Smile

After watching Jean-Pierre Melville's brilliant Army of Shadows, I was reminded of how much I love the late French actress Simone Signoret. With a bit of reading, I found a quote of hers that I enjoyed and thought I'd share.

"I collect all the reviews of the films I turned down. And when they're bad - I have to smile."

Quotables

Me (on Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem): "Neither chamber drama nor horror film, [Requiem] is the holy union of Through a Glass Darkly giving The Exorcist the friendly reach-around."
Me (on seeing Black Snake Moan out of early morning boredom): "Seriously lacking in the sizzle and bang I needed to start my day... and why the fuck couldn't they overdub Sam Jackson's wretched singing voice?"

Customer at video store (on Tideland): "I guess it's official that Terry Gilliam has lost his mind."

On For Your Consideration:
Cindy: "What a disappointment, I know they can do better."
Nathan: "So uninspired, it hurts..."
Mike: "If this is what Guest plans on doing from now on, he may as well go make Almost Heroes 2."



Mike (on He Say, She Say, but What Does God Say?): "My sentiments exactly."
Mike (on Night of the Living Dorks): "It's just a German teenage sex comedy that happens to include the undead."
Mike (on Frankenhooker): "It's as good as it sounds."
Mike (on B.A.P.s): "Hi, Oscar winner Halle Berry, I think this was even less enjoyable than A Hole in My Heart."
Mike (on Running with Scissors): "I'd rather chug cock than have to watch this again."

Chris M. (on Clean, Shaven): "Hey, learn how to shave, you removed your scalp, you weirdo."
Chris M. (on The Gospel According to St. Matthew): "Sexiest Jesus ever represented on film, hands down."

Tom B. (on Jesus Camp): "If you want some McGod, you gotta do some cookin! Dreadful documentary, though."
Tom B. (on his two-star Ghost Rider rating): "An extra star because my girlfriend and I downed a whole bottle of champagne while watching this in the theatre."
Tom B. (on Notes on a Scandal): "Not good, but oh so deliciously cruel!"

Josh (on Half Nelson): "With the death of my beloved Anna Nicole, I didn't think life was worth living any more. But this movie makes it so."

I didn't have the surplus of wonderfully clever quotes as I did last time, but expect to see Requiem and Half Nelson featured on my Neglected Films of 2006 list that I'm working on now.

Once said at the fires...

I can officially cross two of my 40 MIA DVDs for 2007 off the list, as Anchor Bay has announced an Alejandro Jodorowsky boxset, which will include El topo and The Holy Mountain, as well as a new disc of Fando y Lis. Granted this is a title that seems posed for numerous postponements, like the Kenneth Anger box-set, though I just ordered my copy today.

Other than that annoucement, I figured I'd just post a pull-quote from John Waters in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kirby Dick's wildly uneven assault against the MPAA.

John Waters (about felching): "No one has actually done it. I know a lot of perverts, and even they haven't."

And, as you know, I don't really get around to seeing every film that comes out, so here's a list of quotes my friends and non-friends have made in the past week or so, regarding the realm of cinema.

Chris B. (on In My Skin): "Vegetarian propaganda!"

David H. (on Freeway): "There's no such thing as a video store having too many copies of this film."

Katie P. (on her favorite quote from Six Feet Under): " 'I don't want him cruising me in the afterlife;' needless to say, I'm obsessed."

Random guy at bar (on Belle de jour): "Shit, it has everything -- sex, flogging, Catherine Deneuve, blasphemy, and horses."

Tom S. (on Hounddog): "Dakota Fanning getting raped is the best thing to hit cinemas this year!"

Tom B. (on Letters from Iwo Jima): "I think he's really pulled the wool over the critics' eyes, cloaking what really amounts to a lack of imagination with the label ''classicism.'"
Tom B. (on The Departed): "Jack Nicholson + strap-on dildo = summit of human cultural achievement."
Tom B.: "I recently had a dream where Godard, after delivering some obnoxious lecture, returns to his dressing room, hits the stereo and rocks out to 'Back in Black'. I awoke with a hard-on."
Tom B. (on Shortbus): "Damn Hedwig and his porno actors and their sublime sorrow!"

Josh W. (on Time to Leave): "Hot French guys should never have to die."

Nathan H. (on my blasting of his five-star rating for Life Is Beautiful): "Your antisemitism is cute."
Nathan H. (on Hedwig and the Angry Inch): "So fucking beautiful & hilarious it makes me wanna stomp a lightbulb."

Mike H. (on Show Me Love): "Shit, this made Foreigner sound touching!"

Cindy L. (on Prairie Home Companion): Blah-blah-blah boring."

Mike M. (on The Covenant): It's like The Craft, only for thirteen-year-old gay boys."

Me (in response to Mike M.): "Isn't The Craft like The Craft for thirteen-year-old gay boys?"

A douche bag who works at a video store (on The Guardian): "On an Ashton Kutcher scale, it's somewhere between The Butterfly Effect and Just Married."

Chris M. (not in response to him): "The Butterfly Effect is Donnie Darko for morons."

Me: "Fuck Donnie Darko."

Quote of the Day

"What does it say about our world that you can lose American Idol and win an Academy Award for doing basically the same thing? - Matt Singer