Saw a horrible amonut of series/tv series, some new, some renewed, some cancelled, some I quit...
Mayor of Kingstown s04 -4 -toughest yet, Lennie James, Richard Brake, Eddie Falco, Laura Benanti.
The Iris Affair -miniseries- 8 eps big fsss. Tom Hollander good.
The Last Frontier -should've quit
got back to Slow Horses s2 1/2 -5 -Gary Oldman getting more and more Legend !
Down Cemetery Gates -loses steam after ep. 4
The White Lotus s03 - -best yet-Walton Goggins, Scott Glenn, Parker Posey.
It: Welcome to Derry -quit
Task sez. 1 not much
Duster 1 sez. cancelled , was kinda fun
Subteran 1 sez. oy vey
Landman s. 1 ep.7-10 / sez 2 ep. 1-5 (in Top Series 2024, contd. in 2026)
The Lowdown 8 eps - Tulsa noir on the songs of J.J.Cale, Ethan Hawke as jouranlist Lee Raybon gets beaten up all the time. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs).
Pluribus s01 -Vince Gilligan is moving way to slow...
Peacemaker s02 -even better than season One.
The Studio 1 season-10 eps., Seth Rodgen's satire is hit and miss but the episodes are short and Bryan Carnston as Griffin Mill is a blast !
Dept. Q sez 1, 9 eps. (renewed) -the Sweedish series of thriller books by Jussi Adler-Olsen get new (Scott Frank for Netflix) and way too slow treatment with Matthew Goode as Carl Morck.
The Last of Us -season 3. All gets weak after Pedro Pascal is no more.
Monster The Ed Gein Story (sez 3 -8 eps) -see below
Walking Dead-New York -quit
Alien: Earth s 1 -they did some good, and then they did some real bad. Continuing to mix the Weyland Yutanis with the Blad Runners, Prometheus, Timothy Olyphant's android Kirsch is a hoot !
Paradise season 1 (renewed) -cool idea of post apocalyptic city under a dome.
Dope Thief sez. 1 -Ridley Scott produced and directed the first episode. Based on a true story.
Movies mix with the legacy of serial killers -from Psycho to Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Silence of the Lambs. Clever post-modern choices. Plus Ilsa Koch and the Nazis ! But a truly great performance form Charlie Hunnam. And Tom Hollander is Alfred Hitchcock. Even Mindhunter returns in ep. 8. Too much grand guignol as always but way way upper than the other 2 seasons (the 2nd I quit watching...)
Why is though Ed Gein made so sympathetic and a victim, "mother's boy" ?
Pale Flower /Kawaita hana is a one-of-a-kind Noir pschedelic by Masahiro Shinoda, New Wave of Japonese cinema director. Closer to Le Samourai by Melville, or something by Antonioni, than the Japonese cinema of the era. Also keener to Kitano's earlier films. Spellbinding black and white tale of obsession, gambling and yakuza, nihillistic, downbeat existentialism. Ryô Ikebe is great as gangster Muraki, a quintesential film noir icon and Mariko Kaga as unaproachable Saeki a real pale flower indeed. The car race at night seems more appropiate in a French or Italian new vague film. Here is just hypnotic.
Atmospeheric score by Toru Takemitsu.
Also, this is one of Top Ten films of Michael Mann, "for the opening scenes alone".
Father Mother Sister Brother might be the last Jim Jarmusch hilm (*he said it). He is also 72 now, which is somehow incredible, cos he kinda looks the same.
Three vignettes (New Jersey, Dublin, Paris), out of which the 1st one is the best, Father, because it has Tom Waits in it. Nice to see Charlotte Rampling as Mother and Vicky Krieps with pink hair is cool too. It's Jarmusch's introspective reflective film after 6 years of pause and the uberdisapointing The Dead don't Die (see here in Romanian).
FMSB is not a lot of fun, some coffeee, no cigarettes, the same shots from above tho, on Mother some cakes, some tea (no alcohol) some skating, Rolexes, a nice Paris flat, a lot of Reds in the costumes (YSL;), but the whole thing is out of breath, man...sort of Mid day on Earth...
that FMSB won Best film on Venice film fest this year, beats me. This was a film that was not accepted in competition in Cannes, the festival that made JJ a star !
Jim Jarmusch made also the music, on guitar, together with singer Annika (Henderson), one of the songs is Jackson Browne's These Days, 1st sung by Nico in 1967.
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, aka B.B. , once the most famous French incons, died at age 91. She was one of the most beautiful women on screen, bringin g a certain modern quality to feminity in the 60's.
She was married four times, most famously to Roger Vadim and Gunther Sachs. Also a singer, involved with Serge Gainsbourg (Bonnie & Clyde).
Films: Vadim's Et Dieu... créa la femme, Louis Malle's Viva Maria, Henri Clousot's La Vérité, Godard's Le Mépris. Last film in 1973. She became a Grand Animal Activist, and that was her main activity and her legacy.
Chris Rea is no longer Driving Home for Christmas...
The English blues player and singer was 74.
Rea recorded 25 studio albums, two of which topped the UK Albums Chart, The Road to Hell in 1989 and its follow-up, Auberge, in 1991.
He did the music for La Passione in 1996, film he wrote and produced about racing cars and Ferrari, Rea being a racing driver himself.
He also had the lead in the pythonesque black comedy Parting Shots (1998, directed by Michael Winner), next to Ben Kingsley, Oliver Reed and John Cleese. The film can been on youtube, here.
He had an Italian father and Irish mother - his family were in the ice cream business.
Chris Rea had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at age 33, a lot of other health issues folllowing it, but he lived and played, album after album, gig after gig, until a stroke in 2016...
My favorite actor for the next Oscars would be Russell Crowe in an all-time high career role as Hermann Göring in this WW2 courtroom drama based on the real events pd the Trial at Nuremberg. His opponent in the film is Rami Malek as the shrink Hermann Göring in a weird casting choice. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt's 2nd feature has great production values (shot in Hungary for 7.5 mill. $ !!!), sets, costumes, supporting cast (John Slattery, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, Colin Hanks, Andreas Pietschmann as Rudolf Hess), dramatic music by Brian Tyler and great widescreen cinematography by Dariusz Wolski. Bsed on Jack El-Hai's book, "The Nazi and the Psychiatrist".
For many too academic, long (2h30 -I'd say Epic), ut a worthwhile dramatic story with a new take, worthy to be told TODAY.
took a while to process, and but it's not processed yet..:(
Mr. Marty DiBergi who just a had a comeback with Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues had left the showbiz...Dec. 14th 2025. He was 78. More about Rob Reiner in another later post...
The Sirat Bridge, in Islamic belief, is a narrow and perilous bridge that every person must cross on the Day of Judgment to enter Paradise (Jannah). It is described as being thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword, with the faithful crossing it swiftly, while sinners may fall into Hell below.
(from imdb trivia)
SIRAT is one of the best films of 2025, and definitely the most interesting, visually and thematically. Jury Prize in Cannes and Golden Globe nominated for best foreign film (Spain's entry) and surely Oscar nod in the same category. Sergi Lopez leads a cast of unknown and unprofessional actors into the Morrocan -here unanmed-desert in a Jodorowskian take on Sorcerer (Friedkin's best !!!) in Burning Man territory. Existentialism follows upwards and downwards spiral ;)
Director and co-writer Oliver Laxe says Sirat it's a mix of Mad Max, Easy Rider and Stalker.
Also there are one armless man, one legless man (Freak show, /Freaks t shirt), another hint at some Jodorowski. And a pun on a Boris Vian poem and song, more existentialism and surrealism mix.
Stellar Techno electronic soundtrack by French artist Kangding Ray. Would deserve the Oscar and the Globe for best score.It won Cannes Soundtrack Award.
Kudos also for Laia Casanova’s sound design, that turns the "rumors of the wind" and the noises of the desert into their own Rave.
Also as I was sure, it's the Winner of 2025 Palm Dog - Jury Prize For Pipa the Jack Russell, and Lupita the Podenco mix.
9 out of Ten / 4 1/2 out of 5 !!!
*To be seen in a cinema with powerful speakers and good sound design. And about that, it's a real shame the film runs in Romania only a few shows, in some cities (see here on the distributor's site Transilvania Film), and not at all in Brasov :((( shameful...
Kleber Mendonça Filho's follow-up to Bacurau is O Agente secreto. 2025's Cannes award winner for best actor -Walter Moura !and best director, Golden Globe nominated and soon Oscar nominated-Brazil's entry for best foreign film.
Also Udo Kier's last part as Hans, a great on screen goodbye.
2h38 of complicated narrative, non-liniar, Brazilian politics and 1970's history, plus a lot of love for the cinema, ecclectic soundtrack, one of the most interesting and best films of the year.
The S.H.I.T. este un nou supergrup internațional, format din patru muzicieni excepționali ai scenei blues și
rock: Innes Sibun (chitară și voce), Mike Hellier (tobe), Roger Inniss (bas) și Rob Tognoni (chitară și voce).
Acești artiști, formați pe scenele mari ale blues-ului și rock-ului, s-au unit pentru a crea un proiect original,
plin de energie și atitudine.
Muzica lor combină blues-ul, roots și Americana, într-un stil autentic, caracterizat de virtuozitate instrumentală și prezență scenică remarcabilă. Acesta va fi primul concert susținut vreodată de The S.H.I.T. în această nouă formulă cu Innes Sibun la chitară și voce.
Innes Sibun (UK) – unul dintre cei mai apreciați chitariști britanici de blues rock, parte din Robert Plant Band și artist cu peste 30 de ani de experiență scenică. Unul din prietenii statornici ai Transilvania Blues Nights ca parte din proiectul The Malone Sibun Band împreună cu texanul Marcus Malone, prezenți de trei ori la Brașov, în 2019, 2020 si în 2023.
Rob Tognoni (Australia) – The Tasmanian Devil, un showman de forță, chitarist exploziv și o carieră de peste trei decenii. A mai fost prezent la Transilvania Blues Nights cu propria trupă în 2022 și 2024.
Roger Inniss (UK) – basist cu o versatilitate remarcabilă, activ în proiecte de blues, funk și soul. A colaborat cu artiști precum Joanne Shaw-Taylor, Snowy White, Mick Taylor, Edwin Starr, Chaka Khan. A fost prezent la Transilvania Blues Nights de două ori, alături de brazilianul Fred Sunwalk.
Mike Hellier (UK) – baterist cu groove puternic și experiență eclectică, a cântat în diverse formule, de la Mike Scott (The Waterboys), James Hunter, Johnny Thunders, la Mudd Morganfield, fiul lui Muddy Waters.
Un concert-eveniment în premieră națională și la Brașov, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.
Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights, recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți.
Parteneri de ospitalitate: A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Brașov Old Town Apartments.
6 decembrie 2025, ora 20:00, open doors 18:00. Transilvania Blues Nights. Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov.Bilete: pre-sale 120 lei până în data de 05.12.2025; 150 lei în ziua concertului. Informații și bilete: www.transilvaniablues.ro
Tom Stoppard was one of the greatest playwrights of the last century, screenwiter and script doctor and author of the play Rosenkrantz and Guilderstern are Dead (1966). In 1990 he directed also a film based on his play, the film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival as well as the Fantasporto Directors' Week Award. He co-wrote Brazil with Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. He won the Oscar (and Golden Globe) for a lesser film, Shakespeare in Love, in 1998. His forte were the adpatations.
Udo Kier died on November 23d in Palm Springs. He was 83. One of the greatest actors. Ever. Only through his mad glaze, blue piercing eyes, he dominated every screen and stole every scene he was in.
Takes me some time and pain to write about him. I knew him, met in different occasions 4 times over the years. Interviewed him with Andrei on the set of One Point O in Bucharest in 2003. We spent hours in a derelict block of flats, now demolished, in a smoked flat, under the lights, into the night. Uberhot, hot early summer night in Bucharest (8th of may as the picture says). Udo came for a film and stayed for one more, got a part in Andy Garcia's Modigliani. His hair was dyed blonde for the part. We got Polaroids with him, each, this is Andrei's here.
Then he was invited in Cluj at TIFF in 2006 and we hang out with him, even to a second hand shop where he bought a glorious long leather coat. This is another pic from Andrei, from one night to never forget, in the Diesel club, in the cellar VIP room (ha, another place that does not exist anymore...)
Then year passed, I had Udo's US address and mail, we sent him a script of a film still not done today. Didn't pass us to his agent or anything. I don't have the same mail address so that got lost.
In 2015 I was a guest of Grossmann film Festival, and spent more time with Udo, also there. We even went to see an art exhibition together.
Found another pic from Grossmann 2015, with my buddies, director Kritstjan Milic (Zivi i mrtvi) and Kapelmeister of the fest, Marko Mehtsun.
And last time I saw him in Cannes, on Rue des Antibes, in 2019, as he was there with the cast of Kleber Mendonça Filho's Bacurau, great film. We met on the street and had a chat. The last part of Udo is in Filho's new film, The Secret Agent. A beautiful heartfelt goodbye...
On the screen I saw him last in Hunters, season two where he played obviously on of his recurring characters, Adolf Hitler. Update: I just saw My Neighbor Adolf and liked it, Udo is at his best.
Goodbye Udo, it was a pleasure and an honor to meet you...
The new Running Man, is not a remake pre se of the Ahnuld 1987 vehicle, but a more faithful adaptation of Stephen King as Richard Bachman novel, written in 1973, published in 1982. That novel happened in the year 2025 and actually today it happens, with the Squid Game series and a Korean Reality show named exactly Running Man. So Ben Richards is in a banal world, becoming more real every day. I mean, it's like Y-day news after the Hunger Games series and all the Tv/straming fare of this kind.
Running man is of course influenced by Rollerball, which still stands up as one of the best film of its era (not the shitty unnecesaary reamke) it's even worse tha n its remake.
Everyone's commenting, oh, it's an Edgar Wright film. Ok, that is like a certified value for a big budget blockbuster Sf action (110 mill. $). surely not. I was also very dispointed by Lst Night in Soho, his take in gialllos, very pretentios and shallow. The most action Wright directed was in Baby Driver, which I enjoyed most of his all films, and he's better in making quirky, funny, heartfelt little films, not Hollywood fodder.
Also Glen Powell, which I've just seen in the lastest SNL edition, can't carry the film., at all. Not a problem with the guy and he tries hard but neh.
This would've worked as a Snake Plissken adventure, like Escape fromn the Dome. I guess Wright gave a few nods to John Carpenter.
There's also a problem with the duration which is overlong, 2h13 min, oi, the film doesn't start until we get to the show and no matter how good Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo are, they can't help much.
Also this world, used and dirty, used to cost less to produce on the screen. Here they went to Bulgaria for exteriors and day shots. Somehow doesn't look like America. The rest of it was hot at Warner Bros' studios in England.
Now for the music, unimpressive loud score by Steven Price. And as Edgar Wright ia great fan of songs to use on the soundtrack (yeah, great in Baby Driver), here most of them are wasted. Rolling Stones' Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker), Sly and the Family Stone (Underdog)-on the main credits, Iggy and the Stooges (Search and Destroy), The Allman Brothers (Revival) , Miles Davis (Red China Blues) and Tom Jones (Keep on Running) on the end credits. Including a riff of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (last heard appropiately in One Battle After Another). And Jamie XX, far from my desk ;)
It's been Stephen King's year all over, from Life of Chuck to Welcome to Derry, the IT prequel that runs now on HBO MAX, MGM's The Institute series, passing through The Monkey and another Bachman opus, The Long Walk (which I liked best of these all, my review here).
Wright's film is full of King references /Easter eggs for the eyes of King's fans and King himself, credited as an executive producer. Of course King was happy with the film, as I know his tastes in film (ex: how much he hated Kubrick's The Shining and managed to to a sequel just to get rid of that Kubrick hangover, I don't care so much about what he likes or does not cinematically...hey, what about that Maximum Overdrive?
2 1/2 out of 5
*I opened recently a Letterboxed account in order to write down the films I see which I hardly can here, and my "reARviews" will be isssued there. Same ratings apply.
Lee Tamahori , rose to the film industry in New Zeeland, from photohrapher, to boom and sound, to tv director, gritty cult fame with Once Were Warriors in 1994...
They called him to Hollywood where he became the director of the worst James Bond in history, Die Another Day (2002).
Mullholand Falls, his neo-noir was a flop but it's worth rewatching.
Jack De Johnette was one of the greatests of Jazz. Brilliant drummer and pianist, played with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew and live LPs). He was 83.
Played in Romania at Sala Radio in Bucharest in 2016 as a trio with Ravi Coltrane on sax and Bill Garrison on bass. That same year he played also Garana Jazz Festival in the same lineup.
"I think playing with Miles, with Dave Holland, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter was a very exciting period. We always couldn’t wait to get on the bandstand to see what kind of mischief we could get into.”
Drew Struzan, the man who designed some of the most iconic posters in the history of Movieland, for over 150 films. From the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series to Blade Runner, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Back to the Future in the 80's, then over a new generation of filmmakers-Tim Burton-Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks, Frank Darabont-The Shawnshank Redemption, The Mist (David's paintings), The Green Mile, Guillermo Del Toro-Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth- has passed away on Oct. 13th. He was 78...
Note (grazie, LD): Legendary Italian poster art maestro Renato Casaro died on Sept. 30 at 89...He did the posters for the Leone spaghetti westerns, up to Flash Gordon and Conan the Barbarian (as they were Dino de Laurentiis productions). He retired in 1998 but came back in 2019, called by Quentin Tarantino to realize some "old school illustrated Western posters" ("Uccidimi Subito Ringo, disse il Gringo" aka "Kill Me Now Ringo, Said The Gringo", and "Nebraska Jim") for Italian films starring Rick Dalton, the character Leonardo DiCaprio plays in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Struzan and Casaro have even a poster in common, for The Name of the Rose in 1986, for whom they did both posters.
Struzan Casaro
Struzan also designed LP covers before film posters, including the legendary Alice Cooper's 1975 `Welcome to My Nightmare`.
In 2013, he was the subject of Erik Sharkey’s feature documentary “Drew: The Man Behind The Poster,” with interviews with collaborators like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Frank Darabont, Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro.
“Drew made event art. His posters made many of our movies into destinations…and the memory of those movies and the age we were when we saw them always comes flashing back just by glancing at his iconic photorealistic imagery. In his own invented style, nobody drew like Drew.”
Diane Keaton was 79. Except Woody Allen's muse, friend (and girlfriend) and confidante (eight films together, from 1972's Play It Again Sam, ending with Manhattan Murder Mystery in 1993), she was Al Pacino's Michael Corleone's wife Kay in the three Godfathers, from fiancee to divorcee (also his girlfriend in real life), and exceptionally radicalist Louise Bryant in Warren Beatty's 1981's Reds. A very smart, intellectual. witty woman, personified best in Annie Hall (1977), character that used Keaton's manierisms, also her true family name is Hall, film that brought her an Oscar for best actress. She was also a feminist and an avant garde personality. And a great protograper (book Reservations). She never married and had two adopted kids.
I think the last time I saw her was in Something's Gotta Give, the 2003 Nicholson weaker comedy... She was in a lot of romantic comedies (Father of the Bride), heartfelt films (The First Wives Club), dramas (Marvin's Room). But for me she will always be The Little Drummer Girl, in the excellent George Roy Hill film from 1984, based on the John le Carré book (not the 2018 series), where she plays a wannabe groupie terrorist, ideologically brainwashed and used, in a film that is more actualt today than Woody Allen's NY fantasies or the politics of Reds.
She as also great in Richard Brooks’ audacious drama with a sex twist, Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).
Diane Hall / Keaton was also a director, most famously for Be Unstrung Heroes (1995), she also directed Belinda Carlisle's hit video Heaven is a Place on Earth. She also produced Gus Van Sant's Elephant. She wrote memoirs thrice: “Then Again” (2011), “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty” (2015) and “Brother and Sister” (2020).
2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFI/ American Film Institute.
`There are two kinds of people in this world, those who know who Shane Black is, and those who don't!. Those can dig ;)
NALD
Well Shane Black is back as a writer/director, this time on Amazon Prime & theirs MGM 100 mill. $ streaming extravaganza.
It's a Parker film named Play Dirty (not to be confused with the 1969 André De TothWW2 actioner, the title comes from Black's unfilmed script for Lethal Weapon 2, unseen til today -Black's most proud and gritty work, or so they say ;).
It's based on the Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake) iconic novels started in the 60's. Not one novel but `novels`. I guess they're trying to build a franchise but this won't happen I guess cos' the film is the weakest of Black's career as a director (and that includes the reshot troubled 2018's The Predator).
Mark Wahlberg is Parker, an obnoxious choice. He can't handle the character dark charisma and dry wit, a dangerous man with a code of its own. Stark's Parker is an Anti Hero, Steve Mc Queen would have done him justice. Or Kris Kristofferson. Even today's Brad Pitt cos' Russell Crowe's too overweight...
Robert Downey Jr. was supposed to play him but he backed off, remaining on board as a producer. Not sure even about Downey but definetly a better choice, Parker's before were Lee Marvin (Point Blank-1967- the most menacing), Jim Brown (The Split-1978, the black one), Robert Duvall (The Outfit-1973, the most aloof), Peter Coyote (Slayground-1983, the most unlikely), Mel Gibson (Payback-1999, the coolest, but meanest to his director-check out only the Director's Cut), Jason Statham (Parker-2013, bleh..). I'm not adding two these the two Frenchie freejazzin', Made in USA (Jean Luc Godard, 1966) and Mise à Sac (Alan Cavalier, 1967).
Back to Play Dirty. Would've been better to play it cool tho. The film itself is a self indulgent mess, combo of action scenes, comedy and VFX gone awry.
Too many characters, too much useless plot, not a lot of chemistry between the actors. Rapper LaKeith Stanfield shines as Grofield, Stark's character that has his own novels. Would've liked more of the Thomas Jane character, and someone else for Tony Shaloub, the guy plays a caricature of the mob boss of a ridiculous corny and cartoonish Outfit. Think a James Coburn, even in Hudson Hawk or Kris Kristofferson (he was the boss of The Outfit in Payback, but not in the Director's Cut !!!). Also for the Latin country (unanamed but it's Peru), some finer actors, plus Rosa Salazar as Zen is kinda unmemobrable and not at all a Femme Fatale type.
The running time (2h03) is overlong and the film loses steam in midstream.
+++The Plus:
Great score by Alan Silvestri, reminionscent of those he did for Predator and The Long Kiss Goodnight (based on Shane's script), jazzy and funk, dramatic and menacing where it needs to be. For me Silvestri's score is a great comeback to form. A bit of 007 Bond-sist swagger, Lalo Schifrin and The Taking of Pelham 123 by David Shire, the percussion points.
Also the opening credits are very cool, 60's like. They were made by Daniel Kleinman who did all the title sequences for James Bond starting with GoldenEye back in 1995. Amazingly he is not credited with imdb and Anca found this for me, thanx ! Her piece on the art of the opening credits is here.
And here's the whole title sequence.
Production values-high -especially the first action scene at the racing track.
The cinematography (superb 2.39:) by legendary Phillipe Rousselot (he's 80 now!), a lot of shades, shadows, reflections, in a NYC shot this time in Sydney, Australia !!!! Rousselot and Black worked together before in 2026's The Nice Guys.
Some of the wisecracks work better than the plotholes and the action. Also there are many references to Black's scripts and films, from the Christmas setting (Duh !) Lethal Weapon (the fall from the rooftop), The Long Kiss Goodnight (the House of Gretchen Mol, the chase in the snow, the scene by the water), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys, etc. Liked the Mark Cuban pun ;)
Shane Black's influences on this one are great films, from Bullit to Dirty Harry, Marathon Man to the obscure Hickey & Boggs (1972), you can check the interview here on Letterboxed.
C'hiera una volta in Italy...just visited Atrani where Equalizer 3 (and Ripley) were shot and remembered that Tano Carridi was in it...aka il signore Remo Girone. Next morning I saw on the scroll on Italian Television that he died in Monte Carlo, where he lived. He was 76. The odds to be next to one of his and most iconic last filming places ? Locals we met remembered him with respect, amazed we know Tano so well. La Piovra is still Legend in bella Italia. And in Romania too.
Girone was one of my favorite actors after seeing him in La Piovra series on Romanian Television back in 1992. We were students but we got together on Saturday nights to watch it and Girone as Tano Carridi was the most suave dark angel, a villain of cosmic (or should we say Hellish) proportions. With his perfect hairline, impeccable suits and a quiet voice, he was always filmed in dark shadows, like the Devil incarnate. Later on I saw him in some films but somehow his third career act came from Hollywood films: Live By Night, Ford vV. Ferrari where he played Enzo Ferrari, and Equalizer 3, as a good doctor helping Denzel.
French 75 resurges for one last call...Do you remeber the code ? "What time is it?" / It's Time for REVOlution (again ?)
One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's biggest film to date (you dpon't wanna know the budget, out of which a quarter is Leo's salary..). Most expected and already lauded as film of the year. Sean Penn is in for an Oscar nod surely-best supposting. Di Caprio does a OUIH bit imo. He's like Rick Dalton playing the fried brains revolutionary recluse Bob Ferguson aka Ghetto" Pat. Benicio Del Toro is also superfunny as the Sensei, shades of him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...but Sean Penn's performance as Col. Steven J. Lockjaw is surreal. One for the books !
Chase Infiniti's big screen debut as Bob and Perfidia's daughter Willa is intense. Special mention to Eric Schweig as Avanti.
Plus the Christmas Adventurers Club, man, kudos for this one off ;)
I'd call this No Country For Any One...
It's a relentless ride, shot beautifully on 35 mm film in VistaVision (second film in this format in this century, after The Brutlalist), by Michael Bauman (his second film with PTA after Licorice Pizza), his first feature credit !
The film should be read through his soundtrack -I mean the overall score, again by Jonny Greenwood, his faithfull composer, this time a psychotronic overpulsating paroxistic one. I expect his Oscar next March.
The soundtrack includes great songs, from Steely Dan (Dirty Work), to Jackson Five (Ready Or Not Here I Come), Tom Petty's American Girl on the end credits (you will know why, "she was raised with Promises"), Ella Fitzgerald and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, thge classic and still subversive Gil Scott-Heron proto-rap from 1970, which plays a role also in the plot.
Thomas Pynchon's book Vineland (1990) was the inspiration of PTA, who did a crazy looney tones political bonanza. Reminde me a lot of Eddington. It's somehow PTA's funniest film to date. Some bits reminiscent of the weed haze of Inherent Vice, his adaptation of Pynchon's other counterculture book.
There is also a big connection (and inspiration) with Gillo Pontecorvo's revolutionary classic Batle of Algiers (1966).
Epic duration, 2h41, but it goes fast, on this one I would've liked to be even longer, more Christmas Adventureres, Billy Goat, Beegee, Comrade Josh and Talleyrand.
The film is dedicated to Adam Somner, the legendary second unit director (Gladiator, Phantom Thread) and producer of 5 of PTA's films from There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Licorice Piza to this last, OBATA. Somner died last year in November after completing this film...
4 out of 5, 8 out of 10 !!!
*Defintely it's a film that you can revisit, plus very TODAY in the actual political climate.
The Bride, Maggie Gyllenhaal's second film after The Lost Daughter (2021) is a revisonist retelling of Bride of Frankenstein (1935, James Whale), with Jessie Buckley (Fargo sez, IV) as The Bride, Christian Bale as Frankenstein's Monster, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening.
Just fyi, there was another The Bride, starring Sting, Clancy Brown as the Monster aka Viktor and Jennifer Beals as "Eve", directed by Franc Roddam, in 1985.
Transilvania Blues Festival – Ediția a VII-a aduce nume mari din lumea bluesului internațional pe 26 și 27 septembrie 2025, la Club Rockstadt, Braşov
Festivalul care aduce anual în centrul României nume importante ale blues-ului internațional aniversează 7 ani de existență. Ediția din acest an propune un program care pune în valoare
diversitatea stilistică a blues-ului contemporan, de la tradiția americană la influențele europene moderne.
LINE-UP 2025:
Vineri, 26 septembrie
* Riccardo Grosso Blues Band (Italia) – Trupă apreciată pe scena europeană pentru
interpretările autentice și abordarea modernă a blues-ului clasic. Frontman-ul Riccardo
Grosso este recunoscut în Europa pentru tehnica sa rafinată la muzicuță și interpretările
expresive, care îl plasează printre cei mai apreciați artiști de blues din Italia. Prezență în
premieră în România, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues Festival.
* Sean Chambers & The Savoy Brown Rhythm Section (SUA) – Chitarist și vocalist din Florida,
cu o carieră de peste două decenii, fost membru al trupei lui Hubert Sumlin (chitaristul lui
Howlin’ Wolf). A fost inclus de revista Guitarist Magazine în topul celor mai buni 50 de
chitariști de blues din lume, iar albumele sale au intrat constant în clasamentele Billboard
Blues și Roots Music Report. Revine în România după concertul de succes susținut la
Transilvania Blues Nights pe 23 noiembrie 2023.
Sâmbătă, 27 septembrie
* Jörg Danielsen & Vienna Blues Association (Austria) – Un proiect internațional care
reunește muzicieni de top din scena vieneză și scandinavă. Jörg Danielsen este fondatorul
Vienna Blues Association și organizatorul Blues Festival Falkenstein & Austrian Blues
Challenge. Jörg Danielsen va fi prezent în premieră în Brașov, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues
Festival.
* John Primer & Giles Robson (SUA/Marea Britanie) – Două nume de referință în blues-ul mondial. John Primer, fost chitarist pentru Muddy Waters și Magic Slim, este un pilon al blues-ului tradițional din Chicago. Giles Robson, unul dintre puținii muzicieni europeni care au câștigat un Blues Music Award, completează acest duo unic. John Primer va fi prezent în premieră în Brașov, exclusiv la Transilvania Blues Festival.
Binged this over two nights Black Rabbit, 8 episodes, New York set and well presented into it. The name of the show -miniseries of a Season, no twofers, comes from a bar / restaurant / lounge next top Brooklyn Bridge, names Black Rabbit. Intrigued me that Jude Law sings, together with Albert Hammond Jr. from The Strokes, they are The Black Rabbits, the fictional band in the new netflix series.
There are two Black Rabbits songs, “Turned To Black” and “Outside People,” written and produced by Albert Hammond, Jr.
Best part of Jason Bateman's career IMO, great teaming with Jude Law as the Friedken brothers, Jake and Vince. Jake own the Black Rabbit and wants to move to The Room, Vince is an addict and a f**k up on the run, turning like a bad penny into Jack's life, worst moment, worst time...
Great supporting cast, including Troy Kutsur (Oscar winner from CODA), Abbey Lee (Oz ex model, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Neon Demon, Old), Joe Ales as Jules Zablonski, Don Harvey, Dagmara Dominczyk, many more.
Great tense score by Danny Bensi & Saunder Jurriaans (series Tokyo Vice, Ozark and Speak No Evil).
Links with Ozark and The Order, Justin Kurzel (directs last 2 eps), the writers, who wrote both, Zach Baylin and Kate Susman (also producer and showrunner).
First 2 eps directed by Bateman and 2 more by Laura Linney, his partner in the Ozark series. Two more by Ben Semanoff (also from Ozark). Lots of Ozarks and Jude Law's The Order that led to this greenlit by netflix. Location shooting and plenty of atmosphere, noirish nightmare descent, bravura performances, I guess it won't be much loved but I appreciated it. Will be on my list of 2025 Top series.
It will be my 12th gig, as in Shakes' The Twelve Night ;)
1. kissstadion -2003 hungary, june 2 2. stuttgart, dance of death 2003, 25 oct 3. milano a matter of life and death, 2 dec 2006 4. cotroceni, aug. 2 somewhere back in time -2008 5. cluj final frontier 2010 6. pta constitutiei 2013 7. pta constitutiei 2016 8. hills of rock plovdiv, 2018 9. romexpo senjutzu 2023 10. run for your lives papp laszlo arena 28 mai 2025 11. beaufort 3 iulie 2025
+
plus bruce dickinson spoken word feb 2000 sala radio plus dickinson cannes chemical wedding plus dickenson sala pal 2022 deep p symphonic
Iron Maiden își continuă turneul aniversar „Run For Your Lives”, dedicat celor 50 de ani de carieră, cu un setlist care reunește momente definitorii din istoria trupei și cu cel mai spectaculos show pus în scenă până acum.
Biletele pentru publicul general se pun în vânzare începând cu 27 septembrie, ora 11:00, la https://ironmaiden.emagic.ro/ și pe iaBilet.ro, iar pre-sale-ul pentru membrii fan clubului Iron Maiden începe pe 23 septembrie, la ora 11:00.
Clienții Emagic și iaBilet vor avea la dispoziție un presale cu acces exclusiv începând cu 24 septembrie, la ora 11:00, în baza unui cod pe care il vor primi pe email.
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES WORLD TOUR 2026
MAI 23 Atena, GRECIA – OAKA 26 Sofia, BULGARIA – Stadionul Vasil Levski 28 București, ROMÂNIA – Arena Națională 30 Bratislava, SLOVACIA – Národný Futbalový Štadión
IUNIE 02 Hanovra, GERMANIA – Heinz von Heiden Arena 10 Amsterdam, OLANDA – Ziggo Dome 17 Milano, ITALIA – San Siro Stadium 22 Paris, FRANȚA – Paris La Défense Arena 28 Lyon (Décines), FRANȚA – Groupama Stadium
IULIE 07 Lisabona, PORTUGALIA – Estádio da Luz 11 Knebworth, UK
