The Professors New Movie Quiz!

I’m late to the game, as usual – but there’s a new movie quiz over at Dennis’ most awesome blog … He posts these quizzes, what, 5 times a year? And we all look forward to the latest like some kind of band of lunatics. The comments are almost the best part. I put my comments in the comment section over there – but make sure to read everyone. Dennis has some of the best readers on the web. (Which is why I laugh when I hear political bloggers bitch about how “quiet” the Internet is on some days, how “nothing” seems to be going on, why isn’t anything happening?? Nobody’s posting ANYTHING of interest ANYWHERE … Yeah, well, you’re reading the wrong blogs then.)

But, as usual – I like to put my answers over here – using mostly pictures.

Thank you, Dennis – for yet another thought-provoking fun quiz! And happy new year!

My answers below:

1) Your favorite opening shot (Here are some ideas to jog your memory, if you need ‘em.)

2) Tuesday Weld or Mia Farrow?

Tuesday Weld

3) Name a comedy you’re embarrassed to admit made you laugh

I’m not embarrassed by much. If it’s a comedy, and I laugh … then I feel “mission accomplished”. If I laughed all the way through The Best Years of Our Lives or something, then maybe I should be embarrassed. I will say that I guffaw like a hyena when I watch Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. But again, I’m not all that embarrassed. I mean, come on.

4) Best Movie of 1947

Lady From Shanghai. Hard to pick. 1947 was a really good year.

5) Burt Reynolds was the Bandit. Jerry Reed was the Snowman. Paul LeMat was Spider. Candy Clark was Electra. What’s your movie handle?

I’m just me.

6) Robert Vaughn or David McCallum?

7) Most exotic/unusual place/location in which you’ve seen a movie

Nothing really comes to mind – besides my experience seeing Schindler’s List with Michael, in a vast old movie palace in Ithaca. It had columns, and a red velvet curtain – a balcony – and we were at a matinee, and the only ones in that theatre. We had already seen Schindler’s List, so we made out for a while. As the Holocaust occurred on screen. Seinfeld stole my lifestory.

8) Favorite Errol Morris movie

thin blue line

9) Best Movie of 1967

… although Bonnie & Clyde also pulls me to its warm deathly embrace.

10) Describe a profoundly (or not-so-profoundly) disturbing moment you’ve had courtesy of the movies

I saw a TV movie called Bless the Beasts & the Children when I was, oh, 10 years old – and I can say without exaggeration that it changed my life. I was tormented by that movie, and literally lay awake at night, my heart HURTING at the revelations revealed in that film. I couldn’t bear it, the unfairness of life, the loneliness – the brutality … I was probably way too young to have seen the movie (and have never seen it since) – but I’m serious when I say a bit of my childhood died after I saw that film. I was never so innocent again. Weird.

Then also, there is …

That was pretty disturbing, too.

11) Anne Francis or Julie Newmar?

Julie Newmar

12) Describe your favorite one sheet (include a link if possible)

Chinatown

Still has the power to stun and shock. A perfect poster.

13) Best Movie of 1987

14) Favorite movie about obsession

Notorious

15) Your ideal Christmas movie triple feature

Muppet Christmas Carol

It’s a wonderful life

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

16) Montgomery Clift or James Dean?

Dean

17) Favorite Les Blank Movie

18) This past summer food critic Anton Ego made the following statement: “In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. Last night, I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: Anyone can cook. But I realize that only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” Your thoughts?

My favorite moments from critics (the ones who can write, I mean) is when they “defend the new”.

19) The last movie you watched on DVD? In a theater?

DVD: War Games
Theatre: What Would Jesus Buy?

20) Best Movie of 2007

Darjeeling

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood

But also, I must not leave out:

Rocky Balboa

I laughed, I cried, I cheered, my life flashed before my eyes, and etc. and so forth.

21) Worst Movie of 2007

22) Describe the stages of your cinephilia

Well, it all began when I saw Bugsy Malone as a youngster – and I’ve never looked back. Movies are a lifelong obsession – the obsession takes different forms, and so I follow the path, asking very few questions. I have seen every Cary Grant movie ever made. Multiple times. I have been on a Bogart binge. I can’t get enough of Dean Stockwell. I am obsessed with the careers of Kurt Russell and Jeff Bridges. I’m a “fan”, in the classic (and not scary) sense. I go through phases where I need to see every work, IN ORDER, of a certain director. Whatever. And alongside all of this, of course, is my deep enduring love for movies like GI Jane, Blue Crush, Center Stage and Bring It On. But all roads lead back to Bugsy Malone, as far as I’m concerned.

23) What is the one film you’ve had more difficulty than any other in convincing people to see or appreciate?

Love and Happiness

I’ve had arguments about that movie. Every element seen as a negative by certain people is a vibrant POSITIVE in my book. I even love that movie’s flaws, which says a lot.

24) Gene Tierney or Rita Hayworth?

Rita

25) The Japanese word wabi denotes simplicity and quietude, but it can also mean an accidental or happenstance element (or perhaps even a small flaw) which gives elegance and uniqueness to the whole. What film or moment from a film best represents wabi to you?

The funeral scene in Red River. A cloud passed by overhead, sweeping its shadow across the landscape … a total accident – Howard Hawks took advantage of it. It’s an amazing-looking scene – you see the funeral from far off, the small crowd of people – the hills behind them – and then … whoosh … the shadow swoops by, like a living thing. You can’t plan for something like that. You just have to be ready to capture it when it comes.

26) Favorite Documentary

Do You Believe in Miracles? HBO doc. about the 1980 hockey team. It might not be the best – and I thought of putting down Crumb, which is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen – but “favorite” has got to be “Do You Believe In Miracles” – since I watch it, on average, once a week. It never gets old. Narrated by Liev Schreiber.

27) Favorite opening credit sequence

Panic Room

Kind of a dumb movie – but those opening credits and how they are handled is the best I’ve seen.

28) Is there a film that has influenced your lifestyle in a significant or notable way? If so, what was it and how did it do so?

Again, all roads lead back to Bugsy Malone. Jodie Foster is older than I am – but we were close enough in age that when I saw it, as a young kid – I thought: WHO IS THAT KID WHO IS MY AGE AND SHE’S IN A MOVIE?? She blew me AWAY. I wanted to be her, sure, and be in that movie … but it was really more about realizing, at a very young age, that I was going to be an artist. Or a performer. Or SOMEthing in the arts. Because I had to. I just had to. Bugsy Malone started it all.

29) Glenn Ford or Dana Andrews?

Dana

30) Make a single prediction, cynical or hopeful, regarding the upcoming Academy Awards

I don’t do predictions.

31) Best Actor of 2007

Daniela Day Lewis

32) Best Actress of 2007

I haven’t seen any of the big movies with major actresses in them this year.

33) Best Director of 2007

Paul Thomas Anderson

34) Best Screenplay of 2007

Darjeeling Limited

35) Favorite single movie moment of 2007

The three brothers in Darjeeling Limited, in their cabin on the train – bustling around, bumping into each other, arguing, talking … I totally believed they were brothers.

36) What’s your wish/hope for the movies in 2008?

Just keep making movies, folks. You’ll always have an audience member in me. Always. Make some good stories. Funny, sad, heroic, whatever. I’ll be there.

Here’s a link to the quiz itself. Awesome comments, as usual.