1) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD or Blu-ray?The Last film I saw theatrically was "Seven Pounds", and the last movie I saw on DVD was Mizoguchi's "Sisters of the Gion
2) Holiday movies— Do you like them naughty or nice?I like both, but at Christmas it's always the nice ones like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Shop Around the Corner. My brother on the other hand adores "Die Hard"
3) Ida Lupino or Mercedes McCambridge?Ida Lupino since she was also a director
4) Favorite actor/character from Twin Peaks. It has to be Agent Dale Cooper, and even though she's dead in it most of the time I love the mystery that surrounds Laura Palmer.
5) It’s been said that, rather than remaking beloved, respected films, Hollywood should concentrate more on righting the wrongs of the past and tinker more with films that didn’t work so well the first time. Pretending for a moment that movies are made in an economic vacuum, name a good candidate for a remake based on this criterion. This is a hard question since especially since I like so many classics, even the imperfect ones. Recently I just watched "The Return of Doctor X" with Humphrey Bogart playing a mad scientist. I found myself enjoying the campiness of it, and I liked the concept of having the two heroes being a news reporter and a scientist. The concept had promise and perhaps it could've been something more if it was done right.
6) Favorite Spike Lee joint."Do the Right Thing" is one of my favorites of all time, but I also appreciate "Malcolm X"
7) Lawrence Tierney or Scott Brady?Lawrence Tierney not only for the movies he was in, but also because he was on "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons"
8)Are most movies too long?Yes especially now. More often than ever, I find myself looking at my watch even when I think a film is good, thinking it should've ended by now.
9) Favorite performance by an actor portraying a real-life politician. I enjoyed both Henry Fonda and Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln
10) Create the main event card for the ultimate giant movie monster smackdown. King Kong (1933) vs. King Kong (2005).
Jean Peters or Sheree North?I can't say I'm familiar with either of their work.
12) Why would you ever want or need to see a movie more than once?One instance for me might be because I didn't feel like I saw the whole movie the first time, such as "No Country for Old Men" which I saw in the theatre three times. Another reason might be I just love it so much I want to revisit just to be a part of that world again. This reason usually applies for almost any Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie
13) Favorite road movie."It Happened One Night"
14) Favorite Budd Boetticher picture.I swear I'll get around to him soon.
15) Who is the one person, living or dead, famous or unknown, who most informed or encouraged your appreciation of movies?I always wonder this. I can't remember just why I came to love films. It was probably my love of Jimmy Stewart who brought me to directors of Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Billy Wilder, Anthony Mann, and Ernst Lubitsch. Spielberg films influenced me as a child and reading more about his influences got me interested about the French New Wave, and Kurosawa. Reading film critics like Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin also had a strong influence on me. It was my father however who introduced me to Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen movies, and my mother who introduced me to Audrey Hepburn. All these things combined made me love movies.
16) Favorite opening credit sequence. I love anything by Saul Bass, but "Vertigo" would have to be my absolute favorite. I also love Rosie Perez' shadow boxing at the beginning of "Do the Right Thing"
17) Kenneth Tobey or John Agar?Once again I'm not familiar enough with their work.
18) Jean-Luc Godard once suggested that the more popular the movie, the less likely it was that it was a good movie. Is he right or just cranky? Cite the best evidence one way or the other. It's a bit unfair for Godard to say that, although I can certainly understand why he would say it. Spielberg films are probably the best example that a popular film can be good, although I did hear a quote saying Godard wasn't the biggest fan of Spielberg. Many of Spielberg's blockbusters such as "Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", and "E.T." are all popular and even though some might not agree they're good, they do exemplified the work of an auteur. However an individual like Spielberg doesn't come around too often, and I would say many of the popular movies now do tend to be too formulaic.
19) Favorite Jonathan Demme movie.While I love "The Silence of the Lambs", Demme's other work seems to be overshadowed too much. So I'm going to say "Rachel Getting Married". I'm just dying to see "Stop Making Sense" though.
20) Tatum O’Neal or Linda Blair?Tough choice, Tatum O'Neal because she worked with Walter Matthau and Madeline Kahn
21) Favorite use of irony in a movie. Because I'm revisiting Lubitsch films this month, I'll go with the first scene between Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall in "Trouble in Paradise"
22) Favorite Claude Chabrol film.I'm embarrassed to say I have not seen one of his films. Please don't hate me.
23) The best movie of the year to which very little attention seems to have been paid."My Winnipeg"
24) Dennis Christopher or Robby Benson? Although I'm familiar with a little of their work I cannot say I'm familiar enough to truly give a good opinion.
25) Favorite movie about journalism.Good question. "All the Presidents Men" has always remained a favorite of mine. But I'll go with "His Girl Friday" because I love it sooooo much.
26) What’s the DVD commentary you’d most like to hear? Who would be on the audio track?If the Marx Brothers were alive I would love to hear audio commentary from them. I enjoy Roger Ebert's audio commentary and wish he could do more. I would also like to hear Steven Spielberg do commentary since he never does them. But "The Marx Brothers" would be there just for entertainment value, plus just to see if Harpo would say anything.
27) Favorite movie directed by Clint Eastwood. Unforgiven
28) Paul Dooley or Kurtwood Smith?Kurtwood Smith
29) Your clairvoyant moment: Make a prediction about the Oscar season.No offense to Hugh Jackman, but it won't be as funny.
30) Your hope for the movies in 2009.I would agree with House of Mirth and spread the movies out more so we don't get a bunch all at once at the end of the year. I would also hope that an arthouse movie theatre will open in Red Deer, otherwise I will have to move. Finger crossed.
31) What’s your top 10 of 2008? (If you have a blog and have your list posted, please feel free to leave a link to the post.)Also a work in progress since I won't see many 2008 films until after the new year. So here are a few titles (alphabetically) that I would consider.
Burn After Reading
The Dark Knight
The Fall
The Flight of the Red Balloon
Happy Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
My Winnipeg
Rachel Getting Married
Wall-E
BONUS QUESTION
32) What was your favorite movie-related Christmas gift that you received this year? My new "Casablanca" box set (It's like the fifth copy of the movie I've owned but I do not care) plus the criterion collection copy of "The Fallen Idol" which I have never seen.
1 comment:
1.) Theatrically: Revolutionary Road; DVD: Cloverfield
2.) Holiday movies-- I generally like them "nice" but as BAD SANTA has become a perenial, I'll say "niughty," these days.
3.) Tie! Mercedes McCambridge for her turn in TOUCH OF EVIL & her voice work (in radio) and in THE EXORCIST. Lupino was a talented actress and did a terrific TWILIGHT ZONE-- "The Masks."
4.) The Log Lady
5.) Yes! I've always said that! Is Angela Lansbury too old to reprise her role in MAME that she was screwed out of in 1974?
6.) DO THE RIGHT THING; 25th HOUR, lately.
7.) Lawrence Tierney I know a little, Scott Brady not so much.
8.) Yes. If it's over two hours-- it better be GREAT.
9.) Recently I liked James Cromwell in W. as Bush Sr.
10.) Jeremy you nailed it-- King Kong ('33) vs. King Kong ('05).
11.) Sheree North
12.) I think the SUBSEQUENT viewings of every movie are the more vaulable: you get more out of the movie and you can better gauge if it's "for the ages."
13.) PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES
14.) SEVEN MEN FROM NOW
15.) Myself.
16.) So many favorites-- what about BELLE ET LA BETE (1946), with Jean Cocteau writing the credits onscreen on a blackboard.
17.) Don't know.
18.) Woody Allen said of HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, something tongue-in0cheek about "where have I failed" when it became his biggest commercial hit. His NEXT two biggest hits to date: ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN. His biggest hit this decade to-date: MATCH POINT. So, I will use Woody Allen as an example of when it's good the public goes.
19.)Jonathan Demme's MELVIN AND HOWARD-- underrated.
20.) Tatum O'Neal-- love her currently in RESCUE ME.
21.) Joe Gillis's lucky break, finding a place to stow his car on Sunset Boulevard.
22.) For Rohmer, I'd have plenty; but seen next-to-nothing on Chabrol.
23.) JCVD
24.) Indifferent
25.) ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN
26.) Of the "if only"-- Katharine Hepburn, Alfred Hitchcock, or Orson Welles on anything. Of the possible (if unlikely)-- Woody Allen on BROADWAY DANNY ROSE.
27.) UNFORGIVEN
28.) Kurtwood Smith
29.) Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep tie for the Oscar-- the first acting tie in 40 years; Jerry Lewis tears up accepting ther Humanitarian Award.
30.) Please let Terminator 4 continue the streak! The three Terminators are GREAT.
31.) see: onelinereview.blogspot.com
32.) Two Lubitsch boxed sets
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