Movie titles that begin with present participles

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You know: Waking Ned Devine, Saving Silverman, Seducing Dr. Lewis, Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Kissing Jessica Stein, etc.

In my mind the LEAST imaginative way to title anything ever.

There's got to be scads of these, right?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:41 (twenty years ago)

I thought "chasing" was the most popular gerund for this kind of thing.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:43 (twenty years ago)

Careful with the term "gerund," though: I almost said that, too, but it's only appropriate when the word's used as a noun. < / pedant>

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:45 (twenty years ago)

But your point is well taken, N: how about the Mandy Moore vehicle Chasing Liberty?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:45 (twenty years ago)

educating rita

― de, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Nouns!

The Chasing of Amy
The Chasing of Papi
The Chasing of Liberty

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Swimming with Sharks

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:46 (twenty years ago)

Being John Malcovich

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Eating Raoul

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Feelin' Minesota

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Gleaming the Cube

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:48 (twenty years ago)

'regarding henry'
'shaving ryan's privates'

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:48 (twenty years ago)

Surviving Picasso

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago)

Being There

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago)

Killing Zoe

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago)

In some ways, I feel like Being John Malkovich is almost a play on this convention -- there's almost a joke in how "being" is not the kind of active verb you usually see in this construction:

"What's Chasing Amy about?"
"Well, it's about a guy who chases after a woman named Amy."

"What's Educating Rita about?"
"Well, it's about a guy who educates a woman named Rita."

"What's Being John Malkovich about?"
"Well, it's about a guy who, um, is John Malkovich. Sorta."

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Finding Forrester

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Not an exclusively contemporary trend: Bringing Up Baby

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:51 (twenty years ago)

It was that film that title (Being John Malkovich) which made a very stoned me realize that the phrase "human being" is in fact a sentence.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago)

I think it's the ones that are [present participle] + [person's name] that irk me the most.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago)

Driving Miss Daisy

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:53 (twenty years ago)

What about saving of private Ryan. He was so saved.

― Mark P-a- (Assumed persona), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:53 (twenty years ago)

1996-97 indie edition:

Flirting With Disaster
Kicking and Screaming
Walking and Talking

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago)

oh, add to that: Waiting for Guffman

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago)

Losing Isaiah

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago)

Raising Arizona

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Which was no where as good as the pr0n film saving Ryans privates!

― Mark P-a- (Assumed persona), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Walking and Talking

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Chasing Amy (1997)
Chasing Liberty (2004)
Chasing Papi (2003)
Chasing Sleep (2000)
Chasing Cain (2001)
Chasing Buddha (2000)
Chasing Kevin (2000)
Chasing Holden (2001)
Chasing Daylight (2004)
Chasing Destiny (2001)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Was it called Raising Victor Vargas? Anyway, [something]ing Victor Vargas.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Losing Isaiah (1995)
Losing Layla (2001)
Losing Grace (2001)
Losing Weight (1916/II) ;-)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago)

I just realized that Finding Nemo sounds very strange, if you think about it too much.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:57 (twenty years ago)

I can see how the popularity of this phrasing is annoying, but I can also see how it makes a good movie title, at least from a marketing standpoint. It makes the title "active," something's happening, and therefore it's more exciting.

Also, Eating Raoul rules.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago)

Singing in the Rain
Breaking the Waves
Bringing out the Dead

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 18:59 (twenty years ago)

I hate this particular construction. It came to the movies after it had already swept through both the academy (every book by a promising young scholar *must* contain a present participle, as per ALA guidelines) and the art world (every photo and art exhibit--"Seeing Chicago," "Reading the Face"-- must likewise contain a present participle).

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:00 (twenty years ago)

It also sorta works as instant plot synopsis. You go see Finding Nemo, you at least have some idea what's going to happen; there's a Nemo, someone's trying to find him. Not like those stupid fuckers that name their movies shit like eXistenZ or something.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:00 (twenty years ago)

If you think about it as a present participle rather than an adjective, suddenly the title of Waking Life is totally fucking wicked.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago)

i think the supposed "active" connotation of this type of phrase is what makes it so attractive to scholars who know their work is fundamentally stodgy and/or obscure.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago)

Well, it's active, and it also cuts to the point: What's the movie about? (as you can see from my above examples) (xpost with Nickalicious goddamn you)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
for the gerund-fans out there.

― Huck, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:01 (twenty years ago)

It came to the movies after it had already swept through both the academy

Oh God, you just reminded me that my senior thesis in college was called "Reading the Ordinary" (a title I never really liked, but it "worked").

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:02 (twenty years ago)

Romancing the Stone

― briania (briania), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

i think that's a little different because it refers to a discrete action and not a sort of general plot arc/way of seeing/etc.--the title itself becomes a noun, not an active clause. see also the taking of pelham 123 (or whatever its called) etc.

Oh God, you just reminded me that my senior thesis in college was called "Reading the Ordinary" (a title I never really liked, but it "worked").

jaymc, i kill you with peer reviews.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to make a movie called "Fucking the Void."

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:04 (twenty years ago)

serving sara

― Symplistic (shmuel), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Beginning Batman

― Huck, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago)

seriously, when i see this construction used in an academic title, i don't bother to read it. not such because the construction in itself is intrinsically terrible, but because its use seems to signify a certain... attitude vis-a-vis the academy that i at worst disapprove of, at least don't have interest in.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago)

i propose a return to the montaignian "on..." construction; it doesn't presume that you're actually achieving anything, just addressing it.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:06 (twenty years ago)

Signifying a Certain Attitude Vis-a-Vis the Academy, with Sir Ian McKellan and Lindsey Lohan. Out August 2006 from Miramax.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:07 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 30 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I, Republican

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:30 (twenty years ago)

ha! that one has a present participle in its subtitle as well.

see i think this all signifies the idea of a book as "work," as an activity, as something dynamic. "if you read this book you will be collaborating in this proposed activity."

which is a valid way of conceptualizing a book, i suppose, but there's a certain hubris there too. it seems to fit with the sort of new-agey "prospects for change"-type conferences that are routinely advertised in the boston review and the nation... lots of people stumping for "change" and "activity" in various ways, but with a relative absense of content (follow-through). the result seems alternately like noodling and self-love. wait are those the same thing?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:31 (twenty years ago)

xpost

i was talking about reviving ophelia

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:32 (twenty years ago)

Do Androids dream of Election "Sheep"?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:33 (twenty years ago)

gawd you guys are so fucking corny can't you all be quiet while i'm dicoursing on the significance of trends in book titles?!?!

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Amateurist, I was thinking of the "response" book to Reviving Ophelia, which is interviews with MOTHERS of teenage girls:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006JO6M.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:37 (twenty years ago)

And then there was the one with interviews of transit operators who work in the districts of all-girls schools: Driving Ophelia.
Sorry, it's a reach.

― Huck, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:39 (twenty years ago)

am, you're complaining about bad puns and thread derailings and you've been on ILX how long?

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:39 (twenty years ago)

have we mentioned "deconstructing harry," which gets the academic origins (???) of this clause right, but the idea of "deconstruction" fairly wrong? which is appropriate in its own way, too.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:40 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/158240206X.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Ha, that reminds me (Woody Allen not Kevin Smith): a friend once told me that a classmate of his saw Deconstructing Harry but kept calling it Disregarding Harry; we thought he might have been confusing it with Regarding Henry.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Vaguely Remembering Harry

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:47 (twenty years ago)

Searching for Bobby Fischer

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:49 (twenty years ago)

Well, they've found him now.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:50 (twenty years ago)

Not Being Able to Jump, On Account of One's Whiteness

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:52 (twenty years ago)

But people are still Looking For Mr. Goodbar.

― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:53 (twenty years ago)

I Ran

― Symplistic (shmuel), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 19:55 (twenty years ago)

Suddenly I'm imagining Regarding Henry as a bunch of folks looking dispassionately over at Harrison Ford.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 20:48 (twenty years ago)

That would be the audience.

― St. Nicholas (Nick A.), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 20:52 (twenty years ago)

I've always thought of it that way, so I never saw it. I didn't want to be one of the ones who was doing all that regarding. I'd have been so there if they'd called it "REALLY CHECKIN THE SHIT OUT OF HENRY"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 20:58 (twenty years ago)

i think it is "regarding" as in "this is regarding your absence last thursday, mr. hand"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 20:59 (twenty years ago)

Well yes clearly. Because poor Henry, everyone was discussing him and his burdonsomeness and confusing the poor damaged man.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:06 (twenty years ago)

Some of them may have used binoculars.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:13 (twenty years ago)

I only remember the part where he wanted to make one big cookie instead of separating the dough, and his daughter explained that she'd tried it and it wouldn't work. That was poignant. This was a decent movie, wasn't it?

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I am a sucker for Flowers for Algernon-style mental-debilitation stories.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:15 (twenty years ago)

No. No movies with these titles are any good. They may seem good, but they're not.

HAHA nabisco what do you think of Lawnmower Man? ("Mowing the Lawn, The Man Does")

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:17 (twenty years ago)

"Flowering for Algernon"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:17 (twenty years ago)

Careful with the term "gerund," though: I almost said that, too, but it's only appropriate when the word's used as a noun.

But these ARE being used as nouns

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:20 (twenty years ago)

How?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:21 (twenty years ago)

For example, Chasing Amy = Holden (n) is chasing (v) Amy (n).

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:22 (twenty years ago)

Well, I suppose the case could be made for either participles or nouns. My logic was sort of like, "well, Saving Private Ryan is about saving Private Ryan." (< that sentence uses "saving Private Ryan" as a gerund phrase, you see) But I guess since they aren't being used in sentences, there's no way to tell.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:24 (twenty years ago)

The Taking of Pelham 123--it's being used as a noun
Taking Pelham--as a present participle verb

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:26 (twenty years ago)

How can you tell in the second case if it's not in a sentence?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:27 (twenty years ago)

it's a phrase

"good burger" is not a sentence either, but "burger" is a noun and "good" is an adjective

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:28 (twenty years ago)

i hope

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:28 (twenty years ago)

It could be a gerund phrase.

"Walking the dog is fun." - "walking the dog" is a gerund phrase, despite the fact that there's no preposition or preceding article ("the walking of the dog is fun" just sounds awkward).

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:32 (twenty years ago)

It could be a gerund phrase.

(this refers to "Taking Pelham," not "Good Burger," obv.)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:32 (twenty years ago)

erm, sorry for hijacking this thread.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:33 (twenty years ago)

As long as we're being picky...

It was that film that title (Being John Malkovich) which made a very stoned me realize that the phrase "human being" is in fact a sentence.

No it's not.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 21:40 (twenty years ago)

"a human being pedantic," that would be a sentence.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 22:46 (twenty years ago)

actually it wouldn't.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 22:47 (twenty years ago)

"There's a human being pedantic" would, though.

Anyone dare mention Boxing Helena yet, btw? (Hint: it isn't just the title that's bad.)

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 01:24 (twenty years ago)

Undertaking Betty

― Symplistic (shmuel), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 19:53 (twenty years ago)

This "walking the dog" thing has just about swayed me, actually.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 21 July 2004 20:39 (twenty years ago)

Walking and Talking and Kicking and Screaming both begin and end w/ present participles.

― C0L1N B3CK3TT (Colin Beckett), Thursday, 22 July 2004 10:11 (twenty years ago)

Chasing Lethargy

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 22 July 2004 10:15 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/

FAVORITE GERUND
MOVIE TITLES,
UN-GERUNDED.

BY IAN CAREY
- - - -

Rita, Educated

Forrester Found

I Served Sara

Raoul Was Eaten

The Stone Is Romanced

We Have Raised Arizona

The Waves Are Broken

I Drove That Old Bitch Miss Daisy

Helena Is in a Box and We Made This Piece of Shit Movie About It

Harry Deconstructed

Mona Is in the Process of Being Drowned

We Left Las Vegas, After Getting Totally Wasted

Home Stolen

Kill Zoe (Vol. 1)

Henry Was Regarded

Ryan Saved Privately

Isaiah Is or Has Been Lost

John Malkovich Has Been Been

The Cube, Gleamed

― ENRQ (Enrique), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 12:43 (twenty years ago)

hahaha "i served sara"!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 14:47 (twenty years ago)

mahoney, pwn3d

― ENRQ (Enrique), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 15:05 (twenty years ago)

the saving of silverman

― s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 16:37 (twenty years ago)

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