Pound for pound, my favorite line from a movie was in The Godfather: Part II. During a party for Hyman Roth, on a veranda (I know, just go with me) in Havana, a waiter brings Roth a piece of birthday cake. In the midst of a discussion about mob business, and without breaking conversational stride, Roth gets in an aside to the waiter: "Smaller piece."
Completely unnecessary in terms of the plot, but what a great touch of realism and character.
Now, I have no intention of ever writing a screenplay. But I've always thought it might be a good idea to keep track of strange bits of dialogue I overhear so I could throw bits like that into the script that I'm not planning to write.
Luckily, I just picked up a good one.
I'm walking back from lunch and a woman I've never seen before stops me. It's obvious she's going to ask me what time it is, so I start lifting my left arm toward my face.
"Hey, could you pick a number between 10 and 100?"
Wha?
"Seventy-four," I say.
"Oh! Good!" She seems pleasantly surprised. "Alright - pick another one."
How can I lose? "Thirty-six."
She looks disappointed. "Eh, OK."
I have no idea what it meant, but maybe I'll find a way to use it.
This also reminded me of my most memorable random overheard dialogue from the years I spent in in Oz. I'm not sure how well it translates into print - I actually do a pretty spot-on impression of the speaker - but here it is:
Down-and-out older guy walking down the avenue, carrying on a heated conversation with himself. Very loud: "I cain't drink." Then louder: "But I can smoke!"
Kids, take your pick: Your favorite line from a movie or favorite random overheard comment?
July 30, 2008
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3 comments:
freakin' pissed off...
DEFINITELY my favorite.
a close second would be the story where a father tells his young son about an alligator eating some poor guy's arm off...
xo
Both are classics. You should keep track of funny stuff like that in a notebook.
did you hear the news yesterday about a kid's arm that was eaten by an alligator or shark (i'm not remembering which one - but whichever makes the story more cool - go with that!) and his arm was taken out of the belly of whichever animal it was & re-attached?! we should tell jacob all about that, i think. and then, that may win!
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