Since I reviewed A Quiet Place earlier today, it seems appropriate that today’s scene that I love is taken from that film.
In this scene, Lee Abott (John Krasinski) and his son come across an old man in the woods. The old man is looking down at the remains of a woman who we presume to be his wife. What he does next is a reminder of just how brutal and unforgiving life can be. When the man screams, it’s the first human voice that we’ve heard in a while. It’s also a cry of surrender and sacrifice, one that sets up the conclusion of the film.
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is unique in that it’s a horror film that freaks me out every time that I see it. Even though I’ve sat through the film so many times that I now practically have it memorized, The Shining still scares me.
And, to be honest, a lot of that has to do with the daughters of Charles (or was that Delbert) Grady. Early on, we’re told that the previous caretaker, Grady, went crazy from the isolation and ended up killing his daughters with an axe. And yet, if his daughters are dead, what are they doing in the hallway of the Overlook Hotel, inviting poor little Danny Torrance to come play with them!?
AGCK!
Seriously, this scene freaks me out every time that I see it.
Hi, everyone! Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s October and we’ve pulled the string here at the Shattered Lens! Welcome to the annual TSL Horrorthon! For the next 31 days, TSL is going to be home to everything that makes October our favorite month of the year!
So, here’s Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda, performing the opening ceremony of the season:
Earlier today, I watched Dario Argento’s underrated 1980 masterpiece, Inferno, on Retroplex.
I fear that, with all the hype surrounding the remake of Suspiria, people are going to forget about Argento’s original Three Mothers trilogy. Inferno was the second part of the trilogy and a loosely connected sequel to the original Suspiria.
In this scene, Mark (played by Leigh McCloskey) finally confronts the Mother of Darkness (Veronica Lazar). While this scene undoubtedly loses some of its effectiveness when viewed separate from the rest of the film, it still shows off Argento’s dream-like style.
Here’s the scene. Be sure to track down and watch whole film if you haven’t already:
Today is the 73rd birthday of the perennially underrated actor, Sam Elliott!
Sam’s been acting for longer than I’ve been alive. He’s been in a ton of good movies and he’s given some truly iconic performances and yet, with all that in mind, he still seems to be strangely underrated. At the very least, he deserved an Oscar nomination for his performance in last year’s The Hero. There’s some speculation that he might get one this year for his role in A Star is Born.
With all that said, most people seem to know Sam Elliott best for playing The Stranger in 1998’s The Big Lebowski. So, with that in mind, here’s a scene I love featuring Sam Elliott from that very film!
Since today is apparently Harry Potter’s birthday (Mazel Tov!), it seems like a good day to share a Harry Potter scene that I love. Here is Harry Potter confronting the sadly misunderstood Snape in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2!
Since today is technically still Canada Day, I figured why not share one of the greatest dance scenes ever filmed? This scene is from the classic 1980 film, Prom Night,and it features Jamie Lee Curtis and Casey Stevens showing what they can do on the dance floor!
Well, actually, it shows Jamie Lee Curtis showing what she could do. According to David Grove’s Jamie Lee Curtis, Scream Queen, Casey Stevens claimed that he could dance but, when it came time to shoot the scene, he turned out to be rather awkward and the responsibility for selling the scene pretty much fell completely on Jamie Lee Curtis’s shoulders. As Prom Night co-star MaryBeth Rubens put it, it was impossible to imagine Casey and Jamie Lee ever being a couple in real life, despite the fact that they were during the making of this film.
Interestingly enough, Prom Night would later bring Jamie Lee Curtis her first acting nomination when she was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Foreign Actress. (Indeed, one of the interesting thing about the early history of the Genie Awards is just how many slasher films were nominated. Apparently, during the early 80s, the Canadian film industry was a bit less robust than it is today.) That said, Jamie Lee does give a really good performance in this film and dammit, she deserved the award!
(Or, at the very least, I assume she did. I’m not really sure to whom she lost and I’m too lazy to look it up on Wikipedia.)
(Okay, screw it. I felt guilty for being lazy so I decided to look it up. Jamie Lee Curtis lost to Susan Sarandon, who won for her performance in Atlantic City. Since Sarandon’s role was actually a supporting one to Burt Lancaster’s, I still say that Curtis should have won.)
Earlier today, I read the sad news that British actress Eunice Grayson passed away at the age of 90. Grayson may not have been a household name but true fans of James Bond (as opposed to those who think that the franchise started with Daniel Craig) know Grayson from her role as Sylvia Trench in both Dr. Noand From Russia With Love.
Eunice Grayson was the first Bond girl. When we first meet Bond in Dr. No, he’s sitting down across from her at the Baccarat table. When Bond asks her name, she replies, “Trench. Sylvia Trench.” When she asks his name, he playfully replies, “Bond. James Bond.” and history is made.
Grayson originally auditioned for the role of Miss Moneypenny but, when the producers decided to give that role to Lois Maxwell, Grayson was instead cast as Sylvia Trench. At first, Sylvia was envisioned as being Bond’s permanent “off-duty” girlfriend. That’s certainly the role that she’s plays when she briefly reappears in From Russia With Love. The original plan was for Sylvia (and Grayson) to appear in at least six Bond films and to be the principal Bond girl in the sixth one. However, those plans were abandoned with Goldfinger.
Today’s scene that I love is in memory of both Eunice Grayson and the role she played in the history of one of my favorite film franchises. From 1962’s Dr. No, James Bond meets Sylvia Trench for the first time…
I would like to think that when the Palme d’Or is awards in Cannes, it’ll be half as exciting as when Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg) picked up his second Best Actor trophy in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights.
Now, the scene below is actually the extended version of the scene that actually appeared in the movie. In the movie, you just see Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) watching his latest film and then cut to Dirk picking up his award. In the extended version, we get to see everyone’s reaction to Dirk winning. They’re all there — Burt Reynolds, William H. Macy, Nina Hartley, John C. Reilly, Melora Waters, Luis Guzman, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, Robert Ridgely (as the memorably corrupt Colonel), and, of course, the dearly missed Philip Seymour Hoffman.
I can understand why Anderson chose to go with a shortened version of this scene. Boogie Nights is a long film and obviously, it wasn’t totally necessary to see how everyone reacted to Diggler’s victory. (By that point, in the film, we already knew how everyone felt about him.) That said, I do prefer the extended version. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that Boogie Nights was more than just the story of Dirk Diggler. Instead, it was the story of a group of outcasts who became a family.
Anyway, let’s hope that whoever wins the Palme d’Or will be a bit more enthusiastic about it than Dirk.
