This is the summer film quiz from Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, which I’m doing after reading Ryland Walker Knight‘s and Dave Fiore’s.
1) Second-favorite Stanley Kubrick film.
Either Clockwork Orange or Strangelove, depending on when you ask me. Right now Clockwork is no.1.
2) Most significant/important/interesting trend in movies over the past decade, for good or evil.
The stitched-together continuous take, which has been used for both.
3) Bronco Billy (Clint Eastwood) or Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman)?
Eastwood.
4) Best Film of 1949.
Third Man, Third Man, Third Man, Third Man.
5) Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) or Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore)?
Mulligan.
6) Has the hand-held shaky-cam directorial style become a visual cliché?
Yes, but then I watched Irreversible last night and he found a way to drop my jaw with it.
7) What was the first foreign-language film you ever saw?
I saw Akira early, but that was a dub. Maybe Ran?
8) Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) or Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre)?
Chan and the Clan.
9) Favorite World War II drama (1950-1970).
Dirty Dozen, but that’s not a drama.
10) Favorite animal movie star.
Roddy McDowell.
11) Who or whatever is to blame, name an irresponsible moment in cinema.
Ridley Scott freaking out and re-editing and re-scoring Legend hoping not to get fucked again like he did on Blade Runner. That was the bad kind of irresponsible (the Goldsmith score adds so much). The good kind is probably the entire shoot of Repo Man.
12) Best Film of 1969.
MR. FREEDOM. Runner up – The Italian Job.
13) Name the last movie you saw theatrically, and also on DVD or Blu-ray.
On dvd it was Duck You Sucker/A Fistful of Dynamite. Theatrically the last two were Brothers Bloom and Public Enemies. Loved them both. Gonna try and see Moon before it leaves the shitty local theater.
14) Second-favorite Robert Altman film.
A Wedding behind The Long Goodbye.
15) What is your favorite independent outlet for reading about movies, either online or in print?
16) Who wins? Angela Mao or Meiko Kaji? (Thanks, Peter!)
Snowblood.
17) Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) or Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly)?
Tomei.
18) Favorite movie that features a carnival setting or sequence.
The Jerk.
19) Best use of high-definition video on the big screen to date.
The opening half hour of 28 Days Later would be there if the rest of the movie didn’t ruin it. The shot of the coyote on the highway in Collateral. The gunfight and scenes in the woods in Public Enemies, where the tommy gun completely blows out the screen. The feathers in the air in Red Riding 1983.
20) Favorite movie that is equal parts genre film and a deconstruction or consideration of that same genre.
All my favorite movies do this – but the one that probably does it best is American Werewolf in London.
21) Best Film of 1979.
Alien.
22) Most realistic and/or sincere depiction of small-town life in the movies.
Waiting for Guffman maybe. Maybe if you combined that with the first episode of East Bound and Down and a documentary about crystal meth.
23) Best horror movie creature (non-giant division).
The Thing.
24) Second-favorite Francis Ford Coppola film.
Apocalypse Now behind The Conversation.
25) Name a one-off movie that could have produced a franchise you would have wanted to see.
Alphaville.
26) Favorite sequence from a Brian De Palma film.
The nightmare asylum sequence in Sisters.
27) Favorite moment in three-strip Technicolor.
Opening ten minutes of Suspiria.
28) Favorite Alan Smithee film. (Thanks, Peter!)
Burn Hollywood Burn.
29) Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) or Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau)?
Matthau.
30) Best post-Crimes and Misdemeanors Woody Allen film.
Sweet and Lowdown is the only reasonable answer.
31) Best Film of 1999.
3 Kings, Ghost Dog, Election, Fight Club, Run Lola Run, Magnolia, Mystery Men, Eyes Wide Shut, – it’s an amazing year. Gotta go with The Limey, though.
32) Favorite movie tag line.
“There are two kinds of people in his world: his victims and his woman. And sometimes you can’t tell them apart.” (Point Blank )
33) Favorite B-movie western.
A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die.
34) Overall, the author best served by movie adaptations of her or his work.
Steven King – crappy writer who’s had the best directors turn his shit into masterpieces. The Mist, Carrie, Dead Zone, and The Shining all surpass anything that guy bashed out.
35) Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) or Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard)?
Hepburn I guess.
36) Favorite musical cameo in a non-musical movie.
Nick Cave in the Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
37) Bruno (the character, if you haven’t seen the movie, or the film, if you have): subversive satire or purveyor of stereotyping?
He was the least interesting character on the Ali G show, and the people who loved Borat hated it. So I didn’t see it. Neither.
38) Five film folks, living or deceased, you would love to meet. (Thanks, Rick!)
Rebecca Hall, Peter Sellers, John Landis, Chris Cunningham, Paul Vehoeven.
I’ll give you five more – Lena Olin, Alex Cox, Benicio Del Toro, Sam Fuller, Albert Brooks.
ooh–Sisters is great!