What films have you seen recently? ....or ever..

[A Dark Philosopher]

Hurlyburly: Is Waking Life any good then? You should have said!

Roshi: The poem from Eternal Sunshine is Eloise to Abelard by Alexander Pope
and yes I have read Anita Shreeve's "The Last Time They Met", it was very beautiful.

Crazyjimmy: Erm, thanks for giving away the whole plot and twist for "The Life Before Her Eyes"

[crazy jimmy]

I apologize for that, but I couldn't discuss the ITLAD concept without giving away the twist ending. (Actually, the cover of the movie gave it away....they didn't say it directly, but it was so strongly implied that it didn't even seem to be a twist. More like an inevitability.)
I will try to be more cautious about my revelations. Still I think that ending was presupposed from the moment I said it was relevant.
Anyway, I've got a morning meeting I've got to get to. My trip is advancing more slowlier than I had hoped, but I am still, nevertheless, on my way home.
CJ

[SM Kovalinsky]

I agree: I have always demanded to know the ending of a film before I see it. It is the inevitable, indeed. And one needs to know it before investing any time in the watching of a movie.

[A Dark Philosopher]

I agree: I have always demanded to know the ending of a film before I see it. It is the inevitable, indeed. And one needs to know it before investing any time in the watching of a movie.

Susan Marie: Do you also read the final page of a book before beginning it?

[SM Kovalinsky]

That has also been my practice, from childhood. It was not until age 25 that I found out that others don't do so. I suppose it is my own idiosynchratic way. I know my professor of medeival philosophy found it an appalling practice, and rebuked me constantly for beginning at the end.

[A Dark Philosopher]

*nods*

[Hurlyburly]

I can't say i personaly subscribe to this way of thinking. I think you can usually work out the content of a film by the Director/Actors/Subject matter and a book by it's author and style/subject. This way you can determine if it's worth your while, I don't think having the ending shown to you has to necessarily ruin the movie for you but I myself prefere to let the Director/Author do what they do and enjoy the ride. Some films rely on the ending more than others. I've never walked out of a movie theatre in my life and rarely turn a film off if i've planned to sit down and watch them. Even books i've not enjoyed i've ploughed through just because I think you can still take something from them. Weird because i'm not a maticulous person, in fact, far from it! Either way, you conversation reminds me of the scene from Harry met Sally that i quoted for Jake on the blog:

Sally: Amanda mentioned you had a dark side.
Harry: That's what drew her to me.
Sally: Your dark side?
Harry: Sure. Why? Don't you have a dark side? I know, you're probably one of those cheerful people who dots their "i's" with little hearts.
Sally: I have just as much of a dark side as the next person.
Harry: Oh, really? When I buy a new book, I read the last page first. That way, in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.
Sally: That doesn't mean you're deep or anything. I mean, yes, basically I'm a happy person...
Harry: So am I.
Sally: ...and I don't see that there's anything wrong with that.
Harry: Of course not. You're too busy being happy. Do you ever think about death?
Sally: Yes.
Harry: Sure you do. A fleeting thought that drifts in and out of the transom of your mind. I spend hours, I spend days...
Sally: - and you think this makes you a better person?
Harry: Look, when the poo comes down, I'm gonna be prepared and you're not, that's all I'm saying.
Sally: And in the meantime, you're gonna ruin your whole life waiting for it.

[roshni]

i loved that movie.....i loved that famous scene in the resturant....

[Hurlyburly]

i loved that movie.....i loved that famous scene in the resturant....

That line by the lasy "I'll have what she's having" was improvised. Has to be one of my favourite movies and easily one of the best Rom-Com's of all time.

[SM Kovalinsky]

Martin; That is a very fine - and yes meticulous - mode of thought of yours. I do think I have an idiosyncratic tendency to impatience and fear. My husband and I used to rent the same films over and over again, seeing them 7 to a dozen times, as we both felt a "fear" of new ones. So he was like me in that sense. I do not know what Tony's dyadic psychology might have to speak to this tendency; I think I was only trying to point out to CJ that for me, at least, he had not destroyed anything by revealing the plot twist or ending. To look to directors and writers as to the quality of a film is of course a very reasonable and fruitful approach. In so far as a tendency to know the end of books, plays, film,, it no doubt was an acquired habit and a bad one which has been tenacious because unchecked.