What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?
I know this blog is called The Voracious Bibliophile, but it could just as easily be called The Voracious Cinephile or The Voracious Telephile. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as watching a film or television series with the benefit of having already seen it. Since you know the general plot outline(s), you can better appreciate the more granular details.
Oddly enough, the first film that comes to mind is Blue Jasmine. Cate Blanchett won an Oscar for her portrayal of a former socialite in the middle of a nervous breakdown following her money manager husband’s arrest for fraud. Blanchett does some of her best work in the film, and was more than deserving of taking home the Oscar that year.
One of my favorite scenes has Jasmine (Blanchett) recounting her horror upon having to take a (in her estimation) menial job selling shoes on Madison Avenue following her husband’s downfall. Women she’d hosted in her home, who used to be her peers, were witness to her rather humiliating defenestration. Erica Bishop, one of the aforementioned socialites, saw her one day and quickly slipped out, thinking Jasmine didn’t notice. In true Blanchett fashion, the tone of the scene immediately shifts when she shouts, “I saw you, Erica!”.
Next for me is Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy. The much-maligned capstone to the series is really not as bad as it’s made out to be, and in fact greatly benefits from some ex post facto revisionism in the form of The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, a recut version of the third film that was released without much fanfare in December 2020 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original’s release.
The one thing I love most about that series is its clever juxtaposition of opposing themes: baptism and apostasy, redemption and revenge. It’s glorious, not unlike a Renaissance painting or a particularly moving opera. It is, for me, an Essential. No one can truly call themselves a cinephile without having watched it.
“Yo, Adrian! I did it!”. Next for me is the Rocky saga, minus that 🐴💩 fifth entry. Good God. Honestly, if you completely eliminate it from the franchise it really serves the whole for the better. I’m not saying any of them are masterworks, except for maybe the first one. But I can remember fondly watching them all over and over again with my grandpa who’s been dead for 16 years now. He gave me my love of cinema and I can’t ever see these films without smiling. And really, it’s the ultimate underdog story. Who doesn’t love an underdog?
I guess I haven’t done a television series yet. I feel like my television tastes skew toward more lowbrow fare than my tastes in cinema. I really like the Norman Lear sitcoms of the 70s, which I can practically quote from memory. Good Times, Sanford and Son, All in the Family. I will forever rewatch The Golden Girls, which changed sitcoms forever. I’ve seen the first season of Grace and Frankie at least eight times, and those are just the times I counted.
I guess I go to cinema for enrichment and to television for comfort. Humans need both.
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