The Thomas Crown Affair [1968]
1. He adjusts the ribbons on the wreath before placing in on the grave. After a moment of silence, he walks over to the garbage can and retrieves the bags of money.
2. Hal Ashy was an editor on The Thomas Crown Affair. In Being There, which he directed, it’s the love scene between McQueen and Dunaway (shown on a TV) which spurs Chauncey to make out with Eve.
3. Plowing through a flock of birds on the beach with a dune buggy.
The Ghost Writer [2010]
1. She no longer wears her wedding ring–it beeps when she goes through security.
2. He looks at himself in the mirror and says, “Bad idea.” Then he returns to the other room, takes off his robe, and gets into bed with her.
3. The note is slowly passed to its intended recipient.
The Spiral Staircase [1945]
1. From among the dresses, an eye.
2. “There was another murder, wasn’t there? I know. You didn’t even have to tell me. I always know everything.”
3. Why did Dr. Parry send the constable to bring the news instead of just telephoning?
Sorcerer [1977]
1. The bribe sits on the table. The official slides it closer to him using a flyswatter.
2. Howling wind and rain with a Tangerine Dream overlay.
3. The truck meanders through a Jean Dubuffet landscape.
Today my friend Denis Kehoe has begun sharing his new work, a novel in the form of a diary. The story and its characters are intimately bound up with Dublin and its history. You can start experiencing Traces of the Flood here.
The Day He Arrives [2011]
1. The theory of extremes. You tell a woman that she appears to be one kind of person on the outside, but is actually the opposite on the inside. Irresistible.
2. She asks him for two cigarettes. He gives her four. She protests that it’s too many but “I’ll smoke them later.”
3. The more photos of him she takes, the more frightened he appears.
Moolaadé [2004]
1. A heap of radios, all turned on, their batteries slowly dying.
2. Outraged, the woman throws down the bundle of sticks she’s been carrying on her head.
3. Plumes of smoke obscure the mosque. Cut to a closeup of a TV aerial.
Brewster McCloud [1970]
1. Margaret Hamilton in ruby slippers.
2. Behind the steering wheel. His legs crushed. One brown eye, one blue eye.
3. Fatal flaw: never learning how to land.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World [2003]
1. “Put the woman down, knave!”
2. “Don’t count your eggs before they’re in the pudding.”
3. He turns to a blank page in the notebook and places the beetle on it.
Dersu Uzala [1975]
1. The light from the fire stains the tree branches blood red.
2. Dersu shoots the rope in order to win the empty bottle that’s attached to it.
3. He waits as long as he can stand for Arseniev to sign the Death Record and then says, “Beg your pardon. I’m a busy man.”
