vineri, 3 noiembrie 2023
joi, 2 noiembrie 2023
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.”
miercuri, 1 noiembrie 2023
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.”