POZ Community Forums
Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: mecch on August 15, 2010, 10:45:40 am
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Catching up on my list of bittersweet movies to watch.
Do you like them, too?
Any recommendations?
So I just enjoyed
Broken Flowers - Jim Jarmusch. Bill Murray as an aging and improbable "Don Juan", stoic and then increasingly tender feeling, while making an "autumn of life" summary of his experiences in love and intimacy. The last scene is incredibly bittersweet. It's all about Bill Murray's face.
500 Days of Summer - the flip side of the coin from Broken Flowers. A young man in the spring of his career and love life, gets a whammy wake-up call about his naivete, spinelessness, and tendency to wallow. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was below my radar, but the camera loves his face in this film, and you might too! He's not gorgeous but he's perfectly between boy and man, masculine and feminine, and all the emotions of the character play across the face in a bittersweet manner. The very pretty Zooey Deschanel plays the black widow character, or is she?
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I don't know if my list of favs is all bittersweet, but some are:
1) RENT
2) The Fisher King
3) Terms of Endearment
4) The Boys in Company C
5) Longtime Companion
6) Steel Magnolias
7) Hardball
8) Moulin Rouge
(I don't know why the smiley thing w/ sunglasses showed up instead of the #8) ???
Each has its bittersweet moment(s) - Each brought more than one tear to my eye.
Edited to add: The comment about the smiley thing (emoticon) appearing instead of #8.
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I'm not clear what's intended genre wise specifically by "bittersweet" -- does my Jennifer Lopez collection of romantic comedies count?
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I'm not clear what's intended genre wise specifically by "bittersweet" -- does my Jennifer Lopez collection of romantic comedies count?
Bittersweet = the taste of spunk
Oh, and 'Gigli' was quite bittersweet; it is up there with 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Schindler's List'
Now, if you want a truly sad movie (if that's what Mecha meant by bittasweet) you need to see 'Dancer In the Dark' (first one that comes to my mind along with BBM and SL).
I don't know if my list of favs is all bittersweet, but some are:
3) Terms of Endearment
6) Steel Magnolias
Phil, girl, you are so predictable. I must be the only queen in this planet who doesn't care for either one (gimme 'Sunset Boulevard' instead). All that's missing from your list is either 'Stepmom' and/or 'Beaches.'
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Rev you don't like Steel Magnolias? I'm gonna need you to turn over you gay card missy.
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Phil, girl, you are so predictable. I must be the only queen in this planet who doesn't care for either one (gimme 'Sunset Boulevard' instead). All that's missing from your list is either 'Stepmom' and/or 'Beaches.'
omg, live for "Terms" -- I always cry at one point in the end... you know wacky ole Shirley keeps it real.
Cant's stand "Steel Magnolias" but then Julia R. gives me hives, unless it's Notting Hill but I have a fetish for mediocre Hugh Grant films.
All that's missing from your list is either 'Stepmom' and/or 'Beaches.'
I've never seen either!
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Bittersweet?
1 involving or causing feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time
a bitter-sweet love story
Its not completely sad and bleak, like Dancer in the Dark. Though I thought Deneuve was moving in that film, and I cried when she sang in the factory.
Terms of Endearment is a "tear-jerker" because of the third act dramatic death.
Shirley MacLaine is quite a master of bittersweet, especially the Billy Wilder movies.
Bittersweet is more an extended rumination on the coexistent pleasures and pains of love, or relationships, etc.
If all you can do is crack on it, then it's not your cup of tea for a genre.
Some suggestions:
Bridget Jones
Casablanca
The Bodyguard
Moulin Rouge (good call!)
American Graffiti
Can be crappy or schmaltzy.
Miss P - I'm not up on the Jennifer Lopez filmography - but its possible she does bittersweet, you tell me.
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All that's missing from your list is either 'Stepmom' and/or 'Beaches.'
Excellent movies! ;)
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Bittersweet = the taste of spunk
Oh, and 'Gigli' was quite bittersweet; it is up there with 'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Schindler's List'
Now, if you want a truly sad movie (if that's what Mecha meant by bittasweet) you need to see 'Dancer In the Dark' (first one that comes to my mind along with BBM and SL).
Phil, girl, you are so predictable. I must be the only queen in this planet who doesn't care for either one (gimme 'Sunset Boulevard' instead). All that's missing from your list is either 'Stepmom' and/or 'Beaches.'
Damn, that's right I forgot Beaches. I guess I find scenes that make me cry cathartic - since not a lot of things in "real" life make me cry like I do when I watch a tear-jerker, bittersweet movie.
I had to put Steel Magnolias - lest my gay card be revoked - as Trey said.
I also like 50 First Dates with Adamn Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Also, love Mask - with Cher. Of course, E.T. made me cry... :o
On the laughter note - I also like Serial Mom.
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Here, we can look at tvtropes.org exploration:
Note that is just about "bittersweet endings", however.
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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BittersweetEnding
Bittersweet Ending
Victory, at last! The Big Bad has been vanquished, the day has been saved, the damsels in distress and innocent bystanders have been rescued and the heroes are ready to reap their reward, kiss their Love Interests and walk away toward the setting sun...
...victory, really? Then why does no one feel like cheering? Why is the atmosphere so heavy with melancholy? Why do you find yourself counting your losses as well as your gains? Why couldn't Aerith and Hughes be here?
Somewhere between the Happily Ever After and the Downer Ending, the Bittersweet Ending happens when victory came at a harsh price, when, for whatever reason, the heroes cannot fully enjoy the reward of their actions, when some irrevocable loss has happened during the course of the events, and nothing will ever be the same again. A Bittersweet Ending is still ending on a high note, but one that is mixed with sadness and nostalgia. Often, such endings are the result of the plot making a completely happy ending impossible. (Looked at objectively, some Happy Endings have more things lost or irrevocably broken than some Bittersweet Endings. This trope relies more on the mood than on such objective weighing of matters.)
Some specific cases of Bittersweet Endings are:
* Did Not Get The Girl: when the Official Couple is broken for the right cause.
* When the hero fades into obscurity, gaining nothing in exchange for everything they sacrificed.
* End Of An Age: When an irrevocable loss happens, which removes the innocence of the hero or of the world forever.
* When the victory is only achieved at the sacrifice of people dear to the heroes (if not the heroes themselves) — or perhaps was attempted to be won at this cost, and the heroes had to soldier on to victory without any benefit from it.
* The bad guys get away in part, and the heroes will have to face them again, and know it.
Bittersweet Endings are frequent in stories on the cynical end of the Sliding Scale Of Idealism Versus Cynicism. They also work well when the characters are at a loss about what to do now. They come up frequently in High Fantasy, for obvious reasons — an epic that ended with evil winning would usually mean the end of the world, and the mother of all Downer Endings, but at the same time defeating the ultimate Big Bad without paying some kind of price would be awfully unsatisfying. Sometimes these are worlds and stories where you can Earn Your Happy Ending, though it won't be Exactly What It Says On The Tin. Also shows where too many females are introduced for one male hero are doomed to end in this way or Cliff Hanger, since painless resolution is mostly impossible
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Damn it - I gotta draw the line on you queens. We're not discussing Tear Jerkers in this thread!
It's like Lee and Levi's - NOT THE SAME THING.
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Does "The Last Castle" (Robert Redford) qualify? Excellent movie about leadership...
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Brokeback Mountain qualifies as bittersweet.
Beaches? Please.
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Life is Beautiful
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Life is Beautiful - it can't really be in the genre because the entire 2nd act takes place in a nazi concentration camp and the dad is executed! Its a tragicomedy. Anything with concentration camps is a tragedy - its just too freaking dark and heavy to be "bittersweet".
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Life is Beautiful - it can't really be in the genre because the entire 2nd act takes place in a nazi concentration camp and the dad is executed! Its a tragicomedy. Anything with concentration camps is a tragedy - its just too freaking dark and heavy to be "bittersweet".
Dang. I would have thought that 'Life is Beautiful' would qualify based on your definition. You are being a bittersweet movie Nazi :)
How bout that cheesefest 'The Broken Hearts Club' (or whatever) with Dean Caine? Can't say that I truly liked it, but it kept me entertained.
Then there's always your run-o-da-mill gay flick like 'Beautiful Thing,' 'Get Real,' and 'Wild Reeds' (which I love to death).
My gay card remains intact, even if I can't stomach the Magnolias or endure the sadness of Terms.
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Then there's always your run-o-da-mill gay flick like 'Beautiful Thing,' 'Get Real,' and 'Wild Reeds' (which I love to death).
My gay card remains intact, even if I can't stomach the Magnolias or endure the sadness of Terms.
There you go. Totally agree with the loveliness and bittersweet quality of Wild Reeds! Many summer romance movies are bittersweet and of course the French have a flair for this. Romer is good.
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How about stepmom with Susan Sarandon?
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You tell me.
If we all get the differences between tear-jerker and tragedy and bittersweet. I'm looking for recommendations. No total "debbie downer" movies.
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The Lost Language of Cranes or whatever it was called.
Flick to avoid: In the Gloaming. Just awful. I was so glad when the AIDS victim in that lozenge popped his clogs at the end. Glen Close should be ashamed of herself.
MtD
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For me personally the movie "Life as a House" has always touched home. It stars Kevin Klein and is about a disconnected father who, when diagnosed as terminally ill, decides to re-establish his relationship with his troubled son. It's both touching and life-affirming at the same time :)
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Flick to avoid: In the Gloaming. Just awful.
Hideous. That one and 'It's My Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_My_Party_(film))' (I know, I'm going to hell for that, but I hated that movie as much as I hate 'Philadelphia,' both of which made me cry like a Magdalena).
Speaking of hideous, here's one über-fantastic, bitter-sweet flick: my goddess, Kate Winslet, in 'Hideous Kinky.' I could watch that one two million times.
And last, another lovely and bittersweet film, even if it is three hours long, is 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.'
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For me personally the movie "Life as a House" has always touched home. It stars Kevin Klein and is about a disconnected father who, when diagnosed as terminally ill, decides to re-establish his relationship with his troubled son. It's both touching and life-affirming at the same time :)
"Troubled" as a metaphor for?
MtD
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"Troubled" as a metaphor for?
MtD
I think it's just a case where a son was raised with an absentee father and is rebelling. He yearns for attention from his father and finally when he gets it doesn't react the way he expected.
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I must agree with Matty about "In the Gloaming." Hideous.
It's My Party also sucked, not to mention the main character wasted an entire baggie of cocaine near the end of the movie. Hell, if I was going to knock myself off, I would have snorted it, enjoyed the high, then popped the pills. I guess I shouldn't have watched that movie at a Christmas party. ::)
Here are some of my favorite bittersweet movies:
Casablanca
Schindler's List
Longtime Companion (OK, it is dated, etc., but I always cry at the end during the beach scene.)
Philadelphia
Funny Girl
The Way We Were (gotta have my Babs) ;)
Torch Song Trilogy
See, gay card still intact even if I didn't mention Beaches or Steel Magnolias, the latter of which I do like.
HUGS,
Mark
)
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I think it's just a case where a son was raised with an absentee father and is rebelling. He yearns for attention from his father and finally when he gets it doesn't react the way he expected.
Ah. Well colour me disappointed. I was hoping "troubled" was code for "sodomite" as it was when I was at school.
Dear Mr and Mrs the Damned
Further to our conversation of Friday last the College Chaplain, Father Muck, holds grave concerns that your son Matty may indeed be "troubled" and intends to conduct a thorough investigation of the same this Sunday after Mass.
MtD
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You tell me.
If we all get the differences between tear-jerker and tragedy and bittersweet. I'm looking for recommendations. No total "debbie downer" movies.
OK..stepmom with susan sarandon. lol
Truly, madly, deeply
As good as it gets - my fav movie
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The Last Castle
Roman Holiday
To Kill a Mockingbird
Seven Pounds
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Forgot about Torch Song Trilogy -
Oh, Titanic probably doesn't count as bittersweet, right?
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Ah. Well colour me disappointed. I was hoping "troubled" was code for "sodomite" as it was when I was at school.
Dear Mr and Mrs the Damned
Further to our conversation of Friday last the College Chaplain, Father Muck, holds grave concerns that your son Matty may indeed be "troubled" and intends to conduct a thorough investigation of the same this Sunday after Mass.
MtD
Hmmm... I was seriously troubled then. Did I ever tell you about that one time when a priest smacked me silly 'cause I confessed my impure thoughts and feelings towards my friend Luoie? Made me embrace the half-Jew in me with a passion. It was the last time I ever told my dirty little secrets to one of them pervs.
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I'm watching Legally Blonde right now on TBS in HD, and it's so sweetly bitter.
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"OMG...It's the bend & snap! Works everytime!" lol :D
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I'm watching Legally Blonde right now on TBS in HD, and it's so sweetly bitter.
Clueless - "Whatever!" Edition is the utmost of bittersweetness. Especially when she gets held at gunpoint by some pre-meth addict and her dress is ruined. The line "You Don't understand... This is an Alia!!!" brings me to tears.
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Desperate Living by John waters .
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Here are some of my favorite bittersweet movies:
Casablanca
Schindler's List
Longtime Companion (OK, it is dated, etc., but I always cry at the end during the beach scene.)
Philadelphia
Funny Girl
The Way We Were (gotta have my Babs) ;)
Torch Song Trilogy
See, gay card still intact even if I didn't mention Beaches or Steel Magnolias, the latter of which I do like.
HUGS,
Mark
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I hadn't remembered those Babs movies but right you are. The Way We Were wiki article summarizes bittersweetness here:
Katie, now re-married, invites Hubbell to come for a drink with his lady friend, but he confesses he can't. Katie's response acknowledges what they both finally understand: Hubbell was at his best when he was with her, and no one will ever believe in him or see as much promise in him as she once did. Their past is behind them; all the two share now, besides their daughter, is a memory of the way they were.
I dunno. I still resist any movie with either a holocaust or aids+death theme as possible bittersweet material. Not saying these aren't moving or great movies.
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"OMG...It's the bend & snap! Works everytime!" lol :D
Don't stomp your little last season Prada shoes at me, honey.
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I know people may not agree but I thought Sixth Sense was bittersweet when Haley Joel Osment tells Toni Collette about her deceased mother. I actually choked up.
I also was moved by the flashback of the old man's marriage in Up!
And in true geek fashion I teared up when a friend of mine started crying and reached over to hold my hand when Frodo leaves Middle Earth at the end of Return of the King.
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8) Moulin Rouge
(I don't know why the smiley thing w/ sunglasses showed up instead of the #8) ???
Edited to add: The comment about the smiley thing (emoticon) appearing instead of #8.
emoticons are usually created by symbols for "eyes" and "mouths". at AM, they are also followed by a space (without the space the emoticon will remain text)
"8" for the eyes covered by sunglasses, followed immediately (with no spacing) by a ")" for a smiley mouth, followed by a space is the emoticon 8)
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emoticons are usually created by symbols for "eyes" and "mouths". at AM, they are also followed by a space (without the space the emoticon will remain text)
"8" for the eyes covered by sunglasses, followed immediately (with no spacing) by a ")" for a smiley mouth, followed by a space is the emoticon 8)
Thanks Mikie - man I wish I had your techy abilities :)
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Annie Hall is bittersweet.
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Billy Elliot
Away from Her (Alzheimer's + Julie Christie)
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but I have a fetish for mediocre Hugh Grant films.
How sad. Hugh Grant makes me cringe.
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How sad. Hugh Grant makes me cringe.
I told you I was hardcore. I have a high pain threshold for bad movies.
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Iris & One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
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Love Iris.
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My Own Private Idaho and Elephant.
MtD
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Iris
Hmmm... I adore my Kate :). She has so many films that could be included in this category (Little Children, Finding Neverland, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc.).
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Hmmm... I adore my Kate :). She has so many films that could be included in this category (Little Children, Finding Neverland, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc.).
Not to mention co-starring with Patrick Wilson's taut buttocks in Little Children.
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I told you I was hardcore. I have a high pain threshold for bad movies.
I'm sure the klonopin helps in that regard. Maybe the poppers too.
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I thought American History X was bittersweet.
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Simon Birch
Not only does Ian Michael Smith, playing the title character, die after rising to heroic heights; but the most painfully bittersweet part of the movie is when a baseball, that he hit, kills the only lady to ever "mother" him, the beautiful Ashley Judd
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Some of these movies sound more "totally tragic" than bittersweet, to me.
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Not to mention co-starring with Patrick Wilson's taut buttocks in Little Children.
I know. They look so smooth. Makes you wanna bite them.
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Now, Voyager? The Corn is Green?
Indochine (or is that too tragic?)
Anything by Ozu--especially Late Spring
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Some of these movies sound more "totally tragic" than bittersweet, to me.
Gee Nestor, I made that point several times in the beginning of the thread, but so few care about the finer distinctions anymore.
OK fellas, bring on the weepie suggestions, but I ain't gonna watch 'em if there are 3rd act dramatic deaths, etc etc etc. Soon enough summer will be over, I'll have had my fill of bittersweet, and think I might move on to Southern Gothic or Film Noir to build up to Halloween.
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Gee Nestor, I made that point several times in the beginning of the thread, but so few care about the finer distinctions anymore.
OK fellas, bring on the weepie suggestions, but I ain't gonna watch 'em if there are 3rd act dramatic deaths, etc etc etc. Soon enough summer will be over, I'll have had my fill of bittersweet, and think I might move on to Southern Gothic or Film Noir to build up to Halloween.
Ok, I'll confess--I was reading the thread backwards (a danger when one has just discovered the "recent posts" function and starts from there) and hadn't read the beginning. Not the ideal way of reading, to be sure.
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Annie Hall is bittersweet.
And a work of art :P
What about Muriel's wedding, does it qualify?
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Vera Drake - I encourage HRaiser and the Wump to see it.
MtD
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My favorite bittersweet movies are:
Blade Runner: Director's Cut
Casablanca
And, of course, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.
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And how about Brief Encounter?
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I haven't seen the movie yet but I was reading "Marley and Me" on an airplane yesterday and was crying like a fool.
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Marty
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Ok everyone.... all this movie talk has made me want to watch some of the dvds I keep boxed away in the 3rd bedroom closet. That and when the ex moved out he took the cable boxes, and while I enjoy finding better things to to with my time I still feel like the Big Picture Box is calling me lol. I'm only warning you because I'm going to watch "Life As a House" which I mentioned earlier in the thread. If you never hear from me again I think its safe to assume that an overwhelmingly sad movie + a new POZ diagnosis = too much for me :)
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If you never hear from me again I think its safe to assume that an overwhelmingly sad movie + a new POZ diagnosis = too much for me :)
:o Sometimes a good cry is great therapy!
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Brahm Stoker's Dracula.
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Brahm Stoker's Dracula.
Wow, you're so right!
I like this movie so much.
I tried to get college students to watch it, a couple of times, but got a big yawn. Then I bought copies of the novel and toss them out to the goths and sci fi nerds, and offer the the DVD afterwards as a carrot. So far I've had two a year do the whole thing, in English, so its not so easy for them.
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Wow I just finished it... let me just say this is the definition of Bittersweet... yet really life affirming. I literally balled through the whole thing lol
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Wow I just finished it... let me just say this is the definition of Bittersweet... yet really life affirming. I literally balled through the whole thing lol
I don't ever even remember that movie coming out, never heard of it before. I must have been under a rock that year (2001).
I'm curious to see it now.
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Want bittersweet (no melodrama, no need for pills after you finish, just the kinda sweetness that makes you go aaaaawww)? Then eat your little hearts out, byotches:
The always gorgeous Diane Lane and some cutie from France named Thelonious Bernard (along with Sir Laurence Olivier) in 1979's A Little Romance (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1012506-little_romance/).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPI1IRjonRE
This is one movie that became a favorite of mine since I first saw it back in the mid 90s. I still watch it every now and then.
Oh, and...
Brahm Stoker's Dracula.
Another favorite.