Louis Letizia
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2000
- Messages
- 998
I , just this past weekend, was forced to stay home the whole weekend beause I was under the weather. I rarely have time to watch my literally thousands of movies on all formats that I own and made a conscious effort to select 8 movies-4 for each day I was home-that I would just sit back, watch and just ponder life in itself. By the end of my marathon-I took breaks in between to watch silly things on cable and the Reelz channel and At the Movies-I came out of it feeling terrific.
The choices I made-at first-were purely sentimental and/or nostalgic . But, when I said to myself I want a diversity of genres-this is what I culled from my collection:What would yours be?
1) At 10 am Saturday . Saturday mornings make me think of Godzilla movies I used to watch on local staions (i wasnt into cartoons even at an early age), so I began with the DVD of the restored Godzilla-GOJIRA and was in heaven watching both the original Japanese version and the us dubbed one.
2) About 5 pm I was in the mood for a comedy. But which? Again harking back to my childhood I chose a Marx Brothers comedy-HORSE FEATHERS-both for it being the funniest (imho) of their comedies and because I had recently seen George Clooney's LEATHERHEADS(while I loved the movie-a true treat for 40 somethings with its mix of THE STING, SILVER STREAK and SEMI TOUGH among others-I see why it hasnt clicked with the new generation. What do they know!) and was in the mood for a pigskin romp. You cant get better than that!
3) after a very light dinner I settled in for a Saturday night thriller. I have also recently seen another under the radar gem called FLAWLESS -a slight yet compelling smart thriller with a very good Michael Caine and a surprisingly good Demi Moore in her most polished , subdued performance that matches her stunning beauty. I do not know why her reviews have been savage-is her stepmonster writing them?-because she commands the screen. Don't blame it on Demi-blame it on rio instead.I dusted off my dvd of DIAMONDS a pretty good 1975 international thriller with Robert Shaw and Shelley Winters(!). It was far from flawless, but it killed two hours.
4) Still awake at midnight I couldnt choose between an after dark skintilating flick or a horror movie. Not wanting to get myself too hot and bothered (with a 102 fever I already was hot and it bothered me), I decided to go old school and hit the videotape with my still good copy of THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD-which i hadnt watched in a decade-and fell into its dreamlike trance with its decadence and mood music that 35 years later i cannot erase from my brain. It was better than I thought or remembered, despite bad acting from Michael Sarrazin and Cornelia Sharpe(her name more descriptive of her breasts-if u remember- rather than her acting). Its a sumptuous puzzle of a movie with a great turn by Margot Kidder.
5)After a good nights rest I layed about on Sunday morning and appx about 1130 cranked up the laserdisc player and watched-for the first time ever-the 1973 musical of LOST HORIZON. I expected atrocity and instead found shangri la -that is if shangri la means dazed and confused. Not horrendous-but very close. Besides I'd watch Liv Ullmann reading a science manual(wait-didnt she do that in MINDWALK?). The fondest memory I have of this movie was the 1974 Golden Globes when the inimitable Bette Midler called it "Liv Ullmann in Lost HerReason. Classic!(the quote-not the movie). But, you have to see this at least once.
6)I decided on a true historical extravaganza as my 430 movie. Having recently been dragged to THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL I decided on my unopened dvd of ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS and was blown away! Everything about this movie was perfect. From the Oscar nominated sets and costumes to the rousing score and literate script . The best was the acting. Richard Burton has never been better (for Henry Vlll to lose an oscar that year to Rooster Cogburn showed true grit on the voters parts. Did they vote with one eye shut?)Anhony Quayle amazing but the revelation here was the fiery, unforgettable Genevieve Bujould as Anne Boleyn. You simply cannot take your eyes off of her. It has got to be one of the Best Performances by an actress in the last half a century-it is that nuanced and near miraculous. She makes you love her as you hate her. I've never been so moved by a performance as this one. She deserved every award they could have bestowed upon her-and she won some-but not to win the Oscar?-Blasphemy! Only having known Bujould from EARTHQUAKE , COMA and OBSESSION-I was always enraptured by her beauty, but never hinted at her greatness. She deserves a comeback role-NOW.
7) There are two movies I always have to watch on these life excursions of mine. One is DOG DAY AFTERNOON-which I recently watched with a nephew and didnt want to revisit so soon and the other is THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE-which I watched. I find myself relating more and more to Mel (Lemmon) as I myself grow older. But why the attraction to this movie at such a yyoung age as 12? I guess saw my father on screen at that age. I laugh through my tears with this movie and cry through my laughter. Its a purely personal objective-but I never tire of this movie-ever. And to own that heartfelt Marvin Hamlisch score would be a dream.
8)I acvtually felt myself getting anxious as Sunday was closing to an end. I do not know if it was the antibiotics or the movies I had chosen-but I was feeling terrific-unusual for a guy who despises Sunday nights. What would be my capper? What would be perhaps the last movie i'd be able to watch from beginning to end in the comfort of my home vwithout disturbance or without plunking down a fortune to find myself in such a controlled place as a movie theater. I put an awful lot of pressure on myself to come up with the perfect end to a not so perfect weekend. Should i dig into my collection as deeply as i dug through my past ? I found myself making mental lists of movies I'd never seen and probably never would-and I got angry at not being able to and not having that choice. ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR TOO, ALEX AND THE GYPSY(to have Boleyn and Mel in the same movie-I'd lose my head while i cracked up)SUNDAY LOVERS, WHY WOULD I LIE?, CAN HIERYMONOUS MERKIN EVER FORGET....?, THE NAKED APE. Good movies? No way, but movies I've read about and thirsted to see -no matter how bad.
So I did dig deep. I wanted to watch a movie that may fade to black before it ever sees the light of day-much like i feel at this stage in my life- on DVD. I chose LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR. It is about a journey, about rediscovering who you are-at any cost. Diane Keaton gave a much more towering performance in this epic of the human condition than she had in her Oscar winning role in ANNIE HALL (a movie I cherish as one of my favorites). She is jawdroppngly good in a role that even though she was a woman and Irish-2 things I am not and never can be-i completely identify with . She experimented and found salvation on the darkside but it catharsized her-for a brief shining time-because she felt unchained to family, work and religion for the first time in life. She dared to live-and all though she was punished dearly for it-she had her time. Thats what the love of movies are. There is no right, wrong, good or bad movies to watch, but to experiment with them all we feel freedom -from family, work and religion. An outstanding movie.
The choices I made-at first-were purely sentimental and/or nostalgic . But, when I said to myself I want a diversity of genres-this is what I culled from my collection:What would yours be?
1) At 10 am Saturday . Saturday mornings make me think of Godzilla movies I used to watch on local staions (i wasnt into cartoons even at an early age), so I began with the DVD of the restored Godzilla-GOJIRA and was in heaven watching both the original Japanese version and the us dubbed one.
2) About 5 pm I was in the mood for a comedy. But which? Again harking back to my childhood I chose a Marx Brothers comedy-HORSE FEATHERS-both for it being the funniest (imho) of their comedies and because I had recently seen George Clooney's LEATHERHEADS(while I loved the movie-a true treat for 40 somethings with its mix of THE STING, SILVER STREAK and SEMI TOUGH among others-I see why it hasnt clicked with the new generation. What do they know!) and was in the mood for a pigskin romp. You cant get better than that!
3) after a very light dinner I settled in for a Saturday night thriller. I have also recently seen another under the radar gem called FLAWLESS -a slight yet compelling smart thriller with a very good Michael Caine and a surprisingly good Demi Moore in her most polished , subdued performance that matches her stunning beauty. I do not know why her reviews have been savage-is her stepmonster writing them?-because she commands the screen. Don't blame it on Demi-blame it on rio instead.I dusted off my dvd of DIAMONDS a pretty good 1975 international thriller with Robert Shaw and Shelley Winters(!). It was far from flawless, but it killed two hours.
4) Still awake at midnight I couldnt choose between an after dark skintilating flick or a horror movie. Not wanting to get myself too hot and bothered (with a 102 fever I already was hot and it bothered me), I decided to go old school and hit the videotape with my still good copy of THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD-which i hadnt watched in a decade-and fell into its dreamlike trance with its decadence and mood music that 35 years later i cannot erase from my brain. It was better than I thought or remembered, despite bad acting from Michael Sarrazin and Cornelia Sharpe(her name more descriptive of her breasts-if u remember- rather than her acting). Its a sumptuous puzzle of a movie with a great turn by Margot Kidder.
5)After a good nights rest I layed about on Sunday morning and appx about 1130 cranked up the laserdisc player and watched-for the first time ever-the 1973 musical of LOST HORIZON. I expected atrocity and instead found shangri la -that is if shangri la means dazed and confused. Not horrendous-but very close. Besides I'd watch Liv Ullmann reading a science manual(wait-didnt she do that in MINDWALK?). The fondest memory I have of this movie was the 1974 Golden Globes when the inimitable Bette Midler called it "Liv Ullmann in Lost HerReason. Classic!(the quote-not the movie). But, you have to see this at least once.
6)I decided on a true historical extravaganza as my 430 movie. Having recently been dragged to THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL I decided on my unopened dvd of ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS and was blown away! Everything about this movie was perfect. From the Oscar nominated sets and costumes to the rousing score and literate script . The best was the acting. Richard Burton has never been better (for Henry Vlll to lose an oscar that year to Rooster Cogburn showed true grit on the voters parts. Did they vote with one eye shut?)Anhony Quayle amazing but the revelation here was the fiery, unforgettable Genevieve Bujould as Anne Boleyn. You simply cannot take your eyes off of her. It has got to be one of the Best Performances by an actress in the last half a century-it is that nuanced and near miraculous. She makes you love her as you hate her. I've never been so moved by a performance as this one. She deserved every award they could have bestowed upon her-and she won some-but not to win the Oscar?-Blasphemy! Only having known Bujould from EARTHQUAKE , COMA and OBSESSION-I was always enraptured by her beauty, but never hinted at her greatness. She deserves a comeback role-NOW.
7) There are two movies I always have to watch on these life excursions of mine. One is DOG DAY AFTERNOON-which I recently watched with a nephew and didnt want to revisit so soon and the other is THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE-which I watched. I find myself relating more and more to Mel (Lemmon) as I myself grow older. But why the attraction to this movie at such a yyoung age as 12? I guess saw my father on screen at that age. I laugh through my tears with this movie and cry through my laughter. Its a purely personal objective-but I never tire of this movie-ever. And to own that heartfelt Marvin Hamlisch score would be a dream.
8)I acvtually felt myself getting anxious as Sunday was closing to an end. I do not know if it was the antibiotics or the movies I had chosen-but I was feeling terrific-unusual for a guy who despises Sunday nights. What would be my capper? What would be perhaps the last movie i'd be able to watch from beginning to end in the comfort of my home vwithout disturbance or without plunking down a fortune to find myself in such a controlled place as a movie theater. I put an awful lot of pressure on myself to come up with the perfect end to a not so perfect weekend. Should i dig into my collection as deeply as i dug through my past ? I found myself making mental lists of movies I'd never seen and probably never would-and I got angry at not being able to and not having that choice. ALL THIS AND WORLD WAR TOO, ALEX AND THE GYPSY(to have Boleyn and Mel in the same movie-I'd lose my head while i cracked up)SUNDAY LOVERS, WHY WOULD I LIE?, CAN HIERYMONOUS MERKIN EVER FORGET....?, THE NAKED APE. Good movies? No way, but movies I've read about and thirsted to see -no matter how bad.
So I did dig deep. I wanted to watch a movie that may fade to black before it ever sees the light of day-much like i feel at this stage in my life- on DVD. I chose LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR. It is about a journey, about rediscovering who you are-at any cost. Diane Keaton gave a much more towering performance in this epic of the human condition than she had in her Oscar winning role in ANNIE HALL (a movie I cherish as one of my favorites). She is jawdroppngly good in a role that even though she was a woman and Irish-2 things I am not and never can be-i completely identify with . She experimented and found salvation on the darkside but it catharsized her-for a brief shining time-because she felt unchained to family, work and religion for the first time in life. She dared to live-and all though she was punished dearly for it-she had her time. Thats what the love of movies are. There is no right, wrong, good or bad movies to watch, but to experiment with them all we feel freedom -from family, work and religion. An outstanding movie.
