Thursday Movie Picks-Interview

I found this a bit tough because I wasn't sure in which way one could interpret this theme and then, thought, who cares! I already used Little Big Man a couple of weeks ago so I couldn't use that film again. I pondered this theme and came up with 3 I hope you like. Let's see what everyone else has chosen over at Wandering Through The Shelves.

1. CITIZEN KANE-1941

What hasn't been said about this great film? There are tons of books and documentaries about this film, the making of and the correlation between the film and William Randolph Hearst who was a powerful newspaper mogul at this time. In fact, Hearst tried to get the film destroyed but, thankfully was unsuccessful. There is a reporter who interviews everyone who knew the famous Kane who whispered "Rosebud" when he kicked the bucket(even though he was alone at the time, somehow everyone knew his last words). You get to hear about this famous recluse in his huge house with his own personal zoo(just like Hearst-Gosh I want to visit Hearst castle which is on my bucket list), how he started with a small paper and rose to be the wealthiest but most corrupt person in the world. I love the montage scene depicting his new marriage and how it wastes away in a few short scenes...brilliant. The writing is excellent, the camera work, done by Gregg Toland, is masterful and, even though it is not a favourite film of mine, it deserves all the accolades.

2. THE KILLERS-1946

This Film Noir starts off at the end (I could have used this last week) with The Swede's (Burt Lancaster) murder to an insurance agent trying to find out who deserves the $2,500 life insurance policy of the dead Swede. He interviews people who knew him and becomes tangled up in the sordid business that the Swede was in, including the fantastically beautiful Ava Gardner..the femme fatale (that's a no brainer). This is an excellent film noir that many people do not know about yet it has some great acting and a wicked plot.

3. TRUE CRIME-1999

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this movie as an alcoholic reporter sent to interview a killer who has less than a day before he meets the zapper...um, the needle actually. he starts digging and finds out that there is a lot more to this story than just interviewing the soon to be dead man. This tanked at the box office but I really enjoyed the film and think it has a  lot to offer. Isiah Washington as the convicted man gives an understated performance that work well. Clint might be a bit too old to play his character but I can get over that.

Funny, I read in the morning and when I am in bed but, after work, my hubby and I sit down and watch 1 or 2 movies so i do see quite a few each month.

Now which interview movies comes to your mind?

Thursday Movie Picks-Let's Start at the End

Oh what a fun theme this week and there are many films that showcase this style of movie making. I can’t help but think of that Seinfeld Episode which went backwards...brilliant! Let’s get to it and check out Wandering Through The Shelves to find out what the rest of the group have chosen. Here are my 3...

1. LYDIA-1941

This is an under-rated film, in my humble opinion, that truly speaks about how women can be so stupid but, we can all relate to. This film stars Merle Oberon who is now old and reflecting on her life. There is a small gathering of her and the men in her life who loved her and she cared for all except one...whom she loved deeply. She recounts the history with each man in her life and how she comes from a sheltered but privileged life to dedicating her life to blind kids. We see how each man falls for her but, although she loves them in her own way, she can’t reciprocate their amorous feelings...except for one. You know the one she loves will do her wrong which is so typical even today. What I love is how adult this film is especially during this time of censorship. It is worth a look and I love the ending.

2. MILDRED PIERCE-1945

This Stars Joan Crawford as the title character who is in the police station explaining why she murdered her husband. Well, we first see her husband get shot and whisper, "Mildred", before he dies. Anyway, we go back in time to when she was a lovely hausfrau with 2 kids and a loving and doting husband. The young girl is sweet but the older one is a true brat, entitled and mean..much like most kids today. Mildred caters to the eldest to the point where her marriage dissolves and, even when her youngest dies, she still caters to her brat of a daughter. Mildred finds out she has a wonderful gift for cooking and sharp business sense and opens up a restaurant which becomes a hit. All this time her brat of a kid keeps taking and she keeps giving. Eve Arden plays her friend who has some great lines with one of my favourites being, “Crocodiles have the right idea, they eat their young.” Hahahaaa. Joan won an Oscar for her role and should have won an Oscar for winning this Oscar claiming she had pneumonia but still looked great getting her Oscar with the cameras snapping away while she is in bed. Joan was anything but the wonderful Mildred..cue the wire hangers.

3. MEMENTO-2000

Gosh I have to re-watch this great film that many of you have mentioned in previous themes. This film stars Guy Pierce as a man who has a rare form of memory loss-he can’t recall any new memories at all due to a huge bump on his head received when he was attacked and his wife murdered. He is trying to solve the murder and does this by putting tattoos on his body plus has pictures posted everywhere. We keep going backwards until we get to the beginning. What is brilliant is not only the backward style of showcasing the plot but a linear version happening at the same time shot in black and white and the both meet at the end. If you haven’t seen this film...see it and watch it again.

Which films would you choose?

Thursday Movie Picks-Unrecognizable Actor Transformation

Well, the A to Z Challenge is underway and I feel bad that I didn’t participate this year so I might very well rejoin next year. It is always fun to see what themes everyone has from writing stories to animals to music and entertainment and anything else. Over at Wandering Through The Shelves the theme is all about actors who are unrecognizable. I could have gone in so many ways but I decided on 3 films that just popped into my head right away so here we go.

1. THE LOST MOMENT-1947

Take a guess who this is?

did you guess?

Yup, Endora or as her actual name is..Agnes Moorehead

This film I had wanted to see since I was a kid when I saw her photo, as an old woman, in a Life book. I finally got to see this wonderful film about 15 years ago and I want to see it again. Robert Cummings plays a writer who comes to a decaying mansion because he wants to learn more about a poet who had written love letters to the love of his life. He will go to any means to find these letters. Agnes Moorehead was changed into a 105 year old woman who was the object of the poet’s desires. She played this role so well that one forgot that she was only in her late 40s.

2. PLANET OF THE APES-1968

Guess who this is??

Someone might know this one...

Yup it’s Roddy McDowell

Funny that one can still see a bit of Roddy Through this makeup. You know, it was due to this film that the Academy decided to create a Best Make-up category for the Oscars.  I don’t think anyone doesn’t  know the story of this film even if you haven’t seen the film. Astronauts land on a planet and soon the only one left is Charlton Heston in a lion cloth. He is shocked that this planet is ruled by apes and the humans are the mute beings captured by the apes to be in Zoos and experimented on. They did not count on Charlie fighting back and speaking. You realize there is more to this story that results in a shocking ending. That is still gripping even today.

3. LITTLE BIG MAN-1970

Guess who?.
.....

Any Guesses?

Yup, Dustin Hoffman

I almost went with another film since this will work for another theme but it was calling me. An old man is visited by a reporter because this old man is to have survived Custer’s Last Stand. Told in flashback, we learn about the life of this man from being taught anatomy by Faye Dunaway to deciding to live with the Native Americans because he finds them more cultured and true than his own white honkies” (sorry, I went George Jefferson there). Dustin is great as the main character but Chief Dan George steals the shows as the old Chief who becomes his father figure and mentor.

Which  films would you choose?

And some humour...

Skipping Thursday Movie Picks-Have Nuttin!

Over at Wandering Through The Shelves, they have the TV Edition and one is to pick 3 shows that are non-English. hence my look above..OK that really is not me but the same expression was on my face.  I think I popped a few brain cells to boot and I need to keep them since I drowned quite a few in my drinking youth days.

I decided to talk about a film...yup one since I do watch many in a month I knew I could give my 2 cents worth. So the film I chose is....

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN-2017

STARS-Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Keala Settle, Sam Humphrey.
Director-Michael Gracey
Writers-Jenny Bicks, Bill Condon
Oscar Nomination-Best Song-"This is Me" by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul

This is about the life of P.T. Barnum of "Never give a sucker an even break" fame. We see him as a small boy to a down on his luck, every man loved by a woman who gave up her fortune to be with him and have a few kids to boot. Poor, but with a vision, he starts a museum about weird oddities with little success until he brings in real life oddities or, as they were called in the day, Freaks starting with Tom Thumb and the Bearded Lady. Before he knows it, he is rolling in the mulah but he is still considered low brow so he fetches the beautiful, talented opera singer from Europe, Jenny Lind to appeal to the cultured but losing sight of his family-both his wife and kids and his family of "oddities".

This is an excellent film and should have been up for Best Picture instead of Shape of Water which won and Dunkirk(blecchhh-I'll get heat for that:)) because it has more depth than those 2 films and it is better directed. The music is stellar which is why I have no idea why it was not nominated for best Score, plus Art Direction and Costumes. Shape of Water was nominated in both areas and I just don't get it. So what if "Shape of Water" was filmed and shown in greens and has a under water, icky look. This film is much better in both areas. The singing is superb but I will say that the director and cameraman should learn from what Fred Astaire insisted on...to film the musical number in full length. It is always distracting to get into a dance number only for the camera angle to change to a close up of their feet or face or just another angle. Please keep the shot where it should be. I know Arlee Bird loves this film which made me finally watch it and I am glad I did. If you care to listen I have the song, "This Is Me" that I think, should have won the Oscar up against "Remember Me" from Coco that did win. You choose which song should have won and before you listen, do you recall either because I can remember the song from The Greatest Stuntman but can't remember the song...hahahaaa.."Remember Me"... I don't! Take a listen...

now the Oscar winner...

Unless you dislike musicals (Shady), I recommend this film and Hugh is always nice on the eyes.

Birthdays a Go-Go

My hubby’s sister, brother in law and Nephew all have birthdays within a week and a half of one another...crazy!! Her birthday was on March 16th, their son was on the 24th and her hubby is tomorrow so we got together for brunch in beautiful downtown Hamilton. I am being facetious because Hamilton is a steel worker town with the once beautiful bay now a cesspool of smoke stacks and the smell can be a wonderful odor of scratchy throat puke combined with a nose hair wilting of chemo ooze. Their daughter lives there up on the escarpment which is nicer and she chose this place that was ok for food but too rich for my blood. My hubby disliked the grub since he likes eggs sunny side up, bacon and home fries not eggs Benedict covered in hollandaise sauce and a potato that looked like it was garroted and then seasoned. The company was grand and we did have a great time although I was exhausted. Where was I? Oh yeah! Card making and here they are...finally, since I did ramble on above..

Black, grey cardstock. Saying and squirrel stamp, embossing powder, brown dye ink and embossing ink. Scissors, gold stickers, brown pen.

Crafty Creations-Anything Goes
Happy Little Stampers- Special Day
The Fairy & The Unicorn-Anything Goes-Optional, Alice in Wonderland

This was a fun one to make for brother in law where I stamped the funny saying and embossed it with topiary embossing powder. I stamped the squirrel on glossy white cardstock and fussy cut it out. And added the border and saying after I coloured it in brown. I am now following The Fairy and the Unicorn because I love anything magical. I think squirrels fall under that since they have appeared i movies talking and helping out the damsel in distress. besides it is the beast for my hubby's coat of arms. While others have the mighty lion or other great beasts, my hubby has ...the squirrel.

Misti sprays, perfect pearl powders, brushes, stickers, brown pen, cardstock

Alphabet Challenge-Z for Zesty Colours
Happy Little Stampers-Use Mist

I tried to make this nice and simple by taking a white card and, using citrus colours from these misti paints, I sprayed them  to create the “look”.  I adhered it to the red and then the dark brown cardstock but not before using perfect pearl powders in green, bronze and yellow around the edges. I just used the double sided tape (I always use this on all my cards) to put the card together and finished it off with sticker borders and the saying after it was coloured in a brown pen. I know, Hard to see the saying but it does look better in real life...that sentence just sounds strange:).

Flower stamp, Birthday saying stamp. Black dye ink and clear embossing powder. Tombow markers, rainbow dye stamp pad, psychedelic powder, glossy goo, border sticker, butterfly stamp, stickles, glue and flower crystals.

Retro Rubber Challenge-rrcb107-Tic Tac Toe-I chose Sparkle, Leaves, Heat Embossing
Cute Card Thursday-Spring Fever
Sparkles Monthly Challenge-Stamp your own background
Stamping Sensations-Over The Rainbow
The Flower Challenge-Anything Goes

I loved making this card with a new stamp I just purchased a couple of weeks ago. I stamped the flower stamp all around and coloured it in with my tombow markers. I used glossy accents..goo, to create that “wet” look. I stamped the Happy Birthday stamp (one of my first stamps..so 17 years old??) with the rainbow pad and embossed it in the psychedelic powder. I pieced it onto some blue cardstock which was, in turn, placed on my flower base. I added the border, the stickles and the flower crystals. I added the butterfly for the final effect.

There we have it...all done!

Thursday Movie Picks-Private Eye

Talk about a huge list, last week was a tough one for me, this time, I was wondering which movies to pick and where to go..so many choices! I'll be interested to see what the others have chosen and, if you head on over to the brainchild of this weekly event, Wandering Through The Shelves, you can find out:) . I did do a theme within a theme so here we go...

1. THE BIG SLEEP-1946

How can one not choose a Humphrey Bogart Film?! This is his area of expertise and one can understand why, hell, I could have just done a Bogie salute here but I went a slightly different route. This is his second pairing with his wife, Lauren Bacall and he has the tough, hardened P.I. down to a science. He plays Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler wrote a series of books about this detective) who is hired by an elderly General to find the General's daughter which leads him into a plot that no one can truly figure out but no one cares. You have blackmail, murder, gambling and, of course the older sister, played by Bacall. There is a famous scene where Bogie and Bacall are talking about horse racing..yeah and I want to sell you swamp land in Florida. To get by the censors, who were dumb asses, their sex talk devised  around horse racing, can make one hot and bothered. This is a great Film Noir that no one should miss.

2. LADY IN THE LAKE-1947

Robert Montgomery (Elizabeth Montgomery's dad-you know, Bewitched) plays Phillip Marlowe who is fed up with the P.I. business and decides to write a book. He is asked to a publishing house only to find out they don't want his book but his P.I. abilities to find a woman. The lady wants Marlowe to find her boss's wife (even though she has the hotsies for her boss)and Marlowe is on the search. Of course there are twists and turns and what is a Film Noir without a evil bitch, I mean, duplicitous Femme Fatale. The uniqueness of this film is that Montgomery, who is the director of this movie, shot it from a first person perspective so, even though he is the star of the film, you only see him twice, when he is looking in the mirror. This was his last film for MGM after being with this studio for almost 20 years. It is worth seeing although I think there are better movies, but I chose this because of its uniqueness.

3. THE LONG GOODBYE-1973

Elliott Gould plays ...guess? ...Yup, Phillip Marlowe,  as a down on his luck, out of step with time, P.I. hired by his good friend to drive him near the Mexico border...before any wall was even mentioned except for the one in Berlin.  As soon as Marlowe returns, 2 cops pick him up questioning him about his friend's wife who is murdered. The cops throw Marlowe in jail but release him 3 days later when they find Marlowe's friend dead in the desert, ruled a suicide. Of course, Marlowe doesn't buy it which leads him down a trail of more murder, twists and a Femme fatale. This is updated to the present time(well, for that time) but it has the feel of  a 40's Film Noir with major updates. Gould is excellent as the P.I. and you have to love all the verbal bantering that Robert Altman, the director, is famous for. Love the fact that Gould and Sterling Hayden's scenes together were mostly ad-libbed because Hayden was drunk and stoned on pot most of the time.

Which P.I. Movies would you choose?

Thursday Movie Picks:Movies You Thought You'd Hate But Ended Up Enjoying

That title was lengthy and it made me think....if you saw some fireflies flicker before they died, that was my brain cells....see, does that make any sense?  Anyways let’s get to it and then go and visit Wandering Through The Shelves and see what everyone else chose as their pleasant surprises. Here are my 3...or 4

1. SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION-1994

I can’t believe I actually didn’t care to see this film which means I was one of the many who was turned off by the title...ughhh was I wrong! This film is now one of my all time favourite films ever. It stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, whom you know is not guilty but is sent up the river to the horrible prison called Shawshank. There, he meets God....yes...God, you know, Morgan Freeman, who becomes his best friend  and we see how Andy calmly gives the finger to the bad cops especially the crooked Warden. To find out why Redemption is in the title is to give away the whole film but, once I saw it, I realized this is the best title this film deserved and it was robbed at the Oscars by the nice watching but insipid film, Chocolate boy aka ..Forrest Gump.

2. HELLBOY-2004

I hear there is a remake in the works this year and I will see it but I really enjoy this film and the sequels which surprises me because I made fun of this flick and now I am eating crow and feel humbled by my snootiness. This Stars Ron Perlman, who always played someone behind tons of makeup and is most famous from the TV Show, "Beauty and the Beast" where he played beauty..nyuck, nyuck. Where was I...oh yes, it starts off with the nasty Germans, aka Nazis, of course, who open a portal to bring some evil entity through, with the help of Rasputin, to this reality. Thankfully they are thwarted by the Americans but not before a cute little red demon baby comes through. The baby grows up knowing right from wrong and does what he can for good. Of course the evil Rasputin and the 2 main Nazi bitches are back but they have to go up against Hellboy and the other people with powers who are working for the good. Yes, this sounds like WTF?? But the director is Guillermo Del Toro and he creates quite a fun movie.

3.  DISTRICT 9-2009

I was asked to watch this by my niece and I did..begrudgingly but I was taken with the unique story and the message behind this story. A spaceship comes to earth and the aliens, really big flies that look quite ugly but are harmless, come to greet us but we, through fear and bigotry place them behind a huge chain link fence(do your best Trump impersonation) and they are kept within there where they are now living in a big slum. They become dependent on the humans and the humans look at them with contempt. There are police who go through this area and one is bit by an alien and he slowly mutates into one of them. As he mutates, everyone begins to shun him and his long held beliefs are slowly changing as a result. I found this film quite brilliant and worth a viewing.

4. THE TOOTH FAIRY-2010

There was nothing on the other night as I was making some cards and a scrapbook so I put this film on. Is it dumb? Oh yes it is, but I was surprised at how funny it was and engaging. Dwayne, The Rock, Johnson plays a down on his luck hockey player dating this wonderful woman, played by Ashley Judd, who has 2 kids. Anyway, his nickname is The Tooth Fairy since he separates the other hockey players' teeth from their mouths. He dashes the dream of one kid saying tooth fairies don't exist and he is now in deep doo doo with the tooth fairy world run by the elegant Julie Andrews. He is now a tooth fairy for 2 weeks much to his chagrin. It's predictable and won't win any awards but I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and endearing it is.

Which films did you think would suck or you thought you would dislike only to find the exact opposite?

Oh, My dad's birthday is today and he would have been 106 years old. Happy Birthday Daddy!