This took a lot of work and was a hell of a lot of fun. I’ve been expanding my blog-reading a bit … clearing out some dead weight on the blog-roll to make room for sites I actually READ … and I have found a ton of movie sites that I am now addicted to.<\/p>\n
One is Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule<\/a> (go read his most recent post on Angie Dickinson <\/a>and you’ll see why I’m in love with this new blog).<\/p>\n Here is a quiz <\/a>I found on that site – and my answers. (I will be updating it periodically with pictures. You know, cause I’m obsessive.)<\/p>\n 1) What film made you angry, either while watching it or in thinking about it afterward?<\/b><\/p>\n I remember being in a rage after seeing Sophie’s Choice<\/i>. I wanted to kill those who would force anyone to make such a choice. I hated mankind.<\/p>\n 2) Favorite sidekick<\/b><\/p>\n I’m thinkin’ I gotta go with R2D2 although there are so many other great ones to choose from.<\/p>\n 3) One of your favorite movie lines<\/b><\/p>\n “I’m hard to get, Steve. All you have to do is ask me.” — Slim (Lauren Bacall) in To Have and Have Not<\/i> — love that line. Howard Hawks put it in a couple different films (also in Only Angels Have Wings<\/i>) – so obviously it really resonated for him … I think about that line a lot<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4) William Holden or Burt Lancaster?<\/b><\/p>\n William Holden. Love Burt … but Holden’s got something extra. For me.<\/p>\n 5) Describe a perfect moment in a movie<\/b><\/p>\n There’s a scene in Running On Empty<\/i> (one of my favorite movies ever made) when Martha Plimpton comes over to the house for the mother’s birthday party. Martha is River Phoenix’s character’s girlfriend. He’s never had one before. His parents are fugitives. They are suspicious of outsiders. Judd Hirsch plays the protective father … who … is subtly won over by this unassuming young woman. Just watch his face when he sees the present Martha Plimpton brought for his wife. He takes it in … So subtle, though. After dinner – they start to clear the table … and someone puts on James Taylor “Fire and Rain” … and just watch the following scene. It’s all in one shot. There’s no cutaways. If you’ve seen that scene, you will know the one I’m talking about. The clearing-away-of dishes and the singing-along-to-James-Taylor scene. The movies don’t get more perfect than that. That’s why people MAKE movies … to capture moments like that one.<\/p>\n 6) Favorite John Ford movie<\/b><\/p>\n Maybe Stagecoach<\/i>.<\/p>\n 7) The inverse of a question from the last quiz: What film artist (director, actor, screenwriter, whatever) has the least\u0096deserved good reputation, artistically speaking. And who would you replace him\/her with on that pedestal?<\/b><\/p>\n Well … Guy Ritchie immediately came to mind … but I think his “good reputation” has pretty much plummeted already without my help.<\/p>\n So I now must go with:<\/p>\n Renee Zellweger. How that woman has duped the American public and also everyone in Hollywood is something that I will never understand. It’s an interesting case. I’ve been following her for years, merely because the whole thing confuses me. How a star has been MADE, not BORN. She had some charm in Jerry Maguire<\/i> but other than that? She seems WAY over-praised to me. Especially in Chicago<\/i> where I thought she was especially terrible. Don’t even get me started on the travesty that was Down with Love<\/i>. She simpered and flounced her way through it, I didn’t believe a word, and yet … she was in an untouchable phase at that point. Nobody called her on her bullshit. The industry was too pleased with itself for having anointed her. But mark my words, her time is coming. Her work is too self-conscious, too pleased with itself, and too NERVOUS-looking. It’s like she understands that she’s on thin ice as well. She doesn’t have the rock-hard LOVEBOMB support of, say, a Julia Roberts … which doesn’t seem to ebb and flow, but just IS. Renee was “anointed from within” after Jerry Maguire<\/i> and that kind of success just can’t compare to the sort of success when an audience <\/i>decides that they love you. Renee is supported by the industry – and her smirky sad-happy face on the red carpet shows that anxiety. When they decide she’s “out”, she’ll be WAY “out”. Nobody could decide Julia Roberts was out. Whatever you think of Roberts’ work, in terms of acting or talent, is irrelevant. The woman is BELOVED by an enormous public. That gives her huge freedom. Renee’s career seems extremely bureacratized to me, in a way that Julia’s does not – Renee’s career needs a lot of HELP to keep it going. Julia Roberts can take over 2 years off at the very HEIGHT of her popularity and all anyone can say is: “When is Julia Roberts coming back????” You cannot create that kind of momentum. It just happens, and Renee knows, somewhere, that this has NOT happened to her. Renee thanked her “image consultants” during her Oscar speech – which gives you some idea of how managed this woman is. That over-management of her career shows in her acting which is eager-to-please, and therefore somewhat empty.<\/p>\n I’m not sure about the replacing thing.<\/p>\n One thing I will say: I think Sandra Bullock is a fantastic actress and I wish she got better parts. I mean, hell, her career is fine … but still. I wish she got to REALLY show her stuff. Anyone see Murder by Numbers<\/i>? I LOVE her work in that. And it’s the kind of acting that doesn’t call attention to itself. But it’s damn fine work. It’s not flashy. And it also shows that Bullock is uninterested in being liked (unlike Renee – who begs us with her every simper to love her, love her). Bullock is more interested in the craft of acting than the other stuff … and she’s damn good at it.<\/p>\n More props to Bullock. I think she’s one of the most solid actresses working today.<\/p>\n 8) Barbara Stanwyck or Ida Lupino?<\/b><\/p>\n Stanwyck Stanwyck Stanwyck. She’s just about the very best there is.<\/p>\n 9) Showgirls– yes or no?<\/b><\/p>\n Hell, yes. LOVE that unintentionally campy trainwreck. HYSTERICAL. I love it when Elizabeth Berkley “acts”. Omigod. Glory.<\/p>\n 10) Most exotic or otherwise unusual place in which you ever saw a movie<\/b><\/p>\n Nothing comes to mind, although I first saw Empire Strikes Back<\/i> at a drive-in movie – piled in a huge station wagon with my cousins.<\/p>\n 11) Favorite Robert Altman movie<\/b><\/p>\n Oh boy. I kinda love them all. Even Dr T and the Women<\/i>, which everyone else in the entire galaxy despised. What can I say. I’m a diehard fan. But in terms of impact? And sheer loving EVERY STINKIN’ SECOND on the screen? I’m gonna go with Gosfard Park<\/i>. But … Nashville<\/i> too … I love them all. But Gosfark Park<\/i> has a real special place in my heart, so I’ll stick with that one.<\/p>\n 12) Best argument for allowing rock stars to participate in the making of movies<\/b><\/p>\n Hard Days Night<\/i>.<\/p>\n Also: Jon Bon Jovi’s ass. More of that, please.<\/p>\n 13) Describe a transcendent moment in a film (a moment when you realized a film that just seemed routine or merely interesting before had become something much more)<\/b><\/p>\n Sean Penn’s entire performance in the otherwise formulaic and rather boring Carlito’s Way<\/i>. I would love to hear the story behind what happened there – because I wonder if the power of what Sean Penn was doing kind of took everyone by surprise … Penn was supposed to be the sidekick … but he’s pretty much all I can remember about the film. I watched the movie – whatever – I like Al Pacino – it’s okay – nothing I haven’t seen before … and through the course of the movie, something kind of amazing happens: You suddenly start to realize that Sean Penn is giving the performance of a LIFETIME. It’s a performance that deserves its own film. It’s completely beyond anything he’s ever done (in my opinion – and I’m a huge fan of his acting) and it makes it look like Al Pacino was phoning in his performance from down the block. It’s not a good movie, I don’t think … not totally … but every time it’s on, I have to watch it … just to watch how Sean Penn’s work totally transcends the entire film. I’m tellin’ ya – it’s his best work. It sneaks up on you … because he’s not even in that many scenes … but he’s the only reason to see that movie. SEE it. The guy is a master, and roles like that are why.<\/p>\n 14) Gina Gershon or Jennifer Tilly<\/b>?<\/p>\n I kinda love them both. But on the power of my sheer undying LOVE for the movie Liar Liar<\/i> – I’m going with Tilly.<\/p>\n 15) Favorite Frank Capra movie<\/b><\/p>\n It Happened One Night<\/i>. Hands down.<\/p>\n 16) The scene you most wish you could have witnessed being filmed<\/b><\/p>\n Goosebump-territory now: Paul Henreid making the crowd sing La Marseillaise<\/i> to drown out the Germans in the nightclub in Casablanca<\/i>. It gives me goosebumps every time I see it. It’s a cliche, it’s a formula, but no matter how many times I’ve seen it – and no matter how much I think Viktor Lazslo is a big stick-in-the-mud bore, I am moved almost to tears by that scene. It just flat out WORKS, and I would have loved to have been there that day. Apparently, all of the extras (many of whom were real-life refugees from Europe) were in tears as they sang. And if you notice — Hal Wallis (producer extraordinaire) knew that this scene needed one extra punch – and so he made the music director have the Rick’s Cafe band suddenly SOUND like a full symphony orchestra. It’s not realistic – no bar band would ever sound that huge … but when you hear that orchestra kick in … it hits you, the audience member, on a visceral level. You want to stand up and sing with all of those people. One of the most purely powerful scenes ever filmed. Manipulative? Sure. Whatever. It WORKS. I would love to have been there that day.<\/p>\n 17) Robert Ryan or Richard Widmark?<\/b><\/p>\n hahahaha Tough choice. Going with Richard Widmark.<\/p>\n 18) Name a movie that inspired you to walk out before it was finished<\/b><\/p>\n Only one. 36 Fillette<\/i>. What a piece of crap. My boyfriend and I watched 20 minutes of it, looked at each other, and without a word stood up and left. Catherine Breillat has gone on to MUCH better things (I liked Romance<\/i> a lot) after that horrible movie.<\/p>\n 19) Favorite political movie<\/b><\/p>\n Election<\/i>.<\/p>\n 20) Your favorite movie poster\/one-sheet, or the one you\u0092d most like to own<\/b><\/p>\n woman under the influence<\/p>\n Goosebumps.<\/p>\n 21) Jeff Bridges or Jeff Goldblum?<\/b><\/p>\n BRIDGES. Best (and most under-rated) actor in America. Nobody can even come CLOSE to doing what he does.<\/p>\n 22) Favorite Ken Russell movie<\/b><\/p>\n Tommy<\/i>.<\/p>\n 23) Accepting the conventional wisdom that 1970-1975 marked a golden age of American filmmaking in which artistic ambition and popular acceptance were not mutually exclusive, what for you was this golden age\u0092s high point? (Could be a movie, a trend, the emergence of a star, whatever)<\/b><\/p>\n Oh, there’s so much to say here. Argh. Names just float through my head … because I do accept “the conventional wisdom that 1970-1975 marked a golden age of American filmmaking in which artistic ambition and popular acceptance were not mutually exclusive” … Not only do I accept it, I REVEL in it.<\/p>\n So I’m gonna give my answer as this: the fact that Jack Nicholson made the following films in between 1970 and 1975, films which helped cement his reputation:<\/p>\n Five Easy Pieces I mean, that is one HELL of a run. And the 70s boom in American film-making completely suited the emergence of a star like Nicholson … It might not have happened at any other time. Thank God he got his chance and ran with it. He’s one of my favorites.<\/p>\n 24) Grace Kelly or Ava Gardner?<\/b><\/p>\n I must go with Grace Kelly even though I think she is a bit over-rated. The only performance where I really forget that Grace is an actress, is in Rear Window<\/i>. I love that movie, and I love her performance in it. She is sensuous, smart, loving, teasing … It’s a wonderful mix. Everything else is a bit STIFF and self-conscious for my choice. Cary Grant loved her, said that working with her was like working with Buddha (yes, those were his words) … and I can see her appeal – but Ava just seems more comfortable in her own skin, and I prefer that kind of persona to the other. But I’ll give the acting props to Grace.<\/p>\n 25) With total disregard for whether it would ever actually be considered, even in this age of movie recycling, what film exists that you feel might actually warrant a sequel, or would produce a sequel you\u0092d actually be interested in seeing?<\/b><\/p>\n First and foremost: The Breakfast Club<\/i>. WHAT HAPPENED ON MONDAY????<\/p>\n Next choice: Lost in Translation<\/i>. The ending was perfect as it was … I loved its ambiguity … its bittersweet taste … but I have thought more than once: “I wonder if their paths ever crossed again …” I try to imagine it out in my mind, what such a meeting would be like.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This took a lot of work and was a hell of a lot of fun. I’ve been expanding my blog-reading a bit … clearing out some dead weight on the blog-roll to make room for sites I actually READ … … Continue reading
\nCarnal Knowledge
\nLast Detail
\nChinatown
\nOne Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest …<\/p>\n