Thank you, sister bluebird! And hey, at first I thought your avatar was Jack Nicholson from 'The Shining,' but now it appears to be Jimmy Carr. Am I right?

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
*reclaimvote annnnnd *promote

According to Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_di_Lammermoor#Trivia, it's been used in;

The "Lucia Sextet" (Chi mi frena in tal momento?) was recorded in 1908 by Enrico Caruso, Marcella Sembrich, Antonio Scotti, Marcel Journet, Barbara Severina, and Francesco Daddi, (Victor single-sided 70036) and released at the price of $7.00, earning it the title of "The Seven-Dollar Sextet". The film The Great Caruso incorporates a scene featuring a performance of this sextet.

The "Lucia Sextet" melody is best known to some from its use by the American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges in their short films Micro-Phonies and Squareheads of the Round Table, sung in the latter with the lyrics "Oh, Elaine, can you come out tonight...." But the melody is used most dramatically in Howard Hawks' gangster classic "Scarface": Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) whistles "Chi mi frena?" in the film's opening sequence, as he guns down a ganglord boss he has been assigned to protect.

It has also been used in Warner Brothers cartoons: Long-Haired Hare, sung by the opera singer (Bugs Bunny's antagonist); Book Revue, sung by the wolf antagonist; and in Back Alley Oproar, sung by a choir full of Sylvesters, the cat.

The "Lucia Sextet" melody also figures in two scenes from the 2006 film The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese. In one scene, Jack Nicholson's character is shown at a performance of "Lucia di Lammermoor", and the music on the soundtrack is from the sextet. Later in the film, Nicholson's cell phone ringtone is the sextet melody.

The Sextet is also featured during a scene from the 1986 comedy film, The Money Pit.

In the children's book "The Cricket in Times Square," Chester Cricket chirps the tenor part to the "Lucia Sextet" as the encore to his farewell concert, literally stopping traffic in the process.

An aria from the "mad scene," "Il dolce suono" (from the 3rd Act), was re-popularized when it was featured in the film The Fifth Element in a performance by the alien diva Plavalaguna (voiced by Albanian soprano Inva Mula-Tchako and played onscreen by French actress Maïwenn Le Besco). A loose remake of this film version of the song was covered by Russian pop singer Vitas.

The "mad scene" was also used in the first episode of the anime series Gankutsuou (in place of L'Italiana in Algeri which was the opera used in that scene in The Count of Monte Cristo).

The "mad scene" aria, as sung by Inva Mula-Tchako, was used in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent involving the murder of a young violinist by her opera singer mother (who performs the song right after the murder).

The "mad scene" was released as a music video by Russian male soprano Vitas in 2006.

Among other selections from the opera, the "mad scene", "Verranno a te sull'aure", and "Che facesti?" feature prominently in the 1983 Paul Cox film Man of Flowers, especially "Verranno a te sull'aure," which accompanies a striptease in the film's opening scene.

The opera is mentioned in the novels The Count of Monte Cristo, Madame Bovary and Where Angels Fear to Tread and was reputedly one of Tolstoy's favorites.

"Regnava nel silenzio" accompanies the scene in Beetlejuice in which Lydia (Winona Ryder) composes a suicide note.

A portion of the opera is also used in a key scene of the film The Fifth Element, written and directed by Luc Besson.

Tags for this video have been changed from '1980, horror, documentary, interviews' to '1980, horror, shining, interviews, jack nicholson, stanley, vivian, kubrick' - edited by kulpims

They're eerily similar, except Batman '91 had Robert Wuhl (???), no action, Prince tie-ins and a gayass Joker doing a bad Jack Nicholson impersonation.

say what you will about Robbie but if you didnt laugh at the Uncle Fester/McCain reference you have no sense of humor

Jack Nicholson 2012!!!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'jack, nicholsen, roman, polanski, chinatown, 70s, 1974' to 'jack, nicholson, roman, polanski, chinatown, 70s, 1974' - edited by calvados

You know something is wrong when you start thinking Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining' is the normal one.

*vintage *cinema

I remember this song because they repeatedly played it in the film Heartburn, with Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Not a great film, but it had its moments.

Tags for this video have been changed from '1989, batman, tim burton, three foot gun, jack nicholson' to '1989, batman, tim burton, three foot gun, jack nicholson, michael keaton' - edited by doogle

Eerie lighting. Super quiet. Nobody around. I kept expecting Jack Nicholson to jump out of a doorway.

Helen Hunt sniffed a bit of coke, and the next thing you know, she was starring as Jack Nicholson's love interest. See what drugs do to you?

That awesome Nicholson car video is broken for some reason. http://www.videosift.com/video/jack-nicholson-promotes-the-hydrogen-powered-chevy-1978

It's still up on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVzySk0Pks

I think they both stand on their own merits. Nicholson's take goes perfectly with the baroque gothic style Burton was going for in 1989, and Ledger works great for Nolan's uber realism.

Nicholson's take is getting a bad rap. One criticism people level at Jack's performance is that his joker is "too much like Jack Nicholson", but that's why he was cast! Nobody in Hollywood's ever had a more famously threatening grin than Jack Nicholson.

As for the writing of the character, I prefer the Nolan version of the bat mythos, but he's still not making the Batman movies I'd make if a genie granted me the director's chair. I'd make it a lot more low key and make Batman far more self-reliant. Four people knew his identity by the end of Begins. Dumb. Parts of The Dark Knight belong in a Bond movie... the cellphone sonar and the airplane skyhook stunt come to mind.

I also really wish they'd just left Two-Face out of it. They totally wasted Batman's second-best enemy. Should have had the Joker scar him in this one and then maybe cap the movie with a hint that he is going to be the villain in the next one. You could still have the entire arc without making the last half-hour of the movie seem unfocused and sort of too much of a good thing.

About that baroque gothic style, I could never understand why to this day so many people in the media cite The Dark Knight Returns as the inspiration for the 1989 Batman film. Perhaps the sales numbers inspired it, but in tone and style they are as far apart as any other two interpretations of the mythos.

Saddest thing I ever did see. Reminds me of One Flew over the Cookoo's nest, when (spoiler) jack nicholson gets lobotomized.

>> ^Kreegath:
Don't like the new Joker at all.
Just like with everything else nowadays they just had to make him more emo goth dark, completely detached from all other incarnations of the Joker. Kind of sad to see him reduced to a generic, misunderstood, dark villain with a sad, troubled past. Probably kept the name solely for name recognition's sake, which led to them being forced to add the face paint. By the look of it, however, it's clear the instructions on how to apply said face paint wasn't specific enough.
Then again, this video might not accurately portray the Joker of the new movie. Or, I'm simply not the target audience.


Is your entire knowledge base about the Joker based on Nicholson's performance? Ledger's Joker is far, far truer to the DC version of the Joker. And you haven't even seen the movie!