Quote of the day: “What do YOU think, Linda?”
Films from Ray Bradbury’s books have generally failed, but the good bits in them are sometimes so good, they justify continued efforts.
In Truffaut’s FAHRENHEIT 451, there’s the Hitchcockian opening, with Bernard Herrmann’s malevolent toytown score, the eerie shots of narcissists in a monorail, and the heartbreaking end. The Book People wander the countryside committing their texts to memory, a community of mad idealists on a doomed quest to preserve human culture, and a soft snow starts to descend.
The snow was a happy accident. It totally makes the scene.
“The little boy is repeating the words of the book, and he’s already making mistakes, and you realise it’s all going to be lost,” recalls cinematographer Nicholas Roeg.
Another happy accident: Mel Gibson’s planned remake so far shows no signs of going ahead! I don’t care too much what Mel does, as long as he leaves that one alone.
In the scene pictured above, Julie Christie, as Linda Montag, watches an interactive TV show. At key moments, the rather queer actors pause in their dialogue, turn to camera and ask, “What do YOU think, Linda?” in a strangely severe way. and she’s supposed to supply some improv dialogue of her own.
“Disturbing television programme!” remarked my friend Kiyo.
And maybe the most prophetic thing in the film…
January 26, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Truffaut said he made the one in the glasses look like Chabrol.
January 26, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Heh. Was Chabrol ever that skinny?
January 26, 2008 at 5:13 pm
In his youth.
March 9, 2009 at 5:57 am
November 29, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Love that scene. Did I see that Julie Christie played Linda and Clarisse?
451 F. is a favorite of mine and I didn’t recall that she player both parts!
thanks for the site
November 29, 2009 at 11:57 pm
You’re welcome, stick around!
May 13, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Where can I buy a pair of those glasses?
January 7, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Join the Army. You’ll get them for free!
January 7, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Really? I never imagined the armed forces being full of Harold Pinter lookalikes.
June 2, 2011 at 6:19 am
This is one of my essential, go-to quotes, used when awkwardly putting someone on the spot trying to get them to engage in a conversation, accompanied by an exaggerated whipping head-turn and direct stare at the person. (I am a bit of a spastic ham-bone at times.) No one ever gets it, so I have to ‘splain this scene to them, generating further awkwardness… now I can just refer them to this post!
June 2, 2011 at 7:34 am
Heh. By remarkable coincidence, I’ve just written a piece about obscure go-to quotes which you can watch out for over the next few days.
October 10, 2012 at 1:50 am
Haha!! My Movie Lit class and I watched this, and we all cracked up at this scene! XP