Yearly Archives: 2014
Female Filmmaker Friday: Elle s’en va, 2014 (dir. Emmanuelle Bercot)
I wanted to see this film when it was in theaters earlier this year (I’m calling it a 2014 releases because that’s its U.S. release date; sue me), but somehow I missed it and was really bummed. Then the other day I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and it was in the suggested list! Sometimes Netflix gets it so right! This is Emmanuelle Bercot’s third film (she started out as an actress). I haven’t seen her other films, though I want to because this film had a very distinctive tone and I’m curious to see if her other films feel the same. She wrote this script specifically for Catherine Deneuve and it’s wonderful to see the actress really tear into the material.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Ghost and the Darkness, 1996 (dir. Stephen Hopkins)
John Patterson: Have you ever failed?
Charles Remington: Only at life.
Movie Quote of the Day – Evening, 2007 (dir. Lajos Koltai)
Buddy: What if you and I just sang and laughed together for the rest of our lives? What if we had a few goofy kids who got our jokes and taught us some new songs?
Ann: It wouldn’t work.
Buddy: Not for you.
Ann: Not for me.
Movie Quote of the Day – Reindeer Games, 2000 (dir. John Frankenheimer)
Jumpy: It says here the retail industry does 50% of its business between December 1st and December 25th. That’s half a year’s business in one month’s time. It seems to me, an intelligent country would legislate a second such gift giving holiday. Create, say, a Christmas 2, late May, early June, to further stimulate growth.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Preacher’s Wife, 1996 (dir. Penny Marshall)
Julia Biggs: Every fire dies sometime, Dudley. What do you do when you need to decide if the memory of it is enough?
Dudley: What do you do?
Julia Biggs: Yeah.
Dudley: What you do is. . . you go dancing!
Noirvember 2014 in Films
I hope you all had a great Noirvember! Aside from watching 30 noirs, I watched four 2014 releases and seven other films (Including two Joan Crawford films; I’ve now seen 66 of her films!), bringing my total for the month to 41. I also read eight books! Actually, that brings me to 52 books, which was my goal for the year. Huzzah! As always, a breakdown of what I watched follows after the cut.
Movie Quote of the Day – Scoop, 2006 (dir. Woody Allen)
Sondra Pransky: You are a cynical crapehanger who always see the glass half-empty!
Sid Waterman: No, you’re wrong. I see the glass half full, but of poison and you’re going to drink it!
Movie Quote of the Day – I, The Jury, 1953 (dir. Harry Essex)
Charlotte Manning: There’s so much we could do together, Mike, the two of us.
Mike Hammer: Time’s running out, Charlotte. No plans for the New Year?
Charlotte Manning: The world, Mike, it could be ours!
Mike Hammer: I never wanted the world! Just room enough for the two of us!
Movie Quote of the Day – Pitfall, 1948 (dir. André De Toth)
John Forbes: Whatever happened to those two people who were going to build a boat and sail around the world?
Sue Forbes: Well, I had a baby. I never did hear what happened to you.
Female Filmmaker Friday: The Bigamist, 1953 (dir. Ida Lupino)
I read about this film in a book that traced the history of Los Angeles’s Bunker Hill in the movies (mostly focusing on film noir) and this film was mentioned because Lupino filmed several scenes in that neighborhood. After I saw the synopsis and the cast (Edmond O’Brien, Joan Fontaine and Ida herself), I just had to watch it. It’s a great drama (with film noir elements; I think you could definitely make the case that it is noir) about a man who finds himself married to two women.
the diary of a film history fanatic 