Films you can't watch for certain personal reasons
I was reminded of this when reading that The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is coming to blu ray.
I can never watch it...let me explain...
Way back in the late 60's when I was around 10 years old or so, I think I had seen a poster somewhere for the movie on a fdouble bill with Funeral In Berlin, and thought the films looked very exciting and so persuaded my mother to take me to see them.
So my mother decided to make a day out of it and take all of us kids (4 in the family, 2 brothers and 2 sisters, of similar ages). So off we trotted to the Futurist cinema in Liverpool to watch the movies.
Of course, if you know the movies you know how ill-advised the whole venture was...a couple of downbeat, realistic cold-war thrillers, and a bunch of very young children expecting Bond-style action and mayhem.
So...I remember getting bored, we were restless, running around the cinema, probably annoying the hell out of the other poor patrons.
I remember deciding to wander round the cinema, and found an exit corridor and wandered up the stairs...got to the exit door and opened it, saw I was at street level so closed the door and came back down. But...I was then greeted by an 'usher' (who remembers them?) coming up the stairs who proceeded to throw me out, assuming I had obviously 'bunked in', Would not listen to my protests, so I went round to the front of the cinema, tried to explain to the box office, my mum was inside, had my ticket etc, but was pretty much told to go away.
So there I sat on the steps of the cinema, feeling pretty hacked off, and then one of my sisters came running out and asked if I had seen two women leave recently...because apparently they had dipped my mums handbag and stole her purse. I had seen two women leave a little while before, so we ran down towards Lime Street station to see is we could find them...no luck.
So..my mum had been robbed, apparently they leaned over and asked for a light for their cigarette, and at the same time dipped her bag which was on the seat.
We had to travel home on the bus, and my mum had to beg the bus driver to let us travel and take name and address etc to pay later, he was not too helpful apparently so she just piled us on the bus and said F U I need to get my family home, and had a massive argument with him...Matriarchal, stern,, formidable Irish mum...you don't mess with them!
So eventually we got home.
But to this day, I still cannot bring myself to watch that film, as much as I know it's a classic.
Any similar experiences?
I can never watch it...let me explain...
Way back in the late 60's when I was around 10 years old or so, I think I had seen a poster somewhere for the movie on a fdouble bill with Funeral In Berlin, and thought the films looked very exciting and so persuaded my mother to take me to see them.
So my mother decided to make a day out of it and take all of us kids (4 in the family, 2 brothers and 2 sisters, of similar ages). So off we trotted to the Futurist cinema in Liverpool to watch the movies.
Of course, if you know the movies you know how ill-advised the whole venture was...a couple of downbeat, realistic cold-war thrillers, and a bunch of very young children expecting Bond-style action and mayhem.
So...I remember getting bored, we were restless, running around the cinema, probably annoying the hell out of the other poor patrons.
I remember deciding to wander round the cinema, and found an exit corridor and wandered up the stairs...got to the exit door and opened it, saw I was at street level so closed the door and came back down. But...I was then greeted by an 'usher' (who remembers them?) coming up the stairs who proceeded to throw me out, assuming I had obviously 'bunked in', Would not listen to my protests, so I went round to the front of the cinema, tried to explain to the box office, my mum was inside, had my ticket etc, but was pretty much told to go away.
So there I sat on the steps of the cinema, feeling pretty hacked off, and then one of my sisters came running out and asked if I had seen two women leave recently...because apparently they had dipped my mums handbag and stole her purse. I had seen two women leave a little while before, so we ran down towards Lime Street station to see is we could find them...no luck.
So..my mum had been robbed, apparently they leaned over and asked for a light for their cigarette, and at the same time dipped her bag which was on the seat.
We had to travel home on the bus, and my mum had to beg the bus driver to let us travel and take name and address etc to pay later, he was not too helpful apparently so she just piled us on the bus and said F U I need to get my family home, and had a massive argument with him...Matriarchal, stern,, formidable Irish mum...you don't mess with them!
So eventually we got home.
But to this day, I still cannot bring myself to watch that film, as much as I know it's a classic.
Any similar experiences?
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Anyway..there I was sitting in the front row in a fairly uncrowded cinema and some old guy sat down beside me. He offered me money if I would let him "feel me up". I declined. He then made a grab at me. It was a struggle to get free. I got out of my seat fast, ran for the main foyer and told one of the staff. He got a few of his colleagues and headed into the cinema with me in tow. Of course the old pervert was gone. I assume he had headed out of the exit or had just moved seats. It would have been hard to pick him out in a darkened cinema.
The film "Doc" was not exactly a blockbuster and, to the best of my knowledge, has not been on TV in many a year if at all. If it was I cannot imagine I could stomach watching it.
Good on your Mum. What a woman. I do not want to watch 'The Hole' with Thora Birch and Keira Knightley. One it was a crap film and two I watched it with an old friend who I do not speak to anymore.
My father and I rented the video when it first came out. On the night we were watching it, my mother was pissed off that we were hogging the living room with a film, so she went through to the kitchen to listen to the radio. I barely saw her that evening.
She died suddenly the next day.
That was almost 20 years ago, and still I avoid that film. There's a certain amount of guilt that my mother's last evening was devoted to it instead of her, but of course we weren't to know. Oh well...
I used to feel like that when my Auntie died. I remember she went to take me to see California Man, Home Alone and Jurassic Park. The latter, was in the same year she had a massive stroke the following Winter. She was alive for a few years after that but then deteriorated and then passed away. Thankfully, I now look at those films as just good memories.
Poor thing... A spoonful of sugar my arse!!!
More family matters:
Not sure about can't watch, but Gandhi draws a wistful pang. Went to see it on release with Mum and Grandad. Very special for him as he hadn't been to the cinema in well over twenty years. He was a history buff and was keen to see it as he knew a lot (in the way our elders used to) about the man himself and the period of history involved. He loved the film - as did Mum - though I think just the trip itself was as much a pleasure. I was a bit too young to fully appreciate it, but I knew well enough to be enthused and grateful. Ice cream, Kia-ora, happily daydreaming through it in the warm, fuzzy Odeon aura. Mum and Grandad both no longer around sadly.
Also: Shrek. F*cking Shrek. After Brother-in-law bailed out (the yellow belly), I agreed to take sister and four kids (offspring & friends) out to the cinema at the retail park for the afternoon showing. But first, a trip to Toys R Us (noisy enough), followed by lunch at Pizza Hut (heaving, bedlam), then the film itself. Which, of course, was packed to the rafters with over-excited tots who showed great stamina in never once shutting up. The headache I had by the end made my eyes blur and I missed work the next day after doping myself up on that many painkillers the previous evening. F*cking Shrek. Never again. :mad:
I know what you mean same goes for the Quiet Man starring John Wayne. It was the last film my father watched before he died suddenly the next day. I always get choked up even talking about it.
I was around seven when I was trying to watch that on TV while my parents tried to get me to choose who I would like to live with.
I didn't mind them divorcing as they were already leading separate lives, but I did mind them badgering me with ridiculous promises like "I'll buy you a horse" (I didn't even like horses), and utterly inane questions like "Who do you love most?" They finally gave up when I was still refusing to choose, which I managed by watching Robin Hood stubbornly.
It was a shitty thing for them to do, but both deeply regretted it and have apologised years later. But yeah, I still can't watch the film - or any Robin Hood film - without remembering that uncharacteristic lapse in my parents' sanity.
Me and a friend of mine absolutely loved that film, and it helped me cope with the death of our mutual best friend. I stopped being able to watch it to the end when I was by myself, then I stopped being able to watch it at all when I was by myself. Me and that friend have since stopped speaking, so now all I think of when I hear of that film or catch glimpses of it is the friend who passed away and the friend I no longer speak to.
On a more lighter note... When the Incredibles came out, I got some good natured ribbing from my whole class for looking a lot like Edna that went on for so long I stopped finding it funny. I didn't see the film then when it came out, and I still don't want to now many years later, because even looking at the character winds me up!
I've never seen it all the way through because, believe it or not, on the three occasions I've tried, I've been interrupted by telephone calls bringing bad news. On the last occasion, it was to tell me my father had died.
I'll not be trying to watch it again...
i had a remote controlled boat when i was little and crashed it into the wall of the opposite riverbank and it sank .
i loved that boat !!
I had a wind-up U-boat. Every time I had a bath, I would blow up Allied shipping. Then my cousin broke it.
I get a shiver up my spine when I think of Arachnophobia. I think that a spider my come into my bed covers at night.
Didn't help that we had a great big sodding oak tree outside the window either