Been taking advantage of alone time to watch movies that I can't convince my SO to watch with me.
Napoleon: The Director's Cut
Terrible. I knew in the first 3 seconds of Joaquín Phoenix's performance that he was going to play Napoleon all wrong. Also, he was too old for the role. That's not all, though; all you see is Napoleon waging war or nagging Josephine. Not a word about the Napoleonic Code and his modernization of the French State.
Doesn't stop there either. There's historical revisionism for the sake of not entering politically incorrect territory. When Napoleon marries Marie Louise of Austria, as she's given up for the sake of peace (and because Austria is very much being extorted), they portray her as fawning over him as such a powerful and desireable man. Nothing further from the truth. She basically grew up seeing Napoleon as a sort of evil troll from a fairy tale, and was devastated she had to marry him. It's basically rape, but that would be too problematic for the movie.
The Substance
Terrible. Disgusting, more than I could have imagined, and totally shallow, faux-feminism, with no actual message to be found. What possessed Cannes to award them anything?
I'm watching one more tonight. Maybe 3 time's a charm.
What are you watching?
Re: What are you watching?
Ukraine upload about 2 weeks ago, where he happens to be in Lviv on the night of the biggest drone strike from Russia.
I can't always tell if he acts dumb at times because he knew that Russia was mostly attacking the east part of Ukraine, but leading up to this attack were sirens because a MIG was flying into their airspace and presumably capable of reaching the western part of Ukraine (where it seems they were able to either knock it out of the sky, or it was responded to and deterred; as Russia likes to test response time.)
This seems to be the follow-up (where he was planning to go to Kyiv.
This was a day ago and it was 43 degrees Celsius (109F) in Romania?
Praetorian Guards would never turn on the Emperor?
(And when Ukraine dealt with their corrupt military leaders, they turned out with a much more competent response to Russia's attacks. . . Who would have thought, when you deal with corruption and make things function as they should, society will end up better; *Looking at Trump and the technofascist Oligarchy, which won't bode well in the near future.*)
Either they are actors that are used to keep the narrative aligned with MAGA's agenda, or they are given a very controlled narrative. Too many odd things seem to be showing up, and none of it seems authentic.
***************
EVP on Youtube
https://youtube.com/@ngkiernan
1980s Jordan terrorism - CIA and Hezbollah
AI and other potential economic collapse indicators
I can't always tell if he acts dumb at times because he knew that Russia was mostly attacking the east part of Ukraine, but leading up to this attack were sirens because a MIG was flying into their airspace and presumably capable of reaching the western part of Ukraine (where it seems they were able to either knock it out of the sky, or it was responded to and deterred; as Russia likes to test response time.)
This seems to be the follow-up (where he was planning to go to Kyiv.
This was a day ago and it was 43 degrees Celsius (109F) in Romania?
Praetorian Guards would never turn on the Emperor?
(And when Ukraine dealt with their corrupt military leaders, they turned out with a much more competent response to Russia's attacks. . . Who would have thought, when you deal with corruption and make things function as they should, society will end up better; *Looking at Trump and the technofascist Oligarchy, which won't bode well in the near future.*)
Either they are actors that are used to keep the narrative aligned with MAGA's agenda, or they are given a very controlled narrative. Too many odd things seem to be showing up, and none of it seems authentic.
***************
EVP on Youtube
https://youtube.com/@ngkiernan
1980s Jordan terrorism - CIA and Hezbollah
AI and other potential economic collapse indicators
Re: What are you watching?
Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959) Randolph Scott, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, Lee Van Cleef, James Coburn
A Fistful of Dynamite aka Duck, You Sucker (Sergio Leone, 1971) Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli
Hell Is for Heroes (Don Siegel, 1962) Steve McQueen, Bob Newhart
https://ok.ru/video/3150007831040
(I haven't watched these yet.)
Arthur The King aka Merlin and the Sword (Clive Donner, 1982, and shortened and rereleased on VHS in 1985) Malcolm McDowell, Candice Bergen, Edward Woodward, Liam Neeson
It was a really bad made for TV movie that was miscast (but I'm going to assume it's safe to blame the Director for most of it.) If you look at the background image on here, you almost get the impression Malcolm McDowell believes his acting career had hit an all time low, and the other cast member would seem to agree.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088739/re ... =rw8047327
It would have been pretty cool if Stanley Kubrick directed an Arthurian film, which is probably the only time Malcolm McDowell could truly be utilized fully. The Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981) film is probably the best film made on the topic and I was surprised to notice Liam Neeson had been in this one despite the credits not showing it in IMDB upon first glance.
**********************************
Why Stupid People are Destroying Society – The Laws of Human Stupidity
https://theacademyofideas.substack.com/ ... destroying
Why Fatherless Boys Struggle to Become Men
https://open.substack.com/pub/theacadem ... medium=web
Speaking the obvious and how showing resistance will encourage more to turn against Trump.
******************************
I noticed a story about Fanny Mendelsohn composing a significant amount of Felix's compositions and never publishing under her own name until a year before her death, at the age of 41 in 1847, at which point Felix destraught, died with a few months after her at age 38.
List of compositions by Fanny Mendelssohn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... endelssohn
You can find some of them on Youtube but even if the person posting it is female, it seems they mistakenly never noticed Fanny was the original composer. I kind of assume she contributed portions to larger bodies of Felix's work, and just gave recognition to him, much like a ghost writer does (since she might have viewed it as easier to be published that way.)
She most likely died without people recognizing she was a significant part of Felix's oeuvre. Mary Shelley did similar to publishing under her husband's name up until he died in a boating accident, but eventually published under her own name (though a large part of the recognition that Frankenstein received was due to the 1930's films.)
A Fistful of Dynamite aka Duck, You Sucker (Sergio Leone, 1971) Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli
Hell Is for Heroes (Don Siegel, 1962) Steve McQueen, Bob Newhart
https://ok.ru/video/3150007831040
(I haven't watched these yet.)
Arthur The King aka Merlin and the Sword (Clive Donner, 1982, and shortened and rereleased on VHS in 1985) Malcolm McDowell, Candice Bergen, Edward Woodward, Liam Neeson
It was a really bad made for TV movie that was miscast (but I'm going to assume it's safe to blame the Director for most of it.) If you look at the background image on here, you almost get the impression Malcolm McDowell believes his acting career had hit an all time low, and the other cast member would seem to agree.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088739/re ... =rw8047327
It would have been pretty cool if Stanley Kubrick directed an Arthurian film, which is probably the only time Malcolm McDowell could truly be utilized fully. The Excalibur (John Boorman, 1981) film is probably the best film made on the topic and I was surprised to notice Liam Neeson had been in this one despite the credits not showing it in IMDB upon first glance.
**********************************
Why Stupid People are Destroying Society – The Laws of Human Stupidity
https://theacademyofideas.substack.com/ ... destroying
Why Fatherless Boys Struggle to Become Men
https://open.substack.com/pub/theacadem ... medium=web
Speaking the obvious and how showing resistance will encourage more to turn against Trump.
******************************
I noticed a story about Fanny Mendelsohn composing a significant amount of Felix's compositions and never publishing under her own name until a year before her death, at the age of 41 in 1847, at which point Felix destraught, died with a few months after her at age 38.
List of compositions by Fanny Mendelssohn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... endelssohn
You can find some of them on Youtube but even if the person posting it is female, it seems they mistakenly never noticed Fanny was the original composer. I kind of assume she contributed portions to larger bodies of Felix's work, and just gave recognition to him, much like a ghost writer does (since she might have viewed it as easier to be published that way.)
She most likely died without people recognizing she was a significant part of Felix's oeuvre. Mary Shelley did similar to publishing under her husband's name up until he died in a boating accident, but eventually published under her own name (though a large part of the recognition that Frankenstein received was due to the 1930's films.)