Cinematic amnesia

I can't tell you how many times I've indulged this fantasy, which usually occurs when I'm scanning across the titles on our video shelves for something to watch, and each title brings such an instant flood of recollection that, in a split second, I feel as though I've just finished watching it.

But if I had such a list, The Sixth Sense is unquestionably a film that would be at the top of it (as I said in my reply on the The Birds thread, I like the way you think). There's just no way to duplicate that "Ohhhh, my gaaawd" moment of revelation into which viewers have been so skillfully maneuvered.

By the time I'd first seen Psycho, I pretty much knew all the surprises it had in store, but I would very much love the opportunity to experience it as a first-time viewer might have back in 1960 (I was only seven then, and nobody would take me to see it) with, as Walter Brennan said in Bad Day At Black Rock, "the innocence of a fresh-laid egg."

Others, I'd have to think about. The ones I love most and see most frequently have become like familiar old friends who drop in regularly, telling the same stories and jokes, and with whom I'm always comfortable because I know them so well. But there are also a handful that continue to surprise by revealing some previously unnoticed little detail or nuance that suddenly stands out because I do know them so well. Kinda like saying to someone, "I've known you for thirty years and this is the first time I've noticed your eyes are slightly different colors!"