I’ve praised Dennis Cozzalio’s Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule before, but probably my favourite part is his semi-regular film geek quizzes. I’ve never managed to actually find the time to fill one out before, though (hey, I have important Battlestar Galactica and The Wire to watch!). But this time, finally, I did. I’m so proud!
Anyway, here are my answers. And if you’re in any way reading this because you’re a film nerd, go take the quiz (and then let me know: I always like evidence I’m not shouting into the great interweb void). Or you can just read other people’s responses: always interesting and enlightening. I avoided reading any of the responses until I wrote my own, so I’m gonna go read them right now and envy all the people who came up with cooler answers than I could think of.
Mughal Sarāi 1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker
“Film is not the art of scholars, but of illiterates.” — Werner Herzog
runner-up:
“Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It’s about the big picture.” — Ed Wood
Villa Park 2) A good movie from a bad director
Kevin Smith is pretty much a wash as a director, but I still like Chasing Amy a whole lot. (I like Clerks and Clerks II a lot, too, but I’m not sure I’d say they’re good movies.)
3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance
I’ve seen maybe four or five Olivier movies in my life, but I don’t remember his performances in any of them well enough to compare.
4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?
My first trip to New York was a eye-opener. I couldn’t get over how “New York” it all looked. In retrospect I should have maybe expected that.
5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?
Dino. He not only produced Conan, Barbarella, Death Wish and Army of Darkness, but he had the brains not to get involved with Zabriski Point or the overrated Blowup.
6) Best movie about baseball
Mr Baseball.
7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance
Double Indemnity, of course. Bad wig, bad make-up, and she looks downright feral in some scenes, but I still believe Fred MacMurray would kill a man to tap that.
8.) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
Dazed and Confused. I have no nostalgic attachment to Fast Times, Though Phoebe Cates in that bikini is pretty memorable.
9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)
Sholay. I’ve been getting into Bollywood movies lately, and it’s a classic “curry western”.
10) Whether or not you have actually procreated or not, is there a movie you can think of that seriously affected the way you think about having kids of your own?
While it wasn’t part of my own childhood (which was essentially movie-free), various friends and relatives let their kids watch the same children’s movie over and over again. Being in such a house seems a special kind of hell to me.
On the other hand, there are all kinds of really great films I look forward to watching with my own kids: Iron Giant, Star Wars, The Princess Bride, and, of course, a pre-adolescent Jaws and The Exorcist double-bill. I often think about how different my life might have been if I’d first seen Jaws at age 12 instead of 26.
Maybe I shouldn’t reproduce.
11) Favorite Katharine Hepburn performance
Bringing up Baby. Back when she was still young and cute and trying to play a character rather than “the immortal Katherine Hepburn as…”.
12) A bad movie from a good director
Gangs of New York. Sometimes great artists follow their dreams where nobody can really be expected to follow.
13) Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom– yes or no?
I still have not brought myself to watch it, and having recently read Matthew Dessem’s review on The Criterion Contraption (“This film literally made me vomit.”), it’s not high on my list. But I suspect I will watch it one day. So, yes.
14) Ben Hecht or Billy Wilder (Screenwriter)?
Ben Hecht probably has more funny lines, but Billy Wilder’s characters are much more fully-realized. Advantage: Wilder.
15) Name the film festival you’d most want to attend, or your favorite festival that you actually have attended
I attended the Toronto film festival every year when I lived there and always saw a few movies that blew me away. I can’t say that about other festivals I’ve attended.
16) Head or 200 Motels?
I’ve only seen Head, but I suspect I might like 200 Motels more.
17) Favorite cameo appearance
Bill Murray in Wild Things. To quote Roger Ebert: “Bill Murray lands in the middle of this pie like a plum from heaven.”
18) Favorite Rosalind Russell performance
I’d have to go with His Girl Friday. It’s the only one of her films I’ve seen, but I liked her a whole lot.
19) What movie, either currently available on DVD or not, has never received the splashy collector’s edition treatment you think it deserves? What would such an edition include?
Is Kill Bill too obvious? Even if it is: Kill Bill. It would include the two-film version and the original one-film cut, and a long doc showing scenes from Kill Bill alongside the ones that inspired them. Plus, a commentary by a random Tarantino-hating film geek bragging about how he was into Lady Snowblood way before QT. Just to get the full experience.
20) Name a performance that everyone needs to be reminded of, for whatever reason
Bill Murray (again) in Groundhog Day. Even now, I don’t think Murray gets enough respect as an actor, and he sure didn’t then because he’s “funny”. In Groundhog Day, he goes through pretty much every emotion one can have but still stays identifiable as the same character.
21) Louis B. Mayer or Harry Cohn (Studio Head)?
Gonna have to pass.
22) Favorite John Wayne performance
His portrayal of Genghis Khan in The Conqueror is endlessly entertaining. “Dance for me, Tartar woman!”
23) Naked Lunch or Barton Fink?
Naked Lunch is less successful, but more ambitious and therefore more interesting. Advantage: Cronenberg.
24) Your Ray Harryhausen movie of choice
Is this a trick question? Jason and the Argonauts, of course! The skeleton scene is one of the greatest things ever committed to celluloid.
25) Is there a movie you can think of that you feel like the world would be better off without, one that should have never been made?
Leaving aside political films like Birth of a Nation and Triumph of the Will, I could cite The Jazz Singer and Heaven’s Gate for helping to kill off really pretty awesome periods of cinema. Though you could easily argue that if they hadn’t, another would have. So maybe I’ll just go with Matrix Reloaded, which was not only awful, but destroyed my ability to enjoy the original Matrix movie.
24) Favorite Dub Taylor performance
Given that I had to look on IMDB to even learn who the guy was, I’m gonna have to pass on this one, too.
25) If you had the choice of seeing three final movies, to go with your three last meals, before shuffling off this mortal coil, what would they be?
An Adam Sandler marathon would doubtless put me in the right frame of mind to welcome death.
26) And what movie theater would you choose to see them in?
One full of screaming babies.
EXTRA CREDIT!!!
Your proposed entry in the Atheist Film Festival
Microcosmos
What advice on day-to-day living have you learned from the movies?
Beautiful, vivacious, quirky women are irresistibly attracted to moody, scruffy, brainy introverts. This knowledge is sure to pay off any day now.
