MOVIE TIME
Below, beginning with the next paragraph, is the post I planned to use last week before Philip Seymour Hoffman died. I added a few lines here and there. Maybe it’s fitting…or maybe it’s just something…that movies is the topic.
This is NOT a contest. I have several contest ideas and will post one for you soon, but I also have ideas for ‘not contests’ and I like trying new things. I hope you participate. For me, numbers matter. Not size.
A movie buff Facebook acquaintance asked friends to share their favorite or most memorable movie scenes of all time. The Philip Seymour Hoffman scenes that came to mind last week were his George Willis Jr. sitting up there with his father in Baird Hall towards the end of SCENT OF A WOMAN and his Truman Capote and priest throughout CAPOTE and DOUBT. The ones I thought about after the Facebook posting were many with Dustin Hoffman just in THE GRADUATE, TOOTSIE, and KRAMER VS. KRAMER, lots from SOME LIKE IT HOT and ANNIE HALL, many from TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and 12 ANGRY MEN even 11 of them, Charlie Chaplin and the Brits in everything, and Gene Kelly when he’s singin’ and dancin’ in the rain. And now that I’m still in the mode, more standards are filling me up. Rhett, oh Rhett, there’s no place like home, not Stella and Stanley Kowalski’s after Blanche arrives and not the home to which Miss Daisy is driven and living in at the end.
The night before the Facebook thing, GODFATHERS 1 and 2 were on. The night after, the discussion topic for my writing class was to be compelling opening scenes. My head was wrapped around openers. The beginnings of GODFATHER 1 and 2 hook me every time. The family, the nonfamily members, all the dynamics, relationships and tensions, what’s said, what’s not said, the facial expressions, the mother’s singing, everyone’s dancing, the picture taking, and the mood…it’s all there at the parties.
Connie’s wedding is what I wrote. I got a lot of ‘likes’.
Had THE GODFATHERS not been aired and openers weren’t on my mind, a memorable, enduring scene for me is the one in Charlie Chaplin’s THE KID when Jackie Coogan is about to be taken away and the Little Tramp rescues him.
So now…your favorites? Most memorable movie scenes of all time? My family has bunches. I know all you longtime and new blog friends from Buffalo, camp, publishing, classes, the ‘hood, and life do, too. Post one or two at a time. Then post again using your initials, real name, pen name, nickname, imaginary friend’s name, someone’s maiden name, or whatever. I can’t wait to hear what’s WOWED you.
