Monday, February 11, 2008

A Few Of My Favorite Things

Favorite movies are very important to me. Just ask.... well, anyone who knows me. Or even anyone I've ever met. Because chances are, soon after asking "What's your name" and "Where are you from," I will ask you "So what are some of your favorite movies?" Some people are taken aback, and have to think about it for a few minutes, and that's something I don't understand. How do you not know what your favorite movies are??

Deciding the order of films in my top ten is an ongoing process, and one which I re-do every several months. Recently I listed out all the movies that I love enough that could possibly be considered a 'favorite,' and I came up with around 40 to 50 movie titles. I slowly whittled the list down to a top 25, and from there spent days agonizing over the particular order of the movies.
One night I was talking through the process aloud to my brother, fretting over such decisions as which to put in slot #3, "That Thing You Do" or "Newsies." Frustrated over my endless chattering, he finally shouted "Why does it even matter?" My bewildered answer?
"How does it not?"
Movies in general are fascinating to me, and I am a big list-maker, so naturally I would be interested in making lists about my own favorite movies. It can be a big deal to me to, say, move "A League of Their Own" all the way up to the #2 slot, meaning I love only "The Lord of the Rings" more. And the fact that I have a solid top 25 favorite movies seems only natural to me.*
So imagine my delight upon discovering that a book entirely devoted to the concept of having a top ten favorite movie list exists. Cinescopes is a very good book that, based on your ten favorite movies, can tell what kind of person you are. I, for instance, am a split personality, divided between Charismatic Performer and Vivacious Romantic, due to my love of movies like "Singin' in the Rain" and "Sense and Sensibility."
The book is based on the concept that "You are what you watch," and it's interesting to see people analyzed so accurately. I encourage you to visit the Cinescopes web site and watch the video where the authors of the book analyze the CBS Early Show anchors. It's quite interesting to see the analysis in action. There's also a page where you can submit your top ten list and learn whether you're a Determined Survivor, an Enlightened Healer, or an Invincible Optimist!
Even without the book in front of me, I love hearing people's movies. And not just to decipher the type of person they are, either. I simply enjoy discussing movies of all types (save move Adam Sandler "comedies"). It just comes with the territory of being a cinephile, I guess!
So... what are your favorite movies?
*See the comments section for mine and Ginger's own top 10 lists!

4 comments:

Ginger said...

I don't have your finesse or patience for lists...but I do usually have an answer for this one. So, we'll see if I can do 10...in no particular order for now. Chocolat, Amelie, Waiting for Guffman, The Family Stone, The Last of the Mohicans, The Man from Snowy River, Chariots of Fire, Pride & Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Meet Me in St. Louis. There you go...no surprises. :)

Valerie said...

My favorites:

1. The Lord of the Rings
2. A League of their Own
3. That Thing You Do
4. Newsies
5. The Notebook
6. Titanic
7. Singin' in the Rain
8. Moulin Rouge
9. Sense and Sensibility
10. Little Women

(11-25 include You've Got Mail, Ever After, Love Actually, Finding Neverland, Waiting For Guffman, Almost Famous, The Thin Man, The Princess Bride, Oklahoma, Stardust, Anastasia, Clue, Gone With the Wind, The Sound of Music, and Hairspray)

Way more than you ever wanted to know? ;-)

Anonymous said...

So glad to see Stardust in your favorites! -m.

~lady j said...

really? stardust? wow! you should read the book, if you haven't yet. i liked it even better.