the good idea.
12 May, 2011
Screen time
So Sydney Film Festival season is upon us. The full program was released this week and Sir and I are madly coordinating which sessions we'll attend together.
What I want to know is why hasn't anyone coded a program that will let you save a film onto a personal calendar as you're browsing so you can then open the calendar and make your final selections based on times, venues, and clashes?
In an ideal world, this would not just be a planner but a way you can buy your tickets.
For example, I have a Flexipass20 but I am probably only going to see about 15 films, 5 of which I will be accompanied by my boyfriend or movie friend. In my head, there is a program that allows me to:
How about it Sydney Film Festival?
What I want to know is why hasn't anyone coded a program that will let you save a film onto a personal calendar as you're browsing so you can then open the calendar and make your final selections based on times, venues, and clashes?
In an ideal world, this would not just be a planner but a way you can buy your tickets.
For example, I have a Flexipass20 but I am probably only going to see about 15 films, 5 of which I will be accompanied by my boyfriend or movie friend. In my head, there is a program that allows me to:
- see all the sessions for films I've flagged as possibilities;
- select everything I want to see or deselect the duplicates;
- select how many tickets I want for each session;
- redeem my flexipass against them all in one hit.
How about it Sydney Film Festival?
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