Tomorrow is Sweetest Day, a holiday that I knew nothing about until my girlfriend who was living in Ohio informed me that people have actually been celebrating it for years in the Mid-West. We celebrated our first Sweetest Day together over Skype. Our relationship started long distance so we had to sync up films on our computers so that we could simulate the experience of watching a film together via Skype. A year later we are cohabitating and she said "Yes" when I asked her to marry me. This Sweetest Day we are spending together and we are going to watch some of our favorite romantic movies for an iconoclastic Sweetest Day. This will be the last entry in November that I do about non-horror genre films as the rest of the month I will devote to the Halloween season. Here is the list:
1. Harold and Maude (1971)
When we were dating long distance, over Skype, we united over this Hal Ashby film that it turned out was one of both of our favorites. It is the story of a non-traditional romance between a death obsessed young man and an elderly woman with one foot in the grave. The film is one of Ashby's finest (and they're almost all good) and the wonderful soundtrack from Cat Stevens doesn't hurt either.
2. Fando y Lis (1968)
After exposing my future fiance to Alejandro Jodorowsky's the Holy Mountain for the first time (without too much incident) I decided to suggest we watch another of my favorite Jodorowsky masterpieces, Fando y Lis. With a story written by Jodorowsky's Panic Movement cohort, playwright and director Fernando Arrabal, the film is a psychedelic journey through the trials and tribulations of relationships. Filmed in beautiful black and white with some stunning surreal mise en scene Fando y Lis still retains its status as one of my favorite films of all time. To my surprise, she enjoyed it as well despite it's challenging pacing, disturbing themes and dense symbolism.
3. a. Before Sunrise (1995)
b. Before Sunset (2004)
c. Before Midnight (2013)
Having been a fan of Richard Linklater's meandering philosophical films like Slacker (1991) and Waking Life (2001) for some time, my future fiance suggested to me the Before films featuring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and their stimulating chemistry. The same characters appear in Waking Life so I had already been introduced to them. Their charming philosophical ramblings provoke the viewer to look beyond the surface of reality and to explore the truth hidden beneath. Each film is filmed almost a decade after the other and we see the characters age and their relationship seems also to age like a vintage wine. I understand the actors were so taken by the chemistry between the characters and the philosophical issues they discussed that they helped Linkater write the second and third films. They were nominated for an Oscar for Before Midnight.
1. Harold and Maude (1971)
When we were dating long distance, over Skype, we united over this Hal Ashby film that it turned out was one of both of our favorites. It is the story of a non-traditional romance between a death obsessed young man and an elderly woman with one foot in the grave. The film is one of Ashby's finest (and they're almost all good) and the wonderful soundtrack from Cat Stevens doesn't hurt either.
2. Fando y Lis (1968)
After exposing my future fiance to Alejandro Jodorowsky's the Holy Mountain for the first time (without too much incident) I decided to suggest we watch another of my favorite Jodorowsky masterpieces, Fando y Lis. With a story written by Jodorowsky's Panic Movement cohort, playwright and director Fernando Arrabal, the film is a psychedelic journey through the trials and tribulations of relationships. Filmed in beautiful black and white with some stunning surreal mise en scene Fando y Lis still retains its status as one of my favorite films of all time. To my surprise, she enjoyed it as well despite it's challenging pacing, disturbing themes and dense symbolism.
3. a. Before Sunrise (1995)
b. Before Sunset (2004)
c. Before Midnight (2013)
Having been a fan of Richard Linklater's meandering philosophical films like Slacker (1991) and Waking Life (2001) for some time, my future fiance suggested to me the Before films featuring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy and their stimulating chemistry. The same characters appear in Waking Life so I had already been introduced to them. Their charming philosophical ramblings provoke the viewer to look beyond the surface of reality and to explore the truth hidden beneath. Each film is filmed almost a decade after the other and we see the characters age and their relationship seems also to age like a vintage wine. I understand the actors were so taken by the chemistry between the characters and the philosophical issues they discussed that they helped Linkater write the second and third films. They were nominated for an Oscar for Before Midnight.
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