1) Favorite unsung holiday film?
The Ref.
Too famous, you say?
Well, I would like to take some of the credit for that, because I have flogged it as "best Christmas movie ever" for a very long time.
Each year, I shock several people with its discovery, who then take it to their breast and swear to pass the word.
I will not rest until every person in America embraces me when I exclaim: "Slipper Socks. Medium."
2. Name a movie you were surprised to have liked/loved.
Virtually every 20th century combat classic you could name.
I was very late to war movies. My family was pacifist, it was the 1960s, and I missed the whole shebang.
One year my lover put on some Nazi-kick-ass classic and I said, "Wow, can we watch another?" I've still got dozens more to go.
3) Ned Sparks or Edward Everett Horton?
Edward Everett Horton. Fractured Fairy Tales.
4) Sam Peckinpah's Convoy-- yes or no?
Full-throated YES!
5) What contemporary actor would best fit into a popular, established genre of the past?
Kelly McDonald in any classic weepie, a face made for melodrama.
6) Favorite non-disaster movie in which bad weather is a memorable element of the film’s atmosphere?
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - European Cold War grey misery with a soundtrack that just won't quit.
7) Second favorite Luchino Visconti movie?
Death in Venice, because The Damned was my favorite. I think Death in Venice was the first film I ever saw at a 70s "gay" film festival, an avant-garde notion at the time.
8) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD/Blu-ray?
Theaters: The Disappearance of Shere Hite.
DVD/BluRay: Homicide series
9) Explain your reaction when someone eloquently or not-so-eloquently attacks one of your favorite movies
People are strange when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly when you're alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you're alone
10) Movie star of any era you’d most like to take camping
Making s'mores with Marilyn Monroe over an open fire, horse-riding together and talking softly.
11) Second favorite George Cukor movie?
Omg, there are so many I love. Let's go with... Little Women. Here's a scene that SHOULD be in a gay film festival.
12) Name a movie you loved (or hated) upon first viewing, to which you eventually returned and had more or less the opposite reaction.