The Alphabet Meme

As Lance Mannion always says, "Homework! They're giving me homework!" Tony Dayoub of Cinema Viewfinder has tagged me with this alphabet meme, which originated at Blog Cabins. Given the joy (and tremendous work) ahead for the Dayoub household after welcoming little Kyle into the world, the Siren couldn't turn this meme down. First, here are the rules:

1. Pick one film to represent each letter of the alphabet.

2. The letter "A" and the word "The" do not count as the beginning of a film's title, unless the film is simply titled A or The, and I don't know of any films with those titles.

3. [Here we have a long explanation of how to list Star Wars movies, which the Siren will spare you since--spoiler ahead!--there's no way in hell she's listing a Star Wars movie.] ...Movies are stuck with the titles their owners gave them at the time of their theatrical release. Use your better judgment to apply the above rule to any series/films not mentioned.

4. Films that start with a number are filed under the first letter of their number's word. 12 Monkeys would be filed under "T."

5. Link back to Blog Cabins in your post so that I can eventually type "alphabet meme" into Google and come up #1, then make a post where I declare that I am the King of Google.

6. If you're selected, you have to then select 5 more people.

To these the Siren added her own rule, which confined her to films in the two languages she actually speaks, French and English. (Her French is shaky but even so, the Siren can make out a title.)

That means that even though Onna ga kaidan wo agaru toki fits nicely for the letter O, the Siren isn't going to put it there because she doesn't speak Japanese and she feels stupid listing it under a Japanese title she can't pronounce. But it feels like cheating to list it under the English title (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs) if I am listing French movies under French titles. And I have to list French movies under French titles because then I can still fit in my favorite Marcel Carné film and have room for my favorite silent as well.

Do you follow that logic? Never mind, here's the list anyway.

The letter X may seem like cheating too but honestly, what was I supposed to do with that one? Is there a movie out there called Xylophone or Xenophon? If so, I haven't seen it. Nor have I seen the X-Files movie and, with apologies to James Wolcott, Xanadu is not something I could list in good conscience.

A partment, The
B lack Narcissus
C rowd, The
D odsworth
E nfants du Paradis, Les
F allen Idol, The
G randes Manoeuvres, Les
H is Kind of Woman
I mitation of Life (Sirk)
J ezebel
K ey Largo
L etter from an Unknown Woman
M agnificent Ambersons, The
N ight of the Hunter
O ne-Way Passage
P aths of Glory
Q uai des Orfevres
R egle du Jeu, La
S caramouche
T rouble in Paradise
U nfaithfully Yours
V iaggio in Italia*
W oman in the Window, The
X, Divorce of Lady
Y olanda and the Thief
Z

*No gotchas here, please, it's in English.

All righty, the Siren hereby tags:
Stinky Lulu. (Get over there and vote for 1945 for the next Supporting Actress Smackdown because if you've got any sense at all, you are dying, dying I tell you to hear Stinky tackle Eve Arden's greatest performance.)

Jacqueline T. Lynch of Another Old Movie Blog. (And check out her terrific list of "10 Things I Like About Old Movies," which post idea the Siren is so totally stealing, and soon.)

Peter Nelhaus of Coffee, Coffee and More Coffee. (The Siren loves his recent piece on John Barry's Tension. Maybe the Siren will list "drinking coffee" when she steals Jacqueline's post idea later on.)

Goatdog of Goatdogblog (Yoo-hoo, Karen--he's got a wonderful Charles Coburn post up, why not check it out?)

Operator_99 of Allure (Not the sort of thing he usually does--he specializes in lovingly detailed portraits of stars both obscure and beloved--but the Siren wants very much to see what his list would look like.)

If you've already been tagged then just consider yourself double-dog tagged.

(Above: The Siren chose to illustrate Les Grandes Manoeuvres because every blog needs a Gerard Philippe photo somewhere on it. The girl he's checking out is Dany Carrel.)