Just a few movies left till I reach my goal of finding inspiration in that defunct list Yahoo came up with a few years ago.
Kathy Selden: Now look, Miss Lamont, Don and I…
Lina Lamont: Don? Don’t you *dare* call him Don! I was calling him Don before you were born! I mean… You-you were kissing him!
Don Lockwood: *I* was kissing *her*! I happen to be in love with her.
Lina Lamont: That’s ridiculous. Everybody knows you’re in love with me.
Don’t you just love musicals? Singing, dancing, falling in love. Doing all three in the rain. Perhaps it’s cliche, but I really adore this scene. The fact that Gene Kelly is soaking wet, wearing a smile on his face. He’s so happy in love that he doesn’t notice his bleak surroundings. It just doesn’t get better than this. “Come on with the rain, I’ve a smile on my face!”
Clarice Starling: If you didn’t kill him, then who did, sir?
Hannibal Lecter: Who can say. Best thing for him, really. His therapy was going nowhere.
Revisiting this movie for the first time in years, it struck me exactly how dark it is. I mean, I know it’s about serial killers. But man, is it bleak. The 1990s could do bleak well. The horror/thrillers of today are much too shiny even in their shock value to be truly bleak. From Hannibal Lector to Buffalo Bill, it’s amazing Clarice stuck it out. A woman surrounded by predators and she does not flinch, even with her Southern belle accent. Now that’s inspiring.
