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Movie Quote of the Day – Sayonara, 1957 (dir. Joshua Logan)
Major Gruver: Look, Miss Ogi, I’m not up too good on the Japanese way of doing things. Maybe I’m saying the wrong things. Maybe my American manners are embarrassing. But I figured, as long as you came over here tonight maybe you were interested a little bit in meeting me too.Now, maybe I’m wrong and if I’m wrong, then you’ve got to tell me where we go from here, because I don’t know what to say. I’ve run out of things to say.
Movie Quote of the Day – Ultimo tango a Parigi (Last Tango in Paris), 1972 (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)
Jeanne: You want to know why you don’t want to know anything about me? Because you hate women.
Paul: Oh, really?
Jeanne: What have they ever done to you?
Paul: Well, either they always pretend to know who I am or they pretend I don’t know who they are and that’s very boring.
Movie Quote of the Day – Reflections in a Golden Eye, 1967 (dir. John Huston)
Leonora: Son, have you ever been collared and dragged out into the street and thrashed by a naked woman?
Movie Quote of the Day – The Fugitive Kind, 1959 (dir. Sidney Lumet)
Valentine ‘Snakeskin’ Xavier: You know, Lady, there’s people bought and sold in this world like carcasses of hogs. . .in butcher shops. You might think that there’s. . .there’s many. . .many kinds of people in this world. But there’s only two kinds: The buyers and the ones that get bought. [beat] No, there’s another kind.
Lady Torrance: What kind?
Valentine ‘Snakeskin’ Xavier: It’s a kind that don’t belong no place at all. There’s a kind of bird that don’t have any legs so it can’t alight on nothing. So it has to spend its whole life on its wings in the air. I seen one, once. It died and fell to earth. And its body was light blue colored. And it was just as tiny as your little finger. And it was so light in the palm of your hand that it didn’t weigh more than a feather. And its wings spread out that wide. And you could see right through them. That’s why the hawks don’t catch them. . .because they don’t see ’em. They don’t see ’em way up in that high blue sky near the sun.
Lady Torrance: What about in gray weather?
Valentine ‘Snakeskin’ Xavier: They fly so high, in gray weather, the hawks, they’d get dizzy. See, these little birds don’t have no legs at all so they have to live their whole lives on the wing. And they sleep on the wind. That’s what they do, they just. . . they just spread their wings out and go to sleep on the wind. And they only alight on this earth but one time. . .it’s when they die.
New From WarnerBlu: “A Streetcar Named Desire” 60th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Book
Warner Bros. has this fancy new Blu-ray book release to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Elia Kazan’s masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire. This new Blu-ray edition hits shelves this coming Tuesday, April 10th. They call it a Blu-ray book because the packaging is essentially also a book. This means instead of a booklet or something that comes inside the case, the case itself is the book. It’s kind of an interesting concept.
Essentially, the special features on this new Blu-ray release are the same that are found on the 2006 DVD release:
- Commentary on the feature film by Karl Malden, film historian Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young
- Elia Kazan movie trailer gallery
- Movie and audio outtakes
- Marlon Brando screen test
- Elia Kazan: A Director’s Journey documentary
- Five other documentaries: A Streetcar on Broadway, A Streetcar in Hollywood, Desire and Censorship, North and the South and An Actor Named Brando
I own that DVD release, yet somehow never watched the special features. Now I have, though! The 75 minute long Kazan documentary is from 1995 and features narration by Eli Wallach and some really great interviews with Kazan himself. It’s a great look at Kazan’s filmography, with insights from the director on the process of making each film. While I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as Scorsese’s A Letter To Elia, I definitely recommend it to fans of Kazan’s work.
The picture quality of the Blu-ray, however, makes this purchase worth it for collectors and those who enjoy owning their favorite films in the newest formats. The black and white cinematography is so crisp and the contrasts are utterly perfect. Even on my shitty little television that movie looked incredible.
Before you run out and pre-oder this set, let’s take a minute and remain in awe and wonder of Stanley and Stella in the scene deemed too hot by censors in 1951:
And Brando hissing at Vivien Leigh. This is the stuff that dreams are made of.
Disclaimer: This review is based on a review disc given to me by Warner Bros., though the opinions are all my own.
Movie Quote of the Day – Guys and Dolls, 1955 (dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Sky Masterson: We just got time to catch the last plane to New York.
Sergeant Sarah Brown: People miss planes. It happens.
Sky Masterson: Yeah? It also happens that people win with loaded dice.
Sergeant Sarah Brown: I know what I’m doing.
Sky Masterson: Do you, kid? [beat] I don’t.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Wild One, 1953 (dir. Laslo Benedek)
Kathie Bleeker: Well, what d’ya do? I mean, do you just ride around or do you go on some sort of a picnic or something?
Johnny Strabler: A picnic? Man, you are too square. I’m. . .I. . .I’ll have to straighten you out. Now, listen, you don’t go any one special place. That’s cornball style. You just go.
Oscar Vault Monday – Apocalypse Now, 1979 (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
While nothing can replace The Thin Red Line as my all-time favorite war film, I think this movie would be a close second, even if I did just see it for the first time on Saturday (I know, I know). I’d like to point out first off that I watched the Redux version and not the theatrical version, so this post will be based on that version of the film. I’m also not going to talk a lot about some of the behind the scenes stories (there are a lot) and probably won’t cover all the themes in the film because I feel like the only way to do everything about this film justice would be to write 100 pages. I will, however, talk about the main performances and a couple of scenes that I really loved. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two: Best Sound (won), Best Cinematography (won), Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor Robert Duvall, Best Director and Best Picture. The other films nominated for Best Picture that year were All That Jazz, Breaking Away, Norma Rae and winner Kramer Vs. Kramer. Side note: I really love Kramer Vs. Kramer, so this is not a “this film is better than the winner” post; it’s more like a “this film is equally as awesome” post.
Movie Quote of the Day – The Godfather, 1972 (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Don Corleone: You look terrible. I want you to eat, I want you to rest well. And a month from now this Hollywood big shot’s gonna give you what you want.
Johnny Fontane: Too late. They start shooting in a week.
Don Corleone: I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Movie Quote of the Day – On The Waterfront, 1954 (dir. Elia Kazan)
Charley: Look, kid, I – how much you weigh, son? When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds you were beautiful. You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast.
Terry: It wasn’t him, Charley, it was you. Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, “Kid, this ain’t your night. We’re going for the price on Wilson.” You remember that? “This ain’t your night”! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn’t have to take them dives for the short-end money.
Charley: Oh I had some bets down for you. You saw some money.
Terry: You don’t understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it. It was you, Charley.
the diary of a film history fanatic 