philosophy in film

On one thing both the critics and the general viewing audience are in agreement: this is not a good movie. Probably even a bad movie. Although here the general public was more favorably inclined [6.6 at IMDb] than the critics [42% at RT].

And I basically agree with the critics. It was frustrating to watch.

Analogous perhaps to being blown away by the lyrics of a song in which the music is rather, well, bland.

The characters [and the plot] basically come off as “contraptions” that exist mostly to allow Woody Allen to probe [yet again] the usual philosophical themes that pervade his films.

Here’s the thing though: They are basically my own philosophical themes as well.

So that’s why you are reading this. And that’s why I included the film on this thread.

Meet Abe: A philosophy professor.

This kind:

Since he has become aware of his inability to change the world, he has…been living in a state of deep nihilism and arrogant desperation.

Remind you of anyone? Indeed, according to Abe, “…there’s a difference between a theoretical world of philosophy bullshit and real life, you know? Real, nasty, ugly life that includes greed and hate and genocide. Remember if you learn nothing from me you learn that much of philosophy is verbal masturbation.”

Also [my own personal favorite]: Abe: “…it’s very scary when you run out of distractions.”

But then in the end it comes down to this: Will Abe [Woody] blink?

Oh yeah.

Or does he?

IMDb

[b]Joaquin Phoenix gained 33 pounds for the role on his own, because he thought the character would look like that.

The title is a slight reference for a George Bernard Shaw’s famous quote: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. All progress depends on the unreasonable man”.

The film is partially a modern-day re-telling of Dostoevsky’s famous 19th century novel ‘Crime and Punishment’, about a university student named Raskolnikov who, deeply troubled by the fact that he can’t change the world like Napoleon Bonaparte, decides to murder a pawnbroker to prove that he is morally superior to other people. He justifies this murder by telling himself (and eventually others) that he did it to rid the world of a vile woman whose death would make the world a better place. This is strikingly similar to the plot of ‘Irrational Man’, where the protagonist Abe - a university teacher - murders a judge, justifying it by saying it was helping a woman in need, but really he did it to satisfy his own ideals. Both Abe and Raskolnikov take a dark satisfaction in partially revealing their role in the murder (Raskolnikov taunts a fellow university student about who committed the murder, and Abe has fun guessing how the killer did it at a dinner). In both stories, a young woman (Sonya in ‘Crime and Punishment’ and Jill in ‘Irrational Man’) urges the man to turn himself into the police when an innocent man is wrongly accused of the murder. Woody Allen’s appreciation of the source material is evident in two scenes, the first being when Abe comments about how “Dostoevsky got it right” in relation to his ideas about human existence, and more directly when Jill finds a copy of ‘Crime and Punishment’ open on Abe’s desk. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_Man_%28film%29
trailer: youtu.be/ZvOnxL2pKbI

IRRATIONAL MAN [2015]
Written and directed by Woody Allen

[b]Abe [voiceover]: Kant said human reason is troubled by questions that it cannot dismiss, but also cannot answer. Okay, so what are we talking about here? Morality? Choice? The randomness of life? Aesthetics? Murder?

…

Jill [voiceover]: I think Abe was crazy from the beginning. Was it from stress? Was it anger? Was he disgusted by what he saw as life’s never-ending suffering? Or was he simply bored by the meaningless of day-to-day existence?[/b]

And here we are…the difference between Irrational Man and, say, Crimes and Misdemeanors. In the later the philosophy was ingeniusly intertwined in the plot itself. It all seemed entirely plausable. Here the plot just seems hokey, contrived.

[b]Abe [voiceover]: Where to begin…You know the existentialists feel that nothing really happens until you hit absolute rock bottom. Well, lets just say that when I went to teach at Braylin College, emotionally, I was at Zabriske Point.

…

Rita [to Abe]: Hey, if you’re ever bored and you want someone to give you the real lowdown on who’s fucking who at this college, just let me know.

…

Abe [to the class]: So, Kant would artgue that in a truly moral world, there’s absolutely no room for lying. Even the smallest lie destroys his precious categorical imperative. So, Kant would say that if a killer came to your house, looking to kill the man hiding upstairs and asked where he was, you’d be obliged to tell him. In his perfect world, you know, you couldn’t lie.
Student: Yeah, I can see the logic that if you open the door, even just a crack, you accept a world where lying is permitted.
Abe: Okay, then, you’d say if the Nazis came to your house hiding Anne Frank and her family, and asked if anyone was in the attic, you’d say, “Ja, the Franks are upstairs”. I doubt it. Because there’s a difference between a theoretical world of philosophy bullshit and real life, you know? Real, nasty, ugly life that includes greed and hate and genocide. Remember if you learn nothing from me you learn that much of philosophy is verbal masturbation.

…

Abe [to the class]: Okay, Kierkegaard. When making everyday decisions we have absolute freedom of choice. You can do nothing or anything. And this feeling of freedom creates a sense of dread. A dizzy feeling. Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.[/b]

Or as some might point out: To molest or not to molest your own daughter.

[b]Rita: The students all love you but of course you’ve raised some eyebrows with the faculty.
Abe: Do you ever get discouraged teaching?
Ritas: No.
Abe: You don’t ever ask yourself what the hell it’s all about? Another school. Another batch of kids. Sweet kids. Average kids. Nice, but mostly mediocre. They’ll grow up to be those people who shape the world with their ignorance or misinformation or passivity…

…

Jill [who is young and beautiful and able to attend a top notch university]: I found your view of existence too bleak for me. It was like there were no redeeming joys or pleasures.
Abe: Okay. Why are you taking philosophy? What do you want out of it? Because if your goal is to try to figure out what this bullshit’s all about, forget it.
Jill: But you write books, you write papers…
Abe: Well, let me tell you, when I look back at all that verbal posturing, my group thought that we were going to be so special. I marched in every bullshit political demonstration. I spent six months in Darfur getting food to starving families, I wind up with meningitis. I was in Bangladesh. Yeah, you know, you want to see a difference, to save the world. But when you see what you are up against…

…

Jill [on Abe’s reputation as a womanizer given Simone de Beuavoir’s narrative]: Do you find that fulfilling? Many women and one-night stands?
Abe: I did at the time. It had a certain frantic quality. One day it stopped being exciting. I couldn’t find distraction anymore in that usually reliable painkiller, the orgasm.
Jill: Why not?
Abe: I couldn’t remember the reason for living, and when I did it wasn’t convincing.
Jill: That sounds scary.
Abe: It’s very scary when you run out of distractions.

…

Rita: What have you been doing?
Abe: I’m trying to finish this book I started long ago.
Rita: What’s it about?
Abe: About Heidegger and fascism. Just what the world needs. Another book about Heidegger and fascism.
Rita: How’s it coming?
Abe: Um, I’m blocked, I can’t write.
Rita: Why?
Abe: I can’t write 'cause I can’t breathe.
Rita: What would get you breathing again?
Abe: The will to breathe, inspiration.
Rita: You need a muse.
Abe: I’ve never needed a muse before.
Rita: I hope you’re not going to send me back out into the rain after sleeping with me.
Abe: I’m trying to write. [/b]

Actually, it turns out he’s impotent. Existentially as it were…

Jill [voiceover]: The truth was I was attracted to Abe. Despite, or was it because, he was a lost soul. There was something about his pain and sensitivity that tapped into my romantic fantasies. It was exciting going to museums and seeing movies with him. He was truly an original thinker. The problem was he had no zest for life, no joy, no clear reason for living, which alarmed me. I wanted so much to help him…

And [basically] this is what the critics were reacting to.

Abe: I’ve given up. It’s all bullshit. You know, my bullshit book on Martin Heidegger is not gonna make a scintilla of difference to the world.
Jill: Why do you say things like that? How do you know that?
Abe: I set out to be an active world changer and I’ve wound up a passive intellectual who can’t fuck.

First Rita, now Jill…?

Jill: Despair is what Kierkegaard called the sickness unto death, Abe. And you suffer from despair.
Abe: I’m well aware of what Kierkegaard thought. But he was, in the end, a Christian. How comforting that would be.

Then comes that conversation overheard in the diner. The ones that sets a murder into motion.

[b]Abe [voiceover]: Everything about killing Judge Spangler turned me on. The idea of helping this woman, of taking action, of ridding the world of the kind of vermin that makes the world an extra hell for all of us. I was intrigued by the creative challenge of bringing off the perfect murder. It was a high-stakes risk, but the risk made me feel alive.

Student: Why continental philosophy?
Abe: Because, you know, continental philosophy deals with problems much more exciting and personal than the analytic tradition. You know, the existentialist philosophers were trying to find out not just what does something mean, but what does it mean for me?

For one thing [it turns out] it means he can rationalize a murder.

[b]Abe [celebrating Judge Spangler’s death with Jill]: Life’s ironic isn’t it? One day a person has a morass of complicated, unsolvable problems, you know the world seems black, and her troubles seem overwhelming, then in the batting of an eye, dark clouds part and she can enjoy a decent life again. It’s just astounding.

…

Abe [voiceover]: My writing was flowing, the creative juices unblocked. I was happy and enjoying a sense of well-being, and I’d begun an affair with Jill…and it was carried along on the momentum of the sheer joy of living. The thought that I had once been indifferent to existence seemed preposterous.

…

Abe [voiceover]: I’m Abe Lucas and I’ve murdered. I’ve had many experiences and now a unique one. I’ve taken a human life. Not in battle or self defense, but I made a choice I believed in and saw it through. I feel like an authentic human being.

…

Abe [to his class]: Today we are going to discuss existential choice. That life has the meaning you choose to give it. And we’ll examine Jean-Paul Sartre’s wonderful insight, Hell is other people."[/b]

Solution: Knock them off.

[b]Jill: You killed Spangler…I saw your book. I saw you wrote “Spangler, the banality of evil”. You must have decided that he deserved to die.
Abe: I made the choice to help that woman. You had it right the other night…I always taught you to trust your instincts. Not everything can be grasped by the intellect. If it feels right, it often is. This was the meaningful act that I was searching for.
Jill: You can’t just take it upon yourself to take someone’s life.
Abe: Well, I thought it was a very reasonable thing to do. She hoped he’d get cancer. Hoping is bullshit. You see, you have to act.
Jill: You can’t believe it was moral, what you did.
Abe: Of course I do. I consider myself a moral man who’s lived a moral life, who came to the aid of a woman who suffering a great injustice.

…

Jill: How could you do it, Abe?
Abe: Is the world a better place without this rotten judge?[/b]

In theory, sure. Right, Jill? So: Does she turn him in?

Abe: I’m asking you to put our everyday assumptions aside, Jill, and trust your experience of life. In order to really see the world, we must break with our familiar acceptance of it. The second I decided to take this action, my world changed. You saw it. I suddenly found a reason to live…Doing this deed for this woman gave my own life meaning.
Jill: You gotta leave, Abe. You gotta go. I can’t ever see you again. I won’t say anything. I believe that you think you did something morally worthwhile.
Abe: I did!
Jill: I know, but you can’t…you can’t justify it! You can’t justify it with all this bullshit. With all this French postwar rationalizing. This doesn’t…this is murder. This is murder! It opens the door to more murder. I don’t have the intellect to refute these arguments. I can’t argue with you. But you taught me to think with my instinct and I don’t have to think about it. I feel that this is no good. This is murder…

Back to Kant and The Lie? Then the twist I didn’t see coming…

Jill [after “the wrong man” is arrested for murdering Spnagler]: What are going to do about this?
Abe: I don’t know.
Jill: Oh, surely, you’re not going to let an innocent man take the rap for you, Abe.
Abe: I’ve been up and back about this since I heard the news.
Jill: “Up and back”? What does that mean?
Abe: It means that I tried to bring off the perfect crime, and apparently I succeeded all too well.
Jill: Okay, well, what about all your talk about high moral ground?
Abe: I need to think this out.
Jill: What is there to think about? An innocent man is about to have his life ruined.
Abe: Okay, okay, I’ll give myself up, is that what you want?
Jill: Isn;'t that what you want? I mean, all this talk, talk, talk about doing the right thing and what’s best…
Abe: Okay, if they don’t see that they are making a mistake and let him go I will turn myself in!

So, would you? I’m reasonably sure that I wouldn’t. And neither will he:

Abe [voiceover]: The morality of letting someone take the rap troubled me greatly, but paled against the hardwiring of my natural will to survive…Only one thing stood in the way. I had a few days before Jill would insist I clear the wrongfully accused man. Was there a way to keep her from talking? I guess she was right when she said that one murder opens the door to more…

Next up: the law of unintended consequences. Oh, and the irony of it all.

It’s been a decade now since the big banks nearly toppled the world economy. Or so some will insist. But: Who really knows how close they came? One thing is for certain: they did precipitate The Great Recession. And that brought about all manner of misery for millions and millions of folks. And, sure, even a few of the rich and powerful who brought it all about. Or so some will insist.

And now we have yet another film that takes us behind the curtain to expose these guys.

But: Does it expose in turn the systemic nature of these calamitous transactions? Are these folks just “bad apples” or does the very nature of crony capitalism itself make this sort of thing inevitable? Meaning it is always only a matter of time before the next bubble will burst.

In fact, the cronies in Washington make no appearance at all. The folks in the White House and on Capital Hill are scarcely mentioned. They let all this happen but it is as though K street and campaign contributions were incidental to how “the system” is sustained. And until that part is understood we will go on having presidential elections in which folks actually do believe that with regard to the economy there really is a difference between electing Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

The only hope here is the fact that the Bernie Sanders campaign is proof positive that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Assuming of course that he’s legit.

And the next bubble will burst in part because only a handful of folks really understand the complexities embedded in these labyrinthian “financial” contraptions. Most of us can be told practically anything about them, right?

Here’s the thing though: The system is exposed, sure. But what if crony capitalism really is the least worst of all possible worlds? What if all the other systems really aren’t better?

IMDb

[b]The quotation that appears on screen, “‘Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.’ - Overheard at a Washington, D.C. bar”, was written by director and co-writer Adam McKay after unsuccessfully searching for the perfect quotation to use for that segment.

The character Mark Baum is based on real-life money manager Steve Eisman. Jared Vennett is based on real-life trader Greg Lippmann. Ben Rickert is based on Ben Hockett. Charlie Gellar and Jamie Shipley are based on Charlie Ledley and Jamie Mai.

After Christian Bale met with Dr. Michael Burry, the character he would play in the movie, he asked to have Burry’s cargo shorts and T-shirt, which he then wore in the movie. Bale later said he hoped Burry would make it to the L.A. premiere, “because I really want to sit next to him and see if he’s going to punch me in the fucking face.”

Jeffry Griffin was an extra on set for the day. He was pulled out of the crowd to play Jared Vennett’s assistant, Chris. Later, his role was expanded to two weeks of filming, sharing every scene with Ryan Gosling. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Short_(film
trailer: youtu.be/vgqG3ITMv1Q

THE BIG SHORT [2015]
Written in part and directed by Adam McKay

[b]Title card: It ain’t what you know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so — Mark Twain

…

Jared [to the camera]: In the late seventies banking wasn’t a job you went into to make large sums of money. It was a fucking snooze! Filled with losers! Like selling insurance, or accounting and if banking was boring…Then the bond department at the bank was straight up comatose. We all know about bonds… You give em to your snot nosed kid when he turns fifteen maybe when he’s thirty he makes a hundred bucks. Boring! That is until Lewis rainieri came on the scene at Salomon brothers. You might not know who he is but he changed your life more than Michael Jordan, the I-pod and YouTube put together! You see, Lewis didn’t know it yet, but he already changed banking forever with one simple idea. The mortgage backed security.

…

Lewis [at a meeting]: You got your average persons mortgage fixed rate, thirty years, boring! Same, small payoff. Right! But when you add thousands of them all bundled together suddenly, the yield goes up, but the risk is still small, because…well, they’re mortgages, and who the hell doesn’t pay their mortgage?

…

Jared [voiceover]: The money came raining down! And for the first time, the banker went from the country-club to the strip-club. Pretty soon, stocks and savings were almost inconsequential. They were doing fifty, a hundred, two hundred billion in mortgage bonds and dozens of other securities a year. And America barely noticed that it’s number one industry became boring old banking and then one day, almost thirty years later, in 2008 it all came crashing down! In the end Lewis Rainier’s mortgage backed security mutated
into a monstrosity that collapsed the whole world economy and none of the experts, or leaders, or talking heads had a clue it was coming. And I’m guessing most of you still don’t really know what happened.

…

Michael [on the phone]: Lawrence, I’ve found something really interesting…
Lawrence: Great Michael, whenever you find something interesting, we all sit to make money. What stock are you vowing?
Michael: No, no, no no. I wanna, I wanna short the housing market…You know me…I look for value, wherever it can be found. The fact is that these mortgage backed securities are filled with extremely risky sub-prime adjustable rates. And when the majority of these adjustable rates kick in… in '07 they will begin to fail and if they fail above 15 percent the whole bond is worthless.

…

Jared [voiceover]: Mortgage backed securities, sub-prime loans, tranches…it’s all pretty confusing right? Doesn’t it make you feel bored…or stupid. Well… it’s supposed to. Wall-street loves to use confusing terms, to make you think only they can do what they do. Or even better…for you just to leave them the fuck alone.

…

Margot Robbie [the actress to the camera]: Basically, Lewis Rainieri’s mortgage bonds were amazingly profitable for the big banks. But then they ran out of mortgages to put in them. After all, there are only so many homes and so many people with good enough jobs to buy them… right? So the banks started filling these bonds with riskier and riskier mortgages. That way, they can keep that profit machine churning right? By the way, these risky mortgages are called: Sub-prime. So whenever you hear sub-prime…think: Shit,

…

Rabbi: Mark is an excellent student of the Torah and the Talmud.
Mark’s Mom: Then what’s the problem, rabbi?
Rabbi: It’s the reason Mark is studying so hard. He’s looking for inconsistencies in the word of God!
Mark’s Mom: So has he found any?

…

Michael [at Goldman Sachs]: I wanna buy…swaps on mortgage bonds credit default swap, that will pay off if the underlying bond fails.
Banker: You want to bet against the housing market? Yes
Michael: Yes.
Banker: Why? Those bonds only fail if millions of Americans don’t pay their mortgages. That’s never happened in history. If you’ll excuse me Dr. burry, that seems like a foolish investment.
Michael: Based on prevailing sentiment of the market and banks, and popular culture yes, it’s a foolish investment. But everyone’s wrong…
Banker: This is wall-street Dr. burry, if you offer us free money, we’re going to take it. Michael: My one concern is, is that when the bonds fail I want to be certain of payment, in case of solvency issues with the bank.
Banker: I’m sorry, are you for real? You want to bet against the housing market, and you’re worried we won’t pay you?
Michael: Yes, that’s correct.

…

Banker: We’re prepared to sell you 5 million in credit default swaps on these mortgage bonds.
Michael: Can we make it a hundred million?
Banker: Absolutely! We can make it one-hundred million.

…

Lawrence [on the phone after he learns that Michael dumped 1.3 billion dollars into credit default swaps]: We had an underlying understanding, you wouldn’t act like a goddamn crazy man!
Michael: This is not crazy. It’s all very logical.
Lawrence: So now we pay up premiums on these swaps against housing-market until the mortgages fail? In other words we lose millions until somethingthat has never happened before…happens?!
Michael: That’s correct.

…

Danny: You’re completely sure of the math?
Jared: Look at him, that’s my quant.
Mark: Your what?
Jared: My quantitative. My math specialist. Look at him, you notice anything different about him? Look at his face.
Mark That’s pretty racist.
Jared: Look at his eyes, I’ll give you a hint, his name is Yang. He won a national math competition in China and he doesn’t even speak English! Yeah I’m sure of the math.
Jiang [to the camera]: Actually, my name is Jiang, and I do speak English. Jared likes to say it though because he thinks it makes me seem more authentic. And I got second in that national math competition.

…

Jared [regarding credit default swaps]: Let me put it this way: I’m standing in front of a burning house, and I’m offering you fire insurance on it.

…

Mark: How can these underlying bonds be as bad as you say? It wouldn’t be legal!
Jared: Nobody knows what’s in them! Nobody knows, what’s in the bonds, I’ve seen some that are 65 percent AAA-rating. That I know, for a fact, are filled with 95 percent sub-prime shit. With fico’s below 550
Mark: Gaet the fuck out of here!
Jared: Want me to really blow your mind? When the market deems a bond too risky to buy, what do you think we do with it?Take a guess! You think we just warehouse it on the books? No, we just repackage it, with a bunch of other shit that didn’t sell and put it into a CDO
Mark: A CDO?
Jared: Yes, a CDO
[he turns to the camera]
Jared: A collateralized debt obligation.
Jared: That’s where we take a bunch of Bs, bb’s and bbb’s that haven’t sold, and we put em in a pile and when the pile gets large enough, the whole is suddenly considered ‘diversified’. And then the whores at the rating agency, give it a 92 / 93 percent AAA-rating, no questions asked…

…

Anthony Bourdain [the chef explaining a CDO]: OK, I’m a chef on a Sunday afternoon, setting the menu at a big restaurant. I ordered my fish on Friday, which is the mortgage bond that Michael Burry shorted. But some of the fresh fish doesn’t sell. I don’t know why. Maybe it just came out halibut has the intelligence of a dolphin. So, what am I going to do? Throw all this unsold fish, which is the BBB level of the bond, in the garbage, and take the loss? No way. Being the crafty and morally onerous chef that I am, whatever crappy levels of the bond I don’t sell, I throw into a seafood stew. See, it’s not old fish. It’s a whole new thing! And the best part is, they’re eating 3-day-old halibut. That is a CDO.

…

Mark [of Collateralized Debt Obligation funds]: So mortgage bonds are dog shit. CDOs are dog shit wrapped in cat shit.

…

Mark: The banks have given us 25% interest rates on credit cards. They have screwed us on student loans that we can never get out from under. Then this guy walks into my office and says those same banks got greedy, they lost track of the market, and I can profit off of their stupidity? Fuck, yeah, I want him to be right!

…

Title card: ISDA Agreement: An agreement that lets an investor sit at the “big boy table” and make high level trades not available to the stupid amateurs. Trying to be a high stakes trader without an ISDA is like trying to win the Indy 500 riding a llama.

…

Jared [voiceover]: Ben Ricker was a former trader in Singapore for Chase. Quit the whole game in disgust…But Ben was dark. He didn’t just think the whole system would fail he thought the whole world was going down!

…

Mark [after realtors basically tell him they will give anyone a mortgage]: I don’t get it. Why are they confessing?
Danny: They’re not confessing.
Porter: They’re bragging.

…

Mark: Do people have any idea what they are buying?
Realtor: I focus on immigrants! Once they find out they’re getting homes they’ll sign where you tell em to sign. They don’t ask questions, they don’t understand the rates.

…

Vinnie [on the phone]: How are you fucking us?
Jared: When you come for the payday, I’m gonna rip your eyes out. I’m gonna make a fortune. The good news is Vinnie, you’re not going to care cause you’re gonna make so much money. That’s what I get out of it. Wanna know what you get out of it? You get the ice cream, the hot fudge, the banana and the nuts. Right now I get the sprinkles, and ya - if this goes thru, I get the cherry. But you get the sundae Vinny. You get the sundae.
Vinnie: All right. I buy that. Thank you.

…

Title card: Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry – overheard at a Washington D.C. bar.

…

Mark [on the phone]: Ok, I want you to walk back in there and very calmly, very politely tell the risk-assessors to fuck-off!
Vinnie [walks into the room]: Gentlemen, I just spoke with Mark Baum and he says to ‘fuck off’.

…

Mark: Georgia! Have you ever refused to rate any of these bonds upper-tranches AAA? Can we see the paperwork on those?
Georgia [of Standard and Poors]: Oooh, I’m under no obligation to share that information with you, whoever you might be.
Mark: Just answer the question Georgia, can you name one time in the past year? Where you checked the tape and you didn’t give the banks the AAA-percentage they wanted?
Georgia: If we don’t give them the ratings, they’ll go to Moody’s right down the block. If we don’t work with them they will go to our competitors not our fault, simply the way the world works.
Vinnie: You’re selling ratings for fees.

…

Jared: Didn’t I say, that when we made this deal, that the rating-agencies, the SEC and the big banks were clueless! Didn’t I say that? Didn’t I say it?
Mark: Yes you did, you did!
Jared: Now their foot’s on fire and they think their steak is done, and you’re surprised?
Mark: That’s not stupidity that’s fraud!
Jared: Tell me the difference between stupid and illegal and I’ll have my wife’s brother arrested. I guess you just don’t realize how clueless the system really is! Yes, there’s some shady shit going down! But trust me, it’s fueled by stupidity! Look at yourselves! You know you passed yourselves off as cynical people but you still have some faith in the system don’t you? I don’t.

…

Vinnie [at the American Securitization Forum]: It’s like someone hit a pinata full of white people who suck at golf.

…

Lewis: If the investors withdraw, what’s gonna happen here? Are we done?
Michael: Honestly I don’t know. The…the…the bonds aren’t going down! They won’t move! It’s possible that we are in a completely fraudulent system.
Lewis: Or you’re, you’re wrong.
Michael: Sure! It’s possible, I just don’t know how![/b]

Of course he wasn’t, was he?

Ben: Do you have any idea what you just did?
Charlie: Come on, we just made the deal of our lifetime, we should celebrate!
Ben: You just bet against the American economy!
Charlie: Fuck yeah we did!
Ben: Which means…which means if we’re right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here’s a number - every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?

More do the point, did they care?

[b]Mark: Hold on, say that again! CDO A, has parts of CDO B and CDO B, has parts of CDO A and then they both get put inside CDO C?
CDO manager: Yeah and that one is called CDO square! A CDO of a CDO. And then there’s CDOs made up of the opposite sides of the bet you made with the swaps we call them, synthetic CDOs
Mark: What did you just say? Synthetic CDOs? That is fucking crazy!

…

Mark: Alright, let’s say you have a pool of 50 million in sub-prime loans how much money could be out there betting on it in your synthetic CDOs and swaps? Right now. Tonight.
CDO manager: Let’s see, 50 million? Hmm… A billion dollars
Mark: What?!
Jared [voiceover]: If the mortgage-bonds that Michael Burry discovered were the match…
Mark: How much bigger is the market for insuring mortgage bonds than for actual mortgages?
CDO manager: About twenty times.
Jared [voiceover]: …then the CDOs were the kerosene soaked rags. And then the synthetic CDO was the atomic bomb with a drunk president holding his finger over the button. It was at that moment in that dumb restaurant with that stupid look on his face
that Mark Baum realized that the whole world economy might collapse!

…

Jared [voiceover]: I know what you’re thinking! What the fuck is a synthetic CDO? Well, here’s Dr. Richard Thaler, father of behavioral economics, and Selena Gomez to explain…

…

Selena Gomez: Ok, so here’s how a synthetic cdo works! Let’s say I bet ten million on a Black Jack hand.
Dr. Thaler: Ten million, because this hand is to represent a single mortgage bond. Okay, Selena has a pretty good hand here. Showing eighteen, dealer showing seven that’s a really good hand for Selena. Good odds, in fact her chances of winning this hand are eighty-seven percent.
Selena: So, my odds are good I’m on a winning streak and everybody in this place wants to get in on the action. How could I lose right?
Dr. Thaler: Now this is a classic error. In basketball it’s called the hot-hand-fallacy. A player makes a bunch of shots in a row people are sure they’re gonna make the next one. People think, whatever is happening now is gonna continue to happen into the future. During the real-estate boom markets were going up and up! And people thought they would never go down.
Selena: So people who are watching and think that I won’t lose will make a side-bet. Now this, is the first synthetic CDO.
[spectators make a bet on Selena]
Dr. Thaler: Now somebody else is gonna wanna make a bet on the outcome of their bet. That will lead to synthetic CDO number two.
Selena: And this will go on and on, with more and more synthetic CDOs
Dr. Thaler: And we can transform an original ten million dollar investment into billions of dollars.

…

Title card: Everyone, deep in their hearts, is waiting for the end of the world to come — Haruki Murakami

…

Charlie: I asked bear-stearns to price our shorts they tell me the cdo’s still haven’t moved this is fucking insane!
Jamie: You realize that? These people are crooks and they should be in prison! Look at the theta-graphics, you can see that the CDOs are worth zero! So you know what they’re doing huh? You know what they’re doing right?
Charlie: They’re not loading them. They’re selling their dogshit CDOs then they go to another bank and short the shit, while they fucking sold it!

…

Jamie: Right now, every bank in town is unloading these shit-bonds onto un-suspecting customers and they won’t devalue them until they get them off their books this level of criminality is unprecedented even on fucking Wall Street!!

…

Jared [to the camera after looking down at a $47,000,000 check]: So I was right. I took a rash of shit for two years. But I was right! And everyone else was wrong! And yeah I got a bonus-cheque for it. So sue me! It’s a lot of money! I get it, I can feel you judging me. That’s palpable. But hey I never said I was the hero of this story.

…

Mark [to the audience]: My firms thesis is pretty simple wall-street took a good idea: Lewis Raneiri’s mortgage-bonds and turned it into an atomic bomb of fraud and stupidity that’s on it’s way to decimating the world economy
Bruce Miller: Tell us how do you really feel.
Mark: I’m glad you still have a sense of humor. I wouldn’t if I were you. We live in an era of fraud in America. Not just in banking, but in government, education, religion, food, even baseball. What bothers me ins’t that fraud is not nice. Or that fraud is mean. For fifteen thousand years, fraud and short sighted thinking have never, ever worked. Not once. Eventually you get caught, things go south. When the hell did we forget all that? I thought we were better than this, I really did. The fact that we’re not, doesn’t make me feel all-right and superior. It makes me feel sad. And as fun as it is to watch pompous dumbass Wall-Streeters be wildly wrong, I just know that at the end of the day average people are going to be the ones that are going to have to pay for all of this. Because they always, always do.

…

Mark [on the phine]: Paulsson and Bernanke just left the White House. There’s going to be a bail-out.
Vinnie: Well, they had to! Right?
Mark: We paid for mortgages with collaterals they knew! Cash would have stopped coming out the ATM, they had to back-stop this they knew the tax-payers would bail them out, they weren’t stupid, they just didn’t care!
Vinnie: Yeah, 'cause they’re fucking crooks! But, at least we’re gonna see some of them go to jail. Right? I mean, they’re gonna have to break up the banks. The party is over!
Mark: I don’t know, I don’t know. I have a feeling, that in a few years, people are gonna do, what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people.

…

Jared [voiceover]: But mark was wrong! In the years that followed, hundreds of bankers and rating-agency’s executives went to jail. The SEC was completely overhauled and Congress had no choice, but to break up the big banks and regulate the mortgage and derivative industries.
[pause]
Jared: Just kidding. Banks took the money the American people gave them and used it to pay themselves huge bonuses and lobby the congress to kill big reform and then they blamed immigrants and poor people.

…

Title car: When the dust settled from the collapse, 5 trillion dollars in pension money, real estate value, 401K, savings and bonds had diappeared. 8 million people lost their jobs, 6 million lost their homes. And that was just in the USA.[/b]

Tagline: This is your insanity on drugs.

Or your depression.

Over and over and over again we are bombarded with all manner of advertisements for all manner of medications. And each and everyone of them has possible side effects. Some more or less benign, others more or less dangerous.

We are to see our doctor “right away” if the latter.

But: with literally millions and millions and millions of dollars at stake there will inevitably be those cases that go off – way off-- the beaten path.

Imagine for example a side effect that resulted in you walking in your sleep and killing someone. Your husband for example. Unless of course it’s about something altogether different.

And consider this:

Up to the year 2005, there have been around 68 documented cases of homicidal sleepwalking.

So, we have two gigantic industrial complexes – pharmaceutical and legal – out to enrich themselves off our accumulating afflictions.

Here the prescription was written by a psychiatrist. And god knows how many prescriptions are written each year for, among other things, anxiety and depression. And some will include new or “experiemental” medication that is said to attack the symptoms from a different direction.

You can clearly see just how murky this can all become. What is true and what do others merely want you to believe is true? What can the diabolical mind use to fabricate any number of diabolical plots?

If nothing else it depicts just how enormously complex human psychological interactions can be. Even before the part where the interactions become dysfunctional. There are simply too many variables to ever imagine fitting them altogether in order to understand why we do this instead of that. Not counting all the actual out and out lies. The fraud. The flim-flam.

This one also hits home because some years ago I was impaled by depression. Twice. It is almost impossible to describe just how debilitating it can be to those who have never been depressed. Really depressed. As Dr. Banks notes, “a psychologist once said ‘depression is an inability to construct a future’”.

How bad can it get? Start here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_Visible_(memoir

But…

That is not really what this movie is about at all. Instead, the film reconfigures into a “thriller”. All that “psychological stuff” becomes considerably more self-serving. And then you’re not really sure what to believe. Or who to believe. Think for example Final Analysis above: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=179469&p=2506745&hilit=final+analysis+directed#p2506745

Unfortunately, I found the other part [the first half] far more fascinating.

IMDb

[b]Jude Law admitted that he felt insecure as an actor playing the lead role, as it was his first performance in which he was playing a husband and father, as he is in real-life, and his first role where he used his normal accent and did not have any hair or makeup change.

Steven Soderbergh considered casting Lindsay Lohan for the role of Emily and he auditioned her three times. However, producers felt that her ongoing legal issues would disrupt the production process. Rooney Mara was eventually cast for the part. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_Effects_(2013_film
trailer: youtu.be/EFEou3MBLi4

SIDE EFFECTS [2013]
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

[b]Emily: Why are you here?
Jonathan: I’m a psychiatrist, Miss Taylor. Normally, when people hit things with their car, there are skidmarks on the pavement. A brick wall is a pretty good reason to use the brakes, turn the wheel. You didn’t do that. You went straight into it.

…

Jonathan [pointing to a prescription]: I want to start her on this. It’s called an SSRI. It effects the neurotransmitter in the brain called serotonin.
Martin: And what does that do exactly?
Jonathan: Basically, it stops the brain from telling you you’re sad.[/b]

Raising [as these things always do] questions revolving around human autonomy itself.

[b]Victoria [Emily’s first shrink]: I saw her four years ago. For a little over nine months. She didn’t just have the rug pulled from under her, she had the rug, the home, the husband. Her entire life, gone. Even her health insurance. She moved into the city to find work and I never heard from her again. I’m glad she’s seeing a man this time. I think that will help.
Jonathan: Why is that?
Victoria: Never felt seen by her father. Then her husband ends up in jail and she’s abandoned again.

…

Jonathan: She says you tried her on medication.
Victoria: Oh, yes. Wellbutrin. Prozac. Effexor. Really struggled. I remember she had problems with sleep and nausea. Chills…
Jonathan: I’m putting her on Zoloft, see if she can tolerate that.
Victoria: Maybe she’s a candidate for one of these newer meds. Sometimes the newest thing gives them confidence. They see the ads on TV, they believe. I have a patient with some similar issues. I put her on Ablixa.[/b]

All those variables, all those different combinations of reactions. The ones in your head, the ones out in the world. Each of us an embodiment all to our own.

[b]Advertisement on a poster: Is depression weighing you down? Ask your doctor about ABLIXA today, and take back tomorrow.

…

Dierdre: [Jonathan’s wife about taking a beta blocker]: Is it bad that I’m doing this?
Jonathan: Everyone takes them. Lawyers, musicians - people going to interviews for big jobs. It doesn’t make you anything you’re not. It just makes it easier for you to be who you are.

…

Jonathan: Emily, I know that this is hard. But the hopelssness you’re feeling is a symptom. We have to leave that in the past. A psychologist once said, “depression is an inability to construct a future”.

…

Emily: I can’t take the Zoloft anymore. I can’t. I’m dizzy. I can’t sleep. I have no sex drive.[/b]

Next up: Ablixa. Oh, and fraud.

[b]Pharmacist: Have you taken Ablixa before?
Emily: No.
Pharmacist: Some of the side effects may include nausea, muscle weakness, insomnia, change in appetite, dry mouth, irritation. Do you want to pay cash?

…

Shrink: There were court seats at Knicks games, fishing trips at Cape Cod. It was crazy.
Shrink: One year Warner-Lambert took us to Hawaii. I gave a talk for five minutes and played 36 holes.
Shrink: What did Pfizer have to pay to make their whole thing go away? Two billion? Lilly paid over a billion to settle the Zyprexa thing. A certain rep who will remain nameless got me tickets to the World Series. Got my son an autographed ball!
Pharma rep: Well, it’s not a violation of the pharma code to buy your doctors lunch. As long as we do talk business for about five minutes.

…

Martin: Can’t she stop taking drugs? Isn’t there an alternative to…
Emily: No. God, no. I can finally sleep. I have some energy. We have sex…I’ve tried everything else. You don’t know Martin. You’ve never had this. You don’t know what it’s like. Okay? Every afternoon it’s like…it’s like there’s this poisonous fog bank rolling in on my mind and I’m paralyzed.

…

Jonathan [to Emily and Martin after the first sleep-walking incident]: There are things that we can do to make this work. Other medications that we add to the Ablixa, ones designed to deal with the sleepwalking while the Ablixa helps you get a handle on your depression.

…

Jonathan: I want to be totally clear that I am being paid to participate in this study. And if you don’t want to take part I totally understand. There are other meds besides Deltrex I can prescribe.
Patient: So, my medication is free. I don’t have to report it to my insurance company or anything?
Jonathan: For as long as you choose to be a part of the study, your meds are free. [/b]

Let’s call this “the system”.

[b]Martin [just before Emily stabs him over and again]: Those fucking pills…

…

Detective [to Jonathan]: Any idea why the dinner table was set for three, Dr. Banks?

…

Detective [holding up an evidence bag with the Ablixa]: She was taking these. For depression, right? I’ve seen the ads.
Jonathan: I’d like to speak to her, if that’s possible.
Detective: You can talk to her at Rykers.
Jonathan: It’s possible, you see, that she was asleep.
Detective [looking at his partner]: What?
Jonathan: She walks in her sleep. That’s maybe why she doesn’t remember anything. It’s a side effect of this medication. She’s had other episodes.
Detective [nodding incredulously]: She kills people in her sleep too.

…

Detective [to Jonathan]: Well, this goes one of two ways, doesn’t it? See, either she’s a murderer…or she’s a victim of here medical treatment. In which case you’re the target of a big civil suit. Either way, someone gets punished. Her or you.

…

Emily [in jail]: I never want to see another pill again…Is there anyway that someone else did it…and made it look like me?
Jonathan: I don’t think so.
Emily: I killed the wrong person…

…

Dierdre: Do you want to talk about it?
Jonathan: A patient of mine was arrested.
Dierdre: For something bad.
Jonathan: Yeah. Pretty bad.
Dierdre: Did the person do it? Are they guilty?
Jonathan: In this case, those are two very different things.

…

Martin’s mother [to Emily]: But I don’t understand it. You watch the commercials on TV, people are always getting better!

…

Martin’s Mother [reading from Emily’s letter on TV] “We go to doctors with our sadness and our faith in the hope they will guide us toward health. But instead I have gone down a path toward a misery I never could have imagined. And I have taken my loved ones with me. My only hope is that no one else follows me to this place.”

…

Jonathan [testifying at Emily’s trial]: What makes us human? What differentiates us from, let’s say, insects, is that we have consciousness. An awareness of what we’re thinking and what we’re doing. If for example I am hungry, I am consciously aware of that. And so I go to the fridge and I make myself a sandwich.
Lawyer: So you intend to make the sandwich.
Jonathan: Yes.
Lawyer: So, what you are saying is that to have intent, you must also have consciousness.
Jonathan: Consciousness provides a context or meaning for our actions. If that part of you doesn’t exist then basically, we are functioning much like an insect where you just respond instinctively without a thought to what your actions mean.
Lawyer: And that part that provides meaning to action, does that exist when we’re asleep?
Jonathan: No.
Lawyer: So without consciousness, how do we prove intent?
Jonathan: I don’t believe we can.[/b]

And that’s before we get to the arguments relating to determinism.

[b]Victoria [to Jonathan]: …the point is the cardiologist can see it coming, the heart attack, from the tests. It’s in the blood. But who can see the lies? Or the past? Or the sadness?

…

Jonathan: No, look, I went to her office. There is no Julia at work who takes Ablixa.
Dierdre: What are you talking about?
Jonathan: Why did she make up Julia?
Dierdre: I don’t know. Isn’t she sick? I thought sick people sometimes make things up.

…

Dierdre: The case is over. The photographers are gone, your partners are gone, the Deltrix thing is now gone. You’re the only one that’s still here.
Jonathan: I just want to know what happened.
Dierdre: A woman you were treating killed her husband. That’s what happened.

…

Jonathan: She’s not depressed.
District Attorney: Yeah. And you didn’t catch it and someone died. And I didn’t catch it and someone didn’t go to jail. We failed.

…

Victoria: You could get national coverage on this. “Shrinks fucking patients and manipulating them into killing their spouses”. Hot stuff. I would say this would ruin your practice…But wait. You don’t have a practice anymore. Or a wife…or a kid I’m betting. So what else can you lose? State revoke your license yet?
Jonathan: I always tell my patients, “You know what the best predictor of future behavior is? Past behavior.”

…

Jonathan: The only problem with having a crazy person for a partner is that they tend to stay crazy. You should know how difficult it is to cure a pretty girl with daddy issues.
Victoria: Nice try Jon. I’m not buying it.
Jonathan [leaning into her face, fiercely]: Spend the fucking money now. Because they’re coming to take it back.
Victoria: What are you talking about?
Jonathan: You could go and ask her. Only she asked me to keep yopu from seeing her. She told me everything.

…

Victoria [after clobbering Jonathan with her purse]: You get her out of there right now, do you hear me. You do that and you won’t hear from either one of us again. Yeah, you can go back to chatting with rich white people about their problems. She’s cured…as of right now, Jon. You’re a fucking genius!

…

Jonathan [to Emily, about electroshock treatment…as though it were Victoria’s idea]: It’s in our best interest that you start forgetting.

…

Emily: Imagine everything you ever wanted shows up one day and calls itself your life. And then just when you start to believe in it - gone. And suddenly it gets very hard to imagine a future. That’s depression, right? So I went to see Dr. Siebert…I think she always liked girls, she just never found one she liked as much as me. She taught me how to be depressed, what drugs had which side effects, what symptoms went with what diagnosis…What do you doctors call faking? Malingering? Such a funny word. Girls learn to fake things at a very early age - probably around the same time that boys are learning to lie.
Jonathan: When did you decide to kill him?
Emily: It’s not a decision you make just once. You make it over and over and over again. Everytime you look at your life and you see the position you’re in and who put you there. And it all leads back to him. Each and every fucking problem, every disappointment. And you think that maybe if he just goes away it will all get better.

…

Emily [to Jonathan]: I read somewhere that there’s a difference between tears of joy and tears of rage. Is that true? It’s in the chemistry, but you can’t tell by looking, they all just look like tears. [/b]

Meanwhile he has completely turned everything around: she’s now the dupe:

Jonathan: Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. That’s what she said about you.
Emily: And how long do you two plan on keeping me here?
Jonathan: Why would we ever let you leave?
Emily: Because…maybe there’s a better deal.

Grim.

Some like grim, some don’t. Depending in part on how more or less grim your own life has been. Or still is. Or [you suspect] soon will be.

There’s just no getting around grim. Not in this world. One way or the other. So, up to a point, we can all relate to the characters here.

But only if you are able to work around the part about class.

Mom’s drinking herself into the grave. But the loving son is determined to get her the help she needs. Only they are poor and the options are limited. So, what is the son willing to do in order to accomplish the task?

And John loves – really loves – his mom. And when you love someone from the bottom of your heart you can be driven in any number of directions in order to ease their pain, to stop their incessant sobbing.

On the other hand, it is the sort of love that I have never really felt. Not for anyone. And I don’t imagine anyone has ever felt it for me. So I can only speculate as to what it might be like.

This is essentially one of those films in which conflicting goods are more or less the center of the universe. What is John able to rationalize in order to justify [to himself] the pain that he may inflict on others? Where does he draw the line between what is in his own best interest but is clearly not in the best interest of others. For example, to save his mom is he willing to become part of an operation that deals in human trafficking?

Note: A film where the characters all speak English but if you don’t have access to subtitles you had better be adept at grappling with a thick Irish accent. Working class to the bone. Cockneyesque?

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glassland
trailer: youtu.be/AyGdIXNyqnM

GLASSLAND [2014]
Written and directed by Gerard Barrett

[b]John [voiceover]: It’s been a long night. Had a few difficult clients. Worked a lot of hours. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t.

…

Doctor: From the tests we’ve run today…and these are just preliminary calculations, but one of them in particular is fairly accurate. It’s a liver function test. I guarantee in the very near future she’s going to need a liver transplant. That’s for sure. It’s happening, John. It’s coming, okay? But I have to be very honest with you. The way she is right now, I would have very little confidence she would even get that far. She’s systematically killing herself slowly every day.

…

Jean [watching John filming her]: What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing, John? Where are they? I know you fuckin’ took 'em. Give them to me. Give them to me!!!
[she lunges toward him]
Jean: Why can’t you just leave me alone and mind your own fucking business?! Why can’t everyone just leave me alone and mind their own fucking business?!!!

…

John [after Jean had smashed all the plates]: So, how we gonna get new plates?
Jean: I don’t know.
John: I’m gonna buy the new plates, Ma. I’m gonna go out and work my arse off for the rest of the week, driving a taxi. And what are you gonna do? You’re gonna drink and drink and drink, and you’re gonna pass out on that bed. But I’m gonna go out and work
to buy those new plates so we can have something to eat off. So we’re not eating off the table.
Jean: You’re a good boy, John.

…

Shane: You shoulda came, man. You still can. Internet’s all loaded up there on the laptop. All it is, is a click. New start.
John: Can’t. Just too much going on.

…

John: It’s been a long night. Had a few difficult clients. Worked a lot of hours. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t.

…

Jean: You think I’m a fuckup, don’t you?
John: No. I think you’re sick.
Jean [scoffing]: You think I’m what?
John: You’re sick, Ma.
Jean: You don’t know anything about me, John.
John: Well, I’d like to know more about you.
Jean: Nothin’ good to know about me, John.
[after a pause]
Jean: Okay, then, what do you want to know?[/b]

Of course: The backstory.

[b]John: Why do you hate Kit so much?
Jean: I don’t hate Kit. I just find it hard to love him. Sometimes a mother just doesn’t bond with her child. It’s unexplainable. Happens more than you’d like to think, John. It’s life.

…

Jean [to John]: We loved to go dancing, me and your da. We’d dance all night long, just the two of us together. No one else would matter. It was just us. Us against the world. We thought, “This was it.” We didn’t think it would become us against us.

…

Jean: The thing you don’t realize, John, is I have no one to dance with me anymore. I’m alone and will be for the rest of my life.

…

John: We need to go inside, Ma. We’re late as it is.
Jean: I’m not goin’ in.
John: Please.
Jean: I’m not doin’ it. Can’t.
John: Just give it a go.
Jean: No.
John: Please, Ma.
Jean: No, John. It’s none of their business.
John [finally exploding]: Well, it’s my fucking business, all right? It’s my business, and ‘m fuckin’ sick of it! I’m sick of cleaning up your vomit! I’m sick of dragging you in off the doorstep like a fuckin’ animal every night! It’s embarrassing me! It’s embarrassing me!
I’m sick of watching you walking around that corner to work every morning and not knowin’ whether you’re gonna come home or whether I’m gonna find you in two weeks face down in a fuckin’ ditch somewhere! And I can’t live like that anymore, Ma! I’m sick of it! I’m fuckin’ sick of it! Sick of it! Sick of it! I will not fuckin’ do it anymore! You’re breakin’ my heart every fuckin’ day, and I can’t take it! I can’t take it, Ma!

…

John: The woman that I live with in that house is not my mum. She’s not my mum. She’s a stranger. And I won’t live there with her anymore! I want you to watch this.
[he shows her a video of herself screeching for the booze she can’t find]
John: Now, that woman is not my mother. My mother laughs and smiles. She’s full of life. That is not my mother. That is a fuckin’ animal and an impostor. And one that I will not live with anymore!

…

Jim: This place is government-run. We’re on a bread-and-water diet. They got us on a drip feed. I can only keep her here for, like, seven to eight days at the very most. And I promise you I will do that. And I’ll give her all the facilities that we have got. But she’s got to find somewhere else after those seven days.
John: I can’t afford it. I’m trying really hard. I’m trying to get the hours at work, but I can’t.

…

Man [on phone]: You got the money?
John: Yeah, thanks.
Man: Did it help?
John: Yeah.
Man: I can trust you now?
John: Yeah.

…

Man: I need you to take care of something. It’s delicate. Bring it to me. John?
John: Yeah, okay, I’ll do it.
Man: I’ll text you the details.

…

John [voiceover]: It’s been a long night. Had a few difficult clients. Worked a lot of hours. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t.[/b]

Witchcraft. Black magic. Possession. Dost thou believe in them?

Nope, not me. But others do. And it is what others believe to be true that motivates them to behave as they do. And when they behave as they do that may or may not have consequences [good or bad] for my own life.

So, in this world the supernatural [including God and the Devil] need not actually exist in order to ramify “for all practical purposes”.

Escpecially back in 1630. A hell lot more people were a hell of a lot more inclined toward things like a belief in witches. Here a familly falls apart at the seams – viciously turning on each other – as they react to things they cannot explain. As they react to their own spiraling misfortunes.

Religion in a nutshell. Here though you not only have to believe in the same God, but believe in Him in the one and only officially sanctioned – authoritarian – way. You’re almost better off being an atheist than a heretic.

And life is hard. Really hard. And really, really precarious. And one can well understand why God and religion would be of particular consolation. Otherwise there is just the perennial misery and toil…and no reason for it.

By and large, you will find few films on this thread that encompass supernatural elements. Still, there are films that do and they are truly exceptional. Well worth watching.

And this is one of them. At RT it garnered an 88% fresh rating on 252 reviews. On the other hand, the “audience score” at RT was only 55%.

Also, in one sense this film may as well be based on a true story:

Most of the film’s dialogue and story were based on writings from the time.

As for the ending, well, your reaction no doubt will revolve around your religious convictions. I found it all rather uplifting. Thomasin freed from the shackles of her insufferable parents, freed from the shackles of their insufferable God. If only supernaturally.

IMDb

[b]The premise is based on America’s first witch hysteria in colonial New England, set 62 years before the infamous “Salem Witch Trials” which occurred in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

There were more scenes planned to involve Black Phillip, but because he wasn’t as well trained as planned, the ideas had to be scratched.

The Satanic Temple has endorsed this movie and hosted several screenings of the film. Their spokesperson, Jex Blackmore, addressed the film as “an impressive presentation of Satanic insight that will inform contemporary discussion of religious experience.”

The language the witches use in the film is mainly Enochian.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witch_(2015_film
Trailer: youtu.be/iQXmlf3Sefg

The Witch [The VVitch: A New-England Folktale – original title] 2015
Written and directed by Robert Eggers

[b]William [before the court]: What went we out into this wilderness to find? Leaving our country, kindred, our fathers houses? We have travailed a vast ocean. For what? For what?
Governor: We must ask thee to be silent!
William: Was it not for the pure and faithful dispensation of the Gospels, and the Kingdom of God?
Old Slater: No More! We are your judges, and not you ours!
William: I cannot be judged by false Christians, for I have done nothing, save preach Christ’s true Gospel.
Governor: Must you continue to dishonor the laws of the commonwealth and the church with your prideful conceit?
William: If my conscience sees it fit.
Governor: Then shall you be banished out of this plantations liberties!
William: I would be glad of it.
Governor: Then take your leave, and trouble us no further.
William: How sadly hath The Lord testified against you.
William [turning to leave]: Katherine…

…

Thomasin [praying]: I will confess Jehovah with all heart in secret and in assembly of the just. Great are the works of our Lord Jehovah, sought out of all that in them do delight. I here confess I have lived in sin. I have been idle of my work, disobedient of mine parents, neglectful of my prayer. I have, in secret, played upon thy sabbath, and broken every one of thy commandments in thought…followed the desires of my own will, and not the holy Spirit. I know I deserve all shame and misery in this life, and everlasting hell-fire. But I beg thee, for the sake of thy Son. Forgive me. Show me mercy. Show me Thy light.

…

William: Caleb, our harvest cannot last the winter. We must capture our food if we cannot grow it. We will conquer this wilderness. It will not consume us.

…

William: Art thou then born a sinner?
Caleb: Aye. I was conceived in sin, and born in iniquity.
William: And, what is thy birth sin?
Caleb: Adam’s sin imputed to me, and a corrupt nature dwelling within me.
William: Well-remembered Caleb. Very well. And canst thou tell me what thy corrupt nature is?
Caleb: My corrupt nature is empty of grace, bent unto sin, only unto sin, and that continually.

…

Caleb: Was Samuel born in sinner?
William: Aye.
Caleb: How might then…
William: We pray he hath entered God’s Kingdom.
Caleb: What wickedness hath he done?
William: Place faith in God, Caleb. We’ll speak no more on thy brother.

…

William [after Mercy has accused Thomasin of being a witch]: On thy knees! Look me in the eye daughter. Dost thou love the word of God?
Thomisan: Yes!
William: Love you The Bible? Love you Prayer?
Thomasin: Yes! Yes!
William: We are children of sin all, yet I tell thee, I have raised up no witch in this house.

…

Thomasin: I am no witch, father!
William: What did I but see in my house?
Thomasin: Will you not hear me?
Williasm: I prithee, confess…
Thomasin: Why have you turned against me?
William: Christ can unwitch us if you will but speak the truth to me. As I love thee, speak truth!
Thomasin: You ask me to speak truth?
William: I beg thee!
Thomasin: You and Mother are planned to rid the farm of me. Aye. I heard you speak of it. Is that truth? You took of Mothers cup and let her rail at me. You confessed not till it was too late. Is that truth?
William: Peace thee.
Thomasin: I will not.
William: I am thy father!
Thomasin: You are a hypocrite!
William: Hold thy tongue Daughter of mine!
Thomasin: You took Caleb to The Wood and let me take the blame of that too. Is that truth? You cannot bring the crops to yield! You cannot hunt! Is that truth enough?
William: Enough!
Thomasin: You cannot bring the crops to yield! You cannot hunt! Thou canst do nothing save cut wood!
William: Bitch!

…

Thomasin: Are you witches?
Jonas: Does father think I am?
Mercy: Are you?
Thomasin [shaking her head]: No.
[she motions toward Black Phillip]
Thomasin: Does he really speak to thee?

…

William: Corruption, thou art my father!

…

Thomasin: Black Phillip, I conjure thee to speak to me. Speak as thou dost speak to Jonas and Mercy. Dost thou understand my English tongue? Answer me.
Black Phillip: What dost thou want?
Thomasin: What canst thou give?
Black Phillip: Wouldst thou like the taste of butter and pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?
Thomasin: Yes.
Black Phillip: Wouldst thou like to see the world?
Thomasin: What will you from me?
Black Phillip: Dost thou see a book before thee?.. Remove thy shift.
Thomasin: I cannot write my name.
Black Phillip: I will guide thy hand. [/b]

Mental illness. It is always going to be far more difficult to diagnose and to treat than most physical ailments. After all, somatic afflictions generally involve the sort of symptoms that can be readily detected using any number of tests that have been perfected over the centuries.

Like for instance Catherine’s breast cancer.

But when the symptoms originate in the brain – in the “mind” – and involve emotional and psychological states that revolve around “anxiety, depression and mood disorder” who is to say – really say – what is going on?

At least with afflictions like schizophrenia there seems to be more science behind it. The brain going haywire chemically or neurologically. It just seems that with “mood disorders” the mix between nature and nurture is likely to be far, far, far more problematic. The part that’s “in your head”, the part that’s “out in the world”. And one can imagine any number of circumstances in which it simply makes sense that one might be anxious or depressed.

And even in this day and age there is still a stigma attached to those said to have “mental problems”. Particularly around certain segments of the population prone to, among other things, ignorance regarding things they do not understand.

Or to things said not to be “normal”.

Consequently, if someone that you love sinks down into this particular morass, how far would you be willing to go to defend him, to protect him, to bring him back around to…to what exactly?

Also, what are your options? And, come on, don’t you always have more in, say, the upper middle class?

You wonder then what the anthropological evidence is here. To what extent are the Tims of the world found cross-culturally?

Based on a true story.

IMDb

Based on the multi-award winning film Illness (2013).

no wiki entry
trailer: youtu.be/45pbZn_ty7U

NO LETTING GO [2015]
Written in part and directed by Jonathan D. Bucari

[b]Dr Slater: Do you have any idea why mommy brought you here today?
Tim [who is ten]: I guess it’s because sometimes I just don’t act so great. I just can’t help it.
Dr Slater: What do you mean?
Tim: Well, sometimes I get kind of worried.
Dr Slater: Okay. Well, I’m a doctor, and it’s my job to help you understand those worried feelings a little bit better.
Tim: So you’re like a feelings doctor?

…

Dr Slater: Do you know what the word “anxiety” means?
Tim: Not really.
Dr Slater: Well, people feel anxiety when they have lots of worry in their brains and it makes them feel bad insisde. You know what I call those kinds of bad thoughts? Junk thoughts.[/b]

Tell me about it.

Dr Slater: Think of junk thoughts as a bully. If you give in to a bully what usually happens?
Tim: They just keep bullying you.
Dr Slater: Exactly. Junk thoughts are the same way. You have to stand up to them and tell them that you are not afraid.

Simple, right?

[b]Henry: He needs to stick things out.
Catherine: I don’t think that being tougher is the answer.
Henry: Obviously.
Catherine [angrily]: What?
Henry: I don’t think all this expensive therapy is paying off because I think he thinks he can get away with it. And he knows it.
Catherine: You know what, Henry? I’ve grounded him. I’ve taken away his favorite things and I’ve bribed him, and I’ve used those stupid sticker charts! You’re never home. You don’t know how hard I try. And I’m exhausted. And you know what, if I’m such a terrible mother than how come Kyle and Jessie don’t act this way too?

…

Catherine: Kyle, Tim’s just having a bad day.
Kyle: He’s always having a bad day. You shouldn’t let him get away with acting like that. Are you gonna ground him?
Catherine: You let me worry about Tim, okay? I am the mom.
Kyle: Yeah, well, clearly that isn’t working out very well, is it?

…

Catherine: I can’t even get him out of the house anymore.
Dr. Slater: Well, I rarely recommend medication, but Tim is severely depressed. Therapy alone just isn’t enough.
Henry: I surely don’t understand why this is happening.
Dr. Slater: Look, anxiety and depression are often co-occuring. One can often exaserbate the other.[/b]

In spades for example.

[b]Psychiatrist: We’ll start him on a very small dose at first. See how he does. Increase it gradually. I’ll need to see him every two weeks to monitor him. Common side effects can include drowsiness, dizziness, insomnia, nausea, weight gain, weight loss, diarrhea, constipation…
[the camera shifts to Catherine’s face while the doctor drones on: It perfectly captures that look of bewilderment and resignation]

…

Catherine: God, how did I not know that kids could have anxiety or depression for no reason.
Henry: Well, they didn’t have that sort of stuff when we were growing up.[/b]

Now that you mention it, we didn’t either. Not in my neighborhoods.

[b]Henry: I can’t take it amymore.
Catherine: Okay, look! He eventually calms down. If you just leave him alone, Henry.
Henry: Just leave him alone. This must be advice coming from the therapist. Just ignore it, right?
Catherine: Look, she says it’s no use trying to talk to him when he’s irrational like this, okay? It will just escalate the situation.
Henry: It’ll just escalate, right. Just if we ignore it. Don’t do anything. THERE’S GOT TO BE SOMETHING WE CAN DO!
Catherine: Alright. The psychiatrist did give me another medication to use. When he gets out of control like this.
Henry: Well, that’s good news. Another medication…

…

Therapist: I recommend that we take him off the escitalopram and put him on a mood stabilizer.
Catherine: A “mood stabilizer”?
Therapist: Based on what you’re describing, I would have to say that your son has bipolar disorder.

…

Henry: Maybe it’s time for another opinion.
Catherine: Funny you should say that because I’ve been trying to get an appointment with another psychiatrist, but it’s three months.
Henry: Three months? You gotta be kidding me.
Catherine: Yeah, apparently there are more taxidermistas in this country then there are child psychiatrists.

…

Psychiatrist: So, can you describe what it looks like when Tim gets upset?
Catherine: Okay, his eyes change. Like he becomes a different person. He’s irrational. Sometimes he can get violent…but he never hurts anyone. And I don’t think he would, but he threatens to, and he breaks a lot of things.
Psychiatrist: How long do these episodes last. And how often do they last?
Catherine: It varies. It can happen several times a day and last for hours. I think the hardest part for me is when the rage is over. And he says he feels so terrible and he talks of dying. He’s not a bad kid. He’s the sweetest, kindest boy.
Psychiatrist: Well, he still is Catherine. He doesn’t want to misbehave. He’s in pain. I mean I just noticed in my sessions with him, his moods change rapidly. He has a very high anxiety level. And he knows that he can’t predict it, he can’t control it. So he doesn’t want to go anywhere. He doesn’t want to leave the house. I mean, that’s gotta be scary.
Henry: I don’t understand, doctor. This kid is taking up to 30 pills a day and he seems to be getting worse and worse. Now, there’s gotta be some medication out there that can fix all this.
Psychiatrist: You would think that, you would think this but there is no magic pill. And everyone reacts differently to every different medication.

…

Psychiatrist: Timothy has an illness. Do you really understand that? I think that he would thrive in a highly structured environment.
Catherine: What do you mean?
Psychiatrist: Well, you’ve said yourself the slightest change in schedule or disappointment can throw him off…It is humanly impossible for you to provide him with the structure that he needs in your home. He needs a therapeutic environment. He needs to be surrounded by professionals who can help him 24 hours a day.[/b]

A “residential treatment facility”. Which Catherine flat out rejects. At first.

Henry [after Caterine storms out of the room]: Let me ask you something. If this was your son, what would you do?
Psychiatrist: It’s hard, yeah. But I think if Tim were my son, I would…I’d put him into the residential treatment center.
Henry: How long are we talking about? And what are the costs?
Psychiatrist: Well, it’s about a year and it’s expensive. It’s in the six figures. It’s not nothing.

Maybe Obamacare will cover it.

[b]Tim [on his knees pleading]: Please , Mommy. Please. Please don’t send me away!! Mom! Mom!!

…

Kyle: Who’s going to tell Tim?

…

Title card: 1 in 5 children lives with a mental health condition, affecting 14 million children in the US alone. Only 20% of those diagnosed receive treatment. [/b]

Imagine being at the intersection of the American Dream and the Manson family.

How would you even begin to encompass it?

Here’s one way: Two brothers tour Charles Manson murder sites. One is a devoted family man. One is devoted to The Family.

After all, how do you really go about describing post-modern America unless you at least try to reconcile the two. Or argue that the two have absolutely nothing in common at all.

But Charles Manson [and explaining him] has always been somewhat of an obsession here in America:

Title card: In 1969, Charles Manson was imprisoned for orchestrating the notorious Tate-LaBianca murders. To this day, Manson remains a source of public fascination, receiving an estimated 60,000 letters each year.

Here are two brothers that, over the years, have become…estranged. One can hardly imagine them being more different. Nick being straight out of the heartland and Conrad being straight out of, well, it’s not the heartland that’s for sure.

Nick is as straight as they come, Conrad as crooked. Some will identitfy with one more than the other. And some [like me] will more or less identify with both. So, basically, this is an exploration into the the ties that bind. Or the lack of ties that don’t. It’s about how the past and present become inextricably intertwined in the dynamics of any one particular family. And families like this one are few and far between.

It’s that part bursing at the seams with dasein.

Anyway, can Charlie Manson reconcile the two? Or, perhaps, Blackbird and Sunshine?

On the other hand, is that something that anyone else would even care about?

Trust me: You’re gonna wonder just how much of this movie is based on what is in fact true about Manson and his followers today. For example, was the Conrad character based on any one of the children that Manson is said to have fathered? Is that part actually true?

Where are Manson’s kids now? laist.com/2007/10/30/where_are_manso.php

IMDb

[b]Was funded via a Kickstarter campaign, where it received $40,607, $607 more than the target: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickstarter

Charles Manson has been imprisoned since late 1969. Assuming 40-year-old Conrad was conceived before Manson was imprisoned, this film must take place in 2010 or earlier. [/b]

no wiki entry
trailer: youtu.be/geP6RMJRqOc

MANSON FAMILY VACATION [2015]
Written and directed by J. Davis

[b]Reporter [interviewing Manson in prison]: I’ve heard that you get a lot of letters from kids. Have you gotten these kind of visits and letters from kids that you don’t know?
Manson: Sure.
Reporter: Why do you think these kids write you?
Manson: Because I am those kids. I am a child. I never grew up. I never lived in your society. I never went to school. I never had a mother and father. I raised myself up.
Reporter: What do you think it is about you that makes people want to be a part of whatever it is you’re a part of?
[suddenly Manson leaps to his feet moving about frenetically, spasmodically]
Manson: I’m brand new. Everything I do is always brand new.

…

Amanda: You okay?
Nick: I’m good. Expect for the fact that our son Max is a sociopath.[/b]

Max it seems is obsessed – really obsessed – with death.

[b]Amanda: I think it’ll be fun. It’ll be the first time we’ve spent real quality time with him since…probably…well, probably our wedding.
Nick: Oh, my God.
Amanda: What?
Nick: The wedding gift that he gave us? That…thing.
Amanda: Oh. Oh, Fuck!

…

Conrad: You know Charles Manson?
Nick: Uh, yeah, I know who Charles Manson is.
Conrad: Well, there are these sites all around the city, um, that I was hoping we could go to. I have it all mapped out. It’s amazing 'cause, like, no one knows that, like, right there, you know, that’s the LaBianca house, you know. Or the Tate house.
Nick: Wait, these are the murder site houses?
Conrad: You… You’re acting so uptight, this is a thing people do.
Nick: No, they don’t. No, this is the thing that weird conspiracy people do. Trust me, I have friends that come into LA all the time. We’ve never…Manson has never even come up.

…

Nick [listening to a news report on the Manson murders]: "Charles Manson set into motion a wave of terror in Southern California. In two nights, Manson’s murderous spree took the lives of at least seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. Manson was portrayed as a guitar-playing ex-convict with a following of runaway young women, his so-called family members. The cult, or family, spoke of launching a holy war against the rich and the powerful. The Tate-LaBiance murders were bizarre and merciless. They triggered a public panic and raised the specter of drug-crazed youths slaughtering their victims at random.

…

Conrad [with Nick where the Sharon Tate house once used to be]: Oh, my God! This is probably the same pole that Tex climbed up. See, they thought there was gonna be an alarm, so he climbed up with wire cutters, and he snipped all the wires. He jumped over, and then right then there was this young kid driving away. He was just randomly there that night. Never been there before. And Tex, like, starts stabbing him through the window. But he scooches back, put his hands up. So Tex has to shoot him four times in the chest.
Nick: Okay. You know what? I’m gonna go back to the car.

…

Nick: Charles Manson killed people right here. You have to be fucking respectful about that.
Conrad: He wasn’t even here that night. He wasn’t at the Tate house or the LaBianca. He didn’t kill anyone.
Nick: Then why is he in jail for murder?
Conrad: Exactly! I mean, it was a fucking conspiracy…It’s because of his ideas. They couldn’t have someone that free being, living out amongst us, 'cause it would make everyone else feel like that.[/b]

Of course that isn’t entirely true, is it?

Conrad: So, wait, before we go, I got to tell you, um, this table that we’re sitting at…This very same table. This is the same booth that they ate at before they went home that night.
Nick: Who? What are you talking about?
Conrad: Sharon Tate and her friends. They ate here before that same night they went home. And then, Tex and the girls came.
Nick: Yeah, okay. Yeah. Got it. Got it. So that’s why we’re here.
Conrad: Oh, come on. It’s just a fun fact.
Nick: You think it’s a fun fact, but it’s not. I mean, it’s, like, really disturbing.
Conrad: Okay, I’m sorry, but I mean, it is something that I’ve been thinking about that…I mean, a lot of people ignore death, and it’s something to think about and not just shove away.
Nick: Are you… Do you hear yourself right now? I mean, you… You’re talking about not ignoring death, and embracing it.

See? How do you reconcile that?

[b]Conrad [to Nick]: This is the LaBianca house, man. Holy shit! Come on. Come on. I bet the kitchen is on this side, and the kitchen is key here, okay? Because that’s where they wrote on the fridge in blood, “Helter Skelter”.

…

Conrad [posing as the LaBianca’s grandson!]: I’m sure this is not a subject you’re fond of, but I was just wondering, you know, after what happened here, do you ever feel, like, you know, just creeped out, you know?
Janice: No. Not really. It is strange, knowing that Charles Manson was actually in the house.
Nick: Wait. What? Charles Manson was in the house?
Janice: Yes. He’s the one who broke in.
Nick [looking at Conrad]: That’s weird, because I had heard that Charles Manson was not a part of the murders at all.
Conrad: Well, no, he just came in and tied them up, but he wasn’t part of the murders.

…

Janice [to Conrad]: A horrible thing happened here! And you want to celebrate that?! Haven’t you ever lost anyone?

…

Nick: I personally think that you expected Dad to do everything for you as a kid. But, like… .
Conrad: No, just to love me, maybe.
Nick: He’s an army guy, all right? And he has, you know, he has that power thing, and that’s part of his setup. Like, you had to add that to that a little bit, if you want…
Conrad: That’s not love. That’s not raising someone to be their own person. That’s making a little fucking clone.
Nick: So, uh, so what, I’m dad’s little soldier? That’s basically how you see me?

…

Conrad [to Nick]: You know, Dad wasn’t the only one in the family who treated me like a fucking outcast, okay? You did your fair share of treating me like a piece of shit.

…

Manson [being interviewed in prison]: I’m just a messenger of the truth.
Reporter: God’s messenger?
Manson: Life’s messenger. But we use the word “God”. “God” hooks all the other words up. I’m the pope. I’m ten times the pope. I’m 50 times the pope. But I’m the pope in the hills and the mountains. I’m already out of here. This enclosure here? I’m out of here. My body is stuck here, but my thought is already gone.

…

Nick: What are you guys talking about?
Conrad: Oh, nothing, just hanging out, playing…
Max: We’re reading Helter Skelter. There’s really cool pictures of dead people.
[Nick, furious, drags Conrad out of the house]
Conrad: All right, before you start, I was just looking at the book, he asked me questions. He’s curious. What am I gonna fucking say?
Nick: You’re showing him dead bodies?
Conrad: I was trying to…
Nick: You’re showing him the Manson family? What else are you gonna show him?
Conrad: I’m sorry, but he’s the one who kept asking me questions.
Nick: He’s a child. He’s gonna want to do whatever you want to do. You just say no. If he wants to look at it you just say no. That’s what you do.
Conrad: Why? I’m not gonna fucking lie to him.
Nick: Why don’t you just open up Internet fucking porn and show him everything that’s out there.
[Conrad breaks out in a fit of laughter]
Nick: It’s not funny, dude. He’s having a really hard time and I don’t need you putting your shit on him.
Conrad: Okay. Well, why is he having a hard time?
Nick: “Why is he having a hard time?” He’s a child. Growing up is hard. People have hard times.
Conrad: Okay, yeah. It has nothing to do with like how you treat him?
Nick: You are so fucking clueless right now, you have no idea what you’re talking about…Oh, my God, dude. You are so fucking out of touch with reality. I can’t even deal with it.
Conrad: Yeah, fuck you.

…

Nick [after Conrad puts a CD in the car stereo]: Who’s this?
Conrad: Is it okay?
Nick: Yeah, it’s pretty good.
Conrad: It’s Charlie. That’s him singing! Oh, it was his main thing. He was so into music. That’s what he wanted to do. Like, in LA, he knew Neil Young, and like, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys really liked him. He was so close to getting a record contract…

…

Conrad [motioning toward a man in the bar]: That’s Blackbird. That’s him. I’m gonna check it out.
Nick: Why is this girl in the photograph wearing a Manson t-shirt?
Conrad: Is she?
Nick: Yeah. She’s wearing the same t- shirt that you had on.
Conrad: I…I hadn’t noticed that. I’m gonna just go over and talk to him.
Nick: Wait, wait a second. What the fuck is going on?

…

Nick: You’re coming out here to work with Charles Manson?
Conrad: Dude.
Nick: See, I knew.
Conrad: I fucking bring up Charles Manson and you fucking freak out.
Nick: Everybody freaks out! Everybody freaks out when you bring up Charles Manson!

…

Conrad: Holy shit. Is that what I think it is?
Blackbird: Sure is.
Conrad: Oh, God.
Nick: What is it?
Blackbird: It’s the bus. The Manson family bus.

…

Blackbird: Charlie drove everywhere in this bus. Drove all over California, stopped by the side of the road, picked up kids that had been kicked out of their homes, you know.
Conrad: Yeah. He helped a lot of people.
Blackbird: You know, this world is more of a mess now even than it was then. We got these guys down at Washington, can’t get out of their own way. Rich people, snacking on the poor. We got fire coming out of our water faucets 'cause of all the fracking that’s going on. We got fish belly-up in the rivers and streams. We do a lot of talking about it. But we’re not doing very much about any of those things.

…

Blackbird: You know, maybe you don’t know this, but old Charlie, he had quite a few kids. And they locked him up and they took all the kids away. And they put them with new families. Like yours.
Nick: Yeah, I think my parents would have known. I mean, they have to reveal that legally.
Blackbird: They didn’t reveal anything back then. Nothing. Conrad was a ward of the state and he was adopted just like a normal kid.
[he points to a photo on the wall]
Blackbird: See that baby? That’s your brother.

…

Man: Hey, Conrad, Charlie’s on the phone.

…

Nick [to Conrad]: Dad was right about you.

…

Nick: I wanna see my brother.
Sunshine: I don’t think he wants to see you.
Nick [shouting into the house]: Connie!
Sunshine: He went to visit Charlie. Connie’s dad.

…

Reporter [interveiwing Manson in prison]: Somewhere out there, there’s at least one son, that we know of, that’s your child. Look in that camera. What would you say to that kid? What do you say to your son out there? This could be the first time he’s ever seeing his father. What do you say to him?
Manson: You gotta catch it on your own, boy. Train’s hard. The road’s rough.
Reporter: And that’s it?
Manson: That’s all I knew. That’s all anyone ever told me. And you wanna hear something? He’ll do it better than me. Whatever he does. He’ll do it a little better. Kids do, don’t they? Yeah. That’s what makes them such a gas. They always seem to get through.[/b]

Billy Loomis: Movies don’t create psycho’s; movies make psycho’s more creative.

Scream is perhaps Wes Craven’s best movie. And, going further, I’d rank Scream above films like the original Star Wars and Terminator 2 (but not the first Terminator).

Two things first. This is a very long movie. Three hours and sixteen minutes. And it won the Palm d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. It is the longest film ever to win this award.

So, it is well worth the time it takes to watch it.

Winter Sleep: Hibernation.

Now, unlike bears, human beings do not hibernate for the winter. Not literally. But in some parts of the world the winters are long and hard enough to keep folks “shut in” – shut into the confines of one or another sense of isolation. In this instance, in a hotel located in “the steppes of the Central Anatolia region of Cappadocia, Turkey.”

And that’s all it takes for those who harbor any number of resentments towards those sharing the same “inescapable shelter”. Everything comes to the surface.

In one sense this film explores the dynamics of a relationship in which the “family arguments” come and go and are “resolved” not by the most reasonable frame of mind propounded [whatever that might be] but by the one most skilled in the art of rhetoric. And Aydin [the consummate narcissist] was once an actor. He knows his way around a stage. And, on a stage, performance is everything.

And in a world shrunk down basically to family/village interactions – interactions bursting at the seams with ressentiment – “winning” often revolves around things other than whatever the particular “truth” might be.

And then that ever ubiquitous tug of war between that which you really think and feel and how instead you are forced to embody a persona in your relationships with others. The turmoil inside and the age-old scripts that we adapt/adopt in order to keep everything from just exploding.

But: What is this but one tiny slice of the historical and cultural pie. Each of us as individuals will react to it all based on our own particular historical and cultural prejudices…on our own particular experiences reflected in [and derived from] our own particular world.

Still, it is a film in which intelligent and articulate men and women go about the business of exploring that which I think is the most important question of all: How ought one to live?

And, in particular, one gains insight into why some segments of the Muslim population today might wish to retain the ways of old. Back then there was always a place for everyone and everyone always knew their place. Not so in our post-modern world. No one is really at all sure how one ought to live. And even though the village here is way out in the sticks, modern communication technology and the internet create a whole new dynamic.

Above all, it depicts [in this day and age] the sheer futility of human communication when, in any number of contexts, we can only understand another up to a point. Then everything becomes entangled in enormously complex points of view. At least among those who venture down below the surface of human interactions.

Look for the part that is all about class. About those who have and those who don’t. And how that becomes intertwined in this whole new world.

IMDb

[b]Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan revealed that he had more than 200 hours of material and his original cut was 4 hours 30 minutes. He then “worked hard” to make it down to 3 hours 15 minutes.

Winter Sleep was inspired by the short stories of Chekhov, as well as works by Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Voltaire.

Turkish director Ceylan is being sued for alleged animal cruelty as one of the horses was tortured during capture. The Law for the Protection of Animals in Turkey stipulates various fines for those who commit animal cruelty. A draft code that was submitted to the Turkish Parliament this month calls for jail time for those who abuse animals.

Despite being husband and wife, Aydin and Nihal don’t so much as touch each other once throughout the entire film, likely a deliberate decision from the filmmakers to show how distant the two are to each other, both emotionally and physically.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Sleep_(film
trailer: youtu.be/gywsSqeABuw

WINTER SLEEP [Kis Uykusu] 2014
Written in part and directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

[b]Ismail [to Hidayet]: Cut it out. You took our fridge and TV for a lousy rent. Isn’t that enough? Now you’re hassling a kid?

…

Hamdi: Your window is broken and we’ll pay for it. We’ll pay the rent too as soon as we can. We haven’t forgotten. God willing, I’ll bring it to you in person. We are just having a hard time.
Hidayet: We’re not here for that. That’s a a different issue. [/b]

Of course it’s not a different issue at all. And then the part where Allah gets factored in. And Marx too.

[b]Aydin: It’s not about wealth and poverty. Poverty existed in the past, too. If you only have three olives, you can place them nicely on a plate, or gobble them out of a plastic bag.
Necla: I know what you mean.
Aydin: I told you we went to the hodja’s? You know, our tenant. If you saw how filthy it was, how messy.
Necla: Did you go in?
Aydin: No, the garden. They’ve ruined it. First of all you are a man of God. You should be a model to your community. Shouldn’t you be neat and tidy?

…

Aydin [to Necla]: My kingdom may be small but at least I’m the king here.

…

Necla [to Aydin]: Sometimes on the internet some awful writers get praised to high heaven. Everyone has their fans somewhere. That’s why I think one shouldn’t take such praise from the locals so seriously.

…

Aydin: I must say that you surprised me, Nihal.
Nihal: Why?
Aydin: Well, because thanks to you this hotel has been run like a charity for years.
Nihal: What are you trying to say?
Aydin: Well, when a chronic philanthropist, who has helped almost every school in the area, opposes this idea so firmly, I fail to understand.
Nihal: What is there to understand? It’s a matter of urgency. There are primary school with leaky roofs and rotten windows, little kids studying with their gloves on. Isn’t it more logical to solve those problems first? We’ve been collecting donations for this for a long time now. But it never attracted your attention. So I don’t understand your sudden charity.[/b]

The trials and tribulations of the well-off: Who to help first?

Suavi: You know all this poverty and hardship is like a natural disaster. In a sense, it’s the will of God. You can’t fight destiny.
Aydin: But God also gave us the intelligence to fight such things.
Suavi: That’s true. However there are people specially created for those tasks. You should leave those tasks to them. You’re a creative man, you are an artist. Why bother yourself with such things? Stick to your own work.

Again, there is a rationalization for any behavior.

[b]Aydin: Have you asked Ilyas why he did it?
Hamdi: Yes, of course, I asked him.
Aydin: And what did he say?
Hamdi: Well, Mr Aydin, the kid was upset by the bill collector, so he went and did a stupid thing. Especially seeing his father get beaten up.
Aydin: Beaten up?
Hamdi: When the debt collectors came, Ismail tried to stop them obviously. And the police were there. So things got out of hand.

…

Aydin: Now, Hamdi, listen…I’ve got various houses and shops in town. If I tried to look after all of them myself, I’d have no time to work on my books and articles. So I let Hidayet and the lawyers deal with the rents and the lawsuits. I often don’t know what they are doing. And if they tell me, I tend to forget…I wasn’t even aware you were my tenants. When the rent is not paid, lawyers do these things automatically.[/b]

The part embedded in Allah, the part embedded in Marx: To evict or not to evict Ismail. Of course Aydin punts it to Hidayet and “the lawyers”. Seque then to this…

[b]Aydin [to Necla, reading from his column]: “In a country with a 99% Muslim population, don’t people deserve men of God. Men who are cultivated, neat, whose very presence is reassuring? The weekly sermon is prepared by our imams and will be heard with pleasure and admiration and will elevate the people. Islam is a religion of civilization and high culture.”

…

Necla: If we were to make this idea of not resisting evil the basis of our behavior, what kind of life would we have?
Aydin: What kind of life? Thieves, murderers, psychos would prosper. Chaos would reign everywhere.
Necla: What would be left then?
Aydin: Cripples and madhouses.
Necla: Maybe you’re right. But I couldn’t take the easy way out like you do.[/b]

For example by excluding the act of sending “debt collectors” out to beat up a tenant unable to pay the rent. No evil there to resist, right? To wit:

[b]Necla [at the dinner table]: Maybe we’re fooling ourselves when we’re fighting evil. As if we didn’t want to look at every aspect, we hide some.

…

Nihal: It’s easy to understand what Nacla is saying. She says if something bad is done to us, by not resisting, the evildoer may be sorry and give up.
Aydin: Is that possible?
Nihal: That’s not the question. I’m just saying one could try.
Aydin: So the Jews should deport themselves so that Hitler doesn’t get tired? He says, “Here they are, no point in gassing them”?
Nihal: You are joking?
Aydin: No, that is how I understand it. Help evildoers do evil so they stop doing evil. Never heard such nonsense before.

…

Necla: I wonder what would have happened if I had behaved differently with Nectet.
Nihal: You mean, if you hadn’t resisted all the bad things he did, he would’ve finally felt ashamed?
Necla: Yes. Exactly. You put it well. I know it sounds absurd, but it isn’t, believe me.
Nihal: I’m sorry, Necla, but I find that hard to believe. People don’t change that much after a certain age. On the contrary, all their bad habits get even worse. So being silent in the face of evil does nothing but make the other feel even more justified.

…

Necla [more or less to herself]: Those petty, multiple-meaning, sarcastic words…and those little cynical lip movements. I realize how sick I am of it, how much I hate it.

…

Aydin: Maybe she reads my articles in secret.
Necla: I believe she does. She’s an expert at criticizing by remaining silent.

…

Necla: In the old days, we admired you. We thought you’d do great things, become quite famous even. But it didn’t happen.
Aydin. Hmm. The elephant gave birth to a mouse. Sorry to disappoint you.
Necla: It’s obviously not your fault. It’s us who set the bar too high.

…

Aydin: What about “Flowers of the Steppes”?
Necla: To be honest, that’s the article that actually made me think like this.
Aydin: Really? In what way?
Necla: How can I put it? This soppy romanticism. This naive, unconvincing self-belief. Takes no risk, for one thing. It looks like the writer adopts positive values accepted by all, just to endear himself. Sometimes the disguise of lyricism makes it stink of sentimentality.
Aydin: But dear, you’re not coming up with coherent, constructive criicism. Like your remarks are always hiding something. That’s what’s annoying. So I get to thinking it’s me you hate, not the articles.

…

Aydin: Religion, morals, this and that. Nothing of your interest.
Necla [of Hamdi and Ismail]: Now I see. You found a victim and you’re making the most of it. Stop harrassing the poor man.
Aydin: Necla, I’m losing my temper. What does it have to do with it?
Necla: I should ask what religion, faith, spirituality have to do with you? Have you ever set foot in a mosque? Have you ever prayed?

…

Necla [to Aydin but more to herself]: I wish my threshold of self-deception was as low as yours. Then I could easily find things worth doing and escape this boredom perhaps.

…

Necla [more to herself]: I can’t believe how I left a place like Istanbul and agreed to come and live with you. My soul’s withering here.
Aydin: I feel at home wherever my books are. I feel no need for another place. You must be able to create a world for yourself…you’re bored because yoiu sit around doing nothing. Of course you’re bored. We must work, have a passion.
Necla: It depends on your definition of “working”. It doesn’t mean running around pointlessly.

…

Necla: Nihal. She walks around like she was a guardian angel, but in reality, she doesn’t do shit. Glaring at people with that contemptuous look.
Aydin: Are we both now guilty because you do nothing? Do something. Nobody’s stopping you.

…

Necla [of Nihal]: Philanthropy isn’t tossing a bone to a hungry dog, it’s sharing when you are just as hungry.

…

Aydin: Look who’s talking about realism. Dealing with art, struggling for people’s spiritual development…it’s “alchemy”, you say.
Necla: No dear, what I am saying is this: If all you thinkers thought about solving the big problems all this trivia you fuss about now would solve itself in the process. If you go up in a balloon to see a town, you’ll incidentally see the trees, rivers and meadows too. But no, you focus on one tiny spot. Lazy, cowardly, conservative. But no one has the courage to face the truth. If you’re looking for something more real, you’ll have to be destructive when necessary, dear Aydin. But since you’re an actor, you forget about being real, being yourself. You jump from one personality to another, like a grasshopper.
Aydin: So, you want me to be realistic? Alright, listen, then. You’re a person sentenced to loneliness and bordom for life. Because you’re a coward, because you’re lazy. You’re used to living like a parasite expecting everyone to help you. You act as though the whole world owes you something…Thinking more important than action? Ha ha ha. There we go. The age old excuse of cowards and slackers.[/b]

Nobody ever wins these arguments. And yet to be human is to engage them. And that’s more or less my point, isn’t it?

[b]Aydin: I heard that you raised funds here last night.
Nihal: Yes, we did. So what?
Aydin: Why didn’t you tell me?
Nihal: Did I have to?
Aydin: You didn’t have to, but I would have appreciated it. I might have wanted to make a significant contribution.
Nihal: I don’t think that is a good idea. We’re doing fine on our own. We don’t need you, thanks.
Aydin: Come on, one always needs more. After all, I’m a wealthy man.
Nihal: Nobody expects anything from you.
Aydin: From you neither, darling. Yet you created a huge committee in our house without me knowing. Didn’t you?
Nihal: Aydin, listen to me please. We’ve lived in peace for two years, each to his own affairs. What’s suddenly changed? Yesterday your aim was to humiliate me and my guests. Think I didn’t notice?
Aydin: Me? Never even crossed my mind.

…

Aydin: Nihal, my darling. You haven’t got tired of banging the same drum for years. As if I’m keeping you here by force. I’ve never stopped you, have I? Go whenever you like. Maybe you should. Try it. Find a job at the minimum wage. From 8 to 6. After work, you can go on saving the world, if you have energy left.
Nihal: I’ll do it if necessary. Much better than wasting my life living like a parasite with an arrogant man like you. Thanks to you, I’m drifting in vain here. I’m sponging off you. I spend your money. But I pay for it with my freedom and my useless loyalty. Do you know how donating even a little of someone else’s money feels?
Aydin: No, I don’t. And why? Because I’ve worked like a dog all my life not to know. [/b]

Nobody ever wins these arguments either. But it helps to be the one with all the loot.

Aydin [regarding the donations for the needy school]: Nihal, let’s be reasonable. Don’t you trust my experience, my honesty?
Nihal: I’m still not sure what you are after.
Aydin: What could I possibly be after? I’m just trying to prevent any problems for my family. I have a right, don’t I?..Now, let me see the donations and your expenses.

The gap between the best of intentions and the rigors of the law.

[b]Aydin: You once told me that if I could change some of my behavior, you would forgive me completely. Remember? Which means for you I am guilty of something. Therefore, calmly and briefly, in terms I can understand, I ask you to tell me what I am guilty of. What have I done to you? Is it that you are young, beautiful and would like to live your own life? I’m much older than you and you hate me for that? Is that my guilt? I never forced you to marry me. I never restricted your freedom. You live as you wish, independently in your part of the house. You have even set up a huge committee here. If you want even more freedom, it’s yours. No one’s stopping you. I mean it. If you want a divorce, I won’t stop you.
Nihal: I don’t want anything like that. Of course I wanted to marry you. It’s not that I’m young and you’re old…or I could love someone else if I were free. I always felt that I was older than you anyway. But you are an unbearable man. You are selfish, spiteful, cynical. That’s what you are guilty of.

…

Nihal: You’re actually a well-educated, honest, fair and conscienctious man. Generally you are like that. I won’t deny it. But you sometimes use those virtues to suffocate people, to crush and humiliate them. Your high principles make you hate the world. You hate believers, because for you, believing is a sign of underdevelopment and ignorance. But you also hate non-believers for their lack of faith or ideals. You dislike the old for being conservative bigots and not thinking freely. And you dislike the young for thinking freely and abandoning the traditions. You defend the virtues of community. But you suspect everyone of being a thief or a bandit. [/b]

Sounds like another rendition of my own dilemma.

[b]Nihal [to Aydin]: In the past, you stopped us splitting up, using various methods. I was too young to leave. I didn’t have the courage or the money. Or anywhere better to go. But didn’t you feel any remorse seeing a young, healthy, proud, lively woman wither away in emptiness, boredom and fear? In our first years, I felt fear. Now I feel ashamed.

…

Aydin: You wouldn’t know, but people like me who grew up in villages with not even electricity, understand the joy and pleasure of being in a small, warm, cozy room like this, listening to my wife, even if she is screaming in my face how bad I am. Our youth was very dull, Nihal. We didn’t know how to be happy. So we may not know how to make others happy. But as I said we had no bad intentions. We set out with good intentions, pure, innocent dreams. We wanted a better life and society.
Nihal: Sorry, but I don’t believe you. I’ve heard it all before. You’re not on stage anymore. We all start with good intentions. But as you said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So all this means nothing. All those fine words mean nothing to me now. When you start talking like this I feel you’re pulling a trick to get your way. I have never understood what you really want from me. Even so, I’ll ask you one more time. Whatever you call my activity, self-deception or feminine logic, leave me alone. Because that is my only consolation.
Aydin: Nihal, darling. You’re a good-hearted, smart, rational, sensible woman. Everything you say and do is very reasonable. It really is. But not seeing a man for what he is, idolizing him like a god, and then being mad at him because he’s not a god. Do you think that’s fair? I wish I were the successful, charismatic actor you dreamed of. But I am not. I’m a simple man. And what’s worse, I’d like to stay that way.

…

Aydin: I suggest you work with people who are conscientious, principled and have moral sense. One day, you’ll understand better.
Nihal: Conscience. Morals. Ideals. Principles. The purpose of life. You’re always saying those words. The words you always use to humiliate, hurt, or denigrate someone. But if you ask me, if someone uses these words this much, he’s the one to suspect.

…

Aydin [to Levent]: Is it fair to accuse me just because we have a few bucks? Did I create this world? That’s how the system is. This is how God created it. What can I do about it? Justice doesn’t even exist in nature. So why should it exist here?

…

Levent: I would like to quote Shakespeare, by way of a conclusion. “Conscience is but a word that cowards use devised at first to keep the strong in awe.
[suddenly he slams his hand down on the table]
Levent: Our strong arms be our conscience, swords are laws.”

…

Aydin [voiceover, looking up at Nihal]: Nihal, I didn’t go away. I couldn’t. Whether it’s because I’ve grown old, or I’ve gone mad, or because I’ve become a different man, think what you’d like. I just don’t know. But this new man inside me for a few days won’t let me go away. Please don’t ask me to do either. I now understand that nothing is calling me to Istanbul. Everything is alien to me there, as it is everywhere else. I want you to know that I have no one but you. And I miss you every minute, every second that goes by. But my pride will never let me tell you this. I know how terrible or impossible it would be to part from you. Just as I know that you do not love me anymore. I know we can’t go back to the old days. And there is no need to. Take me with you like a servant, like a slave. And let us continue our life, even if we do it your way. Forgive me.[/b]

What we are not privy to are the thoughts of Nihal. Just a shot of Aydin sitting at his desk [as he always does] and then a shot of Nihal sitting forlornly alone in a room.

There have been countless numbers of love triangles depicted on film. And the consequences of them are more or less predictable. Up to and including murder.

And yet it is when there are children involved that our reactions are often most swollen. And that is because children are always innocent. And when they are wrenched back and forth – a pawn in what can become a deadly, despicable game – it all becomes that much more excruciating.

Here? Well, remember that scene from Fatal Attraction when Anne Archer arrives to pick up her daughter from school only to find that Glenn Close beat her to it? That was another “love triangle”, wasn’t it? But not all of them involve psychopaths. Still, enough of them do involve men and women who are, for all practically purposes, close enough. The two films are very similar. Only the wolf here is particularly monstrous.

Then the part that Nietzsche made famous: beware that when you go to slay the monster you do not become a monster too.

Or, instead, is Rosa more a sociopath? And which is worse?

What we get here are “stories” of what happened. But more then just points of view because we can never really be certain if the stories being told are actually true. Which takes us down into the labyrinths that come to embody human motivation and intention. Only here the complications become intertwined in a truly bizarre trajectory. Talk about the law of unintended consequences.

The opening shot depicts [dimly, at a distance] the famous statue of Jesus Christ seeming to sweep all of Rio de Janeiro unto His bosom. But: Where He might fit into a story such as this I can only leave up to you.

This one is said to be “based on real events.” But the film is so tiny it is barely given a mention at all at sites like wiki. So there is no reference provided to the “real world”. We can only speculate on just how big the gap might be here.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wolf_at_the_Door_(film
trailer: youtu.be/egay1wVJ1eE

A WOLF AT THE DOOR [O Lobo Atrás da Porta] 2013
Written and directed by Fernando Coimbra

[b]Teacher: You just missed her.
Sylvia: What do you mean?
Teacher: Clara already left with Sheila.
Sylvia: What Sheila?
Teacher: You called, said you were sick and that your neighbor was coming to pick her up.
Sylvia: I’m not sick, I didn’t call today. What Sheila? I don’t have a neighbor called Sheila.
Teacher: What? What do you mean?
Sylvia: Where’s my daughter?!

…

Detective: Who was the woman who fetched the girl instead of her mother?
Teacher: Oh God, there are so many mothers calling me, all the time, there’s no way to be sure it’s really them talking!
Detective: You have to have a way of knowing if what they say is true! How can you hand over a child to a complete stranger, in a city like Rio de Janerio.[/b]

But then this:

Teacher: Listen she wasn’t a stranger, OK? The girl ran over to her, jumped into her arms, all friendly like.

In other words, the other woman. The woman that Sylvia knows nothing about.

Detective: And what is your relationship with this woman, Rosa Maria Correa?
[Bernardo just stares at him]
Detective: Is she your lover?

But then the plot really thickens…

[b]Detective: Where’s the girl?
Rosa: I don’t know. It’s the truth. I only did what I was told. God, I gave her to another woman. That’s all. She asked me to, and I did it. I didn’t so anything with that girl, I swear.
Detective: Another woman?
Rosa: Yeah.
Detective: What woman?

…

Woman: My man is cheating on me with some bitch. And she’s married…a real slut. And the two-timers meet when her husband is out to meet his girlfriend, and I don’t have to tell you who that is. Right honey?
Rosa: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Woman: I know you’re Bernardo’s lover, so don’t give me that. But that’s your problem, it’s none of my business. The problem is Sylvia, his wife. [/b]

It’s just amazing how many different directions these things can go.

[b]Detective: I asked you in because I need more details of your involvemnt with Rosa, a few things I don’t understand.
Bernardo: It’s a routine affair. These things happen. Sex without any involvement, that sort of thing. Routine. Men do things like that…They’re like…unavoidable. It’s what happens to us. You know what I am talking about, right?
Detective: No. No, I don’t, Bernardo.

…

Rosa [in a flashback]: I never knew it was so easy to buy a gun.
Bernardo: What are you talking about?
Rosa: Yeah. I thought that you had to have a gun permit, right? Should be.
Bernardo: What do you mean, you’re thinking of buying a gun?
Rosa: I already did.
Bernardo [chuckling]: You bought a gun?
Rosa: Yeah. A revolver. Real small, you know? A woman’s gun.

…

Detective: Bernardo, is there anything else you’d like to add, something I should know?
Bernardo [after a long pause]: There’s one thing, but I don’t think it is important…I got this call, not long ago, from a woman. She said her husband, her boyfriend…according to her, was my wife’s lover, Sylvia’s lover.That they’d meet in the afternoons when I was at work, but I didn’t give it much though. I’m sure it was something Rosa made up. That she got some friend of hers to call and hassle me.

…

Detective [to Rosa]: Here inside the station, things can get ugly. We get somebody innocent, beat them up and congressmen, NGOs, human rights groups, they all coming beating down the door, making a lot of noise. But then every now and then, we get lucky and get some tramp, a criminal, like you, nobody feels sorry for, no way. In other words, I can do whatever I want with you to make you tell me what I want to know. I can break a couple of your teeth, your fingers, nobody is going to complain. You know why? Because, happily, in this country, in this city, rapists, people who beat up old folks, mistreat children, abuse chldren…People will be beating at our door wanting to lynch them.

…

Friend of Bernardo [at work]: He left already. His wife called and he had to take care of…
Rosa: What wife?
Friend of Bernardo: His wife.
Rosa: He’s married?
Friend of Bernardo: As married as can be.

…

Rosa [to Bernardo]: I don’t like lies…

…

Bernardo: I think the whole world is going to end today.
Rosa: You think your wife is getting suspicious?
Bernardo: Yes.
Rosa: And she accepts it?
Bernardo: In a way, she won’t have sex with me at home.
Rosa: Aren’t you afraid she’ll find a lover too?
Bernardo: Sylvia? I doubt it.
Rosa: I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you.

…

Rosa: May I cut a lock of your hair?
Clara: What for?
Rosa: To remember you by.

…

Man’s voice: The defendant, Rosa Maria Correa, also stated she does not regret what she did and does not want to talk about it. When asked how she got the gun, she said that buying one was easier than she imagined. She stated that she has no interest in what will happen to her. She said she didn’t want a lawyer nor any form of defense, being aware of what she did and requests no pardon. That’s all she said.[/b]

Lives can fall apart. They can begin to disintegrate for any number of reasons. Why? Because the trials and the tribulations that might descend down upon any one of us might come from any number of directions. A crisis for example. Your health, your relationships, your finances, your will to live.

And this is but one more film in which a man is driven existentially to this particular fork in the road. He is forced to choose a direction that will either makes things better or make things worse.

And that always involves options. Or in being able to spot them. Or [in this case] being able to create them.

But that can only really be understood from within the framework of a particular context.

And this is a context like few others. One, for example, that is bursting at the seams with… controversy. Particularly in this day and age. In other words, how will you react to their relationship: He is a 47 year old man, she is an 11 year old child.

What’s appropriate? What’s inappropriate? And what is just downright creepy?

He more or less kidnaps her. And she more or less agrees to go along. She’s 11, but in many respects she is mature beyond her years. Otherwise the film makes no sense at all. And it would certainly be a lot more disturbing.

All the more spooky are the stories that David tells of his past. You’re not really sure what to believe…or how they are related to his behavior now. Or the part with Tommie in the bathtub. Or the scene where Tommie watches David and Linny having sex.

Or the ending: Does he stop the car or not?

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_(2015_American_film
trailer: youtu.be/jCCGvq9QWWU

LAMB [2015]
Written in part and directed by Ross Partridge

[b]David: You can make yourself somethin’ decent to eat. Something healthy.
Dad: Meatloaf. And a little bit of gin. Gin too much to ask for a man dying alone here?

…

David: Hey, Dad. I need to ask you something.
Dad: Leave me alone. I got no answers.

…

David: You know, your friends are over there, laughing at you. You know that, don’t you? I’m gonna give you a little tip. Something that you can hold on to forever.
Tommie: What?
David: I’ll even give you this whole pack of cigarettes. In exchange, you let me play a little trick on your friend, Syd. Teach her a lesson for doing this to you.
Tommie: What kind of trick?
David: Let’s scare them. Let’s pretend I’m kidnapping you, okay?

…

David [to Tommie]: You should know better. I could be taking you somewhere to kill you right now. Your friends should know better. It was a very dumb thing for you to do to be coming up to me like that…Look, I’m sorry. I’m not a bad guy, but I could’ve been.

…

David: Maybe this should be our last outing for a while.
Tommie: Why? 'Cause it’s weird?
David: Yeah, 'cause it’s weird.

…

David: You really wanna see those mountains?
Tommie: Yeah.
David: I mean, you wanna go with me?
Tommie: Sure.
David: A secret trip in your secret life. You finally get your camping trip.
Tommie: For how long?
David: Just a week. Not even two Mondays. I’ll bring you back before anyone starts to worry. We’re not gonna tell anybody where we went. You’ll have to swear to God.
Tommie: Swear to God.
David: You promise?
Tommie: I promise.

…

Tommie [in a hotel room]: Can I come with you to the store?
David: No.
Tommie: Why?
David: I want you to spend some time here alone. You remember how to get home from here, more or less?
[he takes money out of his wallet and puts it on the nightstand]
David: That’s for a cab ride home.
Tommie: I don’t wanna go home.
David: Look, I want you to think about this, okay? I want you to take an hour, so think about this really hard, whether or not you wanna stay here and wait for me. This will look a lot like a kidnapping to other people. Right?
Tommie: Oh.
David: Here you are with a stranger in a hotel room.
Tommie: But you’re not a stranger.
David: Yeah, I know, but maybe this makes you feel a little funny.
Tommie: It doesn’t.
David: I’m 47 and you’re 11.

…

Tommie: What if I wanna go back, like, at a certain point…later?
David: Well, we’ll put you on a plane and get you home. All you have to do is say the word.

…

David: We have to do a better job of understanding the world around us.
Tommie: Don’t do that. Jesse does that.
David: Does what?
Tommie: Says “we” when he means “me.”

…

David: Look…I know your mom’s worried, but how about we send her a postcard, okay? It’ll be such a relief to her to know that you’re out here in the world, having so much fun. And she’ll love you more than ever and you’ll love her more than ever. Right? Hey. There’s room in your heart for more love, okay?
Tommie: Okay.

…

David: We have to get you to the bath, cool you down. I don’t want it to burn.
Tommie: No! I don’t want a bath!
David: I’m just gonna put you in the bath…
Tommie: I don’t want a bath!
David: We have to rinse it off. Come on.
Tommie: No!
David: Okay, look. Just gonna rinse you off so we can get you cleaned up so you can sleep better, okay?
Tommie: Go away!
David: You have to get out of your clothes so we can rinse you off!
Tommie: Go away!
David: Can you give me your shirt so we can…
Tommie: Go away!
David: Give me your shirt so we can rinse you off, Tommie. Okay? Just give me your shirt, so we can rinse you off.
Tommie: Go away. Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away! Go away! I wanna go home!

…

Mr. Foster: Ain’t much of a place for a girl.
Tommie: I like it.
Mr. Foster: Yeah, well, a girl don’t get to choose where she lands, does she?

…

Tommie: Will you miss me when you take me back?
David: No hard questions. Let’s just enjoy the morning.

…

Tommie: You think my mom called the police by now?
David: Honestly? Yeah. Yeah, I do.
Tommie: Are you gonna get in trouble?
David: No.
Tommie: How do you know?
David: You don’t have to worry. This is gonna be good for everybody. There’ll be a new light about you. And you’ll know about this country’s secret heart. And you’ll be drenched in it. It’s gonna get all over everybody.
Tommie: Okay.

…

David: What would’ve happened if I didn’t react like an angry uncle? What do you think Mr. Foster would’ve thought of a man letting his niece drink a beer like that?
Tommie: I don’t know.
David: It’s child abuse, Tommie. And I would’ve gone to jail. Then the police would’ve figured out who you are and where you belong. How do you think they would’ve reacted to that at home?
Tommie: Not good.

…

David [to Tommie]: When you get older you start to appreciate how short life is. And you feel it in your bones. Now, when that happens, everyone becomes ageless.

…

David [to Tommie]: Listen to me. This is the biggest test. Foster was nothing compared to this. If they come and go without you being seen, then I won’t get in trouble, all right?
Tommie: How did they know you were here?
Linny [from outside the house]: David?

…

David: You’re not even at all angry with me?
Linny: Do you want me to be?
David: I think I want somebody to be.
Linny: Well, you can’t go around and just make people angry so you know where you stand.
David: I think I might be an awful person. I think the whole world’s out there eying on something really wonderful. And I don’t know what it is. I can’t be part of it.

…

Tommie: Hide?
David: Hide!

…

Tommie [the morning after she sees Linny and David making love]: No! No! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!
David: Tommie!
Tommie: I’m just a kid to you!

…

David: If you discover that one day you hate me and you’re angry with me and that I’ve ruined your life, at any time, if I’m 90, you’ll tell me, won’t you?
Tommie: Gary…
David: You’ll buy a pair of steel-toed boots and you will find me all alone and dried up and sick in a nursing home and you’ll kick my fucking teeth in.
Tommie: Please don’t say that.
David: You will outgrow me. You will forget everything.
Tommie: No, I won’t.

…

Tommie [weeping]: Maybe…
David: What, sweetheart?
Tommie: Maybe we can tell everyone. I think… I think they would understand. Because…Because it’s love, right?
David: Oh, sweetheart. Remember what we said about keeping each other safe? A love like ours is expensive, right? Think of it that way. We pay for it by not seeing each other.
Tommie: Can’t we just… Can’t we just go get a coffee or something?
David: I’m sorry, sweetheart. This is the last chapter.

…

David [to Tommie]: Don’t ever forget this hurt. Don’t ever forget the things that we’ve seen together. 'Cause it’ll save you. You will be an apple tree among all the ash-colored buildings of this city. You just need to close your eyes take a deep breath and listen. Listen to the rain and the wind. All that rushing through you. That’ll be me whispering to you. I’ll be with you this way.[/b]

Nade sets out to teach her students a lesson. A lesson in honesty. A lesson in integrity. A lesson in “doing the right thing”. And that is because Nade is described as someone who is in possession of a “deep-rooted moral and ethical compass”.

But what is the source of this rectitude? Is it rooted in a particular set of circumstances that, if changed, will bring it all tumbling down?

In other words, as some learn the hard way, there is what one ought to do “theoretically” and there is what one may find they are driven to do if a particular set of circumstances becomes dire enough. For example, when your shiftless, unemployed husband has been spending your mortgage money on booze. And now the powers that be are after your home.

And Bulgaria now plays by the rules of capitalism. And having “a deep-rooted moral and ethical compass” doesn’t mean shit to the bank. And even considerably less to the loan shark.

And this is basically what we witness here: that to which desperation will drive even the most upright soul.

Let’s face it, in this day and age the most important lesson of all is the role that money [or the lack thereof] can play in motivating you to behave either one way or the other. Beyond good and evil as it were. Especially if you have the responsibility of being the parent of a 4 year old. You can will yourself to do almost anything to keep her life intact

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lesso … arian_film
trailer: youtu.be/SCIQvmTMQr0

THE LESSON [Urok] 2014
Written and directed by Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

[b]Nade [who teaches English in an elementary school in a small town outside Sofia]: Katya, will you please come to the chalkboard and read this sentence.
Katya: “Somebody has just stolen my wallet”.
Nade: That’s right.
[she turns to the class]
Nade: Now I want you to all place your backpacks on the desks. Turn your pockets inside out. Put all your money here at the end of the desk.
[she turns back to Katya]:
Nade: Katya, check everybody’s backpacks.

…

Nade [to the class after Katya finds no wallet]: I’m giving 10 stotinki and I’m asking each one of you to give 10 stotinki too so that we can collect money for Katya to get a snack. This way the thief will owe the money to the whole class.

…

Katya [who is more embarrassed than relieved]: Miss, I can’t take it.
Nade: Take it, don’t be ashamed. The one who should be ashamed is the thief.

…

Nade [to the class after the thief failed to return the money]: The one who stole the money should realize that nothing will go unpunished. I’ll find out who did it and I will teach him a good lesson!

…

Enforcement agent: The gentleman is not paying what he owes and the bank considers his debt subject to execution. In my capacity of a private enforcement agent, I’m authorized to hold the auction.
Nade: There must be a mistake because we’ve made all the payments. We can show you the bank statements.
[she turns to her husband]
Nade: Show him the deposit slips and…
Mladen: Nade, I’ll…
Nade: Where are…Mladen, where are the deposit slips?

…

Nade: We have a small child and you cannot simply throw us out on the street. You realize there’s no way we can pay back the rest of the credit in two days.
Bank official: I understand but the procedure has been activated and there’s nothing I can do.
Nade: Can’t you stop this procedure?
Bank official: No way, these are the rules.
Nade: Don’t tell me about rules when you don’t observe them yourselves. You raise the interest rate as you wish. No preliminary notice.
Bank official: The bank has the right to raise the interest rate, check out your contract.
Nade: You should check out your brochure—it says it’s a fixed rate.
Bank official: I’m sorry but you have signed a contract which says otherwise. I bear no responsibility for the promotional materials.
Nade: But you bear responsibility for having given misleading information. What is more, your notorious contract says that you’re obliged to notify us when you raise the interest rate. Nobody from your bank did. So I can sue you for failing to observe the agreement.
I want to settle things like normal people. Which means you stop the procedure and I’m not…
Bank official: Look! You can file a complaint or sue the bank. I can do no more for you right now.
Mladen: Yes, you can. You can go fuck yourself!

…

Loan shark: What are you doing here? Brought the money early?
Nade: No, on the contrary. I’ve come to ask for a short extension.
Loan shark: Fuck! Why is it nobody can surprise me for once!
Nade: You see, unexpected circumstances…
Loan shark: Well, circumstances are like that - unexpected. If people could predict things, I would have died from hunger.
Nade: It’s not my fault. I’m a very punctual person, but I was dealt a bad hand. I expected some money and they just told me that I’m not getting it because the company I work for has gone bankrupt…The boss has disappeared.

…

Loan shark: Here’s what I offer you. If you give my nephew a three, I’ll give you a three-day extension. If you give him a four, a four days respectively. If you give him a five, five days. And if you give him a six, I’ll give you seven days in return - one day from me. Is it cool?
Nade: This is not serious.
Loan shark: Not serious?! Are you fucking with me now?
Nade: The one is not related to the other. They have nothing in common.
Loan shark: What’s in common is that you’ve come here to lick my ass, haven’t you? And you’re gonna lick my ass. And you’ll keep licking it until I say so. And you will lick it good! And if you don’t lick it good I’ll show you the clause in the contract which says that if you do not pay back in time I have the right to raise the interest rate as I wish. And… if you don’t lick my ass, I’ll really do it. Am I clear?

…

Nade: Can you repair the camper in 6 days?
[she tells him about the loan shark]
Mladen: You’re out of your mind! How could you get involved with these people? They are not human, they are real freaks. They cut people’s fingers, break legs, they’ll debone us. They’ll fuck the life out of us. Do you understand?
Nade: How long will it take to repair it?

…

Student: Miss, is it true that everybody got excellent grades?
Nade: Does everyone have a six?
Students: Yea-a-a-ah.
Nade: Then it must be true.
Student: How is it possible?
Nade: If you want I can start giving poor grades.
Students: No, no!
Student: We’re just wondering—why sixes only?
Nade: Well, there are many weird things in life. This is one of them.

…

Loan shark [after Nade brings in all her jewelry]: What fuckin’ games are you playing?
Nade: I’m giving you the house too.
Loan shark: What do I need this ruin for?
Nade: The bank appraisal amounts to 10 thousand leva.
Loan shark: Yeah, but this is my appraisal, and if I decide it won’t be worth 10 leva even.
Nade: The car too. I can give free lessons to Mitko. I can teach English to your whole family.
Loan shark: Here’s what I suggest. If you don’t pay me back by tomorrow you go and buy a pair of nice thongs, put on some makeup, since you’re rather pale. Then you come here and give me a blow job. And on and on… until you pay back in full. If you want to pay back more of your debt you must lick other dicks too.
[Nade just stares up at him]
Loan shark: What are you staring at?! You’re all the same. In the beginning you all stare, but then you kinda like it and you start earning money even…Go now, go, I’m busy.
[Nade gets up to leave]
Loan shark: Listen to me, cunt! Don’t act smart. I know about your drunkard husband and I know about your daughter, I know her health status even. Andrea—that is her name, right? Unless you want to take Andrea abroad, but in parts…[/b]

What to do?

News reporter on TV: A bank robbery took place in a small bank in Blagoevgrad this morning, said regional police commissioner Stefan Ivanov at a press conference. Police were alerted at 11 AM, ten minutes following the incident. According to initial reports, the perpetrator was a woman between 30 and 40 years old. She entered the bank with a mask and held three bank employees at gunpoint. She asked for the money on hand and is believed to have taken around 12,000 leva. The tellers were unable to press the panic button, but security cameras captured the image of the woman. Police are searching for the suspected woman.

Right now I am listening to Donald Trump react to the truck attack in Nice, France. He is all about “law and order”. He is all about crushing ISIS.

So, one can just imagine him [and his ilk] reacting to a film about four teenagers [three from the slums of Guatemala, one an Indian from…somewhere] attempting to enter the United States illegally.

Politically, they will connect the dots between the bleeding heart liberals [who allegedly want to coddle these potential terrorists] and every terrorist attack that has occurred in the past 50 years. We must seal the border! We must build the wall! We must keep them out!

Everything is always simple, everything is always black and white, everything is always “one of us” or “one of them”.

Talk about conflicting goods. On the one hand, there are folks willing to risk everything [and to leave everything that they know and love behind] in order to choose what appears to them to be the only viable option: To go north, where anything is perceived to be better than nothing at all. On the other hand, there are folks up north who find their own employment opportunities are put at risk. And, sure, it’s always possible that one of these kids might turn out to be a terrorist. Or join a gang, become a gang-banger and make life a living hell for “one of us”.

Of course the plight of the folks here is of little concern to the reactionaries. From their frame of mind any and all plights are always your own fault. Even if you are “just a kid”.

Right from the start we see the conditions that families must endure from day to day to day in a Guatemalan slum. So the first thing you have to ask yourself is this: Wouldn’t you risk a trek north to the U.S. if it meant the possibility of a better life?

Actually, they never make it to the United States. Or maybe Juan does. This is more a “road movie”. A glimpse into the experience of attempting to make the trek itself. Along with all the others [along the way] that are there to exploit them, to steal from them, to kidnap them, to turn them into sex slaves. It’s a brutal, precarious world. A world where everyone is out to either rip you off or to exploit you. It’s a world way, way, way beyond the capacity of folks like Donald Trump to even comprehend. Or, if they do, to give a damn about.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Dream
trailer: youtu.be/bgp9g9NF_x0

THE GOLDEN DREAM [La Jaula de Oro] 2013
Written in part and directed by Diego Quemada-Díez

[b]Samuel [to Juan of Chauk]: That son of a bitch wants to grab her tits, bro.

…

Mexican cop [to the kids]: So you wanted to become rich in the U.S.? Well, you won’t get there now. [/b]

Back to square one: Guatemala. Try, try again.

Juan [to Sara]: This Indian is an idiot, he thinks he’ll kill the chicken by talking to it.

Let’s just say among other things.

Thug [to Sara after bandits stop the train]: You, come here.
[he circles her]
Thug: This one is female. Let’s check.
[he lifts up her shirt…her breasts are bound with ace bandages]
Thug: Of course. Take a look boss.
[he fondles her breasts]
Thug: This one must be a virgin.

They throw her into an SUV. That’s the last we see of her.

[b]Juan [to Chauk of Sara]: I didn’t even see which way they took her…

…

Chauk [in spanish]: Brother…
Juan: So Chauk, you finally learn some spanish. But I’m not your brother.

…

Man [on top of train to dozens of others heading north]: Brothers. In this world no one is better than anyone else, We come from nothingness, and we return to nothingness. Don’t cry for the dead. Who are gone forever. Take care of those who stay and help them if you can.[/b]

In their world, what else is there?

Thug [to Juan after he came back for Chauk]: Kneel down.
[he drags Chauk over]
Thug: Look into each others eyes.
[he shows Juan a gun]
Thug: Now, here’s what’s going to happen. Only one of you gets out of here alive and you are going to decide who. Get that? Choose who’s leaving — you or him.
Juan: Him.

Turkey has been in the news of late. The attempted coup.

Still, that all seemed to unfold either in Ankara or in Istanbul. Two big cities considerably closer to the “modern world” than are other parts of Turkey.

The story here unfolds in a small village in northern Turkey. And there the folks are considerably closer to God. Allah, in other words.

And many of us are aware of what that can mean if you are of the female gender. Under sharia law there are any number of things that are strictly forbidden if you don’t have a penis. And for Lale and her four sisters, “who share a common passion for freedom” there are consequences.

On the other hand, the restrictions placed on women throughout much of Turkey today is nothing compared to the plight endured by women with a passion for freedom in parts of, say, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

In fact, the film seems to focus less on religion than on the politics of conservativism. And, in particular, on the traditions embedded in patriarchy. It’s more a feminist narrative than anything else. The sisters’ liberal parents are dead. Now they are being raised by their reactionary grandmother and uncle.

So: Who makes it out of the snake pit and who does not?

But then there’s this: How accurately does the film portray the reality of life in this part of the country?

Consider for example this review from arjantin78 at IMDb:

I am Turkish. I know how people behave in rural parts of Turkey. The actors do not even come close to give an authentic depiction of how people living in a village in İnebolu act and behave. The story is a disaster. The general attitude of the movie is tastelessly didactic. Don’t you ever think that you get a somewhat accurate representation of anything regarding Turkish society from this excuse of a movie. The director/writer does obviously not know how things work in rural parts of Turkey. One of the writers is not even Turkish. So, go figure. The fuss around this movie is a textbook case of westerners appreciating narratives about the rest of the world which justify their ideological preconceptions.

This movie was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category in 2016.

IMDb

In the scene where the grandma opens the wardrobe, a t-shirt with “#direngezi” hashtag on it is seen. The hashtag is the famous motto for the riots which took place when the government wanted to demolish the “Gezi Park” at the central of Taksim Square.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang_(film
trailer: youtu.be/kSbbcHxJtnA

MUSTANG [2015]
Written in part and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

[b]Lale [voiceover]: It’s like everything changed in the blink of an eye. One moment we were fine, then everything turned to shit.

…

Grandma: Sonay, as you’re the eldest, I’ll start with you.

…

Grandma [to the sisters]: Everyone’s talking about your obscene behaviour. Rubbing up against boys’ necks. On the beach. Rubbing your parts on boys’ necks!..My granddaughters, pleasuring themselves on boys’ necks!

…

Grandma [watching Nur set fire to a chair]: What are you doing?
Nur: These chairs touched our arsehoIes!

…

Nur: Selma, what did they do?
Selma: A virginity test.
Nur: What’s that? Did you strip naked for the doctor?
Selma: Yes. He said I had nothing he hadn’t seen before.

…

Selma: We didn’t need to go to the doctor’s. We told you.
Grandma: If there was the slightest doubt you were a virgin, you’d never be able to get married.

…

Lale [voiceover]: After that, the doors to the house were always locked. Anything likely to pervert us was banned.

…

Lale [voiceover]: Now it was our turn to wear shapeless, shit-coloured dresses.

…

Lale [voiceover]: Grandma started by showing us off.

…

Selma [to Grandma]: If you try to marry me off I’ll scream.[/b]

She screams. And then she’s married off.

[b]Nur: If you don’t want to marry Osman, run away.
Selma: How?
Nur: Just get in a car and go.
Selma: Where?
Nur: To Istanbul, like everyone.
Selma: It’s 1,000 kilometers away. And I can’t drive.

…

Osman’s mother: Osman, my son, we’re waiting. Osman, are you going to show us the sheet?
Osman [searching frantically for blood]: Coming!
Selma: I swear I’m a virgin.
Osman: So where’s the blood?
Selma: I don’t know.
Mother: Show us the sheet.
Osman: Just a minute!
[he looks at Selma]
Osman: What do I tell them? Where is it?!!

…

Osman’s mother [to the doctor]: We just married our son and the girl didn’t bleed.

…

Doctor: Your husband doesn’t seem very romantic.
Selma: I don’t know him that well.
Doctor: You weren’t a virgin, then? That’ll stay between us.
Selma: I must have slept with someone and forgotten.
Doctor: Your hymen’s right here.
Selma: How?
Doctor: It happens. It’s just the way you’re made. It’ll break sometime. With your husband, or giving birth. But I can see it there.[/b]

These things actually happen!

Lale [voiceover]: When it was Ece’s turn to be married off, at first she went along with it. Then she started behaving dangerously.

Then she shot and killed herself.

Nur: What are you doing?
Lale: We’re playing hard to get!

You are a Jew. And you are sent to the camps. To Auschwitz. And now the war is over. You have returned home. And the task you set before yourself is to determine if your husband was the one who betrayed you.

But will your husband even recognize you? You were disfigured during the war and they had to reconstruct your face. So, you can return to the past more or less as a different person. You can find out things about yourself and those around you without the risk of of them finding out about you.

For example, you can find out if your husband really did betray you. You can find out if he really is basically just a slimy bastard. And, if so, you can plot your revenge.

Some have compared the film to Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In other words, the question of identity as that relates to what you [and others] see on the outside and how that impacts on your sense of self from the inside. Who you think you are and who others want you to think you are instead.

In any event, however much Nelly would like to look like she once did, she can never be who she once was. Too much has changed. And it is in reconfiguring her inner sense of self so as to be more in sync with this new set of circumstances that is particularly daunting. A part of her is compelled to will the past back into the present. And to make that the future.

And it is heightened all the more given this particular historical context.

The ending will give you goosebumps. Or it did me.

IMDb

Forty-five minutes before filming would start, Nina Hoss isolated herself from the rest of the cast and crew to reach the character’s sense of isolation.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_(2014_film
trailer: youtu.be/oobs8xFO3vo

PHOENIX [2014]
Written in part and directed by Christian Petzold

[b]Soldier: Passport…Nice car. Where did you get it from?
Lene: It’s from Switzerland.
Soldier: Just like you?
Lene: Like me.
Soldier [whistles to the gate]: They’re from Switzerland. The girl too.

…

Soldier [looking into the car]: I want to see her face.
Lene: Can I talk to you?
[she gets out of the car]
Lene: Come on, she’s not Eva Brown.
Soldier: Of course not. The bitch got killed by her husband.
Lene: She’s from the camps.

…

Soldier [to Nell]: Show me your face. Show me your face now!
[Nelly struggles to remove the bandages]
Soldier [clearly impacted by her ordeal]: Sorry…

…

Doctor [to Nelly]: The infected wound canal is from a gunshot. They thought you were dead. You were lucky.

…

Lene: Your entire family is dead. And Herbert and Marie…the twins…
Nelly: Esther?
Lene: I haven’t found her yet.
Nelly: Where is Johnny?

…

Nelly: I want to look like I used to.
Doctor: That’s difficult. I recommend you think it over.
Nelly: Why?
Doctor: On the one hand, it’s never quite the same, and on the other, a new face is an advantage.
Nelly: How is it an advantage?
Doctor: You’ll be a new and different person. You won’t be identifiable, which means…
Nelly: I want to look exactly like I used to.

…

Nelly [after seeing her new face in a mirror]: I no longer exist. Would you recognise me? Would you recognise me?!
Lene: Yes.
Nelly: No.
[she shows Lene an old photograph]
Nelly: This is me. Where did you get that?
Lene: The clinic needed pictures for the reconstruction.

…

Nelly [looking at a photo]: What do the circles signify?
Lene: Those are Nazis.
Nelly: And the crosses are for the dead?
Lene: Yes. We need a cross above Esther, too. It’s such a miracle you survived.
Nelly: There’s no cross above Johnny.
Lene: Johnny doesn’t interest me.

…

Lene: When you’re better, we’ll take care of your assets.
Nelly: Is it a lot?
Lene: They’re substantial. It’ll take a while to get the Nazis out of the properties, but there’s lots of money in Switzerland. It’s the victims’ money, it brings an obligation.
Nelly: To do what?
Lene: To go to Palestine and found a state where we Jews can live safely.[/b]

And the Palestinians? Well, that’s another movie.

[b]Lene: Did you give thought to Haifa or Tel Aviv? In Tel Aviv there’s a Jewish choir run by Vera Stroux. It might suit you.
Nelly: What would I do in a Jewish choir? I’m not a Jew.
Lene: You are, like it or not. They tried to kill you because you’re a Jew.

…

Lene: Johnny betrayed you. You were arrested on October 6, 1944. Johnny was arrested on October 4, 1944. He was interrogated and released just after your arrest on October 6. He wasn’t put in prison. No punishment. Indeed he was allowed to play again. Now he wants your money.
Nelly: Did you see him?
Lene: Yes. Two months ago.
Nelly: Did you speak to him?
Lene: I don’t speak to traitors.

…

Johnny [not recognizing Nelly]: We can earn a lot of money. You look very similar to someone.
Nelly: To whom?
Johnny: My wife. Alive she was poor, dead, she’s rich.

…

Johnny: I can’t get her inheritance. There’s no evidence she’s dead.
Nelly: Maybe she’s still alive.
Johnny: She’s dead. You have to play my wife. I’ll instruct you. You’ll return as a survivor, and collect her estate. We’ll split it. There’s 20,000 dollars in it for you.

…

Johnny: What’s your name, anyway?
Nelly: Esther. Do I really look similar to her?
Johnny: No. But you will.

…

Lene: You saw him.
Nelly: Yes.
Lene: What happened?

…

Johnny: It won’t work. Here are two dollars. And a ration card. I’m sorry. Go on, take it. Now leave.
Nelly: But we wanted to practise!
Johnny: It won’t work.
Nelly: Why not?
Johnny: Because you won’t cut it.[/b]

In other words, she, his wife, is not able to cut it pretending to be his wife.

[b]Johnny [giving her a pen and a piece of paper]: Here’s a specimen. You must be able to write like her. Practice it.

…

Johnny: Once we’re done here, you’ll take a train from the east and we’ll meet you at the station.
Nelly: And I’ll be in a red dress and shoes from Paris? You think anyone leaves the camps like that? Nobody will buy it.
Johnny: You’ve seen the returnees. All the burn wounds and shot-up faces! No one looks at them. Everyone avoids them. But we want them to look at you and say, it’s Nelly! Nelly made it! She’s back! She’s wearing a red dress and nice shoes because she’s so glad. It’s this that’ll get us what we want.

…

Nelly: If I’m coming from a camp, someone is bound to ask me what I experienced there, what I…
Johnny: What?
Nelly: How it was there, and I’ll need a story.
Johnny: What kind of story?
Nelly: Something or other. Like how we sat on a beam, naked and went through the clothing of those who had just arrived, while the Kapos stood around us. We had to check for banknotes, or jewels they’d hidden, And then this…girl, this girl looks at me. She looks at me. This girl looks at me…
Johnny: Where does the story come from?
Nelly: She’s got her mother’s dress…
Johnny: Where from?
Nelly: I…I read it.

…

Johnny: Quit playing Nelly! I know you’re not her! It’s not me you must convince!

…

Nelly: I’d not have survived the camp except for Johnny. I only thought about how I’d come back to him. And when I finally got here I simply had to look for him. And when I finally found him he didn’t recognise me. And it was…Lene, it was…I was…dead again. And now he’s made me back into Nelly again. I can’t come to Palestine.
Lene: Where will you go instead?
Nelly: With Johnny…back with him.
Lene: Impossible!
Nelly: Lene, since being back with him I’m myself again.
Lene: No.
Nelly: When he speaks of her…
Lene: “Her”?
Nelly: I’m really jealous…of me!
Lene: When will you tell him?
Nelly: I don’t know.

…

Lene: Do you know what disgusts me? We Jews wrote, sang and slaved…went to war for Germany, yet we were gassed, one and all. And now the survivors return and forgive. The gassing ceases and we forgive all counts of cowardice and treachery.
[pause]
Lene: I won’t go along with it, Nelly.

…

Nelly: I know he loves her. I don’t believe he betrayed her.
Lene: When you were sitting in the dark I thought you’d shot him and needed my help. And honestly, I’d have preferred that.

…

Nelly: Did you betray Nelly? Sometimes…it’s not a real betrayal. You hid her…had to take care of her all that time…Then came the arrest and interrogation. Finally you are suddenly released. You hurry to check up on her. You don’t notice you’re being followed. Then it’s too late. You just stand there and there’s nothing you can do. You have to watch Nelly being taken away.

…

Elizabeth: She left you a letter, too. I am to give it to you.
Nelly: But where is Lene, then?
Elizabeth: You don’t know? Mrs Winter shot herself on Thursday.

…

Nelly [voiceover reading Lene’s letter]: “Dear Nelly, I told you there is no way back for us. But for me there’s no way forwards, either. I feel more drawn to our dead than to our living. I cannot keep this from you. Your husband divorced you directly before your arrest. I enclose a copy of the relevant document. Farewell, Lene”

…

Johnny: I’m afraid this will hurt a little. Prisoners of Auschwitz were tattooed with a number on the forearm. Someone will ask about your number. And you’ll whisper that you cut it out. There’ll be no further questions.
Nelly: Get out!

…

Nelly: I always wished to sing with Johnny again…one day…in Berlin.[/b]

“Is it true what they say about this place?”

And it either is or it is not.

But a haunted house [even in New York City] can pale next to a mind that is…spooked?

And when you put the two together the narrative can go in any number of chilling directions. For example, is it all “just in her head”?

In other words, is this a “psychological thriller” or a supernatural “horror film”?

And it has always fascinated me to imagine what it must be like to go “insane”. To “descend into madness”. Me, I am more than familiar with all sorts of mental afflictions — anxiety, depression, mood swings, neuroses, et cetera. But what must it be like to actually lose touch with reality itself? To hear things that are not being said, to see things that are not really there. To be terrified only by the “reality” that you have generated “in your head”. Or, perhaps, more accurately, by that which your “brain” is generating. The part where it all becomes “beyond your control”.

Unless of course there really are ghosts.

One way to look at it: There is all that we think we know about ourselves and others out in the world around us and there is all that we may never know. One way or the other it’s uncanny. Or sinister. Or even deadly.

And there is no real back story here. We don’t know what it is that actually led up to her behaviors. So we are unable to compare her experiences with our own. So we can’t rule out altogether that we might be next. Just as we can’t entirely rule out the possibility that someone afflicted with madness may well become a part of our own life.

And if you are a very attractive young woman, a hint of madness may not even repel some men.

On the other hand, we are curious to know where she got those gruesome scars.

So, what is behind that locked door? Darling finds out. But we never do.

Finally…

Halfway in the ending credits there is a scene with a new girl arriving at the mansion. IMDb

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darling_( … rican_film
trailer: youtu.be/l8MXgy3NdhI

DARLING [2015]
Written and directed by Mickey Keating

[b]Madame: I don’t think you realize what a godsend you are.
Darling: Excuse me?
Madame: Not many people jump at the opportunity to stay here alone.
Darling: Why?
Madame: Oh, old ghost stories. This is the oldest house in New York City. Lots of history. A few unpleasant nicknames. We’ve tried to rebuild the reputation in the neighborhood but then last the care taker…
Darling Yes?
Madame: Well I really shouldn’t be telling you this.
Darling: Please.
Madame: Well, poor girl…she threw herself off the upstairs balcony.
Darling: Why did she do that?
Madame: Hard to say really…

…

Darling [on the phone]: Ma’am there is one room that I can’t get into. I don’t have a key.
Madame: Don’t concern yourself with that room, my dear. Is that understood? It must remain locked at all times. Am I clear?
Darling: Yes ma’am.

…

Scrawled on the night stand: Abyssus Abyssum Invocat[/b]

Deep calls to deep.

[b]Darling [in a bar out of the blue]: Do you want to come back to my place?
James [whom she has been following]: What?
Darling: It’s not far. There’s plenty of brandy…It’s free.

…

James: Are you joking? This is your place?
Darling: Are you coming?

…

James: I never pictured you living in a place like this.
Darling: Why not?
James: Well, because…whoa…they have got to tell you this kind of thing before you move in, right?
Darling: That it’s haunted?
James: When I was growing up they used to tell us stories about an old lunatic who lived here who used to perform these rituals in the back rooms trying to conjure up the Devil or something.

…

Darling [after stabbing James repeatedly with a huge knife]: Why did you come here tonight? What did you expect? You didn’t even ask me my name. Did you want to fuck me?
[she twist the knife savagely into his belly]
Darling: Do you remember me? Do you remember me? Because I remember you Henry Sullivan. I. Remember. Every. Single. Thing. About. That. Night. Why did you do it? What did you pick me? What did I ever do to you?! Why did you pick me? ANSWER ME!!

…

Darling [answering the phone in a macabre voice]: Hello.
Madame: Darling, I want you to listen to me very carefully.
Darling: Ma’am.
Madame: We finally got a hold of your reference.
Darling: You did?
Madame: Yes. Dr. James Abbott.
Darling: Dr Abbott?..I couldn’t let him live with what he did to me. But Dr. Abbott, he says I’m okay…he says I’m okay now.
Madame: We’re not mad dear. We would just like you to leave the house. Take your things and leave.
Darling: I saw him walking around…Henry Sullivan. I saw him walking around the street the other day. Right in front of me. I couldn’t let him live for what he’s done to me.
Madame: What do you mean you saw him walking around the other day? Did you do something to someone?

…

Darling [on the phone]: Is it true what they say about this place?
Madame: What? Who?
Darling: That someone tried to conjure the Devil here once? It happened in that room, didn’t it? The one upstairs. They made me do it.
[no response]
Darling: Ma’am? I think I’ll become one of your ghost stories now. [/b]

I was once diagnosed as “bipolar” by a shrink. He prescribed lithium; and between that and the counseling it was a complete disaster. Besides, I kept pointing out to him that, if I was really bipolar, how come I never ever once experienced the “manic” phase of the disorder? In fact the only “elevated mood” I seemed to experience at all back then was getting up and leaving his office.

Still, the condition is real. Actual flesh and blood men and women [and not just actors up on the screen] have endured it. And I have personally known a few of them myself.

Often with regards to this affliction the narrative revolves around whether the cure is worse than the disease. See for example Mr. Jones above. Apparently the price that some pay for not being depressed is just too grim. They need the “highs” or life becomes even more unbearable.

Bipolar in particular is always tricky because so much of it seems to be “beyond your control”. All the anomalous “stuff” happens in your brain chemically and neurologically. You can medicate it. You can learn to control it [up to a point]. You can learn to live with it in a less dysfunctional manner. But there it is, a biological component [for some] of the human condition.

If that is actually the case. After all, where exactly does the part about nurture, environmental factors, dasein and political economy fit in here?

That is when the film more or less segues into one more rendition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Well, sans Nurse Ratchet and the more medieval “methodologies” from back then. Though they do come close occasionally.

But still the same group therapy bullshit: be yourself but only in the prescribed manner. Only, sure, it does work for some.

On the other hand, some will argue that films of this sort can “romanticize” the affliction. Almost as though you are “blessed” if you have it. For example, linking it to all of the many great artists who were said to have had it. In other words, that it is not only an affliction.

This film doesn’t do that. Though it does flirt with the idea from time to time.

Then there’s the part where it slips in and out of the “mystical”. All of the psycho-babble New Age bullshit that can become associated with it. Or the part where it seems to reflect out and out insanity.

And then the part about the money. Carla and Marco – both unemployed poets – are really only able to make all of these transitions because of their families are able to actually foot the bills. Both in and out of the mental institutions and the hospitals. The part that really isn’t at all available for vast swaths of the population beset with this condition.

IMDb

The movie is based on the life of director Paul Dalio.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touched_with_Fire_(film
trailer: youtu.be/8RmzL-YBZwg

TOUCHED WITH FIRE [2015]
Written and directed by Paul Dalio

[b]Carla [at a book reading]: One day the sun cast onto the world to show its image in different light. All the lines were in place but in between no shape or shades, just shadows of the past cast against an aging brain, fading with the sunset’s dying rays. Wiping away all trace of yesterday.
Book store owner: Does anyone have any questions for the author?
[shot of the audience…looking blank, looking grim]

…

George [Marco’s father…on the phone]: So, your super told me that they shut your power off.
Marco: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
George: Why didn’t you pay the bill?
Marco: Oh, because I’m through with that. I don’t need to do that anymore. I’m going off the map.
George: What does that mean?
Marco: It means that I am through with the whole system.
George: What whole system?
Marco: The whole manmade system. I quit my job. I’m not paying bills.
George: You quit your job?
Marco: Yeah. Yeah, I escaped it.
George: How… How are you gonna eat?
Marco: No-no, I don’t need to pay for food anymore. I realized that. I can get free milk at Starbucks. I can get free ketchup at McDonald’s.
George: Ketchup?
Marco: Yeah, the body can survive on ketchup alone for a long time. At least until the apocalypse.[/b]

Next up: Marco the maniac.

[b]Carla: What was I doing when it happened?
Sara [mom]: What do you mean?
Carla: I mean, the doctors said that something has to trigger it. So, what was I doing?
Sara: No, no. There was nothing that we could’ve done. It was gonna happen no matter what.
Carla: No, no. N-N-No. I must’ve done something to trigger it because I am not the same person, Mom…I’m just trying to figure out who I am, you know, because I don’t feel like myself anymore. Even when I go off the medication, I don’t feel like myself.

…

George: Been taking your medication?
Marco: Um… mm… I found that they really weren’t working for me, you know, kind of constricted my emotions, you know, like a dried-up ocean. That wasn’t the potion. Don’t give me the lotion. I just, yeah, it just didn’t work, so I stopped. I stopped.

…

George: Tomorrow morning, let’s go…let’s go to Dr. Lyons, and we’ll ask him and just hear what he thinks about that.
Marco: Who cares what he thinks?
George: He’s an expert on your illness. He’ll know…
Marco: I don’t have an illness. Why are you bringing Dr. Lyons into this? There’s nothing wrong with…
George: He’s an expert on your medication.
Marco: No, he’s not a fucking expert! He’s a goddamned Nazi!

…

Doctor: Do a lot of people read these messages?
Marco: Everyone.
Doctor: Well, how do you know?
Marco: Because of my online fan base.
Doctor: Would you mind showing that to me on the computer?
Marco: There. You see that? 106 million people.
Doctor: No, see, that number is the number of people in the entire network. Actually, only 119 people have seen your page.
Marco [gaping at the screen]: What…?
…

Carla [at group therapy]: Could you please just stop?
Marco: You have an opinion on what’s being said here?
Carla: It’s your first day here, and you’re alienating yourself from the entire group.
Marco: Are you saying that I should hide what I think in order to become part of a group?[/b]

And boy have I been there!

[b]Nurse Amy: Luna, why don’t you color?
Marco [who wishes to be called Luna]: Because I’m uninspired.
Nurse Amy: Okay, why don’t you take a look at the books on the shelf. Maybe they’ll give you some inspiration.
Marco [goes over to the bookshelf]: Here we go. Van Gogh. Top member of the Bipolar Club. You see this?
Nurse Amy: Yes, it’s beautiful!
Marco [indicating Van Gogh’s Starry Night]: You know why?
Nurse Amy: Why?
Marco: Because it’s the painting of the sky he saw from his sanitarium window when he was manic.
Nurse Amy: Really?
Marco: Yeah. You don’t believe me, go look it up.
Nurse Amy: I believe you.
Marco: Well, when you go out tonight, and you look at the sky and you see how dull it is, think about if you would’ve medicated Van Gogh!

…

Marco: So Emily, can I ask you what your full fake name is?
Carla: Emily Lowell.
Marco: Is that Emily Dickinson and Robert Lowell? Those are good poets. Do you know they were both bipolar?
Carla: You think every great artist was bipolar. It’s fine if it helps you.
Marco: “We of the craft are all crazy/Some are affected by gaiety/others with melancholy/But all are more or less touched.” You know who said that? Lord Byron. One of the greatest manic-depressive poets of all time. It’s in the opening to this book, Touched with Fire by Kay Jamison. She’s a psychologist, and when she was first starting out, she, out of nowhere, had this manic episode. It scared her. So she tried to keep it a secret. But then something changed. She decided to write books about it. She did all this research, and she found all these crazy connections between bipolar and artistic genius all through history, all over the world. Instead of being ashamed of it she made it a gift.

…

Marco [to Carla]: You accidentally checked yourself into a mental institution?

…

Marco [to Carla noting a photograph of the brain]: This is a normal brain, lit up just in a few places. But this, this is a manic brain, fully lit. That’s what you call illumination.

…

Doctor: Is it true that neither of you thinks you’re from this planet?
Marco: Because we’re not from this planet.
Doctor: Okay, sit. Where do you think you’re from?
Marco [doing a series of bizarre things]: Would someone from your planet do this?

…

George: Why is he so sedated?
Doctor: He was with a female patient, and they made each other manic. We separated them and they became even more manic.
George: How long is he going to be like that?
Doctor: It’s not just the medication. Because the mania got so out of control and he went so high, he’s going to go just as low with the depression. It’s going to be severe.

…

Doctor: You’ve just come out of the depression. You haven’t been in a physical relationship for quite a while. It’s understandable.
Marco: No, it’s not just that. I don’t feel the emotion that I should feel for her.
Doctor: Well, you won’t have the passion you had when you were manic. You’re going to have to learn to live within a normal range of emotions.
Marco: This isn’t a normal range. I don’t feel anything.
Doctor: You’ve lived in emotional extremes for so long, you’ve no way of knowing what normal feels like.

…

Marco: We can’t take the meds.
Sara: Okay, well, just as I thought.
Carla [to Marco]: What are you talking about?
Marco: You know what I’m talking about.
George: Marco, listen. You know that it’s going to take time till you find the right dosage, right? Even the doctor, the doctor has said that eventually you are going to feel the wide range of normal emotions.
Marco: And how does he know? He’s not taking the meds…I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to feel life with the deepest emotion. I don’t think that’s a problem.
Sara: It’s an illness.
Marco: Well, maybe for you, because maybe you have a low emotional capacity, and so to you, it makes you feel sick.[/b]

And around and around and around they go trying to pin down what is “normal”.

[b]Marco: You don’t understand, Dad.
George: I understand more than you know. And if you think that there’s any romance in being crazy, you’re crazy.
Marco: No, if you understood, then Mom wouldn’t have left.
George: Your mother, she left because she was sick.
Marco: She left because you thought she was sick, because she was wild. And you were tame, and you wanted to tame her, Dad.

…

Marco: Maybe I could walk dogs. I’d be out there, I’d be working, you know? I’d be, the same time, taking everything in, the sounds, the trees, the buildings, the… just all of it, sort of just absorbing all of that, and then like, letting that sort of be infused into my poetry, you know?
Carla: We did tell our parents that we were going to try to support ourselves with…
Marco: Exactly. And that’s why I’m thinking of things to do.
Carla: I mean, I just don’t know how much you would get paid. With the baby we’re going to have diapers and blankets and food and supplies and school and strollers and the rent and, you know…

…

Carla: I can get him to go back on the meds.
Sara: No, you can’t.
Carla: Yes, I can. We have to.
Sara: Carla, you can’t. If he didn’t get the message after he almost killed the two of you in the river, he’s not going to get it. I don’t see how you can stay with him.
Carla: What are you saying? That I shouldn’t have this child if…
Sara: I just want to be really clear. Okay? You want to raise a child with a psychotic manic parent.

…

Kay Jamison [playing herself]: When I first was medicated, I was first medicated a very long time ago. Lithium had just come out on the market. I was kept at a very high dose because that’s what people did at that time, and I did feel somewhat dead, and I resisted it.
But I’m still on lithium, and I don’t feel in any way inhibited.
Marco: I just don’t know how I’m gonna make… how my creativity is going to be affected.
Kay Jamison: You’re concerned about losing your art and losing your passion. Medication’s not going to take your personality away. It’s not going to take your own gift. It’s a fire when it’s out of control. And what medication can do is to kind of tamp that down a bit without losing that gift. It took quite a while for my moods to kind of get in gear. I have felt infinitely happier. I’m more productive. I’m more able to count on myself to produce and write. In every aspect of my life it’s been a godsend.

…

Carla: I thought Kay was really impressive.
Marco: She’s weak. She didn’t have the strength, so she gave up.
Carla: What?
Marco: You could see it in her. She was like she wished that she could have what those artists have that she writes about. But she doesn’t have the guts. That’s why she writes about them. You know, do you think that Poe or Byron or Tchaikovsky, Melville, Hemingway, would’ve backed down and turned away from the storm the way she did? No. They rode the tides. They rode them, but she didn’t. That’s why she writes about them, because she wants to be like them in her fantasy, but she can’t.
Carla: Well, I liked what she had to say about, you know, how we can experience full emotion even more than…
Marco: I don’t want the full emotion!
Carla: Well, then what do you want?
Marco: I want the mania!
Carla: You want the mania?
[she paces back and forth]
Carla: Well, it’s fucking crazy.
Marco: Why, because of something that your doctor told you or something that your parents told you?
Carla: No. Because you’re not willing to make any sacrifices. You say you want a family. You say you want love. But you’re not willing to give anything up for it.

…

Marco: Why don’t you have a drink, Carla? Are you still gonna pretend, after all of this, that you still can’t drink? Because I know. Why don’t you just say it? All right. Just say it. Just say it, say it.
[he turns to his father and Carla’s parents]
Marco: Carla had an abortion. Surprise. Right? So, why don’t you just say it, Carla? Please say it, please.
Carla: All right, I did.[/b]

In this film, we are taken inside the “insular world” of a particular high school in the Ukraine. But not just any high school. Here all of the students are deaf. And if you don’t speak their language you are out of luck. Why? Because there are no subtitles. The students speak the language of the deaf – sign language – and you are either fluent in it or you are not. And they sign in Ukrainian.

Why is that a factor? Because…

The actors communicate in Ukranian sign language - anecdotally, users of western European sign languages may understand about 70% of it.

Also, to what extent are the events that unfold here a reasonable reflection of the experiences a student might encounter in a Ukrainian school for the deaf?

Trust me: I haven’t got a clue.

In any event, the film is less about the school itself than about a criminal clique that just happens to be enrolled in a school for the deaf. Thus the part about being deaf is not really a significant factor at all. Or so it seemed to me.

Tribes? And here one tribe in particular. It engages in [among other things] assaults, robberies and prostitution.

If nothing else the film depicts just how much we are able to understand about human interaction without the use of language. People behave as they do in ways that we have behaved — or in ways that we have seen others behave. We know what is going on. We just don’t have access to the reasons that people choose from in order to rationalize what they do. They tell each other but we don’t have access to that particular language. At least most of us don’t.

Consequently, there are any number of sequences when, in being out of this partiuclar loop, you really don’t have a clear understanding as to what is being communicated back and forth. And you would like to be. So at times it really is frustrating.

Now, one might suspect that since schools like this are geared to students with a particular physical affliction, they would include a broader swath of the population. Pertaining to, for example, class or ethnicity or religion or moral values.

That’s not explored at all. But there will always be those kids who more or less rise to the top of the pecking order. The amoral assholes, for example. The toughs. The thugs. The gang-bangers. They seem to be everywhere now. Hell-bent on making life as miserable as they possibly can for all the rest of us.

Still, it does probe an experience that almost all students in the “modern world” confront: fitting in. Who do you “hang with” and who do you avoid? And sometimes that can make all the difference in the world. It just seems that in our “post-modern” world there is this sub-mental “youth culture” that has snaked its way around the globe.

Originating in Hollywood movies for all I know.

The world of signing. You can start here: mentalfloss.com/article/13107/7- … n-language

IMDb

[b]All the actors are deaf and the film makes no use of any vocal language nor even subtitles, only sign language throughout. This may quite well be a first for a feature film of fiction.

Director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky does not understand sign language and had to have interpreters on set to communicate and make sure that the actors were sticking to the script. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tribe_%282014_film%29
trailer: youtu.be/ZF9VL4m9M_k

THE TRIBE [Plemya] 2014
Written and directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi

You’ve decided to leave your fiance. You get in the car and go. Then you’re in a car crash. And then the next thing you know you wake up in a bunker. You’re down to your underwear and your leg is handcuffed to a pipe. Have you been kidnapped? No say the two men sharing the underground complex with you. In fact, you have been rescued. The world outside the bunker is an apocalyptic hellhole. Brought on by a terrible chemical or nuclear attack. You may be among the last of the survivors.

Of course the whole point then is to speculate on the true motivation behind bringing Michelle to the bunker. The obvious ones pop into your head. However, you suspect that it won’t be one of them. Only how far removed from them will it be? Will it something that you would never even have guessed?

Nope, not really.

Or maybe everything that Howard tells us is actually the truth. Or maybe it’s true and he still has ulterior motives.

A movie of this sort is absorbing only to the extent that the characters in it are absorbing. Since there are basically only three of them. And Howard for one is certainly…absorbing.

Note: The movie is said to be the sequel to the film Cloverfield from 2008. It’s a film I never saw and know nothing about. So I have no idea how, had I been aware of the first, that might impact my reaction to the current film. Apparently there is a “Cloverfield universe”. And [apparently] there will be a future film that ties the first two films together. Whatever the hell that means.

Look for MacGyver.

FAQ from IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt1179933/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm
wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Cloverfield_Lane
trailer: youtu.be/saHzng8fxLs

10 Cloverfield Lane [2016]
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg

[b]Michelle: Please don’t hurt me. Please, Just let me go, okay? I won’t tell anybody, I promise. Please just let me go. Please.
Howard: You need fluids. You were in shock.
Michelle: What’re you going to do to me?
Howard: I’m going to keep you alive.

…

Michelle: My boyfriend was expecting me. He’ll send the cops looking.
Hoard: I’m sorry, but no one is looking for you.

…

Howard: You’re lucky to be here at all.
Michelle: What do you mean?
Howard: I found you. And I saved your life, by bringing you here.
Michelle: I don’t understand.
Howard: There’s been an attack. An attack. A big one. I’m not sure yet if it’s chemical, or nuclear. But down here we’re safe.
Michelle: And where are we, exactly?
Howard: Underneath my farmhouse. 40 miles outside of Lake Charles.

…

Michelle: How, how long do we have to wait until it’s safe?
Howard: Depends on the proximity to the closest blast. One year, maybe two. And that’s if we’re, we’re talking about weapons that we know of. Russians were developing some nasty stuff. And if the Martians finally found a way to get here, their weapons will…will make our nukes look like, like sticks and stones.

…

Howard [to Michelle]: You think I sound crazy. It’s amazing, you people. You wear helmets when you ride your bikes, you have seat-belts in your cars, you have alarm systems to protect your homes. But what do you do when those alarms go off? “Crazy”, is building your ark after the flood is already come.

…

Howard [to Michelle]: I think now might be time you met Frank and Mildred.

…

Michelle [to Emmett]: What do you know about Howard?

…

Emmett [to Michelle]: You know, Howard is like a black belt in conspiracy theories. Plus, you know, how often do you get hired to build the doomsday bunker?

…

Michelle: Howard abducted me. He drove me off the road, and he dragged me here. So whatever he’s telling you about the air…some big attack. The purpose of this shelter, is a lie.
Emmett: No, no way. The attack, I saw it myself.
Michelle: What do you mean?
Emmett: Coming on my way from work, and, it looked like a flash. Bright red, Like an explosion, from way far off. Wasn’t like fireworks. No, it was more this like something you read about in the Bible.

…

Howard: Where are my keys?

…

Michelle [at the door to the outside world]: It’s a car! It’s a car! I see a car! Here! Here! Here!
Howard: Michelle, listen to me, don’t do it!
Woman [outside banging on the window]: Help me!
Michelle: There’s a woman!
Woman: Open the door. I just…I want to come inside.
Michelle: She looks hurt, she wants me to let her in!
Howard: Do not let her in! Look at her face, Michelle!
Woman: Please open, I don’t want to die. It barely touched me! Please, help me, I don’t want to die. Just a little, oh, please open the door…Open it, you bitch!!!
Michelle: She’s begging me!
Howard: You can’t help her! Nobody can.

…

Howard [to Michelle]: People are strange creatures. You can’t always convince them that safety is in their best interest.

…

Emmett [to Michelle]: Look, we’re here, we’re alive. And that means something. It’s got to.

…

Michelle [hearing sounds above the bunker]: What was that?
Howard: Quiet.
Michelle: That sounds like helicopters.
Howard: Could be military. But not ours.
Michelle: How can you tell?
Howard: 14 years in the Navy.
Michelle: What’s happening up there?
Howard: My guess, those flashes that kicked this all off. That was phase 1. Take out your opponent’s population centers, with big hits, all at once. Fast. And then for round 2. Ground sweeps. The satellite log shows an increase in coded traffic recently. Possibly extra-terrestrial signals. I bet what we just heard were air-borne patrols sent to hunt down the remaining signs of life. Like us.

…

Howard [the three are playing charades in the shelter]: I’m always watching. Always.
Emmett: Uh, God…?
Howard: I know what you’re doing. I see everything.
Emmett [faltering]: Wha… uh, uh…
Howard: I see you when you’re sleeping! I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING!
Emmett: …Um…
[Emmet and Michelle stare at each other nervously]
Howard [seemingly going into a fit:] I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE UP TO! I SEE EVERYTHING YOU DO! I’M ALWAYS WATCHING!
Emmett: Uh, Howard…?
Michelle [blurting out]: Santa Claus!
Howard [suddenly calm and cheerful]: … Yeah, Michelle! Except it was Emmet’s turn, not yours. I’m claiming this point.

…

Emmett: What’s wrong?
Michelle: He lied to you, he lied about Megan.
Emmett: What do you mean?
Michelle: I think he did something horrible to her.
Emmett: How? His family moved to Chicago years ago.

…

Emmett [looking at a photograph]: Wait, that’s not Megan…Yeah. Her name is Brittany. She went missing, two years back. It was on the news and everything. Most people just thought she skipped town.
Michelle: There is a message up there. It said ‘HELP’. It was scratched on the inside of the window…He said to me, he said to my face. He said this is his daughter, he said this was Megan…He took her and he killed her.

…

Michelle [after Howard reveals a secret compartment]: What is this?
Howard: A barrel. Move it into the bathroom. This is perchloric acid. Do either of you know what that is?
[they shake their heads]
Howard: It’s usually produced as a precursor to ammonium perclorate. Fuel. Used to launch naval satellites into orbit. It’s highly corrosive. Dissolves most biological material on contact. With humans, right down to the bone.
Emmett: Hey, Howard, ahh… What’re you showing it to us this for?
Howard: You think I’m an idiot?

…

Howard: You tell me what you two were planning. Right now!
Emmett: Take it easy, calm down.
Michelle: Howard, please.
Howard: I’m giving you one chance. One chance! To answer with some dignity or I swear to god you’re going into this barrel while you’re alive to feel it.

…

Howard [to Michelle–calmly–after he just shot Emmett dead]: He was going to hurt us. He was going to hurt you. It’s okay, this is okay. This is the way it was always supposed to be. You’re safe now. Now, it’s just you and me. It’s okay. Now, you should go to your room now. This is not part of anything you need to see.

…

Howard [to Michelle]: I know that this isn’t the life that you prefer, and that it’s been hard for you to come down here…but I really want us to be a happy family, you and me. The mess is all taken care of…so, I’ll go get dinner started.

…

Howard: Michelle! You don’t know what’s out there! You can’t run from them!![/b]

Hail Caesar!

No, not that one. This one: The Movie.

Cue Mr. Hollywood. Mr. Fix-it. The guy that gets things done. The guy that got things done back in The Golden Age.

This is one of those “film within a film” films. Also, a film that is based on folks that actually did exist way back in that “Golden Age”. So, supposedly, this is more or less how things actually “worked” back then.

But now – historically – we are at that crucial “turning point” as they say. The old “studio system” is beginning to crumble. Big changes are on the horizon. And adjustments have to be made.

So, you tell me: In the midst of yet another blockbuster Summer Season are things actually better today?

In one sense, Eddie Mannix reminds you of Ray Donovan. Either that or Ray Donovan reminds you of Eddie Mannix. Just different eras with different folks chasing different bucks. Unless of course Ray Donovan is just a thug.

And then somewhere in the midst of all this tongue-in-cheek farce come any number of references to religion. But you will have to decide for yourself the extent to which God and religion are being mocked here. Same with the Communists. They pop up too. And as well are bascially made fools of.

IMDb

[b]George Clooney was actually slapped by Josh Brolin several times. His reaction shown in the film was genuine.

The real Eddie Mannix died in 1963. Robert Taylor and James Stewart were among his pallbearers.

The big secret about Baird Whitlock, which the Thacker sisters each threaten to reveal to their respective gossip columns, is likely based on a long-established rumor regarding Gone with the Wind (1939). Reportedly, Clark Gable insisted that original director George Cukor be replaced because Gable had, years earlier, engaged in a sexual liaison with the influential director as a way to further his own career.

Most of the characters are inspired by real people:

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), is based on real E.J. Mannix, a longtime producer for MGM and a fixer specialized in disguising any scandal that could ruin a movie production or the character or reputation of an actor.

Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is based on three Hollywood legends: Robert Taylor, Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas, who previously starred in the historical movies Quo Vadis (1951), Ben-Hur (1959) and Spartacus (1960), respectively.

DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) is based on Esther Williams. Her plot about a baby belongs to Loretta Young.

Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum), is based on Gene Kelly.

Sisters Thora and Thesaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton) are based on Hollywood reporter Hedda Hopper. And the theme of sibling rivalry is reminiscent of longtime columnists and real-life twin sisters Ann Landers (Pauline “Eppie” Friedman Lederer) and Abigail Van Buren (Pauline Friedman Phillips).

Carlota Valdez (Veronica Osorio) is based on Carmen Miranda.

Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) is actually based on four classic cowboy actors: Howard Keel, Dick Foran, James Ellison and Tim Holt.

Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) is based on Vincente Minnelli.

C.C. Calhoun (Frances McDormand) is based on the longtime editor Margaret Booth. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail,_Caesar!
trailer: youtu.be/kMqeoW3XRa0

HAIL, CAESAR! [2016]
Written and directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

[b]Eddie [in the confessional]: Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It’s been…
[he looks down at his watch]
Eddie: …24 hours since my last confession.

…

Eddie [to a group of religious leaders]: Gentlemen, thank you all for coming. I know you have parishes, flocks and temples making enormous demands on your time. But I’m sure you appreciate also that great masses of humanity look to pictures for information and uplift and, yes, entertainment. Here at Capitol Pictures, as you know, an army of technicians, actors, and top notch artistic people are working hard to bring to the screen the story of the Christ. It’s a swell story.

…

Rabbi: You realize, of course, that for we Jews, any visual depiction of the Godhead is most strictly prohibited.
Eddie: Oh.
Rabbi: But of course, for us, the man Jesus Nazarene is not God.
Eddie: Ah-ha.
Protestant Clergyman: Who plays Christ?
Eddie: A kid we’re all very excited about, Todd Hocheiser, a wonderful young actor we found in Akron, Ohio, after a nationwide talent hunt. But Hocheiser is seen only fleetingly and with extreme taste. Our story is told through the eyes of a Roman tribune, Autochlus Antonius, an ordinary man, skeptical at first, but who comes to a grudging respect for this swell figure from the East.

…

Eddie: Gentlemen, given it’s enormous expense we don’t want to send it to market except in the certainty that it will not offend any reasonable American, regardless of faith or creed. Now that’s where you come in. You’ve read the script; I wanna know if the theological elements of the story are up to snuff.

…

Eddie: As for the religious aspect…does the depiction of Christ Jesus cut the mustard?
Catholic clergyman: Well. The nature of the Christ is not quite as simple as your photoplay would have it.
Eddie: How so, Father?
Catholic clergyman: It is not the case simply that Christ is God, or God Christ.
Rabbi: You can say that again! The Nazarene was not God!
Eastern Orthodox clergyman: He was not not-God.
Rabbi: He was a man!
Eastern Orthodox clergyman: Part God.
Rabbi: No sir!

…

Catholic Clergyman: Christ is more properly referred to as the son of God. It’s the Son of God who takes the sins of the world upon Himself so that the rest of God’s children, we imperfect beings, through faith, may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Eddie [clearly perplexed]: So God is…split?
Catholic Clergyman: Yes. And no.
Eastern Orthodox clergyman: There is unity in division.
Protestant clergyman: And division in unity.
Eddie: Not sure I follow, Padre.
Rabbi: Young man, you don’t follow for a very simple reason; these men are screwballs. God has children? What, and a dog? A collie, maybe? God doesn’t have children. He’s a bachelor. And very angry.
Catholic clergyman: No, no, He used to be angry.
Rabbi: What, he got over it?
Protestant Clergyman: You worship the god of another age!
Catholic Clergyman: Who has no love!
Rabbi: Not true! He likes Jews.
Protestant clergyman: God loves everyone!
Catholic clergyman: God is love.
Eastern Orthodox clergyman: God is who is.
Rabbi: This is special? Who isn’t “who is”?

…

Cuddahy [Locheed corporation recruiter]: Let me show you something. Ever heard of the Bikini atoll?
Eddie: No.
Cuddahy: A test site, just a couple of rocks in the middle of the Pacific until a few weeks ago. When we blew the H-erino. Shouldn’t be telling you this. It’s the real world. The hydrogen bomb. Fusion device.
Eddie: Armageddon.
Cuddahy: And Lockheed was there!!

…

Herbert Marcuse [to Baird]: Man is unity, a simple economic agent. Man’s institutions are split, expressing contradictions that must be worked through. And they are worked through in a causative, predictable way: history is science. This is the essence of the dialectic.
Communist: You see, if you understand economics, you can actually write down what will happen in the future, with as much confidence as you write down the history of the past. Because it’s science. It’s not make-believe.

…

Baird: Me, for the little guy? Of course I’m for the little guy!..Listen. I better get back, the studio’s got to be going nuts. Can we cut it off now and pick it up right here at the next study session?
Communist: Okay, well, See. I’m afraid it’s not that simple.

…

Narrator: And so Baird Whitlock found himself in the hands of Communists. Meanwhile, far from the crashing surf of Malibu, Eddie Mannix, torn from his lunch with the Lockheed man hurries back to the vastness of Capitol Pictures, whose tireless machinery clanks on, producing this year’s ration of dreams for all the weary peoples of the world.

…

Communist: Then Dr. Marcuse came down from Stanford, joined the study group. And started teaching us about direct action.
Marcuse: Praxis.
Communist: Action.
Marcuse: We each pursue our own economic interest, we ourselves are not above the laws of history. But in pursuing our interest with vigor, we accelerate the dialectic, and hasten the end of history and the creation of the New Man.

…

C.C. [to Eddie]: Reverse! Reverse! Rerverse!

…

Hobie: Is it hard to dance with all them bananas on your head?
Carlotta [putting a purse on her head and dancing]: Oh, no. Anyone can do it. It’s all in the hips and the lips and the eyes and the thighs.

…

Eddie: When the studio needs someone who meets the legal standard of…how did you put it, Sid?
Sid: Personhood.
Eddie: Joe steps in and acts as the, uh…person.
DeeAnna: So you’re a professional…person?
Joe: That’s right, miss. Initial here, and here.

…

Baird: Hobie Doyle? You’re a communist too?!
Hobie: So, it’s Commies…

…

Gofer [to Christ on the cross]: Who’re you?
Todd [who plays Christ]: Todd.
Gofer: Todd…You have a hot breakfast or a box breakfast?
Todd: I…I don’t know.
Gofer: Are you a principal or an extra?
Todd: I think I’m a principal.

…

Baird: These Communists were pretty interesting, though. They’ve actually figured out the laws that dictate…everything. History, sociology, politics, morality. Everything. It’s all in a book called “Kapital”, with a K.
Eddie: That right?
Baird: Yeah. You’re not gonna believe this, these guys even figured it out what’s going on here at the studio. Because the studio is nothing more than an instrument of capitalism. Yes, so we blindly follows these laws like any other institution. The laws these guys’ve figured out. The studio makes pictures to serve the system, that’s it’s function, that’s really what we’re all up to, here.
Eddie: Is it?
Baird: Yeah, we’re just conrming what they call the status quo. I mean, we might tell ourselves that we’re creating something of artistic value, that there’s some sort of spiritual dimension to the picture business, but what it is, is this fat cat, Nick Schenk, out in New York running this factory that’s serving up these lollypops to the…what did you use to call the a bread and circuses for the…
[Eddie can stand not more…he gets up from his desk and walks over to Baird…he yanks him off the chair]
Baird: What?!
Eddie: Now, you listen to me, buster. Nick Schenk and this studio have been good to you and to everyone else who works here. If I ever hear you bad mouthing Mr. Schenk again it’ll be the last thing you say before I have you tossed into jail for colluding in
your own abduction.
Baird: Eddie! I wouldn’t, I would never do that.
Eddie: Shut up!! You’re going to go out there and you’re going to finish “Hail, Caesar!” You’re gonna give the speech at the feet of the penitent thief and you’re gonna believe every word you say. You’re gonna do it because you’re an actor and that’s what you do.
Just like the director does what he does, and the writer and the script girl and the guy who claps the slate. You’re gonna do it because the picture has Worth and you have Worth if you serve the picture and you’re never gonna forget that again.
Baird: Okay, Eddie, okay.
Eddie: Baird. Go out there and be a star.

…

Thora: Baird Whitlock, your biggest star, got his first major part in On Wings as Eagles by engaging in sodomy with the picture’s director, Laurence Laurentz.
Eddie: We’ve all heard the story. But here’s something you haven’t heard: your source is a Communist. If you print it it’ll be dismissed as a Commie smear tactic and you’ll be dismissed as a Commie stooge.

…

Eddie: Add a call to a Mr. Cuddahy at the Lockheed Corporation.
Assistant: Long call, short?
Eddie: Tell them, “Thanks, but no thanks.” That short enough for you? [/b]