Day 15

I consider myself in no way a film expert. I never know the director of a movie, I can't comment on a producer's portfolio and I haven't seen films like The Italian Job and Lassie. But I do watch a lot of films: at least two a week. So while I'm not a film expert, I do think I'm a film lover.

The aspect of my film-loving that most confuses my family is my habit of watching each film twice. And by that I don't mean twice in the whole period of owning the DVD, or twice in the same week; I mean twice in the same day. I watch it in the morning or over lunch, then I watch it again in the evening. I consider it a sort of summary of the film. Going over what I've learnt. Maybe I've been in the school system too long.

Of course it takes double the amount of time out of my day to watch the film twice, but as I've mentioned in previous posts I've had a lot of time on my hands lately. In school-time I'm often more flexible and consent to watch the film twice in the same week, or same fortnight. It's only in the holidays that I find the time to fully enjoy the film by watching it twice.

I think the appeal is roughly the same as re-reading a book. I'm a particular fan of sappy romantic comedies and love stories e.g. Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones' Diary. Therefore there's a particular satisfaction in watching all the tangled events throughout the film, safe in the knowledge that the guy gets the girl in the end. Also, I find that when I don't have to concentrate on the dialogue and plot, I notice facial expressions and subtle foreshadowing. You might now argue that this is true when re-watching the film in question a few weeks later, but I am very easily distracted day to day, and I know myself well enough to be certain that in a few weeks' time, I'll have forgotten about this film and never find the time to watch it again. Therefore my only option to get the benefit of re-watching the movie before I forget about it is to re-watch it in the next few days.

I want to know if I'm alone in this habit, because my parents and older sister certainly think that no-one in their right mind would watch the same film twice in one day. Maybe I am alone in this, and I'll just have to accept it as a strange quirk and keep my 'second screenings' secret. Ah well, just another secret quirk to add to the list.