Cinema Paradiso - a celebration of movies

[Grumpy Git]

Greetings!

I am a grumpy old git, living in England, who has adored watching films since I was a nipper back in the 1960s. So I thought us cineastes could have a place on here to share our love of all things celluloid!

To kick off, it seems logical to start at the beginning, so how about sharing posters or pictures from your first films that you remember watching as a kid on the big screen.

These four I saw multiple times in my local cinemas, as pre-video days in the 60s and 70s movies were constantly reshown. I adored them then, and I still adore them today!

jungle.jpg (244.39 KiB) Viewed 3193 times

oliver.jpg (218.59 KiB) Viewed 3193 times

chitty.jpeg (153.69 KiB) Viewed 3193 times

daleks.jpg (286.67 KiB) Viewed 3193 times

Over to you!

[Volkonski]

Saw it during its 1956 rerelease.

[Mrich]

The first movie I saw in a theater was The Jungle Book. The first movie I saw in a drive-in was "The Endless Summer", a surfing documentary. I wasn't really interested in it at the start, but by the end I was mesmerized. I think I was 8 or 9 years old

Endless Summer.jpg (44.59 KiB) Viewed 3163 times

[Foggy]

The Endless Summer was a great movie. I was living in La Jolla, CA when it came out.

[Grumpy Git]

Saw it during its 1956 rerelease.

Fantasia got rereleased in the UK some time in the 70s, by then I had moved on to disaster movies and action films, giving up on Disney animations during my youth, so alas I've never seen it on the big screen, just on tv.

The first movie I saw in a theater was The Jungle Book. The first movie I saw in a drive-in was "The Endless Summer", a surfing documentary. I wasn't really interested in it at the start, but by the end I was mesmerized. I think I was 8 or 9 years old

We don't have regular drive-ins in the UK, weather's too erratic to make it commercially viable, just the occasional summer event. I've been to the US a few times over the years and have sampled some genuine drive-ins. Iconic.

As for surfing we do have some suitable coastal areas, in the far south-west of England there's the counties of Devon and Cornwall, which have a decent reputation for being good for the right kind of waves.

If you can track it down there's actually a half decent British surfing comedy, Blue Juice (1995). The script is bang average but it has its fun moments, and stars Sean Pertwee, Catherine Zeta Jones and Ewan McGregor, plus has a good soundtrack. There's a trailer on YouTube but ignore it, it's bloody rubbish.

BlueJuice.jpg (71.3 KiB) Viewed 3138 times

[Grumpy Git]

The Endless Summer was a great movie. I was living in La Jolla, CA when it came out.

Wow, there's a place name from my past Foggy. Painful memories, but 100% my own fault.

Summer of 1981 I fell asleep on a beach in La Jolla, a blazing hot day and very dumb 18 year-old me hadn't put any sun cream on. Woke up with lobster coloured skin, retreated to my hostel bed where I remained in agony for three/four days, peeling like a mouldy old Egyptian mummy!

Thankfully some very kind staff bought me some creams and painkillers to help get me through the worst, and I made a full recovery.

Loathed sunbathing ever since, go figure,

[keith]

Saw it during its 1956 rerelease.

Fantasia got rereleased in the UK some time in the 70s, by then I had moved on to disaster movies and action films, giving up on Disney animations during my youth, so alas I've never seen it on the big screen, just on tv.

Walt insisted that Fantasia never be shown, in full, on TV, declaring that it should be re-released to theatres every 10 years or so. I know that Disney is no longer Walt's Disney, but I think they are maintaining that pattern. I seem to recall that It was being digitally restored a few years ago.

[Grumpy Git]

Walt insisted that Fantasia never be shown, in full, on TV, declaring that it should be re-released to theatres every 10 years or so. I know that Disney is no longer Walt's Disney, but I think they are maintaining that pattern. I seem to recall that It was being digitally restored a few years ago.

Must have been young family members viewings on VHS or DVD then, they had a lot of Disney films playing on a loop when they were little.

Disney may still have a policy of a theatrical rerelease every decade, but it's available on the streaming services these days, both Disney+ and Amazon Prime have it listed.

According to IMDB the last rerelease was 2015, so another couple of years and I'll get my chance to finally see it on the big screen!

[keith]

Walt insisted that Fantasia never be shown, in full, on TV, declaring that it should be re-released to theatres every 10 years or so. I know that Disney is no longer Walt's Disney, but I think they are maintaining that pattern. I seem to recall that It was being digitally restored a few years ago.

Disney may still have a policy of a theatrical rerelease every decade, but it's available on the streaming services these days, both Disney+ and Amazon Prime have it listed.

$18.99 Australian Dollars on Prime or Disney+ after subscription!

DOUBLE what we pay at the cinema. DOUBLE. (Yeah, yeah, we get old farts discount these days).

[Grumpy Git]

$18.99 Australian Dollars on Prime or Disney+ after subscription!

DOUBLE what we pay at the cinema. DOUBLE. (Yeah, yeah, we get old farts discount these days).

Blimey, not included as part of the Disney + subscription?

I just checked Amazon Prime UK, £3.49 to rent £8.99 to buy.

Now that seems a fair enough price, if it's still one of their 'prime assets'.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

PeterpanRKO.jpg (104.95 KiB) Viewed 3054 times

When I first saw Peter Pan, I KNEW I could fly!!!! When I saw it again with my husband twenty years later, I saw it with new eyes. Hubby laughed so hard at the scene of the crocodile chasing Captain Hook in the cave he could barely breathe. I knew I had chosen the right man to marry.

[Grumpy Git]

The story of Peter Pan seems to be retold more often than any other, so many different versions since that Disney classic.

Mind you, The Three Musketeers also seems to get retold every decade, and there's another one on the way, but this time from the original source country, France, split across two films, and I have to say, the trailer is very impressive indeed.

[keith]

$18.99 Australian Dollars on Prime or Disney+ after subscription!

DOUBLE what we pay at the cinema. DOUBLE. (Yeah, yeah, we get old farts discount these days).

Blimey, not included as part of the Disney + subscription?

Can't answer that as I don't have a Disney+ account. But a 'system wide' search gave me 3 options to view it, Prime, Disney+, and another I cant recall. All quoted the same price.

[Grumpy Git]

Can't answer that as I don't have a Disney+ account. But a 'system wide' search gave me 3 options to view it, Prime, Disney+, and another I cant recall. All quoted the same price.

What about your first big screen memories?
Which films thrilled you as a kid?

[Azastan]

Even though my parents grew up in Manchester (me mum) and Barton upon Irwell (father), I don't remember them ever talking about going to the cinema.

As for me, we didn't have much money when I was young, and I don't remember going to watch movies until I was a teenager. When we did go, it was the free movies, which we were seeing several years after their initial release.

My father hated Disney films (he thought Walt ruined and perverted a lot of stories), so we never watched any of them*.

*My father was a banker in Hollywood and knew Walt Disney.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

A French TheThree Musketeers!!!! Hooray! I have forwarded the trailer to Hubby.

Our favorite version is the 1973 version and its sequel. The cast was superb: Oliver Reed ( ), Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, and more.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072281/

We named a kitten who found us D'Artagnan because he was always play fighting our three older cats who wanted nothing to do with him.

[Grumpy Git]

Yup loved the 1973/74 versions too.

Here's the second trailer for this French adaptation, part one due out next month!

[Grumpy Git]

It's nice to come across a movie that I know absolutely nothing about, not having ever seen a review, a trailer or any clips.

I'm pretty knowledgeable on 70s films, so it was good to catch up with a 1971 Paul Newman film that I'd never heard about before.

My comments about it on Twitter

[Kriselda Gray]

$18.99 Australian Dollars on Prime or Disney+ after subscription!

DOUBLE what we pay at the cinema. DOUBLE. (Yeah, yeah, we get old farts discount these days).

Blimey, not included as part of the Disney + subscription?

Can't answer that as I don't have a Disney+ account. But a 'system wide' search gave me 3 options to view it, Prime, Disney+, and another I cant recall. All quoted the same price.

I'm in America, so our pricing might be different, but I've got the Disney+ subscription and Famtasia is included with no additional charge. I even started to play it just to make sure it didn't try to hit me with a fee before starting and it didn't.like I said, though, that's US pricing.

[Grumpy Git]

Which films have you been perusing lately?

In the UK we have an excellent family-run free film channel, Talking Pictures, broadcasting & streaming mostly older British films and tv shows, but also some US content too.

You can read about them here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Pictures_TV

They have a streaming catch-up option now, with very minimal advertising breaks, so I watched these.

Operation Amsterdam (1959)


Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)


and on YouTube I watched
Mr Sardonicus (1961)

[Volkonski]

I have seen "Operation Amsterdam ". Years ago when it was on a Boston TV station's Sunday afternoon movie.

The program was actually called "Million Dollar Movie".

[Grumpy Git]

My latest film viewing

The General


Youth


Also, if any of you in the US or UK like watching movies from all over the world, there's a filming streaming service, Klassiki, showing films from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, currently offering a 50% discount on their yearly membership, so for just £36 I thought it was worth a try.
https://films.klassiki.online/browse

I've watched a fair few films from Poland and Russia over the decades, but not much from neighbouring countries. I checked some of the titles in the Klassiki library before subscribing and there seem to be positive reviews in IMDB for most of them, so going to give it a go.

BTW If you've never seen a film from Hungary, I do recommend Kontroll (2003), a stylish, amusing, quirky tale about a ragtag bunch of inept, eccentric, grumpy, ticket inspectors on Budapest's metro underground, just trying to get through their shift without too much hassle from the public.

A fun clip here.

[Luke]

This is a wonderful topic, thanks Git.

Gave this a lot of thought. I grew up on the Disney movies above, ended up representing Buena Vista (the theatrical distribution arm of Disney), and had the honor of working with and still am in touch with Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Sid Bass (the Bass family sold Walt the property in Florida in exchange for a big percentage of the company). Must shout out what is still one of my favorite films, Mary Poppins

Mary-Poppins-857LB-1-scaled-683x1024.jpg (172.93 KiB) Viewed 2849 times

The first big film that hooked me later was David Geffen's (lots don't remember that) RISKY BUSINESS in 1983. Tom Mapother (Cruise's real last name, he's Thomas Cruise Mapother IV) played Lacrosse against my high school and I immediately idolized him after this film (and still do). Got to work with Tom on a few films including The Last Samurai, he's intense and has always been incredibly kind to me.

Risky-Business-Vintage-Movie-Poster-Original-1-Sheet-27x41-1574_1600x.progressive (2).jpg (175.15 KiB) Viewed 2849 times

Decided I HAD to work in TV after watching NETWORK (and still think it's one of the most brilliant films of all time). In 1976, they frighteningly predicted Fox News and the RW networks.

Network.JPG (93.94 KiB) Viewed 2849 times

For inspiration, we watch FIELD OF DREAMS every New Year's Day, it's been a tradition for many years. Something new moves me every time I watch it. I know it's odd but that's me. It inspires me to have a fulfilling year.

Field-of-Dreams-Vintage-Movie-Poster-Original-1-Sheet-27x41_9e393ada-b551-4d60-a0a1-9d63a300b7f3_1600x.progressive (1).webp (48.37 KiB) Viewed 2849 times

Gosh, there are so many more for so many reasons... but those are a few at the very top of my list.

[Grumpy Git]

Finally caught up with Fiddler on the Roof (1971) - loved it!

[John Thomas8]