children of the moving image

[topaz]

A while ago I wrote about Morgan's preference for Five Easy Pieces over The Bad News Bears.

A few weeks ago, flipping through movies on my Netflix queue in search of something the kids would enjoy, I tried to interest them in Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines -- a movie I have not seen but one I was sure would interest them, especially Quinn.  No luck.  They could not be persuaded that it would be worth even a try.

What did they choose instead?  Morgan looked through the entries on my queue and, after some deliberation, settled on The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser.  I swear to God.  They liked it, too.  (Quinn had some trouble with the subtitles, but Morgan helped him out with those.)

These kids have always expressed a distaste for black-and-white and silent films, which breaks my heart.  We have tried getting over that hump with some Laurel and Hardy and the like, but so far to no avail.  I think I may have cracked that code last weekend, though, when Morgan reluctantly agreed to let me put on The Thief of Bagdad (the 1924 version).  Within minutes he was laughing and bouncing at Douglas Fairbanks shimmying up a magic rope, and it kept both boys completely occupied through two and a half hours.

I can't really overstate how thrilled I am with this.

Comments

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

What about the original King Kong?

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Excellent idea! I'll give that a try.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

You are a good father, educating your children in the classics. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

That is unbearably great.

[ratatosk.livejournal.com]

Awesome! One great thing about kids is that they don't know what they are supposed to like or find accessible.

If you are looking for random black and white foreign film suggestions, the first thing I think of is Throne of Blood, which I seem to remember liking when I was Morgan's age. You could follow it up with Ran (in color) if they like all the Japanese samurai/battle scenes.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Awesome! One great thing about kids is that they don't know what they are supposed to like or find accessible.

Precisely. That's why I started reading to them with things like Gulliver's Travels and Treasure Island. The language in Treasure Island did get difficult for Morgan and he asked about halfway through the book if we could stop and read something else, but I think I may try him on it again.

Nice ideas! I'll take a look for those. :-)

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there is a good DVD version of the Lon Chaney _Phantom of the Opera_ with proper movie music. I saw it at the CSO of all places, and it was great! I had a crappy DVD of it that was lousy. The music is very important.

Anyway, the kids might like that.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw a copy of Nosferatu on DVD that was like that -- someone laid down a new soundtrack that was all industrial noise stuff. Plus it was a really lousy print, very grainy and hard to see. (That's one of the down sides of the public domain: people can do really miserable, cheesy stuff with the material.)