Potluck Quote of the Day (8 out of 10): Brigitte Bardot

Today we quote French bombshell actress Brigitte Bardot, who was tonight's Star of the Day on TCM which screened several of her films including "Contempt" by the amazing filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Bardot has also gotten wide media attention for speaking out against Muslim emigre women wearing burkinis along resorts on the French coast. Amazingly enough, we got into a row on Twitter with BOTH Muslims and non-Muslims for expressing our nuanced views on that matter. It seems like social media is a great way for everyone to hate your guts!

Before we get to tonight's quote, we want to thank WXYC-FM, the student-run UNC college radio station in Chapel Hill, NC, for playing one of our high school favorites "New Girl Now" by the Canadian band Honeymoon suite and the new wave German-language classic "Das Komasor" from the late Austrian pop star Falco.

Additionally, we want to share this great line from the Sunday edition Paul Jon's comic strip "Fort Knox": "Absolutely, in a few years, it will take over our backyard.

Lastly, we want to congratulate Turkish free-style wrestler Taha Akgul for winning his nation's lone gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Here is our quote from Bardot: "If only every man who sees my films did not get the impression he can make love to me, I would be a lot happier."

http://www.tcm.com

http://www.wxyc.org/

http://www.gocomics.com/fortknox

https://www.rio2016.com/en/turkey

Last Ten Films We've Seen: Trying to Catch up on Netflix....

What do Captain America, indie film queen Parker Posey (pict. center) and a silly Dudley Moore/Kirk Cameron movie from 1987 have in common? They all relate in one form or another to the last ten films we've seen.

"Like Father, Like Son," is also the English-language title of a Japanese art film which is more like Dustin Hoffman's "Kramer vs. Kramer" in nature as it deals with a family who learns that their son was switched at birth with another boy. Adding to the tensions is the fact that the families are in two vastly different economic classes.

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine.

Here are the last ten:

1. Like Father, Like Son. 2014. Japan. director: Hirokazu Koreeda

2. Goodbye to Language. 2014. France. dir: Jean-Luc Godard

3. The Babdook. 2014. Australia (in English). dir: Jennifer Kent

4. Wild Tales. 2014. Argentina. dir: Damian Szifron

5. Lovers and Other Strangers. 1970. dir: Cy Howard w/Diane Keaton

6. Price Check. 2012. dir: Michael Walker w/Parker Posey

7. Inside Out. 2011. dir: Artie Mandelberg w/Posey

8. Nothing Lasts Forever. 1984. dir: Tom Schiller w/Bill Murray

9. Avengers: Age of Ultron. 2015. dir: Joss Whedon

10. Far from the Madding Crowd. 2015. dir: Thomas Vinterberg w/Carey Mulligan

The Last Ten French Films We've Seen: Hopefully, Godard is Pleased with Us

Here are the last ten French-language films we've seen, including "Aaltra," a VERY dark comedy that is a Belgian film which is partially filmed in Finland. It was distributed here in the United States through the Film Movement. And, it aired at 2:00 a.m. back in December on Turner Classics Movies as a film selected by comedian/actor Patton Oswalt who was guest programmer.

This month's Star of the Month on TCM is Mary Astor, who played the femme fatale opposite Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon" (she is not French!)

Here is the list (we got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine):

Any film with an (*) is one we watched via Netflix

1) "Aaltra" (Belgium. 2004. dirs.- Gustave de Kervem and Benoit Delepine)

2) "Rules of the Game" (1939. dir-Jean Renoir; see image #1)

3) "Rust and Bone" (2012. dir-Jacques Audiard)

4) "A Woman is a Woman" (1961. dir-Jean-Luc Godard) *

5) "Les Cousins" (1959. dir-Claude Chabrol)

6) "A Burning Hot Summer" (2011. dir-Philippe Garrel) *

7) "Leaving" (2009. dir-Catherine Corsini w/Kristin Scott Thomas) *

8) "Farewell, My Queen" (2012. dir-Benoit Jacquot; see image #2 which of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands)

9) "Un Flic/A Cop" (1972. dir. Jean-Pierre Melville w/Catherine Deneuve; see image #3, which is of a K-9 officer)

10) "Hadewijch" (2009. dir- Bruno Durmont)

http://www.filmcomment.com/

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.tcm.com/

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.filmmovement.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FrenchFilms

Image to Fill Space- Lauren Conrad for Tell a Woman She is Beatiful Day

Yes, we are pretty much just doing this to get a rise in blog hits, but today really is Tell a Woman She is Beautiful Day, or at least that is what they are saying on Twitter.

For those of you in Ghana or Uzbekistan who may not have seen "The Hills," a pseudo-reality show on MTV that one tv critic compared to the great films of Jean-Luc Godard (?!), this is Lauren Conrad. Her frenemy on the show was Heidi Montag, or at least, that is the best we recollect at the moment.

A Top Ten Random List of English-Language Films I've Seen Multiple Times.........(except "The Godfather")

Here in America, National Public Radio (NPR) has had an interesting series of interviews with film directors, actors and other celebrities have talked about films they can watch over and over again.

Among the surprises is that David Fincher ("Zodiac," "Fight Club") loves "Mary Poppins"!

There aren't that many films I've watched more than five times. As someone with a wide interest in films, it is simply challenging to watch every film of social or historical merit over and over again.

There are also many world and European films like Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless," which I've seen multiple times, but for the sake of 'making it simple,' we are just going to focus on English-language films here.

I have also not decided to list films I watched often as a child, like "The Absent Minded Professor" or films I watched once too often as a teenager, such as "Bachelor Party."

And, this is not in order of preference:

1. "The Graduate" (1967)

2. "Planet of the Apes" (1968)

3. "Stagecoach" (1939)

4. "Psycho" (1960)

5. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex........." (1972)

6. "Dr. Strangelove........." (1964)

7. "Pulp Fiction" (1994)

8. "Taxi Driver" (1975)

9. "Chinatown" (pictured, 1974)

10. "Life of Brian" (1979)

http://www.npr.org


SIDEBAR: I have an article in a national Washington-DC based blog regarding the politically charged events happening in Turkey:

http://www.dcmiccheck.org/2013/06/06/gezi-park/

Quote of the Day/Week- Jean Luc-Godard

We continue quoting people associated with the 16 countries represented in Euro 2012 with a quote from the great French film director Jean-Luc Godard, 81, who is best-known for his New Wave classic "Breathless" (1960). Many of his films are available on dvd through the Criterion Collection.

France tied England 1-1 in Euro 2012 play yesterday.

Here is Godard's quote, with his take on William Shakespeare:

"To be or not to be. That's not really a question."


http://www.criterion.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Woody Allen

We continue our month-long series of quips from Oscar-winning film directors with a great quote from Woody Allen, who along with fellow filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, is perhaps the person we have quipped the most on our two blogs.

Allen won his Best Director Oscar for "Annie Hall" in 1977. The comedy film with his then-girlfriend Diane Keaton also won Best Picture, beating out "Star Wars." This year, Allen is nominated yet again for his most recent film "Midnight in Paris," which is also his biggest box office success.

Just this week, Allen's skit segmented film "Everything You Always Wanted to Know Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask" (1973) became the 6,000th film I voted for on the IMDB (I had first seen the film many years ago, but I didn't realize I had never voted on the film).

Since Valentine's Day is around the corner (yes, I hate it with a passion too), we thought we'd get an Allen quip on relationships:

"A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know? It has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark."

SIDEBAR: We have been reporting on the very impressive Harvard University men's basketball team which remains nationally ranked this week (we believe they are ranked 24th) as they stand a plausible chance of being the first Ivy League team to play in the Final Four since Pennsylvania did it in 1978.

Last weekend, Harvard won back-to-back home games (on Friday and Saturday nights) over Cornell then Columbia.

In Friday's win over the Big Red, Harvard's Canadian sophomore Laurent Rivard scored 16 points. The Crimson won the game 72-60.

On Saturday night, Harvard bested Columbia in a narrow 57-52 win thanks to 20 points from Rivard.

Harvard will play Penn-U in Philadelphia on Friday night, and then on Saturday the Crimson's road game against Princeton will be nationally televised on ESPN-U at 7:00 p.m.

Quote of the Day- Jean-Luc Godard

Today, we start our series of quotes from famous French people with Jean-Luc Godard, one of our favorite people to quip.

Initially, we were hoping to feature an image of a poster from his 1965 film "Alphaville" as opposed to his 1960 film "Breathless," which is shown here.

"Alphaville" is quite a unique film because it is the only Godard film that features elements of of futurist cinema stories and American detective films of the 1940s. The 1965 film starred the late Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina.

Alphaville is also the name of the 1980s German synthpop band which spawned the hit singles "Forever Young" and "Big in Japan," which became a big hit in Japan! "Forever Young" was immortalized 20 years after its release in 1984 when it was featured in the memorable prom dance sequence in the 2004 film "Napoleon Dynamite."

"Breathless" turned 50 last year and it is still considered to be among the best Godard films and the best New Wave films. It also includes a great performance from the actress Jean Seberg who died at age 40 in 1979.

Here is the quote from Godard:

"I don't think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can't kiss a movie."

Best Films of 1961

Since I looked at the best films from the years 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000last year, I am going to list my favorite films for the years following those years this year.

On my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," I listed the best films from 1951. Here, I list my favorite films from 1961:


1. "Cleo from 5 to 7" (France. dir. Agnes Varda)

2. "Last Year of Marienbad" (France. dir. Alain Resnais)

3. "Divorce Italian Style" (Italy. dir. Pietro Germi)

4. "Viridiana" (Spain. dir. Luis Bunuel)

5. "West Side Story"* (dir. Robert Wise and Jerome Robins)

6. "A Woman is a Woman" (France. dir. Jean-Luc Godard)

7. "Splendor in the Grass" (dir. Elia Kazan)

8. "Accattone (Italy. dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini)

9. "Il Posto" (Italy. dir. Ermamo Olmi)

10. "Yojimbo" (Japan. dir. Akira Kurosawa)

Qoute of the Week- Woody Allen

We are far behind in our blogging, which means other aspects of lives are perhaps stronger now. But, we thought we'd post yet another great quote from Woody Allen (who is second to fellow filmamaker Jean-Luc Godard_who we have on occasion mistakenly called Jean Luc-Godard*___ in terms of being quoted on our two blogs).

I sense this quip was made a few decades ago, but like all quotes from the director of "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan," this one holds up quite well:

"How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter."

*- What a difference a hyphen makes! Of course, Jean-Luc Godard is correct!

Quote of the Week_ Jean-Luc Godard

Yes, we usually run Quotes of the Week on Mondays, but we are pressed for time today so we will go ahead and quip French New Wave legend Jean-Luc Godard who will turn 80 on Dec. 3 as we features quotes from famous film directors this month:

"One of the most striking signs of the decay of art is when we see separate forms jumbled together."

SIDEBAR: We were saddened to learn of the death of another great film director Arthur Penn who died a short of his 88th birthday this week. Penn will be best known for directing "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1968, but he leaves behind a strong legacy of other films including "Alice's Restaurant" and "Mickey One," which was one of Warren Beatty's first big films. I had a chance to meet Penn at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville several years ago. He was a class act, and he will be missed.

SIDEBAR TWO: My alma mater Glenvar High School did not have a good night on Friday as they lost a road game to Rural Retreat High School by a 27-20 margin. The late photographer O. Winston Link actually made Rural Retreat, Va., briefly famous when he took one of his famed train photographs there. Other high schools from the Roanoke, Va., area last night include Salem High School winning 27-21 over William Fleming; the Northside Vikings beating Hidden Valley HS 13-10, and Christiansburg HS trumped Patrick Henry HS of Roanoke by a 40-6 score.