Name That Flick

[saavedra77]

Inspired by jmargethe, among others:

Meme Rules: Go to www.imdb.com & look up ten twelve of your favorite movies. Post three IMDB plot keywords for each movie, and have your friends guess the movie titles!

1. Nostalgia / Buxom / Crazy Uncle (dlasky fondly remembers Amarcord)

2. Family / Genius / Lesbian (Not The Royal Tanenbaums, although I gather that it could be, but Antonia's Line)

3. Army Life / Nuclear / Nymphomania (Not Dr. Strangelove, but Blue Sky)

4. Penis / Frog / Hairdresser (jmargethe knows all there is to know about The Crying Game)

5. Post-Apocalyptic / Snail / Musical Saw (uniquecrash5 wrapped up Delicatessen)

6. Father Daughter Relationship / Cooking / Baptism (Eat Drink Man Woman)

7. Dysfunctional family / Political Intrigue / Christmas (Nope, sorry, not Die Hard, but The Lion in Winter)

8. Satire / Widower / Ranting (Network)

9. Ashes / Road / Teacher (The Opposite of Sex)

10. Home Movie / Amnesia / Two Way Mirror (jmargethe knew these two people from Paris, Texas)

11. Mute / Caress / Mutilation (jmargethe correctly keyed The Piano)

12. Wedding Party / Fork / Flying Woman (seriously, if I had to choose one favorite film of all time, it would be this: Time of the Gypsies)

Clues: Movies are listed alpha, by title. And, much as I love my gangster and noir pictures, there's really none belonging to those genres, up there.

Buena suerte. :)

Comments

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

yay!

2 - royal tenanbaums. only it can't be cuz you said these were alphabetical. but it fits!
4 is the crying game
11 - the piano?

i will be back...

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

10 is paris texas. which i probably wouldnt have thought of except that you only recently mentioned it was one of your faves.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Yep. Am I making this too easy ...?

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

no, that's all i've got. i'll keep thinking...

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

#2 - Could be, but I've never seen R.T. >:D But you're right about #s 4 & 11.

You should see Royal Tenenbaums!

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

I looked up the imdb keywords for "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Lesbian" didn't make the cut. But it's got just about everything else. I recommend RT & also "Life Aquatic" for their odd, understated humor.

I've been meaning to see "Paris Texas" for about 20 years now. Thanks for reminding me about that!

Re: You should see Royal Tenenbaums!

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

well it definitely HAS lesbian sex in it.

I should see Royal Tenenbaums

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

I need to watch that again.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Man, I was going to guess #8 for Royal Tennbaums.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Man, I guess that I've really got to see R.T.--everybody keeps mentioning it.

#8 is actually something much older, though. Like, 1970s older. (I say this 'cuz I'm worried that I'm being too obscure with that one.)

This one is pretty hard too!

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

In a way, all of these sound kind of like "The Royal Tennenbaums".

Here are some guesses.
1. Amarcord (this, actually, is not a guess. this is a final answer, regis).
2. The Royal Tennenbaums (I know, as j said, it's not in alphabetical order)
3. Dr Strangelove?
5. Mad Max??
6. Godfather III???
7. It's a Wonderful Life?
8. Something by Woody Allen?
9. Pink Floyd's The Wall?
Whatever 12 is, I want to see it. It sounds like my kind of movie.

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

i think dave is right about 1 and 3.
and is 7 the ice harvest?

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm not sure I remember the nymphomania in Dr. Strangelove--just lots of sexual humor ... But I suspected the Army Life / Nuclear part might throw people in that direction. :)

& nope, never seen the Ice Harvest, either.

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

well, it's been a while but isn't the secretary kinda a nympho?

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

The one who's sleeping with George C. Scott? I don't know; it's been awhile for me, too, but I guess I just saw that as your garden-variety affair ...?

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

You are keerect about #1, sir. Good work.

Alas, none of the others would have made my list of faves (although I thought about including a Woody Allen movie, it didn't quite make the cut ...)

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

These really are difficult. I don't think I've seen as many current movies as you maybe. I'll keep thinking 'em over...

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this list is for some reason rather biased toward '90s cinema.

But there are several older films still unguessed, too, including one from the '60s & one from the '70s. If that helps any.

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

I just didn't get out to the movies much in the 90's. I'm gonna throw in the towel (so I can get on with my life :))... But this was fun.

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

That's OK: thanks for playing!

I'll post the rest of the unguessed answers, this weekend.

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

So "Time of the Gypsies" -- gotta see that.
I haven't seen any of the ones I couldn't guess. Except for "Eat Drink Man Woman", which I was thinking of for 6, but couldn't remember a baptism. Maybe I blocked out the memory. Does the father make an elaborate school lunch for a little girl in that one?

Re: This one is pretty hard too!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

I can't recommend Time of the Gypsies highly enough: for its imagery, its music, its characters, its tragic sense, its nods to Fellini, Chaplin, others. If you have trouble finding it, let me know: I could loan you the VHS.

Old Chu does indeed make elaborate lunches for the neighbor's little girl in Eat Drink Man Woman, an act of genuine kindness which also seems to be a way for him to compensate for his own kids' drifting away.

The "baptism" subplot isn't the most memorable part of the movie, so it may have been a little unfair of me to use it as a clue. But Chu's middle daughter, a schoolteacher, is distinguished from her sisters by her born-again Christianity and preference for classical music. She seems a lot less interesting than the older and younger sisters, but she does kind of surprise you at times, too.

I guess what I love most about this movie is its utter lust for life, expressed primarily through all of the amazing-looking food that goes through Chu's home kitchen and restaurant. Seeing Eat Drink always makes me incredibly hungry ...

Time of the Gypsies

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

That's so kind of you to offer -- but the library has "Time of the Gypsies", so I've put a hold on it. I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I may have heard about it when it came out, but in 1989, I had to drive an hour to get to the nearest art house theater. So I didn't see much. Some time I'll tell you about when the radiator exploded on the way to seeing "Lawrence of Arabia". I still have never seen that on a big screen.

I'll seek out these other movies too -- "Blue Sky", "Antonia's Line", and "Paris, Texas". It's amazing how many movies are out there. Thanks for pointing me toward some I didn't know about!

Re: Time of the Gypsies

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Cool, I look forward to hearing what you think of "Time of the Gypsies" & the rest.

And, hey, did you know that Cinerama is showing a matinee of "Lawrence of Arabia" this coming Sunday (http://www.cinerama.com/coming_soon.asp) ...? This will be the first time that I've been able to see it on the big screen, myself.

LOA

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Thanks for the 411. Not sure I'll be able to see it, but will keep that in mind!

LOA

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

I totally missed it today. Too busy. Were you able to see it?

At least I made myself leave the computer to get some sunlight for an hour or so...

Maybe I'll make it over there on Tuesday night.

Re: LOA

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I did, and I'm really glad: it was just amazing to see on that scale. I meant to write a little bit about the experience, last night, but ran out of time. Maybe tonight ...

[uniquecrash5.livejournal.com]

5. Post-Apocalyptic / Snail / Musical Saw

Delicatessen! Gods I love that movie. I'm shocked no one else has gotten it.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Seriously! I mean, what other post-apocalyptic movie has snails and a musical saw ...?!

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of guessing Six-String Samurai, which was at least post-apocalyptic. Possibly A Boy and His Dog.

I've only seen Delicatessen once, which I'm sure affects that.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

The trouble with the movie version of this quiz vs. the TV version is that there's just so many movies that these could apply to, especially if it's over the entire history of movies. Whereas with TV shows, I can usually have a pretty good idea of what someone might have seen in their lifetime.

And still a lot of people haven't even tried the easy ones in my quiz.

Re: Dude, you have me totally stumped.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, I guess those keywords could refer to Die Hard. But nope, that's not the pic I had in mind ... :)

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I saw most of the ones that were missed. Oh well.

Except for #12, which is the one I was most sure I would have seen. Er, and #7 and #3.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Not enough people have seen Time of the Gypsies: it's just astonishingly beautiful, but it's in an obscure language and of course only ever made it to art-house theaters in the U.S. (This was also in the late '80s, right before everything went to hell in the Balkans, and this film's director became embroiled in controversy over a later movie called Underground.) But the music and imagery in this film are just heart-stopping.

Blue Sky's a kind of Cold War romance, about what I suppose should be but somehow isn't a deeply dysfunctional relationship. And the military-industrial complex, nuclear testing, fallout.

The Lion in Winter is simply a classic: Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn at the top of their respective games and playing off of one another brilliantly; a younger, much angrier Anthony Hopkins; lots of bitingly clever dialogue and intrigue.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I'd at least heard of The Lion in Winter.

Went to see the gypsy

[dlasky.livejournal.com]

I watched "Time of the Gypsies" the other night. Good movie! It totally delivered on the flying woman and the fork. I was not disappointed. I was totally not expecting the main character to go from an Antoine Doinel coming of age gypsy boy to a Michael Corleone mafioso gypsy. It was almost like 2 or 3 movies rolled into one. I felt the most sympathy for his bride.

There were some strong homages to one of my favorite movies (that I always forget to mention when I am making my favorite movie lists): "Closely Watched Trains". Have you seen it? It's very good.

Re: Went to see the gypsy

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

"Time of the Gypsies" is really, really rich in cinematic references--far moreso than I recognized when I first saw the film in the theater way back (in '89? '90? whenever it finally made it to Northampton, MA). And you've gotta love any movie tags can be summed up in terms of a flying woman and fork. :)

I must admit that I've yet to see "Closely Watched Trains"--but I'll definitely add that to my list.