The Lost Daughter by Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on the novel with the same name by Elena Ferrante, author of My Brilliant Friend http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-brilliant-friend-by-elena-ferrante.html and a few other big hits - 9 out of 10

 

The Lost Daughter by Maggie Gyllenhaal, based on the novel with the same name by Elena Ferrante, author of My Brilliant Friend http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/my-brilliant-friend-by-elena-ferrante.html and a few other big hits

9 out of 10

 

 

This note is about the film based on the novel of an author that has caused a sensation, I have read about her (or maybe his, or their) astounding rise to popular and critical acclaim in The Economist, where some time later after the initial article, there was another look at the mystery behind this writer, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of readers and experts wondering who this Elena Ferrante is, for this was the pen name (still is, presumably) and there had been speculation over what well known literati, luminary could be using tis pseudonym and I think at some stage the secret was uncovered.

 

However, long before it became public knowledge I had lost interest in the matter, given that the next opus by the same under cover creator would prove a disappointment – they may still search for some details regarding the veracity of the ‘real Elena Ferrante’, contesting the facts, the identity anyhow, there would be conspiracy theories springing, even after someone had come out, there would be battalions disputing, claiming they know it is really Lady Gaga, Trump, Messi or somebody else, doing this on the side, with the help of aliens, the CIA, FBI and other Western malevolent forces, let me not forget Bill Gates and Soros

You may not be assaulted by this vile, bilious propaganda, but I find it obnoxious and sometimes (like now) I am tempted to look on the pandemic years and the associated lockdown with nostalgia - no, I do not actually, but I think I am trying to make a joke, or else, more plausibly, I am starting to suffer from one (or more) of those diseases where you talk (or write) to yourself and then feel that you are now one person, and then the opposite – and say it is often good not to meet humans, none of those with mad notions anyway…

 

Some years back, I used to spend about five hours every day at the Downtown Club – part of a World class chain, I think I am going to use this name quite a few times here, I mean in following notes, not this one, though who knows, the way it looks, anything is possible, because of the mirth of putting down such a preposterous claim, world class service it would imply, when in fact they have turned somehow against clients, admittedly, there are many customers that are more than a bore, outright offensive, rude, a number of criminal types -there was this goodfella http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/06/goodfellas-based-on-book-by-nicholas.html that had the number one key [ a sign of meagre progress, they have cards now) and you could not have this at the locker room, even when the small Trump was away on business, since he took it with him, and his status of a gang leader would not allow for such a claim, and at one point, they would send a contingent of policemen to take him into custody from the club, they were worried that if they just have a couple of them, he could knock them down, as he had done with a massive badass from the force

 

However, plenty of conspiracy theories…once, I was sitting in the sauna with one other client, when we came to talk about the Twin towers and 9/11, and he tried to explain to dumb me that it was the Americans themselves that took them down, so that they could justify the war they wanted, and when another eejit came into the hot place, I said to myself, good, there would be someone with some sense, and maybe we could silent this loonie, only it turned out that there were two now, with the same conviction, and then more, as others walked into the frame, finally it was just inglorious me standing for my firm conviction, while this squadron and others met along the years showed contempt for Americans (justified if we talk Trump and the sect) and despised me for my god damn lack of sense

About a couple of months ago, I returned to the place, after the hiatus provoked by the pandemic, only the place had been closed for just some months, and when it reopened, I felt among other things (a worry that the business could collapse, and then what about money for food and anything, never mind luxuries like saunas, which anyhow, worked with stops and scandalous outings) a reluctance to return to the same, old crowd of fools and lunatics (there were two ardent supporters, one, who has changed his mind in the meantime, had worked as a bell boy maybe at the hotel and felt that he owes the Confidence Man his vote and devotion, no matter how irrepressible, loathsome the Orange Clown could be, the other, a young man of apparent good sense, had in fact some deep, troublesome issues, embracing such a fraud as that) and have them pollute me again with their grievances and schemes.

 

As it happens, maybe five weeks ago, we have a conversation that hits on Ukraine and the war, and this revolting mother fucker who is a doctor and hence has no justification as one with little or no education, with somewhat justified incomprehension of events, unable to distinguish between propaganda and truth, spits out ‘Zelensky and Putin are two idiots’ and when I tried to retort, startled at such a monstrosity, he went about the Americans and the Cuban missile crisis, and this was just a point against his madness I tried to state, for the Americans had not invaded Cuba, which what his patrons, the awful Putin and his cohorts have just done years ago in Crimea, and now they try to swallow the whole of a country that had done nothing to unleash the Wrath of the Small Guy in the Kremlin (small in character, never mind that he has the Napoleon complex, trying to over compensate for height, or shortness)

I had to walk out of the sauna, saying that this is not a debate worth having, and I know from the other, 9/11 deniers that no matter how much you try to explain that this is more than absurd and preposterous, it does not work, and furthermore, they try to explain every terrorist attack, on a priest in some small church in France, those who run with trucks and cars into huge crowds, use machetes to decapitate, machine guns in concert halls in Paris, they have the same theory that these were sent by Americans, secret agencies and what have you…now about The Lost Daughter – yes, the film works, but in my humble view , not because of Elena Ferrante, which I managed to somehow cherish on the first read and then reject http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-story-of-new-name-nicenot-thrilling.html  but in spite of the original work, due to the magical skills of Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Olivia Coleman, the latter wonderful in the role of the divorced, troubled, mother that is vacationing near a family with serious problems of their own…you my wonder if I have written this gibberish in this position http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world