On Any given Sunday-quotes like these last forever...

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: "I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"

from Network (not The Social...)
where on any of 'em I'm happy I won't go on Monday :)

Unknown (2011)

Hitchcock, Frantic si Bourne, toate impreuna in Berlin iarna fac din Unknown un thriller old-fashioned impachetata ca un puzzle, cu aer european, care putea sa fie mai bun, dar fireste si mult mai prost. Si e un pas mare peste Taken, cu formulaicele action by the numeros ale lui Luc Besson. Am fost fericit cind am vazut siglele Warner Bros/Dark Castle pe film, pentru ca am crezut ca e un alt vehicol Besson dar e un film produs de Joel Silver, in care banii cheltuiti se vad pe ecran si urmaririle de masini nu arata ca cele pariziene, adica turistice !
bazat pe romanul "Out of My Head" de Didier Van Cauwelaert (o alta privire europeana). imi place mai mult titlul romanului, dar probabil prea poetic pt film si prea usor de confundat cu o comedie romantica !!!
exista elementul Polanski (pina la un moment dat flagrant cu Frantic, un element din Ghost Writer-descifrarea codului) si elementul Brian De Palma (secventa din muzeu cu privirile seamana cu cea din muzeul de arta din Dressed to Kill),

-desi mi-a adus aminte si de setpiece-ul din Guggnheim din The International
-iar January Jones arata ca Grace Kelly mai mult ca oricind (si in Mad Men, dar acesta e un film care se vrea contemporan!) ! iar nemtoaica Dian Kruger e Gina, o refugiata bosniaca !
regizorul spaniol Jaume Collet-Serra a facut numai filme americane pina acum si e specializat pe horror (House of Wax, Orphan) si pe fotbal (Goal 2) dar e extrem de eficient. o singura problema, prea mult reclama Mercedes in your face !!!

-cascade impresionante facute 4 real si locatii excelente in centrul Berlinului, plus un aerial de final la fel de old-fashioned (si ca in Frantic !!!)
-minus niste neverosimilitati si mambo jumbo, imbinare moderna de Omul care stia prea mult plus The Wrong Man, cred ca lui Hitchcock i-ar fi placut !!!
hotelul Aldon (azi Aldon-Kempinsky, in buza la Potsdamer Platz si intrarea pe Unten der Linden), excelent folosit (cel de unde si-a balanganit Michael Jackson copilul), reminder hotelul din Foreign Correspondent si aer de Mission: Impossible (primul)!
un interviu excelent cu Liam Neeson aici
3 din 5, poate cu inca un sfert de punct in plus pentru seriozitateea lui Neeson si cu impecabilii Bruno Ganz, Sebastian Koch, Aidan Quinn, si Frank Langella
potential de revizionare: Da!

Royal Flash (1975)

the lighter side of Barry Lyndon and the cousin of Tom Jones. La vremea lor au crezut ca pot face o serie din aventurile capitanului Harry Flashman, bazate pe seria de carti celebre in Anglia si azi si mai si, ale lui George MacDonald Fraser ! Dar timpurile nu mai erau potrivite si Royal Flash a fost un mare esec ! Si Flashman a ramas pina azi doar eroul acestui film royal !

respectiv a doua carte, din 1970. Se pare ca azi romanele cu Flashman ale lui Fraser sunt la fel de celebre ca cele cu Bond ale lui Ian Fleming. personajul sau este un aventurier fara scrupule, un las de mare calibru si ticalos de ocazie, afemeiat si betiv, care trece prin istorie ca printr-un svaitzer, dar mereu cade in picioare si e la timpul potrivit la locul potrivit. Asfel Fraser da un comentariu istoric istoriei imperiului britanic. Iar Lester in monologul de opening citeaza Patton pe invers !

-E interseant ca filmul lui Richard Lester Royal Flash si Lisztomania lui Ken Russell au iesit in sali in aceiasi zi, 10 Oct.1975. Desi extrem de diferite, filmele sunt inrudite si reprezinta ceea ce s-a numit the last gasp of the British Invasion film era ! Aceasta a inceput cu filmul Beatles al lui Richard Lester, A Hard Day’s Night in 1964.

(The roots were very much in American silent film, the comedies of the 1930s and the French New Wave, and had already been in evidence in Lester’s first feature, It’s Trad, Dad, in 1962, and in Russell’s first feature, French Dressing, in 1963—but A Hard Day’s Night placed the style on the world stage.) Lester and Russell’s films were the end of a rich era of filmmaking. In Russell’s case, that era ended with a bang—with a film that’s still ahead of its time 32 years later. Lester’s Royal Flash, on the other hand, wasn’t especially adventurous. It was, in fact, a clear attempt to recreate the success of his The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974). However, it was—and is—a good attempt, his final outburst of the style of filmmaking he was largely responsible for creating.

pe linga Malcolm McDowell care e against type aici (Michale caine sau Connery ar fi mai usor de inghitit, probabil ca i-am vizualizat impreuna din cauza lui The man Who Would Be King), apar Alan Bates (Rudi Von Sternberg) , Oliver Reed (Otto Von Bismark), Michael Hordern, Lionel Jeffries (Krafstein), Tom Bell (De Gautet), Alastair Sim, Joss Ackland, Christopher Cazanove
si doua femei minunate, Florinda Bolkan as Lola Montez si Britt Eklund as ducesa Irma !

—plotul e in fapt o trimitere parodica la clasciul Prizonierul din Zenda de Anthony Hope ! De fapt duelul din final seamana cu cel din Marea Cursa/The Great Race, care in actul 3 are acelasi send-off.

Lester treats it all with his signature playfulness, placing it firmly in the realm of his world of damnable machines (if a mechanical device in a Lester film can go wrong, it will) and a kind of casual slapstick. Clever visuals abound (catch the shot of Oliver Reed apparently riding past what turns out to be mural being carried past him). It’s all cheerful and fun and as nice a farewell to the era as could be hoped for.

-Bob Hoskins are un rolisor mic, de inspector de politie!
DOP Geoffrey Unsworth
muzica Ken Thorne cu adaptari dupa Wagner si Mozart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flash_(film)
4 din 5/8 din 10 !

DVD 20th Century Fox zona 1 -in mod curios in Anglia n-a aparut !
format: 1.661. anamorfic
Extras:
• Commentary with Malcolm McDowell and Film Historian Nick Redman
• Inside Royal Flash
• Meet Harry Flashman
• Isolated Score and F/X Track
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

despre Oscaruri pe Unica !

inainte de Oscaruri am fost la B1 sa pronostichez, dupa m-am dus pina la sediul Ringier si discutia editata o puteti vedea aici.

nu pot pune linkul ca imagine, dar articolul despre premiile "nemeritate", in discutie cu Nicoleta Galateanu de la Unica.ro, aici !