a few posts back i had something going where i was trying to remember my most favourite movie moments.
i just remembered another.
it was postcards from the edge, starring meryl streep and shirley maclaine. meryl plays the daughter and shirley the mother. the book was written by princess leia, carrie fisher, whose mother was debbie reynolds, in real life. there's some funny mother-daughter moments and the quote in question comes at a point in the movie where meryl-as-carrie is accusing shirley-as-debbie that she (shirl) would always steal the limelight.
and the dialogue ran something like this. i'm paraphrasing wildly, from memory, haven't seen it for years:
m: even at my 9th birthday party you had to steal the show, didn't you. why did you have to get up there and sing and dance in front of all my friends? it was so embarrassing, you were always wanting the spotlight, always getting all the attention. and then doing that dance, and spinning so your dress went up and everyone could see you had no underwear on
s: it twirled up!!!
[maybe i'll watch this again and write down the quote and post here so we can laugh at how far off i was.]
4 comments:
one of my fave moments, reminds me of my mother, who when we went to see this film together said it reminded her of her mother...I dare say I'll do the same thing to my daughter...
I remember that I intended to come back with a shortlist of my own favourite movie quotes, but never got around to it.
Can I be sheepish enough to request if I may post about this myself on my own blog? Feel free to say no.
As a peace offering, I'll leave you with one of my all-time faves (and - shock-horror! - it's not from a Muppet movie!).
It's from that great (but IMHO severely underrated) 1980s classic comedy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine).
Arthur, the butler (played with aplomb by Star Wars' Ian McDiarmid, better known as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine / The Emperor), steps up to Martin, who is dressed in his 'character' Ruprecht's ridiculous get-up while seated at the dinner table, complete with greased down hair, bad 1970s tux, eyepatch, cork on the end of his fork ("to prevent him from hurting himself - and others"), and holding a large plastic trident. In his effortlessly British voice, giving no trace whatsoever of anything being even remotely odd, he asks, "May I take your trident, sir?"
It's not so much the line itself, but rather the perfect delivery, as well as the underlying statement of what it represents in the film. The context of the whole story is underpinning it, in my opinion, and it makes me laugh every time I see, hear or think about it.
This is the same scene where 'Ruprecht' asks if he can go to the bathroom, and then obviously proceeds to do so where he is sitting before thanking Caine for granting him permission. That's another moment I love, but the trident line is pure gold for its subtle summary of the entire movie.
I hope you can see why I might need to compose a whole post of my own, if I'm going to come up with more than one of these ...
:)
i love dirty rotten scoundrels, great film. and the twist at the end, did NOT see that coming!
of course you can do your own post on this topic. you can mention where you got the idea if you like
[sweet smile]
But of course!
Thanks.
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