Significant other's top 5 films.

I've never asked her, but based on the number of times she's watched them, I'd go with these:

1. Gone With the Wind
2. Singing in the Rain
3. It Happened One Night
4. Sleeping Beauty
5. Stardust

Soapdish, Bridget Jones' Diary, the remake of Father of the Bride and Coraline are pretty high up there too.

Based on what gets heavy rotation:

1. The Departed
2. Moulin Rogue
3. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Except for Rickman, ironic love)
4. Star Wars
5. Young Guns

Movies That Make Your Wife Hungry And Sad!

Not really, because there's probably some interesting discussion about the viewing habits of people we choose to spend time with. Because whilst the assumption would be that film geeks seek out film geeks I know a lot of (male and female) geeks who go out with people with only a passing interest in the medium.

I met a girl at a Roger Corman film festival and she had the most fantastic taste in cinema I've ever seen. Just completely varied and fun. Not going to do a ton five but she definitely included Masque of the Red Death, Morvern Callar, The Big Blue, and The Wicker Man as personal favourites. Unfortunately I'm something of a dullard and it didn't last.

My girlfriend watches a ton of flicks. She usually goes to the video store and rents 5 or more films a week. She hates action or sci fi (geek properties) but otherwise, she kicks my ass on foreign films. I'd say her favorites are french films. And that's a big reason why i started to like her and notice her in a different way.
We were talking about films as friends, and i noticed she had seen almost every film i was recommending her. And that had never happened to me with a woman. I had to date her.

I'm not saying it wasn't, but just a friendly suggestion (honestly), if that WAS the point then it probably wouldn't have hurt to expound on it a bit - throw in a little actual discussion about the differences between the two of you in regards to tastes in cinema and, well, art in general. Ya know - discuss it. Cause when you just throw out a list with little or no context, then it's a bit shallow to retroactively say that your point wasn't to create a list thread. Again, no snark, just a suggestion.

I just asked her. She asked me why. I told her it was for a Chud list. Then she told me to spend less time on the internet.

Good thread!

Who here has a difficult time getting their Sig-Oth to watch something with them? Like Tati said, action or sci-fi can be a tough sell sometimes. While we typically share similar tastes, every once in a while she'll approach a movie with disinterest or dislike. For example, my wife couldn't give a flip about superheroes and couldn't stand Iron Man, but loved Dark Knight and dragged me to the Imax three times because she loved the drama and police characters, Gordon in particular. Only the morbid curiosity of the whole Ledger situation got here there originally.

- Boondock Saints
- Buckaroo Banzai
- Underworld
- House Of Wax
- While You Were Sleeping

My wife will not watch violent or gory movies. And if they're scary? Forget about it. She won't even watch Jaws, even though I explain that it's more of an adventure film and it's not really that scary. She's content with her musicals and her comedies and her dramas, and that's okay.

It's a hard sell, EVERY time. I practically had to beg her to watch MOON and IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE.

But that happens with me and film recommendations in general. People never accept they might like a film, I always have to discuss it's merits and link it to something they already like.

Bravo Jake, you being ironic and shit is hi-larious.

First two Coffin Joe movies (she thinks the third one is "sellout bullshit")
Cremaster Series
Begotten

Just kidding, it's Stand By Me and A Christmas Story or some shit.

Mrs Strax Presents...

Flash Gordon
The Shining
Witness
Moonstruck
Purple Rain

as her most favourites. All of which I can get behind. Except Purple Rain which, even discounting my apathy for Prince in general, is fucking awful. Apparently, for Prince fans, it's like Red Heat or Road House or Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus or something? I mean, I can't believe anyone actually thinks it's a genuinely good picture, fun/bad/camp/of-its-time maybe, but I await the mighty Dre to come in and argue its corner at some point.

I wasn't joking.

My wife's favorites:

'Two Mules for Sister Sara'
'Charade'
'Enchanted April'
'Eastern Promises'
'The Ref'

My wife is really, really cool.

Well, yeah. I don't want to walk hand in hand through life with a female version of myself. I'm fucking insufferable. No thanks. I need balance and tolerance. And sex. Any girl I've been with who's "into film" is usually just trying too hard to make a shared interest happen. Total turnoff.

Kissing Jessica Stein
Lost and Delirious
Mulholland Dr.
Boys Don't Cry
Bound

Huh.

I've never been in a relationship where I wasn't 100% in charge of movie watching. In fact come to think of it, I've never been with someone with an interest in movies stronger than 'Something to pass the time'. It must be a Greek woman thing.

Well then, I pity you.

Phil: That's what I'm trying to get at. Everyone I know who paired up with someone 'just like them' ended up ending it within months and realising they were a shitty person.

There's also nothing more uncomfortable than being a card carrying geek and having someone be your intellectual superior on the subject consistently.

That's funny, because with us, she's the one who wants to pick up Moon, but I keep going for things we haven't already seen.

When she's feeling adventurous (or willing to induldge my movie geekness), which is more often than I give her credit, she gives a film the '20 minute' rule, which is simply, if it can't grip her in 20 minutes, she'd rather watch something else, so a lot of my choices have to have interesting first acts.

You must.... REALLY love her.

This is partly speculative, but these are the ones that get the strongest reaction out of her:

1) Man on Fire
2) Alice in Wonderland (Disney)
3) Miss Congeniality (or pretty much any Sandra Bullock vehicle)
4) An Education
5) Gone Baby Gone

Nah, we broke up last week.

Was it all, like, kind of, you know, aloof and everything like in Paper Heart when she did it?

Educated guess:

(tie)Spirited Away/Nausicaa/Princess Mononoke
(tie)The rest of Miyazaki's films
Whisper of the Heart
Brazil

Really I could have just gone with "pick any 5 Miyazaki films". But she's not into much other anime other than Ghost in the Shell (in all of its incarnations).

I can't get her to watch many documentaries or horror films. The first is more bothersome; I'm not much of a horror fan either.

Same with my wife. She refuses to watch NCFOM because Brolin shoots a dog.

For the most part, my girlfriend has completely awful taste in film, although every once in a while, she'll pull out some suggestion that redeems her.

Her favorite all time is The Notebook, and I've had to watch Dear John, and 27 Dresses and The Ugly truth and all that shit more than I like to admit. Also, Twilight.

That being said, once in a while she'll want to watch Lebowski or Jurassic Park or something that's a little cooler too. And this weekend, she really wants to see Shutter Island, so I guess maybe it all works out.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. Let the Right One In
3. National Lampoon's Vacation
4. Amelie
5. No Country for Old Men

I was kind of floored she liked Let the Right One In so much. I thought she'd be bored, so I didn't take her the first time I saw it. We caught it together on Blu-Ray off Netflix, and it's been on our Watch It Now queue ever since.

The No Country For Old Men nod makes me love her even more.

I posed the question to my SO, and here's what she had to say:

1. The Empire Strikes Back (she's one of the biggest Star Wars fans you will ever meet; she even loves the Prequels *shudder*)

Seeing this film again in high school reawakened her love of Star Wars, and really drove home for her just how important the series was to her, and opened her eyes up to the films in a whole new way.

2. Beauty and the Beast

She loves this one because of how much she identifies with Belle, who is the first Disney heroine she felt a connection with. Plus, she loves how it sort of subverts your expectations about what constitutes a good guy or a bad guy.

3. The Philadelphia Story

She is a big fan of Katherine Hepburn to begin with, but this film appeals to her because of the way in which it portrays her struggle with femininity. Also, she is very appreciative of the complexity of the love story that is presented within in the film.

4. Brazil

She loves this movie because it opened her eyes up to the ways in which a filmmaker can unleash his or her imagination, but also because the more times you watch it, you gain a greater understanding of the social commentary.

5. Back to the Future

She likes this one due to the theme of a child having to take care of his parents, which she connected with despite not being aware of it at the time. Sort of a great look at the ultimate responsibility we all face at some point or another.

She wants me to stress that these are not necessarily her top five favorite films of all time, but that they are definitely five of her favorites that she can revisit again and again.

I'm similar on this - I won't disregard good films and I will watch stuff where horrible stuff happens to animals if I think I'll enjoy it otherwise, but it does hurt a movie for me. Fine with most violence against humans though (in films, obviously). I don't understand it myself, for what it's worth.

I'm waiting to hear back from my boyfriend on his taste in films. He's not a film buff at all and his taste is generally mixed so it'll be interesting to see what he says. Trashy action/sci-fi tends to be the male equivalent of the formulaic rom-com bullshit a lot of women obsess over, so I'm guessing there'll be some of that. But I could be wrong, he might display shockingly excellent taste, haha.

It was the opposite situation with my ex though, he was very much into film (he introduced me to this site) and looked down on a lot of my favourites. He did try to educate me but I'm pretty stubborn. I love trying new films but I won't be told how to fix my taste. I don't think I have bad taste, I just have different taste from your average male film geek.

Great thread. However, I'd love to hear the CHUD ladies (all four of them!) chime in, especially if their boyfriends aren't that into movies, as I often take it for granted that a lot of people, male and female, just don't think about this stuff like we do. And also, so if I ever meet them, I can totally not talk their boyfriends because they have godawful taste in movies.

ETA: Cleo!

Here's my wife:

Baraka
Hedwig and The Angry Inch
The Wedding Singer
After Life (the Japanese movie)
The Nightmare Before Christmas

Followed by:

Finding Nemo, Cecil B. Demented, Inglorious Basterds, Underground and Chat Noir, Chat Blanc.

Yes, my wife is awesome.

Update from my wife: I was close, but her actual list surprised me with two Kurosawa films.

Nice.

On the viewing quirks/preferences thing that's coming up, my wife has an aversion to the following things in movies:
-character is framed/wrongfully accused
-infidelity
-realistic horror (serial killers and the like. Supernatural horror is doable, but she's still not much of a fan)

Basically, she really hates injustice and breaches of trust, and has an intensely visceral reaction to those things both in real life and on film.

My wife is almost completely apathetic towards film, and yet her top 5 somehow isn't:

1) Fight Club
2) Seven
3) Chocolat
4) Pulp Fiction
5) Memento

Amusingly, when "Zodiac" was on cable, I told her to watch it because David Fincher directed. She asked "Who's David Fincher?" despite the top 2 films listed.

Nice. Tell her she would love The Hunger.

Without her available to ask, I would guess (in no particular order) that her top 5 would be made up of some combination of the following:

Children of Men
Capote
Pitch Black
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Alien/Aliens
Something from Miyazaki (probably Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro)
Something from Pixar (probably The Incredibles or Ratatouille)
The Iron Giant
Ringu
Something from Tarantino (either Kill Bill or Inglourious Basterds most likely)
The Matrix
Magnolia

I'll ask her later and see how close I get.

She is actually more into B-action movies than I am, and she likes sci-fi and fantasy a lot (and I like all of those things as well).

I get enjoyment from bad movies, but she gets even more. Sometimes I have to call a stop to things (she would be elated watching a triple feature of The Happening, Queen of the Damned, and Doom for instance).

On the other end, she is more willing and likely to want to watch a romantic comedy. We have pretty good agreement on whether or not it was a good romantic comedy when we are finished, though. I probably would have never watched something like 10 Things I Hate About You or the BBC/Firth Pride and Prejudice without her pushing me (and I liked them both). So, she broadens my horizons on those ends.

We rarely watch a movie that one of us loves and the other hates. In fact, I can't think of one off the top of my head. I haven't watched a movie (that I haven't seen already) alone since I started dating her about 8 years ago.

Which reminds me... another example of her love of bad movies (and if I didn't make this clear, she KNOWS they are bad and enjoys the badness). The movie we saw (as friends) in the theater right before we started dating: The Scorpion King. The movie we saw in the theater the weekend we started dating: Queen of the Damned. Now, she gets more excited for things like Crank and Crank 2 (for example), but you get the idea.

Actually, this could be my wife's list.

And the official list, straight from the lady herself:

1. Gone With the Wind
2. Singing in the Rain
3. Father of the Bride (Martin)
4. The Sound of Music
5. Sleeping Beauty

/high five for awesome wives!

Or wife... she's gone a lot of the time. Does yours have red hair?

I'm guessing here.. but she watches these movies religiously.

1) Grumpy old Men
2) Grumpier old Men
3) What dreams may come
4) Dodgeball
5) Old School???

She has a thing for Minnesota, the elderly, Will Ferrel and Cuba Gooding Jr. ugh.

I'll be that guy and ask: Was the break up over "Boondock Saints II"?.

That aside, i've never had a relationship last long enough to post anything here: well, except that "Requiem for a Dream" wasnt a smart choice for a first date movie.
My best female friend and movie buddy usually has excellent taste, including a weird fixation with Kevin Bacon.
To this day im amazed a female begged me to go see "Hollow Man" wih her.

My wife's quick list:
Deathproof
District 9
Aliens
Twightlight Samurai
Lost in Translation

That's a keeper right there, Alex.

I was suprised by the inclusion of Twilight Samurai and Death Proof