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Would you rather own a Faberge egg OR a Stradivarius cello?

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  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,117
    Cultural snob, although not a know-it-all.

    I'd like to add that smoking is no longer considered glamorous. Except maybe cigars. Otherwise, it's not images of handsome men in tuxedo next to femmes fatales that come to my mind. It's somebody having coughing fits as if he's got porridge in his throat, yellow teeth and fingers.
  • CommanderRossCommanderRoss The bottom of a pitch lake in Eastern Trinidad, place called La Brea
    Posts: 8,255
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Cultural snob, although not a know-it-all.

    I'd like to add that smoking is no longer considered glamorous. Except maybe cigars. Otherwise, it's not images of handsome men in tuxedo next to femmes fatales that come to my mind. It's somebody having coughing fits as if he's got porridge in his throat, yellow teeth and fingers.

    same. well put.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited June 2 Posts: 16,383
    I was watching NTTD again and I had completely forgotten that we get a bit of the old inexplicable know-it-all gag when Bond displays an easy familiarity with the process of opening the blast doors on a cold war-era Soviet missile silo much to Q's bafflement: that was pretty fun. I wouldn't mind a bit more of that.

    I'll echo what Ludivco said and say that smoking cigs does not look cool anymore, it's screen shorthand for a character being weak and nervous usually. It wouldn't work for 007 (plus it would probably change the age rating on the film, lose them sponsor deals etc. - it's just not going to happen).
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,032
    Bond is a cultural snob. But I think this is because deep down there, he wants to belong to the upper class, for which his job offers him an opportunity based on his apparently limitless expense account. However, unless we will get a "period piece" Bond from the 1950s one of these days, smoking (unlike drinking, at least drinking expensive stuff) is now frowned upon in affluent and especially educated circles. That's why a modern-day Bond shouldn't smoke any more, it would be simply against his character.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,426
    I've missed the fancy espresso machines, the knowledge of bon-bois in a brandy, red wine with fish, temperature of sake. I would love to see that back into the character.

    I will gladly take the knowledge and snob part of the character over smoking. It was as different time and place and we live in different times. Though Bond vaping is an interesting consideration. LOL!
  • CountJohnCountJohn
    Posts: 230
    Easily cultural snob, something I wish they'd never abandoned. Love little lines like the "red wine with fish" comment or "beluga, north of the Caspian". Also dismissing M's requested champagne brand as "questionable" LOL.

    Glad they don't have him smoke anymore, tbh.
  • UnivexUnivex
    Posts: 6,709
    Cultural snob. Although I wouldn’t oppose a large cigar now and then, Moore style.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,571
    Cultural snob

    I don't have a problem seeing Bond smoking, but being a cultural snob offers a lot more variety - and you're allowed to do that indoors!
  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,135
    Cultural snob for me too.
    It's been lacking for the most part, but as @mtm pointed out, is present in NTTD to a degree with the blast doors, and Q explaining it will be an overly complicated appliance all while Bond merely pulls a few levers and solves the problem.
    The return of this trait in Bond 26 would be most welcome.
  • MalloryMallory
    Posts: 2,165
    Benny wrote: »
    Cultural snob for me too.
    It's been lacking for the most part, but as @mtm pointed out, is present in NTTD to a degree with the blast doors, and Q explaining it will be an overly complicated appliance all while Bond merely pulls a few levers and solves the problem.
    The return of this trait in Bond 26 would be most welcome.

    Know-it-all Bond as well.

    Always love it when M asks Bond if he knows what something is and he proceeds to reel off an encyclopaedia about it.

    Moore’s Bond especially.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,117
    thedove wrote: »
    I've missed the fancy espresso machines, the knowledge of bon-bois in a brandy, red wine with fish, temperature of sake. I would love to see that back into the character.

    I will gladly take the knowledge and snob part of the character over smoking. It was as different time and place and we live in different times. Though Bond vaping is an interesting consideration. LOL!

    I think vaping is in a way worse! It looks worse, if that makes sense. People who vape are either addicted who want to quit or young people using it as a gateway drug.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    edited June 3 Posts: 5,426
    "Do you know what this is?"

    "Looks like a Faberge Egg made by Karl Faberge as an Easter gift for the Russian royal family. Their priceless and very rare. This one contains a model of the Imperial State coach."

    "Top Marks double-o-7."

    "Thank you sir."

    "Except it's a fake."



    "Pity about your liver sir. An unusually fine solera. 51 I believe."

    "There is no year for sherry double-o-7."

    "I was referring to the year on which the sherry is based sir. 1851, unmistakable."


    "Have some more of this rather disappointing brandy."

    "Oh what's the matter with it?"

    "I'd say it was a 30 year old fine indifferently blended. With an overdose of bon-bois."

    "Colonel Smithers is giving the lecture double-o-7."
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    Posts: 9,032
    "Unusually small for a Nymphalis polychloros."

    "I wasn't aware that your expertise included lepidoptery."
  • BT3366BT3366
    Posts: 1,917
    Cultural snob, yes. It's a part of the character. I'd rather not see the return of when Moore's Bond would finish sentences and know everything before M or Q explains it. That got a little out of hand. I preferred when Connery's Bond would be admittedly not as knowledgeable about something like gold or diamonds. I really like the DAF line about his knowledge of diamonds.

    I haven't missed the smoking, but never cared for the reason it was taken away in the first place and placing warnings prior to films like LTK. There was an irony. You're going to see people shredded, set on fire, their hearts cut out of their chests, speared, impaled, etc., but smoking could really harm your health.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,426
    Sir Donald "Tell me Mister Bond, how far does your expertise extend into the fields of diamonds."

    Bond "Hardest substance found in nature, can cut glass, I suppose it replaced a dog as a girls best friend, that's about it really."

    M "Refreshing to hear there's one subject you aren't an expert on."

    After Bond makes M his coffee...

    "Is that all it does?"

    Some classic exchanges.

  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,968
    Consider me one of maybe three or four other people who would love to see Bond return to smoking. He doesn't strike me as the type who would quit because it's not the "cool" or "in" thing to do anymore, especially when modern day Bond still struggles with alcohol and even pills in certain installments.
  • Vinther1991Vinther1991 Denmark
    Posts: 64
    Went a bit too far with the know-it-all in the Moore era:

    M - What do you know about a man called Scaramanga, 007?
    Bond - Scaramanga?
    Oh, yes! The Man with the Golden Gun.
    Born in a circus. Father, the ringmaster.
    Mother, English. A snake charmer.
    A spectacular trick-shot artist by the time he was ten and a local Rio gunman at 15.
    The KGB trained him in Europe, where he became
    an overworked, underpaid assassin.
    He went independent in the '50s.
    Current price: One million dollars a hit.
    No... er... photograph on file.
    But he does have one distinguishing feature, however. A superfluous papilla.
    M - A what?
    Bond - A mammary gland. A third nipple, sir.
    He always uses a golden bullet, hence "Man with the Golden Gun".
    Present domicile unknown.
    I think that's all.
    Why, sir?
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,426
    To me it's the smirk at the end of that second reply that gets me everytime. The smug look is replaced when M tosses the "trinket" and explains to Bond that he's a target.
  • LudovicoLudovico
    Posts: 15,117
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Consider me one of maybe three or four other people who would love to see Bond return to smoking. He doesn't strike me as the type who would quit because it's not the "cool" or "in" thing to do anymore, especially when modern day Bond still struggles with alcohol and even pills in certain installments.

    It's not that it's no longer cool. It's just no longer glamorous. Alcohol, at least some types of alcohol, are still glamorous. Pills are medication. Someone smoking is no longer seen as sexy, glamorous or upper class. Except maybe, maybe,,maybe cigar.
  • slide_99slide_99 USA
    Posts: 693
    Knowledge expert, by a long shot. I don't really care about smoking, and there's not much culture left to be snobby over. But some of my favorite moments from the movies are when Bond has encyclopedic knowledge of obscure subjects, even though it's not very accurate to Fleming's character.
    "A very rare orchid, indeed."
  • RichardTheBruceRichardTheBruce I'm motivated by my Duty.
    Posts: 13,790
    So what would be relevant and appropriate.

    Cigar can be done.

    Or 007 shares a drag with an associate on the level of Kerim Bey or René Mathis in their final moments. Does it in character as his latest cover on a mission. Where a femme fatale or sacrificial lamb wants a light, in or out of bed, Bond could oblige and likely partake. Or even where he seeks a physical charge from the nicotine (beats Benzedrine at this point), knowing the previous intense exchange is followed by a higher challenge.

    And it recalls his history in the military or other background for the character. Doesn't have to be an outright endorsement of the product.


    animated-smoke-498-x-249-gif-l5909fw1y7jaou5d.gif
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,968
    I really thought Bond was going to have Felix's cigar at some point in NTTD. That would've been a nice touch.
  • MalloryMallory
    Posts: 2,165
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    I really thought Bond was going to have Felix's cigar at some point in NTTD. That would've been a nice touch.

    Yeah. I was expecting him to light up on the dingy, in respect of Leiter.

    The BTS photos of Bond at him home showed him smoking a cigar, but it was removed from the final cut.
  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,571
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Consider me one of maybe three or four other people who would love to see Bond return to smoking. He doesn't strike me as the type who would quit because it's not the "cool" or "in" thing to do anymore, especially when modern day Bond still struggles with alcohol and even pills in certain installments.
    Just out of curiosity, what brand/s would you have Bond smoke? A bit of Morland Flemingesque-ness? Or would you have him speak Lark?
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,176
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Consider me one of maybe three or four other people who would love to see Bond return to smoking. He doesn't strike me as the type who would quit because it's not the "cool" or "in" thing to do anymore, especially when modern day Bond still struggles with alcohol and even pills in certain installments.

    I'm with you. I dislike know-it-all Bond; he might know his food and wine, but I'm not sure he's that well-informed about the rest of culture.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Consider me one of maybe three or four other people who would love to see Bond return to smoking. He doesn't strike me as the type who would quit because it's not the "cool" or "in" thing to do anymore, especially when modern day Bond still struggles with alcohol and even pills in certain installments.

    It's not that it's no longer cool. It's just no longer glamorous. Alcohol, at least some types of alcohol, are still glamorous. Pills are medication. Someone smoking is no longer seen as sexy, glamorous or upper class. Except maybe, maybe,,maybe cigar.

    Yes, it doesn’t matter whether Bond thinks it’s cool or not because he doesn’t know we’re watching him. It’s about what character the filmmakers want to portray. And also the constraints of filmmaking in the real world.
  • DEKE_RIVERSDEKE_RIVERS
    Posts: 1,340
    mtm wrote: »
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Creasy47 wrote: »
    Consider me one of maybe three or four other people who would love to see Bond return to smoking. He doesn't strike me as the type who would quit because it's not the "cool" or "in" thing to do anymore, especially when modern day Bond still struggles with alcohol and even pills in certain installments.

    It's not that it's no longer cool. It's just no longer glamorous. Alcohol, at least some types of alcohol, are still glamorous. Pills are medication. Someone smoking is no longer seen as sexy, glamorous or upper class. Except maybe, maybe,,maybe cigar.

    Yes, it doesn’t matter whether Bond thinks it’s cool or not because he doesn’t know we’re watching him. It’s about what character the filmmakers want to portray. And also the constraints of filmmaking in the real world.

    I thought the character was Bond.
  • SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷ Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria
    edited June 5 Posts: 2,016
    I'm no smoker. But for me, there's a way James Bond does it with his stylish posturing that really makes it appear cool like every other ordinary thing he makes look super-cool and extraordinary on screen.
  • DEKE_RIVERSDEKE_RIVERS
    Posts: 1,340
    I don't think Bond has to be a knowledge expert but rather a sybarite.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,383
    SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷ wrote: »
    I'm no smoker. But for me, there's a way James Bond does it with his stylish posturing that really makes it appear cool like every other ordinary thing he makes look super-cool and extraordinary on screen.

    Yeah I agree, which is exactly why he shouldn't! (and doesn't) :)
    I wonder how many folk would like it back even just partly because he made it look good.
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