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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

Even with the wry little twist at the end of the above blurb, the poster for Albert Brooks' second feature Modern Romance still didn't come close to conveying what a bleak, funny movie it is. And even more than Mother (my own favorite), it still remains his most personal film.

That may be surprising to anyone who's seen it-- his character's obsessive, hot-and-cold approach to his relationship might seem more than a bit unrealistic. But longtime quiz winner E. Yarber told me of an interview he heard once with Albert's former girlfriend Julie Haggerty (his costar in Lost in America), who said that he was exactly like he was in this film.

Poor Julie. But what must have been exhausting in real life (the name of Brooks' first feature, by the way) is hilarious on the screen. It begins with his character Robert Cole (a typical A. Brooks asshole) breaking up with his girlfriend (the beautiful Kathryn Harrold), and follows him for the rest of the picture as he tries to get her back. And loses her again. The film closes with an American Graffiti-like coda: "Robert and Mary were married in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were divorced a year later. They are currently dating with plans to remarry." 

Watching Modern Romance again, for the first time in decades, I was delighted once more by the Quaalude scene, one of the funniest solo performances anyone's ever committed to film, as well as the film industry subplot (Robert is a film editor working on a terrible-looking sci-fi flick starring George Kennedy).  But I'd forgotten other, smaller touches that are also great: the jealous old guy at the pay-phone Robert waits for, whose dialogue is a geriatric version of his own, and the scene in the sporting goods store with Albert's real brother Bob "Super Dave" Einstein. (And yes, if you didn't know, his real name is Albert Einstein.)

Unfortunately, we are still stuck with the 20+-year-old videotape of this (it's his only film not on DVD, for some reason), and it looks pretty bad. Let's hope Columbia changes this situation soon. And while we're at it, let's also hope that someone finally releases a collection of his SNL films, as well as his work on the old PBS series The Great American Dream Machine, which even the imdb doesn't list in his credits.

(As far as a new film from Albert, good news: it's finished and will be out early next year. And you're not going to believe the title.)

So congrats and a couple of 'ludes to the following quiz winners: Wayne Palmer, Mark Gisleson, and E. Yarber. (I'm assuming Mr. Parmer was busy this week-- I can't believe he didn't know it.)

Posted by Steve Monaco at September 5, 2005 11:45 PM

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