Movies

I was watching a movie, I adored, last night called Cairo Time. It made me think of a movie called India Song, by Marguerite Duras. Cairo Time is not so languorous as India Song and is more of a straight forward narrative, but the film has that quality of being a small snippet in time and is as much about the feel of Cairo,and the feeling of early attraction to another, as the story. . .

So thinking about those films started me thinking about the films that have had a major impact on me - the ones that stayed with me, have been integrated, in part, into who I am . . . So here's a list.

Movies from Childhood:

On the Beach (1959) - Surprisingly the first movie that I can remember seeing in a theatre - not likely the first movie I saw, but it is the first one that I remember - I would have been 6. I imagine that my parents just wanted to see the movie - but I don't know why they took me - I don't remember my sister, who would have been 4, being there. I was also incredibly bored and often had no idea what was going on (its about the end of the world after a nuclear war) but it was when I had a thought that church and movies were the same - dark places where kids had to sit still and "be good" I had thought it before but remember sitting in the movie thinking that god and Santa Clause were much the same - stories told to kids to make them be good. I think that those thoughts were the crux of all that I later became (rejecting religion early although I did try a number - Bahai Faith in particular - on in the early teenage years.) maybe even the movie made me think about justice ad preventing annihilation of the species?

Pinochio - 1940 Disney Feature - I do not know when I would first have seen it - maybe on TV, although I remember the theatre. What I do know is that I watched it with my sister, Geri, and, even today, Jimminy Cricket singing When YOu wish upon a star can make us both cry. I think I learned early to tell then truth and value it, and that school (and what a donkey you are if you don't do well) was a good place. I think this also contributed, surprisingly, to my sense of justice. When you wish upon a star made me want to, not just wish on stars, (which I still do) but also to reach for, strive for, your dreams and that was important. . . It is certainly a film that I remember from very early and that influenced me throughout my life (as I suppose did Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty - I certainly grew up with my masochistic construction firmly in tact, 'til Kaja Silverman at least partly saved me from it (more on her and that influence later in this list.)

The next two movies that had a significant impact on me and I can still sing most of the score from both are Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. Since the words and music are stuck so permanently in my brain - they must have had an inluence - though other than enjoying musicals I am not sure what. . . I may have learned that Nazi's are bad, and that being a nun is not for everyone, but I think I mostly learned not to complain and to be pure of, heart, and to work hard and play hard and to fall in love and to clean up my room and to laugh are all good things .. . I have seen the sound of music -sing along version! - recently but not Mary Poppins.

Piling on the masochistic construction through film. . .
Dr. Zhivago
Franco Zefferreli's Romeo and Juliet
Brother Sun, Sister Moon


The Miracle Worker (1962)
Made me want to be like Ann Sullivan or maybe a little like Helen. Certainly inspired or educated me about the struggles of others. I am not sure when I saw this - I have a feeling that I saw it a few years later than the theatrical release maybe on TV?