describe the scene game

[cmvgor]

Thanks, Eve.

I had nothing planned, but I'll try this from a standing start:

 

Inter-Family warfare in the Mob. A hit is set up in a restaurant. The hit man has loaded the wrong ammo in the pistol. It blows up, injuring his hand, and leaves the target unhurt, noodles still dangling

from his mouth.

[The Lady Eve]

*Tampopo* ?

[cmvgor]

Not *Tampopo* . USA film, no subtitles. There are other cultures where one can find noodles.

[cmvgor]

Released early 1970s. Early performances by an actor who later had a long run as a TV series star, and by another player who later became very, very successful on the big screen.

[cmvgor]

As a money-making interprise, a Family arranges a marathon bicycle race, intended to attract an audience, generate gambling on the event, and sell refreshments. They are reviving an idea from the 1920s, and putting it in the hands of people who have a hard time organizing anything. Also, one of the factions uses a lion for intimidation when dealing with outsiders.

[cmvgor]

A young man arrives from Italy, supposedly to be in the bicycle race. But he has his own agendas.

The actor in this role is just a couple of years away from a breakout role that would make him very

big.

[cmvgor]

Forget The *Godfather* conceit about spouses not being involved -- Mama Coreleone's detachment and Kay's instructions about "Don't ask about my business." One family matriarch in this epic, with a name out of Tennessee Williams, is up to her elbows in plotting mischief. Something like Connie in

*Godfather III*, but more hands-on.

[cmvgor]

The Italian bicycle racer shows up in various locations, dressed as a priest, claiming that he is collecting for charities back home.

[cmvgor]

The lion, held by one faction to use for menace and intimidation, is kept in the basement of a building. Problems develop. The kinds of problems experienced by people who keep cats indoors..

[cmvgor]

In an earlier post, it was mentioned that the matriarch in one faction is an aggressive and malevolent

force in the clan's business. In the other faction the Don's wife has another function. Each morning she goes out to the boss' car and gets in and cranks it up. The boss sits safely in the kitchen and covers his ears. With the car cranked, and assured that it hasn't been rigged to blow up and kill him,

he leaves on the day's business, and she is free to go back to bed.

[cmvgor]

This movie was developed from a novel by a popular write who was primarily a columnist. For both novel and movie, there were some complaints on ethnic issues.

[The Lady Eve]

*Honor Thy Father* ?

[cmvgor]

Not *Honor Thy Father*. And don't let the pet-lion subplot misdirect. It isn't *Donnie Branco* either.

[cmvgor]

Nine days and some 1,120 Views. It's something of an embarassment to be so far out of sync with the readership of this Forum...

 

*The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight* hit the screens in 1971, a year before *The Godfather*, sourced from a novel by an Irish-descended writer named Jimmy Breslin. The film featured:

 

...Jerry Orbach (later to have a long run as a NYC Detective) as "Kid Sally" , Don wannabe.

 

...Robert De Niro (cast here instead of in *The Godfather* ) as the bicycle racer / con man / priest.

 

...Lionel Stander as the Don that Kid Sally wanted to replace, and who had his wife start his car every morining.

 

...Jo Van Fleet(!) as Big Mama, Kid Sally's mom, functioning as a female Don in her own right.

 

...Frenchman Herve Villechiaze as a dwarf named Beppo who was called Beppo The Dwarf.

 

 

The subject matter and its treatment was resented by the friends of "Crazy Joe Gallo" as an insult to the memory of that late citizen. Novelist and screenwriters were subjected to some threats. I let this one get out of hand and and become a "Name The Movie"-type question. I won't let that happen again. But I will start a new "describe the scene" here:

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A pre-teen girl is newly enrolled in a well-run girl's school. She has been on the run for her life through most of the film. Those who threatened her are now dead. Her protector has lost his life in her defense. In the final scene, she takes a potted plant that she has carried around with her while on the run, and plants in on the lawn of the school.

 

Film?

[cmvgor]

Mid-90s release. The actress, about 13 at this filming, has become a noted beauty, with a well-established career. French production, filmed in the USA. A British actor plays the role of an American law officer. A French actor portrayes a hit man, imported for his expertise.

[The Lady Eve]

Do you mean *Leon* with Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman?

[cmvgor]

Actually, I started out working with the USA title, *The Professional*, but that'll do. Eve's thread.

[The Lady Eve]

C, you?re right ? that?s the title it was released with here?I just couldn?t remember it ? but remembered Reno, Oldman and Portman in a film about a hit-man?

 

Here?s one:

 

A distraught woman runs from her house, across the lawn and into the street?never to return.

[cmvgor]

*Lolita* ?? Shelly Winters' exit scene? Melanie Griffith in the remake?

[The Lady Eve]

Going for the classic *Lolita* - and Shelley Winters' exit it is...yours again, C...

[cmvgor]

Thanks, Eve.

 

A widower in his later years, retired master chef, hosts a dinner gathering in his home, with his family and others present. He announces that he wishes to propose to a neighbor, a younger woman, widowed. The prospective bride's mother came here thinking that _she_ was to be the object of the proposal, and that lady throws a hissy fit!

 

Foreign film, subtitled. Film?

[cmvgor]

"Foreign film, subtitled,"

 

...And a very respectable remake was filmed in, El Segundo, of all places, in a bilingual foremat.

[cmvgor]

Correct, Sixes, and please take the thread for remembering _that_. 1994 Chinese origional, with the title in English rendered as *Eat Drink Man Woman*. The remake, 2001's *Tortilla Soup* placed the story among Mexican-Americans. Both were delightful. Both had a lot to say about relationships in very close functioning families. For me, a favorite feature is Raquel Welch's performance as the disappointed mother in the remake. When that woman decides to throw a tantrum, that tantrum aint't got a chance. It get's throwed!

 

Sixes' thread.

 

Edited by: cmvgor on Feb 19, 2010 3:41 AM

[cmvgor]

mr6666 seems to be taking a break. I'll try another scene.

 

(2,384)

A young lady is selected for a singular honor in the congregation's Easter celebration. She is to place the crown of thorns on the head of the Christ figure. She is at the top of the ladder, performing this rite, when the word goes around the assembled worshipers on the ground: The maden thus honored is pregnant.

 

1990s. Who? Title?

[cmvgor]

The actress at the center of this scene is currently getting a _lot_ of press. support and Emmy mention, due to a recent TVM.