David O. Russell is not an easy person to work for: [link]

Friday quiz from Prof. Irwin Corey:

1) What movie did you have to see multiple times before deciding whether you liked or disliked it?

2) Inaugural entry into the Academy of the Overrated

3) Favorite sly or not-so-sly reference to another film or bit of pop culture within another film.

4) Favorite Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger movie

5) Your favorite Oscar moment

6) Hugo Weaving or Guy Pearce?

7) Movie that you feel gave you the greatest insight into a world/culture/person/place/event that you had no understanding of before seeing it

8) Favorite Samuel Fuller movie

9) Monica Bellucci or Maria Grazia Cucinotta?

10) What movie can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?

11) Conversely, what movie can destroy a day’s worth of good humor just by catching a glimpse of it while channel surfing?

12) Favorite John Boorman movie

13) Warren Oates or Bruce Dern?

14) Your favorite aspect ratio

15) Before he died in 1984, Francois Truffaut once said: “The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it.” Is there any evidence that Truffaut was right? Is it Truffaut’s tomorrow yet?

16) Favorite Werner Herzog movie

17) Favorite movie featuring a rampaging, oversized or otherwise mutated beast, or beasts

18) Sandra Bernhard or Sarah Silverman?

19) Your favorite, or most despised, movie cliché

20) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-- yes or no?

21) Favorite Nicholas Ray movie

22) Inaugural entry into the Academy of the Underrated

23) Your favorite movie dealing with the subject of television

24) Bruno Ganz or Patrick Bauchau?

25) Your favorite documentary, or non-fiction, film

26) According to Orson Welles, the director’s job is to “preside over accidents.” Name a favorite moment from a movie that seems like an accident, or a unintended, privileged moment. How did it enhance or distract from the total experience of the movie?

27) Favorite Wim Wenders movie

28) Elizabeth Pena or Penelope Cruz?

29) Your favorite movie tag line (Thanks, Jim!)

30) As a reader, filmgoer, or film critic, what do you want from a film critic, or from film criticism? And where do you see film criticism in general headed?

EXTRA CREDIT: Do movies still matter?

Wow... Thought about this a bit, haven't you? Oh, I'm afraid my answers will come off stupidly...while I'm quite a fim fan, I'm not really a cineaste like y'all. Movie that I watched multiple times to decide whether I liked it: L.A. Confidential. On first viewing was still a college feminist and in really wrong headspace for whore-slapping violence. Which I still don't love. But I have come to appreciate the noir sensibility over time, so now I would say I like it. 7. Alison Anders' Mi Vida Loca: I felt like I really got to see a little of what gang-chick life is like, once I let go of my "After-School Special" type programming that waited to see Sad Girl(?) go legit and meet a nice fella or something.ETA2:Least favoirite movie cliche: quite obviously when an impaired person is so simple and genuine that he is instructive to everyone around him, but at the same time, I love the "Barefoot in The Park" cliche where Stuffed Shirt Guy loves Zany Chick, so I guess I'm not completely corn-immune. Movie that brightens my day: It's not great art, but "Clueless" does. Or if I'm in a different mood, "Fargo" movie that kills my good humor: Pretty Woman...Hate the concept, hate the message, hate JR and RG too. Haven't even seen it in fifteen years; that's how much it irks me.

Wow, that's a lot of questions. Let me see...

1) The Searchers. (On the first viewing, I couldn't get over my dislike of Ethan; on subsequent viewings, it's grown into one of the handful of westerns I love)

2) Braveheart

3) The reference to "Seventh Seal" in Woody Allen's "Love and Death"

4) A Matter of Life and Death (which is yet to come out on region 1 DVD. WHHHYYYYY??)

6) Guy Pearce

10) Groundhog Day. (What? It's like comfort food to me.)

12) Excalibur

13) Bruce Dern, mostly because I can't remember who Warren Oates is.

14) *eyeroll*

15) It's Friday 5 PM and I do not have enough brain cells left over to answer this question.

16) Aguirre: The Wrath of God.

17) Aliens

20) YES! Gratuitous heart removal! Monkey brain! What's not to love?

21) Who?

22) CHILDREN OF MEN. (Yes, I'm still bitter it didn't win any Oscar.)

24) Bruno Ganz

25) Touching the Void

26) ....

27) Wings of Desire

28) Elizabeth Pena

1) What movie did you have to see multiple times before deciding whether you liked or disliked it?

Tombstone

2) Inaugural entry into the Academy of the Overrated

Spiderman

6) Hugo Weaving or Guy Pearce?

Guy Pearce.

7) Movie that you feel gave you the greatest insight into a world/culture/person/place/event that you had no understanding of before seeing it

Jeez. The Right Stuff. Princess Mononoke. Amadeus.

9) Monica Bellucci or Maria Grazia Cucinotta?

Bellucci. Or her costumes.

15) Before he died in 1984, Francois Truffaut once said: “The film of tomorrow will resemble the person who made it.” Is there any evidence that Truffaut was right? Is it Truffaut’s tomorrow yet?

I think that FF Coppola's movies resemble him as do Terry Gilliam's.

However, I think the better answer to this is more along the "Garage Kubrick" or YouTube lines, because when only one person is making a movie (including making the actors, making the sets, everything) you get a lot closer to the id.

17) Favorite movie featuring a rampaging, oversized or otherwise mutated beast, or beasts

18) Sandra Bernhard or Sarah Silverman? Neither, but Bernhard if I have to.

19) Your favorite, or most despised, movie cliché Running away from the car down the middle of the road, while looking back.

20) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom-- yes or no? No.

22) Inaugural entry into the Academy of the Underrated

Grosse Pointe Blank

23) Your favorite movie dealing with the subject of television

Videodrome

25) Your favorite documentary, or non-fiction, film

Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control

28) Elizabeth Pena or Penelope Cruz? Pena

EXTRA CREDIT: Do movies still matter?

Did they ever? I think they matter a lot more now than at any point before the 70s.

I can't even think of responding to the quiz right now, I just wanted to ask David if he meant Pépé le Moko instead of Algiers. Isn't Algiers the remake with Charles Boyer? Or do they call them both Algiers? In which case, that's confusing. Either way, Jean Gabin=cool (and yet at the same time, also hawt).

Favorite Non-fiction Film: Hoop Dreams, Boys of Baraka, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Roger & Me(Michael Moore actually told me in e-mail he ran into Rabbit Skinning Lady just before the mid-terms and she is all right, besides working at Wal-Mart.) Favorite film about TV: Am I a hopeless wannabe if I say "Network?" Because it really is a great film, but I almost didn't want to see it because I heard how good it is, if that makes any sense. And I really like television, and I think some people bash it just to look deep.

And I really like television, and I think some people bash it just to look deep.

I agree. I would link to the original column, but it's not available on the site anymore. I'm glad I skirted copyright laws and reposted it without permission.

That said, "Network" is a great film and is very clever about the whole "Infotainment" thing. And who doesn't want to open her window wide and say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"

And I really like television, and I think some people bash it just to look deep.

You get this all the time in academia and it drives me crazy. At Bennington they are so proud of the fact that there are only two televisions on campus. I was constantly telling my students that, if they wanted to be writers (and half of them do), maybe they should try exploring one of the most popular mediums for that vocation.