Watching old films with new eyes

I know this sounds ridiculous, but I’m struggling to find anything I want to watch on TV, catch-up or any of the countless streaming options on offer. We have more screen entertainment available in our homes than ever before and I’m sure that’s part of the problem: endless choice can be paralysing. Looking at shelf after shelf of olive oil in the supermarket, I have no idea which one to buy. I know that there is a difference between Extra Virgin and bog-standard and that they come from different countries, but how is a person to choose? I suppose it’s like wine – some tastes of citrus, some of straw and some of freshly laid tarmac.

I am much harder to please when it comes to programmes and films than I am with olive oil (although I really don’t like those tarmacky ones). The problem is that the list of what I don’t like is ridiculously long, namely: murders and violence of any sort (although I can just about tolerate a discreet off-screen death); brooding detectives detecting things; police dramas (the jargon defeats me); anything based in a hospital; fantasy (too many beards); sci-fi or male coming-of-age stories (surely we’ve had enough by now). I’m not great with suspense either, although I do my best. What’s left, you might ask?

Of course, there are endless reality shows. The most popular one in Britain is Strictly Come Dancing – where celebrities seeking to take their careers up a notch are taught ballroom dancing by their professional partners. They perform each week for the public’s entertainment and one is voted off each week, also for the public’s entertainment. People love it, but it’s just too glitzy for me. It reminds me of Las Vegas, but without the dancing fountains or Barry Manilow. The Great British Bake-Off  is my one reality show indulgence, it’s just so nice.

I also like dramas and comedy dramas that aren’t too emotionally draining – I found it incredibly hard to watch the first series of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag because she was so unhappy and so lost. I preferred the second, when she had stopped drinking and was lusting after the hot priest. Maybe light-hearted, undemanding comedy is the only solution and I decided that re-watching a few classic films from the 80s might be the way to go. I always think of the 80s as a golden age of filmmaking, probably because I was in my twenties then and more easily impressed.

So we watched Big, which is every bit as charming as I remember, but also a bit disturbing. It’s the one where a boy wishes he were grown up and overnight he finds himself in an adult’s body (that of a young Tom Hanks, to be precise), but still with the mind of a 12-year-old. The movie still feels like a classic, but it can be hard to watch films from that era with 21^st century eyes. He is, after all, supposed to be a boy in a man’s body and his romantic relationship with a woman is all a bit creepy. And the few women in the cast are merely there to orbit around the main male character, as they still do in so many films. However, it’s a bit like looking back at the Victorian era and bemoaning their racist, classist and sexist attitudes, but still being forced to admit that their technological advances were remarkable and their wallpaper was wonderful.

So, I’m going to keep going. Ghostbusters is next. I don’t recall it being a tribute to feminist ideals, but the music is great.