The Pyrenees---Southern France

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Monday, May 9, 2011

Films Frozen in Time

          (This post was inspired by the movie I woke up to,  after falling asleep----dressed and drooling---on the couch.)


photo by creamos temuco


          Terms of Endearment is a movie I've always enjoyed. Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger are wonderful in it, and there are some unforgettable scenes. (MacClaine having a melt-down over a pain pill for her daughter is one of them.)

           However, it's more the memory of the circumstances surrounding the time I first saw the film---rather than the movie itself---that intrigues me. And I wonder...What memories do we all have that are permanently entangled with a particular movie?

           I was traveling courtesy of a Greyhound bus.  A night spent in Bennington, Vermont was going to end when I caught another bus at some horrendously early hour in the morning---4 or 5, if my memory's not failing me.

            Unfortunately, I did not have an alarm clock (this was decades before cell phones that could fill in as an alarm) and since I was worried I would sleep through a wake-up call and miss my bus, I decided to take a nap at my motel, get up in the middle of the night, go to an all-night theater and just stay awake until I boarded the bus.

            Terms of Endearment was the newly-released movie, I was thoroughly entertained---saw it twice that night---and afterwards, walking the streets to stay awake until Greyhound whooshed me out of town, I replayed the scenes in my head.

            What movies do you have strong ties to? What flick freezes you in time? Share the movie and the memory...  

   

2 comments:

  1. Great post, Sioux. I remember my last double feature (remember those?) was "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Eye Of The Needle." I still love that second one.

    In San Antonio when I was in my 20s, there was an art theater (remember THOSE?) where I saw LOTS of great movies. I can't watch any of them today without remembering The Olmos Theater. I saw "Far From The Madding Crowd", "Straw Dogs", "Days Of Heaven", "Breaker Morant", "Desert Hearts" and lots of others there.

    I also remember seeing "Steel Magnolias" with my ex and my mom at a local theater here before it was converted into a drug store. They kept the marquee, and I think of that movie every time I drive by.

    I also have strong memories of watching "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" and "Portrait Of Jenny" on a tiny b/w tv when I lived in Texas. I had a friend who ran a used book store, and he recommended them both.

    My favorite movie scene ever, I think, is the end of "The Crying Game", where Dil walks into the prison waiting room looking like a million bucks and the soundtrack plays Lyle Lovett singing "Stand By Your Man" when she goes to see Fergus.

    "How are you, honey?"

    "Don't call me that."

    "Sorry, honey, can't help it!"

    (or something like that!)

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  2. I have to say, I have never been much of a movie watcher, so I can't really contribute much. I do remember being thrilled when my parents let me go to a theater with my aunt to watch Return of the Jedi. :)

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