This is a dead blog. Please go to www.dynamicinterlineartension.com
Blogger is owned by Google, which has chosen to make it very difficult to take down.
So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google. So fuck you, google.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Monday, March 31, 2014
Saturday, March 29, 2014
How it ends
“Tell me how this ends.”
–David Petraeus, March 2003
How does it end?
The dictator dies, shrivelled and
demented, in his bed;
he flees the rebels in a private
plane;
he is caught hiding in a mountain
outpost,
a drainage pipe,
a spider hole.
He is tried. He is not tried.
He is dragged, bloody and dazed,
through the streets,
then executed.
The humbling comes in myriad forms,
but what is revealed is always the same:
the technologies of paranoia,
the stories of slaughter and fear,
the vaults,
the national economies employed as
personal property,
the crazy pets, the prostitutes, the
golden fixtures.
Instinctively, when dictators are
toppled, we invade their castles
and expose their vanities and
luxuries—
Imelda’s shoes,
the Shah’s jewels.
We loot and desecrate, in order to
cut them finally, futilely, down to size.
After the fall of Baghdad, I visited
the gaudiest of Saddam’s palaces,
examined his tasteless art,
his Cuban cigars,
his private lakes with their
specially bred giant fish,
his self-worshipping bronze effigies.
I saw thirty years’ worth of bodies
in secret graves,
along with those of Iraqis
bound and shot just hours before
liberation.
In Afghanistan, Mullah Omar,
a despot of simpler tastes,
left behind little but plastic
flowers,
a few Land Cruisers with CDs of
Islamic music,
and an unkempt garden where he had
spent hours
petting his favorite cow.
--Jon Lee Anderson November 7, 2011 New Yorker
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Friday, March 7, 2014
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Frank Underwood is Richard III
This is cut and pasted from this site, entire post highly recommended
The Villain We Love to Hate
Watching Shakespeare's character lie, manipulate, and murder his way to the English throne is a lot like watching the Grinch steal Christmas or Sue Sylvester humiliate the Glee Club: we know we're witnessing the actions of an unapologetic villain, but we just can't help but be enthralled and even amused by it.
...
This is partly because he's smart, suave, and politically savvy. He also has quite a sense of humor. It's a sick sense of humor, sure, but it can be pretty compelling. (When the hired murderers promise to make Clarence suffer, Richard quips "I like you lads".) More important, Richard also has a habit of confiding in his audience, making us his confidants. This has the effect of drawing us in and making us complicit in his evil schemes.
...
Richard and the "Vice" Figure Tradition
Richard is considered a throwback to the stock character of "Vice," a common figure in medieval morality plays. The "Vice" character is basically a personification of evil and/or an agent of the devil who spends most of his time trying to corrupt mankind. Vice figures would often address the audience directly and would sometimes run around in the audience heckling people. This character can be a lot of fun but is also pretty one-dimensional. Vice doesn't have any psychological motives – he's just pure, concentrated evil, kind of like a Decepticon Transformer.
Obviously Shakespeare had all of this in mind when he created his villain. Richard is unapologetically wicked and is even accused of being an agent of the devil. ... Richard even refers to himself as a "Vice" when he describes his actions:
Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.
Although Richard definitely has some roots in the Vice tradition, his character is a lot more complex than the flat, stock figure from the old morality plays. Whereas Vice figures have no psychological motives, we can argue that Richard does. In his opening speech, he tells us that he's aware of his physical deformities and feels insecure, inadequate, and isolated. In other words, Richard's got psychological depth from the very beginning of the play.
P.S. Shakespeare's character Iago (Othello) also has some roots in the old Vice figure tradition.
Watching Shakespeare's character lie, manipulate, and murder his way to the English throne is a lot like watching the Grinch steal Christmas or Sue Sylvester humiliate the Glee Club: we know we're witnessing the actions of an unapologetic villain, but we just can't help but be enthralled and even amused by it.
...
This is partly because he's smart, suave, and politically savvy. He also has quite a sense of humor. It's a sick sense of humor, sure, but it can be pretty compelling. (When the hired murderers promise to make Clarence suffer, Richard quips "I like you lads".) More important, Richard also has a habit of confiding in his audience, making us his confidants. This has the effect of drawing us in and making us complicit in his evil schemes.
...
Richard and the "Vice" Figure Tradition
Richard is considered a throwback to the stock character of "Vice," a common figure in medieval morality plays. The "Vice" character is basically a personification of evil and/or an agent of the devil who spends most of his time trying to corrupt mankind. Vice figures would often address the audience directly and would sometimes run around in the audience heckling people. This character can be a lot of fun but is also pretty one-dimensional. Vice doesn't have any psychological motives – he's just pure, concentrated evil, kind of like a Decepticon Transformer.
Obviously Shakespeare had all of this in mind when he created his villain. Richard is unapologetically wicked and is even accused of being an agent of the devil. ... Richard even refers to himself as a "Vice" when he describes his actions:
Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.
Although Richard definitely has some roots in the Vice tradition, his character is a lot more complex than the flat, stock figure from the old morality plays. Whereas Vice figures have no psychological motives, we can argue that Richard does. In his opening speech, he tells us that he's aware of his physical deformities and feels insecure, inadequate, and isolated. In other words, Richard's got psychological depth from the very beginning of the play.
P.S. Shakespeare's character Iago (Othello) also has some roots in the old Vice figure tradition.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Quote for the day
More than rich, more than famous, more than happy – I wanted to be great.
Bruce Springsteen
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Acts
I've been reading Acts of the Apostles. I read somewhere that
this is the only source on the first 50 or so years of the Jesus Movement. I
use that term because the book itself marks the time and spot where the term “Christian” was
coined. Antioch or Corinth, I forget.
One thing I notice is that they take a lot of boats. Every
episode begins with someone making landfall, doing stuff, then taking passage
someplace else, sometimes one step ahead of an angry mob. These were merchant vessels, of course. I wonder what they were
like and what the travel times were. I always wondered where these guys got enough money to
support all this travel. I think I figured that out.
The book begins pretty much the day after the Resurrection.
In this telling, the Jews killed Jesus. Pilate found no fault in him, after all. Jesus
does not do much. he hangs out being Risen and therefore the Messiah, but there
are no memorable parables or confrontations. Throughout the book the main point
the Jesus people make is “He rose from the dead so he is the Messiah”. That’s
the pitch. And they say over and over that he revealed himself to Mankind; Mankind being, well, his followers. They make no claim
that anyone outside the movement ever witnessed the risen Jesus.
Now, I have always wondered about the healing ministry of Jesus.
That term healing ministry is one I got from a documentary about evangelical
faith healers in the US in the 20th century, “Marjoe”. And, like
Oral Roberts and the early Billy Graham and legions of “put you hand on the
radio” tinhorn preachers, Jesus was a faith healer. Assuming Jesus existed, its
seems the most likely explanation for his after-crucifixion popularity was that
he was a really good preacher. These days, by which I mean the last 500 years or so, not a lot is made
of Jesus' career as a faith healer, beyond a couple of the more
impressive miracles, which are treated as anecdotes.
In the first sections of Acts, we follow Jesus’ protegee,
Peter, for a while, and it is plain that Peter has taken over the ministry. He
goes around healing people, including raising one person from the dead. Always,
just as the faith healers in the modern era, saying he has no special power, it
is in Jesus name that people are healed. The healings got Peter big crowds to
whom he could deliver the Big Message: Jesus rose, so he is the Messiah and by
believing in Jesus your sins can be forgiven, all of this was foretold in
scripture, there is an afterlife, and these are the end times. Better get right
with God, time is running out.
Entirely absent from the book is any component of Jesus'
message: nothing about not casting the first stone, loving enemies, accepting
sinners, turning the other cheek, visiting the imprisoned, the
meek/mourning/poor in spirit/peacemakers
inheriting anything, or any of the stuff that by my lights make the New
Testament worth reading. No virgin birth, no voices from the sky proclaiming
fatherhood. No glowing doves. Nothing against money changers, for sure.
I think a likely explanation for this is that Acts is the last book of the Bible, but was the first New Testament book to be actually written down. The propagandists had not yet made up all those stories about Jesus. Or maybe more precisely, had not yet re-purposed Greek, Roman and Egyptian legends that were already floating around to the Jesus movement. Also there are a lot of explicit references to prophecy in the New Testament. For example, Jesus riding an ass into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, refers back to Zechariah 9:9, saith the internet. Much of the action between the Apostles and the various Jewish communities in Acts involves the Apostles wanting to sit down with the scholars and prove their case for Jesus by reference to prophetic scripture. Again, just like evangelists to the present day. Jesus was of the house of David, as foretold, and so on. For the most part they failed to convince the rabbis, and the book is pretty harsh to the Jews as a result. Acts is not all that specific about the references, and the NT fixes this in a way that remained, it seems, unconvincing to the rabbis.
I think a likely explanation for this is that Acts is the last book of the Bible, but was the first New Testament book to be actually written down. The propagandists had not yet made up all those stories about Jesus. Or maybe more precisely, had not yet re-purposed Greek, Roman and Egyptian legends that were already floating around to the Jesus movement. Also there are a lot of explicit references to prophecy in the New Testament. For example, Jesus riding an ass into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, refers back to Zechariah 9:9, saith the internet. Much of the action between the Apostles and the various Jewish communities in Acts involves the Apostles wanting to sit down with the scholars and prove their case for Jesus by reference to prophetic scripture. Again, just like evangelists to the present day. Jesus was of the house of David, as foretold, and so on. For the most part they failed to convince the rabbis, and the book is pretty harsh to the Jews as a result. Acts is not all that specific about the references, and the NT fixes this in a way that remained, it seems, unconvincing to the rabbis.
The financing of the Jesus movement is well explained, as it
was not in the New Testament. The arrangement was: you get converted,
you sell everything you have and lay it at the feet of the apostles (they use
that phrase repeatedly) and you join the commune. Not that different from the Rajneeshees.
And it makes sense, because Jesus, the Messiah, will be right back, he is just giving
the Jews time to get their shit together. The end is near so we do not need
land and possessions or money. There is one incident where a particular couple, Ananias and Sapphira,
sold everything, but held some back for themselves when they went to lay it at
Peter’s feet. Peter gave them a hard stare and they dropped dead on the spot, first one and then later the other.
The Death of Ananias, by Raphael
No
indication that he asked himself, “What would Jesus do?” Except, probably he did think about that. Given
that this is how the ministry was conducted right off the bat, it seems likely that this was the blueprint created by Jesus before his death. If Jesus was Billy Graham, Peter was Jim Jones.
The worship services were very tent revival type affairs.
The samples of Peter and Paul's oratory are pretty well crafted, and one can just about hear the evangelical cadences ("Ju-ee-zus sa-yez..ah!"). The Holy Spirit would come upon the people, they would be swept up in ecstatic prayer,
they would roll about speaking in tongues. Lots of complaints from the
neighbors, especially among the Jews. The Gentiles ate it up. Women
were plainly full participants in the services, not very Jewish, but very Roman.
So, whether the apostles were honest believers or not, they
conducted themselves pretty much exactly like the shitheels of today who bilk
vulnerable people out of their life savings with nutty, emotional religious
appeals. As proof here is an incontrovertible fact: the world did not end.
Absent also from Acts is the suggestion that Jesus was God. Makes
sense, the traditional notion of the Messiah was never that he would be God
incarnate, I don’t think. The Holy Spirit makes many appearances, but is never
referred to as a deity, or even necessarily as a specific actor like, say, a
particular archangel. As I read it the term is more like the Irish “craic”, the good energy generated by the
people in the room. The early Christians had very good craic.
Jesus was, according to Acts the Son of God, but he was not God, the Son. The dominant religion of the day, paganism, had lots and lots of sons of gods, so that was anything but a tough sell. Here's a list.
Jesus was, according to Acts the Son of God, but he was not God, the Son. The dominant religion of the day, paganism, had lots and lots of sons of gods, so that was anything but a tough sell. Here's a list.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Present Bias
From Planet Money
Given a choice between $50 now and $100 in a month, many people would take the money
now. But offered $50 in a year, or $100 in 13 months, they'd wait the extra month to double
their money.
Another example from This Wikipedia page
In the experiment, subjects of the study were offered free rentals of movies which were classified into two categories - "lowbrow" (e.g. The Breakfast Club) and "highbrow" (e.g. Schindler's List) - and researchers analyzed patterns of choices made. In the absence of dynamic inconsistency, the choice would be expected to be the same regardless of the delay between the decision date and the consumption date. In practice, however, the outcome was different. When subjects had to choose a movie to watch immediately, the choice was consistently lowbrow for the majority of the subjects. But when they were asked to pick a movie to be watched at later date, highbrow movies were chosen far more often. Among movies picked four or more days in advance, over 70% were highbrow.[3]
Given a choice between $50 now and $100 in a month, many people would take the money
now. But offered $50 in a year, or $100 in 13 months, they'd wait the extra month to double
their money.
Another example from This Wikipedia page
In the experiment, subjects of the study were offered free rentals of movies which were classified into two categories - "lowbrow" (e.g. The Breakfast Club) and "highbrow" (e.g. Schindler's List) - and researchers analyzed patterns of choices made. In the absence of dynamic inconsistency, the choice would be expected to be the same regardless of the delay between the decision date and the consumption date. In practice, however, the outcome was different. When subjects had to choose a movie to watch immediately, the choice was consistently lowbrow for the majority of the subjects. But when they were asked to pick a movie to be watched at later date, highbrow movies were chosen far more often. Among movies picked four or more days in advance, over 70% were highbrow.[3]
Sunday, August 12, 2012
First Samuel Chapter 8
10 And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.
11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.
19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;
20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the Lord.
22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Sinica
This is my favorite new podcast. Podcast URL is http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica. Blog site is at http://popupchinese.com/lessons/sinica
I first heard of this via This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/467/americans-in-china) wherein the main Sinica guy, named Kaiser something, was extensively interviewed about being an expat living in China for many many years. Kaiser is joined by two or three other very smart, very engaging vernacular English speakers who know China and Chinese extremely well. They are the young, smart, into-their-thing, well educated ones who write scholarly articles and occasionally get stories into the Guardian or Wall Street Journal. They go over the big news stories in China and then focus in on two or three of them, I am pretty sure beer is present. Or they do a historical retrospective on some aspect of Chinese history. My favorite dialog from the current episode, in a discussion of the Manchus (all quotes approximate):
"I don't really know what Manchu [language] sounds like"
"It sounds a lot like Romulan to me"
"You are such a nerd"
"Right, I'm the guy on a podcast talking about the Manchu dialect, what was your first clue?"
When I say big news stories in China, I mean big to the Chinese, not to us. I did not know that Peking recently had major flooding and 34 people died, nor that the Ming Dynasty waterworks held up just fine, but the stuff from the 20th Century pretty much collapsed, nor that this prompted widespread speculation about why the Mayor of Peking's resignation was announced (deep, hall of mirrors Chinese government stuff here). Nor did I know that their health care system sucks. The docs and nurses are very poorly paid and demand bribes for every little thing, you have to buy an appointment from a ticket scalper and patients get treated like shit. The story was deemed important on the "if it bleeds it leads" (they used this very phrase) basis that there is an outbreak of enraged patients murdering doctors, Chinese going postal.
Its not all as big a downer as these stories suggest, especially since they were treated with great sympathy toward both the regular people and for the problems of being a government for such a huuuuuggge number of people. Also, they have a good sense of humor.
I first heard of this via This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/467/americans-in-china) wherein the main Sinica guy, named Kaiser something, was extensively interviewed about being an expat living in China for many many years. Kaiser is joined by two or three other very smart, very engaging vernacular English speakers who know China and Chinese extremely well. They are the young, smart, into-their-thing, well educated ones who write scholarly articles and occasionally get stories into the Guardian or Wall Street Journal. They go over the big news stories in China and then focus in on two or three of them, I am pretty sure beer is present. Or they do a historical retrospective on some aspect of Chinese history. My favorite dialog from the current episode, in a discussion of the Manchus (all quotes approximate):
"I don't really know what Manchu [language] sounds like"
"It sounds a lot like Romulan to me"
"You are such a nerd"
"Right, I'm the guy on a podcast talking about the Manchu dialect, what was your first clue?"
When I say big news stories in China, I mean big to the Chinese, not to us. I did not know that Peking recently had major flooding and 34 people died, nor that the Ming Dynasty waterworks held up just fine, but the stuff from the 20th Century pretty much collapsed, nor that this prompted widespread speculation about why the Mayor of Peking's resignation was announced (deep, hall of mirrors Chinese government stuff here). Nor did I know that their health care system sucks. The docs and nurses are very poorly paid and demand bribes for every little thing, you have to buy an appointment from a ticket scalper and patients get treated like shit. The story was deemed important on the "if it bleeds it leads" (they used this very phrase) basis that there is an outbreak of enraged patients murdering doctors, Chinese going postal.
Its not all as big a downer as these stories suggest, especially since they were treated with great sympathy toward both the regular people and for the problems of being a government for such a huuuuuggge number of people. Also, they have a good sense of humor.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Gerald Emil Kosh
This is a true footnote character from history. I'm reading google news and there is a story about a potential war between China and other countries over ownership of the ecologically sensitive, oil-rich South China Sea and it mentions a battle between South Vietnam and China in 1974, just after the US had cut and run from Vietnam but before the North won the war. Thats interesting, so I look it up on Wikipedia, and there is Gerald Emil Kosh. That is an unusual name so I was able to track down a lot of weird stuff. Kissinger talked to the Chinese, the government later denied he was an employee, his military record is listed ambiguously. He went on to live a quiet life, and this incident was not mentioned in his obit. His name got tossed out to Obama by a South Vietnamese dead-ender waving the bloody shirt. To this day he is on E-bay and possibly Facebook.
The Battle of the Paracel Islands was a military engagement
fought between the naval forces of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the
Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in the Paracel Islands on January 19, 1974.
A potential diplomatic crisis was averted when China quietly
released an American prisoner taken during the battle. Gerald Emil Kosh, 27, was a former US Army
captain captured with the Vietnamese on Pattle Island. He was described as a
“regional liaison officer” for the US Embassy, Saigon, on assignment with the
South Vietnamese Navy. China released him from custody on January 31 without
comment. Kosh is sometimes described as having been a civilian employee of the
Pentagon at this time.[10] He died around 2002 at the age of
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976 Volume
XVIII, China, 1973–1976, Document 66. Memorandum of Conversation1
Washington, January 23, 1974, 6:15–6:45 p.m.
[Secretary
Kissinger]… there are only two points I
wanted to make with respect to the Paracel Islands issue.2 The South Vietnamese government is making a
number of representations to international organizations, to SEATO as well as
to the United Nations. We wanted to let you know we do not associate ourselves
with those representations. We are concerned, however, about the prisoners, and
we noted that your government has indicated that the prisoners will be released
at an appropriate time. We wanted to urge that this appropriate time be very
soon, especially as there is an American included in that group. And that would
certainly defuse the situation as far as the United States is concerned. That's
really all I wanted to say about that issue.
(To
Mr. Hummel) Or is there more, Art?
Mr.
Hummel: For domestic political reasons we would like to say that we have been
in touch about this American.
…
Ambassador Han [of the PRC]: …As for when the prisoners will be released, our statement said that at an appropriate time they will be released. It was the Foreign Ministry statement.
But as a personal observation, I would just like to express surprise that there should be an American citizen at that particular area at that particular time.
.....
Ambassador Han: With regard to Mr. Hummel's suggestion whether to publicize this to the media would this be quickly, right away?
The Secretary [Kissinger]: We can wait. What do you want? You report to Peking. Not having said anything up to now, we can survive another 24 hours. We can take the heat. We will give it until Friday morning,3 but the more quickly you can let us know, the better. Eventually, we will have to say that we have talked to you.
Ambassador Han: After we have reported to the government, we will see what the reply is.
Mr. Hummel: All we have in mind is to say that we have talked, not to make the other points that the Secretary raised.
The Secretary: We will wait until Friday. We can give you until Friday a.m. to see whether you get an answer. We have been accused of so many things, we can be accused of neglecting an American interest for a day.
Lawrence Journal-World - Jan 29, 1974
http://haichienhoangsa.freetzi.com/timGeraldKosh.htm
B Company 3/12 4th Infantry
Gerald Emil Kosh, 56, died Sunday.
He was born Oct. 25, 1946, in Philadelphia. An Army veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a journeyman wireman, a 17-year resident of Las Vegas and a member of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357.
He is survived by his wife, Susan; daughter, Jennifer; and son, Jonathan, all of Las Vegas; brother, Gabe of Blue Bell, Pa.; and sister, Arlene McElree of Lafayette Hill, Pa.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. today at Palm Mortuary-Eastern, with services at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Anne's Catholic Church. Graveside services will follow at noon at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
http://vuhuyduc.blogspot.com/2011/01/me-nam-letter-to-president-of-united.html
January 14, 2011
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We are writing to ask
you to halt or postpone the welcoming ceremony and the state dinner for the
People's Republic of China ("PRC") president Hu Jintao on January 19,
2011 during his visit to the United States.
January 19 is the anniversary of the Chinese invasion of the
Paracel Islands which had belonged to the Republic of Vietnam, an ally of the
United States then. After the fall of
Saigon, China established control over the Paracel Islands.
……………….
Please do not forget the fact that on January 19, 1974,
Chinese forces had also captured an American, Captain Gerald Emil Kosh, during
the battle for the Paracel Islands.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
The End
So there we go, 54 movies. Probably my favorite SIFF ever. The Uptown is a terrific venue, and we saw about 90% of our movies there. There is a long list of movies I wish I’d seen. The last movie was 3 days ago, and I am still recovering.
Shorts
We saw three collections of shorts, which I am counting as 3 movies. Most of them were great, vey much worth seeing. Alas, I was the least impressed with the Best of the Shorts collection SIFF put together.
I always wonder, what are shorts for? Other than at Acadamy Award time we never think about them. They do not get shown in commercial theaters. And why not? I know not. Its too bad.
I always wonder, what are shorts for? Other than at Acadamy Award time we never think about them. They do not get shown in commercial theaters. And why not? I know not. Its too bad.
The Most Fun I've Ever Had With My Pants On
USA. Meh
The writer/director/star of the movie is beautiful, and a main theme of the movie is: I am such a babe. The other theme is: even a babe like me has problems. The stupid title of the movie is pretty much a non sequitur, and I strongly suspect it was the product of a youthful vow to make a movie with that name.
The writer/director/star of the movie is beautiful, and a main theme of the movie is: I am such a babe. The other theme is: even a babe like me has problems. The stupid title of the movie is pretty much a non sequitur, and I strongly suspect it was the product of a youthful vow to make a movie with that name.
Wuthering Heights
UK.
I do not think this story can be spoiled at this point. England was a complete bummer in this movie. It is one of those movies that uses viscous film stock, shots with a lot of closeups and sparse story telling to create atmospheric and poetic, aka vague and unpleasant, stroytelling. We left early.
I do not think this story can be spoiled at this point. England was a complete bummer in this movie. It is one of those movies that uses viscous film stock, shots with a lot of closeups and sparse story telling to create atmospheric and poetic, aka vague and unpleasant, stroytelling. We left early.
Easton’s Article
USA. Meh.
Time warp type sci-fi movie. The movie does a decent job of telling the story of a guy having to deal with his shit whether he likes it or not in order to solve the central problem of the movie. So in order to deal with the future, he has to deal with the past. Clever premise, that is never really articulated and in that light it has a perfect ending. But its just an OK movie overall, and also suffers from including a particular cheat that time warp movies sometimes use (Terminator, just for one) that was not at all necessary.
Time warp type sci-fi movie. The movie does a decent job of telling the story of a guy having to deal with his shit whether he likes it or not in order to solve the central problem of the movie. So in order to deal with the future, he has to deal with the past. Clever premise, that is never really articulated and in that light it has a perfect ending. But its just an OK movie overall, and also suffers from including a particular cheat that time warp movies sometimes use (Terminator, just for one) that was not at all necessary.
The Mirror Never Lies
The Mirror Never Lies
Indonesia. Highly recommended..
Set among subsistence fishers who live in houses built on poles in the water on shallow reefs. Indonesia is made out of 17,000 plus islands. Some amazing and beautiful underwater photography. Mostly non-professional actors who actually live in this place. These people live in the water. Little tiny kids running about on 2x8 planks with no rails no sun screen and no helmet, and jumping into boats with no life preservers, and I doubt that they are properly hydrated. So, pretty depraved, but for all of that it looks very cool.
Indonesia. Highly recommended..
Set among subsistence fishers who live in houses built on poles in the water on shallow reefs. Indonesia is made out of 17,000 plus islands. Some amazing and beautiful underwater photography. Mostly non-professional actors who actually live in this place. These people live in the water. Little tiny kids running about on 2x8 planks with no rails no sun screen and no helmet, and jumping into boats with no life preservers, and I doubt that they are properly hydrated. So, pretty depraved, but for all of that it looks very cool.
Nosilatiaj.Beauty
Nosilatiaj.Beauty
Argentina. Worth seeing
Set among what look to me like middle-middle class Europeans and their servants. On several levels it resembles my image of Southern California, only no one is that rich. The message I got from this is that it sucks to be indigenous and poor in Argentina, and indeed the titular Beauty does not appear to be enjoying herself much, mainly because she is treated like a family member it is OK to be crappy to. The story is driven by the preparations for the Quinceañera of the daughter of the household. So everyone is stressed out, displaying their real disposition. The movie is much better than the above probably suggests.
Argentina. Worth seeing
Set among what look to me like middle-middle class Europeans and their servants. On several levels it resembles my image of Southern California, only no one is that rich. The message I got from this is that it sucks to be indigenous and poor in Argentina, and indeed the titular Beauty does not appear to be enjoying herself much, mainly because she is treated like a family member it is OK to be crappy to. The story is driven by the preparations for the Quinceañera of the daughter of the household. So everyone is stressed out, displaying their real disposition. The movie is much better than the above probably suggests.
Thursday, June 7, 2012
419
USA. Recommended\
First off, there is a guy in this movie who looks, sounds and acts, but especially looks, uncannily like my nephew, Steve. I never got used to it. So, O’Briens will have a different experience of this movie.
The MacGuffin of this movie is whether it’s a real documentary or a fiction movie. No position is taken at any point by the film maker. Three manly young white guys (like Steve!) Go on an adventure, despite their girlfriends misgivings, with highly dramatic results. Interviews with the principles, and with expert types is interspersed with the documentary footage, much of it filmed in South Africa. Every one is totally likable (Steve, again) and the story is well told. And the question of whether it is real or not gives it good flavor.
First off, there is a guy in this movie who looks, sounds and acts, but especially looks, uncannily like my nephew, Steve. I never got used to it. So, O’Briens will have a different experience of this movie.
The MacGuffin of this movie is whether it’s a real documentary or a fiction movie. No position is taken at any point by the film maker. Three manly young white guys (like Steve!) Go on an adventure, despite their girlfriends misgivings, with highly dramatic results. Interviews with the principles, and with expert types is interspersed with the documentary footage, much of it filmed in South Africa. Every one is totally likable (Steve, again) and the story is well told. And the question of whether it is real or not gives it good flavor.
Simon and the Oaks
Sweden. Must see.
Beautiful movie, in every sense. Marion’s favorite movie so far. Very high production values. The storytelling is deep and satisfying and there is not a false note to be found. Set during WWII and its aftermath in Sweden. In return for a certain amount of kowtowing to the Germans - in the form of ball bearings, rail lines and such - Sweden wasn’t invaded and their Jews were mostly not murdered. So the people in the movie got through the war as well as anyone in Europe. Of course, no one living in Europe got through the war all that well. The older I get the more cannibalistic it seems to me. How people could have destroyed themselves and their culture so thoroughly is harder and harder to comprehend. There is a lot of high culture in the form of classical music, and university life in the movie. I really do not know if it was the film makers intent is to contrast this with the satanic forces abroad in the world, but that’s what I got from it.
Beautiful movie, in every sense. Marion’s favorite movie so far. Very high production values. The storytelling is deep and satisfying and there is not a false note to be found. Set during WWII and its aftermath in Sweden. In return for a certain amount of kowtowing to the Germans - in the form of ball bearings, rail lines and such - Sweden wasn’t invaded and their Jews were mostly not murdered. So the people in the movie got through the war as well as anyone in Europe. Of course, no one living in Europe got through the war all that well. The older I get the more cannibalistic it seems to me. How people could have destroyed themselves and their culture so thoroughly is harder and harder to comprehend. There is a lot of high culture in the form of classical music, and university life in the movie. I really do not know if it was the film makers intent is to contrast this with the satanic forces abroad in the world, but that’s what I got from it.
Winter Nomads
Switzerland. Highly recommended
This is one of those times I was glad not to know a thing about the movie going in. Marion picked that day. From the title and a glance at the poster, I thought it was going to be one of those great movies about, like, yak herders in Mongolia. (Actually. I’ve seen some pretty good Mongolian movies that feature yaks, but not this year.) Anyway, it turns out to be a documentary is set in modern day Switzerland and documents some shepherds doing what they call a “transhumance” which good old Wikipedia says is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In this case it’s a couple of great looking people who really are real shepherds. They take a flock of 800 sheep around the Swiss countryside to fatten them up on fallow fields. For 4 months during winter, for real. They have great clothes. They have cool dogs. For most of the time, at least when there are no cars around, there is something eternal about this, it has to be something people have been doing for several thousand years, and there are not a lot of new ways to herd sheep. Its in Switzerland, but everyone speaks French. By the way, bell-wether is a sheep herding term. They put a bell on a wether, which is a castrated ram, and teach the to lead the flock, and also can find the flock in the dark or in fog. And the ram gets to live.
This is one of those times I was glad not to know a thing about the movie going in. Marion picked that day. From the title and a glance at the poster, I thought it was going to be one of those great movies about, like, yak herders in Mongolia. (Actually. I’ve seen some pretty good Mongolian movies that feature yaks, but not this year.) Anyway, it turns out to be a documentary is set in modern day Switzerland and documents some shepherds doing what they call a “transhumance” which good old Wikipedia says is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In this case it’s a couple of great looking people who really are real shepherds. They take a flock of 800 sheep around the Swiss countryside to fatten them up on fallow fields. For 4 months during winter, for real. They have great clothes. They have cool dogs. For most of the time, at least when there are no cars around, there is something eternal about this, it has to be something people have been doing for several thousand years, and there are not a lot of new ways to herd sheep. Its in Switzerland, but everyone speaks French. By the way, bell-wether is a sheep herding term. They put a bell on a wether, which is a castrated ram, and teach the to lead the flock, and also can find the flock in the dark or in fog. And the ram gets to live.
Policeman
Israel. Feh
I’ve mentioned a couple of times that a lot of movies give the impression that you have to be a member of that culture to really get what is going on. Sometimes one row in an audience will be convulsed at things everyone else just chuckles at. This might be such a movie, except there are not many chuckles. Its set in Israel among Jewish middle and upper class Israelis, largely SWAT type cops. I suspect there is a bit of caricature going on, these guys are testosterone donor types who mostly hug and grunt at one another, in a brotherly way. This is not played for laughs that I can tell, and this is not a funny movie at all. Theirs is only part of the story, such as it is. The rest has to do with some privileged and messed up kids. The two groups encounter one another in the third act.
Not to be cute but one of the things I like about cop movies is the great gear and cool clothes. Here is a website cops use to order gear. I love this website 511 Tactical, and recommend the Stryke Pant with Flex-tac.
I’ve mentioned a couple of times that a lot of movies give the impression that you have to be a member of that culture to really get what is going on. Sometimes one row in an audience will be convulsed at things everyone else just chuckles at. This might be such a movie, except there are not many chuckles. Its set in Israel among Jewish middle and upper class Israelis, largely SWAT type cops. I suspect there is a bit of caricature going on, these guys are testosterone donor types who mostly hug and grunt at one another, in a brotherly way. This is not played for laughs that I can tell, and this is not a funny movie at all. Theirs is only part of the story, such as it is. The rest has to do with some privileged and messed up kids. The two groups encounter one another in the third act.
Not to be cute but one of the things I like about cop movies is the great gear and cool clothes. Here is a website cops use to order gear. I love this website 511 Tactical, and recommend the Stryke Pant with Flex-tac.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
The Monk
French. Recommended
This movie really brought me back to my childhood in the 17th Century. I was raised Catholic in the pre-Vatican II days, and this movie depicts the very religion I grew up with. The candles and the incense and the robes and the crucifixes and confession and strange unexplained rituals and the really weird statutes of saints and the Marianolatry and the demeaning of women. And the harshness. You are either good or horribly, horribly bad, and you are not good. You need to repent of everything you do except for actual praying. Satan really truly exists, is out to get you and God is entirely willing, you know, maybe kinda wants, to have you suffer in the most horrible way imaginable forever. There is a scene that includes a procession of nuns and I promise they were dressed exactly, exactly, like the Dominicans who taught me all the crazy shit they used to teach in those days. The always reliable 17th century stuff. It is Set in Spain, where the Jesuits started, although they are not in the movie. This would be at least 100 years after the Inquisition, so none of that stuff is in the film.
Really brought me back and with no irony I say: in a good way. The movie was so well done. Its about very devout people doing their very devout thing and the titular Monk’s struggles with his demons. The color commentary above is not the real subject of the movie. The movie is about good vs. evil. Also about love. Great ending.
This movie really brought me back to my childhood in the 17th Century. I was raised Catholic in the pre-Vatican II days, and this movie depicts the very religion I grew up with. The candles and the incense and the robes and the crucifixes and confession and strange unexplained rituals and the really weird statutes of saints and the Marianolatry and the demeaning of women. And the harshness. You are either good or horribly, horribly bad, and you are not good. You need to repent of everything you do except for actual praying. Satan really truly exists, is out to get you and God is entirely willing, you know, maybe kinda wants, to have you suffer in the most horrible way imaginable forever. There is a scene that includes a procession of nuns and I promise they were dressed exactly, exactly, like the Dominicans who taught me all the crazy shit they used to teach in those days. The always reliable 17th century stuff. It is Set in Spain, where the Jesuits started, although they are not in the movie. This would be at least 100 years after the Inquisition, so none of that stuff is in the film.
Really brought me back and with no irony I say: in a good way. The movie was so well done. Its about very devout people doing their very devout thing and the titular Monk’s struggles with his demons. The color commentary above is not the real subject of the movie. The movie is about good vs. evil. Also about love. Great ending.
Joan and the Voices
Armenia. SIFF owes me a movie.
I looked it up, and according to Wikipedia, “A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images”. This...thing thus qualifies by a technicality as a movie. It has no story, plot, apparent reason for existing, and conveys no meaning, but it is a series of moving images projected on a screen. There is also sound, although little that conveys information. However, it is the opposite of Hitchcock's definition of a movie, real life without the boring parts. For the life of me, I do not understand why this movie was made, or why it was selected. I sat through the whole thing in part because I had nothing else to do and in part out of incredulity. Toward the end I became worried that they would ruin the perverse anti-perfection of the thing by putting something meaningful on the screen. They came close, there were a number of scenes of regular looking people in real seeming places having heartfelt conversations, but they did not include the dialog, just some discordant music, so crisis averted. It has to be seen to be believed, but then you would have to see it. Most misleading SIFF guide blurb ever.
http://visiblecontents.blogspot.com/
I looked it up, and according to Wikipedia, “A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images”. This...thing thus qualifies by a technicality as a movie. It has no story, plot, apparent reason for existing, and conveys no meaning, but it is a series of moving images projected on a screen. There is also sound, although little that conveys information. However, it is the opposite of Hitchcock's definition of a movie, real life without the boring parts. For the life of me, I do not understand why this movie was made, or why it was selected. I sat through the whole thing in part because I had nothing else to do and in part out of incredulity. Toward the end I became worried that they would ruin the perverse anti-perfection of the thing by putting something meaningful on the screen. They came close, there were a number of scenes of regular looking people in real seeming places having heartfelt conversations, but they did not include the dialog, just some discordant music, so crisis averted. It has to be seen to be believed, but then you would have to see it. Most misleading SIFF guide blurb ever.
http://visiblecontents.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 4, 2012
People Like Us
USA. Highly recommended
The best kind of American movie. Very polished, exceptionally good writing, exceptional performances by major talent, very well crafted story with some great lines and a wow finish. I laughed, I cried I was the perfect cliche of an appreciative audience member.
The director has worked on Big Movies that made a ton of money for the studios, and they rewarded him by funding a Small Movie and letting him do as he pleased It worked out pretty well. More, please. It is hard to imagine this will not get a wide release and do well and win awards. The question is, why are they bothering with the festivals? There was a Hollywood style movie last year with an all star cast giving what I think are their best ever performances, which the audience loved, and I really loved, called Salvation Row. It sank like a rock, never heard of it again. There was another movie that I despised with big stars and a name director called Burke and Hare ( again, I spit on you, John Landis). Everyone but me loved it, looooved it. Never heard from. I have no idea why this happens. Must be awfully frustrating for the people involved.
The best kind of American movie. Very polished, exceptionally good writing, exceptional performances by major talent, very well crafted story with some great lines and a wow finish. I laughed, I cried I was the perfect cliche of an appreciative audience member.
The director has worked on Big Movies that made a ton of money for the studios, and they rewarded him by funding a Small Movie and letting him do as he pleased It worked out pretty well. More, please. It is hard to imagine this will not get a wide release and do well and win awards. The question is, why are they bothering with the festivals? There was a Hollywood style movie last year with an all star cast giving what I think are their best ever performances, which the audience loved, and I really loved, called Salvation Row. It sank like a rock, never heard of it again. There was another movie that I despised with big stars and a name director called Burke and Hare ( again, I spit on you, John Landis). Everyone but me loved it, looooved it. Never heard from. I have no idea why this happens. Must be awfully frustrating for the people involved.
The Last Friday
Jordan.
I have decided that when the SIFF blurbs say a film is a “black comedy” that often means it isn’t very funny. This is a slice of life in a completely different country, and worth seeing for that. We do not get a lot of Jordanian movies, even at SIFF. It is often a little disorienting when there are large veins of un-differentness in different cultures. Everyone has a cell phone, there are vapid rich kids driving Range Rovers, stuff like that. It may well be that when I think a movie is slow moving, it is just at the same pace as that place.
I have decided that when the SIFF blurbs say a film is a “black comedy” that often means it isn’t very funny. This is a slice of life in a completely different country, and worth seeing for that. We do not get a lot of Jordanian movies, even at SIFF. It is often a little disorienting when there are large veins of un-differentness in different cultures. Everyone has a cell phone, there are vapid rich kids driving Range Rovers, stuff like that. It may well be that when I think a movie is slow moving, it is just at the same pace as that place.
The Blindfold
Indonesia.
This is more of a docu-drama or crime re-enactment type movie than a movie type movie. There are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country, over 200 million, mostly Sunni. It seems there are extremist cults that do a lot of the things extremist cults of other religious do, and worse. This movie was undoubtedly intended for the youth audience in Indonesia, as a warning not to fall for this stuff, so good for them, really. The subtitles were obviously generated by a non-English speaker. The reason to see this movie is as a cultural artifact.
This is more of a docu-drama or crime re-enactment type movie than a movie type movie. There are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country, over 200 million, mostly Sunni. It seems there are extremist cults that do a lot of the things extremist cults of other religious do, and worse. This movie was undoubtedly intended for the youth audience in Indonesia, as a warning not to fall for this stuff, so good for them, really. The subtitles were obviously generated by a non-English speaker. The reason to see this movie is as a cultural artifact.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Silence: All Roads Lead to Music.
Italy. Highly recommended
Lots of very cool music in this movie, which basically follows a guy as he puts together a band and plays a gig. He calls it Mediterranean Music. Tamborine, bagpipes, piano, accordian, Jew’s Harp. Just a little didgeridoo. Now to me, this does not sound that promising, but the music is really very nice. To a non-musician (I have to say that whatever anti-matter is to musicianship, I’m heavily contaminated with it.) Anyway, to a non-musician watching how these guys talk to each other about music as they make it up is pretty great to watch. They do not all speak the same language, so when I say “talk” I do not exactly mean “speak”.
Lots of very cool music in this movie, which basically follows a guy as he puts together a band and plays a gig. He calls it Mediterranean Music. Tamborine, bagpipes, piano, accordian, Jew’s Harp. Just a little didgeridoo. Now to me, this does not sound that promising, but the music is really very nice. To a non-musician (I have to say that whatever anti-matter is to musicianship, I’m heavily contaminated with it.) Anyway, to a non-musician watching how these guys talk to each other about music as they make it up is pretty great to watch. They do not all speak the same language, so when I say “talk” I do not exactly mean “speak”.
Earthbound
Ireland. Recommended
More great sci-fi. This time a straight up romantic comedy with a sci-fi theme. Very polished movie, seems likely to get released. It’s a comedy, so they get to play with sci-fi movie tropes, and slip in a couple of great lines from famous movies. You either really like movies like this (me) or you don’t like them much at all (Marion). The variable seems to be ones appreciation of stupidity in movies, which I quite like up to a point.
This was the second time the movie has ever been shown. Before it started Marion and I had both spotted a woman we were sure is a movie actress in the crown milling at the Uptown. Sure enough, she was in this movie.
More great sci-fi. This time a straight up romantic comedy with a sci-fi theme. Very polished movie, seems likely to get released. It’s a comedy, so they get to play with sci-fi movie tropes, and slip in a couple of great lines from famous movies. You either really like movies like this (me) or you don’t like them much at all (Marion). The variable seems to be ones appreciation of stupidity in movies, which I quite like up to a point.
This was the second time the movie has ever been shown. Before it started Marion and I had both spotted a woman we were sure is a movie actress in the crown milling at the Uptown. Sure enough, she was in this movie.
Italy, Love it or Leave it
Italy. Fabulous.
I love this movie. I love it like I loved David Sedaris until I got tired of him; like I would love Michael Moore if he were not such a blowhard; like I love John Stewart without reservation. Also like a lot of people who aren’t me loved “the Trip” last year at SIFF. Two slim and deeply sweet guys drive around Italy looking for a reason not to move to Berlin. It’s a documentary. They interview people. They show stuff. They recite facts. All in the most endearing way, and in Italian, which is a beautiful language to listen to. They have these great, maybe just a little scripted, conversations. In Italian. They mug for the camera, but in a good way. They inform, they entertain, they give insight. Everything one wants from a movie.
I love this movie. I love it like I loved David Sedaris until I got tired of him; like I would love Michael Moore if he were not such a blowhard; like I love John Stewart without reservation. Also like a lot of people who aren’t me loved “the Trip” last year at SIFF. Two slim and deeply sweet guys drive around Italy looking for a reason not to move to Berlin. It’s a documentary. They interview people. They show stuff. They recite facts. All in the most endearing way, and in Italian, which is a beautiful language to listen to. They have these great, maybe just a little scripted, conversations. In Italian. They mug for the camera, but in a good way. They inform, they entertain, they give insight. Everything one wants from a movie.
Rouge Parole
Tunisia.
A documentary of the period during the departure of the dictator ben Ali and the fall of the corrupt Tunisian government. The beginning of the Arab Spring. Lots of footage of street protests, of both the conventional big city protest and also of the scary and violent kind. Also a lot of guys on street corners and in cafes talking very loudly about the revolution. It is from the point of view of a guy in the middle of it all, and there is little context or explanation. I think the Arab Spring is the most significant world event since the end of the cold war, except maybe Brad and Jen splitting up, so this is must see stuff for me.
A documentary of the period during the departure of the dictator ben Ali and the fall of the corrupt Tunisian government. The beginning of the Arab Spring. Lots of footage of street protests, of both the conventional big city protest and also of the scary and violent kind. Also a lot of guys on street corners and in cafes talking very loudly about the revolution. It is from the point of view of a guy in the middle of it all, and there is little context or explanation. I think the Arab Spring is the most significant world event since the end of the cold war, except maybe Brad and Jen splitting up, so this is must see stuff for me.
Best Intentions
Romania.
This is another movie that could be set anywhere, almost any time. This movie gets at aspects of real life as we live it better than almost any I have seen. Not entirely in a good way. The theme of the movie is that everyone has something to say. A guy’s mother has a problem and is in the hospital. All of the conversations with girlfriends and friends who know doctors, and random strangers on a train and the friends of the other hospital patients and the doctors. Constantly. This is an aspect of real life that makes me crazy, so I am surprised that I tolerated the movie as well as I did.
This is another movie that could be set anywhere, almost any time. This movie gets at aspects of real life as we live it better than almost any I have seen. Not entirely in a good way. The theme of the movie is that everyone has something to say. A guy’s mother has a problem and is in the hospital. All of the conversations with girlfriends and friends who know doctors, and random strangers on a train and the friends of the other hospital patients and the doctors. Constantly. This is an aspect of real life that makes me crazy, so I am surprised that I tolerated the movie as well as I did.
A Cube of Sugar
Iran. Very Highly Recommended
Probably our favorite film so far. Everything I have read and seen about Iranians, and something I’ve seen in print more than once, is this: forget everything you think you know about Iranians. Nicest People In The World. The setting is a big house on the occasion of a big family event with the brothers and the sisters and the in-laws and the cousins and the kids and the food and the rugs and the traditions and the food and the music and the dancing and the food and the crushes and the grown men acting like boys and the kids taking it all in and the food and the woman just breaking each other up all the time, and the great mad swirl and they are all these attractive nice people all sleeping over for a few days. And stuff happens. What there is only a little of: Islam. These people are devout Moslems they way the Italians are devout Catholics. Unquestioning believers, with a lot of traditions and superstitions that go way, way back, so that the formal religion is just a veneer over a folk, and essentially pagan, set of beliefs and practices.
Probably our favorite film so far. Everything I have read and seen about Iranians, and something I’ve seen in print more than once, is this: forget everything you think you know about Iranians. Nicest People In The World. The setting is a big house on the occasion of a big family event with the brothers and the sisters and the in-laws and the cousins and the kids and the food and the rugs and the traditions and the food and the music and the dancing and the food and the crushes and the grown men acting like boys and the kids taking it all in and the food and the woman just breaking each other up all the time, and the great mad swirl and they are all these attractive nice people all sleeping over for a few days. And stuff happens. What there is only a little of: Islam. These people are devout Moslems they way the Italians are devout Catholics. Unquestioning believers, with a lot of traditions and superstitions that go way, way back, so that the formal religion is just a veneer over a folk, and essentially pagan, set of beliefs and practices.
The Glass Man
The Glass Man
United Kingdom
A mainstream thriller. Neve Campbell has a minor role. A nerdy, craven English snob gets pulled into underworld skullduggery in order to protect his nerdy English snob lifestyle. The heavy in the movie is great, and if you’ve seen “Breaking Bad,” looks and acts like the bigger older brother of Mike, the heavy in that series. This is a good thing.
United Kingdom
A mainstream thriller. Neve Campbell has a minor role. A nerdy, craven English snob gets pulled into underworld skullduggery in order to protect his nerdy English snob lifestyle. The heavy in the movie is great, and if you’ve seen “Breaking Bad,” looks and acts like the bigger older brother of Mike, the heavy in that series. This is a good thing.
True Wolf
USA. Must see first hour at least.
Nim for wolves. A couple of well educated Montana hippie types got conned into raising a wolf pup and were then abandoned with it. They had to violate the animal in some way, either by killing it or by trying to tame it and keep it. I guess release to the wild was out of the question. So they tamed it and ended up taking it to schools for show and tell. Sounds creepier than it is, although even the couple aver that it is not a good thing for the wolf. The film is mostly home video they made interspersed with interviews of the couple and some other people. The video of the wolf in the first year is not to be missed by anyone who likes canines. The point made over and over is that a wolf is never tamed and is not at all like a dog in that respect. The owners are pretty polished interviewees, having made a bit of a career out of talking about wolves. The most honest moment in the film is when the guy was explaining that, contrary to common beliefs, one simply does not try to take food away from a wolf. Like, really look at his eyes, don’t try it.
Nim for wolves. A couple of well educated Montana hippie types got conned into raising a wolf pup and were then abandoned with it. They had to violate the animal in some way, either by killing it or by trying to tame it and keep it. I guess release to the wild was out of the question. So they tamed it and ended up taking it to schools for show and tell. Sounds creepier than it is, although even the couple aver that it is not a good thing for the wolf. The film is mostly home video they made interspersed with interviews of the couple and some other people. The video of the wolf in the first year is not to be missed by anyone who likes canines. The point made over and over is that a wolf is never tamed and is not at all like a dog in that respect. The owners are pretty polished interviewees, having made a bit of a career out of talking about wolves. The most honest moment in the film is when the guy was explaining that, contrary to common beliefs, one simply does not try to take food away from a wolf. Like, really look at his eyes, don’t try it.
The House
Slovak Republic. Worth seeing.
Another available only at SIFF slice of the lives of others. Slovakia is one of those Eastern European countries that have a long and terrible history about which we know little. The only reference in the movie to history is when one character says of someone that his grandfather sold my father out and we lost our land to a collective farm. That kind of place. Since the breakup of the Empire, the country is doing pretty well.
I often look at SIFF movies and either recast them in my head or think about how we would do a remake for an English speaking audience. This one would need almost no changes in the plot or story to do well here. Kind of a universal coming of age with a difficult father story. Very well acted.
Another available only at SIFF slice of the lives of others. Slovakia is one of those Eastern European countries that have a long and terrible history about which we know little. The only reference in the movie to history is when one character says of someone that his grandfather sold my father out and we lost our land to a collective farm. That kind of place. Since the breakup of the Empire, the country is doing pretty well.
I often look at SIFF movies and either recast them in my head or think about how we would do a remake for an English speaking audience. This one would need almost no changes in the plot or story to do well here. Kind of a universal coming of age with a difficult father story. Very well acted.
Beasts of the Southern Wild
USA. The emperor has no clothes.
This is a highly acclaimed, in the manner that film festivals give acclaim, movie. Critics love it, Sundance loved it. The theater was packed. We left early. I am the first to acknowledge that mine is the minority opinion and so I am probably wrong in my tastes and opinions. Remember “The Piano”? Holly Hunter playing a mute, the great Harvey Keitel, set in Samoa. Never was a film more highly acclaimed by the art house types, as well as everyone else. The very model of a Great Movie. Took the Golden Palm at Cannes, and 3 Academy Awards. To me, that movie was sandpaper for the eyes. What...a...load...of...crap, says I. So I ought to be ignored.
The first 40 minutes or so was, in my worms eye view, a paean to southern poverty and featured a fair amount of what in any other context would be called child abuse and neglect, for which I have no stomach. It was kind of a magical realist story so I suppose among the uptown swells who judge such things, that makes it OK. There were a lot of very tight shots with a jittery camera that showed various wild and magical realist type activity in a way that I, but only I, consider to be just disorienting lazy film making. Had I stayed I am confident I could go on.
This is a highly acclaimed, in the manner that film festivals give acclaim, movie. Critics love it, Sundance loved it. The theater was packed. We left early. I am the first to acknowledge that mine is the minority opinion and so I am probably wrong in my tastes and opinions. Remember “The Piano”? Holly Hunter playing a mute, the great Harvey Keitel, set in Samoa. Never was a film more highly acclaimed by the art house types, as well as everyone else. The very model of a Great Movie. Took the Golden Palm at Cannes, and 3 Academy Awards. To me, that movie was sandpaper for the eyes. What...a...load...of...crap, says I. So I ought to be ignored.
The first 40 minutes or so was, in my worms eye view, a paean to southern poverty and featured a fair amount of what in any other context would be called child abuse and neglect, for which I have no stomach. It was kind of a magical realist story so I suppose among the uptown swells who judge such things, that makes it OK. There were a lot of very tight shots with a jittery camera that showed various wild and magical realist type activity in a way that I, but only I, consider to be just disorienting lazy film making. Had I stayed I am confident I could go on.
Sharquia
Israel. Highly Recommended.
The movie is centered on a small family of Bedouins living on their ancestral lands in what is not the State of Israel. Something I did not know: Bedouins are not necessarily nomadic, land is just as important to them as it is to everyone else in that land crazed part of the world. In this case the land looks pretty much like just a patch of desert. What they un-ironically call a village is some corrugated metal shacks, a few sheep pens and a generator. So here is another great SIFF movie that drops us into the everyday lives of people who, at best, we only otherwise see in our rear view mirror. These dwellings would not be legal in any normal country and therein lies the main driver of the story. A lot of the movie is of the lets-follow-this-guy-around-for-a-few-days variety which can be completely boring or, as in this case, pretty interesting. It depicts the relationships between the Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens in a way that I suspect is much more like the real thing than we usually see. Even the representatives of the overbearing bureaucracy are portrayed as decent people.
The movie is centered on a small family of Bedouins living on their ancestral lands in what is not the State of Israel. Something I did not know: Bedouins are not necessarily nomadic, land is just as important to them as it is to everyone else in that land crazed part of the world. In this case the land looks pretty much like just a patch of desert. What they un-ironically call a village is some corrugated metal shacks, a few sheep pens and a generator. So here is another great SIFF movie that drops us into the everyday lives of people who, at best, we only otherwise see in our rear view mirror. These dwellings would not be legal in any normal country and therein lies the main driver of the story. A lot of the movie is of the lets-follow-this-guy-around-for-a-few-days variety which can be completely boring or, as in this case, pretty interesting. It depicts the relationships between the Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens in a way that I suspect is much more like the real thing than we usually see. Even the representatives of the overbearing bureaucracy are portrayed as decent people.
How to Steal 2 Million
South Africa.
A by-the-numbers film noir. Recently released convict trying to go straight but tempted by one last score by his former best gangster friend who stole his girlfriend but wants to make it right, assisted by the beautiful con artist he caught picking his pocket in a dive bar. Very familiar stuff. The actors are very attractive, everything is done very well. This movie is a perfect representative of the genre. A little too perfect, we got bored and left early, we may have been surprised by something had we stayed, but were not while we were there.
A by-the-numbers film noir. Recently released convict trying to go straight but tempted by one last score by his former best gangster friend who stole his girlfriend but wants to make it right, assisted by the beautiful con artist he caught picking his pocket in a dive bar. Very familiar stuff. The actors are very attractive, everything is done very well. This movie is a perfect representative of the genre. A little too perfect, we got bored and left early, we may have been surprised by something had we stayed, but were not while we were there.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Can
Turkey.
The title is pronounced “Chan” and is the name of an amazingly cute little boy. He has a lot of scenes in the movie, and is the reason to go to it. Great stuff. I like movies like this that center on everyday life in other places, in this case some non-Istanbul city in Turkey. I cannot say the story is especially uplifting or, for that matter, enjoyable, but it is well told. I think its intent is to focus on an Important Social Issue in present day Turkey more than it is to entertain.
The title is pronounced “Chan” and is the name of an amazingly cute little boy. He has a lot of scenes in the movie, and is the reason to go to it. Great stuff. I like movies like this that center on everyday life in other places, in this case some non-Istanbul city in Turkey. I cannot say the story is especially uplifting or, for that matter, enjoyable, but it is well told. I think its intent is to focus on an Important Social Issue in present day Turkey more than it is to entertain.
Future Lasts Forever
Turkey. Meh.
Although Marion and I mutually agreed to leave early probably a lot of people like this movie. A bit more ethereal staring into space and a lot less actual story than I care for. Turkey does not have a sterling human rights record vis a vis the Kurds, and this was being referenced pretty strongly. A separatist movement prompted the usual dirty war stuff death squads, villages cleared out, wounds that will never heal. The movie depicted none of this, the main characters have an interest in the survivors and their stories. Possibly the Turks themselves get more out of the movie, knowing the references better.
Although Marion and I mutually agreed to leave early probably a lot of people like this movie. A bit more ethereal staring into space and a lot less actual story than I care for. Turkey does not have a sterling human rights record vis a vis the Kurds, and this was being referenced pretty strongly. A separatist movement prompted the usual dirty war stuff death squads, villages cleared out, wounds that will never heal. The movie depicted none of this, the main characters have an interest in the survivors and their stories. Possibly the Turks themselves get more out of the movie, knowing the references better.
Los Acacias
Argentina. Recommended
Another movie that is the reason for SIFF. Set in a place among people we never get to see unless we whiz by them without stopping while traveling. I often like Argentine movies. Pretty much a 2 ½ person cast, shot mostly in the cab of a long haul semi, and there are a number of long almost silent shots. Some movies this would bother me, this one it did not at all. I cannot say why. The action, for want of a better word, was almost internal to the characters, but somehow the viewer gets what is happening. Very effective acting, especially the guy. How they got that baby to do stuff on cue is a mystery to me.
Another movie that is the reason for SIFF. Set in a place among people we never get to see unless we whiz by them without stopping while traveling. I often like Argentine movies. Pretty much a 2 ½ person cast, shot mostly in the cab of a long haul semi, and there are a number of long almost silent shots. Some movies this would bother me, this one it did not at all. I cannot say why. The action, for want of a better word, was almost internal to the characters, but somehow the viewer gets what is happening. Very effective acting, especially the guy. How they got that baby to do stuff on cue is a mystery to me.
Extraterrestrial
Spain. Recommended.
This is another advertisement for the sci-fi genre. You can do anything. The special effects are as minimal as could be, its mainly silly people doing silly things. The director was there, a very funny guy. He could be a successful stand-up comedian. He said he wanted to approach an alien invasion from the point of view of the people holed up in their apartments from the curfew while someone else actually dealt with the menace. “Sci-fi for the 99%” is how he put it. Brilliant. So, all the normal rules are suspended until we find out if everybody dies or what; and people do what they do in such a situation. For laughs.
This is another advertisement for the sci-fi genre. You can do anything. The special effects are as minimal as could be, its mainly silly people doing silly things. The director was there, a very funny guy. He could be a successful stand-up comedian. He said he wanted to approach an alien invasion from the point of view of the people holed up in their apartments from the curfew while someone else actually dealt with the menace. “Sci-fi for the 99%” is how he put it. Brilliant. So, all the normal rules are suspended until we find out if everybody dies or what; and people do what they do in such a situation. For laughs.
Abu Son of Adam
India. Highly Recommended
I was riding to work one day and was wondering if it is possible to make a decent movie without interpersonal conflict and with only nice people and no bad guy in it. Then that evening I saw this film, which is just such a movie. This is the one Marion mentions when asked what good movies she has seen. Set in rural, which is to say impoverished, India. It is in the present day, there are scenes of people on computers and cell phones, but for the most part people’s lives seem to be from early last century. A really sweet devout couple who have little money want to do the Hadj. Complications ensue.
This movie is why to go to the film festival. It drills right into life as it is lived in another culture with no apparent artificiality.
I was riding to work one day and was wondering if it is possible to make a decent movie without interpersonal conflict and with only nice people and no bad guy in it. Then that evening I saw this film, which is just such a movie. This is the one Marion mentions when asked what good movies she has seen. Set in rural, which is to say impoverished, India. It is in the present day, there are scenes of people on computers and cell phones, but for the most part people’s lives seem to be from early last century. A really sweet devout couple who have little money want to do the Hadj. Complications ensue.
This movie is why to go to the film festival. It drills right into life as it is lived in another culture with no apparent artificiality.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)