The Essay Question (Feb. 2016)

Each month, the OFCS polls its members with a question related to movies. It can be serious or amusing, but each member is given the opportunity to submit a short response to the question, which we will then post on the first Thursday of the month. Here is this week’s query.

Essay Question #29:

If you could choose any film from history to build the perfect date night around, which would it be and why?

Question Submitted by: Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight

Responses

Robert Cashill @ Popdose
I did build a perfect date night around The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), a musical that takes the bitter with the sweet. A repertory screening, followed by a nice dinner and abundant conversation about Jacques Demy’s wonderful film. I married my wife a year later–it can’t have hurt! (We also had a nice date night centered around an outdoor screening of the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet.)

Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk Online
Think Like a Man, because it highlighted some of the gender politics and game-playing couples and singles encounter on a daily basis. It was an honest, entertaining approach that can be engrossing for both men and women.

Kristen Lopez @ Awards Circuit
So are we talking about a film we’d want to live in or just use for a date night? Either way I’m going Sixteen Candles. It’s relatable (for girls at least) and has one of the sweetest endings in history!

Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
To build a date, it is imperative that you start with a film that not only grabs film buffs but ordinary people who don’t watch a lot of movies. For that, it’s always best to start with a great comedy. For that, it is helpful to start with Buster Keaton’s “The General.” Keaton’s masterpiece is Comedy 101. It’s fast paced, it’s inventive, it’s easy to follow, and since it’s a silent film with few title cards, you can talk while watching it. Plus it’s one of the cleverest comedies of all time. Those who shy away from silent cinema are drawn to this film because it doesn’t require much of them, either with history or with cinema. It’s a perfect date movie because you can share the experience of showing someone a movie they don’t even know they want to see.

Thomas Spurlin @ ThomasSpurlin.com
Richard Linklater created a beautiful ode to the magic and perils of a first date, and to the growth of true love, with Before Sunrise. On just a superficial level, the locations and activities that Celine and Jesse engage in throughout their impromptu 24-hour connection while traveling — conversation on a train ride, waltzing the stony streets of Vienna, interacting with the area’s eclectic citizens — provide the ideal trappings for a day worth remembering and holding onto for years to come. The depth of their conversations , however, from carefully divulging details about their lives to their philosophies and preferences, are what formulate the groundwork for a long-lasting relationship. Following in their footsteps as they explore the nooks and crannies of Vienna would provide a gorgeous, immersive date environment, but getting comfortable with the person you’re with to that degree whilst there is what dates should really be about.