FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Season 2 wrap-up

Well folks, we've made it through another season of Friday Screen Test. I'll admit there were times when all the pressure from city, state and international interest groups to shut it down became a little too loud to ignore -- but luckily I was able to avoid being served for seven whole months (it's an art). And though there were new outlets for my free time introduced to me this year, the series prospered on. But it may not have been that way were it not for the generosity of many of this year's contributors, those who had the gumption to contact me and volunteer their time. Otherwise, I would have had to seek them out on my own, and I'm not sure I would have had the time for it. And as always, don't hesitate to email me if you want to take the plunge and become a Friday Screen Tester yourself!

Because of these free will enlistees, I was introduced to blogs and writers I was entirely unfamiliar with, which in turn increased the variety of the series. I am grateful to all of this year's contributors, as without their entertaining answers, the series wouldn't be worth reading. And it's because of them that Friday Screen Test remains a blast for me to produce, as I'm continually introduced to more and more film fans. The 2009 series will begin in January, and will again feature new (and more) questions.

If you're wondering "why stop now?" the answer will become more apparent in August, as a project I've been working on through July will hopefully come to fruition. Thanks again for reading, and if you missed any of 2008, here's a week-by-week recap:

ANNIE FRISBIE: 'My husband and I got into a very heated argument over Forrest Gump. I said he couldn't possibly think it was a good movie. He got very offended by that remark. Back when I worked at Kim's Underground, I used to have knockdown drag out fights about movies all the time. I once got so upset during a "discussion" of Lee Marvin that I threw a plastic soda bottle.'

PAUL CLARK: 'I'm sure this is a cliché answer, but for me it doesn't get any better than the scene near the end of Cronenberg's remake of The Fly, when Jeff Goldblum vomits acid on John Getz. It's disgusting as hell, but it's not just about the ick factor. I love that while the film makes Getz's character such a rat, by the time this happens in the story our urge for him to get his comeuppance is swept aside by our pity and revulsion for what Goldblum, playing a character we used to like, has brought upon himself. And yeah, seeing someone's flesh and bones dissolve before our eyes is a pretty awesome sight.'

JOE BALTAKE: 'I love the films from the 1960s and especially miss the breezy, star-driven films that Doris Day and Frank Sinatra made. However, I am really obsessed with the film musical because the genre as been so cruely abandoned by moviegoers and because it makes male moviegoers so uptight. Since when is it a negtive comment on a man's sexuality if he goes to and likes film musicals? My dad loved them. He loved all movies. He had no problem with the idea of going to see Gigi and, believe me, he was all-man. (My wife has the same memories of her father.) The film musical must be rescued! It must be saved, I say.'

RYLAND WALKER KNIGHT: 'My distaste for Pan's Labyrinth has gotten me into some interesting debates in 2007, and I'm almost alone in loving the Pirates sequels, but here's the most recent, the trump card: Oddly, my dad pushed my buttons when he said, "I think Jaws is a better movie than 2001, yeah."
I tried to reply, "Apples and oranges..."
"Yeah, well, [that's my story and I'm sticking to it]."
"Okay, [but it's a left-field comparison that makes zero sense. Both are ostensibly excellent but, c'mon, you know that one is truly transcendent, right?]"
"Which one, Jaws?" (Dialogue edited for the sake of readability, and cuz my memory is hazy.)'

NATE YAPP: 'Tim Lucas's 1128-page magnum opus Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark, bar none. Everything you thought you knew about Mario Bava, Italian cinema, horror is either illuminated to a greater degree or(better) completely tossed in the wastebin. The sheer comprehensiveness of the work makes me giddy.'

ED HARDY, JR.: 'I grew up near the drive-ins in Union City, CA so I have a ton of drive-in memories: there was Army of Darkness at a birthday party, or the time my family was pictured in a local paper's "Death of the Drive-in" story watching Back to the Future in our drop-top Impala. The last film I saw there was David Fincher's The Game. It was too dark to see anything and I had to see it again in a theater. They closed the drive-ins down not too long after.'

MARTY MCKEE: ‘70s crime dramas. I’ve seen just about everything from Dirty Harry to Psychopath. It’s a time when cinema wasn’t afraid to be rough and gritty and realistic in its portrayal of action and the criminal element, and I find it fascinating. Plus, there were so many very good action directors working then—Don Siegel, Richard Fleischer, Phil Karlson, Jack Starrett, John Flynn, I could certainly go on—that, for all their obscurity, were better at their craft than all the Doug Limans and Paul Greengrasses of today.'

BOB TURNBULL: 'My favourite soapbox film - Ocean's Twelve. People tend to hate it because it didn't make sense or the heists were stupid or because they can't stand Julia Roberts. I can't help them on the Julia front, but the plot does actually hold together. And the plausibility of the heists doesn't really matter - it's an art film and a playground for Steven Soderbergh. I had pretty much this same conversation with a friend and a new acquaintance at a Christmas party this year (I'm pretty sure we drove several people from the kitchen), but all was well in the end as we agreed that Takeshi Kitano rules.'

ERICH KUERSTEN: 'Robert Redford in 3 Days of the Condor is the freakin' antichrist of 1970s cinema; his bland attractiveness as a smug publisher-CIA agent heralds the end of gritty, ugly depth in our lead male actors. He bosses around Faye Dunaway like a spoiled kid with his dad's new trophy wife; Tom Cruise must have been taking a lesson.'

GARETH MOSES: 'I have quite an appalling DVD habit. I love having thousands of movies I adore at my fingertips so I can bore my friends and family with examples of shots or sequences (Lined up on the wall arranged in different ways: Criterion, Hitchcock, Hammer etc…/). My most recent haul included This Sporting Life, Green For Danger, Blood From the Mummy's Tomb, Lifeboat and a pirate of Island of Lost Souls.'

JONATHAN PACHECO: 'When I was just a couple of years old, I remember sneaking into the living room while my older brothers and uncles were watching Just One of the Guys. I remember a surprising amount of details about the film, especially the language and the nudity. And it was only PG-13!'

ARBOGAST: 'I'm a horror man, a lifer. I live it and breathe it, everything from the silent era right up to the 80s, after which I started being a lot more selective in my ardor. During the franchise horrors of the Reagan era, I went into a kind of latency period, laying low until Freddy and Jason and Michael and Pinhead all retreated to their respective hells.'

JAMES FRAZIER: 'I haven’t been able to become obsessed with any particular genre or era because there is so much I haven’t seen. It’s not really a genre, but one of my party tricks is where I’ll have someone name an actress, and I’ll proceed to list all of her nude scenes, what year the film was made, how good the scene was, and a list of other details.'

ANDREW JAMES: 'A really great movie. The perfect movie. That very rare 5 star film. They're so much fun to review because (a) they're easy to review and (b) it feels good coming up with all of of those positive adjectives and (c) I love to convince people to check out something that I know they'll love. '

FLETCH: 'It's certainly not a favorite, but the standout gross moment that comes to mind is seeing waaaay too much of Bill Macy's ass in The Cooler.'

MELISSA PRUSI: 'I remember when I was a little kid my big brother being really excited that The Poseidon Adventure was going to be on TV, so of course we turned it into a big event. We had our snacks all laid out and planted ourselves in front of the TV right before it started, and nobody was allowed to talk during the movie. For a few weeks afterwards I practiced holding my breath in case I ever had to swim underwater for a long time.'

KINDERTRAUMA: 'I have a huge soft spot for the Spelling/Goldberg-produced television movies of the '70s, and would love to force TCM host Robert Osborne to watch Satan's School for Girls, Crowhaven Farm, and Home for the Holidays.'

GAUTAM VALLURI: 'I have a wide range of films that I love and as I had already mentioned earlier, I have a great love for the independent films of the 1960s and the 1970s. But then again I love a lot of films outside this particular era. I never really believe in going by genres because they are not that reliable most of the time. I think its safe to just say that I'm obsessed with films.'

MARILYN FERDINAND: 'In 1973, with a bunch of friends, to see The Last Detail. Somewhere along the line a spider on the windshield was drowned by half a bottle of gin. I’ve always wondered if the movie was good.'

CHRIS POGGIALI: 'When I was in the second grade, I got in trouble for twisting myself up in my desk trying to recreate the final shot of Barry Robins in Bless the Beasts and the Children. I’ll never forget the blood rushing to my head and the (upside down) sight of Mrs. Lambert at the blackboard pointing at me and yelling, “Chris, get up! Stop fooling around and get up!” So that ending immediately comes to mind. But the key word is “favorite,” so I’ll have to say It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.'

DAVID HUDSON: 'Premieres. I just enjoy the occasional opportunity to get word out early on a film, whether that word's positive or negative. Of course, it's not long before that early word is drowned out by louder, better positioned voices, but it's fun while it lasts.'

JOSEPH CAMPANELLA: 'Joseph Pilato for his performance in Day of the Dead (George Romero, 1985). I wouldn't say he's better than Daniel Day-Lewis, but he is.'

CRAIG KENNEDY: 'My childhood is a haze of age-inappropriate drive-in movies that my father used to drag my older brothers and me to in the mid-70s. He used to pack us into the station wagon and head to the multi-screen Valley Drive-In for a double feature. More often than not, I'd be asleep in the back by the time the second movie came on, but I have fragments of memories from a bunch of different movies. It's hard to say which came first, but I'll go with Walking Tall or perhaps the re-release of Billy Jack.'

ANDREW BEMIS: 'I'd go with three films I saw back-to-back-to-back for the first time when I was thirteen: Vertigo, Lolita and Blue Velvet. One jackpot of a trip to Blockbuster and my mind was opened to cinema's transgressive possibilities.'

KARINA LONGWORTH: 'This is a really hard question, and I don't think I could provide an absolute answer, but one theme I always go back to is the way the glamour close-up––an image type and use of technology that has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of cinema––can be used to wildly different ends in different contexts. So I'd show three films featuring some of my favorite close-ups: Pandora's Box, Pickup on South Street, and something where Judy Garland's lips quiver––maybe A Star is Born, maybe The Clock. If TCM deemed that too wonky (and they probably should), I'd probably put together a Lubitsch triple feature, because there are so many of his films I've never seen, and TCM never shows anything but Design for Living and Trouble in Paradise.'

JEREMY RICHEY: '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.'

IBETOLIS: 'We all know that the Oscar's are a sycophantic charade at the best of times, woefully unable to recognise brilliance when it lands on their face. So it's no surprise that a) 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days was omitted from the Best Foreign Film category and b) it's lead actress, Anamaria Marinca, who incidentally gave one of the greatest performances seen in the past 10 years, was never even mentioned, I'd like to give the Oscar to her.'

SCOTT KNOPF: '2003 was a great year for female performances. Salma Hayek playing Frida Kahlo, Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven, the Zellweger/Zeta-Jones duo in Chicago, and Nicole Kidman in The Hours. Kidman went home with the Oscar but if I had done the voting things would have turned out a little differently. And the Oscar goes to... Diane Lane in Unfaithful! I've championed for Miss Lane for a very long time and watching her get so close to the gold only to have it stolen away from her was a travesty. Unfaithful is an incredible film and her performance knocks the pants off of some fake-nose donning Virginia Woolf. Sorry, bit of a sore subject.'

FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Scott Knopf

Not only does He Shot Cyrus feature one of the best banner images of any blog out there (can I get that on a ... coaster?), but the posts are of similar quality. But be forewarned: you will learn things about Scott Knopf that you can't un-learn, like the fact that he would go gay for Sidney Poitier, or that Last House on the Left would be his choice for a romantic evening (Mr. Poitier, please take note). But most of Scott's writing is wholesome stuff, as evidenced by his too fun take on Villains Robin Could Beat, and his casting decisions for The Office movie (my favorite contribution to Piper's Bizarro Days Blog-a-thon, and no that doesn't mean it's my un-favorite).

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'In 1990, my parents took me to see the re-release of The Adventures of Milo and Otis. It's a Japanese live action film starring two non-CG, non-talking animals as they go on an adventure. Dudley Moore does all the narration. From then on, I was hooked.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'Actually, it's been a great month. Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Collection for my girlfriend's birthday and the Dirty Harry Box Set for me, both of which are mind-blowingly amazing. I'd been waiting for a re-release of the Dirty Harry movies for years.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE MOVIES WOULD YOU CHOOSE: '1. The Warriors (1979) 2. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) 3. Night of the Living Dead (1968). Three low budget suspense films with a contained timeline, 24 hours or less! All three of these movies are so rad. A group of people find themselves in a shitty situation and they've got to deal with it. The Warriors would definitely be my deserted island movie.'

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. No one figured out a way to defeat the birds. The birds are here to stay. All you can do is slowly drive away and hope they decide to leave you alone. Incredible.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: '2001: A Space Odyssey. I've been working my way through the AFI Top 100 and I keep coming back to this one. As amazing as it will be once I finally watch it, the idea of spending 160 minutes on a spaceship doesn't sound like my ideal afternoon.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
The Goodbye Girl
Working Girl
Funny Girl
Jersey Girl -- 'You're probably expecting me to write about the Kevin Smith movie. I prefer the Jami Gertz version!'

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO: 2003 was a great year for female performances. Salma Hayek playing Frida Kahlo, Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven, the Zellweger/Zeta-Jones duo in Chicago, and Nicole Kidman in The Hours. Kidman went home with the Oscar but if I had done the voting things would have turned out a little differently. And the Oscar goes to... Diane Lane in Unfaithful! I've championed for Miss Lane for a very long time and watching her get so close to the gold only to have it stolen away from her was a travesty. Unfaithful is an incredible film and her performance knocks the pants off of some fake-nose donning Virginia Woolf. Sorry, bit of a sore subject.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'Here's my moment of shame. I've never been to a drive-in. By the time I drove, all theaters with driving distance were closed. There's rumors that the last remaining one is shutting down soon. I keep meaning to take a trip down there but it just never happens.'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'Action films from the 70s. The Warriors, Marathon Man, The Taking of Pelham 123, Death Wish, The French Connection. I love them all. There's just something stunning about 70s cinema. The colors, the wardrobe, the dialogue. We'll never get back there, as far as I'm concerned, not if Michael Bay has anything to say about it.'

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'My girlfriend, Whitney, who writes over at Dear Jesus. We met in grad school (Cinema Studies) and now we do most of our movie watching together. I'm always blown away at how she picks up on things that flew right over my head.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'Going back to 70s film, I am in absolute physical love with Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. It's the funniest, most informative, entertaining book on film I've ever read. After reading this, my fear of meeting Dennis Hopper tripled.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'Honestly, it's usually morning, noon, and night. I'm studying film in San Francisco, so my days are filled with movies. When I get home, more movies. I own 1,200 DVDs and get 4 DVDs at a time from Netflix. It never seems to be enough. I also go to the theatres a couple times a week. In fact, after I finish this e-mail, it's off to see The Visitor. San Francisco is my movie mecca.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES:
1. Subtitles should not be feared.
2. Black-and-white should not be feared.
3. Dennis Hopper should be feared...so should Gary Busey.

Email DVD Panache if you are interested in being featured on Friday Screen Test.

FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Ibetolis

Ibetolis knows what the future has in store for him -- it's staring him right in the face in the form of the 1,000 Greatest Films, as compiled by They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?. It is his mission to watch them all, and by all he means all 1,000 movies, even the ones he was familiar with. And Ibetolis chronicles this mission at Film for the Soul, with the occasional sidestep to other topics, like opening scenes. Anyone could proclaim such a mission, but Ibetolis seems bloody serious, and his dispatches from the journey are enjoyable reads (don't miss his take on Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid). Good luck, man!

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'I'd love to say something cool like the Rosebud moment in Citizen Kane or even Gary Cooper throwing down his badge in High Noon but the simple truth is being cradled in my mother's arms crying my heart out to The Champ. I had to wear glasses back then to correct a lazy eye and I remember my mum removing my glasses and wiping away all the tears before putting them back on my face. I was an emotional kid. And obviously one with no taste.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'I found The Elephant Man and Magnolia in a local second hand store the other day, what a bargain. Brilliant double bill.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE FILMS WOULD YOU CHOOSE: 'After much contemplation, I've decided to go for three films that are like my first loves, these are the films that made me fall in love with cinema. 1) I'd start things of with Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944), the greatest noir of them all, 2) Then I'd have the marathon event that is Seven Samurai (Akira Kurasowa, 1954) and then finishing the night 3) The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969). Nothing quite ends the night like a blood bath.

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'There are so many but the one that always sticks in my head is Gene Hackman frantically pulling his apartment apart looking for an elusive bug in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974). The sheer horror and paranoia perfectly sums up that time period in America. I remember Hackman just sitting amongst a pile of broken floorboards and ripped curtains, surrounded by everything he owned that's now destroyed. Brilliant.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'Anyone that's read my blog will know that I've missed literally hundreds of great films, my excuse? The dog ate it. I have no idea what I've done to miss them all but the one I'm most annoyed about is Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953) because I've had this film in my possession TWICE! First time on VHS borrowed from the library (many a moon ago) which I managed to melt on a fireplace and the second time I borrowed a DVD off a friend and didn't get around to watching it and then, to make it worse, I lied and said I did.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
The Goodbye Girl
Working Girl
Funny Girl
Jersey Girl -- 'You should all be very ashamed. What the hell were you thinking?'

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO: 'We all know that the Oscar's are a sycophantic charade at the best of times, woefully unable to recognise brilliance when it lands on their face. So it's no surprise that a) 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days was omitted from the Best Foreign Film category and b) it's lead actress, Anamaria Marinca, who incidentally gave one of the greatest performances seen in the past 10 years, was never even mentioned, I'd like to give the Oscar to her.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'England and the drive-in never really got started, well at least not round my way, unfortunately. Too much rain.'
FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'I suppose I can't quite get enough of 70's American cinema (Badlands, Apocalypse Now, The Godfathers, Exorcist, Being There, McCabe and Mrs Miller), you lot were really on a roll back then, amazing films.'

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian, all the way. He's helped me seperate the wheat from the chaff, I'll read him before I see a movie and then read him again after I watched the said movie. He's straight to the point and doesn't pull his punches, it's very rare we disagree but when you do it's still a revelation.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'I've promised myself lately that I will read more film books, I used to read them none stop at university but ever since I've been a little lazy, to get back into the flow of things I'm deep into James Monaco's How to Read a Film at the moment. Not exactly riveting but extremly enlightening.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'At the moment I'm hitting around 4 a week, I would like to see more but it's not possible at the moment. I like to watch at least one film at the cinema but living in a one horse town good movies are hard to come by, thankfully we have a 'directors chair' night and some great films are featured. Like I say I wish I could watch more, bloody work. Why don't they pay me to watch films? I'd be a great employee.

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES:
1) That despite how inadequately bad your team may be all you need is an ex-professional reforming alcoholic as a coach, a misunderstood rebel, a member of the opposite gender and a bunch of oddballs to turn your team around and win the championship.
2) That monkeys are great companions and will always spell fun.
3) That saying 'Matt Damon' in a monotone voice is both derogatory and hilarious.

Email DVD Panache if you are interested in being featured on Friday Screen Test.

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.”

Email DVD Panache if you are interested in being featured on Friday Screen Test.

FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Karina Longworth

According to Karina Longworth's bio at SpoutBlog, she once spilled a negroni on Huey Lewis. My instinct tells me I should ban her name from this blog forever due to this nefarious attempt at alcohol assassination (and Huey is the victim here, not the drink), but I'm going to give her a second chance since she's also kind of a blogging goddess. Don't believe me? Well, she founded Cinematical, then it was bought by AOL, and now she is the editor of the aforementioned SpoutBlog. That was a medium-sized sentence, but those are two very large movie sites, and her writing has also appeared at The Huffington Post, NewTeeVee and TV Squad -- not to mention a few sightings on G4, AMC and NPR. And as you'll read here, she does all this and lots more, I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'In the 80s, before The Little Mermaid reinvigorated their production of new animated films, Disney used to theatrically rerelease their animated classics, at the rate of one or two per year. I know that my parents used to take me to ALL of these––they were the ONLY movies I was allowed to see––and I have a vague memory of really loving Sleeping Beauty and demanding to see it more than once. But my REAL first memory––and the gateway to my first act of film criticism–– comes from the first grade. I set next to this boy named Paul, and on the first day of school, I decided he was my boyfriend. He wasn't so sure. Every day he'd come to school talking about "grown-up" movies that he was allowed to watch: Poltergeist, E.T., Back to the Future, Ghostbusters. Especially Ghostbusters. It was his favorite, and I decided it was going to be mine too, and that would prove that our love was true. It took some convincing before my parents would actually bring a VHS copy into our home––I think Paul's mom got a call from my mom inquiring about Ghostbusters' swear word and boob count––but eventually it was approved, and I remember watching it every day after school until I knew it by heart. A year or two later, a nanny brought over Singin' in the Rain, which was my first non-animated musical, and I recognized that there was something about the way that film was put together that was a lot like the way Ghostbusters was put together. Now, I'd be able to isolate the way Ivan Reitman choreographs actors in front of his camera, the way the plot such as it is exists to more or less form a bridge between set pieces. Then, I think I just thought that Ghostbusters must be a musical. '

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'Between festivals and screeners, I haven't had a chance to watch, let alone buy, anything new in a while. But I think my last purchase was Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows, which is currently stuck in my MacBook's drive. '

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE MOVIES WOULD YOU CHOOSE: 'This is a really hard question, and I don't think I could provide an absolute answer, but one theme I always go back to is the way the glamour close-up––an image type and use of technology that has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of cinema––can be used to wildly different ends in different contexts. So I'd show three films featuring some of my favorite close-ups: Pandora's Box, Pickup on South Street, and something where Judy Garland's lips quiver––maybe A Star is Born, maybe The Clock. If TCM deemed that too wonky (and they probably should), I'd probably put together a Lubitsch triple feature, because there are so many of his films I've never seen, and TCM never shows anything but Design for Living and Trouble in Paradise.'

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'I tend to be really into endings that force you to reevaluate everything you've just seen. Again, this is just today, but right now I'm a bit obsessed with the endings of both James Gray's Two Lovers, and that film's evil Cannes twin, Phillippe Garrel's Frontier of Dawn.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'I'm not really ashamed about it (although others have told me I should be), but I've never seen a single Indiana Jones movie. I have no excuse, beyond disinterest.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
The Goodbye Girl
Working Girl -- 'Working Girl is one of my classic sick day guilty pleasures. Every day I'm terrified that I'm going to wake up in Sigourney Weaver's place––crippled, powerless to stop a trashy blonde from screwing my boyfriend and stealing my job.'
Funny Girl
Jersey Girl

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO: 'Judy Garland for A Star is Born, although that *would* alter the space time continuum in an unfathomable way, and possibly not for the best. At the very least, it would have robbed her of her favorite cocktail party punchline about Grace Kelly ("I hear she only won for The Country Girl because she's a nymphomaniac." "Only when you can calm her down.")

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'I've never been to a drive-in. I drove past one in Delaware on a road trip back from Virginia Beach last summer and really wanted to stop, but the timing was bad. I'd like to rectify that situation some time soon. '

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'Macro: everything from the 1930s, particularly early talkie sex farces and horror films. Micro: 1934, the year of The Black Cat, The Gay Divorcee, The Scarlett Empress, weirdly class-conscious pre-screwball (and barely pre-Code) comedies like Servant's Entrance. I could go on...'

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'For me, reading criticism isn't really about tapping into someone else's taste––it's never, "He likes it, so I'll like it," probably in part because often times by the time I'm reading a review, I've already seen the film. I'm more interested in critics who either force me to look at films in a new way, or just make me really, really angry. These days it's often David Bordwell, J. Hoberman, Nathan Lee and Armond White.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'Not to be overly dramatic, but Stanley Cavell's Pursuits of Happiness changed my life.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'Lately, I'm going to one or two film festivals a month, and at a festival, I tend to start with a 9 am screening and just watch as many films as I can throughout the day, taking breaks to file copy, until I absolutely can't take anymore and have to force myself to go out and drink. Usually it ends up being about four films a day, but often I'll fall asleep for at least part of one or two of them. When I'm not on the road, I'll probably go to one or two press screenings a week, and maybe three special events or rep screenings at Film Forum or Anthology Film Archives. I fit screeners in when I have time. And I watch a lot of fragments of films on YouTube and Hulu.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES:
1. Smoking and drinking are cool.
2. When two people want to have sex with each other but can't, they either argue or dance.
3. The dead rising from the grave is the fundamental fantasy of contemporary culture. (Actually, I think I learned that from Slavoj Zizek, but I'm pretty sure he was talking about Pet Sematary, so it counts.)

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FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Andrew Bemis

Like the Jodorowsky character represented in his avatar, Andrew Bemis is a wanderer -- collecting and reflecting on cinematic treasures here and there, while also celebrating the greatest things in life: title cards and gratuitous nudity (occasionally at the same time). As one of the Men Who Make the Movies (see below), Andrew sees a lot of them, and shares his experiences at the charmingly-named Cinevistaramascope. Andrew writes his reviews in a way that will get you nodding your head often while reading them (especially if you agree with most of them, like me). But if you really want to see what makes him tick, check out his most recent Top 101 list. Oh, and definitely read up on his Top 10 80s Fantasy movies (Fire and Ice!).

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'John Carpenter's Halloween at age three. Thanks, mom.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'The Player. I caught the last half hour on IFC a few weeks ago, and I'd forgotten how sharp it is. Can't wait to revisit the rest.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE FILMS WOULD YOU CHOOSE: 'I'd go with three films I saw back-to-back-to-back for the first time when I was thirteen: Vertigo, Lolita and Blue Velvet. One jackpot of a trip to Blockbuster and my mind was opened to cinema's transgressive possibilities.'

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'There Will Be Blood. I was loving the movie until it got to the bowling alley, then P.T.A. turned it up to eleven. I feel kind of silly naming such a recent movie, but Citizen Kane was new once.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'Probably half of my Netflix queue is made up of movies I'm way overdue on checking out. The most egregious of these, based on Netflix's prediction that I'll give them 5 stars, are Contempt and Nights of Cabiria.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
Date With an Angel -- ' I watched Date with an Angel at least ten times in 1988 when it was in heavy rotation on HBO. I don't know why.'
Only Angels Have Wings
Angels in America
Angel Heart

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO: 'Any of the four brilliant leading male performances - Gene Hackman in The Conversation, Dustin Hoffman in Lenny, Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II - that lost to freakin' Art Carney in Harry and Tonto.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'The missus and I went several times last summer when our daughter was still young enough to sleep through pretty much anything. The last movie we saw there was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'Horror is my favorite genre and the '70s were the best decade for film, so I'd say '70s horror is my most specific obsession. And it really was an incredible time for scary movies - De Palma, Argento, Carpenter, Herzog's Nosferatu, Romero, Alien...I could go on and on...'

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'The answer would have easily been Ebert until a few years ago - while I can't fault him for loosening up after everything he's been through, his once-reliable four-star reviews now have to be taken with a grain of salt. I guess I'll go with Ebert's spiritual opposite, Walter Chaw. I disagree with the Chaw on a regular basis, but he somehow always lets me know whether I'll like the movie he's writing about. When I saw he'd given Indy 4 two stars, for instance, I knew that I'd like it.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'The Stanley Kubrick Archives, a beautiful, comprehensive collection of interviews, production backgrounds, stills, essays and assorted ephemera. It's not only a gorgeous tribute to one of my favorite directors, it also contains just about everything you need to know to make your own movie.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'My wife and I used to go to the cinema a couple of times a week, but since our daughter was born we only make it to the movies we're both dying to see (if any Cinevistaramascope readers were wondering why my sidebar of recently seen movies is always crammed with As, there's your reason). At home I usually watch at least one a day, and I usually see whatever's playing at my night job through a small window in the projection booth.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES: 'If you find a human ear in a field, it's probably best to leave it alone; If you dream of unicorns than you're probably a replicant; Never feed your pet mogwai after midnight.'

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FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Craig Kennedy

Craig Kennedy chose Peter Sellers' Dr. Strangelove as his avatar, and the character suits Living in Cinema well, as the site's spirited comments sections are as lively as the movie's infamous war room. Craig keeps the conversation flowing with frequent posts, starting with the weekly Watercooler where it all begins. And like me, Craig likes to write about conversations that never happened -- for that I am grateful. Marlon Brando said as Jor-El: "they are a good people, they wish to be," and this quote also applies to the Living in Cinema readers, as they contributed to a year-end Top 10 that ended up being a very enjoyable read with plenty of interesting comments. If these sound like your kind of people, please join them, and I know for a fact they won't welcome you with any "gooble gobble, gooble gobble --ONE OF US!" chant.

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'My childhood is a haze of age-inappropriate drive-in movies that my father used to drag my older brothers and me to in the mid-70s. He used to pack us into the station wagon and head to the multi-screen Valley Drive-In for a double feature. More often than not, I'd be asleep in the back by the time the second movie came on, but I have fragments of memories from a bunch of different movies. It's hard to say which came first, but I'll go with Walking Tall or perhaps the re-release of Billy Jack.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'I know it's un-American, but I'm trying to break the habit of movie ownership. The last DVD I bought was quite a while ago, but I think it was the Criterion re-issue of Seven Samurai. If the director's cut of Zodiac comes to Blu-ray, that'll be my next purchase.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE MOVIES WOULD YOU CHOOSE: 'Wings of Desire, Dr. Strangelove and Raising Arizona. These have nothing in common other than they're among my favorites. Ask me again tomorrow and I might pick a different three. '

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'A number of endings to Stanley Kubrick films get me, but I'll go with Dr. Strangelove. It gives me a little chill every time. The squabbling inhabitants of the war room (who have learned nothing) are interrupted by Peter Seller's echoing exclamation "Mein Führer, I can walk!" followed by a cut to nuclear annihilation set to the strains of Vera Lynn's ironically optimistic "We'll Meet Again." Does it get any better than that?'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU'VE NEVER SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'For some reason, I've never seen all of Annie Hall which seems weird to me now that I'm saying it out loud. It's not that I was avoiding it, but I've never been one of those who was obsessed with Woody Allen and I've never gotten around to filling in the gaps in his filmography like I have so many other directors.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
Date With an Angel
Only Angels Have Wings
Angels in America
Angel Heart -- 'Seeing the Cosby girl naked in Angel Heart was a highlight of my late formative years. Nothing much has changed.'

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO: 'He already received an honorary Oscar, but I'd have to say Cary Grant for His Girl Friday or any other of a number of films. He was good in light comedy or drama. He could be the romantic lead or he could be more sinister. He made it look so easy that I think he was taken for granted.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'In 1985 my older brother was in town with his family and for nostalgia value we went to the same drive-in where my father had warped our tiny little formative minds. We saw Tom Hanks in The Man With One Red Shoe. It was awful.'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'I'm strangely fascinated by a small batch of pre-WWII French films. Stuff like The Fanny Trilogy (Marius, Fanny and Cesar), The Baker's Wife, Le Million, Pepe le Moko, Grand Illusion, Port of Shadows, La Bete Humaine and Le Jour Se Leve etc. '

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'I try not to read critics until after I've seen a movie, so trust isn't really an issue. I gravitate towards the ones who write well, regardless of whether they share my sensibilities. I like the NY Times crew quite a bit. Dargis and Scott. I have a soft spot for Ebert because of his passion for the classics, plus watching Siskel and Ebert as a kid taught me there could be more to movies than simple entertainment. '

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'I think it's out of print, but Danny Peary's Guide for the Film Fanatic. It taught me that even populist stuff like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly could be works of art. Plus it was a treasure trove of things I had yet to discover. Sadly, I thumbed through it recently and found I disagreed with Peary's opinions about a third of the time.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'In the last five years I've averaged about 250 movies a year, mostly on DVD. In the last year, I'm seeing fewer movies overall, but more new releases in theaters. '

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES:
1) When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
2) You want to find an outlaw, hire an outlaw. You want to find a Dunkin' Donuts, call a cop.
3) All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

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FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Joseph Campanella

Joseph Campanella is a relative newbie to Print City, but he's spreading the word that his Cinema Fist should be considered a permanent residence (any other questions should be directed to his site's banner image). The Fist pounds you with the news that you must see Blast of Silence and 2001: A Space Odyssey may be the best movie of all time (also: naked knife fights). A little advice: as you'll read below, the dude has Sicilian roots, so hold off on reciting that Dennis Hopper monologue to him -- he's probably heard it before.

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'It's not so much a single memory, but sort of an amalgam of thoughts... I remember long summers when I was around 5 or 6, where I would have marathons all day long with the films Jaws, Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Then there is my fond memory of watching Empire Strikes Back on my family's first surround sound stereo on VHS and the day my brother came home with our first laserdisc (letterboxed!) Goodfellas. I think the first movie I saw in the theatre was The Abyss.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'Touchez Pas Au Grisbi and Seven Notes in Black (The Psychic) Different shit. Same day. Touchez is a brilliant 1950's french crime film that has made me realize, there is more than just Melville. Seven Notes in Black is probably Lucio Fulci's finest picture. A fever dream of self-fulfilling prophecies.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE FILMS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BEST REPRESENT YOUR TASTES, OR A FAVORITE GENRE OR THEME: 'I've been looking at my computer for about 15 minutes, trying to come up with something, but I can't commit. I think it's a large character flaw on my part, but it does prove my love of film in general. Anyway, I guess, for the sake of anyone reading, I should stop babbling and pick three movies. How about some WESTERNS!!!!!!! If You Live, Shoot! (Giulio Questi, 1967) for its surrealist horror charm. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) for being possibly the best movie ever made. And The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) for showing me that playing with guns is, in fact, dangerous.'

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'North by Northwest. The jump cut to her being pulled on the bed. The train going in the tunnel. It doesn't get much better than that. Except for maybe the final shot of Sleepaway Camp.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'Gone With the Wind. It's just so long! When I watch a movie for the first time, I want to see it all the way through. I think to get through this one, I'd have to take a 2 week vacation just to get through the first act! In a way though, I'm lying to you all because I have seen Once Upon a Time in America more than once in a year. But, c'mon. There's always time for a little Leone, right?'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
Date With an Angel
Only Angels Have Wings
Angels in America
Angel Heart -- 'I have never seen this movie, but I have talked about watching it with a friend of mine, almost on a monthly basis for three years. I can honestly say, this is a movie that I want to see, but have no interest in actually seeing.'

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO: 'Joseph Pilato for his performance in Day of the Dead (George Romero, 1985). I wouldn't say he's better than Daniel Day-Lewis, but he is.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'I have never been to a drive-in in my life. It's pretty horrible for a film fan, I know, but I hear they have shitty sound. Plus, I always thought I would die in a car. So, I stay out of them as much as possible.'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'Italian films of all kinds. Spaghetti Westerns. Spaghetti Nighmares. Giallos. Modern Italian Cinema of the 1960's. Neorealist films. White telephone films. Crime films of the 60's and 70's. My parents are from Sicily, so these movies have played a large part in my life. But it's sort of ridiculous because I'm just as obsessed with American, French...etc...crime-horror-western...blah.blah.blah......'

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'Roger Ebert. I've been watching his show since I was a kid. I've been reading his reviews since I could read. I had the honor of interning at the show for half a year, and I must say, he is A. One of the most knowledgeable people, not only on the subject of film, but on everything in general. B. A great champion of independent and foreign cinema. C. One of the nicest, most down to Earth people on Earth.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'Hitchcock/Truffaut Does that count, because its more of an interview than a book. Also, Film Form by Eisenstein. Film as Art. Painting with Light....'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'About 5 or 6 a week. Give or take a few from time to time. Sometimes in the theatre, more often on Digital Versatile Disc. Netflix is a Godsend.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES:
'1. Violence is cool. 2. Violence is not cool. 3. Our world looks much better in GRAYSCALE.'

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FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: David Hudson

If you've ever spent any time at GreenCine Daily, then you know the name is misleading: it should be titled GreenCine 24/7 or GreenCine Perpetua if you want to sound smarter. The site, "joined at the hip" with GreenCine, is a constantly-updated snapshot of the movie world and the words that describe it. The ringleader is Berlin-based David Hudson, who keeps a hundred fingers on the pulse of the net's film circles and reports his findings back to GreenCine Daily. Thanks to David, every day you have an endless gateway to film information and writings, and you never doubt that he's leading you in the right direction.

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'I'm guessing it'd be Mary Poppins. I don't know if I saw it during its initial run (I would have been five years old when it was released in August 1964), but I do remember that it was an event. I had some sort of tiny plastic model of Mary Poppins, umbrella aloft, that would rise and fall when you put it in a glass of water, thanks to some fizzy stuff in there. What I do remember is this: A teacher mentioned in class (kindergarten, maybe?; then again, movies would run forever back then) that the kids had to run up the stairs to the bank (or *down* the stairs *from* the bank?; hey, it's been decades) over and over again before they got it right. And it was a revelation to me, my first inkling of what it took to make a movie. They (whoever "they" were) don't just point a camera, shoot and move on. Evidently, this whole movie-making thing was hard work.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'Barry Lyndon. You know this strategy of sticking pick-me-ups by the cash register so that as shopaholics stand in line, they're tempted to buy on impulse? It works. There I was, in a bookstore, mind you, movies far from my mind, and there was Barry Lyndon, a Kubrick I didn't own yet, for a mere 6 euros. Snapped it up.'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE MOVIES WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BEST REPRESENT YOUR TASTES, OR A FAVORITE GENRE OR THEME: 'To really do this right, could I cheat a little? I'd prefer to go for either two or four movies rather than three. The idea would be to present a sampling of Fritz Lang in Germany and then an American Lang. If I could overstay my welcome and program four films, I'd love to present Metropolis and M; and then, The Woman in the Window and The Big Heat.'

FAVORITE GROSS-OUT MOMENT: 'The scene that immediately leaps to mind is clearly the one I need to tell you about, but it may take a little explaining. Not only because it isn't particularly gross but also because it had an impact in 1978 that it simply would not have now. What sets An Unmarried Woman in motion is the moment that Martin (Michael Murphy) breaks down and confesses to Erica (Jill Clayburgh), his wife, that he's having an affair. She is, in short, stunned. In a few moments, she's alone, leaning against a post, I believe - and vomits. So the friend I was with and I both very much liked the film - but he objected ferociously to Mazursky actually showing us the upchuck. I protested and we had an excellent argument. These days, though, characters barf at the drop of a hat - it's a screenwriter's crutch - so the *act* of vomiting as a physical expression of emotional upheaval no longer feels like a freshly revealed truth. And as for the sight of vomit itself; well, after Wild at Heart and Cronenberg's The Fly, not to mention Monty Python's Meaning of Life, An Unmarried Woman is pretty tame stuff - but still a minor landmark.'

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'There are dozens, if not hundreds. Seriously. I'll often meet people and realize that there's a misconception floating around among some Daily readers that I'm able (never mind willing) to see most if not all of the films that get mentioned on the blog. Or that, if GreenCine has the film in stock, I've seen it. No, the Daily and a few duties at the main site constitute more than a full-time job, so I'm not really at any more of an advantage, free time-wise, than anyone else. But my favorite aspect of this job is the learning. Reading, filtering, sorting and posting, I put not just wanna-see but must-see films on my mental to-get-around-to list every day. No exaggeration. Films I suddenly realize I *ought* to feel ashamed for not having seen yet. Thing is, though, I'm not so much ashamed as I am anxious - not enough hours in a day, days in a week, years in a life. High on my list right now would be *any* film by Pedro Costa. I haven't seen a single one yet.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
The Big Sleep -- 'The Big Sleep is the classic example of a film that flies in the face of the old adage that a terrifically entertaining, star-studded studio picture must have an airtight narrative. Or make any sense at all, really.'
The Big Red One
The Big Country
The Big Bus.

FAVORITE KIND OF MOVIE TO REVIEW: 'Premieres. I just enjoy the occasional opportunity to get word out early on a film, whether that word's positive or negative. Of course, it's not long before that early word is drowned out by louder, better positioned voices, but it's fun while it lasts.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'It'd be well over 30 years, the whole family piled into the car for a double feature: Patton and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. My sister, who would have been pretty young, drifted off to sleep at some point during Patton; my father joined her not long into Butch Cassidy. But my mom and I had a blast, giggling away at every "Who *are* those guys?"'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED WITH: 'Well, yes. I've had a thing for early to mid-20th century Modernism pretty much my whole life. When I was an English major, that was my area of emphasis; art, architecture, you name it, that's the period I'm drawn to. So even though it was Fassbinder and Herzog that got me interested in Germany in the first place, it wasn't long before I was tracking down German Expressionist films to see and books about them to read.'

LAST TIME YOU VEHEMENTLY DISAGREED WITH SOMEONE OVER FILM: 'Minus the vehemence, it happens all the time. I'm trying to think... I don't know, maybe I'm too damn civil. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is the disappointment I felt when a friend whose opinions I regard highly mentioned that he was no fan of Rohmer. He didn't change my mind and I certainly wasn't angry - just a little saddened, I guess, to learn that this is one area of cinephilia we aren't going to be sharing.'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'There are too many to choose from, but one I enjoy dipping into again and again is Geoffrey O'Brien's The Phantom Empire.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM INTAKE: 'Very eclectic. Moviegoing happens in spurts for me. I don't plan it that way. Seems I'll be caught up in work and at some point realize that there's a whole batch of films about to leave town, and if I'm going to catch them, I'll have to catch them all at once. So I'll see a film a night for several nights in a row; and that might be it for another week or two or even more. DVDs are another story, but there's no pattern there, either. A lot of it simply has to do with the seasonal cycle of news to be followed; during Cannes, for example, when I'm trying to follow coverage of so many films at once while keeping up with the usual flow of news, I probably won't be seeing any movies myself - just pointing to people who are watching several a day. Same goes for the end of the year (all those lists to track!); but then, comes the Berlinale, and it's my turn to binge.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES: 'I'm going to have to be a little cryptic - well, no, actually very cryptic - about the biggest instance in my own life of learning something from a movie. I walked into the film in a state of torment, not even realizing that what was tearing me up was the need to make a decision. When I walked out, I realized that I was facing a choice that hadn't been clear to me before. And I knew damn well which way I'd have to decide. And, sorry, but I'll have to leave it at that. I will say, though, that, as is often the case is such situations, the movie wasn't even a particularly good one!

'The other two things: Movies make you want to see more movies - but, because of the collaborative nature of their making, often in very interesting ways. If I read a book and I like it, or I'm moved or intrigued by it, I'll probably go looking for another book by the same author. Same with a painting and its artist. With movies, it might be more movies by the same director I'll want to seek out, but it might just as well be an actor's work I'll want to see more of, or a cinematographer's. Or maybe it's more the look and feel of that movie's genre or origin - noir, Iran, what have you - I'll want to seek out and sample again.

'The other thing's related: Just as movies arouse a hunger for more movies, they also arouse a hunger for more real living. They make you want to get out and do things - stay out late, eat, drink, fall in love, see new places, meet new people - even the downers. In a way, these last two impulses - see more movies; live more fully - are contradictory. Again, the old anxiety: not enough hours in a day, days in a week, years in a life.'

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FRIDAY SCREEN TEST: Chris Poggiali

The saying goes, 'Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life.' If that's true, Chris Poggiali lifetime workload has barely cracked 10 minutes: in addition to writing for the likes of Fangoria, Shock Cinema and BadAzz MoFo, Chris has even written DVD liner notes and back-cover info for a few of your favorite films (Zombie Holocaust, The Young Erotic Fanny Hill, Diamonds On Her Naked Flesh, Mean Mother, etc.). But if you were lucky enough to read the late-80s fanzine Temple of Schlock ('subs are $3 for 6 [issues], and you have your choice of ham or turkey') then you already know all about Chris (a few issues are available to read in the 'writing' section of his MySpace pictures section). And if you happen to see a graphic novel by the name of Bleed for sale, well that was based on one of Chris' screenplays. Hey Chris, get back to work!

EARLIEST MOVIE-WATCHING MEMORY: 'When I was 3 years old, my grandmother took me to see Herbie Rides Again at the Main Street Cinema in New Rochelle, NY. I remember the experience vividly, and I’ve been a fan of Disney live-action comedies ever since.'

LAST DVD YOU BOUGHT: 'Big Bob Johnson and his Fantastic Speed Circus (1978), a TV movie from Playboy Productions starring Charles Napier, Maud Adams and James Bond III. Purchased from Truckerflicks.com'

IF YOU WERE A TCM GUEST PROGRAMMER, WHAT THREE MOVIES WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO BEST REPRESENT YOUR TASTES, OR A FAVORITE GENRE OR THEME: 'Last year the American Cinematheque did a series of neglected American movies from the 1970s, and some great, great stuff was screened. But not everyone lives in L.A. obviously, and the New York version that was done at the Film Forum wasn’t nearly as strong, so I would schedule something comparable for TCM. My first 3 choices: (1) Frank Perry’s Man on a Swing, (2) Richard Sarafian’s Lolly-Madonna XXX, and (3) a coin-toss between William Graham’s Together Brothers and Jack Starrett’s The Gravy Train.'

FAVORITE MOVIE ENDING: 'When I was in the second grade, I got in trouble for twisting myself up in my desk trying to recreate the final shot of Barry Robins in Bless the Beasts and the Children. I’ll never forget the blood rushing to my head and the (upside down) sight of Mrs. Lambert at the blackboard pointing at me and yelling, “Chris, get up! Stop fooling around and get up!” So that ending immediately comes to mind. But the key word is “favorite,” so I’ll have to say It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

WHAT MOVIE ARE YOU ASHAMED TO SAY YOU HAVEN'T SEEN, AND WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE: 'American films I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t seen? Mildred Pierce and The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). My excuse: I read all of James Cain’s books and burned out on him before I got around to seeing these two adaptations. I haven’t seen the 1981 version of Postman either. I did see Ossessione, though, which brings me to a few international films I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen: The Apu Trilogy and Sansho the Bailiff. No excuse whatsoever. I’ve owned them both for years and just haven’t watched them. Someday.'

PICK ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR MOVIES AND WRITE TWO SENTENCES ABOUT IT:
Date with an Angel
Only Angels Have Wings -- 'I watched this back-to-back-to-back with I Was a Male War Bride and Monkey Business about 15 years ago. I remember this being the one that didn’t put Cary Grant in drag, or give him a crew cut and stick him opposite Ginger Rogers and a chimpanzee.'
Angels in America
Angel Heart

WHO WOULD YOU AWARD AN HONORARY BEST ACTOR/ACTRESS OSCAR TO:
'For actor, the easy choice would be Jeff Bridges – four nominations, zero wins – but I never do these things the easy way so I’m going with his Fat City co-star, Stacy Keach. End of the Road, The New Centurions, Doc, Luther, The Gravy Train, The Ninth Configuration, Road Games -- take your pick. For actress, I’d give it to Diana Sands for The Landlord. Lee Grant got the Oscar nomination, but Sands’ performance is the one I can’t get out of my head years later. Her final scene is heartbreaking.'

LAST TIME YOU WERE AT A DRIVE-IN, AND WHAT DID YOU SEE: 'April or May of 1989. I saw Saturday the 14th Strikes Back and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure at the Buffalo Drive-In, a three-screener in Cheektowaga, just outside of Buffalo, New York. The manager tapped into the AM frequency before each feature so he could crack lame jokes and make fun of the movies we were about to watch. By the way, next week marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of the very first drive-in theatre, the Camden Drive-In in Camden, New Jersey. I think it only stayed in business for three years. My girlfriend lives a short distance from Shankweiler’s, the very second drive-in theatre (and the oldest one still in business), but we haven't gotten there yet. Every summer I say I’m going to go see something at a drive-in, but I never get my act together -- probably because the drive-ins rarely show anything I want to sit through.'

FILM ERA OR GENRE YOU'RE A LITTLE OBSESSED: 'For 30 years I’ve been obsessed with horror, action and exploitation movies, specifically from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s, a “wild west” period for movie distribution in the U.S. Even as a 7-year-old who clipped ad mats out of the newspaper, I knew that certain films were destined to play only drive-ins and seedy downtown theaters, so I’ve always thought of these movies as “outlaw cinema.” Japanese monster movies, biker movies, spaghetti westerns, chainsaw massacres, car chase flicks, redneck revenge epics, kung fu, blaxploitation, sexploitation, 3-D – that’s the kind of stuff I live for. The way kids from earlier generations followed the violent exploits of Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger, I used to devour everything I could find on Roger Corman, Al Adamson, Herschell Gordon Lewis and other outlaw moviemakers. The confusion that some of the schlockmeisters created back in the day is just mind-boggling. Not a week goes by that someone doesn’t e-mail me to see if I can help them locate the real credits for a French sexploitation flick or identify the U.S. distributor of an obscure yakuza movie. Thirty, thirty-five, forty years later, we’re still sorting out the mess.'

FILM CRITIC YOU TRUST THE MOST: 'The only critics I trust these days are Dave Kehr and Glenn Erickson. As a teenager, I thought Lawrence Cohn at Variety was the king because he was a legitimate critic who actually got paid to cover all the obscure exploitation movies playing on 42nd Street. That seemed like a dream job to me! Also, I lived for a while in Syracuse, NY, where there were three pretty good movie critics – Douglas Brode, Joan Vadeboncoeur, and Bill DeLapp – plus Steve Puchalski, whose Slimetime fanzine was available in Syracuse University stores and local comic book shops. I was an usher at the old Shoppingtown theaters in Syracuse, so I got to talk to the critics whenever they came by to see a movie. DeLapp was really nice – I think I even gave him copies of my fanzine, Temple of Schlock. I liked Joan because she was a Walter Hill fan and the only critic in the area who caught every Italian horror movie that rolled through town. I still have her reviews of Burial Ground, The Gates of Hell, Guardian of Hell…'

FAVORITE BOOK ON THE SUBJECT OF FILM: 'I can’t pick just one, but I’ll try to keep it to a handful. Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, Danny Peary’s Cult Movies and Cult Movies 2 (I never got the third volume, for some reason), Harlan Ellison’s Watching, the two-volume American Directors edited by Jean-Pierre Coursodon, anything by William Goldman, and The Total Film-Maker by Jerry Lewis.'

DESCRIBE THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR FILM WATCHING: 'I see 3-5 movies a week at home, and maybe one movie a month in a theatre.'

THREE THINGS YOU'VE LEARNED FROM WATCHING MOVIES: '(1) Movies were better when they were written and directed by people with life experience rather than film school or “I-watch-a-lotta-films” experience. (2) The stories behind the making and the marketing of certain movies can be more interesting than the movies themselves. (3) Roger Corman and Jerry Lewis deserve Honorary Academy Awards.'

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