HAving managed to answer Dennis Cozzalio's previous quiz, it is time to try his Halloween quiz - more precisely, PROFESSOR ABRAHAM SETRAKIAN'S VIRULENTLY VAMPIRIC, MALEVOLENTLY MONSTERIFFIC SUPER-STRAIN HALLOWEEN MOVIE QUIZ. In fact, he has another quiz up - a screen shot quiz - which - might be quiz too far for me... But this one - I can try. I do fear that as horror is not my favorite genre, this will not be the most enlightning set of answers... But one has to try:
1) Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet?
A: This is what I mean - not being a particular fan of horror movies, I don't dig that far into the genre - so... even though I have heard of them, and probably seen them - how could I answer this?
2) The horror movie you will stand up for when no one else will
A: How about Stoker? It kind of got shrugged off when it came out - but it's actually pretty good.
3) Your favorite horror novel
A. Dracula, the original, Bram Stoker. With Let the Right One In as a more than honorable contender.
4) Lionel Atwill or George Zucco?
A: Lionel Atwill - he's generally worth a spark when he turns up in a film.
5) Name a horror film which you feel either goes "too far" or, conversely, might have been better had been bolder
A: I suppose there are a fair number of films where the gore or sex or sex an gore is ridiculous - and plenty I haven't bothered to see - no idea, frankly, whether The Human Centipede or Hostel "goes to far" - never expect to find out... but - I suppose I can answer - the Japanese film Organ struck me as being particularly unsuccessful mix of gratuitous grossout stuff and dimwitted filmmaking. So there.
6) Let the Right One In or Let Me In?
A: Let the Right One In (and the book is even better)
7) Favorite horror film released by American International Pictures
A: I see they released Black Sabbath - that'll do.
8) Veronica Carlson or Barbara Shelley
A: Another one I can't quite answer. (Comparing what I can answer - kind of points out that, for deeper genre cuts - I am a bit better off with the older stuff. That's accurate - I dabble in post-1950s horror, but not much, and what I've seen tends to be very auteurist - Bava and Argento, mainly, and some Japanese horror, like Kurosawa; my pre 1950 horror experiences are spotty, but there's a better chance I've seen a bit more variety...)
9) Name the pinnacle of slasher movie kills, based on either gore quotient, level of cleverness or shock value
A: A sub-genre I don't bother with much, and don't really remember when I do - I've seen some of those Freddy movies, and Halloween and the like, but I don't remember them. Gory specifics tend to be torture scenes - the end of Audition, the stuff in Funny Games - or - wild nonsense, like in Stuart Gordon's films ("more passion!"), or Dead Alive... So - screw it: Janet Leigh in the shower - has anyone topped that? no.
10) Dracula (1931; Tod Browning) or Dracula (1931; George Melford)?
A. Tod Browning - I used to come across lots of talk about how the Spanish version is better, but the facts do not bear this out. The Browning film, though uneven to an extreme, has elements that soar - Lugosi and Frye (especially Frye), some of the atmospherics - and most surprisingly, an admittedly intermittant and inconsistent, but none the less brilliant, sound design. You always hear Renfield before you see him. The Spanish version is smoother, missing some of thew weird jumpiness of Brownings version, but it's also duller (and longer, and somehow ever stagier.) even some of the problems with the English version - the weird continuity problems - help, giving it a creepier atmosphere, keeping you just a bit off balance.
11) Name a movie which may not strictly be thought of as a horror film which you think qualifies for inclusion in the category
A: Well - a recent one might be Martha Marcy May Marlene
12) The last horror movie you saw in a theater? On home video?
A. Last in a theater - I have been trying to see Crimson Peak for a ocuple weeks, and managed to miss it - even today (ironically, it was pre-empted today by a horror marathon). So that means the answer is Goodnight, Mommy - which is no slouch. On video - I have been watching a lot of Val Lewton this month, so when I started writing this, the answer was The Body Snatcher - then, it was Isle of the Dead - but I just watched Evil Dead II, so - there's your answer.
13) Can you think of a horror movie that works better as a home video experience than as a theatrical one?
A. This seems unlikely in general.
14) Brad Dourif or Robert Englund?
A. Brad Dourif, obviously, though outside of horror.
15) At what moment did you realize you were a horror fan? Or what caused you to realize that you weren't?
A. Not really relevant. I like horror films, but not in any special way.
16) The Thing with Two Heads or The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant?
A: I am innocent of both.
17) Favorite giallo or giallo moment
A. Suspiria is the best; moment? I am thinking the scene in Bird With the Crystal Plumage where the writer sees an attack in a glass gallery - it's been a long time since I have seen it, so I'm not sure I remember it, but it is something, isn't it?
18) Name a horror remake, either a character or an entire film, that you prefer over its original or more iconic incarnation. (Example: Frank Langella's Dracula/Dracula > Christopher Lee's Dracula/Dracula)
A: I suppose Evil Dead II sort of counts... the first ones tend to be the best, of the films I watch - assuming you could the iconic ones as the first one. Some, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, were made before the iconic one appeared - but still...
19) Your favorite director of horror films
A. James Whale? along with Bava and Argento, I suppose. (And Lewton, but he's not a director.)
20) Caroline Munro or Stephanie Beacham?
A: And again - I can't really help.
21) Best horror moment created specifically for TV
A: Well, The Kingdom was created for TV. The best moment in all that - oh, man, there are too many - Bondo and his liver, maybe?
22) The Stephen King adaptation that works better as a movie than a book
A: I don't know. The Shining probably counts - ahuge book about writers' block is just not something I intend to find out about.
23) Name the horror movie you most want to see but to this point never have
A: Abominable Dr. Phibes? could be.
24) Andre Morell or Laurence Naismith?
A: Nope.
25) Second-favorite horror film made in the 1980s
A. This poses a problem - my favorits of that decade are the comedies - Raimi and Gordon - Evil Dead(s) and Reanimator/From Beyond. Are they horror films? I suppose so - but also comedies. If I tried to go with something closer to straight horror - I still get some oddball stuff. Possession would take top spot - #2 would be Chow Yun Fat and Brigitte Lin in Tonay Au's Dream Lovers - a hell of a film, too.
26) Tell us about your favorite TV horror host and the program showcasing horror classics over which he/she presided/presides
A: Never really watched those kinds of shows. I am glad Ghoulardi existed, fathering PT Anderson, and inspiring all those Ohio bands I love - Pere Ubu and Devo and the like. Though I suppose I could quite honestly say Count Floyd:
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Showing posts with label quiz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quiz. Show all posts
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Mr. Dadier Back to School Quiz
This is terrible - it was been almost a month since Dennis Cozzalio posted his (almost) latest quiz, Mr. Dadier’s Juvie-Ready, Tough-As-Nails Blackboard-Bustin’ Back to School Movie Quiz - and I am only now getting around to posting answers? I don't know what it taking me so long - it is shameful, and inexcusable - but I am, by god, going to take the shame, and post it anyway. I missed the last one, back in April - never posting any response. What is wrong with me? [Well - in April/May I was writing a paper about Ivan the Terrible for an actual class - that's almost excusable...] (And I missed the one before that too - the music one. What is wrong with me?) In any case - late as it is - I have to stop these bad habits, so here this one is. And with a bit of luck - I'll be bacl before the month ends to essay his Halloween quiz!
1) Favorite moment from a Coen Brothers movie
A: Donnie’s funeral in the Big Lebowski always floors me... But on a brighter vein - the recording session in O Brother Where Art Thou has it all - the singing, “damn, Tommy, I think you really did sell your soul to the devil!” - Clooney scamming an extra $10 ("Mert and Aloisius will have to sign X's, as only four of us can write") - it’s got it all.
2) Scratching The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty and The Hudsucker Proxy from consideration, what would now rate as your least-favorite Coen Brothers movie?
A: The Man Who Wasn’t There, I think. Burn After Reading gets the edge - I like their madcap side. Hudsucker Proxy is not remotely in contention for their bottom three, though; it is a very lovely film. (Though also a collaboration - didn’t catch that point at first)
3) Name the most underrated blockbuster of all time
A: Do failed wannabe Blockbuster's count? Ishtar? Maybe for something really horrifying - Batman and Robin? I don't know why - it has a weird B movie energy, the actors seem to get the point (Uma Thurman especially). If it were 70 minutes long it might be a fun guilty pleasure...
4) Ida Lupino or Sylvia Sidney?
A: I'll say Ida Lupino.
5) Edwards Scissorhands—yes or no?
A: Yes
6) The movie you think most bastardizes, misinterprets or does a disservice to the history or historical event it tires to represent
A: Life is Beautiful - totally disgraceful.
7) Favorite Aardman animation
A: The creature comforts shorts are wonderful in themselves - but I think I must vote for The Wrong Trousers, in the end.
8) Second-favorite Olivier Assayas movie
A: Carlos
9) Neville Brand or Mike Mazurki?
A: I may be stumped here...
10) Name the movie you would cite to a nonbeliever as the best evidence toward convincing them of the potential greatness of a favorite genre
A: Drunken Master II - kung fu; Jackie Chan.
11) Name any director and one aspect of his/her style or career, for good or bad, that sets her/him apart from any other director
A: Ozu's editing - crossing the line (ignoring the line), the graphic matches, the jokes, the disorienting directions, the pillow shots - no one else looks like him, no matter how they try.
12) Best car chase
A: Gone in 60 Seconds (the original)
13) Favorite moment directed by Robert Aldrich
A: All those feet in Kiss Me Deadly.
14) The last movie you saw in a theater? On home video?
A: Kind of depressing - looks like it's going to be Rock The Kasbah in theaters; Things to Come, at home.
15) Jane Greer or Joan Bennett?
A: Joan Bennett
16) Second-favorite Paul Verhoeven movie
A: Black Book
17) Your nominee for best/most important political or social documentary you’ve seen
A: The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On
18) Favorite movie twins
A: Paul Dano and Paul Dano in There Will be Blood, maybe?
19) Best movie or movie moment about or involving radio
A: When the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies - more Coens - Danny gets his radio back in A Serious Man.
For a whole movie about radio - I am strangely fond of Tune in Tomorrow. No patch on the book, but a very likable thing. Peter Falk, you know.
20) Eugene Pallette or William Demarest?
A: A cruel choice to make - but - how can I choose? Pallette? that voice...
21) Favorite moment directed by Ken Russell
A: Um - he annoys me too much - though truthfully, the moments are what make his films. They're always amusing to look at in clips. Say -
I don't know if I can take the whole movie, but - most of them are full of scenes like this, really gripping in short bursts.
22) All-time best movie cat
A: Ulysses?
23) Your nominee for best movie about teaching and learning, followed by the worst
A. Best = Kind of a wild card, but what about Henry Fool? Education of a poet, and all that...
Worst = how about Fight Club? take away the cheesy insanity, and it is a film about a mentor and pupil - and a pretty dumb film about it at that. Though it's worse with the cheesy insanity. Blech.
24) Name an actor/actress currently associated primarily with TV who you'd like to see on the big screen
A: I'd like to find out what Nikolai Coster Waldau would do in a movie; or Rory McCann. Or Sophie Turner. Being about the only TV show from the last 10 years I've actually watched...
25) Stanley Baker or David Farrar
A: Stanley Baker, for Accident if nothing else.
26) Critic Manny Farber once said of Frank Capra that he was "an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director, but all the details give the impression of a contrived effect."
What is the Capra movie that best proves or disproves Farber's assertion?
And who else in Hollywood history might just as easily fit his description?
A: I suppose quite a few Capra films fit this - especially in the late 30s - Mr. Deeds and Lost Horizon and You Can't Take it With You, Meet John Doe. All of them pull out the stops on the style, but also the preaching - they wear on you. I have to agree with the good side of Farber's comment - I think Capra really was the great American master director - and specifically in synthetic style: he understood everything about filmmaking, he used everything at his disposal. Photography, sound, acting, stories, music, editing - everything, and used everything the parts offered - so deep focus, tight shots, moving cameras, sequence shots, fast cutting, set design, lighting design - everything. There are other directors who did this - Lang, Hitchcock, Kurosawa - but I don't think even they were as good at everything, or as able to exploit everything the way he did. And most comparably great directors - Ozu and Mizoguchi, Murnau, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Hawks, Renoir, etc. - tended to work in a somewhat narrower style. He used everything - to good effect, but sometimes - yes - it's all a bit too clean, too smug about its skill and its messages.... it becomes heavy (which is fatal, almost, to later comedies, like You Can't Take it With You or Arsenic and Old Lace).
But then again - when it works: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Platinum Blonde, American Madness - by does it work. Calling those films contrived is completely beside the point - "contrived" starts to mean something like the same thing as "fiction" - a story, told a certain way, to convey ideas and emotions - everything is contrived. They have emotional depth, they have ideas, they have a complex way of looking at the world, and all of it is conveyed through Capra's mastery of the medium. So - when he doesn't quite get it, Farber has a point. When Capra does get it - the films are just masterpieces.
1) Favorite moment from a Coen Brothers movie
A: Donnie’s funeral in the Big Lebowski always floors me... But on a brighter vein - the recording session in O Brother Where Art Thou has it all - the singing, “damn, Tommy, I think you really did sell your soul to the devil!” - Clooney scamming an extra $10 ("Mert and Aloisius will have to sign X's, as only four of us can write") - it’s got it all.
2) Scratching The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty and The Hudsucker Proxy from consideration, what would now rate as your least-favorite Coen Brothers movie?
A: The Man Who Wasn’t There, I think. Burn After Reading gets the edge - I like their madcap side. Hudsucker Proxy is not remotely in contention for their bottom three, though; it is a very lovely film. (Though also a collaboration - didn’t catch that point at first)
3) Name the most underrated blockbuster of all time
A: Do failed wannabe Blockbuster's count? Ishtar? Maybe for something really horrifying - Batman and Robin? I don't know why - it has a weird B movie energy, the actors seem to get the point (Uma Thurman especially). If it were 70 minutes long it might be a fun guilty pleasure...
4) Ida Lupino or Sylvia Sidney?
A: I'll say Ida Lupino.
5) Edwards Scissorhands—yes or no?
A: Yes
6) The movie you think most bastardizes, misinterprets or does a disservice to the history or historical event it tires to represent
A: Life is Beautiful - totally disgraceful.
7) Favorite Aardman animation
A: The creature comforts shorts are wonderful in themselves - but I think I must vote for The Wrong Trousers, in the end.
8) Second-favorite Olivier Assayas movie
A: Carlos
9) Neville Brand or Mike Mazurki?
A: I may be stumped here...
10) Name the movie you would cite to a nonbeliever as the best evidence toward convincing them of the potential greatness of a favorite genre
A: Drunken Master II - kung fu; Jackie Chan.
11) Name any director and one aspect of his/her style or career, for good or bad, that sets her/him apart from any other director
A: Ozu's editing - crossing the line (ignoring the line), the graphic matches, the jokes, the disorienting directions, the pillow shots - no one else looks like him, no matter how they try.
12) Best car chase
A: Gone in 60 Seconds (the original)
13) Favorite moment directed by Robert Aldrich
A: All those feet in Kiss Me Deadly.
14) The last movie you saw in a theater? On home video?
A: Kind of depressing - looks like it's going to be Rock The Kasbah in theaters; Things to Come, at home.
15) Jane Greer or Joan Bennett?
A: Joan Bennett
16) Second-favorite Paul Verhoeven movie
A: Black Book
17) Your nominee for best/most important political or social documentary you’ve seen
A: The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On
18) Favorite movie twins
A: Paul Dano and Paul Dano in There Will be Blood, maybe?
19) Best movie or movie moment about or involving radio
A: When the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies - more Coens - Danny gets his radio back in A Serious Man.
For a whole movie about radio - I am strangely fond of Tune in Tomorrow. No patch on the book, but a very likable thing. Peter Falk, you know.
20) Eugene Pallette or William Demarest?
A: A cruel choice to make - but - how can I choose? Pallette? that voice...
21) Favorite moment directed by Ken Russell
A: Um - he annoys me too much - though truthfully, the moments are what make his films. They're always amusing to look at in clips. Say -
I don't know if I can take the whole movie, but - most of them are full of scenes like this, really gripping in short bursts.
22) All-time best movie cat
A: Ulysses?
23) Your nominee for best movie about teaching and learning, followed by the worst
A. Best = Kind of a wild card, but what about Henry Fool? Education of a poet, and all that...
Worst = how about Fight Club? take away the cheesy insanity, and it is a film about a mentor and pupil - and a pretty dumb film about it at that. Though it's worse with the cheesy insanity. Blech.
24) Name an actor/actress currently associated primarily with TV who you'd like to see on the big screen
A: I'd like to find out what Nikolai Coster Waldau would do in a movie; or Rory McCann. Or Sophie Turner. Being about the only TV show from the last 10 years I've actually watched...
25) Stanley Baker or David Farrar
A: Stanley Baker, for Accident if nothing else.
26) Critic Manny Farber once said of Frank Capra that he was "an old-time movie craftsman, the master of every trick in the bag, and in many ways he is more at home with the medium than any other Hollywood director, but all the details give the impression of a contrived effect."
What is the Capra movie that best proves or disproves Farber's assertion?
And who else in Hollywood history might just as easily fit his description?
A: I suppose quite a few Capra films fit this - especially in the late 30s - Mr. Deeds and Lost Horizon and You Can't Take it With You, Meet John Doe. All of them pull out the stops on the style, but also the preaching - they wear on you. I have to agree with the good side of Farber's comment - I think Capra really was the great American master director - and specifically in synthetic style: he understood everything about filmmaking, he used everything at his disposal. Photography, sound, acting, stories, music, editing - everything, and used everything the parts offered - so deep focus, tight shots, moving cameras, sequence shots, fast cutting, set design, lighting design - everything. There are other directors who did this - Lang, Hitchcock, Kurosawa - but I don't think even they were as good at everything, or as able to exploit everything the way he did. And most comparably great directors - Ozu and Mizoguchi, Murnau, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Hawks, Renoir, etc. - tended to work in a somewhat narrower style. He used everything - to good effect, but sometimes - yes - it's all a bit too clean, too smug about its skill and its messages.... it becomes heavy (which is fatal, almost, to later comedies, like You Can't Take it With You or Arsenic and Old Lace).
But then again - when it works: It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Platinum Blonde, American Madness - by does it work. Calling those films contrived is completely beside the point - "contrived" starts to mean something like the same thing as "fiction" - a story, told a certain way, to convey ideas and emotions - everything is contrived. They have emotional depth, they have ideas, they have a complex way of looking at the world, and all of it is conveyed through Capra's mastery of the medium. So - when he doesn't quite get it, Farber has a point. When Capra does get it - the films are just masterpieces.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Quiz for the Holidays
Dennis Cozzalio has a new quiz up, just in time for finals.... Larry Gopnik's Post-Hanukah, Pre-Christmas, Post-Schrodinger, Pre-Apocalypse Holiday Movie Quiz. Took me four days to finish this one (it's like in high school and college - I spent all my time listening to The Who to do my homework...) But here it is!
1) Favorite unsung holiday film
A. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence? for all having the word in the title, it doesn't get much attention for that element of it (even from me, and I have paid a lot of attention to it) - but - it probably should.
2) Name a movie you were surprised to have liked/loved
A. The most obvious was probably The Fall - a film I hoped I would think was okay, but that turned out to be wonderful. There are others (and I think I have used this a lot in these sort of quizzes) - but it is hard to beat the difference between expectation and result there.
3) Ned Sparks or Edward Everett Horton?
A. I grew up on Fractured Fairy Tales, so what choice do I have?
4) Sam Peckinpah's Convoy-- yes or no?
A. No - haven’t seen it.
5) What contemporary actor would best fit into a popular, established genre of the past
A. Michael Shannon should make Westerns.
6) Favorite non-disaster movie in which bad weather is a memorable element of the film’s atmosphere
A. Anything by Altman? McCabe and Mrs. Miller notably.
7) Second favorite Luchino Visconti movie
A. Visconti is one of the holes in my experience - I have only seen The Leopard.
8) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD/Blu-ray?
A. Theater - Nebraska; Blu-Ray - Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides (my damned nephew watched all four of them over Thanksgiving.) DVD - shoot: Winchester 73 (writing about it) - been a while since I have watched a lot of movies. And what the hey - streaming: Up - my nephew again, downloaded it from Netflix.
9) Explain your reaction when someone eloquently or not-so-eloquently attacks one of your favorite movies? (Question courtesy of Patrick Robbins)
A. I am generally inclined to argue, though probably with myself. If I'm in a conversation I might argue with the person - depends on the conversation, I suppose. In the past, some of these conversations could become less than amiable - now, I find myself less willing to start fights - so I just write up rebuttals to myself...
10) Joan Blondell or Glenda Farrell?
A. Joan Blondell! Over and over!
11) Movie star of any era you’d most like to take camping
A. Isabelle Huppert, in another country, maybe...
12) Second favorite George Cukor movie
A. I would say Holiday.
13) Your top 10 of 2013 (feel free to elaborate!)
A. I will have to wait for the new year for write-ups, but:
1. The Act of Killing
2. 12 Years a Slave
3. Blue is the Warmest Color
4. Beyond the Hills
5. Apres Mai
6. Like SOmeone in Love
7. 56 Up
8. Stories We Tell
9. Computer Chess
10. The Hunt
(Though since Inside Llewyn Davis hasn't opened yet, maybe the whole list should wait...)
14) Name a movie you loved (or hated) upon first viewing, to which you eventually returned and had more or less the opposite reaction
A. people always ask this. It’s very hard to answer. I might as well go with Batman & Robin, since it's something of an extreme case - to my horror, when I rewatched it, I found myself actually enjoying it. Not just Uma Thurman either.
15) Movie most in need of a deluxe Blu-ray makeover
A. McCabe and Mrs. Miller? I don’t know really.
16) Alain Delon or Marcello Mastroianni?
A. Marcello, all the way
17) Your favorite opening sequence, credits or no credits (provide link to clip if possible)
A. Aguirre: Wrath of God - it's hard to beat that shot...
18) Director with the strongest run of great movies
A. Ozu over his whole career; Godard in the 60s, or Ozu in the 30s or 50s, or Capra in the 30s.
19) Is elitism a good/bad/necessary/inevitable aspect of being a cineaste?
A. Elitism is good. One should be the best you can be, like the best you can find, and value everything.
20) Second favorite Tony Scott film
A. Beverly Hills Cop II? (I haven't seen a lot...)
21) Favorite movie made before you were born that you only discovered this year. Where and how did you discover it?
A. Joli Mai - rereleased on its 50th anniversary (I believe). This was an odd year - fewer of these than usual.
22) Actor/actress you would most want to see in a Santa suit, traditional or skimpy
A. Guy Kibbee? or maybe Eugene Pallette? I guess that would have to be traditional... I pray that it's traditional...
23) Video store or streaming?
A. Um - I do stream movies now and then, so I guess that is the answer. It is not really an improvement over video stores, I admit that. (Netflix is, though, which is why I haven't been in a video store in 12 years or so - that and there aren't any left....)
24) Best/favorite final film by a noted director or screenwriter
A. Would Night of the Hunter count? probably not, since Laughton probably can't be called a "noted director" on one film - still... I think in it's place, among directors with a decent career as directors - it's Yi Yi, Edward Yang. There is quite a bit of competition - An Autumn Afternoon, Tabu, L'Argent, etc...
25) Monica Vitti or Anna Karina?
A. Anna Karina, very easily.
26) Name a worthy movie indulgence you’ve had to most strenuously talk friends into experiencing with you. What was the result?
A. I convinced some of my history nerd buddies (who were not really the type of film nerds) to see Kusterica's Underground - they liked it, very much, so there's that.
27) The movie made by your favorite filmmaker (writer, director, et al) that you either have yet to see or are least familiar with among all the rest
A. I need to see Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Clan in a good print - I have seen it twice, but the print was a mess - badly damaged soundtrack. So there is that.
28) Favorite horror movie that is either Christmas-oriented or has some element relating to the winter holiday season in it
A. Nightmare Before Christmas? I suppose Curse of the Cat People would be the best answer for real horror films.
29) Name a prop or other piece of movie memorabilia you’d most like to find with your name on it under the Christmas tree
A. Jimmy Stewart's cowboy hat?
30) Best holiday gift the movies could give to you to carry into 2014
A. Inside Llewyn Davis, to start.
1) Favorite unsung holiday film
A. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence? for all having the word in the title, it doesn't get much attention for that element of it (even from me, and I have paid a lot of attention to it) - but - it probably should.
2) Name a movie you were surprised to have liked/loved
A. The most obvious was probably The Fall - a film I hoped I would think was okay, but that turned out to be wonderful. There are others (and I think I have used this a lot in these sort of quizzes) - but it is hard to beat the difference between expectation and result there.
3) Ned Sparks or Edward Everett Horton?
A. I grew up on Fractured Fairy Tales, so what choice do I have?
4) Sam Peckinpah's Convoy-- yes or no?
A. No - haven’t seen it.
5) What contemporary actor would best fit into a popular, established genre of the past
A. Michael Shannon should make Westerns.
6) Favorite non-disaster movie in which bad weather is a memorable element of the film’s atmosphere
A. Anything by Altman? McCabe and Mrs. Miller notably.
7) Second favorite Luchino Visconti movie
A. Visconti is one of the holes in my experience - I have only seen The Leopard.
8) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD/Blu-ray?
A. Theater - Nebraska; Blu-Ray - Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides (my damned nephew watched all four of them over Thanksgiving.) DVD - shoot: Winchester 73 (writing about it) - been a while since I have watched a lot of movies. And what the hey - streaming: Up - my nephew again, downloaded it from Netflix.
9) Explain your reaction when someone eloquently or not-so-eloquently attacks one of your favorite movies? (Question courtesy of Patrick Robbins)
A. I am generally inclined to argue, though probably with myself. If I'm in a conversation I might argue with the person - depends on the conversation, I suppose. In the past, some of these conversations could become less than amiable - now, I find myself less willing to start fights - so I just write up rebuttals to myself...
10) Joan Blondell or Glenda Farrell?
A. Joan Blondell! Over and over!
11) Movie star of any era you’d most like to take camping
A. Isabelle Huppert, in another country, maybe...
12) Second favorite George Cukor movie
A. I would say Holiday.
13) Your top 10 of 2013 (feel free to elaborate!)
A. I will have to wait for the new year for write-ups, but:
1. The Act of Killing
2. 12 Years a Slave
3. Blue is the Warmest Color
4. Beyond the Hills
5. Apres Mai
6. Like SOmeone in Love
7. 56 Up
8. Stories We Tell
9. Computer Chess
10. The Hunt
(Though since Inside Llewyn Davis hasn't opened yet, maybe the whole list should wait...)
14) Name a movie you loved (or hated) upon first viewing, to which you eventually returned and had more or less the opposite reaction
A. people always ask this. It’s very hard to answer. I might as well go with Batman & Robin, since it's something of an extreme case - to my horror, when I rewatched it, I found myself actually enjoying it. Not just Uma Thurman either.
15) Movie most in need of a deluxe Blu-ray makeover
A. McCabe and Mrs. Miller? I don’t know really.
16) Alain Delon or Marcello Mastroianni?
A. Marcello, all the way
17) Your favorite opening sequence, credits or no credits (provide link to clip if possible)
A. Aguirre: Wrath of God - it's hard to beat that shot...
18) Director with the strongest run of great movies
A. Ozu over his whole career; Godard in the 60s, or Ozu in the 30s or 50s, or Capra in the 30s.
19) Is elitism a good/bad/necessary/inevitable aspect of being a cineaste?
A. Elitism is good. One should be the best you can be, like the best you can find, and value everything.
20) Second favorite Tony Scott film
A. Beverly Hills Cop II? (I haven't seen a lot...)
21) Favorite movie made before you were born that you only discovered this year. Where and how did you discover it?
A. Joli Mai - rereleased on its 50th anniversary (I believe). This was an odd year - fewer of these than usual.
22) Actor/actress you would most want to see in a Santa suit, traditional or skimpy
A. Guy Kibbee? or maybe Eugene Pallette? I guess that would have to be traditional... I pray that it's traditional...
23) Video store or streaming?
A. Um - I do stream movies now and then, so I guess that is the answer. It is not really an improvement over video stores, I admit that. (Netflix is, though, which is why I haven't been in a video store in 12 years or so - that and there aren't any left....)
24) Best/favorite final film by a noted director or screenwriter
A. Would Night of the Hunter count? probably not, since Laughton probably can't be called a "noted director" on one film - still... I think in it's place, among directors with a decent career as directors - it's Yi Yi, Edward Yang. There is quite a bit of competition - An Autumn Afternoon, Tabu, L'Argent, etc...
25) Monica Vitti or Anna Karina?
A. Anna Karina, very easily.
26) Name a worthy movie indulgence you’ve had to most strenuously talk friends into experiencing with you. What was the result?
A. I convinced some of my history nerd buddies (who were not really the type of film nerds) to see Kusterica's Underground - they liked it, very much, so there's that.
27) The movie made by your favorite filmmaker (writer, director, et al) that you either have yet to see or are least familiar with among all the rest
A. I need to see Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Clan in a good print - I have seen it twice, but the print was a mess - badly damaged soundtrack. So there is that.
28) Favorite horror movie that is either Christmas-oriented or has some element relating to the winter holiday season in it
A. Nightmare Before Christmas? I suppose Curse of the Cat People would be the best answer for real horror films.
29) Name a prop or other piece of movie memorabilia you’d most like to find with your name on it under the Christmas tree
A. Jimmy Stewart's cowboy hat?
30) Best holiday gift the movies could give to you to carry into 2014
A. Inside Llewyn Davis, to start.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Jean Brodie Quiz
Time for another quiz from Dennis Cozzalio - this one Miss Jean Brodie’s Modestly Magnificent, Matriarchally Manipulative Springtime-For-Mussolini Movie Quiz. I have managed to finish it in record time, I think! only 2 days since it was posted! I feel so proud.
1) The classic movie moment everyone loves except me is:
A: This is one of those questions that I will be able to answer 3 months from now when someone will say how much they love that scene in X, and I will think, Christ, that is a stupid scene, and then I will remember this quiz and say, I wish I had remembered that back in March. but I don't remember it now, so I have to let this one go.
2) Favorite line of dialogue from a film noir
A: There are lots of famous lines - though the one that seems to me to get the essence of noir is the last line in the Killing - “what’s the difference?” Hayden's delivery is part of it, obviously.
3) Second favorite Hal Ashby film
A: Shampoo (Harold and Maude is number 1)
4) Describe the moment when you first realized movies were directed as opposed to simply pieced together anonymously. *
A: There might be two answers here. One might not be what you are asking - I because an auteurist because of Howard Hawks. I noticed that he had directed a number of completely different films I loved - Bringing up Baby, Scarface, The Big Sleep, Red River - and thought - you know, these films have nothing obvious in common, but they all play alike - how does that work?.... The other is a bit strange: I believe it is true that I made a film before I had ever actually seen one. It’s not quite literally true, even in the narrow sense of seeing a film as film, projected - I saw home movies and 8 and 16 mm films in school and church and what not. But commercially, I did not go to the movies - but I made one, in early high school, along with my Sunday school class - a Christmas film. I played Joseph. 8 mm with post synch sound (which didn’t work too well because the tape player had a dying battery.) So - my point being - I knew more about how films were made (at a pretty basic, crude level) before I had seen enough films to have any other ideas about them.
5) Favorite film book
A: David Bordwell’s Ozu book
6) Diana Sands or Vonetta McGee
A: Vonetta McKee
7) Most egregious gap in your viewing of films made in the past 10 years
A: Given my loyalty to Hong Kong films in the 90s, I find it very troubling that I have seen so few in the 00s and 10s. 2-3 Johnny To films is about it - which itself is very disappointing to me..
8) Favorite line of dialogue from a comedy
A: This is a very tough one, but I might as well go to the top: “Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.”
9) Second favorite Lloyd Bacon film
A: Footlight Parade (after 42nd Street, of course)
10) Richard Burton or Roger Livesey
A: Burton
11) Is there a movie you staunchly refuse to consider seeing? If so, why?
A: There are no lack of them - it would take an act of god to get me to watch any of the 50 million superhero films that come out every month, just to name one current trend I want no part of.
12) Favorite filmmaker collaboration
A: I'm going with Tabu, Flaherty and Murnau.
13) Most recently viewed movie on DVD/Blu-ray/theatrical?
A: DVD is Creation, the Paul Betany Darwin movie. Now that I think about it. Theatrically, it’s been a Chilean weekend, as I saw Night Across the Street yesterday and No today.
14) Favorite line of dialogue from a horror movie
A: As a line - “are we not men?” - takes the prize - the whole sequence maybe. “What is the law?” I’m afraid a lot of the things that come to mind for horror films are really comedy lines - Herbert West’s “You’re not even a second rate scientist!” or Dwight Frye’s delivery of “It’s a very fresh one!” Though I suppose Karloff’s “We belong dead!” would be another strong contender.
15) Second favorite Oliver Stone film
A: Probably Salvador. (After Platoon.) I don’t really like Oliver Stone.
16) Eva Mendes or Raquel Welch
A: Raquel Welch.
17) Favorite religious satire
A: Life of Brian is the runaway winner.
18) Best Internet movie argument? (question contributed by Tom Block)
A: The good ones tend to be over films or filmmakers - working out differences between the good and the great, usually. Someone upthread mentioned arguing about the Thin Red Line - I was in some of those; and Magnolia; and since then, you get the same thing, directly or indirectly, over various films and directors - Malick, Lynch, Anderson and Anderson, Tarantino seem to be frequent subjects for debate. Usually fairly informative and engaging. More general topics tend not to be quite so edifying.
19) Most pointless Internet movie argument? (question contributed by Tom Block)
A: every couple years I seem to run into another argument about auteurism. No thanks! (Not that I have ever been able to not have an opinion.)
20) Charles McGraw or Robert Ryan
A: Robert Ryan
21) Favorite line of dialogue from a western
A: “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.”
22) Second favorite Roy Del Ruth film
A: Employee’s Entrance (after Blessed Event) - hey, maybe “go ahead, shoot! What are you, yellow?” ought to be my favorite line. Warren William is a good one. (But yes, Lee Tracy is better.)
23) Relatively unknown Film or filmmaker you’d most eagerly proselytize for
A: Well, let’s just say Blessed Event and leave it at that.
24) Ewan McGregor or Gerard Butler
A: Ewan McGregor
25) Is there such a thing as a perfect movie?
A: Rushmore?
26) Favorite movie location you’ve most recently had the occasion to actually visit *
A: I saw Rubberneck last week - saw it at the Brattle - I can. There is also a scene at Kendall station. Though this whole thing might be a bit odd, since a couple scenes in Mystic River were shot in the building where I work, so - you know, every day.
27) Second favorite Delmer Daves film
A: Dark Passage. (After 3:10 to Yuma)
28) Name the one DVD commentary you wish you could hear that, for whatever reason, doesn't actually exist
A: the Marx Brothers’ commentary on Duck Soup?
29) Gloria Grahame or Marie Windsor
A: Grahame, isn’t it? She is something.
30) Name a filmmaker who never really lived up to the potential suggested by their early acclaim or success
A: David Gordon Green is an obvious example; there might be better, but he is the obvious one.
31) Is there a movie-based disagreement serious enough that it might cause you to reevaluate the basis of a romantic relationship or a friendship? *
A: I am not sure I can think of anything. I’m pretty forgiving.
1) The classic movie moment everyone loves except me is:
A: This is one of those questions that I will be able to answer 3 months from now when someone will say how much they love that scene in X, and I will think, Christ, that is a stupid scene, and then I will remember this quiz and say, I wish I had remembered that back in March. but I don't remember it now, so I have to let this one go.
2) Favorite line of dialogue from a film noir
A: There are lots of famous lines - though the one that seems to me to get the essence of noir is the last line in the Killing - “what’s the difference?” Hayden's delivery is part of it, obviously.
3) Second favorite Hal Ashby film
A: Shampoo (Harold and Maude is number 1)
4) Describe the moment when you first realized movies were directed as opposed to simply pieced together anonymously. *
A: There might be two answers here. One might not be what you are asking - I because an auteurist because of Howard Hawks. I noticed that he had directed a number of completely different films I loved - Bringing up Baby, Scarface, The Big Sleep, Red River - and thought - you know, these films have nothing obvious in common, but they all play alike - how does that work?.... The other is a bit strange: I believe it is true that I made a film before I had ever actually seen one. It’s not quite literally true, even in the narrow sense of seeing a film as film, projected - I saw home movies and 8 and 16 mm films in school and church and what not. But commercially, I did not go to the movies - but I made one, in early high school, along with my Sunday school class - a Christmas film. I played Joseph. 8 mm with post synch sound (which didn’t work too well because the tape player had a dying battery.) So - my point being - I knew more about how films were made (at a pretty basic, crude level) before I had seen enough films to have any other ideas about them.
5) Favorite film book
A: David Bordwell’s Ozu book
6) Diana Sands or Vonetta McGee
A: Vonetta McKee
7) Most egregious gap in your viewing of films made in the past 10 years
A: Given my loyalty to Hong Kong films in the 90s, I find it very troubling that I have seen so few in the 00s and 10s. 2-3 Johnny To films is about it - which itself is very disappointing to me..
8) Favorite line of dialogue from a comedy
A: This is a very tough one, but I might as well go to the top: “Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.”
9) Second favorite Lloyd Bacon film
A: Footlight Parade (after 42nd Street, of course)
10) Richard Burton or Roger Livesey
A: Burton
11) Is there a movie you staunchly refuse to consider seeing? If so, why?
A: There are no lack of them - it would take an act of god to get me to watch any of the 50 million superhero films that come out every month, just to name one current trend I want no part of.
12) Favorite filmmaker collaboration
A: I'm going with Tabu, Flaherty and Murnau.
13) Most recently viewed movie on DVD/Blu-ray/theatrical?
A: DVD is Creation, the Paul Betany Darwin movie. Now that I think about it. Theatrically, it’s been a Chilean weekend, as I saw Night Across the Street yesterday and No today.
14) Favorite line of dialogue from a horror movie
A: As a line - “are we not men?” - takes the prize - the whole sequence maybe. “What is the law?” I’m afraid a lot of the things that come to mind for horror films are really comedy lines - Herbert West’s “You’re not even a second rate scientist!” or Dwight Frye’s delivery of “It’s a very fresh one!” Though I suppose Karloff’s “We belong dead!” would be another strong contender.
15) Second favorite Oliver Stone film
A: Probably Salvador. (After Platoon.) I don’t really like Oliver Stone.
16) Eva Mendes or Raquel Welch
A: Raquel Welch.
17) Favorite religious satire
A: Life of Brian is the runaway winner.
18) Best Internet movie argument? (question contributed by Tom Block)
A: The good ones tend to be over films or filmmakers - working out differences between the good and the great, usually. Someone upthread mentioned arguing about the Thin Red Line - I was in some of those; and Magnolia; and since then, you get the same thing, directly or indirectly, over various films and directors - Malick, Lynch, Anderson and Anderson, Tarantino seem to be frequent subjects for debate. Usually fairly informative and engaging. More general topics tend not to be quite so edifying.
19) Most pointless Internet movie argument? (question contributed by Tom Block)
A: every couple years I seem to run into another argument about auteurism. No thanks! (Not that I have ever been able to not have an opinion.)
20) Charles McGraw or Robert Ryan
A: Robert Ryan
21) Favorite line of dialogue from a western
A: “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.”
22) Second favorite Roy Del Ruth film
A: Employee’s Entrance (after Blessed Event) - hey, maybe “go ahead, shoot! What are you, yellow?” ought to be my favorite line. Warren William is a good one. (But yes, Lee Tracy is better.)
23) Relatively unknown Film or filmmaker you’d most eagerly proselytize for
A: Well, let’s just say Blessed Event and leave it at that.
24) Ewan McGregor or Gerard Butler
A: Ewan McGregor
25) Is there such a thing as a perfect movie?
A: Rushmore?
26) Favorite movie location you’ve most recently had the occasion to actually visit *
A: I saw Rubberneck last week - saw it at the Brattle - I can. There is also a scene at Kendall station. Though this whole thing might be a bit odd, since a couple scenes in Mystic River were shot in the building where I work, so - you know, every day.
27) Second favorite Delmer Daves film
A: Dark Passage. (After 3:10 to Yuma)
28) Name the one DVD commentary you wish you could hear that, for whatever reason, doesn't actually exist
A: the Marx Brothers’ commentary on Duck Soup?
29) Gloria Grahame or Marie Windsor
A: Grahame, isn’t it? She is something.
30) Name a filmmaker who never really lived up to the potential suggested by their early acclaim or success
A: David Gordon Green is an obvious example; there might be better, but he is the obvious one.
31) Is there a movie-based disagreement serious enough that it might cause you to reevaluate the basis of a romantic relationship or a friendship? *
A: I am not sure I can think of anything. I’m pretty forgiving.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Professor Arthur Chipping's Back to School Quiz
Time for another of Dennis Cozzalio's quizzes - PROFESSOR ARTHUR CHIPPING’S MADDENINGLY DETAILED, PURPOSEFULLY VAGUE, FITFULLY OUT-OF-FOCUS BACK TO SCHOOL MOVIE QUIZ this time. I am, as usual, dreadfully late in this assignment - I offer as my only excuse that I am back to school in the atom world, and have been eye deep in William Butler Yeats this past week... so there is that. Still - sooner or later we'll get there!
1) What is the biggest issue for you in the digital vs. film debate?
A: I am not sure, though I think it is probably the question of which films will make the jump. And - the oft-overlooked question of whether digital films will be worth anything in X years. I am haunted by the erosion of digital storage - I have spent quite a bit of time this year digging through photos, for instance - and it makes you wonder. I have 2 video cameras, both mini-DV cameras - both of them still work fine as cameras, but the motors have died on the tape drives. And so - I have a box full of mini-DV tapes full of video that is as inaccessible to me as if they had been thrown in the trash. Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago my brother found a tintype in an old desk our grandmother used to have. Also, a sheet of paper covered in drawings she made in 1936. Digital is very useful, no question - once you get these things on a computer, and as long as you can keep files and software in synch (the latest version of Word has trouble opening files from - pre-2000? more or less...), all is well - but - unless you keep updating everything you have to the latest formats, it fades, in ways that a piece of paper in an envelope stuffed into a desk drawer will not fade, in 100, 120, 130 years. (We have one at home dated 1887, I believe...) And - film is obviously a more volatile format that paper, but it is still an object and it is there, even when the tools to make it work are not. (I refer you to the recently discovered color film from 1902 - an object that no one could use until someone created a projector to play it. I suppose, as long as you have means to reverse engineer the machines and software to run digital files, not much will be lost... but do I trust that?)
2) Without more than one minute’s consideration, name three great faces from the movies
A: Deitrich - Keaton - Karloff
3) The movie you think could be interesting if remade as a movie musical
A: How about Playtime?
4) The last movie you saw theatrically/on DVD, Blu-ray, streaming
A: Theater - Keep the Lights On...; DVD - Good Morning; Streaming - I haven't streamed a film in a while - other than shorts, for the Wonders in the Dark polls...
5) Favorite movie about work
A: This is a good question - there should be more movies about work. Some candidates? Fallen Angels - Blue Collar - Office Space... Fallen Angels is probably the winner, though - those Takashi Kinoshiro parts do something right.
6) The movie you loved as a child that did not hold up when seen through adult eyes
A: truth is, I didn't see enough films as a child to make any judgements like this. The ones I liked, I still like, even if they do seem less than they used to - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, something like that. Still holds up fine.
7) Favorite “road” movie
A: Pierrot le Fou, probably. Obviously there are an awful lot of these, all with their own special appeal - O Brother Where Art Thou? Week End? It Happened One Night? etc. But Pierrot is probably the best of the bunch.
8) Does Clint Eastwood’s appearance at the Republican National Convention change or confirm your perspective on him as a filmmaker/movie icon? Is that appearance relevant to his legacy as a filmmaker?
A: It doesn't seem to have much to do with him as a filmmaker. It's almost like a different person - he's always been at least three people - celebrity, filmmaker, actor - the actor and celebrity sometimes seem to blur, just like the filmmaker and actor sometimes seem to blur - but the filmmaker and celebrity have almost nothing to do with one another - and that appearance was completely as a celebrity.
9) Longest-lasting movie or movie-related obsession
A: I don't know; they don't tend to go away...
10) Favorite artifact of movie exploitation
A: My junk obsessions don't run toward movies, really - they run to toys and books and such I liked when I was a kid. I suppose that's normal, and not being a movie watcher as a kid will do that. I do have a nice Marlene Dietrich picture, advertising a retrospective from 20+ years ago...
11) Have you ever fallen asleep in a movie theater? If so, when and why?
A: I don't believe so; it has been a close thing a few times, though I would have to think long and hard to remember those times.
12) Favorite performance by an athlete in a movie
A: It's kind of a tough question - given the week's events, I should say Alex Karras in Blazing Saddles - which is a good answer anyway. Though I have a soft spot for Terry Crews in Idiocracy (and his cool cameo in Inland Empire...)
13) Second favorite Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie
A: I think it is probably The Marriage of Maria Braun, these days...
14) Favorite film of 1931
A: Favorite film period: M. Quite possibly the best year in cinematic history
15) Second favorite Raoul Walsh movie
A: Thief of Baghdad?
16) Favorite film of 1951
A: Early Summer
17) Second favorite Wong Kar-wai movie
A: Happy Together? these days, I think that would be the answer...
18) Favorite film of 1971
A: McCabe and Mrs. Miller - so far my favorites from all three of these years are in my all time top 5.
19) Second favorite Henri-Georges Clouzot movie
A: Mysteries of Picasso
20) Favorite film of 1991
A: A Brighter Summer Day
21) Second favorite John Sturges movie
A: The Magnificent Seven
22) Favorite celebrity biopic
A: Does Che count? Carlos? I'm also incline to say Superstar...
23) Name a good script idea which was let down either by the director or circumstances of production
A: This sort of thing happens all the time - good scripts that just don't do anything... I don't know if that's what you have in mind though - I'm thinking films like Five Year Engagement - clever, well written, well acted, but with nothing to look at. You could close your eyes and get as much out of it...
24) Heaven’s Gate-- yes or no?
A: Haven't seen it; reserve judgment
25) Favorite pairing of movie sex symbols
A: Happy Together? might be, you know...
26) One word that you could say which would instantly evoke images and memories of your favorite movie. (Naming the movie is optional—might be more fun to see if we can guess what it is from the word itself)
A: Well, two - Ich Musst!
27) Name one moment which to you demarcates a significant change, for better or worse, on the landscape of the movies over the last 20 years.
A: Closing of the Harvard Square cinema last summer? it's emblematic of the past 20 years, I know that - this one might be more disturbing, because the theatrical landscape had stabilized - lots of places closed in the 90s, but things had stayed the same for the last 10 years or so. This closing is very ominous... the loss of all those theaters - mostly small, a lot of them either specialist theaters or art cinemas - changes things profoundly. It's hard to see what you want on film - though DVDs have done a pretty good job of supplying the films, you lose all the benefits of theatrical shows, and, obviously, of Film.
28) Favorite pre-Code talkie
A: Duck Soup or Trouble in Paradise
29) Oldest film in your personal collection (Thanks, Peter Nellhaus)
A: Oldest meaning, first one made? That's Fantomas. Oldest meaning, had the longest? VHS of Blue Velvet, I think....
30) Longest film in your personal collection. (Thanks, Brian Darr)
A: That also might be Fantomas, if it counts as one movie. Histoires du Cinema, if it doesn't (and the Godard counts as one movie.) World on A Wire is up there too...
31) Have your movie collection habits changed in the past 10 years? If so, how?
A: I buy a lot more now than I did 10 years ago. The answer to 27 above is probably related.
32) Wackiest, most unlikely “directed by” credit you can name
A: There are probably better answers, but the latter half of David Gordon Green's career would have been very hard to predict (even imagine) from the first half...
33) Best documentary you’ve seen in 2012 (made in 2012 or any other year)
A: I am faced with the shocking fact that I have seen exactly one documentary in a movie theater all year, and I saw it just last weekend - How to Survive a Plague.
34) What’s your favorite “(this star) was almost cast in (this movie)” anecdote?
A: Cary Grant in Bicycle Thieves?
35) Program three nights of double bills at a revival theater that might best illuminate your love of the movies
A: It's a Wonderful Life/Early Summer
Playtime/Nashville
Celine and Julie Go Boating/Inland Empire (gonna be a long night, that one)
36) You have been granted permission to invite any three people, alive or dead, to your house to watch the Oscars. Who are they?
A: James Joyce, Frank Capra and Jean-Luc Godard?
37) Favorite Mr. Chips. (Careful...)
A: Um -
1) What is the biggest issue for you in the digital vs. film debate?
A: I am not sure, though I think it is probably the question of which films will make the jump. And - the oft-overlooked question of whether digital films will be worth anything in X years. I am haunted by the erosion of digital storage - I have spent quite a bit of time this year digging through photos, for instance - and it makes you wonder. I have 2 video cameras, both mini-DV cameras - both of them still work fine as cameras, but the motors have died on the tape drives. And so - I have a box full of mini-DV tapes full of video that is as inaccessible to me as if they had been thrown in the trash. Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago my brother found a tintype in an old desk our grandmother used to have. Also, a sheet of paper covered in drawings she made in 1936. Digital is very useful, no question - once you get these things on a computer, and as long as you can keep files and software in synch (the latest version of Word has trouble opening files from - pre-2000? more or less...), all is well - but - unless you keep updating everything you have to the latest formats, it fades, in ways that a piece of paper in an envelope stuffed into a desk drawer will not fade, in 100, 120, 130 years. (We have one at home dated 1887, I believe...) And - film is obviously a more volatile format that paper, but it is still an object and it is there, even when the tools to make it work are not. (I refer you to the recently discovered color film from 1902 - an object that no one could use until someone created a projector to play it. I suppose, as long as you have means to reverse engineer the machines and software to run digital files, not much will be lost... but do I trust that?)
2) Without more than one minute’s consideration, name three great faces from the movies
A: Deitrich - Keaton - Karloff
3) The movie you think could be interesting if remade as a movie musical
A: How about Playtime?
4) The last movie you saw theatrically/on DVD, Blu-ray, streaming
A: Theater - Keep the Lights On...; DVD - Good Morning; Streaming - I haven't streamed a film in a while - other than shorts, for the Wonders in the Dark polls...
5) Favorite movie about work
A: This is a good question - there should be more movies about work. Some candidates? Fallen Angels - Blue Collar - Office Space... Fallen Angels is probably the winner, though - those Takashi Kinoshiro parts do something right.
6) The movie you loved as a child that did not hold up when seen through adult eyes
A: truth is, I didn't see enough films as a child to make any judgements like this. The ones I liked, I still like, even if they do seem less than they used to - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, something like that. Still holds up fine.
7) Favorite “road” movie
A: Pierrot le Fou, probably. Obviously there are an awful lot of these, all with their own special appeal - O Brother Where Art Thou? Week End? It Happened One Night? etc. But Pierrot is probably the best of the bunch.
8) Does Clint Eastwood’s appearance at the Republican National Convention change or confirm your perspective on him as a filmmaker/movie icon? Is that appearance relevant to his legacy as a filmmaker?
A: It doesn't seem to have much to do with him as a filmmaker. It's almost like a different person - he's always been at least three people - celebrity, filmmaker, actor - the actor and celebrity sometimes seem to blur, just like the filmmaker and actor sometimes seem to blur - but the filmmaker and celebrity have almost nothing to do with one another - and that appearance was completely as a celebrity.
9) Longest-lasting movie or movie-related obsession
A: I don't know; they don't tend to go away...
10) Favorite artifact of movie exploitation
A: My junk obsessions don't run toward movies, really - they run to toys and books and such I liked when I was a kid. I suppose that's normal, and not being a movie watcher as a kid will do that. I do have a nice Marlene Dietrich picture, advertising a retrospective from 20+ years ago...
11) Have you ever fallen asleep in a movie theater? If so, when and why?
A: I don't believe so; it has been a close thing a few times, though I would have to think long and hard to remember those times.
12) Favorite performance by an athlete in a movie
A: It's kind of a tough question - given the week's events, I should say Alex Karras in Blazing Saddles - which is a good answer anyway. Though I have a soft spot for Terry Crews in Idiocracy (and his cool cameo in Inland Empire...)
13) Second favorite Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie
A: I think it is probably The Marriage of Maria Braun, these days...
14) Favorite film of 1931
A: Favorite film period: M. Quite possibly the best year in cinematic history
15) Second favorite Raoul Walsh movie
A: Thief of Baghdad?
16) Favorite film of 1951
A: Early Summer
17) Second favorite Wong Kar-wai movie
A: Happy Together? these days, I think that would be the answer...
18) Favorite film of 1971
A: McCabe and Mrs. Miller - so far my favorites from all three of these years are in my all time top 5.
19) Second favorite Henri-Georges Clouzot movie
A: Mysteries of Picasso
20) Favorite film of 1991
A: A Brighter Summer Day
21) Second favorite John Sturges movie
A: The Magnificent Seven
22) Favorite celebrity biopic
A: Does Che count? Carlos? I'm also incline to say Superstar...
23) Name a good script idea which was let down either by the director or circumstances of production
A: This sort of thing happens all the time - good scripts that just don't do anything... I don't know if that's what you have in mind though - I'm thinking films like Five Year Engagement - clever, well written, well acted, but with nothing to look at. You could close your eyes and get as much out of it...
24) Heaven’s Gate-- yes or no?
A: Haven't seen it; reserve judgment
25) Favorite pairing of movie sex symbols
A: Happy Together? might be, you know...
26) One word that you could say which would instantly evoke images and memories of your favorite movie. (Naming the movie is optional—might be more fun to see if we can guess what it is from the word itself)
A: Well, two - Ich Musst!
27) Name one moment which to you demarcates a significant change, for better or worse, on the landscape of the movies over the last 20 years.
A: Closing of the Harvard Square cinema last summer? it's emblematic of the past 20 years, I know that - this one might be more disturbing, because the theatrical landscape had stabilized - lots of places closed in the 90s, but things had stayed the same for the last 10 years or so. This closing is very ominous... the loss of all those theaters - mostly small, a lot of them either specialist theaters or art cinemas - changes things profoundly. It's hard to see what you want on film - though DVDs have done a pretty good job of supplying the films, you lose all the benefits of theatrical shows, and, obviously, of Film.
28) Favorite pre-Code talkie
A: Duck Soup or Trouble in Paradise
29) Oldest film in your personal collection (Thanks, Peter Nellhaus)
A: Oldest meaning, first one made? That's Fantomas. Oldest meaning, had the longest? VHS of Blue Velvet, I think....
30) Longest film in your personal collection. (Thanks, Brian Darr)
A: That also might be Fantomas, if it counts as one movie. Histoires du Cinema, if it doesn't (and the Godard counts as one movie.) World on A Wire is up there too...
31) Have your movie collection habits changed in the past 10 years? If so, how?
A: I buy a lot more now than I did 10 years ago. The answer to 27 above is probably related.
32) Wackiest, most unlikely “directed by” credit you can name
A: There are probably better answers, but the latter half of David Gordon Green's career would have been very hard to predict (even imagine) from the first half...
33) Best documentary you’ve seen in 2012 (made in 2012 or any other year)
A: I am faced with the shocking fact that I have seen exactly one documentary in a movie theater all year, and I saw it just last weekend - How to Survive a Plague.
34) What’s your favorite “(this star) was almost cast in (this movie)” anecdote?
A: Cary Grant in Bicycle Thieves?
35) Program three nights of double bills at a revival theater that might best illuminate your love of the movies
A: It's a Wonderful Life/Early Summer
Playtime/Nashville
Celine and Julie Go Boating/Inland Empire (gonna be a long night, that one)
36) You have been granted permission to invite any three people, alive or dead, to your house to watch the Oscars. Who are they?
A: James Joyce, Frank Capra and Jean-Luc Godard?
37) Favorite Mr. Chips. (Careful...)
A: Um -
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Spring Quiz, and Nun Too Soon!
Dennis Cozzalio has posted A New Quiz, praise the Lord!
SISTER CLODAGH'S SUPERFICIALLY SPIRITUAL, AMBITIOUSLY AGNOSTIC LAST-RITES-OF-SPRING MOVIE QUIZ
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SISTER CLODAGH'S SUPERFICIALLY SPIRITUAL, AMBITIOUSLY AGNOSTIC LAST-RITES-OF-SPRING MOVIE QUIZ
****************************************
1) Favorite movie featuring nuns
A: How about Rivette's The Nun?
2) Second favorite John Frankenheimer movie
A: Seconds, right?
3) William Bendix or Scott Brady?
A: I think I'd say William Bendix
4) What movie, real or imagined, would you stand in line six hours to see? Have you ever done so in real life?
A: I have not done this. There are undoubtedly films I would, though - Out 1? if you're gonna spend 13 hours watching it, what's another 6 waiting for it?
5) Favorite Mitchell Leisen movie
A: Easy Living seems the obvious answer.
6) Ann Savage or Peggy Cummins?
A: I think it's Peggy Cummins
7) First movie you remember seeing as a child
A: The first actual movie I saw was 1776, as a class trip. I saw things on TV, but can't really say what I remember seeing first. My Fair Lady maybe? on TV of course... Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
8) What moment in a movie that is not a horror movie made you want to bolt from the theater screaming?
A: I can never figure out how to answer these questions. I mean - this stuff happens - and it comes to me, but never when I am thinking about it directly like this.... I recently got to see Satantango again - the kid and the cat have to be on the short list for this sort of thing.
9) Richard Widmark or Robert Mitchum?
A: A very painful choice. Mitchum it is, but Widmark is wonderful.
10) Best movie Jesus
A: Enrique Irozoqui, in Gospel According to Matthew. Though I'm tempted to say Justin Theroux in The Ten - the best Jesus joke anyway.
11) Silliest straight horror film that you’re still fond of
A: In Dreams, maybe? is that a straight horror film? It's certainly silly. But gorgeous and compelling enough... "Fond" might be a strong word for it, but I'm also reminded of Daybreakers, a pretty awful vampire movie featuring Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill and Willem Dafoe which was oddly appealing...
12) Emily Blunt or Sally Gray?
A: Emily Blunt, I'll say, since I just saw The Five Year Engagement.
13) Favorite cinematic Biblical spectacular
A: Intolerance sounds likely.
14) Favorite cinematic moment of unintentional humor
A: Another one of these... this probably makes me a bad person - but I always thought the people falling off the Titanic were especially ridiculous looking - like a pinball machine. Something about the FX just failed utterly to suspend disbelief. I remember finding it difficult not to laugh...
15) Michael Fassbender or David Farrar?
A: Fassbender is the answer to any question that involves him, I think.
16) Most effective faith-affirming movie
A: O Brother Where Art Thou?
17) Movie that makes the best case for agnosticism
A: The Passion of the Christ?... seriously - shoot - A Serious Man? Especially since it is about the question, more than any kinds of answers.
18) Favorite song and/or dance sequence from a musical
A: Night and Day, in the Gay Divorcee.
19) Third favorite Howard Hawks movie
A: Bringing up Baby, I guess. Which leaves it ahead of Twentieth Century, To Have and Have NOt, Rio Bravo, Scarface - lord...
20) Clara Bow or Jean Harlow?
A: Jean Harlow, who is wonderful, in every way
21) Movie most recently seen in the theater? On DVD/Blu-ray/Streaming?
A: Theater - was Damsels in Distress when I started this, but now it's The Five-Year Engagement; DVD = Letters From Iwo Jima; been a while since I've streamed anything, for a variety of reasons...
22) Most unlikely good movie about religion
A: Would Life of Brian count? though it's not unlikely that it's a good movie - it is unlikely, perhaps, that it is such a good film about religion, as well as a good joke...
23) Phil Silvers or Red Skelton?
A: Man, when I was a kid, a really small kid, I looked forward to 2 television shows - horse racing, and Red Skelton. I don't remember it, other than it was full of pantomime and clowns and what not, and Clem Kadiddlehopper, but I loved it. Phil Silvers can't compete with that.
24) “Favorite” Hollywood scandal
A: good lord, who knows. Ingrid Bergman running off with Roberto Rosselini?
25) Best religious movie (non-Christian)
A: The Burmese Harp, I think, is very hard to beat.
26) The King of Cinema: King Vidor, King Hu or Henry King? (Thanks, Peter)
A: King Hu!
27) Name something modern movies need to relearn how to do that American or foreign classics had down pat
A: Another question I think about often enough, but now, trying to answer it, I can't come up with anything. It pops into my head, that's the problem - I see something and I think, they did this right back in the day - but without the initial inspiration, it doesn't pop into my head. However - usually romantic comedies are fine inspiration for What Is Wrong With Hollywood Today - maybe the problem is that Five Year Engagement was pretty good - maybe that it stayed fairly interesting to the end. That might be the answer - 2 things: 1) classic films knew how to maintain a good start and stay as good at the end as they were in the middle. Contemporary films fall down after the first half hour all the time. 2) Classic filmmakers knew how to tell a story in 90 minutes - 80! 70! How man modern films would, in fact, be quite effective if they stopped at 80 minutes? Knowing how to make movies that are as long as the running time might be the real answer.
28) Least favorite Federico Fellini movie
A: I was quite underwhelmed by Juliet of the Spirits...
29) The Three Stooges (2012)—yes or no?
A: Not going to bother, no.
30) Mary Wickes or Patsy Kelly?
A: I think this is Mary Wickes.
31) Best movie-related conspiracy theory
A: It would be tempting to say something like, Orson Welles directed the Third Man! But that's kind of nonsense, and there are people who act like they really believe it, so, I don't know...
32) Your candidate for most misunderstood or misinterpreted movie
A: Well - I got a lot of mileage out of explaining Inland Empire a few years ago, as part of a misunderstood movies blogathon... not to mention Batman & Robin. But neither of those films, or posts, are exactly about how movies are misunderstood - so - this is another one that I can answer when something reminds me of one of my pet theories - but I can never remember when I am not reminded. Alas. Thinking recently a lot about World War II, though, gets me thinking, in turn, about Japanese films - The Human Condition, say - a superb film (films) - but that, in turn, makes me think about Kobayashi - and his films, I think, are misunderstood a bit. In the sense that politically, he tends to make anti war films - Hara-Kiri, Samurai Rebellion, and The three Human Condition films are all anti-war, anti-militarist films - except they illustrate, all too well, how hard it is to make an anti-war war film. With their superman heroes, their excitement and thrills - they make the spectacle too appealing - they make war too beautiful. So - you could say that - Kobayashi is not alone in making films that seem to advance one message in their stories, but undermine it with their style - but he might be the best...
33) Movie that made you question your own belief system (religious or otherwise)
A: The Hiding Place? I mean - what other possible argument could there be for god but that he makes people do good? and stories like that do make that case at least, at least for a god that's exactly the size of his believers.
[UPDATE - I've had to repost this a couple times - I think I have gotten the new blogger working at last, but it's been a struggle. This post was displaying badly for a while - I think I have it cleaned up enough now, but who knows. I should have known better than to attempt a long post like this before I'd worked out the kinks with this editor...]
Friday, October 28, 2011
Halloween Quiz Time
I have been waiting for this, it's been a long time - Dennis Cozzalio is back, with a new quiz for Halloween!
DR. ANTON PHIBES’ ABOMINABLY ERUDITE, MUSICALLY MALIGNANT, CURSEDLY CLEVER HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIE QUIZ
Let us away!
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1) Favorite Vincent Price/American International Pictures release.
A. I am not sure how many I have seen - bits an pieces, yes, but start to finish? Saw a 16mm print of The Raven when I was in college, a double feature with House of Wax - rather neat, a way of seeing films that seems to have disappeared...
2) What horror classic (or non-classic) that has not yet been remade would you like to see upgraded for modern audiences?
A. While Vampire Lovers (and Vampiros Lesbos, for that matter) have their - let's call it charms - I think the world could use a more straightforward adaptation of Carmilla.
3) Jonathan Frid or Thayer David?
A. I watched a bit of the show, but I can't say it made much of an impression on me.... probably have to vote for Frid, though.
4) Name the one horror movie you need to see that has so far eluded you.
A. The answer is probably The Exorcist - that's about the most prominent horror film I have avoided...
5) Favorite film director most closely associated with the horror genre.
A. This is James Whale, easily.
6) Ingrid Pitt or Barbara Steele?
A. Barbara Steele
7) Favorite 50’s sci-fi/horror creature.
A. Gojira - probably not really close, unless I can count Tor Johnson.
8) Favorite/best sequel to an established horror classic.
A. There are a couple possible answers, I suppose. Bride of Frankenstein is obvious, almost too simple - and I am inclined sometimes to look at it as more a continuation than a sequel (though I know better.) Dracula's Daughter is a very interesting variation on the theme...
9) Name a sequel in a horror series which clearly signaled that the once-vital franchise had run out of gas.
A. For whatever reasons, I find that series' I like I never got to the bad ones - and ridiculous sequels I've seen have tended to be of series' I don't care much about - Hellraiser III? why would I have seen that? Another kind of answer might be Bride of Reanimator - pointless and not very interesting sequel to a great film...
10) John Carradine or Lon Chaney Jr.?
A. John Carradine, though I suppose this goes well beyond horror movies.
11) What was the last horror movie you saw in a theater? On DVD or Blu-ray?
A. Restless is a ghost story and it was pretty horrible - does that count? Take Shelter might be a slightly better answer... DVD - Thirst, watched it for this post - though the Frankensteins will end up in this position.
12) Best foreign-language fiend/monster.
A. I suppose the obvious answer is Count Orlock - I don't know if silent films count, but if not, Kinski works as well as Shrek. Though I'm thinking a good contender might be either the two kids or the television in Funny Games.
13) Favorite Mario Bava movie.
A. Tough, but I'd say Black Sabbath (Three Faces of Fear) - the Verdulak section especially is one of the greatest horror films of all time.
14) Favorite horror actor and actress.
A. Karloff, easily.... And - Brigitte Lin? a case can be made, a good one...
15) Name a great horror director’s least effective movie.
A. I'm not really an obsessive horror fan, so haven't gone looking for a lot of lame films by great directors here - though - Dario Argento's Mother of Tears might count - silly, boring story, though even here, boy, it looks good...
16) Grayson Hall or Joan Bennett?
A. Joan Bennett - I mean, she was Fritz Lang's go to actress for a while! I think more or less any of his films are, in fact, scarier and more disturbing than just about anything labelled horror...
17) When did you realize that you were a fan of the horror genre? And if you’re not, when did you realize you weren’t?
A. I'm not, in any special sense. I enjoy horror films, find the genre interesting enough - but no more so than any other genre, and I don't tend to enjoy horror films because they're horror films as much as, oh - I will watch even a bad western or martial arts film just because it is a western or martial arts film. On the other hand, I suppose I do find the horror genre more interesting to talk about, as a genre, than westerns, noir, martial arts films... it does seem to have a metaphorical interest that I find fascinating...
18) Favorite Bert I. Gordon (B.I.G.) movie.
A. I wish I could answer this, but I don't think I can. If I've seen any of his films, I don't remember them, and I think if I had seen them, I would remember them.
19) Name an obscure horror favorite that you wish more people knew about.
A. Let's go with Dream Lovers - Brigitte Lin and Chow Yun-fat as contemporary characters who start dreaming about one another, and about ancient terracotta figures - they meet, they fall in love of course, there are other people involved who suffer, 8 years or 2000 years, it's still love... shares a lot with the Mummy - plot elements, and a tone of infinite romantic sorrow. Great little film that's not much talked about.
20) The Human Centipede-- yes or no?
A. I suppose I have no inherent objection to it, but I have no interest in seeing it.
21) And while we’re in the neighborhood, is there a horror film you can think of that you felt “went too far”?
A. I am not inclined to think of any film in those terms - art shows what it shows... that is somewhat different from saying that a film fails - or becomes less effective or interesting because it tries to gross people out or shock them - going for cheap effects or whatever the problem is. Something like Organ comes to mind - because it's kind of a dull, underwhelming film (or so I remember it), that tries to make up for its flaws by being grosser than its competition. I suppose by that criteria, Passion of the Christ would qualify... quite well, actually.
22) Name a film that is technically outside the horror genre that you might still feel comfortable describing as a horror film.
A. Being probably more fond of the theory of horror films than actual horror films - I suppose I do this rather a lot. I've done it a couple times already in this quiz - Passion of the Christ - the great mass of Fritz Lang films. My pet theory is that the major theme of horror is the instability of the self - how the self is threatened by forces outside it, that turn out to be somehow inside it - the themes of the Other who is a Double; themes of invasion, especially - loss of bodily integrity, loss of self.... Given that - lots of films, not horror, become very close to horror - from stuff that is, really horror, like Lost Highway - to things like, oh - L'Humanite... Bigger than Life.... Showboat....
23) Lara Parker or Kathryn Leigh Scott?
A. No, I'm well out of my depths now.
24) If you’re a horror fan, at some point in your past your dad, grandmother, teacher or some other disgusted figure of authority probably wagged her/his finger at you and said, “Why do you insist on reading/watching all this morbid monster/horror junk?” How did you reply? And if that reply fell short somehow, how would you have liked to have replied?
A. Well - no, it's never happened. For this sort of thing, you would have to ask me about either the music I listen to, or about people wondering why I watch so many cheap Hong Kong police thrillers - I have had that question...
25) Name the critic or Web site you most enjoy reading on the subject of the horror genre.
A. Siegfried Kracauer? getting there first is a big thing sometimes...
26) Most frightening image you’ve ever taken away from a horror movie.
A. This is a great question - this is the one that justifies the quiz. I don't know the answer though - unless it's that reel-long shot in Funny Games after the first set of abuse... I think, rather seriously, that Funny Games was the most disturbing horror film I have ever seen, and that the most excruciating moment in it.
27) Your favorite memory associated with watching a horror movie.
A. Another interesting one - seeing the whole 9 hours of The Kingdom over 2 nights was certainly up there
28) What would you say is the most important/significant horror movie of the past 20 years (1992-2012)? Why?
A. Significant or best? The best, when push comes to shove, probably comes down to either The Kingdom or Thirst - The Kingdom wins if you count the whole series, I think, parts 1 & 2. Thirst probably wins otherwise... Significant? MIght be something like the Ring films, popularizing Asian horror, touching off a host of American imitators... or Buffy the Vampire Slayer - which seem to be one of the places vampires made a jump into a new realm of pop culture. Though a big part of that jump is out of the horror genre...
29) Favorite Dr. Phibes curse (from either film).
A. Alas, etc.
30) You are programming an all-night Halloween horror-thon for your favorite old movie palace. What five movies make up your schedule?
A. Another great question - all right - going on the themes, Invasions - dissolution of self/other - tragic monsters - doubles - how about this:
Student of Prague
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian)
Vertigo
Lost Highway
Doppelganger
DR. ANTON PHIBES’ ABOMINABLY ERUDITE, MUSICALLY MALIGNANT, CURSEDLY CLEVER HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIE QUIZ
Let us away!
***********************************************
1) Favorite Vincent Price/American International Pictures release.
A. I am not sure how many I have seen - bits an pieces, yes, but start to finish? Saw a 16mm print of The Raven when I was in college, a double feature with House of Wax - rather neat, a way of seeing films that seems to have disappeared...
2) What horror classic (or non-classic) that has not yet been remade would you like to see upgraded for modern audiences?
A. While Vampire Lovers (and Vampiros Lesbos, for that matter) have their - let's call it charms - I think the world could use a more straightforward adaptation of Carmilla.
3) Jonathan Frid or Thayer David?
A. I watched a bit of the show, but I can't say it made much of an impression on me.... probably have to vote for Frid, though.
4) Name the one horror movie you need to see that has so far eluded you.
A. The answer is probably The Exorcist - that's about the most prominent horror film I have avoided...
5) Favorite film director most closely associated with the horror genre.
A. This is James Whale, easily.
6) Ingrid Pitt or Barbara Steele?
A. Barbara Steele
7) Favorite 50’s sci-fi/horror creature.
A. Gojira - probably not really close, unless I can count Tor Johnson.
8) Favorite/best sequel to an established horror classic.
A. There are a couple possible answers, I suppose. Bride of Frankenstein is obvious, almost too simple - and I am inclined sometimes to look at it as more a continuation than a sequel (though I know better.) Dracula's Daughter is a very interesting variation on the theme...
9) Name a sequel in a horror series which clearly signaled that the once-vital franchise had run out of gas.
A. For whatever reasons, I find that series' I like I never got to the bad ones - and ridiculous sequels I've seen have tended to be of series' I don't care much about - Hellraiser III? why would I have seen that? Another kind of answer might be Bride of Reanimator - pointless and not very interesting sequel to a great film...
10) John Carradine or Lon Chaney Jr.?
A. John Carradine, though I suppose this goes well beyond horror movies.
11) What was the last horror movie you saw in a theater? On DVD or Blu-ray?
A. Restless is a ghost story and it was pretty horrible - does that count? Take Shelter might be a slightly better answer... DVD - Thirst, watched it for this post - though the Frankensteins will end up in this position.
12) Best foreign-language fiend/monster.
A. I suppose the obvious answer is Count Orlock - I don't know if silent films count, but if not, Kinski works as well as Shrek. Though I'm thinking a good contender might be either the two kids or the television in Funny Games.
13) Favorite Mario Bava movie.
A. Tough, but I'd say Black Sabbath (Three Faces of Fear) - the Verdulak section especially is one of the greatest horror films of all time.
14) Favorite horror actor and actress.
A. Karloff, easily.... And - Brigitte Lin? a case can be made, a good one...
15) Name a great horror director’s least effective movie.
A. I'm not really an obsessive horror fan, so haven't gone looking for a lot of lame films by great directors here - though - Dario Argento's Mother of Tears might count - silly, boring story, though even here, boy, it looks good...
16) Grayson Hall or Joan Bennett?
A. Joan Bennett - I mean, she was Fritz Lang's go to actress for a while! I think more or less any of his films are, in fact, scarier and more disturbing than just about anything labelled horror...
17) When did you realize that you were a fan of the horror genre? And if you’re not, when did you realize you weren’t?
A. I'm not, in any special sense. I enjoy horror films, find the genre interesting enough - but no more so than any other genre, and I don't tend to enjoy horror films because they're horror films as much as, oh - I will watch even a bad western or martial arts film just because it is a western or martial arts film. On the other hand, I suppose I do find the horror genre more interesting to talk about, as a genre, than westerns, noir, martial arts films... it does seem to have a metaphorical interest that I find fascinating...
18) Favorite Bert I. Gordon (B.I.G.) movie.
A. I wish I could answer this, but I don't think I can. If I've seen any of his films, I don't remember them, and I think if I had seen them, I would remember them.
19) Name an obscure horror favorite that you wish more people knew about.
A. Let's go with Dream Lovers - Brigitte Lin and Chow Yun-fat as contemporary characters who start dreaming about one another, and about ancient terracotta figures - they meet, they fall in love of course, there are other people involved who suffer, 8 years or 2000 years, it's still love... shares a lot with the Mummy - plot elements, and a tone of infinite romantic sorrow. Great little film that's not much talked about.
20) The Human Centipede-- yes or no?
A. I suppose I have no inherent objection to it, but I have no interest in seeing it.
21) And while we’re in the neighborhood, is there a horror film you can think of that you felt “went too far”?
A. I am not inclined to think of any film in those terms - art shows what it shows... that is somewhat different from saying that a film fails - or becomes less effective or interesting because it tries to gross people out or shock them - going for cheap effects or whatever the problem is. Something like Organ comes to mind - because it's kind of a dull, underwhelming film (or so I remember it), that tries to make up for its flaws by being grosser than its competition. I suppose by that criteria, Passion of the Christ would qualify... quite well, actually.
22) Name a film that is technically outside the horror genre that you might still feel comfortable describing as a horror film.
A. Being probably more fond of the theory of horror films than actual horror films - I suppose I do this rather a lot. I've done it a couple times already in this quiz - Passion of the Christ - the great mass of Fritz Lang films. My pet theory is that the major theme of horror is the instability of the self - how the self is threatened by forces outside it, that turn out to be somehow inside it - the themes of the Other who is a Double; themes of invasion, especially - loss of bodily integrity, loss of self.... Given that - lots of films, not horror, become very close to horror - from stuff that is, really horror, like Lost Highway - to things like, oh - L'Humanite... Bigger than Life.... Showboat....
23) Lara Parker or Kathryn Leigh Scott?
A. No, I'm well out of my depths now.
24) If you’re a horror fan, at some point in your past your dad, grandmother, teacher or some other disgusted figure of authority probably wagged her/his finger at you and said, “Why do you insist on reading/watching all this morbid monster/horror junk?” How did you reply? And if that reply fell short somehow, how would you have liked to have replied?
A. Well - no, it's never happened. For this sort of thing, you would have to ask me about either the music I listen to, or about people wondering why I watch so many cheap Hong Kong police thrillers - I have had that question...
25) Name the critic or Web site you most enjoy reading on the subject of the horror genre.
A. Siegfried Kracauer? getting there first is a big thing sometimes...
26) Most frightening image you’ve ever taken away from a horror movie.
A. This is a great question - this is the one that justifies the quiz. I don't know the answer though - unless it's that reel-long shot in Funny Games after the first set of abuse... I think, rather seriously, that Funny Games was the most disturbing horror film I have ever seen, and that the most excruciating moment in it.
27) Your favorite memory associated with watching a horror movie.
A. Another interesting one - seeing the whole 9 hours of The Kingdom over 2 nights was certainly up there
28) What would you say is the most important/significant horror movie of the past 20 years (1992-2012)? Why?
A. Significant or best? The best, when push comes to shove, probably comes down to either The Kingdom or Thirst - The Kingdom wins if you count the whole series, I think, parts 1 & 2. Thirst probably wins otherwise... Significant? MIght be something like the Ring films, popularizing Asian horror, touching off a host of American imitators... or Buffy the Vampire Slayer - which seem to be one of the places vampires made a jump into a new realm of pop culture. Though a big part of that jump is out of the horror genre...
29) Favorite Dr. Phibes curse (from either film).
A. Alas, etc.
30) You are programming an all-night Halloween horror-thon for your favorite old movie palace. What five movies make up your schedule?
A. Another great question - all right - going on the themes, Invasions - dissolution of self/other - tragic monsters - doubles - how about this:
Student of Prague
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian)
Vertigo
Lost Highway
Doppelganger
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Summer Quiz
Time for the latest quiz from Dennis Cozzalio - Professor Ed Avery's Cortizone-Fueled, Bigger than Life, Super Gulp-sized Summer Movie Quiz. ALways fun, and always a challenge - these things are harder than most class work I've had! This one has taken me an awful long time, thanks to my inherent sloth, the Bruins, the fact that it's summer and, you know - summer and stuff... But it's done, more or less... Here goes:
1) Depending on your mood, your favorite or least-loved movie cliché
I'm not sure - though in general - montage sequences, set to some pop song - are getting old, and are almost self-parody when they start... though when they work - they switch to one of the best. If they substitute for the plot...
2) Regardless of whether or not you eventually caught up with it, which film classic have you lied about seeing in the past?
I am sure I have done this, though I don't remember any specific instances. I think I did claim to see Paths of Glory for a while, when all I had seen was a kind of filmstrip version of the film... of course it was worse than that, since the history teacher that showed us the film strip claimed that it was All Quiet on the Western Front. I knew better, having already read the book...
3) Roland Young or Edward Everett Horton?
Horton, easily.
4) Second favorite Frank Tashlin movie
The Girl Can't Help It
5) Clockwork Orange-- yes or no?
I used to love it - now - I guess it’s still a pretty good piece of work. I have been coming back around toward Kubrick, after a long stretch of tending to look down on him. Though I can't really deny the entertainment value. I prefer the book, though, for whatever that is worth.
6) Best/favorite use of gender dysphoria in a horror film (Ariel Schudson)
I looked it up, of course - unease with ones gender. Well - this comes to mind:
But in a horror film? blimey... back to the drawing board. Where I feel guilty about just using the obvious - Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, that sort of thing. I could say Antichrist, I suppose...
7) Melanie Laurent or Blake Lively?
Hard to say I have an opinion, though I liked what I've seen of Melanie Laurent.
8) Best movie of 2011 (so far…)
Genuine new movies - Meek’s Cutoff; last year’s movies, released in 2011 - Uncle Boonmee, followed (not too far off) by Certified Copy and Le Quattro Volte
9) Favorite screen performer with a noticeable facial deformity (Peg Aloi)
interesting question, sort of. Does Peter Falk's glass eye count? though I only notice it when I am thinking about it. Let's see - Owen Wilson's nose? W. C. Fields' nose? Belmondo's nose? or maybe Denis Lavant's acne?
10) Lars von Trier: shithead or misunderstood comic savant? (Dean Treadway)
Are the two incompatible in some way? I didn't find his remarks at Cannes all that offensive, or even unusual. I suppose bad taste to joke about nazis, and probably a bad idea in general to use Hitler as a metaphor for something else (Hitler and Nazis as a matahphor for depression, right?) - but still... he does this all the time, of course - most of his public pronouncements seem calculated to confuse and annoy, and part f a more or less elaborate private joke. And usually in some strange way - funny, clever, worth considering.
11) Timothy Carey or Henry Silva?
They are both wonderful, but Carey is something else again.
12) Low-profile writer who deserves more attention from critics and /or audiences
I should be able to come up with an answer for this, but I can't.
13) Movie most recently viewed theatrically, and on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming
Theater = Nostalgia for the Light; DVD = You Can't Take it With You; Streaming = The Knack and How to Get It
14) Favorite film noir villain
There are too many choices... I think I'll go neo-noir, and, since I'm thinking about the Bruins and the Stanley Cup - go with Peter Boyle in The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
15) Best thing about streaming movies?
I don’t really like them, but they do let you make a decision on the spot, which can be nice.
16) Fay Spain or France Nuyen? (Peter Nellhaus)
I don't think I can answer this one. How about Marie-France Pisier instead?
17) Favorite Kirk Douglas that isn’t called Spartacus (Peter Nellhaus)
Ace in the Hole? though this could be the answer to 14 above too. (Out of the Past)
18) Favorite movie about cars
Two Lane Blacktop, probably.
19) Audrey Totter or Marie Windsor?
No idea
20) Existing Stephen King movie adaptation that could use an remake/reboot/overhaul
I don't think I care all that much. The ones I've liked, I've liked, and the ones I haven't I don't care about.
21) Low-profile director who deserves more attention from critics and/or audiences
I could probably come up with a lot of people, though this sort of thing usually comes to me after the fact.... But right now, I think I would say, Ira Sachs.
22) What actor that you previously enjoyed has become distracting or a self-parody? (Adam Ross)
I should be able to come up with a good answer for this. I don't know though - there seem to be a few actors I am tired of, but then they make a good film, or a film with someone who understands their talents, and all is forgiving. I don't know. I suppose there are obvious cases - Woody Allen, say... but that's boring, he barely acts anymore. Maybe Ellen Page? who does not seem to be going anywhere. Or even more depressing - Zooey Deschanel? I do not mind them, but they do not seem to progess much. I doubt either of those young women are to blame, though.
23) Best place in the world to see a movie
I don’t know. Anywhere that’s showing Ozu, I guess.
24) Charles McGraw or Sterling Hayden?
I always like Hayden
25) Second favorite Yasujiro Ozu film
Late Spring
26) Most memorable horror movie father figure
Has to be Dr. Pretorious in Bride of Frankenstein.
27) Name a non-action-oriented movie that would be fun to see in Sensurround
Another one I might think of over time.... How about Duck Soup?
28) Chris Evans or Ryan Reynolds?
Not sure, though Reynolds is usually watchable.
29) Favorite relatively unknown supporting player, from either or both the classic and the modern era
Modern - Garret Dillahunt usually makes me take notice... classic: there's nothing unknown about Dwight Frye, but boy, he was good...
30) Real-life movie location you most recently visited or saw
I walked by the Thirsty Scholar today, same as almost every day. Why would a Harvard kid and a BU kid go drinking in Somerville? no one has answered that question yet...
31) Second favorite Budd Boetticher movie
The Tall T
32) Mara Corday or Julie Adams?
I don't know...
33) Favorite Universal-International western
Winchester 73.
34) What's the biggest "gimmick" that's drawn you out to see a movie? (Sal Gomez)
If it counts, probably live music for silent films, including some odd mixes. (A DJ for shows of old Martial arts films - Red Knight Errant and Swordswoman of Huang jiang - which worked better than you might think...)
35) Favorite actress of the silent era
This is difficult - partly because I don't have quite the systematic experience with silent films I should. Lillian Gish has to rank high; or maybe Kinuyo Tanaka, who is in some fine early films, as well as having a big career in sound films.
36) Best Eugene Pallette performance (Larry Aydlette)
I'm going to say My Man Godfrey, though there are few more welcome presences in films...
37) Best/worst remake of the 21st century so far? (Dan Aloi)
The best, I suppose, is True Grit - the worst - I can't say I've sought out a lot of remakes... Planet of the Apes seemed particularly pointless, and I did see it, though not in a very conscious state...
38) What could multiplex owners do right now to improve the theatrical viewing experience for moviegoers? What could moviegoers do?
I am not sure. I think - keep projecting film is a big one. Similarly Moviegoers - show up on time? Though I have become more and more guilty of showing up in the middle of the trailers, so I shouldn't complain.
1) Depending on your mood, your favorite or least-loved movie cliché
I'm not sure - though in general - montage sequences, set to some pop song - are getting old, and are almost self-parody when they start... though when they work - they switch to one of the best. If they substitute for the plot...
2) Regardless of whether or not you eventually caught up with it, which film classic have you lied about seeing in the past?
I am sure I have done this, though I don't remember any specific instances. I think I did claim to see Paths of Glory for a while, when all I had seen was a kind of filmstrip version of the film... of course it was worse than that, since the history teacher that showed us the film strip claimed that it was All Quiet on the Western Front. I knew better, having already read the book...
3) Roland Young or Edward Everett Horton?
Horton, easily.
4) Second favorite Frank Tashlin movie
The Girl Can't Help It
5) Clockwork Orange-- yes or no?
I used to love it - now - I guess it’s still a pretty good piece of work. I have been coming back around toward Kubrick, after a long stretch of tending to look down on him. Though I can't really deny the entertainment value. I prefer the book, though, for whatever that is worth.
6) Best/favorite use of gender dysphoria in a horror film (Ariel Schudson)
I looked it up, of course - unease with ones gender. Well - this comes to mind:
But in a horror film? blimey... back to the drawing board. Where I feel guilty about just using the obvious - Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, that sort of thing. I could say Antichrist, I suppose...
7) Melanie Laurent or Blake Lively?
Hard to say I have an opinion, though I liked what I've seen of Melanie Laurent.
8) Best movie of 2011 (so far…)
Genuine new movies - Meek’s Cutoff; last year’s movies, released in 2011 - Uncle Boonmee, followed (not too far off) by Certified Copy and Le Quattro Volte
9) Favorite screen performer with a noticeable facial deformity (Peg Aloi)
interesting question, sort of. Does Peter Falk's glass eye count? though I only notice it when I am thinking about it. Let's see - Owen Wilson's nose? W. C. Fields' nose? Belmondo's nose? or maybe Denis Lavant's acne?
10) Lars von Trier: shithead or misunderstood comic savant? (Dean Treadway)
Are the two incompatible in some way? I didn't find his remarks at Cannes all that offensive, or even unusual. I suppose bad taste to joke about nazis, and probably a bad idea in general to use Hitler as a metaphor for something else (Hitler and Nazis as a matahphor for depression, right?) - but still... he does this all the time, of course - most of his public pronouncements seem calculated to confuse and annoy, and part f a more or less elaborate private joke. And usually in some strange way - funny, clever, worth considering.
11) Timothy Carey or Henry Silva?
They are both wonderful, but Carey is something else again.
12) Low-profile writer who deserves more attention from critics and /or audiences
I should be able to come up with an answer for this, but I can't.
13) Movie most recently viewed theatrically, and on DVD, Blu-ray or streaming
Theater = Nostalgia for the Light; DVD = You Can't Take it With You; Streaming = The Knack and How to Get It
14) Favorite film noir villain
There are too many choices... I think I'll go neo-noir, and, since I'm thinking about the Bruins and the Stanley Cup - go with Peter Boyle in The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
15) Best thing about streaming movies?
I don’t really like them, but they do let you make a decision on the spot, which can be nice.
16) Fay Spain or France Nuyen? (Peter Nellhaus)
I don't think I can answer this one. How about Marie-France Pisier instead?
17) Favorite Kirk Douglas that isn’t called Spartacus (Peter Nellhaus)
Ace in the Hole? though this could be the answer to 14 above too. (Out of the Past)
18) Favorite movie about cars
Two Lane Blacktop, probably.
19) Audrey Totter or Marie Windsor?
No idea
20) Existing Stephen King movie adaptation that could use an remake/reboot/overhaul
I don't think I care all that much. The ones I've liked, I've liked, and the ones I haven't I don't care about.
21) Low-profile director who deserves more attention from critics and/or audiences
I could probably come up with a lot of people, though this sort of thing usually comes to me after the fact.... But right now, I think I would say, Ira Sachs.
22) What actor that you previously enjoyed has become distracting or a self-parody? (Adam Ross)
I should be able to come up with a good answer for this. I don't know though - there seem to be a few actors I am tired of, but then they make a good film, or a film with someone who understands their talents, and all is forgiving. I don't know. I suppose there are obvious cases - Woody Allen, say... but that's boring, he barely acts anymore. Maybe Ellen Page? who does not seem to be going anywhere. Or even more depressing - Zooey Deschanel? I do not mind them, but they do not seem to progess much. I doubt either of those young women are to blame, though.
23) Best place in the world to see a movie
I don’t know. Anywhere that’s showing Ozu, I guess.
24) Charles McGraw or Sterling Hayden?
I always like Hayden
25) Second favorite Yasujiro Ozu film
Late Spring
26) Most memorable horror movie father figure
Has to be Dr. Pretorious in Bride of Frankenstein.
27) Name a non-action-oriented movie that would be fun to see in Sensurround
Another one I might think of over time.... How about Duck Soup?
28) Chris Evans or Ryan Reynolds?
Not sure, though Reynolds is usually watchable.
29) Favorite relatively unknown supporting player, from either or both the classic and the modern era
Modern - Garret Dillahunt usually makes me take notice... classic: there's nothing unknown about Dwight Frye, but boy, he was good...
30) Real-life movie location you most recently visited or saw
I walked by the Thirsty Scholar today, same as almost every day. Why would a Harvard kid and a BU kid go drinking in Somerville? no one has answered that question yet...
31) Second favorite Budd Boetticher movie
The Tall T
32) Mara Corday or Julie Adams?
I don't know...
33) Favorite Universal-International western
Winchester 73.
34) What's the biggest "gimmick" that's drawn you out to see a movie? (Sal Gomez)
If it counts, probably live music for silent films, including some odd mixes. (A DJ for shows of old Martial arts films - Red Knight Errant and Swordswoman of Huang jiang - which worked better than you might think...)
35) Favorite actress of the silent era
This is difficult - partly because I don't have quite the systematic experience with silent films I should. Lillian Gish has to rank high; or maybe Kinuyo Tanaka, who is in some fine early films, as well as having a big career in sound films.
36) Best Eugene Pallette performance (Larry Aydlette)
I'm going to say My Man Godfrey, though there are few more welcome presences in films...
37) Best/worst remake of the 21st century so far? (Dan Aloi)
The best, I suppose, is True Grit - the worst - I can't say I've sought out a lot of remakes... Planet of the Apes seemed particularly pointless, and I did see it, though not in a very conscious state...
38) What could multiplex owners do right now to improve the theatrical viewing experience for moviegoers? What could moviegoers do?
I am not sure. I think - keep projecting film is a big one. Similarly Moviegoers - show up on time? Though I have become more and more guilty of showing up in the middle of the trailers, so I shouldn't complain.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Professor Hubert Farnsworth’s Only Slightly Futuristic Holiday Movie Quiz
It is time for the real marker of the turning of the seasons, Dennis Cozzalio's movie quiz - this one named in honor of Professor Hubert Farnsworth. Here we are, and here we go:
1) Best Movie of 2010
A: Carlos, the long version
2) Second-favorite Roman Polanski Movie
A: The Pianist, I think
3) Jason Statham or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
A: I think the Rock, though I have not seen him that much - both are fun to watch though.
4) Favorite movie that could be classified as a genre hybrid
A: I'm afraid this is an invitation to waffle. I'm not sure how far apart the genres have to be for this - there are thousands of horror comedies, for instance, enough that I don't know if that counts as a hybrid or as a genre unto itself - if a hybrid, the answer has to be something like Bride of Frankenstein. But that seems to be more sub-genre than hybrid, somehow... How about a western comedy, like Destry Rides Again? or do I stick with something obvious, like Blade Runner?
5) How important is foreknowledge of a film’s production history? Should it factor into one’s reaction to a film?
A: I guess not much, as I do not often think about it. Once in a while a fact or two will come along that changes how I see a film - not often, and not in any consistent way.
6) William Powell & Myrna Loy or Cary Grant & Irene Dunne
A: While I like the Awful Truth more than anything else these 4 combine in, I like the ongoing chemistry between Powell and Loy. Which is a nice way to split the difference.
7) Best Actor of 2010
A: This is not as clear as I'd like - I think Edgar Ramirez in Carlos has to be the answer, though Jesse Eisenberg makes it close.
8) Most important lesson learned from the past decade of watching movies
A: Stella Artois commercials are annoying?
9) Last movie seen (DVD/Blu-ray/theater)
A: Blu-Ray is The Maltese Falcon, as it happens. DVD as of now is Stagecoach. Theater is True Grit.
10) Most appropriate punishment for director Tom Six
A: I'm afraid the only punishment I can inflict is to ignore him. Which I suppose is terrible enough...
11) Best under-the-radar movie almost no one else has had the chance to see
A: Well - it's very hard to see - so let's say, Los Angeles Plays Itself.
12) Sheree North or Angie Dickinson
A: Angie, I guess. I mean, Rio Bravo, right?
13) Favorite nakedly autobiographical movie
A: 400 Blows, I suppose - or Contempt.
14) Movie which best evokes a specific real-life place
A: Let's say Playtime and Alphaville - the new Paris, by day and night...
15) Best Director of 2010
A: This has to be Assayas.
16) Second-favorite Farrelly Brothers Movie
A: Dumb and Dumber (after Something About Mary, I guess.)
17) Favorite holiday movie
A: It's a Wonderful Life is a holiday movie in practice, though not as much in theory. The latter, for something quite specifically about a holiday - or two - how about a Nightmare Before Christmas?
18) Best Actress of 2010
A: of films released - Isabelle Huppert in White Material (Kim hye-ja in Mother close behind.) Of films made in 2010 - Hattie Steinfeld, right?
19) Joe Don Baker or Bo Svenson
A: Baker
20) Of those notable figures in the world of the movies who died in 2010, name the one you’ll miss the most
A: In terms of ongoing movie production, on films I seek out - the answer is probably, and somewhat obscurely, William Lubtchansky, for his part in all those Rivette films. I suppose in broader, historical terms, it would be Rohmer, though Hideko Takamine has been part of a lot of films I worship.
21) Think of a movie with a notable musical score and describe what it might feel like without that accompaniment.
A: This is a great question, though I don't know what to say to answer it. No amount of thinking is going to bring an intelligent answer so I am going to have to pass.
22) Best Screenplay of 2010
A: The KIds Are All Right? of all the releases - Mother
23) Movie You Feel Most Evangelistic About Right Now
A: What the hell - Ishtar.
24) Worst/funniest movie accent ever
A: These questions are the hardest to answer - examples pop into my head later - when I see something - I'll hate myself for not doing better. So punt, and take as easy a target as there is - Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves has long been my touchstone for accentual ineptitude...
25) Best Cinematography of 2010
A: Not surprisingly, this is True Grit.
26) Olivia Wilde or Gemma Arterton
A: No, I'm not going to pretend to know who these people are. EVen after googling them, I don't know who they are.
27) Name the three best movies you saw for the first time in 2010 (Thanks, Larry!)
A: Not counting new films - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the Mamoulian/March version); The Red Shoes (in a theater, too!); Odd Man Out (also theatrical.)
28) Best romantic movie couple of 2010
A: Might well be Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor
29) Favorite shock/surprise ending
A: favorite isn't the right word, but - Patrick Yau's Expect the Unexpected takes the cake...
30) Best cinematic reason to have stayed home and read a book in 2010
A: Those Louis Vuitton "journey" ads. The only ads I know to consistently draw boos.
31) Movies in 2011 could make me much happier if they’d only
A: ...release more Korean films - a good default answer...
1) Best Movie of 2010
A: Carlos, the long version
2) Second-favorite Roman Polanski Movie
A: The Pianist, I think
3) Jason Statham or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
A: I think the Rock, though I have not seen him that much - both are fun to watch though.
4) Favorite movie that could be classified as a genre hybrid
A: I'm afraid this is an invitation to waffle. I'm not sure how far apart the genres have to be for this - there are thousands of horror comedies, for instance, enough that I don't know if that counts as a hybrid or as a genre unto itself - if a hybrid, the answer has to be something like Bride of Frankenstein. But that seems to be more sub-genre than hybrid, somehow... How about a western comedy, like Destry Rides Again? or do I stick with something obvious, like Blade Runner?
5) How important is foreknowledge of a film’s production history? Should it factor into one’s reaction to a film?
A: I guess not much, as I do not often think about it. Once in a while a fact or two will come along that changes how I see a film - not often, and not in any consistent way.
6) William Powell & Myrna Loy or Cary Grant & Irene Dunne
A: While I like the Awful Truth more than anything else these 4 combine in, I like the ongoing chemistry between Powell and Loy. Which is a nice way to split the difference.
7) Best Actor of 2010
A: This is not as clear as I'd like - I think Edgar Ramirez in Carlos has to be the answer, though Jesse Eisenberg makes it close.
8) Most important lesson learned from the past decade of watching movies
A: Stella Artois commercials are annoying?
9) Last movie seen (DVD/Blu-ray/theater)
A: Blu-Ray is The Maltese Falcon, as it happens. DVD as of now is Stagecoach. Theater is True Grit.
10) Most appropriate punishment for director Tom Six
A: I'm afraid the only punishment I can inflict is to ignore him. Which I suppose is terrible enough...
11) Best under-the-radar movie almost no one else has had the chance to see
A: Well - it's very hard to see - so let's say, Los Angeles Plays Itself.
12) Sheree North or Angie Dickinson
A: Angie, I guess. I mean, Rio Bravo, right?
13) Favorite nakedly autobiographical movie
A: 400 Blows, I suppose - or Contempt.
14) Movie which best evokes a specific real-life place
A: Let's say Playtime and Alphaville - the new Paris, by day and night...
15) Best Director of 2010
A: This has to be Assayas.
16) Second-favorite Farrelly Brothers Movie
A: Dumb and Dumber (after Something About Mary, I guess.)
17) Favorite holiday movie
A: It's a Wonderful Life is a holiday movie in practice, though not as much in theory. The latter, for something quite specifically about a holiday - or two - how about a Nightmare Before Christmas?
18) Best Actress of 2010
A: of films released - Isabelle Huppert in White Material (Kim hye-ja in Mother close behind.) Of films made in 2010 - Hattie Steinfeld, right?
19) Joe Don Baker or Bo Svenson
A: Baker
20) Of those notable figures in the world of the movies who died in 2010, name the one you’ll miss the most
A: In terms of ongoing movie production, on films I seek out - the answer is probably, and somewhat obscurely, William Lubtchansky, for his part in all those Rivette films. I suppose in broader, historical terms, it would be Rohmer, though Hideko Takamine has been part of a lot of films I worship.
21) Think of a movie with a notable musical score and describe what it might feel like without that accompaniment.
A: This is a great question, though I don't know what to say to answer it. No amount of thinking is going to bring an intelligent answer so I am going to have to pass.
22) Best Screenplay of 2010
A: The KIds Are All Right? of all the releases - Mother
23) Movie You Feel Most Evangelistic About Right Now
A: What the hell - Ishtar.
24) Worst/funniest movie accent ever
A: These questions are the hardest to answer - examples pop into my head later - when I see something - I'll hate myself for not doing better. So punt, and take as easy a target as there is - Kevin Costner in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves has long been my touchstone for accentual ineptitude...
25) Best Cinematography of 2010
A: Not surprisingly, this is True Grit.
26) Olivia Wilde or Gemma Arterton
A: No, I'm not going to pretend to know who these people are. EVen after googling them, I don't know who they are.
27) Name the three best movies you saw for the first time in 2010 (Thanks, Larry!)
A: Not counting new films - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the Mamoulian/March version); The Red Shoes (in a theater, too!); Odd Man Out (also theatrical.)
28) Best romantic movie couple of 2010
A: Might well be Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor
29) Favorite shock/surprise ending
A: favorite isn't the right word, but - Patrick Yau's Expect the Unexpected takes the cake...
30) Best cinematic reason to have stayed home and read a book in 2010
A: Those Louis Vuitton "journey" ads. The only ads I know to consistently draw boos.
31) Movies in 2011 could make me much happier if they’d only
A: ...release more Korean films - a good default answer...
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Back To School Film Quiz, Fall 2010
It is September, and that means, it is time for School! I am, as usual, taking a class, for the sheer enjoyment of it, at the local night school - this time, as it happens, a class on The Vampire in Literature and Film. I may come to regret that - I am more or less unique among film bloggers [if you can consider this woefully neglected blog worthy of the term] in absolutely dreading the month of October. Halloween, among film bloggers, is like Christmas for the local Walmart - something you can start pimping about the middle of July and... I swear - I dread opening google reader this time of year - nothing but horror film posts... I am sick of horror films, and sick of reading about them, and it is barely September. And of course I am taking a class on horror films. Figures...
But that aside - here in blogland it is also time for School, and that means, time for another of Dennis Cozzalio's quizzes - this one, PROFESSOR DAVID HUXLEY’S LABORIOUS, LICENTIOUS SPOTTED-LEOPARD LABOR DAY FILM QUIZ... I hope I finish this before the end of October. Old habits die hard, and I am inclined not to read any of the other answers to these quizzes before I fill out (though not necessarily submit) my own - so if I want to read them (and I do, especially as it's a way of avoiding the horror film posts), I had better get cracking, eh?
[I've updated this a bit the day after - thinking about the Robert Mitchum question...]
1) Classic film you most want to experience that has so far eluded you.
A: I think the answer to this has to stay the same - 2 of them, Japanese of course - Humanity and Paper Balloons, and Mizoguchi's Story of the Crucified Lovers.
2) Greatest Criterion DVD/Blu-ray release ever
A: I am not sure - but I am tempted to keep it simple - say the two best films they have ever put out - M and Rules of the Game... It's not unreasonable - they are, after all, the two best films of all time, and Criterion issued two very fine packages.... I might pick another tack, though - the Criterion releases I am most grateful for would be the Pedro Costa set, or the recent 60s Oshima set - or, probably most of all - the Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes Imamura set. Lang and Renoir would be released anyway, by someone, probably in a first rate package - providing a set of prime Imamura is what Criterion exists for.
3) The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon?
A: this is not a choice I’m inclined to make, though when it comes down to it, The Maltese Falcon wins, maybe just for being first.
4) Jason Bateman or Paul Rudd
A: Paul Rudd, I think
5) Best mother/child (male or female) combo
A: Like a couple other people here, I was thrown by the ambiguity of the question - on screen mother and child? or real life mother and child? If the former - I'll say Angela Lansbury and Lawrence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate. If real world - Ingrid and Isabella...
6) Who are the Robert Mitchums and Ida Lupinos among working movie actors? Do modern parallels to such masculine and no-nonsense feminine stars exist? If not, why not?
A: I don't know. I'm not coming up with anything, anyway...
UPDATE: You know - I am going to update this. I'm not confident of the answer - but what about Benecio del Toro? it strikes me he wouldn't be out of place in a lot of Robert Mitchum films... for Ida Lupino - I can't say; it's been too long since I've seen anything with her to have a clear impression...
7) Favorite Preston Sturges movie
A: "the fish was a poem"... I'd have to say, The Lady Eve.
8) Odette Yustman vs. Mary Elizabeth Winstead
A: Who are these people? Why am I expected to care?
9) Is there a movie that if you found out a partner or love interest loved would qualify as a Relationship Deal Breaker?
A: Very unlikely. There are probably ways of liking or disliking a film that would earn my scorn, but hard to say any film would... [I have to add here - coming from a screening of Nosferatu for a class - in which more than one person giggled away like they were watching Chaplin - that would probably do it. I am inclined to be smug and note that they weren't laughing so much at the end, and what there was had a decidedly defensive tone.]
10) Favorite DVD commentary.
A: It's probably a Werner Herzog commentary - he is always a treat to listen to. Though - there's that Jimmy Stewart interview on Winchester 73, which may not be overwhelming - but it's Jimmy Stewart!... And - there's the Anchorman commentary, which was almost more fun (or something) than the film... But maybe I should say something different - I'm not sure this is anything really special, but I'm thinking about Tarsem's commentary on The Fall. I finally watched it (I've had it out of netflix since last fall, horribly enough) - I liked the film enough, but when I listened to the commentary, I think he convinced me the film was as good as it was beautiful - much smarter and more canny than I had thought. That's an effect I like when it happens - I remember the same thing happening when I listened to Almodovar's commentary track on Talk to Her - he turned a film I thought was a solid work into something close to the masterpiece. Both tracks took films I liked and pushed them toward films I loved...
11) Movies most recently seen on DVD, Blu-ray and theatrically
A: Well, I guess the answer right now is The Fall on DVD and The Tillman Story in the theater.
12) Dirk Bogarde or Alan Bates
A: Dirk Bogarde, of course - he is magnificent
13) Favorite DVD extra.
A: I could think about this for days, so I will cut to one I watched recently - Sterevich's The Mascot, on the old Vampyr DVD, is hard to beat...
14) Brian De Palma’s Scarface— yes or no?
A: Not really. Hawks', absolutely.
15) Best comic moment from a horror film that is not a horror comedy (Young Frankenstein, Love At First Bite, et al.)
A: This question (and its opposite) are going to drive me crazy. I imagine every time I see a joke in a horror film, I will remember this quiz. GOd. Well - I am resolved to post tonight - so I am going to contradict my earlier remark about laughing during Nosferatu and say, Orlok's comment to Hutter - "Your wife has a beautiful neck." Which after all is pretty amusing...
16) Jane Birkin or Edwige Fenech
A: Jane Birkin - I mean, my god, she was married to Serge Gainsbourg! she's in a bunch of Rivette films! she and Charlotte were definite contenders for question #5 above!
17) Favorite Wong Kar-wai movie
A: Fallen Angels
18) Best horrific moment from a comedy that is not a horror comedy?
A: I don't know if this is precisely what you have in mind by "horrific", but - Donnie's death in The Big Lebowski...
19) From 2010, a specific example of what movies are doing right…
A: Movies are doing anything right? Not that I can see... Maybe that's too nasty - but - okay: 2 things. First - Lucas McNelly's Kickstarter campaign, for Up Country. Or, I suppose, the whole idea of programs like kickstarter - microbudget movie making, crowd funding - it's more interesting than anything else going on.... And second - that great big new Metropolis - if all the movie world does right is preserve its past, I guess that would be a good thing too. You could put the Film Preservation Blogathon in this category as well. Between them - preserving the past, and finding new ways to go forward - that's about all I feel very enthused about right now.
20) Ryan Reynolds vs. Chris Evans
A: Again, I have a hard time pretending to care.
21) Speculate about the future of online film writing. What’s next?
A: A superb question. I don’t know. I suppose there will be online film writing (and reading, one hopes) - but I don't really know where it will be, what it will look like - I think twitter and facebook and the like have taken a big chunk out of film writing - siphoning off a lot of people and material that might have been written up at more length 3-4 years ago - or not. My RSS reader is always full - it's not as if there isn't a lot of writing being done about films. I wonder if it will be more and more necessary, though, in the future, to use visual aids in writing - clips and pictures and the like, becoming requirements for being read? On film - it's not unreasonable.... This isn't much of an answer - I suppose the problem is that I'm answering a question about reading online film writing, more than about writing. People will write - but how will they be read? Probably clicking through from twitter or facebook or something to something - blogs or notes or something - supporting longer pieces and multimedia. That's the best I can come up with.
22) Roger Livesey or David Farrar
A: This is one of those questions that exposes a vast gulf in my film watching history.
23) Best father/child (male or female) combo
A: Again - fictional father daughter? This is obvious: Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara in Late Spring. Real life? A lot of possibilities - the Mastroiannis for example. (Chiara probably should be the answer to he mother/daughter as well.) But I think I have to answer the Hustons - pick whichever set you want.
24) Favorite Freddie Francis movie (as a director)
A: Wait - did you edit this question after posting the quiz? I'd answered The Elephant Man, but now I find this "as a director"... I don't think I can answer that.
25) Bringing Up Baby or The Awful Truth?
A: Again, almost too close to call, but if forced, I would probably take The Awful Truth - it gets everything just about right.
26) Tina Fey vs. Kristen Wiig
A: Fey, I think
27) Name a stylistically important director and the best film that would have never been made without his/her influence.
A: Another good question - I think I will say Fritz Lang - and say every serial killer film, 3/4 of the crime dramas, and all the police procedurals, 90% of the science fiction, all the Orson Welles you can't pin on John Ford, but most of all, High and Low.
28) Movie you’d most enjoy seeing remade and transplanted to a different culture (i.e. Yimou Zhang’s A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.
A: This should be easier than it is - I've certainly thought about films that would work better somewhere else before... A lot of the best examples I can come up with have already been done - "someone ought to make a version of Red Harvest in Japan!" or " A western version of Yojimbo!" or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in Manchuria, that sort of thing... So anyway - here's one that occurred to me a couple years ago - how about Children of Paradise, set in the Wild West? I think you could do something with that.
29) Link to a picture/frame grab of a movie image that for you best illustrates bliss. Elaborate.
A: Bliss - interesting. Well - one has choices - I'm tempted to say this one -
- For the green stripe that passes all the way across the screen? And seeing Kinuyo Tanaka happy, for once...
But I really have to post this:
...which should need no elaboration. Who wouldn't want to be in that picture?
30) With a tip of that hat to Glenn Kenny, think of a just-slightly-inadequate alternate movie for a famous movie. (Examples from GK: Fan Fiction; Boudu Relieved From Cramping; The Mild Imprecation of the Cat People)
A: Well - though it is a fine picture, I think "It's a Surprisingly Influential Life" might have been remembered longer with a pithier title...
But that aside - here in blogland it is also time for School, and that means, time for another of Dennis Cozzalio's quizzes - this one, PROFESSOR DAVID HUXLEY’S LABORIOUS, LICENTIOUS SPOTTED-LEOPARD LABOR DAY FILM QUIZ... I hope I finish this before the end of October. Old habits die hard, and I am inclined not to read any of the other answers to these quizzes before I fill out (though not necessarily submit) my own - so if I want to read them (and I do, especially as it's a way of avoiding the horror film posts), I had better get cracking, eh?
[I've updated this a bit the day after - thinking about the Robert Mitchum question...]
1) Classic film you most want to experience that has so far eluded you.
A: I think the answer to this has to stay the same - 2 of them, Japanese of course - Humanity and Paper Balloons, and Mizoguchi's Story of the Crucified Lovers.
2) Greatest Criterion DVD/Blu-ray release ever
A: I am not sure - but I am tempted to keep it simple - say the two best films they have ever put out - M and Rules of the Game... It's not unreasonable - they are, after all, the two best films of all time, and Criterion issued two very fine packages.... I might pick another tack, though - the Criterion releases I am most grateful for would be the Pedro Costa set, or the recent 60s Oshima set - or, probably most of all - the Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes Imamura set. Lang and Renoir would be released anyway, by someone, probably in a first rate package - providing a set of prime Imamura is what Criterion exists for.
3) The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon?
A: this is not a choice I’m inclined to make, though when it comes down to it, The Maltese Falcon wins, maybe just for being first.
4) Jason Bateman or Paul Rudd
A: Paul Rudd, I think
5) Best mother/child (male or female) combo
A: Like a couple other people here, I was thrown by the ambiguity of the question - on screen mother and child? or real life mother and child? If the former - I'll say Angela Lansbury and Lawrence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate. If real world - Ingrid and Isabella...
6) Who are the Robert Mitchums and Ida Lupinos among working movie actors? Do modern parallels to such masculine and no-nonsense feminine stars exist? If not, why not?
A: I don't know. I'm not coming up with anything, anyway...
UPDATE: You know - I am going to update this. I'm not confident of the answer - but what about Benecio del Toro? it strikes me he wouldn't be out of place in a lot of Robert Mitchum films... for Ida Lupino - I can't say; it's been too long since I've seen anything with her to have a clear impression...
7) Favorite Preston Sturges movie
A: "the fish was a poem"... I'd have to say, The Lady Eve.
8) Odette Yustman vs. Mary Elizabeth Winstead
A: Who are these people? Why am I expected to care?
9) Is there a movie that if you found out a partner or love interest loved would qualify as a Relationship Deal Breaker?
A: Very unlikely. There are probably ways of liking or disliking a film that would earn my scorn, but hard to say any film would... [I have to add here - coming from a screening of Nosferatu for a class - in which more than one person giggled away like they were watching Chaplin - that would probably do it. I am inclined to be smug and note that they weren't laughing so much at the end, and what there was had a decidedly defensive tone.]
10) Favorite DVD commentary.
A: It's probably a Werner Herzog commentary - he is always a treat to listen to. Though - there's that Jimmy Stewart interview on Winchester 73, which may not be overwhelming - but it's Jimmy Stewart!... And - there's the Anchorman commentary, which was almost more fun (or something) than the film... But maybe I should say something different - I'm not sure this is anything really special, but I'm thinking about Tarsem's commentary on The Fall. I finally watched it (I've had it out of netflix since last fall, horribly enough) - I liked the film enough, but when I listened to the commentary, I think he convinced me the film was as good as it was beautiful - much smarter and more canny than I had thought. That's an effect I like when it happens - I remember the same thing happening when I listened to Almodovar's commentary track on Talk to Her - he turned a film I thought was a solid work into something close to the masterpiece. Both tracks took films I liked and pushed them toward films I loved...
11) Movies most recently seen on DVD, Blu-ray and theatrically
A: Well, I guess the answer right now is The Fall on DVD and The Tillman Story in the theater.
12) Dirk Bogarde or Alan Bates
A: Dirk Bogarde, of course - he is magnificent
13) Favorite DVD extra.
A: I could think about this for days, so I will cut to one I watched recently - Sterevich's The Mascot, on the old Vampyr DVD, is hard to beat...
14) Brian De Palma’s Scarface— yes or no?
A: Not really. Hawks', absolutely.
15) Best comic moment from a horror film that is not a horror comedy (Young Frankenstein, Love At First Bite, et al.)
A: This question (and its opposite) are going to drive me crazy. I imagine every time I see a joke in a horror film, I will remember this quiz. GOd. Well - I am resolved to post tonight - so I am going to contradict my earlier remark about laughing during Nosferatu and say, Orlok's comment to Hutter - "Your wife has a beautiful neck." Which after all is pretty amusing...
16) Jane Birkin or Edwige Fenech
A: Jane Birkin - I mean, my god, she was married to Serge Gainsbourg! she's in a bunch of Rivette films! she and Charlotte were definite contenders for question #5 above!
17) Favorite Wong Kar-wai movie
A: Fallen Angels
18) Best horrific moment from a comedy that is not a horror comedy?
A: I don't know if this is precisely what you have in mind by "horrific", but - Donnie's death in The Big Lebowski...
19) From 2010, a specific example of what movies are doing right…
A: Movies are doing anything right? Not that I can see... Maybe that's too nasty - but - okay: 2 things. First - Lucas McNelly's Kickstarter campaign, for Up Country. Or, I suppose, the whole idea of programs like kickstarter - microbudget movie making, crowd funding - it's more interesting than anything else going on.... And second - that great big new Metropolis - if all the movie world does right is preserve its past, I guess that would be a good thing too. You could put the Film Preservation Blogathon in this category as well. Between them - preserving the past, and finding new ways to go forward - that's about all I feel very enthused about right now.
20) Ryan Reynolds vs. Chris Evans
A: Again, I have a hard time pretending to care.
21) Speculate about the future of online film writing. What’s next?
A: A superb question. I don’t know. I suppose there will be online film writing (and reading, one hopes) - but I don't really know where it will be, what it will look like - I think twitter and facebook and the like have taken a big chunk out of film writing - siphoning off a lot of people and material that might have been written up at more length 3-4 years ago - or not. My RSS reader is always full - it's not as if there isn't a lot of writing being done about films. I wonder if it will be more and more necessary, though, in the future, to use visual aids in writing - clips and pictures and the like, becoming requirements for being read? On film - it's not unreasonable.... This isn't much of an answer - I suppose the problem is that I'm answering a question about reading online film writing, more than about writing. People will write - but how will they be read? Probably clicking through from twitter or facebook or something to something - blogs or notes or something - supporting longer pieces and multimedia. That's the best I can come up with.
22) Roger Livesey or David Farrar
A: This is one of those questions that exposes a vast gulf in my film watching history.
23) Best father/child (male or female) combo
A: Again - fictional father daughter? This is obvious: Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara in Late Spring. Real life? A lot of possibilities - the Mastroiannis for example. (Chiara probably should be the answer to he mother/daughter as well.) But I think I have to answer the Hustons - pick whichever set you want.
24) Favorite Freddie Francis movie (as a director)
A: Wait - did you edit this question after posting the quiz? I'd answered The Elephant Man, but now I find this "as a director"... I don't think I can answer that.
25) Bringing Up Baby or The Awful Truth?
A: Again, almost too close to call, but if forced, I would probably take The Awful Truth - it gets everything just about right.
26) Tina Fey vs. Kristen Wiig
A: Fey, I think
27) Name a stylistically important director and the best film that would have never been made without his/her influence.
A: Another good question - I think I will say Fritz Lang - and say every serial killer film, 3/4 of the crime dramas, and all the police procedurals, 90% of the science fiction, all the Orson Welles you can't pin on John Ford, but most of all, High and Low.
28) Movie you’d most enjoy seeing remade and transplanted to a different culture (i.e. Yimou Zhang’s A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.
A: This should be easier than it is - I've certainly thought about films that would work better somewhere else before... A lot of the best examples I can come up with have already been done - "someone ought to make a version of Red Harvest in Japan!" or " A western version of Yojimbo!" or The Good, The Bad and the Ugly in Manchuria, that sort of thing... So anyway - here's one that occurred to me a couple years ago - how about Children of Paradise, set in the Wild West? I think you could do something with that.
29) Link to a picture/frame grab of a movie image that for you best illustrates bliss. Elaborate.
A: Bliss - interesting. Well - one has choices - I'm tempted to say this one -
- For the green stripe that passes all the way across the screen? And seeing Kinuyo Tanaka happy, for once...
But I really have to post this:
...which should need no elaboration. Who wouldn't want to be in that picture?
30) With a tip of that hat to Glenn Kenny, think of a just-slightly-inadequate alternate movie for a famous movie. (Examples from GK: Fan Fiction; Boudu Relieved From Cramping; The Mild Imprecation of the Cat People)
A: Well - though it is a fine picture, I think "It's a Surprisingly Influential Life" might have been remembered longer with a pithier title...
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