What started as an argument in the desert over which one of our dad’s favourite movie was actually Lawrence of Arabia (spoiler alert: it was Elissa), has turned into our newest fad: Cinema Club.
The plan was simple: Get together each month and work our way through all our dad’s favourite movies... it sounds quite cute and sweet, but really it’s just a thinly veiled excuse to get together for wine and popcorn.
So far we’ve watched Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia (which, for the record, was soooo long that when it actually finished we were all chatting, reading magazines or playing on our phones so barely noticed the credits role... sorry Liss’ dad) and have another 6 on the ‘to watch list’. Our dad’s would be so stoked to know that they’re the focus of our new club. Ha.
The best part about Cinema Club has been the dad’s descriptive reasons for their favourite film choices. Without prompting, each of the dads have sent back a detailed email describing their rationale... One awesome dad started his VERY lengthy response (where he detailed the plots and his thoughts of 4 separate films before settling on Annie Hall..) with the brilliant ‘What a dilemma! Choosing my favourite film is harder than choosing my favourite daughter!’
My dad chose a film called ‘Jesus of Montreal’ as his favourite (?)... and gave a ‘highly commended’ award to a YouTube clip he’d once seen on the making-of a documentary... If another movie turns out to be as long as Lawrence of Arabia... i’m going to suggest the youtube clip is watched instead.
The other nominations so far have been:
“A stunning French-Canadian film called Barbarian Invasions which is not as the title suggests a Sci-Fi film but rather about a man dying of cancer.”
“Midnight Cowboy followed closely by The Last Picture Show - I like the music by Hayy Nillson and i like the cast, especially Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. the story is quite sad.”
“It was neck and neck with The Graduate, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest wins based on number of times watched (3:1 for those interested).”
“Casablanca...the ultimate romance”
“Local hero. It’s quirky, has good characters, great scenery and fantastic music.'
“Best comedy that still makes me laugh each time would be ‘Van Wilder - party liaison officer’. Despite how sick that may sound - based on laugh value not quality of humour or film production. This would have to be the top.” Rad.
And my favourite: “The appeal of Annie Hall is that in addition to bravely attempting to look at some of the serious issues associated with love and relationships it is devastatingly funny. The comedy is multi-layered with many fabulous one-liners but also visual gags such as captions to show what people were really thinking when they were saying something and the split screen sequence when Woody Allen’s and Diane Keaton’s characters were talking to their respective therapists about how frequently they had sex is a classic.”
Dads are pretty kewl it seems.
xx
