Author Archives: Marya E. Gates
Movie Quote of the Day – A Fei zheng chuan (Days of Being Wild), 1990 (dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
Yuddy: What day’s today?
Su Lizhen: 16th.
Yuddy: 16th… April the 16th. At one minute before 3pm on April the 16th, 1960, you’re together with me. Because of you, I’ll remember that one minute. From now on, we’re friends for one minute. This is a fact, you can’t deny. It’s done.
Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” – First Look
Darren Aronofsky is certainly one of Hollywood’s most unusual filmmakers. I haven’t seen 1998’s Pi, but I hear it is strange. I’ve only seen 2001’s Requiem For A Dream once because it freaked me out so hard. 2006’s The Fountain was beautifully shot, but not all that well received by critics. 2008’s The Wrestler was brilliant. I still think it should have been up for Best Picture and as much as I loved Sean Penn in Milk, Mickey Rourke should have won that Oscar. Later this year he’s releasing what is being called a “supernatural ballet drama/thriller” starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder, Sebastian Stan, Barbara Hershey and Vincent Cassel. Today we finally get a peak at the film’s visuals, thanks to USAToday and FirstShowing.net.
More pictures and plot synopsis after the cut.
Movie Quote of the Day – G.I. Jane, 1997 (dir. Ridley Scott)
Lt. Jordan O’Neil: Master Chief…
Master Chief John Urgayle: Lieutenant, seek life elsewhere.
Lt. Jordan O’Neil: Suck my dick!
Auteur of the Week: Rian Johnson
Rian Johnson is fairly new to Hollywood – his debut feature Brick was released in 2006 – but he’s definitely one of the great up-and-coming auteurs of his generation. Although I love Brick way more than his sophomore effort 2009’s The Brothers Bloom, it is in no way a sophomore slump. Both films are wildly original and filled with some of the more memorable characters of the last decade. I think he’s got a major talent and we’ve only seen the beginning of what could very well prove to be a brilliant career.
Movie Quote of the Day – My Best Friend’s Wedding, 1997 (dir. P.J. Hogan)
Julianne Potter: Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O. YOU could never be Jell-O.
Kimmy Wallace: I HAVE to be Jell-O!
Julianne Potter: You’re never gonna be Jell-O!
Trailer for Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger”
This looks promising. I haven’t really liked most of what I’ve seen of Allen’s later oeuvre of movies. This looks like it could be more like is films from the 80s and 90s – my favorite period in Allen’s career. Regardless, the cast looks amazing, so at least there’s that.
You can see the trailer here at Yahoo! movies. This film is rated R for language and releases September 22, 2010.
Movie Quote of the Day – Ghost, 1990 (dir. Jerry Zucker)
Sam Wheat: It’s amazing, Molly. The love inside, you take it with you.
Oscar Vault Monday – A Clockwork Orange, 1971 (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
I first saw this film as a midnight movie my sophomore year at Berkeley. It scared the crap out of me. Walking home in the dark afterwards I was scared to death, even though I’d gone to a lot of midnight movies that semester and walked home each and every time. I think I was scared because the haunting atmosphere of A Clockwork Orange was still with me. When a movie can affect my immediate perception of the world around me, I know I’ve seen something quite brilliant. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards – Best Film Editing, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Three of the four of those nominations were for Kubrick as he wrote, directed and was sole producer of the film. It did not win a single award. It was up against Fiddle On The Roof, Nicholas and Alexander, The Last Picture Show and winner The French Connection. Confession: other than that one great car chase, The French Connection bored me to death.
Movie Quote of the Day – Planet of the Apes, 1968 (dir. Franklin J. Schaffner)
George Taylor: You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
the diary of a film history fanatic 