As part of our VD week re-run especiale, here are my last year's movies to cry to. Most of which, despite being a year older and a year jadeder, will still make me tear up at the very thought of them.
I am getting more emotional by the second. Hell, seconds before sitting down to write this I was in TEARS over Common dying in an Alicia Keyes video. Seriously.
And while I am having both Jason and Cesar assemble special Valentine's day movie lists for you, I told them very specifically that I want to do a "tearjerker" one. And since I said so and no one outranks me on this block (bonus points if you get the reference), here it is, just in time for you to add to your netflix queue for Thursday. Or not.
Some Basic Rules
Since this is, theoretically pre-Valentine's day themed, it is somewhat love themed as well (therefore no "Brian's Song" or "Rudy" or "Glory") and also on principle am not including "Beaches" or "Terms of Endearment" as come on, who do you think I am? A gay man? (well, actually, I am not including them because seriously "Beaches" drives me bananas and I get so annoyed by it, I cannot even bring myself to cry in the end, and "Terms of Endearment" only masochists can watch). Oh and also, no cartoons. Cartoons are out to get you and your tears every time.
In any case, here they are:
movies that make me cry.
in no particular order.
some more obvious.
some less.
My Girl
If you are a girl my age (as in, born in the early 80s) this is probably the movie that made you realize you could cry at movies (some may say "Bambi" but "Bambi" was just scary, if you ask me). Seriously, if you were 11 and watching this, you could 100% put yourself into the shoes of Vada when the worst happens. I still tolerate Macauley Culkin's existence because he played Thomas J. And I've hated bees ever since.
Moonstruck
Moonstruck is a hopelessly romantic movie. It is also really, really funny and really, really good which means that you don't necessarily have to feel guilty for loving it. So, that scene where Cher gets made over, goes to the opera with Nicolas Cage, who is her fiance's (younger, hotter, more insane and therefore infinitely more appealing) brother, and cries, and he looks at her filled with love and lust and desperation has been ripped off in everything from "Pretty Woman" to your big date last week, and its priceless.
Danny Aiello is toast and he doesn't even know it.
Blame everything on the moon.
Love Story
Textbook. A hopelessly romantic movie that is actually kinda bad, so you feel guilty for loving it, but you know, the heart wants what the heart wants. And the heart wants to cry when Alli McGraw (still as pretty and fresh faced as ever) dies.
And
Henry Mancini
Francis Lai should get a cut from Kleenex for that theme song.
You should never have to say you're sorry you shed a tear to this.
The Way we Were
Which brings us to the other blonde boy/brunnette girl tearjerker classic. This time with Barbra Streisend as the spunky jewish socialist who falls for the overprivileged WASPy Robert Redford. From the get go, this is not going to end well. The end is a killer.
now, that we got those out of the way, lets move to crying in the 80s and 90s and 00s
Three Colors: Blue:
It is better to have loved and lost, than not to have loved at all. Juliette Binoche is a masterclass of sorrow in the first part of Kieslowski's trilogy. I saw this in the movie theater and it felt so intimate that I felt almost uncomfortable watching it. But not uncomfortable enough to not use my scarf as a tissue.
Me You and Everyone we Know
This, of course, now runs the risk of being overplayed and totally backlashed at, but come on: it 100% touches upon the isolation of the big city, of awkward courtships, of small things that make your life.
So many things to pick from: the old couple that finally found each other for a short time, the desperate (and up until them icy) Art curator on the bench with the little kid, the phone call awaiting and my personal favorite: The Tyronne street walk. Watch and feel both tingly and ready to burst all at ones.
and throw in "Are you the Favorite Person of Anybody?" for good measure
because, you know, Miranda July is out to get you. She is.
Punch Drunk Love
This movie is soooooooo good. I hate Adam Sandler. I am not a big PT Anderson fan. I am sort of on the fence about John Brion and yet there is no more perfect movie for me right now. I was sick the other week and I stayed home, and watched this (I had already rerented it from netflixed and then went along and bought it from half.com for 1.98 just so I could own it forever). And man, when they start walking/running/gliding towards each other at any point (whether the first kiss, or in Hawaii or in my mind) i lose it. Every single time.
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
This should have been Jim Carrey's only movie. Ever. And everything would be perfect.
Edward Scissorhands
I've seen grown men cry at this. I mean, he just wants to be loved. I think that the genius of Tim Burton lies in the fact that the most basic of human needs is put in a fairy tale like setting, so it is just easier for you to swallow it. I mean, after all, it is about some kid with scissors for hands, how can that possibly relate to you? Yeah, riiiiight
Imitation of Life
I remember being 12 and hearing my Dad describe the reaction to the funeral scene in this movie as "The whole of Belgrade peed less for a week because they lost all the water in their bodies crying so much during it". My mother has owned this on VHS and on DVD (she is an unabashed movie crier, something we all made fun of her for growing up, and she never cared) and seriously, look at Mahalia Jackson go at it, and ...I am grabbing the kleenex just thinking about it.
and finally:
Cinema Paradiso
Universally wonderful. Michael used the clip below in his Morrissey review and I instantly reordered and rewatched the 3hr+ uncut version of it, and it is just as amazing as the original you saw forever a go. This clip is like ever tender moment ever on the screen, rolled in one man's face:
and that is that for me. Now, go on and tell me I forgot "English Patient" and "Notebook" and "An Affair to Remember" and "Betty Blue" and "In the mood for love" ....go on.
God loves a cheerful giver.
Dude, the notebook is sooo gay.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT HENRY MANCINI DID NOT COMPOSE THE THEME TO LOVE STORY!!!!!!!!!
FRANCIS LAI DID!!!!!!!!!!!
HE WON AN OSCAR AND GOLDEN GLOBE FOR IT.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is a great clip from Cinema Paradiso.
You forgot "Un long dimanche de fiançailles"
FRANCIS LAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, The English Patient! and In The Mood For Love! They deserve at least an honorable mention!
FRANCIS LAI, accept my apologies.
i unapologetically love "the way we were", too. and while i have a love/hate relationship with sex and the city, i do fully embrace that scene where they talk about the movie and sing in the middle of a restaurant, as carrie explains that there are two types of girls in the world: the katie girls (k-k-k-katie) and the simple girls.
i'd also throw in a big vote for "an affair to remember". the 50th anniversary DVD just came out. deborah kerr, cary grant - so classy. *swoon* so many beautiful moments - their flirtation on the ship, visiting his grandmother and singing the theme song, and of course, the end - "if you can paint, i can walk!" "yes, darling, yes yes!"
it was my mother's favorite.
and by the way, i have a picture of cary grant, framed, sitting on my dresser; it's from a card my mom used to carry around with her, given to her by girlfriends.
GIANT SOBS ALL AROUND.
Schindler's List made me cry. I mean it was a real heavy tearjerker! Why isn't it up there?!
The same reason "Sophie's Choice" or "Hotel Rwanda" are not on it.
NO WAR MOVIES.
ON PRINCIPLE.
h.u.m.o.r. and (sic) sarkasam
'the ernest green story' made me cry AND it's black history month (but there was military presence in that movie... ooooo!) brown vs. the board, bitches! cryfest!
big thumbs up for bleu. one of the best movies ever. i cried watching rouge, but i think i was just distraught because the movie was ending and i had read that morning that kieslowski was dead.
oh, and for giggles, rent ikiru by kurosawa. i've seen it in the theaters twice and lost it both times by the end. now i have it on dvd, and i can't watch the whole film without turning it off and going in the other room. that said, i think it's easily kurosawa's best movie, and completely unlike what you might think his films are like.
one other - jeux interdits (forbidden games) by rene clement. there are two points of such unbelievable sorrow during that movie that it's almost impossible to watch. and between those two moments of utter sorrow, there's an engaging, funny and absorbing portrait of the french countryside during world war 2. brigitte fossey, at the age of 6 puts in what might be the best acting performance of all time - if i thought for a second she was acting.
speaking of crying at movies, can anyone tell me if Wall-E is gonna make me cry? i plan on watching it tonight or tomorrow and i'd like to have some fair warning.
The Other Side of the Mountain
Chad, if you're anything like me or Libby (fair question), you'll be a goner in the first 15 minutes.
Wall-E WILL most definitely make you cry. But it will also make you want to make the world a better place/fall in love/etc.
PS i looooove all of jon brion's soundtracks. eternal sunshine and punch drunk love are incredible. i heart huckabees is solid too.
UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG!!!
I don't know how to make a clip show up but watch this:
"i'll die!"
"don't be silly - people only die of love in movies"
love.that.part
what about Snakes on a Plane? makes me cry.
The Brave Little Toaster. booo hoooo hoooo hooooo..... especially when he gets his cord chopped off.
Lovers of the Arctic Circle.
OH!
And, Letter from an Unknown Woman. Svet, I dare you to watch that and not cry. Dare you.
Here's a quote:
Okay, I never understood why anyone likes the Way we Were. I mean, Katie is kind of bitchy and get annoyed at ev. ery. thing. damn, woman. The scene where she is sititng in the room with Redfords friends and they are trying to talk to her, and she snubs them (in what Ive dubbed the preemptive snub) because she is paranoid that they will have nothing in common. C'mon. Every person can make small talk, and be pleasant. If she at least tried, I would have had some sympathy. But quite frankly, this is not a woman I want to emulate. Sorry to all my fellow women in the world that dont share this sentiment.
I propose instead:
Splendor in the Grass with Warren Beaty which will show you why ours mother were oh so hot for him, he used to be rather dashing, did you know? Natalie Wood plays a crazed high maintenance gal, but at least the movie has a piont: Bitches, you may be pretty but you must be chill.
Good call with Ikiru, William.
Also <3 this: "and throw in "Are you the Favorite Person of Anybody?" for good measure because, you know, Miranda July is out to get you. She is." Miranda July is, indeed, quite the thought-provoker.
I might tack on
High Art (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1se99_high-art_events)
and
Boys On The Side (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dakYbfalzr8)
to this list too.