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MR. SHOOP’S SURFIN' SUMMER SCHOOL MIDTERM
Since all the regular faculty of the SLIFR Academy are currently off enjoying their summer homes in Newport Beach or the Hamptons (or in one case, Sheboygan, Wisconsin), we had to dip into the reserves to find this quarter’s quizmaster. And find one we did! I like to think we will have done our students proud by presenting as our current figurehead of authority that veteran of loose and lively summer school curricula, the semi-honorable Mr. Freddy Shoop, who wields a cutting film question as deftly as he wields a waxed-up surfboard or a sparkling Hawaiian shirt. We think that Mr. Shoop has come up with a fine selection of queries for this time out, ones that honor several centennials of great movie actors as well as some behind-the-scenes big shots of classic Hollywood and, of course, the occasional out-of-left-field head-scratcher that will make you wish you’d never committed to grappling with this quiz and just went outside for the afternoon sand castle building class instead. So don’t get the idea that just because this is summer school you’re somehow going to have a easier time of it. 
Though Mr. Shoop is definitely cool, with it and, above all, dope, he is also not above shrieking “You can’t have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!” at the slightest variation of his classroom agenda (except, of course, if what you really want to do is go outside for a quick football-throwing, volleyball-playing, splashing-in-the-surf montage to briefly relieve the pressures of test-taking—he’s always up for a wacky, pressure-relieving montage.)
So, without any further delay, let us unveil the questions of the summer, get out our sharpened No. 2s and dig in. We know that the last thing you really want to do in the summer is to be sitting indoors taking a test. But wouldn’t you rather be doing this than seeing Transformers? I thought so. Now get to work!
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1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
2) A good movie from a bad director
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
6) Best movie about baseball
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
12) A bad movie from a good director
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
16) Head or 200 Motels?
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
UPDATE 7/18/07 1:31 p.m.: EXTRA CREDIT!!! I know this isn’t entirely fair, having already published the quiz and received so many excellent responses already,* but Jim Emerson has offered up a couple of outstanding posers as part of the regular goings-on at Scanners that would have been way-more-than-worthy additions to this quiz. And I couldn't help but appropriate them (sort of). So, for extra credit, please hop on over to his site and answer these:
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
You can post your answers here if you want, but first and foremost, make sure to drop your answers on his site. Thanks, Jim, for the great questions, and the excellent posts that surround them. The only thing that would make me happier about these questions is if I’d thought of ‘em myself!
94 comments:
And what's wrong with Transformers?
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“Give the people what they want”—Billy Wilder explaining the abnormally large turnout for Harry Cohn’s funeral.
2) A good movie from a bad director
Don’t ask me why, but I’m a fan of Stanley Kramer’s The Pride and the Passion.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Playing himself in A Life (1982).
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I used to live near the Amityville Horror house. I don’t know where that house in the movie was located, but it sure wasn’t in Amityville.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Hey, Carlo married Sophia…and she chose him over Cary Grant. That makes him God.
6) Best movie about baseball
I’m a sucker for bulldozer Paul Douglas, so it’s a toss-up between It Happens Every Spring and the original Angels in the Outfield.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Too much to choose from…next thing you know, you’ll be asking me my favorite Katherine Hepburn performance. As for Babs, she’s always a pleasure in Ball of Fire.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Phoebe in a bikini is a wonder, and the dynamic between Ray Walston and Sean Penn is fascinating, but Fast Times is limited by its sitcom trappings, whereas Dazed… effectively captures a time and place—perhaps conveniently, ala American Graffiti, but the mood and character profiling are generally right on the money.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
After being locked away in the Wayne Family Vault for decades, Wild Bill Wellman’s The High and the Mighty recently resurfaced. Having now seen it, I can honestly say that it can return to the Wayne Family Vault. Forever.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
There are no little Flickheads…none that I’m aware of, anyway. I’ve always had a hankering to raise a daughter. The recent Bridge to Terabithia caught me unawares, and offered another good performance by AnnaSophia Robb (very reminiscent of Tatum O’Neal) whose character tugged at my frayed heartstrings.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Adam’s Rib, if just to watch her marvel at Judy Holliday.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Spartacus is a lox.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
The last (and only) time I saw it was back in 1979. It’s the only film I’ve ever seen that caused bile to rise in my throat. I’m curious about those who’ve only read bits and pieces about it, if they’re aware of the film’s many dark patches…could they stomach the banquet scene? The fact that I forced myself to tough it out to the end must speak for some level of artistry, but I’d never recommend the picture to anyone.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
As a screenwriter, Ben’s certainly got the edge, having written, ghost-written and doctored more scripts than Robert Towne. Do you realize he even worked on Queen of Outer Space?!?
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I’m antisocial.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
We don’t do drugs anymore. You should be ashamed of yourself.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Nearly everyone in Henry Jaglom’s Someone to Love…especially Oja Kodar protecting her dignity and Kathryn Harrold inadvertently displaying her vulnerability.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Mrs. Pollifax—Spy
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I’d hoped that the DVD of Roeg and Cammell’s Performance would’ve gotten the red carpet treatment. I’d envisioned dual audio commentaries, one with Jagger, Fox, Pallenberg, Breton, Roeg, Johnny Shannon and Frank Mazzola; the other with Colin MacCabe and Mick Brown. I would liked to have heard both the dubbed and original audio tracks. Deleted scenes. A more extensive ‘making of’ feature than the middling one that’s on there now. The whole bag. But I’m happy Warners released it at all, and the print they used is very good.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Richard Nixon’s, in All the President’s Men.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry, if only because he stayed true to his principles and ideals and pissed everyone off.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Blissfully unaware of the gay innuendo floating about Hatari!, one of Hawks’s great comic masterworks.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Cronenberg over Coen anytime.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Special effects aside, so many of them are rather staid and dull. However, he worked well with Nathan Juran: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and First Men ‘in’ the Moon are great adventures. And The Golden Voyage of Sinbad is, uh, Caroline Munro’s, ahem, finest hour.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
I’ve always felt that the popularity of Star Wars foreclosed the maturity that was blossoming in 1970s American film. So many good directors foundered in its wake.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
That’s easy: Cottonmouth Gorch in Theodore J. Flicker’s Soggy Bottom, USA.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Erich von Stroheim’s Greed, Anthony Mann’s Thunder Bay and King Vidor’s The Fountainhead. No need to go on after that trio.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Where else but the 80 St. Marks?!?
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Woody Allen: [On why he never watches his own movies] "I think I would hate them."
2) A good movie from a bad director
While I won't call Rob Zombie a bad director (he hasn't made enough films), I will say he's flirting with it (House of 1000 Corpses, his Grindhouse trailer, and the Halloween remake doesn't look promising). Yet, The Devil's Rejects was a great film (in my opinion). I don't think it's a fluke, either.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Couldn't tell ya.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I can't say I've been to too many famous filming locations. Umm...I've driven through the same road of the traffic jam at the beginning of Office Space.... There were a few locations in Death Proof that I was at (before the film was released, so that doesn't count, I guess). Let's see...I've been on one of the White House sets of JFK.
In each case, I felt nothing.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Carlo, because he did more foreign stuff, and if it's foreign, it means it's better.
6) Best movie about baseball
Y'know what? I don't wanna leave out what I consider to be a very underrated film, Little Big League. The premise was outrageous, but it wasn't goofy like Rookie of the Year or other films involving kids in the MLB. This one was interesting, had an entertaining protagonist, and it had a lot of wit and heart. A very good family film.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Give me Double Indemnity.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I'm actually having a hard time choosing, because I think they're both mediocre. I mean, I was these kids a couple of years ago, and these films did nothing for me (don't give me any of this "you'll appreciate it when you're older" bologna either). Can I choose American Graffiti instead?
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
...X-Men 3: The Last Stand. I only watched it because my girlfriend's brother is in town and he felt like putting it on. Geez, perfect timing there, Dennis. Make me look like I actually like the movie.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Umm, Kids?
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I'm more of an Audrey man myself, but I'll take Bringing Up Baby. It's an overrated film, but I still enjoyed Katharine.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Until I see it again, I have to say Blue Velvet.
Not to mention Woody Allen's misses. I love the man, but Anything Else? The Curse of the Jade Scorpion? Love & Death?
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Maybe?
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy boy.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I really wanted to attend Toronto this year, but I then planned on shooting a movie around the same time. Can't afford both on my salary. Cannes? Berlin? I have little urgency to go to Sundance.
I haven't been to many festivals, but SXSW was a great experience, and it caused me to fall in love with Austin.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Zappa's way overrated. Give me Head (shut up).
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Anything from Any Given Sunday. You name it: Terrell Owens, Oliver Stone, Charleton Heston....
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
A little bit of a cop-out, but I'll take His Girl Friday.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Annie Hall? Every time I pop the disc in, I'm embarrassed. I'd enjoy some reflective interviews from Woody (kinda like A Life in Film) as well as Diane Keaton. Maybe a feature that would count and explain every single cultural reference that is uttered in the film. I'm not asking for much, I just want something better than what's out there.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Nicolas Cage in Adaptation. Despite what you see from Next and Ghost Rider, Nic Cage still has it, people.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Well, I'll take The Alamo. Why? Because it's the only John Wayne movie I've ever seen. Why? Because I don't like John Wayne. So my least favorite performance has to be my very favorite as well.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink to the max. One of my favorite endings ever.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans. Perfect showcase.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Nothing profound here, but I have to say Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The movie wasn't that good at all, but not horrendous, yet I wish I could erase it because that would mean I could erase the other two films. That way, I wouldn't have 4 or 5 screens at my local cineplex occupied by three hours worth of CG turds. As a bonus, Johnny Depp would still have his head on straight, and would still be making offbeat films with classic portrayals. Sorry kids, Jack Sparrow is not classic.
26) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Couldn't tell ya.
27) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
I'm not going to choose the deepest, most profound films because that would just depress me before I die.
So we'll start out the day with Billy Madison. Pure fluff, nothing heavy, and I'll watch it while eating some scrambled tofu, veggie bacon, veggie sausage, and toast.
My lunches are always light, so I'll watch Annie Hall. It keeps me going, it makes my day ten times better, and it makes me laugh every time. A grilled cheese sandwich and plenty of pizza would go well (yes, I consider that light).
And for my final meal, I'd watch my favorite film of all time, Boogie Nights. I rarely watch the film so that when I do, it's always new and surprising. It's heartfelt, it's stylish, and it's so much fun. The film got me to fall in love with movies and moviemaking, so I owe it. Watch it while eating some Puerto Rican-style rice and beans (red), tostones, vegetarian scallops, and wash it down with a Malta.
Thanks for the memories.
28) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The no-longer-in-existance Original Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Downtown Austin. Love you guys.
1.Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." Orson Welles
2. A good movie from a bad director
Cutter's Way
3. Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
49th Parallel
4. Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I've spent half my life in D.C. or New York so I guess there's plenty but one time in college (in D.C.)my roommate and I got bored and my roommate said, "Hey let's rent No Way Out so we can find the house at the end" You know, at the beginning the camera does a long aerial pan from the monuments to a house in Virginia. So we rented it, traced out the streets past the Lincoln Memorial over the Potomac and drove there. No house. Just an empty lot. Oh well. We got some beer and headed back.
5. Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Hmmm... based on La Strada or Mambo I could go with either so I guess I have to go with films after the break and de Laurentis pissed me off too many times so I'm going with Ponti.
6. Best movie about Baseball?
I like baseball too much to like the movies very much. No one ever pitches correctly, the stances don't look right and damn big game ends with a home run. And they do things like cast Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson. You might as well cast Brian Dennehy as Oliver Twist. So for history I'll go with Eight Men Out though I'm not thrilled with it. For fiction I'll go with The Naken Gun - Reggie Jackson as an assassin... what more needs to be said.
7. Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Out of the zillions to choose from I'm going to go with So Big since I just profiled it and it shows very early on in her career just how versatile she was.
8. Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed is more critically accepted but Fast Times was all over cable when I was in high school so I have more associated memories with it. I can't here Moving in Stereo without thinking of the pool scene now.
9. What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Walkabout. Rewatching films from the late sixties to early seventies for ongoing Oscar articles to make sure everything is fresh in my head. You'd be amazed how many false memories you can have of a movie after ten to twenty years. Sticking with 71 I'm watching McCabe and Mrs. Miller again tonight.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I have four kids so I think about it more in terms of what appeals to them and why. They are more well versed in old films than most reasonably cinematically inclined adults so I'm proud of that. My youngest, six, loves - LOVES - the black cat holding the door back against Cary Grant in The Awful Truth. I think I've watched that scene on DVD about a 10,000 times at this point and she still lets out a belly laugh each time - which then makes me laugh.
11.Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Woman of the Year or more specifically her scene with Spencer Tracy in the bar where she is just misty for him. Incredible.
12.A bad movie from a good director
King Lear by Godard. It's a long way from Weekend and Pierrot le fou.
13.Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
Salo, no. Have seen scenes not the whole thing so I can't really say for sure. But from what I've seen and coming so close to his murder, has a creepy self destructive feel. I could be wrong though. Have to see the whole thing.
14.Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
flickhead - Hecht worked on Queen of Outer Space? I love that film.
Prof. Konrad: Perhaps this is a civilization that exists without sex.
Lt. Larry Turner: You call that civilization?
Prof. Konrad: Frankly, no.
But I'm going with Wilder. From Indemnity to Sunset Blvd to Some Like it Hot he had an amazing range.
15. Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
No question - Venice. It's the oldest and I would freakin love to go to Venice. My wife's been there and wants to go back so it could even be written off as a work expense.
16. Head or 200 Motels
"Hi, I'm Jimmy Carl Black and I'm the Indian of the group."
That should answer your question.
17. Favorite cameo appearance
No lines, no setup and it comes right at the beginning: Robert Duvall in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
18.Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
It's probably obvious but I'm going with His Girl Friday.
19.What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include
Sunrise. It's on DVD, technically, along with three other Oscar winners so no bells and whistles attached and it's on a stand alone region 2 dvd.
This is the supreme height of silent filmmaking - where's Criterion? Extras could include a short doc on German expressionism, stills from the production, etc. The one available is fine but I'd like some more. And by the way, the pig scene is another big hit with the six year old.
20. Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Robert Shaw in The Luck of Ginger Coffey (not even on DVD so another candidate for that). For those who've only seen him in A Man for All Seasons, The Sting or Jaws (which he is terrific in all no doubt) here is a film centered around him as the lead and what a performance it is. He portrays a kind of energetic self delusion that is alternately mesmerizing and infuriating to watch.
21. Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry Cohn, crude and abrasive, he is the model for the studio head.
22. Favorite John Wayne performance
Like Russell above an obvious choice but only because I feel it really is the best. The Searchers.
23. Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Milhous: "We're going to sneak into an "R" rated movie."
All kids chanting together: "Barton Fink, Barton Fink..."
24. Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I love Jason and the Argonauts. I think it's his best by far.
25. Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
How much space do I have? Let's see Birth of a Nation helped start a revival of the Klan and the world certainly could have done without that and Olympia and Triumph of the Will kept Europe at bay by making Germany look like an underdog that built itself back up so we could have done without that but...
but... the real answer is no. Even the worst films are to my mind vital historical and artistic documents, a collective record of the world's memory, it's likes and dislikes, it's loves and hatreds.
24. Favorite Dub Taylor performance
You mean Cannonball? There's an actor you don't think of everyday. I guess Bonnie and Clyde would be the most well known. I'll go with Used Cars.
25. If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
2001: to meditate to. And for wish-fulfillment: "maybe I'll come back as a starchild."
The Thing from Another World: to view others in isolation and keep me from wanting to eat any vegetables for my last meal (hey, I'm going to die, I should gluttonize).
Sunrise: To let me know there is order to the universe.
26.And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Cleveland Uptown Cinema on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. One of the last Movie Palaces left.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
This is a paraphrase, since I don’t have the book with me, and I can’t find the full quote on-line: “I’ve always felt that ‘film is a collaborative process only constituted half of the actual phrase. As a screenwriter working in Hollywood, the full phrase should be, ‘Film is a collaborative process: bend over.’” – David Mamet
2) A good movie from a bad director
This was harder than I expected. After a lot of thought, I’ll go with “Altered States”. I can’t stand Ken Russell, but I like that movie. Even so, what I like about it is what survived of Paddy Chayefsky’s script and ideas, and not so much what Russell brought to it.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
“Clash of the Titans”
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Well, let’s see. I’ve stayed at the Stratosphere in Vegas, where the climax of “Domino” takes place. It was different from the film in that I enjoyed my stay there. Also, I visited a very lovely spot in Ireland where David Lean filmed important parts of “Ryan’s Daughter”, but I haven’t seen that movie yet. I grew up in Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, so I guess the best example is the “Exorcist” steps, which I’ve visited many times. They’re different, because they aren’t overlooked by apartments, and they lead up to something to do with cars…a mechanic? Just a parking lot? I can’t remember, because I never really paid much attention to that part. They are similar to the film in that they are just as steep as you think they are, and fairly creepy (though their association with the movie no doubt has everything to do with that creepiness). But I’ve felt strange, and sort of off-balance, every time I’ve gone up and down those steps. I always felt like I really needed to pay attention to how I walked, or I’d pull a Karras.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino De Laurentiis, I suppose. I’ve seen more movies, good and bad, that he was involved with.
6) Best movie about baseball
“Eight Men Out”. And why is it that, while I’m not much of a fan of the actual sport, I think that baseball movies (and boxing movies) tend to be the best sports films? I’m a football guy, and most of those movies really eat it. Rollerball has been pretty poorly served by Hollywood, as well.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
“The Lady Eve”. I haven’t seen a lot, I’m afraid. I think I first saw her in “Double Indemnity”, a movie I don’t hold in as high regard as most people. I saw “The Lady Eve” more recently, and felt deeply jealous of Henry Fonda throughout. She was truly brilliant in that movie.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I haven’t seen “Dazed and Confused”, though it’s in my Netflix queue. As for “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, I’ve always thought it was one of the most overrated comedies of all time, along with “Animal House” and “Caddyshack”. The only moment in “Fast Times” that I can remember thinking was genuinely funny was the moment when Sean Penn looks off-camera and says, apropos of nothing, “I know that dude.”
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
“Videodrome”, and I watched it because I had just picked up the Criterion edition. My opinion of Cronenberg has changed considerably over the years. His stuff can be so clumsy that I used to think the people who were so in love with his work were kidding themselves. But after a while I started to think, well, clumsy or not, who else is making movies like this? More recently, as a horror fan who thinks almost all horror movies are lousy, I began to truly appreciate that his films in the genre are some of the very few films in the last thirty years that matter. And even when he’s clumsy (see “Rabid”, which I also watched again recently) he’s never, ever stupid.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not that affected the way I’ve thought about having kids, but I can think of a moment that confirmed what I already thought. As it stands now, my wife and I don’t want children, and there’s that line in “Rushmore” where Bill Murray, after having to deal with his obnoxious kids, says, “Never in my wildest imagination did I ever dream I’d have sons like this.”
I should say that I do like kids, and there are many reasons I don’t want children that don’t make it sound like I’m a child-hating ogre, but this is honestly one of my concerns: What if I have a kid, and he’s an asshole??
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
“The Lion in Winter”. Everyone’s great in that movie.
12) A bad movie from a good director
“Full Metal Jacket”. Kubrick is probably my favorite filmmaker, and the boot camp section is pretty good. Once they get to Vietnam, though, the drop-off in quality is astonishing. It’s like he decided to give his mildly talented cousin a break.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I’ve never seen it. If I could easily get my hands on a copy, I would watch it. From everything I’ve read, after watching it I believe my answer to your question would be “No.”
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder. When I first saw “Sunset Boulevard” as a teenager, I couldn’t believe that in the old days they made movies that crazy.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
That’s a tough one. I’ve never been to one, and I think I’d like to go to Toronto. That would probably be pretty sweet.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven’t seen them. I doubt I would care for either one. The Monkees are what they are, and no one has ever made any great claims for them (though anyone who hasn’t seen Mike Nesmith’s “Elephant Parts” should probably do so). Zappa is somebody I respect more than I actually like. In addition, I’m not really a fan of psychedelia, if that is indeed a word.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Oh, to try and find my absolute favorite would take way too much work, so I’ll go with just one that I enjoy that I’m guessing no one else will pick: James Dickey as the sheriff in “Deliverance”. The fact that his performance is very good helps a lot.
I also liked seeing the Coen brothers as the photographers in Sam Raimi’s “Crime Wave”.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
“The Hudsucker Proxy”
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I feel like this should be easy, or that I should have something clever for it, but I don’t. So many of the movies I would want to have this sort of DVD treatment have gotten it, or will be getting it soon. I guess I wish my copy of “Dead Man” had some bells and whistles, or that “Miami Blues” would at least come out. And I’m a commentary whore, so I would need that for both. Whatever. I did this question last, and I’m burned out.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Jim Broadbent in “Topsy-Turvy”. Broadbent, like Michael Gambon, is so consistently good (and when he’s not good he’s great) that I think he’s taken for granted. His performance as William Gilbert in “Topsy-Turvy” was, I thought, the performance of that year, and has rarely been matched since.
Speaking of Gambon, might as well throw in his performance in “The Singing Detective” while I’m at it.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”. I identified with his character when I first saw it, about eight years ago. If John Wayne had played that character as a fat 24 year-old who worked at a Barnes & Noble, and who hadn’t been in a fight since the 7th grade, and never fired a gun, then it would have been like looking in a mirror.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
This would be a great follow-up to my “Videodrome” answer if I’d ever seen “Naked Lunch”, but I haven’t (it’s in my queue!). But even with my growing love of Cronenberg’s work, I sincerely doubt he will ever do anything to match the one-two punch of “Miller’s Crossing” and “Barton Fink”. Both are among my favorite movies of all time, with “Miller’s Crossing” slightly edging out “Barton Fink”. But still, Wallace Beery? Wrestling picture? Could be a pip. Could be a pip.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
“Clash of the Titans” again! Actually, though I do have fond memories of that movie, I’d have to go with “Jason and the Argonauts”. Those skeletons screaming before they charge has always stuck with me.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
“JFK”. I might as well mention now that politically I lean in a slightly different direction than most of the people on this board. And while people of all political stripes can and do revile bad history in movies, with this film Stone legitimized a particular kind of thinking that I find abhorrent. To me, there is a direct line between “JFK” and “Loose Change”.
You can probably guess how I feel about Michael Moore, so throw his movies in there, too.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I feel bad that I can’t place him, but after looking him up I see he was in “The Getaway”. I like that movie.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Wow. This one might be impossible. Do I choose movies that I particularly love now, no matter what they are? For instance, if right now I really, really love Bela Tarr’s “The Werckmeister Harmonies” (I don’t, but let’s say I do), do I really want that to be one of the last movies I see? And what about “Salo”, mentioned before? That must be somebody’s favorite movie of all time. If they were faced with this choice, is a movie featuring poo-eating really what they want to see right before they’re shown across? Or should I choose movies that might help me deal with my fate? Or a mixture of the two?
I don’t really know. So let’s say I want something that will remind me of the mystery of life and the possibility of something greater. For that, I’ll go with “2001”. I’m assuming that, under the circumstances, I might need some cheering up, so I’ll go for a favorite comedy, something by Christopher Guest, or closely related to him, like “This is Spinal tap”. Lastly, I think I’ll go with “Epic Movie”, to show that maybe I won’t be missing out on all that much after all.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Hm. I don’t really have a list of favorite movie theaters. I did have some good experiences with the Uptown, in Washington, DC, though, so I’ll say that one.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Sergio Leone: "I can't see America any other way than with a European's eyes. It fascinates me and terrifies me at the same time."
2) A good movie from a bad director
Since he only made one movie, this is kind of cheating, but I'll say "A Boy and His Dog" from L.Q. Jones. It's a wonderfully-flawed movie full of great moments.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Supt. Newhouse in "Bunny Lake is Missing"
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I saw "Cutter's Way" long after my family had moved away from Santa Barbara, but it perfectly captured the community's beauty and ugliness.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino, without him there would be no "Army of Darkness" or "Danger: Diabolik"
6) Best movie about baseball
The one where they make baseball more interesting by introducing dynamite bats, booby-trap outfields and bases that are placed at random around the ball park. Have they made that movie yet? Needless to say, Bob Uecker would be involved in some way.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Christmas in Connecticut, still one of the funniest holiday movies because of her performance.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I can't say enough about "Dazed and Confused," I watch it more often than any other movie I have and it plays even better on a lazy summer afternoon.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I watched Herzog's "Cobra Verde" this morning, making my way through my Herzog-Kinski box set. Still trying to wrap my head around it.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
As an expectant first-time father, the first movie I thought of when I heard the good news was strangely "Superman: The Movie" when Marlon Brando's Jor-El says to his son, "He will never ... be alone." I can picture saying that line to myself when I first lay eyes on him/her.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
"Bringing Up Baby"
12) A bad movie from a good director
Lot of contenders here, but I'm going to say Hitchcock's "Family Plot" because I saw it recently. It's not so much terrible as it is disappointing that it was Hitch's final movie, and that he chose to film such a one-note, one-trick story of little consequence.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I've heard so many horror stories about it, I'm not sure I'll ever have the courage to watch it, but luckily it's pretty hard to get ahold of these days.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht, he's penned some of my favorite dialog, in "The Front Page" play and "Notorious."
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Even though I would probably fall asleep, I would love to attend a 24-hour film festival, and I've always wanted to check out Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-a-Thon, despite how elitist and exclusive it has become.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
"Baby Snakes"
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Marcel Marceau in "Silent Movie" — "No!"
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
"His Girl Friday," everything she says is magic.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Except for "Spartacus" and "Dr. Strangelove," every Kubrick film deserves much better. Sure, he said he wanted his films presented in mono and in fullscreen on DVD, but that was before 16x9 televisions were the norm. A lot could be done for "Full Metal Jacket" and "Eyes Wide Shut,"including restoring them to their theatrical aspect ratio. There will supposedly be yet another Kubrick box set coming out this winter, with hopefully all of the above addressed.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Christopher Walken in "View to a Kill," why the hell not?
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer, because of his last words: "Nothing matters! Don't let them worry you. Nothing matters!"
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
I've always enjoyed his subdued turn as Capt. Kirby York in "Fort Apache."
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
"Barton Fink," for Tony Shalhoub.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
"20 Million Miles to Earth"
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Even though it's one of my favorite movies, and speaking strictly in evil tones: "Citizen Kane," just to see what films would have been like without it.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Whenever I see his name I think of his opening monologue to "The Wild Bunch," as the fiery Temperence Union preacher. "Does anyone realllly think that that is the price of a drink?!?"
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
"The Wild Bunch" (a movie about dying), "Bicycle Thieves" (a movie about living) and "Sirens" (a movie about beautiful naked women).
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The theater at McMenamin's Kennedy School in Portland, to ensure that my last meals had plenty of good pizza and beer.
Jonathan: It's weird that you made that "Simpsons" reference (one of my favorite moments from the show) because there's another episode where Bart, Milhous, Nelson and Martin sneak into a movie theater to see "Naked Lunch". When they come out, Nelson says, "I can think of at least two things wrong with that title."
Also, the Uptown! Woo!
1)Favorite quote from a filmmaker ?
“Actors are like cattle.”-Hitchcock
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Rock- Michael Bay
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I’m gonna chose one for varieties sake, the Russian Primer in Shoes of the Fisherman.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I’ve been to the park in Salina Kansas were some of the scenes in Picnic where filmed. I hadn’t seen the film at the time, but when I did it total brought back the area to me, and Kansas summers more generally.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
De Laurentiis, because he was so important to Lynch’s early career.
6) Best movie about baseball
The classic male weepy, Field of Dreams
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Her Ann Mitchell in Meet John Doe is probably my ideal women
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Never seen either, probably Dazed and Confused because I don’t really like Cameron Crowe.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, because I’ve long had an interest in the Algonquin Round Table, and Jennifer Jason Lee excels at those tough broad roles ( such as in The Hudsucker Proxy).
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I don’t know, I think maybe Giant has some good, realistic things to say about child raising.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Lion in Winter
12) A bad movie from a good director
Wild at Heart, by David Lynch
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Not seen it.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Sorry Hecht, but Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Can’t beat Cannes or Sundance
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Seen neither
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
I’d probably have to think about that one, off hand I’ll have to put Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall, sense I was a communications major.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Kings Row. Audio commentary by a film historian. Short doc’s on the making of the film, Bob Cummings career, and the making/history of the ’Midwest Set’ which has sense been used as the small towns in The Dukes of Hazard and Gilmore Girls. Also maybe a doc on early psychology, because the subject plays so prominently in the film.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Charles Lane has only a couple of minutes in Sybil, as an old doctor who once suspected, but never did anything about, the abuse the young girl suffered as a child. I think he very nicely communicates the regret of a generally good man, who found he was simply not willing to take the risk and disrupt his life for the girl, when he knew he probably should. Greatly effective performance for the amount of screen time.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Cohn, the craziest of the studio heads
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Searchers
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
The First Men in the Moon
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
I’d say Car 54 Where Are You?, but I don’t think it ever made much of an impact. Maybe the new Transformers movie we’d be better off without, or Dante’s Peak for that matter, since I’m going summer blockbuster.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
?
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Apartment (1960), Giant (1956)
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Egyption down town (Boise) probably.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
There are so many! Orson Welles did a personal favorite of mine
“I think the enemy of films is reality. I think films are best when they manage poetry, by reducing the element of reality and introducing something which is the invention of the film maker”
Realism certainly has it’s place in movies (my god, look at Killer of Sheep!) but it tends to be sorely overrated.
2) A good movie from a bad director
Jacobs Ladder. Adrian Lyne. Lyne is a complete hack, except for this near-masterpiece.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I’m going to have to say Hamlet.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
New York is nowhere near as grimy as it is in Taxi Driver.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti had nothing to do with that King Kong remake.
6) Best movie about baseball
I don’t watch a lot of baseball movies, but I just saw Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of the Flatbush a documentary on HBO and it was awfully great, even though I don’t follow the sport I was completely drawn into the mythos of the game.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Man this is torture! Way too many, but ultimately you can’t outdo Double indemnity
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I’m not exactly rushing to see high school movies after the horror that was The Breakfast Club
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I just went to New York and while flipping through a guide for New |York I discovered that Manhatten was playing at a little theatre. Me, my dad and my brother rushed to the theatre, the smallest one I’ve ever been to, and it was completely packed. There were no two empty seats that were next to each other so everyone had to spread out. And then we watched the movie, man what a perfect movie to see in New York.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I’m 17 years old. I’m not really thinking about this now
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
While certainly not the best movie she’s been in, The Lion in Winter has her at her acidic best.
12) A bad movie from a good director
James Cameron is a much better director then he is given credit for, but Titanic deserves all the scorn that has been heaped upon it as of late. Man it sucked.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Have not seen, but desperately want to see, does that make me a bad person?
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Wilder!
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Of all my dream festival attending, Cannes is still at the tip top of the list, I mean c’mon, it’s CANNES.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I’ve only seen 200 Motels. It’s certainly…. Intresting.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
It’s really a in-retrospect-cameo but Arnold Schwarzenegger as “Hood in Augustine's office” in The Long Goodbye his apperence resulted in a lot of scrambling for the remote and pausing “is that Ahnold?” “It can’t be” “it is! Oh my god it is!”
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Oh c’mon, you simply cannot outdo His Girl Friday, it just can’t be done.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I long for a Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse release. It’s certainly a seminal movie, it tangoed Rudolf Valentino’s into a career, but it remains only on DVD as an EXTRA to a Valentino documentry, the shame! The Horror! It needs it’s own DVD and quick, It would include commentary by film scholars of course, a nice little documentary about the film, and a crazy documentary about the end times narrated by a random guy they pulled of the street.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Muni is great in The Life of Emile Zola, too bad the movies close to unbearable.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I really really don’t care.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
I always thought of John Wayne as a non-actor who happened to latch on to great directors. This changed when I saw They were Expendable, the nuance and emotion in the role surprised me, so much that I look a little more carefully at what Wayne is doing in his movies to come.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Cronenburg and the Coens are two of my favorite directors, but I have yet to see either of these.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I’ve only seen Jason and the Argonaughts and it sure is a wild ride, certainly the best Greek Myth movie I’ve ever seen, and that’s really sad when you think about it.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
I don’t think that there are any reasons (artistic, oitical, historical) that we need to keep Bicentennial Man from disappearing forever.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Who?
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Dear Jesus. I hope it never comes to this. Three movies, oh my god. Citizen Kane, Breathless, Killer of Sheep? I don’t know it’s a scary thought to process. Only three?
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
A Really Really Big one.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
During the making of Lifeboat a stage hand complained to Alfred Hitchcock that Tallulah Bankhead was coming to work without underpants. Because the actors were suspended on a platform several feet above the stage, crotches were about at eye level. Hitchcock stood musing for a moment. "Well, aren't you going to do anything about it?" he was asked. Hitchcock replied, "I'm trying to figure out whether it's a problem for makeup or hairdressing,"
2) A good movie from a bad director
Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl. But you didn't mean bad that way, did you? A Chorus of Disapproval, directed by Michael Winner. Or A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, directed by Sam Wood.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Henry V, but Olivier is one of those Great Actor actors that I could never feel any emotional connection to. I felt more of a connection with Kenneth Branagh, who is obviously a lesser actor.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I used to live in the apartment building in Hollywood in and around which a chase scene in the Robert Blake/Elliot Gould vehicle FUZZ was shot. (The Lido Apartments, where the gatefold photo of The Eagles' Hotel California was also shot.) It was every bit as seedy as it looked, and got worse. I could swear I've lived in every apartment in Pulp Fiction, or at least every kind of apartment. What you notice in any movie set in L.A. if you live there, and which must be meaningless if you don't, are the liberties they take in mashing locations together. For instance, in FUZZ, the chase (on foot) that ends in Hollywood begins at the Grand Central Market downtown, which is portrayed as being open at night. I always wondered why Michael Mann is congratulated for having such a great feel for L.A. when he takes such absurd liberties with location (and why he hardly ever exploits the feel for costume pictures he showed in The Last of the Mohicans). No movie has ever captured L.A. the way it actually looks like The Long Goodbye.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
De Laurentiis would now and then use his powers for good instead of evil, but you always got the impression he was mostly a scheissmeister at heart.
6) Best movie about baseball
The HBO documentaries. Hollywood baseball movies pretty much suck, don't they? Bull Durham is okay, I guess. (Do you ever ask yourself, What was that baseball movie that Kevin Costner was in? Not Field of Dreams, the good one?)
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Ball of Fire.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I'm just slightly too old to be enthusiastic about Fast Times and way too old for Dazed and Confused. I'm more Animal House vintage.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Three Burials of Meliquiades Estrada, because it was at the top of my Netflix queue. It was on top of my Netflix queue because I wanted to see something with Tommy Lee Jones. Extra credit: Compare and contrast the last lines of Three Burials ("You okay?") and Duck You Sucker ("But what about me?")
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
When I think about what it would be like to have children I think of having to watch all the goddamned children's movies, over and over and over . . .
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I don't like Katherine Hepburn. I don't hate her, but I don't like her. It's not like Olivier where there's no emotional connection, it's just I don't have any desire to watch her.
12) A bad movie from a good director
O.C. & Stiggs, or at least the 15 minutes I could stomach, with all of Altman's besetting sins at full strength: smug, self-satisfied cynicism, a contempt for his targets that defeats satire, a portrait of assholes that's unfair to assholes.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
As a screenwriter Ben Hecht covers the earth, like Williams Paint. The achievement is so wide that even an undeniably great screenwriter like Wilder has to take a back seat. Wilder is the better artist overall because he was committed to movies in a way that Hecht could never imagine.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I remember when I was working for an entertainment law firm one of the partners was leaving the office to attend the Cannes Film Festival, and I thought that was the advantage of being an entertainment lawyer: There's no such thing as the Cannes Insurance Coverage Festival. As for personal experience at festivals, I really loved the old Filmex 72-hour movie marathons. My particular favorite was the comedy marathon, which I went to back when I still had Preston Sturges vaguely confused in my mind with John. Another favorite was the Silent Clowns series at the Vagabond in the 70s: Finally getting to see all those great silent comedians in the celluloid.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Never saw 200 Motels, but it gives off heavy self-indulgent POS vibes. Head tries awfully hard, and it's better than you'd expect it to be. Self-exculpatory self-disgust gets a little thick, though.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Alfred Hitchcock in every Alfred Hitchcock movie. Most ingenious was in Lifeboat, where he snuck himself into a before-and-after ad in a newspaper. And since the subject of Head-the-move came up, Frank Zappa in that picture is another choice.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday, of course. Why are you wasting my time?
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
This is going to be the most lowbrow answer imaginable, but Howard Stern's Private Parts. You just imagine the reels of outtakes of naked women there must be, and who on earth would do a better commentary track? How they could be so cloth-headed as to have not done this already is beyond me.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Philip Baker Hall in Secret Honor, far-fetched as it might have been. I remember it setting the tone for an 80s election night when the Democrats re-took Congress back from the Klingons. "FUCK 'EM!"
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Are you joking? The man with world wired to his ass. Louis B. Mayer was a pox.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Searchers, for the line reading of "That'll be the day" alone. I have a pet theory that whether or not you like John Wayne depends on how well you got along with your father. If you can see the value in authority figures then you can appreciate him. He had this quality, as an actor at least, where in any group of men it's obvious that he is the best man in the group. Nevertheless, back when it was a political issue, I always bristled at the notion that he was the definition of American manliness. It's not as if Hollywood had not served up more dimensional and attractive male icons: Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire and Groucho Marx, to name a few. You might admire John Wayne's qualities, but you wouldn't want to be John Wayne yourself.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink, though as often happens with the Coen brothers it doesn't hold up that well on repeat viewings.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
If I have to choose Jason and the Argonauts, but I always found his stop-motion too fake looking to sustain the illusion of life.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
It's All True. But that wasn't exactly made, was it?
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Was that the Movie Nerd Alert that just went off?
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
If I was staring death in the face I don't think I'd be in a frame of mind to enjoy movies, so I'd be watching things to support my deathbed conversion case: King of Kings, The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, that sort of thing. If we were to re-frame the question as which three moviegoing experiences I'd like to re-live as I'd first experienced them, they would be: (1) The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. I swear I've never laughed so hard at a movie. By the end I was leaning in my seat at a 45-degree angle, literally stomping on the floor with my foot. Never the same impact afterwards, however. (2) Animal House. One of the rare times I felt the need to sit through a movie twice. (3) Children of Paradise. I first saw it in an advanced state of lovesickness, which left me susceptible to it like walking barefoot in the rain with a cold.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The best place to see a movie that I know of when the lights go down is the Arclight. Best for surviving movie palace décor is the Pantages in Hollywood. For sheer atmospheric seediness nothing could beat the old World Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. It should have been called the End of the World Theater.
Dave posted this under "Stealing: My Favorite Commercial," so I'm being presumptuous and copying it here as well! Here's Dave:
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker.
Alfred Hitchcock: "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
2) A good movie from a bad director.
I’m ashamed to say I ain’t got one. Maybe “Flawless” (which was okay) directed by Joel Schumacher.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance.
'Maxim' de Winter in “Rebecca”.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The Whispering Gallery in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which was where the climax of “Hands of the Ripper” occurs. I was a 12-year-old kid on a trip to England and Scotland with my parents and I watched “Hands of the Ripper” on TV in our hotel late at night while we were there (Scared the hell out of me). When we visited the cathedral it was a bit surreal to be in the place that I had just watched on television, especially with the drama that the end of that Hammer flick delivered. It looked the same as it did in the film, but there was no one there in period costume (Well, people were in 70’s period costume, but not Jack the Ripper period costume).
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
De Laurentiis for being shameless.
6) Best movie about baseball
“The Bad News Bears” (1976).
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance.
No big surprise… “Double Indemnity”, with “Ball of Fire” close behind.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
“Dazed and Confused”, because it’s great and evocative. I don’t get “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” despite being the right age at the time of its release and the presence of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
“Black Book”, because I’d heard it was good and because I’m always interested in what Paul Verhoeven is up to.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Being a non-Breeder, I can seriously say that “The Exorcist” is that flick, simply because of the devotion Chris MacNeil shows toward her daughter, and the emotional, psychological, and physical damage she endures to help her off spring. This movie most clearly showed me the particular bond between parent and child.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance.
Without a doubt, “Bringing Up Baby”.
12) A bad movie from a good director.
Woody Allen’s “Melinda and Melinda”. Ugh. I hate that movie.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
God help me… Yes.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Wilder is great, but I have to pick Hecht, mostly because of his work with Hitchcock… The complexities of the “Notorious” script, his great work on the “Strangers on a Train” and “Foreign Correspondent” scripts, among others, and of course, the non-Hitchcock “His Girl Friday” script.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.
The most fun I’ve had at a film festival was attending the Midnight Madness screenings at the Toronto Film Festival, but I’d really enjoy going to the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Bruce Willis in “The Player”, because it made me laugh.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance.
”His Girl Friday”.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I’ve recently ordered DVD-R’s of “Blood and Lace”, “Four Flies on Grey Velvet”, “Hands of the Ripper”, and “I Was a Teenage Werewolf”, but it would be nice if all those puppies were available as official Region 1 DVD releases. The current DVD I have of “Eating Raoul” is pretty awful, so it would be nice to see a decent release featuring commentary from the fantastic Mary Woronov with a retrospective documentary of her career as well as that of co-star and director Paul Bartel. And the trailer, of course.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.
Donald O’Connor in “Singin’ in the Rain”, because when he does “Make ‘Em Laugh” everything is okay.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry Cohn.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance.
“The Searchers”.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
“Naked Lunch”. Talk about doing a great job adapting the unadaptable. I love the Cohen Brothers, but I’ve always thought that “Barton Fink” was too much like “Eraserhead”.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice.
Tough one, but I’m going to go with “The Golden Voyage of Sinbad” as a sentimental favourite.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
No, because there’s room for every movie.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Err… “Bonnie and Clyde”.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Breakfast: “Bringing Up Baby”
Lunch: “Notorious”
Dinner: “The Long Day Closes”
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
I'm still waiting for someone to list "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" for their favorite Olivier performance.
Bill,
The Simpsons references never cease to amaze me. I recall the Naked Lunch one as well. It's hard to top Milhous.
And speaking of the Uptown, years ago they booked "Dying Young" for three or four months and it... well... it died young. So they just showed old movies for three months to packed crowds every night. I got to see "2001" "Bridge on the River Kwai" "Blade Runner" and so many others on a huge screen. It was quite memorable. I wish more of the old movie palaces would do this. Devote just one month out of the year to running some classics.
whoops. thanks for putting my comments in the proper place, dennis.
Jonathan: Yep, I saw "2001" there. That was truly a life-changing experience (as far as movie-watching goes). I'd seen it once and thought it was, of course, boring. I saw it at the Uptown and the hairs on my arm stood up right at the beginning and stayed that way for the duration. I also saw "Rear Window" there, during it's re-release several years ago.
My brothers saw "Lawrence of Arabia" there, and swear they saw a rat run across the stage, under the screen.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion."
- David Cronenberg
2) A good movie from a bad director
Event Horizon
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Clash of The Titans is the only Laurence Olivier movie I've seen so I guess it's that.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The Mall from the original Dawn of the Dead and cemetery from night of the Living Dead. The Mall is completely different but the cemetery looks exactly the same.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
n/a
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Ball of Fire
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
You Bastard. Dazed and Confused is the better movie but dammit FTARH has Phoebe Cates nekkid.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Last movies I saw in theater was Transformers and Live Free and Die Hard saw them back to back.
Last movie I saw on tv was Monday and it was Christmas in Connecticut. It was part of Turner Classic Movies Barbara Stanwyck's birthday marathon.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Village of The Damned
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Philadelphia Story definiately.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Um yeah, Hook
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
n/a
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Cannes probably. And I've never attended one.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I don't like Zappa or The Monkees
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Any of Bruce Campbells cameos
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
n/a
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
My choice (Monster Squad) is actually finally being released next week.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Viggo Mortenson (sp?) as The Devil in The Prophecy. So delightfully creepy.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
n/a
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Rio Bravo I guess, not really a big John Wayne fan.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Any Pauly Shore movie
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
n/a
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
The Philadelphia Story, Annie Hall & The Big Lebowski
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Not really sure
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"I am interested in the relationship between the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure." — Shohei Imamura
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I’d like to say Clash of the Titans, but I’ll have to go with Rebecca.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Prague was exactly like The Golem.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
[shrugs]
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham, easily. Why hasn’t the great baseball documentary been made?
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
The Lady Eve, but I need to see more.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
American Graffiti
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
The Wind, part of a silent film series I’m programming for my community film “society.”
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
The Day After Tomorrow. Not because of the environment or anything, but because Roland Emmerich continues to exist. That opening shot at an infuriating angle to the ice disrupted my life and actually kinda fucked my neck up. (Have you seen his latest trailer? It features a PLATOON of CGI wooly mammoths….)
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Philadelphia Story
12) A bad movie from a good director
All or Nothing, dir. Mike Leigh. A cruel parody: laughably miserablist and devoid of any discernable humanity.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
No.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht! "I'm a Hollywood writer; so I put on a sports jacket and take off my brain." Bullshit.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
San Francisco Silent Film Festival
16) Head or 200 Motels?
A Hard Day’s Night
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
I hate cameos.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I’d be lying if I didn’t pick His Girl Friday. Anyone else would be as well.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
A Matter of Life & Death… Throw in a detailed set design featurette, a reel of the best Powell and Pressburger title sequences, as well as a three hour documentary on Roger Livesay. I’d hope that it would NOT include a Martin Scorcese commentary.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Bill Murray stole his entire second act from Koji Yakusho (see: The Eel, Eureka), who is great in everything, but especially Kurosawa’s Doppelganger, which would make a good double bill with Dead Ringers or The Parent Trap….
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Maybe Thalberg would have been every bit as successful were it not for Mayer’s taking a chance on him, but success would’ve been slower coming, and his short career at the top would’ve been much shorter.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is probably the best, but I know in my heart of hearts that The Cowboys is my favorite.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink, but only because I’ve exhausted the name-a-completely-different movie thing.... Is this a bizarre-writing-process-movie comparison? I’d go with The Shining. There, I did it. Sorry…
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Scarface (1983). I love De Palma, but gag me with a spoon….
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
The Wild Bunch
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Something by Powell and Pressburger…
Something by Renoir…
And Sunrise.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
I’ve never been to a very elaborate theater, so I’d take advice from the internets.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"When I was a critic, I thought that a successful film had simultaneously to express an idea of the world and an idea of cinema . . . .Today, I demand that a film either express the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested in anything in-between; I am not interested in all those films that do not pulse." - François Truffaut
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Mission, directed by Roland Joffé
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
His outrageous accent as the French-Canadian trapper in The 49th Parallel.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I don't recall ever being anywhere where anything famous was filmed, unless you count the Universal Studios tour, which was nothing like the films.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Much as I love Giada De Laurentiis, I'm gonna have to go with A Woman Is A Woman, Cleo From 5 To 7 and Blowup over Nights Of Cabiria, Barbarella and Army Of Darkness.
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
The Lady Eve.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused. Fast Times is disjointed and misanthropic.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
On film: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, because I'm still hoping for a good Potter movie.
On DVD: What Time Is It There?, to make sure it was as funny as I remembered, it was.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not really.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Eleanor of Aquataine in the Lion In Winter. A film I love that no one else seems to care much about.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Dune. I'm not a huge Lynch fan by any means, but he's a good director and Dune is absolutely terrible.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Ick.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
If his imdb "uncredited" credits are correct, it's gotta be Hecht.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Cannes. Great movies, great location.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head. The first concert I ever went to was The Monkees reunion tour in 1986.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Tony Leung in Days Of Being Wild.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
There's a lot, but the first one that came to mind was The New World. It'd include a director + critic commentary and all three reported versions of the film.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Gary Farmer as Nobody in Dead Man. Because everyone needs to see that film.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer. Sure, MGM was the big dog among studios, but there was a reason they got that way.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. I know it's obvious, but it really is that much better than his other work.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash Of The Titans. Laurence Olivier and Harry Hamlin!
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
The Birth Of A Nation
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I have no memory of him at all, despite having seen several films he was in.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Casablanca, Chungking Express, Seven Samurai
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
There are many great theatres that I've never been to, and since I'm dying, I might as well go somewhere new, so the Cinémathèque Française in Paris sounds nice.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
It’s not really a quote, but I remember that anecdote about someone asking Kurosawa why he framed a particular shot the way he did in a period film, and his answer was that it was the only angle in which you couldn’t see the modern factories on either side. So necessity is the Mother of Invention.
2) A good movie from a bad director
I've always loved Chato's Land, even though I rarely read anything good about Michael Winner
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Sleuth
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I visited Casa Loma in Toronto and only realized when I got home and watched X-Men on DVD again that parts of Xavier's school were shot there.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
I’d have to go with Dino.
6) Best movie about baseball
Field of Dreams
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Ashamedly, I have yet to see one of hers.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
In a theater: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
On DVD: Metropolitan
The former I saw because I’m a fan of the films (I’ve only read the first two books)
The later I watched for assistance on my new YouTube project.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I don’t have any (yet), but I don’t believe there are any particular titles that I could name (again, yet)
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Lion in Winter
12) A bad movie from a good director
Off the top of my head, Alien:Resurrection
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
NO idea.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I would have to say Ben Hecht, otherwise my His Girl Friday loving wife might hit me.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I've only attended the Jacksonville Film Festival where I live, but it's allowed me to see Napoleon Dynamite, Murderball and Once before most of the country, so I'm happy
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I’ve heard of, but have not seen, either
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Decisions, decisions. Perhaps James Earle Jones in Sneakers.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday (again)
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
That would be either Deathtrap, The Paper or Fearless, all three of which are great favorites of mine and all three are only available in crappy pan and scan. Extras would be gravy next to widescreen.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Not sure.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Quiet Man
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
I'd have to go with Naked Lunch for the Roy Schieder unzipping scene alone.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Nope.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Bonnie & Clyde
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Pride & Prejudice (BBC version), The Shawshank Redemption, The Lion in Winter. That list will probably change in five minutes.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The San Marco here in Jax. Can't beat it.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
This might be cheating, but I'll go with Fritz Lang's line in Contempt, "Oh, [Cinemascope] wasn't meant for human beings, just for funerals and snakes." I just like the contrast with the reclining Brigitte Bardot during the opening shot.
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Don't get me wrong, I love Greenaway films, but outside of that one and maybe Prospero's Books, it seems like he's just feeling around for something which sometimes works and often does not. Very rarely does he seem to give a film which works in its entirety. But it's still exciting for me to watch.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I'll go with Spartacus, since it's the first film I saw him in. After that role, I just can't abide him in Sleuth.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The Riesenrad in Vienna (the ferris wheel scene from The Third Man). I rode on it only because it appears in the movie, empty during the daytime, just like in the movie, and I'm sure I'll always be happy I did.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti has less to be ashamed of, but Dino de Laurentiis did produce Nights of Cabiria... we'll give it to Dino.
6) Best movie about baseball
I can't believe I'm writing this, but Major League has some scenes that I'll always think are funny.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
I've only seen Double Indemnity, and I liked it, but didn't love it.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I've seen Fast Times, so I'll go with that, but I'm not a fan.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
Just watched The General a couple of days ago. It was on my Netflix queue, and was worth the wait.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Thirteen. Despite her honest efforts, Holly Hunter can't seem to do much in the face of a kid's friends. I did appreciate the ending, though.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Never liked her at all. I can't understand where the appeal lies. Can we go with Audrey instead?
12) A bad movie from a good director
The Serpent's Egg. Don't know what was going on in that one.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Not seen it.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder. Wrote some of the best movies out there.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Berlin, just because I like the city. I don't think I would enjoy the festival itself that much, but there is plenty to do nevertheless.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
?
17) Favorite cameo appearance
This is trite, but Danny DeVito playing Mini Me at the beginning of the third Austin Powers movie was great. It was the only part of that movie worth remembering.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
It doesn't appear I've seen any.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I've never seen it, but Sunset would probably be my choice. If it only included the film itself, I would appreciate it.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
I think that Peter Lorre's performance at the end of M is worth watching again and again (take from it what you will).
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I have no idea how to answer this question.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Not a big John Wayne fan, and so I'll say The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, since we get more Jimmie Stewart than John Wayne, and the Duke comes across as more humble.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch is the only one I've seen, but it doesn't hold a flame next to the novel. (But then, how do you film that novel?)
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Haven't seen any, and something tells me that I'm doing ok despite that.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon comes to mind, since it seems to have inspired a whole lot of other mediocre movies, including the execrable Hero.
26) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I've seen several of the movies he was in, but I can't recall him specifically in them (sorry Dub), other than in The Wild Bunch.
27) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Lawrence of Arabia, Fanny and Alexander and La belle noiseuse. Why not drag it out as long as possible? And I appreciate all three of them quite a bit.
28) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Just put me in a barcalounger in a room with a projector and a big wall and I'll be fine. I'm not a big movie theater person.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“Most directors make films with their eyes. I make films with my cojones.” - Jodorowsky
2) A good movie from a bad director
I’m guessing most people would disagree as to this movie’s goodness, but despite not being a Tony Scott fan, I love Domino. Normally his hyperkinetic style is distracting at best, but here it perfectly suits the ambitious, wacked-out screenplay. In addition to being an awesome ride, it’s also a clever satire about the currency of celebrity, in which trash TV is the go-to public venue for the poor and anyone can define himself through popular culture.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
There’s no denying the greatness of his Shakespeare work, but I’ve gotta go with Sleuth. Olivier’s Andrew Wyke is a wicked send-up of ruling-class entitlement, and his performance is delicious, especially when he suddenly finds himself interrogated by the decidedly blue-collar Inspector Doppler.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The Ferris wheel in the Prater, Vienna. I actually rode this not long after seeing The Third Man on the big screen, and while the city around it had changed a lot since 1949, the Ferris wheel itself was more or less the same.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti and De Laurentiis both made loads of schlock, but only Ponti movies for Godard, Antonioni, Melville, Rosellini, Polanski, Forman, Varda, and Demy, all in the prime of their careers. Plus he married Sophia Loren. Twice. By contrast, De Laurentiis gave the world a handful of classics, a whole lot of junk, and a gigantic, turned-on ape, which might fit into either group, depending on your tastes.
6) Best movie about baseball
I’m not a huge baseball fan (or any sports, really), but I sure do love Baseball Bugs.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
What are you trying to do to me, Shoop? How does one choose one performance from one of Hollywood’s greatest and most versatile talents? The best I can do is three: Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve, and “the high ridin’ woman with a whip” herself, Jessica Drummond in Forty Guns.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I’m not a huge Fast Times fan, but even if I was, Dazed and Confused would still be tough to beat. Linklater pulls off something tricky in Dazed, mining a fondly-remembered period in his past without romanticizing or whitewashing it. He paints the world of the film warts and all, while at the same time showing love for each of the characters (yes, even O’Bannion). It’s so rich and detailed that you can imagine living there and, more importantly, you’d want to, although maybe not so much as an incoming freshman.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I finally caught up with Teshigahara’s The Face of Another the other day, thanks to the good folks at Criterion. I’ve wanted to see it for a while, and it didn’t disappoint.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious(ly) affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not really. I know that at this point in my life I should be thinking about stuff like having kids, but the possibility just feels too far off to me at this point. However, The Secret Lives of Dentists gave me a greater appreciation of how tough being a parent can be.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
(Warning: blasphemy alert!) Honestly, I’ve never been a big fan of Hepburn’s, especially in her early years. Her performances almost always feel too mannered by half. But I have to admit that she’s pretty perfect in The Philadelphia Story, which makes excellent use of her innate patrician haughtiness.
12) A bad movie from a good director
There are so many choices here, but for me the obvious one is Ingmar Bergman’s The Serpent’s Egg, the ultimate awful movie from a master. Bergman’s biggest-budget movie was produced by the aforementioned Signor De Laurentiis during Bergman’s brief exile from Sweden, and it’s no surprise that their styles don’t mesh. But The Serpent’s Egg is borderline inept in parts, and so laughable that one might think it was directed by Andrew Bergman. Most surprising is Liv Ullmann’s subpar performance, as she finds herself adrift in this mess.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Haven’t seen it (no video store around here carries it) so the jury’s still out.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Tough call. Wilder wrote some the greats even before he started directing them as well, and he managed to do it in a language different from the one he was born into. But it’s hard to argue with Hecht’s body of work. I was actually leaning toward Wilder when I scanned Hecht’s list on IMDb, and if you include the films he wasn’t credited on, the list is pretty staggering.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I know I’m supposed to say Cannes or Venice or Sundance here, but honestly I find them a little intimidating. If I was a paid critic, or I somehow got a film in competition, they might be doable, but for a civilian they’d be tough to navigate. Toronto, on the other hand, is much more user-friendly and accessible for non-industry types. I’ll be attending for the first time this fall, so we’ll see how it goes.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven’t seen 200 Motels yet, so it’s Head by default. But Head is pretty awesome, so I won’t complain.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Does Charlie Sheen in Being John Malkovich count?
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Finally, a gimme. His Girl Friday, no contest. She was good in other movies, but never this awesome.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
We live in a world where you can get four seasons of ALF on Region 1 DVD, but not Celine and Julie Go Boating or Privilege. But the fact that my all-time favorite movie, Belle de Jour, has a positively awful U.S. DVD is particularly sickening. As with many of the non-Oscar-bait movies in their library, the Weinsteins spared every expense that could’ve given Bunuel’s classic the DVD edition it deserves. It’s not enough that the only extras on this are a handful of Miramax trailers and a dry-as-dust commentary track from “Bunuel scholar Julie Jones.” No, the real shame is the barely-above-VHS-quality transfer of the movie itself. In light of the inspired DVD treatment Criterion gave to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, it’s tempting to imagine what they might do with Belle. I’d love to see interviews with some of the principal players in the film- Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, Pierre Clementi- as well as with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere. And a remastered transfer of the film would be a godsend, allowing American home viewers to finally relish the work of Bunuel and his great D.P. Sacha Vierny. But the one must-have in this dream edition would be the world’s greatest DVD case- a wooden box that emits a small, intriguing buzz when you open it. Not even Severine herself could turn that down.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
How did Awards Season 2005 pass with nary a mention of Damian Lewis’ towering work in Keane? Oh yeah, because nobody saw the movie. That’s a pity, since it’s one of the best performances I’ve seen all decade. So many actors take mentally ill roles as an excuse to overact, but Lewis’ achievement isn’t that he portrays the title character as a man at war with himself. Unlike so many “crazy” performances, Keane is cursed with self-awareness, and he struggles every minute of every day with the realization that he could lose control. Some of the credit should go to director Lodge Kerrigan, who keeps us with Keane every step of the way, but without Lewis, the movie would fall to pieces.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I’m always a pushover for a scrappy underdog, so I’m leaning toward Cohn here.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Again, how can I possibly choose one? I’m tempted to say Red River, when he displayed the authority and elder-statesman presence that would carry him to the end of his career. However, I have a soft spot for his performance as Ole Olsen in The Long Voyage Home. His Swedish accent was a little suspect, but his boyishness is extremely touching, and he more than holds his own with a cast of Ford regulars. But really, I'll take Wayne in anything other than The Conqueror and The Greatest Story Ever Told.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
What is this, a 1991-cult-movies-about-writers-starring-Judy-Davis Deathmatch? I love both of these, but only one gives me that Barton Fink feeling. Plus no performance in Cronenberg’s film even comes close to John Mahoney as W.P. Mayhew. Kind of sad that most of America thinks of the guy only as the dad from Frasier.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts. Although I haven’t watched any Harryhausen since I was in middle school, so I’m really overdue to revisit them.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
No, I don’t think so. Creatively bankrupt bad movies are forgettable enough that nobody misses them when they’re gone, and out-and-out fiascos are at least interesting in their badness. So while I’m getting really sick of hearing people tell me how awesome Garden State is, I don’t begrudge people their favorites, just as I hope they don’t begrudge me mine.
26) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
The only one that springs to mind is Bonnie and Clyde.
27) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
I’m tempted to be a smartass and answer Satantango, Out 1, and Berlin Alexanderplatz, but if I knew my life was going to be over once the third movie was finished, I’d want to pick movies that would make me forget that. First, Belle de Jour. As I said before, my favorite, and as such a given under the circumstances. Second, A Hard Day’s Night! For me, there are few films more joyous. And finally, 2001: A Space Odyssey, because if I knew I was about to travel beyond the infinite, I’d want a film to take me there.
28) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Royal in Anarene, Texas. How fitting would that be?
Bonus questions:
A) Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
In Kevin McDonald’s documentary Touching the Void, Joe Simpson relates his experiences of being trapped in a mountain crevice for days with no food and a severly broken leg. He was near death and he knew it, and yet by his own account, even in a situation that seemed hopeless, he couldn’t bring himself to believe in God. According to Simpson, it was this belief that nothing awaited him after death that inspired him to try to save himself. So many movies operate under the oh-so-pious belief that salvation comes through God (think of the Jesus/water bottle scene in World Trade Center) that it’s more than a little bracing to hear the other side of the coin. Many devout people treat atheists as merely lapsed believer, waited to be jolted out of darkness, but Simpson’s story tells us otherwise.
B) What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
“Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall, there was this one: ‘Matters of great concern should be treated lightly.’ Master Ittei commented, ‘Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.’” It’s originally from Hagakure, but I learned it from Ghost Dog, and it’s proven to be sound advice. Perhaps I haven’t gotten rich off of it, but it’s helped me stay levelheaded and relatively happy, which is nothing to sneeze at.
(For a more fun, laid-back, casual summer quiz, this one seemed to deal with pretty heavy issues, Shoop.)
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Light is life." --Spielberg
2) A good movie from a bad director
Red Dragon: How that hack Ratner was able to fashion a film that was just as good (arguably better) than Micheal Mann's Manhunter is beyond me. Then again, with a story by Thomas Harris, a script by Ted Tally, cinematography by Dante Spinotti, a music score by Danny Elfman and a cast that features Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Ralph Feinnes, Emily Watson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I guess a retarded monkey could've directed that movie and it would've turned out good.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Geez. And here I thought I was gonna be the only one choosing Sleuth.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I remember visiting the Statue of Liberty once when I was a kid and as I looked over the side of the island into the rocks far below I wondered to myself: "How the heck did Daryl Hannah manage to climb up this in Splash?"
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
De Laurentiis because he produced the '76 version of King Kong.
6) Best movie about baseball
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The Natural yet. That movie is magic. Pure magic.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
It's hard to beat Double Indemnity.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Spicoli all the way, dude!
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
The last film I saw in the theatre was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (which I liked) and the last movie I saw on DVD (for, I swear, about the zillionth time) was Midnight Run. I love that flick.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
When I watched The Pursuit of Happiness a while back (a story which very closely parallels my experiences with my own father) I realized that if I ever have children, I would do anything for them. Absolutely anything.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Aviator
12) A bad movie from a good director
1941 (That one's for you, Dennis)
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Nope.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
You do realize that this question is impossible to answer, right?
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I've always wanted to go to Cannes but I doubt that's ever going to happen. Setting my sights a little closer to home, Sundance would be nice.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
How about getting head in 200 motels?
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
There's a scene in The Great Mupper Caper where Miss Piggy is desperately trying to get to an English art gallery in order to foil a jewel robbery. She asks a truck driver (played by Peter Ustinov) if he would kindly give her a ride and he refuses. Frustrated after several attempts to be nice, she throws open the door, grabs him and with her trademark "Hiyaaaaa!" hurls him out of the cab into a nearby pile of gargabe cans. While Miss Piggy drives away, Ustinov tries to get to his feet, banging into the cans in the process, when suddenly the lid of one of them flips open and Oscar the Grouch pokes his head out. "Hey, what's all the racket?" he says. Peter looks at Oscar and asks "What are you doing here?" Oscar turns to the camera and replies, "A very brief cameo." Peter also looks at the camera and mutters "Me too." They really don't get much better than that.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I know this is pathetic but I have yet to see a single film with Rosalind Russell in it (though His Girl Friday is very high on my list).
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Like a lot of folks I've been waiting for a definitive edition of Blade Runner with all previous versions (domestic theatrical cut, international theatrical cut and the so-called "director's cut") on it as well as features on the making of the film. Also, I'd like to see a nice DVD release made of Branagh's four-hour version of Hamlet. Fortunately, both of these situations are soon to be remedied.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler. My reasons are here.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Lousi B. Mayer because he inspired Michael Lerner's performance in Barton Fink.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Searchers. I mean, come on.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
See #21.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
This is tricky because I do indeed believe that there are some movies that ought not to have been made... just as I feel there are some things that are better not being said or done, some events that were better off never happening and even some people that the world would've been better off if they'd never been born. On the other hand, I also believe that everything happens for a reason and although that reason might not be apparent to us now, I am convinced that there is one. Thus, for every seemingly empty, immoral, destructive, bleak, depressing, random, arbitrary and meaningless thing that happens or gets created, there is purpose to its existence. Thus, given my limited perspective, I don't know that I am ready to say which works of art I think should never have been made. I just don't think I'm qualified to do so.
Having said all that, I think I could've done without Hostel.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I love the episode of The Cosby Show where Cliff's father Russell keeps trying to give an old friend of his named Slim Claxton (Dub Taylor) 50 dollars that he owes him but Slim keeps refusing it because he's had good luck ever since he gave Russell that money. At the end of the episode, Russell slips the money into Slim's coat pocket while he's in another room. Slim comes out and is about to leave when Vanessa enters all upset because she didn't make the cheering squad. Slim says he has something that will "cheer her up" and he hands her the fifty. As she bounds up the stairs Slim turns to a shocked Russell and laughs heartily. Whenever I see Dub Taylor in anything, I can't help but think of that scene. So warm. So funny. So full of life. I think that's how he'd want to be remembered.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Perhaps I'm taking this question too seriously but I'm guessing that if I am having three "last meals" it means that I know I'm going to die soon. Whether it's an execution for some crime I committed (or perhaps didn't commit but have been found guilty of anyway) or I know I have some disease that's going to take my life in a very short period of time, I suspect I'm gonna want to see something that features a character going bravely to their own death and/or reminds me that this life is not all that there is. So, I'd probably end up watching something like The Mission, The Shawshank Redemption and The Passion of the Christ or perhaps E.T. and Schindler's List in place of one or two of those. I know that's more than three, but I guess I'd have to wait until I got there and just see how I felt. The truth is I'd probably rather be spending time talking with my loved ones than watching movies anyway.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
I've always wanted to see a movie at Radio City Musical Hall but I doubt I'd be able to properly enjoy it under those circumstances. Don't get me wrong. The Rockettes are great but I'd prefer to see them before my last hour on Earth.
BONUS QUESTIONS:
A) Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
My problem, speaking as a theist, is that I tend to sift all my experiences (including my analysis of art) through the "lens" that God does exist and any ideas to the contrary are mistaken. Thus, when a character says that he/she doesn't believe in God, I interpret that merely as the character saying it and not necessarily the film/filmmaker saying it. I realize that Ingmar Bergman's and Woody Allen's movies pose the possibility that he doesn't exist (or at the very least they question his existence) but to me that's different from concluding his non-existence. Personally speaking, the concept of a universe without a creator is just incomprehensible to me. So, I don't know that I'd be the best person to select an entry for an Atheist Film Festival... or even, quite frankly, that I'd really want to.
B) What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
Whenever I crack an egg I always hear a voice with a French accent telling me to do so quickly; in other words, execute it with mercy, like "ze guillotine" (as in Billy Wilder's Sabrina).
Also, I don't smoke cigarettes but I have on occasion puffed on a cigar and each time I did I remembered Gene Hackman's advice in Young Frankensetein: "Don't inhale until the tip glows."
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." - Alfred Hitchcock.
"In England, I'm a horror movie director. In Germany, I'm a filmmaker. In the US, I'm a bum." - John Carpenter
2) A good movie from a bad director
"Speed" was quite a fine thrill ride. I don't think you could say that for anything else Jan De Bont has directed.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I've seen so few of them unfortunately..."Rebecca" as a film was great, but I didn't find he necessarily stood out from anything else in the film. Whereas in "Marathon Man' as Dr. Szell, he absolutely made an impression. A deep, lingering, painful one.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The first thing I wanted to do when I went to the Grand Canyon was to get to the edge, nod my head a couple of times and spin around and say "OK, let's go" (like Chevy Chase in "Vacation"). Instead I ended up staring at the damn thing for several hours.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
They both did absolutely tons of stuff I've never seen and also lots of stuff that makes me cringe. I almost gave it to De Laurentiis for being listed beside "La Strada" and "Nights Of Cabiria", but I'll give it to Ponti for the three in a row streak of "Doctor Zhivago", "Closely Watched Trains" and "Blowup".
6) Best movie about baseball
"Bull Durham" really seems to get the whole notion of the game. The fun, the sounds, the little things that make all the difference and even the boredom.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Sigh...Everything she's done...I might have said the comedic performance of "Christmas In Connecticut" or the obvious "Double Indemnity" (just her entry at the top of the balcony enough). But I just saw "Baby Face" the other night and I think that might be my favourite - she owns every man she meets in the film and you can absolutely believe it...
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Both great fun, but Dazed is the film that I would go back to again and again and again (instead of just again and again).
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
Off the PVR, 1935's "The Woman In Red" from TCM's retrospective of Barbara Stanwyck. Why? Cause it has Barbara Stanwyck dummy!
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
No, but I could see how the "Look Who's Talking" and "Baby Genius" movies might convince some to never ever go near another child.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Probably "Adam's Rib" or "Philadelphia Story". I'm just not really a Hepburn fan. I don't deny her abilities, I just don't care for her style much.
12) A bad movie from a good director
"Find Me Guilty" by Sidney Lumet. Man that sucked.
"Grey Gardens" by the Maysles brothers. Great documentarians, but I couldn't stand the main subjects of this film.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Still haven't seen it. I'm afraid to.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Boy, it's hard to ignore Wilder (even if just for "Double Indemnity"), but Hecht did a serious amount of stuff including a bunch of noirs. And he wrote "Notorious", "His Girl Friday" and the story for "Gunga Din". Hecht by a narrow margin.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'm hitting the Toronto Filmfest for the first time this year and I can't wait. I loved the HotDocs Film Festival earlier this year which allowed me to see some tremendous documentaries and every one of the showings was followed by a Q&A that added so much to the films. Last year's inaugural Toronto After Dark Filmfest was also great - it only had ~15 or so films over 5 days, but the audience were so up for the films that it brought each viewing up a notch. And I got to see the strangest film ever - The Funky Forest.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven't seen either. I love Zappa's music, but I'm not as fond of his scatalogical sense of humour. "Head" sounds like fun though.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Jack Benny's 5 second brief appearance in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" is the best thing about that film.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
"His Girl Friday". Terrific job reading that wordy script.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
"12 Angry Men". Commentaries are essential (at least two - Lumet would have to do one), docs on the film and the 12 men it featured would be a huge bonus, and any remakes that were filmed should also be included.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
One performance that I rarely hear anyone speak about is Armin Mueller-Stahl's in Barry Levinson's "Avalon". The film is fine, but Mueller-Stahl just gives one of the most natural human performances I've ever seen.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I'll take Louis' MGM over Columbia I guess...
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Rio Bravo. It actually appears that he's having fun...
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Coens over Cronenberg.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I'll go with the reference in Monsters Inc. (the sushi restaurant is called Harryhausen's). Though I also kinda liked "20 Million Miles To Earth".
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
"Basic Instinct" would be the closest I guess. Not a single redeeming quality in any character in the entire film. It also gave Joe Eszterhas full employment for years afterward.
26) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
All I know is that I always smiled whenever I saw him pop up somewhere. And it looks like he has a documentary of his own!
27) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Uh, "The Neverending Story", "Never Say Die" and "Death Proof"?
28) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Probably the old Eglinton theatre here in Toronto. I guess any old grand theatre would do...
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
I'm paraphrasing, but it would have to be George Lucas saying that anyone can get emotional response from the audience—just show a kitten being strangled.
2) A good movie from a bad director
Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Marathon Man, because the character always seemed like the sort of control-freak that was lurking underneath a lot of his acting. But that late made-for-TV King Lear is pretty heartbreaking—if only he had tackled it ten years sooner.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I grew up just outside of Chicago, and I never walked by City Hall without glancing up at the statuary and remembering them regarding the death of Elwood's car in The Blues Brothers.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Laurentiis, because I first associated him with his late 70s scholck, and then I got to know his earlier productions, and then I began to like him because anyone who willingly took on both those extremes of quality must have been a fascinating guy.
6) Best movie about baseball
Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a forgotten gem featuring the Sinatra-Kelly-Munshin trio from On the Town. Plus Esther Williams.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Yeah, I don't know how you can top Ball of Fire. Straight whiskey on legs.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I'd take Fast Times, but really, Ferris Bueller was my class's teenage celluloid touchstone.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
The Last Detail, since it was next in my Netflix queue. A beautiful movie—a generous, emotionally non-manipulative style of movie-making that's almost non-existent these days.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
My kids will be carefully shielded from any knowledge of the existence Raiders of the Lost Ark until the age of ten, at which point I will take them to see it without telling them beforehand what it's about. Still my most magical moviegoing experience.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Bringing Up Baby. It reminds me of something Vladimir Ashkenazy, I think, once said about Sviatoslav Richter's piano playing: once the performance was over, you could pick out countless things that were inappropriate or indulgent or interpretively unsuccessful, but while it was going on, you were totally, completely convinced.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Again, Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. This is why I love Francis Ford Coppola.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Nah—I don't think any translation of Sade into even cinematic reality would be right: the horror of the image would overwhelm the dark comedy that exists on the page.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Wilder's more consistent, but Hecht's characters talk the way I wish I could.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'd love to attend a Edward Everett Horton festival.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head manages to make you feel like every single person involved with the movie has been roped into it under false pretenses. That's pretty neat.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
A couple of directors: Martin Scorsese in Quiz Show and Orson Welles at the end of The Muppet Movie. That latter one was my introduction to Orson Welles, by the way—it wasn't until later that I realized the economy-sized irony of him playing a studio head who could greenlight an entire production simply by buzzing his secretary.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday, although the way she absolutely stole the character of Auntie Mame from all future performers has to count for something.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
A New Leaf, just so I could find out from the commentary if everyone had as much fun making it as it seems. (Also: it's one of my Mom's favorite movie, and it would make a great gift.)
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
John Barrymore in Twentieth Century—it takes a great dramatic actor to be a great clown.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer—evil in a more interesting way.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Conqueror is wrong in so many glorious ways, but in memory of my Irish grandmother, I'll be sincere and go with The Quiet Man.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
I love Cronenberg, but I always thought Naked Lunch was a bit diffuse, even though I enjoyed the ride. So Barton Fink it is—we smart-alecks have to stick together.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts all the way: the archetypal Chicago-area Channel 7 3:00 weekday movie.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
I can't think of one. Even Triumph of the Will gave us the fascinating spectacle of Riefenstahl's attempted self-rehabilitation.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I'll go with the temperance preacher in The Wild Bunch, although I haven't seen most of the movies he was in. I see by IMDB that he had a voice part in The Rescuers, which I remember liking a lot when I saw it as a kid.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
We'll give it a sense of occasion: 2001, Orphée, and Heaven Can Wait.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Ah, the Music Box in Chicago—the magic lamp clouds projected on the ceiling, the blinking electric stars. Besides, my wife's never seen the place.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”-Woody Allen
2) A good movie from a bad director
I feel somewhat guilty labeling the late Bob Clark a bad director, but he did have some infamous stinkers on his resume: Baby Geniuses 1 and 2, Rhinestone, Turk 182! and Porky’s 2. However, I think he made two not only good, but great films: A Christmas Story and the original Black Christmas (one I still say is one of the scariest movies ever made, even after the total crap remake ruined the original’s reputation).
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
It is an absolute joy for me to watch the mind games he and Micheal Caine play with each other in Sleuth.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
In Western NC, I
took a train ride past the wreckage from the famous train derailment scene in The Fugitive. The wreckage was left pretty much like it ended up in the movie.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
De Laurentiis, for producing the underrated Manhunter, as well as enjoyable trash such as Army of Darkness, Conan the Barbarian, Death Wish and Barbarella (plus his niece Giada is a hottie who can cook).
6) Best movie about baseball
Pride of the Yankees. I dare even Yankee haters not to get emotional at the end. Plus it has the real Babe Ruth!
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Maybe not her most memorable role, but I love to watch Christmas in Connecticutt during the holidays, plus she’s quite funny, charming and sexy in it as well.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused for me.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
In a theater: Spiderman 3 (was on a date and her kid came along; I also wanted to see it anyway).
Netflix: The Changeling (1979) with George C Scott. I’m a sucker for 70s horror and this is a well done, spooky little ghost story.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Nope
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I’m not a huge Hepburn fan. I think she was at her most appealing and warmest in The African Queen.
12) A bad movie from a good director
I love David Lynch, but Wild at Heart is just a bad, bad movie to me.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Haven’t seen it, but am curious.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Boy, this one’s tough. I went to IMDB for help. I will go with Hect for his Hitchcock work (especially Strangers on a Train) and amazing versatility: his name is attached to The Thing From Another World, The Inspector General, Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach and Gunga Din!
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
2007 Eerie Horror Fest in Eerie, PA. I’d rather go to a festival where there might be much less talent, but more actual passion about movies, away from the big business, politics and generall bullshit found at Cannes or Sundance.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven’t seen them.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Thanks to Film Babble blog for reminding me of this one. I would go with The Three Stooges in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It might be the perfect cameo: they are on the screen for just 5 seconds and don’t do anything. Just their appearance is the joke itself and I can’t help but smile everytime I see it. (Honorable mention, the aforementioned Babe Ruth in Pride of the Yankees).
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Picnic, just to be different I guess. Her rather pathetic spinster seemed quite a change of pace from other performances and I was very happy for her character at the end of the movie.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Kubrick’s The Shining. I’d include the excellent doc shot by his daughter that gives the only glimpse I know of that shows Kubrick at work. Also, include the rarely seen, but often discussed original ending that was cut soon after the New York premiere.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Two performances that have had a profound effect on me: 1) DeNiro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, which shows how lonliness and the inability to relate to the opposite sex can destroy the male psyche; 2) William H Macy as Jerry Lundergaard in Fargo, one of the great implosions of a character ever captured on screen, a character who drowns in his own mess, created through a lack of courage, lying to himself and plain stupidity.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry Cohn because he might have had less to work with, yet still gave us Frank Capra, Peter Lorre, Rita Hayworth and The Three Stooges.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Have to go with The Searchers.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink, mainly for John Goodman’s underrated, frightening performance.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
One Million Years BC, though Raquel Welch was clearly the greatest special effect in that one.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
There are some movies I hate, but I don’t know of one the world would be better off without. I guess my nominee would be Caligula. I remember not only feeling terrible about watching such ugly, poorly made junk, but I felt embarrased for Peter O Toole and John Gielgud for being in it. I also think it ruined Malcolm McDowall’s once promising career after A Clockwork Orange.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
The best movie he was in was The Wild Bunch, but his most memorable performance was in Bonnie and Clyde.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
It’s a Wonderful Life, The Ninth Configuration, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hey, I’m scared of death. If I’m shuffling off, I’d prefer some movies that suggest that there’s more to it than roughly 70 or so short years and then . . . nothing. I’d take comfort in movies that imply that this is all part of something bigger and that there might be something “beyond the infinite.” If I’m wrong, at least I won’t know it.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
At home on an HDTV with friends and family.
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Funny Games by Michael Haenke. I’m a believer and I can’t help but see a world without God as bleak. It’s not a strech for me to see this film as reflective of a godless world: characters who operate with absolutely no moral code or conscience, who seek only instant, sadistic gratification; victims who have no escape, no hope of a savior, who face nothing but torment and despair, then darkness.
-
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
From the Lion King:
Adult Simba: I know what I have to do. But going back will mean facing my past. I've been running from it for so long.
[Rafiki hits Simba on the head with his stick]
Adult Simba: Oww. Jeez... What was that for?
Rafiki: It doesn't matter, it's in the past.
Adult Simba: Yeah, but it still hurts.
Rafiki: Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.
[swings his stick at Simba again who ducks out of the way]
Rafiki: Ha. You See? So what are you going to do?
Adult Simba: First, I'm gonna take your stick.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
I'm paraphrasing, but I recall a quote from Truffaut that I think was, "It's a beautiful day. Let's go to the movies".
2) A good movie from a bad director
Master of the World by William Witney.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I did think of Vertigo a bit when I visited the Palace of Fine Arts, and wished that it was as empty as when Kim Novak was there.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
I'm giving it to Dino because he produced David Lynch.
6) Best movie about baseball
Eight Men Out
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
One film? I'll have to say Double Indemnity.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I haven't seen Dazed and Confused. I have been know to be dazed and confused.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
On DVD: Hell to Eternity. In a theater: a double feature of Brand upon the Brain with Gold Diggers of 1933.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
The Bad Seed, Village of the Damned, King Lear
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I mostly like her earlier films, so I will go with Holiday.
12) A bad movie from a good director
I've seen it at least three times and I'll never be convinced about Donovan's Reef.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I still haven't seen it.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Battle of the Hawks scribes: Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I was planning to visit the Yubari film festival afte seeing Millenium Mambo. I kind of liked the idea of walking in three feet of snow to watch movies in Japan. Best film fest I attended was the first Telluride film festival because no one knew what it would become, and I managed to meet Leni Reifenstahl, Julie Christie and Francis Ford Coppola.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I still haven't seen Zappa's film, so it's Head by default.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
My sister as a corpse in Going Ape!. She mostly worked on the film as Stacy Nelkin's stand in.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
The Citedel
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Myra Breckinridge with a commentary track from Michael Sarne, Raquel Welch, Richard Zanuck and Gore Vidal.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Lon Chaney in almost anything he did.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
King Cohn.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Gee Dennis, what's next, a choice between Yvette Vickers and Fay Spain? As far as performances go, I'll vote for True Grit for pure pleasure.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Dr. Benway wins this one.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts because of the sword fighting skeletons.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Passion of the Christ. I tried to watch it with as open a mind as possible, giving Mel his chance.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Dr. Peabody in The Reivers.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Eight and a Half, Big Deal on Madonna Street and The Organizer.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Ziegfeld, NYC.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
„Lunch is for wimps.“ (Oliver Stone)
2) A good movie from a bad director
„The Hitcher“ (Robert Harmon)
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
„The Marathon Man“ (where he displays a delightful, cold-hearted freakishness), with „Sleuth“ (which makes the best possible use of his hammy tendencies) and „Rebecca“ (which excellently exploits his natural aloofness) very close behind.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I once had a beer in the Boise, Idaho, bar where Clint Eastwood shot a fight scene for „Bronco Billy“ (in which the camera crew is plainly visible, btw). They must have seriously redecorated the place since then, ‘cause it was hardly recognizable. And I went to Alcatraz twice, an experience that definitely shed some new light on the Siegel picture which, on re-viewing it, seemed to have much more in common with a Bresson film than with an Eastwood actioner.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
They both have their merits, and they both produced a fair amount of schlock, with Ponti leaning more towards the art schlock variety („Zabriskie Point“, „Flesh for Frankenstein“) while de Laurentiis obviously preferred it the schlock schlock way („King Kong“, „Dune“, „Body of Evidence“). Historically speaking, Ponti might be the more important producer, but as I don’t think shtupping Sophia Loren (or putting her into some of the most awful movies that ever disgraced the silver screen) counts as a redeeming quality and I’ve usually had much more fun with Dino’s pictures, I’ll vote for the latter.
6) Best movie about baseball
Fuck, that would have to be „Cobb“.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Given her incredible range and talent, I can’t possibly single out one of her countless fine performances, so here’s my top five BS movies: „Double Indemnity“, „Ball of Fire“, „Remember the Night“, „All I Desire“ and, ahem, „Crime of Passion“. (Honorable mentions go to „The Lady Eve“, „The Strange Love of Martha Ivers“ and „Forty Guns“.)
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
„The Sure Thing“
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Fincher’s „Zodiac“, because I like his work, I’d read the books, and I’m a sucker for movies set in San Francisco.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
„The Omen“ (just kidding)
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
„The Philadelphia Story“
12) A bad movie from a good director
The list is endless. To name but a few: „Under Capricorn“ (Hitchcock), „Jinxed“ (Siegel), „Amistad“ (Spielberg), „Buddy Buddy“ (Wilder), „Cleopatra“ (Mankiewicz), „The Fall of the Roman Empire“ (Mann), „Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse“ (Lang), „Cheyenne Autumn“ (Ford) etc etc. I’ve made several attempts to watch these films in their entirety, but failed miserably each time.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Yes, I’ve managed to sit through it once, torn between boredom, fascination and disgust, and no, I would most likely not do it again.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Though Hecht’s credits as a (ghost)writer/script doctor are virtually unmatched, it none the less has to be Wilder, for his ingenious wit, his unflinching look at the traps and pitfalls of life and his deep-seated humanity desperately trying to hide behind a veil of playful misanthropy. (Geez, I never thought I’d ever put down something as pompous as this.)
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I‘ve attended the Berlin Filmfest several times and found it a mostly dissatisfying experience. I’d like to check out Sundance or Toronto, though.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
„A Hard Day’s Night“
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Melvin Dummar in Jonathan Demme’s „Melvin and Howard“
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
„His Girl Friday“, though, as a movie, „Take a Letter, Darling“ is a bit closer to my heart.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
„The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes“ restored, with audio commentaries by everyone involved, stuffed with documentaries, interviews, production shots and all the trimmings. Alas, it will never be.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Alec Baldwin in „Glengarry Glen Ross“
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer, for giving Freed more or less free rein.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
„The Searchers“, of course.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Cronenberg vs. the Coens? Are you crazy?
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
„Jason and the Argonauts“
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Lucio Fulci’s „Lo Squartatore di New York“ (aka „New York Ripper“, 1982), a disgustingly misogynistic piece of cinematic sleaze that, among other niceties, features a broken bottle being rammed into a woman’s vagina in glorious close-up and another woman having first her nipples cut off, then her eyeball sliced with a razorblade by a killer with a Donald Duck voice. A film that makes movies like „Hostel 2“ or „Saw III“ look like the epitome of taste and restraint. Then again, I think the world could do very well without, say, the collected works of Lars von Trier.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Any of his work for Peckinpah, and the part of Mitch Brady in „Hazel“ (where he courted the mighty Shirley Booth).
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
„It’s a Wonderful Life“, „A Matter of Life and Death“ and „Here Comes Mr. Jordan“. A complete rerun of „Six Feet Under“ might do the trick as well, though.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Preferably one with great sound and projection.
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Bill Paxton’s „Frailty“
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
Any problem, no matter how serious, traumatizing or even life-shattering, can be solved within minutes by having a good talk over a nice cup of coffee or a hard cry at the bedside of a dying parent, child or sibling. And: „If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything“. Pure bullshit, of course.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Werner Herzog is endlessly quotable so I'll toss something rather benign but still hilarious: "I'm not out to win prizes - that's for dogs and horses." or, the classic, "It was an insignificant bullet."
2) A good movie from a bad director
is a gift to savor.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Not sure if I'm qualified to say but the last one I watched, that I can remember, was pretty great: Rebecca.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I never saw Cary Grant on Mount Rushmore.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Carlo Ponti, easy.
6) Best movie about baseball
The impulse is to say Bull Durham, cuz it's pretty great, but there's also a pull to name Eight Men Out and Major League, two after opposite filmmaking goals outside the love of baseball as a uniter, as magic.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Shit, man, The Lady Eve is tough to beat.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused has to be one of the best films of the 1990s. And I don't smoke weed anymore. In fact, I didn't come to love it until AFTER I stopped smoking weed.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, screened in a course I'm not enrolled in but haunt on Wednesdays for the films in the curriculum.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Well, You Can Count On Me helped me come to a peace with news of a three-year-old half-sister I didn't know about so maybe I can vote for it: I wanted to have a sibling afterwards. The jury's still out on whether kids are in the cards. I mean, sure, it'd be cool, but if it sounds like Bruce Willis I'm throwing it the fuck out.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
For the moment of recognition she tossed at Cary Grant in the doorway at the end of the picture, The Philadelphia Story.
12) A bad movie from a good director
kinda tastes terrible but you keep eating because the hunger remains.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Not yet, and I'm afraid.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hard to say no to Billy Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I really look forward to my first trip to Telluride.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Naw, it's cool, I'll stick with some Wowee Zowee
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Bill Murray, holding a pot of coffee, in Coffee and Cigarettes, an otherwise waste of time I really wanted to like but could not.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I think I've only seen her in His Girl Friday and that goes without saying is awesome.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Uh, any Malick film. Also: Bunuel's Mexican films would make a delovely Criterion, or Eclipse, box set.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Erland Josephson in anything, really, but why not either he made with Tarkovsky, and specifically, why not The Sacrifice? Or, of course, any of his Bergman films. I actually think he has only gotten better with age, somehow, and in Saraband he's almost better than in Scenes from a marriage, if that's possible.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry Cohn was kind of a badass, and a jerk, but he gave us Rita Hayworth.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Probably, because of #9, right now it's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a top-tier Ford-Wayne billing made only better by the actors he shares the screen with. Namely, of course, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin, who exhibit such different (yet similar) kinds of rage it makes Wayne look damn near placid, always in control.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Despite being a Hollywood-in-the-30s version of The Tenant, the Coen film is more successful, I'd say.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts?
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Most of those made by Michael Haneke but specifically Cache. Oh, and Nacho Libre.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I like Junior Bonner a lot and he's pretty good in that one.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
I would want to expire as Mirror fades to black but before that I'd probably want to watch The Empire Strikes Back (for the nostalgic fun) and The Thin Red Line (despite its weight, I can't escape naming that film).
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Coronet? Or The Grand Lake, for the nostalgic fun.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it by not dying!" -Woody Allen
2) A good movie from a bad director
Parenthood by Ron Howard.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Still Sleuth.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I visited the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Besides containing a river and a forest, it was not anything like in the David Lean film, which was shot in Sri Lanka. Maybe that doesn't count as a location then. In that case, I pick Lone Pine, California, and yes, it was exactly like it was in Gunga Din, Comanche Station, Star Trek VII and Gladiator. As you well know.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti in a walk- I just saw the trailer for Le Doulos at the Castro theatre and I'm on pins and needles.
6) Best movie about baseball
Arturo Ripstein's pitch-black comedy about a pair of murderous creosote-leaguers, La Perdición de los hombres.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Still The Lady Eve.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Can you believe I've still never seen Dazed and Confused? It'll have to live up to its reputation and then some to overcome my fondness for Amy Heckerling's film. By the way, the latter shares with Summer School the fine distinction of a place for its soundtrack in my CD collection, under the category, "soundtracks with an Oingo Boingo song on them."
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
Clash By Night at the Castro Theatre, because she would have turned 100 the day before the screening, and because I'd never seen it before. I loved the way it shows off Monterrey's fishing industry in an almost documentary style, and it's great to see Stanwyck acting against the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Robert Ryan.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I don't know if the effect will be a lasting one, as I only just saw the film a few weeks ago, but my mind was constantly running over this issue while watching an Inconvenient Truth.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Still the Philadelphia Story.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Monrak Transitor.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
I'm glad I saw it once, and that I'd had a somewhat substantial amount of Pasolini (including a screening of the Arabian Nights, his greatest masterpiece, the week before) under my belt. But I'm with Alberto Pezzotta: once is enough.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I try to resist evaluating screenwriters in this way because their work only really exists through a filter. But comparing the two films I've seen by Hecht the writer-director against the ten by Wilder the writer-director, I'd tally my vote with the guy who wrote Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'd love to go to the Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
No.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Bugs Bunny in Frank Tashlin's Porky Pig's Feat.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Still His Girl Friday.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Robert Altman's the Company. It would come in an incredibly attractive package with an image from "Tensile Involvement" on the cover, and would have all the extras from the current disc, plus a commentary from cinematographer Andrew Dunn, another one from a critic who really understands Altman (perhaps Ed Gonzalez or the proprietor of this blog; whoever doesn't do the commentary gets to do the essay), another from Malcolm McDowell and Gerald Arpino, and a fifth commentary from some of the Joffrey dancers. Maybe one or two of these commentaries could be replaced by documentaries, but I'm not sure about that. Of course there would be deleted scenes, perhaps even a usage of the "angle" DVD feature (remember that?) for some of the dance sequences, though only as extras and not during the film. There'd be a cheesy videogame in which you control a ballerina who has to perform athletic leaps without snapping a tendon. Okay, maybe we can do without that one. But the centerpiece of disc 2 would be a complete, restored copy of Niv Fichman's hour-long documentary Blue Snake.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
David Bowie in D.A. Pennebaker's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I probably haven't seen any of their movies.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Still the Searchers.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
I responded poorly to Barton Fink back in college and have never revisted it. Naked Lunch may not be top-rank Cronenberg, but it's still excellent.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Gotta be the one I loved most as a kid: Clash of the Titans.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Not at the moment. Whether that's more because I'm too much of a fatalist, or because my memory is lousy, I'm not sure.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Still trying to force those of us who don't obsess over every slightly familiar-looking character actor over to your ways, huh?
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
James Cruze's Hollywood, Ernst Lubitsch's the Patriot, and Tod Browning's London After Midnight.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
San Francisco's Fabulous Fox Theatre on Market Street.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema. I am not interested in all the films that don’t vibrate.” -- Truffaut
2) A good movie from a bad director
THE HIDDEN directed by Jack Sholder. He’s not even a Bob Clark-level director that we can find interesting and he comes of as kind of a jerk on the audio commentary but, damn, I still enjoy watching this movie today.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Does LAST ACTION HERO count?
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I was once visiting my sister in the D.C area and on the way back from the airport she stopped to get gas right by Georgetown. At that point she said, “You know, the house from THE EXORCIST is right here. There are the steps.” I looked where she was pointing and there in fact were the steps. I ran over and quickly raced up all the way to the top. They were very steep. When I looked over at the famous house and how far away it was I realized this: Jason Miller could never have made it to the steps leaping from that window.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino. He gave us Diabolik. Also, his influence has been felt for decades and he’s still going.
6) Best movie about baseball
FIELD OF DREAMS. I will not apologize, I will not explain.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
I was going to say DOUBLE INDEMNITY but then I remembered THE LADY EVE and, well, that one’s just too much fun.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
FAST TIMES
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I’m away right now, so I’m watching bits and pieces on my laptop. The one I’ve made it through to the end so far is MANHATTAN, which I was inspired to watch again after reading the articles related to its re-release in New York. Theatrical, it was the new Harry Potter.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not that I can think of.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
THE AFRICAN QUEEN.
12) A bad movie from a good director
I thought of a bunch, but I’m gonna go with HOOK because I don’t think I’d want to sit through a moment of it ever again.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
TEMPLE OF DOOM—Absolutely yes!
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Wilder has his name on NINOTCHKA and MIDNIGHT, so I’m going with Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Cannes, just so I could say I did it.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I’ve only seen HEAD, but I would still pick that one for Teri Garr’s claim that it was called that so they could market any follow-up with the tagline, “From the people who gave you…”
17) Favorite cameo appearanceherehere
Ethel Merman in AIRPLANE!
Bonus for best cameo in a John Landis movie: Dario Argento in INNOCENT BLOOD.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
ANNIE HALL, for all the footage cut that we’ve never seen.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
There may be a better one, but for some reason Judy Davis in HUSBANDS AND WIVES entered my head.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Because I suspect that Mayer was the real bastard of the two, Harry Cohn.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
RIO BRAVO
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
BARTON FINK, now and always.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Because it’s the only one I ever saw first run, CLASH OF THE TITANS.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
It’s a cliched answer, but any movie that was directed by Michael Bay.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
THE WILD BUNCH. Or 1941.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Because they’re the first three that came to mind: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, ANNIE HALL and THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Grauman’s Chinese.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Now why should the cinema follow the forms of theater and painting rather than the methodology of language, which allows wholly new concepts of ideas to arise from the combination of two concrete denotations of two concrete objects?"
--Sergei Eisenstein (I think?)
2) A good movie from a bad director
Apocalypse Now--sort of just kidding. Actually, I would say The Talented Mr. Ripley by Anthony Minghella who has created nothing else of worth, in my opinion.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Andrew Wyke in Sleuth
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Although I visited the spot where Miles Archer died in The Maltese Falcon, that had more to do with the novel than the movie. I did drive, while I was in college, to Phoenecia, NY, which was where they filmed You Can Count on Me, in part. I have no recollection what prompted this trek in a borrowed car, but I found myself there and, naturally, it felt just as it did in the film--the prototypical upstate-NY town. It was as if everything I knew from living in the region for the past 26 years had been distilled into a single place; it was eerie and undoubtedly why that town felt so familiar on the screen.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
They both receive demerits for inflicting La Strada on the world, but I'll go with Dino because, although he always struck me as slightly trashy, he somehow had a hand in getting both Dune and Blue Velvet released.
6) Best movie about baseball
I'd really like to say Amazing Grace and Chuck, but it really is not particularly good. If I'm being honest with myself, the answer's either Game 6 or Cobb.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused is superlative entertainment and superlative film-making, and it keeps improving as time wears on.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I just watched, on the recommendation of a friend, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, a wonderful British film of which I had never heard but deserves a screening on a double bill with the also excellent Billy Liar.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
The Brood maybe?
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia Story
12) A bad movie from a good director
The Hudsucker Proxy is horrendous.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Haven't seen it, nor do I want to.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ben Hecht
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
The Telluride Film Fest
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Juwan Howard in Hoop Dreams
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I'm going to be obvious: Hildy Johnson.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Pierrot Le Fou (which I have a hunch will no longer be lacking for the deluxe edition it deserves within a year) or Greed.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Peter Falk in Mikey and Nicky, because it proves he shoulda been a leading man on the big screen, or Harry Dean Stanton in Repo Man, because I'm pretty sure it's the greatest performance of all time.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Louis Mayer
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Ringo Kid in Stage Coach--his first appearance in that film gives me goose flesh.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink without question--Naked Lunch is probably my least favorite Cronenberg film.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans, whose Harryhausen creations manage more substantive performances than Harry Hamlin.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Cannibal Holocaust--not Cannibal Apocalypse, for which we ought to be grateful.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Uh, the one in The Wild Bunch is the only one I can remember.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Rules of the Game, Repo Man, and The Wizard of Oz
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Somerville Theater (Somerville, MA)
Proposed Entry to the Atheist Film Festival:
Winter Light
Best Practical Movie Advice:
The first time I went on a date (or rather the first time I went on what I was aware was a date), I considered trying to find out what said date wanted so that I might follow one of Mike Damone's rules and order for both of us, but, worried that I would tell the waitress in a Thai restaurant that my date would like the linguini in clam sauce due to a tremendous bout of nervousness, I decided not to do so. Maybe if I'd followed his advice there woulda been a second date.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Imagine the whole world wired to Harry Cohn's ass!" - Herman Mankiewicz
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Shawshank Redemption. I keep waiting for *that* Frank Darabont to show up.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Henry V.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Went on vacation to some of the spots where they shot Jaws. Basically looked the same. I couldn't bring myself to go in the water.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino.
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
The recent celebration of her 100th birthday has made me painfully aware of how few Stanwyck movies I've seen. That being said, I really can't choose between Ball of Fire and Double Indemnity.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Stroszek.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
The Brood. Freaked. Me. Out.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Lion in Winter.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Broken Flowers - big let down from Jarmusch
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I haven't seen it, but probably would if provided the opporunity. Though if it's anything like Porcile I won't make it all the way through.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Taking just the writing, it's Hecht by a nose, if only because, in addition to writing more than his fair share of great scripts, he convinced a lot of other great writers to follow him to Hollywood and work in the picture business.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Venice.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I have Head on tape but haven't watched it, and I'm afraid i've never heard of 200 Motels so... that would be neither, I guess.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Stallone in Bananas
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Well, I could pretty much ditto my answer to the Stanwyck question (minus the 100th birthday stuff). The answer is His Girl Friday, for now.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I would really love to have Chimes at Midnight on DVD. Just a decent transfer with a clear soundtrack would be great - I finally was able to track down a video copy through my local library system several years ago - but when I put the video in the picture was completely bleached out and I couldn't make out any of the dialogue. I was crushed. As for extras, as long as Peter Bogdonovich is nowhere to be found, I'll be happy. I get that he was friends with all these great old actors and directors, but his schtick is getting *old*.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Ray Allen as Jesus Shuttlesworth in He Got Game. Dude is fantastic.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Red River.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
The Passion of the Christ. Sorry, but it's just an ugly, ugly movie.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I don't recognize this name - however, since someone else said Junior Bonnor, I'll take that.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
In this order:
All That Jazz
The Ghost & Mrs Muir
Harvey
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Proctor's Theater in Schenectady, NY. Gorgeous old theater.
1. Favorite quote from a filmmaker:
"A paranoiac ... like a poet, is born, not made."
Luis Buñuel
2. A good movie from a bad director:
"Plan 9 from Outer Space" Ed Wood
3. Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Dr. Christian Szell-- "Marathon Man."
4. Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The street in Hollywood where "Halloween" was filmed. I believe it's Gennessee. Still creeps me out.
5. Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
I'm gonna go with Ponti due to the fact that Laurentis produced "Body of Evidence" starring Madonna and should be shot.
6. Best movie about baseball
Well, it's currently "The Bronx is Burning," the new series on ESPN detailing the feuding between Steinbrenner, Martin and Jackson.
7. Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
"Sorry, Wrong Number"
8. Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Dazed and Confused."
The only good film Ben Affleck ever made.
9. What was the last movie you saw, and why?
"Transformers."
My buddy's daughter wanted to see it, and I had absolutely nothing in the world to do.
10. Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
"Teletubbies."
After being subjected to this show on many occasions, I feel I could not handle having children, because watching this more than once would put me away.
11. Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Mary Tyrone-- "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
12. A bad movie from a good director
"The Black Dahlia" De Palma
Piece... of... crap!
13. Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
Never saw it.
14. Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht. Thought I'd be different here. Oh, and I liked "The Thing" a whole bunch!
15. Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Well, I've been to Vegas a few times during the porn awards. Does that count as a festival?
16. Head or 200 Motels?
Never seen either one.
17. Favorite cameo appearance
Lemmy from Motorhead in "John Wayne Bobbitt Uncut."
18. Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
"His Girl Friday," since it's the only one I've seen.
19. What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Lucio Fulci's "Zombie."
Would like to see some outtakes with Fulci treating his cast like dogs, since he was known to be rather mean to his actors.
20. Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Willem Dafoe as Bobby Peru in "Wild at Heart."
He's just insane.
21. Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Um............. no opinion.
22. Favorite John Wayne performance
"The Longest Day."
23. Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
"Barton Fink."
24. Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
"Clash of the Titans."
25. If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
"Blazing Saddles," "The Big Lebowski" and "The New World."
26. Favorite Dub Taylor performance
"Flash and the Firecat."
I never saw it, but it sounded cool on IMDB.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Here are two from Werner Herzog in Grizzly Man.
“I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but hostility, chaos and murder.”
“And what haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears. And this blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food.”
2) A good movie from a bad director
What’s popped in mind is Jackie Brown, but that might be inaccurate as I wouldn’t strictly call Tarantino a bad director.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Rebecca.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Quick glance at IMDb, Ponti I suppose.
6) Best movie about baseball
As a recovering Orioles fan, I deny that baseball exists.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Have never seen one! Although based on what I’ve read about her perhaps you all should envy me for what’s in store.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Have only seen Dazed and Confused, but I liked it.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I saw the Searchers last night, because it came in the mail. This conveniently let me factor that film into my choice for no. 22.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I like the way Bill Murray describes marriage and children in Lost in Translation. But I don’t think a particular film’s influenced the way I think in a serious way.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Aviator.
12) A bad movie from a good director
I don’t know how to put this eloquently, but I just think that A Clockwork Orange is an uninteresting failure of a movie, while everything else Kubrick did from Strangelove to Eyes Wide Shut is a masterpiece. I’ve yet to explore his earlier films. I think Lolita is also a failure, but one I’d be willing to watch again.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Haven’t seen it yet, am curious about it, but emphatically in no hurry to see it that first and final time.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht, although I didn’t know the name until checking it.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I saw Killer of Sheep at the Atlanta Film Festival. Not sure if it’s a film festival simply because you call it that, though. It’d be fun to go to Cannes, if everyone there would leave.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
I’m being unimaginative, but let’s say Julie Christie randomly showing up in Nashville.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I’ve been waiting for somebody to mention the Magnificent Ambersons. Supposedly one of the best films ever made, and it’s not even available on DVD. If we’re reasonably certain that the lost material is lost forever, then we need to settle and release what we do have, especially if what’s left is as good as some say it is. I don’t know what exactly is holding it up, perhaps legal troubles, but let’s see a beautifully restored release with an informative non-hagiographic commentary track from somebody whose name isn’t Peter Bogdanovich. (edit- I didn’t intend to echo the person right above me with this final sentiment, but I’ll keep it anyway.)
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Cohn, I suppose.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
I was moved by his performance in the Searchers. All the parts of the film with him in it were terrific. Even when he’s in the area during a moment of dumb humor, he seems to wander off, which is good. But wait, you said “favorite performance”, not best. In that case, I’ll say North to Alaska over the Quiet Man and McLintock... although there are a lot of his I’ve yet to see.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Haven’t seen Naked Lunch, while Barton Fink is magnificent.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Well, lots of movies either shouldn’t have been made, or they should’ve been made better than they were. But that great mass of crap does serve to distinguish the great ones when they do come along, and it gives people a living. I don’t have to watch them either. Going by something I’ve seen recently, the Good Shepherd was a miserably bad movie but I don’t know if the world would be better without it, exactly.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
I would enjoy seeing 2001 or something, but I think it might be best to watch 3 that I hadn’t seen before. One Sturges comedy and one Lubitsch comedy. Then, to take back what I’ve just said, perhaps my final one should be Life of Brian, so I can sing along to my rest with the final song: “Life’s a piece of shit, when you look a’ it.”
Either that or I ought to watch the Kieslowski colors trilogy, since I haven’t gotten around to that yet.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Don't care, just as long as it's big and it's full.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Tarantino habite le cinéma, moi le cinéma m'habite" - Jean-Luc Godard
2) A good movie from a bad director
37°2 le matin (aka Betty Blue) - Jean-Jacques Beineix
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
As Archie Rice in The Entertainer.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The bakery in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn where Nicolas Cage worked in Moonstruck. I live a few blocks from there. It's now a trendy cafe.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti. For Le Mepris, Zabriskie Point and The Passenger alone.
6) Best movie about baseball
The Bad News Bears (The original!)
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Way too difficult. How about her guest appearance on Charlie's Angels?
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I was 17 when Fast Times came out. AND I was working at the same mall the film takes place in. Nuff said.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Love & Pop. Strange Japanese film from 1997 that someone sent me in the mail.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Shoot the Moon
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Also unfair. The Philadelphia Story?
12) A bad movie from a good director
Jack, Francis Ford Coppola
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ooh...another tough one. Hecht is perhaps the better writer, but Wilder was more consistent.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
One day I'll be on the croisette, in a tux no less.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
As much as I love Zappa, Head is the single greatest American film of the 60s.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Martin Short as the agent in The Big Picture.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I could go on and on. However, for years there was talk of Lynch releasing his five hour cut of Fire Walk With Me, and I'm still hoping that day will come.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Jack Lemmon in Glengarry Glen Ross.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
The Jewish one.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
"Truly this man was the son of ghaaad."
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
"I'll show you the life of the mind!"
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Seeing The Golden Voyage of Sinbad on the big screen at 9 years old forever changed me.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Schindler's List
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
He rocked as the mayor in Gator.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Nope, not gonna happen.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
As a kid I used to go the RKO Keith's in Flushing, Queens. I only ever saw it as a cut-up triplex, but would love to have seen it in its glory. Meant to have been one of the best cinema palaces in NYC.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation."-John Waters
2) A good movie from a bad director
Glen or Glenda?
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Marathon Man!
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Cleveland in Stranger Than Paradise. It wasn't totally engulfed in a white haze, either but then again, I went in the summer.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Carlo did Flesh for Frankenstein, so I think I'll go with him.
6) Best movie about baseball
Rookie of the Year
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
yeah yeah yeah, Double Indemnity
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Oh my god, Fast Times hands down. Spicoli?? fuck yeah.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Ratatouille, because I fucking felt like it.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
It's Alive
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Worst Hepburn ever.
12) A bad movie from a good director
The Magnificent Ambersons, alhough it was ruined by the stuidos, so maybe it shouldn't count. Um, The African Queen, then?
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
After watching it a few times, the last with a bunch of friends while eating tortellini, I'm becoming convinced that this is actually sort of a dark comedy. That's a resounding yes, by the way.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Cannes (don't judge me!!!!!)
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head!
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Jim Jarmusch in Sling Blade
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday, even with that stupid fucking hat
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I want the five hour working cut of Apocalypse Now, dammit!!!!!!!
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
The Ramones in Rock N Roll High School
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
fuck it.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Searchers, just like everybody else
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink, because it doesn't have bugs with assholes
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
One Million Years B.C.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Kids, or possibly the Dreamers
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
The Wild Bunch
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Raging Bull
Pather Panchali
Eraserhead
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Tampa Theatre, I guess
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make up a minority." - Robert Altman
2) A good movie from a bad director
I have so many problems with Joel Schumacher it's not even funny, but Cousins, his 1989 film with Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini, is quiet, sweet, and utterly charming. How on EARTH did this happen?
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
The Jazz Singer. "I heff no son!" Nah, just kidding - I'll go with his ethereal work in Rebecca.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I was once walking through Camden, Maine, at a time when they were filming The Man Without a Face there. I grabbed hold of a light post to swing around it, only to find, as it nearly toppled onto me, that it was made out of wood.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Carlo. Dino didn't marry Sophia Loren twice.
6) Best movie about baseball
Fever Pitch, strictly for the background story. For the same reason, Game Six is the worst movie about baseball.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
The Lady Eve is just too much fun.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Better stoner: Fast Times. Better player: Dazed. Better sex: Fast times. Better music: Dazed. Better teachers: Fast Times. Better athletes: Dazed. Better grosses: Fast Times. Better critical reception: Dazed. Quotability, cast with great future, summing up a generation: dead heat.
All that said, I'm going with Dazed. They captured an era more than a decade and a half after the era was over.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Harry Potter 5. I had to know.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Alien made me understand the pain of childbirth.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Holiday, where she genuinely takes delight in Cary Grant's character. When she sees he's got the same spark she does, it's a wonder the set needed lighting.
12) A bad movie from a good director
After getting a tremendous head of speed with his first seven movies, Rob Reiner blew all four tires with North, and he hasn't been the same since.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
No, I haven't seen it. Yes, it's okay for it to exist.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
The number of films Ben Hecht worked on but didn't get credit for is staggering. That said... "Well, nobody's perfect."
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
The Maine International Film Festival where Terrence Malick got a Midlife Achievement Award and introduced all his movies.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Keith Moon IS The Hot Nun! So, clearly, Head wins.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
I'll go with Merv Griffin in The Man With Two Brains. One of the funniest "STUNNING REVEAL" scenes I've ever seen.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Fearless had Oscar nominees past (Jeff Bridges, Tom Hulce), present (this was the performance that snagged Rosie Perez her one nomination), and future (Benicio Del Toro has a small role as Perez's husband). It's got a hugely compelling story and some of the best directing in Peter Weir's career. Yet it's only available on a bare-bones DVD, which only offers pan and scan (!!!).
A collector's edition should include the usual bells and whistles: trailers, cast & crew interviews (not forgetting screenwriter Rafael Yglesias), and a look at how the incredibly realistic crash sequence was filmed (at a cost of over $2 million all by itself). I'm betting that some trauma counselors would have interesting things to say about it too.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Jennifer Lopez in Out of Sight, for all those people who say she can't act her way out of a four door toolshed.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
The whole world wasn't wired to Louis B. Mayer's ass.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. The moment where he sends one of the bad guys flying with an offhand kick was as effortlessly awesome as his stature, his shooting, and his performance.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink. Naked Lunch misjudged the ratio of reality to unreality. Barton Fink didn't. Plus, it's got that Barton Fink feel.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
The skeleton fight in Jason and the Argonauts makes this one a walk.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
If The Conqueror hadn't been filmed on a set contaminated by nuclear fallout, not only would we have been spared a horrid movie, but John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and dozens of others would have been much less likely to get cancer.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
He was in Used Cars, and that's good enough for me.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
The Godfather, The Last Waltz, and Nashville.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Musuem of Modern Art.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes” – Howard Hawks
2) A good movie from a bad director
Shadowlands, Richard Attenborough
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
A tie between Wuthering Heights and Marathon Man.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I went to Union Station in Chicago to see where the baby carriage careened down the steps in The Untouchables. Two items of note: in 1995, heads were covered by baseball caps, and on the whole those responsible for baby carriages seemed to prefer the elevator, since everyone had probably seen the damn movie.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
For 1960-1963, Carlo Ponti.
6) Best movie about baseball
It’s more about maturing than it is about baseball, but then again baseball is a pliable metaphor for life, so Bull Durham.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Right now, it’s a tie between one seen many times, in The Lady Eve, and another seen earlier this year for the first time, in Baby Face, where she wipes the floor with the rest of the cast.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Sean Penn’s Spicoli is one of the great comic performances, which often makes me wonder why he’s so dour these days, but Dazed and Confused nails a particular atmosphere so well, without being overly sentimental, that it has to win out.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Le Petit lieutenant, because each summer I get the urge to watch or re-watch a bunch of French films, and I regretted missing this one in the theatre.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I can’t think of a single example; various films probably prompted fleeting thoughts, of course, but that’s it.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I love her in Stage Door – though she sometimes seems to playing a version of herself.
12) A bad movie from a good director
In the Cut, Jane Campion or Escape to Victory, John Huston (the fact that I loved the latter as a kid doesn’t mask the fact that it’s pretty poor stuff for Huston: you'd never imagine he'd bounce back as high as The Dead after this).
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Yes in the sense that I’ve seen the film, and on the big screen no less. As a depiction of moral decline, it’s pretty tough stuff. Although there are more recent films that I find harder to watch simply in terms of acts of violence or degradation, none of them confront me with profound issues of humanity in the same way.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I have to go with Wilder; it’s often hard to tell exactly how involved Hecht was in certain projects, although when he was on song there’s no mistaking the rat-tat-tat wit.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.
I’ve been lucky to attend parts of a few, including Berlin, and Dublin in much better times, but FESPACO, the festival of African cinema held every two years in Ouagadougou, wins hands down; I managed to attend in 2001, and I hope to return.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I couldn’t make it through Head, despite going on a Bob Rafelson kick at one point, and haven’t seen 200 Motels, but suspect I might have a hard time with it.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
In recent years, I enjoyed Lance Armstrong in Dodgeball, and while some might call it a bit part, I was pleased to see Noah Taylor pop up in The Proposition, albeit all too briefly.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Just to be different, I loved her as Sylvia in The Women.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I can’t think of a single film from Africa that has received the full Criterion-style treatment, though I can think of a bunch of films worthy of the honour (there are discs that throw in, unexpectedly, short films, but that's it). I’d nominate Ousmane Sembène’s Guelwaar, which I think is his best film. Had someone been more interested, they’d have recorded a commentary track or an extended interview before his death, and there would be scene-by-scene breakdowns of the way he uses music by Baaba Maal, as well as featurettes focusing on actors from Africa and setting their performances here in career context. I’d also like to see good editions of Souleymane Cissé’s earlier films – pre-Yeelen – like Baara and Finyé, two more sadly neglected movies with great performances.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Anton Glanzelius in My Life As A Dog, as an example of the extraordinarily unaffected style that Scandinavian directors seem to be capable of coaxing from young actors (see Zappa or Twist and Shout for further evidence).
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I don’t possess the wisdom of Solomon.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Rio Bravo probably remains my favourite Wayne movie, but he’s fun in Hatari! too. I can't explain the popularity of The Quiet Man. It's way too diddley-idley for this Irishman.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink, though I’m starting to think that Cronenberg might be the stronger director as I catch up with more of his work.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
These movies played on Saturday afternoons throughout my Irish childhood – they probably still do – but I never truly enjoyed the effects, even while appreciating that it took someone a lot of time to achieve them.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Not really: for whatever reason, some people love the few movies I truly dislike (Nuns on the Run and Life is Beautiful spring to mind), so it’s hard to argue that they should never have been made simply as a convenience to me. There are some exploitation flicks that are so poorly made, with so little regard for any notion of craft – irrespective of the content – that makes me think we wouldn’t be losing much if they had been left at the script stage.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
According to IMDB, I’ve seen loads of his films, and recognize his distinctive face, but I’m having a hard time recalling his specific performances, since so many of them were pretty brief outside of B Westerns. I’m convinced I remember a tiny but fun scene in Back to the Future III, though, so we’ll go with that.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
If I had to choose three movies knowing that I was about to die, I’d want to have a blast on the way out. I’m going to choose three films that were among my most enjoyable big-screen experiences, films I enjoyed with packed houses hanging on the story, jumping at the shocks, or laughing at the gags, so I’ll choose Back to the Future, The Commitments (to remind me of home), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, simply to remember the extraordinary feeling that was coursing through the theatre as the curtains parted. I'd probably thrown in an honorable mention to The Rules of the Game, because I've never thought of film in quite the same way since, and seeing a film like that on a big screen is a rare privilege.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
A huge movie palace somewhere I’ve never been, with a balcony where I could put me feet up; I’d definitely get the biggest popcorn for once.
Incidentally, Shoop, that's suposed to be The Great MUPPET Caper and not The Great Mupper Caper. My bad.
I must say it's always fascinating to read the answers to these quizzes. Reminds me that cinephiles come in all sorts. It's been a while, for example, since I heard venom being spewed at The Passion. I guess it's good for me every now and again to be reminded that a lot of people truly despise that film.
Oh, and Filmbrain... Schindler's List was better off never having been made? I feel so betrayed. :(
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
That John Carpenter line about how he's perceived in different parts of the world.
2) A good movie from a bad director
Likeable actor, seems like a nice guy, but Richard Benjamin has about the worst filmography of any modern director I can think of. Except for "My Favorite Year."
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
"Marathon Man."
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Last time we were in NYC, we rode the Roosevelt Island tram in honor of Deke DaSilva and Wulfgar in "Nighthawks."
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
The one responsible for bringing me Charles Grodin's performance (and Petrox cap.)
6) Best movie about baseball
Well, it's certainly NOT "Talent for the Game," with Edward James Olmos as a talent scout who sneaks onto the field of a MLB game disguised as the catcher. Yeah, that happens.
I'll go with "Bull Durham."
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Fast Times" by only a zillion miles (though I like "Dazed" quite a bit.) The Valley setting, the GALLERIA, Damone's hair, the soundtrack (especially the Jackson Browne song), THE JUDGE, Phoebe Cates, and RATNER... you gonna compare SASHA JENSON in bad thrift store clothes to any of that awesomeness?
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Thanks for catching me at my proudest moviegoing moment. Yes, the last movie I saw was... "Captivity." Way to go, Roland.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
It's really not my favorite performance of hers, but no nine-year-old should be forced to endure "On Golden Pond" twelve times a month, as I was thanks to HBO in 1982.
12) A bad movie from a good director
DePalma, for one of my favorites, has a number of embarrassments so awful they make you reconsider your entire opinion of his talent. See, "Home Movies." Or much of "Raising Cain." Or "Mission to Mars." Or the last twenty minutes of "Snake Eyes." Or parts of "Black Dahlia."
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Never saw it. Wouldn't be opposed to it, but not interested enough to buy its OOP Criterion on eBay for roughly 1,000 bucks.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Favorite: Stallone in "Staying Alive."
Least Favorite: Any smug mid '90s Manhattan-set indie where Eric Stoltz smarms into the flick like he's doing us all a favor by clocking in for a "surprise" appearance. Whoo-hoo, it's Eric Stoltz.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
BOBBY DEERFIELD!!!!!!!!!!!
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Nicholson in "Last Detail." Hackman and Pacino in "Scarecrow." Hoffman in "Straight Time."
And the mother of them all, Eric Roberts in "Star 80." Seriously.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
McQ!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Okay, "The Searchers" and "Rio Bravo," but those don't feature GIANT '70S CARS.)
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
"Naked Lunch," though they're both equally BROWN.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
"Clash of the Titans."
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
"I Spit On Your Grave." Blecch.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
"They Went That-a-Way and That-a-Way."
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"It's only a movie." Alfred Hitchcock to Farley Granger while making Strangers on a Train. Or, the story about Billy Wilder at Lubitch's funeral: a mourner sadly says "No more Lubitsch." To which Billy replied, "And even worse, no more Lubitsch movies."
2) A good movie from a bad director
There are a lot of directors that I don't like, Elia Kazan for example, that I wouldn't go so far as to say "he's a bad director." He's a good director, I just don't happen to dig his stuff. But then, directors that I think are legitimately bad, like Kevin Costner or Michael Bay -- I don't think they've directed any good movies. So I'll answer this way: although I don't think he's a bad director, I don't like Elia Kazan, but I love A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
He is deliciously over the top in Sleuth. He's just kind of annoyingly over the top in pretty much everything else. Olivier has always struck me as someone who would have been a lot more powerful to witness on stage rather than film. I wish I'd seen one of his Shakespeares on stage. The films are on the dry side, though.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I live in L.A., so I'm surrounded by a lot of everyday locations. My favorite is the Bradbury Building downtown, which has provided locales for Double Indemnity, Blade Runner, D.O.A. (1950) and Chinatown, among many others. It's amazing to stand in the lobby and look around, and see how it can be perfectly adapted to almost any movie universe, past or present.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
I have to give the edge to De Laurentiis, just for La Strada and Nights of Cabiria.
6) Best movie about baseball
Eight Men Out
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Ball of Fire. Tough, sexy, funny, and in that scene where Gary Cooper confronts her near the end -- heartbreaking. Stanwyck has never given a bad performance, that I have seen. She's been in some lousy movies, but her acting is always 100%.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I'm actually more partial to Clueless.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
Le Samourai. Why? It was next in my Netflix queue. I can't remember who recommended it. Good, though.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I have no kids and don't intend to have any -- and really have no answer to this question, much as I have thought about it.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Lion in Winter. "What shall we hang, the holly or each other?"
12) A bad movie from a good director
That Uncertain Feeling (Lubitsch)
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
No, I haven't seen it; no, I don't really plan to.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
They're about equal in their ability to tell a great story, but I think Wilder edges Hecht out when it comes to dialogue.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Cinevent (have never actually attended, but I would love to go)
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Either.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
I love Myrna Loy's cameo in The Senator Was Indiscreet. The movie is only so-so, but her appearance kind of made up for it.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday is the only real answer here, but I'll also throw in a good word for her in The Women.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Why isn't A Matter of Life and Death on Region 1 DVD yet? I'm usually not a big fan of the DVD extras, but will sit still for a nice lively commentary -- I'd love one for this. A nice making-of documentary, maybe? Criterion always includes lovely still photos as well. But as long as it's a nice lush print on a legal DVD, I don't care so much about the extras.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.
Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka. He has been completely overlooked in that movie, probably because of the whole "Garbo Laughs" thing.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Both were bastards. But in terms of moguls, Mayer wins hands down.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Ringo Kid, in Stagecoach. Before he became too entrenched in his own persona.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink. "I'll show you life of the mind!"
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I thought I'd seen more of Harryhausen's films, but going through his credits on IMDB I find I haven't seen as many as I thought. A handful, no more. I will go with The Three Worlds of Gulliver because I remember quite liking that as a child, and I will also make a note to attend the American Cinematheque the next time they have a big to-do for Harryhausen.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Eh -- there's lots of movies I hate, or about which I might say "That's not for me," but "the world is better off without it"? I don't think I can go that far.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Every Dub Taylor performance is exactly the same as any other Dub Taylor performance, so it's not possible to choose.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Breakfast: Steak & eggs, hash browns, English muffin, mimosa. Movie: The Thin Man
Lunch: #12 Sub sandwich from the Colonial Pantry in my hometown, iced tea, chips. Movie: Groundhog Day
Dinner: I dunno, some nice shrimp with angel hair pasta maybe, some roasted potatoes (who gives a crap about carbs now?), maybe a bottle of wine. Movie: 8½. Can't think of a better way to go out than that final scene in 8½.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
I don't want to seem anti-social, but I'm pretty sure I'd prefer to remain home for my final triple-feature.
Just a couple of things:
Thanks to everyone for such a great list of answers on this thread so far. But, Flickhead, I am in awe of you being able to come up with such good ones so quickly.
And Stennie, does this mean I'll see you this Saturday when Ray Harryhausen speaks at the American Cinematheque after a screening of First Men in the Moon? I'll be there!
Is that this Saturday? I knew it was coming up, but had no idea it was that soon. According to my busy schedule, I have... nothing planned on Saturday at all. So yeah, that sounds like fun!
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
For today: “Everyone has their own version of the truth and this truth depends on their experience." - Dario Argento
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Hunger. Tony Scott must have been spending a lot of time with his brother Ridley then because it seems much more like an early Ridley movie instead of one of Tony’s own productions.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. He was perfect in that role and no matter who else tries to bring Heathcliff to life, their performance always falls short when compared to Oliver’s magnificent turn as Heathcliff.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I’ve visited many bay area film locations and one that sticks out is Alcatraz prison where movies like Escape from Alcatraz and The Birdman of Alcatraz were filmed. Besides the beautiful location, the prison is undoubetedly one of the creepiest and most depressing places I’ve ever spent time at. It seems to have the weight of a thousand miserable souls haunting it. I don’t think I’d be too eager to make a movie there myself.
I also wanted to mention that oddly enough, my wedding anniversary is coming up at the end of the month and my guy has promised to take me to Bodega Bay so I’ll report back about what it’s like when I return.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino has Diabolik and Barbarella under his belt which I love with a passion, along with countless entertaining ‘70s and ‘80s schlock, but I must go with Carlo Ponti who’s name is attached to a lot of my favorite films as well as the lovely and talented Sophia Loren.
6) Best movie about baseball
Without a doubt it has to be the original Bad News Bears (1976).
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
My personal favorite is Martha Ivers in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Stanwyck is the perfect victim/villain in this role which seems tailor-made for her. She also looks rather stunning in her Edith Head designed costumes.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused. It’s funnier, smarter and better acted. An all-around superior movie in my opinion.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). I caught it on TV the other night and hadn’t seen it in 15 years so I decided to watch it again . I’m really glad I did because the movie is just brilliant and a sad commentary on the end of an era, but I felt like I’d been dipped in a toilet for two hours once it was over. I had somehow managed to forget just how vile Louise Fletcher’s character is in the film. Her Nurse Ratched is without a doubt one of the nastiest villains ever put on screen. I had nightmares about her trying to force feed me pills.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
For me that’s such an important decision that no film could seriously affect my choices one way or another. I will mention that I don’t have any kids yet, but while watching Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits again recently I kept thinking about what a wonderful all-ages film it was and how much I’d like to show it to my kids if I ever had any.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I really love Kate. She’s one of my favorite actresses so I’m afraid that I just can’t name one favorite performance from her. Instead I’m going to name my Top 3 which can be found in Christopher Strong, Sylvia Scarlett and The Philadelphia Story.
12) A bad movie from a good director
John Huston’s The Bible: In the Beginning. How he managed to make such a bad film after his incredible Night of the Iguana is anyone’s guess. I’m betting Huston had debt collectors pounding down his door when he made this dreadful mess of a movie. Naturally it was produced by Dino De Laurentiis.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Absolutely yes! It’s not Pasolini’s best movie, but it’s an important film in the director’s filmography. It’s definitely not easy viewing, but who said films had to be?
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I’ve got to go with Ben Hecht due to his work with Hitchcock among other things. Billy is of course a far superior director so I don’t so feel terrible about naming Hecht here.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I would love to attend Cannes just for the history connected to it and Fantasia in Canada seems like an amazing event. There are also smaller festivals I’d like to go to such as the annual Mods and Rockers Film Festival in Los Angeles.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head. What can I say except, I love The Monkees.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
There are so many good ones so I’ll just mention one I saw recently that I loved. In the Doris Day spy spoof The Glass Bottom Boat actor Robert Vaughn suddenly shows up at a party totally out of the blue. While Vaughn is sipping a drink at the bar he’s spotted by Paul Lynde who’s wearing drag. They size each other up and it’s a really silly moment with no dialogue that managed to totally crack me up.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday would be an easy choice but instead I’m going to pick her role as the world weary “school marm” in Picnic (1955). The film and her performance in it are underappreciated in my opinion.
) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
It’s hard to name just one film here because there are literally hundreds of films unavailable on DVD that I would love to see get the "splashy collector’s edition treatment." With that in mind I’m going to list 5 picks off the top of my head and hope that Criterion or some other DVD company reads this. Johnny Got His Gun (1971), The Devils (1971), Wise Blood (1979), Black Lizard (1968) and The Naked Prey (1966).
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.
Having recently written about Isabelle Adjani at my own blog, I’ll just mention her performance in Camille Claudel which I think is absolutely perfect. It’s disgraceful that she didn’t take home the Oscar in 1990 for her performance in that film even though she was nominated.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry Cohn. He made more films that I’ve seen and liked.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Red River. It was the first film where Wayne seemed very human to me and I still think it features his best performance.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink. I love Naked Lunch, but I love Barton Fink more. It’s one of my favorite films and the Coen Brother’s best movie in my opinion. Miller’s Crossing is almost as good.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
All the Sinbad movies. I just can’t get enough of the fighting skeletons.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
If every print of Highlander 2 was lost forever, I think the world would probably be better for it.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I had to stop and look him up at IMDb but once I realized he was “THAT GUY” I couldn’t believe how many of his movies I had seen. It’s hard for me to pick out a favorite Taylor performance though, but I’ll go with his bit in A Man Called Horse which is one I can remember enjoying.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be? And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
This is a ridiculously tough question Dennis! I just spent way too much time thinking about it and I know I’ll regret my choices tomorrow. Just for today I would probably start my morning with Frankenstein (1931) and follow it with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). If at all possible I would try and sneak in a double feature of Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources in there somewhere and top it off with a screening of Citizen Kane. Last but not least, I would watch all these movies at the beautiful and historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco where I happened to meet my husband for the first time.
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
I used to occasionally pick up hitchhikers before seeing the original Hitcher film with Rutger Hauer in 1986. Needless to say, that movie taught me that I should think twice before picking up a stranger.
Stennie: I'll be the guy with the beard and glasses-- how many of those do you think will be milling about the lobby of the Egyptian on Saturday afternoon? :) Oh, and I'll be clutching a dog-eared copy of Harryhausen's Film Fantasy Scrapbook! Hope to see you there!
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Strive for art in reverse." John Waters
2) A good movie from a bad director
Duel--Spielberg
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
when he fucked danny kaye in the security room at idylewilde. in the movies: Clash of the Titans, Boys From Brazil, or Marathon Man
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
walking about vancouver has this really post-geography quality, where most buildings or vistas remind one of endless bad television, movies of the week, hollywood cheapsters, commercials, etc. when ever i stumbled onto a production there, no one seemed excited (esp the scenes around the marine building when fantastic four was shot.) it was its exact opposite of a famous location or memorable location. same thing with toronto, except i saw romero shoot in the sky cloud garden near the bay building downtown, on adelaide, and his use of the blank cleanness of the downtown core subverted that instinct.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino.
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Mexicali Rose, for its v. early performance, with abuse, sex, gambling, adultery, and a smoldering, horribly erotic performance, this seems sexier now, then almsot anything since, and it was done in 1929.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused, which managed to get good to excellent performances from a variety of people who have proven they just cant act, including affleck, mcconaughey, and jason london.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Ratatouille. Because I like pixar movies, and was interested in it formally.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
the omen, lolita, the bad seed, pretty poison, kids, gummo. it reasserted my assumption that children were dangerous, frightening creatures that could cause serious damage if allowed any autonomy. i didnt want any.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Pat and Mike
12) A bad movie from a good director
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I changed my mind after seeing the photos from abu gharib. There were apparently 2000 photos of Abu Gharib, would the extra 1900 provide us with any insights—or would it have proven that Sade, and Passolini were right, that human beings descend to the level of degradation that the state allows (Watching the scenes of Matt Damon wrestling in mud, naked, while being pissed on, as an a initiation rite for the Skull of Bones, and by extension, the CIA, in Robert De Niro's Good Shepherd, an argument could be made, not allows, but is founded on.)
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
The Mods and Rockers film fest in LA; the film festival put on by mentally ill people in Toronto every year.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Kathy Bates as Queen Vic, in the most recent around the world.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Auntie Mame
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Top Gun. Like the Criterion's Armageddon, it would include discussions of how the pentagon was involved, making of docs, commentaries from the film makers, and essays from critics. I would also like to have commentary from the actors, esp. Tom Skerritt and Anthony Edwards. Ideally, it would also include both the scene from Talk to Me with QT and the Will Young video that parodies it.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Elizabeth Taylor's 60s run, including Secret Ceremony, Cleopatra, and Butterfield 8, including Cleopatra. Movies that are dismissed as silly, are some of the most iconic, post verbal performances. I keep thinking about how she uses her body, and how she costumes her body, and how those skills have been subsumed to people who talk and make tiny gestures have become the example of execllent acting. It's the same situation with Angelina Jolie, who's sheer fuckability, parodic domesticity, and aggression in Mr and Mrs Smith was the best performance of the year.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Searchers
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of Titans
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Olympia. (easy answer, and a great work, but its justification of eugenics using visual techniques, makes a disturbing precedent.)
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
My first instincts was to go for the ones that that last forever, in order to lengthen my life, but i think the better answer would be movies that are pure pleasure:
1) pink narcissus
2) she devils on wheels
3) the opening of misty beethoven
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
the venus, in vancovuer.
@dan w.: "The Magnificent Ambersons" is available on DVD here: http://www.amazon.fr/Splendeur-Amberson-Joseph-Cotten/dp/B0002J496U/ref=sr_1_1/171-4139446-8234666?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1184911656&sr=8-1, albeit in its truncated form, of course, but it definitely doesn't have a Peter Bogdanovich audio comentary or interview. It's an excellent transfer, though.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
I don't know if it's apocryphal or I dreamt it in during a particularly funky and budget-conscious bout of REM sleep but I love these words attributed (I think!) to Joe Dante: "There are people who loves movies and then there are people that loves the movies they love." I guess it's meant as a subtle back-hander to professed buffs whose minds are a bit more closed than they care to admit to certain genres/directors/pictures.
2) A good movie from a bad director
From a mediocre director who's mundanity attracts as much ire as a truly bad director: Ron Howard's "Backdraft". Or "Apollo 13". But from a truly bad director, "Singles"?
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
The dog (and Nazi, I guess)-kicking bad-ass in "Boys From Brazil"!
4) Describe a famous location from
a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I work opposite the alleyway -- Newman Passage from the opening of "Peeping Tom". Less prostitutes now. Or at least, ones that blend in much better.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Carlo Ponti has "Torso", De Laurentis has "Body Of Evidence". No contest, Ponti all the way...
6) Best movie about baseball
I'm pretty much anti-sport but "The Natural" really jazzed me.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Through not particular effort, I've somehow managed to foolishly avoid Barbara Stanwyck pictures all these years. Yes, even "Double Indemnity" I have "Forty Guns" and couple of others on my ludicrous 'to watch' pile, however.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Dazed & Confused" has the better songs and better hair.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
One for work which I can't say because it's not been announced yet. But for pleasure, "Kiss Me Deadly" and "Phantasm OvlIVion" double bill because they'd been in my portable DVD-player case waiting around for so long. It made the journey up to my future in laws fly by. They were both rather special.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Rodman Flender's "The Unborn". Y'know, just in case.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
"On Golden Pond", cause I'm a fuckin' sap.
12) A bad movie from a good director
"Last Man Standing"
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Yes, and it's deeply impressive. But perhaps just the once.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder because of Sherlock and Norma.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'd love to go to Sitges -- if it's anything like either Cannes or the deliriously wonderful Fantasia (both of which I've been to) it'd be sheer heaven.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I haven't seen either but Frank Zappa's "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" is a hell of a tune.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Marshall McLuhan in 'Annie Hall'. Just inspired.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I've only seen "His Girl Friday" but it's a hum-dinger. I always wonder what her and Ralph Bellamy's kids would have looked like, poor things..
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
"Blow Out" with -- aside from the first ever De Palma commentary, 'making of's and all many of usual supps -- the opportunity for the viewer to remix their own soundtrack for the picture.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Donald O'Conner's effortless kineticism in "Singin' In The Rain" just so as there'd be and endless supply of smiles in tap.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Louis B Meyer saw "The Asphalt Jungle" produced under his watch, which is a deal breaker for me.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Until a few weeks ago, "The Searchers". Then I saw "Rio Bravo"
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
"Barton Fink". Less mugwump jism, more John Mahoney
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
"Clash Of The Titans". It has an ending (unlike the baffling "Jason & The Argonauts", however wondrous its skeletons are) and so many astonishingly ghoulish set-pieces.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Gore-bore August Underground is pretty rancid. But in terms or "proper" films, I don't the world would be better without any picture. We can often learn the most from the biggest piece of shit.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I've seen a dozen of his pictures, but I can't he's stood out in any for me -- up against too many Warren Oateses and Ben Johnsons, I guess.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
I'd start with "Dark Passage" to remind me about the shittier parts of humanity I'd be better off leaving behind, continue with "Jacob's Ladder" to remind me there's probably nothing to fear and end with "Once Upon A Time In America" to ease me into an appropriate morphine high.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
UCI 6 in Sutton, Surrey UK -- where my utter love of pictures was conceived.
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
"Come & See"'s ethnic cleansing is about as far from any righteousness as it is possible to get. Proof positive that we're proabbly on our own in this mess.
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
I think I've leant almost everything.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Make it true, make it seem true. And don't have something, even in a farce like Some Like it Hot that isn't true." -- Billy Wilder
2) A good movie from a bad director
I dislike Anthony Minghella's movies. The English Patient stank up the field, and I thought the entire world had gone crazy for praising that piece of junk. I find him obvious, condescending, and shallow. I don't know - he's obviously skilled, so I can't in all good conscience call him "bad" - let's just say I dislike his sensibility, and I thnk he's crap at telling stories.
HOWEVER. Truly Madly Deeply is one of my favorite movies ever.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
You know, I saw his King Lear - the one he did in the 80s on PBS, I think - it's remarkable. At least I remember it being remarkable. He sometimes can be a bit actor-y for my taste (and makes me WISH I had seen him live!!) - but his King Lear was truly tragic.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. If you look at those steps, and DON'T feel like re-enacting that famous scene, there is something seriously wrong with you. My boyfriend and I used to run up them all the time - and then leap up and down in triumph - I don't know if we ever walked normally up those steps.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Carlo Ponti, cause of Doctor Zhivago.
6) Best movie about baseball
I'm partial to 61* - but I love most baseball movies.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Ball of Fire
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Gotta be Fast Times although I love the other as well.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
The Boy With Green Hair - saw it 2 nights ago, in my current fit of Dean Stockwell hysteria.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Nope, not really. There were a couple of afterschool specials that put the fear of God into me about having sex and getting pregnant while still in high school ... but that's not quite the same thing.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Holiday. She has never been so moving to me as she was in that movie.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Amistad is pretty bad, I thought.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Actually, this film was off my radar - but after reading the comments on IMDB, I feel I need to see it. So I guess yes.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ben Hecht.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'd like to attend Cannes at least once in my life. Just because it would be a spectacle. Also the Toronto Film Festival has always appealed to me.
I had a blast at the Montreal Film Festival a couple years ago.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
haha
200 Motels
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Steve Martin in Muppet Movie comes to mind.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Well, up to 5 or 6 months ago, I would have shouted REDS, DAMMIT - but that has now been rectified.
The fact that The Magnificent Ambersons isn't even on DVD at all is completely outrageous.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Jack Nicholson in Reds - just watch him shine
Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge - never forget her brilliance as a comedienne
Cary Grant in Only Angels Have Wings - just because, dammit.
Steven Hill in his one scene in Running on Empty - now THAT is acting.
John Barrymore in Twentieth Century - funny, funny, funny, funny. He was known as a great tragic actor. That's the beauty of how hiLARIOUS he is in that movie.
Joan Crawford in Sudden Fear. It's just good to remember how GOOD she was, when she was on top of her game.
And because I must:
Dean Stockwell in Long Day's Journey Into Night - it's easy for him to be overshadowed by the other three, but seriously, he's the cornerstone to the whole thing.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Well. MGM. I'm gonna go with Mayer, even though he was such an ass to Judy Garland.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
I love him in Red River, but it's hard to choose between that and The Searchers - where he reaches (in my opinion) truly tragic heights. It's an iconic performance.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink!!
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I have no Ray Harryhausen movie of choice.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Basic Instinct 2. Although I also wish that Forrest Gump had never happened.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I know I've seen him a ton of times - but I'll go with Bonnie and Clyde
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Quickly, with no thought beforehand:
Bringing Up Baby
Only Angels Have Wings
Rocky
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Music Box, on Southport in Chicago.
Filmbrain & Anthony : You Made My Day
Thomas
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
My first instinct here would be to throw out any number of great jokes from Woody Allen’s pre-film stand-up career, but I think that might be cheating a little. I do love Francis Coppola’s quote about the making of Apocalypse Now: “We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.”
2) A good movie from a bad director
Um, Clerks?
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I prefer snails and oysters. Spartacus.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The bridge that Tom Hanks ran over in the inexplicable cross-country running sequence of Forrest Gump. I heard great things about it beforehand, and it wasn’t anything all that special, so yeah, it was a lot like the movie.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Can I just say I prefer Fellini? I still don’t understand what a producer is exactly. I know these two nailed some divine-looking ladies, though.
6) Best movie about baseball
John Sayles’ Eight Men Out. It’s always nice to see a sports picture that has drama based on something other than “will they win the big game at the end?” (Surprise! They will! At the last second, too!) I also read an interview once with Sayles where he said that if he had made The Natural, he would’ve had the hero strike out at the end, just like in the novel it was based on. Hooray for John Sayles.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Oh, so so many. She’s the best actress of all time, I think. The recent DVD release of Ball of Fire has me thinking about Sugarpuss O’Shea, but I guess I’ll just go the obvious route and say the “dual” role in The Lady Eve, which is one of my favorite movies ever.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Oh, jeez – those are both great. Dazed and Confused is the better film – Fast Times had an awful lot of weak spots for me.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I watched Steven Soderbergh’s version of Solaris again the other night as part of an ongoing process of deciding whether or not he should have bothered. I’m leaning towards “yes,” but barely.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
No, but Knocked Up definitely made me fear seeing “crowning” for realsies. Yeesh.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Her two-part interview on The Dick Cavett Show is pretty damn riveting. Okay, if it’s a movie………um, Adam’s Rib.
12) A bad movie from a good director
I normally have enough pseudo-auteurist gibberish swimming around in my head to enjoy even the lesser films of good directors. However, I have occasionally seen a great director wipe his shit stains on a piece of celluloid so thoroughly that it makes me question why I love their other work. Robert Altman’s Dr. T and the Women comes to mind.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Never seen it. Don’t care to.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Purely as a screenwriter? Hecht.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
If I could speak French halfway decently, I would say Cannes, but I can’t, so……I would say Toronto or New York: their programming always seems to include flicks I’m eager to see.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Never seen the latter, but the former is insanely awesome.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
My favorites are not necessarily the best or most clever; I tend to prefer cameos that are so bizarre you wonder how and why it happened. I’ll vote for either Joey Buttafuoco in Woody Allen’s Celebrity or Elvis Costello in Spice World.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday. Duh.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons. It would include documentaries, a commentary from Peter Bogdanovich, and the missing footage that was cut out and reshot by Robert Wise (we’re allowed to dream here, right?)
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
I think Tea Leoni’s performance in Flirting With Disaster is some of the greatest acting of the past couple of decades. She reminds me of the great screwball heroines in that film, and it’s a damn shame that she’s so rarely used well in movies.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I give about as many shits about studio heads as I do about producers - that’s two shits if you’re curious – but I’ll choose Cohn simply because the crazy-ass stories about him are usually better than the crazy-ass stories about Mayer.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Searchers is the grandest, although I’m somewhat partial to his supporting role in They Were Expendable, which is the best John Ford film, imho.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Fink. Love Cronenberg, but I couldn’t make it through Naked Lunch. Couldn’t make it through the novel either, for that matter. (Point of fact: I have on numerous occasions, in coffeehouses and bars, seen people with copies of the novel Naked Lunch. Never have I seen a person past the halfway point.)
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans. Judi Bowker was an early childhood crush, and I’ll never get enough of the highly dramatic and foreboding way the characters say, “The Kraken!”
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Is Triumph of the Will too obvious?
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
As the guy who sets up Bonnie and Clyde for the gundown. The little two-armed wave he does to get them to stop their car makes me smile.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Ridiculously hard question. I think I’d want to go out on seeing the sorts of films that have a warmhearted yet unsentimental view of humanity, so I’ll go with Bicycle Thieves, Grand Illusion, and maybe City Lights for a finale.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Don’t care. Just one with a projectionist worth his salt.
EXTRA CREDIT!!!
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Crimes and Misdemeanors
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
(Someone else probably said it first)
“Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist.” – Billy Wilder
2) A good movie from a bad director
I’ve never been much taken with Richard Donner’s movies, but put enough good actors together for a remake of Maverick and I am there!
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Boy, I haven’t seen many – mostly his later ones. Among those, I’ll choose Marathon Man.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited. Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I went to Mount Rushmore once, does that count? I was surprised at how unmoving it was.
This one’s not too famous, but it was meaningful to me. In Koyaanisqatsi, there’s a rather amazing shot, panning left to right, of this river canyon that moves in a zigzag toward the camera and away from it. Driving through Utah a few years ago, I stopped somewhere to get a drink and saw a postcard with a picture of it, labeling it with the rather unfortunate name The Hogbacks. I snatched it up and went to the clerk, and asked if it was nearby. Sure, she said – turned out I had passed the turnoff about 15 miles back. So I turned around and went and sat there for a half hour or so – it was magical. Made me so late that I drove through Zion National Park in the dark, though. :)
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Hard to say, but I was inexplicably fond of The Cassandra Crossing, so I’ll say Ponti. :)
6) Best movie about baseball
It’s not a perfect movie, except to me – Field of Dreams. On the flip side, Kevin Costner was also in the worst baseball movie I’ve ever seen – For Love of the Game.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
I’ve only seen Double Indemnity and Sorry Wrong Number – alas. But she was great in Double Indemnity, so I’ll take that.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I have seen neither, so I’ll split the difference and Say Anything …
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Cruising the videos at the public library, I came across The 400 Blows. Still feeling somewhat guilty for not having seen more Truffaut films, I watched it last weekend. And it was wonderful!
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I thought the depiction of a parent trying to find the balance between encouraging his son to excel and letting him be a kid in Searching for Bobby Fischer was well done. I’m a musician, and have worked backstage at enough competitions, juggling stage mothers, that I’ve seen how hard it can be on the kids. I hope I could find that balance.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I’ve learned to love the earlier films, but when I think of her, I still think of the movies she did later in her career, where her characters tend to be a little more crotchety. The Lion in Winter is maybe the best of them. No one’s mentioned The Rainmaker – it’s been a long time, but I remember liking her in it.
12) A bad movie from a good director
I love the Coen Brothers, but Intolerable Cruelty was … well … not good.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I guess I’m partial to Billy Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
For the ambience – Cannes. For the movies – Toronto.
I’ve never been to a “real” festival, but several years ago, a theater student friend needed to watch a whole bunch of filmed versions of some of the most depressing plays ever written – it turned into what we called the “Slit Your Wrists Film Festival”. After a while, all you could do was laugh – and wonder why there weren’t any fun plays.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Brett Favre showing up in There’s Something About Mary was pretty fun – not that it was really a performance. For a real scene – maybe Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein; that scene is probably my favorite part of the whole movie. :)
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Favorite – His Girl Friday
Favorite other than His Girl Friday – Auntie Mame
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Well, I’ve been wanting to see Genevieve again for a long time – it doesn’t seem to be available in Region 1. Saw this back when Oregon Public Broadcasting had the wonderful idea of showing old movies on summer afternoons, and thought it was hysterical. It’s been a long time – I wonder if I’d still feel that way. Some classic car info and a nice documentary on the London to Brighton road race would be appreciated too.
I saw there’s a print of Lieutenant Kije around now too – I hope that makes it onto DVD.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
This isn’t really reminding, since it just came out – but I thought Ulrich Mühe was just wonderful in The Lives of Others. I can’t think of a better example of someone doing so much by doing so little.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Boy, I can’t think of a one I really like. So I’ll go with brevity – The Greatest Story Ever Told.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Never seen Naked Lunch, so Barton Fink, although it left me a little puzzled.
26) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Dub Taylor? Never heard of him … Oh, I bet you mean Rip Taylor! Wasn’t he in Jackass? :)
27) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
My Fair Lady (there must be singing)
Jesus of Montreal (for some proper perspective)
The Big Lebowski (exit laughing)
28) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Whiteside in Corvallis, Oregon, newly refurbished.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Nobody cry when Jaws die... when monkey die, everybody cry." - Dino DeLaurentiis
Truer words have never been spoken.
2) A good movie from a bad director
DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
SLEUTH
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I can't actually say that I've gone location visiting. I'm so jaded...
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Close call... Ponti has the class, as well as Sophia Loren, plus you gotta love it when an exploitation film (TORSO!) is marketed as "From the producer of DR. ZHIVAGO"...
But I gotta give it to Dino. Why?
BARBARELLA
DANGER:DIABOLIK!
FLASH GORDON
plus, the aformentioned "monkey die - everybody cry" quote.
6) Best movie about baseball.
I'm not a huge fan of sports movies... for me it's a toss-up - THE BAD NEWS BEARS (the Ritchie/Matthau version) and COBB - which technically isn't about baseball per se, but it's good enough for me.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Have not seen a lot of her work... from what I have viewed, I'd have to say DOUBLE INDEMNITY
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
FAST TIMES - I'm an 80's child!
DAZED AND CONFUSED might be more 'accurate' but I can't quite relate to it.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
HOLLYWOODLAND; looked interesting so I grabbed the film from the library shelves. Much better than I thought it was going to be - and Ben Affleck actually gives a good performance for a change.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?
Seriously,though -- no movie has had that much of an effect on me. I've not had that much desire for kids of my own in the first place.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
ROOSTER COGBURN AND THE LADY - not classic stuff, but I like the chemistry between her and Wayne in that film.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Scorsese's CAPE FEAR remake -- the first time I saw it, I thought it was a put-on, everything was so pumped-up and over the top, compared to the original film.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I've actually seen SALO, paired with TOKYO DECADENCE, which made for an interesting date night...
I'd read about it for years, and in actually viewing it, it was a bit less lurid than my imagination had pictured... although it's just lurid enough to work on your head for days afterward.
It DOES have artistic merit... however, it's something that I wouldn't be viewing repeatedly - and it's not something for that monthly movie night with co-workers. It's only for the strong stomached and intellectually brave.
YES - with reservations.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Can't decide
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I've loved South by Southwest (SXSW) - I went a couple times in the late 90's when some projects I worked on screened there. Haven't been back for almost a decade, though.
I'd love the chance to go to the Toronto festival. And Sitges in Spain.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
HEAD, of course! I think it's an underrated masterpiece of the 60's.
I do like 200 MOTELS, but HEAD is more viewer friendly.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Victor Mature - "The Big Victor" in HEAD
David Cronenberg in TO DIE FOR
Iggy Pop in THE COLOR OF MONEY
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
None, in my view.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
If Warners ever gets off the pot and releases THE DEVILS, it would have (or is rumored to have) a commentary track by Russell; the documentary HELL ON EARTH about the film's restoration, and of course, the film would be uncut and restored.
If things were different, Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave would have their own commentary on it as well.
*sigh*
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Mimi Rogers - THE RAPTURE.
It's totally criminal that she never got an Oscar nomination.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Dore Schary
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
THE SHOOTIST.
Best curtain call role an actor could have.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Aren't they actually the SAME movie, when you really think about it?
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice.
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.
Skeleton fight - COOLEST THING EVER!!! (when you're 12 years old...) And it still holds up!
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I sometimes get him and Dabbs Greer confused...
The best Dub Taylor performance was in an episode of GUNSMOKE, but I can't remember the episode title...
... but this is MOTION PICTURE PERFORMANCE, isn't it? Hmmmm...
he's very memorable in a small role in THE WILD BUNCH.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
KISS ME DEADLY
SECONDS
LIZSTOMANIA
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Castro Theatre, in San Francisco
Skipped this one!
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
FREDDY GOT FINGERED
Evil... pure Evil...
My answers to this quiz:
http://thewrongbox.blogspot.com/2007/07/and-another-slifr-quiz.html
And to the previous quiz, which I'm afraid I was unforgivably tardy in completing:
http://thewrongbox.blogspot.com/2007/07/another-slifr-quiz.html
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
One of my favorites is Bergman’s observation that Melies was a natural filmmaker because “he was a magician by profession.”
Some of the context of the statement is:
"When film is not a document, it is dream. That is why Tarkovsky is the greatest of them all. He moves with such naturalness in the room of dreams. . . . All my life I have hammered on the doors of the rooms in which he moves so naturally. Only a few times have I managed to creep inside. . . . Fellini, Kurosawa and Bunuel move in the same fields as Tarkovsky. Antonioni was on his way, but expired, suffocated by his own tediousness. Melies was always there without having to think about it. He was a magician by profession."
2) A good movie from a bad director
The Island by Michael Bay. Good only in comparison to the rest of his filmography, perhaps, but pleasantly unexpected insofar as the action was supplemental and not its sole raison d’etre.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Rebecca.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
San Francisco is my favorite movie city and the most photogenic, and visiting inevitably evokes a mental montage of images from Vertigo, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, even The Rock. But it was somewhat disappointing to find out on the tour of Alcatraz that there is no sewer system beneath the prison, just solid rock.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Sure, Ponti discovered Sophia Loren and married her and, in terms of their post-1955 careers, go ahead and give him credit for Le Mepris, Blow-Up, Zabriskie Point, and The Passenger.
But if not for Dino, would we have Diabolik, Barbarella, and Flash Gordon? I think not. Plus, he gets extra credit for the underrated Barrabas starring Anthony Quinn. And say what you like about the tonal inconsistency of The Bible but its omnigeneric quality reflects the source and, as Abraham, George C. Scott devastatingly fills the emotional lacunae of Genesis.
6) Best movie about baseball
I haven’t seen any baseball movies except Field of Dreams, so I’m sure it’s not it.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I have a soft spot for Milla Jovovich: Dazed.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Secret Beyond the Door, Joan Bennett’s fourth movie for Fritz Lang. It turns out to be a rip-off of Rebecca, stuffed with cheap psychoanalysis and ornamented with a Bluebeardian conceit. Because it was on BBC2 at 3:00 in the morning.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I haven’t seen a movie that affected what I think about having kids some day, but I know I’ll never let my wife see Rosemary’s Baby just in case it affects her! I can imagine that movie singlehandedly destroying the trust in a marriage.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I couldn’t watch Star Trek: Voyager because of Capt. Janeway’s irritating Hepburn impersonation, but now I can’t watch Katherine Hepburn because she reminds me of Capt. Janeway.
12) A bad movie from a good director
The Good German, which I finally saw this week. What a piece o’ crap. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid was a better recreation of 1940s filming practice.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Does not having seen it mean I’m ignorant, or innocent? I don’t know.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I wish I could have gone to Paris for the Brian De Palma Retrospective at the Pompidou centre in February 2002.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven’t seen either.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
David Bowie in Zoolander is the ultimate cameo because the movie stops for a moment to revel in what a great coup he is.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Freebie and the Bean, with Alan Arkin and James Cann, is still unavailable on DVD. In 1974 it was the original buddy cop action comedy and made no attempt to hide its innate homoeroticism (or homophobia), rending “revisionist” takes on the genre like 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang redundant from the outset.
It's another great San Francisco movie, by the way.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Often overshadowed by his larger parts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Brandt in The Big Lebowski. His every syllable is perfection.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
LBM.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Have to admit I haven’t seen Sinbad, Jason, or Titans, nor even One Million Years B.C.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Pleasantville. For all of the reasons that Robert Fiore already listed to describe Altman’s O.C. & Stiggs: “smug, self-satisfied cynicism, a contempt for his targets that defeats satire.” It’s so axiomatic it’s practically a punchline that analogies fall apart when taken too far, but Pleasantville took a semi-clever metaphor and extrapolated it to incoherent allegory.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
The Wild Bunch.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
When it comes down to it, who wants to spend their final hours in this world watching Godard? Give me The Empire Strikes Back for the best music and best lightsaber battle of the most fun movie trilogy. Not to mention thematically appropriate, sorrowful yet hopeful.
For a light-hearted emotional release put on The Big Lebowski for me, a cheerful movie that even provides a degree of solace: “The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there, the Dude, takin’ ’er easy for all us sinners.”
Then if I needed some bucking up before facing the executioner, not much could equal the tear-jerking resolve of Ronald Colman in A Tale of Two Cities: “It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known.”
Of course some of its impact would be lost if I’m being punished for a crime I committed, but it would presumably ensure I don’t resent it. Unlike Sydney Carton at least I’m getting what I deserve!
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool, where the screen rises out of the stage floor deus ex machina style.
I didn't read the other responses before posting mine, and it's interesting now to see that I'm apparently the only person who actually enjoys listening to Peter Bogdanovich speak.....c'est la vie.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some. (Hitchcock)
2) A good movie from a bad director
“Chariots of Fire,” courtesy of Hugh Hudson.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
“Richard III” or “Pride and Prejudice”
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
This might sound corny, but I moved to New York City right after college graduation (1979). The Manhattan of “Taxi Driver,” “Annie Hall,” “An Unmarried Woman” and “The Turning Point” was just like it appeared on the big screen. For a while, it was like living on a movie set.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti. For both “Dr. Zhivago” and “Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein.”
6) Best movie about baseball
“Bull Durham”
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
“Stella Dallas”
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
“Fast Times.” Ray Walston and Sean Penn are brilliant.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
In anticipation of “The Golden Age,” I revisited part of “Elizabeth” last night. Doesn’t hold up as well as I had hoped, but Cate Blanchett is still mesmerizing.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
After “The Bad Seed,” I am happy and content just being an uncle, thank you very much.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
“Dragon Seed.” Just kidding. A toss-up between “Alice Adams” and “The Lion in Winter.”
12) A bad movie from a good director
”The Hindenburg” (Robert Wise)
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
No. No. 120 times No! The only movie that has ever made me sick.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht is great, but Wilder gets my vote (“Sunset Boulevard” and “Some Like it Hot” just for starters)
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.
Would love to go to Toronto.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Never seen “200,” and “Head” gives me a headache.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Chita Rivera in “Chicago.”
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
”The Women”
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I’m still waiting for a decent DVD edition of “How the West Was Won.” I could even do without all the extra bells and whistles if we could just see a decent print of this wonderful movie.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Although it was made for TV, Cukor’s “Love Among the Ruins” gives us Olivier and Hepburn together for the only time. And they are delightful.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
LBM.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
”Stagecoach”
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Can’t recall seeing either of them in their entirety
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
“Clash of the Titans.” I love it when, as the disgruntled goddess Thetis, Maggie Smith loses her head. The ’61 version of “The Mysterious Island” is also pretty good. And does anyone remember “The Valley of Gwangi?”
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Well, there’s that little Pasolini opus ….
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
”The Shakiest Gun in the West”
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
This answer could change every day. So today I would pick
“Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “The African Queen,” and “Lawrence of Arabia.”
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Aztec in San Antonio (before the renovations). A truly grand old picture palace. It’s where I saw a scratchy “Ben-Hur” in re-release in the early 1970’s. The Aztec, in all its decaying glory at the time, is a reason I love “Ben-Hur” to this very day.
A word on Bogdanovich. I don't despise the man or anything, it's just that I've been renting a lot of classics I hadn't seen before (e.g., Bringing Up Baby, Trouble in Paradise, the Searchers.. the second of which only has an intro from him and as an example of how good a commentary can be when it's not done by him, a great one from Lubitsch biographer Scott Eyman), and am very tired of the saturation. I can't see what distinguishes P.B. from other guys who hung out and spoke to all these now-dead directors, other than P.B. doesn't seem to be doing anything else with his time... maybe the people at Criterion owe him money.
P.S. - thanks, thomas, for the ambersons link
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"I didn't say actors are like cattle. I said they should be treated like cattle" - Hitchcock
2) A good movie from a bad director
If they made a good movie, how can they be bad directors?
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
The Divorce of Lady X. I love his stuffed shirt performance and the puncturing it receives.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
All of San Francisco, as seen in Vertigo.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Pass
6) Best movie about baseball
I thought of Damn Yankees, but I don't know if it counts. How about Rhubarb? I don't like baseball movies, but I do like cat movies.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Lady of burlesque is not her best, but it's my favorite.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Haven't seen Dazed and Confused, and I liked Fast Times, so...
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
Girl with the Pearl Earring. Lovely imitation of Vermeer, but not really moving. I'm planning to pair it with All the Vermeers in New York next week.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Pass
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Bringing Up Baby is my favorite movie of all time. Her scene on the phone with Baby is wonderful - reminds me of Stanwyck's scene with the lion in Miracle Woman.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Woody Allen is definitely the director here - how about Interiors?
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
No. I hate gross-outs.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
"Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots," Hecht had heard. Wrong. His competition included Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I was in Ouray once during Telluride, but I didn't attend because I couldn't figure out how to get there from here. 10 miles as the crow flies. Much longer if you're not a crow.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head. 200 Motels leaves you feeling a little dirty. Besides, Head is great.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Because of the question above, Frank Zappa in 20 Motels. Or how about Peter Falk in Wings of Desire? A little long for a cameo, I guess.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I want to say Take a Letter, Darling, or Never Wave at a WAC, but seriously, Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
How about a boxed set of all Mystery Science Theater episodes, including the origianl movies, with commentary by the actors and/or directors and hypertext explanations of the gags. Come on, it's only about 100 movies!
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
The Nicholas Bros. in Stormy Weather, Sun Valley Serenade, etc. Because, WHOA! Could they dance!
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Harry Cohn - MGM class spectacles leave me cold. I like the rougher Columbia look.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
I'd apologize for saying Yellow Ribbon, but it's a sign of weakness. I liked El Dorado, too, and Hattari. Basically, the Duke's sillier side.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Haven't seen Naked Lunch. I told you, I don't like gross-outs. I liked Barton Fink, even though the Cohn Bros. insist on showing someone puking in every single movie.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
No, but there are a lot of movies I haven't seen.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
You've stumped the chump.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Duck Soup, Monkey Business, and Horse Feathers. I often wish I had never seen these movies (or any of the rest) so that, in my darkest hour, I could watch them for the first time.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
I assume I'm in the hospital or in prison.
Extra Credit:
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait or any other film that makes deism look silly. But not Cabin in the Sky or Green Pastures.
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
From watching French new wave, esp. Clare's Knee, I noticed that men and women could casually touch and embrace. I had been raised in a cold, New England arms-length kind of culture, and I found that very appealing. Since then I've made an effort to open up physically, and it has made me a better person. Also, I learned not to get hung up on teenaged girls' knees.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"There can be no bright future for those who are ready to explain everything about their own film." – Akira Kurosawa (from “Tarkovsky and Solaris”)
2) A good movie from a bad director
Big
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Marathon Man. Truthfully, I’m not a huge Oliver fan – I respect his work, but it doesn’t do much for me. The famous “Dear boy, why don’t you try acting?” story is priceless, but I think that Dustin Hoffman is a much more interesting actor, and the clash of methods in Marathon Man creates a wonderful tension and elevates both performances.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The ferry scene in War of the Worlds was shot in Athens, NY; the real location is almost identical, although Spielberg added the train to wonderfully creepy effect.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Only one man could have produced both La Strada and Maximum Overdrive.
6) Best movie about baseball
The Bad News Bears. Growing up geeky and, on top of that, a fan of the cursed Red Sox, the Bears provided very real catharsis. Stick it up your ass, Yankees.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Both are great, but Dazed and Confused is a masterpiece.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Burden of Dreams. I needed some encouragement.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
My wife and I saw Children of Men when she was about four months into her pregnancy. How remarkable that one film could silence those nagging “How can I bring a child into a world where…” thoughts.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
”I could peel you like a pear and God himself would call it justice!”
12) A bad movie from a good director
Fear and Desire
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Haven’t seen it. I’m afraid.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I sure would love to go to Cannes.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Depends what I’m on.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Donald Sutherland as The Clumsy Waiter.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Auntie Mame
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I hope that the Kubrick special editions are as great as they could be. There’s a wealth of interesting material in Kubrick’s archives (many of which are included in the Taschen book, an invaluable resorce).
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. One of the all-time great, heartbreaking performances. Goldblum incorporates the makeup so seamlessly into his performance that when Brundlefly becomes pure special effect, the transition is seamless.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Louis B. Mayer.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
The best John Wayne movie is The Searchers, but his best role is Sheriff John T. Chance in Rio Bravo. It’s a definitive performance, perfectly summarzing everything that makes John Wayne John Wayne.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink is a great movie. A little fruity, but great.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts. The army of skeletons might be the greatest special effect of all time.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
300. Watching it with a psyched audience was like being at Nuremberg.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
1941
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
First would be Blue Velvet. Second would be Blade Runner - time to do some last-minute reflecting. Last would be Duck Soup, so I could go out laughing.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Images Cinema. Feels like home.
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival: Winter Light, a film that finds only silence in the search for God while still dignifying the search itself.
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
Don't cross the streams (thanks, Egon).
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker:
All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. Godard.
2) A good movie from a bad director:
I enjoyed Michael Bay's "The Island".
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance:
The Boys From Brazil- who wouldn't savor playing a mad scientist?
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?:
A buddy and I roadtripped to Vegas and stopped at the Hoover Dam. Nothing like the movies. I don't think any place such as the Hoover Dam (or Niagra Falls etc.) can prepare one for the feelings you get seeing it up close. And, to make things even more indelible in my mind, I walked up to the rail and was looking over when an Islamic girl walked up next to me. This was about 6 months after September 11 and I remember looking over at her, and she glanced at me for just a second, then glanced down, afraid to look me in the eye. She was probably one of the most beautiful girls I'd ever seen, with stunning green eyes. I smiled at her and after she realized I wasn't going to throw daggers with my stare, she looked back up and smiled and walked away. It was one of those moments that stays with you forever. So, no, nothing can ever compare to the textures of real life versus a movie screen.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Good question! It's hard to overlook Ponti's contribution to foreign cinema, but de Laurentiis brough me "Conan" and "Flash Gordon", two formative films as a kid! For that, his name will always excite me.
6) Best movie about baseball:
"Bull Durham"
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance:
"Double Indemnity"
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Fast Times", only because it's closer to my generation.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…):
Just finished up "Charlotte Gray" from Netflix. I rented it because it's one of the few performances I hadn't seen from my future wife, Cate Blanchett....
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?:
I always thought "Parenthood" was a pretty accurate view of growing up and adulthood. I don't currently have children so I could be WAY off base.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance:
"Long Day's Journey Into Night"
12) A bad movie from a good director:
Altman made a few stinkers... I could barely sit through "Beyond Therapy".
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?:
Never seen it.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?:
Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended:
I've heard Toronto is a blast to attend. Not only is the climate nice that time of year but the schedule is packed with films, the selections are generous and you get a fair shake at seeing some good entries.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble):
Who could forget Gene Hackman in "Young Frankenstein" "Cigars......" classic.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance:
"Trouble With Angels"
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?:
"Casino" is long overdue for a DVD overhaul.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason:
Daniel Day Lewis in "In the Name of the Father". Anytime I get a chance to remind people of just how fucking good this guy is, I jump on it. Oops, sorry Dennis. I may just have upped the rating on your blog with that f word.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Cohn.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Stagecoach.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice:
"Clash of the Titans"
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Too many to name, but "White Chicks" comes to mind.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance:
Junior Bonner.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?:
First, my favorite movie, "Casino". Second, "Field of Dreams" to get me ready for life in the afterlife and seeing some loved ones who loved baseball, and finally "The BIg Lebowski" because what better mood (or outlook on life) to take with you than The Dude?
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?:
The Inwood in Dallas.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker:
All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. Godard.
2) A good movie from a bad director:
I enjoyed Michael Bay's "The Island".
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance:
The Boys From Brazil- who wouldn't savor playing a mad scientist?
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?:
A buddy and I roadtripped to Vegas and stopped at the Hoover Dam. Nothing like the movies. I don't think any place such as the Hoover Dam (or Niagra Falls etc.) can prepare one for the feelings you get seeing it up close. And, to make things even more indelible in my mind, I walked up to the rail and was looking over when an Islamic girl walked up next to me. This was about 6 months after September 11 and I remember looking over at her, and she glanced at me for just a second, then glanced down, afraid to look me in the eye. She was probably one of the most beautiful girls I'd ever seen, with stunning green eyes. I smiled at her and after she realized I wasn't going to throw daggers with my stare, she looked back up and smiled and walked away. It was one of those moments that stays with you forever. So, no, nothing can ever compare to the textures of real life versus a movie screen.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Good question! It's hard to overlook Ponti's contribution to foreign cinema, but de Laurentiis brough me "Conan" and "Flash Gordon", two formative films as a kid! For that, his name will always excite me.
6) Best movie about baseball:
"Bull Durham"
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance:
"Double Indemnity"
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Fast Times", only because it's closer to my generation.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…):
Just finished up "Charlotte Gray" from Netflix. I rented it because it's one of the few performances I hadn't seen from my future wife, Cate Blanchett....
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?:
I always thought "Parenthood" was a pretty accurate view of growing up and adulthood. I don't currently have children so I could be WAY off base.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance:
"Long Day's Journey Into Night"
12) A bad movie from a good director:
Altman made a few stinkers... I could barely sit through "Beyond Therapy".
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?:
Never seen it.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?:
Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended:
I've heard Toronto is a blast to attend. Not only is the climate nice that time of year but the schedule is packed with films, the selections are generous and you get a fair shake at seeing some good entries.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble):
Who could forget Gene Hackman in "Young Frankenstein" "Cigars......" classic.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance:
"Trouble With Angels"
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?:
"Casino" is long overdue for a DVD overhaul.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason:
Daniel Day Lewis in "In the Name of the Father". Anytime I get a chance to remind people of just how fucking good this guy is, I jump on it. Oops, sorry Dennis. I may just have upped the rating on your blog with that f word.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Cohn.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Stagecoach.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice:
"Clash of the Titans"
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Too many to name, but "White Chicks" comes to mind.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance:
Junior Bonner.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?:
First, my favorite movie, "Casino". Second, "Field of Dreams" to get me ready for life in the afterlife and seeing some loved ones who loved baseball, and finally "The BIg Lebowski" because what better mood (or outlook on life) to take with you than The Dude?
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?:
The Inwood in Dallas.
Joseph B.:
Wasn't there a pretty good tenth anniversary edition of Casino a couple of years ago? A friend of mine has it, and it seemed fairly thorough from what I recall.
Dennis, I might have to do some research on that "Casino" disc. The only one I've ever seen was released in the late 90's and it has very little. Not even a commentary.
Regarding Bogdonavich's ubiquitousness: Anyone else notice how often William Friedkin pops up as a talking head in DVD extras for other people's movies? "Narc", the Val Lewton box set, the Criterion edition of "M"...the dude's everywhere. It's gotten to the point where my wife, even if she can't see the TV when he comes on screen and starts talking, will call out, "That guy again!?"
Regarding the "Casino" DVD - There is a special edition, and I have it here in front of me. It has a commentary track, but it's one of those annoying "interview compilation" deals, where none of the participants are watching the movie when they talk, and it's just stitched together interviews with Scorsese, Sharon Stone, etc. The other extras aren't that much better, actually. Anyway, it's probably as thorough as the movie will get, for a while at least.
EXTRA CREDIT:
Proposed Atheist Film Festival selection:
For all you empiricists out there: Babe: Pig in the City or, My Neighbor Totoro
Day-to-day advice gleaned from a movie:
I think I already answered this when I mentioned You Can Count On Me as having altered my take on having a sibling, even if she is 14 years younger than me and I don't get to see her that often (nor did I get to grow up alongside her). I really think I learned a big lesson about allowing oneself to live in acceptance of the world and its miseries, but to not give in. And be generous. Especially to your family, especially when they look like they don't deserve it, as long as it doesn't foster any negativity (choices, activities).
[I'm really late completing and posting this. Several of my answers have been named already, but my eyes were (mostly) on my own paper, I promise.]
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
As far as socially redeeming value, I hope I don't have any.
-- John Waters
2) A good movie from a bad director
They’re overrated more than bad, but:
Apollo 13
Salvador
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Marathon Man
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I could never afford to stay there, but I have spent a little time at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. There’s an exhibit of stills from all the movies shot there, and it gives the great feeling of being there. Now, I live near Monroeville, PA, and I get to shop at what I refer to as the Dawn of the Dead mall. It’s changed a bit, but not as much as you might think.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino De Lautentiis.
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity, although every time I watch The Lady Eve it creeps closer to first place.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Tough one. Dazed, but barely.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I just revisited The Lady Eve in honor of Stanwyck’s centenary. What a wonderful film.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Hmmm…no, not really.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Lion in Winter. Also my favorite Christmas movie.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Silver City, Sayles
Full Frontal, Soderbergh
Beyond Therapy, Altman
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I have a not-entirely-legal copy of this film. Someday I’ll get around to watching it; thanks for the reminder.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Logically I should say Hecht, but I can never vote against Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I’ve gone to SXSW a few times and loved it. So much of the attention’s on the music stuff that it’s easy to see an excessive amount of films, including lots of great documentaries. Some of the most interesting conversations I’ve had about film were with people in line waiting to see things there.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven’t seen either.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Marshall McLuhan, Annie Hall. Doesn’t’ get much better than that.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I can’t believe The African Queen isn’t readily available everywhere. I hope whenever the collector’s edition is released, everyone associated with it isn’t gone. Lauren Bacall, I’m sure, has some good memories of the shoot.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Dylan Baker, Happiness
Mary McDonnell, Passion Fish
Richard Farnsworth, The Straight Story
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Mayer
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Haven't seen a lot of them, so Rooster Cogburn by default.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink, for its great supporting cast.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I have no choice.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
I’d like never to be reminded of the existence of Life is Beautiful or Forrest Gump. But, for its influence, I’d like to retract The Sixth Sense for planting the idea that a trick surprise ending excuses any amount of flaccid screenwriting.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I have no idea who he was, but I'll choose Soggy Bottom, USA, just for the title.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Young Frankenstein, for a last good laugh
The Lion in Winter, for O’Toole’s final lines ("I hope we never die...)
Dr. Strangelove, to prepare God for my twisted sense of humor
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Anywhere where the screen and the popcorn servings are big.
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Crimes and Misdemeanors
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
One from Bull Durham I use a lot with my students:
Don't think. It can only hurt the ball club.
Hi, Dennis. As with the last quiz, I've posted my responses at my blog. Here's the link.
EXTRA CREDIT:
I argued against the idea that the original "The Wicker Man" is anti-Christian on "Scanners", but the idea that it is an atheistic movie fits perfectly. If that sounds contradictory, I just mean that, of the two religions represented in the film, Christianity comparatively comes out smelling like a rose.
And I learned from "The Lost World" to never prance around wearing bloody clothes while visiting Dinosaur Island.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker: "The enemy of art is the absence of limitations" by Orson Welles
2) A good movie from a bad director: The In-Laws by Arthur Hiller
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance: Archie Rice in The Entertainer
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not? Pass
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)? Pass
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…) The Astronaut Farmer. I was misinformed.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own? No.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance: Woman of the Year
12) A bad movie from a good director: Hook by Steven Spielberg
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no? Pass
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)? Wilder
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended: Cannes
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Pass
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble) Bruce Willis and Julia Roberts in The Player
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance His Girl Friday
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I think Woody Allen would seem a natural for DVD commentaries and it's a shame he's never done one.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason Claude Rains in just about anything.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)? Mayer
22) Favorite John Wayne performance: The Searchers
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink? Barton Fink
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice Pass.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made? SO many, so many. Too many.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance Bonnie and Clyde
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be? The Rules of the Game, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in? Some huge old-style behemoth somewhere.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"My master in film, Buñuel, was a far greater storyteller than I. It was just that in my films miracles occur on the screen." --Michael Powell.
2) A good movie from a bad director
Michael Lehmann's (who?) HEATHERS.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
SLEUTH.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I used to live near the Amityville Horror house. I don’t know where that house in the movie was located, but it sure wasn’t in Amityville.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino De Laurentiis. It's more fun to say out loud.
6) Best movie about baseball
COBB.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
She's been in better movies, but my fave performance is 40 GUNS.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I adore FAST TIMES, but DAZED is just amazing, gets better every time you watch it. Speaking of HEATHERS, however, that's the movie probably closest to my personal h-s experience.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
DVD: 35 UP, 'cause we matched it up with my wife's 35th birthday. We're not gonna wait seven years to watch the next one, though.
Theater: RATATOUILLE, 'cause that's what I wanted to watch. It was super-swell.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not really.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
HOLIDAY is my favorite Hepburn movie, but BRINGING UP BABY is my fave performance.
12) A bad movie from a good director
CECIL B. DEMENTED.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
Haven't seen it; am willing to give it a shot.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Since he had something to do with HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Hecht.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'd love to go to Toronto one of these years. Been to various screenings at local fests around Maryland area, but nothing too exciting.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven't seen either one, but HEAD's moving up the Netflix list slowly but surely.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Not really a cameo, but I'll pick Scorsese in TAXI DRIVER.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
HIS GIRL FRIDAY. Besides that, THE WOMEN.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
My favorite "New Wave" is that of Czechoslovakia, so howzabout a (Eclipse, maybe?) box set of a bunch of not-so-far-released ones.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
How about Kate Hepburn in SYLVIA SCARLETT. It's not up to her standards in her other screwballs, but it's great nonetheless (it's like she's in one of those early, fun Bergman movies--weird); plus, just out on DVD.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Neither one is particularly fun to say aloud, sorry.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
FORT APACHE.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Love 'em both, but FINK wins.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
CLASH OF THE TITANS is the only one I can recall seeing, many, many, many times as a youth.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Nah.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
THE WILD BUNCH.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
In no specific order, A CANTERBURY TALE, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, and HOLIDAY.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Senator, in Baltimore.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“Once for surprise, and once for ravishment”
--Jacques Rivette on his viewing habits.
2) A good movie from a bad director
PARENTHOOD by Ron Howard, which is the last time he really coloured outside of the lines structurally, and that wielded some great and surprising results. I hold out hope that whatever this project that Noah Baumbach is apparently scripting for him will contain some of the same vibes of spontaneity.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I’m not as up on his classic performances as I should be, so I’ll be cheeky and say the stern patriarch he portrayed in the remake of THE JAZZ SINGER.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I’ll go obscure: I literally grew up across the street from where the little-known and little-seen Kiefer Sutherland/Liv Ullmann film, THE BAY BOY, was filmed. I take it that it was a relaxed set, as my mom walked me past the filming numerous times.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti thought with his head, while De Laurentiis thinks with his gut, and I greatly admire that much more (and without him, we’d not have those oddball productions, like BARBARELLA and MANDINGO).
6) Best movie about baseball
THE BAD NEWS BEARS
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
THE LADY EVE is hard to beat.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
DAZED AND CONFUSED, as it’s more timeless and universal, and not rooted in a specific locale.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Well, Sony/MGM recently reissued eight of the “Beach Party” films on a four-disc set, so I’ve been sampling them. I heard Vincent Price cameos in the original BEACH PARTY, so I just had to see that (“bring me my pendulum, kitties, as I feel like swingin’” being his immortal line).
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Funnily enough, PARENTHOOD.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
BRINGING UP BABY
12) A bad movie from a good director
All of the ’00 films from Martin Scorsese.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I’ve not had the (dis)pleasure of seeing this just yet, but I’ll give Pasolini the benefit of the doubt.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I’ll go with Hecht, as Wilder reached his full promise as a director later on, whereas Hecht peaked with such films as HIS GIRL FRIDAY.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
The Torino Film Festival (in recent years they’ve premiered the “Masters of Horror”, and held retros of Aldrich, Chabrol, and Walter Hill – sign me up).
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I actually just picked up an LP of 200 MOTELS this past weekend, but as I’ve never seen it (and don’t consider myself a big Frank Zappa fan), I choose HEAD. Nicholson, Rafelson and The Monkees’ with music that doesn’t actually suck.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Sam Peckinpah towards the end of PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, or likewise his appearance in Monte Hellman’s CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
MY SISTER EILEEN
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Anchor Bay could feasibly pick up the rights to CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37 and have Dennis Bartok and Monte Hellman provide commentary like their other releases. Other inclusions could be a retrospective documentary with Hellman, Jenny Agutter, and Fabio Testi, et al; a brief look at the Z channel’s Jerry Harvey as screenwriter (covered elsewhere in the feature-length doc, but still…); and a discussion of that on-set photograph with Hellman, Leone, and Peckinpah. Also, and MOST importantly, release the film in its original aspect ratio in its uncut form.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Michael Parks, last seen in GRINDHOUSE: DEATHPROOF, in this forgettable 80s film called CLUB LIFE, which is godawful save for Parks performance as a kicked-around bouncer who’s seen it all (come to think of it, maybe the inspiration for Michael Madsen in the KILL BILL films).
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Louis B. Mayer
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
THE WINGS OF EAGLES
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
BARTON FINK
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
TRANSFORMERS
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
In Peckinpah’s THE GETAWAY
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
RIO BRAVO
THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID
Or maybe SATANTANGO x 3, so I’d have an extra day!
Here's mine:
http://blog.spout.com/2007/07/24/the-micro-five-the-summer-midterm/
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"It's always nice when the eccentrics show up." Alex Cox
2) A good movie from a bad director
can't think of one
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
"Brideshead Revisited." Moving. "Wuthering Heights." Brutal yet romantic. "Boys from Brazil." Funny as hell. (Especially unintentional impersonation of Chewbacca near end of film)
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Grew up in Hollywood, constantly seeing filming-- Hitchcock directed part of his last film around the block from my parents' house, etc. I thought all TV shows and films took place in L.A. since I constantly saw streets and landmarks I recognized so I've never sought out a film location. However, Dennis taking me to Cannon Beach in Oregon in a storm, and having it look so much as it did in "Point Break" was a giddy high.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
For what purpose?
6) Best movie about baseball
"Bad News Bear" In my limited experience, actually the most realistic baseball movie as well.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
"Double Indemnity." I haven't seen much else of her besides a few "Big Valleys."
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Dazed and Confused"!!! Funny and full of heart.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
"First Men in the Moon" at the Egyptian. Why? Because my hubby Dennis wanted so much to see it on a huge screen and even more wanted to meet Ray Harryhausen (which we did). By my own choice, previous to that I saw "Once" and loved it.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
"Dead Ringers."
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
"Lion in Winter." She's so strong and feisty and bitter. No one else could have delivered those lines properly.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Second half of "Lost Highway," David Lynch.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Yes, but I wouldn't make anyone watch it. I did years ago. Horrifying, yet not quite as bad an experience as having to watch Adam Sandler and Damon Wayons in "Bulletproof."
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht's IMDb credits are endless, yet I'm still not very familiar with his work. Nevertheless, I feel like I can safely say, who could beat Billy Wilder?
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I can't even handle a double feature anymore.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
To be totally fair, I've never seen "200 Motels," but "Head" used to be in my top 10 films of all time, back in the '80s when I saw it at a revival theater, only knowing the Monkees from their show, and was shocked and awed like I've rarely been by a movie. And Zappa makes a cameo, telling Davey Jones to take singing lessons or something like that, so he gets props here too.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
I have to agree with Daniel Johnson-- definitely David Letterman in "Cabin Boy." He's a hero of mine anyway.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
"His Girl Friday," and the only one I've seen, I think. Though she talks so fast in this film that it gave me a headache.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Criterion edition of "The New World" with commentary by Terrence Malick. Criterion edition of "The Company of Wolves" with commentary by Neil Jordan. "Animal House: The Ultimate Ultimate Janus Edition" featuring commentary by Dennis, Blaagh and Stephen Bishop.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Kate Winslet in "Hideous Kinky." Ewan McGregor in "Shallow Grave." Hugh Laurie in every episode of "House." Bill Murray in "Tootsie." Michel Blanc in "Monsieur Hire."
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Um...... huh?
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
"Red River."
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
"Naked Lunch" by a long shot. Like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," totally unlike its source novel, but wonderful in its own right.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I guess it would have to be "First Men in the Moon" now.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
"Wrong Turn 2"
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I like his name. Don't know who he is.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
"Wings of Desire" with chocolate souffle. "Moulin Rouge" with Tom Yum Kai soup. "Bjork's Vespertine concert DVD" with really good sushi.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Home.
Extra Credit:
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
"The Rapture"
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
Work can give you terminal brain cloud - "Joe Versus the Volcano."
Sorry, Flickhead, for stealing your No. 4. So here's mine.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I've never sought out movie locations while on vacation. But locally, I've "spelunked" some of the crumbling buildings on downtown Baltimore's west side used in TWELVE MONKEYS. Pigeon poop stinks. They were, surprisingly, quite what they looked like in the movie. I've done the same in some of the even more crumbling houses used in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Since it was daytime, they were not much like the film.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Oh, and came up with an answer for this one. We're in the very early stages of adoption, and John Sayles' CASA DE LOS BABYS is one of the few--Anne Tyler's DIGGING TO AMERICA is the only other one I can think of--non-Lifetime movie-esque fictional depictions of overseas adoptions we've come across.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker:
The one about actors being cattle, by Hitchcock. That Hitchcock was funny. And it really seems to work the last nerve of self-important actors, and self-important actors work the last nerve of The Shamus.
2) A good movie from a bad director:
Milos Forman, who is an awful, plodding director, but then he's never made a good movie. Never.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance:
"The Betsy." When he's shtupping the maid. I really don't like Olivier. He strikes me as one of those actors who, well, see No. 1.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited. Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Once, while on vacation, I detoured through Beaufort, S.C. and was thrilled to stumble upon the house where Lawrence Kasdan's "The Big Chill" was filmed. I snuck onto the grounds, and took a look around and it seemed nice, but somehow more magical and "Hollywood-y" in the movie. As did the main street where William Hurt and Kevin Kline take their jog. Oddly enough, I work down the street from the location of another Kasdan movie. (No, I do not live in Mumford.) By the way, visit Beaufort. It's a wondrous little low-country town. "Forrest Gump" was filmed there, partly. And Streisand filmed some of "The Prince of Tides" there. Which gives you the opportunity of shouting out "Lowenstein! Lowenstein!" and annoying your spouse to no end.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis?
Dino! Anybody who can produce "Serpico," "Three Days of the Condor" and "Orca" deserves some kind of crazy credit. Besides, Carlo married Sophia Loren. He needs no further accolades.
6) Best movie about baseball.
Most baseball movies aren't really about baseball, are they?
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance.
"The Lady Eve."
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Dazed and Confused." Sorry, Mr. Hand. (Hey, when is Mr. Hand gonna host a quiz?)
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
"Black Snake Moan," on the recommendation of Ross Ruediger, who's got some 'splaining to do.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I have procreated (loud applause, followed by a standing ovation.) Uh, what was the question?
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
"Summertime." She got beyond the Hepburn-isms and really acted. I felt her spinster's pain. The defeated, sad look on her face. The delight on her face when she finds love. That performance stays with me.
12) A bad movie from a good director.
"Blood Work," Clint Eastwood.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
No, I've never heard of it.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder?
Yeesh. That's impossible.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.
Pordenone always sounded ideal.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Oh, God, anything but "Head."
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Julie Christie's uncombed hair in "Nashville."
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
"His Girl Friday."
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
"Frantic," by Polanski. It's always in full-frame, so just a nice widescreen transfer would be appreciated.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.
Chico Marx in "Horsefeathers" and "Duck Soup." Always the underrated brother.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn?
Harry. He was a bastard to your face.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
"The Quiet Man."
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Neither. Sorry.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
I've never been impressed by Harryhausen. Sorry.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Any film by Leni Riefenstahl.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
"The Getaway"
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Cheer up, Dennis! All in all, I'd like to go like Lubitsch did — in the sack.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Whichever one has the widest seats.
EXTRA CREDIT!!!
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
"Chinatown."
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
It's only a movie.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder. -- Alfred Hitchcock
2) A good movie from a bad director
I thought, as a joke, that I would look up Chris Columbus's films on IMDB.
They were all bad enough that I abandoned the joke. . . .
My real answer: National Lampoon's Animal House.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
As Lawrence Olivier on the Dick Cavett show.
I couldn't abide this man's performances.
Film: Marathon Man.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Bogota, Colombia, from the Harrison Ford / Tom Clancy flick Clear and Present Danger. Absolutely nothing like the scenes of "Bogota."
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
I would prefer to select the producer who banged Sophia Loren, but how can I sleep on the man behind Mandingo? De Laurentiis
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham. I'm not sure yet how to excise the "Annie" character, but when I figure that out, I'll have the even-better film about baseball. . .
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
"Mom" on The Joey Bishop Show.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed is the more realistic movie. Dazed has the better soundtrack -- indeed, putting the 70s music up against the 80s stuff that resonated throughout Fast Times shows just how bad the 80s were, and forces reconsideration of the attacks on the 70s. But Fast Times has Rat, and the set-pieces [This is not the best breakfast I've ever had; ticket-scalping exchanges], and the most memorable lines [Hey, I know that dude!], so I'll narrowly go Fast Times.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Talk To Me, the biopic of Petey Greene, featuring Don Cheadle's amazing performance as Greene. I thought I was watching Petey [which I did, a lot, home alone on a Friday night as a fifteen-yr.-old]. I wanted to see the performance, and I wanted to relive my past [and learn about my town shortly before I got here]. It met my needs. Well.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Wanda Whips Wall Street.
I kid.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Linda Seton
12) A bad movie from a good director
It's impossible. Almost any of the good ones, to be good, have to have thrown some real stinkers out there.
New York, New York by Scorsese.
[editor's note: I wrote this on my own blog before posting to SLIFR; am not taking on our host, and I'll read his latest post and reconsider]
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I was not familiar with this film, haviong failed to get any at the Salo Bar.
I kid. Well, let's see. IMDB says:
Four fascist libertines round up 9 teenages boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental and sexual torture.
Well. Obviously Yes.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Why I would waste time with these hacks, I can't tell you.
I'd be hard-pressed to say; I don't think film is a screenwriter's medium. So I'll say Wilder, as I dig a lot of his work, and am growing to like more of it.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I would go back to the summer of 1977. My "Kelly's Heroes Poker and Film Festival" in my parents' basement.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Nicholson beats Zappa as Head prevails.
Don't sleep on The Dolphin Song . . .
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Don Drysdale on The Brady Bunch. Rickles on The Bernie Mac Show, but Rickles was central and thus it was not a cameo. So, under that logic, Orson Welles in Citizen Kane . . . .
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday. Avoid Auntie Mame and Gypsy. . . .
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Kelly's Heroes, with commentary track from Don Rickles.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Peter O'Toole in Venus. Peter O'Tool in My Favorite Year [I gave ya two! Unless you consider them the same performance, which I don't].
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Roy Cohn in Right Turn Down The Hershey Highway.
I kid. Mayer. See "MGM Studios."
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Favorite: Rio Bravo [let others have the fun, while I do the work]; The Quiet Man [he's really there, for whatever reason; I find it his "method" movie. . . ].
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch. No Goodman.
Also -- LJS = Heroin.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
One Million Years B.C. I like Racquel Welch's back. . . .
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Mrs. Doubtfire.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
On The Odd Couple TV show. I forget his character's name
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Duck Soup, Dr. Strangelove, and A Hard Day's Night.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Laying in bed surrounded by those I've loved. Often.
I kid.
In bed surrounded by those I've loved. Or at the AFI Silver, in the big room. I'm kinda nuts for that theater.
This is terribly late, but I have to do it....
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
- Maybe it would be better to be more serious, but how can I resist Guy Maddin? This made me laugh out loud when I first read it in Film Comment, I think - and every time I've read it since. Commenting on JOseph Cornell's ROSE HOBART: "The boner quotient is indeed high in this primitive and loving ejaculation from America's most important basement boy." In general, Maddin might be the best - at least the most entertaining - writing film director.
2) A good movie from a bad director
- There are surely better answers, but the one that springs to mind is TIGERLAND.... though the shameful secret is I'm not sure I really hate Joel Schumacher as much as I let on...
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
- I think I lean toward RICHARD III, though I may be thinking of Johnny Rotten
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
- Maybe the opposite - recognizing locations used in MYSTIC RIVER, for example - thinking, "that park is in Jamaica Plain! but those characters live in Southie, or Charlestown! everybody knows that's Jamaica Plain!" - that sort of thing
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
- Ponti, I'd have to say
6) Best movie about baseball
- THE BAD NEWS BEARS, probably by a significant margin
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
- THE LADY EVE
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
- FAST TIMES..., I think
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
- LADIES OF LEISURE - because it was being shown: Stanwyck/Capra shouldn't require much explanation.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
- LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL - because if having kids makes you stupid enough to like this movie (to forgive it it's stupidity), we might as well leave the world to the cockroaches.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
- BRINGING UP BABY
12) A bad movie from a good director
- There are lots of them: BEYOND THERAPY probably sets the standard; more obscurely, Imamura's NISHI GINZA STATION is particularly bad.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
- Yes
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
- Wilder I think... maybe just for directing his own stuff, thus making the script/film link more direct. I guess.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
- Cannes, boring a choice as it is
16) Head or 200 Motels?
- HEAD, I think; of course I haven’t seen 200 MOTELS, though I don't think it would matter too much.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
- The previous question suggests an answer here: Timothy Carey - maybe in HEAD; definitely in MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
- HIS GIRL FRIDAY obviously
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
- The Lee Tracy collection! BOMBSHELL - BLESSED EVENT - NIGHT MAYOR - DOCTOR X! and many more!
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
- I suppose I could say Lee Tracy again... or Warren William. Or maybe Tracy's foil in BLESSED EVENT - Dick Powell - there, and in GOLDIGGERS OF 1933 he shows just how good a comic actor he could be, I think.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
- Harry Cohn, if for nothing else, for employing the greatest American director of them all.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
- THE SEARCHERS (ho hum)
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
- BARTON FINK
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
- I will plead the fifth
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
- Probably quite a few, though most of them don't make that much difference. Life is Beautiful, I will say, has given rise to some horrible judgments by otherwise sane people...
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
- No hope of answering this, unfortunately - I'll think of this question every time I see him now...
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
- BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, Andy Warhol's **** and OUT 1: NOLI ME TANGERE
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
- somewhere with good seats and functioning bathroom... and wifi, since I think this would worth live-blogging
EXTRA CREDIT!!! (courtesy Jim Emerson):
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
- I'll say what I said there - Mike Leigh's NAKED
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
- I should be able to come up with something here, but I can't. This is another one that will come to me every time I see something useful...
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates." -- Werner Herzog
runner-up:
"Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It's about the big picture." -- Ed Wood
2) A good movie from a bad director
Kevin Smith is pretty much a wash as a director, but I still like Chasing Amy a whole lot. (I like Clerks and Clerks II a lot, too, but I'm not sure I'd say they're good movies.)
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I've seen maybe four or five Olivier movies in my life, but I don't remember his performances in any of them well enough to compare.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
My first trip to New York was a eye-opener. I couldn't get over how "New York" it all looked. In retrospect I should have maybe expected that.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino. He not only produced Conan, Barbarella, Death Wish and Army of Darkness, but he had the brains not to get involved with Zabriski Point or the overrated Blowup.
6) Best movie about baseball
Mr Baseball.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity, of course. Bad wig, bad make-up, and she looks downright feral in some scenes, but I still believe Fred MacMurray would kill a man to tap that.
8.) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused. I have no nostalgic attachment to Fast Times, though it does have Phoebe Cates in a bikini.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Sholay. I've been getting into Bollywood movies lately, and it's a classic "curry western".
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
While it wasn't part of my childhood, various friends and relatives let their kids watch the same children's movie over and over again. Being in such a house seems a special kind of hell to me.
On the other hand, there are all kinds of really great films I look forward to watching with my own kids: Iron Giant, Star Wars, The Princess Bride, and, of course, a pre-adolescent Jaws and The Exorcist double-bill. I often think about how different my life might have been if I'd first seen Jaws at age 12 instead of 26.
Maybe I shouldn't reproduce.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Bringing up Baby. Back when she was still young and cute and trying to play a character rather than "Katherine Hepburn as...".
12) A bad movie from a good director
Gangs of New York. Sometimes great artists follow their dreams where nobody can really be expected to follow.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I still have not brought myself to watch it, and having recently read Matthew Dessem's review on The Criterion Contraption ("This film literally made me vomit."), it's not high on my list. But I suspect I will watch it one day. So, yes.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ben Hecht probably has more funny lines, but Billy Wilder's characters are much more fully-realized. Advantage: Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I attended the Toronto film festival every year when I lived there and always saw a few movies that blew me away. I can't say that about other festivals I've attended.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I've only seen Head, but I suspect I might like 200 Motels more.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Bill Murray in Wild Things. To quote Roger Ebert: "Bill Murray lands in the middle of this pie like a plum from heaven."
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I'd have to go with His Girl Friday. It's the only one of her films I've seen, but I liked her a whole lot.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Is Kill Bill too obvious? Even if it is: Kill Bill. It would include the two-film version and the original one-film cut, and a long doc showing scenes from Kill Bill alongside the ones that inspired them. Plus, a commentary by a random Tarantino-hating film geek bragging about how he was into Lady Snowbird way before QT. Just to get the full experience.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Bill Murray (again) in Groundhog Day. Even now, I don't think Murray gets enough respect as an actor, and he sure didn't then because he's "funny". In Groundhog Day, he goes through pretty much every emotion one can have but still stays identifiable as the same character.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Gonna have to pass.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
His portrayal of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror is endlessly entertaining.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch is less successful, but more ambitious and therefore more interesting. Advantage: Cronenberg.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Is this a trick question? Jason and the Argonauts, of course! The skeleton scene is one of the greatest things ever committed to celluloid.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Leaving aside political films like Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will, The Jazz Singer and Heaven's Gate both helped to kill off really pretty awesome periods of cinema. Though you could easily argue that if they hadn't, another would have. So maybe I'll just go with Matrix Reloaded, which was not only awful, but destroyed my ability to enjoy the original Matrix movie.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Given that I had to look on IMDB to even learn who the guy was, I'm gonna have to pass on this one, too.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
An Adam Sandler marathon would doubtless put me in the right frame of mind to welcome death.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
One full of screaming babies.
EXTRA CREDIT!!!
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Microcosmos
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
Beautiful, vivacious, quirky women are irresistibly attracted to moody, scruffy, brainy introverts. This knowledge is sure to pay off any day now.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"What's the difference between a cult and a religion?" --Jim Jarmusch. (And if you know where it comes from, you get big, big points.)
2) A good movie from a bad director
This is the last question I'm answering, an hour and a half after I started this, because I've been thinking about it the whole time. And I haven't been able to come up with one. I was hoping I could pin A Perfect World on Costner, but Eastwood directed it. My fallback position is Caligula, but it isn't really all that great a film, is it? Or maybe Jean Rollin's Requiem for a Vampire, which is so unRollinesque. But I'm having a hard time coming up with really bad directors who have actually made good films. There are directors who have gone into the toilet over the course of their careers (my gut instinct was to grab Piranha II, but James Cameron was actually a good director up until The Abyss or so), but they don't count. Oh, hell, Caligula.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Sleuth, by a narrow margin.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
You know, I can't think of one. I thought I recognized the riverbank from Gung Ho once... my ex-wife works in the building where part of Spider-Man 3 was filmed, but I haven't seen it. I also haven't yet seem Welcome to Collinwood, though I know I've probably been on every exterior set in the movie. So, um, I abstain from this one.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Golan-Globus. No, seriously, De Laurentiis. Both made fun movies, and both were highly inconsistent, but-- if you can say this about a producer-- De Laurentiis has always seemed to have a vision, however misguided that vision may be (how the same man greenlighted both Manhunter and Red Dragon mystifies me to this day).
6) Best movie about baseball
Eight Men Out. No contest.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Sorry, Wrong Number. My apologies for being so conventional.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I still don't understand how people can watch Dazed and Confused without retching. Ridgemont High would have won by default, even without Judge Reinhold jerkin' the gherkin.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Spartan, because, and this is a variant on the line that will begin my review, I am constantly looking for another Mamet film that will be a tenth as good as House of Games, and I am constantly disappointed.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Gattaca, natch. And I have to admit, part of my loathing for other people's kids most likely trails back to my obsession with Village of the Damned when I was a squid myself.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
On Golden Pond. I often forget how great that movie is, and was reminded of it just yesterday by Halliwell's 1000-best book.
12) A bad movie from a good director
True Crime (Clint Eastwood). Has he disowned it yet?
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Honestly, I couldn't tell ya. I've only seen it once, and that was without subtitles, so I had no idea what was going on. I was bored senseless. Hell, I liked Salon Kitty better (but at least I could read during that one).
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
That's a hell of a lot tougher than the producer question. I'm apt to give the nod to Wilder, because I don't see as many black marks on his resume as I do on Hecht's, but then, Hecht was also a poet, which has to count for something. I could always cheat and say "both, when combined." But, damn, Wilder wrote Sunset Blvd. AND Stalag 17 in a three-year span. Oh, Wilder gets it.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
That lovely lovely thingamajig that Elisavet posted about a few months ago over in Brussels. Yeah, this one.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I've actually [hangs head in shame] never seen 200 Motels. But there are times when I think Head is actually Rafelson's best work, because it feels so unconstricted-by-the-Man compared to his other stuff. However, I will still reserve judgment until I have had a chance to see both.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Alfred Hitchcock in Lifeboat. Sheer, unadulterated genius.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
MAME!
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
In a perfect world: Shriek of the Mutilated. A perfect world, however, would require the master to be found so the film could be completely remastered. The current DVD is a very welcome addition to my collection, but the print it was made from is so degraded some of it is quite literally unwatchable. I'd love to have a commentary track with the whole cast and crew, many of whom never worked in cinema again (and, because of that, extensive bios as well).
In our world: There are any number of movies that could benefit from extras that contain actor-cam, something I saw in the extras of a really, really awful DVD Allison rented once (I can't remember what it was, but it had something to do with frat boys posing as women to get into a sorority, if I recall). That portion of the extras was really cool, and I've been hoping to see it again. But that's irrelevant. Hmmmmmmmm. Most of the movies I'm thinking of I'd be happy to just see a DVD release of at all. (How about the whole Bill Forsyth collection, Criterion?) Closetland, probably. Why did Radha Bharadwaj never make a third film? Tell me in a commentary track! I'd love to see that set in full light, too.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
BONES MCCOY WAS IN NIGHT OF THE LEPUS O YES.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Cohn. He was the Greg House of the movie business.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Matthew Modine in Full Metal Jacket. Seriously, probably Stagecoach. In hindsight, it's so understated.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch, though that gut reaction could be because I've seen it more recently, or it could be because Cronenberg is so much more consistent than the Coen brothers (and thus drawing on full bodies of work rather than the specific films).
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Jason and the Argonauts. I saw that the first time when I was about seven years old, and while it's hard to imagine in today's CGI world, that shit was boss. There's a scene I still remember as if I'd just seen it (and god, I hope it's from this movie, because otherwise I will be horribly embarrassed), with the giant and the achilles heel and the stuff that looks like brake fluid that comes gushing out after Jason nails him...
(Has anyone noticed how many of these questions could conceivably be answered with Clash of the Titans? Just wondering.)
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Oh, good christ, I only get one? Dances with Wolves. It clogged up screens and seats that would have been better-served screening much more deserving movies for, in some cases, an entire year. (There was a one-screen theater in Abington-- or was it Willow Grove?-- that kept count of the number of weeks the movie had played there. I grew to loathe it more every time the number clicked up.)
26) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Used Cars, though I readily admit to having actually seen less than 25% of the movies listed under his name at IMDB; I'm only just starting to correct my avoidance of Westerns.
27) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Cure for Insomnia, Heimat (if I can count the trilogy as one), and The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple. And they'd stop screening them every time I went to sleep. (Note: this is kind of like my saying that I've made a deal with the devil that I will not die until I finish reading A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, which I do not plan to start until I am diagnosed with a terminal disease.)
28) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
I've been thinking about this since I first read the post last night, and it's a tossup. Both are little neglected arthouse cinemas that may no longer exist. The first is in Oakland, PA, and it's where I saw The Last Temptation of Christ in '88. I don't remember the name of it. Of course, I don't remember the name of the other one, either. It's in Philadelphia, near the corner (IIRC) of 22nd and Chester, and I saw Delicatessen there in '92. Both of them have the right ambience for movies, which the big stadium-seating megaplexes Cinemark and Regal have put up near me, as much as I love the comfort factor and monster-sized drinks, really don't. That said, I'd transplant the Cedar Lee's snack bar to either/both of them.
01. Favorite quote from a filmmaker?
"Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film." - Werner Herzog
02. A good movie from a bad director?
THX-1138. Enough said.
03. Favorite Laurence Olivier performance?
Sleuth.
04. Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I used to work down the street from the shopping plaza where Edward Scissorhands had his botique in Lakeland, Florida once. Looked pretty much the same.
05. Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti!!!!!!!!!!
06. Best movie about baseball?
Pride of the Yankees wins because pretty much every other movie about baseball is kinda awful.
07. Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance?
Sorry, Wrong Number. God, what a bitch. Though there's always Ball of Fire. And The Lady Eve. And Executive Suite. Dammit!
08. Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused, easily.
09. What was the last movie you saw, and why?
In the theater? It was me walking about of 300 about half an hour in. At home? Army of Shadows.
10. Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
The Sound of Music made me seriously consider not having children.
11. Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance?
The Philadelphia Story
12. A bad movie from a good director?
The Wiz.
13. Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Actually, yeah. It's okay to hate, and it's not like I want to see it again, but I've rarely seen a director express his feelings so well on screen. "Oh, so you want to know what it felt like to grow up under facism? Okay, watch this. How you're feeling right now? Yeah, it kinda felt like that."
14. Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Gotta go Billy Wilder on this one.
15. Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.
Want: Toronto. Favorite: New York.
16. Head or 200 Motels?
Nobody ever lends money to a man with a sense of humor. (HEAD x100000000000000000000)
17. Favorite cameo appearance?
Charlton Heston in Wayne's World 2.
18. Favorite Rosalind Russell performance?
It's too easy, but His Girl Friday is tough to beat.
19. What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
HEAD. What would it include? Uh, anything? Anything.
20. Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason?
Sean Connery in The Hill. Actually, pretty much anybody in The Hill. You should really see that movie.
21. Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I'm going to have to go with HEAD on this one, too.
22. Favorite John Wayne performance?
The Great Movie Ride at Disney MGM Studios.
23. Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Fink, I guess.
24. Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice?
Those skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts are pretty badass.
25. Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
The Lord of the Rings movies.
26. Favorite Dub Taylor performance?
That one where he played Cannonball. No, but in all seriousness, Paw Chubber in the Hillbilly Honeymoon episode of The Monkees. You asked for it.
27. If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Right before I die? Horse Feathers, Monkey Business, and Animal Crackers. Animal Crackers last so I could just drift off to sleep with the rest of them.
28. And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
My living room.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"I'd like to regard myself as an airplane, not an airport." -Jean-Luc Godard
2) A good movie from a bad director
Mysterious Skin - Greg Araki - though I kind of enjoy his films for some of the style, nonetheless everytime I see one of his films I think, man that was horrible on so many levels, but I kind of like them on another, anway, Mysterious Skin
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
A Life (1982)
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The Winchester in Shaun of the Dead. It looked a lot different, they must of remodeled, but they siad we were in the right bar...
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
6) Best movie about baseball
I'm kind of partial to The Jackie Robinson Story, but I think that's just because of nostalgia for the first time I saw it as a kid...
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
In Douglas Sirk's 'There's Always Tomorrow.' Such a disturbing film from the studio era...
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and confused...
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
the Simpson's Movie, because it came out today and a bunch of friends were going...I like movies, why not?
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Douglas Sirk's 'There's Always Tomorrow,' Fred MacMurray's children are real bastards in that film. Otherwise 'The Brood' made me fear anyone under three and half feet tall for weeks.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
'Philadelphia Story.' She's so damn good in it.
12) A bad movie from a good director
'Gangs of New York.' It's a pretty film, but it's to scattered and frantic to really make the audience feel the story. Scorsese can (and usually will) do so much better.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Billy Wilder, though he amost always co-wrote, no one has hipper, fast talking lead men than he does.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Venice. Haven't been, but I don't think any festival is as consistent as Venice right now.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I fail here.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
It's maybe not exactly a cameo, but people act like johnny Depp was actually in 'Platoon.' He is on-screen for like five seconds, and now they list him as one of the actors on the new DVD, with a clip of him at the end as they list the leads. Unbelievable, trying to leach off of him, it was a cameo, in retrospect. Then I believe he would be called an extra.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
'His Girl Friday'
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
'Citizen Kane,' 'Easy Rider,' and 'Double Indemnity.' I mean really, just give us something, there are tons of essays, interviews, scholars who could be put to use on this. This is an atrocity that it hasn't happened yet. (help, Criterion, help)
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Bonzo the Monkey in 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' (starring the Gipper). Really this film, and Bonzo, say so much about the direction America was about to be steered in.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
neither?
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
'The Searchers' is Wayne at his best, though 'The Green Berets' is some of the best over-the-top, campy performances of his career.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Both? I guess 'Barton Fink.' Far too underrated. (Damn you Jonathon Rosenbaum)
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the titans
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Star Wars. No really. Star Wars. (I like it, but really it's kind of like Nirvana. They're great but they made it ok for shitty bands to put out CD's from their garage, kind of like Myspace)
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Bonnie and Clyde
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
'Once upon a Time in America' (Sergio Leone)
'Amores Perros' (Innaritu)
and I'd end it all with 'Through a Glass Darkly' (Bergman)
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The National Film Theatre in London (nostalgia)
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country." - Clint Eastwood
2) A good movie from a bad director
This one's a toughie, I'll have to go with Big Fish from Tim Burton, I just don't "get" his stuff but I really enjoyed that one.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Clash of the Titans, I watched it all the time as a kid.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I visited Scotland and walked down Princes Street in Edinburgh, the street Ewan McGregor runs down in the opening to Trainspotting. It was a magical experience and I had to fight the urge to take off in a dead sprint.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino De Laurentiis, I've seen way more of his stuff.
6) Best movie about baseball
Major League, James Gammon as head coach Lou Brown kills me everytime, Corbin Bernsen was also great as Roger Dorn.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Never seen any of her stuff, I really need to see Double Indemnity though.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Being from Louisiana I identified more with Dazed and Confused since it's set in the south, they're both very funny though.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
I watched the Hills Have Eyes 2 the other night for some ungodly reason, I wish I could un-watch it, it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I'm only 26 and have no kids but I'll say The Muppets Take Manhattan, it makes me want to have kids so I would have an excuse to watch it more often.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The only film I've ever seen of hers is, sadly, Rooster Cogburn, I guess I'll have to go with that.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Thelma and Louise from Ridley Scott, why Ridley?!
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
My morbid curiosity got the best of me and I actually ordered a copy off ebay. I know all about the supposed message behind the movie but it's really just a bunch of violence and underage nudity. Still, I say yes, lets lighten up people, it's just a movie.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ben Hecht, very impressive resume Ben.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Never been to a film festival, I guess I'll say Sundance since they have they're own channel, I don't know.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Head.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Jack Black in Anchorman for introducing the word broseph to my vocabulary.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I wish I could contribute an intelligent answer to this question but I cannot, I have never seen any of her works.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Coppola's Dracula, I know Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves were bad but Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins more than make up for it. I find this film very interesting and the current dvd release doesn't offer much of the insight I'd like to see, some documentaries, commentaries, I'll take anything.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Julius Carry in The Last Dragon. I'm serious.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
ummmm....Mayer?
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Hondo, Al Bundy's favorite movie!
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch, I love bizarre movies and when I saw this at the tender age of 13 or so it freaked me out, I really should read the book though.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Clash of the Titans, great stuff.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
The Fast and the Furious, I've never seen it but I hate everything about it.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
The Wild Bunch
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
I'd start with Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, to give me a little strength. Then I'd go with my favorite movie of all time, The Big Lebowski, to put put me in a good mood. Then I'd watch The Cure for Insomnia, the longest movie ever made, 87 hours long, to give me an additionl few days to wait on my appeal to come through.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Northgate 8 in Lafayette, Louisiana, the worst theater in my hometown.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Alfred Hitchcock’s response to a man who said that his daughter refused to shower after seeing Psycho: “Send her to the dry cleaners.”
2) A good movie from a bad director
X-Men 3: The Last Stand, from Brett Ratner. It's no Citizen Kane, but I think I'm just a total geek for superhero movies. And Brett Ratner is an ugly douchebag.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Maxim de Winter in "Rebecca"
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I live in Boston, where "The Departed" was shot. But let me make one clear distinction here: "The Departed" takes place in SOUTH BOSTON, or Southie, where everyone has the accents and is kinda white-trash thuggy. It has its own zip code. It is a different place. Furthermore, there is no way in hell that cell phones would work on the subway, as shown in the film.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
De Laurentiis produced Blue Velvet, which I have mixed feelings about, so I don't know...
6) Best movie about baseball
I don't like sports. No.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity...although I want to see more of her stuff.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Haven't seen either - don't kill me!
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Wordplay, the recent documentary about crossword puzzles. Before that it was Wong Kar Wai's 2046.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that serious affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
I hate children and never want them. Probably my biggest fear would be them growing up to be resentful of me. Thus, the most horrifying film in this respect is "Mildred Pierce," featuring Ann Blyth as the mean, ungrateful daughter from hell.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
For nice Kate, "The Philadelphia Story," for batshit crazy Kate, "Suddenly Last Summer"
12) A bad movie from a good director
I am absolutely obsessed with/adore Pedro Almodovar, and he was on a winning streak with me until "Matador." It really freaked me out. Death fetishes? Eek!
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
I work at a video store and saw this on the shelves today. Based on the pictures on the cover...no.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I'm greedy...both!
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
ANY! PLEASE!
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I second whoever above me said "A Hard Day's Night"
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Sylvester Stallone was in Woody Allen's "Bananas," before he was famous, as a thug. That's pretty funny. Cate Blanchett in "Hot Fuzz" is funny too...you only see her eyes, and she's uncredited.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
"The Women"! Most amazingly bitchy movie ever!
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
I'm a fair-weather fan of fancy tricked-out DVDs. Things like director commentary don't really appeal to me, but things like deleted scenes, bloopers, costume galleries might. So I don't know.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard." Spencer Tracy in "Inherit the Wind". Liza Minnelli in "Cabaret." And Kate Winslet in "Little Children" and Penelope Cruz in "Volver," two great performances that went largely unnoticed because of the Academy's giant boner for Helen Mirren.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Both...crazy studio heads are always fun.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Not a Wayne-y kinda gal.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Haven't seen.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
N/A
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Norbit.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
?
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
"Singin in the Rain," "Rushmore," and "Inherit the Wind" (in that order). All inspirational in their own way. But maybe I should pick ridiculously depressing movies so that I don't feel so bad about leaving this earth.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
The Brattle in Cambridge. Vintage class.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
Film is truth at 24 frames per second and every cut is a lie - Jean-luc Godard
2) A good movie from a bad director
Red Dragon
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Sadly, I haven't seen enough to know
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
A good chunk of The Ring was shot at a friend's family's farm, including the whole scene at the resort. One of the cabins is still there and a couple years ago she had bunch of people over to watch the movie in the cabin. This sound ed like it would be an amazing experience, but for some reason, sitting in the same room that Naomi Watts watched that haunted videotape (we also watched the movie on tape) with a bunch of late teens-twentysomethings didn't really have much of an affect on me, except for a brief moment when someone sneaked out and switched off the generator.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Got to give the edge to Dino if for nothing other than longevity. He's 87 and still making pictures.
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham or Eight Men Out
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Stella Dallas is the only one of her classic performances I've seen and it must have been great because I can't stand this time of movie and yet she made me care about it. I also have fond memories of her role as Virginia Barkley on "The Big Valley", which I grew up watching in reruns.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I haven't seen either one all the way through.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Bloody Sunday (2002). I found the first 2/3rds distancing, mostly because of the constant fading to black between every scene, but the entire massacre sequence was heartrendingly intense and together with James Nesbitt's central performance gave the film the an emotional punch
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Eraserhead: Having kids is scary.
Children of Men: Not having kids is scary.
Idiocracy: Intelligent people have a responsibility to have kids.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Rose in The African Queen
12) A bad movie from a good director
Intolerable Cruelty
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Haven't seen it, conscience says no , but my curiosity says maybe.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
This is tough. While I submit that both writers are near equals in greatness, I prefer Wilder because his sensibilities are closer to my own.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I just attended a pretty good one that no one knows about that just happens to be in my backyard, The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF). I've gone to at least one screening at SIFF since 2003 and this my work gave me a sponsor pass so I was able to see over 30 films - for free. As nice as that was however, I'd still like to go Venice, Cannes, or Teluride.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
haven't seen either
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Martin Scorsese as a disturbed passenger in Taxi Driver
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
It has to be His Girl Friday
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Warner's Stanley Kubrick collection is really kind of sad. I would like to see special editions of Lolita, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and maybe an unrated version of Eyes Wide Shut, especially Barry Lyndon and 2001. Featurettes on the technical aspects of those 2 movies alone would be incredible.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.
Andy Griffith in A Face In The Crowd
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Cohn - More despicable reputation, but more of an underdog.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
They Were Expendable
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Barton Fink!! Barton Fink!!
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
20 million Miles To Earth
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Twilight Zone: The Movie and any other movie that people actually died filming. No one should die for art.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I can't think of one I remember
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Donnie Darko, Groundhog Day, 2001
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Donnie Darko - Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, in Cannes
Groundhog Day - 180 Meridian movie theatere in Taveuni, Fiji
2001 - The Cinerama, Seattle
: EXTRA CREDIT!!!
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Altered States
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed." - Stanley Kubrick, although to say it is my "favorite" quote would be a stretch.
2) A good movie from a bad director
I tried to find something good on Brett Ratner's resume, but I came up short.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
He was pure evil in "Marathon Man"
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I don't think I have ever intentionally sought out filming locations, but I've been to a few like The Mulberry Street Bar in Little Italy where a bunch of gangster movies (Donnie Brasco, Godfather III, etc...) were filmed. It was ok.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Ponti produced "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein". So he's got that going for him. Which is nice.
6) Best movie about baseball
So many to choose from, but "Bull Durham" is my favorite.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Sorry...don't have one.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
"Dazed and Confused". I love "Fast Times", but "Dazed" hit a little closer to home for me.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
"Man on Fire" - the Scott Glenn version, not the Denzel. I watched it because it was on.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not really.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Tracy Lord in "The Philadelphia Story"
12) A bad movie from a good director
"Village of the Damned" by John Carpenter. Well, I think he's a good director.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Never seen it, nor will I ever see it. So, no.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ben Hecht, if only for "Notorious"
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
Wouldn't minde going to Sundance one year.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
"Head", I guess. Never saw the other one.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
John Cusack in "Roadside Prophets". Utterly bizarre.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Nope...I got nothing.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Those collector editions don't do much for me. I dig me some deleted scenes and outtakes, but I won't buy the DVD purely for the extras.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Ray Winstone in "Nil by Mouth". Brutal.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Louis B. Mayer, I guess.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Either Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers" or Sean Thornton in "The Quiet Man" Toss up.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Gotta go with Barton Fink on this one.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
"Clash of the Titans" because it was the last of its kind.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
The world would be a be a better place if films like "Schindler's List" weren't inspired by true events.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Really? I dunno, how about the Doc in "Support Your Local Gunfighter"
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Tough one. Let's go with the extended version of all three "Lord of the Rings" films. Why not.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Don't care about the location, but it would have to be an IMAX.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker:
"I'd never want to belong to a club that would have anyone like me as a member." - Woody Allen (paraphrasing Groucho Marx)
2) A good movie from a bad director:
"Highlander" - sorry Russel but your other films suck. "Highlander" rules though. Saw it at the world premiere in Edinburgh and was so impressed that I sat in my seat for twenty minutes afterward just trying to process it all.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance:
I'd have to say "Sleuth".
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Top Notch Burgers from "Dazed and Confused". It looked so much like the movie I expected Ben Affleck to pull up and threaten me with a paddling.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
DeLaurentiis if for no other reason than his massive output (more English films than Ponti), but if you really need a reason then "Three Days of the Condor," "Army of Darkness" and "The Dead Zone."
6) Best movie about baseball:
"For Love of the Game" chokes me up every time. Ahem! If anybody’s listening, this movie needs a HD release immediately!
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance:
"Sorry Wrong Number," she really shows her sense of helplessness.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
As my answer to question 4 may have hinted at... "Dazed and Confused."
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so...)
"The Host" It was recommended by someone at "Ain’t It Cool News"
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not really, although I sure enough have passed on my love for film to my two sons.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance:
"The Philadelphia Story" no, wait a minute... I meant "The African Queen." No, that's not it. How about "Rooster Cogburn" or "Lion in Winter." Face it, this is one of the hardest questions to answer.
12) A bad movie from a good director:
"The Hindenburg" directed by Robert Wise. I can't hold the theatrical version of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" against him as Paramount rushed him and it wasn't finished until the 2-disc DVD release where he was given the time and money to make the film he intended.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom—yes or no?
Having never seen it, I'd have to say – YES. I'm a glutton for new experiences.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
I'll have to go with Billy, although I'm a big fan of the atrocious "Casino Royale" (1967) which the two worked on together.
15) Name the film festival you'd most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended:
Never attended, but would love to go to SXSW (I always seem to miss the films and only hear the music). Only FF I've ever attended was the Edinburgh Film Festival back in the eighties.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Give me "Head"... not just a shameless plea.
17) Favorite cameo appearance:
Takashi Miike in "Hostel."
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance:
"His Girl Friday"
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
"Twilight Zone: The Movie" – Should include the storyboards for the original ending of Landis' segment that was scrapped when Vic Morrow, Rene Chen and My-ca Dinh Le lost their lives.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason:
Rock Hudson in "Seconds." Too many people think of Rock Hudson as the leading man in countless Rom-Coms that ended up being gay. "Seconds" shows just how good he could be when he tried.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Toss-up... but I’ll give it to Mayer as he grew up in Canada (yea Canucks!)
22) Favorite John Wayne performance:
"The Shootist," not your typical Wayne cowboy role and he pulls it off magnificently.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Another toss-up but this time I'll go anti-Canuck with "Barton Fink" as I'm also a big Turturro fan.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice:
"Jason and the Argonauts" Oh yeah! Sitting in the theatre as a youngster watching this celluloid magic was what turned me on to films in the first place.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?:
"Starship Troopers" The director apologized for this saying, "We had enough money for either the bugs or the suits, so we went with the bugs." Sorry man, if you don't have the money to do it right... DON'T DO IT! The classic novel by RAH has yet to be filmed in my book.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance:
One would have to know who this is, to have a favourite.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
"Army of Darkness" – a touch of humour
"The Fountain" – a sense of destiny
and
"Sorcerer" – triumph over all obstacles (alternate would be the original "Wages of Fear" although I prefer the cinematography in Friedkin's remake).
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
While sipping a cold one in the Original Alamo Drafthouse, Austin, Texas.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"Just the usual monkey-funeral shot." --Billy Wilder
Second favorite Wilder quote, from a wire he sent from Paris upon being unable to secure his wife Audrey the bidet she wanted: "IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND BIDET STOP. SUGGEST YOU DO HANDSTANDS IN THE SHOWER STOP."
Also--
"After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor." -John Huston
And since I have you here, what the hell. Michael Curtiz, as retold by Peter Ustinov:
"The Egyptian was one of the first films in CinemaScope and [Curtiz] was fascinated with the new process. 'In de nex' shot, you coom from house visper in dis ear otter actor secret.' I went up to Purdom and whispered something in his ear. Curtiz yelled, 'Cut!' This was puzzling because I had done exactly as he asked. 'No goot. Dis is Zinemascope, vide shkreen--ven you visper muss be four feet apart.'"
2) A good movie from a bad director The Postman Always Rings Twice (the original). Tay Garnett has only a few flashes in an otherwise wholly mediocre filmography (another one being the splendid One Way Passage). His autobiography is huge amounts of fun, however.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
His reputation has really slid over the last couple of decades, hasn't it? 49th Parallel -- although I do love him in Sleuth.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not? Living in New York, I do this almost every day. I will say that Funny Face, in its Parisian montage, captures the allure of that city quite well.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)? Ponti wins it, for Contempt.
6) Best movie about baseball
Bull Durham is the best evocation of the sport, so far as this rather tepid fan can tell, but my real favorite is The Pride of the Yankees.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
The Lady Eve
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Fast Times. It has real heart, not to mention being one of the only teen movies with an honest approach to sex, and sex's consequences. If you only knew how tired I am of the "miracle miscarriage."
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…) The Woman in the Window at Film Forum. I had never seen it, as it has been out of wide circulation for a while, and wanted to catch it on a big screen. It was splendid, of course.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own? The utterly godawful, inexcusably retrograde Nine Months made me realize that having kids would mean confronting the same old tired attitudes everybody else did. I went ahead anyway. The best portrayal of a child's eye view is still The Spirit of the Beehive.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
The Lion in Winter. I had an acting teacher who maintained that Hepburn only became a real actress--deep, true, reliant on no tricks whatever--in this movie. I think she gave many good performances before this one, but she hit this one out of the park.
12) A bad movie from a good director Don't all great filmmakers have at least one clinker to their name? Or, one that people make excuses for. Honestly, El Dorado isn't very good.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no? Interesting question, since I just saw my first Pasolini film, Teorema, on Friday. It was certainly worthwhile but the whole intense Catholicism trip is not something that speaks to me, personally. How about, "sure, if I have nothing better to do?"
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)? I cannot bear to be without Ninotchka, so Wilder. But I hate you for making me pick.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended? Cannes, bien sur. I have been to that part of the Cote d'Azur and I love the whole ambience. I would want a dazzling Paris wardrobe, matched luggage and a small dog to accompany me.
16) Head or 200 Motels? *blink*
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble) I love Joan Crawford's cameo in It's a Great Feeling, an otherwise dull Doris Day vehicle. She shows up in a department store in Hollywood and overhears Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson talking about Day. She flies into a fine Mildred-confronts-Veda rage and slaps them both. The men ask, what was that about? and she responds cheerfully, "I do that in all my pictures!" Off she strides, ankle-straps, shoulder pads and all.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
Auntie Mame.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include? The very great Letter from an Unknown Woman, criminally unavailable on Region 1 DVD at the moment. It would include an extensive interview, maybe even a commentary track, from Joan Fontaine, who produced the picture and is still quite gloriously living.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason. Joan Fontaine in Letter from an Unknown Woman. Sister Olivia still gets mentioned and is remembered (largely for Gone with the Wind, among non-cinephiles) but Joan is criminally underdiscussed. Letter is a superb performance, easily in a class with that of Danielle Darrieux in Earrings of Madame de..., in which Joan takes her character believably from age 14 to her early 30s.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)? Personally, they were both so unbelievably dreadful. Still, I will give Mayer the edge. Myrna Loy once admitted that loathsome as he was, he did generally know how to package a star.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance. As an actor, his finest two hours are in Red River. But my favorite is Stagecoach. He was so beautiful, he had such grace and innocence in that part. His gentlemanly way with Claire Trevor: "Looks like I've got the plague, don't it?"
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink? have seen neither.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice. Clash of the Titans, for the fond memories of watching it on TV with my roommates many moons ago.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made? I could give a lot of frivolous answers here, but in general I do not think movies make the world worse. I suppose you could make a case for Jew Suss or some other propaganda, but even then I think those movies could have served as warning sirens if good people had paid attention at the time.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance. C.W.'s pa in Bonnie and Clyde.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be? Rules of the Game, Ninotchka, The Band Wagon.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in? The main theater of the old Bleecker Street Cinema. I loved that place.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes”- Howard Hawks.
I don’t really like Howard Hawks, but this is pretty good advice. When I dabbled in filmmaking, the most important thing I realized was that the instinct of a lot of filmmakers is to make a movie with nothing but good scenes. That never quite works out though. If all you have are high points, you’re going to plateau.
2) A good movie from a bad director
Pretty Woman by Garry Marshall. Gary Marshall is a moron and a very untalented director. I fondly remember the cutaways to nuns talking on cell phones in The Princess Diaries. But I always dug Pretty Woman; there’s real meat to the class divide, the fairy tale romance, and the idea of why and how we become what we become. And Marshall hadn’t gone on autopilot yet and, in 1990, had not become dated.
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
Off the top of my head, it’s Marathon Man. Olivier is invisible in that role, but I still remember the performance.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
Eh, this is my least favorite question in this survey. Usually if a location was used in a movie, they heavily promote the fact that they were in a movie or you are aware that they were in a movie; and so in a funny way, when you are there you never quite suspend your disbelief that it’s a real place.
So, that’s my non-answer to the question.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Yeah, Dino De Laurentiis. Wish I could make my case my intelligently, but I think I’ve only seen one Carlo Ponti production.
6) Best movie about baseball
I don’t like sports, much less baseball; but I love Field of Dreams. That’s probably a baseball movie in the sense that it’s perhaps the most religious secular film or the most secular religious film I’ve ever seen and baseball is sort of the stand-in for God.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Shit! I’ve never seen a Barbara Stanwyck performance! Double Indemnity has been on my list for a while. I have a “film noir” collection with The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers so I’ll probably see that one some find day.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I don’t like either of them. They‘re painful without being particularly cathartic, falsely inflated with pathos so they don‘t appear to be the usual teenage shenanigans. Both films are frauds in my view. Between the two though, I prefer Fast Times at Ridgemont High though. It’s just stupid and sloppy, whereas Dazed and Confused is smug, like they should know better. Compare how the two films use music for example. In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it’s usually very arbitrary and meaningless. A snippet of “American Girl” appears when we enter the high school, for example. In Dazed and Confused, the music is used to comment on the action in a perfunctory smug kind of way. During the hazing sequence, “Why Can’t We Be Friends” comes on the soundtrack. It wants me to throw my shoe at the screen.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
At the time of this writing, Robot Monster (1953). I had been really into Ed Wood and stuff like that when I was in junior high. The attraction never really ceased and deepened even, but you know, I got into investigating other things. I’ve been meaning to check out Robot Monster for some ten years now and just never got around to it. On my Netflix cue, I had just burned through the second season of Twin Peaks and wanted to give myself some kind of “break” before I start burning through 2006 and 2007 releases that I missed. I somehow thought that Robot Monster was “break” material.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Loverboy (2005), where little Kyra Sedgwick’s parents love each other more than they love her, so when she has a little boy she smothers him. Scared the shit out of me. I’ve been married to my wife for five years and we’re pretty deep into one another. Not sure how we could successfully put a kid in the mix, where you know, there is an unbalance of reciprocity. Don’t you think that if you can’t relate to someone, you’ll shut them out of your life?
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
I haven’t seen her best work, just On Golden Pond and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Between the two I prefer her in On Golden Pond for whatever it’s worth.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Annie (1982) by John Huston. Of course, it was my very first John Huston film. Pretty awful stuff, if you aren’t insulted by this film then you deserve it. I’m sure that Huston has a lot of bad movies in his filmography. He’s just lucky this is the only one we remember. Check out rogerebert.com for a scathing three star review of the film.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
Yes! Of course! Don’t be a pussy guys, if you haven’t seen go and see it! Of course, this was the first Pasolini film I saw and I saw it basically because I heard it was brutal and I’m into testing my manhood through such rituals. But after seeing it, I’ve become quite a Pasolini fan and seeing all his movies has become one of the recent assignments I’ve given myself. So there you go.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hmm. I somehow think Ben Hecht would be a tad less self-conscious; but I don’t feel quite that qualified to say.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended.
I would love to attend Cannes. I like that whole blend of art and commerce, it just evinces a very pure apolitical kind of love for film. And I love how whenever Gus Van Sant, Lars Von Trier, or Michael Haneke has a new film it shows up there.
Not exactly a favorite film festival, but I’ve attended Sundance to some capacity since 2000, and now I even have a press pass to go!
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven’t seen either of them. I’m sorry.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
(Try visiting here and here for some good ideas! This question was inspired by Daniel Johnson at Film Babble)
Todd Solondz in Married to the Mob. Particularly since it came out a year before his first film which didn’t even get him famous. Whuh?!
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I’ve only seen His Girl Friday. She was fine in it.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Hey, how about Salo: 120 Days of Sodom?! I would like two separate audio commentaries; one by a Sade scholar and another by a Pasolini scholar. The second disc would have to have Mark Kermode’s 2001 Salo Documentary, of course. Maybe another one on how the movie has been so damn hard to get legitimately.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Bill Paxton in The Dark Backward. The perfect/consummate Bill Paxton performance. I will forever worship him for that.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Wow, I really need to brush up on my 1930s.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
Actually, I dug him in Stagecoach. The Cowboys was good too. It’s surprising to me how much vulnerability there is in the John Wayne persona.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
I’ve only seen bits of pieces of Naked Lunch. It’s on my Netflix cue. But I do like Barton Fink better than those bits and pieces.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. One of the least “kiddy” of the Ray Harryhausen films and it has that kick ass fight with Shiva, not to mention John Phillip Law’s dreamy baby blues!
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Seriously, no. If I ever say that, it’s just hyperbole. I believe that the cinema has the power to change us for the better or for the worse on a personal level, but sociologically it has little if any impact.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Not familiar with the man’s work. Sorry.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Breakfast- “W.E.I.R.D. World (1995)”, it’s been so long since I’ve seen it. It would suck if it ended up being terrible, but since this is wish-fulfillment time….
Lunch- Andrei Rublev. Since my other two are so light, it would be good to do a little heavy lifting on my last day.
Dinner- Plan 9 From Outer Space, actually. That would be a nice one to go off into the sunset on.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
Oh, Century 16 in Salt Lake would be fine. Surrounded by lots of friends.
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker:
"All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap."
also:
"Writing is acting is directing is living your life. .... There is no illusion. It is all the same thing."
-- John Patrick Shanley, from the introduction to "13 by Shanley"
2) A good movie from a bad director
"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
"Is it safe?" ... to say I loved him in "Marathon Man"?? The younger Larry, in "Hamlet" say, was too pretty for me to be impressed by his acting. But he matured well, much as Anthony Hopkins has.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
The top of the Empire State Building, four years ago ("King Kong" of course ... and way more crowded in real life than it was in "Sleepless
in Seattle." And the view from the observation deck of the city at night, including the bridges and the outer boroughs off in the distance and the glorious Art Deco masterpiece that is the Chrysler Building, also let me experience for real the opening images of "Someone to Watch Over Me" ...
I was in Rome this spring, and if you filled the wide boulevards around the Colosseum with vintage cars it would look just like "Roman Holiday" -- but I didn't go to Trevi Fountain - because of the crowds, the pickpockets, and the fact that the famous scene in "La Dolce Vita" was done on a set! (next time, I have to make it to Cinecitta!)
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)? For his intent to humanize his "big monkey," Dino.
6) Best movie about baseball
John Sayles' "Eight Men Out" -- It tells a great story (better than Eliot Asinof's poorly written book does) of historical importance, it's paced and edited so skillfully, and most important of all it captures the joy and heartbreak that players and devoted fans routinely feel about the game (and about this event in its history).
That said, "Fear Strikes Out," "Bingo Long's Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings," and Kevin Costner's triple play (well, technically a hat trick, but that's another sport entirely) in "Bull Durham," "Field of Dreams" and "For the Love of the Game" are all nearly perfect. If only automobile racing -- one of Hemingway's "true sports" -- could be half as well represented on screen as the great American pastime.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance - has to be in "Double Indemnity." I suppose I became a noir fan with "Body Heat," but Stanwyck broke the mold for femmes fatale.
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused? I love these "Choose!" type of poll questions -- they're the "Qui es muy macho?" of SLIFR -- mostly because there is no right or wrong answer, they are wonderful taking-off points for criticism. I'm a longtime fan of both Cameron Crowe and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and "Fast Times" is full of memorable lines and moments, iconic for the '80s teen movie it ultimately is and always will be. But having recently devoured "Dazed"a few more times, I gotta give it up for Linklater, his story, thelook of his film and his amazing ensemble.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why?
I'm qualifying this question as meaning ... In a theater? I've stayed away from the multiplex so far this summer; but I may soon succumb to $9 tickets and $7 popcorn stuck to the floor for "The Simpsons Movie." As for my last, you're gonna love this ... "Two or Three Things I Know About Her" -- a major Godard I'd missed until now -- thankfully, finally, came to Cornell's repertory cinema. And I had to see it because -- you're also gonna love THIS -- it's referenced as an all-time favorite by one of the full-time film obsessives in "Cinemania." (which every sli-fer here should see!)
Now, about the film - good, unique, and not quite what I expected, with its framework of political statements and hardcore critical theory. It's beautifully shot and constructed, but for me it raised a question of Godard's intent -- even though a woman is central to the narrative parts of the film, I continue to wonder, does he even LIKE women? Or people, for that matter? Are beautiful girls just empty objects under our gaze, and their men all self-absorbed, morons, and emotionally challenged, passive-agressive dickheads? I never really expect a straight narrative from Godard, and that doesn't bother me.
But I have this half-formed opinion of him as a misogynist and misanthrope, based on the ambiguous and disaffected male characters he shows in lifeless relationships in his other films -- men who obviously DON'T care for women, beyond their sex. Maybe it's his view of society, or his direction of actors is not as intentional a part of his art as I surmise here. Either way, it irks me as much as frat boy mentality and any mistreatment of women does in real life. I'm probably taking it all too personally, but I really can't help having such a visceral reaction. Thoughts?
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
"The 400 Blows," "The Butcher Boy," and anything Macaulay Culkin made
before he turned 18 are all coming to mind.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance. Wow, it's hard to choose one. After "Bringing Up Baby," which is mostly enjoyable for Cary Grant, just about anything she did with Spencer Tracy. Back around the '40s she was pretty sexy just for being a force of nature, a strong woman in an era when they were rarely portrayed, and she's the rarest of all, in a class all her own -- although she'd never be my physical type.
12) A bad movie from a good director "Ashes of Time" from Wong Kar-Wai comes to mind, only because it's a genre film, his first feature (and for the Asian market?) and the only one of his I can't sit through -- and I love all the rest.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no? With a title like that, I can only WISH I'd seen it so I had an opinion!
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)? Oh, Billy, absolutely. I love the screwball genre, and both are great -- but Billy all the way, right up to the effective end of his career with "One, Two, Three." I keep meaning to buy Cameron Crowe's book.
15) Name the film festival you'd most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended. oh, Cannes, absolutely. If time travel was no obstacle? This year's, for Norah Jones onscreen and in person!...
16) Head or 200 Motels?
Haven't seen but parts of "Head" so it's unfair to choose. But Monkees or Zappa? Monkees, baby!
17) Favorite cameo appearance: hmmm... Val Kilmer in "Masked and Anonymous." Those teeth! His insane, intense few minutes on screen was pure gold.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance - "His Girl Friday"
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector's edition treatment you think it
deserves? What would such an edition include?
"Lost Highway" - which may not even be on DVD in the U.S. still. With full director and screenwriter commentaries and all the usual extras, and commentary or interviews with Robert Blake, Robert Loggia, Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, even Gary Busey, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and Trent Reznor. I'd also love to see a featurette on Lynch's production design for any of his films, but especially one that noted the furniture he made or designed for this one.
I'd also love to see a deluxe 3-DVD set of Mulholland Dr.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason.
Bud Cort in "Harold and Maude." Poor guy never had another role to match that one.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
If Harry was less reprehensible as a person than Louis B, I'll choose him.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance - was in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance! It sort of set in my mind everything John Wayne WAS. My dad was a big Duke fan...
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink? I love that Barton Fink feeling.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice - I'd say the effects in "Jason and the Argonauts" struck me the most as a kid... and then, without even knowing RH's name, I started noticing his aesthetic in all that stock footage of his dinosaurs that seemingly showed up everywhere, including "Gilligan's Island."
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Haven't I answered this before? "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"! I can't think of a crasser exercise in exploiting great art and marketing it just to milk the public, or a worse example of empty, make-a-buck filmmaking this side of Michael Bay or "Pokemon." (and this is from someone who loved the Beatles, hated disco, and actually LIKED 'Thank God It's Friday' - thin plot and everything - all in the same general era of my late teenhood.)
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance - possibly my second favorite pop-eyed, what-a-character! actor, after Dick Miller. But I had to look him up to recall even ONE film he was in. Of those, I'd have to go with a movie I loved -- "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" -- although his comic presence and grizzled visage were probably better served -- and thus more a part of my personally memorable image of "Dub Taylor"
-- in many other B-grade pictures.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be? Ooooh, great question. Thinking... thinking ... you want the meals, too? I'm not much of a carnivore, but so what -- I'm dying!
(Strangely, I don't think there's any nudity in a single one of my choices. Not very good condemned-man behavior, I know, but art always seems to win out.)
I think I would want to see 'Simple Men' one last time. And it ends on a beautiful note -- Robert Burke's character finds comfort in a woman's love, saving himself and saving her, just as he's being arrested. A lobster bake might be appropriate to the Long Island setting.
Since the theme for this, my ending scenario, is being condemned, I'd also want to see a thoughtful drama somewhat along those lines -- Spike Lee's "25th Hour" fits the bill nicely. I'd probably want a little sirloin or brasciole -- feasting on the red meat of life, as it were; it's not imperative though. It'd be more important to me to have '25th Hour' co-star Rosario Dawson as a dinner & movie companion -- it doesn't seem like TOO much to ask, considering my looming fate -- and I'd even let her choose the menu.
Finally, the one I want burned in my brain even as I go into the light is "Love and Death" -- one of the funniest philosophical movies ever made. Serve me a nice juicy Chicken Kiev and some white wine, and something sinfully rich and covered in chocolate for dessert. That, and a little laughter, Woody, Diane and Prokofiev, should soften the blow of my impending death.
If for some reason a print of any of these is not available, I would request "Last Tango in Paris" as an alternate choice. (there, I finally went for sex and nudity!! -- but also, you know, in a good, thought-provoking film.)
Of course, after all this I would want Bruce Willis to bust into the gas chamber with a shotgun (and some Alka-Seltzer) and say he'd have been there sooner but "traffic was a bitch." He wouldn't have to carry me out or anything...
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in? "Simple Men" and "25th Hour" would be fine in the small room at Fall Creek in Ithaca, with its reclining high-back seats and comfy big throw cushions (well, Rosario will be there ...) -- and "Love and Death" I'd totally enjoy in the old Elmira Theatre, a beautiful 1925 movie palace
(originally the Keeney I think) that is still open - though not as a film venue - as the Clemens Center for the Performing Arts. (Funnily enough, my memory is of first seeing "Love and Death" in '74 in the Heights Theatre, a smaller and seedier place built in 1945.)
(And for "Last Tango" I would probably request, er, a private screening... alone or with Rosario)
extra credit --
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Michael Tolkin's "The Rapture," absolutely.
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
I'll have to paraphrase, it's been a while:
"You don't watch enough movies! Everything you need to know about life is in the movies." -- Steve Martin, in "Grand Canyon"
Also: "Love is hard! It takes EFFORT!" - Somerset, in "7even"
-- Dan Aloi
1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
"I have always perferred the reflection of the life to life itself" -- François Truffaut
2) A good movie from a bad director
...or: how the hell did they luck into that one? I still hold out a sliver of hope that Kevin Smith can turn into a good director, all because of Chasing Amy. We are all in agreement now that Kevin Smith is a bad director, right?
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I guess it'd have to be Spartacus
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
I don't know that I've been to any really iconic places. My experience is usually the reverse where places I'm really familiar with end up on the big screen and it's always surreal. Boring trivia: I grew up around where they shot In the Bedroom. There's a scene where Tom Wilkinson is in traffic behind a driver's ed car. You guessed it. That's the car of the guy who taught me to drive. See what I mean?
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dennis, every quiz you've got me running to IMDB so much it's embarrassing. I'm gonna have to go with De Laurentiis. No reason, really, just because.
6) Best movie about baseball
Ah, the wonders of baseball movies. I grew up on Field of Dreams, so it's gotta be that, but let me throw in a plug for the criminally underrated Mr. Baseball, where Tom Selleck gets traded from the Yankees to some team in Japan...good stuff. Plus, it has the great quote, "LAST SEASON, I led this team in ninth-inning doubles in the month of August!"
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity
8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
When in doubt, go with Linklater. Dazed and Confused.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Oh, I finally have a story to go with this one. So last week (yes, I haven't watched anything in a week) I'm in Maine driving to Rockland and there's construction traffic, and lots of it. It takes 25 minutes to go 100 yards. But I'm near a movie theatre, so I pull off and negotiate the various connected parking lots and go see the only thing that hasn't started yet, the new Harry Potter. It was ok, I guess.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
Not seriously affected it. But my friends joke that if I ever do have kids, I'll have the only 7 year-old who talks about Fellini on the playground.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
If I have to pick just one, I'd pick The Philadelphia Story because when you add Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, nothing can go wrong.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Are we still calling Oliver Stone a good director or has that ship sailed by now? Because World Trade Center was just awful. Cloying and sappy, I've seen Lifetime Original Movies that were better made.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom-- yes or no?
I've never even heard of that.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Hecht did write His Girl Friday, which is obviously awesome, but I can't go against my man Billy Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I'd love to go to Cannes, but not now, 50 years ago. Other than that, any festival where a film of mine is in competition is good enough for me.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I haven't seen either.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
I think I've used this before, but Marshall McLuhan in Annie Hall is pretty much as good as it gets. But here's another one for ya: The opening sequence of Austin Powers in Goldmember where Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, and Steven Spielberg all show up to film the big-budget Austin Powers movie. I just love when Hollywood has fun with itself like that.
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
His Girl Friday, of course. She's a newspaper man!
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Well, here's a couple: Dekalog, Paris nous appartient (hell, most of Rivette's stuff), and all of Woody Allen's stuff. Am I the only one who really wants to see all the stuff that got taken out of Annie Hall?
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
The lack of an Emmy nomination reminded me just how powerful Gerald McRaney's performance was in Deadwood, and how surprising it was to see this long-time actor suddenly pull out this amazing stuff, seemingly out of nowhere. It's a good reminder that perhaps there are more amazing actors around than we realize, that opportunity and experience have a lot to do with it.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
I'm in an indie mood. Can I be against both of them, on principle?
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
There are so many. Obviously, there's The Searchers, and all those other Ford films, but the Wayne performance that keeps coming to my head is from a commercial for the DVDs of one of those old variety shows. John Wayne shows up on this show, and I think this is during the 60's, in military garb to recite a poem: "Roses are red. The grass (?) is green. Get off your buts. And join the Marines". I always get a kick out of that.
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
I've read (most of) Naked Lunch (the book, of course), but I've not seen it. In an odd coincidence, I've read Barton Fink (the script, of course), but I've not seen that yet either. I keep meaning to see both.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
um...wow...I plead ignorance.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
The Matrix, if just because then I wouldn't have had to spend so much time listening to people go on and on about how brilliant it was, how deep and philosophical it was (even though it was nothing more than a bunch of big words and abstract thoughts strung together to sound profound), how ground-breaking the special effects were (conveniently forgetting the fucking Gap ad that pre-dated it), and just how cool it was (ok, I'll concede cool). But more than that, it brought us even more splashy sci-fi films with threadbare plots and even worse dialogue. "You can't die, Neo, because I love you." Oh give me a break.
Pet peeve: you hear all these filmmakers sit around bragging about how long they had to work on the special effects before they could even start filming, how they had to develop whatever technology or whatever. And the scripts always suck (think Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). And I'm always thinking, "You spent four years on this. In all that time, it didn't occur to you to make sure you had a passable script?"
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
I'm pretty sure I remember fondly his Bonanza role.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
Hmmm...I'd want some Kieslowski, probably Three Colors: Blue, and if I can cheat a little, I'd like to count Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset as one film, and then, just because I'm feeling all symbolic and stuff, Bergman's The Seventh Seal.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
I don't know of a specific theatre that would fit my needs. I'd want a big screen with crisp projection, a very comfortable couch, and Belgian beer on tap. After that, who cares where the theatre is?
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Not being an atheist, I'll mention Mother Night, my favorite film involving my favorite atheist, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
That every day occurrences are so much more poetic with a soundtrack. God bless the iPod.
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