New Year's Movie Meme

Rachel over at The Girl with the White Parasol has authored her very own movie meme for the new year. Rachel is one of my very favorite movie bloggers, so I'll play along even if I'm a week late. Warning, this is image-heavy pic spam. Be aware.

She asks twelve questions:

1. What is your all-time favorite Grace Kelly costume?

The gown in To Catch a Thief with the diamond necklace and plunging decollete, and Kelly saying to Cary Grant: "Even in this light, I can tell where your eyes are looking." That's making something out of a costume, right there.

2. What classic film would you nominate for a remake?

I'm just asking for it, given the disaster of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but I could stand to see a remake of Forbidden Planet. A less sexist remake, I would hope, but I doubt they'd manage it.

3. Name your favorite femme fatale.

Jane Greer's Kathie Moffat in Out of the Past. This should come as no surprise to longtime readers of the blog.

4. Name the best movie with the word "heaven" in its title.

Hmmm...the pat answer is Leave Her to Heaven, but I think the true answer might be Heavenly Creatures. Plus, it gives me an excuse to throw a picture of Kate Winslet snogging with Melanie Lynskey. So let's go with that.

5. Describe the worst performance by a child actor that you’ve ever seen (since Laura gave me the idea).

The kid in The Last Action Hero was pretty insufferable, which is weird, given that he's kind of a kindred spirit, being a film nut and all. But then, the movie is the kind of work a poseur would make. Ah, well.

6. Who gets your vote for most tragic movie monster?

Alonzo the Armless in The Unknown, hands down. Er...well...maybe not hands, per se...This is pretty much Chaney's category, isn't it? I suppose you could make an argument for Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs.

7. What is the one Western that you would recommend to anybody?

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, I think. It's not my own favorite, but I'd feel uncomfortable recommending a lot of Westerns to Native American viewers.

8. Who is your ideal movie-viewing partner?

Someone who'll put up with Chinese musicals from the 1950s, hyperviolent Eye-Talian films from the 1970s, and silent melodramas, along with all of the other kinds of movies I'm interested in (which is to say, almost everything). Such a person may not exist.

(The Wild, Wild Rose, starring Grace Chang.
Yes, I've seen this movie. In fact, I own a copy. It's terrific).

9. Has a film ever made you want to change your life? If so, what was the film?

This is a hard one. I think probably not, but I'm not sure. Seeing Night and Fog as a teenager might be as close to a life-changing experience as I've ever had, I suppose, but I would be hard pressed to say why. I mean, would I have become a Holocaust denier or a genocidal lunatic without it? Probably not.

10. Think of one performer that you truly love. Now think of one scene/movie/performance of theirs that is too uncomfortable for you to watch.

I completely adore Ingrid Bergman (and George Sanders, for that matter), but I have a hard time watching most of Viaggio in Italia.

Related: Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet.

11. On the flip side, think of one really good scene/performance/movie from a performer that you truly loathe.

I could pick a bunch of scenes, performances, and whole movies by Mel Gibson, who is about as unpleasant a performer as can think of. There's a reason he was as big a star as he was. But, my god, he was a-MAY-zing in The Year of Living Dangerously, and he's my favorite Fletcher Christian (and The Bounty is my favorite version of that story). Great movie star, horrible person. Alas.

12. And finally, since it will be New Year's soon, do you have any movie or blogging-related resolutions for 2012?

Basically, I want to make fewer factual and grammatical mistakes. I hate it when I stumble upon those weeks or months after the fact. Doh!

Belated happy new year, anyway.