"Favorite" movies you've seen only once

Cafe Society
#1

Looking over my self-proclaimed “Favorite Movies” on my Facebook profile, I was struck by how many of my “favorites” I’ve seen only once. Usually when I have a favorite movie I watch it many times, as I suspect most people would. But the following movies, though they made a great impression on me at first viewing, I still haven’t gotten around to seeing a second time:

[ul]
[li]Pandora’s Box (starring Louise Brooks)[/li][li]Nashville (dir. Robert Altman)[/li][li]The Cameraman (starring Buster Keaton)[/li][li]The Sweet Hereafter (dir. Atom Egoyan)[/li][li]And Life Goes On (dir. Abbas Kiarostami)[/li][li]Homework (dir. Abbas Kiarostami)[/li][li]Ten (dir. Abbas Kiarostami)[/li][li]Vive L’Amour (dir. Ming-liang Tsai)[/li][/ul]

I wonder what I’d think of them on the next go-round.

What are some of your “favorites” you’ve seen only once?

#2

I’ve only seen Donnie Darko once and I loved it. I keep meaning to watch it again but I never get around to it.

#3

I believe I’ve only seen Fargo once. It’s utterly brilliant, and I love it, but it’s just too freaking intense. The murders are completely real and believable.

Taking that back a bit - if it’s on and it’s at one of the lighter Marge Gunderson parts, I’ll watch a few minutes before veering off.

#4

Ikiru

That’s about it.

#5

Pan’s Labyrinth It was beautiful and terrible and I don’t know if I ever want to watch it again.

#6

Pan’s Labyrinth was the one I came in to mention. Now I have to think of another one.

Schindler’s List and Cold Mountain

#7

Life Is Beautiful and Schindler’s List.

Too emotionally intense for me to watch again.

#8

Same. I’m not sure I could get through it again.

Sixth Sense. I loved the movie and thought it was very well done but I’m not sure I would want to do a repeat viewing.

#9

Love, Actually

It may take me awhile to see it again because I’m so jealous of some of the relationships that I can hardly bear it!

#10

The Sixth Sense, Dark City, Life Is Beautiful and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence were all, to me, amazingly powerful and impressive movies, but not movies I’ve been eager to see again, either.

#11

House of Sand and Fog.

I found it spellbinding and unforgettable.

I’ll never watch it again.

#12

Mulholland Drive, which I keep meaning to re-watch but have just never gotten around to.

#13

American History X. Loved it, but too intense to ever watch again.

#14

Crash (the good one, not the one that won the Oscar), American History X, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Reservoir Dogs, Deathproof, and Fargo. All for different reasons. Crash, American History X and Reservoir Dogs were just too intense for me. I love them, but I didn’t enjoy sitting through them. I don’t think AI needs another viewing. I want to see Fargo and Deathproof again, but I have to be in the mood to watch them…I don’t want to just have them playing in the background. i want to sit down and really watch them. Except, I never sit down to watch movies. Ever. I’m always doing something else, too.

#15

Pan’s Labyrinth for me too.

#16

Lost in Translation

Saw it in the theater with my wife, and she got me the DVD, but I haven’t watched it yet. I wanted to wait a while so that I could hopefully enjoy it as much as I did the first time. I’ve been feeling strong urges to watch it, and I guess five years is long enough.

#17

I think I can agree with this.

#18

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? It’s as though I got everything out of it that I possibly could on first viewing. I’d love to see it again, though, but I’m not going to seek it out. Which is weird, because I almost never promote a movie into “favorite” category unless I’ve seen it at least twice.

#19

Grave of the fireflies: Excellent movie, but so sad it left me literally traumatized. I still mist up will just thinking of the ending.

Funny Games: I watched the original (finnish?) version a few years back and it left me feeling like taking a shower for days. Haven’t watched the remake and I don’t intend to. And keeping in mind how much I love watching Naomi Watts in anything, that’s really saying something.

SFW: Some crazy movie with Stephen Dorff I watched in my teens late at night. It rocked my world in a nineties teen angst sort of way. But I don’t really want to watch it again because I know it’s not going to be half as good as my memory of it.

#20

Schindler’s List: Even THINKING about that movie moves me to tears; I’m not sure how I would handle a repeat viewing. Especially the very last scene, where the descendants of the actual holocaust survivors place stones on the graves…wow, even now it makes me tear up.