So what really is considered a classical movie? Can we simply associate as a black and white film noir thing? Containing some of those cheesy classical music? How about big powdered wigs? Do you think of the formal nature of both the characters as well as the period get-up and attire? Is a classic movie one which garnered 10 Oscars? Or do you think a classic movie simply one which down to the perception of the viewers and individuals?

The classical movie is truly one of the greatest "inventions" since we discovered mechanical pencils. The classical movie is also the one show that we had the benefit of watching when we were kids, cause at the time only three television channels were available. Limited viewing opportunities were given reprieve because Saturday afternoons and Sundays, when Dad wasnt sucked into The World of Sports, was when those classic movies from the past, movies featuring the glamour girls and the guys that inspired us boys to want to be cowboys, had long since passed out of our existence.

Though there is obviously a distinct difference between classical movies and classical movies with only classical period elements (music, costumes, storylines, etc.), I would like to address the delight of the classical movie of yesterday and today that does involve only a particular period of history and does, then feature only classical period elements.

I tend to associate the black and white flicks with the beauties and the beaus, the comedies with the curmudgeons, the histories with the insights into who people were back then, like us but with an added je ne sais quoi that we must find out, learn about, and finally to appreciate in as great a depth and as wide a breadth as we can, in order to do them the justice they deserve.

I need to start with my favorite classical movie of all time, Impromptu. This film depicts a few years in the lives of George Sand, Franz Liszt, Freiderich Chopin, and the royal and affluent people who took the artists in, allowing them to compose, write, paint, create, in exchange for wonderful company and fine entertainment. The films focus is on Sand, who is fixated on partnering with Chopin, her aggression being as great as was his weakness. The costumes, the soundtrack, the dialogue, and the setting are all as stunning as the direction, the technique, and the delivery of words and emotion. There is even a theme or two that humans from the beginning of time until today can identify with or appreciatethe love/hate, good/evil, and longing/belonging motifs that are as classic as the film itself.

Other classical movie choices I have an affinity toward are those less mainstream & popular ones. I would consider Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (though clearly POST-classical periods), Wilde, and Jefferson, for instance, as worthy of classical movie acclaim as say Amadeus, Emma, The Piano, and any number of Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson productions.