What film quests have you gone on?

Matthew the Swordsman

Last December I watched as many versions of and variations on "A Christmas Carol" as I could find. You would be amazed at how many of them there are and how much they vary from each other. Even found the remnants of a silent version.

Recently made a very mini-quest of Hayley Mills films and watched her grow up to adulthood on screen from "Whistle Down the Wind" to "Appointment with Death" with a few stops inbetween.

1953 is, for me, one of the most questable of years. Amazing collection of movies that aren't the BIG films but are memorable once seen.

It's Les Miserables for me! Loved both the stage production ( which I first saw a year after it opened on Broadway...and then over the years had seen the theatrical musical 10 times - Broadway, London, Paris, and where I live ) and the film version. I had earlier seen at least 3 versions of the film as a non-musical, including the last one with Liam Neeson ... When I first saw the stage production I read the full-length literary work by Victor Hugo, got as many cast or cover recordings as I could including the original French concept album, had copies of the anniversary concerts and had gotten a copy of the book by Edward Behr called Les Miserables: History in the Making.

But when the film adaptation came in 2012, it replaced the stage production as my favorite musicalized version. I re-read the long novel again, as a group of us at IMDB were following all the filming developments. It started with the auditions and casting news for the film, the long rehearsal period preceding principal photography, and then the actual filming ( surprisingly a relatively short shoot). It was the first time that singing for a  movie  musical  was done live ( and since it was a sung-through musical there was hardly any spoken word), with acting as the dominant artistic force...and the singing complementing the acting choices. I did recognize some of the filming locations ( mostly from the UK - the only French location was at the beginning of the movie where Valjean was traveling on the hilly part of Provence). That was a fun time when we were following the filming as a group on IMDB!   We were even joined briefly by the head of the Sound Unit on the IMDB board -- he eventually won an Oscar for his work on the film. 

I saw the film many times, bought the soundtrack recordings, downloaded the screener script ( it was Oscar time, so the script was downloaded for the awards community), got the companion book on the making of the movie, watched all the publicity promotional material on the making of the movie as well as the screening Q&A's for the awards community.

When I had a chance to be in Paris, I visited some of the landmarks mentioned in the novel - such as the Quartier Latin  ( Student Quarter), the Left Bank area where the small barricades may have been put up, recognized streets like Rue du Bac and areas like Port St. Cloud... I even tried to locate the bridge where Javert was supposed to have committed suicide, as described in the novel and where there was an unusual water current underneath. I drew the line at visiting the Parisian sewers ( even if there is actually such a tour...and decided that Pere Lachaise cemetery was too far -- besides, there is supposed to be only a fictional unmarked grave).

It is easy to recall the film because many of the key passages are easily identified with a particular song.

But what an experience!

Matthew the Swordsman

spiderwort mentioned film location quests.

I was in Iowa and went to the Bridges of Madison County bridges (several have been arson burned since then) and to Francesca's House. The house was closed that day but I sat on the porch rocking chair, peered into the windows and took home a souvenir black walnut from the yard.

Also in Iowa, made a special trip to The Field of Dreams playing field. For a while they used to play ball there in olde-timey uniforms on Sunday afternoons. I don't know whether or not they still do that. I was not the only one there being somewhat reluctant to cross the line a la Doc Lancaster. LOVE that movie to pieces !

Near all of these places is Winterset, Iowa, birthplace of John Wayne. His boyhood home is open for tours. A busload of senior citizens had just arrived when I was there and I didn't have time to do more than a quick look at the outside and the gift shop so I left it for another trip.

Almost my whole life has involved movies.  Watching them is pretty normal, but sometimes, I just wanted more.

Went looking for the staircase known as "The Music Box" steps where Laurel & Hardy delivered the piano in their Oscar winning short. Found it near Dodger Stadium. It is marked as an historic landmark.

Set out to find some filming locations from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."  Many of them where in my home town:  the YMCA was the Police Station, the Hardware Store was Imperial Hardware near Sears and the final chase scenes at Lincoln Park near the Main Library and the Edison Building.  But I wanted to find the park with the big W. the entrance of the  park was Peck Park in San Pedro, but the Big W was on private property nearby in Palos Verdes, and all the trees had collapsed by the time I went looking.

Almost movie related, there was an article in the LA Times years ago that the home that belonged to Rosemary Clooney and was the last residence of George Gershwin, had been sold and was going to be torn down.  A friend and I took a trip to Beverly Hills to photograph it before it came down.  Many of the Classic stars homes on Roxbury Drive are being replaced when new owners buy the property.

I have also visited the final resting places of some of the stars.  Pierce Brothers Westwood is my favorite.  More stars there in one square block than anywhere else.

I love Paris (and France) and have been there a number of times...the last time in Paris was a week before the infamous terror attacks in 2014. Some time ago, we went to see the French version of the Mackintosh production of Les Miserables -- at that time, the only phrase I understood was Valjean's ID number ( 24601 in French  ).  Unlike in the past when most French people would not or could not speak English ( although in the south, on the Cote d'Azur, people were more open to try to converse in English),  there is now more widespread use of the language and some English words have now found their  use as part of normal conversations in French, such as "le weekend".  The city remains beautiful and gives any visitor a real sense of old world Europe!

Back to Les Miserables -- my favorite memorabilia took many years to put together.

When I saw the musical on one of those times on Broadway many years back (when it played at the Imperial), I was able to get an artcard ( a large postcard) with an artistic representation of the show with the Imperial as the background at a Shubert Alley theatre store. Before they started filming the 2012 movie, but with the casting announced, I had a chance to see a Jackman show on Broadway ( Back on Broadway). Hugh signed my artcard ( it also drew some memories for him because the Imperial theatre was where his first Broadway show The Boy from Oz played for a year!) -- and that was before he had filmed the movie.

All horror & sci-fi films of the 30s-50s released theatrically in the USA.
Soviet talkie films of the Stalin era released in the USA.
Feature versions of movie serials.
Minor company (often by name) b-movies.
Cold War stories.
British mystery, detective and crime films.
The Films of Jerry Warren and other hybrids into the 1960s.
Anthology films.

I've been a film buff since the 50s. The advent of cable TV and home video in the early 80s enable me to pursue the above, and more, "quests", none of which I've ever completed but have large chunks of all on my shelves in one home media format or another. A very weird collection...

in the early 2000's i went out on a search for star wars like films/animations. not the usual ones i knew of. i searched all drug stores and there small cheap dvd/vhs sections. i had to work that day but i hit like 8 different stores all over the area and found a ulysses 31 vhs tape with 2 episodeds which was a score, sherlock holmes 2000, from the same company as ulyesses 31 which was interesting and the film evil alien conquers which was funny but not exactly what i was searching for. ulysses 31 is great and made my quest a success.