Another Liebster Blog Award

Earlier this year, Barry from Cinematic Catharsis gave me the first Liebster Award and I was very proud to receive this recognition from one of my peers. Especially, one I admire and see as an excellent blogger/film writer.   

Then, on the day of my birthday, the film historian and critic that almost pushed me towards film writings and into the dementia of my cinephilia, Kevyn Knox of The Most Beautiful Fraud in The World awarded me this one. This is a great recognition from one of the first film critic I ever read and still follow since the debuts of his now defunct The Cinematheque.

Admitting that Movie blogging is a tough thing isn’t really a jaw dropping sentence, but I have been struggling to write in English, my mother tongue is French and the commenter: John, Bonjour Tristesse, Chip, Groggy are loyal and keep coming back but I wish that my readership would get wider and more diverse. Receiving an award like this is always a great recognition and it brings huge confidence into my insecure mind. Thank You!

11 (non movie related believe it or not) things about yours truly:

1. Snowboarding is my favourite sport and I write on two blogs about it.

2. I play the drums and music is a big part of my life.

3. Cooking and eating are a real pleasure for me. Gourmand is one of the best adjective that can describe me.

4. It will be 11 years on September 20^th that I am with my girlfriend/wife and 1 year that we are married on August 20^th.

5. My day job is for a big company in Computer, Consulting, and Technologies. I am a consultant in Records Management.

6. I am a diehard fan of the sitcom Friends. I know every line of the show.

7. Ironically, I don’t have many friends but the ones I have are very close.

8. Lots of people are impressed to learn that I can dance the entire choreography of Thriller.

9. A collector I am. From DVDs to Records (vinyls) to Hockey cards.

10. I suffer from insomnia since my childhood and Films have been one of my night companion.

11. I have been wearing a beard since 2006.

11 Answers:

1. What is your favourite film of all time? Taxi Driver
2. What was the first film you saw in a theater? Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
3. What is your opinion on the Oscars? A big commercial break for movies. Not what it used to be. But I will always watch it with my homemade pulled pork sandwich.
4. On average, how many movies do you watch per year? Used to be more than 200. Now more around 100 or so.
5. What is your favourite decade in cinema? The 1970’s.
6. If you could switch places with any movie character, who would it be?
7. What is your favourite guilty pleasure movie? I don’t believe in guilty pleasures because if you like something you like it. But I don’t want to be a pain in the ass I’ll say National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I watch it every Christmas Eve or so.
8. Audrey Hepburn - worthy of her hype? I don’t think so. But still an icon of sophistication.
9. How long have you been writing about movies? Since 2009, so three years.
10. Who is your most hated movie character?
11. What is your favourite movie musical number? The Red Shoes

Pass it along to 11 of my peers:

Bonjour Tristesse

Cinematic Catharsis

The Droid You’re Looking For

Nothing Is Written

Eternity of Dream

Film Master Journal

Only the Cinema

Tips From Chip

Virginie’s Cinema

FilmSquish

The One-Line Review

11 Questions for 11 award recipients:

1. What is your real name?

2. How many movies do you watch every week?

3. Black and white or color films?

4. What is the best film you watched recently?

5. Your best movie watching experience (movie, context)?

6. Do you watch movies alone or with friends, life partner, your pet?

7. Which film opened you the door to be a serious movie watcher?

8. What is the film you could watch every day for the rest of your life?

9. Who’s your favourite director?

10. Take a guess, what will be the next Best Picture Oscar Winner?

11. You have to save one film because we have to delete the entire History of Cinema. What will you save?

The Top 9 Films of 1983 aka The Year I Was Born - Redux

As a Classic Film lover I am a man/boy who loves traditions. This is the third time I do this list and every year I try to watch films from the year I was born to see a little bit of what happened in this year.

I'm very proud to say that most of the films I wanted to watch I had the opportunity to watch them this year. However, I missed A Christmas Story (Bob Clark) during the last Holidays. It is still on my DVR but I wanted to wait to watch it for December. I'll have a little something coming up for December this year but I don't want to say too much so I'll stop here.

By the way, this is birthday and this is why I annually do this. I invite other bloggers to do this and tell us their favorite films on the day of their birth.

Below you will find my long awaited Top 9 films of 1983, starting from number 1 to number 9.

The 7x7 Link Award Meme

I've been nominated twice for this award lately Bonjour Tristesse and John from The Droid You're Looking For were very kind to list me. Here it goes:
The Rules:

1.    Tell everyone something that no one else knows about you.

2.    Link to a post I think fits the following categories: The Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-worthy Piece.

3.    Pass this on to 7 fellow bloggers

Tell everyone something that no one else knows about you:
As my day job I work as an Archivist, and my master was about History. One way or another I tried to include my primary interest, read here films, into my studies and nowadays job. Back in University I did an essay about Soviet Silent films and their direct correlation with History. I also analyzed many films about the ideology of Nazism in films in another course. My secret wish is to someday become a film Historian and Archivist. 

Most Beautiful Piece:
Many of my reviews are like my children so I think many can be beautiful and I also think that they all have a flaw here and there, but my Tree of Life, Citizen Kane, The Gold Rush, and À bout de souffle are some of my personal favourite posts.

Most Helpful Piece:
It might be my piece on how to discern Erich von Stroheim from Josef von Sternberg but since it is partly on Silent films and the post is pretty fresh I haven’t sensed the effects of it yet.

Most Popular Piece:
According to Blogger’s stats my second most popular post and my most popular review is my piece for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The most popular post is listed later in this piece.

Most Controversial Piece:
My list of The Greatest Alter Egos in Cinema History made some purists lift their eyebrows and might not be as specific as the title stated. But still, it got reactions.

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece:
This would be my Top Films of François Truffaut by LMdC. The date of Truffaut’s 80th anniversary I had nearly 15 000 visitors only for this piece in one day. It was not expected that a little post about this great director would have dragged so much traffic here.

Most Underrated Piece:
There are so many of my reviews I would have love to receive more reactions. For example, my piece for the LAMb about the Best Picture Nominee The Artist was something I was really proud and it didn’t really provoked much. This is one of the many effects that happens when I review new releases, there are too many reviews out there and it doesn’t drag that much traffic and/or reactions.

Most Pride-worthy Piece:
The whole idea of my Je me souviens series about the films from my part of the world; the Province of Québec. Makes me proud and I’m happy to share the films from where I come from!

Pass this on to 7 fellow bloggers:
It's going to be hard to find 7 of you who haven't already received this but I'll try, and don't feel obligated to participate if selected.

Virginie at Virginie's Cinema
A Québec City based filmmaker that teams up with her husband to make films and live her dreams. A funny, casual, light hearted, fashionista's blog.

Kevyn Knox at The Most Beautiful Fraud in the World
One of my inspirations, this Harrisburg, PA based film critic sure has interesting opinions on current and classic films. Kevyn is one of the reasons I write about films. A truly passionate writer.

Ed Howard at Only the Cinema
The almost-erudit prose of Howard's interventions is a must for every cinephile out there that wants to dig much deeper than anyone else.

Thomas Pollock at Film Master Journal
Thomas has the gift of time and he watches many many classic films each months. I love to read his reviews since he discovers films I've seen many years ago and it gives me second thoughts about them.

Barry P. at Cinematic Cartharsis
Since Barry nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award it is my chance to give back an Award to this fellow blogger. Don't forget to visit his very interesting Blog.

Thomas Duke at Cinema Gonzo
Mr. Duke has a series about the Rare Westerns on Netflix and constantly reviews obscure films that gets under the radar.

Squish at Filmsquish
Being the host of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die Blog Club is something. Being my virtual friend as another one and Squish Lessard is both. Please visit and join the Club!

Classic Film Meme

Originally authored by Rianna over at Frankly, My Dear, I've decided to take the time to make this meme. It gives me a break from trying to figure how to watch all the Oscar nominated picture of the year...

1. Favorite Disney.

This is a tricky question, because I really love classic Disney films. But my personal favorite one is without a doubt The Jungle Book. It reminds me of many childhood  memories not just of the film but because my mother used to make us watch all those National Geographic documentaries on rainy days.

2. Favorite film from 1939.

La règle du jeu aka The Rules of the Game. Jean Renoir's greatest masterpiece depicts what it is that makes filmmaking an Art. Just like his father, he masters wonderful tricks of "mise en scène". Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich agreed on many things during their great friendship but the thing they agreed the most their favorite filmmaker: Jean Renoir.

3. Favorite Carole Lombard Screwball role
Since I have only seen To Be or Not To Be so it will be my answer. However, I 've been meaning to watch Hawks' Twentieth Century for some time now. Based on the only movie I've seen of Lombard she is a potential favorite Classic actress and a very handsome lady.

4. Favorite off screen couple? (It's ok if it ended in divorce)
No idea.

5. Favorite pair of best friends? (i.e - Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck, etc.)

John Wayne and Howard Hawks. They were making films as pretext to pass some time with each other. They also contributed to the Cinema with great westerns (Rio Bravo, Red River, El Dorado) and one of my favorite film: Hatari!

6. Favorite actor with a mustache? (i.e: Charlie Chaplin, William Powell)
Since Chaplin is a given and Tom Selleck is outside of the time frame I would have to say Clark Gable. Just for his Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

7. Favorite blonde actress?

Marylin Monroe. Obvious choice but her presence in many of my favorite director's pictures; Hawks (Monkey Business), Wilder (Some Like It Hot), Huston (The Asphalt Jungle, The Misfits), etc.

8. Favorite pre-code?
Design For Living. Ernst Lubitsch and his touch always works on me. This a picture where a love triangle is displayed and sex is overtly discussed. A must see for sure!

9. Which studio would you have liked to join?
The first moments of United Artists but definitely RKO just to have the chance to work with Orson Welles and to save The Magnificent Ambersons from being butchered by the studio...

10. Favorite common on screen pairing that SHOULD have gotten married?
Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. Their relationship in Rear Window makes you believe that those two actually felt in love with each other.

11. Favorite I Love Lucy episode?
Let's pass. I've never seen one episode of this show.

12. Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, and Greer Garson - which one do you like the best?

Grace Kelly, just for her role in Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief. Man is she hot. But also because I think she had a great talent.

13. Shadowy film noir from the 1940's or splashy colorful musicals from the 1950's?
It's like asking me if I want cake or pie. I want both I love both! Yes I confess I am such a sweet tooth. But I think I'll have to surpringly answer splashy musicals from the 1950's. The first movies that comes in mind is An American in Paris, The Red Shoes (1948, is a cheat but it is a masterpiece), and Singin' In the Rain.

14. Actor or actress with the best autograph (photo preferred)?
Seriously, who cares? But I know I would have loved to ask Charlie Chaplin's autograph just to meet him.


15. A baby (or childhood or teenage) photo of either your favorite actress or actor (or both, if you'd like)?It would have to be Chaplin but I couldn't put my hand on a childhood picture...

400th Post on Le Mot du Cinephiliaque

Wow! It’s been more than two years since I started to ramble about movies on this modest but passion driven blog. At first, with only some reviews of theatrical releases I struggled to write in French and English at the same time. Later, I choose to only express my thoughts in the tongue of Shakespeare, which isn’t my mother tongue by the way. I know sometimes that my “propos” isn’t as clear as I wanted it to be or that some reviews may need to be rewritten or revised, but the soul is there and I think that I could maintain and elevate my writing with the years to come. This little hobby has become a passion and maybe an obsession.

In the beginnings, the comments were few and I had to fight through the jungle that is movie blogging to find my own niche and recurring readers.

But now, with other classic films/repertoire/foreign films enthusiasts I think I found many great bloggers to share my thoughts and comment on their own lairs.

As to this date I’ve decided to impose myself a number of goals to attain before the end of the year 2011. Here they are:
*Obtain my 50th follower.
*Post my 500th post
*Watch 150 films (total for 2011) I’ve never seen
*Improve my writing skills and my ability with HTML
*Post a comment on a new blog everyday

All of these goals will help me maintain the quality and the quantity of LMdC as a whole. Moreover, it will help me to be a perfect candidate for the Online Film Critics Society.

I’d like to thank everyone who comments and participate in this great adventure that is movie blogging with me and our community of bloggers!

See you next post!

Fifteen Movie Questions Meme

Since that many Bloggers took the quizz I've decided to answer it myself to let you know a little more of me...


1) Movie you love with a passion.
There are countless films I love with a passion. La règle du jeu, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shinning, Modern Times, The Trial, etc. The Cinema is a thing I love with a passion. But my number one spot since ten years or so is Taxi Driver. I love everything from this film and I think it might be one of the few perfect films ever made.

2. Movie you vow to never watch.
As a movie lover, there aren't that many films I never want to see. However, I think one of the films I wish to never see because it represents many thinks I hate in movies today is Precious. The story seems to be overdramatic-made-for-Oscars-kinda-shit. I know the story is touching, but I vowed myself to stay away from it.


3) Movie that literally left you speechless.
Again so many to name just one except La règle du jeu. Every time I rewatch this film I kind of love it more and more. Everytime it ends I try to take a pen and write my impressions about it but all that comes out can't describe the greatness of it all.


4) Movie you always recommend.
Le salaire de la peur or Les diaboliques both by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Those two aren't the greatest films of all-time but they are some of the greatest thrills of the seventh Art. Clouzot knew how to handle a great play and he (re)defined the action genre and the horror genre. I don't like to recommend obvious films like The Godfather or The Shawsank Redemption, to me Cinema did not ended with those films.


5) Actor/actress you always watch, no matter how crappy the movie.
I would love to say Robert De Niro, but he made so many crappy ones in a row that now I don't think he's the same actor as he was in the 1970's and 1980's. Plus I'm not such an actor guy at all but I'll try to answer anyway: Christian Bale. Yes, really since American Psycho I think he's one of the few constant actors out there. More mainstream than Daniel Day-Lewis but still strong and character driven.


6) Actor/actress you don't get the appeal for.  
Dennis Quaid and Will Smith for the boys and Angelina Jolie for the girls.


7) Actor/actress, living or dead, you'd love to meet.  
Charles Chaplin. The man's an inspiration for me and even if in the US they tried to bring him down I think he's one of the greatest man of the 20th Century.


8) Sexiest actor/actress you've seen.
There are three beautiful women in that place right now and without any order Zooey Deschanel, Scarlett Johnasson, and Mila Kunis. 

9) Dream cast.  
Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Zooey Deschanel, Kirsten Dunst in a film directed by Michael Parent... You said Dream cast right? My absolute dream is to direct movies as a living and doing it with some of my favorite female actresses would be heaven!


10) Favorite actor pairing.  
James Stewart and Grace Kelly. I loved their parts in Rear Window and I though it made sense. What I like about Stewart is that he is the average American being a mild actor fitting in Westerns or Mystery films. And Grace, well, it's Grace Kelly. Do I have to say anything more?


11) Favorite movie setting.
 I love cities, they have this vibrant life of culture, Art, and different expressions of the humans that I think I prefer films made in  cities. Even if great films like Werner Herzog's Fitzcaraldo and Aguirre the Wrath of God were aboslute Jungle made masterpieces.


12) Favorite decade for movies.
Tricky one because I love films from each decade but the decade I have the most personal favorites is the 1970's. The Second Golden Age of the Cinema! The age where the diretors took Hollywood change the way movies were made for more than a decade.

13. Chick flick or action movie? 
What's the difference? Two genres invented to sell to a particular gender. Well, boys will be boys Action movies!

14. Hero, villain or anti-hero?
I hate when we categorize people. But I can define me, definitely anti-hero, like myself and Travis Bickle.

15. Black and white or color (and/or colour)?         
Since I'm more into Classic films my answer could automatically be black and white but also I like colour pictures because some films are better in colour and some couldn't have been the same without their contrasted black and white.     

Top 5 of 1983 aka The Year I Was Born

Taking from a MEME I've seen this year on some Blogs I've dig through my film memories to try to find all the films I've seen that were made in 1983 aka the year I was born. Well, the first I've seen from this year is without a doubt The Return of the Jedi directed by Richard Marquand(!?!), by automatic mistake we always think it's from George Lucas, it's mostly but he's not credited as the director. I remember the first time, and I'm pretty sure it was the only time, I've seen The Return of the Jedi; my dad and I rented it with the two other episodes on a hot rainy saturday evening of the 1990's...

Well, cinematic memories are very important and I think the context of the viewing of a film is very important to appreciate it. The rest of my family, my brother was too to stay up until the third movie of the evening and he isn't as a cinephile as we are so is my mother. I'll always remember those evenings of watching movies with my dad, as long as I can remember we were fans of the Back to the Future the trilogy, Tom Hanks & Chevy Chase comedies, every Spielberg picture around and every action movies too. Well before passing judgments you have to remember that I was around 8-12 years old at the time...

Now you're thinking why does he talks about all those childish memories? First of all, I don't want to brag or anything but it's been three years since I haven't seen my father, it relieves me to talk about it, but mostly because my number one spot is Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia.

Below you will find my long awaited Top 5 films of 1983, starting from number 5 to number 1, I will post reviews of these films each week before my birthday and the final review, the number 1 of this list Nostaghia, will be posted August 2, which is my birthday by the way.

1. Nostalghia (Andrei Tarkovsky)

2. Videodrome (David Cronenberg)

3. The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)

4. Scarface (Brian De Palma)

5. Vivement Dimanche! (François Truffaut)

Not yet included: Prénom Carmen (Jean-Luc Godard)


The ones I want to see that may change the order of this list:
Zelig (Woody Allen)
L'argent (Robert Bresson)
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola)
The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman)
Sans Soleil (Chris Marker)
Pauline à la plage (Eric Rohmer)

...and your suggestions for 1983!

Michaël Parent

10 Movie facts About Me (meme)

1. The first movie I've seen in a Theater was Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995). I know it's a little late in my life, I was 12 years old. But my parents were not cinemagoers and we didn't had much money so they prefered home rentals.

2. The best memory of my childhood is Ghostbusters and even today it has a special place in my favorite films. I must admit it scared the hell out of me!

3. I've never seen a film by: John Cassavetes, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, William Wyler, King Vidor, Jacques Rivette, Hsiao Hsien Hou, Jean-Pierre Melville, and so many others I probably don't even know their name yet.

4. In 2006 I was at Nice in France near Cannes, and I saw Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez walking together, and I'm ashamed to say I was too shy to go talk with them...

5. My ultimate cinephile goal is to achieve to see all the films on the They Shoot Pictures 1000 Greatest Films. I am now at 422, so 578 to go!

6. I must admit, I hated to death À Bout de Souffle the first time I watched it. Now having seen other Godard films, I must say I really think it's a good film and I'm thinking of rewatching it pretty soon.

7. I am not a religious person at all. I even dislike all religions equally, but when I enter in a movie theater I'm always feeling like I enter in a temple... Well, I could say movies are my "religion".

8. The movies of the last decade I didn't had the chance to see yet and that I'm looking forward to see are: Miami Vice, Requiem For A Dream, Donnie Darko, Yi Yi, Ghost World, Synecdoche, New York, and Let the Right One In.

9. My dream is to become a film director and my goal is to be a paid movie critic before I turn 30 (in 3 years) and live of my passion.

10. If I have to pick a favorite movie genre I would have to go with comedy (Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, etc). Even I, am surprise of this fact but this is the kind of films I can watch again and again! A great comedy always makes me feel good.

That's it for me, I looking forward to read yours to! So feel free to link or list them in the Comments!

I always love to read your comments and I enjoy them all!

Michaël Parent