In keeping with the preponderance of movie threads lately, what are some movies that have haunted you? Not scary movies, just movies that have lingered with you far after you left the theater, longer than you may have originally expected.
One movie that I seemingly liked a lot more than most people is Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. It was a decent-to-good movie (IMO) but what was a lively, somewhat audacious film turns into something quiet different by the end. It takes on this odd abstract, feverish quality that I can’t adequately describe but it really stuck with me. I’m still bitter that it never came out on blu-ray (although you can get an HD transfer online).
The Last of the Mohicans. While I very much enjoyed the story, it was really tearing in parts. When they were chasing Magua’s group up the steep, narrow trail to rescue the girls, wow, a couple of slams to the chest right there. Beautiful but tough.
The ending unsettled me so much I more or less wish I’d never seen it. It’s a better story than the changed ending in the American version, but I totally understand why they changed it. I’m still freaked out and I think I saw it 20 years ago.
A River Runs Through It - Tom Skerritt, Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt. A beautiful, evocative, melancholy film that is still the film I’ve seen that is closest to being as good as the book it was based on. The last scene, especially; the old man fishing, alone, in the canyon’s twilight, as the narrator reads Norman Maclean’s haunting epilogue on his own life.
Pan’s Labyrinth and Run, Lola, Run are two movies that I did not expect to stay with me for so long after watching. Especially Lola as action movies just slide right in and out of my head. This was not your usual action movie, though.
It took me a couple of weeks to get over the experience of Monster with Charlize Theron. It was a very unsettling movie throughout, with a grim and hopeless ending. Excellent film with excellent acting. I’ll never watch it again.
Oooh, I love that you used the word “haunt” because that’s exactly what Brokeback Mountain did to me.
There had been quite a bit of hype about it, and I eventually made it to the theatre to see it. I went alone, as usual, because I can’t get all the way into a movie when I’m keeping company. Somewhere along the way, I found myself thinking, “Well, the cinematography is gorgeous, and the music really adds to the mood, so yes it is good, but I’m not really drawn in to the story or characters.” As I left the theatre, I just kind of shrugged.
Three days later, in a quite moment at work, I found myself thinking about it again. “Huh? Why is this movie haunting me?” So I went back shortly thereafter and watched it again. This time, as the film ended, I just sat there and thought, “Wow…”