I took this meme from Stephen Lang’s blog where he was asking and answering movie questions in honor of the Oscars, which will be presented on Sunday, February 25th. I added a few questions of my own.

The Oscars. Are you bothered?

Mr Lang is British, and I think the question is British for “do you care?” Not really. I haven’t seen many of the movies that are nominated for Academy Awards. I think Children of Men should have gotten more nominations, but I’m not really bothered about it.

Which of the Oscar nominees, if any, have you seen?

I saw Children of Men. It was nominated for “achievement in film editing” and for “best adapted screenplay.” And I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest on DVD a couple of weeks ago. Maybe there were too many distractions, but I kept having to ask the urchins to explain the plot. I liked the first one a lot better.

A really good film you’ve seen recently, although nobody else has seen it or even heard of it:
Paper Clips is a documentary about some middle school children in a small town in Tennessee who collect paper clips to symbolize and to be able to visualize the number of people who died in the Holocaust. It was a good movie, and along with the book Yellow Star, it made my children ask some questions about an important subject.

The worst film you’ve paid good money to see:

Ever? I paid money to rent The Talented Mr. Ripley. Unfortunately, we rented it from a company called Clean Films, and the parts they edited out were essential to understanding the plot and characters of the movie. Fortunately, I woudn’t have wanted to understand. Unfortunately, we all figured it out toward the end of the film. Not a worthwhile experience.

Most pretentious film you’ve paid good money to see:
All the Pretty Horses

A film you’ve rented on video or DVD and turned off very quickly, shouting “this is awful!”

I’ve rented a couple of old movies to watch with the urchins that I remembered as innocent fun, but they were really raunchy and not very funny anymore: Crocodile Dundee and Silver Streak.

A film you know you should watch but you’ve never quite got round to seeing:

I don’t know about “should watch,” but I feel as if I ought to see a couple of movies that dramatize the horrible sin of man, but I just can’t. I’ve never seen Schindler’s List nor The Killing Fields nor The Passion of the Chirist. I can read about stuff like that, but I just can’t watch in reenacted on screen in living color.

Earliest cinematic experience:

Believe it or not, my grandfather used to take us to see Elvis Presley movies. And I also went with my parents to the drive-in movies. I had a palet in the back floorboard where I could go to sleep when it got to be my bedtime. I have this vague memory of my parents watching Elizabeth Taylor on a huge screen while I felt both secret and adventurous in my back seat bed.

Teenage movie memories:
Star Wars came out in 1977; I was still, barely, a teenager. I remember how exciting that movie was, such great fantasy. My friends and I had long discussions about whether “The Force” was a reference to God or to some pagan or Eastern religious concept.

Strangest cinematic experience:

This Patricia Highsmith-inspired moment.

Is there a film that you’ve been waiting to see again for years that’s just vanished from the face of the Earth?

I saw this film (television episode?) with Oliver Reed playing the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti a long time ago, and I’ve always remembered it. I cannot picture Rossetti as anyone except Oliver Reed. I wonder if I could see the movie again if it would be as good as I remember.

Your cinematic obsession that bores everyone else to tears:
I don’t know. I like old movies, and the urchins will hardly watch it if it’s in black and white.

Someone else’s cinematic obsession that you’ve gone along with:

Engineer Husband likes World War II movies, old WW2 movies, like Where Eagles Dare and The Great Escape. It’s OK.
The urchins are obsessed with Star Wars and Spiderman. I’ve mined about all the gold out of those two series that I can.

Anyone from the world of cinema that you have a real love/hate relationship with?
Barbra Streisand. I like the way she sings, and I think she’s a good actress. But her politics are annoying. Several other good actors and actresses have the same problem, however, I don’t pay much attention to actors and actressses when they’re off-stage.

Favourite romantic movie:

My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Much Ado About Nothing

Favorite movie(s) based on a book:

The Lord of the Rings, of course. To Kill a Mockingbird is pretty good, too.

Movie that absolutely ruined a good book:

I can’t think of anything. I try to forget bad movies.

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