Darren Aronofsky is accustomed to surprise us. Starting with his directorial debut with ‘Pi’, going through the exceptional ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and ‘Black Swan’ to ‘The Whale’, including a few failures along the way, always original and uncomfortable. His latest film, ‘Caught Stealing‘ (2025) written by Charlie Huston who adapted his own novel for the screen, surprises precisely because … it doesn’t surprise. The film seems to be inspired by the creations of the Coen brothers or Tarantino, themselves innovative and different filmmakers from one film to another, but the feeling of ‘déjà vu’ cannot be avoided.
The hero of the film is Hank Thompson, a former baseball player whose career was interrupted by a car accident that comes back to haunt him in nightmares, an accident in which he lost not only his physical abilities but also his best friend. The relationship with Yvonne, an emergency services paramedic, seems like a chance for him to recover and to get rid of alcoholism. A neighbor leaves his cat in his care during a hasty departure to London to take care of his sick father. What follows will completely change the life of the film’s hero and will end the lives of many around him. The friend’s departure was perhaps an escape, gangs of murderous criminals and corrupt police officers are at war in search of a large sum of money whose (real) key is somewhere in the neighbor’s apartment. The feline will play an important role in the story.
The script is written pacely and something surprising always happens, but the story itself is not the most successful part of the film. The characters are interesting, they evolve and offer interesting facets even when they take on stereotypes. The atmosphere of southern Manhattan in 1998 is very well rendered, a few years before it turned into a rich bohemian area and with the twin towers still dominating the landscape. Austin Butler shines in the lead role, creating a complex character, who at the end of the film is completely different from the one at the beginning. The entire cast does its job with professionalism, highlighting the story with pace and surprises, and the black humor that makes this quite violent film funny at the same time. The cat deserves the not yet defined Academy Award for the four-legged actors. The only element that was missing was the originality that we expected from a Darren Aronofsky film, but that does not mean that ‘Caught Stealing‘ is not a very successful entertainment.
‘Weapons‘ belongs to a genre of cinema that is not at all among my favorites. The story could very well have been inspired by a novel by Stephen King, but it is actually an original script written by director Zach Cregger, on his second attempt as a screenwriter and director in the ‘horror’ genre. There is also some witchcraft mixed into the story, but what I dislike the most is the fact that children are involved in the story. Movies with this kind of mixture have to be very good to like them. Well, ‘Weapons‘ is very good and I liked it.
The action of the film reminded me of several television mini-series, including the excellent French production ‘Les revenants’. In a small town in deep America, one night at 2:17, 17 children disappear. They are all from the same class, Mrs. Justine’s. Only one little boy named Alex does not disappear. Alex and Justine are investigated by the police, who fail to find any logical thread that can clarify the situation. In the absence of explanations, the suspicions of the parents and the other inhabitants of the town turn to Justine. The lonely woman has her own problems, but she does not seem to be involved. The narrative evolves non-linearly, the points of view of the narrators change, from Justine and Alex to one of the police officers investigating the case, to the school principal, to a drugged tramp who happens to be in the vicinity and to Archer, the father of one of the missing children. As the narrative progresses and the different perspectives offer new clues, the explanations become increasingly unsettling and implausible.
The narrative that is completed from different perspectives is already a classic procedure. Kurosawa, Ridley Scott or Gus Van Sant have used it. Zach Gregger uses it intelligently and builds a story that makes sense provided you accept the conventions of the cinematic genre. The introduction is excellent, it creates tension and expectations. The development introduces the main theme (which I will not reveal) and does it effectively. The last part exposes the solution, and here I was a little disappointed, as if from such an intelligent narrative I expected a slightly more complex solution. Julia Garner is excellent in the main role of the teacher, and Josh Brolin does what he does best. This film brings the psychological horror thriller back to the attention of the audience. Cell phones aside, ‘Weapons‘ could have been produced in the ’70s or ’80s. It was made now and brought back to life a genre that has not produced many quality films in recent decades.
Either I haven’t seen or I don’t remember seeing ‘The War of the Roses’, the 1989 film that was the first screen adaptation of Warren Adler‘s novel, starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, so I can’t contribute with anything to the discussions about the opportunity of the remake called ‘The Roses‘, with a script written by Tony McNamara and starring two of the best or among the best British actors today – Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. So I will only be able to say about what I saw, which is a sparkling and witty comedy, with brilliant dialogues in many moments, about a couple in which the partners love each other so much that they end up hating each other to death, leading their marriage to a divorce extreme in every way. It is a film in which the actors and the quality of the text manage to overcome the predictability of the relationship that is exposed to us on the screen, and in which the couples who love each other and live happily ever after and those who have loved each other and broken up have a good chance of recognizing themselves to the same extent. The director is Jay Roach, with a fame built up from the Austin Powers comedies but also from the more serious ‘Bombshell’.
Theo is an architect on the rise, Ivy is a chef. Both are top-notch professionals, ambitious and passionate about their jobs. They meet in London a moment before she leaves for the United States, experience a ‘coup de foudre’ and decide to leave together. Ten years later we find them installed on the shores of California. He is already quite famous and is preparing the inauguration of the avant-garde building of a museum on the oceanfront. She runs a small seafood restaurant, which is not very successful, but which leaves her enough time to take care of her two twins, a boy and a girl. Fate decides that things will happen differently than planned. An unusually intense storm destroys the building designed by Theo, but – due to the road closures – brings ‘captive’ customers to Ivy’s restaurant. Among them is an influential food critic, who writes a laudatory article and launches the chef’s national career. Theo’s bad luck coincides with Ivy’s good luck. She will now be busy bringing money into the house, while he will dedicate time to the children, transforming them into champions of sports and healthy eating. These changes slowly crack what seemed to be a perfect marriage. The villa that Theo had designed for the family becomes the setting and the main object of discord. The intensity of hatred grows and ends up competing with that of love. Which of the two sentiments will prevail?
‘The Roses‘ will satisfy many categories of viewers. Serious themes such as the reality of gender inequality even in the most liberal professional environments in today’s world or the balance between life and profession in our hectic and competitive society are treated relaxedly and with humor. I was especially pleased by the presence of the two main protagonists, who manage to be sparkling, witty and funny both separately and especially together. I also noticed Kate McKinnon in the risky role of a hilariously annoying girl. The script can be criticized for heading towards a somewhat predictable romantic comedy ending, but I still recommend that viewers wait for very the last scene before giving a verdict in this regard. The excellent trailer was a promise that ‘The Roses‘ would be the best comedy of the summer. It wasn’t exactly like that, but it is certainly a film worth seeing.
Tudor Platon is part of the select club of filmmakers who seem to have spent their childhood with a camera in their hands, and who thus had the opportunity very early on to film the world and the people around them. Naturally, their families became the main characters in the filmed and accumulated materials. In a discussion with the audience, the director and cameraman, who is known today, confessed that he had over two hundred hours of filmed material at his disposal from which he selected and structured ‘O familie aproape perfecta‘ – an original documentary in which the main heroes are his parents, his girlfriend who became the mother of their first child (Carla Fotea, who is also one of the film’s producers) and the director himself. We are therefore dealing with a family documentary, a sub-genre that has recently gained popularity in world and Romanian cinema (‘Tata’ by Radu Ciorniciuc and Lina Vdovii was produced around the same time).
Among the first sequences of the film is an episode filmed with an amateur camera many years ago. Tudor’s parents are at a party. The children ask them to kiss, ‘as a memory’. They do so, with great restraint, briefly and without tenderness. Something already seems not to be working in their relationship, so the following episodes, closer to the present, which describe their decision to separate or at least to live separately after 30 years of marriage, do not come as a surprise. Tudor and Carla are then at the beginning of their relationship. They are of a different generation, communicate much more, try to discuss problems, although words are not easily spoken even between them. As the parents move away and build their separate universes, the young people get closer. We witness a marriage (or a long-term relationship) proposal. Next comes the pregnancy, the first child, the first depressions and crises that they hope to overcome and overcome differently than the generation before them.
The film is built from dialogues and silences that flow smoothly, seemingly without a script or directorial intervention. And yet, upon careful analysis, questions cannot be avoided. The very presence of the cameras changes the way those in the lens behave. How did the child’s hobby influence family life and how intimate can a filmed intimacy be? The parents’ confessions shed light on how the nature and family atmosphere in which they were raised influenced their lives and their own family relationships. Each generation has set out to be different from the previous one, to learn from the mistakes of their parents, but is this always possible? The characters are looking for alternatives, ways to escape from a closed system of relationships, self-knowledge through faith, through esoteric spiritual searches, through the experience of motherhood and fatherhood. The film flows slowly, emotionally charged scenes alternate with those with symbolic value and there is enough time for the audience to put their ideas in order, but also to formulate questions. I don’t know exactly what audience the film is aimed at, but those who choose to see it will have a unique experience.
Am făcut parte din generația a cărei copilărie a fost lipsită de LEGO. Jocul nu era importat în România comunistă. A fost, de altfel, distribuit foarte puțin în Europa de Răsărit înainte de 1989. Se oprea sau era oprit undeva la Cortina de Fier până în ultimii ani de existență a regimurilor comuniste. Am avut șansa să mă joc însă cu Meccano, concurenții britanici din metal și cu șuruburi ai lui LEGO, asta deoarece tata prinsese pe la sfârșitul anilor ’50 o călătorie de lucru (‘delegație’) în Cehoslovacia unde acel joc putea fi cumpărat. Când am trecut Cortina și copiii mei au ajuns la vârsta de joacă, seturile LEGO (și varianta DUPLO pentru cei mai mici) au fost printre primele lor jucării. S-au îndrăgostit de ele, au crescut cu ele, au continuat să se joace construind și creând, au transmis pasiunea și copiilor lor care sunt nepoții noștri atunci când aceștia au venit pe lume. Și m-au molipsit și pe mine. Trăim deci și noi în Imperiul LEGO.
‘LEGO: istoria unei afaceri de familie’, apărută în 2023 în colecția ‘Biblioteca RAO’ a editurii RAO, este o istorie oficială sau în orice caz autorizată și scrisă cu colaborarea familiei fondatoare a firmei LEGO. Autorul este Jens Andersen, născut în 1955, un autor danez specializat în biografii. Printre alte cărți ale sale găsim volume dedicate membrilor marcanți ai casei regale daneze sau scriitorilor celebri din spațiul scandinav cum ar fi Hans Christian Andersen sau Astrid Lindgren. Traducerea cărții, apărute în prima sa ediție în 2021, îi aparține Mihaelei Neacșu. Este o carte frumoasă și compactă, ilustrată copios, de o calitate editorială demnă de marca LEGO.
Fiecare dintre cele zece capitole ale cărții acoperă un deceniu din istoria micii afaceri de familie care a devenit într-un secol Imperiul LEGO. La începutul cărții, o ilustrație foarte utilă prezintă o secțiune din arborele genealogic al familiei Kirk Christiansen (ortografie schimbata în timp în Kristiansen), întemeietorii, liderii și proprietarii până astăzi ai firmei. Am revenit de multe ori în timpul lecturii la această pagina, pentru a-mi aminti numele fiecăruia dintre personajele evocate și a situa în timp cele patru generații prezente în diagramă. A cincea, care nu este prezentata grafic, se pregătește în acest deceniu să preia responsabilități în conducerea și operațiile companiei. O parte din text reproduce amintirile membrilor familiei împărtășite autorului și cititorilor, dar în special cele ale lui Kjeld Kirk Kristianen, liderul firmei în a treia generație.
Povestea familiei și a afacerii este strâns legata de localitatea Billund, un cătun care în perioada Primului Război Mondial avea cam o sută de locuitori. Aici s-au stabilit în 1916 tinerii căsătoriți Ole Kirk (1891 – 1958) și Kristine Christiansen. El a întemeiat un atelier de tâmplărie și afacerea a început să meargă destul de bine. Locația geografică era bună, atât pentru producția locală cât și pentru export, Billund fiind de vreo 150 de kilometri de granița cu Germania. Harnic și priceput, Ole Kirk și-a câștigat rapid reputație și clientelă, lucrările sale excelând prin calitatea materialelor și a execuției. În calitate se afla sursa uneia dintre constantele produselor firmei care au stat la baza succesului ei:
‘Materia primă, lemnul de fag, era de calitate superioară. Nu era tăiat înainte de a fi livrat în Billund, unde era curățat și uscat la aer, apoi spălat şi uscat în cuptor. Încă de la începuturile sale, în 1932, LEGO a produs numai jucării de înaltă calitate şi rezistente. Calitatea se vinde singură, era convingerea lui Ole Kirk. După cum suna sloganul unei companii germane, producătoare de ursuleți de pluş, „Când e vorba de copii, doar ce e mai bun este suficient de bun”. (pag. 64)
Priceperea lui Ole Kirk avea să fie reflectată și în felul în care și-a construit atelierul și casa, combinând modernitatea cu eficiența:
‘KJELD: „Într-un fel, bunicul însuşi a proiectat casa. Arhitectul doar i-a urmat instrucțiunile. Știa exact cum voia să arate, dar sigur că a sfârşit prin a fi mult prea mare, chiar şi pentru doi adulți, patru copii şi un număr variabil de meseriaşi care locuiau cu ei. Însă toate proiectele bunicului au fost aşa, întotdeauna. Totul trebuia să fie măreţ şi, mai târziu, el şi tata au avut discuții pe tema asta. Întrucât casa era prea mare, încă de la început, au închiriat primul etaj. La parter, pe lângă încăperea – expoziție, cea care dădea către stradă, mai era un birou şi, în cealaltă parte a casei, o sufragerie, un dormitor şi bucătăria. Casa există şi acum, chiar în mijlocul oraşului, peste drum, în diagonală faţă de LEGO House, şi este nu doar un monument închinat lui Ole Kirk Christiansen şi operei sale, ci şi modelului contemporan de construcție danez.” (pag. 34)
Billund a rămas până astăzi locul unde sunt concentrate sediile principale ale firmei și o parte dintre atelierele în care sunt visate și proiectate liniile de produse viitoare. Legătura dintre firmă și comunitate a fost continuă. Din acest punct de vedere, LEGO este nu doar o afacere de familie ci și un exemplu de firmă care în condițiile capitalismului liberal are o contribuție esențială la dezvoltarea localității și regiunii în care operează. Pe lângă faptul că a creat și asigură în continuare mii de locuri de munca, LEGO a făcut din Billund un reper turistic și a întemeiat aici instituții și obiective care altfel nu ar fi existat, cum ar fi al doilea aeroport ca mărime al Danemarcei după cel din Copenhaga sau Parcul LEGO. Primarul orașului de astăzi este – ca și primarii de acum o sută de ani – primul care primește raportul cu rezultatele și cifrele de afaceri anuale ale companiei. În statutul firmei de astăzi există clauze explicite prin care directorul general poate fi doar danez. În condițiile unei expansiuni globale și în limitele legislației europene, LEGO dorește să păstreze cu mândrie caracterul național danez al afacerii.
Micul atelier de tâmplărie din anii ’20 ai secolului trecut s-a dezvoltat permanent, dar a avut și perioadele sale de încercări, cauzate de condițiile politice și economice exterioare (războaiele, crizele economice) sau de evenimente catastrofale cum ar fi decese în famila Kristiansen sau incendiile care de câteva ori au devastat fabricile și depozitele. Catastrofele și crizele au găsit de fiecare dată răspuns. Inventivitatea și dârzenia de caracter i-au ajutat pe membrii dinastiei Kristiansen să găsească soluții creative și să le transforme cu muncă și pasiune în realitate. Marea criză economică din anii 1929-33 l-au determinat pe Ole Kirk să-și reprofileze afacerea pe confecționarea de jucării, iar condițiile economice nefavorabile de după Al Doilea Război Mondial l-au împins pe liderul și proprietarul firmei să caute alte materii prime și să descopere în materialul plastic destul de rezistent și ușor de fabricat în cantități mari formula ideală pentru produsele sale.
‘La începutul verii anului 1947 însă, a avut loc un eveniment decisiv în istoria LEGO. Un domn pe nume Printz, directorul executiv al companiei Hoffman & Co., cel care îi vânduse lui Ole Kirk maşina Windsor SH, a efectuat o vizită în Billund. Venea din Anglia şi aducea cu el o cutie plină cu nişte cuburi mici din plastic colorat, ca nişte cărămizi, pe care le văzuse la Târgul Industriei Britanice, la Londra. Poate, a sugerat el, LEGO încerca să producă ceva similar, odată ce maşina Windsor ajungea în Danemarca şi era instalată în fabrică?
Ole Kirk a fost vrăjit de cărămizile englezeşti, goale pe interior şi cu cepuri pe exterior. Cu o mână de asemenea piese, orice copil putea imita un zidar adevărat. Totodată, a observat pe loc calitatea superioară a materialului. Plasticul era mult mai rezis- tent decât lemnul şi mult mai igienic, pe lângă că era mai uşor şi mai rapid de produs. Spre deosebire de lemn, plasticul nu trebuia curățat, uscat, frezat, şlefuit, vopsit, lăcuit şi, în cele din urmă, asamblat cu şuruburi, cuie şi etichete. Şi, în vreme ce o bucată de lemn trebuia să treacă prin nenumărate mâini şi etape de prelucrare, plasticul părea făcut pentru producția de masă, rapidă, de către o maşină operată de un singur om.
În fabrică, angajații au băgat de seamă că şeful lor zornăia ceva în buzunar, cu prilejul vizitelor zilnice în ateliere. Orla Jørgensen, de la contabilitate, şi Bernhard Bonde, de la atelier, şi-au amintit că acesta le arătase nişte cărămizi mici, colorate, din plastic. I-a întrebat dacă le considerau potrivite pentru copiii danezi.’ (pag. 104)
Ideea pieselor modulare (‘cărămizile’ LEGO) îmbinate cu cepuri fusese preluată dintr-un brevet britanic, dar acestora li s-au adăugat tuburile interioare care asigură îmbinarea perfecta și rezistența structurală care aparțin mărcii daneze. Metoda a fost brevetată de LEGO în 1958. Cel care avea să dezvolte ideea avea să fie Godtfred, fiul lui Ole Kirk, care preluase pe la mijlocul anilor ’50 conducerea operațiilor:
‘KJELD: „Elementul inovator al Sistemului de Joc LEGO era faptul că, dintr-odată, dispuneai de o gamă largă de articole de construit. Acesta era conceptul de bază al tatei, că sistemul trebuia să fie un ansamblu coerent de elemente care se potrivesc în orice situație. Cărămizi diferite, cumpărate cu seturi diferite, se vor potrivi întotdeauna între ele. Spre bătrânețe, când eu conduceam compania, tata a început să critice faptul că adăugam prea multe elemente. Spunea că ne grăbim şi că invenția lui devenise mult prea diversificată. Voia să ne limităm la cărămidă şi nimic altceva. Aceasta a fost poziția lui încă de la început, în 1955, împreună cu convingerea conform căreia copiii își dezvoltă creativitatea prin intermediul jocurilor de construcție.’ (pag. 135-136)
Cititorii îi vor cunoaște pe rând pe cei patru bărbați care au condus firma de-a lungul a aproximativ un secol de istorie, de la Ole Kirk (1891 – 1958) întemeietorul, continuând cu Godtfred (1920 – 1995) care fusese desemnat de tatăl său drept moștenitor și care a condus firma împreună cu cei trei frați ai săi, urmat de Kjeld (n. 1947) și de fiul său Thomas (n. 1979), care au încercat cariere independente în alte domenii de activitate, revenind după o vreme pentru a contribui la progresul companiei în vremuri nu odată complicate. Studiind profilul psihologic al acestora putem vedea că este vorba despre oameni harnici și talentați, crescuți în spiritul și valorile comunitare și de familie specific protestante și scandinave, dotați cu inventivitate și deschidere față de nou. Cei din primele generații erau auto-didacți, urmașii lor au urmat studii formale, fără însă a excela sau a căuta să urmeze cursurile instituțiilor academice cele mai de prestigiu. Un rol important l-a jucat credința. Ole Kirk făcea parte din ‘Indre Mission’, o organizație creștină luterana cu orientare conservatoare. În primele decenii ziua de munca începea cu rugăciuni, și cam toți cei care dețineau funcții de răspundere aparțineau aceluiași profil religios. Aceasta monocultura religioasa a fost abandonata la un moment dat, însă credința, exprimată explicit și ca sistem moral de referință a jucat permanent un rol important. La extrem, în momente de criză, lucrurile se întâmplau așa:
‘Pe lângă toate acestea, aveau probleme cu comanda lui Olesen. Trebuia să fi fost ridicată în august, în schimb, se acoperea de praf pe rafturile atelierului. Ole Kirk crezuse că afacerea era sigură, dar a aflat că Olesen dăduse faliment. Ca întotdeauna când avea nevoie de ajutor divin, Ole Kirk a căzut în genunchi şi i-a încredințat Domnului problemele sale, iar Acesta i-a arătat calea. A doua zi s-a trezit devreme, a încărcat Fordul cu comanda neridicată a lui Olesen, le-a cerut băieților să aibă grijă unii de alții şi a plecat să încerce să vândă el însuşi jucăriile, din magazin în magazin şi din cooperativă în cooperativă.’ (pag. 52)
Începând cu mijlocul secolului 20, LEGO s-a poziționat mai întâi ca lider pe piața jucăriilor și și-a extins domeniile geografice de activitate în Europa și în Statele Unite. Globalismul nu intrase încă în vocabular când proprietarii au decis că LEGO nu trebuie să fie doar o firmă daneză care exporta în lume ci o companie internațională cu centrul în Danemarca. Concepția și ideile fundamentale au evoluat și ele de-a lungul timpului, dar totdeauna a fost vorba despre o succesiune de evoluții și nu despre revoluții. Concepția modularității și a sistemului a stimulat inventivitatea punând în centru ‘cărămizile’ care sunt baza construcțiilor LEGO. S-au adăugat de-a lungul timpului figurinele și au fost diversificate categoriile de vârstă cărora li se adresau jocurile. Ideea era de a-i păstra pe copiii care cunoscuseră jocul la vârste fragede cât mai multă vreme drept consumatori, dacă se poate pentru toată viață, pentru ca aceștia, mai târziu, devenind părinți să transmită pasiunea copiilor lor. Au fost deschise parcurile LEGO și hotelurile LEGO, iar rețeaua de magazine LEGO numără astăzi peste 1000 de locații în întreaga lume. După ce timp de multă vreme au fost evitate sau selectate cu zgârcenie colaborările și parteneriatele, LEGO a deschis în ultimele decenii porțile unor conlucrări extrem de benefice cu mărci diverse, de la Mac Donalds la Star Wars. Mai recent, parteneriatul cu Barbie a permis recuperarea unui public pe care firma multă vreme nu l-a abordat optimal, cel al fetițelor. Daca LEGO are o ideologie fermă care evoluează foarte încet, oamenii de afaceri care ghidează firma au dat dovadă totdeauna de deschidere și flexibilitate, ceea ce a permis progresul aproape continuu al afacerii. Pentru mine, care am lucrat în mediul corporatist american, este foarte interesant de comparat metodele și cultura de firmă a lui LEGO cu ceea ce am cunoscut eu în cariera mea. Danezii au avut de-a face în ultimele decenii cu piețe diverse și cu expansiune globala precum toate marile firme internaționale. Vocabularul lor corporatist este similar și procesele de consolidare, optimizare, economii și redresare în perioade de criză sunt similare. Reducerile de personal însă au fost făcute cu multă grijă, pentru păstrarea relațiilor de muncă și a atmosferei de conlucrare, chiar și atunci când LEGO nu mai era de mult o mică afacere familială în care patronii cunoșteau pe fiecare dintre salariați.
Fiecare dintre generații și-a adus contribuția sa specifică la adaptarea la schimbările externe, extinderea operațiilor și evoluția modelului de afacere. Începând cu anii ’80 ai secolului trecut viața copiilor s-a schimbat radical odată cu apariția consolelor de jocuri și cu un deceniu mai târziu a Internetului, ceea ce a dus la modificări radicale și pe piața jocurilor și a jucăriilor. LEGO s-a aflat în situația unei părți a industriei hi-tech, problema principală fiind reorientarea prin identificarea și definirea precisă a competiției. Felul în care un producător de jucării fizice se confruntă cu un public din ce în ce mai imersat în spatiu virtual internetic este o parte dintr-un dialog în care lumea copiilor, dar nu doar cea a copiilor, este implicată pentru a stabili stilul de viață și de activități al omenirii în epoca comunicațiilor rapide și a conectivității universale. Are LEGO, devenită lider comercial mondial și una dintre mărcile globale cele mai cunoscute, uneltele necesare pentru a se confrunta cu schimbările din mediul de afaceri și cu marea provocare a Inteligenței Artificiale? Viitorul o va spune. Deocamdată, din informațiile furnizate de Jens Andersen, răspunsul pare a fi pozitiv. Reorganizarea profilului corporației, incluzând separarea liniilor comerciale, operaționale și de afaceri, este un prim pas al unui plan de termen lung. Restul răspunsului va veni în anii următori, urmărind evoluțiile pe piață și tranziția dintre a patra și a cincea generație de proprietari și lideri. Cert este că intenția, deocamdată cel puțin, este ca LEGO să rămână o afacere de familie.
Dacă sunteți pasionați de LEGO, această carte nu trebuie să vă scape. Chiar dacă nu sunteți fani ai cărămizilor colorate și constructori ai fabuloaselor modele care pot fi realizate din ele, ‘LEGO: istoria unei afaceri de familie’ are potențialul să vă intereseze ca o pagina de istorie a dezvoltării unei afaceri globale întemeiate și crescute într-un secol agitat, care are ca beneficiari pe cei care au cea mai serioasă îndeletnicire: jocul.
Any new Wes Anderson film is a stylistic and visual experience that should not be missed. ‘The Phoenician Scheme‘ is no exception, even if the director changed the cinematographer who accompanied him in the previous films, choosing to collaborate this time with Bruno Delbonnel, a renowned cinematographer, but who is on his first film directed by Anderson. The director’s visual brand is very present. Beyond the aesthetic emotion, however, I must say that ‘The Phoenician Scheme‘ left me completely cold. I will make a comparison that may seem strange. My relationship with Victor Vasarely’s Op Art is about the same. I appreciate it aesthetically, I am interested in the conception, but it does not create any feeling for me.
The story (written in collaboration with Roman Coppola), to the extent that the story in the film matters, describes the end of the career and perhaps the repentance of a caid from the 1950s, an international conman, who decides to invest his entire fortune in the development of a region vaguely defined as Phoenicia. To do this, he tries to gather help and financial participation from his family and his business and crime partners, while his enemies from the underworld or from the governments of the world try without interruption to liquidate him. The attempts fail one after another, but each of them triggers a transcendental experience that brings him closer to the gods of different religions. As heir to the business, he chooses his only daughter to the detriment of any of his nine sons, the only problems being that he is possibly responsible for her mother’s death and that paternity is not too certain either. Oh, yes, there would be another problem, the daughter is about to become a nun. Will the father educate his daughter in the management of a global business financed with money from crime or will she be the one to bring the gangster to repentance? Watch, and if you can endure until the end, you will find out.
As in all of Wes Anderson‘s films of the last decade, the cast is fabulous and could feed the credits of ten great Hollywood productions. In the lead role, the extraordinary Benicio Del Toro suffers and enjoys at the same time. The female lead role, that of the heiress of the crime empire that turns into an empire of virtue while she from a nun becomes a princess heir, is played by Mia Threapleton who is practically at her debut in a consistent role in a feature film. She is Kate Winslet’s daughter and if she continues to act like she did here, we will soon be saying about Kate Winslet that she is Mia Threapleton‘s mother. As for the rest of the cast, our sole complain can be that any of the 20 or so stars who appear on screen for between a few seconds and a few minutes doesn’t have a more consistent role, but it’s probably already a status thing in Hollywood to star in a Wes Anderson film. The cinematography and sets are a constant source of visual pleasure. There are many details to notice in this film in which cabotinism and physical humor are constantly combined with cultural quotes and texts or subtexts with substance. For example, at the end, when the credits roll, we can also see a series of paintings with religious themes by Renaissance masters. I think many scenes including the hero’s transcendental dreams are inspired by those paintings. ‘The Phoenician Scheme‘ may belong to that category of films that can be deciphered and enjoyed on a second viewing, but I don’t really have the habit of rewatching films, especially ones like this that I confess didn’t make me care at all during the viewing. It’s also possible that I’m the one to blame and it’s about my personal problem with Wes Anderson and especially his latest films.
They say that to assess the skills of a director, it is good to see not only his best films, but also those that for one reason or another failed with the public or in the eyes of critics. ‘Les innocents aux mains sales‘ (English distribution title is ‘Dirty Hands’) from 1975 is not considered among Claude Chabrol‘s best films. It is a ‘film noir’, the story of a marriage in crisis and of a murder that does not go as planned, with a story that reserves many surprises for the audience throughout the two hours of screening. Apparently, Chabrol seems to have tried to make a classic passion thriller, but his ambitions and obsessions are, as usual, far beyond the crime story.
Julie, a woman as beautiful as Romy Schneider, is married to Louis, a businessman 18 years older than her. The couple lives in a villa on the Côte d’Azur, after the husband has retired from business. The two have separate rooms and do not have intimate relations. Is Louis impotent because of the heart disease that led him to retire or because of excessive alcohol consumption or maybe just because the passion, if it ever existed, has died out? The fact is that Louis is drunk most of the time, while Julie is bored enough to start a relationship with Jeff, a neighbor who is an unsuccessful writer. Julie and Jeff plan to kill Louis and camouflage the crime as an accident. Plans of this kind generally do not work out, and in this case too, many surprising events will follow, with the reappearance of characters considered missing, with love flames that die out and reignite, with a talkative lawyer who manages to get his client suspected of murder out of trouble, and with two detectives who guess pretty much everything that is happening but never have any evidence.
Julie is the only female character in the film, I have the impression that no other woman appears in any frame in ‘Les innocents aux mains sales‘ apart from her. The role of a beautiful, single woman who has to survive in a world of men, with laws written for men and enforced by men, suits Romy Schneider perfectly. At 37, she was at the peak of her beauty and already after over 20 years of career. The film is well written, the story flows smoothly and there are enough twists and turns to keep the audience’s interest constantly awake. Chabrol explores here again the mystery of female psychology and, as in many of his other films, does not serve the audience with solutions on a platter, leaving them to decide for themselves: who does Julie really love? How guilty is she? Two formidable scenes stays in my memory. One of them begins with a close-up of the heroine, who is cornered by two investigators who ask her aggressive questions and insinuate that she is an accomplice in the murder. The frame gradually widens to include the two policemen and the lone woman, confronting them, between them. The second memorable scene is that of the investigation at the examining magistrate, in which the wonderful actor who was Jean Rochefort gives a real recital. It is, I think, one of the best scenes of his career. I was less thrilled with the other male roles in the film, including that of Louis played by Rod Steiger. Chabrol seems to have been less inspired than usual in his casting this time. Even though the production is not the best, there are enough interesting moments in ‘Les innocents aux mains sales‘ for which the film is still worth seeing today.
Claude Chabrol‘s ‘La cérémonie‘, adapted from a novel by Ruth Rendell, ends about where Stanley Kubrick’s and Anthony Burgess’ ‘A Clockwork Orange’ begins. The ceremony in the title is a shocking act of violence, and I won’t say more to avoid the sin of spoiling. Made in 1995, ‘La cérémonie‘ is, in my opinion, Chabrol‘s last great film and one of the best of the several dozen films of his long directing career. The film has sometimes been described as ‘Marxist’, and I suspect that this is because the characters are divided into two categories that clearly belong to different social classes. It is in fact one of Chabrol‘s favorite themes, who in many of his films criticizes the French bourgeoisie, sometimes directly, sometimes subtly. The murders are almost always present, although in ‘La cérémonie‘ the story is more subtle and complex. The two worlds – of the bourgeoisie and those who serve it – are present here too. But there is no hope of reconciliation between them.
The scene that opens the film is the job interview of a homemaid named Sophie for a position in the Lelievre family home, taken by the lady and the mistress of the house. In the second scene, the family – composed of the home lady who owns a gallery, he husband who is a classical music lover, his student daughter and her teenage son, both from previous marriages – discuss what to call the maid’s job and end up agreeing on the term ‘bonne à tout faire’. Sophie starts working in the comfortable but somewhat isolated manor in Brittany of the Lelievre family. Everything seems OK, the girl is hardworking, she cooks well, but some disturbing signs appear in addition to the slightly strident music, foreshadowing bad things, à la Hitchcock. Why does Sophie so often answer ‘Je sais pas’ (‘I don’t know’) to very banal questions, although she does not look dum at all? Does she have vision problems that prevent her from reading the homeowners’ instructions and shopping lists, or does she hide something else? Sophie’s only friend is Jeanne, a post office clerk in the nearby town – also a single woman, with her own quirks and a shady past. Sophie and Jeanne become friends, which does not please Mr. Lelievre, who suspects the postwoman of reading his correspondence. Between the well-off family and the two single women, relationships are established that are well-defined by social rules and French politeness, but tension grows. Each of the two groups lives in its own bubble. In one, Mozart’s operas are listened to, in the other, vulgar television programs are watched. The proximity of the two bubbles brings with it the danger of explosion.
As in the films of his master Hitchcock, Claude Chabrol gradually builds tension, preparing the ending. It will include a surprise, not necessarily because of what happens but because of how it happens. When I look back, after the finale, at the events that preceded it, I seem to identify many warning signs, but they are so subtle that they are ignored by both the audience and the heroes of the film. The cast is stellar, with three of the best French actresses of the era and of the last half century appearing together on screen. Isabelle Huppert as Jeanne created a complex ‘bad girl’ role, being the key character of the entire plot. Sandrine Bonnaire is also superb – seemingly icy, struggling with her disability and her past. Her character here could be the anonymous girl in Agnès Varda’s excellent ‘Sans toi ni loi’ (‘Vagabond’), the film that launched her, if she had lived and a few years had passed. Jacqueline Bisset has the least defined role of the three actresses, she’s OK, but not more. Also appearing in the cast are Virginie Ledoyen (very young at the time) and Jean-Pierre Cassel, an actor who has never disappointed me. I don’t think Chabrol was only interested in the differences in social classes, but also in the psychological profile of the two women. Each of them carries a burden from the past. Is this a meeting of two women wrongly suspected of horrible deeds, or perhaps it is the meeting of two perverse criminals, so that what happens later was a predictable tragedy? Chabrol intelligently leaves it up to us, the viewers, to decide. ‘La cérémonie‘ is one of those films that stays with the viewer even after the screening is over. None of the characters are particularly likeable and we don’t feel like putting ourselves in their shoes at all, but we still continue to think about them long after the film has ended.
The story in ‘Pelísky‘ (titled ‘Cozy Dens‘ in English distribution), made in 1999 by director Jan Hrebejk, takes place between December 24, 1967 and August 21, 1968. These 8 months were probably among the most significant in the history of the country then called Czechoslovakia and included one of the main events of the year of uprisings and changes that was 1968. During this time, Czechoslovakia went through a period of change due to the coming to power of a team of reformist communist leaders who tried to liberalize the society ankylosed in the post-Stalinist dictatorship and to experiment with a ‘socialism with a human face’. The attempt to combine socialism with democracy was cut short by the brutal invasion of the country by the armies of the Soviet Union and four of its satellite countries in Eastern Europe. It would be another 21 years before Czechoslovakia and the other countries in the Soviet sphere of influence would regain their freedom. ‘Pelísky‘ follows the lives of two generations of two families, neighbors in an unnamed town, who clash in lifestyles and worldviews. It is a sensible film, full of humor and compassion.
The setting is an ordinary building in an ordinary Czechoslovak city. In an apartment in the building lives the family of an officer who has two children, the teenager Michal and his younger sister. Michal is in love as only teenagers can be with Jindriska, a high school classmate and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, who live in the apartment above. His love is hopeless, as the girl prefers a classmate with longer hair and parents in America. Mr. Kraus is a war hero and an opponent of the communist regime, nostalgic for the past and hoping for the imminent fall of the ‘Bolsheviks’. Mrs. Kraus is very ill. Nearby lives the officer’s sister, a widow and mother of a ten-year-old boy, who is still trying to find a new life partner and a new father for her son. In each apartment Christmas is celebrated differently. The differences subtly highlight the characters and opinions of each family. Even deeper seem the differences between generations. Teenagers and children long to live their lives. Parents are stuck in their opinions, which differ politically, but which meet in obtuseness and misunderstanding of the aspirations of young people for freedom.
If a revolution is taking place outside the walls of the building, it does not seem to concern the film’s heroes too much. They do not discuss politics and there is not even a television set to bring home the news about the changes that are taking place. Only in the school where a few scenes are filmed can we observe divergences that have a political substratum. And these are mitigated by the language, a mixture of European politeness inherited from tradition and the wooden language of communist comradely relations. I really liked the approach of the screenwriters and director Jan Hrebejk. Some of the characters have dark corners in their biography but these are approached with humor, understanding and in the most severe case with sarcasm. The comedy of characters is mixed with a few scenes of classic sitcoms, and the political substratum is insinuated. The actors’ performances are excellent. I lived in 1967-68 in another communist country, the teenagers in the film are from my generation, the parents in the film are from my parents’ generation. I could recognize in many of the characters in ‘Pelísky‘ the typologies that I encountered in those times. The cinematic narrative is fluent. For those who know history and follow the dates mentioned in the film, what happens at the end is not completely unexpected. The infernal noise of the planes and tanks of the invading armies breaks the apparent comfort of the micro-universe in which the heroes of the film were trying to survive. The ending is a well-known tragedy and a two-decade postponement of history.
To those looking for a captivating mini-series for the end of summer, I recommend ‘The Serpent‘, an international co-production with the participation of BBC studios, released in 2021. The story is inspired by a series of crimes that took place 50 years ago, in 1975 and 1976, in Asian countries that were at that time part of the track of young hippies in search of themselves, sensations and experiences that did not avoid use of drugs. It is a ‘true crime’ case or rather ‘true criminal’ that follows the corpse-strewn trail of a serial killer named Charles Sobhraj, who with the help of his girlfriend and another accomplice lured, drugged, robbed and killed young Westerners naive enough to fall into his nets. We know from the beginning who the criminals are and the fact that they were caught and punished for at least some of their crimes. They committed at least 12 murders, but were only convicted of two. What the eight episodes of the miniseries tell is how they were captured and how their crimes were put to an end in a time when there were no biometric passports, video cameras on every street corner, electronic records of border crossings, social networks and Internet messaging that today allow the location of anyone and anywhere. The three grim criminals are opposed by a couple of young Dutch diplomats who, starting from the disappearance of two of their compatriots, investigated fiercely and eventually managed to overcome the indifference of bureaucrats in Western diplomacy and the corruption of local police, not without endangering their own careers and even more.
I liked the way the narrative was built, managing to catch and keep the attention of viewers, especially in the first 3-4 episodes, alternating between the investigation of the diplomats turned amateur detectives in the conditions of a foreign country and the crimes that succeed one another, gradually revealing the psychological profile of the criminals and their backgrounds. Repetitions appear in episodes 4-6, but the pace of the action accelerates again in the final two episodes. There are three groups of characters: the criminals, those who chase them and the victims. The fact that viewers have the opportunity to get to know some of the victims, young people who went on a trip in search of spiritual or action adventures, whose lives and dreams are cut short by the assassins, puts the cruelty of the crimes into true light, compensating for the initial attraction caused by the encounter with the two criminals, played by two actors with charisma and remarkable physical presence: Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman. The role of the young Dutch diplomat who risked his career to track down and capture the criminals is played by Billy Howle, who expressively portrays the hero’s anxieties and doubts, despite some unnecessary theatrical exaggerations. The cinematography is spectacular and allows those who did not live through the hippie era and the times when the mirage of Asia much less corrupted by mass tourism was still strong to imagine the continent, and those who did catch those times to remember them. ‘The Serpent‘ is an interesting and captivating series, quality entertainment.
