Many thanks to Keisha over at Cinema Cities for nominating me for a Liebster Award! I am honored and will do my best to follow the rules, although I’m going to follow Keisha’s lead and not write 11 things about myself. (I don’t have 11 interesting things to say about myself, anyway.)
Answer the 11 questions given to you
Write 11 things about yourself
Nominate up to 11 bloggers and give them 11 questions
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Nominated Blogs (apologies if you’ve already been nominated):
My 11 questions:
- What is the first movie that made you think that you were watching something really important or significant, something beyond mere entertainment?
- Who is the most famous movie personality you’ve met so far? If you haven’t met one yet, what’s the closest you’ve come (degrees of separation, if you will)?
- Do you have a favorite “guilty pleasure” film, a movie generally recognized to be pretty bad, but you can’t help but like it?
- Most underrated actor/actress/director
- Favorite movie location (real or imagined) other than New York or Los Angeles
- Favorite movie you love to quote
- Movie you hate hearing quoted
- Favorite cinematographer, costume designer or film editor (or all three!)
- What movie have you seen the most and how many times have you seen it?
- What has been your all-time biggest movie surprise? (Better than you thought it would be or worse than you thought it would be)
- What movie have you “converted” the most people into loving as much as you do?
Keisha’s Questions for Me:
1. Your favorite film composer, and your favorite of their scores?
Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975), hands down. I’ll watch anything that has a Herrmann score, film or TV. Herrmann produced many wonderful scores, but none have quite the deep, haunting quality of his masterpiece Vertigo (1958).
2. Do you share a birthday with any famous actors, actresses, or directors? If so, who?
Cary Grant
3. Your favorite genre, and your favorite movie from that genre?
Film noir, a genre/style I’ve always enjoyed, but have really gravitated to over the past few years. It’s really hard to pick one favorite. I love The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle, and Double Indemnity, to name just a few.
4. What movie(s) started your love for movies?
I can’t remember the exact movie, but it was the witch either from Disney’s Snow White or Sleeping Beauty that terrified me as a three or four-year-old. I was terrified but fascinated.
5. Your favorite movie about the movie business?
Mulholland Drive
6. One film you’d love to see on the big screen?
I’ve been fortunate to have seen several in just the past few years that I’ve always wanted to see on the big screen (2001: A Space Odyssey, Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon), but the one I’d most like to see on the largest screen possible is Lawrence of Arabia. Someday…
7. Your favorite movie musical number?
I’ll have to confess that I don’t like Broadway musicals very much at all, but I can watch Fred Astaire dance numbers all day long. Any number from any of his films is worth watching, but I particularly like the ones from Swing Time.
8. What’s one acclaimed move (either old or more recent) that you couldn’t get into?
This will get me on the hate list of several people… I won’t pick a specific movie, but a director. I just think Brian De Palma is overrated (with the exception of Sisters, which I think is his best film). I’ll leave it at that.
9. Your favorite book-to-film adaptation?
No Country for Old Men
10. Is there an actor, actress, or director whose filmography you’ve completed? Or, who’s an actor, actress, and/or director that you’d watch any film for?
His filmography isn’t that large yet (and may never be at the rate he makes films), but I will watch anything by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is also my goal to watch every single film Robert Mitchum ever made.
11. If you were TCM’s guest programmer for the night, what four films would you choose to showcase?
Without any theme whatsoever, four films that should be talked about more:
The Old Dark House (1932)
They Live by Night (1948)
A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Day of the Jackal (1973)
Journeys in Darkness and Light 