Dirty Dancing

There are loads of great posts today about Patrick Swayze after his death yesterday but my favourite is from Anna Pickard in The Guardian (here) which includes this quote about Dirty Dancing.

"The film – I have no idea how it did in the cinema. What I do know it was shown at almost every sleepover I attended in my teens, and spoken of in hushed tones, like a cross between a secret first-love-manual and porn."

I think that is the way many women of a particular age experienced Dirty Dancing and is a fine example of how people use films socially and culturally. As a younger teenager, girls' film conversations tended to develop from either Dirty Dancing or Pretty Woman (I was gladly on the Dirty Dancing side) with few other films being considered for movie nights or get-togethers. While I am glad that ageing has diversified our tastes, there was also something comforting in that shared understanding of a particular film as cultural event.

Update: Libby Brooks in today's Guardian also writes about Dirty Dancing's importance in her teen-hood here.

Lack of Posts

I haven't posted in a long time mainly because I have been working on my other blog which will be a catalogue of all the films referenced throughout the seven seasons of Gilmore Girls. It is rather a large project but it will be worth it once it's done. Even if nobody else uses the list and even if I miss some references it will feel like an achievent in listmaking. I am not opening the blog up generally to readers until I get further along but it will be at Gilmore Girls Movies.

Otherwise I've been thinking a lot about film choice and how to make lists of films to see. I think sites like All Consuming are nice for recording what you see and Lists of Bests for what you may want to. But these still require a decision making process behind them. I spent the summer watching a variety of films and I found that I sometimes gained the most pleasure from films seen unintentionally or that were recommended by others. I think this idiosyncratic approach may be worth pursuing so I have developed some ideas for lists of films to see. Like 26 Films by directors whose initials are different letters of the alphabet, or film titles that make up a daily menu of foods. I'm going to put some to work on at my Lists of Bests and we'll see if I get more wide-ranging film enjoyment.