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Rewatching movies — 15 Comments

  1. > the old Zefferelli “Romeo and Juliet” says one thing to a nineteen-year-old and another to a fifty-something-year old, although it speaks volumes to both.

    There is also the additional context of seeing other ways the same material is done. No doubt since seeing the Zefferelli R&J you’ve also seen Luhrman’s R+J. This adds a subtle impression of the original material which was not there the first time(s) it was watched.

    Perhaps you’ve since then also seen the 1936 version, with a 43yo Leslie Howard absurdly cast as Romeo (He was a wonderful actor, but being taken seriously as a 13yo when you’re 43yo is beyond most human limits)

    I’ve always like to collect variations on film/theatre pieces.

    Shakespeare is ideal for this, since every actor wants to do Shakespeare.

    King Lear, for example, allows you to sample the 1953 Orson Welles version as well as Kurosawa’s “Ran”.

    Hamlet goes from the dreary Olivier version to Gibson’s.

    Othello lets you choose between Fishburne and Branagh.

  2. When I saw GWTW as a teenager, I thought Scarlett O’Hara was the heroine. Re-watching a few years ago with my daughter, I realized the heroine is really Melanie.

  3. Indeed- Groundhog Day is one of the best movies in recent memory- and I can watch it over and over, which is odd because I was never much for rewatching movies. Ironic that a movie that revolves around repetitiveness presents so many angles for reconsideration. Speaks volumes about boredom and the bored as well.

  4. Sometimes I like re-watching something with someone who has never seen it before…that can be fun.

  5. Neoconned said …
    I shall be dead

    Really? When? Is this another liberal promise?

    I’ve enjoyed rewatching Animal House, although less so as my daughter approaches college age.

  6. I watch movies more than once for the same reason I have more than one conversation with the same people, but I often the movies are more lively conversationalists than the people!

  7. the old Zefferelli “Romeo and Juliet” says one thing to a nineteen-year-old and another to a fifty-something-year old…

    I found the same with the opera Carmen. When I was young Carmen seemed a beautiful, sexy, and freespirited woman. When I was older she seemed nothing but trouble: self-centered, exploitive, and wilful. And my sympathies changed from Carmen to Don Jose. Experience changes much, no?

  8. I fixed the link, internet ronin.

    It’s not an in-depth reevaluation, just a few paragraphs at the end of a longer post, with an insight at the end.

    I also wrote about “High Noon” here, briefly, in a post about my favorite movie stars.

  9. I’m probably odd, but I don’t really like rewatching a moview. I’ve seen Citizen Kane, Metropolis, Gone With the Wind, even My Dinner With Andre (which help me transfixed throughout the whole thing).

    But if I thought about watching any of them again, I’d probably pass.

    One of the few exceptions is “King of Hearts” (Alan Bates, Genevieve Bujold [that probably explains it]). Another would be “Umbrellas of Cherbourg”.

    Music, I can listen to over and over. If it were possible to wear out a CD, my Mahler and Chopin (&c) would be dog-eared by now.

    I have no idea whay that is. Might have something to do with whether you’re more visually-oriented or more aurally-oriented.

    Books are another matter. I’ve re-read only a few – mainly because there are so many on the in-box.

  10. I’d love to read your re-evaluation of High Noon, but the link takes me to the same place as the Borges link. I’ll check back later. though.

  11. When the end draws near, there no longer remain any remembered images; only words remain. It is not strange that time should have confused the words that once represented me with those that were symbols of the fate of he who accompanied me for so many centuries. I have been Homer; shortly, I shall be On One, like Ulysses; shortly, I shall be all men; I shall be dead

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