MovieChat Forums > Being Julia (2005) Discussion > please stop the 'ing' 'noun' movie title...

please stop the 'ing' 'noun' movie titles!

posted 20 years ago by vincent-27
30 replies | jump to latest

What is "ing" "noun"? No, it's not a new underground Hong Kong cinema style sweeping the nation, it's those pretentious titles that have a verb with an "ing" at the end (not sure what that is, past participle transient imperative or some such, I never was very good in grammar, what little they tought in school) and then a noun, usually a person. Right now at my local indie cinema there are two movies with those titles:

Being Julia
and
Finding Neverland

On IMDB, here is a complete list of "ing" "noun" movies.

Owning Mahoney
Serving Sarah
Regarding Henry
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
Saving Pvt. Ryan
Saving Silverman
Boxing Helena
Losing Grace
Losing Isaiah
Losing Chase
Losing Hope
Losing Layla
Loving Jezebel
Finding Forrester
Finding Nemo
Finding Lucy
Finding Hope
Finding Christa
Finding Kelly
Chasing Liberty
Chasing Amy
Chasing Kevin
Chasing Destiny
Chasing Holden
Chasing Cain
Chasing Buddha
Killing Zoe
etc. i'm sure there are more

They are pretentious and unoriginal titles, trying to make the film sound more sophisticated than it is. The only solution is a complete boycott of any and all films with these titles and an angry email sent to the production house. Because (done in Diane Keaton voice from Godfather) "All of this MUST END". :)

And to cap it all off I just saw a new reality series with Farah Fawcett called "Chasing Sarrah".

kill me now.

--
"Surrender Dorothy!"

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] chuju 20 years ago

Really good point...
Also tired of stupid/basic posters... They should see the posters of Far East movies...

[–] Consuela_Sanchez 20 years ago

Gleaming The Cube
Notting Hill
Bringing Down The House
Singing In The Rain
Running Scared
Running On Empty
Wuthering Heights
Taking Lives
Swimming Pool
Going Overboard
Going All The Way
Going Home
Going Ape
Wedding Date
Leaving Las Vegas
Shooting Fish
Hanging Up
Bowling For Columbine
Waking Ned Devine
Walking Tall
Bringing Out The Dead
Raising Arizona
Rambling Rose
Driving Miss Daisy

[–] PhantomPhreak26 20 years ago

Hmmm...I believe you forgot...

Being John Malkovich and Finding Neverland. ;)

I myself don't really have that much of a problem with the "ing" movie titles, but it could be just me. I also think "Being Julia" was an appropriate title for the movie of which this forum is dedicated to, and don't have any qualms about it. Again, just me.

[–] Dane_Green 20 years ago

FIND ME!

Finding Me

Alice: The exhibition is reassuring which makes it a lie, and everyone loves a big fat lie.

[–] angels_in_shadow7 20 years ago

Well, technically, "Notting" and "Wuthering" aren't verbs. Wuthering is an adjective, and to be perfectly honest I have no idea what "Notting" means. A surname, perhaps?
You know, not to nitpick or anything... ;)
Peace out
-AiS

Oh, what wonderful china! It looks like two young men playing leap-frog. Is it Greek?

[–] Joanna_Snow 19 years ago

I think that likely Consuela was at least partly kidding by throwing in NOTTING HILL and WUTHERING HEIGHTS!

[–] fleenflan 18 years ago

Notting Hill is the name of the town! It's not modifying "hill", the whole phrase would be considered a proper noun, the name of a place.

[–] dublineracrobat 20 years ago

Yeah, this and all those movies starting with THE. That's gotta stop too.

*Shrug*

It's just a title. It's how the author/screenwriter thought the story was best represented. It was a great movie though, wasn't it?

[–] darkdragon207 20 years ago

Raising Helen =(

[–] KMPINTJ 20 years ago

It's known as a "gerund" grammatically--the making (heh) of a noun from a verb using the present participle ("-ing") form.

It simply makes it easier to convey a longer concept, e.g. "What it's like to be Julia" or "When they went to save Private Ryan".

I agree that if this is the worst thing you have to worry about in your life, you're doing pretty well.

[–] siren13 20 years ago

It's just verbing a noun...and I wouldn't say it was prentioning a title as much as succinct and descriptive. You've got it good, Vincent. I say, good jobbing!

[–] Talking_To_The_Bobs 19 years ago

You can add "Consenting Adults"