What to Say If Somebody Asks You What Your Favorite Movie Is?

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So, I usually watch all of this foreign and experimental stuff most notably stuff from the French New Wave. I have not really seen much beforehand except maybe superhero stuff. There is also the "there is too many of them" excuse people would use when they struggle to come up with a favorite. I never really pick favorites as I treat movie enjoyment like the Billboard, some of them gain more interest at certain times than others.

Some more mainstream stuff I enjoyed over the years included: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, The Dollars Trilogy, The Green Mile, Fight Club, LA Confidential, Shawshank, Rear Window, On The Waterfront, and most recently Double Indemnity.

Unless if I were in a professional film circle, I feel weird talking about these: Umbrellas of Cherbourg, All That Heaven Allows, Sedmikrasky, Firemen's Ball, La Strada, Contempt, La Belle Noiseuse, House, Battle of Algiers (I could say that the theme song made an appearance in "Basterds"), etc.

Ones I like but would be too obvious to say: Shawshank Redemption, Any Star Wars, anything MCU, Dark Knight, Godfather, Citizen Kane. Just to say that I like all of these movies, I just would like to make it more exciting for the person asking.

My idea is to give multiple types of movies that I like whether it be musicals, experimental, or comedy movies. If there are "too many" movies, I could list one I have recently seen that I liked (like the pre-mentioned Double Indemnity) or list off a ton of the movies that I really like. Maybe just include some of the usual suspects (not the movie) in there as well.

Just like songs, I could never pick just one.

What would you do if somebody asked you what your favorite movie(s) were.



I usually shrug my shoulders and mumble incoherently in a made-up language so they just think I'm a foreigner and move on to the next person. Actually, now I think about it, the actual question is immaterial as I tend to adopt that approach regardless



Tell them to ask their parent who their favorite child is and get back to you.



I've always felt weird about revealing my taste in film to people I don't know that well, but if I'm good friends with the person or have known them for a while, I generally find it easier to do so.
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I mainline Windex and horse tranquilizer

That is the correct answer.
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I respond with something like "give me a week and I will give you my top 50". Jaws might be in there.



I used to say it was The Wizard of Oz. That is a movie that was evergreen for me for a long time. Then came Lawrence of Arabia, another evergreen movie. Right now I think it would have to be Black Narcissus.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
"What's the point? You won't find it anyway!"
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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.



Victim of The Night
It's a tricky conversation, I have it all the time and I know what you mean. You'd love to tell the truth but you don't wanna sound like you're being pretentious and trying NOT to sound pretentious can often backfire. So you're left kinda fumbling.
I don't know how to tell people that my favorite movies of all-time really are movies they probably not only haven't seen but maybe have never even heard of. Or they're black and white or silent films or foreign films or whatever.
I mean, like you, my favorites list, if I ever made one, would be fluid. Here's like a glimpse at the moment off the top of my head:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Paris, Texas
Cleo de 5 a 7
Trois Couleur: Bleu
La Double Vie de Veronique
My Dinner With Andre
The Passion of Joan Of Arc
Memoria
Blazing Saddles
Smokey and the Bandit


I can get away with two of those without raising eyebrows or just getting a blank stare. And those are just me thinking of a few in my office right now. It could get a lot worse.
So, really, what I do is read the room.
If I gauge that the asker has pretty mainstream tastes, then they get Smoke and the Bandit, Blazing Saddles, and maybe Marvel's The Avengers. All of which are true.
If I gauge the asker is a little bit more of a cinephile, they get Casablanca, Blade Runner, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Pulp Fiction, maybe Crouching Tiger. Hell, I might even test out Metropolis. All of which are also true.
I don't meet a lot of people I can open the Paris, Texas, Memoria, Cleo, Bleu hose on.

In some ways, it's like "What's your favorite song?" Are you f*cking kidding?



Usually I list 3-4 favorites and briefly explain that it moves around a little and I get slightly different things from each that I can't really compare to one another.




Trois Couleur: Bleu

I am, apparently, one of the very few who likes White the best.



...What would you do if somebody asked you what your favorite movie(s) were.
I've been asked that before at MoFo and my answer is usually this: I don't relate to movies the way most people do. I don't have favorites per say, though of course there's movies that I think are great. I watch movies to explore aspects of cinema that interest me. I don't rewatch movies over and over. I know people do that but if I was to watch a movie too many times I'd end up disliking it. So I just generalize and say I like old movies, really old movies



I usually start by telling them I’m better than them because I’m a real movie person. Or I say not Avengers, that gets the point across.
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On here, I tell people to look <----- and check out my Top 10.... "Harry and Tonto" is my favorite movie.. ("La Strada" is my #2)... Online, I'll post entire movies (free) on YouTube that I love. "The Battle of Algiers" is also on YouTube, and with some (if not all) of the DVD features (Marxist Poetry)

But it's one of the first questions (if not the first) I'll ask someone. I think the three things I care about also tell more about a person than things they had no control over. I'm at the point where no other conversation interests me at all.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?




A Woman Under The Influence



"In real life" (and online), it's all I talk about. Even yesterday, when I wanted to get rid of a private messaging partner, I just talked about movies (or music, stand-up) because it's all I like. I have this attitude that they should know my stuff, not the other way around, simply because something is "new" (probably something Tarantino stole)



Victim of The Night
I am, apparently, one of the very few who likes White the best.
Well, I'll tell ya, when I saw White, I had seen Bleu, which absolutely floored me, and I had read that it was "the weakest of the trilogy" and even that it was just not up to the other two films. I was prepared for that and by the end of the film, nay, by the middle of the film, I totally and vigorously disagreed. To the point of saying to myself, and I remember where I was and everything, "Are you freakin' kidding me?! This doesn't belong?! This is 'weaker'?!" I could go along with "weakest of the trilogy" in terms of, ok, if I had to rank them, and I don't, I would probably rank it 3rd, but not by some wide margin at all, it would right in there.
It belongs, in my opinion. And I've said this before, were it not for the other two films, I think it would actually be held in extremely high regard probably considered some level of masterpiece (as the other two are).