Cinematic Reviews 20 Questions (Part One)

Twenty Questions! Found this quiz over at Mythical Monkey's blog (I love movie quizzes) and decided I must answer the questions immediately. (Monkey see, Monkey do - well, you know I had to slip that in.) Don't forget to check in over at the Monkey's and see his answers - when you finish reading mine, that is. The quiz originated at Cinematic Reviews so go take a look at those answers too.

I'm doing as Monkey did (yet again) and breaking the answers up into two posts. One today. One tomorrow.

**************************************

1) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? This is a tough one because in truth I have about five favorites I can watch at any time simply because. But forced to choose, I'd say the movie that always springs to mind for me is DIVA (1982). But at the risk of copying the Monkey once again, I also love THE THING From Another World and THE THIN MAN. Then there's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and Jean Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST or THE GHOSTBREAKERS with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. Actually I have about 10 favorites that I can (and often do) watch repeatedly.

2) WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE? Oh, this is really tough because I don't usually sit through bad movies. I either get up and leave or turn off the machine. But if pressed I'd say that my least favorite movie of recent years was director Roland Emmerich's mish-mash fiasco, ANONYMOUS which purported to debunk the idea of Shakespeare having authored his plays. Incoherent and dreadful.

A few other films I disliked intensely:  DE-LOVELY (2004), a musical life of Cole Porter starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd. It was amazingly ham-handed and thoroughly un-watchable. Third runner-up would be the first SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009) with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Fourth runner-up, IT'S COMPLICATED (2009)with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin - horrible.

3) NAME ONE MOVIE YOU INITIALLY LOVED UPON FIRST VIEWING BUT THEN GREW TO HATE: Well, there have been several, but the one that leaps instantly to mind is SWASHBUCKLER (1976) with Robert Shaw and Genevieve Bujold. I loved this movie when I first saw it in the theater eons ago. But when I was finally able to watch it again earlier this year, I disliked it intensely. Though the opening sequence and wonderful music still work their magic.

4) NAME YOUR BIGGEST GUILTY PLEASURE FILM: I have so many I feel extra guilty just settling on one. But I guess I'd pick, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948).

5) YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE FROM A FAVORITE ACTOR/ACTRESS (Line from a movie.): 

IN & OUT starring Kevin Kline, Tom Selleck and Joan Cusack.

Left at the altar by high school teacher Kevin Kline who has been outed as gay though he himself is still unsure, the very frustrated bride (Joan Cusack) runs from the church and hits a local bar in her bridal get-up. There she meets up with Tom Selleck who buys her a drink but tells her that he too is gay. Joan Cusack flings herself dramatically onto the counter top and wails as only Joan Cusack can wail, "IS EVERYBODY GAY?" 

I laughed so hard I almost fell off the sofa. And by the way, Tom Selleck is actually quite wonderful in this.

Another line I love, from MOONSTRUCK (1987): "Snap out of it!" said by Cher to Nicholas Cage when he professes his love for her. As she says her line she slaps his face, but then they go into a mad clinch. (If I'm remembering correctly.) Another line from the movie is uttered near the end at a contentious family breakfast where one couple breaks up and another couple plans a marriage. The ancient grandfather played by the lovable and legendary Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. complains, "I'm confused." Between you and me, I don't blame him.

Yet another great movie line is uttered by Bob Hope in THE GHOSTBREAKERS (1940), when his gun goes off in the hotel hallway and he thinks he's shot someone. 'Is it murder if you kill a 
perfect stranger?'

6) FAVORITE QUOTE FROM AN ACTOR OR ACTRESS THAT IS NOT A LINE FROM A MOVIE:  "I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face."  Johnny Depp

7) THREE FAVORITE MOVIE SCENES?: Off the top of my head? I'm like the Monkey in this as well: Ask me tomorrow and I'll probably answer with three different scenes.

1) John Barrymore plays a ham-bone Broadway director in TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) only too eager to pretend he's dying when attacked (not very severely) in his train compartment. As his pals rush in, he moans, "The final irony, killed by a lunatic!" It's the way that Barrymore says it - as if it were the grandest of dramas. Hilarious! Love this scene and it works for me every time I see the film which is, needless to say, often.

2) The montage of brief scenes from THE BLACK STALLION (1979), photographed by the brilliant Caleb Deschanel which show the horse and the boy (stranded on a desert island) growing closer, especially the first time the boy rides bareback, the first time the horse eats from the boy's hand, the horse perched on the cliff, the close-up of the horse at sundown, falling asleep as the boy clutches his mane - all done in beautiful natural light.

3)The big reunion scene between Heath Ledger (Ennis Del Mar) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Jack Twist) in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. In the script, the two men haven't seen each other in four years and their emotional reunion is incredibly moving. Just gorgeously done. Director Ang Lee improves on the workings of the scene as set in Annie Proulx's short story.

8) NAME FOUR FILMS THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE WON THE OSCAR FOR BEST PICTURE: 

2005 - CRASH won instead of BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. An incredible oversight - no excuse. Other films nominated that year were: CAPOTE, GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, MUNICH.

1998 - SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE won, when most any of the other nominees HAD to be a better picture. Other films nominated that year were: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL,  ELIZABETH (well, maybe not this one), THE THIN RED LINE.

1948 - HAMLET won instead of THE RED SHOES which for me, after repeated viewings, remains a classic of movie making. Other films nominated that year were: JOHNNY BELINDA, THE SNAKE PIT, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.

1938 - YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU won instead of the brilliant GRAND ILLUSION. Other films nominated that year were: TEST PILOT, PYGMALION, JEZEBEL, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, FOUR DAUGHTERS, BOYS TOWN, THE CITADEL, ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND.


9) TOP FIVE MOVIES OF THE YEAR - Currently? I can only go by movies I've watched on DVD so far this year, since I rarely go to the actual movies anymore, rarely see anything brand new. Truth be told, I simply prefer older movies.

1) CAIRO TIME (2009) starring Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig.

2) PRIVATE ROMEO (2011) starring Hale Appleman and Charlie Barnett.

3) HUGO (2011) starring Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee and Sacha Baron Cohen.

I've got MY WEEK WITH MARILYN starring Michelle Williams, sitting and waiting to be watched when I have a moment, but that's about it - new-wise.

10) BOTTOM THREE OF THE YEAR - Currently.

1) A DANGEROUS METHOD (2011) starring Viggo Morgensen, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightly. A real stinkeroo.

2) ALBERT NOBBS (2011) starring Glenn Close. A major disappointment.

3) THE ADVENTURES OF TIN TIN (2011) Boring. I was expecting something fun.

I'll have the ten final answers to the quiz, tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Read More

Grumpy Yvette

Yeah, I'm having one of those days and I've found the perfect book to wile away the hours until my 'normal' less grumpy state returns or until I figure out a way to make a vodka martini without the vermouth.

WHATEVER IT IS I'M AGAINST IT 
An Encyclopedic Compendium of Classical and Contemporary Abhorrence, Abomination, Abuse, Acrimony, Anger, Animosity, Annoyance, Antipathy, Aversion Bitchery, Bitterness, Calumny, Cynicism, Derogation, Detestation, Disaffection, Disgust, Disparagement, Distemper, Excretion, Hostility, Insolence, Insult, Invective, Loathing, Malevolence, Malice, Malignity, Misanthropy, Odium, Perversity, Pique, Rancor, Resentment, Revulsion, Sarcasm, Spite, Spleen, Umbrage, Venom, Vilification, Vituperation and Downright Nastiness - All lovingly compiled and edited by Nat Sapiro. (I added the 'All lovingly')

'There's nothing like venting someone else's spleen.' 

Yvette Banek

'Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles, damn the men that run the shops, oh, damn their measured merriment.'

Sinclair Lewis (Arrowsmith, 1925)

'One of the privileges of the great is to witness catastrophes from a terrace.'

Jean Giraudoux

'Politics ruins the character.'

James Thurber

'Fewer things are harder to put up with then the annoyance of a good example' 

Mark Twain

'Whenever I feel the urge to exercise I lie down until it passes.'

Robert Hutchins

'Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes'

Oscar Wilde

'I am a gentleman: I live by robbing the poor.' 

George Bernard Shaw (Man and Superman, 1903)

'Life is too short to learn German.' 

Richard Porson

'Show me a good loser and I'll show you an idiot.'

Leo Durocher

'The world is disgracefully managed, one hardly knows to whom to complain.'  

Ronald Firbank

'The most dangerous of our calculations are those we call illusions.'

George Bernanos

'Hell is paved with good intentions.'

Samuel Johnson 

'Henry James was one of the nicest old ladies I ever met.' 

attributed to William Faulkner

'He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.' 

Bertolt Brecht

'A little sincerity is dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.'

Oscar Wilde

'From the cradle to the coffin, underwear comes first.'

Bertolt Brecht

'I do not like work even when another person does it.'

Mark Twain

'Why do we live? But to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in return.'

Jane Austen

'There's nothing in the world worse than woman - save some other woman.'

Aristophanes

'Woman may be said to be an inferior man.'

Artistotle

'I hate women because they always know where things are.'

attributed to James Thurber

'You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being.'

Evelyn Waugh

'Man is nature's sole mistake.'

W.S. Gilbert

'Men my dear, are very queer animals - a mixture of horse-nervousness, ass-stubbornness and camel-malice.'

Thomas Henry Huxley

'We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.'

Aneurin Bevan

'Life is a wonderful thing to talk about, or to read about in history books - but it is terrible when one has to live it.'

Jean Anouilh

'Life is a long headache in a noisy street.'

John Mansfield

'Life is just one damned thing after another.'

attributed to Frank Ward O'Malley

'Life is a gamble, at terrible odds - if it was a bet, you wouldn't take it.'

Tom Stoppard

'There are moments when everything goes well; don't be frightened, it won't last.'

Jules Renard

'We have Art in order that we may not perish from Truth.'

Friedrich Nietzsche

'...any dish that has either a taste or an appearance that can be improved by parsley is ipso facto a dish unfit for human consumption.'

Ogden Nash

Read More

Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film Tuesday: MR. LUCKY starring Cary Grant and Laraine Day

If it's Tuesday, it's you-know-what: Forgotten (or Overlooked) Film or other Audio/Visuals Day. Try saying that quickly three times in a row. So here's my entry for this week. Also, don't forget to check in at Todd Mason's blog, Sweet Freedom, to get the full list of participating bloggers and appropriate links.

***********************

'MR. LUCKY' is a 1943 tilm starring Cary Grant and Laraine Day, directed by H. C. Potter and written by Milton Holmes.

I'm operating from memory again today (with prompts from Wikipedia and IMdB) simply because I haven't seen the film in many MANY years and it isn't, currently, available for viewing anywhere. There is a DVD for purchase online, but I didn't.

MR. LUCKY used to be a staple on local TV channels in the old days and features one of my favorite Cary Grant performances. Here Grant plays Joe 'the Greek' Adams, a gambler/con-man with a heart full of larceny. Really, in the first third of the film he is quite reprehensible and you do worry about him. He's such a bad guy but you know there has to be a saving grace - right? He's Cary Grant, for goodness' sake.

Well, our erstwhile hero is in cahoots with a really bad guy played by gravel-voiced Paul Stewart (yeah the actor who nearly lived forever and was in almost as many pictures as our beloved Charles Lane) who has no heart, period.

The film opens on a scene at a dark pier where a young woman is walking anxiously back and forth, obviously waiting for something or someone. A sailor relates a story to a night watchman and we watch the movie unfold in flashback.

Joe 'the Greek' Adams (Cary Grant), a conniving gambler, meets a nice, rich, society girl named Dorothy Bryant (Laraine Day) who works for a war relief organization looking to raise some decent money for their cause. (It is 1943 - remember.)

Laraine Day was never my favorite actress, but she is just perfect in this part - she and Cary have real sparks together and you can actually see her falling for him despite her initial reservations. The 'sugary goodness' she often radiated on film works for her here. She is really wonderful. (Hey, I give credit where credit is due.)

Joe schmoozes Dorothy and her society lady-friends (Gladys Cooper plays the head of the charity) into setting up a gambling ship with all the money collected (save for expenses) to be donated to their war relief organization. Society loves nothing better than throwing money at a charity while having a good time. It all works beautifully and war relief scores lots of dough.

Except that Joe and his nasty partner mean to keep all the money for themselves and to heck with the charity. They will skim most of the profits and only allow a pittance for war relief as camouflage.

What did I tell you? Reprehensible.

But all is not lost, while all the behind the scenes double-dealing has been going on, Joe and Dorothy have been making googly-eyes at each other. He is hard-boiled and cynical, just ripe for the picking by a good and decent girl trying to do her bit for war-torn refugees.

 Joe doesn't believe that Dorothy's on the level - nobody can be that good. She, on the other hand, falls hard for Joe's line after he assuages her initial suspicions. I love their scenes together. It's always fun to watch a man fall in love against his will and inclinations.

Well, after several knitting lessons (you hadda' be there), many dramatic twists and turns including a killing, a hasty escape through a window, a punch on the jaw for Dorothy, an unpleasant confrontation with the truth and the correction of a very mistaken identity (oh, and the return of the money), somehow it all works out.

In the end we return to the dark pier and watch as Dorothy rushes into the arms of a tall, handsome Merchant Marine on shore leave. Joe has seen the error of his ways and done the honorable thing - thinking Dorothy believes him to be dead. He has no clue she's been waiting for him on the pier.

A great ending.

The MR. LUCKY film was also loosely adapted for a short-lived television series starring a very smooth guy named John Vivyan in the lead. It only ran for a few episodes 1959-60 but I can still remember   how much I liked it and the music by Henry Mancini, the opening credits and the general ambiance. Blake Edwards was one of the directors.

John Vivyan

Read More

Saturday Salon: Louise Camille Fenne

Painter Louise Camille Fenne was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1972. She studied in France and Denmark before enrolling at The Florence Academy of Arts in 1995. Since 1999, she has lived in Denmark and shared a studio with her partner and fellow painter, Charles Weed.

I am intrigued by her paintings, most especially the bird ones. There's something essentially mysterious about Fenne's work. Something we can only guess at. The way she uses color is part of it, but also the way she sees. Her sense of design is excellent as well.

To see more of contemporary artist, Louise Camille Fenne's work, please utilize her website.

There's also this short video on youtube.

Read More

It's THAT time of year...

Source

Obviously I'm tinkering with the blog again, so bear with me. I'm just spiffing things up for the change in seasons, etc. So don't be surprised if you tune in and find I've run amok. It's still just plain old me. But with slightly different trimmings. Ha! 

Read More

Friday's Forgotten Books: DISTEMPER (2000) by Beth Saulnier

If it's Friday, it's usually Forgotten Books Day at Patti Abbott's blog, Pattinase. So don't forget to go take a look and check out the links. We're a fun bunch.

DISTEMPER by Beth Saulnier is one of those books I never get tired of telling people to read (though people may get tired of hearing me going on and on about it). Set in an upstate New York college town full of the sorts of people you'd meet everyday if you were a wily reporter for the town paper named Alex Bernier and you were slightly famous for making headlines in a previous murder case which struck a little too close to home.

Alex is a complicated but thoroughly engaging character, a young woman who lives a kind of casual yet intense lifestyle (the author's figured out a way to put those two seemingly opposite ideas together) which involves various housemates, several dogs, an unpleasable, foul-mouthed boss down at the paper and an awkward knack for stumbling over dead bodies. Or maybe not so awkward, considering she's a reporter. Plus the current case allows her to interact with a big, attractive, red-haired Irish cop:

"Good guard dogs you've got there. Yours?"

I shook my head. "That lump on the couch is mine. Her name is Shakespeare. She's part German Shepherd, part Beagle. She'd play fetch with a rapist. The big black poodle is Tipsy. He belongs to my roommate Emma. The shepherd is C.A.'s. He's a purebred, real champion stock. Her mom's family's really into the dog-show thing. Name's Nanki-Poo."

"That's humiliating."

But as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself again. Let's back up to the utter 'wow' of a beginning to give you a better idea of what goes on in frozen wastes of upstate New York - land of the hearty and the eccentric - in case you didn't know.

"They found the first body in April, which is when things tend to turn up around here. The sun came out for the first time in six months, the top crust started to melt, and some poor bastard cross-country skiing in his shirt-sleeves saw her foot sticking up out of the snow."

Pretty terrific, so far.

So here we have a serial killer stalking and killing young women and of course, Alex gets caught up in the middle of it all. Especially since the killer isn't averse to keeping her in the loop - so to speak.

But as Alex links two and two together and discovers a four legged denominator common to the crimes, she puts herself in danger, yet again. Reporters lead such interesting lives.

The main reason for liking this book (other than the tricky plot and the likable main characters) is the dialogue. For me, the kiss of death with most books is the generally clumsy dialogue which makes the characters 'sound' as if they KNOW their words are being read. This is a book in which the characters speak exactly as you think they would. And that's good enough for me.

"Hey, you know, you got really big tits."

I looked up to find two college guys, each just slightly smaller than the new Volkswagen Beetle. They were bleary-eyed and standing close together, like they were holding each other up.

"Didn't ya hear me?" said lout number one. "I said, 'Man, you got really nice tits.' We saw ya through the window here." He gestured with his beer mug and I felt a splash go down my neck.

"Yeah," said his companion. "He said, like, 'Look at that girl with that great rack,' and I said, like, 'Dude, it's your duty to go in there and tell her how you feel.' And he said, 'Dude, you are so right.' And...here we are." He said it like he was Lindbergh describing his trip across the Atlantic. I didn't know whether to laugh at them or reach for my Mace. Oh, hell. If you live in a college town, sometimes you have to suffer for all the good coffee and reasonably priced drugs.

"So whaddaya say?" said the first guy.

"Yeah," said the other. "Whaddaya say?"

"Is there a question? Because if there is, I believe I may have missed it."

They looked at each other. "Huh?" said lout number two. "My friend here just wanted to express himself, that's all."

Where do these guys come from? Failed government experiments?

Alex is someone you want to meet. And not just because she has a nice rack.

Read More

Thursday Foreign Film Poster

The Spanish poster for Vincent Price's 'HOUSE OF WAX' in 3D!

Read More