Thursday Movie Picks: Super Long Titles
1) Me and You and Everyone We Know
I feel like I talk about this movie all the time, but I really love it. It's part dark and disturbing, part light and funny. The lives of the group of people we follow are never boring.
2) Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Sometimes I forget Birdman actually had this long as title because no one ever uses it, but this was an excellent film and I am forever grateful that it beat Boyhood for Best Picture at the Oscars.
3) A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
I watched this Swedish avant garde film based on the title alone. And much like that title, it's pretty weird. I enjoyed most of it, but there were a few parts I hated.
I recognise that gif as the banner from your blogathon! That was how I first found you :D
ReplyDeleteWe match on Birdman! Love that movie so much.
And I'm so glad you found me!
DeleteI've only seen Birdman which was...okay. For the life of me I couldn't see what all the shoutin' was about though. Keaton was good but otherwise not so much.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of the first but haven't had a chance to catch up with it yet.
Love the last title but it does seem opaque as any sort of hint as to what the film would be about!
I try never to double dip and reuse films I have before but as soon as I saw the theme I had to reach back to these three. I doubt I could come up with longer titles, or stranger films, than these.
“Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad” (1967)-Madame Rosepettle (Rosalind Russell) arrives at a Caribbean resort for a vacation with quite a menagerie, her 24 year old son (Robert Morse) who acts like a 5 year old, his stamp collection and telescope, a pair of Venus Flytraps, her tank of pet piranhas and her dead husband (Jonathan Winters-who serves as narrator) who she’s had stuffed and travels with them in his coffin that she keeps in the closet. While they are there the hotel’s babysitter Rosalie (Barbara Harris) falls for the infantile young man while Madame is pursued by a crazy ship captain, Commodore Roseabove. Got that? Its theatre of the absurd and the kind of whack-a-doodle thing that could only be produced in the 60’s.
“Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?” (1969)-Superstar Heironymus Merkin (Anthony Newley) is filming a movie of his life surrounded by piles of junk and a bed on a ribbon of beach as his mother and children bear witness. While the Greek chorus of devil’s advocate Goodtime Eddie Filth (Milton Berle) and The Presence (Georgie Jessel) battle for his soul Merkin works his way to the top of show biz becoming a drug loving sex addict along the way. Yet he longs for his lost true love, Mercy Humppe (Connie Kreski) despite his marriage to Polyester Poontang (Joan Collins-Newley’s wife at the time, their real life children play their kids in the film-Thaxted and Thumbelina!). Watching the uncompleted footage in a parallel time the producers of this opus scream for him to come up with an ending. Merkin shuffles through his memories to find some value in his life while singing a couple songs and screwing like a rabbit.
Confused? What with a title like that you were expecting coherence? Watching the film won’t clear anything up for you! Newley directed, produced, wrote & composed the music (all badly) for this exercise in vanity which was originally rated X.
“The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?” (1964)-I really can’t better this IMDB description: "Jerry falls in love with a stripper he meets at a carnival. Little does he know that she is the sister of a gypsy fortune teller whose predictions he had scoffed at earlier. The gypsy turns him into a zombie and he goes on a killing spree."
Or the tagline:
SEE: the dancing girls of the carnival murdered by the incredible night creatures of the midway! SEE: the hunchback of the midway fight a duel of death with the mixed up zombies! SEE: the world's first monster musical!
It’s not good but it’s unique!
Where the hell did you find these movies? lol. These sound wild.
DeleteBirdman was great as a whole but I didn't think Keaton in particular was outstanding. He was as he normally is.
They are all definitely strange viewing experiences.
DeleteThe last was made on the super cheap and looks it! But it's amusing in that train wreck drive-in movie sort of way.
The Newley film is a prime example of when a studio doesn't know or is afraid to say no to a star (Newley was a huge one in 50's & 60's Europe) whose ego exceeds his abilities. Joan Collins & their kids participation happened because she was trying to save their floundering marriage, it didn't help they divorced within the next couple of years.
The Rosalind Russell film if you can believe it had an even longer title as a play "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition"! It's the best of the three but that is NOT a high bar!! Still Roz Russell is always worth watching and it's very strangeness makes it sort of a compelling view....once!
Holy crap with that longer title lol. Cheap movies can be amusing, like Hobo With a Shot Gun. Or even good like Light and Sufferer even though the budget doesn't match. I'm not sure if I'm up for another actor not being controlled by the director, I already had enough of that in Joker lol
DeleteThis is the first time I’m hearing about Me and You and Everyone We Know. I guess I’m a terrible blogger 😅 I promise I’ll check it out. Birdman didn’t even cross my mind because I usually forget the rest of the title.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad! It's not a hugely seen film but it's one I've talked about more than once lol. I actually had to look up Birdman's full title to make sure I remembered it properly.
DeleteI still haven't seen Birdman yet! I didn't even know that Birdman had a much longer title that what we expected. Awesome list!
ReplyDeleteHere’s my Thursday Movie Picks!
Ronyell @ The Surreal Movies and TV Blog
You should check out Birdman, it's wonderful!
DeleteThe only film in that list I haven't seen is A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence as that's been in my watchlist for years. The rest of your picks I have seen and enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI think it'll amuse you when you get to it some day. I like it better than The Square, which felt kind of similar.
DeleteAnd from this year..."The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot".
ReplyDeleteI forgot about that one! I was going to look it up.
DeleteI totally forgot about Me and You and Everyone We Know. Great movie! Birdman has waned for me. I didn't like it as much on re-watch, but... I'm not sure I have the patience for your 3rd pick. I struggle with the overly weird.
ReplyDeleteWeird is an understatement for the 3rd pick. I'm still not sure that format is for me.
DeleteWow I totally forgot about Birdman, I guess because people usually drop the bracketed part of the title when they refer to it.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. No one uses it.
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