The Blue Room Goes to the Movies

a film-related Ask Me Anything

Our first two bonus posts were pretty heavy–grief and depression–so today’s AMA is a little lighter. A reader asked me to write something about movies. A lot of my work is informed by what I’m watching or listening to–remember Hope Notes? (You can revisit a lot of those conversations on season one of the podcast.) 

I always write better with a specific prompt or structure, so I’m borrowing from the great and good Brett Goldstein, who in addition to playing Roy Kent on Ted Lasso, also has a podcast called Films to Be Buried With. Brett interviews various actors or comedians, telling them they’ve died and asking them to reflect on their lives through film. I’m shamelessly stealing his questions, reserving the right to share more than one response.

Cinema Paradiso (see below)

First film you saw

I wonder how many of Brett’s guests truly remember the very first film they saw–people always have a good definitive answer! I have memories of seeing a re-release of Fantasia with my mother as a very young child–I fell asleep. Wikipedia tells me that would have been in April of 1977 when I was five. Star Wars: A New Hope came out just a month or so later. I can’t imagine that we didn’t see it, but maybe not? I know I saw it before going to The Empire Strikes Back a few years later, but that may have been in re-release. 

Maybe Fantasia doesn’t count as the first film I saw because I snoozed through some of it. So the first film I can confidently remember sitting all the way through was Superman: The Movie. It came out in December 1978 and my birthday party in early January was a trip to see the movie, so I would have been seven. The main thing I remember is when Superman flew backwards around the earth, one of my friends said “That looks like Saturn!” 

Film that scared you the most

I hate scary movies. I steeled myself to see Get Out for the social commentary, but it was not an enjoyable experience. But as a kid, the scariest movie I’d ever seen was Poltergeist. I wonder which station played it, because somehow it was always on in my house?! The little girl sucked into the television, the maggoty chicken meat… “they’re heeeeeere.” I’ve had the vague sense over the years that the whole thing would seem laughably tame now, but just typing this is making me hyperventilate a little, so let’s move on.

Film that made you cry the most

I have quite a few movie sob-fests under my belt.