Hotseat! Grill a MoFo: mark f

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What's the longest you've ever gone without watching a movie and why?

Does being on MoFo ever distract you from watching movies?

Do you consider yourself addicted to MoFo?

If not then I bet you can't refrain from logging into MoFo for one month (incidentally I don't really want you to try this).



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
What's the longest you've ever gone without watching a movie and why?

You know what? I can't honestly answer this question. Brenda and I went on a three week camping trip, but even then, we stayed at a couple of motels and watched movies. I'll think about this some more because that's a really good, personal question.

Does being on MoFo ever distract you from watching movies?

Obviously. Sometimes I plan to watch something and then I get into what I'm reading or I'm typing, and then I decide I'll have to watch it next time. I'm basically talking about cable movies here. If I have family and friends over, I'll watch the movie for sure. It's just that when I'm left to my own devices...

Do you consider yourself addicted to MoFo?

... Of Course. I have a distinctly addictive personality and that involves lots of things which probably aren't all that good for me. However, I consider movies and MoFo to be good addictions.

If not then I bet you can't refrain from logging into MoFo for one month (incidentally I don't really want you to try this).


This is the funny thing about my personality. I can beat it, as long as I make a commitment. I can do what you didn't ask me to do, but right now, I agree with you that "I don't really want... to try this".
__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page



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There's a rumor amongst my family that one of my relatives once told me who my real mom was, some time when I was about five years old. Now, I totally deny that (and even if somebody told you out of the blue that your parents weren't the parents that you have grown up with, wouldn't you blank it out of your mind when you were five and living with them as your only parents?) The thing is that I remember this woman acting really strange, so I'd like to go back (as an older mind) to see if she's telling the truth or just himming and huhing around the truth. You see, I'm supposed to accept that what she "might" have said is actually true, but first, I don't think she said it, and second, everybody who says she's correct lied to me about it in the first place.



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Used Future, I still think I owe you a romantic comedy answer from way back when.

My first choice for the most romantic film ever is probably Before Sunset. That or Sunrise and/or 7th Heaven, both starring Janet Gaynor and releaed in 1927.

I'd go with:

Harold and Maude
Love in the Afternoon
Lover Come Back (1961)
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Sabrina (1954)
Jewel Robbery
City Lights
As Good as It Gets
Broadcast News
Pillow Talk
People Will Talk (1951)
The Importance of Being Earnest (both)
A Matter of Life and Death
Pygmalion
The Baker's Wife
The Graduate
Tom Jones
Divorce - Italian Style
Play It Again, Sam
The Goodbye Girl

ETC.!



Sorry if these questions have been already asked.

Do you collect films or mostly rent, watch on tv and the such (How many movies do you own) ?

If you do buy movies did you every fall for BETA or Laser Disc ?

what are your top 5 favourite man on a mission films ?

If could hang out with any movie character(s) who would it/they be ?

If time travel was possible what film present it in away that makes it the most beilevable ?



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Do you collect films or mostly rent, watch on tv and the such (How many movies do you own) ?

At this point, I rent films. I have two accounts (with Netflix and Blockbuster), and I tend to rent obscure films which I've never seen or films I want my daughter to see. I also watch lots of cable films but Turner Classic Movies is easily my fave channel and the one I first recommend to everyone. I've never had a Beta or a laser disc, but I own thousands of VHSs, espeially films I've taped which don't tend to exist on DVD, so yes, I watch those quite often. I just watched one of the best films ever made, Give 'Em Hell, Harry! last weekend on manufactured VHS. As far as DVDs go, I probably own less than 300, and I rarely buy any for myself anymore.

If you do buy movies did you every fall for BETA or Laser Disc ?

Nope.

What are your top 5 favourite man on a mission films ?

I'm assuming that you mean what films do I want to own which aren't available. Is that correct? This is hard to keep up with since Holden keeps mentioning films which are becoming available through bare-bones studio DVD releases.

The ones I think still qualify include:

The Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Lies My Father Told Me
Something for Everyone
The Magician (Ingmar Bergman, 1958)

If you could hang out with any movie character(s) who would it/they be ?

Bogart for sure. I'm leaning toward Sam Spade, but Fred C. Dobbs, Rick Blaine, Dixon Steele, Capt. Queeg, Charlie Allnut, Duke Mantee, Linus Larrabee, Steve Morgan... any of 'em. He's Bogie, for God's sake! If we hit it off, I'd love to talk to his woman/women too.

If time travel was possible what film present it in a way that makes it the most beilevable ?

I'm not sure that I'm an expert on that subject, but my fave time travel movie is Back to the Future , and I love the whole series, so whether you think its concepts are crazy or not, I believe it's the film/series which contributes the most to that genre.



@mark f You've said in the past you don't like to say you "dislike" or "hate" any movie (think it was about 3 years back), and that you prefer to say there are some movies you simply like less than others... and that you are a fan of all films.


Big question then: Are there any movies, at all, that you could say you did actually hate?
And, what were they?



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
@mark f

Top 5 directors?

Top 5 actors?

Did you think you would get married and have a child?

Is life easier having your own family?

If you saw it, what did you think of the movie "A Woman Under The Influence"?

Thoughts on John Cassavetes?

If you enjoy stand-up comedy, any favorites?

Most overrated movies?

Biggest misconceptions throughout movie history?



If you were shrunk to insect size and presuming you had telepathic control of all other insects, which 3 insects would you use as your modes of transport?



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If you were shrunk to insect size and presuming you had telepathic control of all other insects, which 3 insects would you use as your modes of transport?
Am I being punished, a victim like The Incredible Shrinking Man or is this a temporary situation that I can recover from? I suppose if it's just a freak combo occurrence, I'd pick a dragonfly as my air transport, as far as speed. I don't really like cockroaches, but from personal experience, I know that mine are tough (sort of like a tank or armored car), can walk up and down vertical surfaces, walk upside-down (on ceilings, for example), fly across a room, etc. I just have to figure out how I would use them as an enclosed means of transport. I don't know if I would use a water bug that much. I'll have to think some more, but in the interim, I could maybe ride some beautiful butterflies. I'm not really a warmonger so I don't need any bugs from Starship Troopers. All-singing, all-dancing cockroaches, maybe.

I'll answer the other questions soon.



Am I being punished, a victim like The Incredible Shrinking Man or is this a temporary situation that I can recover from?


Neither... you are not ant man.. or the incredible shrinking man as you would keep on shrinking and couldn't even ride a fairy wasp

This is honey I shrunk the kids only nobody will ever find you.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
@mark f You've said in the past you don't like to say you "dislike" or "hate" any movie (think it was about 3 years back), and that you prefer to say there are some movies you simply like less than others... and that you are a fan of all films.

Big question then: Are there any movies, at all, that you could say you did actually hate?
And, what were they?
Down through the years, I've had several movies that I have thought were some of the worst films I've ever seen. I don't think as poorly about most of them now, but I did about 40 years ago for some of these. Most would all be cult films today.

Pink Flamingos
Eraserhead
Zabriskie Point
Muriel
The Creeping Terror *
Eegah *
Aria
Gerry
Zaat *
The Room *
Manos *
Journey to the West
"It's Alive!"
('69) *
The Last Rebel *
Birdemic
**

* Still Bottom 10 Worthy
** My worst film ever made.



Do you still think about Eraserhead poorly? (I do)

also can tell me what Eraserhead is about since I couldn't make it to the end?

waiting on your third insect?



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
For matt - I used to love lists. Now, not so much.

Top 5 directors?
Obviously Spielberg. Kubrick, Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, Kurosawa

Top 5 actors? Bogart, Alec Guinness, Brando, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman. Actresses - Kate and Audrey Hepburn, Bette Davis, Deborah Kerr, Cate Blanchett .

Did you think you would get married and have a child?
I took it for granted, but I never really thought about too much. Growing up, I was painfully shy, but I was a good student and a good athlete. I had lots of female friends but no girlfriends. The ones I liked in a special way didn't like me that way. As I got older, it got very frustrating. I actually thought about suicide often it was so bad. But then I had a change in career and locale and it wasn't too long before I met Brenda and we just clicked. Then we had another change and that resulted in our daughter Sarah's birth and that brought another set of joys and responsibilities.

Is life easier having your own family?
Well, the general passage of time is definitely easier when you have something and someone to actually work for and play with. Brenda and I also consider ourselves educators, so between caring for, educating and loving each other and Sarah, it makes for a full, happy life. It doesn't make life perfect though - there's too many frustrations and hiccups for that.

If you saw it, what did you think of the movie "A Woman Under The Influence"?
Quoting myself, "This was the first Cassavetes' film I ever saw and it was at the theatre in 1975. I found it eye-opening but off-putting. I thought that both Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk were very good but they truly seemed to belong to some kind of alternative universe where crazy people lived and ruled the day. After watching the film I was very happy that no matter how many of my friends and family seemed to have mental problems that none of them seemed to be quite so far gone as this couple and yes Holds, I consider Falk's character to be teetering on a nervous breakdown no matter how much he seems to put up with to keep his family together. After watching this film, I was introduced to the Cassavetes universe, so it's strange for me to call this now one of his more "normal" films, but I just watched this again last week with Sarah and it's still incredibly-maddening, even if it's exactly the film Cassavetes wanted to make. If you're going to "dive into" Cassavetes I recommend you begin with this film but try some others too so you can truly understand where he's coming from and how unique he is in American cinema."

Thoughts on John Cassavetes?
Maybe what I said about Cassavtes' Opening Night will help explain that. "Here is one of the main points where Holden and I intersect miles apart, but I'd never even post this if I didn't want to start a healthy discussion, so Holden, or anybody else, come on in to talk about Cassavetes' flick or any of his other films. There is little doubt that Cassavetes is one of America's original, premier independent filmmakers and probably somebody who opened the door for Jim Jarmusch, among others. However, even after I've mellowed with age, this film specifically, and much of Cassavetes' work in general, is worth being discussed, especially if I get to play the bad guy.

This was the second Cassavetes film I watched in the theatre, after A Woman Under the Influence. The main thing this film brings to mind is that those are the two longest-running Cassavetes films (in minutes), unless I'm ignorant and I often am. I totally love Cassavetes' acting troupe, but they often seem to become indulgent when he directs them. Gena Rowlands is always a revelation, one of the best actresses ever, reminiscent of Ellen Burstyn to me, except that Gena is prettier. Here, she plays a "semi-star" who's asked to rehearse and prepare for her Broadway opening night even though she is distraught from having witnessed a female fan get run over and killed, basically because the fan loves her. There are other characters involved, including the director (Ben Gazzara), the playwright (Joan Blondell), the actor (John Cassavetes), the producer (Paul Stewart), but it mostly centers on Gena's reaction to the death and how it contributes to her downward spiral into madness.

Much of the film is relegated to Cassavetes' homages to Bergman's Persona and especially Polanski's Repulsion. The Gena Rowlands character totally becomes obsessed with the young dead woman's character, so much so that she sees her in her room and in most everyday occurrences even after she knows she's dead. The problem is that the Rowlands character is starting to lose her grasp on reality. One of the main problems I had with the beginning of the film is that Cassavetes obsesses over extreme close-ups and presents us with anecdotal info on some of the main characters, but he doesn't ever actually deliver it!

Against all odds, the highlight of the film, at least for me, is the long scene at the end where they show the final performance before the play is set to go to Broadway. Gena Rowlands is drunk as a skunk, even after what seems to be an exorcism she survives at a spiritualist's residence. The resulting play, although almost completely adlibbed, seems to becone a roaring success, and somehow, the actual finale turns what seems to be one of the glummest plays in history into a rib-tickling comedy. I ended up liking it much more than I recalled from over 30 years ago. See, I've mellowed out. "

I don't think Cassavetes movies are realistic in the slightest. You may feel some of them seem realistic compared to most of what you watch, but in truth, their real-time and often-borderline-home-movie-like depiction of troubled, spontaneous characters carries artificiality to a different extreme, but it's a style that some people admire as an alternative to "Hollywood by-the-numbers".

Gena Rowlands said "We had a great deal of freedom when John acted. We traveled a lot and it was fun. But with directing... really. I think people don't have all their marbles who prefer directing to acting because you write for three months, you cut for maybe six months. He's the most terrifying perfectionist about what he wants. As an artist, I love him. As a husband, I hate him."

I also love Cassavetes own quotes: "There's a difference between ad-libbing and improvising. And there's a difference between not knowing what to do and just saying something. Or making choices as an actor; as a writer also, as a person who's making a film, as a cameraman, everything is a choice. And it seems to me I don't really have to direct anyone or write down that somebody's getting drunk; all I have to do is say that there's a bottle there and put a bottle there and then they're going to get drunk. I don't want to tell them how they're going to get drunk, or what they would do, and I don't want to restrict them in being able to carry out a beat, to fulfill an action. You can't say somebody's drunk or in love."

"The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all."

"I'm sort of my own Mafia, you know, breaking my own knees."

"When I started making films, I wanted to make Frank Capra pictures. But I've never been able to make anything but these crazy, tough pictures. You are what you are."

"Ricardo Montalban is to improvisational acting what Mount Rushmore is to animation."

"People have forgotten how to relate or respond; what I'm trying to do with my movies is build something audiences can respond to."


If you enjoy stand-up comedy, any favorites?
Richard Pryor is my go-to guy, and Richard Pryor Live in Concert is the best presentation of him and one of the funniest, most-honest films ever made.

Most overrated movies?
I'm talking more about me here and not fans of the movies. Probably Requiem for a Dream, Pierrot le fou, Weekend, Stray Dogs, Journey to the West, Stalker [Ducks and covers]

Biggest misconceptions throughout movie history?
That any specific time or place is the best for making movies. Each country and era has their strengths and weaknesses. This is also true of each filmmaker. Try to give all films a chance, especially the ones I dissed above (if you haven't seen them) and those that are "overhyped".



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
Do you still think about Eraserhead poorly? (I do)

also can tell me what Eraserhead is about since I couldn't make it to the end?
When I saw Eraserhead in the theatre c.1980, I remember the picture being grainy and the sound also being somewhat muffled. It was also really weird and super boring. Therefore I gave it a 1. I thought it offended my sensibilities. Lynch has been able to clean up the visuals and punch up the sound since then so that the current film looks and sounds far more sophisticated than his original $20,000 budget. After seeing it at least six more times, I will say that I still believe that Eraserhead is surely no masterpiece, but anyone interested in filmmaking or trying to communicate nightmares through films should watch and rewatch it when they find it necessary. The sound design is now incredible, but it goes hand-in-hand with the lighting/photography and F/X. It's also interesting to watch The Elephant Man and think that at the beginning, it might be another Eraserhead, but all of a sudden, it magically translates into a powerful human drama. I also couldn't see that much of Eraserhead was a dark comedy. The deadpan acting, occasional bizarre reaction shots and some of the "repulsive" F/X take on a different meaning if you view them as intentionally funny. My current rating is a 5 or
.

As far as what it means, the internet is full of interpretations, both simple and complex. I think it's best to look at it as a nightmare from the perspective of a grown man who is lousy with women who gets "lucky" and then can't deal with the results. Or not.
waiting on your third insect?
Me too.

Do I annoy you less now than I used to?
Since you're rarely here, you have to. Seriously, you didn't ever annoy me - you just seemed so rigid and predictable most of the time. I hope you're doing well in every which way.