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.
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.
