screen and stage (Film: Le prenom – 2012)

‘Le prenom’ translated in English in the Shakespearean ‘What’s in a Name’ is even more than an adaptation, it is almost filmed theater. Excepting the introduction which is funny but has little to do with the film and the final few minutes which could have been much better all the play … sorry … the film takes place in a Parisian apartment where five characters mid-class, mid-age meet for dinner and live the crisis of their lives triggered by a practical joke one of them makes related to the name of his baby-to-come. As in Polanski‘s ‘Carnage’ which brought to screen a play by Yasmina Reza, the border between theater and film is never really crossed. Actually this film/play is so close to Reza’s style that I would have been fooled easily if they told me it’s written by her.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt2179121/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt2179121/

 

Alexandre de la Patelliere and Mathieu Delaporte brought to screen Delaporte’s play and it looks like they do not have any other ambition than bringing to broader audiences the same story of good friends discovering unknown truths and hidden aspects of each other’s personalities. Every ten minutes or so we do have a new revelation, each one about another of the characters involved which will put at try family relations and friendships forged decades back, in childhood. There are no social comments of actuality and no political sub-tones if we exclude some references to the left vs. conservative stereotypes, and probably the most significant (and funniest) reference is made to political correctness, related to the selection of the name of the baby boy, but it is consumed unfortunately in the first third of the movie. However, this may play eventually in the favor of the text, keeping it timeless and helping it stay actual even if read and played many years or decades from now.

 

(video source CinemasGaumontPathe)

At the end of the day viewing ‘Le prenom’ is an enjoyable experience and this is due to the well written dialog (it’s a filmed play, but a good one) and to the excellent acting. I especially liked the pair of brother and sister (Patrick Bruel and Valerie Benguigui) who succeed both to bring real-life nuances to their characters, supplementary to the complexity and wit which is derived from the text. Do not avoid ‘Le prenom’ if it comes soon on a screen or a stage close to your place.

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‘based on a true story’ does not really make a true film (Film: All Good Things – Ryan Gosling, 2010)

‘All Good Things’ is the only big screen feature film made until now by director Andrew Jarecki, who seems to have been involved previously with documentary movies, and we can feel this. Although he had for this movie at hands a splendid team of Hollywood actors who did a fine job he did not succeed to turn the juicy crime story upon which the film is based into a real compelling piece of cinema.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1175709/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1175709/

 

The story Jarecki is using is the highly publicized and never solved case of the disappearance in the early 80s of the wife of a rich class New Yorker, involved in the murky real-estate business of his family in the center of Manhattan. Twenty years and two more bodies later he was brought in Court, but his guilt was never proved and today he walks free. However the film does not focus on the investigation, but rather provides a convincing (on screen) theory of the way things happen, of the motivation and reasons of the crimes. It’s a dark story about moral misery and personal crisis in a family of super-riches. The problem is that it’s hard to define and possibly the distributors had a hard time advertising the genre and the story of the film. Crime stories fans will find themselves watching for more than half of the screening time a family drama, romance (the film starts like kind of a ‘Love Story’) quickly turns into disarray and domestic violence, reality does not necessarily make into cinematographic truth.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7_VwoZKPRM

(video source VISO Trailers)

 

The best reasons to watch this film despite mixed reviews and not a very high mark on IMDb is however acting. Ryan Gosling can hardly do wrong on my taste, and here he is facing a complex role, in which he accompanies his deeply troubled hero from young age to late maturity, from the picks of the easy life of the New York socialites to the abyss of the life of a fugitive and transvestite. The even better news is that there is even better acting than Gosling’s in this film and I refer of course to Kirsten Dunst‘s role as the loving wife whose dream of marrying the nice and rich guy slowly descends into nightmare, and to the veteran Frank Langella who injects character and complexity in the role of the family father who is much more than a (anti)-moral symbol. At the end of the day and of the film the artistic truth of this story comes from a different place than the factual truth.

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moral ambiguilty (Film: The Bow, Kim Ki-duk, 2005)

‘The Bow’ comes in the work of prolific Kim Ki-duk immediately after a series of three wonderful films – ‘Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter … and Spring’, ‘Samaritan Girl’ and ‘3-Iron’ and a few year after his other masterpiece ‘The Isle’. I have somehow missed seeing it when it came out, or maybe it was not distributed in Israel. Now I caught up with the film on VoD and my impression is that it marks exactly the moment when the Korean director started a series of less successful experiments. Of course, one cannot expect even from a great director like Kim (and he is one of the best living creators in cinema) to produce only masterpieces. Hopefully he has in front of him many years of fine film making and we are here to enjoy his films.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456470/

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0456470/

 

Part of the problem with The Bow is that it repeats to some extent the format of the some of the previous successful films, taking a story of child-teenage initiation and mixing it with traditional (Buddhist I believe, but I am not very knowledgeable) concepts. So for viewers of some of his previous films, there is a strong and possibly intentional feeling of ‘deja-vu’, enhanced by the fact that as the story here happens in an isolated environment surrounded by water. The Old Man (Seong Hwan-jeon) is growing for the last ten years a Young Girl (beautiful Han Yeo-reum). They never speak. The only contact of the girl with the outer world is when visitors come for recreational fishing aboard, visitors from the outer world that she may even not remember. Some of them would like to abuse her but she and her protector know how to defend themselves with the help of the only weapon at hand, a traditional bow. Some other may come with better intents, as the young man who falls for the girl and tries to save and take her back to the world. But this is what she wants? This is certainly not what the old man wants, he plans to marry her when she reaches the age of 17.

 

(video source Ron2109)

 

There is a lot to think about and discuss around this story. Tradition faces modernity, is necessarily one better than the other? Does the girl really want to be saved? The old man may have saved an abandoned six years girl and grew her, but is he entitled to marry her and continue to control her life, to keep her isolated from the world? And is that world better than the smaller and innocent universe they were living in? His keeping the girl isolated may be judged by the world outside as kidnapping and abuse, is this the case? None of these questions have an unambiguous answer and this is not a problem, quite the contrary. Neither is acting (wonderful!) or the cinematography as good as you can expect in a film by Kim Ki-duk. The problem I have is with the final which I will not tell too many details about in order to avoid spoiling the pleasure of the viewing. There is a very strong metaphor here involving of course the bow, which produced me a shock and caused me an ambiguous feeling, not because of the visuals (I am used to much harsher things) but because of its moral meanings and the way it is directed and acted. For once I would have preferred a different way of ending. Kim Ki-duk decided differently.

 

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fragments of the endless performance of life (Film: Holy Motors – Leo Carax, 2012)

‘Holy Motors’ is a very unusual film and I am not surprised that some people had a hard time coping with its structure and apparent lack of story. It is much closer in some moments with a piece of video art, or better said a collection of pieces of video art, some of them beautifully filmed and directed. It also borrows a lot from the films built out of short stories with some connecting feature between them, in this case it’s Paris (the landscape of the City of Lights is present in many scenes but plays a major role only in one) and of course, the principal actor, the wonderful Denis Lavant. What is striking and different however is the fact that the connecting story has a logic of itself and the actor who is present in all pieces gets slowly a life of himself which becomes as the movie advances the connecting and convincing story. And then we have the quality of the short stories, some constricted to a few minutes of dialogs, but which are so well written that we know at the end more about the characters than after other full movies.

 

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076220/

source http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076220/

 

Monsieur Oscar (Lavant) is some kind of an actor who is driven in a luxury limousine by a stylish driver (Edith Scob) and who descends in different points of the city not only disguised, but actually to live fragments of other peoples lives – a beggar, a killer, a tramp kidnapping a model during a photography session, a father taking his daughter home from her first teenage party, a stuntman for action games graphics, etc. The convention is built in a wonderful manner by director Leos Carax and has more than one layer – we have a cinema hall where semi-frozen audiences watch old silent movies, we have the actor disguising, putting on and taking off masks, and we have the limousine which seems to play the role of the preparing cabin for the actors in the endless performance of life. We shall learn towards the end of the film that the limousine is only one instances of the many limousines who carry the many actors who play these performances.

 

(video source movieclipsTRAILERS)

 

But are they really only actors? Each of the acts seem to leave a mark on Monsieur Oscar, he is not only tired by a long day at work and by a schedule which is kept rigorously like the schedule of a busy businessman, he does eventually get a human dimension of his own. This beautiful film does not provide all the answers, but asks many questions which continue to accompany the viewers after its final scene.

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rewind on Star Trek (Film: Star Trek, J. J. Abrams – 2009)

As everybody is bracing for the second series of the new Star Trek series, I realized this is the right moment to see the first episode which somehow I missed a few years ago. I am a fan of the Star Trek TV series and movies, so there were little chances for me not to like this film. The passing of the torch from Gene Roddenberry who created the original series to J.J. Abrams makes a lot of sense to me, as I see in Abrams the successor of Roddenberry in creating science-fiction which keeps the right balance between science and fiction while adding human and in the best moments philosophical meanings to the action on screen, with an universal message that while the Universe may be infinite and the borders of knowledge just expect to be pushed further and further, the basic values that govern this Universe are the same, whatever form they wear.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/

 

The story in this first series of Star Trek is a prequel to where the original series started in the 60s. Same as George Lucas did with Star Wars, we are being brought to an earlier phase of the conflict between the Federation and the Romulans, and we get to know all the familiar characters of the original series at an earlier age. Rigorous science was never the strong point of Star Trek, one accepts the conventions in order to enjoy the show, so the space travel as well as hint of alternate universes Abrams likes is used here as well, and it’s not necessary to analyze it too closely to find some flaws. What counts is however the way the young actors build their characters and how they drive them towards becoming what we know that they will be in the series that began back in the 60s. The effects around are pretty standard for the space wars kind of movies, and the old tricks like the ‘transporter’ have kind of a ‘retro’ look. Here lies actually part of the charm of this film, and this balances to some extent the ‘teens on space ships’ moments, or even the ‘intergalactic sex’ scene (yes, there is one, not too explicit, do not worry).

 

(video source muiemanelistilor)

 

The presence of Leonard Nimoy as old Mr. Spock living thanks to some time travel tricks to meet his young self played by Zachary Quinto ensures continuity and connects well with the older TV series. Young captain Kirk is played by Chris Pine and I probably need to wait for the next series to see how he evolves into the character of Kirk as I remember him. A few good actors I know from TV series (Karl Urban, John Cho) add good supporting acting to the cast. Reasonable action combines well with nostalgia, but this combustible is already burnt out completely in the first episode. I hope that the coming series will find something new and interesting that speaks not only to the captive audiences like myself but also to the broader ones who were less exposed to large doses of the older Star Trek series and movies.

 

 

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somnul decentei naste monstri (Carte: Doina Rusti – Mamica la doua albastrele)

Felul in care este scrisa ‘Mamica la doua albastrele’ are multe elemente din romanele ‘de tensiune’. Aproape ca as putea spune ca aceasta carte a Doinei Rusti aparuta in colectia “Ego.Proza” a editurii Polirom, 2013 si-ar putea gasi locul si in rafturile dedicate genurilor ‘horror’. Elementele determinante ale persoanelor si date cheie despre trecutul lor ne sunt descoperite treptat, modul in care  sunt tranmise cititorilor face ca atitudinea acestora fata de personaje sa se schimbe pe masura ce avanseaza in lectura, si este comisa la un moment dat o crima al carei autor este dezvaluit doar in ultima pagina a cartii.  ‘Horror’-ul acestei carti este constituit insa dintr-o materie putin diferita de cea obisnuita a romanelor genului. El este mediul social corupt si vulgarizat al societatii romanesti din deceniile dinainte si de dupa 1989, degradarea relatiilor umane, pierderea valorilor si lipsa oricarei perspective reale de mai bine in viitor. Este somnul decentei care naste monstri.

Primele 10-15 din cele 80 de capitole scurte de 2-3 pagini care compun cartea introduc personajele principale, produse tipice ale clasei mijlocii bucurestene. None Bulgaru este operator de televiziune si traieste o viata tipic plafonata, cu ceva deasupra liniei de plutire, ca multi altii. Este casatorit cu Flori, asistenta medicala intr-un mare spital bucurestean, locuieste impreuna cu mama sa Geta care aflam ca i-a crescut pe None si pe Iuliana (sora plecata de multi ani la munca in Spania si stabilita acolo fara sanse de intoarcere) ca mama singura dupa ce familia fusese abandonata de tata pe la inceputul anilor 80. Perechea are o fetita in pragul intrarii la scoala primara despre care vom afla mai tarziu ca este adoptata, si care pare a fi tipul copilului alintat din cauza neglijentei parintilor prea ocupati cu ei insisi si a limitarii acestora. O domnisoara Goe cu telefon mobil, laptop si cont fictiv pe Facebook. Chiar si legatura extraconjugala cu cantareata Li Zeta pe care None o cunoaste in timpul filmarii unui interviu este coplesita de aceeasi mediocritate, este mai mult o incercare de evadare din propria plictiseala si limitare, esuata si in comunicare, si sentimental, si sexual.

 

sursa www.elefant.ro

sursa www.elefant.ro

 

Doina Rusti a dorit sa-si implanteze romanul in stricta actualitate si pentru a realiza acest efect a inserat la fiecare cateva capitole ale naratiunii care un episod care il descrie pe premierul Victor Ponta conversand internetic cu o sustinatoare anonima care semneaza ‘mamica la doua albastrele’ pe fundalul evenimentelor politice romanesti din a doua jumatate a anului 2012. Pentru mine aceasta gaselnita scriitoriceasca a functionat destul de bine, ea largind contextul actiunii si dand celor ce se intampla in carte si o tenta politica, dar pariul s-ar putea sa devina riscant pe termen lung, caci in cativa ani probabil ca putina lume isi va mai aminti despre evenimentele anului 2012 si desigur nu cu aceeasi acuitate.

Dezvoltarea actiunii si a personajelor rezerva destul de multe surprize cititorilor. Niciunul dintre eroi nu este exact ceea ce pare la inceputul cartii, si nici trecutul care se dezvaluie treptat nu numai cititorilor ci si personajului principal nu este cel care parea sa fie la prima relatare. Daca ar fi sa generalizam putin ‘Mamica la doua albastrele’ poate fi citita si ca povestea imploziei unei celule familiale care era construita pe aparente si lipsita de liantul emotional care sa o poata sa faca fata presiunilor unei lumi care din multe puncte de vedere a luat-o razna. Daca actiunea primei parti a cartii se desfasoara in mare parte in spatiul unui apartament de bloc bucurestean dintre cele mai banale, sfarsitul cartii nu ii va mai gasi pe niciunul dintre eroi in acelasi loc. Niciunul dintre eroii care supravietuiesc vreau sa zic …

 

sursa - Doina Rusti

sursa – Doina Rusti

 

Comunicarea internetica pare sa fi luat in mare masura locul comunicarii umane in lumea in care traiesc personajele cartii Doinei Rusti. Acestea isi petrec o mare parte a timpului butonand telefoane inteligente si laptopuri, iar sentimentele se exprima nu atat prin dialog cat prin SMS-uri sau postari pe Facebook si pe blogurile personale. Acest gen de comunicare este insotit de toate pericolele specifice mediei, de la mascaradele sau indrazneala extrema ascunse in spatele anonimitatii, trecand prin intelegerea gresita a mesajelor datorita distorsionarii cauzate de mesageria de text lipsita de limbajul insotitor al semnelor si gesturilor din comunicarea directa, si pana la accesul (interzis prin lege, dar cine controleaza …) al copiilor la continut indecent. Toate personajele sufera de pe urma acestei mis-comunicari internetice, de la prescolara Carina pana la  primul-ministru. Este una dintre primele carti din literatura romana in care pericolele comunicarii pe net sunt puse in evidenta in mod aproape explicit, si in mod sigur vor urma si altele.

Daca este un personaj putin neglijat in cartea Doinei Rusti el este cel al fetitei adoptate de cuplul None-Flori. Cred ca prima intrebare pe care i-as pune-o autoarei daca as avea sansa sa o intalnesc sau sa-i pun intrebari pentru un interviu ar fi ‘Ce credeti ca se va intampla cu Carina dupa sfarsitul acestei carti?’. Aproape ca intr-un film al lui Polanski fetita inocenta se dovedeste a fi aproape un monstru, dar cine este de vina pentru asta? Acesta ar putea fi subiectul unei viitoare carti a excelentei prozatoare.

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the distructive power of love (Film: Pozitia copilului – Calin Peter Netzer, 2013)

With Pozitia Copilului (Child’s Pose)  the Romanian cinema seems to complete a cycle that started almost a decade ago with Moartea Domnului Lazarescu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu). The path was marked by a number of prizes at important cinema festivals around the world, with the first candidacy of a Romanian film for an Academy Award, but more important by the recognition by viewers that Romania is one of the locations where some of the most interesting movies come from, and that a specific style, a consistent set of themes, and a typology of characters combine to make the Romanian cinema distinct from other film schools. It did help that many of the actors in these films are constant collaborators of the leading directors of the ‘wave’, some of them becoming familiar faces to world cinema spectators. Luminita Gheorghiu and Bogdan Dumitrache – the lead actors here – acted also in Moartea Domnului Lazarescu, while Vlad Ivanov was the evil figure in 4,3,2.

 

sursa www.imdb.com/title/tt2187115/

sursa www.imdb.com/title/tt2187115/

 

As many of the good Romanian films in this period Calin Peter Netzer‘s movie can be seen and interpreted at multiple layers. One of them is composed of the social realities of Romania more than two decades after the fall of the communism. Class disparities are more obvious than in other places and contrast with the forced (and false) egalitarianism that dominated the Romanian society for most of the second half of the 20th century. The introductory scenes build for the viewer the context of the relations of the mid-upper class where the main heroes belong, with bourgeois occupations and family crisis, stylish social events and opera master classes. The obsessive relationship between the dominant mother and the spoiled son who seems to behave like an ingrate brute defines the second layer, the one of the personal relations between the characters. When the road accident that turns the world of the heroes upside down happens, the heroes will be obliged to make contact with the other Romania, the one of the pauper country people, with course manners but maybe with more character and moral strength. The system of relations and corruption is immediately put in motion by the mother, trying to protect her son and make him avoid the consequences of his behavior – a social comment about today’s Romania which does not go lost neither for the Romanian nor for the foreign viewer. While this part is more clearly cut, there is no moral judgment made on the rest of the relations, and this is a smart choice made by the director.

 

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

(video source megatrailer)

 

The rest is left to the actors and they are simply said wonderful. Luminita Gheorghiu as the possessive mother and Bogdan Dumitrache as the traumatized son who makes all the wrong moves at the wrong moments in order to cut-off the invisible umbilical cord  play one of the most meaningful and highly charged mother-son relationships that I have seen lately. Most of the actors in the supporting cast give sincere and expressive performances, which I would rather describe not as acting but as living their roles. A few memorable scenes (the master class at the beginning and the final scene of the confrontation with the family of the kid killed in the accident) may live in the memory of the viewers even longer than the rest of the film. Dealing with a subject that could have easily turned into melodrama or soap opera Pozitia Copilului succeeds to make a sharp social comment that works well with the more universal story of a suffocating love which is touched by miscommunication and tragedy.

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O lectura socanta (Carte: Horia Bozdoghina – Antisemitismul lui A.C.Cuza in politica romaneasca)

Marturisesc ca am fost socat in multe momente ale lecturii cartii istoricului clujean Horia Bozdoghina ‘Antisemitismul lui A.C.Cuza in politica romaneasca’ aparuta la Editura Curtea Veche in colectia ‘Istorie si politica’. Istoria antisemitismului romanesc este departe de a-mi fi straina, am invatat-o si in mare masura am trait-o din experienta si povestirile familiei mele, iar in ultimele decenii am avut ocazia sa citesc cateva carti de referinta in domeniu si in primul rand ‘Imaginea evreului in cultura romana’, de fapt o adevarata istorie a antisemitismului romanesc scrisa de Andrei Oisteanu. Horia Bozdoghina se ocupa in aceasta carte de una dintre figurile marcante ale antisemitismului politic si cultural romanesc din ultimul deceniu al secolului 19 si primele decenii ale secolului 20 – A.C.Cuza – si tocmai restrangerea si focalizarea cercetarii asupra unui singur personaj face si mai flagranta virulenta activitatii sale politice, nocivitatea conceptiilor si consecintele nefaste ale actiunilor sale. Volumul – prefatat de Radu Ioanid – apare sub egida Institutului National pentru Studierea Holocaustului din Romania “Elie Wiesel” si autorul are in bibliografie inca doua studii dedicate personalitatilor dreptei nationaliste romanesti – unul despre Nicolae Iorga si altul (scris in colaborare) despre polemica din jurul ‘cazului Paulescu’.

Ceea ce imi lipsea din cunostinte, in afara de virulenta limbajului si extremismul dus pana la absurd al conceptiilor pe care le dezvaluie aceasta carte este caracterul de precursor al antisemitismului romanesc.

‘Acuzat ca ar fi fost influentat de nazisti si ca ar fi imitat politica nazistilor in Romania, A.C.Cuza a negat vehement aceste invinuiri. El declara, la 28 noiembrie 1936, urmatoarele: “S-a spus ca noi am imitat pe Hitler. Un singur fapt am sa relev, anume ca eu am scris primul meu studiu, <Generatia de la 48 si Era Noua> in februarie 1889, iar Hitler s-a nascut in acelasi an, dar la 20 aprilie; presupun ca nu aveam ce sa luam de la dansul ca doctrina. Nu, domnilor, noi suntem premergatorii lui Adolf Hitler, pentru ca am venit cum am aratat, de la 1889, cand el abia se nascuse.” (pag. 199)

Adeptii protocronismului mai pot adauga o realizare romaneasca listelor lor! Studiul lui Horia Bozdoghina scoate in evidenta inceputurile socialiste si junimiste ale tanarului doctor in drept si in stiinte politice la prestigioase universitati franceze si belgiene, intors in ultimele decenii ale secolului 19 in Iasi, si alunecat in scurta vreme pe panta explicatiilor simpliste si aberante pe care antisemitismul le furniza problemelor reale ale Romaniei in constructie. In 1895 A.C.Cuza pune chiar bazele unei Aliante Antisemite Internationale impreuna cu Nicolae Iorga, dand o dimensiune internationala activitatii sale politice antisemite. Pe plan national colaborarea cu Nicolae Iorga va dura pana la primul razboi mondial, cei doi constituind si conducand Partidul National-Democrat, care il aduce pentru prima data pe A.C.Cuza si in Parlamentul Romaniei. Drumurile politice ale lui Cuza si Iorga se vor desparti dupa Marea Unire si dupa razboi, Iorga moderandu-si pozitiile antisemite si pledand pentru asocierea Romaniei cu puterile democrate occidentale, care in viziunea sa erau mai probabil sa sustina cauza integritatii frontierelor Romaniei Mari. Sirul asocierilor lui A.C.Cuza nu se va opri insa aici, printre tovarasii sai de drum se vor afla de-a lungul timpului generalul Averescu, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Nechifor Crainc, si in partea finala a carierei sale politice Octavian Goga. A.C.Cuza a fost profesor universitar, membru al Academiei Romane, iar la implinirea varstei de 80 de ani, majoritatea intelectualitatii romanesti si conducerea bisericii ortodoxe i-au adus elogii pentru o activitate si o ‘opera’ compusa in cea mai mare parte din manifestari si scrieri antisemite.

 

sursa http://www.curteaveche.ro/antisemitismul-lui-a-c-cuza-in-politica-romaneasca.html

sursa http://www.curteaveche.ro/antisemitismul-lui-a-c-cuza-in-politica-romaneasca.html

 

Inca un element de surpriza pentru mine: Daca in zilele noastre – de fapt in perioada de dupa Holocaust – insusi cuvintele ‘antisemitism’ sau ‘antisemit’ sunt considerate incriminante nu asa stateau lucrurile in perioada in care a activat A.C.Cuza.

“El isi definea antisemitismul ca pe o misiune stiintifica si politica. Pentru el, evreii devenisera problema esentiala a civilizatiei romanesti. Ca profesor la catedra de Economie Politica a Universitatii din Iasi, cursurile sale erau imbacsite de antisemitism.”
(pag. 50)

Limbajul folosit de A.C.Cuza folosea in mod curent termenul ‘jidan’. Programele sale politice s-au ocupat in mod consecvent de-a lungul a mai multor decenii de ‘problema jidaneasca’. Fie ca este vorba despre Partidul National-Democrat de dinaintea primului razboi mondial, despre Liga Apararii National Crestine din perioada interbelica sau despre Partidul National-Crestin format impreuna cu Goga la sfarsitul acestei perioade, programele politice cuprindeau prevederi cum ar fi “expulzarea evreilor din sate, unde nu au dreptul sa locuiasca, excluderea evreilor din armata, eliminarea evreilor din presa romaneasca, exluderea evreilor din toate functiile, …’ (pag. 39) si asta intr-o prima faza. Faza urmatoare includea expulzarea evreilor din Romania in … Madagascar “pentru ca Madagascarul este o insula. Si-i vom putea supraveghea mai usor pe jidani sa nu mai iasa din hotarele ei.” (pag. 219)

Cartea lui Horia Bozdoghina dedica doua capitole pretentiilor de teorie stiintifica ale antisemitismului lui Cuza si componentei sale religioase. In prezentarea antisemitismului ca pe o stiinta A.C.Cuza l-a avut partener pe savantul Nicolae C. Paulescu, atins si el de virusul antisemitismului. ‘Stiinta antisemitismului’ incropita de acestia nu este altceva decat un amestec de aberatii rasiale, statistici deformate, interpretari de tipologie si istorice rauvoitoare si lipsite de baza. Componenta religioasa este si mai ridicola negand originile istorice evreiesti ale crestinismului si identitatea evreiasca a lui Iisus si propunand nici mai mult nici mai putin decat o reforma a crestinismului care sa scoata Vechiul Testament (‘jidanesc’) din randul cartilor sfinte, precum si invataturile apostolilor care amintesc originea iudaica a lui Iisus. Iudaismul este ‘analizat’ si rastamacit de A.C.Cuza, i se neaga esenta monoteista si i se atribuie elemente satanice. Trebuie mentionat ca o parte din clerul ortodox al vremii a combatut aceste aberatii cu tenta de erezie, dar au fost si destui care le-au sustinut sau le-au tolerat, nu intre cei din urma patriarhul Miron Cristea, ajuns prim-ministru in perioada dictaturii regale.

Sunt urmarite in mod detaliat in carte activitatile politice ale lui A.C.Cuza atat in perioada de dinainte de Marea Unire cat si in cea interbelica. Sunt descrise programele diferitelor formatii politice pe care acesta le-a intemeiat si le-a condus, ceea ce doar pune in evidenta consecventa virulenta a antisemitismului care a stat la baza tuturor. Negarea drepturilor politice si economice ale evreilor, refuzul acordarii cetateniei inainte de razboi si anularea cetateniei evreilor dupa razboi, adoptarea de masuri discriminatorii anti-evreiesti in toate domeniile vietii economice, sociale, culturale, si in final cererea de expulzare a evreilor din Romania revin in mod obsesiv in toate aceste programe politice. Sunt descrise in detaliu si rezultatele obtinute de aceste partide in alegerile din cele doua perioade. Este dupa parerea mea o nota de onoare pentru electoratul romanesc faptul ca in niciuna dintre cele doua perioade partidele extremiste nationaliste si antisemite conduse de A.C.Cuza nu au obtinut un procentaj semnificativ in alegeri democratice. Daca ne uitam la simpatia si colaborarea de care s-a bucurat A.C.Cuza in cercuri largi ale intelectualitatii romanesti putem spune ca electoratul a reactionat in mod mai sanatos decat varfurile intelectualitatii la virusul antisemitismului. Partidele lui Cuza au obtinut sub 5% din voturi in majoritatea alegerilor din Romania burgheza-democrata, ceea ce a dus ca in unele perioade sa fie chiar excluse de la reprezentarea parlamentara.

Chiar si cand au fost adusi la putere de catre Carol al II-lea in decembrie 1937 adeptii lui Cuza uniti cu cei ai lui Goga nu obtinusera nici macar 10% din voturile electoratului, asta in perioada ascensiunii fasciste si naziste in Europa, si in conditiile unei crize politice in care actiunile violente ale legionarilor si ‘lancerilor’ lui Cuza aveau darul sa intimideze si sa influenteze opinia publica din Romania. Un element informativ extrem de interesant este dezvaluirea legaturilor dintre partidul lui Cuza si partidul nazist german, care vedea in el un aliat si un agent in Romania. Venirea la putere a guvernului Goga-Cuza a durat numai 44 de zile dar a avut o influenta nefasta in toata evolutia politica a situatiei din Romania. Primele legi adoptate au pus imediat in aplicare programul antisemit al lui Cuza – au fost exclusi ziaristii evrei din presa si au fost inchise cateva dintre ziarele opuse guvernului, a fost revocata cetatenia romana evreilor care o primisera dupa primul razboi mondial. Antisemitismul a devenit in Romania politica de stat, si aceasta situatie avea sa continue pana la 23 august 1944. Pe drum Romania isi va reorienta politica externa de la statele democrate europene spre Axa, va pierde o parte din teritoriile Romaniei Mari si va fi angrenata in al doilea razboi mondial alaturi de Germania nazista. Odata cu instaurarea completa a dictaturii regale si apoi a celei antonesciene se incheie si cariera politica a lui A.C.Cuza, construita in mod paradoxal pe democratia pluralista pe care a facut atata in practica pentru a o submina.

Am citit cartea lui Horia Bozdoghina pe nerasuflate. Este o lectura pasionanta care traseaza portretul si cariera unui politician cu idei brutale si nefaste care a avut o influenta negativa asupra istoriei romanesti. In acelasi timp cartea este bine documentata, cu citate si referinte permanente care sustin majoritatea afirmatiilor. Unele repetitii puteau fi evitate, si poate ca ar fi ajutat si cateva ilustratii. O editie ulterioara, poate accesibila unui public mai larg, poate va contine unele imbunatatiri. Inainte de toate este insa o lectura necesara pe care o recomand tuturor celor care doresc sa cunoasca evenimentele istoriei romanesti din prima parte a veacului trecut, evenimente care au implicatii si repercusiuni pana in zilele noastre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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a straight backward film (Film: 5×2 – Francois Ozon, 2004)

Having liked the last film of Francois Ozon (‘Dans la maison‘) as well as some of his previous work I jumped on the opportunity of seeing one of his earlier works screened at the local cinematheque. ‘5×2’ is based on an interesting idea – telling the story of a relationship in five episodes backwards, from its breaking in divorce to the moment of the ignition, although the idea was not completely new by 2004 when the film was made, as Christopher Nolan‘s Memento was made in 2000 and Gaspar Noe‘s Irreversible in 2002. Although Noe’s film was also telling the story of a relationship, both predecessors were much more violent films. I almost have the feeling that Francois Ozon tried to experiment the same technique of story telling and picked on purpose a quite banal relationship story, broke it into episodes and told it a la reverse, experimenting with the output. Can a director tell a nicer and softer story this way? Will it gain in interest? Will the perspective change because of the story telling technique?

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt0354356/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt0354356/

 

The answer to the last question is ‘somehow, yes’. The story of the eventually failed relation between Marion (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and Gilles (Stephane Freiss) has nothing extraordinary by itself, it’s a rather banal encounter of mid-class professionals, they fall for each other, they marry, they have a child, betrayals and occasional sex games throw some ambiguity in their lives, the parents may or may not influence the couple, and eventually the marriage does not hold, as half of the marriages facing similar crisis do not hold, while the other half do.  The technique of telling the story changes the pace – by making us anticipate what happened BEFORE and not AFTER, after we realize the trick – and the eventual feeling – by telling us the first encounter last the ultimate impression is positive, despite the fact that as viewers we know that in the real logic of time the story does not end well. The director however decided here to reverse time and by doing this, the happy beginning turned into some kind of a happy end.

 

(video source ZahranicniTrailery)

 

Good acting supports the director’s intention. Both lead actors are credible, they play in a sincere and direct manner, and I suspect that if I had seen the variant where time runs normally (actually Ozon made such a variant) I would have been slightly disappointed. ‘5×2’ is an apparently simple exercise in story-telling which is smarter than it first seems.

 

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J.J.Abrams’ ‘Fringe’

I do not have too much time for TV series, so I watch less than a handful of them each season. J.J.Abrams is one of the producers I follow and I try not to miss the series created by him. For most of the time I was captivated by Lost, and I was disappointed when Alcatraz was discontinued. Now another one comes to its end, and although Fringe was far from Abrams’ best, it had enough reasons for me to follow it weekly during all its five seasons.

 

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1119644/

source www.imdb.com/title/tt1119644/

 

 

I am wondering whether how J.J. Abrams conceives his series. Lost started like a fictional version of reality show Survivor, to slide soon into science-fiction and then expand into cosmological saga, and this is where it started to lose me. Did J.J. plan this from start? To some extent Fringe followed a similar path. It started as a science-fiction and strange events investigation series, it included even political and anti-corporate messages which got lost in time, and many compared it with X-Files. I personally would have considered this the supreme praise, as X-Files is my preferred TV series of all times. It certainly had its oddities, and its funny science, but this was to some point an element of charm. In the second and third season the science fiction threads became more complex, with the alternate worlds and the communication between them succeeding to keep my interest awake. The romantic thread started or was predictable from the beginning, and it only became more complex in time with the addition of the different instances of the characters in other universes. With time travel an ubiquitous technology the last two seasons projected us in the future, and the salvation of mankind became again the goal of the action. Here I got against lost. Beyond the lack of credibility of the story, the thought that characters I became familiar and resonate with have to save mankind makes me slightly uncomfortable.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzb3zMWLgsY

(video source Jack Smith)

 

There are however many good reason I loved and watched this show for five years. First of all the retro atmosphere was fun and I could resonate with. Semi-crazy scientist Walter Bishop (John Noble) exits after almost two decades spent in a mental institution at the beginning of the series, and his retro leanings cover not only science, but also candies and ‘substances’, and the music and the feelings of my younger years. The relation between Walter and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) is one of the most amazing relationships father-son that I have seen on screen or read in literature ever. The love story between Peter and Olivia (Anna Torv) builds slowly but convincingly, and makes us resonate with them. A few more characters around are well constructed, and even the ‘invaders’ have a dimension of their own (I cannot call it human, can I?). Overall the characters are much better than the stories which are pretty routine action, and the simplicity and straightness of the relations between them balances the pomposity and sometimes the over-morality of the action. It’s one of these shows where I would rather remember the small details than the big picture.

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