Monthly Archives: July 2012
Movie Quote of the Day – Welcome to L.A., 1976 (dir. Alan Rudolph)
Karen Hood: Benjamin Franklin said, “The sleep of reason produces monsters.”
Carroll Barber: Goya said that.
Karen Hood: Did he? How do you know?
Carroll Barber: He was over last week. We talked about it.
Movie Quote of the Day – Noises Off. . ., 1992 (dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
Frederick: Alright, I see all that.
Lloyd: Oh no.
Frederick: I just don’t know why I take them.
Lloyd: Freddy love, why does anyone do anything? Why does that other idiot go out of the front door holding two plates of sardines? I mean, I-I’m not getting at you, love.
Gary: Course not, Lloyd. I mean, why do I? I mean, Jesus, when you come to think about it, why *do* I?
Lloyd: Who knows?
Gary: Who knows. You see, Freddy?
Lloyd: The wellsprings of human action are deep and cloudy. Maybe something happened to you when you were a very, very, very small child that made you frightened to let go of groceries.
Belinda: Or it could be genetic.
Gary: Yes, or it could be. . .you know.
Lloyd: Could, could well be.
Frederick: Of course, thank you. I understand all that, but. . .
Lloyd: Freddy love, I’m telling you I don’t know. I. . .I don’t think the *author* knows. I don’t know why the author came into this industry in the first place. I don’t know why any of us came into it.
Frederick: All the same, if you could just give me a reason I could keep in my mind.
Lloyd: Alright, I’ll give you a reason then. You carry those groceries into the study, Freddy honey, because it’s just slightly after midnight, and we’re not going to be finished before we open tomorrow night – Correction: before we open TONIGHT!
Movie Quote of the Day – Nightwing, 1979 (dir. Arthur Hiller)
Youngman Duran: It just doesn’t seem natural for a man to spend his life, his entire life killing bats.
Phillip Payne: Not just bats. Vampire bats. I kill them because they are evil. There’s a mutual grace and violence in all forms of nature and each species in life gives something in return for its own existence. All but one. The freak. The vampire bat alone is that species. Have you ever seen one of their caves?
Youngman Duran: No.
Phillip Payne: I killed over sixty thousand of them last year in Mexico. You really understand the presence of evil when you go into their caves. The smell of ammonia alone is enough to kill you. The floor of the cave is a foul syrup of digested blood. And the bats, up high, hanging upside down, wrestling, fighting, mating, sending constant messages, waiting for the light to fade, hungry for blood, coaxing the big females to wake up and flex their night wings, to lead the colony out across the land, honing in on any living thing: cattle, sheep, dogs, children, anything with warm blood. And they feast, drinking the blood and pissing ammonia. I kill them because they are the quintessence of evil. To me nothing else exists. The destruction of vampire bats is what I live for.
Movie Quote of the Day – Greenberg, 2010 (dir. Noah Baumbach)
Ivan Schrank: Birthdays are hard, man.
Roger Greenberg: It’s weird aging, right? It’s like what the fuck is going on?
Ivan Schrank: I know. Youth is wasted on the young.
Roger Greenberg: I’d go further. I’d go: Life is wasted on people.
Dana Andrews Blogathon: My Eternal Love For Laura
I first saw Laura about two years ago during the inaugural Noirvember in 2010 (which later led to the creation of the filmnoirandfemmefatales as run by salesonfilm and myself). I loved it when I first saw it, but I watched so many films after it (2010 was the year I watched 517 new-to-me films, followed by 1117 in 2011) that it kind of got lost in the ether.
From The Warner Archive: Two Never Before On DVD Featuring Gene Kelly
The Warner Archive recently released six Gene Kelly films that had never before been on DVD. I was lucky enough to review two of them: Black Hand and The Devil Makes Three, both of which have been newly remastered.
Movie Quote of the Day – Away We Go, 2009 (dir. Sam Mendes)
Beckett’s Mother: Beckett, what is that?
Beckett: That’s a fern.
Beckett’s Mother: That’s right. This is a fern. What’s that?
Beckett: That’s a cactus.
Beckett’s Mother: That’s a cactus. That’s right, and what is the plural of cactus?
Beckett: Cacti.
Beckett’s Mother: That’s right! What is that?
Beckett: Baby.
Beckett’s Mother: That’s right! That’s a baby. This lady is about to have a baby. Any day now.
Verona De Tessant: Or in three months. Thank you.
Beckett’s Mother: Beckett, tell the nice lady what you know about babies. Go on, tell the nice people. . .Beckett! You’re being rude.
Beckett: Babies like to breathe, and they’re good at hiding it. I put a pillow over a baby. I thought she wasn’t breathing, but she was. She was sneaky, but I’ll try again.
Of Film Restoration and Blu-ray Conversion
Earlier this morning I participated in a virtual roundtable/Q&A about film restoration and conversion between Jeff Baker who is the Executive Vice President and General Manager Warner Bros. theatrical catalog, Ned Price who is the Vice President of Mastering at Warner Bros. and Andy Parsons who is the chair of the Blu-ray Association of America. By participated, I mean I watched the livestream of their conversation and asked a question via text after it was finished. Presented after the cut are what I think are the most interesting parts of the conversation, as well as the question I asked. While I am still one of those people who buys most of my films on DVD over Blu-ray (tell me how you screencap Blu-rays you bastards and I’ll switch!) the process behind how films get chosen, etc. is pretty fascinating.
Movie Quote of the Day – S.O.B., 1981 (dir. Blake Edwards)
Felix Farmer: Alright, writers! Writers! Who wrote Last Tango? Culley!
Tim Culley: Beats me.
Felix Farmer: My God, Culley! Neither one of us knows who wrote Last Tango!
Tim Culley: I hated it. I can never remember the names of people who perpetrate something I hate.
Felix Farmer: But that’s the trouble, don’t you see? I hated it too!
Tim Culley: In my opinion, a discretionary judgement.
Felix Farmer: But we’re wrong, Culley. That’s what they want! That’s where it’s at!
Tim Culley: It’s been my experience that every time I think I know “where it’s at,” it’s usually somewhere else.
TCM To Release Five Early Frank Capra Classics
I’ve actually only seen two of these five films, but I loved both of them. So. Much. Stanwyck. TCM is partnering with Sony (aka Columbia) and Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation to release these films in a box set called Frank Capra: The Early Collection, which will be released on Monday, Sept. 3. The releases will include introductions by Robert Osborne, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard and Michel Gondry, as well as audio commentaries by film historians Jeanine Basinger and Jeremy Arnold. More information after the cut.
the diary of a film history fanatic 