-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bobby Blane: You know why the chicken crossed the road? Because the road crossed the chicken.
Bergman: OK, you want to wrap it up? Or you want to just stand around here, try to guess my real name? Joe Moore: What is your real name? Bergman: Rumpelstiltskin. Joe Moore: What was it before you changed it?
"I really do have love to give. I just dont know where to put it."
"Bobby Blane: You know why the chicken crossed the road? Because the road crossed the chicken."
It's a play on the word "cross". Bobby's using it in the sense of betraying or interfering with someone. You know, "crossing" someone? So it's sort of a warning, or a word to the wise: "Don't screw with me, or I'll screw with you."
At least that's my impression. But what do I know? I've seen this film many times, and I just figured out that the whole "Joe, they found the car" bit was staged for Jimmy Silk and Bergman.
"...and a man in my position can't afford to be made to look RIDICULOUS!"
Do not refer to Mamet's vile mishandling of the English language as "infamous Mamet-speak". That's like writing off the Holocaust as "infamous Hitler-behavior" and forgetting about it.
Mamet is to good taste as the Antichrist is to God.
In the german translation of the movie theres a line which cracked me up for the first time without even seing the whole flick since its already in the trailer. Its something like
"He's so cool. sheep count him when he goes to bed".
I dont know if he says the same in english but this ones priceless. I havent seen the movie yet btw.
But does it mean the same thing when translated into German?
In English, we say that someone is "counting sheep" when they are lying in bed and trying to go to sleep. The thing is to close your eyes and imagine a field full of sheep and then try to count them in your head. Supposedly something about those actions causes a person to fall asleep faster or more easily.
So, when Pinky says "My [guy] is so cool, when sheep go to sleep, they count him" that's what he means.
I guess I just always figured that the whole "counting sheep" thing could only really be appreciated in English. Glad to know that isn't the case.
In Brasil, where Portuguese is spoken, the counting sheep deal to fall asleep is known, understood and used broadly by the population. They express it in Portugese exactly as we do, "contando carneirinhos".
Don't worry about syvo's comments. He decries David Mamet's "vile mishandling of the English language", and yet, in another post on this board (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252503/board/flat/8265418), he wrote the following:
"The movie tried to come off as one with fast paced plot twists, which were to leave the viewer in aw. They made me want to puke, by there boringness and their ability to totally not make sense. The dialogue in the movie was equally as bad. Mamet is known for his distinct use of dialogue? I started laughing at the most serious parts of the movie the speech was so dumb,it was almost at the level of a segal film."
So, here we go:
1) "Leave the viewer in aw"
Okay, maybe that's an honest typo.
2) "They made me want to puke, by there boringness..."
This is a more serious problem: "There" and "Their" are two different words, and this sanctimonious ass picked the wrong spelling.
3) "I started laughing at the most serious parts of the movie the speech was so dumb, it was almost at the level of a segal film."
Writing a run-on sentence that includes a lack of capitalization for a proper noun (like "Segal") is the very definition of "mishandling the English language".
Now, don't get me wrong: I love trolls, because they make messageboard life more interesting... but this tool is either a stupid lame when it comes to trolling, or he truly is a friggin' idiot who believes what he says. Either way, he blows.
Go away, syvo. Seriously.
"...and a man in my position can't afford to be made to look RIDICULOUS!"
Deermada, when you start attacking somebody's spelling, punctuation and grammar on a message board, it's because you can't attack their argument. Oldest ploy in the book.
Nobody here is saying that they write better screenplays than Mamet, but that doesn't mean we can't criticise him.
Whatever anyone else says about this movie, by Mamet's (very high) standards, it's a pile of garbage, and the confusing lines are neither "Mamet-speak" nor incredibly profound or funny, they're just plain bad.....
I'm a big David Lynch fan too, and if he does something bad, people try and explain it away as "that's David Lynch, he meant it to be like that" when they should be saying "hey, the guy's a genius, but this film really blows".
To the guys talking about counting sheep, I would have thought that to be a "western" cultural phenomenon, but having lived in Asia for several years, I can tell you that most Asians I've met are aware of it, but don't use it themselves...(but we don't use it either, do we)
"Deermada, when you start attacking somebody's spelling, punctuation and grammar on a message board, it's because you can't attack their argument. Oldest ploy in the book."
Okay then, for the sake of consistency...let's look at Syvo's post. Does he attack and criticize the story structure of Mamet's films? Not so much. What he really seems to do is attack Mamet's GRAMMAR. Hmm... So then, wouldn't it be fair to attack their argument the same way when that is really their only argument? Deermada did also go above and beyond in pointing out Syvo's jealousy of Mamet's mastery of the English language.
It's just too dificult to counter someone criticizing use of English without mentioning their or our use of English. We all butcher the English language... but what's wrong with butchery? They make good money and often are very skilled at their craft. Therefore the most skilled butchers should be commended. After all, we're going to them first and foremost for their meat. (Do people still comprehend extended metaphors?) Anyway, many people claim they love Mamet for the dialogue which seems to be what upsets Syvo. I've come to realize that what people truly love about Mamet is his skills of twisting the plot. Pieces of the stories are always illusions. It's "look at my right hand, look at my right hand" then we get suspicious and look at his laft hand and sure enough, his right hand comes back with a betrayal or a forgotten character... Nobody else twists and turns us with this much tact. Seriously, look at Reindeer Games and Confidence...nobody else can do it.
Anyway, I praise the butchery and to you wuzza, let me say that I love Mulholland Drive, Straight Story and the first season of Twin Peaks; but when I see anything else Lynch has made...I realize how much it all blows.
comparing a movie makers use of the english language to 'holocaust-type-behavior', is sort of , well, maybe, sort of extreme.
i mean, on one hand you have a movie maker. on the other hand, you have millions of people murdered. how do these two unrelated things compare, in your sick mind, exactly?? i'm asking you a very simple question here. what does the Holocaust have in common with any movie, or any movie director?
and then you compare a simple movie director to an 'antichrist' type of being, like a movie director can be some sort of an anti-christ. may i help you?
movie directors cannot be 'anti-christs'. they are too busy trying to get their movies into post-production.
please, wonderful creation of god. relax, and be well. you are correct that mr. mamet is not mark twain.
>Do not refer to Mamet's vile mishandling of the English language as "infamous >Mamet-speak". That's like writing off the Holocaust as "infamous Hitler-behavior" >and forgetting about it.
>Mamet is to good taste as the Antichrist is to God.
I won't be asking you for DVD rental suggestions anytime soon.