FILM FESTIVALS

NETFLIX! Oh, what an addiction. We have the plan where we can order two at a time and as many as we want for $14.99 per month! We average watching 15-17 movies per month. The greatest number we received was 19 in one month! We are positively manic to watch the movies the same day as we receive them and get them back in the mail the following day!

Gerald, Les and I are all movie lovers, but we've found that there are very few movies Gerald watches that I like; there are some movies which Gerald and Les both like; there are some movies which Les and I like, but seldom do all three of us watch the same movie.

Because we see so many movies, we have probably seen all the interesting movies produced in the past five years. We now have "Movie Festivals" and choose directors and actors and watch everything in their filmographies!

We started with the Stanley Kubrick Festival, because Gerald's all-time favorite movie is "2001--A Space Odyssey", but Gerald and Les had never seen "Paths Of Glory" and "Lolita". I'd seen them previously, but enjoyed watching them again. We also watched "Doctor Strangelove".

Next were the festivals honoring Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, and Michael Powell. We had a "Film Noir" Festival and then we started festivals with favorite actors and actresses. We watched, Garfield, Bogie, Streep, Duvall, de Niro, Fonda, and Cagney.

Not that we're "scraping the bottom of the Netflix barrel", but we recently completed the David Strathairn Film Festival. What do you mean you don't know David Strathairn! Les asked, "How could a great actor be in so many bad movies?" He played Edward R. Murrow in the movie "Good Night and Good Luck" and was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Next is the Jack Elam Festival (just kidding, we've already seen all of those!).

Les said if he sees the word "poignant" in a movie's description, he knows he doesn't want to see that one!