People will kill me for this, but Vertigo – although it was very late and I was watching it on TV laying in my bed. Nowadays I have it on DVD and I like it but I still think it’s extremely overrated.
But really, that’s it. It seems like most people’s patience sucks.
Recently,
The Zookeeper
Red Riding Hood.
Intentionally.
The White Ribbon. I still haven’t been able to get through it. I tried twice, then gave up. “Ohh pretty cinematog…zzzzzzzzzzz”
Just in the theater:
Vanya on 42nd Street,
Short Cuts,
The Cure in Orange
Madagascar 3
127 Hours. Twice. And i wasn’t even sleepy. Also i might would fell asleep eventually during Paranormal Activity if i was watching it alone (and please don’t censor me for losing my time with that)
Lord of the Rings, once in every film, in theatre.
2001, everytime, albeit on DVD.
Public Enemies, but I had worked 12 hours with next to no sleep before I watched it. That in consideration, I’m not sure if I still would have fell asleep or not had I been wide awake. Will have to give it a second viewing sometime.
Recently-
Kurosawa’s The Idiot, for the second time.
The Fountain, on dvd
I had a bad tendency of trying to watch Tarkovsky’s films late at night, sometimes not after libations or smokey vices, sometimes not. Needles to say, it was a tried and true tactical failure every time.
Gorky Park put me to sleep. Some movies you love and have seen a million times are nice to sleep also Occasionally I’ll throw Playtime on late at night. The music is so pleasant, it’s like an architectural lullaby.
I went to go see Michael Haneke’s Cache with a buddy of mine the weekend it opened. We went to an eight o’clock showing, but the film was sold out. We figured we’d wait for the ten o’clock show, so in the meantime we found a little cafe, and decided we’d get something to eat and drink. We ordered a bottle of wine, and some appetizers. We got through one bottle, and still had more than an hour left before the next showing. We ordered another bottle, and got through that one, and it was finally closing in on ten o’clock. In our tipsy stupor from the place, we thought about getting another bottle to take with us for after the film. We decided against it, got back to the theatre, and got our tickets. We sat down, and I got about fifteen minutes into the movie (which, if you’ve seen Cache, is slow-moving and includes many similar shots from the same angle), well, I guess I musta fallen asleep, because the next time I woke up, I looked up at the screen, and it was a similar-looking shot from that same angle, and I thought to myself, Oh, neat, I didn’t miss anything, but then the end credits started rolling, and the lights in the theatre came on, and I looked over at my buddy, and I asked him, “What happened?” He said, “You fell asleep.” I asked, “Why didn’t you wake me up?” He said, “I did! But you fell back asleep.”
The Little Mermaid, Dinosaur, and Toy Story 2 are films I fell asleep watching when I was younger. Recently… not so many (perhaps Coraline).
I fell asleep during THE HURT LOCKER — there was just nothing there for me at all.
I also fell asleep during Ran but to be fair I was far from sober.
Captain America: The First Avenger
I understand this is slightly different than the question the OP asks, but I frequently watch dialogue heavy films to put me to sleep. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Social Network are two films I’ve done this with lately.
Notorious and the Magnificent Ambersons… wish I won’t.
When I fall asleep, it almost never has to do with the quality of the film. It’s almost always due to me being tired, and there’s a huge difference between being at the cinema and being at home. I fall asleep watching DVDs all the time, mostly because my current schedule allows me very little time for screening except late at night after long days. Nearly all of my film viewing happens after career and parenting duties are complete, which means I generally start a film around 11:00pm, knowing that I’ll have to finish the following night. No surprise that I doze off under those conditions. It’s not ideal, but it’s either that or no films at all. (I really should go to sleep much earlier—the alarm is set for 5:30am—but I willingly sacrifice sleep for that hour of film each night, for the sake of my sanity.)
“Slow cinema” is tough to handle at that time of night, though. I made a point to watch THE TURIN HORSE this afternoon (Sunday), knowing I’d never be able to appreciate and enjoy it in late night bits.
Captain America: The First Avenger
I nearly fell asleep during the battle scene of The Birth of a Nation, my Dad actually did, but I found the rest great
If very racist
So many occurrences… most shameful would probably be during Bicycle Thieves. I was watching it with some friends and I nodded off for about twenty minutes. Tried to pretend like nothing happened.
Some films are best slept to.
M (1931)
Dr.Strangelove
Citizen Kane
Sherlock Holmes:A Game of Shadow
The Lord of the ring
maybe i’m gonna watch them sometimes
Troy and Before sunset.
the dark knight rises. partly because i was so tired from the night before but god, it seemed to go on. i loved the opening and the dialogue but the middle just seemed to pile on more and more plot and exposition so dully and so pompously i fell asleep. woke up about 45 mins before the end but it was still boring and then the ending came in which i hated even more.
well, i don’t know if you can hate an ending you didn’t see built up to…STILLADVANCE!!!
I fell asleep to Ghost Busters 2 when I was a young man. And I loved every second of it. That river of pink shit was amazing. I remember waking up and that man in the painting was misbehaving.
This should only apply to going to the movies rather than at home on one’s couch.
The one instance I can think of was Derek Jarman’s The Garden, while I was on a date no less. Worst date movie EVER!
miss congeniality, at the theater, first date and last. he picked the film. lol
Miasma
La Dolce Vita… me too. Twice. Still haven’t finished it. Something about the general attitude of aimlessness. Vengeance Is Mine… felt dully episodic.
Footnote, which I was supposed to write about. Yikes.