Teddy Pasternak at 2012-07-14 20:52:00:

Here's one of my favorite side characters of all time: Erich von Stroheim as Max von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard (1950) written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder & D.M. Marshman Jr. His introduction in the script: Max von Mayerling stands there. He is sixty, and all in black, except for immaculate white cotton gloves, shirt, high, stiff collar and a white bow tie. His coat is shiny black alpaca, his trousers ledger-atriped. He is semi-paralyzed. The left side of his mouth is pulled down, and he leans on a rubber-ferruled stick. Most of his dialogue is very short and Gillis and the audience have no reason to suspect anything other than him being just Norma's servant. As the story progresses we learn that there's more to Max than meets the eye: GILLIS What is it, Max? Want to wash the car, or are you doing a little spying in your off hours? MAX You must be very careful as you cross the patio. Madame may be watching. GILLIS How about my going up the kitchen stairs and undressing in the dark. Will that do it? MAX I'm not inquiring where Mr. Gillis goes every night... GILLIS Why don't you? I'm writing a script and I'm dying to finish it, no matter what. MAX It's just that I'm very worried about Madame. GILLIS Sure you are. And we're not help- ing her any, feeding her lies and more lies. Getting herself ready for a picture ... What happens when she finds out? MAX She never will. That is my job. It has been for a long time. You must understand I discovered her when she was eighteen. I made her a star. I cannot let her be destroyed. GILLIS You made her a star? MAX I directed all her early pictures. There were three young directors who showed promise in those days: D.W. Grirrith, C.B. deMille, and Max von Mayerling. GILLIS And she's turned you into a servant. MAX It was I who asked to come back, humiliating as it may seem. I could have gone on with my career, only I found everything unendur- able arter she divorced me. You see, I was her first husband. Max serves as Norma's protector and is the one that's basically directing the show at the Desmond house playing along with Norma's delusion of her making a comeback. Even as Gillis exposes the truth, Max is adamant to keep up the fantasy: http://cli.ps/GsFz GILLIS Wake up, Norma. You'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left twenty years ago. Now face it. During the preceding. Max has entered. He stands listening, paralyzed. NORMA That's a lie! They still want me! GILLIS No, they don't. NORMA What about the studio? What about De Mille? GILLIS He was trying to spare your feelings. The studio wanted to rent your car. NORMA Wanted what? GILLIS De Mille didn't have the heart to tell you. None of us has had the heart. NORMA That's a lie! They want me, they want me! I get letters every day! GILLIS You tell her, Max. Come on, do her that favor. Tell her there isn't going to be any picture -- there aren't any fan letters, except the ones you write yourself. NORMA That isn't true! Max? MAX Madame is the greatest star of them all... I will take Mr. Gillis' bags. He leaves. NORMA You heard him. I'm a star! In the last scene Max literally becomes Norma's director again as he guides her down the stairs, pretending that the news cameras and police are actually part of a movie set: http://cli.ps/PShzL NORMA (From the top of the stairs) What is the scene? Where am I? MAX This is the staircase of the palace. NORMA Oh, yes, yes. They're below, waiting for the Princess ... I'm ready. MAX All right. (To cameramen) Camera! (To Norma) Action!

Teddy Pasternak at 2012-07-14 23:03:09:

A couple more examples. Similar to the When Harry Met Sally scene I suggested, here the side character sets up a great line for the main character. Greenberg (2010) Screenplay by Noah Baumbach, story by Jennifer Jason Leigh & Noah Baumbach http://cli.ps/248x IVAN Youth is wasted on the young. GREENBERG I’d go further, I’d go, life is wasted on...people. - More Rhys Ifans. Why not. In this scene, the side character Spike functions as comic relief as he does throughout the movie. He's the classic cooky roommate. Notting Hill (1999) Written by Richard Curtis http://cli.ps/SU7T INT. TONY'S RESTAURANT - DAY The restaurant is in the middle of being deconstructed. The pictures are gone off the walls -- a kettle on a long extension lead is on the bare table behind. They're all sitting there. WILLIAM What do you think? Good move? HONEY Good move: when all is said and done, she's nothing special. I saw her taking her pants off and I definitely glimpsed some cellulite down there. BELLA Good decision. All actresses are mad as snakes. WILLIAM Tony -- what do you think? TONY Never met her, never want to. WILLIAM Brilliant. Max? MAX Absolutely. Never trust a vegetarian. WILLIAM Great. Excellent. Thanks. Spike enters. SPIKE I was called and I came. What's up? HONEY William has just turned down Anna Scott. SPIKE You daft prick!

David Proenza at 2012-07-15 01:17:33:

The ultimate Side Character will always be Banky Edwards from 'Chasing Amy' (1997) - infinately quotable. Hooper: Always some white boy gotta invoke the holy trilogy. Bust this: Those movies are about how the white man keeps the brother man down, even in a galaxy far, far away. Check this shit: You got cracker farm boy Luke Skywalker, Nazi poster boy, blond hair, blue eyes. And then you got Darth Vader, the blackest brother in the galaxy, Nubian god! Banky: What's a Nubian? Hooper: Shut the fuck up! Now... Vader, he's a spiritual brother, y'know, down with the force and all that good shit. Then this cracker, Skywalker, gets his hands on a light saber and the boy decides he's gonna run the fuckin' universe; gets a whole clan of whites together. And they go and bust up Vader's hood, the Death Star. Now what the fuck do you call that? Banky: Intergalactic civil war? Hooper: Gentrification! They gon' drive out the black element to make the galaxy quote, unquote, safe for white folks. And Jedi's the most insulting installment! Because Vader's beautiful black visage is sullied when he pulls off his mask to reveal a feeble, crusty, old white man! They tryin' to tell us that deep inside we all wants to be white! Banky: Well, isn't that true? And also... Banky: Alright, now see this? This is a four-way road, okay? And dead in the center is a crisp, new, hundred dollar bill. Now, at the end of each of these streets are four people, okay? You following? Holden: Yeah. Banky: Good. Over here, we have a male-affectionate, easy to get along with, non-political agenda lesbian. Down here, we have a man-hating, angry as fuck, agenda of rage, bitter dyke. Over here, we got Santa Claus, and up here the Easter Bunny. Which one is going to get to the hundred dollar bill first? Holden: What is this supposed to prove? Banky: No, I'm serious. This is a serious exercise. It's like an SAT question. Which one is going to get to the hundred dollar bill first? The male-friendly lesbian, the man-hating dyke, Santa Claus, or the Easter bunny? Holden: The man-hating dyke. Banky: Good. Why? Holden: I don't know. Banky: [shouting] Because the other three are figments of your fucking imagination!

Désirée N at 2012-07-15 12:39:23:

From Batman Begins Bruce Wayne I'm not afraid of you. Carmine Falcone Because you think you got nothing to lose. But you haven't thought it through. You haven't thought about your lady-friend down at the D.A.'s office. You haven't thought about your old butler. Bang! People from your world have so *much* to lose. Now, you think because your mommy and your daddy got shot, you know about the ugly side of life, but you don't. You've never tasted desperate. You're, uh, you're Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham; you'd have to go a thousand miles to meet someone who didn't know your name. So, don't-don't come down here with your anger, trying to prove something to yourself. This is a world you'll never understand. And you always fear what you don't understand. Alright. http://youtu.be/qYJONPqBvlY It is the very line from Falcone that is the start of a journey that will end in Batman. Without that meeting and that line, the movie would have ended right there.