At my undergraduate school, we had a January term where you only took one class a day (ideally set up for study abroad) and the sheer amount of free time resulted in my roomate and I concocting a sophomore year film festival in which we would watch, in order, every 80’s franchise horror film ever (I know. How original). We started at noon, when our class got out, and made it thought “Halloween 5” before we decided that maybe this wasn’t the best idea we had ever dreamed up. This didn’t, however, stop us from trying the next day with the “Friday the 13th” series, which ended up being a blast. So long story short, I’ve made it through seven films in a row. As an adult, I can now maybe take two, three tops, provided that one is shorter. Oh, the tolls of aging, celluloid- stained eyes…
I don’t think I’ve ever done more than five in a day. I saw four in three different theaters a month or so ago, but that wasn’t a very big deal. Four is pretty much my limit if I want to retain anything.
I can pretty much take as many as i need to… I rock at staying up all night, so for me, it’s butter..
But you know.. dreyer is maybe not the best after midninght. Something softer is needed..
Having watched Dreyer at midnight (and past), I can sympathize.
I watched all of Wes Anderson’s films and the Brave Little Toaster one Sunday. That’s like, what, 6 films?
Got an interesting answer on this one. In 1979, they used to have a film festival in Los Angeles called Filmex, and one of their traditions was to have the Movie Marathon in which they would pick a genre and continually show movies the entire weekend. The first one I went to was the “Suspense/Mystery” marathon which started on Friday night around 10:30, and ended Sunday a little after midnight. The movies I watched BEFORE calling asleep in the theater was “The Maltese Falcon”, “Murder on the Orient Express”, “Strangers on a Train”, “The Collector”, “Wait Until Dark”, and 1/3 of “Marathon Man”. Remember, this was throught the entire night. And no, people at that particular marathon would have much trouble falling asleep. I think it was like 9:00 a.m. the next morning before I finally conked out for a few hours. But that weekend was one of the funnest weekends I ever had…….
Whoa, that’s really cool, Chuck. Wish something like that existed around my area (hehe, I should steal the idea and start one!)
When I was a student with a lot more time to burn, or living alone in Japan on long vacations with no money, I would watch movies on vhs from morning to morning sometimes. More recently though, I sat through a Christian Bale marathon at the local art house theater that started at 6 p.m. and went until around 6:00 the next morning. They screened 3:10 to Yuma, I’m Not There, Batman Begins, American Psycho, and The Machinist, as I recall. There were short breaks in between films with free food and coffee provided by local restaurants and Starbuck’s, but for the most part, it was pretty much one after the other. The highlight was Bale and Mangold chatting with the audience after 3:10 to Yuma. I just remember driving home in broad daylight, still wired on coffee, thinking that I must be insane. Cinephilia is definitely a sickness. (that I wouldn’t give up for anything)
I can remember taking home something like 12 Bunuel movies one weekend when I could get them for nothing at the vid store I worked at. Just one after the other, for something like 20 hours over two days. those were the days!
If its my day then I bet it would be 5-6 before i doze off, I remember the last time I did 5 in a row which included Eternal Sunshine and Life of David Gale and others can’t remember grrrrrrrrr.
I think eight is the most for myself. I’d like to break my own record one day soon. I’ve Got to find nine I’m really enthusiastic about first.
Prudence that sounds awesome! I remember renting approx. 8 Bunuel movies over the period of about 1 week, 2 years ago. That was an awesome week.
A better question is, how many times have you watched the SAME movie in a row? I don’t know if other people do this, or if it’s just me haha. But, a few years ago I recall watching Amelie a good 4 times in a row, and then through on Eternal Sunshine for 2 times in a row. That’s 6 times right there for just 2 movies! I am crazy… but those are two of my favorite movies ever!
Wow, Paige! That´s a good one. I think i never did a back to back with the same movie. Maybe I revatched the next morning or something like that. Doing it with “Eternal Sunshine” Must be quite a trip!
Now that I recall, I did it on a double program with “Evil Dead II”, still one of the best (comedies) horror films I´ve seen. And that was the B movie!
For Robert De Niro’s 60th birthday – about 5 years ago – me and a few friends watched 10 of his films back-to-back, in this order:
MEAN STREETS
MIDNIGHT RUN
CAPE FEAR
THE KING OF COMEDY
JACKNIFE
HEAT
RAGING BULL
GOODFELLAS
TAXI DRIVER
THE DEER HUNTER
Normally it’s three or four, then food, then two or three more, then sleep, repeat. (that’s if I have nothing to do, obviously). Depends on the length of the films I’m watching.
When my Netflix get here, I watch all three in a row, which takes up most of the evening. I don’t think I’ve ever sat through more than four movies at once though.
every sunday I watch 4 or 5 right in a row
I couldn’t possibly watch more the 2 in a row without a break of a day or more. I love films as much as the next guy, but I value allowing them to germinate in my imagination/heart.
I suppose the longest run I’ve had was going to a friend’s house after the extended Return of the King came out. We drank and snacked and tried to watch all three in a row. That must be more than 10 hours of Jackson’s god-awful slow-mos. I never want to do that again.
I’ve watched four or five, I think, at most. I think it’s like eating… each subsequent bite becomes less appetizing until your full, and even if the meal is still delicious it starts to hurt.
I’m not a quantity-over-quality guy, though. It doesn’t bother me that there are thousands of good movies I haven’t seen. I’ll get to them when I get to them, and if I don’t, well then I enjoyed a bunch of other movies instead. I know that that’s not really what this topic is about, but I thought it worth mentioning.
—PolarisDiB
In a film theater, it was three of them: Being John Malkovich, Three Kings and Girl Interrupted (the last one was easily dismissed).
Then, when I was a sci-fi, one time we managed to see Blade Runner, 2001, Barbarella, Close Encourters of the Thrid Kind and Terminator 2. I have never done it again, not in a “programe to follow” mode, anyway: it´s stressing to me to know that there are still so much hours ahead of this or that. It affects my viewing experience, so, when it is something I really really want to enjoy or study, I stick to a film a day programme. (some fellas invited me to the back to back theather projections of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy,; even as much as I liked them, no f——-g way that I could snore the moronic Wood face for all those hours).
I’ve watched the extended Lord of the Rings back to back. It really changes the structure of the films, and makes the second one not so egregiously deviant.
I highly recommend watching the Alien Quadrilogy back to back. Things are put into a much clearer perspective as regards Ripley, and why Jeunet chose to do what he did in the fourth one. The fact that the series ends with a shot of Earth through the window, when Earth has never been shown through the whole movie…. the fact that Ripley has basically gone through (I forget the math but somewhere about) 1300 years of constant statis vs. fear…. a whole different experience than watching them individually or serially over a few nights.
—PolarisDiB
MR JAGIL.. Try watching Gertrud at 2 am.
I talked my way at age 14 into a double bill of The Godfather and Godfather Part II (it was harder, at least in my hometown, for a teenager to sneak into R-rated films in those days).
In college, I hooked up with some music loving friends and we watched the great rock-concert films from 8 o’clock one evening until dawn:
Monterrey Pop, Woodstock, Isle of Wight, Let’s Spend the Night Together, The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense.
Beer and other things were involved.
Some time back, after an auto accident left me with a wounded leg and I could not easily leave the house, I popped a deuce of Percocet and tracked through all the Sean Connery James Bond films on a long, slow Saturday. That was six films (Never Say Never Again doesn’t count).
Cheers,
Steve
CinemaUprising.Blogspot.com
When I was in my late teens I would watch 3…sometimes 4 in a row on a good day. Now I only see that many if there’s a festival on
Back in the days of VHS, for those of you who remember, it was the day after Christmas and I was quite sick. I had just got the very cool box set of Star Wars (with the sliding package design) and the Alien trilogy. I also got one of those VHS tape rewinders to save wear on my VCR and this came in very handy for my marathon. However, I didn’t realize that the rewinder was rewinding the tapes way too fast and broke every tape as it finished. Every damn one of them. Here’s where I was a terrible bastard and will likely burn in hell for an eternity. I got the receipts for the sets and took them back to the stores saying that one of the tapes was busted. It worked. They replaced them and I still have the Star Wars box set. It was just too cool to get rid of.
last wednesday I went from winterlight to shoot the piano player to Hiroshima Mon Amour to Seventh Seal from 5:30 in the evening to 2:00 AM early in the morning, it was indeed a wonderful day!
I sat through all six Star Wars in pretty much one sitting with some friends. Great stuff.
I only once ever movie-hopped and that was for Grudge and Saw…two really shitty movies.
On DVD though, once I had a mini Shaw Bros/ martial arts marathon and watched:
36th Chamber of Shaolin
Return to the 36th Chamber
Disciples of the 36th Chamber
5 Shaolin Masters
8 Diagram Pole Fighter
Dragons Forever
Executioners from Shaolin
Golden Sword
Martial Arts of Shaolin
One Armed Swordsman
Return of the One Armed Swordsman
New One Armed Swordsman
Shaolin Temple
Snake in the Eagles Shadow
Wheels of Meals
it was in the course of a weekend, but it was fairly continuous minus sleeping, eating, and shitting.
Frank Booth
When I was fifteen, we used to get together with a couple of friends and watch three movies in a row on saturdays, while the other kids went dancing and stuff like that. Every new year´s eve we made a marathon: 6, 7 movies, just to start the year in the best possible cinematic way.
Years went by and I started to attend to film festivals, where I also sit through 5, 6 movies, back to back, if the schedule allows it.
Yesssss: after the second day of each festival I dont know what I´ve seen, but who cares! I´ve already lived 5 or 6 different lives each day!
And yeah, sometimes I may fall sleep, but that´s another topic…