Jean Harlow reading.
"Well, I'm standin' in line in the rain to see a movie starring Gregory Peck,
Yeah, but you know it's not the one that I had in mind.
He's got a new one out now, I don't even know what it's about
But I'll see him in anything so I'll stand in line."
-- Bob Dylan and Sam Shepard, "Brownsville Girl"
This is borrowed from Steve Weddle's post on Do Some Damage last Monday but the topic sticks with me? I have a feeling it is more about directors now than actors. But who would you stand in line to see in a movie? I'm talking about a long line, maybe in the rain. Or alternately, who was the last actor/director you stood in line to see?
34 comments:
It used to be the writer. People stood in line to see a Shakespeare play. There was a period on Broadway where you went to see the work of a playwright, such as Arthur Miller or Clifford Odets or Eugene O'Neill. The actors mattered less, and the directors still less.
I'm dating myself, but the last time I stood in line (for a long time) to see a movie was for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom."
My kids lined up for the Harry Potter movies, but I let my husband be the chaperone on those events.
Oh, the writer, Richard. How could I not think of the writer? That would still be true in a play, but not so much a movie.
Strangely enough, the last movie I remember waiting to see was the one about Bob Fosse. That must have been thirty years ago. I know there are once since then, pretty recently in fact, but the mob scene in their lobby stuck with me.
I've never stood in a ridiculous line to see a film, that I can recall (though unsurprisingly I've only rarely not stood in line at all to buy the ticket or the snacks if any)...and I certainly do see films for their writers, such as Charlie Kaufmann's films, or (sigh) Donald Westlake's. I've stood in pretty long lines for music concerts...
Oops. Charlie Kaufman.
Only stood in line once and that was to impress the girl I was going out with at the time. I took her to see the John Wayne version of 'The Alamo' the night it premierred in London. (Tickets supplied by a grateful client).
I'll go see anything with Johnny Depp in it, Patti. I might stand in line to see a Pixar film in 3-D. But that's about it. Richard is right about it being about the writer back in the day. Few people care who writes the scripts now.
The only time I've stood in line was for the kids, I'm pretty sure. DisneyWorld comes to mind...
I'm a patient (and cheap) person, so I'll wait for the DVD rental. Coen bros movies I usually like, anything with Edward Norton in it too.
I stood in line a couple of months ago to meet Ernest Borgnine. He was signing books at Borders (so an actor & author event).
Ironically, I was planning to stand in line tonight for a Hulk Hogan book signing, but I just got called into work.
I don't know if I've ever stood in a long line for a movie.
As for plays, the practice for some places here in Chicago used to be to not let people in until five minutes before curtain. That way a huge line formed and people driving by would say "What are all those people lined up for? It must be something cool." I think this was mainly done with midnight shows at storefront theaters.
The last time I stood in line for a film was the opening day of the first Star Wars prequel, Episode I. Even then, I didn't really stand in line, a friend had bought the tickets and been there several hours, I got there just as the doors opened and practically walked right in.
The only actor I can think of just now who I would stand in line for is Morgan Freeman. However, things being what they are, I wait a couple of weeks before going to a movie - and then I go only to "big screen" films, where the film needs to be viewed in it's full sized glory (Potter), or in 3-D (Up).
I stood in line for the first Star Wars -twice. With kids. I think I stood in line more back then. The theaters had smaller lobbies and they didn't let you in until the last minute.
I've stood in line to get a book signed but there's no way around that.
I have never stood in line to get tickets to a show except the TKTs book on Time Square.
The last thing I stood in line for was to buy tickets to see The Grateful Dead. And that was a FEW years back.
And to think I used to stand in line OUTSIDE in the WINTER when growing up in Toronto!! I don't think I'd do that for anyone anymore. :) BUT I would stand in line (with a book and a friend and coffee to keep me company) for Neil Young (I'm cheating because he's not an actor/director).
I stood in line last week to see the new Tom Stoppard play, Rock and Roll, and it was really good. All about Prague between 1968 and 1993, how the clampdown by the soviets pushed more people into becoming dissidents and the role of rock music - and a Czeck band called Plastic People of the Universe.
But I hate standing in line and don't do it for movies. I used to, I used to stand in line at film festivals for movies I didn't now anything about just to see if I'd get lucky and really like one. It didn't work out often enough, a lot of the movies were okay, but I got tired of people being too impressed with the fact someone made a movie, "with no money," instead of talking about the story - which often if it had been a book instead wouldn't have received much interest at all.
Bob Dylan was the first concert I ever went to and I didn't wait in line, my cousin bought us tickets from a scalper and we went right into the Montreal Forum - 1974. Great show.
I can't remember the last time I stood in a line worth mentioning for a movie. PLATOON, maybe. NetFlix and the ability to buy tickets online took me right out of line-standing.
I have recently stood in line for concerts at a local venue who seats patrons on a first come-first seated, general admission method. I've done it for Delbert McClinton and Tower of Power. Maynard Ferguson, too.
Just remembered: I stood in line, in the freezing rain no less, to get into the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam earlier this year. Well worth it.
Me, too. And we were there when you could still get into the actual house. We went with our kids two more times when they visited us there. A new book by Francine Prose about her--reading it as we speak.
Johnny Depp is hard to pass up. Jeff Bridges, too.
Dana-Stood in line to see Indigo Girls once and they ran out of seats!
I stood in line for the opening of 'E.T.,' but nothing since.
Who would stand in line for? Well, if they were living and making movies still: Cary Grant, Bogart, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, Fred Astaire. Today? Maybe, maybe Robert Downey, Jr., if the film looked really intriguing.
If I could go see Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham play, I'd camp out to get a seat.
I'd stand in line to see a good Bogart movie on the big screen. Or HIS GIRL FRIDAY. NORTH BY NORTHWEST.
I've stood in line to see Sonny Rollins, Dash Rip Rock, and probably others I'll remember when I click 'PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT.'
I think the last time I stood in line for a movie was Titanic and the theater was the Mann (used to be Graumann's) Chinese Theater in Hollywood. I remember having someone save my place so I could run down to the McDonalds. For me it wasn't the quality of the movie as much as just wanting to be in the middle of all the excitement. Was worth it seeing in that theater, too.
There at least a thousand movies I would pay ten bucks to see on a big screen. Yet the economics must mitigate against it. Other than midnight showings of campy or cult movies, we rarely get this opportunity-unless we live in New York. Yes, seeing anything in that theater, Laurie would be a thrill. I have never seen Lawrence of Arabia-still waiting the big screen.
Probably no one. The longest line I've ever stood in to meet someone was Clive Barker about 20 years ago. But the line was only about 35 people.
No actors, now or ever. A few directors, but as the great ones die off the list is getting pretty short. Lynch, Haneke, Cronenberg. Maybe a couple of others are on the periphery--Paul Thomas Anderson perhaps, maybe the Coens on the right day. I'd really have to think about it to come up with more.
I like to do my grocery shopping late at night and my movie going in the afternoon. The reason, I don't like there being a lot of other people in the store or the movie theater-- so pretty much I am not going to stand in line to see a film (at least not at the multiplex). In fact for most films I am more than willing to wait for video.
I think for me the real question is WHAT no who will I stand in line to see. The Big Lebowski-- Yes. A screening of something that I have always wanted to see on the big screen, or international films and smaller films at a place like The Michigan Theater, then I bit of a line is ok.
http://bookwaves.homestead.com/
Francine Prose is being interviewed on COVER TO COVER: BOOKWVAVES, being broadcast as I type on KPFA (Berkeley, CA)
http://kpfa.org/archive/id/54851
The last time I stood in a really long line (down the block and around the corner) and in the rain was to see West Side Story some 40 years ago. The line was so long that I was certain that I and my college buddies would not get in, but we did. That was before the State Theater in Ann Arbor was partitioned off into several small mutiplex like theaters. I also remember waiting in a really long line with my parents and my sister to see the Ten Commandments at the Madison Theater in Downtown Detroit, but it wasn't raining.
Broken Trails is back in business - so too is my Forgotten Book feature.
Ray-Great to hear from you. I'll be over to see you.
Chuck-I remember waiting to see so many movies back then. I wonder why?
Meryl Streep on Broadway.
Now that her movie career is on an upward swing again, probably won't happen. British actors are more likely to mix it up, I think. But we can hope.
It used to be that when a movie like the Ten Commendments or Ben-Hur opened, it opened at only one theater in town which was downtown and played there for weeks or even months before moving to the suburbs. And there was no HBO or Showtime or DVD's or even VHS or Beta and it took years before a movie like Ben-Hur made it to TV.
British actors move more readily from stage to film to tv to radio to the US largely because they like to eat...that much less work Over There. Or so several note. Canadians must have it even worse, though transplanted Hollywood stuff helps there.
Hmm...a staging of, say, THE WOMEN with Amanda Donohoe, Sela Ward, Mira Sorvino, Diane Lane, Lena Headey and/or in these "colorblind casting" times, Christina Chang, Rashida Jones, Angela Bassett, Garcelle Beauvais, Sandrine Holt, Moon Bloodgood, and/or Irene Bedard might well encourage my consideration of line-camping...that cast in an all-female MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM, INCIDENT AT VICHY, or GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS might suck me in just as easily...
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