FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Jeremy Richey

If you dig the 70s stylings of Kim Morgan or Kimberly Lindbergs, then you should head over to Jeremy Richey's Moon in the Gutter, where the decade is celebrated like it's Dec. 31, 1979. There's more 70s goodness at Harry Moseby Confidential, which recently spent a week paying tribute to Four Flies on Gray Velvet. And while you're surfing around, why not check out his Natassja Kinski site Nostalgia Kinky (great name). There's plenty to chew on at Jeremy's sites, and I really enjoyed his list of Essential Paul Schraeder and 30 Forgotten Rolling Stones Classics.

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'Seeing Jessica Lange in King Kong’s hand in New York and then seeing the film itself shortly after. I would have just been three or four but that pretty much kick started my love affair with cinema (and I have to admit that it’s still my favorite Kong film).'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'The new Dirty Harry box set which is pretty fabulous. I am really digging the wallet that comes with it and the set itself is just beautiful. Ironically I was able to sell my old set for more than I bought the new one for which makes it all the sweeter.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE MOVIES WOULD YOU CHOOSE: 'Since my tastes are rather schizophrenic I would pick three from genres that are among my personal favorites. I guess the main thing they share is that they are all overlooked. The first would be Walerian Borowczyk’s La Marge, a stunning film from 1975 starring Sylvia Kristel and Joe Dallesandro that is almost completely unknown here in the States. The second would be Jean-Jacques Beineix’s The Moon In the Gutter with Gerard Depardieu and Nastassja Kinski from 1983 that I think is one of the great unseen masterpieces in modern cinema and the third would be Andrew Flemming’s Dick, a wonderfully witty and inventive satire about Watergate from 1999 starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams that I absolutely adore.'

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'The slight smile Melora Walters gives at the end of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia is one of the most moving moments and perfect endings in screen history to me. I tear up up just thinking about it.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'There’s still lots of classic films I haven’t seen, American and foreign, so I could answer the question with a number of pictures. I will say that I have never made it through all of Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. I love his stuff from the seventies but I find his ‘important’ works from the past couple of decades to be so heavy handed and overbearing that I can barely watch them. Perhaps I’ll make it through it one day but I’m not in any hurry.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
The Goodbye Girl
Working Girl -- 'Melanie Griffith was one of the brightest flames that burned throughout the seventies and eighties. How ironic it is then that her one Oscar nomination would come for Working Girl, a film that effectively blew her once mighty flame out.'
Funny Girl
Jersey Girl.

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS TO: 'Marilyn Monroe wasn’t even nominated for Bus Stop, a fact that I can’t even begin to comprehend as she is so remarkable in it. Of people that were nominated, I would love to go back in time and give one to Montgomery Clift in any of the roles he was nominated for and Elisabeth Shue should have won for Leaving Las Vegas.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'Wow, quite a while ago. The last one I remember was Stallone’s Rocky II all the way back in 79 when I was 6 or 7 years old.. There was probably some after but that left such a huge impression on me that I honestly can’t remember them.'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'Italian horror films all the way and the seventies in general.'

CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'Tim Lucas without a doubt. Even if I disagree with him, I always value his opinion.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'My favorite books on a particular filmmaker are Tim Lucas’ monumental Mario Bava: All The Colors of the Dark and Brad Stevens’ Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision. On film in general, I would probably go with Cathal Tohill’s and Pete Tomb’s Immoral Tales: European Sex and Horror Films 1956-1984, which goes a long way towards showing that "accepted" film studies are only scratching the surface.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'On average, I would say a film a day so I am a long way from Truffaut’s 25 per week but with writing, work and having a life of my own it is about all I can fit in.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES: 'I’ll use three of my favorite lines from films to cover this:
“It ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” -Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa-
“Everyone has one special thing.” -Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights-
And I find this line from Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (just about my favorite American film) to sum up a lot of my feelings towards life: “He played something else and he lost. He must have regretted it every day of his life. I know I would have. As a matter of fact I do regret it, and I wasn't even born yet.”

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