Film Quiz

[sidoze]

Just bought DVD few days ago, it's Sony and the case says running time is 121. Is that complete?

Yes, "complete" as far as we're going to get. Apparently there's still 15-20 minutes missing from Antonioni's preferred take, though I think it's considered lost at present. Nicholson owns the rights and presumably would have released the longer, probably never-before-seen one if he had it.

I hope you enjoy it. The first viewing is different from the second which is different from the third. It's really quite extraordinary.

[Maciek]

Then you might have seen Antonioni's dreaded MGM release, which apparently cuts 5 minutes from the film. I believe one of the missing shots was of Locke returning to his house in London after assuming the other identity.

Well, I've seen it at least twice at the cinema (probably 3 times) - but of course I have no idea which release that was. Neither do I know which was the release I had recorded (from TV) - I saw that a couple of years after seeing the cinema version, so didn't remember it well enough to say if there was any difference. And now it's been a couple of years since we've given away our VCR, so I can't really say if the shots you mention were in the video/TV version either. I seem to vaguely remember them but it may be a trick of memory...?

I think the number of Kieslowski shots outnumbers all other directors on this thread. Am I right?

Well, if you're counting the ones I've reposted several times, then definitely. But they deserve it! Especially this one 0:):

[Maciek]

Milos, I think I've got everyone stumped. Why don't you go ahead and post yours?

[Drasko]

No problem, here goes. Unlike Maciek's these aren't necessarily my favorites, just nicely eclectic bunch, pretty guessable but maybe not by same audience. Really difficult would be probably just No.16.

[Drasko]

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[Drasko]

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[Drasko]

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[mahlertitan]

9 is caligula, isn't it?

[Maciek]

Oh dear. My knowledge of westerns is very limited. I hope Bogey hasn't given up on this thread.

Upon first glance:

6 - Diaboliques??

15 - Night on Earth

[Maciek]

5 - Le Roi danse

[sidoze]

who's the girl in 13?

[Papy Oli]

10. Victoria Abril in A Pedro Almodovar Movie..no idea on the title...something about a presenter on a reality TV show somehow rings a bell ...

11. Abril again..  "Gazon Maudit" maybe ?

[Maciek]

10. Victoria Abril in A Pedro Almodovar Movie..no idea on the title...something about a presenter on a reality TV show somehow rings a bell ...

Been staring at that for an hour, and just couldn't remember what it was (I felt it could be Almodovar but then decided not). Thanks for the hint - it's Kika!!! (slapping forehead )

[orbital]

Been staring at that for an hour, and just couldn't remember what it was (I felt it could be Almodovar but then decided not). Thanks for the hint - it's Kika!!! (slapping forehead )

I've been doing that for No:14 (not the slapping, I am not at that point yet  ). Unless this is a generic character, I am sure I've seen it 

[Lilas Pastia]

Reading from work . Unfortunately that means that pictures are blocked, so I'll have to wait to see Drasko's newest. I'm not good at westerns either (what's with them anyway? ).

Coincidentally, I also saw The Passenger, but not the Antonioni one. Mine is a 1961 film by Andrzej Munk (it's titled Pasazerka in Polish). Speaking of cult movies, this one has a devoted following. I'm surprised Maciek didn't include it in his quiz . A real masterpiece, one of those films that spark endless ruminations and discussions. This link has three excellent articles on it, and this one features an interesting essay by Ewa Mazierska.

[Maciek]

A great film, true - but I could only fit so many Polish films in one quiz without causing an uproar. 0:)

Eroica and Zezowate szczescie are excellent WWII comedies. And Czlowiek na torze is another great film of his, though much more serious.

[Maciek]

I might as well give answers to my quiz now. Apparently, there's no way anyone can figure out A5 or C5 - I don't think they've ever been released anywhere outside Poland.

A5 is Pietro wyzej (Upper Floor? Upstairs Neighbour?) - my wife's and mine favorite pre-war comedy. Polish cinema only produced a handfull of really good serious films before the war (Mlody las, Znachor, Dybuk) but there was an abundance of excellent musical comedy, with many great songs (most notably by Henryk Wars who later worked in Hollywood but never managed to do anything significant over there). Many (though not all) of the singing scenes are static like this one - but the music and texts usually redeem them:
http://www.youtube.com/v/2xlKRtF9FkE
What is amazing in this film is a very modern sense of the absurd. Like in this scene where the main character is trying to explain to his friend the identity mix up that he's trying to unravel (the film has a relatively simple plot with most of the jokes revolving around a qui pro quo principle):
http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/l9RmpgO2VNI

C5 is Co mi zrobisz jak mnie zlapiesz by Stanislaw Bareja, a cult comedy director. His later films (and this is one of them) were all so mutilated by the censors that they hardly have any semblance of logical plot - what came out are series of loosely connected gags about communist Poland reality. The shot I posted comes from this sequence (well, actually it's from a couple of seconds after this but anyway):

http://www.youtube.com/v/7IU41xIHHG8
I suppose everything that is happening in the background here might only be funny to those who have experienced living in communism themselves (note the water vending machine with glasses on a chain! ). Here's a rough translation of the dialogue:
"I've got a very good connection. I get up in the morning - a quarter to 3. That's already day in the summer! I'm already shaved at quarter to 3 - because I shave in the evening. I eat breakfast for supper so I just need to get up and leave."
"You've got to get dressed."
"I put on a coat when it's raining. Why should I get undressed after breakfast?"
"True."
"I have 5 km to the stop. The coach comes at a quarter to 4."
"Do you make it?"
"No. But that's OK because the bus is full and doesn't stop anyway."
(other guy laughs)
"I walk a stop to the dairy - that takes about an hour. Then they quickly take me to Szymanow. You see milk has the quickest transport - or else it'll get sour. In Szymanow I get off, help with the milk and catch the train. I get to Ochota [that's part of Warsaw] where I get on the electric. The rest is a piece of cake: I take the 119, then 13, then 345, and I'm there! I'm at work at a quarter to 7. I've still got a whole 15 minutes to eat dinner at the café! So after work I needn't stay to eat - I can go straight home. So I'm never back later than 10:50 PM. I shave, eat breakfast, and go to sleep!"

One of my favorites is this shop-scene. A brutally realistic (and hilarious) portrayal of Polish "supermarkets" of the 80s. Note that the actor who plays the shop manager (the one in the blue apron) is also featured in the B2 clip. And he also played a major role in White.
http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/dxpmMMGEpxM

I'm too tired to give you a translation of the whole thing but here's what they say once they get into the managers "office" (from 2:18 on):
MAN:"Excuse me, Miss. Are you the manager here? The cleaning lady passed the chicken with a dirty rag!"
MANAGER:"I am the manager here."
GIRL:"First of all, you boorishly snatched the chicken!"
MAN:"As corpus delicti."
CLEANING-LADY:"He took my rag! He took my worktool!"
GIRL:"Sir, he wanted to steal that chicken from me!"
C-L:"Sure! Why would he snatch it like that! He's a thief!"
GIRL:"And a drunkard! Because every drunkard is a thief!"
MAN:"Well, judge for yourself. Is this proper?"
WIFE:"Kazimierz, calm down!"
MAN:"A dirty rag, sir."
MANAGER:"That's what a rag is for."
MAN:"These are basic principles of hygiene!"
MANAGER:"Kind sir, the basic principles of hygiene are to knock before you enter. While you came in without knocking. And with a dirty rag too!"
MAN:"I will not shop here anymore!"
etc. etc.

Oh, I just love that "every drunkard is a thief" part!

(PS - I know it's difficult to really enjoy any of this but this new embed-flash function has got me hopelessly addicted... )

[Drasko]

Been staring at that for an hour, and just couldn't remember what it was (I felt it could be Almodovar but then decided not). Thanks for the hint - it's Kika!!! (slapping forehead )

Yup.

11. Abril again..  "Gazon Maudit" maybe ?

You got the actress but not the film. Go north. 

I've been doing that for No:14 (not the slapping, I am not at that point yet  ). Unless this is a generic character, I am sure I've seen it 

Don't really know what you mean by generic character but that is real actor in a real role.

I honestly thought that more would be guessed by now. Is the selection too hard?

[Bogey]

Is #2 Jeremiah Johnson (1972) starring Robert Redford?

[Bogey]

#1:  Based on the white hat of the fella with the rifle, is that The Duke in Stagecoach (1939)?

#1 No, no, it's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)!  Still The Duke in the white hat though. 

Also stars Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin.