philosophy in film

Thoroughbreds?

What would you call two very attractive upper class suburban teens? White of course.

Oh, and one of them is a true “social misfit”.

One thing for sure, when trouble stalks, they can always use these advantages to nudge things in their direction. In fact the only thing that might possibly stop them from prevailing here is the script.

And that’s where the suspense lies. Once you make up your mind whether to like them or not you can choose sides and root for a winner. Then intertwining one of the darker shades of “human nature” with what may or may not be described as “diseased minds”, you react to it from inside your own more or less diseased brain.

Some might call this a “black comedy”. But not everybody. A horror film actually seems more applicable. Of the “psychological” sort.

Basically, it revolves around the gap that sometimes appears between what we see on the surface of that demographic embodying the American dream, and the grotesque slimeballs that are down deeper.

You just never really know, do you?

Look for that truly scary sociopathic personality here. Some apparently are born this way, while others apparently are made. But once you assume that everything revolves around a carefully calculated cost/benefit analysis of “what’s in it for me?”, you can focus in more on what’s really important: not getting caught.

IMDb

This was Anton Yelchin’s final film before his death on June 19, 2016 at the age of 27.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoroughbreds_(2017_film
trailer: youtu.be/TPcV_3D3V2A

Thoroughbreds [2017]
Written and directed by Cory Finley

Lily: Well, I guess you’re feeling a lot of… feelings, uh, right now.
Amanda: Well, that’s the funny thing, actually. I really don’t.
Lily: Don’t what?
Amanda: Feel anything.
Lily: Like, you’re numb? Like you don’t have any negative feelings…
Amanda: Like I don’t have any feelings, ever.
Lily [scoffing]: Sure, you do.
Amanda: I mean sometimes I feel hungry or tired. But, like, joy, guilt? I really don’t have any of those.
Lily: I don’t understand.
Amanda: Yeah, it’s hard to explain. It’s really only recently that I’ve been able to admit it to myself. Because I’ve gotten so good at watching and imitating other people’s emotions that I sort of tricked myself into believing I have them, but I don’t.
Lily: So that’s a, um…
Amanda: A what?
Lily: A disorder or something?
Amanda: Oh. Well, the shrink would sure like it to be. First it was borderline personality, then severe depression, yesterday, she said it was antisocial with schizoid tendency. She’s basically just flipping to random pages of the DSM-5 and throwing medications at me. But I have a perfectly healthy brain. It just doesn’t contain feelings. And that doesn’t necessarily make me a bad person. It just means I have to work a little harder than everyone else to be good.

No comment, he thought.

[b]Amanda [after an alarm goes off]: Glad you set an alarm to make sure we didn’t hang out longer than intended.
Lily: Oh, no… I mean, it…I have this thing with my mom…
Amanda: You know, I have my mom’s email password. It means I read her inbox daily. I saw your thread with her. How she had to bump up from a hundred to two hundred an hour to get you to do this. Just next time, don’t say you’re not charging. She was desperate to set up a playdate, by the way. She’s been trying for two weeks. You could have gotten five hundred out of her if you’d stood pat.

Amanda [of Mark, Lily’s stepdad]: Because he’s rich?
Lily: Excuse me?
Amanda: Because he leaves you envelopes of money?
Lily: Okay, that was for my broken laptop. He doesn’t just leave me envelopes of money…
Amanda: Okay, but you and your mom must still know that it’s in your best interest to keep him happy.
Lily [leaving the table]: Okay…I think we’re done here.

Amanda: I just think you should be honest about your feelings. Otherwise it starts coming out in passive-aggressive ways. Like, for instance, you start inviting your creepy friend over to make him mad.
Lily: That’s not why you’re here.
Amanda: Of course it is.
Lily: Look, if that’s how you feel, then why don’t you go ask your mom to buy you another friend? I’m sure you’re just rolling in options…The answer is “D, ambivalent.”

Lily: You’re not hurt?
Amanda: It’s the first honest thing you’ve said to me since sixth grade.
Lily [after a long sigh]: You’re incredibly off-putting and you freak me out.
Amanda: There you go.
Lily: In kind of a fascinating way, like a YouTube video of a giant zit being popped or a baby born without a face.

Amanda [tears streaming down her face]: The Technique.
Lily: Holy shit. You can just do that on cue?
Amanda: Years of practice.
Lily: Can you teach me?
Amanda: So you basically have to learn all the automatic, like, processes that get triggered when you cry, and then sort of manually generate each one. It feeds back to the brain, and then the tears just come naturally.

Mark: Just grabbin’ my juice.
Amanda [after Mark leaves the room]: His juice?
Lily: It’s a cleanse. Three weeks out of the month he pounds steak, and the last week he juices exclusively.
Amanda: Is that healthy?
Lily: I think you’re only supposed to do it once a year. Hopefully, one of these days he’ll just juice himself to death.

Amanda: You ever think about just killing him?
Lily: I mean, no.
Amanda: You could at least consider Just weigh the pros and cons.
Lily: No.
Amanda: Why don’t you consider all options? Yeah, sure it’s outside the box, but you can only get so far thinking how everyone else thinks. Look at Steve Jobs.

Amanda: It’s a cost-benefit analysis. It seems like you could generate a lot of benefit for a lot of people.
Lily: Except I’d spend the rest of my life in jail.
Amanda: Why are you assuming you’d get caught?
Lily: I should not have to explain this.
Amanda: Probably what people said to Columbus when he was like, “I think the world is round, instead of flat and surrounded by dragons.” They were like, “No, dumbass, we shouldn’t have to explain this.” It’s probably what people said to Steve Jobs when he was like, “This MP3 player is also a phone.”
Lily: Okay, can we please stop talking about Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs never fucking murdered someone.
Amanda: I think most of this country’s moral norms comes from weird old Puritan bullshit. A human life isn’t some sacred thing. There’s nothing holy about a dick and a vaj getting together and spitting out a little dude. If that dude causes more bad than good, then he’s like a, you know… a piece of malfunctioning machinery.
Lily: A lame horse.
Amanda: Right. Should be taken out back and put down.
Lily: You know what you sound like?
Amanda: What?
Lily: A Nazi.
Amanda: I had to leave school before we did World War II but I think it was about race, with them?
Lily: I think you should leave.

Tim [the local scruffy dealer]: Where did you go to school?
Lily: I board.
Tim: And it makes you miserable. It’s like a glorified fuckin’ prison. You ever think about dropping out?
Lily: Why would I do that?
Tim: It’s what I did. Followed my, uh, entrepreneurial instincts. It’s the best decision I ever made.
Lily: Clearly.
Tim: You know, the thing about this town is…the sawdust smells fantastic, but you are still in a hamster cage. Meanwhile, out there, there are more billionaires under 30 than at any moment in human history. It’s our time, motherfucker.

Lily [watching Amanda standing completely still in the back yard just staring into the woods]: What’s she doing out there?
Karen [Amanda’s mom]: I don’t know.

Lily [hesitantly]: That thing you said the other night.
Amanda: Which thing?
Lily: About Mark.
Amanda: Yeah?
Lily: Well, you said something like, “Why are you assuming you’d get caught?”
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Lily: So, like… hypothetically, if you were going to do it, how would you… do it?
Amanda: Well, I wouldn’t…do it. That’s what you want me to say.
Lily: I don’t want you to say anything. Just asking.

Cynthia [Lily’s mom]: We’ve been having the conversation about next year, and we feel really good about Brookmore. He has a friend who’s on the board and they’re really very good at…
Lily: Brookmore is a place for girls with very severe behavioral issues. How is this even part of the conversation?
Cynthia: That’s not true.
Lily: If I’m not readmitted, then I’m staying local. He doesn’t want me here.
Cynthia: No… No, that’s not it at all. You know how much effort he puts in every day getting closer to you. I got admitted into Andover, I’ve…
Mark [walking in to the room]: You were admitted to Andover because your dad wrote them a check. This is a not a conversation. We’ve already made the down payment.

Lily: I saw the photos. Oh. You’re not gonna say anything?
Amanda: What do you want me to say?
Lily: I guess I didn’t realize you did it like that.
Amanda: Well, that’s not how I wanted it to go. Obviously, I wanted to get it done by a vet. He was never gonna walk again. But you know my mom. She’s the type of person that gets weepy when she imagines her horse going to sleep and never waking up. And when a… weak moral character like that runs your household…
Lily: But still, you didn’t have to…
Amanda: Well, if the Midazolam Hydrochloride had worked like it was supposed to, then it just would have been…Unfortunately, quality control on black-market drugs is poor. Honeymooner was going into convulsions. He was bucking hard and he broke the splint. And then he broke the other leg, too. By that point, it just became a question of ending it as quickly as possible. And I Googled methods of execution. I didn’t have a gun, so that was out. But in Mexico, they use something called a “puntilla.”
Lily: A what?
Amanda: A puntilla. It’s like a curved blade. Like an ice pick. You jam it behind the cervical vertebrae, and they go limp.
Lily: And you had a puntilla?
Amanda: Kinda. It stopped the convulsions, but the problem with puntilla execution is, it doesn’t actually kill the horse, it just paralyzes them. And obviously I didn’t want that for Honeymooner. So, I climbed on top of him, he was on the ground at this point, and I started cutting away the flesh of his neck. The goal was to get to the spine as quickly as possible and it took some time. The muscle had a lot of gristle in it and the knife got dull pretty quickly, but I got there…And then I… I just stood up and I got my foot into a position where I could kick downwards, and…I think it felt right. That it was me who did it. After all the years I’d spent with that horse. I just put my head down, and looked at it as completing a task.[/b]

Next up: Mark. Cue Tim.

[b]Tim: Yes, I have a gun.
Amanda: Multiple guns?
Tim: Multiple guns… No! One! One gun! What, am I, fucking Rambo?
Amanda: Do you have it on you?
Tim: Why do you care?
Lily: He’s lying.
Tim: I have a gun.
Amanda: Good.
Tim: Why “good?”
Amanda: Because then Lily has a business proposition for you.

Amanda [to Lily after knocking out Tim with a lamp]: You cannot hesitate. The only thing worse than being incompetent or being unkind or being evil is being indecisive.

Tim: You can’t give the fucking hole in my head time to close?
Lily: It has to be Saturday. I’m on vacation with my mom, and Amanda’s at a residential psychotherapy program.
Amanda: If you tell anyone about any of this or if you don’t do your job, we’ll send the audio, which we’ve put online, to the police.
Tim: I’m out. I’m out. You… you try anything, you’re going to jail.
Amanda: I’m sorry, who…who’s going to jail? We’re just two minors with incredibly expensive family lawyers. On the other hand, if you have one more legal issue, even a minor drug offense, you’re getting 15 years.

Lily [after Tim backs out]: We’ll do it ourselves.
Amanda: I don’t think you’re in the right mindset to be planning this.
Lily: What kind of mindset am I in?
Amanda: Lighting a cigarette indoors. That kind of mindset.
Lily: Oh, is this your house? Or is this my house?
Amanda: I’m just saying, that if we’re gonna do this it’s because it’s the right thing to do. Not because you’re upset and you’re going through a hard time.
Lily: What kind of “hard time” am I going through? My life is fine right now…
Amanda: I mean, you got expelled from Andover. And you lied to me about your internship.

Lily: Leave her.
Mark: What’s that?
Lily: If you want what’s best for her…leave her.
Mark [approaching her]: You couldn’t possibly understand someone else’s point of view. Could you? Not mine, not your friends’, definitely not your mom’s.
Lily: Fuck you.
Mark: Because in your brain, all these people are just little offshoots of your consciousness. We’re all your maids, aren’t we? Your cleaning ladies. Your personal trainers. You know what? Put all the shit in your lungs that you want. We need to stop protecting you. Life needs to knock you around a little. Oh, and the only reason that I am still sending you to Brookmore is that I’ve paid in full. After that, you’re off my payroll…princess.

Lily: You didn’t do anything.
Amanda: You were never unsafe.
Lily: So, you’re okay with him talking to me like that?
Amanda: He’s a cock. Is that new information for us? Honestly, he’s not even that off-base. I mean, empathy isn’t your strong suit. But you know that.

Amanda [seeing tears on Lily’s cheeks]: Hey! There you go.
Lily: What?
Amanda: The Technique. You’ve been practicing.
Lily: I’m not using The Technique, Amanda. Hey, can I ask you something?
Amanda: Yeah.
Lily: Do you remember that time in ninth grade when we were driving home from my dad’s funeral, and you were holding me, and we were crying?
Amanda: Yeah.
Lily: Were you using The Technique?
Amanda: Yeah. That was good, wasn’t it?

Amanda [watching an old Shirley Temple movie with Lily]: It’s funny to think how everyone in this movie is dead now. Or, like, at least very old. He’s probably got a motor-scooter now. She pees in a bag. She’s an obligation to her family. They take turns visiting her. And… and when they sit next to her bed and this movie comes on the TV, she goes, “My, - what a pretty young thing…”
Lily: You’re bumming me out.

Lily: Do you remember that stuff you were saying to Tim the other day? The stuff about how his life isn’t worth living.
Amanda: Yeah.
Lily: Do you ever ask that question about yourself?
Amanda: Like, any of our lives? Like, in a philosophical sense?
Lily: Like your life in particular. I just mean like If you can’t feel anything, like, even happiness or… I’m so sorry. I… I didn’t mean that.
Amanda: No, it’s… It’s okay. I just never really thought about it.
Lily [abruptly]: Stop. I drugged it.
Amanda: You what?
Lily: I put Rohypnol in my drink?
Amanda: You roofied me.
Lily: Yeah.
Amanda: Why?
Lilly: Because I was gonna knock you out and then go upstairs. And afterwards I was gonna put the knife in your hand to make it look like you’d…Oh, I’m so sorry, okay? I… I don’t even know what I was thinking. Just…Just give me the glass and I’ll throw them both away…
[Amanda gulps down the rest of it]
Lily: Stop. Stop it.

Lily: Do you know what this does?
Amanda: Oh, yeah. It, um…Oh, God, you really dosed this motherfucker up.
Lily: Why would you do that?
Amanda: I live a meaningless life…I’m a skilled imitator.

Lily: Just so you know… I’m glad you didn’t show up.
Tim: Okay.
Lily: I wanted her to forget all about it, but…she…felt differently.
Tim: Did you, uh…talk to her after that?
Lily [shaking her head]: She did write me a letter, though. About a week ago.
[segue to Amanda in confinement]
Amanda [voiceover]: Things actually aren’t bad here. Food’s okay, staff are generally nice people. The therapists have been working with me to fill in my memories of those missing hours. And it’s kind of a fun exercise. I can tell them fucking anything and they’ll just write it down and nod. In other news, the ol’ medication-of-the-month club is back in full swing, and the latest ones are making me sleep 14 hours a day and dream constantly. You’re in a lot of them. In one of the recurring ones, we’re in your living room, and I’ve just drank your drugged screwdriver…and you’re screaming, asking me why I did it. Asking me why I have a horse’s head instead of my face. And I wanna tell you that I don’t, but I turn to you and I open my mouth and all that comes out is a horse’s neigh…And then there’s this other recurring dream that doesn’t involve you at all. And it goes like this: I’m Honeymooner, and I’m dying. And I rise out of my body, and I’m staring down at our whole suburb, and time is speeding up. And I see generations of people coming, and going, and building bigger houses. And then eventually the people start spending more and more of their time staring at their smartphones. And soon enough, they’re forgetting to clean their houses, or mow their lawns, or eat, and eventually, all the houses rot and collapse, and the people disappear, vanishing completely into the Internet. And then…and this is the really beautiful part…the horses take over. And the whole suburb is just beautiful thoroughbred stallions with no owners and no memory of owners and no way of knowing how expensive they are, just mating and galloping through the ruins.
Tim: What did it say?
Lily: I don’t know. I just threw it away.[/b]

An “erotic thriller”.

And that often revolves [in films] around one or another brilliant and charming psychologist – almost always a man – becoming romantically involved with one or another beautiful and troubled patient – almost always a woman.

“Frail and fragile” is often how they are described.

And, given the fact that “in the field” this is considered to be taboo, it lends itself to twists and turns.

Cue Paul’s “obscure past”. Then it comes down to just how this obscure past comes to intertwine with what is often an incalculable present leading or not leading to one or another entirely problematic future.

Then the part about twins. Think for example Dead Ringers. Only here you are given a whole new perspective on what being a twin might mean to some.

Finally, one of those films in which we are never entirely certain that what we are seeing is actually unfolding between the characters or is only unfolding in the mind of one of them. This will intrigue some and infuriate others. As with The Usual Suspects you are never entirely sure if what you are watching is what actually unfolded.

Look for mirrors. They seem to be everywhere. Then decide for yourself what that tells us about the film.

IMDb

Adapted from a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, named “Lives of the Twins”.

Double Lover [L’amant Double] 2017
Written and directed by François Ozon

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Amant_double
trailer: youtu.be/MnvnP3EThn4

[b]Doctor: And the stomach pains? They’re back?
Chloé: Yes. And getting worse.
Doctor: I see nothing abnormal. I can prescribe ultrasound if you like. I think it’s mainly psychological. In your head.
Chloé: Could you recommend someone? I think I’m ready.
Doctor: Would you prefer a man or a woman.

Chloé [to Paul]: I’ve seen many specialists for my stomach pains but they never find anything. People say it’s psychological, the stomach being a second brain. So I may as well see a shrink.

Chloé [to Paul at their first session]: I am 25 years old and I live alone. Well, not totally alone, I have my cat, Milo. I am currently looking for a job and it’s not easy. I feel stressed…and I say the opposite of what I mean and I do everything wrong…I’ve had a few lovers. Nothing major. I think I am incapable of loving. I feel empty sometimes. Like something is missing. Sometimes I cry for no reason. There you are.[/b]

You’ll either get this or you won’t.

[b]Chloé: I dreamt about you already. Is that a good sign?
Paul: I’m listening.
Chloé: I was pregnant. By who I don’t know. But it hurt, real bad…I was here, lying on a gynecological table. You had steel instruments resembling torture instruments. I asked you not to hurt me but you didn’t respond. You spread my legs and looked at my sex. I tried to close my legs. I felt you were going to rape me. Ridiculous, no?

Chloé [to Paul]: When I was 7, my mother told me I was an accident. From a one night stand she had forgotten. She wouldn’t recognize his face.
[long pause]
Chloé: Maybe he was violent with her. Or maybe he paid her. Like a whore.[/b]

And there it is: the part the past plays in making us who we think we are today.

[b]Chloé [to Paul]: When you look at me that way…I feel I exist.

Chloé: My stomach hasn’t hurt in a week. I’m afraid I’ll get better.
Paul: Why?
Chloé: I think I want to stay weak. Keep hurting…while you stay strong.[/b]

Then they exchange “the look”.

[b]Paul: I think we should end our sesessions.
Chloé: Why? Did I do something wrong?
Paul: No. It’s me. This has never happened before. I have feeling that make it impossible to continue.
Chloé: Feelings?

Chloé [to Paul]: You don’t think that you have cured me? I think you were my remedy.

Chloé: It’s strange. You know everything abut me. But I sometimes feel I’m with a stranger. Like you’re hiding things.
Paul: Why do you say that?
Chloé: I found your old passport in a box.
Paul: You got into my stuff?
Chloé: I was just unpacking. I saw you had a different name. Delord, I believe.
[Paul says nothing]
Chloé: Don’t want to talk about it?

Chloé: Why are you lying? I saw you on the way home. Talking to a woman.
Paul: Impossible. The hospital’s across town.
Chloé: But I saw you.
Paul: But you are mistaken. It wasn’t me. I must have a look-alike.
Chloé: I’m sure it was you![/b]

Imagine: What if you had a twin but didn’t know it? Cue Louis Delord.

Chloé: You look like someone I know.
Louis: Do I?
Chloé: Paul Meyer.
Louis [after a pause[: He is my brother. Do you know him well?
Chloé: Not very. I consulted him, to no avail.
Louis: Rest assured. We’re twins and went to the same schools, but our therapeutic methods are very different. I don’t suppose he sent you.
Chloé: No

You know something is very strange here, but in what direction will it all go?

Louis: If you follow my therapy, which will cost you, I think I can cure you. If you stop lying to me.
Chloé: Lying to you?
Louis: I don’t believe you have a sister…Is you’re mother really dead, or do you wisd her dead? Lying to seduce is a common practice among pretty women. Especially the frigid ones.
[he gets a phone call…Paul?]
Louis: I’m willing to see you again. I do refuse certain patients. Those who’d be bland without their vices.
Chloé [suddenly angy]: Excuse me. This isn’t going to work.
Lousi: Please pay me for the full session. 150 euros. Don’t mention me to my brother.
Chloé: I don’t see him anymore.
Louis: Good. Next time we’ll see if you’re interesting…or a silly twat.
Chloé: There will be no next time.

So: Did any of this axctually happen?

[b]Chloé [to Paul]: What don’t you introduce me to your family?

Paul: I remember the first time I saw you. You seemed a bit lost, but stronger than most of my patients.
Chloé: Did you think I was a silly twat?
Paul: No. Just a dirty twat.

Paul: I had a happy childhood.
Chloé: What about a twin brother?
Paul: No thanks. It would be like looking in the mirror all the time.
Chloé: Maybe you have one but don’t know.

Chloé: Surprised I came back?
Louis: To be honest, I didn’t give it a thought.

Louis: Get undressed.
Chloé: You’re crazy.
Louis: Time for applied techniques. Come closer.
Chloé: No.
Louis: Yes. You want to.
Chloé: I can’t.
Louis: “He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence”.
Chloé: I don’t desire you.
Louis: Then why’d you come back?
Chloé: To learn the truth.

Chloé: No one’s ever done that to me.
Louis: No one’s ever fucked you like that? You’ve fanticized it. Same thing.

Chloé: Is your cat a female.
Louis: No, Danton is a male. Rare for a tortiseshell. They’re usually female with two colors. In less than 1% of cases, they’re male with three colors. Always twins. It’s a genetic eccentricity caused by a trisomy of the sex chromosome. Unique creatures. Monstrous. When the cat’s ovum is fertilized, twin fetuses develop in the uterus. But after a few weeks they meld into one organism. A unique cat with the genetic properties of twins, XXY. In fact it’s the dominant twin. It happens in people too. Some people discover, as adults, they’re carrying inside them the fetus of a brother or sister. They’re cannibal twins.

Louis: Just don’t tell him.
Chloé: You don’t exist for him anyway.
Louis: I know. He could never stand having a twin. He denies my existence. He wanted to be the only one. An only child. My parents favorite. I no longer exist.

Chloé: Did Paul change his name to cut you out of his life?
Louis: Of course.
Chloé: What do you feel for Paul?
Louis: Nothing. I rarely think of him. People often confuse us, that’s all. When they learn I’m his older brother, they ask of him.
Chloé: Older brother?
Louis: Right. I’m 15 minutes older. I was born 15 minutes sooner. Head first. Paul came out later, feet first. My mother suffered like hell. He made her lose a lot of blood. I weighed 5 1/2 pounds. He weighed under 4 1/2. Even in my mothers uterus I was the dominant twin. I’m right-handed, he’s left. Our hair curls the opposit way. His left eye is weak, my right eye is. We’re mirror twins. In certain primitve cultures they’d kill the second born twin because he was weaker and had less chance of surviving.

Chloé: What’s your secret, Louis. I really need to know.
[he says nothing]
Chloé: What happened? What made him cut you out of his life? Please tell me. I’m pregnant and Paul wants to marry me.
Louis: Ask him. It’s your secret against his.
Chloé: What if you’re the one who’s obsessed with him? Jealous?
Louis: In two seconds you’ve turned ugly.
Chloé: You hate Paul because he’s the real dominant twin. He fucked you in the ass.
Louis [seething]: Get lost, Chloé. Fuck off.

Louis [on the phone]: You’re carrying my child. Check the dates.

Louis [pretending to be Paul kisses Chloé passionaitely in a restaurant]: Thought I was my brother? Calm down! I had to see you. I want to resume our therapy. I’ll cure you.

Louis [gripping Chloé as she tries to leave]: Has Paul mentioned our classmate? Ask him about Sandra Schenker. Then you’ll understand.

Mother [on the phone]: Hello?
Chloé: May I speak to Sandra Schenker? I’m an old classmate. I was wondering how she is.
Mother: My daughter doesn’t go out anymore. Hasn’t in a long time.
Chloé: Why doesn’t she go out?
Mother: You don’t know about the accident?

Mother [to Chloé]: They were such a perfect couple. Sandra and Paul, Paul and Sandra. He was shy. A charming boy. Unlike his twin. A monster. He’s the one who got drunk pretending to be Paul. Sandra had never had a drop to drink. She was a serious girl. Innocent. A virgin. What happened, happened. He raped her. When Paul found out, he became extremely violent. He was so very jealous. He began to hate his brother. He refused to see Sandra again. Sandra didn’t understand. So she committed that act. Attempted suicide with a firearm.

Mother: When it comes to twins, we assume that if we know one, we know the other. But the Delord brothers…

Mother: You were their victim too?
Chloé: What do you mean?

Paul: I never wanted to hear that story again. Sandra. Louis. She betrayed me. He soiled her. I broke up with her because I stopped loving her. I had no feelings left. I felt only pity for her.
Chloé: It wasn’t Sandra’s fault. Your brother pretended he was you. He tricked her, then raped her.
Paul: Not at all. Sandra was attracted to him. She only wanted me because I was the twin. He’s the one she wanted. What do you think…that she was the victim of two diabolical brothers? No. She’s responsible too. Her fascination…her lust…for twins. That’s waht killed her.
Chloé: She is still living!
Paul: The living dead.

Chloé: Enough Louis. I saw Sandra and her mother. You destroy everything.
Louis: The whole thing was absurd and tragic. Sandra was a beautiful girl. But completely hysterical. That little bitch cried rape to my brother.
Chloé: You’re lying!
Louis: Did her moother mention Sandra was pregnant? By me, obviously. It’s funny. Looking at you now, I feel like I’m seeing her. The same greedy mouth…
Chloé [slapping him]: You’re a monster!
Louis: There are no monsters. Only human beings. Like you, me and Paul.

Louis [confronting Chloé now pointing a gun at him]: Sandra Schenker returns.
Chloé [fiercely]: I won’t end up like her. She should have killed you, Louis.
Louis: Are you quite sure, my dear Chloé, that I’m Louis…and not Paul?

Louis [to Chloé]: I believe we have a guest.[/b]

I won’t even attempt to convey what happens next.

[b]Paul: I’m so angry with myself.
Mother: It’s not your fault. My daughter’s always been fragile.
Paul: I refused to see. I thought loving her would keep her safe. Help her live.
Mother: Love has never saved anyone.

Doctor: The growth Chloé thought was a pregnancy was really a cyst weighing nearly 2 pounds.
Paul: Could this explain her mental state?
Doctor: Learning she was carrying not a baby but her unborn twin triggered an emotional shock and inhibited her sexuality.
Mother: So that means I was carrying two fetuses.
Doctor: Yes. At the start of your pregnancy.

Chloé: Did you see Sandra?
Paul: Sandra?
Chloé: Yes, my twin. The fetus. It says on the internet I’m a cannibal twin.
Paul: The exact term is parasitic. A parasitic twin.

Chloé [to her mother]: I devoured my twin sister in your womb. She was inside me.
Mother: No, Chloé.
Paul: Chloé, you didn’t devour her, you absorbed her. It never became a fetus. It was just some sort of growth with limbs and bones.
Chloé [weeping]: It was my sister.

Chloé: Ever wish you had a brother, Paul.
Paul: Enough of that. It’s over.[/b]

They pop up in the news from time to time.

The “controversial exhibit”. At one or another museum. It might revolve around sex or race or religion or politics. But one thing we can be certain of: Some will embrace it enthusiasticaly while others will protest it even more enthusiastically.

Consider: sleek-mag.com/2017/05/09/con … -artworks/

Call it say the “Piss Christ Syndrome”.

This exhibition however would seem to be somewhat more ambiguous. It revolves basically around human psychological reactions to particular contexts in which, among other things, trust and compassion are explored. Different people react to them in different ways. Then we react to their reactions. In other words: What would we do? And [of course]: Is there a way in which a decent, civilized human being would be expected to react

As one reviewer put it, the film runs the gamut from “the inherent narcissism of the most ordinary of people, to the shallowness of popular culture, to the complex behaviors and interactions between people of disparate backgrounds.”

Or, as the director informs us:

These people that in the beginning were sitting in tuxedos and eating their nice, fancy dinner, I wanted them to be uncivilized animals in the end, I think that the most uncivilized thing about our time is the collective rage against individuals that are acting uncivilized. Isn’t that the scary thing about us?

So, in conjunction with all this, where does “art” end and “real life” begin?

Then this part:

Christian: If you place an object in a museum does that make this object a piece of art?

On the other hand, this film may well run about 45 minutes [if not an hour] too long. Or is that all part of the art?

IMDb

[b]Terry Notary portrays the ape-man “Oleg” in the film. The Russian artist Oleg Kulik was invited to the international group exhibition “Interpol” at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden. At the opening, the vernissage, Kulik performed like a dog. He glittered, jumped up, rolled and even bit the VIP crowd in their legs. Kulik said he acted as a representative of the browbeaten Russian people, who now attacked and bit back. The crowd became so scared and enraged that they called for the police. In “The Square” there is a similar, charged and offensive scene, but here the performance artist acts like an ape.

The preliminary study of “The Square” was “Rutan” (The Square), an exhibition at Vandalorum in Värnamo, Sweden, in spring 2015, where director Ruben Östlund and film producer Kalle Boman wanted to examine the trust we feel towards each other. Pictures from the exhibition are included in the film.

In the film there is an ape seemingly busy creating art. This refers to an old practical joke. An alleged self-taught French avant-garde artist, Pierre Brassau, appeared at an art exhibition in Gothenburg in 1964. A series of art connoisseurs were tricked by this intentional experiment. It was the chimpanzee Peter from Borås Zoo that had created the “spontanist painting”, and the brain behind it was a gallerist and a journalist who were reported to be a police officer for fraud. [/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt4995790/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Square_(2017_film
trailer: youtu.be/V74sHdm76WU

The Square [2017]
Written and directed by Ruben Östlund

[b]Anne [interviewing Christian]: My first question is a broad one. What are the challenges in running a museum like this?
Christian: I hate to say it but it’s probably money. Raising sufficient funds. We’re a museum of modern and contemporary art. So we need to present art that is absolutely the art of today, the future, art that is absolutely cutting edge, and that’s expensive. And the competition is fierce, because you’ve got buyers and collectors from all over the world with so much money you can’t believe it. They spend more in an afternoon than we spend in a year. Whereas if we buy that piece of art we will be able to present it here. To a large audience. To all of Stockholm and Sweden. So I think it is the obligation of us to get into that competition.

Anne: I wanted to ask you something that I read on your website that I didn’t understand. And I was hoping you could help me to understand it. Do you mind if I read this to you?
Christian: Plerase do.
Anne: May 30-31. “Exhibition/Non-exhibition. An evening conversation that explores the dynamics of the ‘exhibitable’ and the construction of ‘public-ness’ in the spirit of Robert Smithson’s Site/Non-site. From non-site to site, from non-exhibition to exhibition, what is the topos of exhibition/non-exhibition in the crowded moments of mega exhibition.” I’m clearly not as scholarly as you are. I was just hoping you could…
Christian [after a long pause]: Well, this was a couple of evenings in May when we discussed…when…when…I mean, um, If you place an object in a museum does that make this object a piece of art? For instance, if we took your bag and placed it here, would that make it art?
Anne [hesitantly]: Hm. Okay…

From a plaque placed in the square: “The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within its boundaries, we aII share equaI rights and obIigations.”

Journalist [to Christian]: For every new project, we need to assess how newsworthy it is. What makes this exhibition stand out? Does it invoIve any controversy? Can we tie it to trends or current events? If not, you’re stuck with the biIIboards. That makes it hard to generate any internationaI attention. Then you’II onIy reach the usuaI ‘‘cuIture vuItures’’. To get journaIists to write about it, you need some controversy. OnIy this project doesn’t reaIIy have much of an edge. As a journaIist, I want to create my own standpoint. Like most peopIe, I want to express an opinion that isn’t just consensus.

Christian: The exhibition’s strength Iies in its simpIicity. That’s what we shouId communicate.
Journalist: DefiniteIy, just Iet me read this. ‘‘The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within its boundaries, we aII share equaI rights and obIigations.’’ No one wouId disagree with that. So why shouId I, as a journaIist, care?

Christian: We wiII be presenting the Argentinean artist and socioIogist LoIa Arias. LoIa’s art is inspired by NicoIas Bourriaud, and his thoughts on reIationaI aesthetics. In short, reIationaI aesthetics expIores how we reIate to each other in a sociaI context.

Christian [addressing an audience at the museum]: I’m asking you to imagine that you are standing in a pubIic pIace in town. Such as OdenpIan, or any other Iarge city pIaza. Are you there now? Okay. It’s an ordinary day and Iots of peopIe are in motion. You Iook down and see that you are standing inside a square a cIearIy defined 4 x 4 metre square. That’s what ‘‘The Square’’ is on a physicaI pIane. It’s Iike an empty frame waiting for its contents. LoIa Arias compares ‘‘The Square’’ to a pedestrian crossing. A pedestrian crossing Drivers are to Iook out for pedestrians. In a simiIar way, there is a contract impIied by ‘‘The Square’’, to Iook out for each other. We heIp each other. If you enter this space and ask for heIp, anyone passing by is obIigated to heIp you. ‘‘I’m hungry. Can you heIp me with a meaI?’’ ‘‘Can you teach me how to swim?’’ ‘‘My father just died and I have no one to taIk to. CouId you spare me 30 minutes of your time?’’ Some of you may be thinking that this sounds naive. Maybe even utopian…

Woman [voiceover]: Do you want to save a human Iife? Do you want to save a human Iife? Do you want to save a human Iife?

Julian [being interviewed at a museum – discussing “art”]: My starting point was my immediate surroundings and uses ordinary everyday objects to explore the meaning of on’e human response to art. By that I mean they are framed instances that would shed a light on everyday objects which might normally not be noticed in their original context.

Anne [claps]: Cunt! Shh…cunt!
Christian [incredulous]: Excuse me?
Anne: Cunt.
Christian: Did you say “cunt”?
Anne [claps]: Shh…cunt!
Christian: Okay…

Anne: Did you come?
Christian: Yeah. Oh yeah.[/b]

Cue the used condom connundrum.

[b]Marketing rep: This project raises many interesting, topicaI and humanitarian issues. But the chaIIenge here is to cut through the media cIutter. Your competition isn’t other museums, it’s disasters, terrorism, and controversiaI moves by far-right poIiticians. Keep that at the back of your mind, stay caIm, and DanieI wiII teII you about our idea.

Daniel: Moving media, that’s what we recommend. When making fiIms today, you need to be aware that peopIe have a very short attention span. If the viewer isn’t hooked in two seconds, they’II move on. In 10 to 15 seconds, tops, we aIso have to create something so powerfuI or interesting that peopIe want to share it on Facebook, sociaI media, to the press, thereby creating a viraI effect. We conducted market research on what’s shared the most on sociaI media. It’s generaIIy vuInerabIe groups. PeopIe post about women, the disabIed, the raciaIized, LGBTQ peopIe… You can make that Iist Ionger, but there is one group that affects peopIe: beggars. So we’d Iike to use a beggar in this cIip, but aIso turn it up a notch by making the beggar a chiId. In addition to this, the beggar wiII have fair hair…We open on the PaIace courtyard. The Square is visibIe. So, there’s product pIacement from frame one. Towards this artwork is daybreak and the Square, is shimmering with its promise of trust, caring, moraI courage and aII that good stuff. Then we see a IittIe girI approaching the Square. She’s shivering. She’s aII aIone. She’s crying. She’s wrapped in a dirty bIanket and you sense that she’s homeIess. These are powerfuI images so we’ve hooked the viewer. The girI keeps on waIking. PowerfuI images, you wonder where it’s aII heading. She’s crying as she moves aIong. She enters the Square and there, it’s time for the unexpected. The totaI opposite of everything the Square stands for. The surprise effect wiII generate the attention we need, creating the perfect pIatform to express your message. AII those vaIues and issues your exhibition wouId Iike to raise.[/b]

You won’t believe the video they come up with.

[b]Anne: I think you are so interesting. I think I am finally starting to figure you out.
Christian: Yeah? Okay, let’s hear it.
Anne: I think you’re interested in using your position, which is a position of power, to attract women and to make conquests. That’s what I think. That’s what I think. Sorry.

Christian: Why is it so hard for you to admit that power is a turn-on? Admit it.
Anne: But it’s not true for me.
Christian: It’s not true for you, okay. I’ll admit to something else as well. I’m really proud that I conquered you.
Anne: Proud of having me?
Christian: Yeah. You’re quite a catch.

Christian: WeIcome! I’m deIighted to see such a crowd. Here are sets for our new exhibition, one that is very promising indeed. To enter, you have to decide whether you trust other peopIe, or that you don’t, you mistrust them.[/b]

Right, like it’s always either one or the other.

[b]Christian [to his daughters]: When your grandpa was a boy, about 6 years oId, and he was about to go out and pIay his parents made him a tag and wrote his name and address on it. They hung it around his neck and sent him off to pIay aII by himseIf in the middIe of Copenhagen. Imagine if I had done that to you when you were six. That never wouId have happened. Attitudes change…Back then, peopIe trusted other grownups, to heIp their chiIdren if they had probIems or had Iost their way. But nowadays, you tend to regard other aduIts as potentiaI threats.

Pauline [on phone]: Hello, l’m Pauline from YouTube Sweden. Congratulations to 300k.
Christian: Excuse me?
Pauline: Congratulations to 300,000 clicks.
Christian: 300,000 views?
Pauline: That’s right. Your video has seen a lot of traffic in just a few hours.
Christian: ReaIIy? WeII, that’s nice. I presume you’re referring to our artist taIk.
Pauline: No, it’s ‘‘Blonde Child Beggar Gets Blown lnto Pieces’’. The reason l’m calling is to ask if you are interested in any ads, thereby sharing partner revenue.
Christian: I need to get my head around this. We have a cIip-on YouTube that features kids being bIown up?
Pauline: l haven’t seen the clip myself. l don’t work with content.

Man [reacting to the video on cell phone clip]: …they have produced this video with taxpayers’ money…And the other thing they do, that they are clueless about, is to attack one of Sweden’s most vulnerable groups, the beggars. People who sit day and night outside shops. A video like this is pissing them straight in the face. What’s really sick is that my 6-year-old daughter sees body parts flying…

Woman [at a gathering of well to do patrons of the arts]: What’s happening?
Woman: This will be exciting!
Voice [over a PA system]: Welcome to the jungle. Soon you will be confronted by a wild animal. As you know, the hunting instinct is triggered by weakness. If you show fear the animal will sense it. If you try to escape, the animal will hunt you down. But if you remain perfectly still, without moving a muscle, the animal might not notice you, and you can hide in the herd, safe in the knowledge that someone else will be the prey.[/b]

Cue Oleg.

[b]Christian [making a video on his phone for the young boy who had been called a thief by him. Sort of.]: You can probabIy see who this is. We just met on my stairweII. I tried to caII, but I couIdn’t get through. So now I’m making this video instead. Because you’re absoIuteIy right. I apoIogize for the rotten thing I did. I accused you of being a thief. PIease show this to your parents, so they’II know you are not a thief. The note said you stoIe my phone and my waIIet, but that wasn’t true. I want to emphasize that this is simpIy not true. So, I’d Iike to apoIogize. It was a bad thing to do. It was so seIfish of me. CareIess and prejudiced and I’m… Looking back, I shouId have gone into your buiIding, knocked on the doors and asked a simpIe question. But that never occurred to me, because… WeII, honestIy, I was too afraid. Afraid of the peopIe who Iive… Afraid of the peopIe I picture Iiving in a buiIding Iike yours. Those negative expectations say something about me. They say something about our society, because I’m sure I’m not the onIy one who’s prejudiced… You have preconceptions about us too, probabIy because our Iives are so different. So suddenIy, it comes down to poIitics and the distribution of assets. Because these probIems can’t be soIved by individuaIs aIone. Society needs to Iend a hand too. It’s not enough that I admit I was wrong and apoIogize to you in a video. There are bigger, structuraI probIems invoIved that society needs to deaI with. I actuaIIy know one of the 291 peopIe who own more than 50% of the worId’s weaIth. A guy Iike that couId fix aII this in an instant.

Man [in the audience after Christian announces his resignation over the youtube video]: You started out by saying that you and the museum board agreed that you shouId resign.
Christian: Yes, that was our decision. This is not the image we wish to project.
Man: So you’ve reached the Iimit for how much freedom of speech you can handIe? You’ve hit the ceiIing in terms of communication? Do you personaIIy beIieve that you crossed a Iine? Christian: I beIieve that freedom of speech comes with certain responsibiIities. You must consider what you express.
Man: But is it up to you to Iimit free speech? Isn’t such seIf-censorship cause for concern? You’re in a powerfuI position.
Christian: The decision was not aII mine.
Man: But you took part in this decision. You have cIearIy expressed that this cIip was so distastefuI that you feeI obIigated to resign.
Christian: I made a mistake, the cIip was pubIished without my approvaI.
Man: So that’s where you draw the Iine? A fictionaI girI gets…
Christian: No, it isn’t. Like I said, this has nothing to do with my own opinions.
Man: You’re putting a cap on free speech!
Christian: These are not my personaI opinions. We’re taIking about the museum and my professionaI roIe. What is it you don’t understand about that?
Man: This is a highIy aIarming future you’re creating for our society. Quite frankIy, it sucks![/b]

Are you sane?

If you’re lucky, you may be able to grapple with this in the privacy of your own home. And then decide that you either are or are not. And that may or may not be as far as it goes. But what happens when the question of your sanity leaks out into the world around you? What if others start to question it? What if it becomes entangled in the legal system? Or in the medical industrial complex? In other words, such that you may or may not have control over all of the pieces?

And then this: What’s the difference between being sane, insane and unsane?

A young woman is committed to a mental institution. Voluntarily? Involuntarily? Inadvertently? By accident? And how exactly does that – can that – work? What sort of situations can arise where others are actually able to commit you to “treatments” that you have little or no control regarding? And for how long – 24 hours? a week? a month? for the rest of your life? The fact is that most of us don’t really have a clue as how all of this might unfold. So, while watching the film, we’re thinking, “what could happen to me?”

But then almost immediately we start to question what we are seeing up on the screen. Is all of this actually unfolding, or is it all just part of her mental illness?

And then the part where it becomes a “thriller”. The part where [for some of us] it clearly jumps the shark.

As for the ending: screenrant.com/unsane-movie-ending-explained/

From the director of Bubble above. One of my all time favorite “small films” by “big” directors.

IMDb

The film was shot entirely with an iPhone 7 Plus camera. In just 10 days. Steven Soderbergh’s first horror/thriller movie.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsane_(film
trailer: youtu.be/u7KZrt_cHH0

Unsane [2018]
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

[b]David [voiceover]: I love it when you wear blue. I mean, I love you in anything. But you wore blue that first time I saw you, so anytime I see you in blue, it reminds me of how I felt at that moment. How I never really knew what being alive was until I saw you. You unlocked something inside me that day, something I didn’t even realize was there. And right then, I knew that nothing in my life was ever going to be the same. In that moment, I was transformed permanently. You did that.

Sawyer: I’m named after my grandfather on my mother’s side. He died of eye cancer.
Mark: Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t…
Sawyer: Your little face.
Mark: That was you being funny?
Sawyer: Hey, if we can’t laugh at cancer, who are we?
Mark: Oh. That’s dark.
Sawyer: Hail Satan. Promise me one thing, Jesse.
Mark: It’s Mark.
Sawyer: Yeah. Tonight’s going to go how you want it to go. It’s not even a question. But afterwards, you don’t call me, you don’t contact me. It’s like we never met. You good with that?[/b]

Then things get weird.

[b]Sawyer [describing the experience of being stalked]: Your life slips away from you, you know? Changing your phone number and your e-mail becomes normal. Changing your lunch hour every day becomes normal. Second-guessing every single thing you say in case it might be misinterpreted? Normal. Taking out a restraining order. Normal. Relocating to another city. Normal.
Counselor: But you still see your stalker everywhere?
Sawyer: Well, rationally, I know that this is my neuroses colluding with my imagination to manifest my worst fears. I know that. But I’m not rational. I’m alone in a strange city, and, uh, I never feel safe. Not for one minute. So what do I do? Where do I go? Or maybe I just surrender and accept that this is my life.
Counselor: That doesn’t sound like much of a life.
Sawyer: No. Not one that I want to keep on living.

Sawyer [to the counselor]: Do you know the therapeutic index? It’s, um…It’s the ratio that measures the blood concentration of if a drug is toxic or when it’s effective. The larger the therapeutic index, the safer the drug. The smaller, the more dangerous. That’s how I’d see myself spending my final hours. Testing drugs.[/b]

Then things get weird again.

[b]Nurse: I’m Nurse Boles. Can you strip down to your underwear for me? Please. Take off your clothes down to your underwear. And remove all your jewelry. Do you understand? If you need help removing your clothes…
Sawyer [totally perplexed]: Why?
Nurse: To check for identifying marks. Scars, birthmarks, moles. It’s to protect you, the other patients, and the hospital.
Sawyer: Look, I’m not sure what’s happening here…

Sawyer: There’s been some kind of mistake.
Nurse: Your name is Sawyer Valentini.
Sawyer: You know that already.
Nurse: By signing this, you’ve consented to voluntary commitment for 24 hours.
Sawyer: No. The counselor said the form was routine.
Nurse: You signed it.

Doctor: Well, it says here that you’ve been assessed as a danger to yourself and to others. So that means more observation.
Sawyer: Doctor, look at me. Look at me. Doctor, I have a wonderful support system around me. I have family, I have friends, coworkers. I have neighbors. The best thing for me is to be surrounded by the people I love. Now, did I indicate to the counselor that I sometimes, occasionally, feel down? Sure, I did. But everybody does.

Doctor: It says here that you assaulted a staff member.
Sawyer: He looked like someone I knew.
Doctor: Yes, but it says here that you attacked him.
Sawyer: I… No. I was under a lot of stress. The police were supposed to come.
Doctor: And it says here that you assaulted a male patient, Jacob.
Sawyer: No. He…Look, I had a rough night. But look at me now.
Doctor: Right. So, because of the multiple acts of violence, we’re looking at another seven days.

Nate: You’re no different from anybody else in here. You gave them an in.
Sawyer: What are you talking about?
Nate: They brought up suicide. You bit. That’s all they need. They’ve got beds. You’ve got insurance.
Sawyer: But I’m fine. I just needed to talk to somebody.
Nate: Yeah, that’s why Highland Creek and all the other Highland Creeks and Tumbling Pines and Cedar Valleys under the ADS Health Enterprises umbrella exist. You talk, they find a way to keep you and get you admitted. And you stay locked up until Aetna, Blue Cross, Medicaid or whoever insures you will pay. Soon as the money runs out, you’re cured.
Sawyer: But that’s…that’s…
Nate: Business. Business. Highland Creek is just like any other business in America. They got a number to hit every month. They need to admit as many patients to fill those beds to get that money. You know, the law of averages suggests that a percentage of the patients admitted to Highland Creek are in actual need of psychiatric care. It also suggests that a higher percentage…
Sawyer: Are just like me. They’re locking up sane people for profit.
Nate: Yeah.
Sawyer: I’m here for seven days because my insurance company approved it.
Nate: Boom. It’s not that bad. I mean, it’s inhuman, but compared to where you could have landed?[/b]

So, is that how it really works? Or is this all really unfolding only in her head?

Nate: Final words: Do your time. Keep your head down.
Sawyer: God, you’re talking to me like we’re in prison.
Nate: You’re welcome. Don’t cause any scenes. Don’t make any enemies. Find a community, learn how to live with the routine. It’ll be over before you know it.

Cue David Strine/George Shaw — the stalker.

[b]Sawyer: This man is called David Strine. And he’s been following me and calling me and texting me and showing up at my job and breaking into my fucking house.
Nurse: Take your meds and move on.
Sawyer: No. I’m not going anywhere until the cops haul his ass into jail.
Nurse: George, did you do or say anything to provoke the patient?
Sawyer: Stop calling him that. His name is David. He’s followed me all the way here from Boston.
George: I’ve never even been to Boston, though I am a Sox fan.

Doctor: Sawyer, based on what it says here, you are one incident away from being sent to the basement.
Sawyer: Look, I was sexually assaulted. Where’s the outrage? Where’s my advocate? Who do I report this to? And what’s in the basement?

Sawyer: Your cell phone. I saw you. I know you have one. That’s a major infraction of the rules. But guess what? I don’t care, as long as I get to use it. Otherwise, I tell everyone.
Nate: Yeah. Your credibility is sky high around here.
Sawyer: You really want to take that chance?
Nate: You call the cops again, they’ll do nothing…again.
Sawyer: I’m not calling the cops. I promise. And I’ll suck your dick.

Angela [Sawyer’s mom]: I want to see my daughter! Get her out here now! I’m not leaving, and I’m only going to get louder, so you probably should do something! She didn’t know what she was signing. I want her released immediately. She’s coming home with me.
Administrator: Mrs. Valentini, I understand your concern, but right now this is the best place for Sawyer.
Angela: Stuck in a hospital with her stalker is the best place for her?
Administrator: Highland Creek is a very ethical organization, Mrs. Valentini. The decision regarding Sawyer’s admission was made by an attending psychiatrist in consultation with members of our clinical treatment team.
Angela: Are you going to release her?
Administrator: Sawyer is absolutely free to leave…once we’re convinced that she no longer poses a clear threat to herself and others.
Angela: She doesn’t. You only made her think she does so you could describe her as suicidal on your insurance claim.

Lawyer [on phone with Angela]: Pennsylvania state law mandates that a patient can only be held on involuntary commitment for seven days without a court order. And, look, they’re not going to go to the hassle of getting a court order after her insurance stops paying. Is it inconvenient? Sure. Should something be done to stop it happening? Absolutely. As your lawyer, is it my priority getting Sawyer back into your care? It’s number one. Keep me in the loop about the situation. If you think there’s legal cause to intercede, I’ll get right on it.

Ferguson [to Sawyer about David Strine]: Okay, let’s talk about Sawyer Valentini in Boston, year zero. Um, obviously I would recommend sensors on all your doors and windows. I would swap the terrace doors out for a steel-core door. Um, update your dead bolts. Uh, I want to talk to you about situational awareness, okay? Where’s the nearest police station? Where’s the nearest fire station? These are things that should always be right on the tip of your tongue. Yeah, parking… Um, I know you have parking in the rear of the building with the back entrance. I’m gonna ask you not to use that anymore. I know it’s convenient, but I would advocate selling your car and using a ride service. If you can’t or won’t do that, uh, I would say park on the street, preferably under a light source. And come back and walk through this courtyard here where people can see you. With your keys in your hand, by the way. You want your keys always in your hand. You don’t want to be digging around in your purse in the dark for your keys. Um, and I’ll talk to you about and help you with a go-bag. You know, just cash, credit cards, uh, change of clothes, flashlight, charger, that kind of thing. A firearm, if you’re open to that idea of purchasing or registering a firearm and learning how to use it. Think about altering your routine. Uh, when you go to work, when you leave work, um, that kind of thing. How about social media? Are you on any social media accounts?
Sawyer: Uh, I’m on Facebook, but my account’s private, so…
Ferguson: Right. Okay, that’s no good, because he’d be able to, you know, figure out a friend of yours from marching band or a sorority sister and go get photos from them, create a bogus account and then try to friend you that way. Your friends know your e-mail. That’s enough. Just delete the Facebook today. Um, and then talk to your friends, you know. Be open about this. Inform them what’s going on. Tell them not to mention you. Don’t tag you on Instagram. You know, uh, um…You know, baby showers or, you know, Chardonnay date with the girls. You know, whatever it is, if there’s someone taking a picture, you do whatever you can to get out of it, all right? And think of your cell phone as your enemy. And this: your new best friend.
[he gives here a book titled THE GIFT OF FEAR][/b]

But…

[b]Sawyer [to Nate]: And now he’s here. Or maybe it’s all in my head.

David [with Sawyer in a padded cell]: I-I… I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m not gonna touch you. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. I just want to be here with you.
[she looks up at the camera]
David: Oh, I disconnected them.
Sawyer: You going to kill me?

David: I have this cabin in the woods in New Hampshire, in the White Mountains. It-It’s totally off the grid. It’s got its own solar, its own well. It’s… It’s so beautiful. Sawyer, we could be happy. We will… We will… We will… We will be happy.
Sawyer: We will never be happy! You could never make me happy! Look at where we are, David!! Look at what you’ve done!!

Sawyer: You’re a fucking simpleton. Do you know that? You are a fucking dunce. That sweet, kind girl in your head? That’s not me. Can I ask you a question, David? Who did this to you? Who rejected you? Did she let you down easy? Huh? “I’m flattered, David, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship.” She ghost you? Hmm? Hmm? She block your number? She unfriend you on Facebook? Vanish from your life? Or was it worse? Did she look like she was going to be sick? Hmm? Did she laugh in your face? Did she tell all her friends?
David: That’s not you.
Sawyer: No? 'Cause I’m telling you, David. That’s me. That’s what I would’ve done. That’s what I did. That’s who you love. That’s who you fucking dream of. That’s who you’ve been stalking for the past two years!

Sawyer: Have you ever…Have you ever been with anyone else? Beyond your feelings for me, have you ever had sex with anyone? I’m not judging. I’m not. It’s just…Fantasy and reality are two different things. I might not be what you want.
David: You’re all I’ve ever wanted.
Sawyer: You’ve got nothing to compare me to.
David: That makes no sense.
Sawyer: I need you to see what you’ve been missing, I need you to see what you’ve been missing, and then decide if you still want me. David, I might be your last, but I can’t be your first.
David: Uh, n-no. No. No, sorry. No.
Sawyer: Well, you would if you loved me. You say all the right things, David. Or what you think are the right things. Greeting card cliches and romance novel declarations of love. But that’s not love.

Woman [on TV]: We sent Nate to follow up on rumors that the hospital was committing patients against their will. I never thought this would be the last story he ever wrote for us. It’s a really tragic incident, and I hope it draws attention to a very important issue.
Reporter: ADS Health Enterprises, Highland Creek’s parent company, has issued a blanket denial of the allegations made in Mr. Hoffman’s story.

David [to Sawyer pretending to be unconscious]: You’ll learn to love me. A year from now… maybe… maybe two… I was thinking that maybe we could start a family of our own. What do you think about that? A little girl with your eyes and your smile. Oh, that’d be perfect. You’d make such an amazing mother.[/b]

Imagine you receive a mysterious message from a “UFO death cult” inviting you to revisit them. It’s been ten years since you had managed your escape the first time. But, like so many, many others, you’re after closure. So back you go.

And back we go to yet another “science-fiction horror” flick.

Things get tricky here. It’s science fiction so there will be elements that may or may not be explainable one day by science. But it’s also horror. So there may be elements that are entirely “supernatural”. Stuff that is made up in someone’s head. Stuff that may not actually be possible at all.

And then the part where it becomes pure “fantasy”.

You simply have to accommodate whatever your own frame of mind might be about what you see up on the screen to whatever another’s frame of mind might be. Sometimes they’ll mesh, sometimes they won’t.

If nothing else, we get to explore the phenomena of “cults”. Why they exist, how they keep on managing to exist, the reasons that people might be drawn to them.

Sometimes it just revolves around living a meaningless, shitty, boring and/or almost-always-broke life. The promise of adventure – or of “meaning”, or of “family” – can engender the sort of “suspension of disbelief” that enables you to dispense with “I” and become more at one with “we”.

Here in fact we clearly see why they can be appealing to lots of different people. For one thing, you can convince yourself that it’s not a “cult” at all; it’s a “commune”. You simply sink down into that soothing feeling of belonging to something much bigger than an infinitesimally tiny and insignificant “me”.

And then [here] how this particular cult/commune gets sucked up into what amounts to more or less reasonable speculation about the nature of the “space-time continuum”. Think of it all as a reflection on Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence. Only the loops here are considerably shorter. Still, you find yourself pondering which option you might choose yourself if any of this really were actually possible.

On the other hand, one suspects that there was no “it” at Jonestown. Or in the Heaven’s Gate compound. That was all just us.

Right?

As for the ending [not to mention with this one the beginning and the middle] this is one of those films that prompt “explanations” like this one: digitalspy.com/movies/featur … esolution/

Please be quiet.

IMDb

[b]The filmmakers use the song House of the Rising Sun throughout because the lyrics are in public domain, which helped them stay within their limited budget.

At one point in the movie, Benson is being shown a card trick by a member from the cult. The card which Benson draws is the King of Hearts, otherwise known as ‘the Suicide King,’ as it holds its sword behind its head. Benson believes that the cult is a suicide cult.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Endless_(film
trailer: youtu.be/qMHpWCN0byw

The Endless [2017]
Directed by Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead

[b]Title card: “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” H.P. Lovecraft

Justin: I said that right before we left, I was told that they were all were gonna kill themselves. And that’s why we left the cult.
Aaron [of the video they just watched]: She didn’t say anything about killing themselves. She didn’t.
Justin: It’s a UFO death cult. It’s what they do. They just call it something different. I rescued us from a cult. I saved you from mass suicide. You’re welcome.

Aaron: You know they used to feed us real food. You know, vegetables and fish that’s not powder.
Justin: I’d rather be alive and eat Raman than be dead and eat corn.

Justin: I know they were going to do it, now they clearly are, so I was, like, ten years off.
Aaron: They didn’t say anything about killing themselves. They said said they were going somewhere, and we don’t know how long or where they were going…
Justin: Good.
Aaron: How’s that good? If we were back at the camp, we’d have, like, good food and support, and we wouldn’t be one dirty house away from being homeless.[/b]

That’s the thing – the draw – with cults, right? Sustenance…and meaning.

[b]Justin: And, um… the cult sent us a good-bye video.
Woman [just a voice counseling him]: Whoa. What was that like?
Justin: I mean, I was relieved, at first, because…they’re not dead. And then I felt bad. Because now Aaron thinks I pulled him out all those years ago for no reason. All of his memories of the cult are as a kid or a teenager or whatever. So all those memories are good, and he sees our lives here as horrible. But, to me, the thing that makes our lives here better is thinking for ourselves.
Woman: Recovery from cult mind control is a lifelong process, and if he resents you for pulling him out, that’s common.
Justin: Whether he resents me or he doesn’t, feeling responsible for his well-being 24/7 is exhausting.

Justin: Why do you wanna go back?
Aaron: We can say good-bye. Get some closure. They were our family.
Justin [after a long pause]: One day. One night. We come straight back. Will that make you feel better? Uh…because if that’ll get you out of this slump, we can go back.

Aaron: It’s not a cult. It’s a commune.
Justin: Uniforms. Redefining words. Calling death “ascension.” Worshipping a deity in the forest that no one else knows about. And…castration.
Aaron: Okay, yeah, that’s a cult. But I actually don’t remember any of those things. I just remember, like, bonfires, family time, and good food. It wasn’t like they were keeping us prisoner or anything.

Aaron: Actually, hang on a second. If they were gonna be, like, pointing machine guns at our heads and make us drink cyanide Kool-Aid, why would you be driving us there right now?
Justin: All right, I never saw anything specifically like that. But in your distorted memory, we were, like, petting deer and dancing with koalas.
Aaron: We were, I remember that.

Justin [now at the cult, looking at a chalkboard with an obscure mathematical equation on it]: You, uh… you figure it out yet?
Aaron: Not yet. Eventually, though.
Justin: I gotta ask…what’s it solve?
Aaron: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Hal: Listen, uh, I just wanted to tell you again that everything you did, it ranges from “I don’t care” to “All is forgiven.” Now, that being said, why come back now?
Justin: The video you sent.
Hal: What video?
Justin: The video. With Anna talking about…the end.
Hal: Never been a suicide on this property that I’m aware of. In fact, I can assure you that nothing here ends. All that happens here is that people live long and healthy lives. Because of that, they grow to be the people they want to be. Pretty simple. There is something bigger than us out here. And now that you’re both at an age where you can understand it, it’ll become…evident.

Aaron: Hey, why doesn’t Dave talk?
Anna: Brain injury. Hal says he fell off a building while working construction, and Tim told me it was self-trephination. You drill a hole in your skull so you stay permanently high. He drilled too far.

Hal [to everyone]: All right! Who’s ready for The Struggle?

Hal: It’s like I said. You’re at an age now where you can become a part of it. So it’s gonna be more apparent.
Justin: Yeah, but you always speak in metaphors.
Hal: So you don’t trust me? And you’re gonna stand there, you’re gonna tell me that you have never experienced anything before?
Justin: I mean, I remember some things from when I was a kid, but kids have imaginations, and as a grown man now, I guess the reason why I sort of dramatically asked you to come out here is for you to just tell me, in your own words, what…is…it?

Hal: Who’s the leader here, Justin?
Justin: Uh, you?
Hal: There’s never been one. I just talk more. It’s not a very flattering quality, if you ask me, but one of the things that I talk a lot about is that I don’t have answers. None of us do. You wanna know what it is that runs all this? You go find it.

Hal: You know that physics equation in my room?
Justin: Yeah.
Hal: That’s what it is to me. And I still haven’t finished that. But what I can tell you, is if you and Aaron, you stay one more day, you go fishing in the lake, and you go out to this buoy, you dive straight down and you grab what you find there. You’re gonna have your answer.
Justin: You know how culty that sounds, right?
Hal: Confirm this thing for yourself and you’ve gotta admit it. There it is. A higher power? A governing force? God? Infinity solved. Now, wouldn’t that be a weight off your shoulders? And if you like having that weight gone, you and Aaron have a home here.

Aaron: This is why you sent me that video.
Anna: What?
Aaron: The video you sent us talking about the ascension.
Anna: No, I didn’t. I mean, yes, I made videos in case you or my sister or someone came back to the camp and we weren’t here, but, no, I didn’t. I didn’t send that. That’s really strange because we all kind of agreed that we wouldn’t share things like that, especially after your brother, you know?
Aaron: My brother what?

Jennifer: You’re…You’re all harmless. A little brainwashed but mostly harmless.
Justin: So you’re not part of the camp?
Jennifer: My husband Mike disappeared near here. So I came out looking for him. He just sort of lost it. And I wandered until I almost passed out. Must have been dehydration or something. Hal found me. He said we’d find him. It’d take some time… but we’d find him.
Justin: So how’s the search going?

Aaron: There’s something out here, isn’t there?
Justin: Yeah. Yeah, there is.
Aaron: I saw some things last night that… I… I can’t… Hey, you’re gonna hate this. Um… But what if we stayed?
Justin: Like permanently?
Aaron: Yeah. You know, we’d be taken care of. Nothing to worry about except for doing our own thing. There’s kind of an order to things here, you know? It’s fair. Like something really is watching out for us.
Justin: I don’t know. I always thought that if I did experience that there was something more to all of this, that I’d like start going to church or something.

Justin: Last night I was walking back to the cabin and there was this girl at one of the cabins, and she was…
Aaron: What?
Justin: She wasn’t all “Kumbaya” like the rest of the camp. She was really scared and sad about something. I don’t know, I just…I don’t think comfort is worth dying for.
Aaron: Look, man, there is no mass suicide here. You’re, like, leaping to conclusions. We can’t go back to our, like, regular shitty lives knowing that there’s actually something out here.

Aaron [watching Justin shed his clothes in a boat in the middle of a lake]: What are you doing? What are you doing?
Justin: Hal said the answer is at the bottom of this lake. So I am going to bottom of this lake. Answer to what? Exactly what “it” is.

Justin [after leaping back into the boat]: It’s not a god, it’s a monster!
Aaron: What?!
Justin: There’s something down there! I saw it! It held me down!
Aaron: What?!!
Justin: I don’t know! Go!

Justin [back on shore]: We’re leaving.
Aaron: It’s a tape.
Justin: I don’t care, we’re leaving.
Aaron: Look, man, I know you’ve been just dying to make something up and get me out of here. But I didn’t see a monster or anything. And actually, everything’s fine here.
Justin: Fine, you can stay. I’m leaving.[/b]

Cue “the tape”.

[b]Hal: Everybody…Justin and Aaron found a message in the lake today. That’s awesome. We haven’t had one of those in a while. Thought we’d have a viewing ceremony. To send 'em off.
Aaron: What is it?
Hal: It’s how it communicates with us. With images.
[then the tape plays]
Michael [on tape]: I’m, uh… I’m Michael. So you guys are, like, in a church group?
Justin [tens years ago]: Uh, nice to meet you, Mike. We’re prophets of the Camp Arcadia faith. Our whole thing is just making sure that people know that self-sacrifice for the one true god is the only way to begin the journey into the cosmos.
Aaron: Yeah, Justin’s taught me a whole lot about our coming apocalypse, so, you know, if you ever wanna come worship with us at the camp, we’d love to have you. We’re just devoted to…to…to…to…to…to

Hal [following the brothers out of the building]: Guys, guys, guys. Guys, wait up. I didn’t know that’s what it would be. It’s not supposed to be embarrassing. It’s a lesson.
Aaron: What does that mean?
Hal: Forgiveness. We forgive you for going out and evangelizing us as a UFO death cult or whatever. Then telling the press, among other things, that all of us are castrated.
Aaron: You are castrated.
Hal: As far as I know, everybody here has their sex organs.
Aaron [to Justin]: You told me the camp… they had to do that. That they sanctioned all of that.
Justin: I never said that.
Aaron: Yes, you did! Why…Why did we tell that story?
Justin: I knew there was something wrong here. And there is something very wrong here. And I did what I had to do to keep to safe.[/b]

Now what to believe?

[b]Justin: Fuck you.
Hal: I pulled the both of you out of your mother’s burning car. I gave you food, I gave you shelter, I gave you every opportunity to grow. And what you did to undermine us…Let’s just forget the fact that we are never gonna get Dave to take that damned white button-up shirt off…Can you imagine trying to sell your beer when someone can find a news article that makes you look like a dickless, poison Kool-Aid drinking, Heaven’s Gate offshoot? That is our livelihood. So, no! Fuck you!!

Shitty Carl: So, a decade ago, I tell you that you’re livin’ in some sort of death cult, and not only were you not bright enough then to figure it out, you actually came back. You are not smart. You never have been, no. I mean, all kids are dumb, but you’re like some sort of retarded hobbit or something.
Justin: I’m sorry. I, uh…I don’t know how I got lost. I don’t know how you’re hanging in there and standing in front of me. I don’t understand what’s going on at that camp.
Shitty Carl: Bunch of loopin’ prisons, man. Like shitty pods of time. Repeatin’ over and over and over again like rats tellin’ stories for that thing’s amusement!..You gotta kill yourself before the restart or that thing, that thing’ll do it for ya. And it’s much worse than anything you can do to yourself…But the camp prefers that thing doin’ it for 'em, doesn’t it? Yeah, considers it sacred even.

Tim [to Aaron]: Don’t do it if you don’t want to.

Justin: I just really got to get back to Camp Arcadia and get back to my brother.
Shitty Carl: I can do that for you.
Justin: Great. How do I get back?
Sitty Carl: Oh, not for free. Big 'ol fuck no. No, you gotta suck my dick first.
Justin: What?
Shitty Carl: You have to suck my dick first.[/b]

He’s just fucking with him. But right about now you are completely bewildered. About, for example, whatever might happen next.

[b]Sitty Carl: All right, and you’ll find this smelly junkie named Chris who’s got a gun collection that’d give Yosemite Sam a boner. Now, you bring me back a real nice one. Okay? And I’ll draw you one of these fancy maps, get you back to your brother. Oh, and, uh…use this compass. And trust only this compass, not what you see.
Justin: All right.
Shitty Carl: It doesn’t let me sleep. Funny thing is, I don’t get tired. I just… It doesn’t let me dream. It does that so my mind never leaves this place. These three hours…Using space and time as its horsewhip.

Hal [of “it”]: I have this theory that it’s made up of impossible colors. See, retinas only have three types of cone cells, so maybe none has the signal strength to see it in our normal state. Just a theory, though. What we do know is that… it shows us what it sees. It has a powerful elegance to it.
Aaron: So, it was looking at me. Why did it send me a picture of a trailer?
Hal: Probably where to go.
Aaron: I was actually gonna go find Justin.
Hal: Well, there you go.

Hal: I don’t know anything anybody else doesn’t know about life. But last night’s got me thinking. Can you have power over yourself, if you give up any amount of authority to something else?
Aaron: I mean… I really do have to find Justin. I mean, it’s a good question. Always has been, always will be.

Hal: I really hope you make your own choice. Before the third moon is full.
Aaron: Hal? Hal. Tell me what that means.
Hal: Saying more would be like trying to explain an impossible color.

Mike [on a videotape]: Can we try it another way?
Chris [on tape screaming]: Please! Please!
Mike: I guess that didn’t work.
Justin: What was that?
Mike: It was either our past or our future. Doesn’t really make any difference. Practically the same thing. See, we’ve been stuck in this infinite loop, and we’ve been trying to do different things to get out of it, and I guess that didn’t work.

Chris [to Justin]: Hey, can I impart some wisdom upon you? Don’t ever give in. Not once. The trick to this whole thing is to not be afraid of something that’s…that’s horrifying. And everyone’s afraid of it. But if you let it control you one time, it’s gonna fucking control you over and over again. I mean, look at me and Mike. We’re just a couple of assholes taking someone else’s shit. You gotta floor it the fuck out of here. And if you see that thing, you don’t apologize to it, you don’t bow down to it, you don’t conform, you just fucking run. Like your life fucking depends on it, man, because your fucking life does depends on it.

Mike: You know, it is so strange seeing how close another loop is to this one, closed, shitty little area.
Justin: How long have you been stuck in this loop?
Mike: Well, that’s hard to tell. I mean, when we first got here, I said if I got Chris clean in a week, we’d leave, and that was, um… that was a lot of weeks ago. Yeah, I keep thinking there’s like this configuration that’s gonna break us out of the story, you know, like a “Life Rubik’s Cube.” The one thing I do know for certain is I would rather reset things on my terms than allow that fucker to do it for me.

Mike [about to set fire to his whole world, to “it”]: Because fuck you.

Aaron: I gotta talk to you about something.
Justin: Great. Tell me on the way back to the car.
Aaron: No, man. Can you just have a seat for a second? I’m staying. You can stay, too. I know you’re not going to, but, you know…you can.
Justin: You wanna die over and over and over and live your life on repeat from here to eternity?
Aaron: You act like it’s crazy, like I’m the first person in history that actually wants to live forever. With people that like him. You know, there’s not much difference between being stuck in a loop and being stuck repeating the same shitty day over and over like back home until I die.
Justin: But back home, anything could happen. It could be so much better than the camp.
Aaron: We tried that, man. For almost a decade. And I’m ready to go back to not hating my life. Dying just takes a second. And a shitty life is long.
Justin: Aaron, I think you are making a very, very big decision with very little thought. And you realize that you do this once and you can never leave?
Aaron: Anything is better than the life you make me live.

Justin: I’ll feel guilty the rest of my life if I leave you here, so I guess I’m staying, too.
Aaron: You’re respecting my decision to stay?
Justin: Uh, I guess. If that’s the way you wanna think about it, yeah, sure, I’m doing that.
Aaron: All right. Let’s go.
Justin: What?
Aaron: All I ever wanted was…[/b]

Cue the script.

Justin [to Aaron]: All right, listen, on tombstones it says things like “Beloved Mother” or “Beloved Brother”, not “Beloved Camp Member”. And there’s a reason for that.

Over and over and over again it happens. This: one or another prominent member of the male species, letting his johnson do the thinking for him, stumbles into a quagmire that all but upends his lifelong ambitions.

The only difference here being that the woman involved ended up losing her life. And, as a result of that, well, who is really to say what the existential ramification of this particular tragedy were? But at the very least [politically] they were enormous.

Chappaquiddick probably cost Edward M. Kennedy the White House. And we will never know what impact that had on the trajectory of world events themselves. Still, it was Mary Jo Kopechne who had lost her life. 28 years old and gone forever. Another one of history’s “footnotes”.

But the arc of this story focused more on the extent to which her death might have been avoided. Some insist that not only had Kennedy let his own pecker do the thinking for him here, but it was argued in turn by many that he had abandoned the scene of the accident itself.

Did he leave her there to die?

Is there any way in which to determine this for sure? What was in fact the relationship between Kennedy and Kopechne? What did in fact happen that night? So, even here we need the equivalent of God to know for sure. Folks put on their political caps and the conflicting narratives soon overwhelm us. But to this day there is still no definitive account of how the accident unfolded and who did what when and why in the aftermath of it. There are only the facts that cannot be disputed and then the spin each one of us put on them.

IMDb

[b]How Ted Kennedy got out of the car has never been explained. Neither he nor all the investigators (and investigations) offered an explanation.

The car, a late model Oldsmobile with a curb height overall of about 4 feet, was lying on its crushed-in top and the wheels were out of water at low tide. High tide at Edgartown that night came at 3:54 A.M., and its rise and fall is only 2 feet. The accident, if it occurred around 11:30 P.M., came at about two hours after low tide, and therefore there could not have been much more than 4 feet of water, and perhaps less, at the point where the car lay. The bottom is presumably sandy, since the entire island is made of sand. Senator Kennedy gave credit to Messrs. Markham and Gargan for having “dived” at “risk to their lives” in an attempt to reach Miss Kopechne. It would be more appropriate to refer to wading and stooping. [/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt5270948/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_(film
trailer: youtu.be/qG-c8DtOm9g

Chappaquiddick [2017]
Directed by John Curran

[b]Various news accounts: Lieutenant Joe Kennedy, Jr., the eldest son of former ambassador died instantly, after the plane he was piloting exploded during a mission over the North Sea…President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas airport to downtown Dallas, an ambulance, and the car rushed to…Bobby Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles…Senator Edward Kennedy, the only one of the four brothers left alive. Teddy Kennedy would most certainly be the candidate to beat in the next presidential election. But will he run? That’s the question. Will Ted Kennedy run?

Joe [Gargan]: I’m still getting the cottage organized for the party.
Ted: Joey, there is no party without the Boiler Room Girls.
Joe: All right, I’ll see what I can do…
Ted: Listen, listen, listen. Ol’ Joey will fix it, right?
Joe: You know, when your dad said that, it was a compliment.
Ted: When my dad said that, he said I could always count on you. Now, can I count on you? Joe: Yeah. Sure. Ol’ Joey will fix it.

Rachel: Did he ask? Did he hint in any way?
Mary Jo: Even if he did, do you really think I would tell you?
Rachel: I’ve kept bigger secrets. Hmm. I’ll take that as a yes. You’re brilliant, Mary Jo, and you’re available. There is no reason why he wouldn’t want you.

Rachel: Last time we talked, you said you’d never go back.
Mary Jo: To Washington?
Rachel: To politics.
Mary Jo: With Bobby it was different. It didn’t feel like politics. It felt like public service. And after he was gone, I…[/b]

Cue Ted.

[b]Ted: Did you consider my offer?
Mary Jo: It’ll never be the same.
Ted: You can’t hide in Jersey City forever. Come back to Washington, work on my staff.

Ted: My dad once said to me…“Teddy, you can lead a serious life or you can lead a nonserious life. And I’ll still love you whichever choice you make. But if you choose to lead a non-serious life, | just won’t have much time for you.”
Mary Jo: I can’t believe he would say something like that.
Ted: No, it’s okay. I was just a kid.

Ted: What were you gonna say before? Before you were interrupted, about Bobby?
Mary Jo: Um… No, never mind.
Ted: No, go on. You were gonna ask, after Bobby was killed, why didn’t I run in his place? What would you have done? If you were me and he was your brother, what would you have done?
Mary Jo: I’d quit, leave Washington, never look back. Which is exactly what I did. But I’m not you. He wasn’t my brother.
Ted: Yeah, well, I had three generations of advisors up my ass, trying to convince me to run. None of them listened to me. I mean, everyone tried to convince me otherwise. Everyone except…Except Joey. Said the country needed me. They just needed my name. I wasn’t ready.
Mary Jo: Could you ever be?
Ted: Sometimes the path you’re on isn’t always the path you choose.
Mary Jo: What’s stopping you from making that choice yourself?

Joe: What the hell happened to you?
Ted: You better get Paul too.
Joe: Come on, Teddy, what’s the big idea?
Ted: I’m not gonna be president.

Ted [aloud to himself on the bridge while Joe is underwater trying to get Mary Jo out of the car]: Oh, my God, what have I done? What have I done? She was already dead.

Joe: Teddy, listen to me. The only advice l have for you, and…and I say this to you not as your friend, not as your family, but as your lawyer…you gotta report this thing and you’ve gotta do it right now.

Joe: Teddy, promise me you’re gonna call your mother first. Don’t let her find out about another family tragedy in the news.

Joe: Ted! You’ll report it, right?
Ted: I’ll handle it.

Ted [on the phone]: Dad, I’m sorry to be calling so late, I…I’ve gotten myself into the deepest kind of trouble. There was an accident and, well, one of Bobby’s secretaries is dead. And l was driving. No one else was involved. And I’m okay. I may have had too much to drink. l just don’t know. I don’t know. I need your help, Dad. Need it. Dad? Dad?
Joe: Al…alibi.

Ted Sorenson [on phone]: Well, who was driving?
Ted: I’d say she was.
Ted S.: Then I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
Ted: And that story plays?
Ted S.: That’s what happened, isn’t it?

Paul [watching the police at the bridge]: He didn’t report it.
Joe: That son of a bitch.

Joe: You were supposed to report the accident. What the hell happened last night?
Ted: I didn’t report it.
Joe: Oh, my…Shit! What could you possibly be thinking? How could you let this much time go by?
Ted: Well, did you see the police arrive at the cottage last night?
Joe: No.
Ted: No. No? Well, don’t you think, if I had reported it, the police would have been there within the hour?
Joe: I guess so.
Ted: I thought this matter had been handled. I thought I could count on you. The moment the police didn’t arrive at the cottage, you should have known. You should have known it was your responsibility to report it to the authorities.
Joe: What the hell are you talking about?
Ted: No, you bungled this, Joey. You bungled it. Now I gotta deal with it myself.

Joe: We’re all three implicated in this now. You can’t just go and pull this John Wayne shit! They’re treating this like a crime scene. There’s a dead girl out there, for Christ’s sakes.
Paul: Attorney-client privilege doesn’t extend to aiding and abetting.
Joe: I’m not gonna sugarcoat this. This situation’s a lot worse than it was. You put us in a very difficult position, Senator. Look, none of us has to lose our jobs over this. You’re gonna protect Paul and me, and yourself. Okay? You just have to do what you know is right.
Ted: Okay. I’ll report it. But I’m going to have to say Mary Jo was driving.
Joe: Christ.
Ted: Joey, I love you, okay? You know that. But we both know what’s at stake here.

Chief: Are you saying that there’s a possibility that maybe she didn’t drown?
Diver: Hey, when l was down there, she was holding herself up like she was trying to get her last breath of air. I could have had her out of that car in 25 minutes if I got the call, but no one called.

Ted [on phone]: David. We have a situation here on Chappaquiddick.
David: What kind of situation?
Ted: There’s a firestorm headed your way and you need to be ready for it.
David: Okay, but I’ll be more ready when I know what it’s about.
Ted: Listen, the situation is, my car was involved in an accident. I am going to be saying that I wasn’t the one driving.
David: Well, were you driving? Senator.
[Ted says nothing]
David: Were you driving? Senator.
[Ted still says nothing]
David: Were you driving? Senator. Were you driving? Senator? Senator, are you okay? Was anyone hurt? Have the police been notified?
[Ted sees the ambulance drive by with Mary Jo’s dead body]
David: Ted, it would help a lot if you gave me some details. Ted? Ted, are you there?
Ted: Uh, that’s all you need to know for now.

Joe [to the “Boiler Room girls”]: Senator Kennedy’s car went off the bridge at Poucha Pond last night. He’s okay, but we cannot find Mary Jo.
Rachel: Are the police looking for her?
Joe: I want you to know that every effort possible was made to save her.
Rachel: Oh, my God, she’s dead.

Ted [on the phone]: Hello, Mrs. Kopechne? This is Senator Ted Kennedy, Mrs. Kopechne. Could I please speak to your husband?
Mrs. Kopechne: Oh, Senator. Joseph’s not here at the moment. Can I take a message for him? Ted: Mrs. Kopechne, Mary Jo was involved in an accident.
Mrs. Kopechne: Was it in a car?
Ted: It was an automobile accident. She was…She was returning to take a ferry back to the mainland when the accident occurred.
Mrs. Kopechne: Was my daughter killed?
Ted: Yes…Mary Jo was an exceptional human being. She served my brother and my family with grace, dignity…
[call disconnects]

Ted [on the phone]: Dad, I’m at the police station. I’m telling you this because I wanted to let you know that I am going to explain to them what happened. And I’m going to say that l was the one driving. I will protect myself, but I have to do what’s right. I have to tell the truth.
Joe [gruffly]: Alibi.
Ted: I’m not going to be the one defined by my flaws. Joe Jr. was the favorite one. Jack was the charming one. Bobby was the brilliant one. And what did that leave me, Dad? The fat one? The stupid one? I’ll tell you what. The one who got in the most trouble. Well, I can be charming. I can be brilliant. I can… I am the only son you got left. I’m the one making this decision, Dad. I’m the one…
Ann: Ted, he’s writing something. He says, "You’re the head of the family now. Start acting like it. "
Ted [abruptly]: Goodbye Dad.
[he hangs up]

Ted [on the phone]: Dun, I need you on the next plane to Edgartown.
Dun: Yeah, I’ve been expecting your call. David filled me in.
Ted: Good. Listen, we’ve made mistakes here. I want you to understand that. But I want to make sure, going forward, we handle everything with the utmost integrity.
Dun: I understand.
Ted: We need to make sure the poor girl’s body gets to her family right away. Can you…Can you do that for me?
Dun: Uh, okay, but there may be a delay if they want to perform an autopsy.
Ted: Why do you think I want it out of here? Can you handle this or not?
Dun: Of course, Senator, but what if they demand…[/b]

So much for integrity.

[b]Ted: I have a statement I’d like to read, if that’s okay.
Chief: Okay.
Ted: “On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 pm. in Chappaquiddick, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, l was driving my car on Main Street on the way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. l was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road instead of bearing a hard left onto Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one half mile I discovered a hill and came upon a narrow bridge…then went off the edge of the bridge. There was one passenger in the car with me, Miss Mary Jo Kopechne. She was a former secretary of my brother Robert F. Kennedy. The car turned over and landed on the roof, resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car, and have no recollection of how I got out. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. I then asked someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period of time and then going to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.”

Ted: I’m glad to see you, Dad. You look good. I want to tell you again how sincerely sorry I am that I ever let a thing like this happen. And reassure you that I have the situation, as terrible as it is, under my complete control. I know…I’m sorry I got us into this. But if you can trust me, Dad, I have faith I can get us out.
[His father hands Ann a note]
Ann: Your father would like to tell you… “You’ve lost my confidence. Do as I say and never lose it again. Otherwise, it will be a nearly impossible task to restore it.”

Ted [to the team that Joe has assembled]: Gentlemen, I appreciate you all making this short trip on my behalf. But I hope you’ll understand I’m going to handle this with my own team, since it’s my political future here at stake.
Bob [McNamara]: You won’t have a political future if you’re in jail, Ted. You’re fighting a battle on two fronts and you don’t even know it.
Ted: I think you need to cool down here, Bob. Okay? I understand my problem with the press and with the people of Massachusetts.
Bob: You’re also in serious legal trouble, son. Teddy.
Ted S.: Teddy, if they find that your negligence contributed to this girl’s death, that’s involuntary manslaughter.
Bob: If there’s even a whisper that you’re not as clean as Mother Teresa, you will be charged. And there’s not a lot of senators that are charged with manslaughter that go on to become president.

Bob: “Problems,” Ted. Problems, plural. They are threefold. One, the information we know that we need to make sure no one else knows. Two, the information we don’t know that we need to make sure stays unknown. Three, the information that you have already admitted to that we need to make people forget. Now, to the first point. A dead body holds a lot of secrets. Those secrets can be the difference between guilt and innocence, so we need to be in control of them. The only way to do that is to be in control of that dead girl’s body.
Ted: Good. Because my staffer, Dun Gifford, is already at the funeral home right now. And that poor girl’s body isn’t going anywhere except home to New Jersey without us knowing about it.
Bob: Senator, with all due respect, having a gofer sitting on his hands in the lobby isn’t getting us anywhere. Now, there are explicit procedures that must be followed for moving a body across state lines. Do you have any idea, has the death certificate even been signed yet? [/b]

Cue the strings attached to those in power. Sometimes they’re conservative, sometimes liberal. Now it’s all about damage control, about “owning” the story.

[b]Ted S.: There’s nothing left to do but run out the clock, gentlemen. Come 5:00 pm, we’ll be back out in front of the problem.
Ted: Actually, New York Times already has a story.
Ted S.: What? Excuse me?
Ted: On my way to the station, I bumped into a reporter. Seemed to know that l was involved in an accident.
Ted S.: Who was it, Ted? What was his name?
Ted: James Reston.

Ted [on phone]: Now, remember, Dick, this is an exclusive. You don’t need to overdo it. We’re just trying to make sure this doesn’t spin out of control into something like manslaughter…or an affair, God forbid.
Dick: You don’t need to say another word.
Ted: And throw in something about me being on sedatives. Make it sound dramatic.

Ted: Okay, look, we’re not sunk yet. That statement’s pretty airtight.
Bob: Oh, airtight, huh? You contradict yourself in the first two sentences. Main road’s paved, Teddy. Dike Road’s not. Doesn’t take an expert cartographer to tell the difference. And what about this deputy that saw your car driving away from the ferry at a quarter to 1:00 in the morning?
Ted: Yeah, well, that’s just his word against mine.
Bob: We gotta go through his statement line by line.

Ted: Guys, guys, I think we’re overreacting here. All right? Dick’s running the concussion story. That’s going to explain any inconsistencies.
Woman: Dick Drayne on line three.
Ted: This should be interesting. Dick, you’re on with the boys. So, did the sedative stuff play?
Dick [on the phone]: Did any of you guys actually consult a physician?
Ted: Yeah, of course.
Dick: Well, according to Reston, you don 't give sedatives to a patient who’s had a concussion. It could kill them.
Bob: Good Lord. Bay of Pigs was a better run operation.

Ted [on the way to Mary Jo’s funeral]: Thanks for doing this, Joany.
Joan: Go fuck yourself, Teddy.

Ted: Tragedy has a way of defining people. On one hand, you have someone like Jackie who goes and practically becomes ambassador for the family. Keeping the legacy alive. On the other hand, a tragedy like this cripples some people…till they curl up into a ball. Joany’s more the latter.
Rachel: I think there’s a third kind of person. The kind of person who defines their own legacy.
Ted: I think my chance to define my legacy died with Mary Jo.

Rachel: Senator, look at Mr. and Mrs. Kopechne. They don’t blame you. Why should America?

Ted S.: Those are the Boston papers. You want to hear from the New York Times?
Ted: No, I got it. The neck brace was a mistake. I see that now.

Ted [to “the team” about a national televised statement]: We tell the truth. Or at least our version of it.

Ted: We need to remind the people that this family perseveres, that we don’t back down from a fight, that we don’t get backed into a corner. We have a true compass and we follow it. Now I followed mine the best I could that night. And me and Paul and Joe, we did everything we could to save that poor girl.
Bob: You got a winner there, son.
Ted S.: Amen to that, Bob. Son of a bitch, that’s a hell of a winner. We get Sorensen to dress this speech up, you might make it through this thing unscathed. If we do this right, you might be more electable. That’s good.
Joe [tossing a newspaper down on the table]: A girl dies, and yet somehow Ted is the martyr? Think about it. Do we really want to prop him up as an injured hero here?
Ted S.: This strategy’s the only thing we’ve come up with that has a chance of saving Ted. We need to all get behind it.
Joe: I’m telling you, these theatrics are not gonna hold up in a court of law!
Bob: He’s right. We need to make sure this case is closed before Ted talks to the press.
Paul: The hearing’s not till Monday.
Ted S.: Then we move it up immediately or we will not survive the weekend. [/b]

The fix is in.

[b]Ann: Your father wanted to speak with you.
Ted [leaning in toward him]: What is it, Dad?
[Joe slaps him across the face]
Ted: Ann, I need you to leave us, please. It’s very rare these days I’m alone with my father and the things I need to say to him, I need to say to him in private.
Ann [turning to leave the room]: Of course, Teddy.

Ted: Dad, did you know I never wanted to be president? Does it even matter to you? I wanted to make you proud. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. I spent my whole life chasing your dreams for you, just like Joe and just like Jack and just like Bobby, and look what happened to them. They were great men but they weren’t great because of who you were. hey were great because of who they were. Dad…I want to be a great man. l just don’t know who I am.
Joe [gripping Ted roughly at the back of the neck]: You…will never…be great.

Ted [to Joe about to leave]: Joey, no. I need you…
Joe: If it’s about the statement, I want nothing to do with it.
Ted: Just the opposite. I need you to write me a resignation.
Joe [relieved]: I’ll take care of it.
Ted: Thank you. For the last time.
Joe: I’m proud of you.
Ted: Well, don’t tell anyone else how proud you are. And let’s just keep this between the two of us.

David Brinkley [on a newscast]: Senator Edward Kennedy, the only one of the four brothers left alive, went into court today and pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident where a young woman drowned. He got a sentence of two months in jail, the sentence suspended, and a year’s probation. The judge gave him the minimum jail sentence and suspended that, because, he said, Kennedy already had been and would be punished more than anything the court could do to him.

Brinkley: Kennedy will make a statement on television tonight at 7:30 Eastern Time. It will, of course, be seen live. It will be a statement only. No reporters will be allowed in, by his decision, and so no questions will be asked. We’ve heard speculation on the possibility he might resign from the Senate. But it is only speculation, and we don’t know what he will say.

David: Okay, so for the first half of the speech, we felt it would seem more stately for you to be reading. Then halfway through, we have you make a direct appeal to the voters. And we think, in order to get them to really want to write in, mail letters and show their support for you and the family, you should look straight into camera, set the papers down, and just talk from the heart.
Ted: David, I’m not off-script on this.
David: No, no, we’ll have cue cards. They’re being done right now.

Ted: I’ve been thinking. Joey, we both have flaws, do we not?
Joe: Yeah, of course we do. We all do.
Ted: Right. Right. I thought that myself.
Joe: What’s right is here in front of you.
Ted: I don’t know what’s right anymore.
Joe: Ted, I didn’t say this before, but I agree with you that Kennedys do have a true compass. And it’s because you’re following yours that we’re here right now. You told the police that you were driving. You told the truth. You had me write this resignation.
Ted: Sorensen’s speech…
Joe: Sorensen’s speech is bullshit. Every word of it. He made it up. All the thoughts and emotions. I was there. I’ve been there with you from the very beginning.
Ted: This may give me a chance at a new beginning.
Joe: This isn’t about opportunity. It’s about integrity.
Ted: Joey, you have flaws. We all do. You said so yourself. Moses had a temper. Peter betrayed Jesus. I have Chappaquiddick.
Joe: Yeah, Moses had a temper, but he never left a girl at the bottom of the Red Sea. [/b]

Cue the shamelessly scripted address to the nation. Did Joe Gargan really hold up the cue cards for Kennedy?

Ted [ending his statement to the nation]: These events, the publicity, innuendo and whispers which have surrounded them, and my admission of guilt this morning, raises the question in my mind of whether my standing among the people of my state has been so impaired that I should resign my seat in the United States Senate. The stories of past courage cannot supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul. And so I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it, I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will finally have to make on my own. I pray that I can have the courage to make the right decision. Whatever is decided, whatever the future holds for me, I hope that I shall be able to put this most recent tragedy behind me. Thank you and good night.

They’re back. Mysterious creatures bent on making your days a living hell. But: where did they come from and why are they here? Maybe they’re from outer space; maybe they’re from the realm of the supernatural; maybe they’re just inside your head.

But make no mistake about it: they always have one or another attribute that becomes critical in either identifying them, or [sometimes] in destroying them.

This one? Sound. “If they hear you, they hunt you”. But you can kill them in turn with just the right sound. And a shotgun.

All of this is important [for some] because depending on the extent that you can imagine something like it happening to you, the more likely it will frighten you.

Here they are “sightless extraterrestrial creatures” that have “hypersensitive hearing, indestructible armored skin, and attack anything that makes noise”. So, it’s a good thing that all of the characters here are able to communicate using ASL. But these calamities are always more problematic when small children are involved. How to explain it to them? How to protect them? And, most crucially, how to keep them from making the sort of mistakes that imperils them all? As they do twice in the first 15 minutes.

Anyway, don’t expect a whole lot of dialogue below.

Then this: How much sound is too much sound? A belch? Passing gas? Snoring? Bringing a baby into this world? Cue the script.

So, how plausable is all this? Not very much. Still it is easy enough to imagine them as something that is far more likey to happen. So the fear factor then is always plausable. On the other hand, there are any number things that just don’t seem all that logical. You wonder why the characters do what they do when you would have done something entirely different. And lots and lots of holes in the plot.

Shh…

IMDb

[b]Actor-director John Krasinski has said that the single greatest compliment he received regarding the film, was in a tweet from the master of the horror story himself, Stephen King: “A QUIET PLACE is an extraordinary piece of work. Terrific acting, but the main thing is the SILENCE, and how it makes the camera’s eye open wide in a way few movies manage”.

The filmmakers purchased twenty tons of corn and hired local farmers to grow it.

John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are married both in this film and in real life. As of the film’s release, they have two daughters.

The movie only contains about 25 lines of dialogue. The first proper line of dialogue isn’t spoken until about 38 minutes into the film.

During the scenes in Lee Abbott’s (John Krasinski) basement, you can see a variety of newspaper articles on the wall, with one headline proclaiming that “[A] meteor hits Mexico with the force of a nuke”, potentially alluding to how the creatures got to Earth.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt6644200/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Quiet_Place_(film
trailer: youtu.be/p9wE8dyzEJE

A Quiet Place [2018]
Directed by John Krasinski

[b]Title card: Day 89

Beau [signing]: Rocket.
Regan [looking down at the rocket ship he’s drawn in chalk]: Well done!
Beau: This is how…we’re going to escape this planet.

Lee [father signing to Beau about the toy rocket]: Too loud.

Marcus [mouthing to father]: I’m sorry!

Lee [signing]: Do not go down there!
Regan: Why not?
Lee: You know why.
Regan: I’m not a child! I won’t make a sound!
Lee: Just don’t. Please…

Lee [signing]: Look. This time, I took small amplifiers from the stereo.
Regan: It. Won’t. Work.
Lee: No, this should increase the frequency to…
Regan: It! Never! Works!

Lee [signing]: Time to go…
Marcus [to mother, frightened]: Please don’t make me go!
Evelyn: You’ll be fine. Your father will always protect you. Always…Listen to me. It’s important that you learn these things. He just wants you to be able to take care of yourself…to take care of me when I’m old and grey.

Lee [signing]: There’s nothing to be afraid of.
Marcus: Of course there is!

Marcus [signing to his father]: They’ll hear you! They’ll hear you!
Lee: Look at me. Listen. The river…is loud. Small sounds…safe. Big sounds…big sounds not safe.

Lee [at the waterfall]: Ohhhh!
[he speaks this time]
Lee [to Marcus]: You’re alright. You’re alright. I promise.
Marcus: Ohhhh!

Marcus [speaking]: Why didn’t you let her come? Do you blame her for what happened to Beau?
Lee: No.
Marcus: Because she blames herself.
Lee: It’s no one’s fault…
Marcus: You still love her, right?
Lee: Of course I do.
Marcus: You should tell her.

Old man in the woods [shouting]: Ahhhh!!![/b]

He’s committing suicide after the creatures killed his wife.

[b]Lee [signing to Marcus]: Rocket. I need you…to make a sound…that’s louder. Your mother…needs your help. You. Can. Do this.

Evelyn [speaking in the sound proof basement of Beau]: I should have carried him. Who are we…if we can’t protect them? Who are we? You have to protect them. Promise me that. You will protect them.

Lee [signing to Regan]: I. Love. You. I have always loved you.
[then he shouts drawing the creature towards him][/b]

Remember Hogan’s Heroes? The American sitcom set in a Nazi prisoner of war camp. At the time it aired there were some who were really, really outraged. How dare they turn the Nazis into mere buffoons?!

A situation comedy about Hitler’s thugs?

And no doubt there are any number of folks who might be offended by a film that turned Josef Stalin and his henchmen into a punch line.

Ah, but here the comedy is very, very black. It thumps Stalin and his ilk such that he and his at times brutally authoritarian regime become basically the butt of all the jokes.

This is, after all, a film based on a comic book. Or, rather, a “graphic novel”. However one wants to interpret that.

Still, it also explores the enormously precarious and problematic reality – the existential threat – of living in a regime in which power is basically invested in one man. One man and all of his loyal [or not so loyal] cronies. And, yes, thugs. What happens when he dies? In this case “unexpectedly of a brain hemorrhage” in the middle of the night. Suddenly the power is up for grabs. And the lives of millions will depend on how the dust finally settles.

No one is really safe until then, right? Or, as often as not, not even after then.

Of course the problem with “political satires” of this sort is that you can never really be certain if what you are watching actually occured or was just thrown in there for laughs. You can only assume you get the gist of it. Given a particular political narrative of course.

Bottom line: Unless you are actually familiar with most of the historical facts here, this may just as well be gibberish.

Then the part where in watching the film you either do or do not connect the dots between what happened back then and what may well happen…here and now? Imagine Donald Trump [carte blanche] with a list of “enemies”.

IMDb

[b]Director Armando Iannucci insisted on not having the characters speak with Russian accents, for two reasons: he thought it would take audiences out of the film, and he did not want the actors to worry about their accent when improvising.

The movie was banned in Russia on January 23, 2018, two days before it was due to be released. The Cultural Ministry stated, “The distribution certificate for the film The Death of Stalin has been withdrawn.” One member of the Culture Ministry’s advisory board was quoted as saying, “The film desecrates our historical symbols – the Soviet hymn, orders and medals, and Marshal Zhukov is portrayed as an idiot,” and added that the film’s release in advance of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad (February 2nd), would be “an affront to Russia’s World War II veterans.”

In the scene where Stalin collapses from a stroke, one guard, having heard his collapse from outside, asks if they should investigate, with the other guard bluntly refusing by shooting back that he should shut up before they are both killed by Stalin for entering without permission. This was a reference to the fact that Stalin left explicit orders to not disturb him while he was sleeping under any circumstances, with the penalty of disobeying being the death penalty, which was one of the reasons why no one attempted to investigate when he did not wake up at his usual time.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt4686844/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin
trailer: youtu.be/ukJ5dMYx2no

The Death Of Stalin [2017]
Written in part and directed by Armando Iannucci

[b]Title card: For 20 years, Stalin’s NKVD security forces have imposed great terror. Those on Stalin’s lists of “enemy” names are arrested, killed or shot.

Beria [head of security forces to soldiers of Stalin’s list of enemies]: Shoot her before him, but make sure he sees it. Oh, and this one…um…kill him, take him to his church, dump him in the pulpit. And I’ll leave the rest up to you.

Andreyev: Take your seats. Take your fucking seats. Don’t worry, nobody’s gonna get killed, I promise you. This is just a musical emergency.

Andreyev: Comrades…Comrades! I have wonderful news. Comrade Stalin loved tonight’s concerto and would like a recording of it right away, which we don’t have, for reasons that are myriad and complex and… But meanwhile the concerto we just played will be played again. And this time we will record it and we will applaud it.[/b]

Satirically [perhaps] what the “dictatorship of the proletariet” has been [or can be] reduced to.

[b]Malenkov: Maria Veniaminovna, you have to play. I didn’t… I didn’t mean what I said.
Maria: So you said it, then? As God is my witness, I won’t do it. The Lord will see me through.
Khrushchev: 10,000 rubles.
Maria: 20,000.
Khrushchev: Done. Let’s go.

Molotov: Good night, comrades. Long live the Communist Party of Lenin-Stalin. Long live John Wayne and John Ford.
Malenkov: Goodbye, Molotov, old friend.
Beria: Goodbye forever…Yeah. On the list. It would be simpler and cheaper if they just drove straight into a river.

Guard [hearing Stalin’s body thud to the floor]: Should we investigate?
Guard: Should you shut the fuck up before you get us both killed?

Beria [whispering to Stalin lying on his deathbed]: You have a nice long sleep, old man. I’ll take it from here.

Official: No, Nicky. Nobody needs factionalism.
Khrushchev [pointing to Beria and Malenkov]: You want factionalism? What about those two, fucking Abbott and Costello over there?

Beria: Will he recover, yes or no?
Doctor: No.
Beria: No?
Doctor: No.
Beria: It’s over. It’s over!
Khrushchev: And so it begins. Oh, God! I cry for Stalin. I cry for all the people.[/b]

Tongue in cheek as it were.

[b]Beria [on the phone]: I want Moscow cauterised, now. Cut off the city. NKVD to displace army officers at every station. Remove Molotov from that last list. Implement our lists.

Beria [voiceover]: Ladies and gentlmen reset your watches.

Khrushchev: Svetlana, I wanted to let you know that no matter what happens, I will never ever let any harm come to you or your brother.
Svetlana: Who said anything about harm?
Khrushchev: No, that’s what I’m saying.
Svetlana: You know somebody wants to harm us? Tell me. I demand to know. If someone…
Khrushchev: No. I should not have used the word “harm”.
Sveltana: Yes. But you keep mentioning the word “harm”. Why?
Khrushchev: If anyone tries to you, they’ll have to get through me first.
Sveltana: My father’s going to die and I’m going to have you to look after me?![/b]

You know, if that’s the way it actually happened.

[b]Khrushchev: Listen, I wanted to invite you to tomorrow’s Committee meeting.
Molotov: Meeting? What meeting? Why didn’t I know about a meeting?
Khrushchev: Stalin and Beria put you on a list.
Molotov: Stalin? Oh, I must have wronged him so badly. What did I do?
Khrushchev: No, nothing. Don’t you see? Beria, he wants you out. Now, I’ve been talking with Comrade Bulganin. I think he’s right. We can outvote them.
Molotov: No, no. This is factionalism. Stalin didn’t like factionalism.
Khrushchev: Stalin is dead!

Malenkov: These lists and these arrests. I think we…Should we take that down just a gear?
Beria: Or hold off altogether? Freeze them?
Beria: Freeze, yes. Excellent thought. Yes, we could freeze arrests. We could even release some low-level prisoners.
Malenkov: Fuck me. I mean… I mean, yes. But what would the old man…
Beria: Oh, Stalin…Stalin destroyed the status quo and he built a new one. The changes he made were both radical and popular.
Malenkov: Liberalisation would be radical. Popular.
Beria: Radical.
Malenkov: And popular.

Malenkov: Please, understand that this is not some cynical ploy. I mean, these reforms are correct reforms.
Beria: Totally understood.

Field Marshal Zhukov [to Beria and Khrushchev]: Tell me something. Why has the army been replaced by the NKVD all over Moscow? I mean, I’m smiling, but I am very fucking furious.[/b]

The chaos ticks up a few notches. Cue “the Bishops”.

[b]Vasily [Stalin’s son]: Foreigners. A vile crime has been perpetrated. Hairy monsters in coats have scooped out my father’s brain and sent it to America. And these traitors, sucking the cocks and balls…sucking the cocks and balls of Zionist…New York… New York Zionist queers in petticoats. Look at them. You see? Those brain thieves!

Vasily: I want to make a speech at my father’s funeral.
Khrushchev: And I want to fuck Grace Kelly.
Vasily: I simply don’t care. I want to make a speech at my father’s funeral.
Beria: Comrade Malenkov, your view?
Malenkov: Well, I think, um…it can be, um…no… no problem.
Khrushchev: Ah…Technically, yes, but practically…
Beria: …there are programmatic complications.
Malenkov: You know, I think I misspoke when I said, “No problem.” What I meant was, “No.” “Problem.”

Khrushchev: She was guilty. You found her guilty. And Stalin agreed. Nobody doubted. Nobody doubted.
Beria: Past tense, you see. In the good old days you pine for, that sort of dissonance would have had you both shot. Both of you.
Khrushchev: Oh, this is just fucking wordplay.
Beria: Oh, is it? Allegiance to the party line, hm? That was what Stalin demanded. Correct, Comrade Molotov? Um, allegiance to the party line? Yes. And defiance of the party line, that would mark you out as a traitor, wouldn’t it?

Khrushchev: What game is this, Lavrenti?
Beria: Oh, don’t be hysterical. We’re in a new reality.
Khrushchev: What, you’re the good guy now? You locked up half the nation. You beat them, you raped them, you killed them.
Beria: Yes, and now I’m releasing them. And you won’t believe how many will be free.
Khrushchev: So now you want the public to love you, is that it? You’re bending and cracking the truth like a human body.
Beria: The truth? This from the man who invited his bit-on-the-side whore pianist to play at the funeral, even though she swore to kill Stalin, who’s now dead.
Khrushchev: Whoa. What the barrelling fuck are you talking about?
Beria: She wanted Stalin dead and she knows your family. She taught your niece to play, remember? I think you should read this. It’s the copy of a note I found by Stalin’s body, from the pianist. It’s lucky we both now live in the new Soviet Union or you and your wife and your family would be a pile of dust on the floor of a crematorium toilet.

Khrushchev [holding up the note]: This is your work, is it?
Maria: Why? Are there spelling mistakes?
Khrushchev: Do you have any idea what kind of man Beria is?
Maria: He’s releasing people from prison.
Khrushchev: That was my idea. I was going to do that. I’m the reformer. Me. I was going to release the bishops.
Maria: I thought you hated the Church.
Khrushchev: I do!

Khrushchev: We are tied together. Like a rock that’s sinking.
Maria: I know. But I’m confident of everlasting life.
Khrushchev: Who the fuck in their right mind would want everlasting life? The endless conversation!

Khrushchev: What if we blame this on someone who’s out of control.
Field Marshal Zhukov: Nicky, be very careful what you say next. Who?
Khrushchev: Beria.
Field Marshal Zhukov [tongue in cheek]: I’m gonna have to report this conversation. Threatening to do harm or obstruct any member of the Presidium in the process of…Look at your fucking face. Nikita Khrushchev. You have balls like Kremlin domes.
Khrushchev: Stop. Be serious. Are you in?
Field Marshal Zhukov: I’m in, I’m in. That fucker thinks he can take on the Red Army. I fucked Germany. I think I can take a flesh lump in a fucking waistcoat.[/b]

It almost always comes down to that: Who has the support of the military? Cue the backstabbing.

[b]Beria: It’s time all of you realised who kept the daggers out of your backs. Show some fucking respect. I… I’ve got… I’ve got… I’ve got documents. I have documents on all of you…All of you! All of you! I have documents on all of you! I’ve seen what you’ve done. I know the truth. It’s all written down. It’s all written down on a very…on a very fucking long list!

Khrushchev: No, Beria said “all of you”.
Malenkov: You know, all of you can kiss my Russian ass. All of you.

Beria: Right, many terrible things were done in the service of the Union. Evidence was fabricated. Those who are responsible will be found…
Svetlana: And what will you do to them? Question them to death?

Beria: You know what I’m doing? I’m offering you and that bloated soak brother of yours my protection…And I warn you, stick by my side or you will both be beaten inside out and strung up for the crows by the others.
Svetlana: Why should I trust you?
Beria: Because I’m the only one who’s telling you: Trust no-one.

Khrushchev: Action is gonna be taken at the meeting.
Malenkov: Action? What action? Is this why everyone is treating me like they wanna fuck my sister?
Khrushchev: Zhukov has everybody on board against Beria. When I heard that, I agreed too.
Malenkov: Yes, yes. But Zhukov… is not governing the Soviet Union. I am governing the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev: Georgy, Georgy! Georgy, press the button underneath the desk. Press the button, Georgy.
Malenkov: What button?!

Khrushchev: If you want to talk to General Zhukov, now’s your opportunity.
Field Marshal Zhukov: Spit it out, Georgy. Staging a coup here.
Malenkov: He’s got a knife by his ankle.
Beria: You’re a disgrace.
Malenkov: Give his head a good kicking.

Khrushchev: Georgy, you have to sign this now.
Malenkov: No. No. No. He deserves a fair trial. He’s one of us.
Khrushchev: What about Tukhachevsky and Piatakov? Did they get a trial? What about Sokolnikov? Who begged him to look after his elderly mother. And what did this monster do? He strangled her in front of him. It’s too late. The only choice we have is between his death or his revenge. And you will fucking sign this.
Malenkov: I want it to go on record: this was not my first course of action.
Molotov: Stalin would be loving this.

Malenkov: Read it, Nicky. Come on, Nicky, read it.
Khrushchev: “You are accused of using your position as Minister of the Interior to plot against the Soviet Union with the goal of forwarding the interests of foreign powers.”
Beria: Foreign powers? Which one, the fucking moon?!
Khrushchev: "You are also accused of 347 counts of rape, of sexual deviancy and bourgeois immorality and acts of perversion with children as young as seven years old. Exotic for old Beria! Seven years old!
Beria: You are the rapists!
Khrushchev: “Petra Nikova, aged 13. Nadia Ranova, aged 12. Magya Holovic, aged seven. You are accused of treason and anti-Soviet behaviour. The court finds you guilty and sentences you to be shot.”

Field Marshal Zhukov [after Beria is shot in the head]: Well, that’s got it done.

Khrushchev [to Beria’s burning corpse]: I will bury you in history. You hear me, you fat fucker?![/b]

Again, did any of this actually happen in any way that resembles this? You tell me.

[b]Svetlana: That’s how you deal with a problem, isn’t it?
Khrushchev: I’m sorry you had to be here.
Svetlana: I hope you didn’t tell Beria that he was going to be safe from harm.
Khrushchev: You will be safe, okay? Vasily, too. If you listen to me.
Svetlana: Why wouldn’t we be safe? What are you talking about?
Khrushchev: Just be quiet now.
Svetlana: I refuse to be quiet every time…
Khrushchev: Just shut up!

Khrushchev: Vasily stays here in Russia where we can take care of him. Read it.
Svetlana: Vienna? If I stayed, I could contain Vasily.
Khrushchev: No. No. No, you go to Vienna. He stays. We can’t have a drunken madman spreading conspiracy theories all over the world.
Svetlana: He’s not…He’s not bad. He’s just ill.
Khrushchev: Listen to me. No. No. You understand what’s going on? This is how people get killed, when their stories don’t fit. Safe travels.
Svetlana: I just never thought it would be you

Title card: After Beria’s execution in 1953, the Central Committee took control of the Soviet Union. In 1956 Khrushchev moved to demote other members of the party, including Molotov and Malenkov. At long last, he became Head of the Soviet Government and Commander In Chief. Until his removal in 1964 by Leonid Brezhnev.[/b]

He comes from an exceptionally brutal past. And he lives now in an exceptionally brutal present. It’s simple: Violence has always been a part of his life. He’s “grizzled”. He’s a “traumatized Gulf War vet”. And, thus, suicide, among other things, is always just right around the corner as a possible option.

Still, there are lots of movies in or around the vicintiy of this, right?

Cue “the context”.

Joe [and his ball peen hammer] is a man that others hire to track down their “missing girls”. And now we’re in the midst of his latest descent into an increasingly ghastly and gruesome postmodern hell-hole world. Indeed, it says a lot about the human condition these days that most some of us can imagine the events unfolding on the screen “really happening”. Sure, it will be amped up “for the movies”, but there it is: the bloated underbelly of our “late-capitalism” beast.

And here violence is not just a tool. It is something that one can revel in. If only as a way in which to exorcise “the demons”. Or to avenge all of the terrible wrongs that were done to you at a time when you were either unable or unwilling to set things right.

The irony then being that here there is very little actual “blood and gore” to be found. The horror is instead embedded more in the “psychology of terror”.

Think Taxi Driver for a new generation. Joe is always in and out of a fever dream. What’s actually real and what’s not? And how far removed can he really be from insanity itself?

One of those films in which the suspense revolves more around not really knowing what the hell is going to happen next. And around suspecting that not everything is as it seems.

Bottom line [one of them]: There are wealthy and powerful men in this world and sex is practically all they ever seem to think about. And some of them think about it with it young girls.

What then is to be done?

Also: How to explain what it “means”:
youtu.be/f81km5UM93I
youtu.be/bBuGGuPnp9o

IMDb

[b]According to Rolling Stone, Joaquin Phoenix has stated that Lynne Ramsay gave him an audio file of fireworks mixed with gunshots to suggest what’s going on in Joe’s head.

Very little actual violence is shown in the movie, but more often the aftermath of violent scenes. Lynne Ramsay stated that before this movie she had never done anything with a gun, so she had to figure out how to approach violence. Budget constraints didn’t allow her to shoot complex action scenes, so this gave birth to the idea to show “post rage aftermath scenes” instead of the violence itself. Lynne Ramsay confessed she thought it was very risky to use this approach, because if it didn’t work she wasn’t able to go back and reshoot the scenes.

Received a seven-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere, on May 27, 2017. Lynne Ramsay won the award for Best Screenplay and Joaquin Phoenix won for Best Actor.[/b]

Trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt5742374/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Were_ … eally_Here
trailer: youtu.be/R8oYYg75Qvg

You Were Never Really Here [2017]
Written in part and directed by Lynne Ramsay

[b]Joe Sr.: Stand up straight. Stand up straight. Stand up. Only fucking pussy little girls slouch. You must do better. You must do better! Say it.
Joe Jr: I must do better, sir.

Joe [on a pay phone]: It’s done.

Joe: Did your son tell you that he saw me?
Angel: Hey, he was with a friend, you know. It’s just…just a coincidence, man.
Joe: Did he tell you where he saw me?
Angel: No. No, I…I know you wouldn’t want me to know, man. Moises didn’t mean to see you, Joe. He…He’s just a stupid freaking kid.
Joe: I know, but…
Angel: He…
Joe: We’re done, Angel.

Joe: Why am I here?
John: State Senator Albert Votto.

Albert [the state senator]: You have kids, Joe?
Joe: No.
Albert: Nina. Her name is Nina. I’ve heard of these places…underage girls.
Joe: Senator, if she’s there, I’ll get her.
Albert: McCleary said you were brutal.
Joe: I can be.
Albert: I want you to hurt them.

Joe: Where’s the playground?
Scott: Playground?
Joe: The underage girls?
Scott: Third floor.

Joe [to Nina]: Close your eyes.

Nina [in a fog]: 49, 48, 47…46, 45, 44…43, 42…41, 40…

Joe [to Nina]: No, no, no. No. You don’t have to do that.[/b]

Cue the surreal plot twist…

[b]Reporter [on TV]: 27-year-old passer-by Rebecca Couran saw the body fall in front of the hotel.
Rebecca: “He just stood there for a second and then he stepped off.”
Reporter: Senator Votto’s body was discovered beneath the Tower Hotel in mid-town Manhattan, after he apparently leapt from a suite on the 22nd floor. Senator Votto was in the city campaigning for Governor Williams in next month’s gubernatorial elections.

Nina: Joe!

Joe [to an agent]: Man…you think I don’t know what the fuck’s going on here? I’m just a hired gun. I don’t give a shit about the girl…

Joe [on phone]: John, pick up the fucking phone, man. They fucking shot me, man. They shot me in the face!

Joe [to an agent he had just shot]: Who killed my mother? Was it you or the other guy? Where are you going? You don’t know? Who are you? You’re in my fucking house!!

Joe: So you killed Votto? They killed Votto, is that what it is?
Agent: Votto wanted out.
Joe: Out of what?
Agent: All of it.
Joe: Where is she? Where is Nina now?
Agent: Williams.
Joer: Governor Williams?
Agent: She’s his favorite. He trades them.

Joe: Was my mother afraid?
Agent: She was sleeping.

Joe/Nina [voiceover]: 40, 39, 38, 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16…Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three…

Nina: It’s okay, Joe. It’s okay.

Nina: Where are we going?
Joe: Well…We can go wherever you want. Where do you want to go?
Nina: I, I don’t know.
Joe: I don’t know either.

Nina: Hey. Joe? Wake up.
Joe: What?
Nina: Let’s go. It’s a beautiful day.
Joe: It is a beautiful day.[/b]

For most of us, revenge is a dish best served vicariously. In other words, while we are either unable or unwilling to exact retribution on those perceived to have done harm to us, there is always the next movie down the pike in which we can root fiercely for the protagonist to exact his or her own revenge in the comfort of our recliners.

Also, we know that some acts warrant revenge more than others. Here a woman is raped, brutalized and left for dead out in the desert. And the men that do it are “wealthy, middle-aged CEOs”. Married with kids. Trust me: The audience will be rooting for payback here on steroids.

Or, surely, most of them.

After all, in a No God world, it’s either that or the law. And the law is construed by some to be too good for monsters of this sort. So, you’ll have to make up your own mind as to whether or not hunting them down and killing them yourself is “the right thing to do”.

And then this part:

Besides being about revenge, there are also mystical themes throughout the film, like rebirth and transformation. This is illustrated when at the beginning she gets pushed off of the cliff and lands impaled on the tree in a Christ-like pose and then uses a lighter to ignite fire underneath the tree and have the trunk burn off and break off to free herself–this is exactly like the phoenix that ignites itself and then rises from its own ashes to be reborn. IMDb

There are in fact a number of things in this film that seem to transcend reality. So, for some, it’s not so much a matter of “could this really happen?” as it is “let it happen anyway in order to enhance the satisfaction that revenge provides.”

Again, if only vicariously.

IMDb

[b]The film features so much blood that, according to director Coralie Fargeat, the prop team would often run out of fake blood.

Jen, the protagonist, has no further speaking lines after the 26 minute mark of the film. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_(2017_film
trailer: youtu.be/g9w0c9Chk0Q

Revenge [2017]
Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat

[b]Richard [to Jen]: You drive me completely crazy.

Richard [to Jen about his marriage]: Everything would be so simple if the kids weren’t there…and if you didn’t have such a nice ass. Where is that little peachy ass. It’s like a little alien coming from another planet.[/b]

We already hate this guy.
Then: Cue Stan and Dimitri.

[b]Dimitri [to Richard]: Elizabeth and the kids okay?

Dimitri [looking at a samll bag of peyote]: What the fuck is that?
Richard: Fuck. Leave it.
Jen: What is it?
Richard: Peyote. A local, highly powerful hallunicogenic. This shit could flatten a football team.

Richard [as Stan and Dimitri toss the bag back and forth]: Hey! This, plus weapons, is a guareenteed accident, you fucking morons. A few years ago a Polish guy got so high on this shit, he sawed his own leg off without feeling a damn thing. He died without a drop of blood in his body.

Richard [to Jen giving her the peyote]: Here, beautiful, go and hide this somewhere.

Stan: Richard went to give our passports to the gatekeeper. It’ll take him all morning. And Dimitri is nursing a hangover…which will also take all morning. So. It’s just the two of us…[/b]

Cue the tense music.

[b]Stan: What is it you don’t like about me?
Jen: No. Nothing.
Stan: I just want to know. So, tell me. What is it you don’t like about me?
Jen: You’re…you’re not my type, that’s all.
Stan: Oh. Why am I not your type?
Jen [after a pause]: You’re…you’re too small. I just like taller guys.
Stan: Oh, and I haven’t changed height since yesterday have I?
[Jen says nothing]
Stan: I asked you a simple question. Even for your tiny little oyster brain, it shouldn’t be too difficult to understand. So I’ll ask you again. Did my height change since yesterday?
Jen: No.
Stan: And yet you seemed to like me yesterday. When we were damcing everything was very clear. You came onto me like a pussy in heat, rubbing yourself agains me, turning me on. And now suddenly, I’m not your type. Like that, boom. During the night I’ve become too small for you?

Stan [after Richard returns]: Listen, there’s been a slight problem with Jen.

Jen [sobbing]: Call the helicopter.
Richard: Hey, calm down. Calm down.
Jen: Call the helicopter, I want to go home.
Richard: I’ll take care of everything, don’t worry, okay?

Richard [shouting at Stan in the background]: Are you nuts?! I left you for two hours!! Where are your brains?!!!

Jen: I want to go home right now. Call that fucking helicopter!
Richard: Baby, baby, baby…don’t act like a child. You know that’s not possible…

Richard: Okay, they fucked up big time. But you’re so damn beautiful, it’s hard to resist you. Come on, they’ll come and apologise, and we’ll forget about the whole thing.
Jen: You call the goddamn helicopter or I’ll call your wife and tell her everything!![/b]

Clearly the wrong thing to say.

[b]Richard [after slapping her to the floor]: Who the fuck do you think you are? You little whore. Yoy dare to threaten me or fuck things up in my life? Don’t you ever talk about my wife. Don’t you ever even say her name.

Stan [after Richard pushes Jen over the cliff edge]: Why did you do that? Fuck!
Richard: She could have put us all in jail for 15 years. Now do as I tell you. We go hunting as planned. We clean up this fuck up on the way. Then we bring home our trophies like every year. We do nothing to arouse suspicion. And everything will be okay. Understood?

Richard [on the phone with his wife]: Hi, darling, are you busy? No, I just wanted to hear your voice…I can’t wait to see you all. I love you.

Stan: I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry about Jen
Richard: About who?
Stan: About Jen.
Richard: Never heard of her.

Stan: Shit someone must have taken her!
Richard: If she didn’t die straightaway, she’s dying somewhere.
Stan: Maybe it’s not too late. We can say it was an accident, take her to the hospital. We’ll get lawyers. They’ll think of something. They always do.
Richard [grabbing him at the throat]: We call no one. We say nothing. What’s your problem? She’s alone, her guts hanging out. There are three of us and we’re armed.

Stan: When you’re lost in a forest, they always tell you not to split up. They tell you to stay together.
Richard [after a long pause]: Are we lost in a forest? Are we lost…in a fucking forest?

Richard [on the phone]: Hello, Roberto. It’s Richard. I’m calling because we’ve had a change of plans.

Richard: You thought you could win against me? That was only possible when I offered you a way to leave without putting up a fight. But you had to put up a fight. Women always have to put up a fucking fight.[/b]

Cue the Shop USA channel on the tube blaring. The perfect fucking contrast.

Here we go again: a crisis of faith.

A crisis of faith from a man of the cloth.

And, like most of them, they revolve around an actual set of circumstances. One in which your faith is tested by being yanked in conflicting directions. Troubling and distressing things can happen to us or to those around us. How then does one reconcile a loving, just and merciful God with the wrenching vicissitudes that one can experience out in the at times horrific world of mere mortals?

Or, rather, somewhere in that vicinity.

On the other hand, the circumstances here are basically the stuff of movies. They include the politics of religion embedded in the Catholic/Protestant chasm, radical environmentalism, abortion, tangled personalities, unrequited love, cancer.

Also, reconciling one’s Christian faith with capitalism.

And then the part where a crisis of faith can begin to play havoc with your moral compass. Without God around to point you in the right direction how do you determine what the right direction is? Your options skyrocket. But there is considerably less down here or up there to ground them in.

So on and on and on the protagonists go attempting to pin down the least dysfunctional reaction to a world in which God may or may not exist. The “action” here revolves around discussion and debate. Around arguments being exchanged about a set of circumstances you may or may not be able to empathize with.

But that’s not really a problem though because most of us [sooner or later] will become entangled in one of our own.

Hope and despair. With God. Without God.

As for the ending, you tell me. There’s the one that we see and there’s the one that Toller had intended.

IMDb

[b]Paul Schrader stated in an interview this film would be different from what he has ever done, calling it a film more in the vein of Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky.

Paul Schrader stated in a Q&A at Rotterdam Film Festival 2018 that he was surprised while editing the film to notice how many similarities there were with Taxi Driver, a film he also wrote.

The film’s name was inspired by the director’s own religious background in what is known as Calvinism, the second expression of Protestant Christianity to spring out of the Protestant Reformation. The first being Lutheranism. John Calvin and his followers believed that Martin Luther had not taken his reformation far enough and sought to install doctrines that further distances themselves from Roman Catholicism.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Reformed
trailer: youtu.be/hCF5Y8dQpR4

First Reformed [2017]
Written and directed by by Paul Schrader

[b]Toller [voiceover]: I have decided to keep a journal. Not in a word program or digital file, but in longhand, writing every word out so that every inflection of penmanship, every word chosen, scratched out, revised, is recorded. To set down all my thoughts and the simple events of my day factually and without hiding anything. When writing about oneself, one should show no mercy. I will keep this diary for one year, 12 months. And at the end of that time, it will be destroyed. Shredded, then burnt. The experiment will be over. These thoughts and recollections are not so different from those I confide to God every morning. When it is possible. When he is listening.

Mary [to Toller]: My husband…he thinks it’s wrong to bring a child into this world. He wants to kill our baby.

Michael [Mary’s husband]: Hey, you know what the world will be like in 2050?
Toller: Hmm. Hard to imagine.
Michael: Yeah, you think? I mean, Reverend… Uh, the world is changing so fast. And right in front of us. I mean, one third of the natural world has been destroyed in your lifetime. You know, the earth’s temperature will be three degrees centigrade higher. Four is the threshold. You know? “Severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts.” And when scientists say stuff like that, you know? And National Center for Atmospheric Research, Lawrence Livermore, the Potsdam Institute. Uh, Reverend…
Toller [voiceover]: He went on like that for some time. By 2050, sea levels two feet higher on the East Coast. Low lying areas underwater across the world. Bangladesh, 20% loss of landmass. Central Africa, 50% reduction in crops due to drought. The Western reservoirs dried up. Climate change refugees. Epidemics. Extreme weather.
Michael: You know, the…the bad times, they will begin. And from that point, everything moves very quickly. You know, this social structure can’t bear the stress of multiple crises. Opportunistic diseases, anarchy, martial law, the tipping point. And this isn’t in some, like, distant future. You will live to see this. You know, my children will experience this unliveability.

Toller: There’s something growing inside Mary. Something as alive as a tree, surely. As an endangered species. Something full of the beauty and mystery of nature. You said sanction? You think Mary should have an abortion? This birth, is that your right? Is that your decision? Have you asked Mary what she thinks? Look, this…this isn’t…it’s not about your baby. It’s not about Mary. It’s about you and your despair. Your lack of hope. Look, people have, throughout history, have woken up in the dead of the night, confronted by blackness. The sense that our lives are without meaning. The Sickness Unto Death.
Michael: Yeah, but this is something different.
Toller: Yeah, no. Man’s great achievements have brought him to the place where life as we know it may cease in the foreseeable future. Yes, that’s new. But the blackness that’s not. We are scientific people. We want to solve things. We want rational answers. Right? And if… If humankind can’t overcome its immediate interests enough to ensure its own survival, then you’re right. The only rational response is despair.

Toller: You said you respected me. What I…what I’ve been through.
Michael: Yes.
Toller: So, you know my story.
Michael: Yeah, you were a chaplain.
Michael: Uh-huh. My father taught at VMI. I encouraged my son to enlist. It was the family tradition. Uh, like his father, my father before me. A patriotic tradition. My wife, uh, was very opposed. My son enlisted anyway. And, uh… Six months later he was dead in Iraq. Right? I talked my son into a war that had no moral justification. My wife could no longer live with me. I left the military. I was lost. And Reverend Jeffers from Abundant Life, he gave me this position at First Reformed and here I am. Now Michael, I can promise you that whatever despair you feel about bringing a child into this world cannot equal the despair of taking a child from it.

Toller [to Michael]: Courage is the solution to despair. Reason provides no answers. I can’t know what the future will bring. We have to choose despite uncertainty. Wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind, simultaneously. Hope and despair. A life without despair is a life without hope. Holding these two ideas in our head is life itself.

Michael: Can God forgive us? For what we’ve, uh, done to this world?
Toller: I don’t know. Who can know the mind of God? But we can choose a righteous life. Belief…Forgiveness…Grace covers us all. I believe that.

Toller [voiceover]: I went over everything that was said, what should have been said, what could have been said differently, what could have been said better. "I know that nothing can change “and I know there is no hope.” Thomas Merton wrote this. Despair is a development of pride so great that it chooses one’s certitude rather than admit God is more creative than we are. Perhaps it’s better I didn’t say that to him.

Esther: How was Jeffers?
Toller: Oh. He wants me to meet Ed Balq. Balq Industries, Balq Energy, Balq Paper, Balq Peanuts…
Esther: Why?
Toller: Well, it’s all about the Reconsecration. And apparently Mr. Balq wants to make sure he gets proper credit for underwriting the whole thing.
Esther: Well, he should. First Reformed would be a parking lot if it wasn’t for him.

Toller [voiceover]: Some are called for their gregariousness, some are called for their suffering. Others are called for their loneliness. They are called by God, because through the vessel of communication they can reach out, and hold beating hearts in their hands. They are called because of their all-consuming knowledge of the emptiness of all things that can only be filled by the presence of Our Savior.

Mary [on phone]: You must come over. Now.
Toller: Is Michael there?
Mary: No. He’s at work.
Mary: You must come over. Now.
Toller: Okay. Okay.

Toller: Explosives?
Mary: It’s a suicide vest.

Toller: Michael was troubled, but his cause was just. There’s no reason to bring disrepute on that cause. Are you an activist as well?
Mary: I share Michael’s beliefs. But not his despair. I mean, I wanna live.

Toller [voiceover reacting to Michael’s suicide]: Terrible night. No sooner than I shut my eyes, desolation came upon me. What is one’s last thought as you pull the trigger? “There goes my head.” Or, “Jesus, watch over me?” Or neither? I’m going to tear these pages out. This journal brings me no peace. It’s self-pity. Nothing more.

Toller [voicover]: How easily they talk about prayer, those who have never really prayed.

Cynthia [at a church group meeting]: Three months ago, my father got laid off. He can’t find any work. Nobody loves the Lord more than my father. He is always testifying, he volunteers. Did he do something wrong?
Toller: Well, Cynthia. I’m sorry that happened to your father. There’s a lot of church people, good Christians, who see, uh, a connection between godliness and prosperity. But that’s not what Jesus teaches. That’s not what Jesus lived. There’s no dollar sign on His pulpit. There’s no American flag either. I think, Cynthia, what your father is experiencing is…
Jake [interjecting]: Christians shouldn’t succeed. That’s what he means. Christianity is for losers? I just get tired of turn the other cheek. Jesus didn’t turn the other cheek. Why stand for anything? Take prayer out of the schools. Give money to people too lazy to work for it. And whatever you do, don’t offend the Muslims.

Toller: I mean, no sooner do I mention the poor, and this teenager jumps down my throat like I just took a shit on the American flag. Forgive my language.
Jeffers: Oh, God! Roger told me. He said you kept your cool, and he admired you for that.
Toller: There’s just no middle ground with these kids. Everything is so extreme.
Jeffers: It’s the times. These are frightening times. These…These kids, they grow up in a world that, you and I, we wouldn’t even recognize. Global warming, a sea of pornography, hyper violent video games. It’s a world without privacy. Each kid isolated, communicating on media. It’s a world without hope!

Toller: May I ask a question?
Balq: Yeah. Go ahead.
Toller: Will God forgive us? Will God forgive us for what we’re doing to his creation? That’s what Mensana asked me when I visited him.
Balq: This… There’s been a lot of loose talk about environmental change.
Toller: There is scientific consensus. Ninety-seven percent…
[Toller in voiceover: The man who says nothing always seems more intelligent. Why couldn’t I just keep silent?]
Balq: It’s a complicated subject.
Toller: Not really. I mean, who benefits? Cui bono? Who profits? That’s what I keep asking myself. Besides the Biblical call to stewardship, who profits when we soil our own nest? What’s to be gained…
Balq [angrily]: Can we just agree to keep politics out of the reconsecration service?
Jeffers: Yes.
Toller: Yes, but this isn’t politics. I mean, what God wants is for…
Balq: Oh, you, you, you, you…You know the mind of God? You spoke to him, personally? He told you His plans for Earth

Balq: So you counseled him, Reverend?
Toller: Yes. You counseled him, then he shot himself?
Jeffers: Ed?
Toller: Yes.
Balq: Well, I think you need to step back, Reverend, and take a look at your own life before you criticize others. Hmm?

Toller: I have a question for you, if, uh…If it’s not too painful. Do you think he, uh…He really would have harmed someone?
Mary: Um, he’d been a part of some non-violent protests. We both had. He’d been put in jail. He had a temper. I mean, he’d start yelling at police, but no, I don’t think he was…No. I don’t think he was violent.
Toller: I just, um…I can’t help but keep wondering what I should have done differently.
Mary: He didn’t want to live. He was not a religious man, you know…I was the spiritual one.

Toller [voiceover]: I have removed the previous pages. They were written in a delirium. But I am determined to continue. It’s hard to struggle against torpor.

Toller [to a group of children]: You see, there used to be a pew over this. And they would move it, and then they would lift this up. Slaves would hide in here. Sometimes whole families. Can you imagine that? In the dark. The air hot, shaking with fear. The sound of the slave hunter’s horses outside. On their knees, holding each other’s hands, praying for God to save them?

Mary: I think I’m gonna go to the, uh, Reconsecration.
Toller: Oh. No, you… You don’t need to do that.
Mary: But, I… I want to.
Toller: Yeah, but it’s not necessary. It’s very nice of you to offer, um, but it’s just a bunch of rich guys patting each other on the back.
Mary: But you’re gonna be there.
Toller: But I have to be there.
Mary: So I’m gonna go.
Toller: Please don’t come. Okay? I don’t want you to come. You understand?
Mary: Okay.[/b]

We know what that means.

[b]Toller [voiceover]: “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world.”

Toller [voiceover]: I have found another form of prayer.

Jeffers [to Toller]: You’re always in the Garden. Even Jesus wasn’t always in the Garden, on his knees, sweating blood. He was on the Mount. He was in the marketplace. He was in the temple. But you, you’re always in the Garden. For you every hour is the Darkest Hour.

Jeffers: Jesus doesn’t want our suffering. He suffered for us. He wants our commitment and our obedience.
Toller: And what of His creation? The Heavens declare the glory of God. God is present everywhere, in every plant, every river, every tiny insect. The whole world is a manifestation of His Holy presence. I think this is an issue where…where the church can lead. But…but they say nothing. The U.S. Congress still denies climate change? Where were we when these people were elected? The, the, the…we know who spoke for big business. Right? But who spoke for God?

Jeffers: “The creation waits in eager expectation of liberation from bondage.” That’s Romans 8:23. You understand?
Toller: So, we should pollute so God can restore? We should sin so God can forgive? I don’t think that’s what the Apostle meant. I think we’re supposed to look with the eyes of Jesus into every living…
Jeffers: You don’t live in the real world.
Tollers: I don’t?
Jeffers: You, you are a minister at a tourist church that no one attends. Do you have any idea what it takes to do God’s work?
Toller: I’m trying to…
Jeffers: To, to maintain a mission of this size? The staffing, the outreach, the amount of people that we touch each day. Who’s that priest that you like so much?
Toller: Thomas Merton?
Jeffers: Thomas Merton. He didn’t live in the real world either!
Toller: Yes, he did! He would…
Jeffers: No. He was a monk who lived in a monastery in Kentucky and wrote books!

Toller: Somebody has to do something! It’s the Earth that hangs in the balance.
Jeffers: Well what if this is His plan? What if we just can’t see it?
Toller: You think God wants to destroy his creation?
Jeffers: He did once. For 40 days and 40 nights.[/b]

Toller says nothing. After all, what can he say?

Way back in time I was watching a film [Birdy as I recall] with some friends. There was a scene with a horse being taken to a rendering plant. The daughter of one friend was watching the film with us when she realized what was going to happen to the horse.

She became hysterical. I mean, really, really upset. And every attempt on our part to calm her down – “It’s only a movie, Honey” – didn’t work because she somehow knew that this sort of thing actually did happen.

People and animals. There’s just no telling how any particular one of us will react to whatever it is that is going to happen to any particular one of them. But there are any number of us who for whatever reason have not been able to make any long-lasting connections with those of our own species. Here, Charley’s mother abandoned him and his father died. Then a particular animal comes along and a connection is made that quickly becomes the center of the universe.

Here, it’s a horse. Lean On Pete. A horse that is now “bound for slaughter”. But not if Charley can help it.

Charley, you see, is a kid. But getting closer and closer to the real world of adults. And in this real world, Pete is basically just a commodity. Once he was a race horse. But just barely. Now he’s been “run to the ground”. Time to ship him off to the folks down in Mexico who can make some money off him too. But only when he’s dead.

And this isn’t exactly the Kentucky Derby here; it’s the “fair circuit”.

Just one more facet of capitalism that the idealistic [or naive] among us either learn to live with or [scripted] do something about.

More or less successfully.

And even though the film is called Lean On Pete, it’s not really about the horse at all. It’s about Charley.

IMDb

[b]Chloë Sevigny revealed that she was originally approached to play Charley’s aunt, but her agent fought for her to play Bonnie because the latter character is a larger role with “more [for Sevigny] to sink her teeth into.”

Director Andrew Haigh has referred to Steve Buscemi and Chloë Sevigny as “the king and queen of American independent cinema,” respectively. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_on_Pete
trailer: youtu.be/nzlazAyylw8

Lean On Pete [2017]
Written in part and directed by Andrew Haigh

Del: Ah, you motherfucking, cock-sucking fuck! Hey, what are you doing?
Charley: Me?
Del: Yeah, there’s no one else here.
Charley: I was just running.
Del: Are you strong?
Charley: I don’t know.
Del: Come here.

Charley meets Del.

[b]Charley: How many horses live in here?
Del: Well, when the races start, there could be up to 50 in a row, and there’s about 25 rows, so it’s over 1,000 horses.
Charley: How many of them are yours?
Del: Shit, I used to have 20 or so. Now I got about six. All right, this is Tumbling Through. Be careful. He’s a biter, all right? If he goes for you, just smack him on the nose, he’ll quit.

Del: Don’t wrap the rope around your hand! That’s a good fucking way to lose your hand. Here, let’s switch. This one’s a pussy.
Charley: What’s this one’s name?
Del: Lean On Pete.

Del: You know what a quarter horse is?
Charley: No.
Del: Quarter horse is a breed. In racing, they’re sprinters, anything from 100 to 400 yards. The tracks don’t give a shit about quarter horses any more. Maybe Los Alamitos, but…you won’t see me again in California.
Charley: Why not?
[Del gives him a look but says nothing]

Charley: Where’s Tumbling Through? Did he win?
Del: He bowed a tendon so I sold him. I got enough fucked-up horses as it is.
Charley: Who did you sell him to?
Del: He’s going to Mexico.
Charley: Is he in a lot of pain?
Del: It’s not my problem any more.

Charley [watching Del put something in Lean On Pete’s mouth]: What is that stuff?
Del: It’s just vitamins.
Charley: What kind of vitamins?
Charley: What did I tell you about too many questions?

Del: Is this your first race?
Charley: Yeah.
Del: Don’t blink. It’s over in, like, two seconds.

Del: This is Charley.
Bonnie: Charley, I’m Bonnie.
Charley: Are you a jockey?
Del: No, she’s too fat to be a real jockey.
Bonnie: I just lost seven pounds. I’m down to 122.
Del: Yeah?
Bonnie: I swear to God, get a fucking scale right now.

Charley: Is it hard being a girl jockey?
Bonnie: It isn’t easy, that’s for sure.
Charley: Did you ever get hurt? Yeah, once at a race in Union, which is way out in eastern Oregon. I was in the gate, this horse reared up, flipped over backwards, and I couldn’t get out. He landed on me.
Charley: What happened?
Bonnie: Broke my pelvis, punctured a lung. My mom was there. She saw me on the ground, screaming out in pain. All she said was, “You’re not too hurt to run in the seventh, are you?” Got a job at the Red Lobster after that.

Charley: I heard someone down by the track saying that Del runs his horses into the ground. You think he’ll do that with Pete?
Bonnie: Well, it’s true. If Del’s broke, he’ll run his horses every two weeks. Sometimes even once a week.
Charley: And is he broke?
Bonnie: He’s broke a lot more than he used to be.

Bonnie: Don’t worry about Pete. He’s a quarter horse, so he’s got that going for him. And he’s probably been laid up for a while. Listen, you can’t get attached to the horse.
Charley: Why not?
Bonnie: 'Cause you can’t think of them as pets. They’re here to race and nothing else. If they lose too much, they get fired. Just the way it is.

Bonnie [after Lean On Pete wins a race]: They test the winner for drugs.
Charley: Did Del give him something? Is that why he ran fast?
Bonnie: No. Keep your voice down.
Charley: What did you tell him you got rid of?
Bonnie: A buzzer.
Charley: What’s that?
Bonnie: Don’t worry, they won’t find it.
Charley: Yeah, but what is that?
Bonnie: Just gives the horse a little shock.
Charley: What kind of shock?

Del: So what do you think about all this, Charley?
Charley: What do you mean?
Del: You know, working the backside…surrounded by horse shit. Being here in the asshole of nowhere.
Charley: I like working the horses. And we need the money, so…
Del: Hey, you should do something else…before there’s nothing else you can do. Shit, I used to like horses too, you know. Now sometimes I feel like I wanna punch myself in the face if I ever see a horse again.

Bonnie: Looks like he’s walking on nails to me. You don’t think he’s navicular, do you?
Del: I don’t know. I don’t think so. We’ll see how he goes down at Grants Pass.
Bonnie: You think he’ll be rested enough by then?
Del: He’s gonna have to be. I’m not wasting my good horses down there. Tell you one thing, if I had a gun, I’d probably shoot him right now.
Charley: But he just won. And you raced him too hard.
Del: Listen, kid, things are changing. The race meet starts soon and we’re gonna have a lot to do, so we can’t fuck around, you got that?

Bonnie [after Del leaves]: Like I said, Charley, he’s not a pet. He’s just a horse.

Charley: If Lean On Pete doesn’t win, then he’s not gonna get claimed. And if he doesn’t get claimed, then he’s gonna go down to Mexico. Isn’t he?
Bonnie: Charley…
Charley: They don’t slaughter horses here, but I know they do down there. I’m right, aren’t I? If his feet are fucked, then they’re fucked. So they’re just gonna kill him… just 'cause his feet are fucked?
Bonnie: Like I said before, if a racehorse isn’t fast, then he’s no good as a racehorse. This is the end of the line. There’s no lower tracks. It’s just the way it is.

Del: Hook up the small trailer, we gotta load Pete in tonight.
Charley: Where’s he going?
Del: I’m selling him.
Charley: I’ll buy him.
Del [chuckling]: With what money? And where are you gonna keep him? Not in my stalls.
Charley: I don’t want him going to Mexico. He’s a good horse.
Del: Oh. Go get the fucking truck. What the fuck are you waiting for? Now!

Charley [to Pete]: Just gotta keep going. This isn’t our home, Pete, come on. This isn’t our home. Gotta keep going. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Charley [out loud to Pete but really more to himself]: I used to have a picture of my mom. But I threw it away one night when I was mad. Her name was Nancy and she had real black hair and she was real tall. When I was born, I stayed with her, but then she left me with my dad for a week and never came back. He said he didn’t know why she left. But, when I was little, I’d always ask about it. And he’d never say anything, but then, one night, when he was drunk… he told me that she was the moodiest person he’s ever met. He said that she’d walk in the room, and he swears she was a different person. That she’d be mean one hour, and then nice the next. Sounds a bit like Del, if you ask me, right? And then he said to me “Charley, I ain’t gonna lie to you. She hasn’t called or sent a card, but I know deep down she loves you. She’s just fucked up in the head, and likes to party too much. I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s a good thing she’s gone.”[/b]

Then something happens. Something that not many will see coming. It’s like a whole other movie entirely.

[b]Charley: Hey, do you guys think I could get a job around here? I’d do anything.
Silver: Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of jobs around here for homeless kids.
Charley: I’m not homeless.
Silver: Well, I hate to break it to you, but that is exactly what you are. Anyway, there’s no jobs around here.
Martha: Ask the Mexicans. They’re the only ones that seem to get jobs.
Silver: See? She talks.

Martha [after Charley hits Silver over the head with a tire iron]: Get out. Get out!
Charley: This is my fucking money!!
Martha: Get the fuck out!
Charley [walking away]: I’m sorry…

Aunt Margy: I felt really guilty not keeping better contact with you and your dad after what happened between him and me. I’m sorry. I tried once. But…
Charley: You tried?
Aunt Margy: Yeah, of course I tried. You’re my little Charley. Of course I tried.

Charley: Can I ask you a question?
Aunt Margy: Sure.
Charley: Would it be all right to stay here for a little bit? As long as your husband says that’s OK.
Aunt Margy: I’m not letting you go anywhere. And there’s no more husband. Not any more. You stay as long as you want. You and me.

Charley: If you wanna kick me out in, like, a week or so, you can.
Margy: I’m not gonna kick you out.
Charley: No, but if you want to, I won’t feel bad about it. I’ll be OK.
Margy: That’s fair.
Charley: And the other thing is, if I have to go to jail…do you think that I’d get to come back here?
Margy: You’re not going to jail. But if you did, yes.

Charley: I get nightmares. About my dad. About Pete, sometimes. Just that he’s drowning, and that I can’t save him. I just get really sad sometimes that I can’t save him.
Margy: It’s OK, Charley. I’m here now. And the nightmares are gonna get better. They might not go away completely, but they’re gonna get better the more good times you have. And we’re gonna have good times, Charley. Yeah. I promise.[/b]

Two points…

1] Fueled by testosterone, all men come into the world with the potential to be beasts.
2] When women choose to interact with men, they are taking their chances.

And it’s been all over the news of late, hasn’t it?

But it is obviously more complicated than that. After all, any number of women have been known [some famously] for being beasts themselves.

So there’s the part that revolves around biological imperatives and the part where that gets configured and then reconfigured in any number of different directions out in a particular world experienced in a particular way.

And doesn’t that sound familiar?

Also, the post-modern beast is able to sink [slink] down into the scenery with considerably more ease. Given that there are so many more options to choose from in a world where it is far easier to disguise the darker parts that are deeper down. Everyone more or less dons a mask in order to interact out in the world with others. We greet each other’s personas, never really knowing for sure who we might meet around the next corner. On the other hand, particular beasts can take advantage of the fact that in a “small isolated island community” they may not be expecting this at all.

And then there’s this part: Is he even a beast at all? Or this: Is he the only one?

Of course there are a zillion “psychological thrillers” of this sort made. So what most of us are looking for is summed up by a reviewer at IMDb: “Just when you think the crime genre has run out of original ideas along comes Beast with its entirely fresh take on a seemingly conventional story.”

I agree.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beast_(2017_film
trailer: youtu.be/eyQLM5S__QU

Beast [2017]
Written and directed by Michael Pearce

Moll: I was obsessed by killer whales as a kid. They almost seemed to be smiling. You know, they travel a hundred miles a day in the ocean. But in captivity, their soundwaves bounce off the walls. They become deaf and dumb. Some even go insane. I read about one whale that broke all its teeeth trying to break free. It just got too much for him. He didn’t want to smile anymore.

Right from the start [one look at her face] and we know she is not only talking about whales.

[b]Pascal [looking down at where Moll had cut yourself]: You’re wounded. I can fix that.

Moll: Isn’t that illegal?
Pascal: Can you keep a secret?
[Moll smiles and nods]
Pascal: Then I’m okay.

Hilary [Moll’s mother]: Who is that?
Moll: Oh, he just gave ne a lift the other night.
Hilary: I could smell him a mile off.

Reporter [on TV]: Everyone is hoping for the best but there it is, of course, speculation that Melissa’s disappearance is connected to the unsolved abduction and murder of three other girls over the past five years.[/b]

The beast, in other words.

[b]Hilary: You went off with that Pascal, didn’t you?
Moll: We just went for a drive.
Hilary: Sophie Healey’s daughter is missing. There’s a killer stalking this island, and you abandoned Jade because you wanted to go for a drive? She’s family. Families are supposed to look after each other, but the only thing that seems to matter in your world is you.
Moll: That’s not true.
Hilary: So you must be plain stupid then, is that it? You don’t know the difference between right and wrong?
Moll: I know the difference.
Hilary: So you’re selfish.

Pascal: So, “wild one”?
Moll: That was a long time ago.
Pascal: You’ve got to give me something.
Moll: I hurt someone. When I was 13, I stabbed a girl.
Pascal [intrigued]: What?
Moll: I was bullied at school, and then one day in class this girl came at me and, well, I can’t really remember what happened but one minute I’m holding some scissors, and the next, they’re sticking out of her.

Moll: They tried to beat the bad out of me.
Pascal: You’re a good person Moll.
Moll: You don’t know me.[/b]

And that’s the point in this day and age: who can we ever really know?

[b]Pascal [to Moll]: It’s a shortcut.

Clifford [a detective and Moll’s brother]: How long have you known Pascal Reouf?
Moll: A couple of weeks.
Clifford: And what’s the nature of your relationship?
Moll: We’re lovers.
Cifford [after a pause]: This isn’t easy but I have to ask you about your love life. Look, Moll, I’m the last person in the world that wants to ask you this, but we’re dealing with an extremely dangerous individual. So it’s important for me to know if there is anything out of the ordinary.
Moll: It’s not ordinary. It’s amazing.

Moll: You gonna tell me what this is about?
Clifford: Pascal was on a short list of suspects a few years back. Now his stories always checked out, but I was never convinced.

Clifford [showing Moll Pascal’s file]: Pascal Renouf. Previous convictions. Three counts of vandalism. Six accounts of dangerous driving. Two of a fray. Illegal poaching, countless times. At 18, he was sentenced to 12 month for indecent assault on a minor. She was 14.
[Moll says nothing]
Clifford: You might want to rethink how amazing he is.
Moll [leaving the car]: Keep up the good work, Cliff.

Hilary [to Moll after she rebuffs Pascal]: That’s my girl.

Moll: Clifford questioned me. It was about you. About your past…He thinks you’re the man who has been killing these girls.
Pascal: Do you think it’s me?
[Moll just stares at him]
Pascal: What the fuck do you want from me?!
Moll: I want you to tell me that you didn’t do it!

Pascal [to Moll]: Look, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn and walk away…but I didn’t hurt those girls.

Hilary: You need to put a leash on him.
Moll: He’s just playing with Jade.
Hilary: He’s ruining the grass.

Moll [at the country club]: I’d like to make a toast. To my family. For everything you’ve done for me. I forgive you.
Hilary [enraged]: Get out!

Pascal [after Moll bashes in the head of a rabbit she just shot]: You okay?
Moll [evenly]: Yeah.

DCI detective Theresa [showing Moll a photograph]: Do you know this man?
[Moll shakes her head]
DCI detective Theresa: Are you saying you’ve never met him?
Moll: No not to my knowledge.
DCI detective Theresa [showing her another photo]: Here you are engaging him in conversation.
Moll: Well, I was drunk. I can’t remember everyone I met.
DCI detective Theresa: He said you danced all night together.

DCI detective Theresa [showing her photographs of Melissa’s corpse]: She died from suffocation. He filled her mouth with earth.
Moll: Why are you showing me these?
DCI detective Theresa: He doesn’t love you Moll. He can’t love. And you can’t appeal to his humanity. He doesn’t have any.

DCI detective Theresa: You weren’t popular in school, were you?
Moll: I was bullied.
DCI detective Theresa: So was I. So are lots of people. But you tried to kill a girl.
Moll: It was a mistake. I was defending myself.
DCI detective Theresa: You see, it makes me wonder. Are you protecting Pascal bercause you think he’s innocent? Or is this just another way of taking revenge on the world?
Theresa [lunges forward and graps Moll by the wrists]: You think because you sing in the choir, and you help look after your father, you can fool people into thinking that you’re someone else?[/b]

So, another red herring or not?

Moll: I need to talk to you.
Tamara [the girl who Moll had stabbed]: About?
Moll: About what happened.
Tamara: It was 14 years ago.
Moll: I know. I just wanted to set things right.
Tamara: So you came to my shop?
Moll: I’m so sorry for what happened. It was a mistake. I’m a good person.
Tamara: What’s wrong with you?
Moll: Nothing is wrong with me. I was defending myself.
Tamara: What? Are you saying I deserved this?
Moll: No. No, no, no, I’m not.
Tamara: Get the fuck out of here. GET OUT!!

By now, there are three things you don’t know. 1] what happened in the past 2] what’s happening now and 3] what’s about to happen.

Clifford: We got him. Nuno Alvarez. Portuguese man. Worked on the farms. He finally made a mistake. I just wanted you to hear it from me. And to apologise for everything I’ve put you through.
Moll: What? It’s over.
Clifford: Yes. It’s over.

Nope, not even close.

[b]Pascal: What would you have done if it was me?
Moll: But it wasn’t.
Pascal: It must have crossed your mind.
Moll: I believed in you.
Pascal: Would you still love me?
Moll: What? Why are you asking me that?

Moll [looking at herself in the mirror]: It’s over.

Moll: We could just run away. We could just go somewhere really hot or cold, anywhere. Just somewhere.
Pascal: I’ve got a life here. I’ve got a business, a house.
Moll: I can’t live here, Pascal.

Moll: I gave up everything for you!
Pascal: Yeah, well, I didn’t ask you to give everything up.
Moll: I lied for you!
Pascal: And I appreciate that. But you can’t just break my life apart because you don’t like the weather.
Moll: You’re hurting me.
Pascal: Good. Maybe it will sink in and you’ll keep your fucking mouth shut.

Moll: I lied. I didn’t see Pascal at the Wipeout.
Clifford: You think it’s Pascal?
Moll: Why are you smiling?
Clifford: You know I was always there for you, but you wanted a bit of rough.
Moll: You’re a monster.
Clifford: So, I’m the monster?! You’re the one who lied during a multiple murder investigation. What’s wrong with you? Hm?
Moll: Nothing’s wrong with me.
Clifford: Do you want to go to jail? Is that it?

Pascal: Look, if you still want to go away, to leave this place, I’m in.
Moll: You’d do that for me?

Moll: I need to tell you something. I know it was you.
Pascal: What?
Moll: I know it was you.
Pascal [after a long pause]: It’s a wind-up.
Moll: You’re sick. You had a sickness and it overpowered you. And you fought it for a long time. And now you’re better. And I need to hear you say it. I need us to be absolutely honest with each other.

Pascal: You need help.
Moll: I’m not who I say I am. That girl I stabbed, it wasn’t an accident, it was revenge. I tried to kill her.
Pascal: You tried to kill a girl. Why are you telling me this?
Moll: I’m telling you because I know you understand. Whatever you’ve done and whoever you’ve hurt, I can understand because we’re the same. And so, from the deepest part of who I am, I accept you.

Moll: i want you give you all of my love, as deep and as powerful as a human can give another human. But…I need you to tell me that it’s over.
Pascal [after a long pause]: It’s over…They were nothing to me.

Moll [to Pascal]: Kiss me…[/b]

Cue the next twist.

Pascal: Wait…wait. We’re the same.
[Moll shakes her head and chokes him]

Some of us still put our eggs all in one basket. We find or stumble onto something in life that just seems to take over. All of our waking hours seem devoted to it. And we certainly imagine it going on far into the future.

Then for one or another reason the basket gets upended. All the eggs fall out. Smashed to smithereens.

Then what?

Here it’s more horses. Charley Thompson meet Brady Blackburn. Only Brady is considerably more intertwined with them than Charley ever was. He just doesn’t walk them around and around in a circle. He rides them in the rodeo.

In fact, he has invested much of his manhood in being a rising star on the rodeo circuit. What then does it mean to be a man “out in the heartland” when that is no longer a viable option?

In the first scene, we see him gulping down a handful of pain pills; and then pulling staples out of his head. Then wrapping his head in cellophane. It doesn’t look good for him.

And then into this falls all the other characters in his life. Him pushing them in various directions, them pushing him right back. Just a portait of one particular man living one particular life in one particular context. Then [as always] it’s up to us to make of it what we will. This is basically a self-contained “world all our own” in which contact with “the rest of us” is more or less kept to a minimal. It’s all about being who they are: cowboys.

Or what’s left of being one these days.

One thing though. Like most of us, there’s the part about money. You gotta have enough of it just in order to subsist from week to week. So that sometimes involves doing any number of things you’d really rather not do.

Me, I’ve never been on a horse in my life. But I have had a couple of baskets upended. Lots of broken eggs.

IMDb

[b]Writer and director Chloé Zhao first met Brady Jandreau during her research for her earlier film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015). She visited the ranch where Jandreau was working and he was teaching her how to ride a horse. She wanted to put him in one of her films, and when he had the accident that left him with life changing head injuries, she decided to base the script for her next film on his story.

The character Brady Blackburn is based on actor Brady Jandreau, who suffered the kind of head injury shown in the film after a fall from a horse.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rider_(film
trailer: youtu.be/AlrWRttLTkg

The Rider [2017]
Written and directed by Chloé Zhao

[b]Cowboy: What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be up there in the hospital. I seen Tanner at the bar, he said you escaped, huh?
Brady: Told you to check me out.
Cowboy: Well, doctor said you’re supposed to stay up there.

Wayne [Brady’s father to his mentally challenged daughter Lilly]: You’re as stubborn as your brother. Look how he ended up. Big old gash on the side of his head. I told him not to go over there and ride that son of a bitch anyway.
Brady: Well, I would have won the rodeo if I would’ve got her rode.
Wayne: Whole point of it is, is I told you to stay home. I had a bad feeling the whole time.

Brady: You should lay off that horse’s face a little bit, and he wouldn’t be putting his head in there like a goose.
Cowboy: Well, you can tell me what to do when you’re riding the son of a bitch. Too bad you went to the rodeo and got all fucked up and you ain’t showing him.
Brady: I was doing what I needed to do.
Cowboy: Well, I’m doing what I need to do. Finishing something that you should be doing.

Brady [at his mother’s grave]: I was tough, Mom…

Brady: You know what they do when they do surgery?
Lilly: What? What do they do? Got broke.
Brady: Yeah. I broke it. Broke my skull.
Lilly: Yeah, “broke my skull,” right.
Brady: And then you have to cut it with a knife. And then they put a plate in there. And then they sewed it up.
Lilly [stammering]: But you said, “Not gonna, either”?
Brady: Not gonna what?
Lilly: Bucking horse anymore.
Brady: Uh, maybe.

Brady [to his cowboy friends]: That horse I got on in Fargo was…Everything I heard about her was shit, but I got on her and said, “Fuck it,” and…She was good out there for a while, and… Until the whistle, she got real trashy and started turning there by the fence, sucking back, and I went over the front of her. She stepped on my head, popped me out. Didn’t knock me out until they got me back to the hospital there. I had a seizure and went into a coma.

Cat: Yeah, I been going for 10-plus years, you know? Probably had 10-plus concussions. I probably should… I mean, by NFL standards, I should be dead, you know what I mean?
Cowboy: Got kicked in Kadoka at Rodeo Bible Camp. Went out the back door. That wasn’t so bad. It was kind of a stinger there for about a week, but…Started riding and it loosened up a little more.
Tanner: Got on this big, gray mare. I was getting pretty stretched out towards the end, and thank God I heard the whistle blow. But, anyway, right at the end, she slammed me down in the dirt. Hardest I’ve ever been slammed before. Brady over there told me to get on my short-go horse even though my ribs hurt like a son of a bitch. Ain’t that right, Brady? You don’t let no pain put you down. You ain’t gonna be turning out horses left and right just 'cause your head hurts a little bit now, are you?
Brady: I’m not…I’m not drawing out of anything. I’m just taking some time off. Your brain’s a little different than your ribs.
Tanner: Yeah, I know, but it’s all the same to a cowboy. Ride through the pain. You gotta make sure this head of yours don’t get you scared. I know how that goes with some guys. They get scared to get on again, and then they end up becoming farmers.

Cat: Want to say a prayer for Lane. I mean, be best if we say a prayer every day, you know… Yeah. For the guy, 'cause he sure could use it. But I just want to go ahead and say…Pray to God that he takes in all the strength from all his friends across the nation. North, south, east and west. 'Cause we all know he’s got friends all over this country. Pulls through. Hope he gets to ride again. Feel the wind hit his back and watch it flow through the grass. We are him, and he is us. We’re all one in this together.

Brady [to Lane in a wheelchair, his arms twitching back and forth]: Hey, brother. How you doing? Long time, no see, brother. I missed you. Feeling better? You’re looking good. Looks like they’re doing a lot for you here. How you feeling? Feeling good, huh? It’s a pretty good place here.
Lane [who is only able to communicate by forming letters with his fingers]: H… O… W…S
Brady: How’s…How’s my head?

Lane [from a video]: Name’s Lane Scott. I’m 18 years old, and I’m from Kennebec, South Dakota.
Announcer: Lane, he’s young, but he’s really good. Best bull rider to come out of South Dakota, for sure.
Lane: I mean…I mean, I’m not trying to imply anything, but me and Superman have never been seen in the same room together.

Lane [on the video]: I was about three years old when my dad introduced me into the rodeo world. There’s nothing that really can beat it. You get on a bull, make a good ride, everybody… Everybody in the stands stands up for you, yells, cheers. Um…your adrenaline’s going, you… You just can’t stop but smiling. There’s nothing like strapping yourself onto a 2,000 pound animal and just going with it. That’s what I wanted to do, and I knew I wanted to do it for the rest of my life. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Tanner: Hey. Wake up, Grandpa. Falling asleep over there. You entering Water’s Rodeo on the 17th?
Brady: 17th?
Tanner: Yeah. Should be ready to roll by then. Yeah, man, it’ll be good to see you back out there, scratching 'em.
Woman: Come on, now, Tanner. He has a metal plate in his head.
Tanner: So? Metal’s strong. It’s supposed to not break. He’ll be fine. He’s not a little bitch.

Woman: Do you have a resume?
Brady: No.
Woman: Any job experience?
Brady: I’m a horse trainer.
Woman: You can’t do that right now?
Brady: Well, I would, but I can’t ride for a while since I’m laid up, so…
Woman: Any high school? GED?
Brady: No, ma’am.

Victor: Wow, Brady. What are you doing here?
Brady: How you doing, Victor? Good.
Victor: All right. So you work here now?
Brady: Yeah. Guy’s gotta do what he’s gotta do, I guess, huh? I don’t know.
Victor: It’s none of my business, but when you start getting comfortable, you know, you need to get back to them horses and rodeos and stuff.
Brady: Yeah.

Brady: What was that all about? What was Todd doing here?
Wayne: Had to sell him Gus, Brady.
Brady: Sell him Gus? What do you mean, sell him Gus? You can’t sell Gus.
Wayne: You want 'em to haul the trailer away? You want Lilly to not have a place to live? Gus is part of the family. I guess it’s his turn for us to make a living.
Brady: Well, where’s all your money going? It costs a lot to live. Well, maybe you should’ve thought about that when you were putting money in the slot machines, going to the fucking bars and casinos. That’s where all the money went.
Wayne: Fuck you, Brady. I don’t need to hear your shit. It’s not like you can fucking ride anymore.

Brady: My dad sold Gus today.
Cat: Damn. Really?
Brady: Yeah. Todd bought him.
Cat: Well, at least he’s going to a good home.
Brady: I wish I could ride him one last time, though.

Brady [with Gus]: God, I just ask you to take care of Gus on his travels, Lord. Just be with him all the time and protect him. Keep him safe, God. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Pawn shop owner: You know what? I see a lot of young cowboys come in with their saddles. A lot of 'em get rid of 'em. You can’t be rodeoing forever, right? Okay, partner, what… What’d you say your last name was?
Brady: You know what, man? I think I changed my mind.

Brady [to Apollo]: Good boy. Come on. Let’s go for a cruise. How does that sound, bud?

Brady: You know, Lil…It’s hard not rodeoing anymore.
Lilly: I know it’s hard, but can’t you please more careful?
Brady: I know I need to be more careful. At least I can ride again now. Train horses.
Lilly: I know. We’ll seize this time.
Brady: I can take in a whole bunch of colts, make some money, and maybe get you all those presents you want for your birthday.

Doctor: What’s going on with your hand is called a partial complex seizure. The brain is sending these signals too fast, and your hand can’t keep up, so it just stays clenched. And your dad says you haven’t been resting at all? Is that right?
Wayne: I told him to rest. He never listens, though.
Doctor: If you don’t stop, your seizures are gonna get worse. And you can’t afford another head injury on top of the one that you have. Think about it, okay? No more riding. No more rodeos.[/b]

Back to Dakotamart.

[b]Wayne: You know, I’m your dad. You can talk to me. Well, Brades, we have to play the cards we’re dealt. Sometimes dreams aren’t meant to be. It’s too bad your mom ain’t here. You and her could be stubborn together.

Cat: You know, I…I know about your hand. I know you ain’t supposed to be rodeoing or anything like that. Must be tough. But you just gotta learn to let it go. Move on. Or else it’ll eat at you. But it’s gotta be tough. I mean…I understand.
Brady: You don’t understand.

Wayne [with a gun in his hand]: I’m sorry, Brady. This is all there is to do. Whistle for him when you walk away, please.

Brady: You know, Lilly, Apollo got hurt, and we had to put him down.
Lilly: Nope. Nuh-uh.
Brady: It’s not fair to the horse. He can’t run and play and do what he wants to do. She doesn’t go on. You know, I got hurt like Apollo did. But I’m a person, so I got to live. If any animal around here got hurt like I did, they’d have to be put down. You know, Lilly, I believe God gives each of us a purpose. To the horse, it’s to run across the prairie. For a cowboy, it’s to ride.

Wayne: Where are you going with that?
Brady: Where does it look like I’m going? I’m going to the rodeo.
Wayne: You fucking crazy?
Brady: I’m gonna ride. I figured you were coming to watch.
Wayne: What the fuck would I wanna come for? Watch you kill yourself? You’re just stubborn as hell. You won’t listen to nothing anybody tells you anyway.
Brady: Oh, I don’t listen? I always fucking listened. I listened to everything you fucking said to me. What happened to “Cowboy up,” “Grit your teeth,” “Be a man”? What happened to all that, Dad?
Wayne: You don’t need to go ride today. You don’t need to fucking go ride.
Brady: Bullshit. I’m going. I’m entered, and I’m riding.
Wayne: Go kill yourself, then.
Brady: I’m not gonna end up like you.

Cowboy: Let’s go, Brady
Cowboy: Let’s go, man. Come on, Brady. Come on, Brady, your horse is in.
Cowboy: Your horse is in the goddamn chute!

Brady [to Lane]: Come on. Look up at me, brother. Grab your reins. All right, wheel him around to the left. All right, now to the right. All right, go ahead, stop him. Back him up. You’re on…You’re on big old Gus again. Loping across there. Remember that wind on your face. Through the badlands, chasing them cows out of the trees. You excited? You bet, brother.[/b]

For those of us who are not artists, imagine trying to narrow the gap between viewing art and creating it. Is it even possible?

Or are there just too many variables involved [technical and otherwise] to create a narrative that is both lucid and comprehensive?

Some look at particular works of art, figure a kid could do it, and scoff at the idea that it is even art at all. And what of those who haul a urinal into a museum and exhibit that as art?

Are there creations that truly are art? Then this: Are there ways in which to decide if any particular creation is among the “great works” of art?

Imagine then trying to get into the mind of an artist who goes about the business of creating a work of art. Why choose this and not that?

Here we have the story [a more or less true story] of the American critic [and art-lover] James Lord choosing to pose for a portrait. A portrait painted by the artist Alberto Giacometti. Then the exchange between them. The parts in particular that revolve around “the beauty, frustration, profundity and sometimes chaos of the artistic process”.

And, after all, in this world what must one possess in order to be described as an “artistic genius”? Is this actually something that can be understood? And then explained to those of us who look at art…but not much more beyond?

Giacometti’s life is portrayed exactly as you would imagine the life of the artist. And, so, any up and coming artists today now know how to model their own life. So, is this but one more rendition of art imitating life imitating art imitating life.

Bottom line [mine]: I still don’t get it. That gap between what the artists think that they are after in their work and what I imagine that actually means to them. I lack the technical skills to judge, but I suspect it goes beyond that: an artistic “sensibility” I was simply never able to acquire.

In other words, when they talk about their art it all still goes over my head.

The closest someone like me can get to it are those moments when I’m grappling to find just the right words to express what I think I mean about what I think I feel about something.

IMDb

[b]Alberto Giacometti was born in Borgonovo, now part of the Switzerland municipality of Bregaglia, near the Italian border. He was a descendant of Protestant refugees escaping the inquisition. His brothers Diego and Bruno would go on to become artists as well. “Pointing Man” sold for $126 million, $141.3 million with fees, in Christie’s May 11, 2015 Looking Forward to the Past sale in New York, a record for a sculpture at auction. The work had been in the same private collection for 45 years.

The filmmakers meticulously recreated Giacometti’s studio, using archive photos and footage. The Giacometti Foundation in Paris assisted the production, on the condition that any artworks created for the film would be destroyed after production was completed.

According to the website of the art auction house Christie’s, the portrait of James Lord sold in November 2015 for $20,885,000. Painted in 1964, it was 45 ¾ x 31 ¾ in. The painting was called “James Lord.” Christie’s writes: "The result of this intense exchange between Giacometti and James Lord, the artist and his sitter, is a superb head whose eyes flash the penetrating gaze of a Byzantine icon, a seated figure that displays the assertive presence of an Egyptian pharaoh, and a lambent corona of silvery grey paint that projects the aura of a Christ en gloire, en majesté.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Portrait
trailer: youtu.be/sRsiW5c29Sk

Final Portrait [2017]
Written and directed by Stanley Tucci

[b]James [voiceover]: In 1964, I was a young writer living in Paris. I had written a few articles about Alberto Giacometti, who was one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation. I had become good friends with Giacometti and his brother, Diego. And one day, after an exhibition, he asked me to sit for a portrait. He told me it would take no longer than two to three hours. An afternoon at the most.

Annette [Alberto’s wife]: Okay. I’m going to Le Dome. Would you like to join me?
James: I would, but we’re about to start…
Annette: Ah, yes, you’re my husband’s next victim.

Alberto: You have the head of a brute.
James: Gee, thanks.
Alberto: Yeah. You look like a real thug.
James: Thank you.
Alberto: If I was to paint you as I see you now and a policeman was to see this painting, you’d be thrown in jail, like that.
James: Perhaps we shouldn’t continue.
Alberto: No, no, no. It’s all right. Because I’ll never be able to paint you as I see you.
James: Are you sure?
Alberto: Yes, of course. It’s impossible.

Alberto: Just so you know, it is also impossible to ever finish a portrait.
James: What do you mean?
Alberto: Well, portraits used to be finished. They had to be. They were necessary. It was a substitute for a photograph. Now, portraits have no meaning.
James: So, what we’re doing is meaningless?
Alberto: Mm. And impossible. And I’m not even doing it. I can only ever try to do it. So on that note, shall we stop for the day?

James [voiceover]: Each night, after working with me, Giacometti would work with Caroline, a prostitute with whom he’d been openly carrying on a relationship for three years. Are you done? She’d become his primary model, his nighttime companion…and his obsession.

James: Have you always been like this?
Alberto: Like what?
James: So doubtful of your own ability.
Alberto: Of course. It gets worse every year.
James: But you become more successful every year.
Alberto: What better breeding ground for doubt than success?

Alberto: It’s what I deserve, I suppose, after 35 years of dishonesty. That’s what I am. I’m dishonest. I’m a… I’m a liar.
James: Dishonesty? How do you mean?
Alberto: All these years that I’ve been showing things. They were all… they were all unfinished. Probably shouldn’t have been started in the first place. Then again, if I hadn’t shown them, I would have felt like a coward, so…Ugh! I don’t know. I’m neurotic.
James: Well, I understand that. I had a friend who was so neurotic, he ended up committing suicide.
Alberto: I’m sorry.
James: Hmm. Do you ever think about it?
Alberto: Suicide? Mm. Every day. Of course. It’s not like I feel life is bad. It’s just that I…I think death must be the most fascinating experience, you know? I’m just…I’m just curious.

Alberto [to James]: I hid it in the toilet. Not in. Up.

James: How did it go?
Diego [Alberto’s brother]: He made out like a capitalist.

James: So, what did you give them?
Diego: Drawings that were like hundreds of others he’s done.
James: And they were happy?
Diego: Happy? Of course they were. They know those are what sells. Those are “Giacomettis”!

Alberto [examining James’s face]: Front on, you look like a brute. Side on, you look like a degenerate…One way you go to jail. The other, you go straight to the asylum. I’ll probably meet you in there.

Annette: How do you like posing?
James: I like it. I do. But it’s, you know, it can be exhausting. He makes me nervous sometimes. The way he yells at the canvas when things aren’t going well. But what’s really disturbing is just how the portrait itself seems to come and go as if Alberto has no control over it whatsoever. Then other times, it just disappears entirely. I feel like this could go on for months.
Annette: Sometimes it does.
James: There’s nothing anyone can do about it?
Annette: No.
James: Even Alberto?
Annette: Especially Alberto.[/b]

This is the part that goes far over my head.

[b]Alberto [more to himself than to James]: Yeah, the nose is in place now. That’s some progress.

Alberto: Have you ever wanted to be a tree?
James: Um, no.

James [voiceover]: I was glad when that day’s session was over. Giacometti was miserable and his mood was pervasive. I was to find out that evening that Caroline had gone missing.

Diego [of the missing Caroline]: He’s too attached to her. He goes crazy without her. He makes himself go crazy.
James: Yeah, why?
Diego: My brother can only be happy when he is desperate and uncomfortable in every part of his life.
James: Well, he should be very happy, then. But it’s like he’s determined to remain completely unsatisfied.
Diego: No, not completely, just perfectly.

Alberto: Have you ever killed anyone?
James: No. Why do you ask?
Alberto: I think you’re the sort of person who’s capable of doing anything, and I mean that as a compliment.
James: Thank you. What about you? Have you ever killed anyone?
Alberto: Mm. In my mind, I’ve killed many people.
James: Who are these poor souls?
Alberto: Just people. Women. Before I could go to sleep, when I was young, every night I’d fantasize about killing two women. After I raped them.
James: Oh. And… and this helped you fall asleep?
Alberto: Yes. It comforted me.

Alberto: Cezanne was right.
James: About what?
Alberto: Squaring everything. Everything is a cone or a cylinder or a sphere…Cezanne was the last great painter. It was just too bad the Cubists took him so literally.
James: The Cubists produced very pretty things.
Alberto: Oh, who needs pretty? Then they realized they’d reached a dead end and gave up. Picasso and Braque were the really guilty ones.
James: Yes, but Picasso moved on.
Alberto: Oh, yes, so that he could copy every great artist that ever lived.
James: I know, but every artist copies.
Alberto: Yes, but you do it as an exercise. It’s just an exercise.
James: Oh, Alberto. I think you’re being a bit harsh.
Alberto: No, it’s true. I’m telling you, I promise you. Picasso could be so pompous. “I was unable to reach the top of the scale of values, so I smashed the scale.” Oh, that’s bullshit.
James: He really said that?
Alberto: Of course he did. Who else would say it? Picasso’s always making statements like that, you know. At first they sound like they’re so full of wit, but they’re full of shit. They have absolutely no meaning.[/b]

This is the part where I get stuck.

[b]James [voiceover]: I decided to take up swimming as a way to relieve not only the physical strain of posing but what was slowly becoming a psychological strain as well. One morning after my swim, I was invited to see the ceiling of the opera house that Chagall had just painted. The magnificence of the work left me feeling lighter than I’d felt in days. Then, I went to sit for Giacometti…
Alberto [in the studio at the canvas]]: Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! Look at this. It’s hopeless. The head is all lopsided. It’s a mess!

Alberto [muttering aloud more to himself]: Chagall. Opera. Fucking house painting. You can’t compare that to what I’m trying to do here.

James [after 12 days of posing]: Oh, my God.
Diego: What?
James: How much longer can it go on like this?
Diego: It could go on forever.
James: He says a portrait can never be finished.

James: Well, at any rate, I can’t keep doing this. It seems like we pose for hours and hours and nothing happens.
Annette: That’s the reason why I don’t pose anymore.
James: Why?
Annette: Because your whole life can be swallowed up.

Alberto [staring at the canvas]: It’s gone too far. At the same time, not far enough. I’ll never find a way out of this.
James: Well, we could always just stop.
Alberto: No, we can’t stop…I have to stop.

James [looking at the canvas]: Wow. It looks really good. What’d you do?
Alberto: I have no idea.

James: I wish that I could see things the way you do.
Alberto: That’s all I’m trying to do. I just want to show how things appear to me. But I’m unable to do that.
James: No, that’s not true.
Alberto: When I was young, I thought I could do everything. When I grew up, I realized I could do nothing. That’s what kept me going. Four more sittings. How does that sound?
James: Thank you.
Alberto: You don’t have to do that. We’ve worked on it together. I don’t know.
James: That’s…I guess that’s true. I certainly don’t feel how Madame Cezanne did.
Alberto: What do you mean?
James: In the end she said she just felt like an apple.

James [at the studio which had been ransacked]: Oh, my God. What happened? Did they take anything?
Diego: No, no.
James: Well, shall we call the police?
Alberto: No, no, no. It wasn’t thieves. They came for me.
Diego: It was Caroline’s pimps. It’s a warning.

Pimp: It’s going to be the same price. Whether you sleep with her or she just sit in front of you.
Alberto: I see. Same price for both. Mm. You don’t want to charge me more for one?
Pimp: What?
Alberto: Which one would you charge me more for?
Pimp: For fucking her. We could charge you more for both things. We can take more for both. Alberto: Okay. Okay. I don’t mind.
Pimp: Okay. So…so we can get a lot more in that case. Another 10 per hour for each.
Alberto: Good.

Alberto [putting a pile of money on the table]: This pile is all retroactive.
Pimp: What?
Alberto: It’s payment for the last six months that I’ve spent with her. And this pile is in advance for the next six months.
Pimp: Ah. Cheers.
Alberto: Cheers!

James [after the pimps leave]: It looks like you made them happy.
Alberto: Please. I would have paid ten times that amount.
James: What do you mean?
Alberto: She’s given me so much.

Alberto: Oh, fuck!
James: What are you doing?
Alberto: Negative work. I have to do this. Sometimes, you know, to do something, you can only do it by undoing it.
James: Yes, but how many times?
Alberto: Mm? How many times? Good question. It’s not always as easy as you think.
James: What isn’t?
Alberto: The undoing of something.
James: I thought the portrait looked really good.
Alberto: When?
James: Earlier, when we started.
Alberto: It can be very tempting to be satisfied with what’s easy. That happens a lot when people tell you something’s good. There. That’s good. [/b]

You can just imagine what he means by that here.

Alberto: What’s the matter?
James: Nothing. It’s just sometimes it feels like there’s very little hope.
Alberto: Hope? Is that what you want? Hope?
James: Well, it’d be nice. Hm. We’ve been doing this for a while now.
Alberto: Yes, but, you know, for me, whenever I feel the most hopeful, that’s the time that I give up.

And it’s precisely this sort of “explanation” that most exasperates those of who are not artists. We’re just not sure how much of it is bullshit. Next up: Day 17

James: You know when he uses the big brush with the grey paint and he undoes everything he’s already done?
Diego: Uh-huh.
James: It’s normally after that that he grabs a black brush with a fine tip and he starts to construct the head all over again from nothing for the 100th time, right?
Diego: Yeah. Basically, yes.
James: Then he’s onto the highlights with the ochre - and the grey and all.
Diego: The grey. Yes.
James: And then he finishes with the final touches of white. Then he gets that big brush again…and obliterates everything he’s already done.
Diego: Right.
James: That’s when I’m gonna stop him.
Diego: What do you mean?
James: I mean I’m gonna try to stop him.
Diego: Okay. Yeah. You’re very brave.

That’s the plan. It works.

[b]James: I don’t know how to thank you. It’s been an honor to pose for you.
Alberto: Are you out of your mind?
James: I didn’t say I wanted to do it again.

James: The next day, Giacometti and I went for a walk and said our goodbyes. He told me he would have liked to accompany me to the airport, but he was hesitant to ever get back into a car any time soon. The portrait was shipped to an exhibition in the States and I returned to New York for an extended stay. Giacometti and I wrote often but never saw each other again, as he was to die a short time later. In his last letter, Giacometti told me how much he enjoyed painting my portrait and that he hoped I would come back soon so that we could start…all over… again.[/b]

Harry Dean Stanton. Lucky here. Only not lucky enough to live to see the release of this, his final film.

That’s the way it works though when you’re old. You never really know when it’s coming.

For some, of course, Stanton will always be Travis Henderson. That epic character from Paris, Texas.

Here he plays another “character”. The “cantankerous but lovable” old man who goes about the business of not being like anyone else. But “old age” may have finally caught up with him. His health might be down for the count and his time might be about up. So he has to figure out a way to deal with it. Something that [sooner or later] most of us will confront.

Only Lucky is an atheist. No immortality and salvation on the other side for him. Or none that he is able to believe in.

On the other hand, are you ever really too old to find enlightenment? To tie everything together into something analogous to a meaningful life?

Apparently the whole point here is learning how to be “realistic” about things you can do nothing about. And death and dying is clearly one of them.

I certainly think so. But there will always be films like this around. Films that aim to come up with one thing or another that “the old” can poke around with. Dig deep enough, the refrain goes, and you too can come up with enough “positives” to put all the accumulating shit in perspective.

With death though it usually comes down to two things. One, how much you’re got to gain if you keep on living and, two, how much you got to lose if you stop. Pain and suffering, for example.

Then this: The last time I saw James Darren was in The Guns Of Naverone. We all get fucking old, don’t we?

IMDb

[b]The five yoga exercises Lucky performs at the start of each day are the Five Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation, although in the film they are not employed in the recommended order. Performed originally by Tibetan Buddhist monks, they are said to enhance health and longevity.

As with the character in the movie, Stanton actually served as a cook aboard the USS LST-970, a tank landing ship, during the Battle of Okinawa.

Harry Dean Stanton (who played the role of Lucky) did not live long enough to see the official release of the movie in US on 29 September 2017. He died on 15 September 2017 at the age of 91.

According to Logan Sparks, the screenwriter and a longtime friend of Harry Dean Stanton’s, Stanton knew ‘Lucky’ would be the last film he made before dying.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_(2017_American_film
trailer: youtu.be/2KLLkj84GAo

Lucky [2017]
Directed by John Carroll Lynch

[b]Lucky: You’re nothing.
Joe: You’re nothing.

Joe [watching Lucky take out a cigarette]: Those things are gonna kill you.
Lucky: If they coulda they woulda.

Lucky [reading aloud from the dictionary]: “Realism, noun. The attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly.” Now the other one. “The quality or fact representing a person, thing or situation accurately or in a way that is true to life.”

Lucky [aloud to himself]: I always thought that what we all agreed on was what we were looking at, but that’s bullshit, because what I see is not necessarily what you see. Realism. That’s it. That’s some heavy shit.

Vincent: What’s the good word.
Lucky: Realism is a thing.

Paulie [at bar]: You know, friendship between animals and humans is essential. And special. And friendship is essential to the soul.
Lucky: What?
Paulie: Friendship is essential to the soul.
Lucky: It doesn’t exist!
Paulie: What, friendship?
Lucky [loudly]: The soul!

Lucky: That’s it? I’m not dying?
Doctor: Well, when it comes to most things like heart disease or cancer, at your age, if it was gonna kill you it would have.
Lucky: So?
Doctor: Well, short of shooting you with a silver bullet or stabbing you with a wooden stake, it seems the older you get, the longer you’re gonna live.
Lucky: So, why did I fall down?

Doctor: I could do a lot more tests, but I think it’s gonna turn out to be exactly what I think it is.
Lucky: What’s that?
Doctor: You’re old, and you’re getting older.
Lucky: That’s your diagnosis?
Doctor: It’s all I got.
Lucky: Well, that’s bullshit.
Doctor: The body is gonna break down at some point. As far as I know, no one has lived forever.

Doctor [to Lucky]: You know most people don’t get to where you are. They get hit by a bus or get leukemia or something. They never get to the moment that you’re in right now. We have the ability to witness what you’re going through, to clearly examine it and, more importantly, to accept it.

Paulie: I’m still ungatz. Nothing. But I’ve got everything. Isn’t that something?
Lucky: Something for you.[/b]

And that’s the way it is. Something works for you. But your own set of circumstances may well be alien to others.

[b]Lucky: Who’s this?
Howard: Hey, Lucky. This here is my attorney Bobby Lawrence.
Lucky: You know why sharks don’t eat attorneys?
Bobby: Uh…
Lucky: Professional courtesy.

Bobby: You know Lucky you remind me of…
Lucky [seemingly out of the blue]: Shut the fuck up!

Lucky: President Roosevelt is gone, Howard, and you’re all alone. We come in alone, and we go out alone.
Bobby: That’s awfully bleak.
Lucky: It’s beautiful. “Alone” comes from two words all-one. It’s in the dictionary.

Lucky: He’s not missing, Howard, he’s there. Wherever the fuck that is. And if he’s not there, then he’s nowhere.
Bobby: Well, I’m sure he’s okay.
Lucky: Why don’t you go fuck yourself. You don’t give a shit about him. You’re here to suck him dry. You lamprey, leech, vulture. Con him out of his last dime, just so he can leave everything to a turtle.
Howard: Tortoise! He’s a tortoise!!

Howard [to everyone in the bar]: President Roosevelt was born in a hole in the desert. At that time, a little creature smaller than my thumb…You all think of a tortoise as something slow. But I think about the burden he has to carry on his back. Yeah, it’s for protection. But ultimately, it’s the coffin he’s going to be buried in and he has to drag that thing around hos entire life? Go ahead and laugh, but he affected me. You know what I’m saying. He affected me. There are some things in this universe ladies and gentlemen, that are bigger than all of us. And a tortoise is one of them!

Paulie: Go home, Lucky…

Loretta: You got somewhere to be, sailor?
Lucky: No. Do you like game shows?
Loretta: Do you smoke grass?

Lucky: Can I tell you a secret?
Loretta: Absolutely.
Lucky: You won’t tell anyone?
[Loretta says nothing]
Lucky: I’m scared…

Lucky: Did you ever think about before you were born?
Joe: No, never did. What are you talking about?
Lucky: New beginning.
Joe: Is that in the crossword today?
Lucky: No. I was just thinking about something that happened to me when I was about 12 or 13 years old. I was at my Aunt’s house alone…And only once I got this anxiety attack. I panicked and I was scared to death. I started thinking there’s nothing out there. It’s all black, there’s nothing. And I was scared shitless, man.
Joe: 13…
Lucky: Yeah.
Joe: What happened?
Lucky: I don’t know. My Aunt came back and that was the end of it.

Lucky [to Bobby]: There’s only one thing worse than awkward silence. Small talk.

Bobby: A couple of years ago, I was heading to my daughter’s school to pick her up. And as I’m turning around the corner, you know, there’s a garbage truck that…I mean it just barely missed me. There’s no more room between my car and that truck than between me and this tie. A half a second – a half a second made all the difference.
[Lucky nods]
Bobby: Two minutes later, my daughter hops into the car as if nothing’s happened, and, I guess nothing has. But, uh, it really shook me to the core. Yeah, I got hair standing up on my arms just thinking about it.

Bobby: You know I came home with my daughter that day and I sat down and I made a will. I wrote end-of-life directives, I upped my life insurance. I paid up front for my cremation. So now if something happens to me…When something happens to me my family doesn’t have to worry about the bureaucracy of death. They just call one number and my body’s gone by the end of the day. And they don’t have to worry about anything for the rest of their life.
Lucky: Well, this doesn’t change anything for you, this scenario.
Bobby: Why not?
Lucky: You’re still dead.

Fred [to Lucky]: I still think about those people on the islands, hiding away in caves, afraid of us. The Japs said that we were going to rape and kill them all. So, we secured the beach and the locals who survived the goddamn firefight, started to throw their children off the cliffs, and then followed them. I guess they thought suicide was better than facing us. I remember this little girl, couldn’t have been more than seven, in rags. I don’t know, she saw us coming, I guess, and right out of nowhere, out of a hole or wherever it was, and she had this…God, this beuatiful smile on her face. And it wasn’t a facade, it was coming from somewhere inside, from the center of herself. Good lord, in that shithole something like that really stands out. It stopped us in our track. Here we were, all covers with shit, pieces of people everywhere, and I couldn’t see a tree left. And she’s grinning from ear to ear. So I said to my corpsman, I said, "look at this, we have somebody who’s happy to see us. And he said, “she’s not happy to see you. She’s a Buddhist. She thinks she’s gonna be killed, and she’s smiling at her fate.” When I think about that little girl’s beautiful face, and that smile, in the midst of all that horror, somehow she summoned…joy. They don’t make a medal for that kind of bravery.[/b]

What to make of that, right?

[b]Elaine: My place, my rules.
Lucky: Ownership is a fallacy.
Elaine: Why can’t you just live by the rules?
Lucky: Authority is arbitrary and subjective.

Elaine: The truth is you lit up at Eve’s and they kicked you out.
Lucky: It’s not about the cigarettes, it’s about what I know happened, and what you think happened.
Elaine: You broke the rules. You got busted and banned. That’s the truth.
Paulie: How about if we all agree to disagree.
Lucky: No. I know the truth and the truth matters!

Lucky: The truth of what is for all of us.
Paulie: Which is?
Lucky [after a pause]: That it’s all going to go away. You, you, you, me, this cigarette, everything…into blackness, the void. And nobody is in charge. And you’re left with…ungatz. Nothing. That’s all there is.
Elaine: What do we do with that?
Howard: What do we do with that?
Lucky [looking around at everyone]: You smile.[/b]

Sure, that might work for you. Just don’t be surprised if it doesn’t.

Terrorist attacks are not unlike most experiences. Our reaction to them will revolve largely around our own particular frame of mind. But regarding the overwhelming preponderance of them, at least, we are not “personally involved”.

In other words, the attack destroys lives, but not ours. And not the lives of those we know and love. But when we do become a part of the story it can take on a whole new dimension. And everyone brings into it their very own unique set of circumstances.

Especially when the relationship between those who staged the attack and those in the government investigating it are not all that concerned with keeping you fully informed. Or may well be entangled in it all together.

Quan: “Politicians and terrorists, they are just 2 ends of the same snake.”

You are more or less on your own.

Here the attack is launched by a new faction embedded in the decades old political struggle that revolves around Northern Ireland. Of course they don’t see it as a terrorist attack. They see it as a revolutionary act in support of a just cause. And while these explosive events are often described as “senseless acts of violence” it is precisely the opposite that is the case. Certain groups of people make sense of the world in one way. And they insist that others see it the same way.

If the bombing has anything to do with the IRA at all. As is usual regarding “incidences” like this there is all the stuff unfolding behind the scenes. Can we really believe what does finally end up “on the news”? And then the part where everything is all hopelessly exaggerated “for the movies”. The part where “the Chinaman” becomes Rambo. The unbelievable part.

But, again, each of us as indivisuals become entangled in it all only from our own unique vantage point. Which we may or may not be able to effectively communicate to others.

Here though the victim is Jackie Chan. Which means the plot will go back and forth between the inherent drama involved and the inevitable elements of the “action thriller”. And then the part where we learn he has a “long-buried past”. And the part where the factions involved here see him clearly as a foreigner. As “the Chinaman”.

IMDb

[b]In February 2016, two reports were made to the London Metropolitan Police about a “terrorist attack” made on the Lambeth bridge, after many local citizens were not told about a controlled stunt explosion made on a double decker bus for this movie.

Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan) is based on Northern Irish politicians Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. Adams was actively involved in the Irish Republican movement, although he denies having been a member of the I.R.A. (a claim contested by many). He later became the leader of Sinn Féin, the political branch of the I.R.A., and was heavily involved in establishing a lasting peace accord in Northern Ireland. Hennessy even shows physical resemblance to Adams (short gray hair, full beard, glasses). Adams was never Deputy First Minister for Northern Ireland. That position was filled by Martin McGuinness. In this movie, Hennessey describes a previous nickname, “Butcher of the Bogside” when referring to his terrorist past. Martin McGuinness was known as “Butcher of the Bogside”.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt1615160/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foreigner_(2017_film
trailer: youtu.be/r_rSAbYyIq0

The Foreigner [2017]
Directed by Martin Campbell

[b]Man’s voice [on phone]: Listen carefully. An action wing of the Authentic IRA has just exploded a bomb at the OBT Bank in Knightsbridge. The code word is “Phoenix”. Britain’s banks are now targets for the Authentic IRA. The bombings will continue as long as Britain’s financial criminal institutions persist in their support of the illegal occupation of Northern Ireland.

Reporter: A bomb just went off, an OBT Bank in Knightsbridge. A group called the “Authentic IRA” just phoned it in. They’re claiming credit.
Editor: Who’s the Authentic IRA?
Reporter: No idea. Never heard of them.
Editor: Christ. There goes the Peace Accord right back in the shit.
Editor [to the newsroom]: Listen up. A bank has just been bombed in Knightsbridge. A group calling itself the “Authentic IRA” just phoned it in. I want to know who they are, who’s behind them. Call the Met, Sinn Fin, monitor the blogs. Is it the IRA, or is it something else? ISIS? Al-Qaeda?

Liam [Northern Ireland deputy First Minister]: I’ll shake the trees as hard as I can, and see what falls. But, Kate, this is crucial. We’ve managed to keep the lid on this for 19 years now. But there are new upstarts in the ranks pressing for the way things were. I could use something now. And you know what I’m referring to.
Kate [cabinet minister]: The Royal Pardons.

Liam [to the taskforce]: Now, that we’re all here, does anyone know who this Authentic IRA is? Are they even part of the IRA? Some new upstarts, or something else entirely? Hmm? They’re trying to undermine everything we’ve achieved over the last 19 years. Well, I won’t have it. They don’t have the support of the people who said no to the violence. Our mandate’s to uphold that choice and maintain the Peace Accord, no matter what. Are we in agreement?
Brennan: There’s a lot of support for their actions amongst the younger ranks.
Liam: Hotheads. Hotheads who don’t remember, or know any better.
Brennan: You were once one of those hotheads, Liam.
Liam: Aye. Long ago, when it was the only way. And what did it give us? More graves than I care to remember.

Bromley [police commander]: You were born in Guangxi, China.
Quan: Yes. I’m Chinese Nung. I work in Saigon after the war. We escaped to Singapore. Then we immigrate here.[/b]

That murky and mysterious past.

[b]Bromley: I assure you, this investigation is our top priority, Mr. Quan. And we’re doing all we can and pursuing every possible lead to find those who killed your daughter. But they’re a difficult people to catch. And it may take some time. I need you to understand that.
Quan: You must catch these men, Commander Bromley.
[he takes a bundle of cash out of a bag and places it on the table]
Quan: Twenty-thousand pound. All I have for the names of the bombers.
Bromley: I’m sorry, but we can’t take this.
Quan: Then please tell me… Just give me the name of someone in the IRA.

Quan [on phone]: Please tell me someone who might know the names of the bombers, someone I can talk to.
Liam: I don’t have any connections to those sorts of people. I’m sorry.
Quan: I don’t believe you, Mr. Hennessy. You are very powerful man.
Liam: Well, I work for the government and our elected officials. I do not work for terrorists. Quan: IRA politics and terrorism are different ends of the same snake. Whichever end you grab, you still grab a snake.
Liam: It makes a great deal of difference which end you grab, because one end will bite.

Liam: I haven’t been affiliated with the IRA for 30 years. When I was, I fought hard against the violence. I went to prison for what I did, and paid my debt. Now, I serve the politics of both sides, trying to heal the wounds and bridge the divide. Again, my sincere condolences, but there’s nothing I can do.
Quan [noting a photograph on the desk]: What if your wife and daughter were killed by bomb?
Liam: I’d do everything in my power to get justice.
Quan: So, I’ve chosen you, Mr. Hennessy. You will tell me who killed my child.
Liam: Again, I don’t know.
Quan: You will change your mind.

Liam [on the phone]: You come to my office and plant a fucking bomb?!
Quan: Have you changed your mind?
Liam: Changed my mind? Are you out of your fuckin’ tree? You have no idea who you’re dealing with, but you’ll soon find out.
Quan: Give me the names.

Kate [on the phone]: I hear your office was bombed.
Liam: Hardly. It was the toilet in the hall. An Asian man in his 60s with a grudge. It’s all being taken care of.
Kate: Why’d he do it?
Liam: His child died in the bank bombing. He thinks I know who did it.
Kate: He’s not the only one of that mind.

Hugh: Christ, Liam, so, the committee knows it’s my Semtex? Don’t know who we can trust anymore. Do we?
Liam: Trust, or fear?

Liam: What’re you trying to say?
Hugh: The bombing. A few quiet words of encouragement would soothe the ranks.
Liam: “Encouragement”? They kill civilians by the buckets.
Hugh: They went a bit far, I know, but they have given us real momentum. The Brits are on the ropes.
Liam: Jesus Christ, I said hit a few financial targets. That’s it. No one gets hurt. That’s what we agreed to. You gave me your word.
Hugh: And by God, I kept it. I don’t know who they are, don’t even know who’s controlling ‘em. And that’s the way it has to be. Because if something goes wrong, they could trace ‘em straight back to us.
Liam: Go wrong? This wasn’t the fuckin’ plan. I needed this to get our people back. You and I have spent our whole lifetime…
Hugh: You don’t give a shit about those men! You needed the bombing to shore up the election, to prop up your weakness in the ranks. Well, guess what? In the fog o’ war, plans fuckin’ change.

Hugh: You haven’t forgotten what we’re fighting for, have you?
Liam: You question my loyalty? I buried my brother-in-law, before that, my da and my two cousins. We spilt our fair share of blood struggling for united Ireland, not profiting off a divided one. So, don’t fucking go asking me again if I’ve forgotten what we’re fighting for.
Hugh: If there’s anyone profiteering around here, it’s you, sitting in your fancy houses, cozying up to the Brits. You’re not the Liam I once knew.
Liam: You want the old me, huh? The Butcher of the Bogside, is that what you want? Well then, hear this. You reel in those fuckin’ cunts and end it, or by God, I’ll bury the lot of yas.

Liam: You killed my dog?
Quan: Dog’s fine. Just sleeping.

Quan: The explosives the bombers use, it’s Semtex-H?
Liam: Yes. Yes. You know about Semtex?
Quan: I know Semtex-H. During the war, Czechs make for the Viet Cong. Good for bombs and traps.
Liam: In Vietnam?
Quan: Yes. Many American people died by Semtex-H. Now, IRA use to kill my daughter. That’s ironic.

Liam: I’ve read your history. We both know about war. We’ve both tried to put it behind us. You and me, we’re alike.
Quan: We are nothing alike! You’re nothing! You kill women and children! Names!

Kate: A bus now. For God’s sake, 16 dead, twice that injured.
Liam: I’m sorry. I had a plan to nail the bastards. Didn’t work.
Kate: I’ve just come from Downing Street. The PM will consider the pardons, but only if you give up the bombers immediately.
Liam: And how in God’s name do I do that?
Kate: Find a way! Plans are afoot to put the paratroops back on your streets in 48 hours.
Liam: Belfast will erupt! You’ll give the bombers exactly what they want! [/b]

This is basically a snapshot of just how murky these things can become. Everyone has their own personal agenda. Their own political axe to grind.

[b]Liam: A London bus, for Christ sake! Not even fuckin’ warnings! Sixteen dead! You stabbed me in the back and sanctioned this bloodbath to get your war back on.
Hugh: The plan had no balls. This wasn’t a Bombing Light campaign. You said hurt 'em, and hurt 'em, we did.
Liam: By killing women and children? You can’t restrain yourself. You never could. Well, it’s over. Their names, aliases, and location!

Hugh [to Liam]: You used me. You wanted the pardons for your own political gain. You’re a disgrace to the cause!

Liam: All I wanna know is, what was discussed when your sweet Aunt Mary was with you? Did she say she was involved with McGrath and the bombers?
Sean: No. Never. She was upset about her brother and kept on about that. When you and I were talking about the code word, she asked about 'em, but she never let on about McGrath.
Liam: Oh, so, she could hear us on the phone?
Sean: No, it was only after our call she mentioned the code word. She thought they wouldn’t be of use.
Liam: So, she steered the conversation?
Sean: Well, yes, I guess she did.
Liam: A good manipulator, she is. So, she told the bombers? She told McGrath, McGrath told them. Thick as thieves, they were. She tricked the information out of you, Sean. She used you.[/b]

You can never really know what the true motivation and intention of someone is in situations like this.

[b]Joker: She said a gas man turned up with an assault gun, a Chinaman. Started shooting, killed everyone but her, and then walked out the door.
Bromley: She said he was a Chinaman?
Joker: Affirmative. About 60 years old.

Kate [on the phone]: The bombers were neutralized, even Sara McKay, whom you called, “Maggie”. She gave a reporter the bomb that was to have been put on my flight. She also carried out the bus carnage, and is directly connected to you, and McGrath. We have call-pens going to and from her off the cell towers by your farm and town homes. That’s 250 precision locations and activations consistent with your mutual activities.
Liam: Katherine…
Kate: I’ve spoken to the PM. He’s agreed to keep you in office for now. I’m issuing pardons for five On-the-Runs, one is your cousin. But make no mistake, Deputy First Minister, you are ours now. I say “jump,” you say “where?”

Liam: How did you find me? I gave you the names, like I said.
Quan [showing him a cell phone photo of him with “Maggie”]: This woman, she’s a bomber. You lie. You plan everything.
Liam: For whatever it’s worth, I never intended to hurt your daughter. Or any of those people.
Quan: Send. Do it!
[Liam taps on the screen]
Quan: It’s now on the Internet, you and your mistress. The whole world will know you are a terrorist. Goodbye, Mr. Hennessy.[/b]

Jun-hee: Are you still searching for love?
Young-hee: Where’s love? It’s not even visible. You need to see it in order to search for it.

Love again. It comes in all shapes and sizes. But the shape of this one keeps popping up over and over and over again. Young and beautiful, Young-hee falls in love with an older, married man.

Really, what narrative could possibly be more played out in the cinema than this one? Yet another rendition of love and lust all tangled up in the shadows.

Only this time “art imitates life”. The director of the film, Hong Sang-soo, had a “real life” affair with Kim Min-hee, the actress who plays Young-hee in the movie. It’s their story turned into a performance for all the world to see. In fact, the affair was rather notorious in Korea. It “stirred up a media frenzy” at the time.

Having once had an affair with a married woman myself, I know of the many, many twists and turns you can become entangled in. Each context is one all its own. But there are any number of experiences that almost anyone involved in affairs become familiar with.

Then you go back and forth:

1] what would you have done?
2] what ought she have done instead?

This is basically a film in which the “action” revolves around a series of conversations between people who seem entirely preoccupied with themselves. The rest of the world is “out there” somewhere, but it never seems to matter. It’s always about what they are thinking and feeling. “Society”, with all its complex social, political and economic conflicts, never seem to factor in at all.

And then this seems to come up quite a lot: “Who knows?”

IMDb

Art imitates life in this quietly devastating masterpiece from Hong Sang-soo. Kim Min-hee (The Handmaiden, Claire’s Camera) in the role that won her the Silver Bear for best actress in Berlin-plays Young-hee, an actress reeling in the aftermath of an affair with a married film director. Young-hee visits Hamburg then returns to Korea, but as she meets with friends and has her fair share to drink, increasingly startling confessions emerge.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Be … ight_Alone
trailer: youtu.be/XdXE-MC9qwM

On the Beach at Night Alone [Bamui Haebyun-Eoseo Honja] 2017
Written and directed by Sang-soo Hong

[b]Young-hee: Should I live with you? Shall we?
Friend: Not sure about that.
Young-hee: Not sure? Why, don’t you want to?
Friend: No, it’s not that. I’m the kind of person who needs to live alone.
Young-hee: For 10 years you were happy with your husband.
Friend: Was I?

Friend: You said someone is coming.
Young-hee: I don’t know if he will. If he does, he does, if not, fine. I won’t wait. Let him come if he does. He knows where I am.
Friend: I don’t think he’ll come. You said he’s married.
Young-hee: So, he won’t come?
Friend: No. He’s married.
Young-hee: It didn’t stop your husband.
Friend: I’m different. I have no desire. No, that’s not true…but it’s weak.

Young-hee: You’re an odd person.
Friend: Am I? Sure, you have more desire.
Young-hee: More than you, I’m sure!

Friend: Why did you break up?
Young-hee: I guess I was hard to deal with. You know how direct I am.
Friend: Men have a hard time with that. You are quite direct.

Young-hee: Honesty is important.
Friend: Is it?

Young-hee: I don’t care about men’s looks anymore. It’s not important.
Friend: Really?
Young-hee: Good looking men are all vain.
Friend: You dated a lot of good looking men.
Young-hee: Yeah. I played around a lot.
Friend: Good for you. I never played around a lot. When will I get the chance?
Young-hee: Do whatever you like. Before you die, do everything.
Friend: I don’t know. I’m old now.
Young-hee: So, don’t waste your time.

Myung-soo: You should get married, have a kid before it is too late.
Young-hee: Me? I’ve got no man.
Myung-soo: Oh, really?
Young-hee: Yes. Men are all idiots.
Myung-soo [laughing]: Really? Idiots?
Young-hee: Yes, idiots.

Young-hee: If I’m going to die, do it graciously. That’s the feeling that came over me.
Jun-hee: How are the men there? Aren’t they better than the men here?
Myung-soo: Men are all the same.
Young-hee: They have nice bodies. And big down there.
Myung-soo. Wait, really?
Young-hee: Really big. No comparison.
Myung-soo: So…it’s really true.
Young-hee: They have nice bodies, but inside they’re all the same. Men all want the same thing…
Jun-hee: But did you really hold back?
Young-hee: I didn’t hold back. But if I meet men that way, I worry that later I’ll end up a strange, man-obsessed woman, like a monster. Die graciously!

Jun-hee: Are you still searching for love?
Young-hee: Where’s love? It’s not even visible. You need to see it in order to search for it…I don’t want to think about worthless things. I can just die anytime. I’d just like to fade away graciously…

Myung-soo: But isn’t it better to live? That’s why everyone keeps living. It’s not according to what you think, but just a will to live.
Young-hee [laughing]: Don’t pretend to be wise. Always floundering in thoughts.
Myung-soo: What, me?
Young-hee: You can’t love, so you cling to life, right? Because you can’t love, you take that at least.[/b]

Yeah, I’m thinking, pretty much.

Young-hee [more fiercely]: You’re not capable of love, or don’t deserve to be loved. But we all sing of love, Have you ever really seen a person qualified to love?
Friend: You need a qualification? Can’t we just love? Why get hung up on qualifications? So people with nothing, they aren’t allowed to love?
Young-hee [snorting]: If you don’t know anything, keep your mouth shut.
Myung-soo: Young-hee’s drunk.
Friend: Keep my mouth shut? You shouldn’t speak that way.
Young-hee: Keep your mouth shut! None of you are qualified!! Everyone’s cowardly, satisfied with fake things, and engaging in dirty acts. You’re all happy living that way. You’re not qualified to love!

Well, I know that I’m not.

Jun-hee: I’m not qualified to love, but I will.
Young-hee: Oh, no, you can love. Let’s get rid of all men, and love each other…I want to kiss you.

Cue Young-hee’s dream.

[b]Young-hee: I’ll have to take anything later. If no scripts come.
Sang-won: Why wouldn’t you receive scripts?
Young-hee: I think you know the reason. I’m a bomb, a bomb!
Sang-won: What do you mean, a bomb?
Young-hee: I’ve got a destructive side.
Sang-won: No, you don’t.
Young-hee: I’m destructive!! I harass people and destroy everything!
Sang-won: It seems she’s having a tough day today.
Young-hee: No, I’m like this every day. Thank you, Director.
Sang-won: Why all of a sudden?
Young-hee: Just for everything. You loved me so much! So I’m thankful.
Sang-won: It was because you were so pretty.
Young-hee: I’m pretty? I’m really pretty? Am I prettier than Mari here? The script girl is also pretty. Why so many pretty women around you?

Young-hee: Why do you make these films?! Why make it about someone you loved? Trying to lessen your torment?
Sang-won: My torment?
[long pause]
Sang-won: Perhaps.
Young-hee: Are you tomented?!
Sang-won: Yes, a bit. I haven’t been normal since then.
Young-hee: No? You seem normal. Even shooting films.
Sang-won [angrily]: I make films but I’m not normal! I’ve been turning into a monster…so I’m trying to cast that off. I need to cast off my regrets.
Young-hee: You regret it? Do you really regret it?
Sang-won: Yes, I regret it. I constantly regret it. Every day, so much it makes me sick.
Young-hee: Don’t regret it. Regretting it changes nothing.
Sang-won: What if I can’t stop regretting? This pain, this constant regret. You think I want this? Still…with time it turns sweet, so I don’t want to go back. I just want to die with my regret. I can’t breathe…
[he breaks down in tears]

Sang-won [reading from a book]: “When you love, you must, in your reasoning about that love, start from what is highest, from what is more important than happiness or unhappiness, or that sin or virtue in their accepted meaning, otherwise you must not reason at all.”[/b]

To obey or to disobey, that is the question.

Human faith and human sexuality. Every religious denomination has its own unique catechism here. Lines are drawn between vice and virtue. Then the obeyers and disobeyers. Those things you can do and those things you cannot. But it always depends on the particular religious community that you belong to. Not only in terms of what is deemed to be good and what is deemed to be bad, but also in terms of how stringent the church hierarchy is in enforcing transgressions.

Here it is an Orthodox Jewish community and, among other things, there are strictures revolving around homosexuality. The parts that are discussed here: myjewishlearning.com/articl … tq-issues/

Ronit had once been shunned by her community for having a sexual attraction to Esti, her childhood friend. Now, years later, with the death of her father, she is back in the community. The attraction is reignited. And that means grappling anew with all the ambiguities embedded in that age old tug of war between human sexuality and religious faith.

So, there’s the part that involves all the reactions from others in the community on this side of the grave and, ultimately, what one imagines the reaction of God will be on the other side of it.

It would seem clear that throughtout human history there has always been a combustible relationship between sex and God. And, the more conservative the community, the more combustible that was likely to be. Sex brings us closer to the part where human beings are really just one more species of animal on the planet. And fucking is always going to have that beastly element embedded in it. How then to reconcile that with the Lord? A God that is said to “see all”.

With God and religion, the struggle and the anguish does not revolve as much around what is good and what is bad, as it does around whether to or not to obey what you have been told [since childhood] is the right thing and the wrong thing to do. The part about consequences on this side of the grave…and then consequences on the other side.

So, how realistic is all of this? How realistic is the ending? Well, not being a member of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community myself, I don’t have a clue. For me the choices that we make are derived from an entirely different set of assumptions.

Still, if there does exist an actual God of the Jews, what does He think about it?

May you live a long [obedient] life.

IMDb

[b]Rachel Weisz said, [about costar Rachel McAdams] “We really had each other’s backs and that’s a form of love, I guess. I couldn’t have done this with anyone else.”

Director Sebastián Lelio on how he remembers his first encounters with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams: “The first day with both was a milestone. I was nervous because, deep down, I did not know if there was going to be chemistry between them. I was at the end of a restaurant talking to Rachel McAdams and from afar I see Rachel Weisz walking. She sits down and they start talking. Immediately I realized that there was going to be tremendous electricity between them. The fact that they were so different was going to work perfect for the game of attraction and magnetism that the movie demanded. From my perspective, seeing them both was a sort of epiphany. I saw there was a movie, it was going to be vibrant and urgent. I realized that it was going to be tremendously powerful to watch the acting duel between them.”

Director Sebastián Lelio on how different Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams are: “The first sensation I had when working with Rachel Weisz was that I was facing a force of nature, someone of volcanic personality. On the other hand, Rachel McAdams is very meticulous. She studies a lot and is something like an expert in disguise, hiding behind the wig and makeup. It seems to me that, in the end, [McAdams] handled all the complexities of her character with an unique elegance. They are very different and fit right into the characters, who are complementary and counterparts at the same time.” [/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt6108178/tr … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disobedience_(2017_film
trailer youtu.be/HEVonh8bjC0

Disobedience 2017
Written in part and directed by Sebastián Lelio

Rav Krushka: In the beginning, Hashem made three types of creatures, the angels, the beasts, and the human beings. The angels, He made from His pure word. The angels have no will to do evil. They cannot deviate for one moment from His purpose. The beasts have only their instincts to guide them. They, too, follow the commands of their maker. The Torah states that Hashem spent almost six whole days of creation fashioning these creatures. Then, just before sunset, He took a small quantity of earth and from it He fashioned man and woman. An afterthought? Or His crowning achievement? So, what is this thing? Man? Woman? It is a being with the power to disobey. Alone among all the creatures we have free will. We hang suspended between the clarity of the angels and the desires of the beasts. Hashem gave us choice, which is both a privilege and a burden. We must then choose the tangled life we live.

Literally some insist. Not so much insist others.

[b]Dovid: So you came to…to mourn the Rav.
Ronit: Why else would I be here?

Ronit: So who is Mrs. Dovid Kuperman, Esti? Do we approve?

Ronit: You’re married.
Dovid: Yes. Yes we are, Ronit.
Ronit: Nobody told me. Why didn’t you let me know?
Esti: You disappeared.

Ronit: My father just died.
Dovid: I know. I know, I was there.
Ronit: Well, at least you let me know he was dead.
Dovid: It’s important that this week is conducted with honor.
Ronit: Honor?
Dovid: It’s the most important thing.
Ronit: Of course it is.

Fruma: And you’re not married. You must find someone, Ronit. It’s not funny growing old alone.
Ronit: Oh, well I’m rarely alone. I’ve got wonderful friends.
Fruma: I expect you have lots of fun. But that will pass. But being married, well, that’s the way it should be.
Ronit: Oh, is it? The way it should be? Or is it just institutional obligation?
Uncle Hartog: Now, Ronit, stop right there.
Ronit: I mean, Uncle, let’s just say I stayed here for one more year. Let’s think about this, okay, right? I would be married off to whoever and then, after ten years in some loveless marriage I might have ended up killing myself. Or I would’ve felt like killing myself.

Ronit: I’m not gonna go to the Hesped.
Esti: What?
Ronit: There’s no point in my being here. I’m gonna change my ticket.
Esti: But…

Ronit [to Esti but more to herself]: So, all my father did all day, was stay in here and read the Torah and the commentaries on the Torah and the notes on the commentaries - and the debates on the notes.

Esti [after they kiss]: It was me who rang the shul in New York to let you know.
Ronit: I’m just gonna get some air.

Ronit: Why did you get married, Esti? Why didn’t you just leave?
Esti: Do you remember what the Rav used to say about marriage?
Ronit: No.
Esti: You do. “Will you grow old alone?” “Will you grow old with no family, no joys?” “Dovid is a good boy. He…he has a generous heart, and he’s crazy about you. Marry him.”

Esti: The Rav was afraid for me, and if I had to sleep with a man, why not with our best friend?
Ronit: Oh, Esti…
Esti: I think, I think he felt that marriage would cure me. It hasn’t been a complete disaster.
Ronit: And that’s enough? Do you have to have sex every Friday?
Esti: It’s expected.
Ronit: It’s medieval.
Esti: It’s not mandatory. Nobody gets beaten if they don’t feel like it.

Ronit: What happened to you?
Esti: Nothing. You happened to me. And then I started teaching and that became important.
Ronit: You can teach anywhere.
Esti: I really love the girls. And I give them ambition.
Ronit: To do what? Push out seven babies and be a good wife?
Esti: Don’t. Don’t. I’m a good teacher. And I help them to value themselves.
Ronit: Okay, but what about you?
Esti: That is me.

Ronit: Esti? What’s happened? Are you all right?
Esti [walking hurriedly down the street]: Not here.

Esti: Yesterday, I behaved like an adolescent. So stupid and so senseless.
Ronit: Did someone say something?
Esti: Yes! Yes! And I live here.
Ronit: Tell me, what did they say?
Esti: The headmistress, she…It doesn’t matter. I…we need to stop this.
Ronit: Okay. Okay. Okay.
Esti: I can’t do this. I can’t.
Ronit: Okay.

Esti: We try here. We try to lead a good life.
Ronit: I know. I know.
Esti: And I do believe profoundly. The word of Hashem is my life.

Esti [to Ronit after they have had sex]: I used to think about your life in New York. Mmm. I tried to imagine your room. I kept track of the time difference. So I knew when you were awake and when you were asleep.

Ronit: What?
Esti: I was just thinking of the Rav walking in on us.
Ronit: Oh, don’t.
Esti: His face. What did he say? “Hashem, strike me dead!”

Dovid: Mrs. Shapiro made a formal complaint about you and Ronit.
Esti: What? She came to you?
Dovid: Yes. Tell me the truth.
Esti: I, uh… I kissed Ronit.
Dovid: You kissed her?
Esti: I’m sorry.
Dovid [angrily, grabbing her]: Esti! What are you doing to us?
Esti: I’ve tried! -I have!
Dovid: What do you want? You want to be hurt again? Has Ronit asked you to go back with her?
Esti: Oh, Dovid!
Dovid: She’ll go back to her friends. Her men. What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you? I mean, what is it? Just tell me.
Esti: Can I? Can I?
Dovid: Yes. We’ve always been honest with each other.
Esti: Have we?
Dovid: We have. Yes.
Esti: Have we? I got the message to Ronit about her father. I wanted her to come back.
Dovid: No.
Esti: Yes. Yes, I did.
Dovid: No, you didn’t. She’s taking advantage of you.
Esti: Look at me.
Dovid [shouting]]: You can’t even see it, you’re blind!
Esti [fiercely]: No, no one’s taking advantage.
Dovit: You’re blind!
Esti: No! Look at me! I wanted it to happen. And when we were girls…even then, it was the same. It’s always been this way!

Ronit: I think you should leave him.
Esti: Really? And where would I go?

Ronit: I booked a flight. I’ll be leaving tonight.
Esti [startled]: What?
Dovid: Oh. That’s good. That’s good.
Ronit: I hope the Hesped goes well.
Dovid: Now it will.

Dovid: What about you? What will you be doing?
Esti: Uh, I don’t know.
Dovid: Try. Try to explain it to me.
Esti: I can’t.

Esti: It’s easier to leave, isn’t it?
Ronit [after a pause]: No, it isn’t.

Ronit [on the phone]: Hello? Dovid? No. No, she’s not with me. When did you last see her? Well, she’ll be back, Dovid, don’t worry.

Dovid: I wish she’d never contacted you.
Ronit: Well, I’m glad that she did the right thing. My father died. You weren’t even going to let me know.
Dovid: Can you see why I didn’t? I was protecting my wife. Dovid…
[Esti walks toward them]
Esti: I want you to give me my freedom.
Dovid: Esti, come here. I was terrified.
Esti: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to worry. I’m pregnant.
Dovid: A child. Hashem is looking over us.
Esti: I don’t think we should be together anymore.
Dovid: It’s His wish.
Esti: No. I was born into this community. I had no choice. I want my child to be free to decide.
Dovid: We’ve waited so long for this.
Esti: Please give me my freedom.
Dovid: No, no, no…
Ronit: Dovid, you can’t…
Dovid [sharply]: Stay out of it!
Ronit: I’m sorry. I can’t.

Ronit [to Esti at the Hesped]: Why don’t you come to New York? Why don’t you just come to New York and be with me?

Dovid [at the Hesped]: Rav Krushka often spoke about the duty of the teacher. The duty…I’m sorry, I can’t…The Rav’s only child, Ronit Krushka, is here with us today. The Rav’s final words to us…Why did he choose to discuss the idea of choice? And freedom. There’s nothing so tender or truthful as the true feeling of being free. Hmm? Free to choose. The Rav was a giant of Torah. But it wasn’t a giant we saw collapse that day. It was a man. He talked of the angels and of the desires of the beasts. And with his final words, he reminded us of this. We are free to choose!
[he looks up at Esti]
Dovid: You are free.
[and then to all of the others]
Dovid: I cannot accept the honor or position that is offered to me. I do not have sufficient understanding. Please forgive me.

Ronit: You will be a brilliant mother. You’re going to be brave and beautiful. I love you. I love you. Will you tell me where you are?
Esti: Yes. I will.

Ronit [to the cabdriver]: Excuse me? Do you mind if we make a small detour?[/b]

It can get tricky when you have kids. For example, there is how you want to raise them and there is how “society” or “the state” interjects from time to time with its laws. What are you permitted to do as a parent? What are you not permitted to do as a parent? What are you required to do as a parent?

So: Is it reasonable [or moral] to yank a child out of society and live “off the grid”? To be isolated from the rest of the world? Is that a “healthy” life for a teenager?

And what if the parent suffers from PTSD? How far is this parent permitted to go in order to escape what he [and many others] construe to be our postmodern, rat race hell hole. How far back to nature is enough?

Is there still room at all for idealism in a world that is becoming increasingly more cynical about what constitutes the “good life”.

Bottom line: If you and your child see the life that you have chosen as “idyllic”, is that as far as it need go? And it’s not that the daughter is unaware of how the rest of us live. She takes trips into Portland with her father. It’s that she simply prefers the life she lives with her father.

But then the part where one “tiny mistake” brings the whole thing crashing down. Everything changes and their thoughts and their feelings and their behaviors must reconfigure in order to deal with it.

For most of us, it is not possible to sustain a relationship that revolves entirely around the two of you. There are just too many others around who need to be taken into account. And too many possibilities for “contingency, chance and change” to push and to pull you in different directions.

How good is this film? Well, if the critics have anything to say about it, very, very good. It got a 100% Fresh rating at RT, on 195 reviews: rottentomatoes.com/m/leave_no_trace/

IMDb

[b]Once Ben Foster had signed onto the film, he and Debra Granik worked together to remove around 40% of the dialogue. This was to make the film have less exposition and feel more realistic.

In preparation for the film Ben Foster got training from a professional which included gaining wilderness appreciation, survival techniques, learning the basic fundamentals of water catchment and gray man technique which is how to disappear in public, or more importantly, how to disappear in plain sight.

According to Ben Foster, the film is as much about saying goodbye to your child or to a parent, how you do that lovingly and how you let someone go. [/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt3892172/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_No_Trace_(film
trailer: youtu.be/_07ktacEGo8

Leave No Trace [2018]
Written in part and directed by Debra Granik

[b]Tom [daughter, short for Thomasin]: Dad, this wood is really good for feathering.
Will [father]: It’s really nice work.

Tom [watching her father trying fruitlessly to start a fire]: Dad, it’s been really damp…Dad. It’s okay. We can use the propane.
Will: Don’t waste it. We’re low.
Tom: I’m hungry.

Tom [after her father hears a chain saw revving in the distance]: It’s okay. It’s a work crew. I saw them earlier. They’re down by the pathways.
Will: Drill!

Man living in woods: “If you are a veteran who takes benzyls for PTSD, here is what you need to know.” You sell them to me. Xannies. Prazosin. When was the last time that stopped a nightmare? They’re all pretty much useless anyway. I haven’t taken them in two years, seven months, and 28 days. Can you play your doctor any harder?
Will: I don’t want to get flagged.
Man: At first they’re handing them out like candy. Then they pull the leash on us. Well… Anything you get, bring it to me, I’ll take it off your hands.[/b]

This is how he gains access to cash.

[b]Will [to Tom after hearing a barking dog and men approaching]: This is not a drill.

Police: Stand up. Hands on the back of your head. Don’t move. Anything on you that’s gonna hurt me?
Will: Just the knives.
Police: You alone out here?
Will: My daughter is with me. Tom, come out. Tom, come out!

Jean: Can you tell me where you live? In the park? Just walk down here to me. Okay?
Tom: I want to go with my dad. Please. I want to go with my dad.
Jean: I know you do.
Tom: Please. I want to go with my dad!
Jean: And you may be able to go with your dad. But right now we need to ask you some questions.

Jean: I want you to tell me a little bit about your dad. Does he drink or take pills or anything that makes him act strange? Does he have weapons here? Anything that might hurt somebody?
Tom: No.
Jean: Does he hide things?
Tom: This is where we keep our tools and important papers.

Girl: So, what are you doing here?
Tom: I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, so they took me away. Well, they don’t think I was where I was supposed to be.
Girl: Okay. Where were you?
Tom: With my dad in the park.
Girl: So you’re homeless then?
Tom: No.
Girl: Why else would you be living in the woods? If you had a home, they wouldn’t have brought you here.
Tom: They just don’t understand that it was my home.

Tiffany: Where is your dad now?
Tom: I think he’s somewhere in this building. He’s gonna come get me.
Girl: Tiffany, know anyone whose parents come for them?
Tiffany: No.
Girl: Me neither.

Jean: We don’t have any record of you going to school. Who taught you how to read?
Tom: My dad teaches me.
Jean: You’re actually quite a bit ahead of where you need to be, but school is about social skills too, not just intellectual ones.
Tom: Can I see my dad now?

Psychologist: Respond true-false to each question. It’s voice-activated, so you just say it right into the microphone. There’s 435 questions. If you can’t answer something you got three seconds, it’ll beep and move on to the next statement.
Female computerized voice: Welcome. The test will begin in three seconds. I wake up rested and peaceful most mornings.
Will: True.
Voice: I enjoy reading articles on crime.
Will: False.
Voice: My day-to-day life is full of things that keep me interested.
Will: True.
Voice: I have nightmares or troubling dreams.
the machine beeps
Voice: I think about things that are too bad to talk about.
the machine beeps
Voice: Things aren’t turning out like the prophets said they would.
the machine beeps
Voice: It seems like no one understands me.
Will: False.[/b]

Of course these are the sort of questions that if you’re smart enough you answer them in the way in which you think the authorities would want you to. Will stumbles here. He’s got this thing about being truthful.

[b]Jean: Do you feel safe living with your dad?
Tom: Yes.
Jean: I saw that the two of you share a tent. This ever made you feel uncomfortable?
Tom: No. - It’s warmer with two people at night.
Jean: Has anybody ever touched your body without your permission?
Tom: No.

Tom: We didn’t need to be rescued.
Jean: Your dad needs to provide you shelter and a place to live.
Tom: He did. He does.

Official: In finding placement for you and Tom, we’ve considered what kind of support will be most helpful for the both of you.
Will: We’d like to go back to the way we were living.
Official: We have found an option. It’s not the park. Um, it’s kind of a special accommodation. It’s pretty isolated. There would be no rules or regulations saying you can’t live here because someone is saying you can.

Tom [after they have been “relocated”]: Everything’s different now.
Will: We can still think our own thoughts.

Will: They said a person saw you, and that’s how they found our camp.
Tom: I saw a person, but I didn’t think they saw me. It was a mistake.
Will: Why didn’t you say something?
Tom: I was afraid. I didn’t want to leave our camp. It was such a good one.
Will: Yeah. But we stayed there too long.

Tom: Dad. God created frogs.
Will: Says who?
Tom: This pamphlet. “Considering membership? There are many ways to participate… music, devotional dance, carpentry, camp prayer group, rock and roll, social media.” Is that why we went?
Will: We went because Walters asked us to. You dress up, show up on Sunday, people will believe certain things about you.
Tom: Then they don’t ask so many questions about our lives? Our lives before.

Tom: If we had a phone, I could have called you.
Will: Always been able to communicate without all that.
Tom: I think it might be easier on us if we try to adapt.
Will: We’re wearing their clothes. We’re in their house. We’re eating their food. We’re doing their work. We have adapted. The only place we can’t be seen is in this house.
Tom: We can still think our own thoughts. Like you said.

Tom: What if the kids at school think I’m strange 'cause of the way we were living?
Will: How important are their judgments?
Tom: Guess I’ll find out.

Jean: I wanted to drop off some paperwork for you. Um, here is the date for your appointment with housing. And I thought you could use a phone.
[Will shakes his head]
Jean: It’s important for you to follow through so you guys can remain independent. Do you understand?[/b]

No irony intended.

[b] Will [to Tom]: Pack your things. Don’t take anything you don’t need.

Tom [after they are back in the forest]: I liked it there. Did you even try?
Will: I did.
Tom: Huh? Dad, did you? 'Cause I can’t tell.
Will: They were gonna separate us if we didn’t follow their rules.
Tom: Won’t they notice we’re gone?
Will: If we’re lucky, not till tomorrow.

Man [living in the park]: What are you doing here? Did you bring them with you? Since you two got burned, rangers are here all the time.
[a bulldozer destroys the camp]
Man: Stop!

Tom [to Will after they had hopped a train]: Why are we doing this? Dad, we shouldn’t be here.

Will: What did that woman on the bus ask you?
Tom: Nothing. She barely even noticed me. She was doing her own thing.
[Will says nothing]
Tom: Dad, this isn’t the way we used to be.
Will: Have some.
Tom: You hearing me?
Will: Drink it.

Tom: It’s cold.
Will: We’re at a higher altitude.
Tom: My fingers are stiff. You said there’d be some cabins. I really thought there would be.

Tom: Dad, are we gonna freeze in our sleep?
Will: No, Tom.
Tom: How do you know?

Tom: Do you miss the things we had at the farm?
Will: Do you? They were really never our things.

Dale [after Will injures himself in the forest]: Blane was a medic in the army, so he’s in good hands. Was your dad in the service?
Tom: He was.
Dale: What happened out there?
Tom: We got lost.
Dale: Where were you guys headed?
Tom: I don’t think we knew where we were going.
Dale: Where do you live? Where’s your home?
Tom: With my dad.

Dale: Tom, if your dad is messed up with something or running from someone, I really need you to tell me, 'cause folks around here aren’t looking to get mixed up in any trouble.
Tom: It’s not that kind of trouble.

Tom: Have you ever seen inside a hive before? It’s cool, huh? You put your hand over it. You can feel the warmth of the hive. A person can withstand 500 stings. Close your eyes. Open.
[bees are crawling all over her hands]
Tom: See, you don’t need to be scared.

Tom: I want to tell you something.
Will: Please do.
Tom: I paid for this place, so we can stay here.
Will: Yeah, that was the right thing to do.
Tom [realizing he doesn’t understand]: I rented this place so that we can live here.
[Tom doesn’t respond]

Tom [seeing Will with his backpack]: What are you doing? Dad, your…your leg isn’t even healed all the way. And it won’t. It won’t heal right. I don’t want to leave. Last time you almost died. And you would have if I hadn’t found you.
Will: That will never happen again.
Tom: These people, they’re not that different from us.
Will: Yes, they’ve been very good to us, but we have to…
Tom: You! You need. Not me. The same thing that’s wrong with you isn’t wrong with me.
Will: I know.

Tom [once again back in the forest alone with Will]: Dad…
[a long pause]
Tom: I know you would stay if you could.

Tom [to the dog that was with them in the RV camp]: He had to go…[/b]