(Everyone has one of those movies in their background. A film that continues to resonate with you even years after you saw it. It might not be your favorite film, but its one that had a profound effect on the way you look at cinema and at life. DaRK PaRTY was curious about these kinds of movies so we posed a simple, yet complicated question:

What film has had a lasting impact on you and why?

We sent this question out to some of our favorite people and we received some very compelling answers. Please feel free to leave your own answer to the question in our comments section).

John J. Michaelczyk, documentary film maker and co-director of the Film Studies Program at Boston College: “The Conformist" (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci, based on Albert Moravia's book by the same name has made a significant impact upon me over the years. The content speaks to me vividly about the idea of "belonging" in an area that has a very negative atmosphere to it.

Marcello Clerici (Jean Louis Tringtignant) appears to do anything to survive in a political storm, and basically sells his soul in a Faustian sense in order to become part of the establishment. The nuances of the film and the allusions to international culture, as well as the non-linear editing, make it a very clever puzzle, very much worth deciphering.

Aesthetically, it is an impressively designed film with its art deco feel and fascist overtones that are visually very stimulating. Vittorio Storaro's cinematography brings alive this aspect of the film. Having met Alberto Moravia who wrote the novel and having interviewed Bertolucci for my book on "Italian Political Film," I appreciated all the more the evolution from novel to film and the poetic imagination in both expressions.

Dave Zeltserman, blogger and author (“Bad Thoughts”): If I had to pick only one, I’d say “The Roaring Twenties” (1939). I saw it for the first time when I was about 13, and it is just such a well-made and powerful movie, with such a tragic and noir-ish ending, although also heroic. In my art I strive for the type of perfection that that movie achieved. I’ll never make it, but I have that goal.

R.A. Salvatore, best-selling fantasy author, co-founder 38 Studios: “The Deerhunter” (1978) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979) both hit me hard. I'm the youngest in my family and was just a kid when Vietnam was raging. Our family suffered loss in that war - from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome). I think now, with the world gone crazy again, I look back to those statements of the nature of men and the horror of war.

Laurie Foos, author (“Before Elvis There Was Nothing”): I was going to name a foreign film here but thought it important to pay tribute to our American cinema, so I could name any number of Woody Allen films that have stayed with me, but the one that I return to most often, I think, is "Manhattan" (1979). It's a beautiful tribute to a city and to unrequited love -- and Woody Allen does juxtaposition like no one else. I'm thinking in particular of Woody Allen's character calling someone's self-esteem "a notch below Kafka's," and then in the next scene, he's rescuing Diane Keaton's character from an imagined insect in her apartment. The film also renders insecurities and hopes and humor seamlessly. And, of course, it makes me laugh every time. I don't know how you don't fall in love with New York again every time you watch that film.

Gretchen Rubin, author and blogger (“The Happiness Project”): “The Piano” (1993). I love this movie but find it so intense that I’ve never been able to see it for the second time. I think that at times, we operate on a symbolic level that’s beyond the kind of symbolism that can be put into words (e.g., Billy Budd is a Christ figure, or Dumbledore is a Merlin, wise-old-man figure). It’s very rare to find that. In books, I would point to Flannery O’Connor’s “Wise Blood” or J. M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.” I’m constantly searching for examples of this kind of work, but it’s very rare.

Billy Conway, musician and former drummer for Morphine and Treat Her Right: “Citizen Kane” (1941). I got stumped on film because the question made me realize that film does not move me in the same way as some other art forms. I take snippets and life imitates art regularly, but as a whole I will have to think some more about the effect that film has on me and how it is and isn't influential.

Jessica Fox-Wilson, poet and blogger (“9 to 5 Poet”): Just as I was beginning high school, I saw the movie "Heathers" for the first time. Without seeing this movie, I don't think I would have survived the first two years of high school. Any time a "friend" was mean to me, I imagined the friend choking on Draino and saying, "Corn-nuts!" Life was easier because of that image alone.

Steve Almond, author of “(Not that You Asked) Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions”: Gotta narrow it down to one? I'll say "Midnight Cowboy" (1969). Real art in a moving picture, real suffering and doomed loyalty. Imagine.

Jess Myers, poet: As far as movies, I think I have to name “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962). It is one of few films that truly captures the tone and charm of the book. It's just masterfully done, and Gregory Peck's performance is exactly how I imagined Atticus Finch when I read the book. He just blows me away every time.

Elizabeth Miller, scholar and Dracula expert: Perhaps the film that has made the greatest impact on me is “Cry Freedom” (1987) starring Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington. I have watched it numerous times, and am always moved by it. I had read the book on which it was partially based (“Biko”) but in this case, the movie was even better.

Tony Carrillo, cartoonist (F-Minus): The two movies that influenced me the most are “The Jerk” (1979) by Steve Martin, and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975). I watched these movies over and over growing up, and even though I can probably quote both line for line, I still see something new every time. I still laugh every time I think of Martin screaming "He hates these cans!" These movies prove that something can be completely stupid and absolutely brilliant at the same time.

Nigel Patterson, president of the Elvis Information Network (EIN): “High Noon” (1952) with Gary Cooper. As a young child growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1950s, I vividly remember watching this film three times in three weeks. They were the days of TV in its infancy and when the normal Saturday afternoon sporting programs couldn’t be shown the station repeated High Noon. What affected me about the narrative was the amazing inner strength and resolution of Cooper’s character; his awareness of knowing what was wrong from right and the need to personally stand up and do right. It is a message which is arguably even more important in today’s complex, corporate run world. Inspirational stuff!

Labels: Billy Conway, Dave Zeltserman, Elizabeth Miller, Grechen Rubin, Jess Myers, Jessica Fox-Wilson, John Michalczyk, Laurie Foos, Movies, Nigel Patterson, R.A. Salvatore, Steve Almond, Tony Carrillo

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Billy Conway, musician and former drummer for Morphine and Treat Her Right: “The Philosophy of Civilization” by Albert Schweitzer. The title is a wee grandiose but it was written in a different cultural time that begged for answers. For one thing he observes that at a certain point after the printing press and wider dissemination of philosophical knowledge was available, the shamanesque nature of philosophy fell prey to endless critique of the other positions and the search for meaning was left unattended while we put faith in the academy of critique.... as if the meaning and purpose were there if one merely read enough. More importantly he digs deep into making the case that happiness and fulfillment occur through satisfying an innate inner urge to be helpful and worthy as a communal citizen. He argues that satisfying your own needs is not a way to achieve happiness, but rather that good ole feeling of doing something for somebody else is where our greatest good lies. Still learning from that book.

Tony Carrillo, cartoonist (F-Minus): The book that changed my view of comedy more than any other is “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. His perspective on the world was unlike anything I had ever read. When describing an army of spaceships about to destroy the Earth, Douglas says they "hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." This backwards view of life was something I wanted to emulate in my comic strip F-Minus.

Laurie Foos, author (“Before Elvis There Was Nothing”): I wouldn't say this book changed my perspective on life, per se, but it certainly changed — irrevocably -- my perspective on literature. And that book is Nikolai Gogol's “The Nose.” The metaphor is brilliantly sustained, both funny and oddly moving in parts, and it taught me what metaphor could accomplish. It completely changed the way I thought about writing, and it's one I re-read once a year.

Judith Wilt, Boston College professor: Let me cite two books: Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged” got me thinking about and fighting with its ideas in my late teens: how could I be so drawn in and yet so resistant? How could her world seem so seamless in the reading and so hard to credit as I looked at my actual world? And Charles Dickens's “Our Mutual Friend” made me commit to graduate student life -- a book read in my mid-twenties that got me out of the “high” vs. “popular” literature dichotomy I had brought from college life and made me feel there could be a place for me in the 'profession.'

Adian Moher, blogger (“A Dribble of Ink”): I hate to sound cliché, but I've got to go with J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Hobbit,” a classic of the genre and the single novel that really set me on the path towards Fantasy. “The Hobbit” helped me realize that sense of adventure that is lurking around any corner as long as you're willing to look for it and take a hold of it yourself.

Bilbo, as a Hobbit, was content to let life come to him, to laze away the days and aspire to nothing more than smoke his pipe weed, quaff some ale and relax. Now, this doesn't sound like a terrible life, in fact, it sounds rather tranquil and perfect, but Bilbo, through Gandalf's insistence, reached out beyond that life and found a whole other world of adventure that existed, just there for the taking.

I live in a place very similar to Hobbiton: a small, sleepy little place that is absolutely perfect for lazing away the days. But Bilbo taught me to look outside, to take a look at what else the world has to offer. Without Bilbo I wonder if perhaps I would have discovered my lust for travel, if I would have seen as much of the world as I have. Travel has taken hold of me and threatens never to let go as I keep looking for a dragon to plunder, a mountain to save and goblins to flee.

Now I just need to gather some good friends for the ride.

Gretchen Rubin, author and blogger (“The Happiness Project”): The first is Wayne Koestenbaum’s “Jackie Under My Skin.” It showed me that a biographer could tackle the study of a life in a completely idiosyncratic way. When I started to write my own biography of Winston Churchill, having read that book made me aware of the possibilities of breaking out of the standard chronological form.

Jess Myers, poet: There have been several books that changed my perspective on life after I read them. I often find myself imitating a style as I'm reading something new. David Sedaris' “Me Talk Pretty One Day” inspired me to change majors in college from vocal performance to creative writing. “To Kill a Mockingbird” (by Harper Lee) was the first book I ever loved and couldn't put down. I kind of skated through English classes before that and never really got much enjoyment out of the books that we were forced to read in junior high. That might have been the one that really opened my eyes to a lifetime of loving words. From there it was “Slaughterhouse Five” (by Kurt Vonnegut) and “East of Eden” and “The Grapes of Wrath” (by John Steinbeck) and there are a handful of women writers that I really enjoy for their wry humor and unique but sort of unfeminine perspectives: Dorothy Parker, Flannery O’Connor, and Joyce Carol Oates. I like the gritty dirty feminine voice.

Dave Zeltserman, blogger and author (“Bad Thoughts”): I don’t think any single book changed my perspective on life, although I’m sure the thousands of books I’ve read have had some influence on the way I look at things. The one book that probably had the biggest impact on my life since I’m now writing crime novels, was “I, the Jury” by Mickey Spillane, because that book got me hooked on crime fiction.

Kevin C. Fitzpatrick, author and president of the Dorothy Parker Society: This has to be “Here Is New York” by E.B. White. My friend gave it to me as a gift the year I moved to New York. I have read and re-read it every year for the last 16. I read it whenever I get down about the city or about what it means to be a New Yorker. The book took on new importance to me in the days after 9/11, when I found strength in it. For those that don't know, White wrote it in 1948 as a travel piece; he was living in Maine and came into the city and observed his former home as a visitor would. What it has become is a testament about what New York means, and what I draw from it is why we New Yorkers want to live and work here. It is so light and so smooth, it really is the best thing ever written about this city. My favorite sentence, which I quote all the time, is "No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky." I have since given the book as a gift to about a dozen people when they move to the city. And I'm ready to send it one who just left for Los Angeles, to remind him what he gave up.

Rebecca Traquair, poet: This is actually a conversation I've had with any number of people. The answers never cease to interest me. My most influential book is actually a slim volume of aphorisms by an American writer named Jean Toomer. It's called “Essentials” and was originally published in 1931.

Toomer's most famous book, “Cane,” made his reputation as a Harlem Renaissance writer, but his own spiritual questing led him away from that vein. He lost popularity, but he was true to himself. “Essentials” is a distillation of his ideas and ideals, a rejection of prevailing standards and classifications, an absolutely revolutionary book for his time and for ours. I found the book almost by accident while working on a university project, and this is one of the reasons I am a great believer in the happiness of accidents.

I can't quote directly some of the phrases that grabbed me so completely, as my copy is currently on extended loan to my friend Jadon (I have at least 4 of Jadon's books right now, so this is only fair). I can attempt to paraphrase though... “All our lives, we have been waiting for an event that will gloriously upset us. All our lives, we have been waiting to live.”

Reading “Essentials” gloriously upset my thinking, or at the very least, it gave me a framework for thoughts that I had been formulating but had not yet been able to put into words. More than any other book I have ever read, “Essentials” made me consider exactly what it means to be human, to be an individual, and to be part of something greater than oneself. It is well worth seeking out.

L. Kenyon, writer: When I was 22, I landed a terribly shitty job in a horribly shitty strip mall. I was interviewed by a man who had bad hair and small teeth. He'd driven an hour north from Albany, New York to meet with me. I didn't like him very much and I could tell he felt the same but they needed someone to fill the position of store jerk. The last guy just stop showing up. Soon I was working eleven-hour days alone and was seeing less than that number of customers a week. It was my first introduction to corporate bureaucracy. I used to get an automated call three times a week from the mother office. I would stand at the dusty register in sagging khakis and recite the meager sales totals into the mouthpiece.

For the first month I did everything by code, fearful of a few mentioned surprise visits from corporate. Then, as the days began to tick on and the hours grew longer, I broke. I went from rushing an occasional cigarette out the backdoor and rubbing myself down with soap afterward, to lighting up out front beside the window sale signs for Lung Power and C Vitamins. Weeks turned to months. I starting hauling my TV and Playstation in but a little while I gave up the hassle. Friends would come visit and hang around in the back room for hours but I was lonely. I was bored. I was miserable.

Then one afternoon I was doing laundry at my mother's when I noticed a box of books by the door. "Throwing them out," she said. "Why not burn them," I said. "Don't get smart," she said. I'd been avoiding just that for twenty-two years. As I stood there looking down into that box, I realized that I had never read a single book in its entirety.

I had not read "The Cat in the Hat" or even "Green Eggs and Ham." Did not would not read Vonnegut, Salinger, or any text in hand. I faked book reports with lame retorts and silly see-through lies. I'd watch the movie or cheat, and then fail with indignant surprise. No Shakespeare, no Poe, not even Tolkien or B. Potter, No Dick, No Jane, and magazines? Bah, couldn't be bothered.

A friend of mine, Jen, would visit me at home and shake her head saying things like, "I mean you're a smart guy, why don't you read?" "Why?" I'd ask setting down the controller and taking another hit from the bowl, "Why don't you read to me?" And it went on like this until that afternoon at my mother's. Boredom will make a man do strange things. In this case, it led to a whole new everything.

I bent and took the box with me. I brought it to work the next day and sifted through it. I pulled out “Insomnia” by Stephen King and set it down on the desk. I stared at the cover and sighed. "Reading," I scoffed. If I WERE to read, I figured I'd give this one a shot
considering I liked a handful of King book based movies (only but a handful mind you) and it was also a familiar name; it had been hiding the lower half of my mother's face for the greater part of my childhood.

A few hours passed and the book still sat on the desk untouched. So finally giving in with nothing to do and no visitors, I opened the first page. It's been almost eight years, and I've never stopped turning them. Thank you Mom.

I was fired a few months later. I was in the back room in blue jeans with my feet up on the desk and reading “The Catcher in the Rye” (by J.D. Salinger) for the first time when the dreaded surprise visit from corporate finally happened. I took my books with me.

Labels: Adian Moher, Billy Conway, books, Dave Zeltserman, Grechen Rubin, Jess Myers, Judith Wilt, Kevin Fitzpatrick, L Kenyon, Laurie Foos, Tony Carrillo

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DaRK PaRTY: What exactly is "The Happiness Project"?

Gretchen: For my “Happiness Project,” I spent a year test-driving all the tips, rules, current scientific studies, and wisdom of the ages about how to be happy – I report on what works, and what didn’t.

I started my twelve-month Happiness Project on January 1, 2007. Each month, I pursued a different set of resolutions aimed at a particular goal. So, for example, January was the month for “Energy,” February for “Marriage,” and March for “Career.”

I experimented -- would I be happier if I got more exercise? If I saw my friends more often? If I had more fun? If I stopped nagging my husband? I did everything from hypnosis to laughter yoga to keeping a one-sentence journal.

I didn’t reject my ordinary life—by moving to Walden Pond or Tibet, say, or taking a sabbatical from my family. I didn’t give up toilet paper or experiment with hallucinogens. I’d already switched careers. I wanted to see if I could change my life without changing my life, by finding more happiness in my own kitchen.

And I did.

DP: How did you come up with the idea to pursue different theories of happiness in one year?

Gretchen: One day, I had a sudden realization: I was in danger of wasting my life. On that rainy afternoon, as I was staring out the window of a taxi, I saw that the years were slipping by.

“What do I want from life, anyway?” I asked myself. “Well…I want to be happy.” But I never thought about what made me happy, or how I might be happier.

I had much to be happy about. I was married to the love of my life; we had delightful young daughters; I was a bestselling writer, after having had a stellar career in law (including a clerkship with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor); I was living in my favorite city, New York City; I had a very close relationship with my parents, sister, and in-laws; I had great friends; I had my health; I didn’t have to color my hair.

But too often I sniped at my husband or the cable-repair guy, I felt dejected after even a minor professional setback, I drifted out of touch with old friends, I suffered bouts of melancholy, insecurity, listlessness, and free-floating guilt. Would a happy person act that way?

I’d always vaguely expected to outgrow my limitations. One day, I’d stop twisting my hair, and wearing running shoes every day and eating oatmeal for lunch and dinner. I’d remember my friends’ birthdays, I’d fix up our apartment, and I wouldn’t let my daughter watch TV during breakfast. I’d get more reading done. I’d spend more time laughing and having fun, I’d go to museums, and I wouldn’t be scared to drive.

In that moment, as I sat in the taxi, I realized two things: I wasn’t as happy as I could be, and my life wasn’t going to change unless I made it change.

“I need to think about this. In fact,” I reflected, “I should start a happiness project.” Eureka! I started work on my happiness the next day.

DP: Where you unhappy before starting the project? Are you happier now?

Gretchen: Before I started this project, I was pretty happy, but I thought I could be happier. And zoikes, I was right. It turns out that taking the time to think about happiness, and to make changes that increase happiness, really does pay off in a big boost.

Someone might look at my goals and my results and think—boy, Gretchen had it easy. Stop scolding and read more aren’t dramatic vows. No booze or cocaine, no 300-pound weight loss, no screaming matches with family members, no terrible diagnosis, no car crash, no bitter divorce.

In fact, some people seem to think it’s frivolous to worry about happiness at all, unless a person is desperately unhappy.

I disagree. A 2006 study shows that most Americans (84 percent) rank themselves as “very happy” or “pretty happy,” and I’ve always considered myself “happy”—yet, at the same time, just about everyone, like me, would like to be happier. Why? Because happiness is a notoriously elusive state; studies show, for example, that people generally expect they’ll be happier in the future. Even people who consider themselves more or less happy have a deep desire to take steps to be happier.

My experience shows me that it’s worth the effort.

DP: What three theories on happiness did you find most compelling and why?

Gretchen: There are three quotations from happiness that have had enormous influence on my thinking.

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy.” Robert Louis Stevenson

Striving for happiness may appear to be a selfish goal, but it’s not.

Studies repeatedly demonstrate that happy people are generally more sociable, creative, forgiving, and tolerant of frustration than unhappy people, while unhappy people are more often withdrawn, brooding, and antagonistic. Happy people tend to be more responsible to others and to maintain relationships better. They’re more confident, optimistic, energetic, and likeable, and they tend to be more successful in their personal lives and at work. They do more volunteer work and give more to charity. They’re healthier. They commit fewer crimes. When people are in a good mood, they think more clearly and are more open to new ideas. Although depressed people are more vigilant against making mistakes, people think more flexibly and with more complexity when they’re in good moods.

And happy people lift other people’s moods (that’s “emotional contagion”). If I’m happy (or at least act happy), I help make other people happy.

My realization of the duty to be happy led me to one of my major insights – what I call my “Second Splendid Truth”:

One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy.
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.

“It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light.” G. K. Chesterton

This quotation reminds me that although it’s hard to take a light tone, to joke around, to be enthusiastic, it pays off for happiness.

"When one loves, one does not calculate." St. Therese.

I have a bad tendency to keep score. Since I let my husband take a nap, I get to go to the gym, etc.

This quotation reminds me that I should spend out, that I shouldn’t worry about calculating who owes what, but rather, try to give unstintingly.

DP: How would you now universally define happiness?

Gretchen: I’m going to dodge that question. I’ve decided not to try to define happiness.

One researcher recorded 15 different academic definitions of happiness, which also goes by the names of hedonic tone, subjective well being, positive affect, etc.

Instead of trying to come up with a definition of my own to add to that list, I just use the broad term “happiness,” in the belief that, practically speaking, people know what happiness is, even if they can’t quite define it, and in any event, it doesn’t really matter if everyone agrees.

The question that concerns me for the Happiness Project is: no matter how particular people define the term, can we make ourselves happier? And the answer is YES. To know how to think about happiness, I came up with my First Splendid Truth:

To think about happiness, we must think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.

In other words, we should try to have more “feeling good” (excitement, fun, engagement, pleasure), less “feeling bad” (anger, resentment, boredom, anxiety), more “feeling right” (the feeling that we’re living the life we ought to lead), in an “atmosphere of growth” (a life that includes a feeling of progress, growth, and movement).

It’s clunky, but it works.

Read our 5 Questions interview about Modern Humor

Read our 5 Questions interview with Novelist Kim Harrison

Labels: 5 Questions, Grechen Rubin, Happiness, interview

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