15 Questions Movie Meme

I read le0pard13's responses to this meme at his very fine blog, It Rains...You Get Wet and wondered whether I could respond without dittoing too many of his answers. (He has great taste in films.)

1. Movie you love with a passion.

THE THIN MAN
Do I really have to explain why? Yes, the production values are crap and the first ten minutes are exposition. But it's Nick and Nora Charles. It's William Powell and Myrna Loy. It's charming and, unlike the other films in the series, witty. The film works because of the chemistry between Powell and Loy. When I used to watch videos in bed, a bad habit I've pretty much defeated, this is the film I would watch night after night, go to sleep by it and wake up as the machine recycled it over and over. Yes, I do know most of the dialogue by heart and for someone with a memory as poor as mine, that's indicative of how often I watch this film.

2. Movie you vow to never watch.

AVATAR
I've never been a fan of James Cameron's films. Too often they're more spectacle than story. And whenever anyone speaks of a movie and talks first or only about its effects, I know to stay far away from it. Besides, Titanic is so horrible -- yes, it is -- I just can't bring myself to ever put one more penny in Cameron's pocket. (I also avoid films by Roman Polanski since his conviction and flight to escape justice.)

3. Movie that literally left you speechless.

THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST

The brutality in this film is so horrific and shared so intimately with the audience that I never was able to be numbed by it as some were. That brutality was, for me, only partially offset by the message of unconditional love, which I thought director Gibson gave short shrift in comparison to the horror that preceded it. Nevertheless, the film touched me in ways I did not expect, such as tapping a maternal streak in me that I was unaware I possessed. This is a film that buffeted me and left me thoughtful and wounded. So wounded that I've never been able to bring myself to watch it again.

4. Movie you always recommend.

CASABLANCA
I'll gladly share this answer with le0pard13. I had heard about this movie all my life but I didn't see it until I was in my late 20s. Having heard all the famous lines so many times ("Here's looking at you, kid." "Play it." "Of all the gin joints..." "We'll always have Paris." "Round up the usual suspects." et. al.) in no way prepared me for the context in which they were spoken. Hollywood just doesn't make heroes like Rick Blaine anymore. I wrote a story once, Everybody Comes to Rick's, about a dying woman whose last wish is to go to Casablanca and have a drink at Rick's Cafe Americain. Yeah, you have to see this movie.

5. Actor/actress you always watch, no matter how crappy the movie.

What, you don't recognize Robert Lindsay? Or you've only seen him in bit parts in mediocre films such as Wimbledon? Then do whatever you must to get your hands on a copy of GBH, a stellar piece of screenwriting by Alan Bleasdale that showcases Lindsay's BAFTA-winning performance as a low-life politician (oh, wait, that's redundant, isn't it?). Failing that, catch his performances as captain of a naval frigate during the Napoleonic Wars in the A&E Horatio Hornblower series. Or even in the not-very-good but charming Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. I've gone to great lengths to see British TV shows featuring this actor. Yes, I can truly say I will watch anything with Robert Lindsay in it. (If James Cameron should ever want me to watch one of his films again, casting Lindsay would do it.)

6. Actor/actress you don’t get the appeal for.

CAMERON DIAZ
Maybe it's something to do with the name of Cameron? Nah, couldn't be, because I love this guy:

7. Actor/actress, living or dead, you’d love to meet.

CARY GRANT
'Nuff said.


8. Sexiest actor/actress you’ve seen. (Picture required!)

 STEVE MCQUEEN


Have mercy! McQueen's sexiness doesn't really come across in still photos. Probably it was the way he conveyed attitude in his walk, his talk, his cars, his clothes, his sunglasses for crying out loud, that also conveyed a confident sexiness. But you watch the chess match between him and Faye Dunaway in the original The Thomas Crown Affair, or the physical stillness -- cool, controlled, in charge -- in his scenes in Bullitt, or just the way he walks to his prison cell and bounces that baseball in The Great Escape, and tell me he doesn't make your heart beat faster.


9. Dream cast.
Frank Capra came pretty close with the cast of The Philadelphia Story: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart. If you could add Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, and Bette Davis, that would make for an incredible cast in ... something. Although if ever there were two men who should have been onscreen together, it was Bogey and McQueen.


10. Favorite actor pairing.

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.

Yes, this means I'm putting these guys ahead of Tracy/Hepburn, Powell/Loy, Gable/Lombard, Newman/Redford, Astaire/Rogers, et al. Lemmon and Matthau had perfect chemistry across what, seven movies? Something like that. Better, they each also had the charisma and the acting chops to carry the film whenever they weren't in the same scene.

11. Favorite movie setting.

Not a sweeping landscape, not an imagined  world of SF, I like the claustrophobic spaces of The Hunt for Red October contrasted against the vast oceans.

12. Favorite decade for movies.
Couldn't be any decade but the 1940s: Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, Double Indemnity, The Third Man, Shadow of a Doubt, Since You Went Away, Sergeant York, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Maltese Falcon, Gaslight, Citizen Kane, The Lady From Shanghai, Laura, Mildred Pierce, The Postman Always Rings Twice -- do I have to go on? Because I could, easily.

13. Chick flick or action movie?
No, thanks. I don't mind elements of either but I don't want a film that can be defined that easily.


14. Hero, villain or anti-hero?     
Done right, what's not to like about all of them? Example: Hero:  Luke Skywalker. Villain: Darth Vader. Anti-hero: Han Solo. I rest my case.

15. Black and white or color?
If I picked the 40s as my favorite film decade, it follows that I prefer black & white. One of the last great black & white films was made in the 60s though. (You knew I'd sneak The Beatles in here somewhere, didn't you?)

A 

A Hard Day's Night