I've Seen (and Seen, and Seen Again) That Movie Too

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I was thinking about this in connection with Stanley Kauffmann and Pauline Kael. (If there's a poll already up, I don't know how to search it.) How often do you go back and rewatch films you really like? "How often" and "really like" are relative, so just make a general estimate.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Way too often--five, six, fifteen times. (You're a Clemenza-ite.) 25
Two or three times. 18
Never--too many other films to catch up with. (You're a Paulette.) 7


clemenza, Saturday, 12 October 2013 13:54 (eleven years ago)

Depends how much I like'em. My recall powers are getting better with age, actually, so first viewings are often all I need for contemporary fillum.

the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 October 2013 13:56 (eleven years ago)

I've gotten better the past couple of years--when the Lightbox here had their Top-100-ever opening series, I saw a few things again (Taxi Driver, Nashville) and said that was going to be it. So far I've stuck to that. I am, however, in the midst of ruining Zodiac and No Country for Old Men forever. I've probably seen the two Godfathers and Rosemary's Baby upwards of 20 times each. The 10+ list is lengthy.

clemenza, Saturday, 12 October 2013 13:59 (eleven years ago)

Voted "two or three times." I mean, I've seen Annie Hall and Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark enough times to have them committed to memory, but in two of those cases, childhood viewing habits come into play. I have an acquaintance who says that ideally he'd like to watch his favourite films at least once a year, but as his list of faves numbers in the hundreds, I don't see how that's feasible, though I sorta get where he's coming from. These days I'm content to revisit a fave only when an occasion calls for it, eg. I buy it on blu-ray, my boyfriend wants to see it (though his preference for political drama, documentaries and fantasy excludes the bulk of my faves), or I stumble across something I love but don't own on TCM or wherever. But yeah, "too many other films to catch up with" is what keeps me from more chronic re-watching.

Problematically, I'm the opposite of Alfred in that my memory seems to have been getting worse ever since I hit 30, so the desire to re-watch, or re-read, things, even if they aren't necessarily favourites, is strong, even though time does not permit. I guess the only real solution to all of this is that I'm going to have to live longer than I expected to.

the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Saturday, 12 October 2013 14:32 (eleven years ago)

There aren't many films I've seen more than three times, but the thought of watching one of my favourite films and deciding 'that's the last time I'll ever watch that film' seems horrifyingly depressing to me, maybe this is just a refusal to accept my own mortality but I aspire to watch all of those films five, six, fifteen times etc.
A lot of films I will rewatch maybe 20 minutes of it if it happens to be on TV or watch bits of it on youtube as well, which makes it difficult to count.

central nervous serpentine (bends), Saturday, 12 October 2013 14:39 (eleven years ago)

I think I saw the first X-men about 5 times in the cinema then have now bought it either 2 or 3 times as a dvd.
But it connected with me at a low point for me I think.
Don't think I've been to see any other film as much.
Can go to a few things a couple of times, maybe in 2 & 3D. Depends on the film.

Stevolende, Saturday, 12 October 2013 14:40 (eleven years ago)

I'd almost always rather rewatch an old favourite than watch a film I havn't seen before to be honest, I have to force myself to watch new films, I find in kind of stressful.

central nervous serpentine (bends), Saturday, 12 October 2013 14:44 (eleven years ago)

comedies have a lot of replay value for me, and there are a lot of favorites that i'll watch at least half of everytime i catch it on TV, and a few that i've actively put on the DVD multiple times just because i don't own many movies. and occasionally there are non-comedies i enjoy enough that i'll watch a few times, but again mostly because it just comes on TV again. so i don't feel like i do it in any kind of cinephile way, don't know how to vote tbh, mostly i just like to laugh.

some dude, Saturday, 12 October 2013 14:48 (eleven years ago)

Rest assured, bends, at some point I'll find some excuse to see Nashville and Rosemary's Baby again. Actually, I just remembered that I already have: I watched Rosemary's Baby a few months ago when someone bought me the Criterion disc.

I should have put "You're normal" in brackets after two or three times. Seeing certain films as many times as I do falls somewhere between silly and insane--it's a habit I fell into in my 20s, when I'd watch a lot of '70s favourites over and over on TV (not always the obvious ones--things like The Paper Chase and The Heartbreak Kid, too), and it stayed with me. But I think Kael's professed once-only is strange in its own way. I did read someone say that that wasn't quite an inviolable rule with her.

clemenza, Saturday, 12 October 2013 15:05 (eleven years ago)

deciding 'that's the last time I'll ever watch that film' seems horrifyingly depressing to me

Though I did have the experience of watching Raiders yet again recently and thinking "you know, maybe I have seen this enough times for one life," this thought is precisely what keeps me in the second/normal category.

the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Saturday, 12 October 2013 15:36 (eleven years ago)

There are some films that if I see they're on TV I will flip to and watch again, or at least watch part of, just because I know it'll be a pleasurable experience. But there are so many films I want to see before I die, I don't like rewatching too much. Takes too much time away from the new pleasures to come.

cops on horse (WilliamC), Saturday, 12 October 2013 15:47 (eleven years ago)

I'm thinking about how many more film viewings I am likely to be able to fit into my lifetime based on getting time to watch about two or three movies a week and it's depressing.

central nervous serpentine (bends), Saturday, 12 October 2013 15:51 (eleven years ago)

She inadvertently admitted she DID rewatch movies in the lapidary observation that certain classics like All About Eve and The Maltese Falcon play better on TV; I took it to mean she's caught'em on TV.

the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 October 2013 19:12 (eleven years ago)

The 'really like' thing makes me sort of want to vote for the last option, but I feel that would misrepresent my watching habits. Two or three is normal for me, a few films get craploads more views than that.

emil.y, Saturday, 12 October 2013 21:38 (eleven years ago)

There are not many films I watch more than once, or would want to. I'll re-watch a decent movie once or even twice, if it is easier to rewatch a known quantity than to seek out a new movie that stirs my interest. There are only a few films I have watched five or more times. This may be because the VCR was not invented until I was an adult. The best example would be The Maltese Falcon. There's not a wasted second in it.

Aimless, Sunday, 13 October 2013 04:51 (eleven years ago)

I said "two or three" because that's been true of a lot of movies I really like -- I've seen most of Lynch's movies at least twice, e.g., and several of them three or four times. (Blue Velvet is probably more than that.) I can't tell you how many times I've seen The Maltese Falcon or Singin' in the Rain, because those are movies I'll always watch if I happen across them on TV.

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 October 2013 05:07 (eleven years ago)

Within the last six months, I've watched Mulholland Drive for the 3rd time, Primer for the 2nd time and Diner for the (probably) 15th time.

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 October 2013 05:08 (eleven years ago)

Oh, and His Girl Friday for at least the 3rd, but it's probably more than that.

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 13 October 2013 05:08 (eleven years ago)

I think Ive seen "Withnail & I" at least 15 times since it came out - both in the cinema and on VHS (and then DVD). I love it bit I think I did actually get to a point of "yeah I could not see this again for a while I reckon".

I obsessively watched Donnie Darko when it came out, trying to work the story out, playing it for other ppl etc. Theyre the only 2 films I can think of Ive seen more than 5 times but theres heaps of others ive seen up to 5 thanks to having them on DVD (Grosse POinte Blank, Mystery Men, Pi) and stuff that I see by accident cos its on telly constantly and thus kind of ubiquitous (Chevy Chase movies, John Hughes movies etc)

taxi tomato or bag tomato (Trayce), Sunday, 13 October 2013 05:13 (eleven years ago)

I've watched The Third Man, both Nosferatus and Blade Runner at least ten times each

cardamon, Sunday, 13 October 2013 09:44 (eleven years ago)

My crazy list (10+) is probably in the neighborhood of 40 or 50 films. The great majority are from '67 or later. From before that, Double Indemnity, Sweet Smell of Success, and The Hustler for sure; It's a Wonderful Life too, which I stopped watching years ago but OD'd on growing up. (Same with The Wizard of Oz and The Ten Commandments...certain holiday films were automatic at our house.)

clemenza, Sunday, 13 October 2013 14:31 (eleven years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 19 October 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago)

You've got 23 hours to watch your favourite film 10 more times.

clemenza, Saturday, 19 October 2013 00:08 (eleven years ago)

I've seen clueless like a hundred times and it gets better each time. Then again I've seen celine & julie go boating twice and it's my favourite film so

Nationwide Festival of Light Bondage (wins), Saturday, 19 October 2013 00:15 (eleven years ago)

more than two or three. although if i've seen a film i really like two or three times in a cinema, and it's on again in a cinema, i start to think about staying in.

zvookster, Saturday, 19 October 2013 00:19 (eleven years ago)

I'm in between Kael and 2-or-3. There are very few movies that I've watched as many as three times, and usually not because it's my favorite but just because it's on and somebody else is watching it or whatever. To watch something twice it either needs to be something I haven't seen in many years or I'm watching it with somebody who's never seen it before. But a lot of times I'll get the urge to rewatch something that I don't own and isn't on netflix instant, so I don't get to watch it and the urge passes. Lately I've been really missing video stores.

wk, Saturday, 19 October 2013 00:30 (eleven years ago)

i have tended to watch movies i owned over and over, beyond the mid and into clemenza ranges.

i seem to have kind of transferred that habit over to tv ever since i started watching tv on dvd and there was a big glut of constant tv reruns on tnt and the like. somehow it seems like a better waste of my time to me. spreads out the repetitions more, and the amount to remember makes it seem more worth the over-time. like, i'm curious about how it is that you 'watch' > 100 hours of a television show, and then say something about it that benefits from the watching. but i kind of get how watching a 2-hour movie 100 times would feed back into what you get out of it.

j., Saturday, 19 October 2013 15:41 (eleven years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 20 October 2013 00:01 (eleven years ago)

Surprised--assumed two-three would be the norm. (Maybe it's just a handful of people who also like to vote five or six times.)

clemenza, Sunday, 20 October 2013 02:37 (eleven years ago)

If I have the time will watch almost any movie by any director worth his salt at least twice if I don't hate it, since the first time I'm just kind of barely following the plot, so I can't notice many of the little details or see how it all fits together. If I actually like something I'll watch it several times.

Sodade Stereo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 October 2013 20:01 (eleven years ago)


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