Eyes Wide Shut [1999]
1. Snackwells, a glass of milk, cigarettes.
2. Motif: glowing Christmas trees in empty rooms.
3. The way he spins the cue ball on the table. A nervous gesture.
Eyes Wide Shut [1999]
1. Snackwells, a glass of milk, cigarettes.
2. Motif: glowing Christmas trees in empty rooms.
3. The way he spins the cue ball on the table. A nervous gesture.
Quiz Show [1994]
1. Standing on the sidewalk watching some strange family’s TV set through the window.
2. Paul Scofield: what an accent!
3. “Cheating on a quiz show, it’s like plagiarizing a comic strip.”
The Human Factor [1979]
1. Smashing an owl.
2. He gives him the injection, cheerfully adding, “No need for you to suffer.”
3. Ratty fur coat.
It’s just not very good. Preminger’s approach (passionless, almost clinical) is usually an asset, but here it’s dull rather than delicate. He seems terrified to have us identify with the characters and that’s exactly what makes Greene’s novel work! Iman doesn’t have the dramatic chops to carry her role. The music is all wrong. Yet I find it curiously difficult to hate the film.
Futureworld [1976]
1. Come on … Spaworld?
2. “Are you going to do it?
“Do what, Ron?”
“Have sex with a robot?”
“Not this trip, Ron.”
3. Melancholy, faceless Clark.
Westworld [1973]
1. “Begin bar fight.”
2. The river gradually transitions from the old West into Romanworld. Broken statuary.
3. Smoldering face cavity.
Sincerely Yours [1955]
1. An exterior shot of Madeleine Elster’s apartment from Vertigo!
2. “Do you want to touch me?” The woman reaches out and gingerly pokes him on the leg. “A little higher, honey. About here is where I get the message.”
3. Bubble bath banter with William Demarest.
Bonus: “Where did you practice your scales? Reaching for martinis?”
On Sunday, December 10: another Chicago screening of Pause of the Clock. It’s at Transistor in Andersonville and it’s free! My film pal Michael Glover Smith will be on hand to introduce the movie and then lead a Q & A afterwards. So come join us!
Princess Cyd [2017]
1. The sound of an airplane periodically invades their conversation. A very slow zoom in and then, in the middle of her story, a cut.
2. “What will I do without you?”
“Probably whatever you did a week ago before you met me.”
3. Reading Raymond Chandler at the beach.
Nelson Algren Live [2016]
1. Neon sign for Fritzel’s.
2. Making room.
3. The look on Rick Kogan’s face as he watches Willem Dafoe perform “The Lightless Room.”