FOC Johnny Hong Kong sent this along the other day, so I thought I should share: Slate's The Movie I've Seen the Most, where "Slate asked a collection of filmmakers and critics, knowing that what's addictive is different than what's deemed the best."
Each person's entry has something unexpected or delightfully right, but I think I enjoy the juxtapositions between youngster and old guard the most. For example:
Jake Kasdan, director, Orange County
Almost definitely, the movie I've seen the most is Ghostbusters. Don't know how many times—triple digits, counting partial viewings. I know that when it came out, I saw it at least six times in the theater. I remember lying in bed, at age 10, cataloging my favorite jokes from the movie, in order of greatness (the order would change slightly with multiple viewings—what had seemed to be the fourth-best joke in the movie after the third viewing, might, in fact, turn out to be the second-best joke, after the fifth viewing. You never could tell … ). And now, as a director, I'm trying to work with the entire cast. Harold Ramis is in my last movie, Orange County. Sigourney Weaver is in my new movie, The TV Set. Next … ? I don't know. Ernie Hudson, maybe.Along totally different lines—and it's a little bit uncomfortable to admit this—for some reason, Footloose is just endlessly watchable for me, forever. Bacon's soooo cool (even with that skinny tie). Lori Singer's soooo hot. The dancing is insane but … explosive! I can't explain it. It's a movie about the inalienable human right … to dance! As if that right were actually under attack in the mid-'80s. And yet it's a message that carries incredible resonance, even today. Sort of … late at night … on cable …
Jonathan Rosenbaum, critic, Chicago Reader
I'm very fortunate in being able to cite Jacques Tati's Playtime as both the film I've seen the greatest number of times and my favorite movie. I first saw it 38 years ago and suspect I've seen it somewhere between 30 and 40 times. I like to see it again and again because I find it inexhaustible, the way a favorite piece of music is, and something that never looks exactly the same when I see it again because I watch it differently; each time, my gaze dances in a somewhat different way to Tati's choreography.
Oh, and Neil LaBute, you're such a card, with your introductory caveat: "Outside of perennial holiday fare like The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, or Salo..." Har-d-har. The cinetrix used to watch Trust on all of the second-tier national holidays, but you won't catch her bragging about it. Much.
