Author Archives: Marya E. Gates
Movie Quote of the Day – Earth Girls Are Easy, 1988 (dir. Julien Temple)
Mac: What is is sex?
Valerie: Sex? You know, making love. A man and a woman like each other and they take their clothes off. . .
Mac: Okay.
Valerie: No. No. No. We can’t because me and Ted are. . .well I guess we’re not. But I mean, we can’t because you’re an alien and I’m from the Valley and we may not even be, you know, anatomically corrector for each other. That could be a real problem [Mac’s pants unzip] No problem. But I mean, no, no, no. It just wouldn’t work. I mean you’re from out of town. The phone bills would just be hell.
Mac: Shh. . .
Valerie: I didn’t want you to think Earth girls were easy.
Mac: What is “easy”?
Valerie: This is “easy”.
Movie Quote of the Day – Alice, 1990 (dir. Woody Allen)
Alice Tate: I’ve experienced a double blow. A husband who loved me once, I know that he no longer does. And a man I met recently and developed strong feelings for now doesn’t seem to want me.
Dr. Yang: Love. Love is most complex emotion. Human beings unpredictable. No logic to emotions. Where there is no logic, there is no rational thought. Where there is no rational thought, there can be much romance but much suffering.
Alice Tate: Gee, I. . .I feel like I’m adrift, like I’ve been cut loose. A while ago I had a routine life, with feelings I understood. A husband, a home.
Dr. Yang: Mrs. Tate had illusion of happiness. Upon closer observation, not very honest husband, not very honest with self.
Alice Tate: I’m frightened.
Dr. Yang: Freedom is frightening feeling.
Movie Quote of the Day – A History of Violence, 2005 (dir. David Cronenberg)
Richie Cusack: Jesus, Joey.
Tom Stall: Jesus, Richie.
Movie Quote of the Day – Thank You for Smoking, 2006 (dir. Jason Reitman)
Jeff Megall: Sony has a futuristic sci-fi movie they’re looking to make. Message From Sector Six. All takes place in a space station. They’re actively looking for some co-financing.
Nick Naylor: Cigarettes in space?
Jeff Megall: It’s the final frontier, Nick.
Nick Naylor: But wouldn’t they blow up in an all oxygen environment?
Jeff Megall: Probably. But it’s an easy fix. One line of dialogue. ‘Thank God we invented the… you know, whatever device.’ [beat] Brad Pitt. Catherine Zeta-Jones. They’ve just finished ravishing each other’s bodies for the first time. They lie naked, suspended in air underneath the heavens. Pitt lights up. He starts blowing smoke rings all around Catherine’s naked, flawless body, as the galaxies go whizzing by over the glass-domed ceiling. Now, tell me that doesn’t work for you.
Nick Naylor: I’d see that movie.
Jeff Megall: I’d buy the goddamn DVD. [beat] You know, if the Academy didn’t send them to me for free. [beat] You know, you guys ought to think about designing a cigarette to be released simultaneously with the movie.
Nick Naylor: Sector Sixes.
Jeff Megall: Nobody’s ever done it with a cigarette.
Nick Naylor: Wow.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Changeling, 1980 (dir. Peter Medak)
John Russell: You goddamn son of a bitch. What is it you want? What do you want from me? I’ve done everything I can do! There’s nothing more to do.
Books on Film: The James Bond Omnibus 004
Not exactly a “book on film,” per se, the newest James Bond Omnibus released by Titan Books will excite and enthrall fans of England’s most famous spy.
Movie Quote of the Day – Only Angels Have Wings, 1939 (dir. Howard Hawks)
Geoff Carter: You’re a queer duck.
Bonnie Lee: So are you.
Geoff Carter: I can’t make you out.
Bonnie Lee: Same here. What was she like, anyway?
Geoff Carter: Who?
Bonnie Lee: That girl that made you act the way you do.
Geoff Carter: A whole lot like you. Just as nice, almost as smart.
Bonnie Lee: Chorus girl?
Geoff Carter: Only by temperament.
Bonnie Lee: Well, at least you’re true to the type.
Geoff Carter: Sit down, make yourself comfortable.
Bonnie Lee: Still carrying a torch for her, aren’t you?
Geoff Carter: Got a match?
Bonnie Lee: Say, don’t you ever have any?
Geoff Carter: No – don’t believe in laying in a supply of anything. [she hands him a match] Thanks.
Bonnie Lee: Matches, marbles, money or women, huh?
Geoff Carter: That’s right.
Bonnie Lee: No looking ahead; no tomorrows; just today.
Geoff Carter: That’s right.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945 (dir. Albert Lewin)
Sibyl Vane: It’s wonderful. Did. . .did you write it?
Dorian Gray: Frédéric Chopin. For a woman he loved. Her name was George Sand. Someday I’ll tell you about them.
Sibyl Vane: I should like that.
Dorian Gray: What did the music mean to you?
Sibyl Vane: I don’t know. It is full of emotion. But it’s not happy.
Dorian Gray: No. It’s not happy.
Sibyl Vane: Why was he unhappy?
Dorian Gray: Perhaps because he felt his youth slipping away from him.
Sibyl Vane: What an odd thing for you to say.
Dorian Gray: Why?
Sibyl Vane: You’re so young.
Dorian Gray: Yes. And you also.
Sibyl Vane: What is the music called? Has it a name?
Dorian Gray: A kind of name. It is called Prelude.
Oscar Vault Monday – Gaslight, 1944 (dir. George Cukor)
God I love this film. I first saw it during Summer Under the Stars in 2010 at about 2 in the morning after having watched five other Bergman films that day. I think I must have dosed off during it because a few months later when I fell really hard for Joseph Cotten and was looking at his filmography, I saw he was one of the co-stars and I didn’t remember his character at all! Luckily, at the TCM Film Festival in 2011, I got a second chance to see the film, this time on the gigantic screen at the Chinese Theater. During that day I had seen two other Cotten films on the big screen (Citizen Kane and Niagara), so I was on a bit of a Cotten high. What a great day that was. And what a great film, too! I now own it (thank you very much Warner Archive!) and have watched it several times. I would be lying if I told you the following look at the film is going to go pretty heavy into Jo Cotten’s wardrobe. Also, it will contain spoilers regarding the plot twist. So if you’ve never seen it before, you might want to look away. Gaslight was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning two: Best B&W Art Director (won), Best B&W Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress Angela Lansbury, Best Actor Charles Boyer, Best Actress Ingrid Bergman (won) and Best Picture. George Cukor was not nominated for Best Director, however. Actually, this was one of those years where Best Director lined up with three of the nominated films, while two director were nominated without Best Picture nominations (Otto Preminger for Laura and Alfred Hitchcock for Lifeboat). The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were Double Indemnity, Since You Went Away, Wilson and winner Going My Way. I should also mention that there is a British version of Gaslight from 1940 that stars Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard, though I have yet to see it.
Movie Quote of the Day – Welcome To The Dollhouse, 1995 (dir. Todd Solondz)
Brandon McCarthy: Why do you always have to be such a cunt?
Dawn Weiner: I’m sorry. Brandon, I don’t mean to be a cunt.
the diary of a film history fanatic 