Jurassic Park! The first time I saw T Rex break through that fence it was like something I could only imagine in a dream!
good thread
I would probably say 2001, but every time I watch that film is like the first time, so I’ll say La Jetee or Apocalypse Now. Or maybe the Three Colors Trilogy.
There are a few here. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is top of the list because I have never had an experience like seeing this film on the big screen in 1977 – as a thirteen year-old too; I’d love to go in fresh to a giant screen showing of 2001 as well. I’d like to have been around in 1960 to see Psycho as well (that must have been the ultimate cinema experience!).
The Fellowship of the Ring
I wish I had seen Jurassic Park in the theatre! My parents were embarrassing. They never let me see anything “cool”. I was like, “mom, I wanna see Mortal Kombat” and she was like, “it’s too violent” and I was all, “ma-OM!” The end.
Shane, I saw it in the theater with my dad when I was a real little guy. Never forget it.
The whole effect was compounded by being a kid and the ending being from the boy’s point of view.
Psycho would have been sweet, especially if you saw it before any kind of word of mouth got around. I did get to see 2001 in 70mm two years ago, and it really was like seeing it for the first time. It was something else. Oh, and since Neil’s username reminds me, I’ll add Heat to the list, because it is the best American film of the 1990’s.
I would have liked to seen The Exorcist in the theater on it’s opening weekend for pure shock value. It must have been fascinating to have witnessed all of the reactions that this film created. I need to see this on the big screen!
Repulsion, Rachel Getting Married, and The Dark Knight on IMAX.
I’m mostly thinking of films that had a certain impact on me when I first saw them. Repulsion just screwed me up mentally, Rachel Getting Married was just a revelation, and The Dark Knight was just incredible.
No Country For Old Men would be another film. It’s the only time I’ve been in a movie theater and was literally sitting on the edge of my seat, leaning forward, for two hours.
thats easy. i’d pick the film that changed the direction of my life, as i’m sure others would too. “pulp fiction”. that was my road to damascus moment. would love to experience it again for the first time. but i sort of can. any time i get to introduce the film to someone whos never seen it. its the closest sensation, and actually, its very close.
I wish I could go back in time to two days ago, when I caught Once Upon A Time In The West in the theater. I peed a little during Henry Fonda’s entrance. I’m still peeing.
so many I wish I could see for the first time:
La Dolce Vita
Valley of the Dolls
John Waters earlier films
Contempt
Rosemary’s Baby
o and Harold and Maude
another would be The Matrix…and I am extremely excited that my local movie theater will be showing The Matrix on Blu Ray sometime this fall!! Memories of me and my dad seeing it in the theaters back in 99 are still very fresh!
wow. i must be old. you talk about ’99 like it was ’79!
I saw Vertigo when it first came out. I’d like to have that experience again.
hahaha – 1999 does feel like a very long time ago!…high school graduation, great year for film, Y2K, Bill Clinton….
yes im a youngin, but it has some advantages, like, um…well I can happily say that Im not responsible for the Bush administration since i was wasnt old enough to vote!
Letter From An Unknown Woman.
At one time such films as these were shown on television, where I first saw it. At the time, I had no idea who Max Ophuls was. But I fell crazily in love with it. I couldn’t say why with any conviction, but I was floored nonetheless. Years later, I was in film history class taught by John Bolton, and he screened Letter!. He loved it, loved Ophuls. He said it was a film that was capable of making one fall in love with cinema completely. I was older then, knew something about cinema, had seen it since that first time, on television again, and fully agreed with him. In all that time, my love for it had never diminished. Seeing it in class was great, but when I was finally able to see it on a proper screen (Carnegie Hall Cinema), it was a marvel. That’s it. I’d love to relive that first time.
The Dark Knight in IMAX. Nothing has matched that first viewing for me.
Tokyo Story
Without Ozu I wouldn’t be a cinephile.
A Clockwork Orange
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Shining, Fight Club, Potemkin
2001 I’d love to watch for the first time now with my current appreciation for cinema because I was far too young (and unaware) when I saw it and didn’t get anything from it at all. Now I think it would blow my mind.
Ikiru or The Ascent.
I envy anyone who gets to view these films for the first time. Both are shattering experiences.
probably…CONTEMPT
but every viewing seems like the first =)
I think it would have to be Raiders of the Lost Ark… that opening scene and the reveal of Indy as he steps out of the shadow… man, I’d love to see that again for the first time… you just knew you were in for something entirely different at that point.
“Alien”, as I saw it in ’79: 70mm, 6-track magnetic sound on the last Cinerama screen in Washington DC (The Uptown.)
I will never forget the quiet. The curtain widened for the 70mm format, the opening star field slowly drifted past and Goldsmith’s music started working on me.
GoodFellas
The 400 Blows, even though, every time I see it today, it seems almost as the first time.
McBean
You know when you see a film and it blows you away so much that years later you kind of wish you hadn’t seen it so that you could see it for the first time? Which film would that be for you?