The Cinema Cafe

Serving Cinema's Tastiest Treats

Dish of the Day

Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:

Friday, January 27, 2023

In the various Facebook film related chat rooms, I share notices about films to be presented on TCM. Many TCM subscribers get upset because they see my recommendations after their films are shown. And so I tell them about Watch TCM

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Dish of the Day

Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

A topic of divisive discussion in our cinema chatroom (all readers are encouraged to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/902349343110685) relates to:

The recently announced Oscar nominees for which a member’s reply of “Who cares?” received a flurry of heated responses including:

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Top Ten "All that Glitters...": The Overrated Part 9 The Shining

The purpose of this list is not to give a critical lambasting to what a great number of viewers consider to be cinematic treasures. What I would like to provide my readers with is an alternative and admittedly more critical perspective to consider, one that hopefully will not detract from a person's appreciation for the films under review. At the same time, I'd question whether these motion pictures really deserve the high accolades bestowed upon them by many in the critical community. Perhaps it's like this: instead of "The emperor has no clothes," I'm saying "He's not quite as well dressed." (For a further introduction on this subject please see: Top Ten “All that Glitters…”: The Overrated Part 1.)

These notices are meant for viewers familiar with the following motion pictures.

* Note: Due to popular demand, I’m jumping ahead (in alphabetical order) to review The Shining and will proceed with Parts 6, 7, 8, and 10 at a later date.

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End Credits #104: Cinema's 2022 Lost Treasures Nehemiah Persoff, William Hurt, Douglas Trumbull, Monica Vitti, Hardy Krüger, Sidney Poitier, Peter Bogdanovich, Joan Copeland

These are some of Cinema's sad departures of 2022 taken from my personal notes soon after the events took place:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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Top Ten Treasured Performances Part 2: The Actresses (The Second Five)

In this series, I'll outline both the finest performances by an actress and those given by an actor in a motion picture. The criteria concerns actors of both genders who are able to communicate an idiosyncratic and thorough understanding of how their characters feel toward, and relate to, the people and situations with whom they are involved. These performances are delivered in an entirely natural manner without unnecessary affectation or embellishment. Their preservation on film gives the viewer an opportunity to keenly scrutinise each thespian's work. Therefore, the acting must not only be appropriate for the cinematic medium (as opposed to a more emphatic stage delivery) but allow for new character revelations to be discovered upon repeat viewings. These second five are listed in order of the film's release date, the earliest first. (For a further introduction on this subject please see: Top Ten Treasured Performances Part 1: The Actresses).

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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Sterling Silver Dialogue #24



Sterling Silver Dialogue From The Movies: 

Do you know where they're from?









“All women are wonders because they reduce all men to the obvious."

(response) “So do martinis.”



“So you’re going to break this marriage up. Have you decided yet how you’re going to do it? Are you going to do it with an axe?!”



“You want [to see] me, Pa?”

(response) “Before you was born I did.”



"I've never forgotten you. You were even in my dreams. You saved me from growing old, dull and used up. My life was so empty. I felt so alone. But I kept thinking: I've no right to be sad. I'm happy. Someone loved me."



“I came to New York from upstate. I was gonna be a dancer. I was a brunette. Started on my toes and wound up on my heels.”



“It was a hot afternoon, and I can still remember the smell of honeysuckle all along that street. How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?”



"Sister, I've known some pretty hard cases in my time; you make 'em all look like putty. You're not talking about a sack of gumdrops that's gonna be smashed - you're talking about a dame's life! You may think it's a funny idea for a woman with a kid to stop a bullet for you, only I'm not laughing!"



“Bick, you shoulda shot that fella a long time ago. Now he's too rich to kill.”



“All I want is to enter my house justified.”



"Somewhere in here I was born .. and there I died. It was only a moment for you, you took no notice."



“As you were leaving the room, you turned at the door, didn't you? And you said, ‘For a moment, I thought...’ What did you think? What did you think? Did you think that Dr. Jekyll was falling in love with you? You, with your cheap little dreams? Or did you think, perhaps - that in him, you saw a bit of me, Hyde?”



“Yes, I can be very cruel. I have been taught by masters.”



"It's human to lie. Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves.”



“Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments.”



“Your husband keeps lousy company Mrs. Sampson… as bad as there is in L.A. And that’s as bad as there is.” 


“… but what the hell, a hole is a hole is a hole as they say.”



"Ya know something Verna, if I turned my back long enough for Big Ed to put a hole in it, there'd be a hole in it."



“I’m funny how? I mean funny like I’m a clown… I amuse you?”



“When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we'll eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.”



“It’s a hard world for little things.”



“A strange calm possessed me. I thought more clearly than I had ever thought before - as if my mind were bathed in brilliant light. I recognised that part of my illness was rooted in hunger, and I remembered the food on the shelf, the cake thredded with spider web. I no longer felt hatred for the spider. Like myself it struggled blindly for the means to live.”

Answers to Sterling Silver Dialogue #24 are here.




"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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"Now Listen to Me..."

Just some thoughts on current happenings:

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