Comfort Food

Image via New Jersey Film Festival

Some films are like comfort food. They are those big bowls of soup, bars of chocolate and, erm... tubs of icecream in which we find consolation (and calories!).

I once asked one of my university film lecturers about comfort films, painting the scene thus:

It's Sunday afternoon, you've had a big night out and you're feeling a little seedy. It's way too much effort to go to the cinema, so you peel yourself off the couch for long enough to pick up which DVD?

When his response was, "Perhaps some Rivette like Paris nous appartient, or maybe some Truffaut," I somehow got the feeling my answer - Zoolander - might not go down so well. But then again that's precisely my point: comfort films are entirely idiosyncratic, and highly dependable upon the individuals emotional state.

On a fragile Sunday afternoon, like a salty snack, I'll often reach for a comedy or action film. Favourites include Armageddon, Oceans Eleven, Spy Game, Serenity, The Princess Bride, Hot Fuzz or The Bourne Trilogy (as evidenced by a previous post).

During the week, like Mum's spaghetti bolognese, I'll tend to crave the familiarity of TV shows. Able to be ingested in delectable, bite-sized pieces (or in a back-to-back binge) 'my shows' are: The West Wing, Firefly, Sex and The City, Alias, Spaced, Gilmore Girls, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Buffy, Angel, Extras, Lost - in fact it probably would have been easier to say anything by Aaron Sorkin, Joss Whedon, JJ Abrams or Ricky Gervais.

Other quiet afternoons or are whiled away with films such as the delightful Amélie (French! Though not quite Truffaut), Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (which is screening as I type), Coppola's Marie Antoinette, Gondry's superb Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Malick's meditative The New World. These films are beautiful to watch and they make me smile.

Comfort films are different from nostalgia flicks, or your old (or new) favourites. They're the films you instinctively reach out for, and enjoy, every time.