What Is Your Favorite Movie Of All Time? How Many Times Have You Watched The Movie?

Wow, that’s the oldest college student I’ve ever seen.

R1 yep!!

My favorite is The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and I’ve seen it at least 15 times.

`Lawrence of Arabia' probably seen it 20 times over 40 years. Mostly on the big screen.

I'm now able to see some of its shortcomings and minor flaws.

Home Alone. Seen it four times in the theater and 50 times at home alone.

The Sound of Music. Every year, forever.

In 1980 I was a naive, closeted freshman living in a dorm at UC Santa Cruz. On weekends, the largest lecture hall was turned into a movie theater where I first saw "The Graduate". This is where I learned the meaning of "Camp". When the lights went out for the film to begin, everyone lit up joints or bongs, which was so funny.

When Dustin Hoffman drove on the top deck of the Bay Bridge over to Berkeley, everyone yelled "Wrong way, wrong way!". I was sitting between my first major crush, an impossibly cute and wonderful guy from Anaheim and a brilliant girl from Newport Beach who thought that she and I were dating. Both were dorm mates from Orange County.

Kirk, who had "issues" and whose parents were worried that he might be gay (he was 'absolutely not gay') had a crush on Marcie, he said. It was the nerd love triangle from Hell. I'm a financial aid "scholar" from a shitty part of Oakland, but I had a car. My estranged biological father was an alcoholic who lived in Venice, but that's another story. I drove them down to OC for Spring Break, staying with Kirk's sterile Republican family. Marcie's parents were having a cocktail party out in Newport, to which we were invited. Kirk's parents basically forced us to go because they knew Kirk had a heterosexual crush on Marcie, who was so into me -- despite the fact that Kirk was the most beautiful specimen on the planet.

I did not know where the fuck I was. Tarzana? Everyone was so confident, rich, and White. Marcie's parents and their friends grilling us: "What's your major?" "What's your Future?" etc. I just said: "Plastics!". The booze was flowing. No one cared that we were only 18 or 19. It was 1980. Kirk told me that he liked me as a friend only, which was heartbreaking. I told Marcie that I thought I was gay and was in love with Kirk -- in front of her parents. Next thing I remember was fucking her uncle with butter as lube in the garage. It was messy. We showered in the pool house together. I did not know what a "pool house" was. Felt like the whole thing was planned or from a movie. Throughout the evening, I referred to The Uncle as "Mr. Robinson" because I felt that he was trying to seduce me, which he did. I think everyone knew, except for Kirk, with whom I had the most uncomfortable drive back to Anaheim after he found out. I slept on the floor next to his bed. He was bathed in Canoe cologne to hide the cigarette and weed smoke smell from his parents, which only made me want him more. Yeah, I know "Mary"!

Epilogue - I transferred to SF State U a year later after finally coming out. Marcie went to pharmacy school last I heard. No idea about Mr. Robinson, who seduced me. I continue to google stalk Kirk. He is/was an ER doc in Sacramento, is married with three kids, bald and haggard looking. My wonderful partner understands that I will never be over Kirk and that we have to talk about this shit at least every other year when we watch "The Graduate".

I love this ^

"Carrie" maybe 30 times, 4 in the theater. First time at a sneak preview before anyone knew what it was. Through the years I've been lucky to have met Spaceck, Travolta, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P.J. Soles & Edie McClurg.

R7 thanks for sharing. I loved what you wrote.

Picking one movie is almost impossible. I would go with Marnie by Hitchcock. I love the complicated characters and the dark themes that the movie explores. Hedren is seriously underrated given that she was pretty much a newcomer, and it’s sad that her career was cut short.

"Sunset Boulevard", too many times to remember.

Slowly it seems to be becoming Hedwig and the Angry Inch, though perhaps usually scenes or songs every once in a while rather then the whole thing through. I went to a midnight showing that was acted out like a Rocky Horror, that was just fucking amazing. Wicked Little Town just breaks my heart every time, even more so the reprise. And the Origin of Love is just a brilliant, brilliantly lovely song.

Clue (1985). Countless times as a young gayling on VHS and cable, and maybe one or two times a year as an adult...possibly 25-50 times total. It never gets old for me.

Moonstruck. It was perfectly written, cast, acted, filmed and edited. I always find something new to enjoy.

A few favorites that I have seen many times.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie - I saw it as a freshman and it changed my expectation of films, after which only deadly clever or deadly beautiful films would do, for decades. I've watched it 40 times at least, still love its crazy humor, the observations on class with their sharp quick practiced turns and movements, the absurdity, the wonderful Fernando Rey who grew on me over time, and the wonderful strange dream strangeness to it.

Jackie Brown - I liked it in the cinema but DirecTV where it seemed always to be playing on some channel for a period of three or four years drew me deeper. I would watch it from whatever point I found it (quite often at the wonderful opening.) The careful structure and pacing, not just the bookended first and last scenes but the same done extensively throughout. It's a clever film, and well done. Pam Grier is wonderful as an actress and as her character. Robert Forster, too. Its thoughtfulness extends to race and aging and there's poignancy to match Samuel Jackson's crazy character with the filthiest, funniest mouth. It holds up brilliantly to watching many times and I've seen it 100x I'm sure.

North by Northwest - Another that I just watch immediately if I find it showing on TV. I saw it as a kid and it had a lasting impression of urban elegance, train travel, suave villains, and the impression of rich people as always in movement and in beautiful places. I've seen in in whole 40 times or more.

OP. The Graduate here also. First film that made me understand that films had layers and messages and subtext. I watched it intently first time at age 15 or so. The scene in the hotel lobby where the camera is focused on the mirror table and as Anne Bancroft walks up, the viewer sees her reflection upside and then the camera (almost violently) flips to normal perspective. FUCKING AMAZING. sooooo many other amazing scenes. If you want a very cool perspective on lesser discussed elements of it, go on YouTube and search “Atomic Popcorn Movie Screams”. Trust me. Cool insights.

^. Oh. And to this day, I have yet to hear two words delivered with such strength, acrimony, despair and disdain — all at once:

“Hello Benjamin”.

Stalker. I’ve watched it twenty times.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Best translation of a play to film.

Chinatown. Compelling screenplay, beautiful production design and stars at their peak.

Horror Hotel- also known as City of the Dead.. 78 minute British horror movie from 1960 with Christopher Lee and the sensational Patricia Jessel. I first saw it as a little kid and it was instantly my favorite movie. I still love it as an adult. All about witches.

Casablanca. It's a perfect film, a love story with a twist. It includes my all time favorite scene, the brilliant dueling anthems. I love the cynicism and sentiment shared by so many of the characters. And in a movie where every supporting character is memorable, Claude Rains gives my all time favorite supporting performance. His homoerotic crush on Humphrey Bogart is so great, capped off by the two of them walking off together in the final shot.

Since I first saw it in college I've watched it at least twice a year, so over 50 times, and it always feels fresh and captivating. It's just a perfect film.

Rosemary's Baby - A near perfect film. I've seen it 50 times or more.

I know Woody Allen has been cancelled and it’s uncool to like his films, but I can watch Annie Hall over and over again.

"The Lion in Winter." Have seen it maybe 25 times, and a lot of clips many more times. Every time I view it I see or hear or learn something new, it's amazing how much has gotten by me over the years so I am grateful for repeating viewings.

Eminently quotable, sumptuous and a joy to watch actors giving commanding performances. I'm sure they had a lot of fun making this film, Peter O'Toole in particular, since he was playing an older version of his character from "Becket."

The less said about the Patrick Stewart/Glenn Close vehicle, the better.

Rear Window

Imitation of Life - 1959.

I love how Miss Laura Meredith goes through life, ignoring the things that are important, in her successful but ultimately futile quest to be the queen of Broadway. Only at the end does she finally understand.

Also, that scene where Troy Donahue beats the shit out of Susan Kohner.

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

MANY times since the 1970's and what gay boy doesn't love a bitch like Veruca Salt

"Charade" - First movie I ever saw at a cinema in the evening. My mother wanted to see it and my father was reluctant, so 11-year-old me was her date.

The Graduate: "no sir, it's completely baked" and Marion Lorne saying "hello, Mr. Goldstone" all so absurd but compelling.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf: Probably the first "serious" film I ever saw--full of layers about the people and great lines like "I dance like the wind" and "Hey, Swampy", "Hump the hostess".

Casablanca The reason that Bogart is my favorite actors of that period.

OP- There were a number of good looking extras in The Graduate- especially the scene on campus when Benjamin is stalking Elaine and this good looking slim guy wearing sunglasses walks by it's at 3:00 - I want to take a time machine back to 1967 so I can introduce myself to this good looking , cool guy.

I've never been able to announce just ONE film, book, TV show or play as my "favorite" or "favorite of all time".

But for movies I can watch over and over, off the top of my head: Radio Days, Hoosiers, Sunset Boulevard, Mame, Sullivan's Travels, Cold Turkey, Rear Window...

"Heaven Can Wait" Warren Beatty version

Ken Russell's The Boyfriend.

been strangely obsessed for decades. Seen it over 70 times.

The cool guy I'm referring to is the second guy in the scene wearing sunglasses not the blond guy wearing sunglasses ( although he is cool and good looking too)

The Wizard of Oz

For me, there will never be anything which equals it.

R26- I'M WHITE

I'M WHITE

I'M WHITE

The editing in " The Graduate" was superb. Here's an example.

R37-The beautiful music was also critical in making this such a good movie.

If Doris Day, Mike Nichols' first choice to play Mrs. Robinson, had not turned him down, would she have bared her breasts like Anne Bancroft did?

Pink Flamingos.

1,392 times.

Jaws. I get teased for it all the time but it’s such a perfect movie to me, especially the bits of humor. And Robert Shaw’s retelling of the USS Indianapolis disaster is one of the most harrowing monologues in cinema.

Runner up is Young Frankenstein.

R21 Claude Rains is absolutely brilliant in Casablanca. “I’m shocked - SHOCKED!”

Day baring her breasts, probably not. I'll bet that was part of why she didn't do it. I wonder what Nichols saw in her or her past work that made her seem good for the part.

If he wanted "against type" casting a better choice in the same vein might have been Donna Reed---she had played a mother for years (rather than a virgin---she and Day were about the same age), she was about to divorce her husband and was giving rage to the compromises she'd made on her show, and she had a a bit of rebellious streak--proto-feminist, anti-war activist. Plus she didn't need to cover terminal freckling like Day and she had played a against type before, with a good director and cast members and won an Oscar. Reed had a brittle quality that would have worked, a little more subtle than Bancroft's rage. She wasn't a film carrying type of big name actress but it's really Benjamin's story and Bancroft was still a character player at this point.

It's hard to choose, but I would say The Best Years of Our Lives. Not sure how many times I've watched it, but quite a few.

"The Women" never gets old.

[quote] Clue (1985). Countless times as a young gayling on VHS and cable, and maybe one or two times a year as an adult...possibly 25-50 times total. It never gets old for me.

Did you get to see it in the theater? They had had three alternate endings at different theaters. The ads were marked A) B) C) so you could go to another theater and see the other endings.

R1 = Ben Platt

Tootsie. Always pulls me out of a funk. I sometimes watched it daily during the pandemic.

Tie:

Two for the Road. Seen it perhaps 50 times. Finney and Hepburn at their most charming.

How to Steal a Million. Seen it at least 40 times. Hepburn, O'Toole at their most gorgeous. But actually to watch the master Hugh Griffith do that acting voodoo that he do so consumately.

Dr. Strangelove. I've seen it at least 25 times. One of the darkest comedies ever made. "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here: this is the war room!"

OP, why do you describe The Graduate like you think we've never heard of it???

For me, it's It's a Wonderful Life because there's more to it than some people realize.

I first saw it in the early 1980s on TV when it was still in public domain. The print was terrible looking, and the movie was cut to fit into a 2-hour time slot.

Years later I saw it unedited on TCM and was blown away.

Since then, I've seen it only twice - once at a theater in Suffern, NY, and once several years ago at the IFC Center in NY.

While the movie has become synonymous with homespun small town life, it actually stresses its limitations and constrictions - and the possibility that for some people, the American Dream will never come true.

At the same time, it's a story of selflessness and the importance of community (represented by George Bailey) vs. selfishness (represented by Mr. Potter).

It's Left vs. Right.

It's "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country" vs. "Are you better off today than you were four years ago"

The movie's "unborn" sequences are effective not so much because of George's fantasy/nightmare, but because the film noir vision of Pottersville is becoming closer to the world we live in than to the it-takes-a-village spirit of Bedford Falls.

While the movie ends with Zuzu & her angelic pronouncement, Mr. Potter nonetheless survives – unremorseful and unpunished.

R52 Which is what makes this lost footage addition sooooo satisfying.

There was something really off about the Graduate. Part undergraduate jag off fantasy, part suburban "Taxi Driver." Not a movie I'd want to see more than once.

A streetcar named desire...its being my fave since I was 13 and I'm 41 now. I would say at least....40 times? And this is just counting the 51 version, not others.

No votes for All About Eve? I've seen it over 30 times, my all time favorite

Other top favorites I've seen at least 20 time:

A Place in the Sun

Goodfellas

The Sting

I Want to Live

Jackie Brown

Chinatown

Sorry Wrong Number

The Americanization of Emily

I was on the Romper Room show as a 4 year old and on a local Tv interview I apparently said its just me and Nana and after the show we go to Mrs Kennedy's house to work and I play the piano. Nana told me I'm on TV because I came out of my mother and everyone said I was Tallulah Bankhead.

Years later I hated this family story because I thought it made me sound like a child drag queen. Now I can really appreciate it and just laugh and cry at the same time. I am a semi retired actor from 90s TV. I have had a deep husky voice since childhood and due to my grandmother's speech patterns along with being around the Kennedy family my whole life I have an almost British accent that used to be described as "speaking with distinction" years ago.

“Ben-Hur” - First saw this as a roadshow in 1960. It has everything. Pomp. Hunky men. Spirituality. And the greatest music score ever written, by the great Miklos Rozsa.

“The Egyptian” - First saw this on TV on the old “Saturday Night at the Movies, on Oct. 6, 1962. I was profoundly moved. The saga of its solitary antihero still speaks to me. Brilliant collaborative music score by Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann.

“The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” - Witty, romantic, atmospheric ghost story about yet another impossible love. (Is there a theme here?) Masterpiece of a music score by Bernard Herrmann.

GODFATHER

GODFATHER II

At least once a year at Christmas.

[R58] here:

And I have to add “Lost Horizon” (1937) - Ronald Colman as the world-weary philosopher diplomat, kidnaped to mystical Shangri-La, hidden in the depths of the Himalayas. There’s never been another film like it. And with a gorgeous score by Dimitri Tiomkin. I used to go to lengths to see screenings of this, when the only available version for years was a cut-down version. But it has finally been restored to more or less its original length. (For years, I was obsessed with seeking enlightenment, in a place like Shangri-La, and actually found it, in the rooms of recovery. Enlightenment comes from within) I will always love this movie.

I always thought Doris Day would have been an interesting choice for Mrs. Robinson, but I love R43's suggestion of Donna Reed in the part. But to be honest, Anne Bancroft isn't the problem. It's Dustin Hoffman. He was too old, lacked sex appeal, and didn't fit the WASP Southern California stereotype of the role. I don't see Anne Bancroft wanting to seduce him. I would have loved to have seen Ryan O'Neal in the part. Great actor? No. But I always see Dustin Hoffman "acting." O'Neal would have brought the youth and sexual energy to the part where one could see Bancroft having the hots for him.

And while the same age as Hoffman, Warren Beatty looked younger and had a massive amount of sex appeal. He and Donna Reed would have been a great pairing.

(PS I hate that "acting" expression because it's used here so often against Meryl Streep, and I never see it.)

R61, did you know that Robert Redford wanted the role in The Graduate? He's bleached blond but a year older than Hoffman. Mike Nichols wouldn't hire him. Somehow the story has been turned around with Redford saying HE turned down the part. More image control bullshit from Redford. He said he told Nichols, "I don't look like a 22 year old who's never been laid." Okay, then why did you want the role in the first place, Robert? Hmmm?

I did, R62. But he's always been a strange actor to me. He has charm for days. But there's always been something off-putting about him to me. He always seemed to have better chemistry with men than women. Oddly enough, the only movie where I think he has chemistry with his female lead is The Way We Were.

Me too, r59. It's been my Christmas ritual for almost 30 years; and like you, never the god-awful Godfather III.

Only pop trash can be watched over and over again.

[quote]Only pop trash can be watched over and over again.

Only pretentious trash posts pap like this.

[quote]The editing in " The Graduate" was superb.

Definitely agree, R37. I watched it a couple of times in a weekend when I was a kid and the editing stood out. For the first time I paid attention to how a film was constructed, camera angles, light and shadow. By good luck it was on often and I would watch it every time, seeing something new. That film more than any other taught me to see how films were made.

The Hours. The haunting Philip Glass soundtrack and weaving of stories of these women struggling always gets me. Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Allison Janney, and Toni Collette —talk about a powerhouse cast.

You people suggesting other Benjamins or Mrs. Robinsons are crazy - The Graduate works because of the casting and performances of Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, and Warren Beatty are all terrible actors.

Mrs. Robinson was a lonely and desperate woman. I don't think Benjamin had to be anything except present for her to seduce him.

And as a Jew who grew up in a suburban environment, I think The Graduate wouldn't have worked as well if Benjamin was a WASP like the book. The added implied Jewishness of Benjamin (in my eyes at least) makes the film more interesting.

I really like "All About Eve" but on repeat viewings I find that I can skip a lot of the Celeste Holm heavy scenes---it's not so much her by as it is the pairing with Hugh Marlowe, who is the dullest actor (here and elsewhere) and has the most underwritten part. If Gary Merrill hadn't fallen in love with Davis, he might have been almost as bad. The best scenes are the classics with Davis, those with Thelma Ritter (a little more scene stealing by her would have kept up the tone of the film) and those with George Sanders---he makes the long speechs in New Haven work, which is difficult to do without seeming to bore or suffocate the story.

As for "It's a Wonderful Life", it's too full of Capra corn and supporting players in predictable roles. Gloria Grahame as the town slut is actually pretty good in her small role but Barrymore and others phone in parts they've done many times before. The scenes with Reed and Stewart at the beginning of the film are the best part---he's too old for her and both are too old for a dance at the high school even if that's where the town dances happen, but the scenes are mostly fun and there seems to be some chemistry there. Reed was the only actor with a decent sized role who was not an established player doing a cliched part, so she winds up being the freshest thing in the whole film even though she's reduced to being a prop once they get married and does little but smile sweetly. Even capra admitted that he could use her better and that was after she was long dead.

For me, the Simon & Garfunkel songs in The Graduate is what take the film to the next level. A good score can sometimes do that.

And Dustin Hoffman was supposed to be a dud. R61 goes on and on about the sex appeal of actors he thinks would be better - O'Neal, Beatty etc - but they wouldn't be believable in the Benjamin role. Benjamin is not a hot stud, he's an awkward outsider.

Arsenic and Old Lace is my absolute favourite and I've watched it well over 50 times. Others I've watched over and over: Spinal Tap North by North West Die Hard The Great Escape The Sound of Music

I don't think Bancroft is a problem. I'm just suggesting that another actress might have done it in a way that was different but still in keeping with the character.

Who were considered for " The Graduate"? Interesting choices. .

Hoffman was just too old. He and Bancroft look like they're from the same generation...because they were.

R75- He definitely did not look twenty years old.

At the same time Stockard Channing did NOT look like a seventeen year old in Grease.

Today they would cast Chalamet or Logan Lerman.

Brokeback Mountain.Every Feb 9 the anniversary of my partners passing. He died a month after Heath. He worked on the production in Alberta as Michelle Williams PA. I met the cast. Viewed it perhaps a dozen + times. A very personal film for me. Can't quit it.

^^^Perish the thought.

R62 interesting. Thank you for the information.

R78 Thank you for sharing. So sorry for your loss of your Love.

I don't really like watching movies over again, but I make an exception for "Maurice". Best gay movie ever, I've probably seen it 10 times. And "Brideshead Revisited" - I have it on DVD and watch it about every two years or so.

Sending cyberhugs to r78. May you find love again and be comforted by having known love in your life.

R62- Robert Redford was very good looking in 1967 but he looked even older than Dustin Hoffman did.

Great thread, OP.

There are several films that I’ve watched repeatedly over the years:

Bullets Over Broadway

Radio Days

Victor/Victoria

My Favorite Year

Howards End

Maurice

Singin’ in the Rain

Working Girl

Spirited Away

The Matrix

Jesus, I hadn’t realised how many films I’ve watched over and over, but none of them ever become stale to me. I can almost recite the lot of them. And I’ve never seen The Graduate.

Doctor Zhivago (1965). I've probably seen it more than 20 times, including 4 times on the big screen.

R86 DZ could have been a great film to me but the main thing about it, the love "story" is awful to me. Shariff is an awful actor through most of it and there is no chemistry at all with Julie Christie. Their romance is shallow and underdeveloped. If you took the love story/triangle thing out of it and just left in the historical/po-litical story it would be so much better imo. The beautiful cinematography and some incredible supporting performances, mainly Steiger and Guiness make it still worth seeing though.

I do like All About Eve consistently. I can watch The Wiz regularly - and I don’t really like the original Oz.

r87: Oh, I'll grant that Sharif and Christie don't fire up the screen like Hepburn and Tracy, but they're lovely to look at and, separately, are quite compelling -- especially Christie in her interactions with Rod Steiger and Tom Courtenay. Their lack of intense chemistry doesn't bother me because there's so much else that's excellent in the film.

[quote Guiness

Guinness.

I thought Shariff had more chemistry with Chaplin and Christie with Steiger so yeah, maybe that's why I didn't buy it too much. I just wish the love story was more convincing. I think it probably read better in the book.

R87/R91, the name is SHARIF, not Shariff. Actually, Omar Sharif's real name is Michael Chalhoub.

R92...thanks but I honestly could give 3 fucks : )

Sharif was hopeless and it should have been Max who knows how to be an intellectual and a poet.

Sharif would have been illiterate.

R78 I am so sorry for your loss. What a touching and exciting story. Did you get to watch them film any scenes. I wish you much comfort and peace. Hang in there.

R43 Nichols' original casting was Waspier: Day, Ryan O'Neal, Candice Bergen

Goodfellas

Rosemary's Baby

Mommie Dearest

Valley of the Dolls

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

[quote]Also, that scene where Troy Donahue beats the shit out of Susan Kohner.

"But I'm White! WHITE, R26!"

-------- Rest in Peace, Merle Johnson, Jr.

"Also, that scene where Troy Donahue beats the shit out of Susan Kohner."

Better her than me.

For those who like [italic]the Graduate[/italic], watch [italic]Barcelona[/italic] sometime. Some Spanish girls are discussing the movie and have a different take.

It's not my favorite, but the film I've watched the most over the years is Soapdish.

Some Like It Hot

I love a good comedy and this one was a hoot. Probably one of the best scripts ever written. Plus the acting of Jack Lemmon and Marilyn was perfect. Great comedic timing from both!

As a drama, it's a toss up between Sweet Smell of Success or 12 Angry Men. Both absolutely brilliant movies.

Mulholland Drive and Paris, Texas. Seen both a couple of times.

The new West Side Story

I’m the only one

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

R105 another one of mine too. It manages to be both one of the funniest and one of the saddest movies I have seen.

I have more than one. In no particular order: Lion in Winter, Indiscreet, Pirate Radio, LOTR (just Fellowship), Moonstruck, Philadelphia Story, Beauty & the Beast (original animated version).

Chinatown for me. No matter how many times I watch it, I can still never quite figure it out. I don’t want to. One of the things I love most about it is the perfection of the period details. Most movies don’t get it right, like they have long lanky hairdos on young women in the 1930s or whatever. Faye Dunaway’s face in particular is perfect.

Jesus de Montreal

Mon Oncle Antoine

R108 . . .

Dunaway was puzzled about her character’s motivation, and by all accounts, got little guidance from Polanski. He would shout, 'Say the fucking words. Your salary is your motivation.’ Things came to a head two weeks into shooting. According to Polanski, 'There was one hair that would stick out from her hairdo and catch the light and I was trying to get rid of it, trying to flatten it and it would not stay.’ Polanski walked around behind her and plucked the hair. Dunaway screamed, 'That motherfucker plucked my hair!’ and stormed off the set. Polanski did the same.

Evans arranged a truce between the director and his leading lady, but it didn’t last long. 'There was a scene where she gets in the car after seeing her daughter, and Jack is in the car waiting for her and scares the shit out of her,’ recalls John Alonzo, the DP. 'She kept saying to Roman, 'Roman, I have to pee. I have to pee.’ 'No. No. You stay there. You stay there. We shoot, we shoot.’ And then he said, 'Roll the window down. I got to talk to you. You’re turning too far right. Don’t look at Jack, look ahead.’ Then she threw a coffee-cup full of liquid in Roman’s face. He said, 'You cunt, that’s piss!’ And she said, 'Yes, you little putz,’ and rolled the window up. We were all speculating that maybe Jack peed in the cup for her. [Or maybe] she had a small bladder or something.“

-excerpted from Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

Some Like it Hot, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Rear Window and the little known Nobody's Fool.

[quote]And Dustin Hoffman was supposed to be a dud...O'Neal, Beatty etc - but they wouldn't be believable in the Benjamin role. Benjamin is not a hot stud, he's an awkward outsider.

Why couldn't Benjamin have some sex appeal? The book never describes him. He's an awkward outsider when he gets back home for the Eastern college he went to. He's alienated from his parents. That's why the movie resounded with Baby Boomers. But there's no indication he's a nerd.

Benjamin Braddock was a 21 yo WASP. Dustin Hoffman did not look like a 21 yo WASP. Neither did he come off like one. Again, I love Anne Bancroft and she'd still be perfect paired with someone else who's is younger. Hoffman was only six years younger than her.

Oh my god I never realised that Benjamin Braddock was written as a WASP.

Braddock Name Meaning English: topographic name for someone living by a notable broad oak, from Old English brad 'broad' + ac 'oak', or a habitational name from a minor place so named, such as Broad Oak in Symondsbury, Dorset.

[quote]Some Like It Hot. I love a good comedy and this one was a hoot.

Another person who doesn't think any of us has seen this movie. Jesus.

R112, if Benjamin Braddock was a sexy guy with social skills, he have girls chasing him. It doesn't matter what the books says, Dustin Hoffman was Mike Nichols' version. Hoffman in this role was the start of an off-beat ethnic playing the lead, in this case an ethnically undefined lead. He plays the WASP, many WASPS don't look like Troy Donahue in real life.

[quote]It doesn't matter what the books says

Uh-huh. Yeah, book characters don't matter.

^ new to movies based on novels

I have a hard time with just one movie as well. But the small handful I enjoy the most would include Alien, Chinatown, Midnight Run, Jaws, and American Graffiti.

But the one movie I could watch every night for the rest of my life and not get sick of it would be My Dinner With Andre. I was actually at NYU at that exact time (Wally walks through a nearby neighborhood at the start of the movie) and went to see it at the Lincoln Plaza with a bunch of rich old ladies who fell asleep during the movie. A child of a working class family, I was amazed and delighted that people had conversations like that. It changed my life.

R112, it's not even six years between Hoffman's and Bancroft's age. Bancroft was 35 and Hoffman turned 30 during the filming of The Graduate. Nichols did a brilliant job, but casting actors who looked like contemporaries killed that entire dynamic between those two characters, or at least it did for me.

“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”- I discovered this movie as a very lonely gay college student in the late 1980s (before the first restoration and rerelease in theaters) on VHS in the college library. I was absolutely dumbstruck by its singularity, ingenuity, and beauty. I went many times to rent it and watch it in the library media room so it has lots of memories for me about a difficult period in my life. I also have listened to the soundtrack dozens of times so I know every note and line by heart.

I think one of the interesting things it does is contrast very adult and complex problems in a film world full of music, color and almost fairytale beauty. The heartbreaking ending only takes you back to the beginning where you see that for all the love and attraction the two leads feel for each other, they were never meant to be together and weren’t really seeing each other for who they really were. No one is a villain and time moves on relentlessly. You can’t go back and remake your choices.

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

30 + times since the 1970's

r58, where did you see the roadshow of Ben-Hur? I just realized I saw it in one of those theatres in Montclair, NJ. I was so young, I didn't realize how special those viewings were until later, when I saw Around the World in 80 Days and The Sound of Music in the same theatre. I'd completely forgotten I saw Ben-Hur that way until reading your post.

Stephen Boyd was my boner boy in Ben-Hur.

Grease I’ve seen it hundreds of times since it came out in June of 1978.

Blade Runner - seen it at least a dozen times.

I also love Ben Hur, but you know, those horses are all dead.

R124, Blade Runner is a bleak view of our collective future. What is it that you like?

All About Eve and What's Up Doc? I can watch them both over and over.

Another "Rosemary's Baby" fan.

Why is Rosemarys Baby so scarey?

Sure, what's-her-name is fucked by Satan. But, she was asking for it.

What else is frightening in that movie?

[quote]All About Eve and What's Up Doc?

I've seen both about 30 times. Eve stands up better; if I see Doc again in this lifetime I'll plotz.

R129 = PSYCHO. See it sometime, R129, you'll love it.

Silence of the Lambs…the most complex plot and the most hideous psychopaths. Watched at least five times and each time I find it superb!

R131, you are the only hidden psychopath here.

My favorite movie of all time is "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". I've seen it at least 60 times. I carry it with me on my phone and on every tablet or laptop I have. I have the soundtrack on my phone as well, to listen to at any time. The movie is brilliant. A true work of art.

"Grease I’ve seen it hundreds of times since it came out in June of 1978."

R123 = Didi "Frenchie" Conn

I love Blade Runner too. It's a very effective yet simple dystopia. It gives plenty to think about, too. But its great achievements are in sensuality and cinema artistry. It's a fever dream. The performances are all great, as well.

Benjamin was supposed to be prey for Mrs. Robinson because he wasn't hot. Ryan O'Neil is kind of mealy mouthed.

Ryan O'Neil???

R129 the film builds tension. I don't think it's scary or meant to be.

[quote]Benjamin was supposed to be prey for Mrs. Robinson because he wasn't hot.

How did you divine that interpretation?

JFC...the lengths you people go to. She was a cougar!! Wanted a hot guy. Not her ugly little sister's ex-boyfriend.

R133 Work of art? I hate that movie with a passion. Everything about it. Hipsters' wet dreams

R140, you have no taste. It's not a hipster movie at all. The attention to detail is amazing, every scene transition is amazing, and it's hilarious and so quotable, with great music.

r133, r140, and r141, I'm age 60 and have never played video games of any kind. I was 100% bored by this movie. It was like watching something in a foreign language that I did not speak -- without subtitles. I wanted to like this film because my nephew and several YOUNG colleagues for whom I had respect worshiped it! I just didn't "get it" and realized without shame on either side that it is a total generational thing.

^ charlie, lowering his age by 15 years

I've probably watched "Gattaca" seven or eight times. Besides the film itself, I absolutely love the original soundtrack.

Here's a 2021 re-review upon this year's 4K release.

R142, it's my favorite movie, and I'm 57 years old.

I don't think it's generational. Though I do think if you're over 65 you probably can't "get it". But if you're too young, you might not get it either, as it has so many references to things from the late 80s through the late 90s.

The Silence of the Lambs is a perfect film. In my top five. Watch it several times a year.

Babette’s Feast - simple, beautiful, sensual.

My favorite scene from Babette’s Feast:

R141 I have no taste...says the guy who's favorite film is a hipster video game movie.

Starman from John Carpenter. a good road movie, with some romance, sci fi with almost no spaceship, whenever it's on tv, I watch it.

West Side Story. I know this might seem like a contrived answer, especially now, but it's for real. It must be hundreds of times I've seen it.