[Thor Joachim Haga]

There are any numbers of reasons for why I watch a movie several times. I tried to say a few things yesterday up there, but I had a splitting headache (I struggle with some health issues at the moment we can’t really make heads or tails of), so the post came off as rambling and repetitive.

Anyway, one reason to rewatch is obviously because I think the film is great, its sheer quality.

Another is because I find many layers to “deconstruct” and analyze, which can only be done after multiple viewings (Antonioni films, for example, for those who follow that thread).

Yet another is because I like the setpieces more than the story, and my expectations to said setpiece.

Yet another is – as I alluded to above – because I love the mood. It’s a fictional universe where I can just stay and absorb and experience the surroundings. This is, in fact, one of the most important aspects for me when it comes to filmic experience. It can be “cozy”, like the opening of LOTR, set in Hobbiton, or it can be “unsettling”, like in ALIEN. But even in ALIEN, there is a familiarity with the unsettling surroundings that I find comforting.

And then there is a different type of use as well. A fairly mundane form of reuse is watching a film when I’m inebriated, at the end of an evening, before I go to sleep. That’s why JURASSIC PARK is so useful, up until the appearance of the T-Rex. Or films like 2012 and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, when the purpose is to “live inside the acts”, and the expectations of what’s to come. Or films like THE MARTIAN or CAST AWAY, that are both calm and tense at the same time, but with plenty of time to just ‘stay’ at the place. I’ve seen all of these films countless times.

That’s why there are certain concepts in film that draw me back again and again – especially ‘isolation dramas’ (whether it’s snowed-in stations like in THE THING or desert islands or derelict spaceships). Sometimes, a CONCEPT is more reason than the quality of the film itself.