PCEC visited the movies at their Sunday, April 13, meeting. Club member David Garmaise once again entertained members and guests of the Pattaya City Expats Club with his video clips and interesting commentary. Braving the first day of Songkran, David gave two presentations entitled “Once Upon a Crime,” and the other “Bond.”
David’s hobby is creating videos using selected scenes from a movie or from several videos that form a particular theme. Along with his videos he provides an interesting and informative narrative about his subjects. His past presentations have included musicals, movies about Christmas, and, of course, his video “Hats Off” displaying the various hats worn by the ladies attending the April 2011 Royal Wedding in the UK. David is from Montreal, Canada and has been on the Club’s Board of Governors and Club Secretary since July 2011.
MC Richard Silverberg welcomes all to the April 13th meeting of Pattaya City Expats Club, inviting new visitors to introduce themselves & tell us where they are from.
From the Once Upon a Crime video clip: “If you really want to get Capone, what are you prepared to do?” asks Jimmie Malone (played by Sean Connery) in the film “The Untouchables.” “Anything within the law,” replies Elliott Ness (played by Kevin Costner). “And then what are you prepared to do?” asks Malone. David provided this scene along with interesting scenes from “Bonnie and Clyde,” “The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre,” “Al Capone,” “Married to the Mob,” “Goodfellas,” “Little Caesar”, “Road to Perdition,” “Gangs of New York,” “Scarface” (both the 1932 and 1983 versions), “The Public Enemy,” “Casino,” “The Departed,” and “The Godfather I and II.”
David showed a couple of scenes from “Bugsy Malone;” a gangster movie where all the gangsters are children. Instead of real bullets they use “splurge guns” that cover the victim in cream. David noted that some movie careers were launched from that movie, including those of Jodie Foster and Scott Baio. David pointed out that there was even a very young actor who looked like Michael Jackson and whose name was Michael Jackson – but David said he was not “the” Michael Jackson. The clips included a memorable line from “The Godfather” where Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) says “My father taught me many things. One of them was: ‘Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.’”
In introducing the “Bond” video, David said that we usually look to a James Bond movie for a few hours of escapism; good action sequences, including some impossible feats; fancy new gadgets with which to kill the enemy; attractive women; corny jokes; and sometimes catchy music. He then showed video clips from some of the Bond movies that starred all of the major actors who played Bond – Sean Connery who appeared in the first five from 1962 to 1967 and again in one in 1971 and another in 1983 – Roger Moore who appeared in seven from 1973 to 1989 – Pierce Brosnan who starred in four from 1995 to 2002, and the latest, Daniel Craig who has played Bond in three movies from 2006 to 2012 and is reported to be under contract for another to be released in 2015. David included Daniel Craig’s famous poker hand from Casino Royale.
Board member David Garmaise was guest speaker for the 13th of April; his topic was one of his always enjoyable ‘Take me to the Movies’ presentations where he dissects one or more movies, & shares his findings with his fellow members.
As an added bonus, there were a couple of scenes from a James Bond spoof starring Peter Sellers. And there was indeed some catchy music. The end credits played against the background sounds of the song “Goldfinger.”
After David’s presentation, Master of Ceremonies Roy Albiston brought everyone up to date on upcoming events and called on Richard Silverberg to conduct the Open Forum where questions are asked and answered about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya.
For more information on the many activities of the PCEC, visit their website at www.pcecclub.org.
