Repetitive vision

Re-reading the list(s) I posted yesterday I was taken by how many times I've seen most of the films on them, over and over and over again. Although not necessarily from the beginning. I'm talking here about coming across movies while channel surfing and suddenly encountering an old favourite, like Some Like It Hot or The Apartment or A Matter Of Life And Death, or, in the case of Sideways or Swingers, a relatively new one. These are movies that have become those kind of friends that it doesn't matter how long it is since you've last seen them, there's no awkward conversation when you meet again, just a seamless chat, picked up from the last time you saw them, even if that was a year or two before. These are movies that when you encounter, be it at the beginning, midway through, or somewhere in the latter stages, you're hooked. That's it. Whatever it was you were doing, is now forgotten. You know the film well enough that it doesn't matter where you pick it up, you just enjoy its mood or its characters or its humour. They're like warm, delicious, tasty treats. Sideways is a movie I'll watch, and watch, and watch, whenever it's on. And I never get tired of it. Ditto A Matter Of Life And Death which, if I had to pick a desert island movie would probably be it. I had this recently with Erin Brockovich which, to my mind, falls under the category of effortless storytelling. I've actually lost count of the number of times I've seen it. I have it on DVD. I have Thomas Newman's score on CD. And yet, there it was on television the other night, and although I wanted my bed, it drew me in and that was it...