A Girl & A Gun

The Simpsons go to the movies

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Vote Robeson

It's not really like I need any excuse to post a picture of Paul Robeson. Head over to BFI's 100 Black Screen Icons and you can register to vote for him and some of your other favorite black directors, actors, producers, writers, composers. There's a week of voting left and all the categories are pretty close - Absolute Icon, Actor, Director, Producer, Technical and Woman. I've got to say I'm disappointed with the clumsy site design and navigation, and the US dominance of all the categories, but ignoring these the nominees biographies are a great browse.

Only 7 voting days left! Vote Robeson - you know it makes sense!

Top 50 films for the under 14's

The British Film Institute and the Barbican recently hosted a debate called Watch This! - inviting children, children's film organisations, teachers, and filmmakers to vote on what essential film viewing for kids looks like. The lists contain diverse, unpatronising, and extremely high quality viewing that are probably essential for just about everyone.

The top ten (in alphabetical order):

• Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948, Italy)
• ET The Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982, USA)
• Kes (Ken Loach, 1969, UK)
• The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955, USA)
• Les Quatre Cents Coups (François Truffaut, 1959, France)
• Show Me Love (Lukas Moodysson, 1998, Sw/Dk)
• Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001, Japan)
• Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995, USA)
• Where is the Friend's House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987, Iran)
• The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939, USA)

Very happy to see Laughton, Truffaut, Moodysson and Miyazaki up there - all of which I would watch countless times, with or without children.

The top 50 list is here.

AFI top 100 quotes

Via David Jacobs at Hello Typepad: The American Film Institute have just published the results of their poll of the 1,500 people on their holiday card list to firm up their modestly titled list of the 100 GREATEST MOVIE QUOTES OF ALL TIME.

The top ten are:

1. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" - Gone with the Wind (1939)

2. "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse" - The Godfather (1972)

3. "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could've been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am." - On the Waterfront (1954)

4. "Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." - The Wizard of Oz (1939)

5. "Here's looking at you, kid." - Casablanca (1942)

6. "Go ahead, make my day." - Sudden Impact (1983)

7. "All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." - Sunset Boulevard (1950)

8. "May the Force be with You." - Star Wars (1977)

9. "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." - All About Eve (1950)

10. You Talking to Me?" - Taxi Driver (1976)

Good to see Midnight Cowboy and Dog Day Afternoon both made the list, although number 77 is a bit of a spoiler.

One of my all time favorites:  "I am the ******* shore patrol, *********! I am the ****** shore patrol! Give this man a beer" weirdly didn't make it.

& now I'm stuck waiting for the Korean and Iranian equivalent lists. Hurry up!

Web Zen goes to the movies

 

The always excellent Web Zen  focuses on Movie Zen this month:

working title
who's on first (video store mix)
movieoke
stop quoting these movies
super 8
surf movie posters
pimpadelic wonderland
movie of the week
church of ed wood
plot-o-matic
10 types of villains
girls with guns
moviepooper
fast film

Movie Monsters

Head over to Retrocrush to check out their top 100 monsters - watch out for number 11! And much less hilariously, the pop-ups.

Thanks to the wonderful Michelle Fierro of the consistently excellent Life in the Present.

More Xmasness

From the wonderful Web Zen & thanks to Mark - who's doing a storming job over at Frolix 8 on the hellish world of Philip K. Dick movie making:

John Scalzi's 10 Least Successful Christmas Specials of All Time

- Really funny, although I suspect Noam Chompsky: Deconstructing Christmas would actually be pretty popular, especially if you ran it against against Zizke's Lacanian sledge-fest.  A Canadian Christmas with David Cronenburg is such a fantastic idea that someone should commission it, immediately. And "A Most Illogical Holiday" is so good that a quick read through will probably convince you that you've already seen it.

Toronto Festival Bloggers

Posted over at Boing Boing today:

We're 4 Toronto nerds, we're attending the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, we're blogging our reviews.

We don't get media passes, we don't go to press conferences or release parties or even the suit-and-tie gala screenings. We pick movies we think we'll like, count ourselves lucky if we get tickets, then line up on the sidewalk to try to get a good seat. Then we write honest nerd's-eye reviews.

You can find their site here. Wish I was there!

Engadget Movie Friday

Being a geek chick, engadget and gizmodo are two of the sites I visit regularly. I was really pleased to find the new Movie Gadget Friday slot over at engadget - until I got there. They've done three so far - Logan's Run Life Clock, the Alien Motion Tracker, and the crappy new Batmobile - although strange how it's only men who work on gadget mags who ever consider cars to qualify as gadgets.

Anyhow – it’s a pretty disappointing column so far. The pictures aren’t that good/interesting. The piece of writing that accompanies the pictures says nothing, and the links are clunky/lazy. In it’s current format it’s far too dependent on readers comments for making it at all worthwhile.

Two of my favourite things – technology & movies – going to waste. They really need to cover the flesh gun and the hydro gun from eXistenZ pronto.

The other A Girl & A Gun

I’ve just been reading an amazing essay over at George Fasel’s a Girl and a Gun, & I’ve got to tell you I’m a little in awe of the guy and his site.

I urge you all to put aside some quality time and get to grips with George’s essay Some Films on the Holocaust. Then you can check out the rest of his site. Film writing at it’s best.

And Happy Birthday George!