Ravi Coltrane in Tel Aviv

I keep wondering what a burden and a responsibility is for an artist to carry the name of a famous father. It’s a great responsibility, it also may be a heavy burden, as people looking or listening to his art (and it does not matter that much if it is music, or painting, or other forms of art expression) cannot and will not avoid making comparisons. Ravi Coltrane was only 2 years old when his famous father died and being the son of one of the most famous saxophonists and composers in the history of jazz must have been a mixed blessing – opening him doors and ears, but also calling for the permanent comparison, especially as Ravi chose the same instrument as a way of expression. While he refused for a long time to embrace the repertoire of his father, he does not seem to have escaped his musical influence. Now, when he crossed the line of the number of years lived by his father and is an accomplished and recognized name of his own, he can trace back his artistic influences to a number of musicians at their peak between the 50s and the 70s, names like Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and yes – John Coltrane.

 

photo-8

 

It’s the third time that Ravi Coltrane comes to Tel Aviv, it is the first time I had the opportunity of seeing and listening to him live. He is one of these musicians who does not try to dominate the stage. The whole set was composed out of five or six pieces, around twenty minutes each, leaving time for all the members of the quintet to bring in their talent and to develop their own versions of the theme in a free manner. Ravi even leaves the stage most of the time when he does not play trying to enhance the vision of a performance as a team work. In this Ravi Coltrane Quintet the emphasis is not on Ravi Coltrane but on the Quintet, a fine gathering of free-style post-bop musicians.

 

(video source Zycopolis)

 

To understand Ravi Coltrane’s music I am bringing here one of the pieces that I found on youTube with Ravi playing with McCoy Tyner. The great pianist who is now 85 and still active (I saw him in Israel last year) was a member in John Coltrane’s most famous band in the 60s. Kind of a living link connecting the two Coltrane generations.

 

(video source music1900jbp)

 

The other exquisite artist in his band is trumpeter Ralph Alessi, who also composed some of the pieces on their most recent album Spirit Fiction, including the piece above, which was also played Tuesday in Tel Aviv, at the Zappa Club.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THgGAuE5dGU

(video source Gadi Lehavi Videos)

 

For the last piece, Ravi invited on stage the young pianist Gadi Lehavi, who who will be 17 next week. He played on stage with Ravi  – what a great opportunity for this young artist, who is already active for three years on the Israeli and world jazz stage. It’s actually not their first encounter, Ravi discovered Gadi a few years ago, they already played together in New York at the Village Vanguard and Birdland jazz clubs. Gadi also played already with a number of other well known contemporary artist, among which Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin.

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Carte: Laszlo Alexandru – Muzeul figurilor de ceara

Il cunosteam pe Laszlo Alexandru din referinte internetice si mai ales ca redactor al Web site-ului (numit si revista electronica, termen fata de care am o oarecare retinere) ‘E-Leonardo’ a carui aparitie din pacate s-a hotarit sa o intrerupa in 2012 dupa 18 numere. I-am remarcat si am admirat pozitiile consecvente impotriva tendintelor totalitare de stanga sau de dreapta din cultura romana, atitudinea ferma impotriva renasterii nationalimului si antisemitismului si fata de negationismul si negationistii Holocaustului, critica ferma impotriva promotorilor de rau si de confuzie indiferent cine erau ei. Cu aceste premize volumul ‘Muzeul figurilor de ceara’ aparut in 2009 la Editura PARALELA 45 si subintitulat ‘polemici’ nu avea cum sa ma surprinda. Este o culegere de articole si comunicari ale autorului clujean publicate intre anii 2005 si 2007, instantanee ale unui moment cultural si politic romanesc ramase actuale aproape in totalitatea lor. De la data publicarii, cate unul dintre autorii mentionati in carte a mai scris cate ceva mai mult sau mai putin semnificativ, cativa au plecat intr-o lume mai buna, dar pozitiile, caracterele, personajele acestei Corabii a nebunilor (folosesc ca pretext ilustratia copertei) nu s-au schimbat de cand Laszlo Alexandru a scris cartea si Explicatiile preliminare care o deschid:

‘Chiar n-am invatat nimic din erorile trecutului? Fascismul si comunismul n-au provocat, oare, suficiente victime pentru a-si fi pierdut iremediabil farmecul demagogic? Cite vieti ar trebui inca sacrificate, pentru ca scriitorii sa nu se inchine mai departe la aceiasi idoli de lut?’ (pag. 7)

Cartea este impartita in trei sectiuni si un epilog. Primul articol in prima parte fixeaxa contextul uneia dintre temele principale ale cartii – recrudescenta antisemitismului – prin cautarea bazelor istorice ale fenomenului in istoria culturala si politica romaneasca. Pentru cititorii cartii lui Andrei Oisteanu ‘Imaginea evreului in cultura romana’ prezenta numelor si citatelor virulent antisemite din scrisele sau cuvantarile unor Cezar Bolliac, Vasile Alecsandri, Ioan Slavici sau Nicolae Iorga nu sunt noutati, dar pentru majoritatea celorlalti aceasta ilustra galerie din care lipseste doar (de ce oare?) Mihai Eminescu poate fi un soc. Inca un articol cu tema istorica este dedicat destinului tragic al lingvistului roman de origine evreiasca Lazar Saineanu, ale carui incercari de a depasi barierele persecutiilor rasiale si de a capata recunoasterea forurilor academice si cetatenia romana s-au dovedit a fi vane si l-au determinat in cele din urma sa aleaga calea exilului.

‘Pasi de rac’ (numele primei sectiuni a cartii) continua cu articole care cu o singura exceptie (cel dedicat scriitorului maghiar Kertesz Imre) se ocupa de renasterea totalitarismului mai ales sub forma sa ideologica in cultura romaneasca de la inceput de mileniu trei. Laszlo Alexandru abordeaza fara ezitare cu un ton critic figurile unor idoli ai intelectualitatii romanesti de astazi cum este Constantin Noica despre care scrie ca ‘Etapele lui biografice mai importante au fost marcate de compromis, ambiguitate, sau tradare.’ (pag. 34). Daca despre inrolarea sa intre propagandistii legionarismului in tinerete stiam deja, nu imi erau cunoscute nici lasitatea sa la procesul in care au fost implicati si condamnati multi dintre discipolii sai, si nici inrolarea sa in serviciul propagandei ceausiste in cercurile imigratiei la numai cativa ani dupa eliberarea din inchisoare. Polemica cu Sorin Lavric, autorul unei carti despre relatia lui Noica cu miscarea legionara, care incearca sa minimizeze erorile filosofului si sa musamalizeze atitudinile sale de compromis ni-l releva pe Laszlo Alexandru ca pe un polemist care nu numai ca nu ezita sa atace ci stie sa si raspunda in mod precis si ascutit.

 

sursa http://193.226.7.140/~laszlo/VolumeScrise_ro.htm

sursa http://193.226.7.140/~laszlo/VolumeScrise_ro.htm

 

Incercarea de reabilitare a lui Vintila Horia (scriitor exilat care nu a primit in 1960 premiul Goncourt dupa ce fusese dezvaluit trecutul sau legionar) primeste si ea riposta argumentata cu documente si citate a lui Laszlo Alexandru:

‘… victima inocenta a carei reabilitare e clamata astazi pe zeci de voci cacofonice, a fost in tinerete unul dintre cei mai desantati si nerusinati propagandisti ai fascismului si hitlerismului.’ (pag. 58)

Interesanta si semnificativa comparatia in eternitate a modului in care destinele lui Mircea Eliade si Mihail Sebastian sunt perpetuate in posteritatea romaneasca:

‘Coincidenta calendarului face ca anul 2007 sa marcheze centenarul nasterii, atit pentru Mircea Eliade, cit si pentru Mihail Sebastian. Dar ce diferenta de tratament! Autorul lui Maitrey e imbratisat protector de institutiile statului, care organizeaza colocvii, simpozioane si conferinte omagiale, in tara si peste hotare, opera lui e studiata in scoli, numele lui il poarta liceele oraselor si strazile catunelor. De autorul Accidentului isi amintesc doar suplimentul publicatiei Realitatea evreiasca si doua-trei initiative spontane. Ignoranta si ingratitudinea joaca hora unirii in ograda literaturii romane.’ (pag. 63)

O relatie speciala il leaga pe Laszlo Alexandru de Paul Goma, pe care il cunoaste mai mult decat bine:

‘M-am numarat si eu, in anii ’90, printre admiratorii nonconformismului revolutionar al lui Paul Goma. L-am sustinut cu scrierile sale polemice. I-am ingrijit editarea Scrisorilor intredeschise (1995). I-am prefatat primul volum din Jurnal (1997). I-am lansat public vreo doua carti (1997). Am avut cu el o intensa corespondenta timp de aproape un deceniu. Dupa 1999, insa, am inregistrat cu o stupoare crescanda convertirea sa la antisemitism, intoleranta si extremism.’ (pag. 77)

Sectiunea a doua a cartii ‘In constiinta noastra’ include un numar de comunicari prezentate de Laszlo Alexandru la diferite evenimente intre care cele ale Institutului Wiesel. Desi unele contin elemente suplimentare (cum ar fi dezvaluirea rolului lui Constantin Noica in pregatirea ideologica a asasinarii lui Nicolae Iorga care astazi s-ar numi ‘incitare la crima’, sau critica ‘brandului Eliade’ promovat de functionarii culturali ai Romaniei in strainatate) personal m-au deranjat paginile de repetitii, cateva dintre articolele despre Noica, Vintila Horia, Eliade fiind dezvoltari ale celor din prima sectiune. Desi scrise si facute public in momente de timp diferite, cred ca editorul si autorul ar fi trebuit sa evite aceste dubluri care inmultesc in mod nejustificat numarul de pagini ale volumului.

 

sursa commons.wikimedia.org

 

A treia sectiune are un nume spectaculos ‘Asa s-a calit otetul’ si debuteaza cu cel mai bun articol dupa opinia mea, care sub titlul de-a dreptul genial ‘Gilceava la catafalcul comunismului’ relateaza in stilul Telegramelor caragialesti evenimentele din timpul si din jurul citirii Raportului Tismaneanu in Parlamentul Romaniei in decembrie 2006. Mai putin convingatoare mi s-au parut criticile indreptate impotriva lui Eugen Simion, de exemplu pacatul de a-l absolvi (la nivelul analizei scrierilor) pe Mihail Sadoveanu mi se pare cam minor pentru a justifica analogiile cu Hitler si Ceausescu, iar epitetele cu ton de pamflet (‘nemuritorul de serviciu‘, ‘coaforul de la Academie’) nu adauga nimic argumentatiei.

Articolul cel mai bun al acestei sectiuni este dupa parerea mea ‘Zece sofisme’ care abordeaza in cel mai bun stil polemic marca Laszlo Alexandru reactia Uniunii Scriitorilor si a celui care se afla in fruntea sa (Nicolae Manolescu) la decizia CNSAS de a deschide si cerceta dosarele membrilor Uniunii. Comunicatul redactat in termeni eufeminati si musamalizatori este demontat si analizat fraza cu fraza, idee cu idee. Cu atat mai remarcabila este atitudinea lui Alexandru daca tinem cont ca Nicolae Manolescu este o persoana si o personalitate pe care el o apreciase in trecut pentru contributiile sale pozitive, si a carui opera critica a constituit subiectul lucrarii sale de doctorat. Si aici Laszlo Alexandru pare sa isi confirme statutul de polemist singuratic, refuzul compromisurilor, inchinarii la idoli sau asocierii oportuniste cu vreo partida culturala sau politica.

Nu scapa de critica lui Alexandru nici Horia-Roman Patapievici, caruia ii reproseaza o schimbare de ton si atitudine de la refuzul alinierii la sistem si apararea dreptului la diferenta in anii 90 pana la compromisul centrist in jurul conceptului consevator crestin cu un deceniu mai tarziu, in cazul icoanelor impuse pe peretii scolilor romanesti: ‘… nu situatia solitarului laic, agresat de cutumele majoritatii, il ingrijoreaza acum pe filosoful oficializat. Ci, dimpotriva, “fundamentalismul anticrestin, degizat in miltantism de drepturile omului”.’ (pag. 178).

Ultimele doua articole consistente ale acestei sectiuni ii iau in obiectiv pe Alex Stefanescu a carui ‘Istorie a literaturii romane contemporane’ este epitetata drept ‘hollywoodiana’ si pe Edgar Papu, a carui incercare de reabilitare printr-o carte de interviuri este demontata in mod necrutator. Concepte cum ar fi protocronismul inventat la indicatiile lui Ceausescu si propulsat literar si academic de Papu, sau ‘neimplicarea complice a literatilor in treburile cetatii (care) a primit numele de “rezistenta” prin cultura’ – fenomene culturale specifice epocii comunismului romanesc sunt analizate si criticate fara menajamente. Putini sunt de altfel intelectualii care primesc nota de trecere din partea lui Laszlo Alexandru pentru atitudinea lor in timpul dictaturii, poate doar Paul Goma, cel dinainte de alunecarea in antisemitism si Ioan D. Sirbu – scriitori ai caror opere semnificative nu au vazut insa lumina tiparului in Romania lui Ceausescu.

Spre sfarsitul lecturii acestei carti de polemici, in care aproape toate fenomenele si persoanele mentionate in culegerea de articole sunt prezentate in lumina critica, ma intrebam daca exista si un Laszlo Alexandru pozitiv, care poate scrie ceva de bine despre ceva sau cineva. Raspunsul a venit la lectura Epilogului, care in contrapunct cu intreaga carte ne prezinta o cu totul alta fata a autorului. Este o mica poveste de dragoste, dragoste pentru o carte (pe care si eu o iubesc), si merita intr-adevar sa cititi cartea pana la capat pastrand acest epilog pour la bonne bouche. 

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Dali’s “Aliyah, The Rebirth of Israel”

For the Israel Independence Day this year I chose to present a cycle of works who have entered already the thesaurus of the Israeli and Zionist artistic mythology. Many of the visitors of the recent exhibition of the works of Salvador Dali in Haifa were surprised to see that one full wall was occupied by what seemed to be a real declaration of love for Israel and the Jewish people, while in the same room other paintings, statues, objects which looked very much like Judaica art completed the image.

 

alyah

 

There have been multiple discussions and interpretations concerning the history of this cycle of 25 prints published first in an edition of 250 copies in 1968. What was the real attitude of Salvador Dali towards the Jews, taking into account that contrary to many of his fellow artists in the surrealist generation he showed sympathy for Hitler and chose to stay and live in Franco’s Spain? Did he change his political views in time? Was he a descendant of the converted Jews keeping in secret his Jewish ascendance?  The answer is maybe simple, but we should avoid to make it simplistic. It’s a commissioned work, ordered and paid by the  Shorewood Publishing and Israel Bonds in 1968 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the State of Israel. And yet there is more than this, because the exploration of the Jewish theme seems to have extended in Dali’s work well beyond this commission. Yes, the market of the Judaica (Jewish traditional) art may have been a lucrative one among the prosperous collectors, many of Jewish origin. The works in this cycle and beyond have however feeling, sensitivity, and I may say a dose of respect which is somehow unexpected from the extravagant artist who did not hesitate to blow artistic and taste conventions.

Let us walk though a few of these works, and try to explain their meaning from the perspective of the Zionist angle. I have used some of the commentaries written by David Blumentahl at http://www.js.emory.edu/BLUMENTHAL/Salvador%20Dali%20Aliyah.htm (You can see there also all the drawings in the cycle)

 

photo-6

 

A few of the first drawings in the cycle connect the reality of present Israel to the historical roots of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. One of these is ‘The Wailing Wall’ – the last reminiscent of the walls of the Second Temple, which is drawn by Dali from photos taken before the War of Independence (there is a large plaza today in front of the Wall, and men and women are not allowed to pray together, at least at this moment in time (there is a whole dispute regarding the enforcement of the Orthodox rules in this place raging today).

 

camps

 

‘Out of the Depth’ takes its title from a verse in the Psalms “Out of the depths have I called unto you, O Lord.” It’s the name of the cantata by Bach and the phrase was used by Martin Buber for a small book of Psalms translated into German and published in Nazi Germany in 1936. The horror of the Holocaust is in the Zionist narrative the very foundation and the ultimate justification of the existence of the national home of the Jewish people.

 

photo-4

 

‘On the Shores of Freedom’  shows one episode of the illegal immigration which in the years after the end of the second world war and the independence of Israel brought to Israel survivors of the Holocaust despite the blockade imposed by the British rulers over Palestine. The name of the ship can be clearly seen, it’s Elyahu Golomb which dates the episode described in the painting in the year 1946.

 

photo-3

 

‘A Moment in History’ processes a famous photograph in which David Ben-Gurion reads the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel, on May 15, 1948. Ben-Gurion wears a tie, it is said it was the only time in his life when he wore such a garment. He also seems to have a Dali mustache?

 

photo-5

 

The exultation of the moment of the proclamation of the independence was immediately followed in the historical narrative by the fire of the War of Independence. This is the moment caught by Dali in ‘The Battle of the Jerusalem Hills’.

 

photo-7

 

Victory and celebration are represented by Hatikvah, a visual representation of the national anthem of Israel. The words were written by the Jewish-Polish poet Naphtali Herz Imber during his stay in the Romanian city of Iasi in 1877, and the music is a transcription by Samuel Cohen of a tune popular in Eastern Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Cohen later recalled that he had heard first the tune in the Romanian variant – Carul cu boi [The Ox Driven Cart] (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatikvah). The same tune inspired the opening of the very popular symphonic poem Vltava by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana

 

photo-2

 

Commission or not, Salvador Dali created a series of work which are among the best in the Jewish and national Israeli imagery. I will let Blumenthal speak again (source http://forward.com/articles/136676/dali-and-the-jews/):

As for the “Aliyah” series, Blumenthal concludes simply that it was a professionally executed commission, pointing out that some of the greatest artworks in history have been as much — compositions by Mozart and Bach and, this writer would add, paintings by Rafael, Rembrandt and others. “Part of the responsibility of a scholar is to say that this stuff, even if it’s commissioned, is serious,” Blumenthal said. Indeed, when one lets the art of “Aliyah” speak for itself, its bold expressionism and moving imagery answer the question on their own.

Hag Atzmaut Sameah! Happy Independence Day! Happy Birthday, Israel!

 

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Love Story (Film: Amour – Michael Haneke, 2012)

Every age has it’s love films. A long time ago, during my late my teens I resonated together with the millions of young folks at my age in between the age of the hippies and the age of the yuppies to Erich Segal’s book Love Story and the film made by Arthur Hiller staring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neill. It was a sad story with two young people falling in love, getting married against the social conventions, then she falls sick, and she dies, nice music and a smart slogan that made my teen heart beat strongly (yes, I remember the girl I was with at that movie, where is she now?). Now I have seen Michael Haneke‘s Amour, probably the most awards-gatherer non-American movie of 2012, a superb film, and a very different love story. I resonated again, I was moved and even more than that, but if I am to chose which one of the two films I want to see again I will chose the older one. Actually, if I think well, Amour may be one of the rare films, maybe even the only one, I will give a grade of 10 at IMDB but I do not believe that I have the strength and in any case I do not have the will to see it again.

 

 

Michael Haneke is known for the  cold approach towards his stories and heroes, sometimes at the border of cruelty. He does not spare us the viewers in Amour either, telling us the story of an old and well established couple of musicians who are hit at the end of a life of love and shared experiences by the tragedy of the malady of the woman (Emmanuelle Riva) leading to the decay of her physical and mental health. No details are spared, and the painful and inevitable process made even more pressing by the fact that there is no improvement and no chance of recovery is described in quite a lot of rather explicit details. And yet, there is no overall sense of repulsion because all this process is dominated by the dedication of the husband, who dearly takes care of his wife although the woman she was mentally disappears with everyday that passes. Riva was a candidate for best actress at the Oscars (she did not win), but it’s Jean-Louis Trintignant‘s acting that impressed me most, because it’s not spectacular, but it conveys better than everything else in the film the message in the title. It takes a lot of courage for these two actors whose career was followed by the French and international audiences for almost half of century to face the camera in a film that deals with such bluntness with the theme of the disasters of aging. They took upon the challenge and the result is strong and moving.

 

(video source My Trailer is Rich)

 

The whole story takes place in the interior of a Parisian apartment, and it’s amazing to see how many interesting things can me made with the camera in these few rooms.  The fine acting however takes precedent and will hardly be forgotten by anybody who has seen this film. The relation between the aged couple, their shared experiences, their small conflicts, their tenderness are described in all their complexity, as well as the relation of the two with their daughter dominated not only by the gap between ages and generations, but also by the lack of power of the younger woman to help in face of the inevitable. There is one final decision, one final act of love to be made, we guess it from start, and when it comes nobody is surprised. A final scene shows the daughter entering the apartment now empty, which remained only an empty space gathering things reminding of the love that was. There is no happy end to this Love Story either.

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Adieu, Monsieur Chabrol! (Film: Bellamy – Claude Chabrol, 2009)

Bellamy (or Inspector Bellamy) is the final film in the career that spreads over half a century of director Claude Chabrol, a career started within the cinematic revolution of the French Nouvelle Vague at the end of the 50s in which Chabrol was one of the most influential names. Many of Chabrol’s first films were set in the society of the young students or lower class people in the France of the end of the 50s and of the 60s, in time he had broadened his breadth and dealt with a wider social range. This last film of his is set in the bourgeois society of the French province and while from a thematic point of view we find the combination of detective story combined with the psychological analysis which eventually discovers the real being of the characters under their apparent skins, from a stylistic point of view it’s a very settled, almost static work.

 

source http://articlepremium.net/business/inspector-bellamy-2009-download-movie-brrip1080p-quality/

source http://articlepremium.net/business/inspector-bellamy-2009-download-movie-brrip1080p-quality/

 

Much of the film relies on the presence of Gerard Depardieu for whom the role of the police inspector who cannot escape undertaking an investigation in private cop mode while on vacation seems to have been written for. Strange as it may seem Chabrol and Depardieu work together in Bellamy for the first time. I can however imagine that the director let the actor all the freedom to build his character, a combination of Poirot and Maigret at huge physical proportions, with a tenderness for the loving wife acted by Marie Bunel in a manner that makes us fall in love with her and become jealous on Bellamy/Depardieu by the end of the film, and a complicated relationship with his step brother (solid acting by Clovis Cornillac). I mentioned Maigret, and maybe I should also remind here another famous detective,  Columbo, as their wives represent a mythical but background, in many cases unseen, presence in the respective films and books. In Bellamy, the inspector’s wife is a real presence, and the family story will play an important role and give to the action and story a dimension that competes and even exceeds the detective story itself.

 

(video source moviemaniacsDE)

 

I have watched many times the French critics becoming more enthusiastic about American movies than their American counterparts (and audiences in many cases mirroring these feelings). Something similar seems to have happened with this film as well, as the critical reception in the US by critics as important as the late Roger Ebert, or the New York Time critic were very welcoming, while the French critics I read reproached the lack of suspense of the story and the theatrical approach. I would say that both – appreciative reviews and critics were right. Bellamy does look at many moments as TV theater with stiffness in dialogs and static camera work especially in the scenes filmed in the interior. There is however enough fine acting to support the gradual discovery of the characters and the situations to keep the interest awake, even beyond the fascination of watching another work on screen of Depardieu.  Claude Chabrol’s last film is a low tone Adieu, by a master who never stopped being fascinated by the endless games of disclosure and hiding of his characters.

 

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purest trash (Film: Death Proof – Quentin Tarantino, 2007)

Death Proof may be the most typical Quentin Tarantino product since Pulp Fiction. Those who love Tarantino will love the film and love him more, those who hate him will have at least one more item to add to the list of cinematic infamies they believe he is guilty of. While other pictures made by him in the last decade deal with bigger stories, or re-write episodes of history (WWII and the Holocaust, slavery and fight for emancipation) from the Tarantino perspective, Death Proof is almost a cinematographic alternative to Pulp Fiction, taking its inspiration from the low cost B-movies genres – horror thrillers and slashers.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1028528/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1028528/

 

The film comes in two packages and I must mention that I have seen and I am writing here about the standalone Tarantino-only version. It lasts almost two hours and is symmetrically divided into two stories of equal duration. The common (and BAD) hero is Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) who is using his large and iron-strong car as a terror and murder weapon. In the first part he is set on killing a group of young and brainless girls he meets in a bar some place in Texas. In the second part he tries to do a similar act in Tennessee, but he runs out of luck. One of the girls happens to be a stunt-woman, another one seems to know what world she lives in and carries a gun. Not only that his murder plan fails, but the girls will respond with a vengeance. Almost like in Kill Bill. All things considered, Tarantino must be a feminist of some sorts.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk0a-eljl2s

(video source Canal de Biel2000)

 

Some of the 70s movies techniques, starting with titles, ending with credits, colors and quality of the film give to Death Proof the air of authenticity and credibility. Beyond Russell and Tarantino himself who as in most of his movies takes a small role in the good tradition of Hitchcock, there is fine acting worth mentioning by Zoe Bell (a stunt woman herself, with the looks of a muscled Jodie Foster) who steps ahead of the crowd of beautiful women and leads their transformation from preys to hunters. The film is violent as any movie by Tarantino, but I must observe again that Tarantino’s violence is so exaggerated and so cinematic that you can feel his smile (actually rather a grin) telling us – ‘this is just entertainment’. Trash? certainly, but this trash is so pure that it’s gold.

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sunset of the high-class (Film: Io sono l’amore – Tilda Swinton, 2009)

Io sono l’amore starts with an impressionist-like picture of a city in winter, reminding a painting by Renoir. Yet, we’ll soon realize that we are not at the end of the 19th century but rather 100 years later. The next scene is a party in a very rich people mansion. A family gathers, three generations get together for the birthday of the founding father of the family. He has a big announcement to make about the family heritage, an announcement everybody waits for many years. The relations between the members of the family start to build up under our eyes during the dinner, the old man is obviously in control. Does this remind Coppola‘s The Godfather? What follows is however a film about the slow decay of the ruling class, a decay that starts from the degradation of the family fabric which does not allow any longer cohesion in face of the forces of economics and history. We are reminded the universe of another great movie – Visconti‘s Il gattopardo.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1226236/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1226236/

 

All these comparisons may seem extremely ambitious for the work of a director, Luca Guadagnino, who is practically at his second feature film only (and the first one seems to have been an erotic teenage drama). Amazing as it may seem, Io sono l’amore is a very complex and daring enterprise that succeeds to compare honorably with the illustrious antecedents it is inspired from and also has a lot to say on its own. The Recchi family in the center of the story is led by strong men who built a textile empire (with dubious origins in the second world war industry, so the Godfather quote is not completely unjustified) and married beautiful women, not always in their own class of super-riches. One of them is Emma (Tilda Swinton), Russian at origin, married to the heir of the empire, leading the house, coordinating the social ceremonies, managing the house economy, raising the children and dealing with their growth and emotional problems. Is she happy? Can she keep together a family that lives in a different age than the one of the ossified bourgeois clans, with some of the younger people trying to break the walls of the conveniences in order to find their vocation or their ways of loving? When the occasion shows up it will be Emma herself who will let her true feelings overcome the conventions, but the way to personal truth may be paved with tragedy. The story of the family relations is carefully constructed and impeccably acted, but there is one moment when the story risks to fall into soap drama. This moment is overcome by the superb acting of Tilda Swinton. I realize now that I missed somehow how huge an actress she is. In one film she succeeds to be at turns high-class cool and passionate, attractive and ugly, young enough to love and fast-aging, in control and completely broken, and all these in one character around whom the whole movie is spinning. At the end, when tragedy had struck, and she has the courage to speak the truth and break the social conventions, she is told by the husband who was a minute ago swearing love and offering protection ‘you are nothing’. It is actually the Recchi’s who get nothing but emptiness in their lives, and this is the moment when Emma gains back her life and the chance to start again.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZBrWVvn9xA

(video source VISO Trailers)

 

There are so many beautiful moments of cinema in this film which make it stand on its own and worth remembering even beyond the story itself. There are some amazing moments of camera work, and some haunting fragments of musical score. There is a lot of good acting, and care to the social and relationship details, every corner of the screen is full with characters who live true lives in a realistic and exact composition. There is beautifully filmed nature and there is a lot of interesting food, actually food plays at some moment an important role in the action of the film, as the mean of communication between the characters (one of them is a very talented chef). Guadagnino’s movie continues a tradition in the Italian cinema of using family stories to deal with social and political issues and tells again a story which will be worth telling as long as class differences exist and are challenged by history and by emotions.

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everybody’s crazy (Film: Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell, 2012)

I am trying to remember at least one character in Silver Linings Playbook who is not crazy in some way. You know, what we call a normal person, who is not or was not a patient in a mental institution, is not on psychotic medication, is not going to shrinks or a shrink himself, has no mania or obsession, does not live his or her life according to canned solutions prescribed by psychiatrists. Actually there may be one – Dolores, the mother of the deranged home where much of the action happens,  splendidly acted by Jacki Weaver who also is hinted to be the deus-ex-machina of the sophisticated intrigue of rehabilitation of her son Pat (Bradley Cooper, much better than in any other film I saw him before) out of the mental institution where his stay seems to have been caused more by legal reasons than by health troubles. In the process of getting back his life, which includes for some reasons (never explained) getting back his cheating wife who was at the origin of all his troubles he will meet a new love (Jennifer Lawrence – great looks, average acting, but then she is really only 22).  It’s just that the Pat’s system of reference (as the one of other characters in the film) is so much deformed by the stereotypes of therapy and legalism that seem to rule over the life of the heroes that only the rules of Hollywood good-feeling scripts succeed in bringing together the intrigue towards the end.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1045658/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1045658/

 

It is certainly my problem that I am not a big fan of suburbs drama or of romantic comedies. It is the problem of the film that it cannot offer credible solutions to the problems of the characters. If this was real life there would be no happy character in this film. They live in times of economic uncertainty, lose jobs or run in-secure businesses.  Family lives are buried in boredom and mediocrity. They are stuck in unhappy marriages. They are on medication. Even their American football teams do not do too well, and sport events turn into violent incidents with ugly racist facets. The aspiration to a positive attitude seems to be imposed and artificial. It’s mean drama packed in the artificial wrapping of therapy and optimism, but the source of optimism is not clear. It sounds and looks superficial and artificial.

 

(video source The JoBlo Movie Network)

 

There are many details to like in Silver Linings Playbook. Dialogs are extremely well written and acting is so natural that you feel that you are present in the suburb home, and that the characters are folks like the ones you met yesterday. You even forget that Robert De Niro is the actor who played uncounted number of gangsters, his maniac focus is so well targeted here to the obsessions for football and betting. Director David O. Russell makes the best of the neurotic ambiance and temperament of his characters and eventually drives the viewers in caring about them. It was not a bad film, despite the amount of clichees that outnumber the moments of real emotion, but I left the screening with a feeling of dis-orientation – serious problems are dealt with the wrong approach. A little bit like the issues the characters in the film have to face and the way they try to solve them. 

 

 

 

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breaking the frames (Film: L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie – Eric Lartigau, 2010)

At the beginning of the story in this film the hero seems to be at the peak of his life. He has it all: a comfortable life, a wife and two kids, he lives in a villa in the province and works in Paris as a successful lawyer on the brink of becoming lead of a lawyer office (inherited from a terminally sick woman played by Catherine Deneuve who has only three short scenes, but so great to see her still beautiful and in good acting form). At the end he has nothing, is a fugitive with no identity. And yet, the story is the one of fulfillment as the hero while losing his status and family will find himself, a new profession and passion.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1533818/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1533818/

 

It’s a very well written story and script (based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy). It also is a more than satisfying crime story (albeit it’s about an accidental murder) which as some point in time plays with the theme of the first book in the Bounty Identity series, with the murderer taking over the identity of the victim, and finding refuge in the least policed place in Europe (at least according to the script). It so happens that the victim was a photographer, and while trying to mimic his way of life the hero develops a passion and discovers a talent in the profession, actually a stronger talent than of the one of the true owner of the name. Succeeding means however acquiring fame, and this puts under risk his second identity. I will stop here in order to not disclose too much of the rest of the story, but I will just say that the mixture of crime story, stolen identity, and self-discovery works quite well in ‘L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie‘ (the English title is ‘The Big Picture’).

 

(video source MadameFigaro)

 

Much of the film rests on the shoulders of Romain Duris and he is doing a fine job. I do not know too much about director Eric Lartigau, but he is telling the story and leading his team with a good professional hand. ‘L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie’ is a god thriller and a compelling drama about a man who breaks twice the frames of his life, finding himself when he seems to have lost everything.

 

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a too decent job (Film: Kirot – Danny Lerner, 2009)

Violent thrillers are yet a rather unexplored territory for the big screen Israeli cinema, and I really wonder why. The Israeli reality even if we put aside the political conflict is quite violent at least if one follows the news. While thrillers and detective stories made their way to the TV series, there are very few productions of the genres on big screens. Kirot (which means Walls, although the English title is The Assassin Next Door) is already four years old, and is one of the rare productions in the genre. It is almost a good one, but …

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1198153/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1198153/

 

There was no problem for the script writers to extract the medium and the characters that populate the movie. Local mafia is said to be in control of the sex industry, and many of the characters that populate it are of Russian origin, and the sex workers are also coming in numbers from the less fortunate countries of the former Soviet Union. So a former prostitute forced by the Russian mafia to become a killer does not seem to be an extraordinary story. Even less is exceptional the case of the young woman victim of domestic violence, with simple and naive dreams that are never to be fulfilled. These two characters acted by Olga Kurylenko and  local rock star Ninette Tayeb are naturally drawn to each other by a shared record of violence and social injustice, by a lack of hope that makes their fate almost unavoidable. The best scenes of the film are the ones where the two get to know each other wining over the distrust and the differences in language and background, starting to trust, then become friends and eventually share fate. The rather non-professional acting backgrounds of both actresses help, bringing freshness, sincerity and emotion in the building relation between the two.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCF7nq0WseY

(video source hasajersi)

 

The story around is quite expected, and not badly written with the exception of the final which is unrealistic from many respects. The combination of woman killer, women in distress helping each other against violence, mafia movies, all in an Israeli margin-of-the-society environment works well because if does not take over the film, while keeping the interest of the viewers arise and balancing the story so that it does not become too melodramatic. Director Danny Lerner at his second film (he did not make any other film since then) shows quite a talent in directing actors, setting the camera at the right places, building a credible environment an Israeli can recognize. But here is the problem – there was enough good material in the film to make a more blunt social statement, or use some more striking expressive means. Danny Lerner did not undertake this challenge. Daring more and pushing the limits would have helped the film step ahead of the line. It is a decent film, a decent directorial job, and so it risks to be remembered (if at all) – decent, but not more.

 

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