The Sheila Variations

Movies quiz for movie fanatics!

I love these questionnaires, Dennis. They're hard, though!! Here are my answers with pictures!!:

1) What was the last movie you saw, either in a theater or on DVD, and why?

Last night:

It's probably my 5th time seeing it. I love it.

2) Name the cinematographer whose work you most look forward to seeing, and an example of one of his/her finest achievements.

Boris Kaufman immediately comes to mind - because of the entire mood of On the Waterfront - and mainly that last unbelievable shot with Brando staggering across the dock with the bloody face. It's not about being flashy, or showing your stuff - it's about being a top-notch storyteller.

But also I think my favorite shot in any movie is the long slow panning up in High Noon- when he walks out into the deserted town, by himself. It just gives me goosebumps and - you watch it and go: "That is a famous shot. It was born to be a famous shot. It has lived its life as a famous shot. And it's obvious why."

Again - not just because it pulls back so far and so high ... but because it tells the story of that moment SO PERFECTLY. Gary Cooper suddenly looks teeny. Fabulous. So that's Floyd Crosby so I'll give him the props too.

3) Joe Don Baker or Bo Svenson?

Ha!! I love this one. I had to IMDB them both and the second I saw both of their faces, I started laughing. I'll go with Bo Svenson.

4) Name a moment from a movie that made you gasp (in horror, surprise, revelation?)

Please don't make fun, but Legend of Bagger Vance. I mean - yes - The Ring made me gasp with horror, as did Rosemary's Baby but I figured I'd go with a revelation-type gasp. By the way, Bagger Vance has NOT held up with successive viewings - but I will always love it for the impact it had on me the night I first saw it, by myself, in a big semiempty movie theatre in Times Square. It was the scene with the golf ball in the woods. And Matt Damon has to get the ball out of that tiny hole in the trees - and there's a moment where you see his perspective - the camera zooms in, as it also pulls back - so it looks like the hole is getting smaller and yet closer ... I don't know. It hit me like a ton of freakin' bricks. It felt like, in that moment, that I really needed to look hard at my life, analyze what I was doing, stop being on auto-pilot, and start making some real choices. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. It's hard to write about such moments without sounding melodramatic, but I rarely care if I sound melodramatic. My heart actually hurt watching that scene - and the revelation-gasp came early on. Everything started rushing forward, I felt like my own perspective was like the camera - zooming in and yet also pulling back - on the way out. There WAS a way out. That was the message. I had not realized how damn sad and defeated I really was, just how much I had given up, until I saw that stupid movie - and in particular - that one scene. So I'm going with that one.

5) Your favorite movie about the movies.

Sunset Boulevard.

6) Your Favorite Fritz Lang movie.

I've only seen M, Metropolis and Clash by Night - and I'll go with M. Creepy!!!

7) Describe the first time you ever recognized yourself in a movie.

Probably something like Tia in Witch Mountain.

8) Carole Bouquet or Angela Molina?

I ... I ... I looked them both up and I have actually seen a couple of them in various films ... but it was eons ago, and I don't know enough to choose. I could bullshit an answer, but I will not.

9) Name a movie that redeems the notion of nostalgia as something more than a bankable commodity.

Field of Dreams (hahaha - although in that movie - it also IS a bankable commodity!! Yay!)

10) Favorite appearance by an athlete in an acting role.

Kareem Abdul-Jabar in Airplane - I just ... come on. I love that movie.

11) Favorite Hal Ashby movie.

Shampoo is one of my favorite movies ever. I'll go with that.

12) Name the first double feature you?d program for opening night of your own revival theater.

Only Angels Have Wings and Bringing Up Baby.

So we can revel in the versatility and genius of this actor many people think just "played himself". Bah humbug - I'll show them with these two movies!

13) What?s the name of your revival theater?

Obsession Central

14) Humphrey Bogart or Elliot Gould?

Bogart.

15) Favorite Robert Stevenson movie.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I still remember the first time I saw that movie and how unbelievably cool I thought it was. Even more so than Mary Poppins

16) Describe your favorite moment in a movie that is memorable because of its use of sound.

Maybe the sound of the lightsaber in Star Wars - the first time the beam shoots out. I'm just going back in my mind to the summer of 1977, sitting in that movie theatre as a little kid, seeing that movie when it came out, and what it was like to first hear that sound. Shivers!

17) Pink Flamingoes-- yes or no?

Hell yes

18) Your favorite movie soundtrack score.

Moulin Rouge probably ... but Pulp Fiction is a favorite as well.

19) Fay Wray or Naomi Watts?

Naomi Watts. Sorry, Fay.

20) Is there a movie that would make you question the judgment and/or taste of a film critic, blogger or friend if you found out they were an advocate of it?

Battlefield Earth

21) Pick a new category for the Oscars and its first deserving winner.

I SO wish they would give an award for "best ensemble". I've thought that for a long time - I think it's a real category - TV shows ackowledge that - and i'd love to see it be added.

I would certainly give one for Gosford Park but there are SO many more.

22) Favorite Paul Verhoeven movie.

In general, I can't stand the guy, although:

I LOVED Total Recall - what a fun movie that was - and I LOVED Sharon Stone's performance in the first Basic Instinct, although I think that that was mostly HER doing and Verhoeven had nothing to do with it. Yes, I know the lesbians were mad about that movie - and I can see why - it was a ridiculous movie, with a ridiculous plot -and if you took that film seriously, you would be in HUGE trouble, because it was ludicrous, and I'm sick of Michael Douglas playing roles where he is victimized by female sexuality ("ooooh, she's so .... SEXY ... I might have to ... throw my whole life away ... because she's so ... SEXY ... i'm so SCARED of how sexy she is ..." etc. ad nauseum) - but I thought Stone gave one of the campiest (in the best way) most specific and fantastic performances of that entire decade. I look at it not as reality - or like she was trying to play a real person - I saw it as high camp - a nod to Jane Greer and Barbara Stanwyck and all the devious film-noir femme fatales.

No wonder she became a star. I know she's nuts - but that was a star performance and she was NOT a star when she gave it. That takes balls. Well-deserved success, in my opinion.

23) What is it that you think movies do better than any other art form?

Cut to the heart of a moment. Telling a story thru the unspoken. Behavior. Behavior tells the whole story and the camera can capture that.

24) Peter Ustinov or Albert Finney?

I like Finney.

25) Favorite movie studio logo, as it appears before a theatrical feature.

So many of my favorite movies of all time came from that studio.

26) Name the single most important book about the movies for you personally.

When I was a teenager - Siskel and Ebert were just the be-all and end-all - and this was right around the time when you could start to rent movies (of course you had to rent the VCR as well) - but I bought, for myself, Roger Ebert's book for that year - a mixture of reviews of current releases as well as his favorite classic movies. I read it cover to cover. I made a running list of stuff I felt I needed to see ... because he said I "should" ... and so the journey began. I saw Baby Doll that way. Out of the Past. Etc. His writing was so accessible and also so passionate - not too much academic lit-crit language which would have been off-putting to me as a 15 year old ... I have since read better books - but since that one was the first, it is definitely the most important.

27) Name the movie that features the best twist ending. (Please note the use of any ?spoilers? in your answer.)

Psycho

28) Favorite Francois Truffaut movie.

Close Encounters. Uhm ... wait ... I guess 400 Blow - it's been a while.

29) Olivia Hussey or Claire Danes?
Sadly, because she's a homewrecking nincompoop - Claire Danes. I love her acting, though, and have since My so-called life, so I'm sticking with her.

30) Your most memorable celebrity encounter.

Running into Drew Barrymore on an empty street in Soho at 8 a.m. one morning. I was on my way home ... it was a beautiful morning, and NOBODY was out - I was on a cobblestone street, and there was a girl standing in front of a cafe - talking to a guy through the window - I think she was asking when they would be open - and it's hard to explian, something funny happened - there was an optical illusion that she and I both saw at the same time - of the "Specials" chalkboard literally flying through the air ... We looked thru the window, both happening to glance at the same time, and we saw a flying chalkboard - and I started to laugh at the same moment that this girl did - we both guffawed at the same time. She hadn't realized I was there, and turned to look at me, and it was Drew Barrymore. She had long red hair, no makeup on, and looked fresh-faced ... we both shared a laugh, like: "did you see that floating chalkboard ... that looked so hysterical ..." and then I was on my way. For some reason, I love that moment.

31) When did you first realize that films were directed?

I love this question.

Probably when I saw Dog Day Afternoon. I was young - way too young to see it - 12 or 13 but that movie was such an assault on my senses - my emotions - I immediately started doing research on who was responsible for it, how it came about ... The name "Sidney Lumet" has always had that weird resonance for me- because he was really the first guy where I realized: Okay ... how did he get all those people on the sidewalk? And was it REALLY that hot in the bank? And how did he get the helicopters to come down so close? How ... how did he do it??

(Everyone's putting their answers in the comments section at Dennis' site - which, in my opinion, has one of the coolest comments sections out there. Fun, welcoming, intelligent, diverse ... but everybody is a movie nut. My type of joint, I tell ya.)

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