1) Favorite unsung holiday film?
The Ref.
Too famous, you say? Well, i would like to take some of the credit for that, because I have flogged it as "best Christmas movie ever" for a very long time.
Each year, I shock several people with its discovery, who then take it to their breast and swear to pass the word.
I will not rest until every person in America embraces me when I exclaim: "Slipper Socks. Medium."
However, I must amend my answer to this question. It's time to advance the cause of a new sorely underappreciated holiday extravaganza. Ladeez and Gents, let me nominate Dawn Davenport in Female Trouble.
This entire holiday quiz is brought to you by Dennis Cozallo at The Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule movie blog. You'll find more fascinating answers at the source!
2. Name a movie you were surprised to have liked/loved.
Virtually every 20th century combat classic you could name.
I was very late to war movies. My family was pacifist, it was the 1960s, and I missed the whole shebang.
One year my lover put on some Nazi-kick-ass classic and I said, "Wow, can we watch another?" I've still got dozens more to go.
3) Ned Sparks or Edward Everett Horton?
Edward Everett Horton. Fractured Fairy Tales.
4) Sam Peckinpah's Convoy-- yes or no?
Full-throated YES!
5) What contemporary actor would best fit into a popular, established genre of the past?
Kelly McDonald in any classic weepie, a face made for melodrama.
6)
6) Favorite non-disaster movie in which bad weather is a memorable element of the film’s atmosphere?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - European Cold War grey misery with a soundtrack that just won't quit.
7) Second favorite Luchino Visconti movie?
Death in Venice, because The Damned was my favorite. I think Death in Venice was the first film I ever saw at a 70s "gay" film festival, a very avant garde notion at the time.
8) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD/Blu-ray?
Dallas Buyers' Club, which I really liked. On DVD.... an unreleased indie about Mexican women talking very frankly about sex, like a Mexican Hite Report.
9) Explain your reaction when someone eloquently or not-so-eloquently attacks one of your favorite movies
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
10) Joan Blondell or Glenda Farrell?
I must recuse myself as I am sadly ignorant of Glenda's career!
11) Movie star of any era you’d most like to take camping
Making s'mores with Marilyn Monroe over an open fire, horse-riding together and talking softly.
12) Second favorite George Cukor movie
Omg, there are so many I love. Let's go with... Little Women. Here's a scene that SHOULD be in a gay film festival.
13) Your top 10 of 2013?
I haven't seen ten movies from this year I would recommend. That's sad, isn't it. I enjoyed more new television than film.
Here's my college try:
I haven't seen these yet, but I will and I know I'll eat them up:
American Hustle
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Blancanieves
Trance
Good Ol' Freda
The Vivian Meier Mystery
Night Train to Lisbon
I enjoyed:
Spring Breakers
Mud
Much Ado About Nothing
Captain Phillips (which I saw in Swedish, so it was like a silent movie and I was impressed)
Hannah Arendt
One sex scene from the otherwise infuritating Don Jon: "Just one little college class, baby just one, honey, oh god, just one little, come for me, college class!"
TV
The Good Wife
The Bridge -- the beginning was so good, I was furious it got stupid mid-way through
Hell on Wheels was ridiculous, but I couldn't resist great art direction on a train and those good-lookin' babes
Orphan Black
The Americans
Alpha House
14) Name a movie you loved (or hated) upon first viewing, to which you eventually returned and had more or less the opposite reaction.
I'm pretty consistent, title to title. I still like the films I loved as a kid.
A genre exception: I was raised to be a child film snob. I never thought pulpy movies would appeal to me; I never saw an exploitation film. When I'd occasionally see a B-movie trailer, I would say, "Ugh," just like my parents.
The snobbier I got, the more book-educated I became about film, the more curious I was about explotiation, and in particular porn. I was reading David Friedman before I saw David Friedman!
I decided to "unpack" it. As I did, enjoying all the intellectual kicks, I also found the genuine thrills that everyone else had experienced the first time round.
15) Movie most in need of a deluxe Blu-ray makeover?
I'm not THAT kind of film snob. I have no idea.
16) Alain Delon or Marcello Mastroianni?
Marcello, in glasses. In terms of sheer wet panties. They're both a couple of my favorite actors.
17) Your favorite opening sequence, credits or no credits
For credits, The Untouchables opening sequence. I wake up in the middle of the night and play it sometimes.
18) Director with the strongest run of great movies?
Billy Wilder, for one. I'd always pick a writer/director for a question like this.
So many things have to come together to even have the chance. To have a hit, then two.... more than two? It's a miracle.
19) Is elitism a good/bad/necessary/inevitable aspect of being a cineaste?
It's where healthy discrimination lives!
20) Second favorite Tony Scott film?
I guess True Romance, or if just popcorn only, Crimson Tide. I like The Hunger the best, it was a huge inspiration for me in those first days of thinking about what kind of lesbian queer movie I wanted to make. And talk about great opening scene...
21) Favorite movie made before you were born that you only discovered this year. Where and how did you discover it?
I feel dated by this question.
The truth is, I have more fun these days introducing my kids to movies they haven't seen, they think I've seen every film ever made and I like to indulge that fantasy.
My favorite discovery from the past is the Niles Silent Film Theater and going to see any of their special events!
22) Actor/actress you would most want to see in a Santa suit, traditional or skimpy
There's any number of laps I'd like to squirm in, soft and furry optional.
How about Alan Hale?
23) Video store or streaming?
Guilty of streaming. But my attic might as well be a video store.
24) Best/favorite final film by a noted director or screenwriter
Well, this is personal, because it's the only time I've been close to a filmaker who told me he was soon to die, and this was it: Arthur Bressan's Buddies. We saw it together at the Music Box theater in Chicago and hugged goodbye.
This is a clip from a documentary Artie made, called Gay USA.
25) Monica Vitti or Anna Karina?
Monica! In a heartbeat.
26) Name a worthy movie indulgence you’ve had to most strenuously talk friends into experiencing with you. What was the result?
Well, I didn't have to twist arms too much, but I must say, the group viewing of The G-Spot Fraud Detection Squad was the hands-down best group viewing experience I've ever had.
27) The movie made by your favorite filmmaker (writer, director, et al) that you either have yet to see or are least familiar with among all the rest.
The Front Page by Billy Wilder. I'll have to rectify that this Xmas season!
28) Favorite horror movie that is either Christmas-oriented or has some element relating to the winter holiday season in it?
I can barely get through The Nightmare Before Xmas. I don't like being scared for the holidays-- they're already mind-altering enough on their own.
29) Name a prop or other piece of movie memorabilia you’d most like to find with your name on it under the Christmas tree.
I used to like to browse those old used bookstores on Hollywood Blvd that had sheafs and sheafs of movie actor memorabilia, stills, contact sheets, head shots, publicity scrapbooks. Just lock me in there for a few hours and let me go wild.
30) Best holiday gift the movies could give to you to carry into 2014?
I live in a small town where the movie theater's physical condition is pretty rough--- you have to come equipped with pillows, cane, Oxycodone, etc. I wish the theaters would all change out their seats! I feel nostalgic for those old sofas at the Nickelodeon that were heaven by comparison.
