joi, 30 ianuarie 2020

The Seventh Seal, written (play and screenplay) and directed by Ingmar Bergman - 10 out of 10


The Seventh Seal, written (play and screenplay) and directed by Ingmar Bergman
10 out of 10


This is not just one of the best films of all time, as attested among others by The New York Times, with its list of Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/20 - it is a classic that is presented within other motion pictures and some scenes have become iconic, part of the History of Cinema, just like the genius film maker Ingmar Bergman, author of other masterpieces, such as Fanny and Alexander - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/fanny-and-alexander-by-ingmar-bergman.html - a work of art that struck the under signed as the best ever, when seen for the first time.

We could argue that most of the films that Ingmar Bergman has written, directed or both are such wonderful achievements as to be used in Art School…think of Through a Glass Darkly - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/through-glass-darkly-written-and.html - or the remarkable feature  that proves that the Master can create both drama and comedy, Smiles of a Summer Night - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/02/smiles-of-summer-night-written-and.html - or to stop here with examples, The Virgin Spring - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-virgin-spring-written-by-ulla.html...
Aside from the tremendous skill of the incredible writer-director, The Seventh Seal benefits from a superb, divine cast,  with legendary Max von Sydow as Antonius Block, The Knight, resplendent Gunnar Bjornstrand as The Squire, Jons, the amazing Bibi Andersson as Mary, symbolically the mother of an infant, the archetype of life, set against Death, the character that haunts The Knight, shows on the screen from the very first scenes, plays chess with the main personage, engages in sophisticated, philosophical exchanges with Antonius Block, the one who has the chance to postpone with some moves on the table the fate and might remind one of the hilarious Monty Python’s Meaning of Life - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/monty-pythons-meaning-of-life-by-graham.html - wherein ‘a Mr. Death shows up at a party where he has to take guests and hosts alike, presumably on account of some poisoned salmon or another dish, but he is aghast at the manner in which he is addressed by Americans and others…’Well, you are dead, so shut up!’

Evidently, The Seventh Seal is the opposite of any Monty Python production, glorious and intelligent as they are, in that the tone is grave, depressing, the film is black and white, the attitude is gloomy, though we have inserted mirthful moments, such as when the blacksmith is fooled – yet again – into believing the man who had run with his wife is in such dire straits, let us not reveal details, that he comes to feel pity and sorry for the one whom he had just wanted to kill and before that torture…

It is a ‘rara avis’, one of those few magnum opera that deals with the most important questions of all, Meaning of Life, does the devil know, talk to God – the Knight tries to help a witch (well, what idiots that would vote with Trump today consider to be a witch and in fact a handsome, young woman) that is condemned to be burned at the stake, giving her water and something to alleviate, even make her pain disappear, perhaps with some herbs, opium from the Orient, where he had been traveling for ten years, with his Squire, during the Crusades, and he tells her that he would like to talk with the Devil, with whom she is supposed to be acquainted and in cahoots.
We can think of The Polyglots by William Gerhardie - http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-polyglots-by-william-gerhardie-nine.html - and the question ‘why do men have to die’ and the answer that ‘they have to, to make room for other people’, which invites alas the other question of ‘what are the ‘other people’ for…and look at the presence of Death, the skeletons used by the travelling troupe of actors, the bones that the Squire asks about the way ahead – he had not known these are the remains of a dead man, when he approached them…

Men are very cruel in this film and we could argue that it is the middle ages, the dawn of time, when people were not ‘civilized’, but we can see this kind of behavior even today – again, The joker that sits on top of the world and his millions of fans come to mind as the most grotesque representation, a replica of the primitives from The Seventh Seal and the caves of the primordial people – and in an inn, they take a poor actor, Jof, and make him dance like a bear, well beyond the point where he is exhausted and they would have killed him, were it not for the intervention of the Squire, who punishes the ring leader, a demonic, vile scoundrel that had been on the point of raping an august, seraphic, admirable woman, when again, this same angel of Hope would have interfered…
The plague has been killing men, women and children in droves – we are much better off today, for there are means to stop the calamity that the Coronavirus would have provoked in another age, Insha’Allah – and it seems to be hitting even the land where the characters roam, some of them trying to act in a play for the community, interrupted when the procession of the Witch to be Burned is approaching – as a consequence of a ‘Real Witch Hunt’, not the phony scenario promoted by a deranged old fool, sitting in a White House and complaining all day long, when not showing disturbing, massive symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dementia and Paranoia combined, all in full display, for quite a few times during almost every day, but alas, not for the fans and the senators and leaders of a party that is so decadent and decaying now that it may never be resurrected…

The stupendous Seventh Seal has won the Jury Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, when it was not even considered for an Oscar or a Golden Globe, proving yet again that the French festival is the real thing, the one promoting the real, eternal values, while the Oscars are so much less relevant and sophisticated in terms of value…

miercuri, 29 ianuarie 2020

Gloria Bell, adapted from a story by Gonzalo Masa - Nine out of 10


Gloria Bell, adapted from a story by Gonzalo Masa
Nine out of 10


The note is about the film, not the story itself and this is a clarification needed for those who have requested it

Perhaps the main reason why one would love to see a film like this is that it may have almost everything, from poetry ( if I were a tree, you would be a bird’s nest or something hopefully similar) to drama, from absurd humor and situations to love and tenderness, from informative dialogue about medicine and how our body rejuvenates, regenerates presumably tissue – the epidermis, according to the main character is replaced periodically – and even the skeleton appears to be ‘replaced’, if that is the word, every ten years or so, and a story from the bible…

Supposedly, there is a story in the bible, referring to cats and that pops up at the beauty parlor where the beautician – is that the name of the woman, it is mostly if not always a woman, right and this is not sexist inappropriate for the absent reader of these notes? – tells it when the issue of the hairless cat that keeps sneaking in Gloria’s flat, although she shuts the door, the windows, but the animal seems to be ‘sending a message’, which maybe that the disturbed man upstairs, maybe her owner, is not taking care of her, given the outburst he has at night, which cause Gloria to call his mother, the landlady, to explain that she has to go to work in the morning and though she is also a mother and understands the situation, the man needs help and that is evident when she has the phone out of the window for the mother to hear the breakdown of the shouting man with a challenge.
In the bible section for the cat, we have Noah and the ark, with the familiar collection of animals – on which the hilarious, if sardonic Ricky Gervais has a splendid, mirthful criticism, looking at the size of a boat which would hold the myriad creatures that will have later populated the earth, once the terminal, calamitous Flood will have ended – and an explosion in the number of rats – it is not by the way, in fact it is totally off topic, but the joke with lawyers and rats comes to mind, so there it is…

Scientists have decided to stop making tests on lab rats and use lawyers instead and there are three reasons for that:
1.        There are not enough rats
2.       People get attached to rats
3.       There are some things, even rats will not do

Now, given that the rats are invading the famous, if absolutely impossible, invented ark, they have to find a solution and when Noah goes to see God – yet another contraption, an invented myth that was needed in the ancient times, but seems to absurd today – the latter explains how to solve the problem and all the biblical savior has to do – the one on earth, not the bearded fellow in the sky…well, not exactly in there, for it would be impossible to reside like that, but in heaven – is to pat a lion three times on the head and puff, just like Athena coming from the head of Zeus, in yet another Religulous – as in the film by Bill Maher – narrative, a couple of cats come out…
Gloria Bell is portrayed by the ‘glorious’ Julianne Moore and she is the divorced mother of one son, Peter aka Michael Cera, and a daughter, Anne aka Caren Pistorius, the latter involved with a Swedish surfer of very high, terrifying waves that falls in love with her and asks her to be with him and move over to…Sweden, which she accepts.

The life of character that enjoys her life at the age of fifty or more, is about to change when she meets Arnold aka impressive John Turturo, as they dance and then get acquainted, have sex, after which he fails to call, only to explain later that he had been so overwhelmed by the encounter that he had strong emotions – the trouble would be that this man appears to lack control of his feelings and ‘lacks a strategy to cope with adversity’ as suggested in the marvelous book The How of Happiness, written by the brilliant professor Sonja Lyubomirsky – and could not bring himself to take the phone and act upon his desires…
The speech is powerful and the man says that he had thought he would never experience this state of grace ever again – which if we are cynical made sense when he was extremely overweight, a condition that would be solved by an operation for gastric bypass, after which he is no longer recognizable – and behaves with politeness, delicacy, romantic involvement, love, kindness, care and tenderness, up to the point where he will have failed to see his way out of situations which present him with challenges, such as when he meets with the family of her lover, including her ex-husband.

Gloria and Dustin have been divorced for twelve years and had not seen each other for five years, but when the latter starts reminiscing, looks at a picture from the wedding and repeats a few times that they were in love and then Peter takes a picture for the record with ‘then and now’, Arnold shows he lacks self – restrain and prudence and when they look for him around the flat, they see that he has simply…vanished.

This will be complicated yet again, for the absent man, although he returns with explanations and accusations might show that this is a trait of his character – maybe not as weak and contemptible as the American president of the day, but rather helpless nevertheless…

marți, 28 ianuarie 2020

Stage Door, based on the play by Edna Ferber - Nine out of 10


Stage Door, based on the play by Edna Ferber
Nine out of 10


This is a note on the film based on the play by Edna Ferber

Katharine Hepburn might be called the Meryl Streep of her age, for those who are unfamiliar with what is an illustrious, majestic name, the winner of 4 (four!) Academy Awards and such a legend that she has now quite a few films were some grand artist of the present plays her – for instance, Cate Blanchett is remarkable as Hepburn in The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese and with Leonardo DiCaprio in the leading role.

In Stage Door, the royal highness of cinema seems to play herself, at least in the timeframe wherein her character, Terry Randall, is the determined, brave, inventive, humorous, strong, role model, formidable upcoming actress that would eventually have a phase in which she is more subdued, humble, modest, emotional, delicate, showing that Hepburn has the complete mastery over all the panel of shades, for any imaginable character, probably…no, surely!
Miss Randall is a rich girl, but she decides to try her luck and, in opposition to the wishes of her father, she wants to see if she has enough talent to be an artist, without help from her money, using, or abusing influence, illegitimate ends to get to the top.

It is nevertheless a daunting, if not impossible task and the title of the motion picture refers to the painful access through the Stage Door and into the light of the projectors…in his autobiography, The Moon is a Balloon (http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-moon-is-balloon-by-david-niven-9.html), David Niven, another brilliant actor of the last century, explains how troublesome it had been for him to get a role and that there were signs in Hollywood trying to deter candidates, stating that for every person who gets a role something like 1,000 had been rejected.
Another passage from the Stage Door reminds one of The Producers, where the main characters plan a failed performance in order to make a huge profit through a swindle and though there is no such scheme in this movie, the father desires so much that his daughter would renounce acting that he would be as happy as The Producers were she to perform badly in her first role…
Another supremo of the Golden Age of Cinema, Ginger Rogers, acts sometimes against Katharine Hepburn, though the two have a rather friendly relationship for some time, the way Terry maneuvers would antagonize Jean Maitland, another aspiring star, portrayed by Ms. Rogers.

The producer Anthony Powell – in an interesting coincidence we can suppose, he has the name of a genius, author of the Absolute Magnum Opus A Dance to the Music of Time - http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/books-do-furnish-room-by-anthony-powell.html - tries to play an early version of Harvey Weinstein, though without the efficiency of the now infamous monster, who had been responsible somewhat counterintuitively for some wonderful films, but then Paul Johnson, in his marvelous The Intellectuals, exposes the fact that some of the greatest minds of history, like Tolstoy, Ibsen, Rousseau and others, have proved in one way or another to be more than obnoxious men… Jean-Jacques Rousseau left his children at the door of an orphanage, at a time when something like nine out of ten would die…
Terry interferes to save Jean, but in the process, the latter is infuriated with what looks to her like a serious betrayal…

One last word about the author of the play that inspired the adaptation for the big screen, that is also theatrical, Edna Ferber is the author of another marvelous work, So Big - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/so-big-by-edna-ferber.html

vineri, 24 ianuarie 2020

Bang the Drum Slowly, written by Mark Harris, based on his novel - Nine out of 10


Bang the Drum Slowly, written by Mark Harris, based on his novel
Nine out of 10


This is a note on the film with the script written by Mark Harris based on his own novel

Although you can find this splendid motion picture 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/2 - and it has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting role for Vincent Gardenia in the complex role of the coach of the baseball team The New York Mammoths, the film seems to have been largely ignored, or not acclaimed to the extent it deserves anyway.

Michael Moriarty is outstanding in the leading role of Henry Wiggen aka Author, the star pitcher of the New York team – something of an issue for European and other viewers, except for the fans of the game, would be the fact that the feature does cover and refers frequently to aspects of an activity that we largely ignore in most parts of the world, though America is not the only fan base and they watch it in Cuba, Japan and quite a few other places.
The friend of the pitcher is Bruce Pearson, none other than Robert de Niro, the artist that needs no introduction anywhere in the world for anyone with just a shadow of knowledge about the Screen Trade, and this other member of the Mammoths team is a catcher with talent, though he has not managed for some reason to rise to the expectations so far and due to his condition that we learn about right near the start, he would not have the chance to improve and become a celebrated star.

The young man was diagnosed with the Hodgkin’s disease and this means that he will soon die, making this a tragedy without the bothersome treatment that movies generally get today in Hollywood, and his dedicated, loyal, exemplary friend will not cease throughout the film to try and offer support, help the man who had been challenged even before the terminal illness by the fact that he is not bright, to say the least and remain polite.
Bruce looks like he is eating all the time – again, what he does is unfamiliar outside the Bible belt, the south of America, Trump territory alas, the place where they used to chew tobacco and they are so stuck in the middle ages (not all, but those who vote with the dimwit anyway) that they seem to love a monarch, in the person who keeps boasting about the amendment of the constitution that ‘gives him the right to do anything he wants’…in his silly, troubled and unstable, in spite of his other favorite leitmotif, ‘a stable genius’, which is now the title of an interesting book, in which one of the revelations is that the man went to the most sacred place in the Pentagon, only to insult the generals there, stating that they are a bunch of babies and he would not go to war with them…

Early on, Author talks to the owners and managers of the baseball team about his future with the Mammoths and his extension of the contract and they mention the fact that some players have peculiar, outré demands and it turns out that this one has an even more bizarre request in that he wants an extension that would connect him with Bruce in an unprecedented manner, asking that if he stays, the same goes for Bruce and if one of them is sold to another team, that must include the other.
Those in charge refuse this outrageous provision outright, but then they call Dutch aka wondrous Vincent Gardenia, nominated for his brilliant take on this part, and the coach is tormented by the prospect of losing the pitcher, the catcher or both, considering his options are limited – indeed, he tries to think of other players he would like to have, but comes to the conclusion that he would not have them – and in the end, he says that they should agree to the bizarre demand.

However, they want to know what is going on here, why is Henry so attached to the rather slow and thick catcher and they wonder if they are ‘queer’, in a rather, if not absolutely demeaning way – though we must consider the fact that the film is about fifty years old and the events depicted in it could be even older and the attitude towards those of sexual orientation others than the only accepted heterosexual variety was not just hostile, in cases it could be hurtful both physically and psychologically.
Both Author and Bruce want to keep the terminal illness a secret, but the former tells Horse aka Danny Aiello and instructs him to keep it a secret, only to find that the ‘secret’ would be shared with his roommate and ultimately, more people would know about the dark, horrible future that awaits the catcher and they become sentimental…

In one scene, Dutch is about to lose his temper and composure and seems to find a clever exit from the potentially embarrassing and maybe painful development, by sliding away and maybe pretending that his pity and sympathy, that is about to bring tears to his eyes and make him lose control and who knows, maybe have a breakdown in front of the team of athletes waiting for a game, is in fact destined for himself and not for the soon to die, simple, yet so friendly and easy to take even insults Bruce.

This apparently little known gem appears to have most, if not all the elements of positivity, as identified by Barbara Fredrickson in her classic Positivity – awe, inspiration, amusement, interest, hope, pride, serenity, joy, gratitude and love, though it is a compelling tragedy

luni, 20 ianuarie 2020

Alibi.com, written, directed and starring Philippe Lacheau - Eight out of 10


Alibi.com, written, directed and starring Philippe Lacheau
Eight out of 10


Is this worse than Dolemite is My Name?
Probably, but Dolemite has been nominated for a few Golden Globes – well, at least two, for Best Motion Picture – Comedy of Musical and Best Actor in a Leading Role, Musical or Comedy - https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/10/dolomite-is-my-name-written-by-scott.html

The idea is interesting and it could have interested the president of the United States, moron and philanderer that he is, given that Alibi.com is the site where people phone in to get out of embarrassing situations – such as those admitted to by the fool placed on top of the free world, the one who ‘grabbed women by the pussy’, paid hush money to a porn star to stay quiet during the presidential campaign about the (paid for) affair they had had, just after his wife (another helpless case) had given birth to their baby among other calamitous acts and statements.
Gregory Van Huffel aka the writer-director –lead star, Philippe Lacheau, is the mastermind of the site, the one who covers for infidelity mostly, offering alibies to cheating husbands and making a profit in the process of providing sometimes a double that looks like the injurious party, an alternative credit card to make the expenses incurred with the mistress in say Cannes appear on other documents and not the official statement that the spouse could see and understand that while the husband has been allegedly in Brussels, the card was used on the Cote d’Azur.

However, as it so often happens in movies, especially in comedies, the hero or antihero falls in love with Flo Martin and one of his clients is Gerard aka Jean-Claude, the man who comes for his ‘friend’ – just as they do when they report to the psychiatrist a problem that ‘someone they know is experiencing – and wants a cover story and the cover of Alibi.com for the trip that he would take with a much younger woman to the Cote d’Azur, meanwhile pretending to the wife that he is on business in Belgium.
Gerard proves to be Jean-Claude and the father of the woman that Gregory loves and they both have a shock when they meet, just as the young man is invited to meet the parents and from here we have many situations in which both men have to pretend, play a different part – so far, Greg had not told Flo about his real occupation, given the stigma and pestilential smell associated with making men get away with lying to and deceiving their partners – and ultimately get into a series of troubles.

As Gerard is vacationing with an aspiring singer on the coast, his wife and daughter arrive at the same hotel – we can agree this is a cliché and a déjà vu that we are so accustomed with – and the cheating man may think of the
Obfuscated as he is by the multiple, exorbitant demands of the mistress who keeps asking for caviar and outrageously expensive champagne, at about 1,000 euros a bottle.
Alibi.com intervenes and the actor who heads it plays the role of a very influential music manager and scout, to keep the mistress distracted while the philanderer spends time with the family that has just found him there, with the explanation that he had wanted to surprise them and this is why he is in a totally different place than he had advertised.

Gregory is amusing as he pretends he know everyone, including a celebrity that happens to be behind him and thus the aspiring singer asks about the connection that he know has to prove, by going to the unknown star, talking to him at a distance from the mistress that allows him some privacy, in the sense that she is unable to hear anything, but the performer does not know what this stranger wants and it could all have gone down badly, unless the Trump- like liar would not have agreed to pay a potentially massive bar bill.
As it happens, the Alibi Man has to do some covering for his own shenanigans, since he has pretended to his lover that he is a flight attendant and when he is at the hotel where he works for her father, he is alleged to be in Tanzania and when called, he claims he is with zebras and thus he is forced to try and steal one from a travelling circus belonging to some ferocious clowns and colossal men who would make every effort to repay him for losing their animal and creating havoc there.

An earthquake takes place in Tanzania, while the antihero – let us just place him in the evil category for now, while he is deceiving on all fronts – is supposed to be there and the desperate partner tries to contact him, they talk on facetime or Skype, while he has engaged the services of a French African – if that is the politically correct form – who had been selling photos and souvenirs from the Southern France and has to claim now, on the phone, that he is the tour guide hired in Dar es Salaam, but this deception might not work, especially since no hotel has the name, when Flo tries to contact him.

Nevertheless, it will not all end in tragedy, separations and divorce, for this is just a light comedy, enjoyable to some extent

duminică, 19 ianuarie 2020

Richard Jewell, by Billy Ray, based on article by Marie Brenner - Nine out of 10


Richard Jewell, by Billy Ray, based on article by Marie Brenner
Nine out of 10


Clint Eastwood is a celebrated titan of the Screen Trade, but knowing his republican affiliation, plus the more than bizarre conversation with a chair at one convention, where he addressed the ghost of Obama or some other spectre, the under signed is biased and inclined to find fault with his movies, such as this controversial Richard Jewell, which has caused some of the protagonists or those related to them to place in doubt some of the threads, like the notion that the journalist Kathy Scruggs aka formidable Olivia Wilde would have engaged in unethical, intimate relationships in order to get the Scoop, find who is the suspect for the bombing…

However, this is no Million Dollar Baby - http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/12/million-dollar-baby-clint-eastwood.html - or never mind Unforgiven or J. Edgar http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/02/j-edgar-by-dustin-lance-black-nine-out.html , Richard Jewell is still an interesting motion picture, nominated for one Academy Award, for Best Performance by a Supporting Actress for Kathy Bates as Bobi Jewell, and furthermore, it is dealing with such a complex issue that this viewer must say that he does not have a perfect, clear cut perspective on the guilt or innocence of the hero or antihero of the movie, Richard Jewell aka the excellent Paul Walter Hauser.
On a personal note, this film was interesting for me because I had the chance to be at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, working for the same company as Jewell, who had on a shit with AT&T on it for most of the time, same way I had, though not working for the security of the premises as the main character, but for the Calling Center, where loads of money were being made on…international calls, which are free today, as you know…

Richard Jewell is a complicated personage and this adds on some levels to the interest in his story, though that makes the figure less attractive and endearing and thus the actor in the leading role does not get a nomination and the feature seems to be less appreciated than it otherwise could be…as mentioned, for some it does not help that Eastwood is in the same camp with the lunatic who makes shameful statements or even acts on a daily basis.
We learn in the beginning that though he has an almost fanatical respect for ‘law enforcement – he keeps repeating throughout the movie that he is law enforcement too, he respects the people in it and considers it the most valuable, respected, highest occupation one could find and this repetition is brought to a level close to ad nauseam – the main character does have a penchant, if not a habit of getting into trouble, be it as he enters a room with students involved in some drinking against the rules and bumping or pushing one away, causing thus another complaint against him or some other misdemeanors or plain illegal acts…

Dr. Ray Cleere calls him to his office – and would contact the FBI later to give more information on the by then suspect of an investigation – and is aggravated by the activity of this man, who had stopped people on the highway (!) surpassing outrageously his attributes, for he has no authority outside the campus and even in there, he is limited to a rather small role, which he seems to want to make bigger…a little later we see him at the Olympic Centennial Park – also called AT&T for the major sponsor of the games, if my memory is accurate – where he is a security guard and the man to find the backpack which contains explosives and kills two people and injures more than one hundred…we could mention this because this happens quite early in the film.
Indeed, though the explosion is a climax of sorts as it should be, in a way it just marks the start of the movie, or at least the intriguing, psychological, controversial part, for after he is celebrated as an hero, for about two days, with media and others praising him for saving thousands of lives, as he found the package and made many go away and find refuge, preventing a situation wherein otherwise many more would have exposed to the blast and it is only guesswork as to how many would have died and been injured, the security guard becomes the main suspect and his life is changed for good.

While it seems about 90, maybe 95% sure that he was not the perpetrator, but the Savior, there is still a five percent, maybe less chance that he has been actually responsible – at least from this perspective here – and with the help of an accomplice, he could have done it for the reasons stated by the FBI, which looked at his past, with the impersonation of a police officer, his cult like approach to the law, which could turn on its head, the multitude of guns he had – it looked like a real arsenal and maybe the number of guns we have in the whole capital here, even his lawyer, Watson Bryant aka marvelous as always Sam Rockwell, remarks on this fire power and then the grenade he has, though that one is empty and works as paper weight.
The man was strange, that was sure and he lived with his mother, had a bizarre past and most definitely they should have looked at him, also considering the fact that he escaped the explosion with no injuries whatsoever, puzzling the investigators, especially Tom Shaw aka Jon Hamm, who gets involved with Kathy Scruggs in the film version, and leaks to her the name of their suspect, causing a media furore, ‘character assassination’ and the eventual breakdown of his mother, with sure consequences for the health of the two people attacked on all fronts…

A powerful story that answers many questions and still has some unanswered ones and if most of the public would loath Tom Shaw, he may still be right in his assessment that Richard Jewell did it, even though that is a one percent chance…

sâmbătă, 18 ianuarie 2020

On Aura Tout Vu aka Now We’ve Seen It All by Francis Veber - Eight out of 10


On Aura Tout Vu aka Now We’ve Seen It All by Francis Veber
Eight out of 10


This comedy was destined to be forgotten until this note has resurrected it – with our ‘outlandish’(to quote the silly counsellor in the impeachment trial of the world’s most repellant buffoon) audience, the multitude of readers will propel this to the top of the charts… this is only a joke, alas – and although this is not on the list of Best Comedies Ever – for that, you should consult our site, http://realini.blogspot.ro/ - it has some mirthful, blissful moments and furthermore, the idea is excellent, if executed sloppily at times, as in the second part that peters out into irrelevance to some extent and if not that, then it is almost certainly a cliché development in which they all live happily after…no it is not this either, but somehow, some of the actions of the personages seem to be in the déjà vu class, though the owner of the villa shocks with her decision to partake in the profits of the sex industry and go along with the project…

The main theme is splendid and so relevant for the movie industry or the screen trade, as the magnificent William Goldman – winner of two Oscars for historical, masterpieces All the President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid – called it in the title of his magnum opus Adventures in the Screen Trade, with the idea that those involved, especially the marginalized, forgotten, sometimes talented, but not famous ones, become prostitutes in selling their services in degrading circumstances …we could argue about that – Martin Scorsese seems to have made the point recently and Ricky Gervais joked on it in the monologue at the recent Golden Globes, where he mentioned the Disney Park like motives of cartoon based films and multiple sequels, but then he scolded the greatest director alive for going where he should not get in, because of his ‘stature’.
Pierre Richard, a legendary French comedian of extraordinary magnitude – one film where his outstanding talent is evident is Un Profil Pour Deux http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/04/un-profil-pour-deux-aka-mr-stein-goes.html - has the role of Francois Perrin, the hero of the narrative, in love with Christine Lefebvre aka equally gifted Miou-Miou, who gets involved in a rather spectacular charade, in which the script of his friend, Henri Mercier, is taken up by a pornographer, the ravishing Jean- Pierre Marielle as Bob Morlock, who is ready to make a film with the altered in the extreme script, now called La Vaginale, most appropriately, given that in the first few seconds, the maid takes the broom she using to inset it in her anus, to the horror of those who read the ‘modified’ scenario…

The most abhorred individual is Christine, so disappointed in the man she loves that she would take vehement action, so forceful that it becomes hilarious at moments, such as when she decides to join the cast of the pornographic film, to impress upon the hopeless Francois the extent to which he is humiliating himself, when directing such a carnal production, and he is so terrified of the prospect that his lover would have sex on the set that he tries everything to avoid this eventuality, even if she insists when she sees she cannot force him to abandon the project, after reading Moliere in the nude, in front of Morlock, or when she makes him so ashamed, by queuing in front of a cinema with porn in the program and talking loudly, at times shouting, about ‘double penetration’ and other terms from the poster of the Pipeuses or whatever the name of the sex feature was…
Even if this is not of the same magnitude as Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, as one of the ten best comedies ever made, it is entertaining…well, at times anyway

vineri, 17 ianuarie 2020

Little Women, written by Greta Gerwig based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, directed by Greta Gerwig - Nine out of 10


Little Women, written by Greta Gerwig based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, directed by Greta Gerwig
Nine out of 10


This is a note on the film based on the book

Little Women has caused quite a furore, in its latest adaptation – for there have been quite a few, more than respectable ones, including one starring legendary Katherine Hepburn – signed by the majestic Greta Gerwig – an established film maker, after the success of outstanding features such as Lady Bird http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/12/lady-bird-by-greta-gerwig.html, nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay, just like Little Women

Indeed, Little Women is shortlisted for 6 (six!) Academy Awards, while Lady Bird was in consideration for Best Motion Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, the latest magnum opus from the wonderful writer-director has those four nominations, astonishingly for the same artists (!), the Supporting Role for this year has Florence Pugh as Amy March and the phenomenal Saoirse Ronan – already nominated for four (!) Oscars, announcing the future Meryl Streep, has another nod for the role of Jo March.
In fact, the popularity of the book and the fact that there had been more than remarkable adaptations of the Little Women seems to work against this film which could be seen as flawless on so many, if not all levels, but probably suffers from the fact that audiences expect it to be perfect, have maybe a sense of déjà vu, the subject is known and although Greta Gerwig brings a new perspective, the public might look for clichés and this might be why this is not a favorite against the likes of Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood – to which the Women is superior if you ask me – The Irishman, a worthy contender, 1917 http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/01/1917-written-by-sam-mendes-and-krysty.html or the superb Parasite, that is the Best Film of 2019…

The main character of the motion picture is portrayed by a glorious star – though she suggested that audiences do not recognize her in an interview on one of the comedy shows, in which she mentioned going to a cinema theater, maybe she even stared in the feature…could it be Brooklyn http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-brooklyn-with-saoirse-ronan.html - that has shown at this tender age that she has a perfect mastery of her art and she is sure to become a page in the History of Cinema, if she is not already there with a massive chapter.

A colossal talent, Saoirse Ronan is exceptional in difficult, leading roles that range from Chekhov, The Seagull http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-seagull-based-on-play-by-anton.html to the action packed, difficult and physical title role in Hanna http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-hanna-with-saoirse-ronan-eric.html , the aforementioned Lady Bird, Mary Queen of Scots http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/02/mary-queen-of-scots-based-on-book-by.html, the splendid comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-grand-budapest-hotel-written-and.html, or the challenging On Chesil Beach http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/11/on-chesil-beach-written-by-ian-mcewan.html
If only for this marvelous, incredible artist and Little Women would be more than worth watching, and there is so much more…actually, so much more that this film would deserve all the trophies it is listed for, maybe in a tie with Parasite, where they race for the same trophy…

Honeyland, directed by Tamara Kotevska and Lyjubomir Stefanov - Nine out of 10


Honeyland, directed by Tamara Kotevska and Lyjubomir Stefanov
Nine out of 10


Spoiler alert: the undersigned is biased…more than that, jealous at the success of this ‘new nation’, that has just been born – well, not really, they have been there since ancient times and this is one reason they have had and still have a dispute with Greece over their name, given that there might be a future claim on a province in Greece that could potentially be demanded by North Macedonia…

I mean, we have been there for so long and never had a nomination of our own – notwithstanding the fact that 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was more than deserving of an Oscar, never mind to be on the short list, since it was included by TIME Magazine and others among the best 100 movies made in the past decades http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/4-months-3-weeks-and-2-days-aka-4-luni.html... Winner anyway of the most important cinematic award in the world, The Palme d’Or in 2007, at the Cannes Film Festival
And here comes this North Macedonian film and grabs not just one, but two Academy Awards nominations, if granted, it has no chance in the category for Best International Feature Film and it could conceivably do better in the Best Documentary Feature chapter…

This is extraordinary for this magic, if often quite depressing film, the fact that the film makers just follow in the footsteps of Hatidze Muratova, an amateur, not a professional actress, the last female bee- hunter in Europe we learn, hence the Honeyland name, as she works with the bees, takes care of her sick mother, who is eighty-five and often unable to follow, understand what is said to her, making this viewer recall a (vicious?) joke

There is a joke about this amnesia:
Two old ladies go to visit a third. When they arrive:
“-how good to see you, let me make you a coffee
After a short while:
-              But I forgot to give you a coffee. She offers them coffee. Five minute pass…
-              Let me not forget to offer you a coffee. Another coffee and ten more minutes:
-              Before you leave, you must a coffee with me. More coffee and Then again:
-              You are my guests and I have not treated you with a coffee…on the way home, the two ladies:
-              Did you see dear, how “gone” Mitza is- she kept mentioning a coffee that never came
-              Who is Mitza?

As a matter of fact, watching this motion picture is not cause for mirth, there are scenes that hurt, the old woman hurts herself and the eye we see is terrible and we know this is not make up and/or special effects, just like in the case of the boy who is chasing and causing pain to animals and the little girl that falls against some hard surface…
It is so grim and gloomy, kids are so dirty and destitute that this viewer – who has seen poverty, for he comes from nearby – expected the worst, perhaps animals killed in front of the camera and felt he has seen quite enough after a while, sure and perfectly enlightened on the matter of the clear value of this extraordinary film making…

joi, 16 ianuarie 2020

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George (based on his book Red Alert), directed by Stanley Kubrick - 10 out of 10 - Unique magnum opus, which is mirthful and yet so profound


Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, written by Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern and Peter George (based on his book Red Alert), directed by Stanley Kubrick
10 out of 10 - Unique magnum opus, which is mirthful and yet so profound


This is not just one of the best comedies ever made, as stated for instance by the inclusion on The New York Times’ 1,000 Best Movies Ever Made - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/6 - but it would be among the crème de la crème, given the extraordinary impact, subtle if still hilarious script, the political message, the genius of the writer- director who show here that he can directed any genre, comedy, Science Fiction (as in the brilliant A Clockwork Orange http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-clockwork-orange-by-anthony-burgess.html) historical masterpieces (Spartacus http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/spartacus-directed-by-stanley-kubrick.html) war magnum opera as in Paths of Glory and Full Metal Jacket – noted on at the same internet address…

As seen yesterday, again, broadcast on Cinemax, the comedy is ever more poignant for it sheds light on the present and if some viewers would have had doubts over the lunatic in the film, appropriately named General Jack Ripper as portrayed by the magnificent Sterling Hayden, and think that the scenario is farfetched, then they should look at the present and the leader of the free world – forget someone in the chain of command, see right at the top – and the various, multiple signs of illness he shows, from paranoia to dementia, from germ phobia to the always displayed Narcissistic Personality Disorder, all ignored by the vile entourage and his fan base, in spite of the multiple lies – the latest deal with the blow that could have sparked a war with Iran, for which he mentioned threat to Embassies, but the public learned that no such destinations have been warned by the ‘imminent danger’…
The general in the movie, just like the cretin in the White Hose – he recently misspelled ‘house republicans ‘and wrote hose instead, thus, as the bright Seth Meyers joked: they now must change the signs there, for all around are just sycophants and none has the courage to point out a mistake to the ‘stable genius’, better than Abraham Lincoln, as they and the stupid fella have it – goes mad, and mumbles about ‘the bodily fluids’, give the order to execute plan R to the bombardiers and they attack the Soviet Union of the time, because in the past, they had approved a measure by which someone lower than the president would be able to start this catastrophe, once the leaders will have been wiped out by a sneaky attack from the ‘Russkies’

An emergency meeting is taking place in the War Room – where the fanatical Buck Turgidson aka marvelous George C. Scott fights with the Soviet Ambassador, named with gusto de Sadesky, only to be stopped by the president who shouts ‘gentlemen, you cannot fight in here, this is the War Room – but the options are limited, if they exist, because the mad general had taken precautions to seal his base and make sure that the Americans would be forced to use all the force to annihilate the Russians, and everyone else perhaps, now that they know the retaliation is imminent and there is nothing to stop the place in their calamitous, unstoppable missions.
Nonetheless, they try to find a way out, calling the leader of the soviets, who is out, drunk and jocular, if also sinister in the implications of this irresponsible and credible behavior if we look at what they and their present successor in the Kremlin have kept doing through the last century and to this day, and has as suggestions for the American president aka the fantastic, divine Peter Sellers, who has two other roles and they were considering him for another, that of the pilot of the plane that might reach a target in the enemy territory, the idea to call Omsk where the command for the air defenses is situated, but since he does not have the phone number, he states that they should call…information!

Meanwhile, Captain Lionel Mandrake aka the same ubiquitous, versatile Peter Sellers tries to reason with the mad Ripper, explaining that he had found a radio and the tunes on the air are joyous and thus there could not be any war going on, but evidently he has no real interlocutor to talk to, up to the moment when the base is taken over, the crazy general shoots himself and there is a chance, only a small one though, to explain the drama to the Colonel ‘Bat’ Guano, who is worried by the ‘suit’ and the possible ‘preversions’ of this alien individual, who wants to talk with the president, no less, and furthermore, asks him to shoot a beverage vending machine, causing him to retort with horror – ‘you will have to answer to the Coca Cola Company!’
A third character played by the mesmerizing Peter Sellers is the man to give the name of the movie, Dr. Strangelove, involved on the American side with projects like a replica for the Russians’ Doomsday Machine and asked to detail on his views of what is going on, explaining the effects of the Soviet retaliation and venturing into the one hundred years that would follow underground, where the president and military leaders, to their obvious delight, would be selected to survive and lead, while others would have to prove their skills, sexual prowess, women would not benefit from the progress made today by the MeToo movement, because in the mind of that ‘doctor’, they would have been chosen for their physical, alluring traits, ten for each male, because they would have to keep the population going, expecting to exit in about one hundred years’ time and possibly face the same enemy, coming out of their respective caves…

Dr. Strangelove is that unique magnum opus, which is mirthful and yet so profound, intellectually challenging, addressing one of the most important of planetary challenges, the possible extinction, though in the present that looks like happening more likely because we destroy the planet with pollution rather than with atomic weapons…


marți, 14 ianuarie 2020

Pretty Baby, written by Polly Platt and Louis Malle, directed by the latter - Nine out of 10


Pretty Baby, written by Polly Platt and Louis Malle, directed by the latter
Nine out of 10


This motion picture has been 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/18 - and it was nominated for the prize that is more valuable than the Oscars, The Palme d’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978, where it has won the Technical Grand Prize, and to add to all that, it has the special honor of getting the note with the magical number 2,000 from the undersigned, on his blog for films http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/

Having praised the film in the extreme, now is the moment to demolish it – just kidding – in the sense that it might be impossible to make today, for it involves a very young actress, Brooke Shields, who was perhaps ten at the time of filming, which in itself does not exclude participation and tremendous success in a movie, as witnessed recently with the performance of the outstanding Roman Griffin Davis in Jojo Rabbit (http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/12/jojo-rabbit-written-and-directed-by.html)
Nevertheless, in Pretty Baby, where she has the leading role of Violet, Brooke Shields has to play the role of a juvenile, underage girl living in a brothel with her mother, Hattie aka splendid Susan Sarandon, exposing her naked body, although not completely, in one ‘single session’, having to witness the ‘workings’ of a house of sin, eventually being auctioned to the highest bidder, who would enjoy her ‘services’ offered for the first time, at the moment when they decide to end her virginity and innocence.

Indeed, even before that, the girl is trained into the art of seduction, with the sex workers – as they seem to be addressed in the politically correct language of our age – telling the child – this is what she is at that age, is it not – how to address the customers, to take their private parts and act with alluring, improper gestures for one who is abused, raising the question about what was the decency in making the child actress get into all that, in the sense that although she does not have ‘sex scenes’ per se, she does kiss Bellocq aka Keith Carradine – an Oscar winner, but somehow appearing inadequate at times in the role of a photographer that is close to the mother first, then to the daughter…
Evidently they have explained to the young artist what different moments would entail, but wouldn’t that affect her development, the involvement in drama, intimacies, meanings that would impossible to comprehend and assimilate at a tender age, not to mention the need for her to expose now and then her emerging breasts, the lower part, if shown a few times only from behind and asking her overall to express emotions, attitudes of an upcoming prostitute – to use the notion used at that time…

It is understandable and maybe even commendable that the film makers, Louis Malle in particular wanted to expose the gravity, abuse committed in the past and the suffering of the child, The Pretty Baby, but there is discomfort in the knowledge that in order to describe what happened to one beautiful girl, another has to be going through a less tormenting experience of course, but still traumatizing to a certain, perhaps high degree…
Louis Malle is a mesmerizing film maker, the one who has given cinephiles the magna opera that includes Murmur of the Heart - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/12/murmur-of-heart-aka-le-souffle-au-coeur.html - Vanya on 42nd Street - http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/vanya-on-42nd-street-based-on-uncle.html – and Au Revoir les Enfants http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/03/au-revoir-les-enfants-written-and.html  to mention only those three exquisite features.

Pretty Baby might be more difficult to watch than the aforementioned Louis Malle motion pictures, but it is surely thought provoking, intelligent, though somewhat sinister at times, placed in 1917, in the red district and we need to think of the moeurs of the age, the fact that girls would be married very soon, at an age where they should not be embracing husbands but studying and some of them still playing with dolls, but this might be just the point and worthy works place difficult questions and it is better to watch Pretty Baby on any day, perhaps, than The Avengers or X Men…
One of the most outrageous scenes is the one in which Violet, who had been ‘educated’ and trained in the games of erotic capture, is brought to the main, big room of the whore house and men are invited to bid for her virginity, with a starting offer of twenty dollars, raising by stages to the $ 400 – which would be some tens of thousands in the currency of the present – offered by the winner, a middle aged character that is told by the girl that she fancies him, no doubt following the advice on How to win Friends and Influence People…

The incident is not without drama, for the pure child is taken upstairs and the man would take off, apparently scared by something, running down the stairs and then off the premises and the girls that hurry to see what happened find the ‘working girl’ in what looks like a faint or maybe a coma, but when her mother arrives on the scene, Violet laughs and acts as if all is well, even if we could be sure that this was a defense mechanism and everything about that auction and the rest of this sick game was despicable and outrageous…

In other words, this is a complex movie, making the audience uneasy, inviting us to think of this abominable past, but also the present in which there are so many parts of the world, one could say most of the earth, where girls are still sold off, mutilated in barbaric ‘religious surgery’ and treated as slaves in regions like fundamental Islamic lands, territories in Africa and in places in India…

duminică, 12 ianuarie 2020

American Hustle, written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell - Nine out of 10


American Hustle, written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Nine out of 10


If seen for the first time this motion picture had seemed outstanding, on the second take it loses some of its sparkle and scintillation, probably in large part for this cinephile on account of the discovery that the writer-director, David O. Russell, though definitely a talented creator, acts with such vicious aggresivity that he has infuriated quite a few of those who have worked with him, including George Clooney, who has stated that he had been about to…kill this scandalous film maker, on the set of Three Kings - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/07/three-kings-based-on-story-by-john.html.

During the making of American Hustle, the same rather exasperating director is said to have been extremely aggressive with Amy Adams, a marvelous actress, and Christian Bale – another iconic figure – has had to intervene, just as Clooney had to on the set of the Three Kings and Adams has mentioned all the torment in an interview with GQ, said that movies are important, but not more than life and furthermore, she had felt awful when working with Russell, that had also had a conflict with Lily Tomlin.
It would help viewers not to know all this, the ignorance of so much abuse made the under signed ecstatic at the first look at American Hustle, but knowing it now, as HBO streamed the movie last night, was such a weight and diminished the value of the comedy, though the fact that it does not look so wonderful the second time is also due to some flaws that are not so evident when one sees the film for the first time, such as the presumable important amount of improvisation, which seems to be the Russell paradigm – see Flirting with Disaster http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/flirting-with-disaster-written-and.html

If we look at a summary of the plot, we may see that it Flirts with Incredulity – the con man that works with the exotic FBI agent, trying to get to the mayor of New Jersey, then to some politicians, members of congress and in the process comes across the Mafia that operates some casinos and then get a ‘fake’ sheik to entice some or all of these shady characters, then the reverse operation to trap the two million transferred by the FBI, based on the look at another ‘fake’ this time a false lawyer for the infamous Mafioso, who speaks Arabic by the way, looks so absurd as to be…well, surreal and seen a second time, loses its appeal and gets somewhat idiotic at times, unconnected, disjointed, though it is surely in large part due to the acknowledgment that the writer-director has done so much harm and thus one can be tempted to look with a magnifying glass at the faults…maybe a case of ‘the mind is its own place, it can make hell out of heaven and heaven out of hell…’

The cast is nevertheless superb, even when abused by the one that was supposed to comfort and support them, starting with the phenomenal Christian Bale – fantastic recently, again in Ford v Ferrari http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/01/ford-v-ferrari-written-by-jez.html - as the con man Irving Rosenfeld, joined by the splendid Amy Adams as Sydney Prosser, a former pole dancer who impersonates an English lady with connections at banks, so that she can convince people to come and pay $ 5,000 to Irving, in order to get a loan of 50k, only to be left with nothing, up to the moment when extravagant FBI agent Richie DiMaso enters the stage and cornering and detaining Sydney for three days, he extracts an agreement to get help to convict four criminals in exchange for freedom…
They get the rather complex mayor of Jersey, Carmine Polito aka Jeremy Renner in their sights, trying to bribe and catch him in offside, but the man walks away when Richie pushes too eagerly, only to be stopped in his tracks by the convincing, charming Irving, who becomes a bosom friend of the politician and brings in a sheik – another FBI agent in disguise, an American -Mexican that protests amusingly to the name of the operation that appears rather racist, only to have the con artist retort…’you are Mexican, what the fuck do you care?’

The maneuvers are sometimes hilarious, as the relationship between Richie aka great Bradley Cooper and his boss, played by the now disgraced but oh, so wonderful when he was on stage, Louis CK, who keeps starting an anecdote with the fishing expeditions that he had had with his father and brother, only to be diverted or stopped by the man under his command – Richie curls his hair, lives with his mother – and they share responsibility over the fish tank, which he has to feed and she has to keep aired or something that she fails to do and the fish die –and has a fiancée that he does not admit to, engaging in a bizarre, sometimes erotic and at other times outré affair with Sydney, verging on the very intimate, but just as they are about to have sex in the public restroom once, they stop and deflect in a rather strange manner…
Just as they bring in the sheik aka undercover agent, the stakes are raised when they come across the Mafiosi that had been operating casinos and gambling houses for decades, often through murder, extortion and illegal means anyway, one of them becomes too close to the estranged, crazy wife of Irving, Rosalyn aka Jennifer Lawrence – with a reputation of being ‘Teflon’ versus the calamitous behavior of the director – and thus becomes party to some conversations which the spouse overheard on the phone and which result in Irving being threatened with death…

It is a joy ride for those who see it for the first time and are unaware, disinterested in what happens on the set, during filming and only care about the end result, which had been acclaimed with no less than 10 (!) Oscar nominations, although it has won none…

sâmbătă, 11 ianuarie 2020

Bombshell by Charles Randolph - Nine out of 10


Bombshell by Charles Randolph
Nine out of 10


You could probably expect from this motion picture quite different things, depending on which side of the political spectrum you might be, for those exasperated by Trump, those idiots working for him – pompous Pompeo comes to mind – and the fools that (still!) support him, this story is interesting before seeing it for the revelations into how the machine that propelled the Clown to the top of the free world works – though for those interested, there is more material in many more hours in the fabulous The Loudest Voice, awarded at the recent Globes for the remarkable performance of Russell Crowe as the vicious Roger Ailes.

On the other hand, for the Trump fans, the approach to this film would be quite different – by the way, spoiler alert…if you are on that side of politics and share that ‘view of the world’, you should stop here and not go further …a recent reader of my humble lines got quite upset and felt aggravated as a ‘republican’ and fan of the Orange Man – for they might look to it to have confirmation for their biases, admire again some of the anchors they worship, such as Judge Jeanine Pirro, Bill O’Reilly and others, people who furnish a perspective of the world that seems so perverted, ‘fake’, altered beyond recognition for the rest of us who are flabbergasted by a network that can go to any extreme in their support for the ‘commander in chief’ – assuming he is a republican and conservative, for the same thing was anathema when it looked like Obama could or has done it – as evidences by recent events…and all other events for that matter.
Take the most recent killing of Suleimani, the Iranian general that most agree had been a monster, but nevertheless a quite controversial target, given the expected retaliation and the quite dangerous escalation of the conflict that would result from that – the cable news channel is most often placed in absurd situations, for it supports a leader that contradicts himself and had declared years ago that ‘Obama would start a war to get re-elected ‘ – so this applies to him too – then he campaigned on withdrawing troops from the Middle East – and perhaps anywhere else for that matter – only to get sucked in with strikes like the one against the Iranian commander, kept attacking the same Obama for playing way too much golf, only to do that with alarming frequency and spend his time with one hour calls to Fox shows and watching television almost all the time he does not play golf…

For this cinephile, this film is one of the best of 2019 and deserves much more recognition that the nominations it has received – for instance, Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly deserved to win the Globe more than Renee Zellweger and the same goes for Margot Robbie, whose role looks like a leading one as seen from here – seeing as it deals with major subjects, it is intelligent, touches on issues such as sexual harassment, sexism, abuse of power, equality for women, power for them, but also assault weapons – Gretchen Carlson aka exceptional Nicole Kidman asks her viewers on the show how they feel about banning those types of guns and they overwhelmingly vote to keep them, lethal and extremely deadly as they have proved…perhaps more than 81% want them legal!

The film is also complex in that we learn that the monster in the narrative, Roger Ailes aka magnificent and transformed John Lithgow is not completely despicable, for he had helped so many with hospital bills, propulsion to the top – including alas the most loathsome of all, the cretin of the world – help when they have been down, while some of the victims could be blamed for the association with this vile network, which is feeding conspiracy theories and outright lies to the leader and the republican base, quite simple individuals – there would be quite a few that understand facts, but they just do not care, they want lower taxes and say fuck the world if we get the money we want – who only watch Fox News and therefore get a distorted, in fact alternative reality in which Donald does not lie, and more than 50 % of them (!) think this cataclysm is better than…Abraham Lincoln!
In other words, one might be tempted to feel less pity or empathy – Milan Kundera makes a net difference between the two – for stars of a channel that is ultimately responsible for the Decline of what used to be the Ultimate Model, affecting in this process poor devils like us, those living in ‘emerging democracies’, people that have been under the yoke of the soviets or in other such dire circumstances and when we look up at what used to be our Role Model, we see not just a stupid buffoon, suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dementia and other ailments, but a huge segment of the population in awe at what is the Ultimate Ridicule and a network that is splendidly depicted in bombshell that lives on lies, feeds the base only nonsense and relies on anchors that have an extraordinary credibility among their viewers – in spite or because of the immense falsity of what they are peddling – using flagrant alternative versions of the facts, what they attacked viciously Obama for is fair game and even admirable for the lunatic in the White House…

Hence the quandary…on the one hand we certainly feel for the women who have had to suffer, have been humiliated by Ailes, O’Reilly and other scoundrels at Fox, but on the other hand, that seems to be the place where that is the ‘mot de guerre’, the paradigm – on a side note, for a paradigm shift you could consult Vernon God Little, where the hero talks about his grandmother and how we change perspective, perhaps to a degree in the same way that we perceive the anchors that turn against Fox and its manager as ‘ours’, but only after they change their uniforms…

For on the other hand, Megyn, Gretchen and others have been responsible to a large extent for the rise of the Absurd Conservatism, including their stupid ring leader, though we could argue that some of them have been trapped, confused, even raised a challenge for the sexist abuser who – this Trump we are talking about here – is recorded with the Hollywood Access Tapes of infamy, and as mentioned in the movie, he has a long history of attacking women, calling them insulting names and being in general obnoxious, awful as he is with everyone that challenge him, as a pathetic, germ obsessed, paranoiac crook and con man who should be used by the world as a negative example and not as he is now, a representative of a perhaps failing, especially if he gets reelected – now that he is starting a war with Iran as he falsely accused Obama of doing – this year…

vineri, 10 ianuarie 2020

Uncut Gems, written –with Ronald Bronstein – and directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie - Eight out of 10


Uncut Gems, written –with Ronald Bronstein – and directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie
Eight out of 10


Perhaps because the undersigned is not a fan of Adam Sandler – actually, the opposite is true – he disagrees with the astounding Metascore of 90 assigned to this motion picture, which means that most relevant critics see it as almost perfect and although that seems somewhat or completely farfetched, we could probably all agree that this is more than remarkable and that may be due in large part to the sensational, original script and the role that the leading actor has to play, dramatic as against his usual, over the top comedy performances that could be so annoying…

The description of the movie has Howard Ratner aka Adam Sandler as a ‘charismatic jeweler’, but if you ask this cinephile, the main character is anything but charismatic, except for his lover – his wife, who is separating and divorcing from him declares at one point that she cannot stand him and she wishes she would not see him ever again and that wish might be granted – indeed, it seems the film has a fabulous crescendo, in which we seem to know that this guy has it coming for him and it would be untruthful and yet so typical of Hollywood at the same time to have him escape serious harm at the hands of the aggravated, furious people and their hit men nonetheless…
Ratner is not charming, he is so foolish and suicidal as to become annoying, for within the family, he has failed in his marriage, cheating on his wife with an employee – thus committing other offences, creating a conflict of interest to add to a long series of immoral, illegal, dangerous, crooked acts – feeding an addiction to gambling by taking money from loan sharks, placing property he does not own with pawn shops, enticing an NBA player to become obsessed with an Uncut Gem, an opal that is supposed to fetch more than one million dollars at an action…

Throughout the movie, the antihero is chased by the men working for those who have to get money back from him and he is kicked in the throat, twice then punched in the face and then he might have to endure even more, for he keeps pushing and then after he would not give the money he owes, whatever he cashes in, he makes disappear, then traps the hit men in something like a glass cage and all this is not comedy, those people do not have a laugh, the exact opposite happens and they grow ever more frustrated, furious beyond their boiling point and a major breakdown might take place…
Supposedly, the jeweler has a solution for all these problems, for he has a special treasure coming from Ethiopian Jews, at least this is what he claims, and that special rock has many carats and is worth more than a million – causing the NBA player to interview the antihero at one stage on what he had paid for it – allegedly it was one hundred thousand dollars – and thus he is challenged on the huge profit he is making towards the million that he is anticipating and Ratner says that 100 k means 50 lifetimes for those people there and then they move to what NBA pays and finally to the bets for the upcoming game…

Seeing as the basketball star is fascinated with the opals, the jeweler claims that he would fetch an extraordinary price at an upcoming auction, but because the athlete wants it badly, he can have it for some time and he would leave his special trophy ring, which the antihero would immediately pawn down, because he is playing this death game in which he gambles, takes loans, needs to gamble some more to pay back and he ends up in a vicious circle or spiral that may take him down, wins or losses in financial terms, he looks like he fails otherwise, expect for the girl that may love him – she tattoos his name on her posterior – but when in one of the night clubs, she still appears to forget about him and get too close, maybe even intimate, it was hard to tell for this viewer – who was not so absorbed as to notice all the moves of these crazy people – with someone else.
When the auction finally takes place, the man in trouble – we might find some similarities with Snatch, though apart from the Jewish jewelers and the precious stone, the rest is naturally very different – is first trying to pressure the woman working at the auction house to jack up the starting price, making fake claims, then he uses one of his relatives to artificially bid against the NBA player, in order to bring him up to the 200,000 level, only failing in that endeavor for the athlete stops just short of the planned landmark, causing a financial and physical catastrophe perhaps for the crooked, Trump-like character.

Everything seems to be crumbling down and on top of the gambling man, when a glimmer of hope shines in the dark, for the NBA star is still interested in buying the treasure, albeit he does have a speech and dressing down in which he expresses his deep frustration with the Joker – did you think I will not notice this…what was that all about at the auction, you played with me man, you wanted to hook me up and more words to that effect, up to the point where he hands over the bag with money, but the hit men are outside the office, within the jewel store, where we can all see them and they are pushing and waiting for the money, for which they have already kicked the debtor a few times, they have once undressed him and naked as he was, he had had to call and have – was it his spouse – someone unlock the car, for he had been locked in the boot…
Whenever it seems there is no escape, the gambler takes another plunge, daring and looking at extinction or at the very least serious bodily harm and tries yet another alterative, such as when he locks the team that is there to obliterate him if he does not cough up the money and waits to see the results of his latest gambling enterprise…

The ending, which we can talk about(?) is fantastic in that we do not see it in movies which overwhelmingly end with stereotypes and clichés, only this one is brave, creative and does not offer the déjà vu…it is a stunning conclusion, appropriate and life like…

joi, 9 ianuarie 2020

1917, written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns and directed by the former - 10 out of 10


1917, written by Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns and directed by the former
10 out of 10


This is the best motion picture of the year, sharing the first place in this figurative competition with the ethereal and terrifying Parasite, as attested by the Golden Globes won for Best Motion Picture – Drama – for this cinephile, Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood, winner in the Musical and Comedy category, is no match for the two aforementioned magna opera- and Best Director for the  formidable Sam Mendes, though there is still a major dissatisfaction for the fact that wonderful George MacKay – remarkable in Captain Fantastic before this – has not received a nomination for a trophy won by Rocketman – Really, was that for real?

The marvelous film achieves the impossible task of giving the audience a measure of the size of the conflict that has torn Europe and a good portion of the rest of the world apart, without engaging in the usual – expected and feared by this viewer – scenes filled by explosions, severed limbs, trainloads of blood – Saving Private Ryan comes to mind and the excruciating landing on the beach in world War II – in a rather subdued, poetic manner at times, such as when the two main characters walk by a multitude of cherry trees, alas all of them cut down – in just one of the many symbols of the futility and destruction of that and any other momentous  conflict.
Lance Corporal Schofield aka marvelous George MacKay, many times more deserving of a Globe than Rocketman or Awkwafina, and Lance corporal Blake have to embark on a terribly dangerous mission, which is to announce about 1,600 of their comrades that they need to stop before they are slaughtered in a trap set by the Germans, who have maneuvered so that they are thought to be retreating and abandoning their positions, but in a strategic move, designed to lure the adversary into a place where they would pound and destroy them…

The field is devastating, the images could not be more horrifying, even without everything blowing up on the screen – there are quite a few battle scenes, which is inevitable, but the tragedy is much more suggested than pushed down the thought of the public, in eerie, long scenes where the two corporals walk through scenery that has bodies everywhere – at one point, Schofield had jumped into a river, cornered by the enemies, and in order to get out he has to climb on top of one copse after another – dead horses with flies all over them, , canons, shells and other ammunition…
Among those who would be saved, if they ever reach their intended destination, would be Blake’s brother, which makes the young man more eager to start than his companion, who urges some restraint, they should at least spend some time before launching and try to get better ready, perhaps psychologically, if not otherwise, but the determined brother would hear no more, even is alas, he might not make it so far into unknown territory…

Schofield had won a medal, but in another remarkable symbolism, we learn with his comrade that he had given it to a Frenchman for…a bottle of wine and when asked about his mad gesture, he replies that he was thirsty, though when pressed, he explains that the medal means nothing ‘one is no different with that metal’ although the other corporal is rather infuriated by this abandonment of such an important, prestigious honor which should have been brought back home, to give the family…
After they pass the cherry trees, of which Blake knows so much – they are sour and many other varieties – they arrive near a farm that had been almost completely destroyed, where one of them gets some milk in his recipient for water – which would become essential later, when he would meet with a very young French woman, who has a baby of whom she knows nothing, not what his name is or who the mother is, and the milk would prove vital, lifesaving actually.

As they walk around the barn and the other crumbling construction, they see a dog fight between their planes and the Germans – wondering what they see up in the air, where the view is so generous and therefore the pilots would know what to avoid on the ground – and one of the enemy planes is shot down and as it crashes, it ends up right in the barn, near them and the two British men jump to help the pilot escape from the burning wreck and then place him on the ground and Schofield walks away to get some water, only to turn around and see that the fucking bastard had just stabbed his by now friend in the stomach or nearby and though he shoots the ungrateful enemy down, it might be too late for Blake to escape with his life…
Indeed, the wounded soldier does not have a chance and his comrade feels he has to tell the truth and say that he thinks Blake would die and the last words would be a request to write to his mother and the survivor gets the photos and some of the memories from the now dead man, when he sees Captain Smith aka Mark Strong, who takes him with his men to some trucks, to help him arrive to his destination, though the vehicles get stuck in the mud and the hero tries hard to give in an impulse to the others, for he is in a hurry, the countdown is pressing and if he does not make it in time, sixteen hundred men might be slaughtered…

Schofield comes across Germans, the first one he sees would be just as treacherous as the dead pilot, for the British man makes the sign for silence, with the hand on the mouth of the enemy, who shows he agrees, but when the hand is taken away, the German shouts and thus e is killed in the ensuing fight, which is then followed by a race for life, in which the corporal is chased and shot at by the companions of his victim…

Let us avoid spoiler alerts and not mention what happens when the protagonist meets with Colonel MacKenzie aka Benedict Cumberbatch, but conclude that this is magnificent motion picture, much better, along with Parasite, than most of last year’s celebrated films, expect for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which comes close in cinematic value…