I managed to finish the newest quiz from The Professor.
Fun!!
1) Does film best tell the truth (Godard) or tell lies (De Palma) at 24 frames per second? (Thanks, Peet)
In my opinion, in terms of human BEHAVIOR – the camera tells the truth. If someone is a phony, or lying, or dissembling, or deflecting – the camera will pick up on it. This is why film acting is different from stage acting. It must be REAL – (and even “lies” can be truthful – if you’re lying, then you’re lying … there’s a truth to that) – But if you’re a phony? If you’re a shallow actor, who is just a big fat phony? Or you’re tryiing for effect? The camera will tell the truth about you. You can’t hide from it.
And yet there’s something not quite “real” about what goes on in the movies. People become somewhat mythic or archetypal when they are photographed … I don’t know how that happens … I just know that it does. Images become solidified, nailed down, chosen … and there’s something inherently artificial about that. I wouldn’t call it a lie, though. I’d call it a myth.
2) Ideal pairing of actors/actresses to play on-screen siblings
You mean who haven’t already? Or who already have?
My brain immediately went to the beautiful (and completely believable) brother/sister relationship portrayed in Holiday between Katharine Hepburn and Lew Ayres (his best performance – how much do you just LOVE that brother??) I don’t find Hepburn all that convincing, actually, in a family setting – she seems too isolated and dominating (which is why her most successful family drama, in my opinion, is Lion in Winter). Even in On Golden Pond, where she was great and everything … she still is too much of a massive presence (in my opinion) to seem like part of a family. I didn’t really buy it – although I enjoyed her performance. But there she is in Holiday – as the loner eccentric sister – and her sloshy decadent brother just GETS her … in his own slightly sodden way. I completely bought that relationship.
3) Favorite special effects moment
For sheer nostalgia’s sake – I have to say this moment.
I can’t tell if it’s just because I also remember seeing it in the movie theatre the first time … and the goosebumps are a memory of my OWN awestruck wonder way back then … but who the hell cares. That opening sequence kicks some serious intergalactic ass.
4) Matt Damon or George Clooney?
Clooney. I was never really a fan of his on ER – but then came Three Kings and I thought, HUH … and then came O Brother Where Art Thou and I figured that I needed to re-assess the dude. Then there was the story from Julia Roberts of the filming of Ocean’s 11 and how she would come back to her hotel room to find it literally booby-trapped on a nightly basis. The image of Clooney sneaking around – gluing the receiver of the phone down, putting trick snakes in her bathtub, etc. makes me think he would be a huge pain in the ass and also so. much. fun.
5) What is the movie youve encouraged more people to see than any other?
Only Angels Have Wings.
6) Favorite film of 1934
I began scanning the list at IMDB and came across this title and wanted to say it was my favorite just BECAUSE. I mean – look at that title!
Gonna have to go with It Happened One Night. One of my favorite movies ever made.
7) Your favorite movie theater
Probably The Music Box in Chicago. Beautiful old movie theatre on Southport. I used to live on the street right behind that theatre so I spent many hours there – watching, oh, documentaries about Kazakhstan, I saw Latcho Drom there – or we would go to see silent films, midnight double-features, whatever! I saw Harold and Maude there for the first time, believe it or not – and began laughing so loudly at the army dude with the missing arm that I had to get up and leave the theatre. I went to go see a couple of different Cassavetes films there when they were having a Cassavetes festival – and I went with a boyfriend of mine at the time (hahaha I love how I have LINKS to my own personal life.) who was also a huge Cassavetes freak (still is!) – and I remember that we made out during the closing credits to Faces. Geeks. You kind of can’t get any geekier than that. We were so swept away by Faces, of all things, that we succumbed to PDA. Totally embarrassing. I saw Crumb there – a movie that I kinda still can’t get out of my mind. Uhm – Max? Get off the bed o’ nails and stop eating that piece of string or whatever freako thing it is that you do. Thanks so much. The Music Box also has that old-movie glamour – red carpet in the lobby, little niches and nooks with strange decadent little statues in them … old school buckets of popcorn … and in the theatre, if you look up – you can see a night sky, with stars glittering, as well as clouds moving across. A cyclorama roof. Oh, and there’s a big red velvet curtain that rises before each movie. It’s a celebration. No matter WHAT you see there. You could see Porky’s 12: The Beer-Soaked Aftermath there and feel like you were having a celebratory cinematic experience.
8) Jean Arthur or Irene Dunne?
Oh, why. Dennis – WHY are you making me make an unmake-able choice?? I can’t do it!
I’m leaning towards Irene Dunne. She is one of my favorite actresses – and can we please talk about her 10 minute silent scene in Penny Serenade when she bumblingly tries to give her new adopted baby a bath, as her husband (Cary Grant) and all the men from the newspaper shop stand around watching? It’s such an amazing scene … you can feel her growing panic … and she finally snaps and starts screaming and crying “WHY ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT ME? I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M DOING!” … but as the scene goes on, it just gets funnier and funnier and funnier. Dunne was Cary Grant’s favorite leading lady, and it’s easy to see why. She was an actress of such substance, intelligence, reality – her work has barely dated at all.
But … er …. Jean Arthur was in Only Angels Have Wings so … I just … love her for that. Jean Arthur has a sort of ditzy baffled charm – kind of reminiscent of Jennifer Aniston at Aniston’s very best. You know those moments (in Friends mostly) when Aniston is CLINGING to the SHREDS of her dignity in the middle of some ridiculous situation that makes her look really really stupid? But she stands there, spluttering, insisting that she is a DIGNIFIED PERSON? It is so funny when it works – and Jean Arthur is so good at that. Watch her in Only Angels Have Wings. I mean, she’s also great in her other films – I particularly liked her in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town opposite Gary Cooper – and then she did another really wonderful little movie called The Talk of the Town with Cary Grant again and Ronald Colman (in one of his better performances). I mean, Jean Arthur was in a ton of classic films – but those are the ones I have real affection for. She has some moments in Talk of the Town – when she is running around, and lying to everyone, and getting busted constantly – which make me laugh out loud every time I see them. She’s a wonderful comedienne – and a GREAT foil for Cary Grant.
But I’m gonna have to go with Irene Dunne. I do so under gentle protest, because I don’t want to have to choose!
9) Favorite film made for children
I have an intense fondness for the movie Bug’s Life. For many reasons. One: because of Cashel. We watched that movie together many times, when he was still a diaper-wearing fat-wristed Brooklyn baby, shoving Cheerios in his mouth as he sat on my lap, and I was the babysitting aunt. I can recite the movie by heart. (“HARRY! DON’T LOOK AT THE LIGHT, HARRY!” “Ican’thelpitit’ssobeeeeeeautiful…”) But also: I just think it’s a really nice film, with a cool message. I like it a lot. I think it’s my favorite of the Pixar films, actually.
10) Favorite Martin Scorsese Movie
Probably Goodfellas.
11) Favorite film about children
I never pass up a chance to push the film Children of Heaven. Please! I beg those of you who haven’t seen it! SEE IT! Magical film with an ending that made the audience burst out clapping – at least when I saw it.
But then I also want to say Night of the Hunter. Sure – it’s about Mitchum and Lillian Gish … but it’s really about those kids. And I can’t think about Mitchum’s voice saying, off screen, “Chiiiiiiiiildren …” without my blood running cold. Never has innocence seemed so threatened.
12) Favorite film of 1954
On the Waterfront
13) Favorite screenplay written by a writer more famous for literature than screenplays
The Big Sleep. Based on book by Raymond Chandler. Screenplay by William Faulkner. Didn’t have to think about this one at all. In my humble opinion, there can be no valid contest on this one.
14) Walter Matthau or Jack Lemmon?
Walter Matthau.
15) Favorite character name
Sugarpuss O’Shea. Barbara Stanwyck’s character name in Ball of Fire
16) Favorite screenplay adapted from a work of great literature, either by the author himself or by someone else
“Great” literature, huh? Does Ordinary People count as “great literature”? I don’t think it does – but I read the book – and I am amazed at the effectiveness of the adaptation to the screen.
Oh – and I also REALLY enjoyed Emma Thompson’s adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. Yummy.
17) Favorite film of 1974
Chinatown.
18) Joan Severance or Shannon Tweed?
This question so kicks ass. heh heh I’m gonna go with Joan Severance just to be totally contrary.
19) jackass: the movie– yes or no?
Sure! Why not?
20) Favorite John Cassavetes Movie
Opening Night. I still haven’t got up the nerve to actually write an essay about what that movie means to me – it’s daunting – but I’ll get to it some day. It’s almost like I look at that movie and see my whole damn life.
21) First R-rated movie you ever saw
I saw Dog Day Afternoon while babysitting – I was 12. Life-changing moment.
22) Favorite X-rated film (remember that, while your answer may well be a famous or not-so-famous hard-core film, the “X” rating was once also a legitimate rating that did not necessarily connote pornography)
heh. I’ll say Midnight Cowboy.
23) Best film of 1994
Forrest Gump. JUST KIDDING. I despise that film.
Hmmm. Many good films that year. In terms of sheer enjoyment, I’d probably have to go with Pulp Fiction.
24) Describe a moment in a movie that made you weep
The last moment in Field of Dreams gets me every time. “Dad?” Oh shit. Just typing that and I felt all choked up.
25) Ewan McGregor or Ewan Bremner?
Oh please. Ewan McGregor always and forever.
26) One of your favorite line readings (not necessarily one of your favorite lines) from this or any year
Diane Keaton saying, “This was a great night for me” in Something’s Gotta Give – after they sleep together. You want to see great screen acting – and a great screen ACTRESS – watch her say that line.
However, other favorites:
Cary Grant – and how he says, “Peabody? What Peabody?” in Bringing up Baby
Barbara Stanwyck and how she says, “I love him because he gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk” in Ball of Fire
Anything Kenneth Mars says in ANY MOVIE EVER. The man is a scary GENIUS and we all just have to BOW DOWN and accept it.
27) What, if any, element in a film, upon your hearing of its inclusion beforehand, would most likely prejudice you against seeing that film or keeping an open mind about it?
A certain scrunchy-faced thin-fat actress.
28) Favorite Terry Gilliam Movie
Fisher King. That’s another movie that I really need to write a big huge post about.
29) Jean Smart or Annie Potts?
Annie Potts was in the classic Corvette Summer so I will have to go with her.
30) Is it possible to know with any certainty if you could like or love someone based partially on their taste in movies? If so, what film might be a potential relationship deal-breaker for you, or the one that might just seal that deal?
If someone is able to watch What’s Up Doc with a stone-face, and not laugh once, then I would really really question whether or not we were compatible. Same with Bringing Up Baby. Silly screwball movies are a great litmus test for compatability.
2) Have you seen A Prairie Home Companion yet? Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin could easily, easily pass as sisters.
Will have to think about the rest of it.
Yes! I did see it. So ytur! I thought their schtick presenting at the Oscars was brilliant – it was like they mind-melded or something. I could have watched them present for another 25 minutes it was so entertaining.
Uhm … so “TRUE”, not so “ytur”.
Don’t forget, Annie Potts was also hysterical in “Ghostbusters” (we just watched it again yesterday for the 500th time, so it’s fresh in my mind).
How strong is your feeling of Walter Matthau over Jack Lemmon?
Not really strong – I adore Walter Matthau.
And yes! Annie Potts in Ghostbusters!! But it was her iconic performance in Corvette Summer – with Mark Hamill – that sealed the deal for me! :)
Another great line reading (a long-time favorite in our household) is the way Anthony Perkins says, “I don’t keep any…cuuuuttlery” when Meg Tilly asks him where he keeps the knives in “Psycho II.” Obscure, but we never tire of it…
Any line that Madeline Kahn ever says is also a pretty good bet to be PERFECT!
“This little girl’s got to go winky-tinky!”
Don’t you know the meaning of propriety?
“Propriety? Noun. Conformity to established standards of behavior or manners, suitability, rightness or justice. See Etiquette.”
Holy shamoley. I couldn’t even answer a third of these, you wrote 4000 words! I know nothing.
“A certain scrunchy-faced thin-fat actress.”
bwahahahahaaaaa!
i love it when you do these; i feel like i learn so much :P
21) I saw A Clockwork Orange at 14. I have no idea why I still love that sick movie.
Red, I have to know: Who is the certain scrunchy-faced thin-fat actress? :)
I love Annie Potts. As one of the quiztakers so succinctly put it, “Ghostbusters. Whaddayawant?”
Has no one seen the BRILLIANCE that is Corvette Summer??? Am I alone in this? yes, yes, Ghostbusters – love her!… but she’s the LEAD in Corvette Summer with Mark Hamill (in his pre-mangled face phase of his career).
Loves me some Annie POtts!
Dennis – I am so sorry about all the hyperlinks over on your site – it looks so obnoxious when it’s not on my own blog!!
Oh and scrunchy-faced thin-fat girl is Miss Renee Z. I cannot abide her.
I have a confession, red. I saw Corvette Summer many, many years ago when it hit cable. It was OK but I hardly remember anything about it.
Red, I’ll definitely admit a Potts jones directly related to Corvette Summer. I saw it at a drive-in in 1978, and there’s a scene where’s she’s walking away from Hamill and the Corvette down the road, and there’s this charming hitch in her walk, and it was that, plus that voice, that convinced me I was gonna love this actress for a long time. And I still do, despite her never having much good stuff to do on the silver screen.
And don’t worry about those links. I thought they were fun!
your answers are always delightful. I just put mine up.
The best Designing Women episode EVER was on just this morning, “Big Haas and Little Falsie,” the one where Mary Jo wants to get bigger boobs.
Annie Potts’ timing is spot-on. “These things are POWER!”
Lisa – hahahaha That show was so much fun. I LOVE Dixie Carter. But all of them together were just so great.
And wasn’t Annie Potts Molly Ringwald’s older wiser friend in Pretty in Pink? The sort of big-sister-she-never-had character, who wore wacky hairdos, and had the milk of human wisdom running in her veins?
Dennis – Oh, corvette summer is SUCH a drive-in movie!!! Yeah, she was so great. The movie may be total trash – I haven’t seen it since i was, uhm, 12? But I remember certain images from it vividly and I remember her red leather (or was it plether?) jacket.
I hope you do another movie quotes day soon, because it sounds like you’re in the mood for it. (Or more accurately this thread is getting me in the mood for it, and this is a not very sly attempt to inspire you to do one again soon;)
Oh, that scene where Hepburn asks Ayres, “What’s it like being drunk?”
“How drunk?”
“Good n’ drunk!”
and everything that unfolds from there– pitch-perfect. The only scene I like more (and it’s because I’m a romantic sap) is Grant and Hepburn’s almost-kiss on New Year’s Eve…
Also, as I recall Annie Potts lends Molly Ringwald her old prom gown to be cut-up and refashioned (along with another dress) into Molly’s pretty, pink, new one.
Isn’t she…?
(Although honestly, while I liked the high, lacy halter-ish neckline Molly designed for herself, the rest of the dress was a fairly shapeless sheath. She could have done better…)
jackass the movie made me laugh so hard i thought i was going to hurt myself. i also think these guys get lumped in with the whole reality tv thing and i think they are much more than that.
i am now about to assess jackass in very high-falutin’ terms and i AM NOT JOKING.
the jackass crew are tapping into some sort of primeval sense of showmanship in the face of danger. there is a documentary i saw about a tribe in africa who, once a year, build a large platform and then proceed to jump off of it, laughing hysterically at the funny stuff, rushing to help when someone is really hurt, etc. the jackass folks are doing the same thing…you start to get mesmerized as you watch this movie. first you realize that you’ve never seen anything like it before, then you realize that THESE PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY DOING THIS STUFF. Putting themselves in harm’s way and accepting the consequences. Embracing them.
And it is fu-hu-hu-nnnnnny.
dorkafork – hahahaha You know, I think it is about time I do another one.
Bren – i love your comment!!
roo – I agree that the dress could totally have been better. I did not like the cut of it – it made her look like a long thin shapeless TUBE.
the jackass crew are tapping into some sort of primeval sense of showmanship in the face of danger.
Oh, Brendan, DEFINITELY. It’s living slapstick. Why else would stuff like Extreme Elimination Challenge be such a hoot? It’s an intentionally-bad dub of a Japanese game show where teams of contestants are doomed to painful wipe-outs in muddy rivers, cracking bones on rocks and poles and platforms – volunteering for utter comic injury and humiliation. (They even count down the most spectacular crackups at the end of every show: “Hey, while you were in the can you missed this 98-pound schoolteacher whunking face-first into a giant rolling pin! HAHAHAH!”) Yet you can’t stop watching if you see it.
People watch Jackass because it’s like a little window into that one time that they were fifteen and decided to recreate that cool bit in “Star Wars” on bicycles with firecrackers soaked in lighter fluid.
Annie Potts was in the classic Corvette Summer so I will have to go with her.
THIS is why I completely adore you.
Mark – hahahahahahahaha I take it you’ve seen it then? Come ON, isn’t it a classic film??? Tell me it’s not!!
//People watch Jackass because it’s like a little window into that one time that they were fifteen and decided to recreate that cool bit in “Star Wars” on bicycles with firecrackers soaked in lighter fluid.//
Hmmmm, how did that go for you, Nightfly?? :)
Corvette Summer completely rocks.
When faced with the Annie Potts choice, most people would trot out Ghostbusters or Pretty in Pink. But you…you bring the Corvette Summer.
As soon as I read that, I burst out laughing, “Corvette Summer?!?! Man, I love this woman.”
I seriously need to see that movie again to see if it’s as magical as I remember it. But I was totally swept away by it when I first saw it! Because … it was LUKE SKYWALKER … in the PRESENT DAY … I mean … what???? It was mind-blowing.
I just ordered Corvette Summer from Amazon.
omigod that makes me so happy
Are you kidding, Sheila? If I still owned I bike I may be recreating the stunt NOW.
But at the risk of my boss rep – I did not participate in such a stunt in my misguided youth… I was differently misguided. (Heheheheh.)
PLEASE do a post about The Fisher King. I LOVE that movie. There are so many great scenes, but the scene that always kills me is when Parry walks Lydia home from their first date. She asks him if he wants to come in to her apartment and use her and break her heart. He has this awesome reply stating in such DETAIL why he ADORES her and how he GETS her and why he would NEVER hurt her.
I think we all feel as nerdy as Lydia sometimes and need someone who GETS us. Who loves the quirky things about us that make everyone else roll their eyes.
red fish … Oh man, you hit the nail right on the head. To me, that movie just expresses perfectly the yearning for connection that we all have … it taps into loneliness, sadness, loss … Every character has that journey to go. I love Merecedes Ruehl – what a WOMAN. A true grown-up woman portrayed on the screen? How often does that happen? I love when she says, with her big hair, her long nails, her New York accent, “I’m not a modern woman.” And she means it. She cannot sleep around or be casual. She needs a guy who can STICK. I just love all of those people soooo much.
I do need to do a post about it – it’s on my list!!
julia roberts and kyra sedgwick made great sisters in Something to Talk About…i think they look alike..the contrast is actors who are not good enough to play brother and sister without it looking a little incestuous..i.e.those terrible actors from the current day part of Bridges of Madison County( i know, i know..but Meryl and Clint..come on!!!)…also the way Meryl Streep says..”thats a comedy rule?” in Postcards From the Edge…best line reading…or Judy’s last line of A Star is Born…”Im Mrs. Norman Maine”..kills me!!!
“A certain scrunchy-faced thin-fat actress.”
I read that, knew IMMEDIATELY who the respondent was referring to, then scrolled up to see if it was by the no. 1 Renee-hata I know of … it was!
Few have such a way with the just-right words.
YOU. You … have a gift, my friend. Yes, you do. YES YOU DO.
For my part, I totally blanked and lamed out on my favorite line reading answer. Oh well. Dennis will no doubt provide me another shot at redemption. I stand by my dual props to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, however.