The other day, I decided to read old diaries I was writing during my high school years. And honestly, that was a very entertaining read as I apparently had a lot of interesting things to say. However, the truly fascinating thing about it was to read about the actors and the films I was discovering. THE CLASSICS you know. If, at the beginning of my blog, I wrote an article on how I discovered classic films. But this time, you’ll see how this discovery evolved with excerpt from my writing. Of course, these are not the secrets I was writing at the time. That’s what a diary is for. Oh no, I keep these for me! But sharing with you my discovery of classic films surely is something I’m doing with pleasure.
Note: It starts on August 17, 2010. However, I know I watch some classics before that date (such as Modern Times and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). But I was obviously not writing every day about every classic I saw. But this should give you a good preview anyway.
Also, don’t forget that this text was originally written in French!
Here we go!
August 17, 2010:
“Now, dear pink journal (Oh dear…), I will talk about my book on cinema stars. It’s a very voluminous book without a lot of text, but mostly with pictures (very beautiful pictures). It is divided in seven chapters: first one: the femme fatale (meaning, all the beautiful actresses from the 30s to today. I almost know all of their names by heart: Grace Kelly, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Lauren Bacall, Jean Harlow…), the second one: movie sets, the third one: the male actors. There are some very handsome ones, especially these: Marlon Brando, James Dean, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Warren Beatty, the fourth one: love photos, the fifth one: baby stars, the sixth one : intimate stars (stars in their everyday life) and the seventh one: the make up (ouach!).”
“So, because of this book, I discovered the most handsome actor in the world: Marlon Brand (when he was young). He died at… 80… He was particularly handsome in the 50s. I never saw any of his films, but I saw A Streetcar Named Desire‘s trailer. I absolutely need to see this film. Brando is sublime. […] I decided to read about his life on Wikipedia and I had the revelation of my life: Marlon Brando was born on April 3, 1924. Same day as me! (Not the same year of course), I can’t believe it! Vive Marlon Brando!”
August 22, 2010:
“A List of my favourite movies: Across the Universe, Titanic, Little Miss Sunshine, Forrest Gump, Desperately Seeking Susan, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Charlie Chaplin’s (Modern Times, The Great Dictator, The Gold Rush), Life Is Beautiful, The Aristocats, Toy Story, etc.”
August 27, 2010:
” I discovered we owned The Silence of the Lamb [at home]!!! My dad told me it was the worst horror movie he ever saw!! And we have it at home!! I will never watch this film, this is sure! I don’t really like horror movies: It prevents me to sleep and there aren’t any true goal. I kind of liked The Shining even if it was very scary. But honestly, The Silence of the Lambs, what an ugly title. Why not The Dumb Beeves?? Of course, as a great cinephile, I judge that there are some very good horror movies, like Hitchcok’s (more suspense and I’ve never seen any of his movies, but it’s probably very well-known).” (Note: Now I’ve seen The Silence of the Lambs and I think it’s an excellent film!!)
September 18, 2010:
“[talking about my English teacher]: She’s a very good teacher. She talks fast and she’s nice. Plus, we do things about cinema. It’s really cool because I love cinema! I even had a 5 (A) in the quiz. When we talk about cinema, we must always have good grades. It’s my motto. Cinema doesn’t deserve to be ridiculized.”
“Recently I saw THE BIRDS by Alfred Hitchcock. I will add it to the top 10 I have to do for the [English] course. But the thing is it would be a top 11, so I’ll have to eliminate one film. 😦 But which one? A true cinema fan must never abandon her favourite films, even if it’s The Aristocats (my favourite animated movie).”
December 8, 2010
“Last Saturday (or Friday) I rented The Good the Bad and the Ugly. The “good”, Blondy is played by Clint Eastwood. It’s a western by Sergio Leone. Ok, Clint definitively passed the test and has been added to my list of favourite actors. He incarnates his character very well and he’s very cool. He has style and an excellent acting game.”
February 25, 2011
“A list of my favourite actors/actress (not in a particular order): Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood, James Dean, MARLON BRANDO ❤ Richard Gere (even if I only saw him in Chicago, but he was very good), Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Tippi Something (the girl in The Birds- I meant Tippi Hedren obviously), Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Madonna (yes…!)”
March 26, 2011
“I saw, some time ago, Footloose. It really is one of my favourite movies. There’s dance and the music is very good. Kevin Bacon (the main actor) isn’t super sexy, but he dances very well! Wow!”
“I watched A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh (Gone With the Wind– very good actress) and Kim Hunter. It was good, but I wasn’t really expecting that. Marlon is very sexy (but kind of a brute… ok he really is. Anyway, it’s just a film and he plays his role very well).”
“Last Tuesday at Téléquébec, they were broadcasting Les Compères (with Pierre Richard et Gérard Depardieu). I had already seen a part before on television, but, this time, I watched the whole thing. It was very good.”
April 5, 2011
Random thought: Clint Eastwood is an excellent actor.
April 6, 2011
“War, war, war […] There isn’t going to be any war! says Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) at the beginning of Gone With the Wind. This line is very comical as the main subject of this film is the American Civil War. My new profile picture is Vivien Leigh with a very beautiful smile.”
April 8, 2011
“I went to rent a movie. I hesitated between Casablanca and How to Marry A Millionaire. I finally went with the second choice. It’s a comedy with Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grabble, and Lauren Bacall. I hope it will be good. One of my favourite films, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, stars Marilyn Monroe (and Jane Russell). She wasn’t a very good actress and she was more famous for her beauty, but she’s funny and sympathetic.” (And I previously just mentioned she was one of my favourite actresses lol… Of course, I think she was good. Very underrated.)
“Last Saturday, I rented Giant, with James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor. However, as it was a long film (3h20), there were two sides to the DVD. And I started with the wrong one… The actors were old and I couldn’t understand why. It’s only after that I discover there was a side A… I watched the first part the following morning. It was a good film, despite this incident.”
April 10 , 2011
“I started watching How to Marry a Millionaire. It was sympathetic enough. A comedy. Funny, simple, not too complicated to watch when you’re tired. Anyway, I quite liked it.”
April 11, 2011
“Yesterday, I learnt (via Wikipedia) that Marilyn Monroe died at 36. It’s very young and very sad. :(“
“I’ll make myself a promise (an obligation): RENT CASABLANCA this weekend.”
April 13, 2011
“Another list of my favourite films : Forrest Gump, Little Miss Sunshine, Life Is Beautiful, Across the Universe, Titanic, Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin movies), The Birds, Desperately Seeking Susan, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Cinema Paradiso, Footloose, The Aristocats, Chicago, My Fair Lady, Rebel Without A Cause, Amélie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Fried Green Tomatoes, etc…”
April 17, 2011
“I rented West Side Story. The main actress was Natalie Wood and I discovered, thanks to my book about cinema, that she also was in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean! :O Anyway, she sings well (I obviously didn’t know at the time that it was Marnie Nixon’s voice!). It was a good film, but sad. A good musical. The music was good, but the coolest thing was the choreographies. There were really nice. There’s a song in the film, I’m sure I heard it before. It was very much in the style of The Sound of Music or My Fair Lady, but it’s really not the same type of film.”
“Before supper, I rented Casablanca. […] It was a good film (I can’t say the opposite as it won the Oscar for Best Picture in the 40s). No, but seriously, it was good. Sad also. Excellent actors (Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman who is also perfect physically speaking- I’m jealous!). I liked the piano player. He was nice.”
April 18, 2011
“I will borrow the following movie at the Great Library next Wednesday: Four Weddings and a Funeral, American Beauty, maybe Pulp Fiction, Flashdance…”
April 28, 2011
“So, Wednesday the 19, I went to the Great Library to borrow movies. But it’s really shitty. All the films I wanted to see were under reparation, already borrowed or had been stolen. I still borrowed two that were appealing: Flashdance and The Broadway Melody. So, as I wasn’t satisfied enough, I went to the video store where I rented Four Weddings and A Funeral and American Beauty. The same evening I watched Four Weddings and A Funeral. It was good, captivating, but I was expecting more. There was something American about it, even if it’s a British movie.”
“The following day, my cousin came home […] After supper, we (me, my cousin and my sister) watched American Beauty. It was good but very peculiar sometimes. I mean, the father is in love with his daughter’s friend (who is like 16).”
“The following day, we went to the countryside house. […] In the evening, we watched Flashdance! It’s really nice!”
“(talking about another day) In the evening, at home, I watched The Broadway Melody. It’s a black and white movie that won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1929. It was nice. I liked the voice of the actors and the story was interesting. One of the actresses, Anita Page, also played in one of the Buster Keaton films I own: Free & Easy.”
“(another day) I rented another movie at the video store: Bonnie and Clyde. I watched it in the evening and I really liked it. I will disguise myself as Bonnie for Halloween at school! However, it ends very abruptly. Also, the actor who played Clyde, Warren Beatty, is SO SEXY. ARRRG! I saw him before in Dick Tracy but he was older and not really sexy.”
“(another day) After school, I rented Pulp Fiction. […] It was good, but not as much as I would have thought. Uma Thurman plays in it and she’s very good. However, we see her for a moment and then she does a drug overdose and is saved. John Travolta (Vincent) takes her home and asks her to be careful. And we don’t see her for the rest of the film… Really violent sometimes. However, the music is very good. There’s Comance by The Revels. At So You Think You Can Dance, they did a group dance on this music. The choreography was very good!”
“Saturday (yesterday) I rented Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant). […] It took time before I could watch the film because there was a problem with the television, but we finally fixed it. So, the film was very good. Good actors, good story, beautiful landscapes, beautiful costumes. It takes place in France (around Nice and Cannes) and it’s really beautiful. There’s a huge “coincidence” because, at some point in the film, Grace Kelly and Cary Grant are in a car in mountain road and it’s really ugly (that’s literally the word I used) because that’s how Grace Kelly died. She was driving on a mountain road and she did a bad maneuver and her car fell in the cliff. It’s sad.”
May 8, 2011
“I watched Thelma & Louise. I liked it. […] Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon and Brad Pitt play in it. It liked the ending. It’s sad, but touching.”
May 13, 2011.
“After school, I went to the video store and I rented Life Is Beautiful and It’s a Wonderful Life. Thursday I watched It’s A Wonderful Life. It was really good, more than I would have thought. I almost cried at the end (it’s not sad, but touching). James Stewart plays in it. I perfectly understand why Hitchcock used him for many of his films: he’s very good at expressing the feeling of fear. Well, the ending of the film takes place during Christmas so it wasn’t very appropriate for May but it still was beautiful.”
May 16, 2011
“I rented another film: All That Jazz and I watched it after supper. It was kind of good, but I was expecting more. Sometimes, it was difficult to understand. Next time, I will probably rent La Dolce Vita.”
May 19, 2011
“In the evening, I rented a film. I chose La Guerre des Boutons. […] The film was really funny, sympathetic. Not a masterpiece like Forrest Gump, but good.”
May 20, 2011
“I rented Gigi.”
May 21, 2011
“I watched Gigi. It’s similar to My Fair Lady. A musical, not the best one I’ve seen. The story is good and it’s entertaining.”
Some Saturday in May:
“I rented Schindler’s List. My cousin came home after supper (she arrived around 9:30 as a matter of fact). We watched the film (not completely as it lasts 3 hours). We went to sleep at midnight and we continued it the following day. It’s really a good movie, but it’s really difficult to watch. Let’s say Nazis were really cruel toward Jews …” (you don’t say?!)
June 12, 2011
“Saturday, I rented Rain Man with Tom Cruise (sexy) and another actor whose name I don’t remember. It was very good.”
June 14, 2011
“I think the next movie I’ll rent would be The Talented Mr. Ripley with Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. It watched the trailer and it looks good. I would also like to see The King’s Speech. “
June 20, 2011
“Back, from school, I made a list of the next films to rent: Some Like It Hot, The Seven Years Itch, Guys & Dolls (a musical With Marlon Brando), Pretty Woman, 8 1/2 (it looks weird but good), La Dolce Vita.”
August 25, 2011
“I rented Some Like It Hot. It was really funny! It stars Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon (he’s very funny).”
August 27, 2011.
“I bought three movies: Rebel Without A Cause, Some Like It Hot and Bonnie & Clyde!”
“(another day) I the evening, I watched Saving Private Ryan. It was very good, but also very violent. It takes place during the Second World War. Avoid it if you’re sensible. But I got used to it. It’s sad. Very sad.”
“During the last 2 weeks, I saw many movies:
Les Demoiselles de Rochefort: Musical with Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Gene Kelly, George Chakiris, etc. Really a good movie with super cool costumes.
Roman Holiday: With Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. We loved it me and my mother.
All About Eve: Very interesting. With Bette Davis (great actress). A great concept, especially the ending.
Pretty Woman: The version I rented was only in English and only had English subtitles, but it was very easy to understand and it was good enough. It stars Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
The Sound of Music: With Julie Andrews. It really wasn’t what I was expecting. I mean, it was really incredible. Touching, I adored it!
Shakespeare in Love: It was good, but not as much as I would have thought (in comparison with the trailer)”
October 31, 2011
“Of course, I watched movies during this long writing break!
Chinatown: With two excellent actors: Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson and directed by an excellent director: Roman Polanski. But well, it’s a bit complicated to understand. Good suspense.
Hair: An excellent musical. Seriously, I adored it and the music was fu**ing (sorry for the language) good. Also, it reminded me of many other movies: C.R.A.Z.Y. when people fly in the chapel; Across the Universe: same time period, same giant puppets; Forrest Gump: Same time period and one of the songs is in the soundtrack (Aquarius), and All that Jazz for the psychedelic touch. I love psychedelia!
Breakfast At Tiffany’s: With Audrey Hepburn. Not her best film, but she’s a very good actress and it was not a bad movie! (There was a sexy dude).
The Apartment: With Shirley MacLaine (Warren Beatty’s sister). Very good. And… JACK LEMMON! I love this actor! A very good film and Billy Wilder certainly is one of my favourite movie directors.
Guys and Dolls: Marlon Brando <3, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivien Blaine. It was good. The choreographies were cool and it was funny when Marlon Brando was singing and dancing.
Citizen Kane: Ok, it’s supposed to be one of the best films of all time, but it was a bit too political for me. But I recognize it’s a good movie. Orson Welles is a good actor/director (he was only 25).
Rear Window: Excellent Hitchcock film with James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Two of my favourite actors.
Dirty Dancing: Good, but not my favourite dance movie. But the sexy guy danced very well! :)”
November 14, 2011
“Films I saw :
Sabrina: (Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart). I borrowed it from the library but the DVD had a problem and it was very annoying. But despite that it was good (it must be even better with a good DVD copy).
Tootsie: It was funny! With Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange. I watched it with my mother and she liked it too.
Singin’ in the Rain: A very good image quality, good story, funny, cool costumes. I liked it.”
February 7, 2012
“Classic films I saw:
Dial M for Murder: Hitchcock. With Grace Kelly. Even better than I would have thought. My mother liked it too.
Goodfellas: My father bought the DVD. It was funny but they kill a lot of people. I liked the last image of the film and the guy (Ray Liotta) is kind of sexy.
Funny Face: (Stanley Donen. With Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire). Nice and the costumes are really cool.
City Lights (Chaplin): Very good and so cute. He’s in love with a blind woman. AWWW!
The Godfather Part 1: Very good. Pow! Pow! And the actors are very good. Detail: there’s a horse head in the bed of a man…
Documentaries about Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston and Cary Grant. Interesting! It was only in English so I didn’t understand everything perfectly.
Cabaret: Very good! The story is good.
On the Waterfront: The best film I saw with a YOUNG Marlon Brando. Very good. Good suspense. Bad aspect: Marlon Brando likes pigeons in this film.
Cry Baby: Johnny Depp plays in it. It was good but not as much as I would have thought. However, the song Please Mr. Jailer is very good.
Vertigo: Hitchcock film. Very freaky but very good. With James Stewart! And Kim Novak.”
February 9, 2012
“In Art and Communication, we continued the class on cinema (we started with The Lumiere Brothers and George Méliès Tuesday). So, we talked about Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin, and German Expressionism. We watch a clip from Chaplin’s The Circus and from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (it’s very weird but fascinating).”
“They will screen Hitchcock films at the Cinema du Parc! On the weekend of the 25, I’ll go to see The Birds or Dial M for Murder, or both. It’s so cool!”
July 1st 2012
“Films: Well, I saw many since February! Last weekend I saw Cyrano de Bergerac. Very good, excellent acting and touching. And High Society. It’s a musical and a remake of The Philadelphia Story directed by Cukor and starring Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Cary Grant. High Society starred Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. It was better than I was expecting and funny! The music didn’t really mark me, more the story and the characters. But I did like the song “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”. Of course, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra having very beautiful voices. Ah! Louis Armstrong also was in this film!”
I stopped the writing of my journal there and only started again in 2014, for a few months.
Obviously, my opinion for some of these films and actors has change in eight years!
And I obviously had an obsession with Marlon Brando (still do) and Clint Eastwood!
See you!
The Wonderful World of Cinema 
1) We share an appreciation of Clint Eastwood.
2) In an unfortunate case of type-casting, I can’t look at Roy Scheider without saying “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
3) I went through some old writings from my high-school days. I broke my back lifting those granite tablets.
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Aw, I love this post.. sadly I threw out my teenage diaries where I did a few film review entries! But reading your posts you had definitely better taste in movies!
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Oh you should have kept them! Thanks for reading 🙂
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I remember the highlights and having a hunk of the week in 1986! But then was on 16, like to think my taste improved since then!
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Cant find the like button.. but consider this loved xx
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