Peculiar Film Viewing Rituals

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

You guys are weird.
This thread has convinced me to go and lurk on a normal forum instead, and cyberstalk normal folks for a change.

We have a Facebook group if you'd rather go there :-"

[swo17]

A few mildly peculiar stories involving very long films:

The first time I saw Berlin Alexanderplatz, I watched it one disc at a time through Netflix, very sporadically over the course of three or four months. With a couple discs left, I decided to get it all over with already and picked up the whole set from my local library. Of course, by this point, I could scarcely recall much of what had happened before, and I wasn't really enjoying the film. Then came the epilogue. I know some people hate it, but this was what really won me over. This was on a Friday. By the end of that Sunday, I had already watched the entire film all over again.

Last time I watched Sátántangó, I was really not in the mood for it, but I trudged through the whole thing anyway. This was, of course, no way to leave things, so the very next day I watched the film again. Thankfully, the second screening went a lot better.

Last year, I spent the better part of two days of a five-day cruise in my cabin watching the long version of Out 1 on my laptop. (Suffice it to say, I'm not a big fan of rock walls.) I am still convinced that I am the only person in the world who has ever watched the entirety of this film out in the middle of the ocean. Hence the name, Out 1.

[domino harvey]

I love film but there's no way I'd sit in my room on a laptop watching a film while on a cruise. However, I did once agree to housesit for someone for six days just because they had cable and there was a rare Arthur Kennedy movie on TCM that I wanted to watch that was airing one of the nights I'd be over there. I also used to plan visits home around TCM's schedule

[swo17]

If it makes any difference, my room had a lovely ocean view. It was actually a very soothing way to sit and stare at a laptop for hours and hours and hours. In any case, I trust my title is in no danger of being challenged any time soon by domino harvey.

[domino harvey]

In any case, I trust my title is in no danger of being challenged any time soon by domino harvey.

At least until the Rivette-sponsered Out to Sea pleasure cruise becomes a reality. Just think of the three hour wait at the buffet lines

[Perkins Cobb]

Okay, now this is the most self-indulgent thread ever....

(My own Out 1 story is that I acquired the fan-subbed bootleg right before Criterion's big Facebook tease, and now it's in a bin waiting for me to decide whether they're serious or not.)

[HarryLong]

You guys are weird.
This thread has convinced me to go and lurk on a normal forum instead, and cyberstalk normal folks for a change.

There are forums where normal people congregate!?

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Call me kuh-razy, but I really like to masturbate when I watch porn. I know, right?

[Peacock]

I'm the same as Perkins, I always choose the kevyip over the watched, unless I have a friend round who desperately wants to see something i've seen - cue lot's of nervous laughter from me "heh, you sure? Sure you don't want to watch this sealed 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests?"

When I first started out dvd buying around 8 years ago, i'd endlessly rewatch my small collection in the order i'd seen them, including television series', so now i'm wary that if I watch Ikiru again that i'll remember too much of it and perhaps it won't live up to my memory.

Why buy dvds then? So that someday I can have a personal library full of dvds and a kevyip of one or two, and perhaps i won't have seen Johnny Guitar for ten years, so i'll say "it is time".

[colinr0380]

You should see Johnny Guitar at least once every year!

It's one of my favourite 'comfort films'. And Jeanne Balibar does a really nice languid cover version of the title song in Pedro Costa's recent documentary on her, Ne Change Rien.

[Perkins Cobb]

Why buy dvds then? So that someday I can have a personal library full of dvds and a kevyip of one or two, and perhaps i won't have seen Johnny Guitar for ten years, so i'll say "it is time".

For a while, I took that logic to its natural logic and stopped buying DVDs. Ah, the good old days! Then I found the Criterion Forum and its steady stream of info on obscure import discs that I MUST have, and the kevyip came roaring back. My most recent "ritual" has been to shut off the Netflix and try to plow exclusively through the kevyip, with mixed success (I lapsed and binged on new releases from Redbox one weekend).

[Brian C]

My kevyip:

The Last Metro
Toy Story 2

Damned lack of funds.

[MichaelB]

I'm still pretty rigid about watching a movie in a single sitting without interruptions (unless it's eight hours long). I get the shivers when I loan a DVD to somebody (usually some poor sap with kids, or a wife) and they report back on watching bits and pieces of it over several nights - I don't see how a movie, even a crummy one, wouldn't be ruined that way.

I watched Andrzej Wajda's Man of Marble and Man of Iron as a four-part miniseries over four nights. Worked beautifully - both films have a natural break in the middle and are ideally suited to such treatment.

[godardslave]

I'm still pretty rigid about watching a movie in a single sitting without interruptions (unless it's eight hours long). I get the shivers when I loan a DVD to somebody (usually some poor sap with kids, or a wife) and they report back on watching bits and pieces of it over several nights - I don't see how a movie, even a crummy one, wouldn't be ruined that way.

I hardly ever watch films in a single sitting anymore, although i used to in the distant past.
Now, I break them up into 3 or 4 segments of about 20-30 minutes each.
I finish watching one segment, then i pause the dvd go and eat some food or whatever, or even wait until the next evening for the next segment.
I don't like rushing things.

[kaujot]

I do the same.

[Murdoch]

I do that as well, usually for films over 90 minutes. However if a film really captures my attention then I'll watch it in whole.

A lot of films I start to watch, then don't get around to finishing months or even years later.

[Peacock]

But when I do that I get really depressed, it's usually late at night and I have to get up early the next day, I have to keep pausing the film and then reluctantly say 'i'll watch this rest tomorrow'

But then tomorrow comes and you don't get a chance, then the next day perhaps the same thing. Then I find myself wondering, should I continue watching The River for the first time this way? It's not viewing it the way it was planned to be seen, all in one. Or should I return it to the kevyip and give it a proper shot a few months down the line when my memory of the scenes I saw is hazy?

[Perkins Cobb]

Not only do I detest interrupting a movie during my first viewing of it, but I'm also phobic about seeing trailers or lengthy clips from movies before I watch them in their entirety for the first time. I even dropped a couple of classes in film school because the profs liked to show long excerpts rather than whole movies.

[mfunk9786]

The missus loves to suggest that we start movies for her to "fall asleep to" and says she'll finish them the next day. I try with all my might to avoid this, because what's the fun in starting a movie with someone when you know they're minutes away from slumber?

[LQ]

haha! That's a quirk almost always tied to MST3K movies though, in my defense....movies that don't necessarily call for my undivided (or conscious) attention I just like to set myself up for amusing dreams.

[MichaelB]

The missus loves to suggest that we start movies for her to "fall asleep to" and says she'll finish them the next day. I try with all my might to avoid this, because what's the fun in starting a movie with someone when you know they're minutes away from slumber?

I rely on my wife falling asleep partway through, because then I can surreptitiously switch to something I actually want to watch.

[domino harvey]

When I pause a movie, I always have to wait for a visually striking image, as though the frame might be burned into the TV forever or something. This admission speaks to the level of pedantry this thread has inspired

[Sloper]

If it's a film I'm seeing for the first time, I always try to watch it alone. With another person, the chances are they'll want to eat and talk during it, or they won't switch to the right aspect ratio on their TV, and certainly won't zoom out in order to see the entire image properly, the barbarians. They'll keep asking me questions, or even trying to make small talk (especially if it's a silent film), and there's only so many times I can press pause or gesture urgently at the screen before they start giving me 'that look'.

[mfunk9786]

When I pause a movie, I always have to wait for a visually striking image, as though the frame might be burned into the TV forever or something. This admission speaks to the level of pedantry this thread has inspired

I do the same thing. If someone leaves the room while a movie or even TV show is paused I can be found using the step-forward and step-back buttons to make sure there's a perfect freezeframe. Last week I held off a bathroom break until I decided which frame of the Parks and Recreation opening titles I preferred.

[swo17]

I like to freeze frame on unrepresentatively creepy looking stills from otherwise innocuous films. I recently scared the crap out of the wife with a well-timed moment from Lubitsch's Ich möchte kein Mann sein. Which is actually kind of a scary sounding title in German. I'll have to see if I can replicate the moment and take a screengrab.