Notes on Films: 2020

sâmbătă, 7 noiembrie 2020

One of Realini's Top 150 Movies 10 out of 10 for Big Fish

marți, 6 octombrie 2020

81 out of 100 for Trois Enfants Dans Le Desordre

miercuri, 23 septembrie 2020

95 out of 100 for The Secret of Santa Vittoria

vineri, 11 septembrie 2020

What Comes Next

Some decades ago, the stars have been almost perfectly aligned for yours truly, in that there has been a revolution and furthermore, the under signed has had every reason to be proud for, fearful as he had been, he managed to get some courage and go down to the roman Square, to face the special units of the Securitate no less and thus be one of the few Real heroes – not one of the tens of thousands that have been fabricated to enjoy the financial, social and other fake benefits, since he has never claimed the paperwork and the official status, albeit he has regretted it at times, maybe even now –

After that big change – not big enough for many, including yours truly, who feels that much more should have been demolished after a true revolution, and not just a change of one dictator with another communist, of a milder faith – there comes the meeting of the Beauty Queen and incredibly, she becomes intimate with and the girlfriend of a man that on some measures could not dream of such a partner – granted, on some others, the supposed dream Wonder woman was just the winner of a pageant in which only another what, twenty, maybe fifty girls participated and that is very relative and much more controversial these days, and besides, her future actions, the marriage to a loathsome, fat, older Mafioso, that had stolen from women and children – well, not exactly waiting for them in the street, to give a kick in the head and then run with the purse for the money for candy, but taking huge sums from the state budget and thus indirectly depriving pensioners, kids of higher income – do not exactly paint the beauty as a woman with ethics and a moral standing, which rather makes her ugly, if only on the inside.

Then, as if to place all the aces in the hand of this ungrateful bastard, he has the chance to be close to a friend – if he really was one I have been debating in some of this scribbling for some time and the jury is still out on this one, though it is very likely that we have just been mates, I sort of pimped out for him at times, he paid the bills for outings that have included the grandiose at the time, and still quite prestigious now Le club, but we have not been all that close and he may have been had some contempt for me at times, seeing as he is one of the richest five maybe and he had been showing signs of arrogance, aptitude and skills for quite a long time – with a man that controls one of the biggest companies of the land these days and so the under signed has had the chance to be in a revolution, help change the regime, then perhaps to marry the most resplendent beauty to be found around here and get together with one of the richest fellows up there in the top 200 Forbes, very likely among the top ten now…

And what did I do with all these magic cards…waste them to be called a shit, loser, lazy bum and so much more by a spouse that I call the same and quite often cannot stand, but then I still wait for Godot or Saint Francis of Assisi or some other miracle to take place to extract me from this mess, where I spend hours every day with macaws that quite often get me enraged to the point where I want to shoot them – well, at least Balzac may have that destiny if he does not shut his fucking trap – and apart from the new ritual of running near the Mogosoaia lake, near the fantastic palace – if not huge, anyway going back to 1702 – among trees and in a resplendent setting, there is no going out and the place is quite often disgusting…right now, there is the dog of these motherfuckers, perhaps sixty, seventy years old, just moved in this gated community of pretentious fools and they have an animal that I hate.

It is actually not the stupid beast, but the goddamn owners that treat him and the rest of the neighbors to hours of barking, because they do not give a shit about anybody except their own pathetic selves…to add insult to injury, they have started works at the house where they had moved in some months ago – I guess – and they involve machinery, a jackhammer drilling in the courtyard and through my brains, on the weekend too, and to make it plain that these idiots are just the sum of the earth, they allowed the animal to come out and continue with his endless howls and barks, just as the jackhammer took a brake…

I mean, why not have the whole paraphernalia, the whole torture, since they are psychopaths, they ca do it – a psychopath is someone who feels nothing, no empathy, indeed some of the figures here are just the epitome, paradigm or definition of the psychopathic behavior, with their barking dogs, children that scream as if there is no tomorrow and no rules, just as if this is a huge island from The lord of the Flies…

And this is not unique, if the place is beating some records in the limits they break, of insolence, abuse, screaming and barking all in one limited area, still, we can see this ghastly phenomenon ion other places…as I was running earlier today, I noticed that the glass at the lightening in the park has been broken in many places and I even stopped looking to see how many, to avoid getting depressed and this place has another despicable, contemptible feature…when they water the lawns, the lights throughout the park have to be kept on, in the middle of the day, first of all if they do not care, just like the aforementioned and their kids and dogs, they only look at their own benefit and the one in charge at this place is just another idiot who is useless and has not directed a technician to disconnect the 2 different sets of circuits so that they use the sprinklers separate from the hundreds of lights – we are not talking a few light bulbs here, for this is an area of many hectares and multiple lights…

Evidently, the need to use positive psychology or/and stoic precepts is paramount here and one has to enforce what they preach, remembering that ‘there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’ – Hamlet – or ‘the mind is its own place, it can make heaven out of hell, or hell out of heaven’ – and then ‘it is not what happens, but what you make of what happens’ that counts and there are many elements that would indicate an accomplished, well lived life – if not in the sick mind of my spouse – for after working in tourism – I was just a bloody useless guide, according to the same, aforementioned source – I saved some money – so it is good to be a miser, spend thrift bastard after all – and invested in the company that had provided quite a decent, if not opulent existence, until things got more complicated and then loans had to be perfected and insults were intensified – the same aristocratic, self-indulgent, arrogant, disdainful, ungrateful and beneficiary of so much of what this stupid ass had done aka Despicable Me.

It is tempting to say fuck all and then take the luggage and go out, after all, there are not just moments and isolated in time and space when I say that the birds that are sometimes treated as my boys or babies, do in fact annoy me to high heaven and then I cannot live all my life trapped by them and attached to a woman that loathes and hates me and then I reciprocate the feelings…or can I, seeing as this is hedonic adaptation and the blessed or cursed habit creating rituals…

71 out of 100 for Showtime

100 out of 100 for the perfect A Midsummer Night's Dream

luni, 31 august 2020

72 out of 100 for Tarzan of the Apes

77 out of 100 for The Little Shop of Horrors

luni, 20 iulie 2020

Sfantul Mitica Blajinul by Aurel Baranga - Eight out of 10

Sfantul Mitica Blajinul by Aurel Baranga

Eight out of 10

Since theaters are closed due to the pandemic, unless they have a way to use open spaces for some productions, it seems like a very good idea to benefit from the ‘Teatrul de Televiziune’, the program of the National Public Broadcaster, the third Channel, that used to have until recently one play every single day, but has reduced that to just two for the weekend, a reduction that is certainly wrong, given that people have no, or let us say few options at the time of the pandemic and maybe they would watch more in the safety of their homes, albeit if the offer is not enticing, the virus would not make any difference. Besides, one can watch this and better alternatives online… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QiLBvbF0C8

Sfantul Mitica Blajinul is not the most exciting performance you might see, but it does have an appeal, starting with a cast that includes some of the best actors in the land, with Petre Gheorghiu in the leading role – on a personal note, in 1990 I used to drive and park in front of his apartment building, not as stalking fan, but because I may have adored the aspiring actress and the first Beauty Queen of the country who took private lessons from the master who had a reputation as an excellent teacher and indeed, probably contributed decisively to the success of her entry exam in the next year…in the meantime, she is quite well known, maybe not as famous as the teacher, but there is a chance that people know her even better.

Though the play is not brilliant, it does make some points and is helped by the rest of actors, with Stela Popescu as secretary Adela, one of the best comedy actors we have ever had, Dem Radulescu – the one who supervised the class where the aforementioned beauty queen has been studying and malevolent and gossipy voices would tell me that she tried to use her intimate charms to advance her career (we can include this petty, vulgar, tabloid stuff here for our audience is so small as to be considered family and friends and we can venture into such territory with them)- who has the role of

Gheorghe Mitrofan.

The local legend Amza Pellea plays the director Ion Cristea and another iconic figure, Tamara Buciuceanu Frosa, in what is ultimately a watchable production, especially when the choice is Godzilla 2, as was the case last night, when the options were limited to this play, films that have been seen before and the HBO premiere of Godzilla 2 (no than you), which uses satire to expose flaws in human nature and the system, as for the latter, this work is not abrasive, fervent enough to be an attack on the communist philosophy and thus to be banned as subversive material, at least in the first period, with years passing by, censorship would target any reference and was attentive to words like hunger, queues and any criticism or lines that could be conceived as such would not pass the censors and with that standard in place, probably this work joined the long list of creations on the black list.

Mitica Blajinul has been working for the Archives for the last twenty years, when he has arrived with his longtime colleague, the secretary Adela, and they now celebrate this occasion, which happens to be the day when the manager has another anniversary, for he is sixty years old and about to be surprised by his boss, Ion Cristea aka Amza Pellea, who is archetype of the parvenu, incompetent but arriviste, always looking for the tectonic plates that move and bring about change in the hierarchy and he is ready to please the lucky apparatchiks that are placed in positions of power…in the communist days there were so many jokes about competence, militia, the idiot dictator and they were meant to help us through the dark, the hunger, cold, long queues for anything eatable, bread, milk and they also helped give a modicum of freedom, a sense that although in a whisper and in a corner we could take shots at the loathsome bastards…

Hence, we said ‘it is not what you know, but whom you know that matters’, the quote from Jerome K. Jerome ‘I love work, I can watch people work for hours’ sounded so true, then there was a series of blagues with the comrades from the USSR and the west: ‘on such a visit, the guest asks how many people work in the factory they take a tour of and the answer is I guess about half’ for we also had ‘we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us’ and finally, the genie anecdote that has so many forms around the world… a local plays with the famous lamp, the genie is released and offers the well-known three wishes…first, he wants to live in America (for this is well before the idiot Trump, remember?), then he wants money in abundance, but when the first two desires are fulfilled and his third and last wish is to never work again in his life, he is back in our country again…

Mitica Blajinul and the office receive the visit of the Big Kahuna – though trembling and changing colors, opinions, maneuvers, likes and dislikes according to the winds that blow and change peons above him – director Ion Cristea, who has with him an attractive woman – he keeps looking once in a while, with a languorous, suggestive, nay evident look that betrays the skills and the intended tasks that will be assigned to this luscious presence – who will replace secretary Adela, a woman that after 20 years of loyalty and dedication will be transferred to a village, 30 kilometers away from the city, but with a bus that stops in front of the school where she will start working…furthermore, now that he is sixty years old, Mitica is to be pensioned off.

The reasons are that the communist system – and if we look at America, Brazil, Philippines, Venezuela and so many other places, there is enough room for calamitous incompetence in capitalism too – is so well summarized by Animal Farm, with ‘all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’ and those in positions of power abuse it like in no other regime, because they can use the terror, this is a system that allows for no opposition, which is sent to the gulag to work and die, and the pigs and the dogs promote the likes of Miss Boboc, the favorite of the director who expects sexual favors from her and eventually, if this is possible, other benefits, if she is the relative or confidant of someone higher in the nomenclature.

Then there is the case of the replacement of the loyal, sixty years old manager, with a sleepy fool, who is the brother of some woman married very high up, the nobility of the past is replaced therefore by an ‘aristocracy’ – inept, barbaric, primitive, hungry for power and money as it is – of the ‘working classes’ and they use the strings in whatever manner they can, and since they have the dogs aka the militia, security apparatus, ‘law enforcement’ has come to mean we make the laws and we are the law, but it does not touch us.

6 out of 10 for Click

Five out of Ten for Legend

luni, 8 iunie 2020

7 out of 10 for Aren't you Happy

vineri, 22 mai 2020

Nine out of Ten for Misbehaviour

joi, 21 mai 2020

7 5 out of 10 for Daniel

luni, 18 mai 2020

Looking at the Trump cult vs Them That follow

duminică, 17 mai 2020

Ragging Bull and Scary Macaws

sâmbătă, 16 mai 2020

The Little Fugitive explained to the Little Macaws

vineri, 15 mai 2020

Downhill among Birds of Paradise

joi, 14 mai 2020

The Last American Hero and A Couple of Macaws

miercuri, 13 mai 2020

The Gunfighter seen from the Garden with Macaws

marți, 12 mai 2020

A Look at Bad Edication with Macaws

luni, 11 mai 2020

The Good Shepherd in the Garden of Eden

duminică, 10 mai 2020

Rescue Dawn in contrast with Serene Macaws

sâmbătă, 9 mai 2020

With my Macaws looking at Greed

vineri, 8 mai 2020

In the Garden, Talking about High Fidelity

joi, 7 mai 2020

A Blue Bird in my Heart and another one in the Room

miercuri, 6 mai 2020

Looking at Their Finest

marți, 5 mai 2020

Impression Heavy Traffic

luni, 4 mai 2020

A Room With a view at The Half of It

duminică, 3 mai 2020

About L'enfant aka The Child

sâmbătă, 2 mai 2020

A few words about Radioactive

vineri, 1 mai 2020

A look at Memphis Belle

miercuri, 29 aprilie 2020

A Note on Jeune et Jolie aka Young and Beautiful

marți, 28 aprilie 2020

Note on Venus in Fur

luni, 27 aprilie 2020

Note on La Fille Inconnue the Unknown Girl

duminică, 26 aprilie 2020

Note on The Quarry

sâmbătă, 25 aprilie 2020

Note on American Movie Catharsis

marți, 14 aprilie 2020

Note on What's Eating Gilbert Grape

The Big Heat, screenplay by Sydney Boehm, based on the serial by William McGivern, directed by Fritz Lang - 10 out of 10

The Big Heat, screenplay by Sydney Boehm, based on the serial by William McGivern, directed by Fritz Lang

10 out of 10

This is evidently one of the best options for the Armageddon that we may contemplate, seeing as it is one of the best motion pictures of all time, selected on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/note-on-mad-max-2-road-warrior.html - and an inspirational film that could make us face the adversity of the pandemic with more courage, resilience, self-sacrifice, kindness, vitality, integrity, grit, hope, just like the hero of this impressive story, Sergeant Dave Bannion aka fantastic Glenn Ford, who takes on an all-powerful Evil, that we may see as the Virus or perhaps Trump in this age, the gangster- politician Mike Lagana.

We can easily assimilate, see the resemblance, if not the perfect replica with the Crook in charge of the free world represents for the Quintessential Vileness presented in this formidable movie, the corrupt individual that has climbed at the top – in the film it is just a town, but the real estate owner that has been through a series of bankruptcies and yet his idiotic fans see him as a ‘successful businessman has risen on top of the world, ‘stable genius’ as he is, pathological liar, spectacularly stupid and representative though for the depth and magnitude of the bright thinking of tens of millions of Americans and citizens of other nations, for there is no border for cave men and women and the likes of BolsoNero, Duterte, Putin and Xi are almost copies of the Orangutan…

The Big Heat starts with the suicide of a policemen and the call his widow, Bertha Duncan, makes to the…underworld, controlled by Mike Lagana and his cronies and hatchet men, the most prominent being, Vince Stone aka young and remarkable Lee Marvin, people that have the city under their control, because they have corrupt politicians, police commissioners on their payroll…which also strikes one as so similar with the present, in our land we have had until just a while ago such vicious and disgusting leaders, that their ‘party’ – in fact a Mafia organization meant to assure power and money – was known as the Red Plague – fortunately, Alhamdulillah, the disgusting thief that made laws for his own good is now in jail, though this is no reason for exaggerated exuberance, given that the other comrades share the same avarice, selfishness, stupidity and desire to steal and get rich at all costs.

Then we have the Lagana and Trump, representing the flaws of America, past and present respectively – a model to which I keep coming back, because it affects almost all of us and it is overwhelming and it seems to show the Decline, the Decadence, the Failure for us all, since that democracy used to be hailed – as the system in general – as the epitome of the successful running and development of a country as in The American Dream, all of which appears to have collapsed, in spite of the impeachment – voted down in terms of punishment in the Senate controlled by sycophants and smaller replicas of the Big Scoundrel - - and it pains so many, given that this used to be The Model to follow, the Shining City on the Hill, the Goal that we must look towards and hope that we will arrive there in the future…and now we look and see a post-apocalyptic society, where the Ultimate Pithecanthropus is in charge and not only that, but as he makes thousands of mistakes and tells tens of thousands of proven lies, 30 or 40% still love him and they are ready to use their guns – and they have a huge arsenal, bigger than most armies in the world – to keep him there…

To lighten the tone a little, we used to have jokes here and in the rest of Eastern Europe about America, such as ‘we offer 4 bedrooms penthouse, center of this or that capital, with all the amenities and exclusive facilities for a tent in Central Park…or another has the End of the World – just like now, with the Apocalyptic Virus – arrive and the American president says ‘do not worry, we have the space ships, we can leave the doomed planet’, while ours says ‘do not panic, we are anyway 50 years behind’ – that last figure varied, it was 100 at one time and now, in political terms we are ahead some decades, in the sense that our illuminated president is one million times better – with his inevitable flaws – than the monkey that they have placed in the White House…this trend could be reversed, but we surely hope not…Insha’Allah!

Dave Bannion is investigating the suicide, when he has a talk with Lucy Chapman, a woman that had had an affair with the late Duncan and who knows that there is something seriously wrong with the lies told by the widow, who has tried to justify a desperate act, claiming her late spouse had been very sick, when he was not and this makes the honest sergeant suspect there is more to find, especially when he would find that the poor ‘barfly’ – the demeaning term used then for those who had no possessions, flirted and had intimate affairs with various men, around bars – would be killed and worse, tortured, displaying cigarette burns on the dead body…

The hero knows, just like everybody else, that the gangster Mike Lagana is in charge and anything that happens in the streets has to have his marks, the approval and therefore he tries to push the bar tender, after he stays close to hear him connect the ‘higher echelons’, to tell him about the killer that ended the life of the poor woman who has tried to be a whistleblower – another connection with the present, when some patriot has tried to sound the alarm over the treasonous behavior of the president, Trump has pushed his monstrous behavior as far as to put the life of that noble man or woman in danger and in the days of the crisis, he has just sacked the Inspector General that had warned congress over the now infamous Ukraine scandal…

Dave Bannion walks up to the resident of the Godfather and confronts him, but the initial result is to have him scolded and warned by the lieutenant, who had had Big Heat coming from upstairs, where Commissioner Higgins and others are on the payroll of the gangster – indeed, in one scene of despicable violence, Vince Stone attacks his mistress, Debby Marsh aka Gloria Grahame, and pours hot coffee over her face, torturing and mutilating her for life and it is the commissioner who has to take her to the hospital, servant of the killers as he is, to prevent the otherwise inevitable report that would be made in such a case…

Tragedy strikes at the home of the Untouchable Sargent, when a bomb destined to silence him forever, blows someone else instead, but this will only serve to strengthen his anyway marvelous resolve to stand alone in front of the Evil Empire and fight to find the truth, revenge and make the loathsome creatures pay for their rottenness and abjection…

Note on Mad Max 2

http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/note-on-mad-max-2-road-warrior.html

joi, 9 aprilie 2020

The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell - Seven out of 10

The Rhythm Section by Mark Burnell

Seven out of 10

This is a note on the film based on the book by Mark Burnell…

Having a strong, determined, courageous, intrepid, battle hardened, excellent, gritty, intelligent, sometimes emotional female lead is to be appreciated, especially given the fact that we have had so many James Bond, Jason Bourne and other action movies, where the stars have been almost exclusively male and female leads are still rare in such genres, though not impossible to find…take Hanna - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-hanna-with-saoirse-ronan-eric.html - or Wonder Woman - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/wonder-woman-by-allan-heinberg-story-by.html

Alas, the problem is that we have been there before, so many times that the sense of déjà vu is overwhelming and even if the action figure is no longer 007 or some macho character, it is not enough to make seeing The Rhythm Section a memorable experience, though this is a cinephile that had been educated in the old school and perhaps try as he might, he still does not see the big difference…

There are some details that could indeed make this a completely new film and have viewers in awe at the way the central character deals with a few situations…for instance the one where she has to deal with a man that is debilitated and apparently easy to take – well, if you make it your supreme goal to take vengeance on terrorist who are specialized in…killing multitudes – but she looks unable to overcome this enemy.

Again, later on, she is about to explode in a bus and only help from a wounded woman may or may not save her from being blown apart…which is perhaps exactly the human touch, the more delicate female that is different from the scores of heroes we have seen blowing away whoever comes down their path – Mission Impossible I, II, III, IV (where are we now, by the way at V?) seems to represent the opposite view… http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-mission-impossible-rogue-nation.html

miercuri, 8 aprilie 2020

Galaxy Quest by David Howard - 8.5 out of 10

Galaxy Quest by David Howard

8.5 out of 10

If for no other reason, then it is still worth seeing this Science Fiction comedy for the outstanding team that acts in it – Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith aka the commander of a galactic ship in a series, Sigourney Weaver as another artist, Gwen DeMarco, with a role on the same space ship, Alan Rickman as a disabused actor, Alexander Dane, who had tolerated enough of the arrogance of Jason Nesmith, Tony Shalhoub as Fred Kwan and the recent Oscar Winner, Sam Rockwell as Guy Fleegman, the one with just a cameo in the series, but who happens to get sucked in a Galaxy Quest, meant to save some…aliens.

The superb acting – though perhaps the visitors from Outer Space overdo their mannerisms…and even this is hard to assess, for who knows how aliens behave – helps carry the story around, in that the ‘commander’ is amusingly preposterous, too infatuated to be taken seriously, for quite some time, though an actor in the film, he acts as if he really has superior knowledge and he is towering over the rest of the ‘crew’ and people in general – in one of his mesmerizing novels, I think it was Point and Counterpoint and not chrome Yellow, Aldous Huxley writes about an actress that has to portrays a char woman and after a while, she changes her manner of speaking and takes that character into real life, where she is no longer that acclaimed artist, but the woman she had been meant to bring only to the audiences…

http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/11/point-counter-point-by-aldous-huxley.html

Aliens arrive at a meeting with the fans and they are evidently taken for something else, for quite some time, resulting in some amusing scenes, wherein ‘the great commander’ insists on the limo, for he is sure these are just those who want them to show at a gathering of admirers of the series – that resemble the real aficionados of shows like Star Treck or the Star Wars sequels and prequels, that are devoted and intoxicated with the personages, the light sabers, costumes and all the paraphernalia involved…

Only they are ‘real’ and they take the one they think is so skilled, adept at managing crisis – suddenly, I am thinking of Trump, who also wants to show off and speaks of himself as the ‘very stable genius and more recently the war president’ when in fact is just a con artist who has managed to trick so many fools into voting for him and before that buy his phony products, university, vodka, airlines, etc…a crook that has been in bankruptcy Six (6!) times - to their universe, where there is trouble and calamity in store…

This is not Doctor Strangelove, King of Comedy, History of the World by Mel Brooks, or The Producers by the same comedy genius

http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-producers-written-and-directed-by.html

It is probably good entertainment though, especially at the Time of the New Cholera, the Corona Virus 19

marți, 7 aprilie 2020

Les Miserables, written by Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti, directed by the former - 10 out of 10

Les Miserables, written by Ladj Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti, directed by the former

10 out of 10

As the winner of The Jury Prize at the most important –at least for this cinephile – cinematic competition in the world, the Cannes Film Festival of 2019 – it looks like there may not be one this year – we can see Les Miserables as the second best motion picture of the year, in a race dominated by the fantastic Parasite, the film that has won almost everything across the board, from the Palme d’Or to the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture (and the one in Foreign Language too)- http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/parasite-written-by-jin-won-han-and.html

This is a phenomenal, outstanding achievement, challenging on so many levels – let us start with…the ending, which is so puzzling and difficult to decipher…what do you think will happen after the last shot by the way, for there seem to be quite a few possibilities – for one is evidently tempted to take sides with Les Miserables aka the miserable, mostly young people who live in the ‘banlieues’ where poverty and alienation seem to be dominant and they result in rebellion, protests and violent incidents, mentioned in the film, with reference to revolts in which arson was the order of the day, a multitude of cars have been burnt, many millions have damage have been reported and injuries inflicted, but as the ‘good cop’ of this story, Brigadier Stephane Ruiz ‘Pento’ aka excellent Damien Bonnard, states when speaking with one of the reformed characters, Salah, it has brought no good for the community, mainly because ‘on s’en fout’ aka nobody cares…

Brigadier Ruiz, who might have a passing resemblance with the much more famous Jean Valjean, moves to Paris to be able to see his son, separated as he is from the wife that had already moved to the capital, and he joins this team of the Anti-Crime Brigade, where Chris is the leader and Gwada the other team mate, and he is given a tour of the community, mocked on ‘the engine oil’ he might be using for his hair, on one occasion he is sent into a shaorma joint to ask about the missing lion cub, only to be left there in an embarrassing situation, meant to bring joy to his new comrades, who prove very soon to be very complicated human beings, for although we soon see Chris talking to the local ring leader Le Mair aka The Mayor about a special gift for his wife, this viewer is still in disbelief as to how earthlings could resist the pressure, the torment, the abuse, torture suffered by officers in the line of fire in these places…

Evidently, Les Miserables appear to have the worst possible life, plagued by poverty, abuse, living in crowded, squalid buildings – a most recent article in The Economist mentions the fact that the well-off have had the means to escape quarantine in the worst affected places, while those who have to stay inside, together with so many others, would face grave challenges and consequences – and as it appears in this vast fresco, which looks at so many elements of this huge puzzle, they have adversity on all sides: Le Mair is a corrupt individual that supervises much of the illegal activity in his domain, from the selling of counterfeit merchandise – which the Brigade knows and does nothing about, except get something original in exchange for closing the eyes – and there is another pressure, from a group that gets severely punished at some stage, for it seems only interested in getting profits, even if that means covering for and collaborating with the police, that is one of the harassing, tormenting and torturing elements in this explosive mix

Before the level of tension starts ascending dramatically, we have indications that this is a team that faces constant pressure and as a result, due probably in equal part to personal flaws and shortcomings, they behave violently, especially Chris, who sees a few girls in a bus station and because he suspects - perhaps he knows, for even if he is abusive, he has acquired an impressive experience and has developed special skills – for instance, when the lion cub disappears and is about to cause a tragedy, he looks on the social networks, aware that these individuals would boast there about their exploits – that they are smoking marijuana and he speaks with vileness and even smashes the phone of one girl who is only 15, after harassing and bullying her and the others present in the station…

The lion cub belongs to a circus and Salah is right when he points out that lions do not belong in circuses – which is indeed illegal now in most of the civilized world – though he uses an argument from the Koran – now here is one of the few things we would like about this and other religious texts – and he has been stolen by a rebellious child, Issa, and this is on the point of creating a massive clash between the inhabitants of the ‘banlieue’ , under the corrupt leadership of Le Mair and the ‘gitanes’, those who control the circus and who are ready for a bloody battle, for which they have brought many hoodlums, armed with hatchets and many other weapons…they are separated by the three members of the brigade, who start investigating to see where the ‘mini-lion’ is, to return it and avoid the huge clash.

Alas, when they do find Issa, after seeing him photographed and then posted on the internet, the police officers lose control of the operation, as they try to immobilize the boy, they are faced with the opposition of his comrades and though perhaps most under the age of ten, their sheer numbers threaten to overwhelm the three adults, a chase ensues and when finally they catch up with the running boy, who is maybe eight or ten, they are again surrounded by the others, maybe over twenty or thirty, and those agitated children throw cans, stones and whatever they find at the reviled police…they are at least in part responsible for the fact that the brigadier of African origin, Gwada – Djebril Zonga is formidable in role and the fact that it is the minority officer who is most to blame is again very poignant – shoots his weapon.

Issa is badly hit in the face and it is clear that this will be a massive scar for the rest of his life, both physical and perhaps much more serious, psychological, though he will survive, for this is not a deadly weapon in normal conditions – though it can be from very close and this was very near – it is as grave a mistake as can be, ever more serious if we consider that the pistol has a safety and cannot be released by accident, as Ruiz would make clear when he confronts Gwada with the gravity of what he had done…to which the man of African descent replies that he had been under fire for ten years, patrolling in this section is hell, at night they have to dress like Rambo, fro there is no other way to survive in this jungle…and it sounds about right, though he admits to have snapped, lost a cable inside and blew it…

This stupendous motion picture raises so many questions, such as what happens at the end, or better said after the ambiguous, thought provoking end, what is the solution, for it seems that Les Miserables are entitled, justified to revolt – though for me, it is clear that they went too far and if they keep it this way, it would be ever harder to gain sympathy – and on the other hand, Gwada and the other brigadiers can only be expected to snap, working in a war zone, having to face battle scenes on a regular basis…

Dark Victory, written by Casey Robinson, based on the play by George Emerson Brewer and Bertram Bloch - Nine out of 10

Dark Victory, written by Casey Robinson, based on the play by George Emerson Brewer and Bertram Bloch

Nine out of 10

This motion picture is important on many levels, one of which might be that it seems to have launched the career of godly Humphrey Bogart, who is ‘just a stable hand’ – as he describes himself in a dialogue with the main character – but his presence here, though in a supporting role would be noticed and later on ’Bogie’ would be the star in classics like The Maltese Falcon http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-maltese-falcon-by-dashiell-hammett.html - Casablanca -- http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/casablanca-with-humphrey-bogart-and.html - The African Queen http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-african-queen-by-c-s-forester.html and many other extraordinary movies.

Dark Victory is also included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/5 - and it benefits from the performance of another member of the select committee that lives eternally on The Olympus of Cinema, Bette Davis, the first actress to benefit from an independent contract – before that, actors and actresses had been under slavish arrangements with this studios that dictated what they did, even what would be projected from their private lives, for the use of the audiences –and the star of films like Now, Voyager - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/now-voyager-based-on-novel-by-olive.html - The Whales of August - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-whales-of-august-with-bette.html and many more films...

In Dark Victory, Bette Davis has the role of Judith Traherne, a character who has so much in common with the star, independent, strong, gritty, vivacious, determined, intelligent, modern, charming, remarkable as she is, in the prime of her life, but alas affected by some mysterious ailment, which is puzzling her and her entourage, when she tries to jump with her horse and has an accident, caused as she confesses, by the fact that she had seen two images and instructed the quadruped to jump over the false image…

George Brent is just as good in the role of Doctor Frederick Steele, a busy brain surgeon who is in a hurry to catch a train when they first meet, but mesmerized by the attractive beauty, he decides to miss the voyage and consults her, worried by what he sees, the fact that she does not feel with her right hand and confuses different materials which she has no problem in identifying as silk and other things with her other hand.

Upon further investigation, he concludes that these manifestations are caused by a brain tumor and he needs to operate immediately, as soon as it is possible, given the severity of the problem and because a clear bond is created between the two, the patient is obviously under a spell, she obeys though she is generally a little spoiled, upper class woman, with access to stables, horses, money and even Humphrey Bogart works for her as the man at the stables, the one who warns her that a new born animal might die of bronchitis during one night when she seems to care little if anything about the rest of the world

If Hollywood motion pictures are known and often mocked for the rosy, Panglossian depictions of life, wherein Fast and Furious, but often ridiculous heroes beat all adversity and triumph in the end against well, common sense, this is that one rare bird, rara avis, that makes it clear from the very title, Dark Victory, that this is going to be quite negative and there would be ‘death’ as the idiot in The White House has just said yesterday, after denying the pandemic and calling it a ‘hoax’ made up by the Democrats, and much talk about it going to zero, when it was just starting, he is now denying any responsibility and lying as he always does

The operation does not solve the problem and Doctor Steele and other experts conclude that the patient is going to die in a matter of months, though he does offer a small silver lining, saying that she would not suffer, but just die peacefully and without pain…

Frederick Steele talks with the friend of the patient, Ann King aka another superb actress, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and shares with her the tragic diagnosis, or ‘the negative prognosis’ as it is officially inscribed in the medical records and they decide to keep this a secret from the dying woman, though that would be illegal in many lands today…

As they secretly meet and come together to the residence, though one after the other, not at the same time, Judith is suspicious and jealous, but frank about it, expressing a mild concern about their possible interaction…

Alas, she is about to find out accidently, as she visits the office of the doctor who has become her lover and might soon be her husband, and she has a breakdown, hidden to some extent by an attempt to exaggerate her exuberance in the company of others and trying to pretend she is blissful, only to confess to her stable man…

This is a very sad, but wonderful meditation on dying, enjoying the present, trying to get the best out of life, dignity, bravery, self-sacrifice and altruism…

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