posted
If you could GO BACK IN TIME and see any five films in the cinema on the big screen for the first time, which would they be?
Off the top of your head, like:
Alien Aliens Gone With The Wind Star Wars 2001
You could also say why, I suppose.
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Aliens, definitely. I remember a review of one of the special editions saying something like 'It still doesn't match the feeling of coming out of the cinema feeling like you hadn't breathed for two hours'. Ever since then it's been my number one film to have expunged from my brain so I could see it for the first time on the big screen.
Apocalypse Now, it's almost like I can't be bothered to watch this film again because I know deep in my heart that it'll be a substandard recreation of what it would have been like on the big screen. I really wish I'd made it to the cinema for the Redux version.
The Exorcist, One of the films that I seemed to know backwards even the first time I sat down to watch it. It's surely been robbed of its power now by endless parodies of key moments, but in those few instances where I didn't know what was going to happen (the mutilated statue and the 'help me' burning itself into the flesh) I got a shiver of unpleasantness that hinted at what it might have been like to witness this before it was destroyed by cheap gags.
The Wild Bunch Maybe it's the whole myth about how it was so shocking on release with people puking in the cinemas and fainting, but it's a fucking fine looking film and I reckon that the final shootout would look goddamned awesome on the big-screen.
erm. I'm still thinking on a final film. I'm tempted to leave it blank, in case someone reminds me of something else I definitely would have wanted to catch on the big screen
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The only film I can think of is The Matrix, mainly because I missed it in the flicks the first time. I also seemed to miss all the hype (was there any?), and since it's such a great movie I'd love to have got the 'blown away' sensation everyone talks about. Unfortunately by the time I saw it it had already been ripped off dozens of times, lessening its impact.
I suppose I'd love to repeat the Lord of The Rings anticipation, but that's a bit recent to count.
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I am lucky in that I lead a sad life unfrequented by reality or time considerations and so I wish I could go back and watch 'The Foundation' movies again. And Trainspotting, that was feckin weird wasn't it. Oh yeah, LOTR films were good, but 'The Hobbit' with Jo Pesci as Bilbo, was totally shite and ruined the entire experience. I truly wish I could have the anticipation I had when I first sat down to watch 'In The Cut' with a promised nakedness of Meg Ryan. I sat there, in an partly empty theatre, cock in hand, awaiting the widely publicised newdiness. Did I see any, did I fuck, just crap tits and a hint of bush, it was fuckin rubbish.
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I've been lucky enough to actually see a few of these suggested films in cinemas, not by being really old and going when they came out, but because when I was living in Paris they had loads of cinemas which showed top non-current films on the big screen for about a week at a time, then they'd show something else. Cinemas everywhere there were. Don't know if they still have those sort of places, but I think they do, certainly more than London or Manchester does anyway.
So I got to see Apocalypse Now, the three Star Wars films in an all night session with beer and burgers in between each film, The Life Of Brian, A Clockwork Orange. Loads, but I can't remember which ones now.
Also years ago I managed to see stuff like Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same and the Pink Floyd films (Live At Pompeii, More and La Vallee) at special cinema showings. And Talking Heads Stop Making Sense. But this was when cinemas were really smelly and shitty and the sound was awful and the films were all crackly and worn out, so the potential joy of seeing a big music film all massive and thundering was actually rather a disappointment.
Should someone be setting up some sort of cult movie cinema with a bar and great sound and all night screenings? They exist already, don't tell me.
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Vogon you fucking cunt now I have a fucking Cher song stuck in my head
2001
Would be fucking terrifying in the cinemé, I'd imagine. Wait. I am seeing it for the first time also? Yes. terrifying and utterly baffling. Excellent.
Clockwork Orange
Yeah, go on then, despite the fact that someone once became angry with me for liking it and very accurately described it as 'A violent Carry On film about politics.' Ah, but that music. That's what it's really about for me. And that must have been mindblowing the first time people heard it. 'It's...classical...but...electronic??' here is an album by the man who composed the music for Clockwork Orange who is now a woman, which apparaently expands on the themes explored in the CO soundtrack, and which Iam going to buy using money:
Mother went to see this in the cinema when it first came out! 'What was it like, Mother?' (this was before its re-release) 'Oh, I don't know darling; I was on acid.' Lol!
Star Wars
Oh it is so obvious and everyone else has said it and I want to appear all highbrow but YES - this is cinema being used properly. The reason it was invented. Apparently people were astonished when the ships flew past the camera at the start, although I might have just made that up.
Wait. Wait. This isn't actually the best film though, is it? I would watch that excellent-sounding triple-bill that Dang describes, with burgers and beer. 'I am your Father.' I reckon i would wet myself.
Pulp Fiction
This is still my favourite film ever. I think. My friends who were older than me went to see it in the cinemé, and apparently when they shoot the dude at the start it is more voilent, and they altered the cut for home release. Or did I just make that up in my head as well. Anyway this would be ludicrously fun in the cinema, as would, I reckon, any Tarantino film. 'Cos that is his medium innit. I doubt Kill Bill will translate to smallscreen very well.
Life Of Brian
Must have felt like being part of a secret CLUB OF CLEVER ALTERNATIVE INTELLIGENT PEOPLE, seeing that at cinemé. And then it would get banned and you could be smug! Joy.
Oh! I agree with Stevie. Apart from The Sting, and The Usual Suspects, and Citizen Kane, and the films I mentioned that he didn't. I wish I was Stevie.
quote:Originally posted by Raz: I doubt Kill Bill will translate to smallscreen very well.
I disagree! I've seen Kill Bill twice on DVD, and it worked extremely well. One time, though, I was hammered, and the other I was watching it on a 7in screen on a portable player on the train. So there was a bit of a thrill in being able to spend a train journey watching Kill Bill. There were kids sat next to me, looking over too which added something to the experience. Tomorrow I think I'll try playing some hardcore porn on it.
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I'm quite surprised by the films being mentioned here as I saw most of them in the cinema, including 2001 on its first release. The catch is that I found it pretty tedious apart from the ape stuff and the final scene with the baby. If you were to go back in time and watch these films, you'd be too young to enjoy most of them.
When this was first released at cinemas it's Producer/Director William Castle, on whom John Goodman's character from Matinee is based, attached electric buzzers to the seats of the cinema and at the appropriate moment during the film would shock audience members.
Now that's entertainment.
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I would like to have been in the audience when the director's cut of Blade Runner -- or what became that cut, ie. the version with no voiceover and the unicorn dream -- was first shown by mistake in a cinema.
It was part of a 70MM festival that that was running at the Odeon in Leicester Square a few years back.
I can't comment on what it may have looked like on the big screen in it's normal 35MM format upon release but in 70MM it was about the best thing I have ever seen at the pictures.
HDTV pah!!
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Sound is so important in horror cinema, think of the sound-mixing for the North African opening sequence of The Exorcist, or Danny riding over boards and carpet on his tricycle in The Shining, but never more so than in this most mainstream of horror films.
The soundtrack is one of the most utterly brilliant pieces of film music ever, as resonant as Bernard Hermann's accompaniment to that moment in Psycho, every time I hear it I'm transported to that opening shot of JAWS as the camera prowls the sea bed.
Now imagine experiencing that for the first time at the cinema.
[ 28.04.2004, 06:44: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
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Sound is so important in horror cinema... Now image experiencing that for the first time at the cinema.
Would be shit. Jaws had a mono soundtrack on its original release, so if you're looking to experience the best possible sound for it, you'd be better off staying at home with the remastered DVD and your surround sound kit.
posted
I'd like to see Buster Keaton's The General in the cinema, with some fucking idiot banging away on a real piano down the front. I bet they do that up at the Film Museum place in Bradford don't they?
I also want to see lots more of those mental IMAX 3D things as I've only seen one of them (would you believe, tss) and they don't do them on DVD. Yet.
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quote:Originally posted by kovacs: I'm quite surprised by the films being mentioned here as I saw most of them in the cinema, including 2001 on its first release. The catch is that I found it pretty tedious apart from the ape stuff and the final scene with the baby. If you were to go back in time and watch these films, you'd be too young to enjoy most of them.
I'm quite surprised you say this! If I remember correctly, 2001 was re-released into cinemas in something like 1979, which is when I saw it - I was blown away by the experience. To be honest, the only part I didn't really enjoy were the hopelessly dated (even by the 70's) scenes inside the orbiting Hilton.
I think I get what you're saying, but doesn't the premise of this thread pre-suppose that you'd be of an age to enjoy whatever movies you've chosen?
Raz - I can absolutely vouch for the opening scene of Star Wars Episode IV. Seeing this was my 7th birthday treat, and if I'd known how to come, I probably would have done!
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Would be shit. Jaws had a mono soundtrack on its original release, so if you're looking to experience the best possible sound for it, you'd be better off staying at home with the remastered DVD and your surround sound kit.
But that's not the question is it Thorn?
And I'm fairly certain it would, nevertheless, have been better than the early eighties telly I saw it on first time out.
[ 28.04.2004, 07:04: Message edited by: Boy Racer ]
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I saw Matrix Reloaded on an IMAX and it was fabulous. Big, loud, look here, no here, no over there, there, no here, madness. I saw Jacob’s Ladder and thought it magic. I would like to see that again – the hospital trolleys, the Vietnam carnage, the slowed down epileptic baiting monster dance. And luckily I got to the pictures to see Blade Runner, which is amongst my most favourite films of all time. So…
Jacob’s Ladder (again) The Matrix. O come on. Major mental superhero madness and I missed it. Rocky IV. Did you see this in the cinema? With me? At 13 or 14 or 12 or whatever we were when we all stood on the seats and started cheering for ROCK-Y ROCK-Y. That fuckn rocked didn’t it. I want to do that again. Young Guns. Reap the wind, motherfucker. Yee-hah. Pure pop trash nonsense and the finest celebration of Americana ever ever. Trainspotting. God I loved that. Lust fo lye, gotta lust fo lye. Kaka at breakfast, Kelly MacDonald, two little boys, Begbie.
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quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: But that's not the question is it Thorn?
And I'm fairly certain it would, nevertheless, have been better than the early eighties telly I saw it on first time out.
Yeah. I dunno why I posted that. It was like I suddenly thought you were actually going to invest money in going back in time to see and I was all like "Dude! that would be a waste!". I think VOP was getting to me and
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quote:Originally posted by StevieX: If I remember correctly, 2001 was re-released into cinemas in something like 1979, which is when I saw it - I was blown away by the experience.
Ah, sorry, I didn't mean the first release of course. Yes, I saw it around 1978 I expect. I found it pretty long, ponderous and uneventful, but then I was expecting all science fiction cinema to be like Star Wars.
posted
Also, if I could unwatch a film it would be Bambi. After the incident with his mother, I didn't see another Disney film until Toy Story at the age of 18. I still haven't seen most Disney classics. Perhaps if I'd grown up liking Disney I would be a fluffy, nice person now.
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dreamcatcher - only watched first half before leaving, but fuck was it depressing to be insulted by that tripe
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Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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I am possibly completely alone in my generation in having first seen Star Wars on the big screen whenever it was that it was re-released (95? 96). But apparently, because I saw the 'improved version' it doesn't count. Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean. Never saw the appeal, really, though have enduring soft spot for Chewbacca nose, all damp and snifting.
The artyhousey theatre in York did a all-three-Alien-films-with-ten-minute-pee-breaks once (when there were just three, before the excresence of Resurrection, which would have been redeemed only if it had featured Winona Ryder getting her tits ripped off. I managed to The Death of Charles Dance in Alien 3 before I had to run away to an alcohol purveying establishment, but it was, overall, and entertaining experience.
With lots of people, I'd have quite liked to see Apocalypse Now on a big screen first. And maybe The Great Escape. I bet Steve McQueen on a bike was magnificent when viewed huuuuge.
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quote:Originally posted by Louche: The artyhousey theatre in York did a all-three-Alien-films-with-ten-minute-pee-breaks once (when there were just three, before the excresence of Resurrection, which would have been redeemed only if it had featured Winona Ryder getting her tits ripped off. I managed to The Death of Charles Dance in Alien 3 before I had to run away to an alcohol purveying establishment, but it was, overall, and entertaining experience.
*Gasp* I was there! I wonder what other pivotal events in my life have had their margins grazed by the presence of an unwitting Louche: The Early Years versh of yourself?
Update on Tuesday: Thanks for the offer, but I was offline by that point. The highlight of the evening was watching sheet lightening tear across the spires of St Pancras station from an enormo-window on the 5th floor of the L*br*ry.
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OK, did any of you go to the all-night film marathons the Leeds Playhouse used to put on? Back when it was housed in an old gymnasium, they'd start at 10 pm and go on till about 7 in the morning.
One of them was:
Streets of Fire Rumblefish Insignificance er... two others :madcantrememberface:
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Before the Odeon Marble Arch was closed down to be turned into a six-screen-excuse-for-a-cinema they had a 70mm week. I don't know why. To show you what you woud be missing? To rub your nose in it? Anyway, I saw Lawrence of Arabia and Alien. They both rocked. Watching a movie on the big, BIG, BIG screen is a totally engaging immersive experience, so any movie you enjoyed has got to be about thirty times better on the big screen, so... Top Five
Louche
Carved TMO on her clit just to make you feel bad
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How odd! I didn't do the West Yorks Playhouse marathons, but I know a man who did. Also, I went to the showing of Nosferatu at the cinema in Museum Gardens where there was A Real-Life-Pianist. I probably sat between Stevie and Ben at that one or something.
Ben, the offer of tea still stands if you're ever in the area. It will make me feel better for making the Three Decades of Brilliance Meat a Saturday Meet that you can't come to...
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quote:Originally posted by Black Mask: The Taking of Pelham 123
What irritates the fuck out of me in that film, is why the fuck do they only send the swat team down to cover the back of the train? Why didn't they have people in front of and behind the train? What was up with that? It doesn't make any sense!
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