Sunday, May 11, 2008

Old f-f-f-f-fish, new f-f-f-f-f-fish!


When's the last time you saw a really funny movie? One that was clever, but not crass. Slapstick but not stupid. A film with an ensemble cast that brooked no mention of lead roles? I can't remember either. But over the course of our dinner conversation tonight it came to light that Mrs. Marius had never seen A Fish Called Wanda. 'Heresy!', quoth I, and immediately legged it up the street to Hollywood videos and rented it post haste. The fact that my bride had never seen this classic of comic genius almost made the watching new for me, and I chuckled many a time over scenes as familiar as my own living room. So many quotes, long ago abandoned, came trippingly to the tongue afresh. 'Wake up, limey fish!' 'Don't go near him! He's mine!!' 'Asshoooole!!!!!' And, of course, 'Oh no. It's K-k-k-ken coming to k-k-k-kill me!' If you don't know this film, it is a 1988 caper starring John Cleese, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline, and Jamie Lee Curtis. It is truly a masterpiece of ensemble acting, and a grand send up of both the quintessential British, and American stereotypes. It was written by Cleese, and beautifully performed by all parties. If you do know, and love this movie, watch it again soon. You won't regret it.

Dos vidaniya!
Mariushka

4 comments:

sherlock said...

Привет! (got your message on my blog and since you end yours with 'goodbye' in Russian I'd thought I'd oblige... I'm learning Russian at the moment, it's quite fun!)

There needs to be more theatre techs around the world, we run things quite efficiently!

I'm a stage electrician (technically I'm the head spot on a show in the West End but I'm involved in the fixing side of things occasionally).

Turtle said...

How interesting... It was "old movie" weekend at Casa de Tortuga. While we did not watch Kevin Kline speaking Italian, we watched "Dear God", "All of Me", "Clerks", and "Bachelor Party". We got on a roll of old comedies, and it just kept going...

I'd just quoted "Fierce Creatures" the other day, as well, though no one had any idea what I was talking about...

Unknown said...

Sherlock: Welcome to The Corner!! :-)I think Russian is a wonderful language, one that I would love to learn.

Turtle: That's probably because you are one of maybe 20 people who actually saw Fierce Creatures.

Anonymous said...

"What's this one called? I think I shall call it Lunch!" Truely a great, unique, and underappriciated film. I wonder when the musical will come out?