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Parts of speech just out of reach
To everyone who might conceivably call or text me in the next few days: there's no point in trying until I get my phone fixed. A piece snapped out of the hinge when I opened it this morning and now it's impossible to open or close without it shutting down. I'm calling Verizon this afternoon to see about a replacement. I have no idea how this process will take, how annoying it will be, and whether it will be possible to transfer the small cache of text messages I keep for talismanic purposes. The last time a phone of mine died, I got a replacement from my brother and there wasn't anything on it I cared about saving. Also, I don't want a smartphone.
To distract myself, I am taking part in a silly quiz. I've seen this going around on several forms of social media:
Everyone should post their ten most CRUCIAL CRUCIAL CRUCIAL-ASS movies, like the movies that explain everything about yourselves in your current incarnations (not necessarily your ten favorite movies but the ten movies that you, as a person existing currently, feel would help people get to know you) (they can change later on obviously).
I very much doubt that I can explain everything about myself in ten movies unless I make some kind of Edmund de Waal-like memoir out of them, and "crucial-ass" sounds more like something Catullus would say than me, but I haven't done one of these in a while. In more or less the order in which I thought of them—
Splash (1984)
A Canterbury Tale (1944)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Pillow Book (1996)
Wittgenstein (1993)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Metropolis (1927)
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)
Honorable mention: I, Claudius (1976). It's a miniseries, but it occupied a great deal of space in my brain when I was in high school. A bunch of other movies occurred to me after that, but I thought I should let the original list stand. You can ask if you're curious.
I might do this with other forms of media, just to see what happens. I'm pretty sure I have ten crucial-ass plays; I don't know if I could actually winnow music (albums, musicians, songs) down far enough. I am staying the hell away from literature because the last time I tried something like that, I got a fifty-book list.
To distract myself, I am taking part in a silly quiz. I've seen this going around on several forms of social media:
Everyone should post their ten most CRUCIAL CRUCIAL CRUCIAL-ASS movies, like the movies that explain everything about yourselves in your current incarnations (not necessarily your ten favorite movies but the ten movies that you, as a person existing currently, feel would help people get to know you) (they can change later on obviously).
I very much doubt that I can explain everything about myself in ten movies unless I make some kind of Edmund de Waal-like memoir out of them, and "crucial-ass" sounds more like something Catullus would say than me, but I haven't done one of these in a while. In more or less the order in which I thought of them—
Splash (1984)
A Canterbury Tale (1944)
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Pillow Book (1996)
Wittgenstein (1993)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Metropolis (1927)
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953)
Honorable mention: I, Claudius (1976). It's a miniseries, but it occupied a great deal of space in my brain when I was in high school. A bunch of other movies occurred to me after that, but I thought I should let the original list stand. You can ask if you're curious.
I might do this with other forms of media, just to see what happens. I'm pretty sure I have ten crucial-ass plays; I don't know if I could actually winnow music (albums, musicians, songs) down far enough. I am staying the hell away from literature because the last time I tried something like that, I got a fifty-book list.
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I hope he would have liked Derek Jarman. I bet I could make him watch Sebastiane as a drinking game.
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I do not often interact with visual media, I am not sure what would make my list. The Linguini Incident, probably. St. Trinian's. Pacific Rim. 10 Thing I Hate About You (I have not ever stopped wanting to be Kat Stratford.) Kiki's Delivery Service.
...I do not see myself in movies. Television, sometimes, but not movies.
V for Vendetta. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy treated my Zaphod terribly, but it was so relevant at the time, helped find me and my first partner find each other (and all that canon has always threaded through my clone and mine's relationship). Perhaps Labyrinth and the ability to say "You Have No Power Over Me". Clue is one of the few that will always always suck me in. I can't say Rocky Horror when it's the community and not the movie itself, so I think the tenth slot will stay blank for now.
Hum.
~Sor
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That's a very neat list all the same.
Which version of St. Trinian's is yours? (I have not heard of The Linguini Incident, either.)
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I suspect there are some episodes of I, Claudius that I still know virtually by heart.
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I would if we had cable!
I suspect there are some episodes of I, Claudius that I still know virtually by heart.
It was a very strong imprint. I found it from reading the novel.
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Like what?
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Suggesting a pattern that certain films are crucial for certain ages, maybe?
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Right; I'm curious which ones!
Suggesting a pattern that certain films are crucial for certain ages, maybe?
I imagine some of it has to do with availability as well. I saw The Red Shoes (1948) for the first time because
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For a bunch of us olders, Star Wars, and also the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet. Certain ones for younger folk.
I think you're the only one who's mentioned the 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (A film I never saw; my first boyfriend gave me the book when I was in high school, and it creeped me out so much I never forgot it, though I've never reread it, or seen the film. But it was crucial for a friend of mine, I discovered during the seventies.)
Anyway, I like seeing patterns, even if they are false ones.
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I was born in 1981. I am something of an outlier in my age group in that most of the movies I grew up on were not contemporary—until college, I had a much higher chance of having seen a film if it was made before 1960 than if it had come out in my lifetime. Splash is one of the exceptions; it's my earliest formative movie. I can't remember seeing it for the first time, but it was a hardwired part of my brain by elementary school. Our copy was taped off the television and missing the credits. All of these things are also true of Arsenic and Old Lace.
For a bunch of us olders, Star Wars, and also the Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet.
Zeffirelli was on my shortlist! John McEnery is still my definitive Mercutio. I saw Star Wars too late to imprint on it—high school—but we had the original VHS releases, because of my parents. They were actually among the earliest audiences for A New Hope; I can't remember if it was a test screening or just a premiere, but they walked out of the theater with all sorts of buttons and paraphernalia that they did not keep over the years because who would think to? and now regret it faintly, because that stuff would either be really cool to have around the house or worth a lot on eBay. My father depressed himself once by looking it up.
my first boyfriend gave me the book when I was in high school, and it creeped me out so much I never forgot it, though I've never reread it, or seen the film.
And I've never seen the book! Also by Dr. Seuss, I assume?
Anyway, I like seeing patterns, even if they are false ones.
There is nothing wrong with studying the data!
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nine
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Oh, cool. There is a film I'd hang on my wall.
(Check out these alternates! Boris Bilinsky was incredible.)
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(I'd have to do ten crucial-ass albums. Literature I'd have the same issue with as you. I enjoyed the fifty-book list, though.)
Sorry about your mobile! I hope it's fixed soon.
*ETA: Martin's just ordered it. I have no excuse now.
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Which five haven't you?
(I'd have to do ten crucial-ass albums. Literature I'd have the same issue with as you. I enjoyed the fifty-book list, though.)
Thank you! I'd love to see your ten albums.
Sorry about your mobile! I hope it's fixed soon.
I believe I have secured a replacement, but I'm saying nothing more definite until it arrives in the mail and I've got it activated. Thanks.
Martin's just ordered it. I have no excuse now.
Regret nothing! It's great.
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A Canterbury Tale, The Long Voyage Home,The Pillow Book, The Legend of Hell House, and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T.
*I'd love to see your ten albums.*
Hmm, let me think...
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Well, I recommend all of them. I've written about The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, and a little about The Legend of Hell House, but never in much detail about The Long Voyage Home or much at all about The Pillow Book. I will try to change that when I can think again. Right now I am the kind of ill that's just sapping my brain.
Hmm, let me think...
Prrrt.
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A fair portion of my crucial-ass films--more than half--would be animated, I suspect.
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An organically derived list of my important movies would be longer.
A fair portion of my crucial-ass films--more than half--would be animated, I suspect.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I have nothing against animation; it's just not a genre I watch as much.
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Singin' in the Rain (1952)
The Pillow Book (1996)
made my heart throb with affection for you.
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Aw. Thank you.