My Favourite Movie Memories Growing Up

1.        Tarzan (1999)

I remember watching this movie on a VHS tape. Back then, we rented most of the VHS tapes and owned very few of them. My brother and I watched this movie almost daily – which is probably why my parents decided to just pay up and let us keep it.

The tape sadly met its end from my hand when I accidentally put a hot iron on top of it as I was ironing my school uniform (moral of the story being – do not let a seven-year-old iron their own clothes). To be honest, I haven’t re-watched this movie since, and I am not even sure I would like it as much as I did back then.

But there is a scene in this movie which I still remember. It is the moment when Tarzan boards the ship leaving for England and looks back. That look felt so poignant to me – I could physically feel a pain in my chest every time I re-watched this scene.  The look communicated how much Tarzan wanted to both leave and not leave. I could understand his inner turmoil and sympathize with him, and it was probably the first time that I was able to do so with a character.

There is a superstition of sorts in my culture where it’s unlucky for you to look back when you leave your house for a long journey. Every time I hear someone speak of this superstition – the image that comes to my head is Tarzan on a boat looking back, and I wonder whether the bad luck they talk about is just accepting the sadness that came with leaving.

When I was young, I strictly watched animated stuff only. Anything non-animated was for adults – was my logic. And I guess most animations I had watched till then were not as nuanced about what they were trying to convey. And this was the first movie to do so for me and I guess it has managed to find a permanent place in my heart ever since.  

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2.       Spirited Away  (2001)

This was my first Studio Ghibli movie and I cannot overstate how much an impact the movies from this studio have had on my life. My favorite scene in the movie is the whole of Chihiro’s train journey. The scene hit me so hard emotionally, but I didn’t even know why I was feeling that way.

This was probably the first time in my life that I had perceived something as art – though I did not realize it at that time. All I knew was that I was seeing at something so beautiful that it felt painful in some way. 

I have re-watched this movie a lot of times and while I love this movie as a whole and everything it embodies, I find myself eagerly waiting for the train scene as the highlight. And even after numerous watches, the scene hits me as hard on every watch as it did when I watched it for the first time.

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3.       Citizen Kane  (1941)

The only reason I watched this movie was because I had to. It was a part of my course in college. And boy am I glad that I watched it because Orson Welles has gone on to become one of my favorite directors.

While this is not my favorite Welles film (it’s F For Fake, just FYI), I can totally see why this movie is deemed to be the best movie of all time. I mean, if I had just watched the long-take flashback scene of the movie starting with a young Kane playing in the snow and no other part of it, I would still agree with anyone who said that this was the greatest movie of all time.

I wasn’t  the sort of viewer who pays too much attention to the technical aspects of films.  But for this movie, I could notice the technical aspects and even infer why they were used. The scene starts with Charles playing outside and the camera tracks inside the window to show his mother looking at him. The camera then tracks all the way back to the room, and we finally see the whole story of what’s being decided about Charles’ future as we continue to see him happily play outside, unaware of his future, in the same shot.

Citizen Kane explores a lot of motifs and themes, none of which I was honestly immersed in or emotionally invested in, probably due to cultural difference. But what I felt when I watched this movie, especially the scene mentioned above, is impressed. This was probably the first time I’ve genuinely been impressed and awed by the technicalities used in the movie  and the thoughts and decisions that went behind it. 

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4.       Stalker (1979)

This was my first Tarkovsky movie and I went into it blind – not knowing the legacy of the director or even what the movie was about. This was probably the first experimental film I watched and the first thought that came into my head when I watched my favourite panning sequence in this movie was “Are they allowed to do that?”

And then I had to answer my own question  with why wouldn’t they be allowed to do that? Where did the norm for what’s normal for the movies come from and how far from it can you move away? I think this was the moment I fully realized what the full scope of movies can be and how much can actually be done with it.

I love to read and books are my favorite things ever but I think movies are the ultimate art form. It’s a combination of everything – painting, storytelling, photography, theatre, and music. And I truly believe that the emotional impact that the combination of all these forms of art provide you, especially when all aspects work really well, movies hit you like a brick.

My favorite scene in the movie tracks slowly to show different debris submerged underwater. This is a very slow shot and all throughout the scene, in my head I kept expecting it to end. But it just goes on and on giving viewers time for self-reflection and a space to try and find both meaning and beauty in the mundane.

Watching this scene for the first time was a profound experience and I don’t think any other piece of art has had as much impact on me as this film did. Watching this movie on a big screen is on the top of my bucket list.

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5.       Seto Surya  (2016)

This is one of my favorite Nepali movies till date. My favorite scene from this movie, hits too close to home because it very closely resembles an event that happened in real life in my village.

The scene I’m talking about is the arrival of the politician in a helicopter for his son’s wedding and  provides no aid whatsoever to Chandra’s plight. This is the eeriest version of art imitating my personal life I’ve ever encountered. But even if you don’t relate to this scene on a personal level, it is still a very strong metaphor for the power system of our country. A politician using a chopper paid by us, the taxpayers, coming back to his village for a celebration who provides no help or empathy to the problems of the common people.

What I’ve felt both while watching this scene unfold and during the aforementioned event, is anger and frustration. The film does end in a hopeful enough tone where it looks towards the children to change the future. Honestly, I am not hopeful.  I think the rich and the powerful will drag us down, draining every bit of humanity from us. But that’s just me.