comfort movies

I've had so many over the years--I tend to comfort-watch them right off the list every couple of years. Right now, Zodiac, No Country for Old Men, Nixon, Fargo.

I don't do this.

Pauline Kael has rained on our Andrew Sarris parade.

The Paper Chase

― nicky lo-fi, Sunday, January 17, 2010 4:02 AM (3 years ago)

A few from earlier in the thread that I would have once listed; this one's the most surprising/gratifying.

Zodiac is a great one. i think i once watched it four times over two days when stuck at home with the flu.

i think a lot of these for me tend to overlap with movies that TNT or Comedy Central tend to show over and over--but just the ones i like.

can totally relate to Zodiac.

yep good call on Zodiac, totally agree

Any woody allen movie, even the awful ones, and the royal tenenbaums

Zodiac really does impart a sense of a lot of time passing in a way that's accomplished by more than just sheer length. there's something really satisfying about that.

also it's a movie that's content to meet you at just about any level of engagement you want.

Yes--there's something about the way it unfolds that make it fit the definition perfectly. For a movie so dense with procedural stuff, there's also something very contemplative about it.

Zodiac has the best opening (the original 70s logos, the fireworks, the car, the Three Dog Night song.. ) i can remember from recent years.
not to derail the thread but AV Club did a good piece in their New Cult Canon section http://www.avclub.com/articles/zodiac,59576/

i also love the atmosphere of unique intimacy between men working together for long periods of time.

secret heartbreak of the film is when anthony edwards retires

That's such a good scene. The parts of the film where Zodiac ceases to be a story for anyone except Graysmith (overtly; obviously he remains at the forefront of Toschi's thoughts too, even though he won't admit as much to Graysmith) are beautifully done; like with the Edwards scene ("I haven't left you holding the bag on anything, have I?"), everything's unspoken.

(Same--don't mean to derail the thread...)

i only just started rewatching stuff, absentmindedly while i scan photographs, but i used to watch basquiat a lot. i am dying to rewatch 35 rhums.

these movies kind of fall under 'comfort' for me:

light sleeper (i think the rhythms and mood are good for late night viewing)
beau travail
a christmas carol (1951 version)
sonatine

blade runner
three colors white
late spring
sans soleil
akira

re: woody allen i was watching vicky cristina barcelona earlier today and thinking that it wasn't very good but it was very comforting to watch, weird that this thread got bumped

Pretty much any Miyazaki

can think of a bunch of allen movies that fit the bill (& kinda with the caveat that they don't have to just be the best); deconstructing harry & bullets over broadway would be really enjoyable to dip back into.

thought i was being p high brow throwing a denis flick into the mix but i am outclassed & undone by a pleasure viewing of beau trevail

http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/12600000/Milla-in-Dazed-and-Confused-milla-jovovich-12603300-853-480.jpg

ilx comfort special:

http://ruthlessculture.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/mrx.jpg

for hangovers:

http://www.furiouscinema.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/rio-bravo.jpg

talking to Alfred:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3eyISCTG5Y

The Wicker Man is my go-to hangover film

(like a thousand people already said dazed because it's the perfect this, but none of them posted milla pics so i fixed the thread)

xxp lol. more like part 2 of 4000.

p hilar how this thread started as YAY MARTY MCFLY and now is about kieslowski

I've been thinking about how to answer this one. I've known smart people who claim that like watching dumb movies (or television) because they've worked hard all day and by the time they get home they don't want to think. I get it, but I just can't function that way. If I'm watching something dumb, I'm going to be constantly thinking about how dumb it is, and that's just not relaxing. I guess I kind of agree with Roger Ebert: "no good movie is depressing, but all bad movies are depressing."

A comfort movie, for me, isn't one that doesn't demand thought, exactly, but rather something that is so purely entertaining that I'm not compelled to think about anything else while watching it. Things like Raiders of the Lost Ark, North by Northwest, Casablanca, Back to the Future and, yes, Die Hard with a Vengeance--these aren't necessarily unsophisticated films (though "sophistication" is not a word generally associated with the latter) rather ones that I've seen enough times to know that they're never getting old for me.

Sigh of relief--I thought your first paragraph was setting up Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles or something. (Which I like fine!)

first three Bournes
Dazed & Confused
Wonder Boys

xpost

Heh. Still never seen that one, though I have watched La Chambre, which I assume is something like Jeanne Dielman at like 1/20 the length. One day...

Don't really have many of these, but La Dolce Vita is sort of endlessly warm and inviting. Seem to return to Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Chocolat (the Claire Denis one) and Kusturica's Underground a lot too.

denis's chocolat otm

The Station Agent, because it was shot just down the street from my childhood home, which is a place that I am extremely attached to.

that is a lovely movie, I like the Station Agent a lot

collateral
dead man
blade runner
l'avventura
casino
russian ark
fear and loathing in las vegas
eureka (aoyama)
heat
andrei rublev
chinatown

i know where i'm going!

Last night I needed a few beers and 90 minutes of comfort. Looked on my VHS shelf and discovered I had taped Coney Island (Betty Grable, 1943) off AMC years ago, even labelled it, and then never watched it. My night was made.

i think i do associate t.v. with comfort more. from when i was little and i would watch i love lucy every day for what seemed like years. so many shows like that. gilmore girls would be a more modern example. kinda perfect for me and i can re-watch anytime. and when me and the kids watched avatar all the way through cyrus became a little obsessed and would watch episodes over and over and i liked having them on. the kids were/are like that with futurama and now i kinda just like hearing it in the house. but obviously there were movies i watched over and over and never got tired of. they always made me feel okay. blade runner, over the edge (my fave movie ever), king of new york, housekeeping, ruby in paradise, safe (i know, but it soothed me), days of heaven. lots more. i've probably seen days of heaven 100 times. i've seen the movie BUG a hundred times! i was obsessed with that movie. i would watch it every day for a while back in the old days.

i don't watch them much anymore though. the ones i've seen so many times. i want to see too many other things that i haven't seen yet. i know those movies by heart. Five Corners! i've seen that movie so many times. neflix t.v. thing has kinda become my perfect outlet. gotta say. as far as comfort goes. its just too easy and addictive. can't wait for the new prison series! still probably should finish watching breaking bad. comforting in its itchy way.

I know ILX hates The Ice Storm but it's like a handful of Vicodin to me

snowy movies are TOTAL comfort for me. i just bought a kate beckinsale snow movie simply for the snow.

forgot about the snow...

groundhog day
black narcissus

Stealing Beauty is an annual late spring viewing for me. Anything with Peter Falk is good for dulling creeping anxiety, especially The Brinks Job.

Columbo is prime comfort viewing for me, yes.

started watching Emergency! on netflix with Cyrus. really brings me back. i loved that show. again, probably seen every episode 5 times. i kinda want to watch all the episodes of all creatures great & small on netflix. feel like that would be comforting.

Ice Storm for me too, especially a couple of years ago when I watched it a number of times.

eureka would be cool to have playing in the kitchen while you slow-cooked a side of ham or something

wayne's world
my neighbor totoro
wrath of khan

Tootsie
Husbands and Wives
The Lady Eve
The Discreet Charm...