miercuri, 31 mai 2023
marți, 30 mai 2023
luni, 29 mai 2023
Supertoys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss, the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s AI Artificial Intelligence…Brian Aldiss is the author of the masterpiece Non Stop http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/non-stop-by-brian-aldiss-10-out-of-10.html included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read - 10 out of 10
Supertoys
Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss, the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s AI
Artificial Intelligence…Brian Aldiss is the author of the masterpiece Non Stop http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/non-stop-by-brian-aldiss-10-out-of-10.html included on the list of 1,000
Novels Everyone Must Read
10 out of
10
Artificial
Intelligence has been in the news for quite some time now, and about one
thousand scientists and specialists in the domain have called for a temporary
halt in the development of new tools, one of them is Elon Musk, who has his own
start up developing the technology and thus could be in a conflict of
interest…anyway, the second richest man (if this has not changed in the
meantime, he was once the wealthiest, but due to his improvident behavior, the
fortune of the man and more importantly, of the folks working for him
fluctuates) is not the trustworthy luminary we should listen to…
The theory
of Singularity – explained with extreme talent in Why The West Rules for Now http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/10/why-west-rules-for-now-by-ian-morris.html by Ian Morris - predicts that
around 2035, due to the inevitable progress in computing power – including that
law which doubled the capacity of computing for a chip, which in fact is a
different rule, but here you have it botched and maimed, it could be per square
millimeter, and not doubling, like in that Radio Yerevan joke we had under
communism…’is it true that Mr. Ionescu (my name, and that of another half a
million people living in this realm) has been given a white Dacia’ (car made
locally) the answer from Radio Yerevan is ‘no, it is not a car, it is a bicycle,
it was not given to him, it was taken away from him and it is not white, it is
black’- the supercomputer will have surpassed all that humanity knows
I am in
some ways relying on Artificial Intelligence, even in what regards this note,
and all the (too many) others that I have written, for seeing that there is a
small (almost non extant) audience for these scribblings (and alas, it is as it
should be, for there is not much, if anything, worth extracting here) in human
terms, then there is this escape, the future will be dominated by these
machines, and since they have these super brains, they will be able to consume
all that I have ‘produced’ (or destroyed) here, and all that in a tiny fraction
of a nano second, and furthermore, it will be able to make some (granted, very
limited) sense out of these elucubrations, perhaps as in ‘there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’, most likely the contribution to
the revolution that took down Ceausescu
In December
1989, I took to the streets and joined the couple of hundred protesters in the
Roman Square, led by the real hero Andrei Finti – this would be part of the
miniscule contribution I bring to the table, the repeated emphasis on the role
of this glorious actor and man, the one that deserves a statue – maybe AI could
be used for that in the future – whereas we have had tens of thousands of fake
revolutionaries, one of the real leaders of that rebellion (and there are less
than twenty authentic key figures, people like Caramitru, Doina Cornea,
Dinescu) has been almost completely forgotten, I have never seen him taking the
stage to speak about his paramount role, but that is the way - ’Revolutions eat
their children’, in this case, that movement has taken into oblivion the
special one, and if for nothing else, those notes would help in the future to
try and pay homage to Andrei Finti, the real hero
As for my presence,
it is evoqued in the Newsweek article, written by the Eastern Europe
correspondent, Michael Meyers…I met him in those febrile days, and since I had
my chance to translate for James Wilde from TIME (what a strange coincidence,
to meet two corresponds, and from then rival publications) I have called Dan
Minulescu to come and do some work for Michael Meyers (Dan has become in the
meantime one of the fifty richest people in this realms and I should be felicitous
and proud, for he had been for a short stint my pupil…this is another small
contribution, what, I have written some autobiographical notes for this Future
AI, and in the history of the rise of local business, Dan would have a role
assigned, and since I had given him a few lessons, there are some tiny kudos
there, albeit we have had arguments, when he first came, we entered a sort of
parallel deal, a trip offered outside the state network, which was illegal, and
the share of the profits I divided was sixty percent for me and the rest for the
new kid on the block, who protested…but hey, when I was an apprentice, they
never even mentioned the possibilities, never mind teaching me anything in that
regard, as for sharing the profits, seeing one percent, are you joking? http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html this is the link to the copy of the
crucial page
One of the
most important luminaries of our times is Yuval Harari, who has three major
works so far, Sapiens, A Brief History of Humanity, Twenty One Lessons for the
21st Century and Home Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/homo-deus-brief-history-of-tomorrow-by.html the latter looks at the progress we
have made, and what the future looks like, with people living longer and
longer, hence Deus aka God, for we will become like gods, living almost forever
– you, if you are younger – and the challenges brought on by Artificial Intelligence,
the algorithms that already play such a part in our existence, the fact that we
have traded our information, much like natives of Africa and other places have
given away huge treasures for the small beads brought by colonizers, we get
free videos with cats in exchange for vital information that we offer…
We have
grown too dependent on the computers – there is the example that is tragicomic
of the Japanese (I think they were from Japan) travelers who followed the
indications of the trip assistant to the point where they plunged into the
ocean – but it is evident that we will stop driving and have the benefit of
getting a mix of Michael Schumacher and Immanuel Kant to drive for us – the
issue of utilitarian philosophy is brought on, cars could be altruistic or
selfish in their modus operandi, but humans will probably buy the option where
the driving system prefers the owner to another, in case of an accident =-
Jobs are on
the line, and we have extended analysis http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/07/21-lessons-for-21st-century-by-yuval.html to read, for instance, echography
will be better interpreted by AI, which will have accumulated the experience of
seeing and understanding millions, maybe hundreds of millions of images, as
opposed to the best human doctors who will have seen only a few thousand, if
that… 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
duminică, 28 mai 2023
sâmbătă, 27 mai 2023
The Lost City of Z by David Grann, the inspiration for a remarkable motion picture, listed by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 10 Films of 2017 - 9 out of 10
The Lost
City of Z by David Grann, the inspiration for a remarkable motion picture,
listed by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 10 Films of 2017
9 out of 10
Stories of
discovery, adventure, exploration have always fired the imagination of humans
longing to travel in The Heart of Darkness http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-heart-of-darkness-by-joseph-conrad.html which is the title of one of the Greatest
Books of all Time – discovery is also a key ingredient in a drama, or tragedy,
according to Aristotle, who also added to this reversal, and the best example
where these two are coupled together comes from Oedipus Rex, where the king
expects wondrous news from a messenger, when in fact he find she had killed his
father and married his mother.
Tragedies
would offer purgation (at least the worthwhile ones) according to the same
luminary http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html and the audience would look on
stage (or at motion pictures in our times, most often on their phones or computers)
and find in some cases that they can find the courage to act, if Oedipus or
others have been able to under such duress, or for the very wealthy, it can
serve as a lesson regarding what could happen to the richest…
The Lost
City of Z reminds one of other marvelous films, such as the spectacular
Fitzcarraldo (especially the scene where we have an…opera in the middle of the
jungle) and Aguirre, The Wrath of God http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/aguirre-wrath-of-god-aka-der-zorn.html both made by the phenomenal Werner
Herzog and starring the outré, splendid, if mad Klaus Kinsky, motion pictures
with narratives that take place in the same Amazon forest, the lungs of the
planet that have come under attack recently
Probably
the man theme here would be exploring, discovering the Amazon and the lost
civilization that seemed such a mirage at the start of the last century, but it
would be later be proved to have been an accurate assessment of the hero, Percy
Fawcett, roads and the other traces of advanced cities have been confirmed
later, albeit the explorer might have had trouble in reaching this dream of
his…
Aguirre,
The Wrath of God also has a team of white Europeans, navigating with a raft on
the unexplored rivers of South America, with disastrous results, if some centuries
back…The Lost City of Z could also be connected to the African Queen http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-african-queen-by-c-s-forester.html adapted for the big screen by John
Huston, with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in the leading roles…in The
African Queen, the alcohol of the leading man is poured over board by the very
religious, intolerant woman, but on the set, Bogart and Huston avoided the
disease that plagued the rest of the crew, by sticking to whisky, and avoiding
the water born bacteria…
Another
important theme that would strike viewers is the preservation of the Amazon,
which has been so crucial for the survival of humanity, and will be in the
future, if it is not erased…in the past few years, Brazil has had a ghoul for president,
Jair Bolsanaro, one that has encouraged deforestation, denying climate change
and other sensible ideas, the monster has been replaced by Lula, who is declaring
that he wants to stop the massive tree cutting, Alhamdulillah, albeit he is
quite a vile fellow himself, he has repeated the disgusting statement that Zelensky
is just as much to blame as Putin…
When you
embrace such a monster as Putin http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/petru-by-vlad-zografi-we-must-note-that.html you join the cohorts of the
traitors…we were talking over the past few days at the sauna downtown about the
invasion of the Ukraine, with some Z supporters (Z used to a letter and signed
people liked here, for it was the symbol of Zorro, once such a favorite with
audiences enthused by Alain Delon, who was so appreciated, they have named a
special sheep cot after him)
Z is now
the indication that one is for the mass murderers, because it is painted on the
Russian tanks invading Ukraine and on the cars, banners of those who like
killers…sympathizers argue that Putin is alright, it is the Americans who are
responsible, they want to sell their weapons (and that is so stupid and false,
Ukraine needs much more than it gets, they use in a month the number of projectiles
that America makes in a year, so there you go) and they propose all sorts of
conspiracy theories, another evidence of their low EQ, IQ
There is a
way out of this conundrum, and that is to apply the Rules of the Game that
their beloved Dear Leader uses in his new czarist land, he has arrested and
sentenced, killed opponents, using Novitchock, the military grade gas, Polonium
on Litvinenko, and we are not that murderous, but since they embrace the enemy
– the official policy of the land is to act with the NATO allies, hence Putin
is the official, declared adversary – they should share at least the fate of
Alexey Navalny, and more recently Vladimir Kara Murza, the latter has been
sentenced to twenty five years in jail, just for opposing the regime.
Ergo you Z
boys should go to prison, let us be munificent and day not for the same
decades, but at least for about five years, when you admire such a despot, you
must either travel and leave in the realm of plenty and good will aka Muscovy
(it was so funny and to the point for Volodimir Zelenski to suggest changing
the name, if one is playing with history books and taking us back to his
favorite moment and imposing on the present the map of decades or centuries
past, then he must expect others to do the same, if with different timeframes
and implications) or else, have imposed on them the good graces of that justice
system – you speak for the enemy, spread that diseased propaganda, therefore you
must suffer the consequences you would in that land of the free, which is
sentencing critics to long prison terms, or worse, death….the place for these
sycophants would be in labor camps over there, if they would promote Western
values…why not offer them the fate they want, if they cherish it 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
I am the
Realini mentioned in this Newsweek article that covers the fall of Ceausescu, I
have taken part in that rebellion that is mentioned on this page, here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
vineri, 26 mai 2023
joi, 25 mai 2023
marți, 23 mai 2023
luni, 22 mai 2023
duminică, 21 mai 2023
The Reader by David Hare, based on the novel The Reader by Bernard Schlink http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-reader-by-bernard-schlink.html winner of prestigious awards - 9 out of 10
The Reader
by David Hare, based on the novel The Reader by Bernard Schlink http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-reader-by-bernard-schlink.html winner of prestigious awards
9 out of 10
Perhaps the
most important theme of this narrative is World War II and in particular The
Holocaust, looking at the role that Hanna Schmitz aka Kate Winslet playing her
part in the motion picture (for which she won the Academy Award for Best
Actress in a Leading Role) the guilt she has to face, for which she is taken to
court, but also what we can say about the German people, how could they allow
for such a calamity?
One answer
could be found in the Milgram Experiment http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-reader-by-bernard-schlink.html in which participants were invited
to use electricity to correct those who gave wrong answers to questions…the
rule was they will hear someone respond to questions, and whenever there was a
mistake, they will apply an electric shock to punish the failure, with
increased voltage, as they progressed, to the point where they would hear the
human complain, then whine and moan because of the pain inflicted…however, most
of those in the research would continue.
This proves
the Principle of Respect for Authority, as explained in the quintessential Influence
http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-absolute-psychology-classic.html by Robert Cialdini, whereby we
listen to what looks like authority, to the point where in studies, drivers in
a car that waits at the traffic lights for the green would not use the horn if
ahead they have a luxury model, Mercedes, BMW, Lexus, and prompt the one ahead,
if the brand does not exude prestige…hence, Germans have listened to Hitler and
the other Nazi monsters because they obeyed they Principle of Influence
In
documentaries about The Holocaust we can find the excuse that they did not know
about it – they would be taken to see the catastrophe at the end of World War
II in the extermination camps – but we may not believe it…one of the most
important books that looks at the experience in these places that killed
millions of Jews (also smaller numbers of gypsies and other humans) is Man’s
Search for Meaning http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/mans-search-for-meaning-by-victor-frankl.html by Victor Frankl
One of the
most illustrious psychologists, Victor Frankl, had been sent to these lands of
death, with the caveat that he could have escaped, but because his family would
not be spared, Victor Frankl decided to go and then he would share with the
world part of his experience, showing that as long as there is a why, there
might be a way, those who lost the sense of meaning, would die very soon, a sign
would be that they would not keep their cigarettes, which were as valuable as
currency in those gruesome places, perhaps even more…
Michael
Berg shares the spotlight with Hanna Schmitz in the book and film based on the
narrative, when he is fifteen, the woman is thirty six, after she helps him,
they have an affair, and then she disappears, only to resurface in court, years
later, when she is accused for her role in the deaths of prisoners in
concentration camps…the fact that she is illiterate appears to be seen as some
attenuating circumstance.
There was
criticism of this attitude, for how could one excuse any participant in that
horrible Armageddon…indeed, the Principle of Respect for Authority can only go
this far, we could factor in The Principle of Social Proof or Conformity, from
the same Influence http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/influence-by-robert-cialdini.html there are situations when we look
for the others to see what we could or should do, and go along with ‘when in Rome,
do what the Romans do’
Some terrible
events are explained in part by the coupling of these two principles, for instance
the mass suicide that has taken place decades ago in Guyana, but surely it was
at play recently in Kenya, where they have found dozens of bodies of dead
humans that have starved themselves to death, respecting the Authority of a
cult leader, if people can go as far in taking these principles to work, then
they could do other things – in another example from the book, a murder has
been committed in New York, with more than thirty witnesses, none of them
acting in any way, because the others have not done anything…
The guilt
of the Nazis and their collaborators is so clear, there is no point in discussing
that, there could be some reason to look into the case of Hanna Schimtz, as she
was illiterate – the title of the book and the film could point to her, because
eventually, she learns to read and write, but it also covers Michael Berg, who
reads to her, then he records tapes with what we call today audiobooks…you
could find a large collection free at https://librivox.org/ the Gutenberg Project site and
other places, for books that are older than seventy years and thus have had
their copyright limit expire
Hanna
Schmitz is so ashamed to admit to this shortcoming that she does not use this
clear evidence at the trial, because she could not read or write, she could not
have been the one in control, as her colleagues testified, the latter would
receive only four years sentence, just as Hanna gets twenty, when she could
have evaded that, with the embarrassing admission that she simply could not
read or write in front of such a large audience
What is
unacceptable for many in the East is the fact that communism has received a
very different from fascism and Nazism, albeit the former has been much
deadlier (only in China, I think Mao killed more than Hitler and Mussolini
combined) with Stalin and the other commies indulging in famine,
exterminations, and communism appears to be accepted somehow, China is a communist
state to this day, and leaders of democracies play the game with them – let us
just mention Lula, who seems to be better that that catastrophic Bolsanaro, but
still a ghoul, he said Zelensky is to be blamed for the invasion of his country
and other such enormities… 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
sâmbătă, 20 mai 2023
vineri, 19 mai 2023
joi, 18 mai 2023
miercuri, 17 mai 2023
Best in Show by Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, with improvised dialogue by members of the cast – a spectacular, one of the best comedy ensembles that gave audiences a few gems, including For Your Consideration http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/for-your-consideration-written-by.html Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind - 10 out of 10
Best in
Show by Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy, with improvised dialogue by members of
the cast – a spectacular, one of the best comedy ensembles that gave audiences
a few gems, including For Your Consideration http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/for-your-consideration-written-by.html Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind
10 out of
10
The fact
that this is an often hilarious show, does not mean that you do not find
serious themes here, treated with humor, creativity…cruelty to animals is not
apparent here, indeed, the owners of the dogs that are presented to become Best
in Show love their pets, pamper them with treats, special toys, hairdressing
(or is it fur dressing) and other amenities, if it could be argued that they
care more about the trophy
Meg and
Hamilton are the opposite of the protagonist from the mesmerizing, majestic,
miraculous, august chef d’oeuvre Un Amour de Swan http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/un-amour-de-swan-by-marcel-proust.html they have a female Weimaraner
called Beatrice and they give the animal everything she wants…that is, all that
the owners think the pet desires, when they have sex, and the bitch sees them,
they pay for a therapist, and this is preposterous, right, for what human knows
what beasts think or want?
Anticipating
(is there a need for a spoiler alert I wonder) they will give the poor Beatrice
away – actually, we do not know what had happened to her, let us just hope they
did not euthanize the poor creature, just because she did not win them the coveted
award – and they talk to the amusing shrink – everyone here does a spectacular,
gorgeous job, in the smallest parts possible – about the new animal, they
have a French bulldog – and the way
their sex life has improved and how good the new pet is
You find in
The Economist – and surely elsewhere, but this is where I have read about this
and so much else, I am a devoted reader and fan, I started reading it about
forty one years ago, at time when this was dangerous, I would go at the British
Embassy for that, the Library was in the same courtyard as the embassy, and I
would take the illustrious publication to read it, when it was available…later
on, inspired in part by what I have read there about democracies, I would take
part in the revolution that took down one of the worst dictators in history,
Ceausescu, and here is the proof, a copy of the page from the Newsweek article
that covered the rebellion, in 1989 http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html - articles about the new trends…
Smaller
breeds have become more popular, in some cases it makes sense, Japan has a
problem with space, there are many millions living on limited areas – albeit,
the population is decreasing with a few hundred thousand each year, due to one
of the lowest natality rates in the world – and thus having a small pooch makes
sense, but in most situations, it is the social networks (with their pernicious
influence) that promote the images of celebrities and their own animals,
therefore the fact that quite a few have the French bulldog has changed
statistics, the once most popular retriever has given way from the first place
to other breeds…The French bulldog at the same time is not the most popular
in…France
Alas, there
are a number of interferences that have created animals that come with many
health issues, they should not be here at all, such as the British bulldog,
which has problems with breathing, and the French bulldog – as far as I can
remember from what I read, so humans have played god and introduced on the
planet creatures that look so cute, behave with such joviality, but their life
can be a pain…and that of their owners, some thirty years ago, I used to have a
German shepherd, Daryl van Horn, named after the Jack Nicholson character in
The Witches of Eastwick http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-witches-of-eastwick-by-john-updike_4.html and he has had a lot of issues
In the
meantime, we have had five borzois – plus about twenty three puppies that have
been given away – one Afghan (in their home country, they say these are not
dogs, they are Afghans, and indeed, they are difficult, next to impossible to
control, for they have in their genes an extraordinary independence, they do
not come when called, they are not
‘obedient’, on the contrary, they are noble, we could say arrogant) and a mutt,
which was a source of some pleasure, but also a lot of conflict.
Speaking of
Best in Show, the spouse had been very keen on taking the dogs to competitions,
we even travelled once to another country, on the Bulgarian coast, just to show
them to the juries and the audiences, to some extent in a replica of what we
see in the film, with vanities, jealousy, tension, passion, nervousness,
anticipation, patience and improvidence, many flaws and virtues on display,
while the poor dogs have to try and be nice, wait, move around for the pleasure
of humans, and especially, their masters…
Just like
the backlash against having beauty pageants for humans http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-queen-10-commie-ptsd.html there are protests, organizations
that will fight (they have been acting against) these Best in Shows, where
animals have to go on display for no good reason, although there are other,
more serious infringements of their rights, billions are tortured and killed so
that people eat their meat, or just wear their furs or leather, a monstrosity that
will have to end.
Yuval
Harari is one of the greatest luminaries of our age and in his three majestic
masterpieces he writes about issues confronting humanity, explores what the
future will look like – we will live longer, have cars driven by AI, our health
will be partly in the hands of artificial intelligence, for instance, the
analysis of imagery, endoscopies, is much better done by a super intelligent
machine that had had access to many millions of scans, than a human doctor,
excellent as he, she, they may be, who has seen some thousands of patients, but
no more – and laments the catastrophic treatment of animals http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/sapiens-brief-history-of-humankind-by.html - Best in Show takes a light tone,
it is a monumental comedy, but it uses sarcasm and irony to show the flaws, the
selfishness of people…and 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
marți, 16 mai 2023
luni, 15 mai 2023
duminică, 14 mai 2023
sâmbătă, 13 mai 2023
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet – winner of The Pulitzer Prize in 1984 http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/glengary-glen-ross-by-david-mamet.html - 10 out of 10
Glengarry
Glen Ross by David Mamet – winner of The Pulitzer Prize in 1984 http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/glengary-glen-ross-by-david-mamet.html
10 out of
10
Glengarry
Glen ross is one of the greatest plays one can choose, albeit we can wonder
about the reception it would get in this age, when you have extremists on both
sides of the political spectrum, Republicans might regret the fact that there
are no guns in the narrative, the characters are not macho enough, lacking
testosterone and who knows what else – one of the monsters responsible for the
rise of Trump, the invasion of the Capitol, a sycophant for the likes of Putin
(which gives us an idea of how atrocious the creature is) has just been fired
from Fox (which has the news in its name, albeit it is just a machine for
making money and promoting conspiracy theories, vile theories, abjection) and
Jimmy Kimmel was showing on his comedy show some of the lamentable scenes from
the Mother Tucker show, and it was disgusting – while on the other extreme,
there would be other criticism…
As it is,
David Mamet expressed his support for…Trump on the Bill Maher program (and
surely elsewhere, it is just that I only saw the HBO program) unless I have
just imagined that, it does seem so absurd that a gifted, clever, creative
author could make such an awful, dumb choice…and he is the one that gave
audiences some fantastic gems, like The Untouchables http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-untouchables-written-by-david-mamet.html directed by Brian De Palma.
They have
had on Cinemax a documentary on the director, called De Palma, and it is more
than worth watching, it is a delight, for the artist tells many wonderful
stories, a passage is dedicated to The Untouchables, for which Kevin Costner
was recommended by Martin Scorsese (if I am not mistaken) Sean Connery wanted
to make a break with the James Bond roles, Connery gets shot with a machine gun
– Sydney Lumet talks about so many aspects of filming in his brilliant Making
Movies http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-untouchables-written-by-david-mamet.html one of them is about the carnage of
putting the very tall Sean Connery and someone like Al Pacino in the same
frame…
We are
moving away from the subject (hence there is a need for an alert here, not
spoiler, since I am talking not about the ‘end’ of Glengarry, but apparently
moving further away from it) and I am still on the De Palma documentary, in
which he regales the public with an interesting irony, where Sydney Lumet has
‘stolen’ the Prince of the City project from the former, who had spent a long
time working, developing the idea, while later, Sydney Lumet would adapt
Scarface, with a Miami setting http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/note-on-scarface.html where there have been so many problems
that Brian De Palma would eventually have to move the filming to California,
where he took the production
Glengarry
Glen ross has some glorious lines, fabulous characters and adapted for the big
screen with Jack Lemmon as Shelley ‘The Machine’ Levine, al Pacino as Richard
Roma, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, the now disgraced Kevin Spacey and the outstanding
Alec Baldwin as Blake…the latter has some lines, an appearance that has entered
the history of cinema (just like the rest of the film for that matter) that
summarize the ruthlessness of capitalism, maybe – mind you, I have lived under communism
for about twenty five years (not counting up to the present, a period which has
seen a transformation, but an advanced economy is still some decades away) and
I have taken part in the Revolution that took down Ceausescu http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html as this link to a page from an
article in Newsweek, the copy covering the 1989 rebellion demonstrates, my
pride and joy
Salesmen
try hard to sell real estate, but the leads they have are really bad, however,
Blake comes from downtown and has a cruel presentation, something to the
effects of ‘you see this watch, it costs more than your car, ABC, always be
selling, the one who is in third place is fired, so either you close, or you
walk’- under this pressure, Dave Moss has this plan to steal the new leads, the
Glengarry Glen Ross list, which he will sell to a competitor, and he enlists
the poor George Aaronow, the latter has to commit the actual felony, and all
for a smaller fee, and because he would be blackmailed if he does not…
Meanwhile,
Shelley The Machine has problems with his finances (as most normal folks have)
and is trying to get their boss to give him the new leads (some of them)
because he used to be a great sales representative (hence the Machine nickname)
but not recently, and he offers to pay Williamson (basically, this is a bribe)
only the latter wants much more, fifty for each name and ten percent or more
from the future sale, and the money upfront…the one that rides high is Richard
Roma, who sells to James Lingk
Kevin
Spacey is Williamson, the evil, stupid boss, who refuses The Machine and then
ruins everything for Roma – the most successful employee is all over the
reckless manager, telling him that the ‘first rule in this business is to never
open your mouth, if you do not know what the game is’ and there is tirade, with
expletives and fury, for Roma had worked really hard, he was going to get the
first prize, the Cadillac, but Williamson says the wrong thing, and instead of
having the deal sealed, it is all off now…
The real
estate office is robbed, and we do not know who it is, albeit we suspect that
it must be George aka Alan Arkin, it needs to be emphasized again that this is
crème de la crème, nec plus ultra, you cannot get a better team of actors no
matter how hard you find, and what is more, they are at their zenith, in top
form (if you take Pacino and maybe some of the others and look at more recent
work, well, then there is not much to enjoy there) who was blackmailed by Dave
Moss and maybe pushed to commit the crime…
There could
obviously be a surprise there – Aristotle explains in his analyses of drama,
tragedy that two ingredients are needed, one is reversal and the other
revelation, and they could be mixed together, as in Oedipus Rex http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/oedipus-rex-by-sophocles-and-adapted-by.html wherein the king finds from a messenger
that he has killed his father and married his mother, all at the same
time…other possibly interesting links would be http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world and maybe
http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html
vineri, 12 mai 2023
miercuri, 10 mai 2023
marți, 9 mai 2023
Jesus Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/jesus-christ-superstar-by-andrew-lloyd.html - 10 out of 10
Jesus
Christ Superstar by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/05/jesus-christ-superstar-by-andrew-lloyd.html
10 out of
10
This note
should be one of gratitude, since this work may well be the one that has
cheered me up the most, knowing some of the lines – ‘What’s the buzz, tell me
what’s happening…prove to me that you’re divine, change my water into wine…cut
the confessions, forget the excuses, we want information…’- I tend to sing
them, alas, that means that those around do not cherish the same lyrics, for
they get on their nerves, if I am the singer, albeit they could also laugh at
the performance and then ‘everything’s all right’
Earlier
this morning, at the decaying Downtown club – this thing is called world class,
as if the service you find there is of that incomprehensible level, but it is
getting to be a joke really, you never know when you get there what facility
will be, what access denied, which absurd excuse they will throw out, one Jacuzzi
is closed because of the Radisson hotel (yes, another lamentable outfit there,
but let us move on), the other is off since one client vomited inside (which is
so abject, because it has not happened, except maybe once, some years ago, and
then they push it as a disgusting justification forever)
When you
point out that employees have seats reserved, which means customers will have
to stand on occasion (as in when the pool is busy, because saunas, Jacuzzis are
not usable) the manager gets angry and says ‘of course, the swimming
instructors have to sit down’…wtf, what hospitality business does that- indeed,
this absurd situation is somehow similar to what the King of Comedy Kingsley Amis
describes in his magnum opus http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/ending-up-by-kingsley-amis.html Ending up one hilarious, if
preposterous, situation where the waiter comes at the table with the order
and…sits down
Another
joyful situation would be when the delivery person comes at the door, and after
giving you the package asks to see the paintings…such is the context at this
bizarre company, where they need not salute, the manager confirmed that as
well, when told that they have an attitude that ruins your day, she more or
less said there it is, if clients are like that – it is the guests they blame
for the saunas, for they put too much water on the stove, and they use paper to
start the hammam, and then when other items are not functioning, it is the
higher echelons that take the heat…’you want me to pay from my pocket?’
In other
words, she is blaming her bosses, and this is also as skewed, outrageous as can
be, for when you get a bad service or none somewhere, you do not want to know
that the bakery delivered the bad cakes, the CEO of the company is no good,
actually, this somehow confirms my objects, I realize now, when you pass the
can like that, you reject the blame, but confirm there is a problem, and a
serious one…
To end with
the splendid club and return to Oh Jesus, this morning there was not enough
water in the pool, yes, there was some, maybe about half of the quantity
required, but not enough to swim in it, so this is really a joke, you do not
know what prank they play on you when you get there…which needs to be solved
with Jesus Christ Superstar, in particular, the lines that go ‘try not to get
worried, try not to turn to problems that upset you, don’t you know
everything’s alright, close your eyes think of nothing tonight’
I remember
how I rejected this rock opera, the first time I had the chance to listen to
it, which might have been in 1987, when I girl I liked, colleague of mine in
the Faculty of Geology, a student there as well, gave me a cassette, which
might have sown the seeds of love http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/08/permaflow-3-this-is-bad-mans-song-tears.html as in the Tears For Fears song
Some time
in 1988 I was sent down (or up, because on the map, this is way north of here,
the capital city) to Felix, near the border of Hungary (where I have paid for
sex for the first time, with a packet of Kent cigarettes, at the time they were
not rejected as messengers of death, but coveted, they were about as valued as
dollars, hard currency) where one night I had the chance to see and hear Jesus
Christ Superstar, aired on the Hungarian channel, during Ceausescu we had had
two hours of television in this country (per se, not such a bad thing, seeing
the effects it has…Bhutan was the last country to bring in television, sometime
in the late eighties maybe, and the result was a drop in the happiness levels)
This is not
about Jesus Christ Superstar apparently, since I went off a tangent long ago,
so let me brag about my tiny contribution to the fall of Ceausescu (by now,
there is probably no one to annoy with these elucubrations) in 1989, when I
went down in the Roman square, with friend Laurentiu, and protested with the
couple of hundred people that had the courage to face the militia (army, or
whatever they were) led by a man who deserves a statue, actor Andrei Finti, but
has been largely forgotten, when he is one of the real, few heroes that we
have, it is not just a local trend, a national defect, because we can now look
at was once the greatest democracy in the world and the abject leaders it
elects.
Biden is
alright, old and a bit confused as he is, but I refer to Trump and the cohort
of mini Trumps that are so ghastly as to seem to exit from horrible comedies,
Marjorie Taylor, that fellow from New York who lied about everything, his
mother being in the twin towers, stole money from charity (but here he has that
monster as model, same old Trump) even pretended to be part of a volleyball
team in an university which he never attended…if you see such figures in a
film, you do not believe it, dismiss the plot and say, come on, you want me to
buy this…in this realm, thousands of liars have taken certificates, ‘proving
that they fought against Ceausescu’, when in fact they have seen it all on
television…
As for me,
this is the link to an article in Newsweek – I met Michael Meyers in December
1989 and then he mentions me in his coverage of the fall of Ceausescu – because
I ended up working for James Wilde from TIME, I called a friend to translate
for Michael Meyers, and the friend is now one of the top fifty richest people
in this country, evidently, not connected with journalism (although, he could
have been a media tycoon, I just realized) he is dominating the food market,
frozen, diary and more http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
JCS makes
me do this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world
luni, 8 mai 2023
duminică, 7 mai 2023
sâmbătă, 6 mai 2023
Beat the Devil by Claud Cockburn, publishing under the pseudonym James Helvick, because in the McCarthy years publishers avoided writers with previous communist activity, and Claud Cockburn had been an agitator - 8 out of 10
Beat the
Devil by Claud Cockburn, publishing under the pseudonym James Helvick, because
in the McCarthy years publishers avoided writers with previous communist
activity, and Claud Cockburn had been an agitator
8 out of 10
Under
normal circumstances, I would avoid at all costs a communist agitator, and
since the writer had been one, Beat the Devil would be on the black list –
anathema, just as it happens in America now, the red states, such as Florida,
which has a mini-Trump at the helm, who wants to be president and thus he
attacks Disney, woke culture and offers red meat to the crowd of cult members
that want MAGA forever, with all the scandal involving porn stars, cheating
charities, using extortion on Zelenski, starting the attack on the Capitol
hill, and singing with the felons that participated in the insurrection, to
name just a few – but I only found about his history after watching the John
Huston and Humphrey Bogart film, which also stars Gina Lollobrigida, Robert
Morley, Peter Lorre and Jennifer Jones
However, we
are living in interesting times – on CNN, they used to have a China
correspondent that quoted in their promos the proverb ‘may you live in interesting
times’, only our greatest philosopher, Constantin Noica has taken down
proverbs, which could proffer so much nonsense, or get the falsehoods
established as wisdom…’appearances deceive’ goes one and that is so far from
the truth, since when you see someone begging on the street, you must not think
Prince and Pauper, fairy tales and a tycoon hiding in rags, it is someone with
issues and problems http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/book-of-wisdom-by-constantin-noica.html and the list is long, continuing with
‘opposites attract’ which is false per se, and if taken as an incentive, it
means so many broken marriages
Think of
Blink – the Power of Thinking Without Thinking http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html by luminary Malcolm Gladwell,
explaining how The Thin Slicing theory works, with the background of millennia
of ‘fight or flight’, and how it operates in fields like medicine, where it saves
lives, war, where it wins battles, if not wars, in art, where you could read
about the Getty museum and the ‘ancient Greek statues’, or the proportion of
very tall CEOs at the top of business and the Harding Effect, which goes back
to a lousy president, nonetheless dozens of times better than Trump
Speaking of
that, Beat the Devil is about scoundrels, that have nothing to show when placed
against the biggest fraud in the world, the one who climbed to the top, to
become the most powerful creature, and the most astounding crook in history…the
characters of Beat The Devil want to get to Africa and take possession of the
uranium deposits that had been so valuable – they still are, one habit of the candidate
for the top job on the planet in 2024 is to keep saying ‘he does not use the N
word, there are two N words one must not use, and one is nuclear’ and he keeps
talking about it, proving continuously how dangerous he is…
Writers can
be awesome as creators and terrible as human beings – the fact that Claud Cockburn
had been a commie agitator is loathsome, and here is a joke to make it not more
palatable, but more jestful –‘who is not a commie when young, has no heart, who
is still a commie when old has no brain’ only heart has nothing to do it, it is
true in both cases, young, old and all ages that to be a commie is gruesome,
and I know it, we lived through it and I risked my life to try and change it in
1989, as this page from the Newsweek covering the events proves it http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
Intellectuals
by Paul Johnson details how great writers have been marvelous when thinking of
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen, and we could name Ernest
Hemingway, Jean-Jacques Rousseau…the latter has abandoned his (were they more
than eight, I wonder) children at the door of the orphanage, in an age when
nine out of ten died in the situation (come to think of it, in his defense,
maybe seven out of eight dies anyway, orphanage or not) http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html
Beat The
Devil has some wonderful quotes, gems – as in The Third Man by Graham Greene ‘In
Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy
and peace, and what did that produce…The cuckoo clock” http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-third-man-by-graham-greene.html - one musing on time ‘the Swiss
manufacture it, the French hoard it, Italians squander it, Americans say it is
money, Hindus say it is nothing, and I say it is a crook’ “Put your hand on a
hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour…Sit with a pretty girl for an
hour, and it seems like a minute…That's relativity’ says Albert Einstein
What is
more, time is an essential component in reaching Peak Experience, Being in The
Zone, as it is detailed, explained in the life-changing Flow http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-this-is.html by the co-founder of Positive
Psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – time is relative when you reach zenith, as
examples – a ballerina that reaches Flow, when on stage, feels her minute there
is like a week or more, whereas the brain surgeon who had been operating asks
for lunch and is told this is already evening now, he has had such an intense
experience in the operating room, ten hours felt like one
Seneca, one
of the greatest thinkers of humanity, a wondrous Stoic, analyzed the life span,
said that we have enough time in our lives, even if most or all complain, it is
just that we treat as an insignificant commodity, we behave as if it is endless
http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/on-leisure-aka-de-otio-by-senecawith.html and this is the problem, when we
say we ‘have some time to kill’, we should instead use the memento mori aka
remember you are mortal, the words whispered in the ear of a Roman dignitary,
so that he could keep a sense of proportion, but useful in trying to use life
and have as much flow as possible
Beat the
Devil made me think of The Screwtape Letters http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-screwtape-letters-by-c-s-lewis-in.html by CS Lewis, albeit there is
nothing – or so little I did not notice it – about the ‘real’ devil, the one
that the Bible or other holy books present…it I a metaphor maybe, the notion
that crooks are inspired by the devil, and their victims should try and Beat
the Devil…I recommend this special technique and if you want the secret, call
me http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world
vineri, 5 mai 2023
joi, 4 mai 2023
Marriage Italian Style based on Filumena Marturano by Eduardo de Filippo http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/marriage-italian-style-based-on-play-by.html - 10 out of 10
Marriage
Italian Style based on Filumena Marturano by Eduardo de Filippo http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/marriage-italian-style-based-on-play-by.html
10 out of
10
Even seen
for the second time, Marriage Italian Style, based on the play Filumena
Marturano by Eduardo de Filippo, provides more than entertainment, unless the
viewer identifies too much with the protagonist, or if he, she or they use too
much of the rigor of Cancel Culture, Woke or other modern censorship rules.
If we see
too much of what is going on in the screen with the lens of personal
experience, it can be a liability, or worse, fun, humor will be replaced by
chagrin, whining and thinking of personal failures, the contemplation of missed
goals
We find
reading in The How of Happiness about
Happiness Activity No 10: Committing to Your Goals-picking one, two or three
significant goals that are meaningful to you and devoting time and effort to
pursue them
Thus, we
have to be careful, and follow the advice http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html and see that one other rule of happiness
is that relationships matter more than other things.
Indeed,
there are tens of thousands of experiments, tests, research and they have
looked at the happiest people on earth, and they do not have massive wealth in
common, but excellent relationships with family and friends.
You could
argue that the protagonists of Filumena Marturano, especially the heroine, and
Domenico Soriano aka Marcello Mastroianni are happy in this continuous conflict
and this is their way to Flow, Peak Experience
About Being
in The Zone, or Peak Experience you have no better guide than Flow by the
co-founder of positive psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-this-is.html
Among the
conditions for reaching a zenith of emotions, experience you have the idea time
becomes relative, or as Albert Einstein explained it so well “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and
it seems like an hour…Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a
minute…That's relativity.”
Other rules
of Flow are challenges meet skills – for instance, when you play tennis with a
much better or worse player, you get bored, because you either do not reach the
returns of the better one, or the opponent is so weak that he or she does not
get to your hits
Filumena
seem to be more at war than infatuated with each other – ‘all is fair in love
and war’ was one stupid saying, and it confirms the error of relying on
proverbs…here is another one ‘appearances deceive’
Malcolm
Gladwell demonstrates in his classic of psychology Blink The Power of Thinking
Without Thinking http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html the ineptness of the proverb
We take
decisions, form opinions in less than one minute, due to The Thin Slicing
Effect, the fact that for millennia humans have had to use the ‘fight or
flight’ instinct to survive, and let us name the experiment in which
participants have been shown the video of less than a minute, after which they
have had to rate a professor, and their evaluations matched those of students
who had spent a semester with the teacher.
In other
words, a semester or less than a minute led to the same conclusions, and then
we have the other research which involved the CEOs of many of the Top 500
Fortune companies, and the revelation that about a third of the leaders were
very tall, and the at that height, they represent a much smaller percentage (I
think it was about ten times less) of the population at large, so this
demonstrates the validity of the principle
It is
called the Harding Effect, from the American president who got elected about
one century ago, because he was tall, had the appearance of someone who could
be a good leader, and he turned out to be one of the worst.
Indeed,
Malcolm Gladwell mentioned him as the worst, there was some debate, Ulysses
Grant had been a candidate for that unfortunate place, but Trump has managed to
beat all expectations, and he is a calamity for any sensible human
At least
this is how I feel, and there is nothing anyone can say to convince me
otherwise, which could prove not just feebleness, but also a sort of obstinacy,
mule like stubbornness that is shameful and embarrassing
Bill Maher
has just had his latest show, in which the New Rules referred to Trump and the
attempt to have him scented for the Stormy Daniels affair – now there is a
small connection with Marriage Italian Style which I have more or less abandoned
from the start – which Maher rejects, but then Maher has been a grumpy, acid,
unlikeable comedian for some time, in my view, putting out with arrogance statements
like ‘I use private jets’
I am surprised
I did not go off on the tangent of my own Marriage Italian Style, the problems
that have made this just a convenience connection, when for financial reasons
there is no legal separation, but in spirit, there is animosity and little, if
anything connecting these two people, however, there is a way out: http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world
Written by
Revolutionary Realini – here is the page from the article in Newsweek that
covered the rebellion that took down Ceausescu, in which I am proud to say that
I played a small (maybe miniscule, microscopic) role http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html
miercuri, 3 mai 2023
marți, 2 mai 2023
luni, 1 mai 2023
Das Leben der Anderen aka The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck – one of the Top Rated Movies, placed at 58, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language, BAFTA, Cesar, a total of eighty awards - 10 out of 10
Das Leben
der Anderen aka The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck – one
of the Top Rated Movies, placed at 58, winner of the Academy Award for Best
Foreign Language, BAFTA, Cesar, a total of eighty awards
10 out of
10
This is
such a magnificent, monumental motion picture that even if the subject is
avoided by this cinephile, it is still an exalting, exuberant experience to watch
it the second time…since I have lived on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain,
art dedicated to communism does not appeal, on the contrary, I skip the oeuvres
that center on it, DDR was paradise, when compared with the Ceausescu regime,
or at least it was thought so.
Let me brag
upfront and give you this link http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html which has the copy of a page from
Newsweek, written by their correspondent, who came to Bucharest to cover the
fall of the Ceausescu regime, a collapse to which I have brought my own, small
contribution, tiny perhaps, but probably the most important act of my life, if
we place it in perspective.
It has not
transformed my own existence – there is pride connected with the presence among
the protesters that faced the retaliation of the repressive regime, on December
21, in the Roman Square, where Andrei Finti was our leader (a hero that has no
statue, though he deserved eternal, massive gratitude) but I must confess that
I have also had regrets connected with the aftermath, and the lack of ‘compensation’
There have
been many fraudsters, hooligans, crooks, scoundrels, fools that have claimed
and received the ‘revolutionary certificate’, and with that a series of
financial and other privileges and benefits, and though I can understand that
it looked so embarrassing, shameful to join this cohort of fakes, and benefit
from a heroic act, still, I would have been one of the very few that deserved
some recognition.
I had not
watched the events unfold on the television screen, as most of the
beneficiaries of the revolution (who had special tax [I think it was no tax in
fact] status, received property, the right to take over commercial space and so
on, reached the heights of economic, social, political life) had done, on the
contrary, I had taken to the streets and faced ‘the music’, potential
catastrophic consequences, and I have nothing material to show for that, except
for that article, and the memories I have of the brave stand
This later
aspect could be the most important, and I should be aware that even with much
more money, there is the Hedonic Adaptation phenomenon, the lottery winners experiment
http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-guide-to-good-life-by-william-irvine.html and it is not cash that makes us so
much happier.
The story
line of The Lives of Others is too familiar, and that was one reason I have
mentioned that I stay away from the communist subject – indeed, there is more
than an adversity for the left wing humans, seeing that we have had the
‘chance’ to live under the left (extreme, but still left) and could see what
atrocities it can cause – with one of the nomenclature falling for a woman he
likes and trying to have her.
A minister
wants the STASI to find dirt on Georg Dreyman (the actor in the role is
wondrous Sebastian Koch) a famous writer, who is intimate with the actress
Christa –Maria Sieland – the actress is the fabulous Martina Gedeck, admired in
another one of the best films in decades http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/one-of-best-films-of-past-decades.html The Baader Meinhof Complex - Christa Maria is the ‘trophy’ that the
apparatchik wants to get in his paws, and for that he is willing to use all his
power, abusing and if need be taking the STASI into the home of the author, to
get the proves of illegal activity
Hauptmann
Gerd Wiesler – portrayed by excellent Ulrich Muhe - is placed in charge of the
spying operation, with microphones placed around the home, agents listening in
and making reports on the sexual acts, conversations, with the goal of finding
the proof of ‘activities against the state’, but without success for quite some
time, for people were aware of the continuous spying, the huge network of collaborators…
Albert
Jerska, a friend of Georg Dreyman, had been blacklisted and since that meant
the end of his productive life, losing the sense of meaning, the artist
committed suicide, DDR being one of the countries with the highest rate – was
it second only to Hungary – and the regime had decided to stop publishing the
numbers…Dreyman and his friends decide to send a letter to Der Spiegel, in the
West, taking huge risks.
This was a
very dangerous stand, it would be the equivalent of treason, and the punishment
would be decades in prison, maybe life, and when they prepare the ground, they
try to test and see if the STASI listens in what happens in the home of the
writer, pretending they plan an escape with the car, at a specific border point
– with the agents spying, they were sure that the car would be stopped, only it
is not.
It is
because Gerd Wiesler is becoming a ‘turncoat’, he moves to the right side, and
instead of reporting to his loathsome superiors, he fabricates reports that
have no mention of the dissidents and their plans (spoiler alert) with the
result that the article that is attacking the policies of the communist state
is smuggled and published, with the secret police trying to find another weak
spot, using the drug addiction of the actress against her
There are
also a couple of jokes, we had versions of those in the countries of the
Eastern Block, with the leader of the local commies talking to…the sun – with
Honecher, the sun salutes, until the end of the day, when he says kiss my ass,
I am in the West now, while our local version had Ceausescu saluted by what he
thought is the sun, playing to his vanity and accepted because of his immense
stupidity, until he gets the answer from the ‘sun’: good day comrade Ceausescu,
my name is Manu, lieutenant Sun has been replaced…