I posted recently about “media with great replay value.” Today, I’ll share the movies that I watch – repeatedly. For years. This is a sampling.

Topping the list for movies is the ultimate in “comfort media” Notting Hill. It makes me happy inside, from the beginning, when Hugh Grant as scruffy bookshop owner tries to woo Julia Roberts – the world famous Anna Scott – with the contents of his paltry bachelor fridge:

all the way to the end, when, rejected by the still-scruffy Thacker’s worry of a broken-again heart, Anna softly says:

Don’t you just melt? He did – about an half hour later, just in time to race to his friend’s car and catch her before she left the country for good.

Next, Amelie, which appeals to feeling of being different. I can quote it in English and French. This is the only movie that I actually refrain from watching too much, because I love it so much I want to save it.

Eat Drink Man Woman, a movie filmed in Taiwan about the travails of family – especially siblings. I like to listen to the Chinese, and drool over the food – the movie begins with a ten minute segment of Old Chu, the chef and father of the family, preparing a sumptuous feast.

Of course, the original three Star Wars movies – which I religiously watch every time I am sick.The ones produced later have little for me – though when I was younger I loved the second, as it had the budding (and insipid, to my later self) relationship of Anakin and Padme.

Little Women is the tearjerker of the bunch. Involving both Christian Bale as a young cutie pie and Susan Sarandon as wisdom incarnate, it’s like rolling up in a big quilt next to a softly crackling northeastern fireplace. And yes, every time Beth gets sick and has that scene with Jo, I sob like a small child. I am of the opinion this is actually rather healthy – cleansing, sortof.

Studio Ghibli will forever have a special place in my heart. Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro got me through some tough times – and every time I watch Howl’s Moving Castle, I believe in magic again (and finding a man whose voice is as sexy as Howl’s). In Howl, a young girl is cursed into old age by a jealous witch, and finds herself as the cleaning lady of an enigmatic wizard with multiple personalities. A fire with an attitude adds spark. Kiki’s Delivery Service, also a Ghibli, fits in with the rest as a beautiful work of art.

Movies aren’t just about plot, about excitement, for me — they’re about feelings. One has to believe that one is not the only one who’s ever felt the way one does — and that is something my favorite movies list brings to me again and again.  No, I am not alone. Feeling various ways is normal. I’m not the first and not the last to feel the way I do, and I’m not the first or last to keep watching the same movies over and over again incessantly. There must be someone else out there who does this!

—–N–ss