Winter Quiz

Time for another of Dennis Cozzalio's quizzes - always a joy and a challenge to answer... and a joy to read through the rest..

1) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD or Blu-ray?

This is a moving target, since I take so long to answer these quizzes: but I'll say -
Theater - The Wrestler
DVD - Meet Me In St. Louis

2) Holiday movies— Do you like them naughty or nice?

Mostly nice, though naughty is nice too.

3) Ida Lupino or Mercedes McCambridge?

Ida Lupino

4) Favorite actor/character from Twin Peaks

I can't answer this. I haven't watched it since it first came on, and only watched part of the first season then. I have been waiting for all of it to be on DVD, though not paying close enough attention. Maybe next year I'll be able to answer.

5) It’s been said that, rather than remaking beloved, respected films, Hollywood should concentrate more on righting the wrongs of the past and tinker more with films that didn’t work so well the first time. Pretending for a moment that movies are made in an economic vacuum, name a good candidate for a remake based on this criterion.

This is a very interesting question, and one I am sure I have opinions on, though I fear they aren't coming now. I have always thought that Eyes Wide Shut should have been made by David Lynch, though - that might count.

6) Favorite Spike Lee joint.

Do The Right Thing

7) Lawrence Tierney or Scott Brady?

Lawrence, I think.

8) Are most movies too long?

The good ones aren't - being too long is one of the main causes of films failing, though. Way too many comedies just keep going... a lot of films aren't so much too long as they run out of ideas around the hour mark - or cut over to the PLOT, which is trite and dull. They aren't so much too long as they have nowhere to go after the first 2/3 or so.

9) Favorite performance by an actor portraying a real-life politician.

If Malcolm X counts, than Denzel Washington's performance has to rate highly here. A dark horse would be Baek Yun-shik as the assassin in the Korean film about Park Chung-hee's assasination, The President's Last Bang. Song Jae-ho as the president is quite good also.

10) Create the main event card for the ultimate giant movie monster smackdown.

The Abominable Snowman vs. Burgermeister Meisterburger! Dr. Hill (Reanimator) vs. Dr. Pretorius (Fron Beyond)! And in the finale - Asia the Invincible vs. the Bride of Frankenstein!

11) Jean Peters or Sheree North?

Jean Peters

12) Why would you ever want or need to see a movie more than once?

To memorize it.

13) Favorite road movie.

Pierrot le Fou, I'd say.

14) Favorite Budd Boetticher picture.

Seven Men From Now... Lee Marvin. Pow. Though it's hard to chose this over the Tall T.

15) Who is the one person, living or dead, famous or unknown, who most informed or encouraged your appreciation of movies?

This is a hard one to answer. Maybe Robert Altman, as his films probably did the most to make a cinephile of me. An Altman retrospctive marked a clear change inthe way I saw, thought about, etc. films...

16) Favorite opening credit sequence. (Please include YouTube link if possible.)

I should be able to come up with something off the top of my head, but I never can. It's not impossible that it's Imamura's The Pornographers - the fake porn, the fish... it's also not impossible it's Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail - Swedish llama jokes never get old.

17) Kenneth Tobey or John Agar?

I might skip this one.

18) Jean-Luc Godard once suggested that the more popular the movie, the less likely it was that it was a good movie. Is he right or just cranky? Cite the best evidence one way or the other.

There seems to be a relationship. The relationship is certainly not inverse, though. I don't know what he means by "popular" - does a box office failure that becomes widely adored (It's a Wonderful Life, say) count? The best movies tend to be modest successes, and often become immensely popular over time. So - he's being clever, and getting at a legitimate point, but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny...

19) Favorite Jonathan Demme movie.

Something Wild.

20) Tatum O’Neal or Linda Blair?

Tatum O'Neal, I think.

21) Favorite use of irony in a movie. (This could be an idea, moment, scene, or an entire film.)

Another good question. I'll pick a film I've seen recently - Oshima's Pleasures of the Flesh. Oshima lays it on very thick here: there's a student in love with a schoolgirl he tutors; he finds out she was raped as a child - her parents hire him to kill the rapist and he does. However, a crooked official saw him do the deed - and shows up with 30 million Yen (of the 00 million he stole), telling the student to hide it until he gets out of prison - if the money disappears, he will rat out the kid's murder. The student hides it - until the girl marries another man: nothing to live for! He will spend it all and kill himself! he does, spending it all on whores and bad living, though without much success. As we come to the end of the year before the crook gets out of jail, the student ends up with a mute whore and befriends her pimp boyfriend - who tells him about a guy he knew in jail who hid 30 million dollars with a student, but died before he could be released....

22) Favorite Claude Chabrol film.

Haven't seen enough - but Les Cousins, probably, among the ones I have seen.

23) The best movie of the year to which very little attention seems to have been paid.

I think Momma's Man sort of faded into obscurity rather quickly. And Ballast, though it gets a fair amount of attention, sometimes seems to be treated as if it were just another indie film.

24) Dennis Christopher or Robby Benson?

I can't say that I care right now.

25) Favorite movie about journalism.

His Girl Friday.

26) What’s the DVD commentary you’d most like to hear? Who would be on the audio track?

Others have mentioned Sam Fuller - absolutely. I can't think of anyone who could have done better commentaries. For anyone's films! He'd be better than Werner Herzog, and that is going a long way. I wish David Lynch did commentaries - he's another endlessly interesting talker...

27) Favorite movie directed by Clint Eastwood.

A good question - High Plains Drifter? or Bird? I think if you treated Flags of our Fathers and Sands of Iwo Jima as one film, that might do it.

28) Paul Dooley or Kurtwood Smith?

Kurtwood Smith.

29) Your clairvoyant moment: Make a prediction about the Oscar season.

I won't watch it?

30) Your hope for the movies in 2009.

I just hope a bunch of good foreign films get released - starting with The Headless Woman, Tokyo Sonata, and Secret Sunshine.

31) What’s your top 10 of 2008? (If you have a blog and have your list posted, please feel free to leave a link to the post.)

I'll answer this separately. I haven't done this quite yet...

BONUS QUESTION (to be answered after December 25):

32) What was your favorite movie-related Christmas gift that you received this year?

Nothing specific - though I got a neat monkey grip for a camera. That should come in handy.