Open thread 1/26/22
I had thought of Buster Keaton as an old man with a saggy face until I saw his silent movies, which I encountered when I was in law school. I was stunned at what he had looked like when young: his strangely elegant solemn face, his agility, and how funny he was. I even developed a bit of a crush on him, much to my surprise:
I tried in vain while my daughters were growing up to get them to watch the classic movies. If it was B&W, they wouldn’t watch, yet alone a silent film. They miss out on so much of the cultural heritage.
On another note, we now have a variant of the omicron variant called the “stealth” as it evades PCR detection. How much more does this absurdity go on? When do even the dumbest of the sheep realized they are being played?
physicsguy,
Next up, “the enigma variant,” not only undetectable by testing, but also displays no discernible symptoms in the carrier.
I wish the WHO would have used the Hawaiian alphabet to name variants, rather than the Greek. With only 13 letters the pandemic would have ended months ago. 🙂
Wow!!!!
I love the time we live in.
neo’s comment on law school and silent films reminded me there was a nostalgic revival in the ’70s; sort of 1900 – 1920. I seemed to notice it after the film “The Sting” came out, but maybe that film was part of the craze, and not the cause. Regardless of its source, I liked it. Art houses started showing films from the era, which I enjoyed, especially the Marx Brothers. I liked the clothes, the music, even the fonts! I haven’t been to Paris for years, but it used to have (and I hope it still does) a lot of that same aesthetic.
there was a nostalgic revival in the ’70s; sort of 1900 – 1920.
I was able to see a lot of classic films that way. There was a theater in Cambridge that showed a different double feature every night. Chaplin, Marx Brothers, Bogart, Hitchcock. Probably the last opportunity to see all those on the big screen. The current generation of young adults has almost zero awareness of anything even pre-1990, much less pre-1950.
The Comic (1969) written by Carl Reiner and starring Dick Van Dyke was inspired by the sad ending of Buster Keaton after the silent era was over It contains some marvelous gags in its silent portions.
Thanks for that Neo. Even for someone like me who loves films, I just don’t seek out silent films.
I was interested in story of Camille, and had seen the version with Greta Garbo (wonderful, highly recommended) and the silent version was on the flip side of the disk with Alla Nazivoma and Valentino. The latter is historically significant but I didn’t get much out of it.
Brian DePalma spent much of his career making films with long scenes or groups of scenes with visual story telling or as some call it, “pure cinema.”
This scene at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC from the film “Dressed to Kill” is a masterpiece of visual story telling IMO. Angie Dickenson’s character is on her second marriage which isn’t in good shape and she is sexually frustrated. We know this from the shocking opening scenes of movie (also visual story telling) and because she said as much to her therapist in the prior scene. Unlike the Youtube tagline, I don’t think she is at the museum cruising for a one night stand. She’s there to unwind a bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO0Cf9CUEu4
While I’ve seen DePalma movies like that one many times, I never realized until recently that the entire second act is done with visual story telling, not just the museum scene.
I have a friend who loves movies, especially old ones, and we always watch them when he visits. It is interesting that he really hates the visual story telling style. I think he wouldn’t mind a movie made with a static camera on a tripod placed in front of a good stage play. As long as the script and performances were good.
Another set of COVID stats for physicsguy, this one in a JAMA article about myocarditis in young men following administration of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines: “In this descriptive study of 1626 cases of myocarditis in a national passive reporting system, the crude reporting rates within 7 days after vaccination exceeded the expected rates across multiple age and sex strata. The rates of myocarditis cases were highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males aged 12 to 15 years (70.7 per million doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine), in adolescent males aged 16 to 17 years (105.9 per million doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine), and in young men aged 18 to 24 years (52.4 and 56.3 per million doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine and the mRNA-1273 vaccine, respectively). . . . Based on passive surveillance reporting in the US, the risk of myocarditis after receiving mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines was increased across multiple age and sex strata and was highest after the second vaccination dose in adolescent males and young men. This risk should be considered in the context of the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2788346?guestAccessKey=87c5550a-62ee-4cdc-a341-3027ff0f2c3b&utm_source=silverchair&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama&utm_content=etoc&utm_term=012522&fbclid=IwAR0PR6qYrHycMGZo9y0tHrFRyMRJiQteHbpGnY3NonSG9Ac5FAgwM7NuInw
Is it wrong to laugh at this? (Scroll down to see a compilation of the former mayor’s videos of her travails.)
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/01/schadenfreude_overload_on_virtuesignaling_former_mayor_of_san_luis_obispo_who_stepped_down_to_fight_climate_change.html
Justice Breyer has anounced his retirement before the midterms. Clearly he sees the writing on the wall… that’s in 20 foot letters in neon green.
As hostile as Breyer has been to the Constitution, his replacement is likely to be worse.
And give me Keaton over Chaplin any day.
Leftists really wanted Justice Ginsburg to retire before Trump’s election. I suppose she never thought Trump would win. In this case, Breyer is leaving at the end of the term in October, with some assurance that a Biden appointee will join the court. Perhaps Senate Republicans will be able to force Biden to nominate someone who is not completely crazy.
Eva Marie, that’s really funny! EVs are a fine choice for short trips in congested areas, when the owner is able to return to the home charging station conveniently. For going any distance, they are completely impractical at this point.
What’s impressive about that Keaton video is that all his stunts were real. Today, what people see on-screen is overwhelmingly fake.
Perhaps Senate Republicans will be able to force Biden to nominate someone who is not completely crazy.
Given his history I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Biden nominates an openly avowed and unrepentent communist. And our congress critters will scarcely put up any kind of fight about it. But maybe I am too cynical.
I hope Stephen Breyer can enjoy mundane life in retirement. IMO, retirement during the calendar year you reach your 76th birthday should be mandatory for public employees, no exceptions. And by retirement, I mean retirement: you do not exercise any public functions anymore.
The mess that is the confirmation process is a consequence of the judiciary having arrogated to itself authority it should not have and does not exercise well. The rest of society needs to start punishing them for this behavior.
Given his history I wouldn’t at all be surprised if Biden nominates an openly avowed and unrepentent communist.
The dame they wanted for the position of Comptroller of the Currency comes to mind. I’d be fascinated to have a list of the people who recommended her and vetted her. It would tell us something about what counts as normal among the Democratic Party nomenklatura.
Partisan Democrats were in fora like this in 2018 whinging about how outrageous was the treatment of Merrick Garland and how Obama was cheated of what was rightfully his. Interesting insight into their mentality. We’ve been learning the last year that Merrick Garland is a vicious monster unfit to hold any position which exercises any discretion.
I introduced my grandnieces to Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy and the 3 Stooges, they love the sight gags.
Post-COVID-19 recovered are dying more months – even one year later, too? From long term effects of its gross inflammatory stun to the body?
This and the usual suspects are all on parade in this data Deep dive report from Epoch Times, as life insurance companies struggle to explain the 40% leap in death payouts among working age adults. Very multi-causal? Or only a couple cases.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/insurance-companies-note-jump-death-payouts-amid-40-rise-among-prime-age-americans
CORRECTION to my post above:
More of the Post-COVID-19 recovered are dying more months later – even one year later, too? From long term effects of its gross inflammatory stun to the body?
….Or only a couple of CAUSES.
There’s a lab in China, which everyone has their eye on, waiting for the puff of smoke which indicates that a new variant has been developed and given a name…
:^P
Thanks for the Buster Keaton video. He was the greatest. His show-don’t-tell principle made everything else work.
}}} The current generation of young adults has almost zero awareness of anything even pre-1990, much less pre-1950.
TBH, though, this is actually kind of understandable…
I’ve posted on it before, but there are a number of “movie eras” which are of some significance.
The first is the silent era, which is obvious.
The second is also obvious, the introduction of talkies.
The third is the development of “method acting”, in which acting actually becomes significant — prior to this there was casting to type — certain people were given a “look” assignment, which led to how people were cast — blonde females were usually the “good girls” where any bad girls were always brunettes (there is also “casting against type”, which flips the rules around). But that is why Bogie was the heavy sometimes, but never Cary Grant… Grant was “good guy looks”, while Bogie could be either. This era began with Brando, and “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “On The Waterfront”.
The fourth era was the MPAA — the new rules of ratings vs. the old, rather silly Hayes Code led to a lot of changes in how movies were done, as well as the manner in which topics could be addressed AND the very topics themselves.
The Fifth, and nominally current, era, was defined by… of all things, MTV. The manner of making a music video — one which wasn’t merely a recording of the band playing on a stage or in a studio, but “telling a story” visually, necessarily introduced a new pacing to such things — To tell a story in a short timespan of 2-4 minutes, MTV vids tended to use much faster cuts, a quicker visual pacing and a much larger form of visual shorthand, which then led to the same being used in films — partly because a lot of up-and-coming directors were given their first work doing music videos, but also because the technique awareness spread into the maturing populace of those who grew up with music videos. The 80s were the transition era, with no one using the techniques in 1980, but many, if not most movies, using the techniques by 1990… With NYPD Blue, those same techniques moved into mainstream television.**
The relevance of this last is why there is a dichotomy for young people ca. 1990.
The actual pacing and flow of a movie changes, during the 80s, due to the aforementioned differences — what happens is that the movies before “MTV” feel remarkably slow to younger people — annoyingly so. The same inversion happens with older people, who complain that “newer movies are all bang and speed and whizz!!”.
For someone young to enjoy older movies, they have to practice the patience for watching them, or, preferably, to be brought up with them to appreciate them early on, which gives them a foot in both camps.
But believe me, I very much comprehend this, as I was in my early 20s in the 80s, and love film, so I (luckily) developed a foot in both camps as it happened… But I can go back, now, and watch older movies, and I do FEEL that they are running slow and have to dial back my “speed” expectations, just as I automatically do with my “acting” expectations for pre-Method movies.
It’s much harder to do the triple-jump back to silent movies. Some can be watched, but it’s not easy. The main ones are those, like Keaton’s, which are action oriented and not story-based, not least of which because the acting of those times is so wretchedly horrible — needed in an era without sound, but still tedious to anyone without a great deal of film interest.
====
** This is, interestingly, akin to Will Eisner’s The Spirit, which is probably the most influential comic book ever — Eisner was constricted to exactly 7 pages plus the spash page, which led to a number of very very impressive techniques to be developed by him post WWII, which allowed him to tell a very very good story in a very short context. Worth looking into for fans of graphic arts.
OBloody:
I have thought the pace change was partly the result of a generation raised on the quick-cutting of Sesame Street.
“The mess that is the confirmation process is a consequence of the judiciary having arrogated to itself authority it should not have and does not exercise well.”
Eh. There are some instances where the judiciary jumped the line but mostly it’s been the executive and the legislative pushing their responsibilities onto the judiciary…or simply neglecting them until the judiciary was almost forced to step in.
Mike
Breyer is retiring, Dems mow have a very urgent issue regarding control of the Senate, and it would have been much less convienamt if Breyer had decided to retire after 2023 under a Republican majority in the Senate. Will Brandon try to fast track a nomination and confirmation before 11/2022?
Every once in awhile I will pull up YouTube and watch The Three Stooges or L&H. Enjoy them still.
The replacement for Justice Bryer might be, according to The Daily Mail, a Black Woman. They mention two different Woman. One is 46 and other 51. Both strong ties to DC.
Is it wrong for me to hope that no Republican votes for the nominee? But I believe that at least 3 or 4 will do so. The Dems only need 50 + 1.
Eva Marie, that video is hilarious.
… MTV vids tended to use much faster cuts, a quicker visual pacing and a much larger form of visual shorthand, which then led to the same being used in films — partly because a lot of up-and-coming directors were given their first work doing music videos, … — OBH
I have thought the pace change was partly the result of a generation raised on the quick-cutting of Sesame Street. — Neo
Many years ago at work there was an older bookish German colleague who had no familiarity with modern American idioms and colloquialisms, so periodically our dept. would show then modern classic movies at the end of some weeks. Mostly action films. I brought in a couple that were well received, but the surprising one, to me, was Hitchcock’s Psycho. The pace was so slow that people were bored to death.
Ironically perhaps, the infamous shower scene was constructed with 77 cuts occurring in 45 seconds.
I didn’t realize Sesame Street used fast cutting. Interesting.
Thinking counterintuitively . . .
What if Biden nominated Maxine Waters? (“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability . . .”) No Democrat Senator would dare oppose her, even though she’s bat-poop crazy, and she’d become a Justice.
I expect the remaining reliably-Progressive Justices, Kagan and Sotomayor, would try to distance themselves from whatever opinion Waters held. And the only direction they could head would be toward the Conservative part of the bench. In addition, any notion that the squishy middle of the bench might have had about joining with the Progressives would be lessened by her presence in that group.
Hm. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to use Maxine as an example . . .
But I believe that at least 3 or 4 will do so.
The most likely at some other time would be Sleaza Murkowski (R – Her Daddy). If I’m not mistaken, she’s up for re-election and might be wary of making trouble due to primary challenges. Susan Collins is a wild card, as is Willard.
What if Biden nominated Maxine Waters?
AFAIK, she has no legal training. IIRC, she’s over 80. I think she was a social worker or some such. Marcia Fudge has been a member of the Ohio bar. I think she was a government lawyer.
There are some instances where the judiciary jumped the line but mostly it’s been the executive and the legislative pushing their responsibilities onto the judiciary…
The confirmation battles haven’t been about Brett Kavanaugh’s interpretation of regulation Q or the Administrative Procedure Act.
Important COVID-19 prevention news! Drink red wine!
https://www.winespectator.com/articles/new-study-suggests-red-wine-reduces-covid-infection-rates
Breyer will retire when the current term ends, which is this summer. Biden will certainly nominate someone for confirmation before the new term begins in October 2022. So long as the nominee is not an outright anti-white bigot, or Kamala Harris, we’ll probably see someone confirmed before the midterms.
If the nominee IS an outright anti-white bigot, then Schumer would once again be putting vulnerable senators on the line.
“Post-COVID-19 recovered….”
Related:
“Military Whistleblowers May Blow Up the COVID Vaccine Narrative”—
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2022/01/25/military-whistleblowers-may-blow-up-the-covid-vaccine-narrative-n1552966
Key graf:
“Dennis said the military data was one of the most comprehensive because it contains baseline rates. The occurrence of disease across all categories for the previous five years averaged 1.7 million. Ten months after the vaccine program launched, it jumped to nearly 22 million…. ‘…[T]hese numbers indicate something is drastically wrong.’….”
Kate,
Red grapes contain quercitin. A good hydroxychloroquine substitute perhaps.
TommyJay, the article points out that correlation is not causation. But why take chances? -:)
Some 25 or so years ago there was a theater in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles named the Silent Movie that showed nothing but silent films complete (on some occassions, at least) with live organ accompaniment. I never was particularly fond of Southern California but ONE thing I did enjoy about my 30+ years there was the number of ‘revival movie houses’ scattered about the town. I used to haul my daughters and, oft times, their friends up to LA from the OC to see Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, William S. Hart and others. Afterwards we would go down the street to the Farmers Market for ice cream. The girls still talk about this time in their lives and they both have a deep appreciation for old films.
I enjoy silent movies, but then watch lots of foreign movies without knowing a word from subtitles.
Often say to people who say they don’t like silent movies to watch Buster Keaton in The General.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c2YL1X8eMg
If the young cannot appreciate Rosemary Clooney, to hell with them.
This is the only chance the Dems have to get rid of Kamala. She is VP because she is a, black woman. She can be a Justice with the same qualifications.
They can then find some Dem Governor to take over as Biden fades.
She is familiar to the Senate.
This is the only chance the Dems have to get rid of Kamala. She is VP because she is a, black woman. She can be a Justice with the same qualifications.
The professional qualifications for a seat on the Supreme Court have in effect grown progressively exacting over the last 50 years. Harris has never held a judicial office before. There have been three nominees over the last 50 years who have not had a tour on the federal bench. One nominee was withdrawn, one had been a state appellate judge, and one had been both Solicitor-General and an Ivy League law professor.
“Eva Marie, that video is hilarious.”
From the video:
“transition support squads”
Hilarious. You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.
Sorry, Mac. I’ve been waiting *years* to work that phrase into a blog comment.
Here’s the Diplomad:
https://thediplomad.blogspot.com/2022/01/drums-along-potomac-will-we-bumble-into.html
Terms Of Service Society:
https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=26481
“… The terms of service society is much closer to the feudal order in that we have a proliferation of rules, but we are not in a rule-based society. Because the rules are always changing and their implementation is dependent on a privileged elite, people cannot depend on the rules at all. Creators on YouTube, for example, spend a lot of time policing their past in order to remain compliant. What matters is not the rules but the whims of the censors.
***Another aspect of the terms of service society is that citizenship is no longer a thing that has any value.*** From the point of view of the people enforcing the terms of service, you are compliant or non-compliant. It is why the French president feels free to terrorize French people over the vaccine. They are non-compliant, so their services from the state have been terminated. ***This is the new relationship between people and those who rule over them. You are compliant or non-compliant.***
It is tempting to think this cannot work, but feudalism carried on for roughly a thousand years before things changed. At least a third of a human population is happy to be treated like a prisoner. For most people, freedom is terrifying. They want to be told what to do and some are happy to have no choices at all. To date, no politician has been hanged for imposing Covid mandates. What the last two years has told our trust and safety councils is they can go much further than they dreamed.
On the other hand, feudalism worked in an age where death from disease, violence and starvation was common. Feudalism was a survival response to the breakdown of order, rather than a replacement for it. The terms of service society can only last if it can actually follow through on the promise to turn society into a giant daycare center. If not, then the terms of service collapses and we have no order at all. Trust and safety, as it were, goes away entirely.”
All cause mortality is up bigly in the UK and Germany, I wrote last summer. This coincided with COVID-19 vaccines rollout in Europe, just as the Delta variant was spreading there after ravaging India. What’s going on, I asked then?
Now, the same phenomenon is seen in Life Insurance in the US and elsewhere. Working age people are dying in “huge numbers” — 49% in my post and link above — and yet not from the virus — not directly, at least.
Again. What’s going on if record drug abuse deaths and big jumps in dangerous myocarditis? (Up 50 tp 100 times in newly faxed men; only 10% are thought to endure life threatening risks because most recover.)
Back then it seemed the vaccines alone might be the cause. But now suspicions turn on COVID-19 itself?
Before diving into the data, the above Zerohedge piece (reprinting Epoch Times pieces) segues by considering the breadth of the unaccounted and unexplained mountain of deaths elsewhere, too.
“Also taking part in the news conference was Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association. He also noted a dramatic rise in illness from a different perspective. Tabor said hospitals across Indiana were being flooded with patients ‘with many different conditions.’
“In October 2021, The Times of India reported that health insurers saw a ‘huge surge in non-COVID claims,’ with the head of interventional cardiology at a Mumbai, India, hospital noting a 40 percent increase in heart problems compared to the previous six to eight months.
“Ever since COVID-19 hit, the world has been bracing itself for huge numbers. Most recently in a White House press briefing on Dec. 17, 2021, President Joe Biden warned that unvaccinated Americans can look forward to a ‘winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.’
“Still, such astronomical figures emerging all of a sudden are hard to fathom. The pandemic has worn on for nearly two years, and health officials have been keeping a close eye on the death count. What could account for such a dramatic jump at the end of 2021?”
Presumably, the Omicron variant will not result in such a vicious punch. Yet clearly, it too soon to know.
This massive excess death count among those middle-aged and younger is a mystery that’s only going to get resolved retrospectively.
Alex Berenson appeared recently on Tucker Carlson to support the view that vaccines are dangerous and neglect of treatments is criminal.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/
But even weeks ago in December, Berenson also called attention to distressing data from Germany: stats show all cause mortality rising 17 to 25% higher than before the pandemic.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/all-cause-mortality-in-germany-is/comments
Ever since it began, it’s been a politicized football. I’m quite willing to accept problem and medical harms might well come from both COVID the virus, as well as the vax. Anyone else equally open minded and curious?
I have no problem with old B&W films, but silents are different enough — missing an entire physical sense — that I find them a tough sell. I don’t get far with mimes either.
At that time they were inventing film as a medium. So the silents were cruder in that way too.
It’s interesting how the Keaton video above benefits from a well-chosen Paul Simon hit for the audio.
TJ:
You didn’t include a link for the UK data, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to. But if it’s the data discussed in this article, you’ll see the explanation.
I just looked at the link that you posted in an earlier comment at 1:04 PM. The all-cause mortality rise doesn’t seem to have anything to do with vaccines, because it’s larger in the younger age groups (20s, 30s) that are much less vaccinated, compared to the older age groups that are more vaccinated. The article explains quite a bit of the excess mortality by drug overdoses, alcoholism, homicide, and probably neglect of other illnesses because of lockdowns (I would add general stress). As for the people dying within a year of being hospitalized for COVID, the article says this:
In other words, of course people who’ve been hospitalized for COVID generally were a group that was a lot sicker and more vulnerable even before they got COVID. I don’t think that there’s any reason to believe COVID inflammation was the cause all that time later.
I agree, and have said previously, that there’s been a real neglect of therapeutics and too much reliance on vaccines in comparison.
Kate, I’m gratified by that wine news. But does it matter if it’s a Cab or Bordeaux?
re: Buster —
I think it’s clear that Jackie Chan is the Buster of today. Well, “recent yesterdays”… Jackie’s getting a bit old, now, too.
@ huxley > “I have no problem with old B&W films, but silents are different enough — missing an entire physical sense — that I find them a tough sell. I don’t get far with mimes either.”
Interesting correlation.
I enjoy mime work, and even had a chance to see and “work with” the Frenchman Jacques Lecoq twice: once at our college in a theater workshop, and again at his school in France on a summer “field trip.”
https://www.playbill.com/article/theater-director-mime-teacher-jacques-lecoq-dead-at-77-com-79729
Keaton said that he drastically reduced the number of narration boards in his films, and I think that might be one key to his continued popularity. Having to read the subtitles while not seeing the action really slows down the films.
I’ve noticed
@ OBH > “The actual pacing and flow of a movie changes, during the 80s, due to the aforementioned differences — what happens is that the movies before “MTV” feel remarkably slow to younger people — annoyingly so.”
One of our sons was quite fond of the 2001 reboot of “Ocean’s Eleven” when it came out, so we watched that together, and then the original “Ocean’s 11” (1960).
Even I found the older one annoyingly slow!
Covid TREATMENT organization (phone-in):
“Doctor’s Organization Has Treated Over 150,000 COVID-19 Patients With 99.99% Survival”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/doctors-organization-has-treated-over-150000-covid-19-patients-9999-percent-survival
AKA the “Zelenko Protocol” (along with other similar protocols) gone warp speed.
IOW, precisely why Fauci, the FDC, the CDC, NIH, the WHO, et al. should all be prosecuted (or at the very least, cleaned out and replaced)…
And back to the U-U-Ukraine….
Actually, this Ukraine business has been a real eye-opener…as “Biden” seems to have rediscovered not only the notion of the “sacred”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8DT0VQlhTw
…but also the sanctity of borders….
“Biden Adviser Says Americans Should Care About Ukraine Because ‘Borders Should Be Inviolate’”—
https://conservativebrief.com/total-irony-58627/
Who woulda’ guessed? (Too late for the Afghanis, though…)
OBloodyHell,
Agree regarding Jackie Chan. Good point!
neo,
Thanks for the breakdown on the mortality data!
Regarding pacing of older films…
Depends. Many older films have tremendous dialogue and wordplay. I think those hold up very well.
I enjoyed “My Dinner with Andre,” a movie that famously had no action (and, I think, only two camera angles).
I also enjoy foreign films with subtitles.
CGI, however, almost always takes me out of a movie. The instant it appears on screen my brain says, “Oh, yeah. None of this is real. It’s all pretend.”
The movie, “Elf” used sets and camera angles creatively to trick one’s mind into seeing different perspectives.
It is tempting to think this cannot work, but feudalism carried on for roughly a thousand years before things changed. At least a third of a human population is happy to be treated like a prisoner.
See Prof. Philip Daeleader. The best evidence suggests that the origin of medieval feudalism was in the 7th century in the area later known as Ile de France. It replaced chattel slavery. The serf had a hereditary right of occupancy, could form a family, and had rights to his produce. It was a sustainable system and coincident with its introduction, Europe’s centuries long demographic implosion came to an end. You’re talking about a society where subsistence was an achievement and physical danger a reality away from your village.
One of our sons was quite fond of the 2001 reboot of “Ocean’s Eleven” when it came out, so we watched that together, and then the original “Ocean’s 11” (1960).
Even I found the older one annoyingly slow!
AesopFan:
Agreed. The original “Ocean’s Eleven” had Rat Pack appeal, but I didn’t think it was all that good a movie. Even at the time its reviews were mixed.
However, Soderberg’s “Ocean’s Eleven” is IMO a masterpiece. Leaving aside the pacing and modern gadgetry, it’s a well-written taut script with interesting details and great characters, who interact beautifully together.
It’s a good exercise to compare it with “Ocean’s 8,” the all-female version, which doesn’t suffer because its characters are women, but because they are poorly written so the viewer, or at least this viewer, never gets a solid sense of them as individuals beyond the two leads played by Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett.
“Ocean’s Eleven” juggled eleven heistmates effectively. “Ocean’s 8” only eight members and seemed to be going through the motions.
I enjoyed “My Dinner with Andre,” a movie that famously had no action (and, I think, only two camera angles).
Rufus T. Firefly:
Big thumbs up on “My Dinner with Andre”! Just shows to go you that well-written dialog can compel on its own.
As I recall the story (not mentioned in wiki) Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn collaborated on the script for months, passing it back and forth, each adding more dialog and making revisions until reaching its final form.
I found an indie film on Andre titled “Before and After Dinner” directed by Gregory’s new youngish wife. It’s a bit cloying but does offer the astonishing tidbit that Gregory has been investigating whether his secretive, very wealthy, Jewish businessman father collaborated with the Nazis in the 1930s to undermine the French currency as a prelude to the Nazi invasion of France!
Kind of a dissonance in the picture of Keaton. The convention of movie makeup of the time tended to make men look kind of prissy, with the dark lip makeup seeming to be the b&w rendering of lip stick.
Then, look at his hand. Four fingers perfectly parallel. Most people’s fingers converge slightly, the palm being somewhat wider than the total width of the fingers.
This is the hand–from what I’ve read about T levels–of a high-T adult male, likely influenced by hard labor.
One need not pick up on this consciously for there to be a subliminal notice of the potential conflict in perceptions.
Not that the hand would be all that visible in its relaxed state in his gags, but…subliminal captures a lot.
As to the natural Keaton….I have no idea.
“Just shows to go you that well-written dialog can compel on its own”
Some time back, I read something similar about ‘Casablanca’. Not a lot of action per se (Ugarte and Strasser aside), few sets, but great dialogue.
Sonny. And the movie gets a heck of a lot done in a short time.