The Dialogue Meme (originally posted on my Film Blog)

Well, it's all over but the crying. Below are all the answers to my Dialogue Meme, so you can slap yourselves in the forehead for not placing the quote, or slap me for using you folks as guinea pigs.

So what do the ten films quoted below have in common? I didn't expect you to guess that, since it's fairly arbitrary- they are ten of the films in my "next 25" list that I plan to make as an addendum to my top 100 of a couple years back. For the rest of the 25, stay tuned to this site.

1. "Ah yes, she was a Communist too. She believed in free love. At the time it was all I could afford."

1A. "I reserve the right to be ignorant. That's the Western way of life."

- from THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965, Martin Ritt)

2. "Sorry, I'm a bit of a stickler for paperwork. Where would we be if we didn't follow proper procedures?" - from BRAZIL (1985); answered by Vadim.

3. "You're hypnotized by this place, all of you. It's so bright and nearly wrapped you don't see that it's a prison too." - from DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978); answered by Jason.

4. "They think if they piss high enough they're gonna come across the monkey with the beard and the crap ideas and it's like, 'oh! There you are, captain! Are you busy, because I've got a few fundamental questions for ya'? You with me?"

4A. "What about the old diminishing pachyderm formation there?"

- from NAKED (1993, Mike Leigh)

5. "It was wonderful, he thought- how such depths of feeling could coexist with an absence of imagination."

5A. "I can't have my happiness made of a wrong to somebody else."

- from THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993, Martin Scorsese)

6. "Two more double bourbons. Make 'em nice and big." - from TOUCH OF EVIL (1958); answered by Tosh.

7. "This promises to be quite a trip. Personally, I don't intend to miss a meal."

7A. "My line? My most effective one is to tell a girl she has hair like a tortured midnight, lips like a red couch in an ivory palace that I'm lonely and starved for affection. Then, I generally burst into tears. It seldom works."

- from GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953, Howard Hawks)

8. "The fine line that runs from ear to chin is not as obvious anymore, but it is etched there by your easygoing, indolent ways."

8A. "Wednesday the third of September-- The tang of autumn fills the clear still air but it's mild and fine."

- from CRIES AND WHISPERS (1972, Ingmar Bergman)

9. "Well, you know music, and you can count. All the way up to two." - from ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968); answered by Tosh.

10. "We have a saying in Brazil- he says to go up- it says, 'Deus e Brasilero,' which means, 'God is Brazilian.' So you see, we have no worry in the world. Of course, you have to worry some. That's the way of life."

10A. "Well, Cinderella. I was beginning to think you'd never come for your shoe."

- from POINT BLANK (1967, John Boorman)

This is why I don't have kids (that and I don't have a significant other)

I was sitting at La Guardia today, waiting for my flight, when a family sat in the seats across from where I am. A couple, maybe in their late forties or early fifties, and a boy who looked to be maybe 11 or 12. Actually, I first noticed them not by sight, but when I heard the kid. I tell you, this kid just wouldn't stop. He kept ranting and raving- "I wanna fly now! NOW! I don't wanna wait! NOW! NOW!!!" His parents gently tried to quiet him without making a scene, but nothing doing- he stood up and started stamping his feet on the ground, throwing a little baby temper tantrum. You know, the kind like you see in movies but you can't believe any parent would tolerate? But these parents did. And after a while, he reached out and started slapping his parents intermittently in various parts of their body, as if to punish them for not allowing him to get on the plane. By this time, I was starting to get angry. I had been immersed in Cain's wonderful MILDRED PIERCE (a great American tragedy, in my opinion), but I couldn't concentrate with the overgrown baby putting on a show across the aisle. Eventually it seems he decided that his parents weren't enough of an opponent, so he began yelling at random people around him. He even looked over to me at one point, as I was pretending to read, and said "what are YOU looking at?" I then proceeded to make eye contact with his mother (or at least I think she was his mother) and she gave a weary, resigned smile and a shrug, as if to say "what do you expect me to do?"

Well, here's what I DON'T expect you to do, lady. I don't expect you to just stand there and let Bratty McGoo yell and scream and make a scene. You're his parents, for chrissakes. I'm not saying that you reach for the nearest mallet and pound him with it (though I would have been tempted myself were a mallet nearby). But do SOMETHING. Take the little bastard by the arm, firmly guide him into the nearest public restroom and assert your responsibility. Tell him that the world does not operate according to his schedule. Insist that there is no excuse for him to hit others, least of all his parents. And of course inform him in no uncertain terms that he's TOO FUCKING OLD TO THROW TANTRUMS IN PUBLIC. Seriously, this kid had to be in the double digits, and the stomping around and yelling routine loses its effectiveness long before this age.

Now, I'm not a parent (all you parents can breathe a collective sigh of relief) but last I checked one of a parent's jobs is to discipline unruly children. Again, I'm not advocating the use of the hand, the paddle, or my mother's favorite, Mr. Spatula. But just as one must reward good behavior, so must bad behavior not go unpunished, or else the kid won't learn the difference between the two. One look at the faces of Mom and Dad said it all- they looked tired, haggard, worn down. And if I had a kid who had been pitching fits for over a decade I'm sure I'd look like that too. But not only will letting this behavior slide not make the kid stop, it won't make you look any younger either.

To all you parents out there- am I way out of line here?