THE MOVIE IN MY MIND

...the dreams we left behind, a scene I can't erase...oh boy, this could only be Isay Alvarez belting her signature angst, a la Gigi in Miss Saigon, at a West End stage, but really we are talking of life here, not stage, although someone may have said, All of life is a stage; and then we're also talking of literature here, the literary dreams we're going to leave behind shortly, ha-ha, to be able to talk about, well, movies, even if someone may have said too, Actors and actresses are bigger than life, such hullabaloo, this praise, as foolish as Gigi drooling over a strong G.I.'s embrace. But hey, hey, my, my, the movies are really in my mind, so let's talk 'em, here, here, now, now.

THE DARK SIDE OF THE OZ - Did you hear this yet? If you played Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon cd side by side with a muted The Wizard of Oz vhs/dvd, you will think that the cd was exclusively created for the movie, that each song, in order, perfectly coincided with each scene.

COOL AND THE GAFFE - In Pulp Fiction's first scene, Tim Roth and Amanada Plummer were honey-bunnying each other in a restaurant prior to a planned stick-up, and when the plan came about, she stood atop the table and made the announcement: Any of you f***in' pr*cks move and I'll execute every motherf***in' last one of you...yadda, yadda, yadda...!!! This scene was repeated, close to the end of the movie (though not in real time because, I believe, there was no real time there) but if you listened very closely, the lines uttered by Plummer to announce the stick-up this time around were slightly different. Did Tarantino goof? Or was he just cool and deliberately goofed it to express his cool?

WATCH OUT, IT'S COLD, IT'S RED - In the Sixth Sense, everytime a scene depicts a cold climate, like smoke coming out someone's mouth, or mercury dropping, a ghost will soon appear. M. Night also made red the color of nasty; everytime an object prominently in red is shown, something nasty happens subsequently.

WHO IS KEYSER SOZE? - Want a clue? How about the initials, K.S., as in Kevin Spacey.

THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD - Most, if not all, of Steven Spielberg's movies have child characters, disporting his affinity for children. In E.T., he took another mile. Most of the scenes were taken from a kid's eye level, as if they hired a child for a cameraman, probably emphasizing what did not need to be: be childlike when seeing the film.

ONE REASON TO SEE IT AGAIN - In Indiana Jones and The Ark of the Covenant, R2-D2 made a special appearance, as a cave drawing.

THE TRAMP DID NOT HAVE A ROMP - Charlie Chaplin once joined a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest. He placed third, not bad.

TRANSITIONs - Four movies are said to be better than the great books they were adapted from: The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Gone With The Wind. I can think of one movie that is definitely better than the book, which is lousy: Bridges Of Madison County.

FINALLY, THE 10 MOVIES ALWAYS IN MY MIND

1. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
2. City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)
3. Aguila (Eddie Romero)
4. Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
5. Blood Simple (Coen Brothers)
6. Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
7. Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme)
8. Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley)
9. The Bicycle Thief (Vittorio de Sica)
10. Do The Right Thing (Spike Lee)

Now, let me gather from my friends, the envelope please...