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Bookish
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But First
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Musical Chairs
Even Movie Stars Aren't Immune
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The Irony Is Not Lost On Me
Child as Taste Receptacle
Narrative Gambit #2,654: Cheap Sentiment & Preserv...
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Family Viewing
Movies are my religion in many ways. I believe in them. I love to visit them in their houses of worship. A marvelous feeling comes over me when I met someone who just happens to love the same movies I do, even the oddest ones.
So I was intrigued when the Guardian published an essay about family films, accompanied by a 50-best picks list. Family Film is a term that makes people skittish, for good reason. The fear is that the pictures will be shabby and saccharine, riddled with cheap sentiment, dull stories, clunky "messages," crappy humor and no irony at all. (I have an additional problem that I've mentioned here before, which is a problem with cinematic dog- or other animal, really- threat or death. I recently saw the preview for the gorgeous looking King Kong and practically wept. The 1933 version was ridiculously devastating to me.
To think about family films is to think about one's own history with movies and families. I don't recall the first movie I went to (which, my parents once told me was Yellow Submarine, though I'm not sure their memories are perfect on this point), but I do have powerful nostalgia for family outings and remember vividly my father taking me to see La Belle et la bete when I was about eight, and the tantalizing whole-family trips to see Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Arc. There was a nature documentary called Animals are Beautiful People (memorable for being funny and for my mother sitting on a huge piece of sucked-on grape candy), and a somewhat misguided excursion to see a revival of Nosfaratu at a theatre that had extra atmosphere because it was infested with rats. One of the two best New Year's Eves I've ever spent was with my family, which was unified in sickness- we all had strep throat- watching a Marx Brothers marathon.
Felix is too little for movies, and I haven't gotten it together to go to any of those stroller cinemas people seem to like, though I wonder about my ability to actually watch anything I cart him to.
Peter Bradshaw's essay brings up all sorts of unpleasant and exquisite aspects of family films, things one perhaps doesn't want to think about when one has a ten-month-old, such as the possibility that children can outgrow their parents, but I have been savoring the list, conjuring one of my own, and perhaps if I can offer my kid enough interest and entertainment, he won't have to outgrow me, not entirely.
Feel free to offer up some choice tidbits from your lists. I'm always collecting.
posted by Elise at 6:52 PM
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said...
Whale Rider is a a throat closing beauty. I still think about Odile and Yvette at the Edge of the World, months after watching it. I also love the old tv show, Wonderworks. Each story was like a mini film.
12/11/2005 1:39 PM
Sugarmama said...
Okay, let me qualify this by saying that once upon a time I was one of those horse-crazy girls. So that said, I remember watching The Man From Snowy River over and over again as a kid. I haven't seen it in decades, but it used to just tear me up. Fur Elise played by a young, teen-age girl, poor boy makes good after his father's accidental death, many wild horses running free. Gives me chills just thinking about it. No holiday relevance at all, but I should really rent it again...
12/12/2005 7:41 AM
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Sugarmama said...