This was the year that Robin Williams passed away. He was a comic genius and film actor that will truly be missed. Club member David Garmaise paid tribute to him by including two clips from the movie “Good Will Hunting” in his “Name that Film” quiz at the Sunday, December 21, meeting of the Pattaya City Expats Club. David has presented these quizzes twice before, but they were about songs, not films. David showed a small clip from each film and asked the audience to name the film and the actors in the clip. The audience was up to the task; they even guessed, or came close, to guessing the dates that the films were released.
David Garmaise is a long time member of the Pattaya City Expats Club and serves on their Governing Board. His hobby is dabbling in video and song. In addition to the quizzes, he has given several presentations to his fellow Club members featuring film clips about particular themes. He also provides entertaining and interesting comments about the films and actors.
PCEC Master of Ceremonies Ren Lexander welcomes everyone to the regular Sunday meeting and introduces fellow Club Member David Garmaise to conduct his “Name that Film.”
David said that Robin Williams won an academy award for best supporting actor for Good Will Hunting. The film was nominated for nine academy awards in all; also winning for best screenplay by Matt Damon, Williams’ co-star, and his colleague Ben Affleck (who also appeared in the movie).
David showed a clip from “How to Marry a Millionaire,” a 1953 romantic comedy starting Betty Grable, Marilyn Munroe and Lauren Bacall as three gold diggers. From that same time period, the audience was treated to two clips from “The African Queen” (1951), an adventure film starring Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn and Robert Morley. Based on a 1935 novel, the action takes place in what was then known as German East Africa at the outset of World War I. Bogart won a best actor academy award for that performance.
What many people may not know about “The African Queen” was that Bogart was supposed to say his lines in a thick cockney accent, but couldn’t pull it off. So they decided he would play a Canadian instead, a very course one at that. David, who is from Canada, said that in reality Canadians were never course and that perhaps they should have made Bogart’s character an Australian instead; that elicited a few words of protest from the Aussies in attendance.
David showed a clip from a 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring James Stewart. It is one of the most critically acclaimed films ever made and has become a Christmas classic. David presented two other clips from movies made over 50 years’ ago: “High Noon” (1952), starring Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper; and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1962), with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Both movies featured well-known songs: “Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling” from “High Noon;” and “Moon River” from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.
David Garmaise explains to his fellow PCEC members and guests about his hobby of dabbling in video and song which led to his latest challenge for them to “Name that Film” and if possible, the actors in the clip, and the year the film was made.
The quiz also had some more recent movies, including “The English Patient” (1996), starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott-Thomas, among others; “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997), with Julia Roberts in one of her best performances; “The Tailor of Panama” (2001), based on a book by John Le Carré and starring Pierce Brosnan; and “Mississippi Burning”, a 1988 movie about the FBI investigation into the murders of three civil rights workers in Alabama in1964 starring Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman.
David showed a clip from “Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992), a sombre tale about two days in the life of four down-in-the-mouth real estate salesmen. Although loaded with talent (Alex Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey and Al Pacino), and critically acclaimed, the movie was not a commercial success.
Finally, David presented three clips from a 1988 comedy “A Fish Called Wanda,” starring Jamie-Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and John Cleese. David said If you are looking for plenty of laughs, this would be a good movie to re-visit.
After David concluded his presentation, MC Ren Lexander brought everyone up to date on upcoming events and called on Judith Edmonds to conduct the Open Forum, where questions are asked and answered about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya.
For more information on the PCEC’s many activities, visit their website at www.pcecclub.org.
PCEC member Richard Smith comments on their recent trip to Bangkok to the Mega Mall and explains that these trips will continue on each Wednesday that there are 7 to 10 people signed up to go.
Member Judith Edmonds conducts the Open Forum portion of the PCEC meeting. Inviting anyone to join in if they wanted to ask questions about Expat living, recommend a good restaurant or movie in Pattaya, or announce any other items of interest to their fellow Expats.
MC Ren Lexander thanks David Garmaise with a PCEC Certificate of Appreciation for his interesting and entertaining narrative about the films he included in his presentation of “Name that Film.”
