Pick of the pocket

Film This relatively old Slate article has been knocking around my favourites for a while. It's a bunch of filmmakers talking about those films that they've watched the most. I'm wondering how many of these are true. Has Paul Schrader really seen Besson's Pickpocket more than any other film? In the spirit here are the five films I've somehow seen more than any other. In decending order. Not including Star Wars or Lost In Translation. Funny how some of these aren't on my favourite film list.

Adventures In Babysitting

When I was at school and a teenager I watched this as though it was the only film ever made. I think it became a habit. I've probably seen it about fifty times and in fact I've probably seen it more than Star Wars. Certainly I can quote more scenes from this film that anything else. It's a very wierd phenomina. I mean it's not exactly artless and I'd go so far as to call it teen-noir. But really I should not be able to do this fifteen years later ...

"You've got to be kidding me."
"Watch you're mouth."
"Watch my mouth, you've gotta be kidding me. What if I fall."
"I won't let you fall."
"Thanks Sarah."

... note that I wasn't even watching the theatrical release of the film but a cleaned up tv version with some of the worst, wrong voiced dubbing seen this side of the legendary BBC version of Beverly Hills Cop. I now have the film on dvd. I've watched it once in about five years ...

When Harry Met Sally

This is my comfort film. When I'm feeling really down I'll watch this and pretend I'm living in New York. I haven't oddly enough had to see it for a few years. I think I'm phobic now that I've reached the same age as the main characters. I have never made a woman meiow.

All The President's Men

Now you're getting into the road map of my brain. It's simply a perfect screenplay, impeccibly directed and performed. So what if sections of it didn't happen and the story ends half way through. I like to think that there's a bit of Woodstein in all of us.

In The Bleak Midwinter

Every christmas since the mid-90s. It's a ritual now, but an important one. Good message about going for your dreams even when they seem horribly unrealistic and unimportant. Probably going to be really good thing to remember at the start of September when I re-enter the real world again in my usual directionless way.

Love and Other Catastrophies

I think some of us would like to say -- 'Oh yes I've seen Wild Strawberries a hundred times, Bergman's my hero' -- and we do, but often we'd be lying. In the end film becomes the thing that comforts some of us and is our touchstone but also it reflects out personality. It's also like a conversation and it's who you'd like to end up talking to at the end of the day.