The Language of Cinema Is Not Universal

For years, the Landmark Cinemas tagline, "The Language of Cinema is Universal," was a staple of my weekend experience. Elttaes Theatres (aka Majestic Bay) historical video clip gives me shivers every time. I have been systematically working my way through the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die since 2004. I maxed out my Netflix queue at 500, and when they introduced additional profiles, I started specialized queues. You see, I love movies.

Before I had kids, I had dreams of watching all my favorite movies over again with them. I imagined plotting out our SIFF Films for Families schedule each spring, standing in line for popcorn and quoting Pixar at family dinners.

Then I had kids. At three years old, my oldest daughter had nightmares about the angler fish in Finding Nemo for three months. She also had trouble sleeping, so for several years, staying up late and watching a movie after the kids went to bed was not an option. My Netflix queue languished. For almost two years, the only TV we watched was Curious George. And my daughter got hyper if we let her watch more than two episodes of that.

Fortunately, daughter number two is less sensitive to visual stimuli. At two and a half, she gets nervous when people on the screen yell at each other, but otherwise she can handle anything her now-seven-year-old sister can watch. But she usually won't go to sleep either, so we are still mostly limited to watching movies with the girls.

In order to avoid the constant refrain of, "Can I watch TV?" and sidestep the tantrums that seemed to result regardless of the answer, we recently instituted a new media rule in our house. After homework and 30 minutes of free play (with no fighting) the girls can watch a maximum of one cartoon. This spares us many hours of Backyardigan theme songs. In return, on Friday nights, we eat pizza in front of the TV and watch a whole movie.

Ok, I know Friday Family Movie Night is hardly an original idea. But for our family, it is a lifesaver. This blog will chronicle our film-watching adventures as we try to gently draw our daughters into increasingly challenging (and thankfully) interesting viewing. I will know I've succeeded when my girls can talk about John Woo's balletic interpretation of violence at the dinner table.