Oldest movie you routinely watch

[EvaDK]

Being a sucker for horror, I'll have to mention Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968) as well. I've re-watched my blu-ray at least 7-8 times by now.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by Sage00

How is the Phantom Carriage? I’ve been tempted to blind buy during the last few B&N sales.

Perhaps more known for its huge influence on Ingmar Bergman* than widely seen these days, Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage is a remarkably sophisticated and ambitious bit of silent cinema from 1921 that’s still remarkably emotionally powerful. Despite its dark fantasy plot and special effects, the performances are extremely naturalistic while its structure offers flashbacks within flashbacks not just to establish plot points but also to reveal character, Sjöström’s focus less on the supernatural and gothic elements than the human and emotional ones.

Most people approach the film expecting a horror story, which is hardly surprising considering its premise: that whoever is the last soul to die on New Year’s Eve must drive the phantom carriage for a year – with every day seeming like a hundred years – for a strict master, Death himself. For drunkard David Holm (Sjöström himself) it’s just a tale to amuse his drinking cronies as they wait for midnight in the graveyard of the local church, added spice by the fact that his old friend and mentor in degeneracy Georges (Tore Svennberg) died, just as he feared he would, on New Year’s Eve a year earlier. Not that that was the only cursed event that night that will come back to haunt him…

There are Dickensian elements – like Scrooge, its reprobate hero is shown the errors of his past by a dead friend – and at its heart it’s really just a temperance morality play about the evils wrought by the demon drink presented in a supernatural framework, yet Sjöström concentrates on the very human aspects of the story and underplays scenes that in other hands could have descended into barnstorming melodrama to create something that is at times incredibly moving (the first New Year’s Eve sequence is genuinely touching). There are no bad performances in the film, but Sjöström’s David Holm is easily one of the greatest performances in all silent cinema. The kind of consumptive who’ll cough over strangers to hurry them on their way or even try to infect his own children because he doesn’t see why he should suffer alone and who leaves a trail of ruined lives in his wake, it’s the kind of role you could easily see Emil Jannings or Michel Simon turning into one of their richly drawn galleries of grotesques, but Sjöström makes him recognisably real in a performance that still feels fresh, modern and utterly unaffected. Rather than a broadly drawn monster he’s a genuine and very credible reprobate who throws away every chance he’s given in anger, bravado and selfishness, a small man sneering at life, yet whose despair still creeps through when his eyes are caught in moments of thought when he has no-one to show off to and is trapped with himself.

It’s an ideal ghost story for the long winter nights, and it’s almost a must for New Year’s Eve viewing. There are some very variable prints around, but the while the restoration on the Criterion release may have the odd tramline or hair in the gate, it’s still a fine effort and probably the best on the market. The two scores on the Criterion disc are a bit problematic: Mattie Bye’s orchestral score is the better of the two but at times it goes off on its own jauntily Yiddish direction before coming back to the film, while KTL’s is a grim and monotonous industrial effort.

* Bergman's 2000 TV play about Sjöström during the shooting of the film, The Image Makers, was included on Tartan's UK DVD but sadly isn't included on the Criterion disc. That said, it's understandable why they didn't license itas it's a bit of a one-and-done: Sjostrom doesn't feature in it much and Elin Klinga's character is increasingly unconvincingly way, way too modern (as opposed to ahead of her time), and also one of those tiresome attention seeking wildly mood swinging drama queens actresses love to play because they run the full gamut of emotions in a single minute but are increasingly tiresome to watch as they suck all the air out of the room. Anita Bjork is excellent in it, though.

[Thomas Irwin]

Probably this one, every Christmas when it airs on television. Although I do own it on Blu-ray.



When I was a kid, it was definitely this one. Whenever they aired it on a Saturday afternoon. Which seemed to be somewhat frequent. I do own this one as well.

[KenHurd]

I watch Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931) every year around Halloween. I’ll include others from my classic monsters box set, but those two are a must.

[Dr Lenera]

Probably The Thief of Bagdad [1924], it's honestly one of my favourite fantasy adventures. Probably followed by Metropolis [1926], some of the Buster Keaton shorts, and many of the early '30s horror classics.

[Dr Lenera]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Perhaps more known for its huge influence on Ingmar Bergman* than widely seen these days, Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage is a remarkably sophisticated and ambitious bit of silent cinema from 1921 that’s still remarkably emotionally powerful. Despite its dark fantasy plot and special effects, the performances are extremely naturalistic while its structure offers flashbacks within flashbacks not just to establish plot points but also to reveal character, Sjöström’s focus less on the supernatural and gothic elements than the human and emotional ones.

Most people approach the film expecting a horror story, which is hardly surprising considering its premise: that whoever is the last soul to die on New Year’s Eve must drive the phantom carriage for a year – with every day seeming like a hundred years – for a strict master, Death himself. For drunkard David Holm (Sjöström himself) it’s just a tale to amuse his drinking cronies as they wait for midnight in the graveyard of the local church, added spice by the fact that his old friend and mentor in degeneracy Georges (Tore Svennberg) died, just as he feared he would, on New Year’s Eve a year earlier. Not that that was the only cursed event that night that will come back to haunt him…

There are Dickensian elements – like Scrooge, its reprobate hero is shown the errors of his past by a dead friend – and at its heart it’s really just a temperance morality play about the evils wrought by the demon drink presented in a supernatural framework, yet Sjöström concentrates on the very human aspects of the story and underplays scenes that in other hands could have descended into barnstorming melodrama to create something that is at times incredibly moving (the first New Year’s Eve sequence is genuinely touching). There are no bad performances in the film, but Sjöström’s David Holm is easily one of the greatest performances in all silent cinema. The kind of consumptive who’ll cough over strangers to hurry them on their way or even try to infect his own children because he doesn’t see why he should suffer alone and who leaves a trail of ruined lives in his wake, it’s the kind of role you could easily see Emil Jannings or Michel Simon turning into one of their richly drawn galleries of grotesques, but Sjöström makes him recognisably real in a performance that still feels fresh, modern and utterly unaffected. Rather than a broadly drawn monster he’s a genuine and very credible reprobate who throws away every chance he’s given in anger, bravado and selfishness, a small man sneering at life, yet whose despair still creeps through when his eyes are caught in moments of thought when he has no-one to show off to and is trapped with himself.

It’s an ideal ghost story for the long winter nights, and it’s almost a must for New Year’s Eve viewing. There are some very variable prints around, but the while the restoration on the Criterion release may have the odd tramline or hair in the gate, it’s still a fine effort and probably the best on the market. The two scores on the Criterion disc are a bit problematic: Mattie Bye’s orchestral score is the better of the two but at times it goes off on its own jauntily Yiddish direction before coming back to the film, while KTL’s is a grim and monotonous industrial effort.

* Bergman's 2000 TV play about Sjöström during the shooting of the film, The Image Makers, was included on Tartan's UK DVD but sadly isn't included on the Criterion disc. That said, it's understandable why they didn't license itas it's a bit of a one-and-done: Sjostrom doesn't feature in it much and Elin Klinga's character is increasingly unconvincingly way, way too modern (as opposed to ahead of her time), and also one of those tiresome attention seeking wildly mood swinging drama queens actresses love to play because they run the full gamut of emotions in a single minute but are increasingly tiresome to watch as they suck all the air out of the room. Anita Bjork is excellent in it, though.

Nice review of a film I've heard of but know little about, you've certainly made me want to watch it!

[Verisimilitude1984]

12 Angry Men (1957).

[Page14]

A Hard Day's Night

[Josep5349]

Probably North by Northwest

[filmbuffTX]

I've watched It's a Wonderful Life (1946) every year since I first saw it Christmas Eve 2005. I've also watched Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) at least once a year since I bought the Blu-ray; usually around the holidays.

[Gizz]

[Number 6]

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[dimondess]

Holiday (1938) gets an annual re-watch at the new year.

[don3663]

Defnintely Frankenstein. I like The Mummy and Dracula too, but I often skip watching them on Halloween.

[dkelly26666]

I re-watch Murnau's "Nosferatu"(1922) every other year or so.

I've watched Dreyer's "Vampyr" (1932) close to Halloween two of the past three years.

I, too, re-watch the classic Universal "Frankenstein" and "Dracula" every couple of years. (Both 1931).

I've seen several of Hitchcock's early films, like "Blackmail" (1929) and his mid-30s films, several times, each.

Those are among the oldest ones.

Tons of classics I've watched numerous times after that. Of course, being of my generation means you saw things like "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Ten Commandments" every year for decades, LOL.

I've seen "To Kill a Mockingbird" about every year to every other year for decades.

I can't even remember how many times I've seen "Psycho". I try to get to it every year.

From the late 60s-early 70s on, there are too many to name.

But those are the oldest ones I watch pretty regularly.

[wonkavision]

Auntie Mame (1958)

---It really has always been my go to film when I feel sad or stressed out and hating on humanity...somehow this film will put me back into a good place. So yeah, probably watch it quarterly and now that it's 2020, daily (haha...kidding).

[Rodney-2187]

It Happened One Night (1934)
The Thin Man (1934)
Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

[Bolo Seagull]

'Ben-Hur' (1959)

[SIWilson]

Night of the Hunter (1955)
Cape Fear (1962)
Both once a year.

[Zoop]

Gone With the Wind (1939)