May 28, 2008
Movies watching movies:
A beautiful montage of people watching movies in movies ...
Funny - I had a similar idea for a post, so it's cool to see someone put together a montage like that. I love scenes in movies where the characters go to the movies. It's the world within the world aspect, partly ... but it's also the fact that movies inform our lives - not only that, but we mark memories through the movies we were seeing at the time. I know I remember "the summer of Star Wars" ... it was a movie, sure, but it was also part of life, the landscape, the culture. Or you know, we say stuff like, "Hey, member that night we went to see Sex Lies & Videotape and we ended up having a big fight about our relationship?" (or, er, maybe that was just me and my boyfriend ... ) ... But I love it when movies include that part of our relationship to the movies within their story. Like Alabama meeting Clarence at the kung fu movie.
There are countless examples. I recently watched Stranger Than Fiction again and there is a wonderful scene where he goes to the movie during the day and watches Monty Python's Meaning of Life and just sits and laughs like a little kid. Heartcracking.
Then there's also the big shootout at the end of Manhattan Murder Mystery - in the old movie palace - during a matinee of Lady From Shanghai. (Clip here.)
I wrote a brief post called "movies within movies" - focusing on the moment in Leila when Leila and her husband watch Dr. Zhivago ... they sit on the floor in their living room and you can see Omar Sharif glimmering bluely in the reflection of the glass table. A marvelous movie-within-movie moment, I thought.
Anyway, go check out the montage - lovely stuff
Posted by sheila | TrackBackNow I want to watch Manhattan Murder Mystery again. That movie is totally underrated and hilarious.
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 1:46 PMTotally agree - didn't we have a big conversation about it once?? hahaha Love the movie.
"I forbid you! I forbid you to go outside the apartment. I'm your husband - I forbid you!"
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 1:48 PMWe did. I completely threadjacked an old post of yours when you last talked about it.
I laughed so hard in the theater when I saw that movie, I probably ruined the experience for everyone within 5 rows of me.
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 1:51 PMCarol: "Larry, I think she's dead!"
Larry: "Try giving her the present."
More:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107507/quotes
I can't even read them without laughing out loud.
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 1:59 PMMitchell and I had the same experience! We were in a nearly empty theatre - and we were snorting and howling and making a total spectacle of ourselves.
"HELEN! HELEN! Okay, duck ... duck ..."
Hahahahahaha. I know the feeling exactly. I had to see it again to make sure I didn't miss anything while laughing the first time.
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 2:02 PM"This is MY case, honey, MY case!"
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 2:03 PM"Claustrophia and a dead body - this is a neurotic's jackpot!"
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 2:06 PMHAHAHAHAHAHA
It's so ridiculous.
"So maybe Mrs. Haus was a twin??"
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 2:08 PMI also just love Alan Alda's smarmy performance. It's just so funny to me. Running that fake "audition' with that poor bimbo ...and then splicing the tape together! Bah!!
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 2:10 PMTed's glorious smarminess is matched only by Larry's exasperated contempt for him. The character interplay in this movie makes it endlessly re-watchable.
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 2:19 PMAnd Anjelica Huston's self-important self-satisfied leather-clad obnoxiousness - she cracks me UP in this film, how she uses words like "the perp", hahahahahahaha
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 2:26 PMWell, there goes my afternoon. I just found the script online:
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/manhattan-murder-mystery-script.html
LARRY (after he breaks the hotel lamp and Carol finds Mrs. House's ring on the floor): "Let's get out of here, come on. And take the ring with you. Maybe there's a pawnshop open."
Posted by: Noonz at May 28, 2008 2:26 PMI love the scene when Diane Keaton has one glass too many at the wine-tasting and then gets a glimpse of Mrs. Haus (or her twin) on the bus going by and kind of flips out. But she so doesn't care that she's making a scene because this is "her case"!
Yes, I actually own the script! I love it - it's great to see how much of it (like all of Allen's stuff) is on the page. It looks improvised, but it's not. Amazing!!
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 2:32 PMon a sidenote, I just watched an old hitchcock movie from when he was still in england. 'sabotage'. there are several scenes of people watching movies in that one.
Posted by: Brendan at May 28, 2008 2:32 PMNot a sidenote at all, Bren! I'm keeping a list of these examples ... just because I think it's fun. I don't think I've seen Sabotage.
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 2:36 PMtheres also a great scene in Since You Went Away that has a very heartwarming movie in movie moment. shirley temple was a teenager in this movie and was excellent as the youngest daughter.
MMM is my all time fav Woody Allen movie! my husband uses the "I forbid you" line all the time. and anjelica huston decked out in leather, i mean really what more could you want in a movie:)
Posted by: jennchez at May 28, 2008 3:22 PMHow about the scene in The Shawshank Redemption where they're watching Gilda and Andy comes in to ask Red to "get" him Rita Hayworth? Before Andy can start to speak, Red says - "wait. This is where she does that shit with her hair" and then it goes to that great shot of Hayworth flipping her head back and giving that devlish smile. I love that scene.
Posted by: Emily at May 28, 2008 4:19 PMI love how mesmerized Red is in that scene - even though he's probably seen the scene 25 times. He loves that moment ... it's always satisfying to him!
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 4:24 PMJennchez - hmmm, don't think I've seen Since You Went Away - I'll have to check it out. Thanks!
I kind of lose track of Shirley Temple after her heyday (although I like her a lot in Fort Apache - a really nice on-the-cusp-of-adulthood performance from her, I think)
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 4:27 PMI always liked "Amelie" where she's sitting in a crowded theatre and says to the camera that she likes watching people watching movies. And then she turns around and the camera shows all the happy faces watching a black and white film.
Posted by: anner2 at May 28, 2008 4:59 PMcinema paradiso!
Posted by: Brendan at May 28, 2008 5:42 PMAnner 2 - yes, yes, wonderful scene!
Posted by: red at May 28, 2008 7:44 PMCider House Rules - kIng Kong. "He thinks she's his mother...He thinks she's his mother!"
Posted by: jean at May 29, 2008 2:42 PMI always liked the scene in The Professional when Jean Reno is watching Gene Kelly, such a great expression on his (Reno's) face.
Zodiac also had that scene where they showed Dirty Harry. Only mentioning it since I've been watching the 2 disc director's version, and the extras are fantastic.
Posted by: dorkafork at May 29, 2008 8:41 PM