Apr 26 - Catching Up On Films

  I have a lot of friends who raise their eyebrows every time I utter the phrase "I haven't seen it" in reference to a film that 'everybody' has seen.  The three main incredulots are Mr Smart, Earnest and TwoWrongs, film buffs all.  Time is one factor in why I've not seen everything of course, but another is that I'm more inclined to watch films as a social activity (especially ones I've not seen before) and there just isn't enough company around to get through the five thousand films I 'should' have seen.  It's not that I don't enjoy films for their sake alone, I just I tend to enjoy them more in company.
  To that end, movie nights are a huge boon to me.  I enjoy the movies, I enjoy the company (and yes, ok - the snacky treats), but there is always the tendency just to re-watch much loved films.  So a decision has to be made to watch new films, and so it has been.  TwoWrongs and I resolved that when having a movie night we would always watch at least one film that one of us hadn't seen.  I expect that Mr Smart and Earnest will happily agree to that too, or at least to watching films that I haven't seen before.
  So it was in that spirit that TwoWrongs and I selected films for watching this evening.  What hadn't I seen before?  Donnie Darko, a mysterious number from 2001 starring a young and very cute but also kind of creepy Jake Gyllenhaal.  We watched the director's cut (which everyone tells me is infinitely better and more cohesive a story) and I loved it.  A movie that walks the fine line between time travel, alternate dimensions and mental illness.  It was scary, moving, joyous and heart-breaking.  If you haven't seen it, put it on your lists too.  I'm ashamed to say, I've actually owned this on DVD, a special edition no less, for more than four years.  It was in fact a birthday present from Earnest!
  What was next?  Something TwoWrongs hadn't seen of course!  Chicken Little, a 2005 Disney Animation production that was a little panned by critics at the time but I think is a greatly underrated animated film.  It's got a great sense of humour to it.
  So what's on my current list for future viewings?  Let's see how many you can't believe I haven't seen.  Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (actually anything Alfred Hitchcock other than Psycho!), Amelie, Annie Hall, Ben-Hur, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, A Clockwork Orange, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Die Hard, Dirty Harry, Gladiator, The Godfather, Gone With The Wind, The Graduate, It's A Wonderful Life,  The Karate Kid, Letters From Iwo Jima, My Neighbour Totoro, A Night at The Opera, Notting Hill, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Silver Linings Playbook, Some Like It Hot, Terminator 1 and 2 (I'm reliably informed that the rest are not worth the effort), Top Gun, and I'm sure there are thousands of others.  Until relatively recently that list also included Titanic and Inception (thanks to Mr Smart for taking care of both of those).

  Friday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Classic fruit muesli bar and a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a green nashi pear, cored and sliced.
• Lunch was a 300g skinny mild Indian masala dahl with a toasted English muffin spread with Devondale butter.  After that I had a quarter of a plain sweet muffin and a quarter of an apple cinnamon muffin.
• Afternoon snack was a red plum.
• Friday night drinkies were a glass of orange juice, a quarter of a plain sweet muffin and a quarter of a chocolate choc-chip muffin.

• Dinner was a bowl of 75g (dry weight) wholemeal pasta spirals with bacon, zucchini and parmesan sauce.  I forgot to take a picture!
• Dessert was thirteen squares of Haigh's Dark Chocolate With Cardamom.  It's my favourite flavour of Haigh's chocolate block.  It is truly delicious.

  So friends, relations and random internet persons, tell me your favourite movies?  What would you not believe I haven't seen?
  Jess