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Movie Quote of the Day – Requiem for a Dream, 2000 (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Sara Goldfarb: I almost fit in my red dress. The one I wore to your high school graduation. The one your father liked so much. Oh, I remember how he looked at me in that red dress.
Harry Goldfarb: Ma, what’s the big deal about the red dress?
Sara Goldfarb: I’m going to wear it at. . . You don’t know! I’m gonna be on television. I got a call and an application. . .
Harry Goldfarb: Come on, Ma, who’s pulling your leg?
Sara Goldfarb: No, no, no. I’m tellin’ ya. I’m gonna be a contestant on television. They haven’t told me when yet, but you’ll be proud when you see your mother in her red dress on TV.
Harry Goldfarb: What is the big deal?. Those pills will kill you before you get on.
Sara Goldfarb: “Big deal?” You drove up in a cab. Did you see who had the best seat? I’m somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon. . .millions of people will see me and they’ll all like me. I’ll tell them about you and your father. How good he was to us. Remember? It’s a reason to get up in the morning. It’s a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It’s a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. [sighs] What have I got, Harry? Hmm? Why should I even make the bed or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I’m alone. Your father’s gone, you’re gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I’m lonely. I’m old.
Harry Goldfarb: You got friends, Ma.
Sara Goldfarb: It’s not the same. They don’t need me. I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress and the television and you and your father. Now when I get the sun, I smile.
Oscar Vault Monday – The Last Picture Show, 1971 (dir. Peter Bogdanovich)
I first saw The Last Picture Show in 2011 right before I moved back to San Francisco for film school. I decided I had to finish all of the A.F.I. 100 Years. . .100 Films lists (the original combined with the 10th anniversary). I didn’t have many left and this was one of them. I watched it on a weekday morning with my mother and the two of us were so sucked into we hardly noticed two hours had gone by. What a film. I recently was lucky enough to watch it on the big screen at the Castro Theatre and I must say, as I often do, pretty much everything is better when you see it ont he big screen. I’m so glad I got to see Robert Surtees’s divine cinematography on the big screen. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two: Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actress Ellen Burstyn, Best Supporting Actress Cloris Leachman (won), Best Supporting Actor Jeff Bridges, Best Supporting Actor Ben Johnson (won), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated that year were: A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, Nicholas and Alexandra and winner The French Connection.
Oscar Vault Monday – The Exorcist, 1973 (dir. William Friedkin)
My mother wouldn’t let me see this movie when I was a kid. She did, however, give the local rental store permission to allow me to rent rated R films. This was mostly for action pictures and such. One time, when I was about twelve years old, I went to the rental store with my friend Tiffany to rent movies for her birthday party and we all wanted to see The Exorcist, but it was rated R. Needless to say, I rented it for her. We watched it. It scared the shit out of us. My mother found out that I rented it and was very angry. That was my first experience with the movie. I didn’t see it again until I was 18 and I went to see it as a midnight movie the night before Halloween. That was one of the worst decisions I ever made in college. So many nightmare that night. I’d only seen it those two times, so I decided to rewatch it again in order to write about it now. After the cut are my thoughts. The film became the first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture, racking up 10 Academy Award nominations, winning two: Best Sound (won), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay (won), Best Supporting Actor Jason Miller, Best Supporting Actress Linda Blair, Best Actress Ellen Burstyn, Best Director William Friedkin and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were: American Graffiti, Cries and Whispers, A Touch of Class and winner The Sting.
the diary of a film history fanatic 