So, this whole post is loosely based on a conversation I had at work the other day, where I literally couldn’t remember the name of anyone who has ever been in a movie or directed a movie.
Discussing movies, age 28:
Me: Have you seen Cape Fear yet? With DeNiro and Nick Nolte?
Friend: Not yet, I remember watching the original with my parents, though. Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.
Me: How come people look so old in the old movies? Like they were our age at the time, but looked
really old.
Friend: I think it was the hair.
Me: Speaking of old movies, I just rented all the Thin Man movies from Blockbuster. Myrna Loy is my hero.
Friend: I’ll drink to that.
Friend: By the way, you said you were going to see Barton Fink. Did you like it?
Me: I love John Turturro, but that movie was disturbing. I loved Raising Arizona by the Coen brothers, but this one was too disturbing.
Friend: Hmmmm, you probably aren’t going to like Silence Of The Lambs then.
Me: But it’s Anthony Hopkins. I’m still going to see it.
Me: Hey, it’s almost midnight, wanna go watch Rocky Horror again? We can make it to the Esquire before it starts.
Friend: Good idea. Coffee afterward?
Discussing movies, age 58:
Me: Who is that one guy? You know, he played Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.
Friend: Dean Stockwell
Me: No. No not Dean Stockwell, the other guy, he was in Easy Rider.
Friend: Harry Dean Stanton.
Me: No. There’s no “Dean” in his name. But I think there’s a D.
Friend: That’s what she said.
Me: DENNIS HOPPER
Me: His character was so fucked up in Blue Velvet.
Me: Wait, who directed Blue Velvet?
Friend: Are we doing this again?
Me: C’mon. Elephant Man. Mulholland Drive.
Friend: Stanley Kubrick?
Me: No, that’s not it. Twin Peaks for fuck’s sake.
Me: Hey Google. Who directed Twin Peaks?
Me: David Lynch. Jeez.
Friend: It’s only 8:30, wanna watch a movie?
Me: Sure.
Friend: PeeWee’s Big Adventure?
Me: Always a good choice.
Ten minutes later…
Friend: zzzzzzzzzzz
Me: zzzzzzzzzz
Okay, so when I was writing the first part, I absolutely could not come up with Nick Nolte’s name. And there was no way I was looking it up.
So, I just had a brand new conversation in my head like the ones in this post. “Cmon, 48 Hours. Cannery Row. Down And Out In Beverly Hills. You can do this. You make noises like this actor whenever you stand up…c’mon…NICK FUCKING NOLTE. Yes.”
Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash
Yeah you sound like me, just saying……………………..
Sister!!!!!
Yep. That sums it up.
It’s good to not be alone
I can recite entire quotes from a movie, but can absolutely NOT tell you the actor who spoke them. Sometimes, not even the movie title.
Right there with you
I have a version of this with music that I feel is harder because I can’t Google a melody or bass part…
Ahh…that WOULD be frustrating.
That is so me, especially right now. I think it’s all the months of working from home that are getting to me. Weirdly enough it was Dean Stockwell I blanked on recently. I saw a picture of him in the ’70’s when he looked very different from the way I’m used to seeing him–so much hair and this serious mustache that looked like he had a couple of woolly caterpillars stuck to his upper lip and I said, “It’s…that guy, from Quantum Leap and Blue Velvet and Battlestar Galactica and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”
It felt weirdly fucked up that I could remember all those movie titles but not Dean Stockwell’s name.
Also I think I’d also fall asleep in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure right now too but not before I got to Large Marge.
Yeah, Large Marge isn’t good for dreams
It’s funny how you will think of a name, movie, director, song or artist a day or week after the conversation has been long forgotten. Then it comes to you, BAM, out of no where. Or is that just me?
Nope. Not just you. It happens to me all the time.
Yup sounds like me as well! My husband will suggest we start a movie, I’ll respond “What? A movie?? but it’s already 8:30 — is it less than 2 hours??” His response “ya, it’s only 8:30! Oh never mind”.
Yeah, we know better. Start by 7 or it’s not happening.
Hahahahaha! This is ME! I go in through the back door of every movie conversation. “This guy who played this character in this movie”–or worse yet: “the guy who played the sidekick of this character in this movie. Come on. You remember…”
And Husby, he of the magnificent storage for all things inconsequential gives me the name.
Sometimes it pays to have 46 years together…
Haha, yeah, we do get to know all the ins and outs
You make me smile. Loved-One constantly quizzes me on ‘what else did we see this character?” I never know. He still does it.
YAY for smiling!!!