Memoirs of Casanova by Giacomo Casanova http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/06/casanova-inspired-perhaps-by-memoirs-of.html - 8 out of 10

 

Memoirs of Casanova by Giacomo Casanova http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/06/casanova-inspired-perhaps-by-memoirs-of.html

8 out of 10

 

 

In the new age of Woke, Cancel Culture, Casanova must be a no go, anathema, and the subject dropped like a hot potato, only this a free space and furthermore, there is no audience to talk about, so we are not spreading misinformation, vile sexism, because there is nobody to read these lines…and that is the way it must be

 

The usual spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer might not be justified here, now, for if you are a decent reader, then you are not interested in the Memoirs of Casanova, never mind what some obscure fellow named Realini has to say about it – it is after all evident, that was a really bad ruffian, sexist and selfish

His name has come to represent the philanderer, the one that does not stay in one relationship for more than the time it takes to have sex, ergo the word ‘relationship’ is not appropriate, he may have missed the significance, but we could also take a more tolerant view and say he suffered from priapism and other ailments

 

We could see this eternal quest for the bed and one, or more women to jump with in there as a mental illness, going back, as the cliché would have it, to childhood, where poor, little Giacomo has missed on paternal affection, and then looked for it in perpetuity, trying to have love through sex, and multiple partners

I actually identify with the man, and have been through a pathetic, long, long line of partners, in my case, because I have started (Way too) late and thus would continuously try to compensate and get more of the ‘forbidden fruit – a doctor told me, prompted by my father, that ‘you fuck or you do not, the time of the penis passes’

 

One other indulgent view might even celebrate Casanova as one of the first liberals, maybe ultra, or progressive, whatever we could call him – The Economist, in the Johnson column, has looked at the way the significance of words change, how what was acceptable, politically correct some time ago, is now a no-no

We could also do no better than read The King’s English http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-kings-english-guide-to-modern-usage.html by Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis, who looked at how words are misused, and change meaning – one example is infamous, which comes from infamy, but had started to be badly used as ‘famous’

After all, Casanova has entered the ‘menage a trois’, maybe even before this was a thing, and he must be praised for it – I just realized that I am probably talking nonsense, and have the fabulous luck to be without a public, thus nobody will cry out ‘cancel him, vile beast’, I have had a complaint some days ago

 

It regarded the absence of a spoiler alert – and there is one above now – and I would push this as proof of my modesty, why use a spoiler alert, when you have nobody to alert, it is superfluous, pompous and futile, but hey, given that there is a ‘reader’, I comply, even if he is now off to greener pastures

There may be another reason for this frantic urge to have sex, and that could be a broken heart, which again, was my case – spoiler on top of warning, I am really off now, writing about my worries, forget Casanova…psychology studies have demonstrated that if we write about our grievances, failures, it helps

 

At the start of the nineties, I meet a nice woman (I will make it short, though I am tempted to talk about the dog, how she in fact started talking with him, etc.) and then offer her a ride in my Audi, which was some twenty years old, but the equivalent of a helicopter then, when all you had on the roads were a few lousy jalopies, Dacias

So she takes the ride, we talk for a while, and then she says she is…Miss Romania, and then I laugh a little and retort that I am Casanova – I am mirthful now, I said something else, maybe the Maharajah of Beluchistan or something, but if I am supposed to talk about Casanova, at least I should use him as a prop here…

 

Only she meant it, and she was, which shocked yours truly, who entered this phase of denial, then acceptance of this incredible luck, or god damn miserable misfortune, depending on how we see it, after a few days confessing my love – Thomas Mann http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-magic-mountain-is-classic-that.html has a lot to object to that  - which may or may not have been deep and radiant…

From fall to spring, it could have been a paradisiacal eight months, maybe less, or more – Einstein said ‘When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes; when you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours…That's relativity’- but once she told me to get lost, if not in these words, I have fallen into depression, seen a shrink, thought I would die, and then…presto, Casanova resurrected.

 

Talked to almost every skirt I saw, asked if we have a future together (if a brief one) got rejected in 90% of the cases, but then even with this failure rate, 10% of tens of thousands of small talks would still put you in the Casanova domain…yes, this could be a mea culpa, it was wrong – however, I must insist that I talked, and talked, and then when it was mutual, we stopped talking and got to ‘business’- only it was an effort to find affection, and I ended up here, alone, with just two macaws for company, and pouring my misgivings on this page…

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html  

Some favorite quotes-

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

85 out of 100 for England in Colour

84 out of 100 for Ancient Powers

Kajillionaire by Miranda July - 8 out of 10

 

Kajillionaire by Miranda July

8 out of 10

 

 

Kajillionaire has had its premiere on HBO, a few days ago, and there are some mixed feelings about it in this corner of the world, however much it was appreciated by experts – the proof is the metascore of 78, which means that most of the critics have found this movie exhilarating, and you should take their word for it

 

By the way, what follows is not of much, if any interest, and having said that, the duty of putting in a spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer is fulfilled, and from now on, if you continue, well, I am absolved – somebody asked for a spoiler in a comment, and by saying that – with modesty – I do not think these lines worthwhile, I have gone above and beyond my duty towards the audience – which is actually a mirage

Old Dolio is the main character in the narrative, and she is portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood, an actor (I guess the days of using actress are gone, for feminist reasons, I wonder) that has been at the center of a documentary, looking at her relationship with the bizarre and apparently abusive Marilyn Manson

 

Think of the warning above – to be idiotic, I would just mention as a sort of stupid joke, when you look at the fellow, you must see that it is not going to be an easy connection, come on, this is the Devil tempting you (kidding, remember, and besides, I do not believe in Satan or his counterpart) and you better stay away

Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html by glorious Malcolm Gladwell is the book to read, a classic of psychology, to understand the effectiveness of The Thin Slicing Effect, or The Harding Effect, this is at work in the research of John Gottman

 

The latter is the ultimate expert on relationships, he is able to tell within a minute or so, if a couple would stay together, or they would separate, and his accuracy rate is over ninety percent, and he has also written a classic of psychology, The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-seven-principles-of-making-marriage.html with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to be worried about, Contempt, Stonewalling, Defensiveness, Criticism…

To return for a moment to Kajillionaire, Old Dolio has this bizarre name, first of all, because her parents are really peculiar, rotten we could say, they are swindlers and thieves, unable to show emotion, sharing with her the spoils of their schemes, but so disturbed and sick that -spoiler – they rob her

 

The father, Robert, is the incredible Richard Jenkins, who brings panache, and makes the role complex, combining that loathsome side with a humorous attitude, this abject father does have some charm, albeit on the whole, it is disgusting to see someone push their child into a life of crime and depression

Theresa is the mother, and we have here another giant of the big screen, Debra Winger, taking on the part – Debra Winger is the Jennifer Lawrence of some three decades ago – although we must see what Ms. Lawrence will do in the future, her last role was a major disappointment, an annoying film – and she shined like a real star

 

To mention just one major success, Terms of Endearment http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/terms-of-endearment-written-by-james-l.html is a fabulous motion picture, however difficult she seemed to have been on the set – I have seen that somewhere, but maybe it is just gossip

And the way it works (better said it does not) I jump from one topic to another, in a real browning movement, chaotically, and now let me tell you about gossip – the story comes from the stupendous Doubt http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/note-on-doubt-with-p-s-hoffman-m-streep.html which is a must see

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman is the corrupt priest, Meryl Streep is the nun that exposes him, Amy Adams is a more tolerant and doubtful sister, and Viola Davis the mother of a boy that is the target of the pedophile clergy…the father however is very angry about gossip and tells the congregation this symbolic tale

One woman was very free with the things she said about her community and spread rumors and the like, until her priest told her that she has to go home and cut the covers of her pillows and set free all the feathers outside the house, and then he told her to go collect all those feathers, to which she said ‘but father, this is impossible, they have been taken by the wind all over’, and she was rebuked ‘you see, that is gossip’

 

It was not quite like that – maybe not at all – but hey, it is so enchanting to know that ‘you have been warned’, if you are still around and thus I can get into Games People Play http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/games-people-play-by-eric-berne.html which is our third psychology classic for today

Anyway, Miss Evans kind of spoils some of the excellence of the film, she has chosen, maybe with the writer-director Miranda July – some sort of outré take on the role (which clearly has had massive appeal, because, hey, look at the metascore again) which annoyed yours truly, but then I am no good judge, mea culpa

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special…Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

84 out of 100 for History's Crazy Rich Ancients

82 out of 100 for The Visitors

The Garden of Finzi Continis aka Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani – another look at this marvelous novel is at http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/note-on-garden-of-finzi-contis-directed.html - 10 out of 10

 

The Garden of Finzi Continis aka Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani – another look at this marvelous novel is at http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/note-on-garden-of-finzi-contis-directed.html

 

10 out of 10

 

 

The Garden of Finzi Continis is that rara avis, rare bird, a fabulous novel, included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html and adapted more than successfully for the big screen, the film was nominated for multiple awards

 

As a motion picture, it took the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Motion Picture (this has been changed to international feature, I think this is the new name) was also shortlisted for Best Adapted Screenplay and it is indeed one of the best movies you can see, directed by legendary Viitorio De Sica, absolutely a memorable spectacle.

With the War in the Middle East raging as we speak, this is a powerful, compelling narrative that has anti-Semitism, discrimination at its core, as the plot takes us to 1938, to begin with, in Ferrara, Italy, just as the fascists of Benito Mussolini were imposing new restrictions, abuses on the Jewish population.

 

By the way, Italy has now a far-right leader, and those parties in power, folks that were enthralled with Mussolini and that doctrine, albeit they seem to be more restrained, at least on some subjects, and the far right is overall on the ascendant, The Economist has just had an issue with this problem at the center

Even Sweden, cherished as the bastion of progress, a role model for the rest to follow, has now support for the government from those dark corners, and look at the madness in America, where Trump is waiting to become commander-in-chief again next year, and that is just bonkers, and they have crazies everywhere

 

It looks like this note will go places, but it might escape the control and not cover much, if anything about the Finzi- Continis, let us just say that this was a rich, Jewish family, that could live isolated from the horrors on display for some time, but then the fascists thought of more traumas and – spoiler alert- they might get to them

You would better stop reading here, because having just said that the tragedy is about these initially privileged humans, who fall very low (I am also very upset about that nice Great Dane, who is seen when things become desperate tied with a cord, and probably left to suffer there) I am jumping through time and look at the present

 

Israel has been attacked by vicious, disgusting terrorists – that the BBC has qualms about calling with the proper name, they resort to militants, because they have some rules, but is this right, I wonder – and more than fourteen hundred people have been killed, the overwhelming majority of them civilians…

They have murdered babies, old folks, raped women, set their victims on fire, it is a long list of inhuman, beastly acts, which appear ‘justified’ in the eyes of some, because of the ’70 years of colonialism’, a period during which the Palestinians have had no state, and suffered at the hands of Israel’

 

I admit here to being ‘biased’, that is I am clearly on the side of the Jewish people – full disclosure, my daughter has taken some sort of test, which seems rather uncertain to me, and she came out 11% Jewish, which may make me more than 20%, seeing that she takes half from her mother, presumably

The Garden of Finzi Continis and other real stories show part of the immense suffering that Jewish people have suffered through millennia, it is not just the Holocaust, the Inquisition tortured them in particular, look at the fabulous The Netanyahus, winner of last year’s Pulitzer Prize Winner, written by brilliant Joshua Cohen http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-netanyahus-account-of-minor-and.htm

 

From this marvel and history, we learn that Jews had converted to survive, and still the Inquisition will go after them, they have been expelled, discriminated against, made to suffer, envied, and hey, look at the fantastic achievements of this small community (if we compare it with so much larger populations)

From Einstein to Oppenheimer http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/oppenheimer-by-christopher-nolan.html in art, science, literature (my favorite, and one of the world’s most glorious is Proust, who had Jewish roots) the world has to be grateful for the discoveries, masterpieces, technology and so much more, given to humanity by this brave people

 

Yet, they have been massacred and there have been cries of joy, on the streets of Arab countries, but in other dark places as well – yes, there has been mistreatment of Palestinians, but never in the gruesome, monstrous manner shown over that catastrophic weekend, they have never entered a village, city to machine gun innocents – by the way, Islam is a religion of peace, it forbids these killings

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

86 out of 100 for The Child in Time

85 out of 100 for South Park, Trump

The Founder by Robert Siegler - 8 out of 10 for ethical reasons, otherwise, it would 10 out of 10

 

The Founder by Robert Siegler

8 out of 10 for ethical reasons, otherwise, it would 10 out of 10

 

 

We have here an outré beano, this motion picture is both inspiring, damn good, brilliantly acted (Michael Keaton, Nick Offerman, Laura Dern, John Carroll Lynch, Patrick Wilson and the rest of the cast deserve praise) and at the same time, it sings hymns (not really, I am just having fun) to a rather objectionable multinational

 

Let me conclude by saying that I both admire the film and say that the corporation in it does not deserve such a fabulous movie…having said that, let me introduce the spoiler alert and say that you must not read this, it is not a good enough note for you, and that should cover everything, I mean duty done, let us move on

Without you here, bow I can rant and misbehave, moving off topic – there has been one comment recently, complaining to yours truly, and if that was infuriating, given that it was on my YouTube channel, which does not really have an audience, well, for some reason, there has been an explosion, as in there are now over one hundred clicks for one story, and thus it looks like kicking a dead horse, why kick me, when my impact is zero?

 

On the other hand, let us put a gratitude poem in these lines, for the man was there, proof that it is not really talking to oneself, and furthermore, he even watched…to moan about it, right, but still, it is a good start, in about one hundred years, and the cover of The Economist last week says that we will soon live to 120, regularly, never mind that I will be sixty in just a few months, I will be so resplendent that the audience will double

Getting back to The Founder, Michael Keaton portrays Ray Kroc, and that is right, he is The One, notwithstanding his name, which is not McDonald, but he runs into this restaurant, at the start of the narrative, where he is flabbergasted by the, well, everything: he has to wait in a rather long queue, for starters

 

Once arrived at the window, he is asked what he wants, from a rather limited menu – later, the McDonald brothers will explain how they have worked on their operation, coming to the conclusion that if you give to wide a choice, you will end up rising costs, they have looked at other operations, eliminated waitresses, cutlery, dishes, introduced single use paper cups and eliminated the drive-in concept

Quite a few of those aspects have changed with Kroc, and then back, for instance, the creative, innovative Ray Kroc would introduce milk shakes without the milk – to the fury of Dick McDonald aka impressive

Nick Offerman, who always insisted on keeping things unchanged, rejecting all the novelties suggested – but with time, milk shakes have been added ice-cream, again, just like we now have drive-throughs, large menus

 

Ray Kroc is baffled, overwhelmed by the smooth operation, the brothers that own this fantastic restaurant have created a new system, I think it was called Speed or something similar, working relentlessly, with chalk and drawings on the pavement, looking at different configurations, making their team simulate the making of the burgers, French fries and shakes, without those, just to see where there would be bottlenecks

The outsider saw the success and said they need to spread this throughout America – ‘America deserves this, you have to give it to the country’, or something along those lines – but the McDonald brothers have already tried it, and their franchises had not worked, because the franchisees would not respect the rules

 

The quality was not good, kitchens were filthy, they would add to the menu, and the employee that was supposed to verify did not rise to the expectations, only Kroc insists that this would work, pushes for a contract, and he gets it, after which he does have clients, meeting with the same problem, novelties in the menu, dirty kitchens, and worse, even once the operation becomes successful, the money only cover expenses

He tries to get the brothers to change the conditions, but they are inflexible throughout, anticipating, which we can do, for remember, if you are still around, you are without insurance, I warned you about the Acts of God which are to follow, as in only god knows where this frenzy is taking me…they will end up fighting each other in court, because Krock is sick and tired of hearing no, to all his proposals…

 

There is even some sort of line ‘contracts are made to be broken, just like hearts’ only I may have made this up, the first part is there, in the film, logically, because The Founder will break his connection with the brothers, to assume almost full control – he also says to Dick ‘your control over matters is within the restaurant, below the floor, outside the door, you have no say’ with the same caveat, it is to that effect, not an exact rendering

Now for the gruesome part, if this is a captivating story, there is the torture and killing of billions of animals that have been sacrificed for the success of this god damn Founder, and that is something that future generations (if they have a planet that is) will despise, when they look at their ancestors, unless of course there is another outcome

 

They could well move into the Trump, Putin, Lula, Bolsanaro, Xi and other ghouls camp, and then they will see us and the ones preceding as softies, they will take pleasure in cruelty…a better prognosis you will find in the magical Homo Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/homo-deus-brief-history-of-tomorrow-by.html by fabulous Yuval Harari

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html  

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

83 out of 100 for Sex A Bonkers History

81 out of 100 for Mockinjay, 2

88 out of 100 for Ricky Gervais Live Fame

86 out of 100 for Frasier, yx

Hair- The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Michael Weller, direceted by glorious Milos Forman – another note on this is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/note-on-hair-directed-by-milos-forman.html - 8 out of 10

 

Hair- The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical  by Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Michael Weller, direceted by glorious Milos Forman – another note on this is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/05/note-on-hair-directed-by-milos-forman.html

8 out of 10

 

To Summerize my take, it is looking at Flower Power Versus Idiot Power, The Days of the Hippies against the Time of the ‚very stable genius’ and his MAGA crowd

 

Milos Forman was one of the greatest film makers the world has ever seen, he blessed audiences with a few masteprieces, one of them is Amadeus http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/amadeus.html such a stupendous biopic that we can forget the (minor) criticism

 

We always have artistic licence, evidently, nobody knows what Mozart talked with his wife, father, or Salieri, then the latter seems to have had no role in the death of the great composer (Amadeus, Salieri was a celebrated in his age, but modest one) but for the tension, the success of the plot, it made sense to have him as the pure villain

Let us have the spoiler alert here, because i see that i am already off from the topic and intend to move even further (for the time being, maybe i will return to...what was it, oh, yes, Hair) and the message might be ‚do not read this’, you are much better off elsewhere, there is so much worthy writing in books, and less on the net

 

What came to mind, after mentioning that Milos Forman enetered the history of cineam with Amadeus, among others, was the fact that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a ‚case study’ in the magnificent Outliers http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/outliers-by-malcolm-gladwell.html by Malcolm Gladwell

The luminary is one of the most influential (maybe at number one, tied with Daniel Kahneman, winner of the Nobel Prize for...Economics) psychologists, and he argues in his book that with ten thousand hours of exercise, practise, over ten years, which translates into at least three hours of intense work every day, you could rise to the top (Insha’Allah, and other factors being met) of your domain.

 

Thus, Malcolm Gladwell looked at Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (The Beatles, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many others) and saw that if the composer had started at a very tender age, as his father took him on tours, making music, but the compositions from childhood might be the creation of his father (Leopold was the name, or maybe i am making this up) and are anyway not valuable nowadays, excpet for historical reasons

What orchestras around the world are playing is from the time when Mozart was over twenty, so in the scheme proposed by Malcolm Gladwell he was a ‚late bloomer’,  it took him about two decades, not one, to reach that elusive top – incidentally, i have started putting dwon these notes in the hope that with a lot of practice (and look, I am number two in my realm, in terms of sheer volume only) i will become (much) better...

 

Now, let us try for a line or two to get back to Hair, which was not excessively fabulous, but it is a landmark and prompted me to think about how things have changed, from the Age of the Hippy, Flower Power, Make Love Not War and the rest of it, to Woke, Cancel Culture, and why not, the era of Trump and Idiot Power

Alas, i was born into a communist regime (and you get at the end the link and the pompous showing off of my role in the revolution that killed Ceausescu and changed – sort of – that awful sytem with something else...you see, i do not take every chance to veer off, it is very tempting to go on and explain about the fuckers that took power, after the death of the old tyrant, but i restarin myself) thus missing on Flower Power

 

Eventually, i would have my chances, but just like in the joke we had, it was delayed – the summary of the blague is that when the end of theworld will come, first Bezos and repellant Musk will blast off into their space ships, the American and Chinese leaders will talk about leaving the planet and at the same time, eteranl Ceausescu will say ‚do not worry, we are at least one hundred years behind’- perhaps for a bigger bang- i would have the chance to be the lover of (the first) Miss Our Country, if only for about eight months

The time of Hair was one of freedom, liberation, and we could say that this happens with women more now – also with the multitude of genders we apparently, or evidently have in our midst – in thsi sense, the reading of The 2019 Co-Winner of the Booker Prize, Girl, Woman, Other http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/girl-woman-other-by-bernardine-evaristo.html by Bernardine Evaristo can be illuminating

 

The author explains how ‚gender is one of the biggest lies of our civilization’ and then we have two spirits, non gender and the notion that gender is actually fluid, it changes from one minute to the next, which is obviously chalnged, if this is maybe something hard (almost impossible) for retrograde people like yours truly (sixty is the new forty, but still) the violence with which the MAGA mobs attack the idea is proof of their thickness

Humanity has moved, progressed on many fronts, but if we compare the Flower Power with the Trump crowds (more that sevnty million have voted fro him last time, and abhorent as this is, it looks as if the same or more will take him up next year) in my view, the world has decayed in the emantime, if so many fools embarce these ‚values’, and it is not just Trump – cretins are not that rare, it is a ctastrophe when an especially proud pythecanthrop becomes the role model for multitudes- the list of vile creatures is long, Putin, HAMAS, Xi, Lula and Bolsanaro, let us just stop here...

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

86 out of 100 for Frasier, xy

51 out of 100 for Harababura aka The Chaos

85 out of 100 for L'Employee du Mois aka The Employee of The Month

77 out of 100 for Hunger Games Mockinjay, 1

Munich, screenplay by Tony Kushner, Eric Roth and George Jonas, directed by Steven Spielberg, another look at this is here http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2017/09/note-on-munchen-director-steven.html - 10 out of 10

 

Munich, screenplay by Tony Kushner, Eric Roth and George Jonas, directed by Steven Spielberg, another look at this is here http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2017/09/note-on-munchen-director-steven.html

10 out of 10

 

 

Since it is more than likely that this note will venture into the breaking news of the day, let me introduce a spoiler alert from the beginning, saying that if you looked for an opinion here, it is this – this film is stupendous, memorable and will give you an idea about what will happen next, only it will be on a much bigger scale, and you have yet more of my take at http://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2017/09/note-on-munchen-director-steven.html and now let me continue

 

I was thinking of Munich as Hamas has attacked Israel yesterday (October 8, 2023) and they are surely fighting right now, Bibi aka Benjamin Netanyahu has said that they are ‘at war’ – we get an idea about Bibi as a young man by reading The Netanyahus http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-netanyahus-account-of-minor-and.html winner of last year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, written by Joshua Cohen

This note moved into another day, so it is frightening to think where the casualty figures are now, last night, the number of dead in Israel has passed seven hundred (these are temporary figures, and they could also fall, Insha’Allah, this is what has happened after our own revolution, there will be boasting at the end of the pages, highlighting my contribution in it, and a link) with about two hundred and fifty bodies recovered from the music festival where the terrorists descended with their machine guns.

 

The connection with Munich is that there will be retaliation, indeed Bibi has promised there will be ‘vengeance like they have never seen before’, after the PLO had attacked the Israeli Olympic compound and killed all the hostages they took, a team was assembled and then they tracked and paid back, which will happen now, albeit the situation is complicated by the about one hundred people that Hamas took

We have had precedents here too, one is told in Seven Days in Entebbe http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/7-days-in-entebbe-screenplay-by-gregory.html which depicts the ordeal of passengers of an El Al flight, taken all the way from Europe to Entebbe in Uganda, then ruled by the gruesome Idi Amin…the Israelis sent a team of special forces to save their compatriots and they were successful

 

Bibi’s brother was killed in that operation, where there have been just a couple of casualties, including a woman that stood up, when they were told to sit on the floor, and the incredible results obtained by Israel’s special forces, defense, have been admired and envied, only the situation is much more complicated now

 

The retaliation seen in this fabulous movie – incidentally, a second take on this film is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/09/note-on-munchen-director-steven.html in other words, I have dissected Munich twice and you have the links, let me just dance through the Elysian Fields for this one – Munich, is sure to happen, only the release of the hostages will be almost impossible now, seeing that the Hamas jigodii ( local term which means something so abject you puke) know the story of Entebbe, and worse, they have the innocents that they caught within tunnels, in some impregnable places

What is alas hard to understand, is the failure of the security systems, first of all in telling the authorities that something of this scale is about to happen, then that it was apparently easy for the Hamas monsters to glide, jump through the fences and sail from the sea, however clear part of the explanation is, and it was offered by an expert which said something to the effect of ‘civil society has been in turmoil…

 

Bibi and his extreme right fanatics have tried to muzzle the Supreme Court – granted, it does look excessive, to have some judges say this is not reasonable and should not pass, something like that – to the effect that liberals, people that pay the taxes, make the economy tick, as opposed to the ultra-orthodox, who just rely on support from the state, do not join the army, but want some really dangerous things (which led in part to what we have seen these days) protested and called for reservists to refuse to serve for such a government

Then, when the settlers move into Gaza and other places, to build ever more, well, settlements, the army is going with them for protection, and instead of guarding those borders, they have to do something which is not right, hence, you ha them in other locations, instead of the proper ones, leaving the borders, part of them anyway, exposed to what we have seen…but there is more, and we will get information in the days ahead

 

By no means, this is not to justify the terrorists and blame the victims, that would be crazy and awful, disgusting actually, it is just to try and see a better solution, hopefully, after the revenge is taken, centrists will get to power and find a way to get peace, which will take more years, maybe decades, after all this massacre…let me now say that I am surely biased in favor of Israel, I have worked with clients from there, more than one thousand, and even learned some Hebrew, indeed, the background story is that the enemies of the Jewish state have been asking for its destruction, which is what Hamas wants, so when you face such foes, you need to be inflexible, tough with them, the old cliché of not going with a knife at a gun fight, if they want to throw you into the sea, you could not say oh, let us be gentle and kind, because it then leads to pogroms, and finally, the Jewish nation has had to see millions of their own getting gassed in the Holocaust, in World War II, so they have that memory to cope with, and now another pogrom

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

 

88 out of 100 for The Great, 3 1

83 out of 100 for Winetou aka Der Neue Welt

74 out of 100 for Observe and Report

63 out of 100 for The Gabi Petito Story

Narrow Margin written and directed by Peter Hyams - 9 out of 10

 

Narrow Margin written and directed by Peter Hyams

9 out of 10

 

 

Let us be clear, this is not an outstanding motion picture, however, you have the chance to see the glorious Gene Hackman at work, not at his zenith, that was in The French Connection http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-french-connection-based-on-book-by.html for which he received one of his Oscars

 

The other was, of course, for the iconic Unforgiven http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/07/one-of-realini-top-20-best-movies-ever.html and the two Academy Awards show the versatility of the fabulous performer.

In the former, he is the epitome of the determined, resilient, wonderful man of the law, relentless, courageous in his pursuit of the drug barons – albeit, if we apply the rules of the present, his behaviors would be condemned…

 

In Unforgiven, Gene Hackman has the role of a sheriff, so on the side of the law again, only this time, the personage is so corrupt that audiences cheer when he (spoiler alert) gets the bullet, after torturing and killing Clint Eastwood’s friend, Morgan Freeman, we are talking about their characters, evidently…

For Narrow Margin, Gene Hackman is an assistant chief prosecutor, and almost a role model, showing again bravery, creativity, loyalty, integrity and the list is much longer, where we can throw in some flaws…

 

Anne Archer is Hunnicut, and the film starts with this personage witnessing a murder, ordered by a Mafia (or some other such criminal outfit) boss, after which she goes into hiding, realizing the danger she is in

Nonetheless, Gene Hackman is the assistant chief prosecutor (or some such position) Robert Caulfield – I just realized that this is the name of the hero of Catcher in The Rye http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/01/franny-and-zooey-by-jd-salinger.html - and the hero is working to get head mobster

 

When the police searched at the scene of the murder, they have found the fingerprints of a person that had not been in the database initially (things were different in 1990, they had no cellular phones, for instance)

The federal files have them though, and they belong to a woman that had taken part in some protests (for a good cause, maybe green) and therefore she had been arrested and they know where she is

 

The head of the office does not think he can authorize the expense involving a helicopter in the middle of the Canadian forests, and hence, he will be suspected as being in cahoots with the villains (but as it is the scheme, we may be wrong on this and some other conclusions, surprises must appear in a thriller)

It is a bit confusing here, for somehow, Robert Caulfield does get a helicopter and lands near the cabin in the woods, along with Sargent portrayed by Emmet Walsh, a fabulous actor, remarkable in some many films, including the overwhelming Blood Simple http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/blood-simple-by-joel-and-ethan-coen.html which launched the career of the Coen Brothers

 

As they try to convince Hunnicut to testify, and she refuses, stating the peril she is in, another chopper is there, and a killer starts shooting off with a machine gun, bullet spraying everything in the chalet

The Sargent is dead, Caulfield takes his would be witness through the window in the back, jumps into a Ford SUV (which is what I have, a Ranger, but mind you, if it is a guzzling monster, then I can prove that I cycle and use the vehicle for only about twenty miles the whole year…for the rest, it is the spouse who takes it, so blame her) and then off to the forest road and into the woods altogether, without getting killed

 

That sounds incredible, but hey, think about a comedy wherein they tell you that this fraud, who is also an absolute idiot, with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and other ailments is not in prison or a lunatic asylum (yes, this is politically incorrect but god damn it, I am infuriated, and then who is still here anyway)

He is…elected president of the free world, seventy million and more vote for him, and not just once, many will embrace him again next year, we just have to hope that the opponent gets more than that…

 

It was just at the news (and this is a daily routine) that the massive crook was giving away details about nuclear submarines to some Australian guy, who in his turn told scores of people…on CNN they had a former secretary of defense and he explained how these subs are pretty damn special in their plans

The enemies can target airplanes and everything else, but the subs are quiet, under the oceans, elusive and stealthy, at least until the Big Traitor gives away the information desperately sleeked by Russia, China, north Korea and others to hoi polloi, and to think that he wants to execute General Milley for…treason

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

89 out of 100 for Frasier, 3.1

86 out of 100 for Living to 100, Secrets of The Blue Zones, 1

73 out of 100 for The Burial

85 out of 100 for Koyaanisqatsi

Manchester by The Sea by Kenneth Lonergan – another perspective on this film is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/note-on-manchester-by-sea-writer.html - 10 out of 10

 

Manchester by The Sea by Kenneth Lonergan – another perspective on this film is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/note-on-manchester-by-sea-writer.html

10 out of 10

 

 

Manchester by The Sea has been aired recently again, on one of the many film channels that we now have (Alhamdulillah) and if the first time I was not exhilarated, hypnotized in a trance, then the more recent encounter was really enchanting, it could well have to do with the furor surrounding Casey Affleck.

 

In 2017, when Casey Affleck was nominated and then he won the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, there was some backlash because of some things he had done in the past – he had not slapped anyone at a previous Oscars Ceremony, like Will Smith, but still it was bad

Hence, although the movie is excellent, there has been some reserve, due to the fact that, well, if the artist that is supposed to present you with a story for which you have to feel sympathy, if not empathy, then some pity has this background (it looked a major) problem, then there is distance, some rejection

 

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-9-put.html the recently deceased Milan Kundera writes about the difference between pity, which involves an air of superiority, us being above the pitied, and empathy, which happens when we are all at the same level

Lee Chandler aka Casey Affleck is a tragic figure, no doubt about it, and as we gradually (or is it suddenly) find about his drama, we get to see that a troubled actor might know better how to handle such a complicated personage, if he is the main presence, he is also a sort of anti-hero, however much we feel some warmth for him

 

The young man finds that his dead brother has left a testament, which leaves him ‘in charge of’

Patrick, his nephew, and if he refuses to even contemplate that prospect, we also realize that the brother, Joe Chandler, has had an excellent idea, the responsibility, the need to act might save Lee, who is on a destructive path

This builds up in some ways as a sort of very smart detective story, since we do not know what is wrong with this fellow, why would he reject this notion of just guiding Patrick, who has only a couple of years left before being eighteen (if I am not mistaken), through some steps and then find satisfaction in that

I mean alright, young people these days (and for that matter, this is a terrible cliché, since mature folks keep complaining about the same thing) can be more than a handful, we have some in this gated community of ours that make your hair rise, what with fireworks, urinating on the street and so much more, but still, Lee could have at least expressed some doubts, hesitate, think about it, not look so appalled

 

Spoiler alert, as mentioned before, we move with the plot, and then find what was so absurd, impossible in the will, for Lee has been determined to either kill himself (he had tried, in the police station, with a gun stolen from a cop) or without that, to live as if this is the torture, punishment he has to endure

He is a janitor in Boston (again, some details are not clear, gone from my mind, but who is to object, not you I hope) and there is a moment when Patrick is infuriated, when the teenager is told that he has to move to the city, because this is where his legal guardian is, and he has a damn smart reply for his relative

 

‘Why don’t you move here, you are just a janitor, it is not like you could not find places to wash the floors and toilets in Manchester’ this is clearly no quote, but I hope there were words to this effect, even if this is not the problem, Lee does not give a penny for his work, he cares nothing for life now, that is the drama

As it is, with all the catastrophe that we see as the reason for Lee’s attitude, morosity, aloofness, pain, rejection of the will (well, he changes his mind and tries something, not really hard, to begin with) we do have some humor, mixed in all this trauma and PTSD aka Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which is taking the main character down

 

Patrick aka formidable Lucas Hedges is a very intelligent, pleasant, and sociable, well liked young man, who has…two girlfriends, he has sex with them, but it is not that easy to play with studies, two partners, and especially a morose, obtuse relative, who says he does not like one of the girls and is not cooperating, to use a euphemism

However, as the connection between them develops, Lee starts to offer some support, he even accepts (after much pushing, I think I remember) to cover for his nephew, and walks into the house of one of the girls, to spend some time with the mother, who seemed to fancy the lonely man, and invites him for a drink

 

While the two teenagers are preparing to have sex, with the knowledge that the uncle will keep mother busy, so she will not come upstairs every other ten minutes, as she always does when there are only the three of them in the house, Lee is acting as if he is an alien (which come to think of it, he is)

He does not respond in any way, and though it is amusing, for in the end, the mother walks up to the room of the naughty teenagers, saying she could not stand another minute, she is trying to talk to the wall, it is also deeply tragic, for we see this is a broken man, he takes no interest in what is otherwise a very charming woman…

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life. As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality. Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

 

 

http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/10/note-on-you-can-count-on-me-writer.html

88 out of 100 for Frasier, 2.21

86 out of 100 for Trump, Unprecedented, 1

87 out of 100 for Kajillionaire

85 out of 100 for Plan 75

A Man Called Otto by Fredrik Backman – another version would be here http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/06/92-out-of-100-for-man-called-ove.html - 8 out of 10

 

A Man Called Otto by Fredrik Backman – another version would be here http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/06/92-out-of-100-for-man-called-ove.html

8 out of 10

 

 

Our greatest thinker is Andrei Plesu, but writing this I am tempted to say We Need to Talk About Kevin http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/07/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-by-lionel.html or some other such nonsense…by the way, I am supposed to put out red flags, spoiler alerts early in the game, to answer demand

 

As it is, these notes and the videos I put up at https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/ are not really serious, pertinent, relevant, worthwhile material, and hence the ease with which the subject moves from one place to another, when there is no ‘audience’ to speak of, you can enjoy it, right and dance with the film or book

But the other day, I have noticed a ‘comment’ on the blog, which was an epiphany (well, this is exaggerated, but as stated, it is all superfluous here, so you just had another warning, move away from here, it is not really a serious do) in that, well, there is a reader, viewer out there, in the flesh, not just hypothetical

 

Not only that, but he dives into the ‘message’, which is really unexpected (it is also his fault in part, for we know from the classic Blink, the Power of Thinking Without Thinking http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html by Malcolm Gladwell that we take decisions, form opinions in seconds, and therefore, you only need a couple of lines to see where this is (not) going

Trying to mention Otto for a while (we will see it this is just a fluke) the main character of this narrative appears to be somewhat (or completely) bizarre, eccentric, in that he insists on being a pain in the arse, but at the same time he wants to commit suicide, I mean, if you are off from this world, why do you care about fifty cents

 

When we start, we see him taking some rope from a store (let us continue with this stupid joke and place another spoiler, to satisfy our [only] customer) because he wants to hang himself, and only needs some two meters, the equivalent in American units, and then he argues with the employee on two counts

First, he wants to cut the rope himself, since he has a knife with him, and maybe this is a shot at the exaggerations in the system (the infamous court case on the hot coffee at McDonalds has made companies extremely cautious of lawsuits) but it still looks absurd and not all that funny, why would he insist on using a knife?

Then, at the cashier, he makes a fuss about the length, the charge, which Otto finds excessive, and then we have to see – in fact listen  to – dialogue that eventually will envoy an assistant manager, because the ‘big one’ is on lunch break, and why lunch, and it is off to a bad start, because it is not amusing

 

Eugen Ionesco http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/rhinoceros-by-eugen-ionesco.html comes to mind - by the way, it bothers me that I have had this negative comment, however good it is to know that someone watched/read, and now I realize that this is how my mind works (or does not) from one idea, I jump to the another, and another, and then we are off to the Elysian Fields or some other remote place

In Rhinoceros, you have the beasts showing up on the streets, and that at least has the quality of being really outré, impossible, but still, it is a challenge, while here, we have the absurdity of a man who wants to die, but until he does that, he is such a moron, grumpy old fellow that you are tempted to say ‘die already’

 

However, this is Tom Hanks in the American adaptation (which is much less efficient than the original, which has won trophies and laudatory reviews from critics and audiences, to be vicious, I would insert I do not know why) and you do not want to see him expire, and yes, you feel some sympathy

Indeed, the ‘hero aka anti- hero’ is behaving quite atrociously in many situations, because he has had this trauma, he had lost his wife, and with her, any reason to go on, and hence he sees everything in a black color, and if we flip the argument above, he has the sense that he is unpleasant or worse, and ergo, he is trying to say adieu…

 

Part of the humor comes from the fact that he does not succeed, because the things they do these days are not solid, reliable, and then he has these neighbors coming in, that he has to help with the parking of their vehicle, then, when he tries to use theexhaust, he is interrupted (again) and eventually, things change

Victor Frankl http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/mans-search-for-meaning-by-victor-frankl.html has written one of the classics of Psychology, Man’s Search for Meaning, he had been interned in labor camps, although he could get out of the Nazi killing machines, his family could not, and hence, he went into the camp

 

He writes about how essential Meaning is, when men (he was imprisoned with males) lost their Will to live, the meaning, they would very soon die, and that is what happens to Otto, until the new arrivals in the gated community where Otto is in charge push him to see a way out, the eponymous light at the end of the tunnel

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world   – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life. As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality. Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”