ClassicMovieRIMF #5: Man in the chair (2007)

So many Classic Movies References in this Modern Film! 

It happened again: I was in the mood to watch a recent film so I picked Man in the chair because Christopher Plummer was the leading actor...and it surprised me: the movie itself was very good AND Classic Hollywood was part of the plot.

The movie 

Before I show you a clip of some of the references, allow me to tell you what's it about. We could title this film: There's no country for old men, even if they were part of Hollywood's Golden Age meets Karate Movie Director Kid. 

Explanation: a student with family issues wants to film a movie to present it in a contest and try to win a scholarship and become a great director etc. His classmates are all rich kids from L.A., so he has 0 chances. He really loves cinema and that way he meets Christopher Plummer, in a movie theater. 

The old man is very irritable and soon we realize he has issues of his own. He worked as a gaffer in a lot of old movies like Citizen Kane (mini flashback included) and now he's alone and abandoned, just like other  people he knew in those glorious days, now living in a residential home for the elderly. This group will help the kid to make his movie and he will realize that they have a story to tell...

The movie is dramatic, it feels real. I ended up crying. 

The ClassicMovieRIMFs

Well, you should see this film, so I'm not going to tell you ALL the references, but they include: old posters (example: Meet John Doe), old movie screenings, mentioning fictional people that work in classics (like Roman Holiday), a flashback where Orson Welles is depicted and more.

So, today's ClassicMovieRIMF are three, all placed at the opening credits sequence, so I won't spoil anything to you: His Girl Friday, John Wayne's Angel and the Badman and  The last time I saw Paris starring Elizabeth Taylor. Be sure to check the audio from the very beginning:

To check more ClassicMovieRIMFS click here or the respective button in the sidebar menu :)

ClassicMovieRIMF # 4: Benny and Joon (1993)

Classic movies haunt me. Definitely. Yesterday I was in the mood to watch a more recent film so I picked a movie called Benny and Joon. All I knew about it is that was a comedy, starring Johnny Depp and the actress from Fried Green Tomatoes. The end.

So, it starts, lalalala, nice music, parallel scenes introduce the main characters; a girl painting and a guy in a train looking like this:

And that was minute 02:43. I mean, classic films leave me alone! So, the painter woman (Mary Stuart Masterson aka Joon) is mentally ill (likes to start fires, hears voices, has panic attacks) and lives with her brother (Aidan Quinn, Brad Pitt's brother in Legends of the Fall).

One night Aidan Quinn takes her to a night of poker games with his friends. Well, second classic movie reference: someone is betting a Deanna Durbin album.

Another guy says his cousin arrived to live with him. He says the cousin doesn't know how to read, spends his time polishing plastic forks and..."keeps me up all night watching stupid old movies".

Well, the cousin is Johnny Depp aka Benny and he's kind of weird, but in a good way. He loves doing tricks and performing acrobatics and always wears a pork pie hat. At a restaurant, he recreates Chaplin's famous table ballet scene, as you can see:

Then he copies some Harold Lloyd acts, like he pretends that his hat has a life of its own and he can't catch it or that he can't let go a sticky handkerchief (watch). 

When Johnny Depp sees Mary Stuart painting he says: "Kirk Douglas, Van Gogh ear". They start a relationship and at some point Johnny gets a job in a video store. Here's a conversation with a client:

Johhny Depp aka Benny: I think that Fred Astaire is the way to go.

Lady: Yeah?

Johnny: That's a good choice

Lady: Who is the woman who starred in the Roman...uh...

Johnny: Audrey Hepburn

Lady: Yeah, thanks a lot. 

There are more references according to Imdb, but I didn't notice them, so maybe you should see this film. I really liked it, it was a nice movie with a great casting (besides Johnny, Aidan and Mary Stuart you can see Julianne Moore, Oliver Platt and William H. Macy).

Hope you enjoyed this Classic Movie Reference in Modern Films!

ClassicMovieRIMF #3: Only the lonely (1991)

Yesterday I saw this film because Maureen O'Hara mentioned that she found it had a great script and she loved working with John Candy, Anthony Quinn and director Chris Columbus (yes, the one from Home Alone and Harry Potter).

It was a minor comedy, with some flaws, but I enjoyed it and laugh out loud many times. Maureen plays the crazy and overprotective old (Irish) mother of a cop who wants to marry an introverted Sicilian girl (I really don't know anything about these kind of enmities between races, but it seems that Irish and Italians dislike each other). Maureen's role is a bit like the one Jane Fonda played more recently in (the mediocre) Monster-in-Law, a mother that's so possessive and so mean that is funny.

You know that to me is still very difficult to see Classic Actors in "recent" movies (Only the lonely is 20 years old already). Because the actor or actress is still there, but different, older. And then, in some second, they blink in a certain way, or smile, or whatever, and make you remember their younger self, and it's kind of sad. 

Life.

Well, too much blah blah, the Classic Movie Reference in this film is....The Call of the Wild (1935), starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young (I guess you know that they had a daughter but kept it secret). 

Watch the whole scene, it's cute. Oh, the Sicilian girl worked in a funerary:

Is it me or Clark Gable steals the scene even as a still frame?? 

 More ClassicMoviesRIMF :

• Mata Hari (1931) in Harriet The Spy (1996)
• Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and several classic actresses in S1mone (2002)

ClassicMovieRIMF #2: Harriet the Spy (1996)

Continuing with the Classic Movies References In Modern Films (sorry if you didn't get it from the title, but I had to shorten it someway...So, for the next posts, remember what ClassicMovieRIMF means), now I present you a clip from a movie I saw when I was a kid and I re-watched this week: Harriet the Spy.

Starring Rosie O'Donnell and Michelle Trachtenberg (never saw her in anything again), the movie is about a girl that loves to investigate and write down everything what she sees or hears, which brings her problems.

In this clip, the classic movie shown is...Mata Hari (1931). The best thing about this scene is that they seem to be having a blast at the cinema. Just press play and watch till the end, it will start in the interesting part. 

Hope you enjoyed. Wait for the next ClassicMovieRIMF!

 Previous ClassicMoviesRIMFs: 

• Audrey Hepburn and more classic actresses in S1mone (2002)

More Garbo films:

• Two faced woman (1941) or how cool was Greta
• Old movies vs. Remakes: The Painted Veil

Classic stars references in modern films #1: S1mone (2002)

The other day, when I was writing about the rumor of classic actors "acting" in new movies, I mentioned the film S1mone (2002). Critics didn't like it very much, but I found it really interesting. Anyway, I *think* that I'll be doing a new series of posts which cleverly I'm gonna name: Classic stars references in modern films (is that grammatically correct?). I know there are a lot and I'll try to post one scene once in a while. Here's the first, in which Al Pacino is teaching his computer generated actress tricks of the "old guard":

Cool, uh?