The English (2022)

Best thing on TV streaming right now. Not Yellowstone, nor Tulsa King, but The English. 

And with a lot of resemblances with 1883, the Yellowstone prequel from earlier this year on Paramount+.

It's a 6 episodes mini-series, like 5 hours movie, BBC with Amazon Prime but in Romania on HBO Max. 

Created and directed by Hugo Blick with a superb Emily Blunt and a majestic Chaske Spencer. A gritty revenge western, with one of the best bad guys in recent memory, Rafe Spall. A terrific supporting performances by Cieran Hinds. And a surprisingly low-key Stephen Rea. Shot in Spain, in Castilla-La Mancha and Almeria, where the legends were made...

As a good and old friend of mine wrote me: It's like Sergio Leone would make The Last of the Mohicans :)

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

'I command you- enjoy the moment!'

Triangle of Sadness (2022) is one of the year's best films, an amoral fable and a statement of our times (or any times?). An unapologetic great satire, a comedy as dark as they come (or go :).

Lots to say/write/think, I got what I expected and more, was entertained (is this the word?) and it fits my world viewpoint somehow (und more:) In den Wolken ). I think it's Ruben Östlund's best, a mix of Marco Ferreri's La grande bouffe (1973-that is something the French might have loved t in Cannes) with shades of Monty Python (The Meaning of Life dinner sketch and beyond ;) and Bunuel's Le Charme discret de la burgeoisie (1972, and lots more of Bunuel into it),  three chapters of exuberating nihilism and cinematic anarchism with a great ambiguous ending,  A young couple, two fashion models, beautiful but crude in life (brit Harris Dickinson -watch out for this guy (cos he's on his way to the Top!!!) and a special nod for Southern African actress Charlbi Dean as Yaya, who sadly died recently at the crudest age of 32...) find themselves on a yacht in an exclusive cruise for the very very rich and powerful (?). Trouble ensures. Galore. A lot of puking included. No more spoilers here. I would say the 1st act is somehow slower and tricky, it gets you into a very different direction than the other two chapters that follow. The film duration of 2h27 is well justified though and I personally would've liked act 3 to be even longer...

Woody Harrelson as the aloof captain is a blast, and Croatian Zlatko Burik (recurrent Nicolas Winding Refn actor: Pusher trilogy,Bleeder and now Copenhagen Cowboy) as 'I sell Shit' Dimitri is the highlight of an impeccable eclectic cast. Filipino Dolly De Leon as Abigail deserves an award alone! No score composed but brilliant sound design and sarcastic choice of songs :)

I would've picked this one tho (from the aptly titled Human Menagerie;) Great widescreen cinematography by fellow Swede Fredrik Wenzel, Östlund's DOP also for The Square and Force Majeure. To be seen on the big screen! (it runs in selected theaters in Romania NOW). 

It is a worthy Palme d'Or, second for  Östlund, entering now a very select circle of filmmakers (number 9 after Coppola, the Dardennes, Kusturica, Imamura, Haneke, Alf Sjoberg !  Bille August !, Ken Loach !, all overrated IMO except the Coppola wins -his second Palme for Apocalypse Now though it was a tie-in with Schlondorff, also Kusturica and Haneke). I thought  Östlund's first Palme was way overrated, The Square didn't convince me in its last act, leaving the satire and irony for some sort of cheesy human redemption. Here's not the case, ToS being closer to Parasite than to Östlund's own Force Majeure or Play. A sort of 'eat the rich' and the best use of the word 'shit' on the big screen. Oh, also think Pret-a-Porter as a Disney Pocahontas film compared to the modelling /fashion insight of ToS. Also The Square and Parasite were films I saw on their world premiere in Cannes, in 2017 and 2019, I wished I was there to see this one as well. I really don't think this will make much fuss at the Oscars next year, as it's way too dark and cynical for the AMPAS to enjoy it as it should. The redeeming values of human race are very low here and it's very actual and morbid fun. But I guess in an European way, we'll see about that soon enough. As written above, one of the year's best films and a statement of the times that will grow surely into an unapologetic great cult film. 

4 1/2 out of 5/ 9 out of 10!

The Title meaning:

 "Triangle of Sadness," as defined by filmmaker Ruben Östlund, is a term appropriated from the beauty industry, referring to the space between one's eyebrows where the struggles of life manifest as wrinkles. That is, if you don't have the money, power and privilege to smooth them out with a quick procedure.

***

check out also my post about talking about his favorite films. Here or

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2022/11/ruben-ostlund-talks-about-his-favorite_23.html

*****

Update: Dec.11th. Triangle just won big at EFA 2022 (European Film Awards), the big four;)-best film, director, screenplay and actor-Zlatko Burik !!!

https://variety.com/2022/film/awards/european-film-awards-2022-winners-1235456466/

Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door (1979)

I was alwasys fascinated with the last Led Zeppelin album,  In Through the Out Door (1979), see I was not contemponary with them so, as much as I was exposed to all I, II, III, IV, and in the eighties Houses of the Holy was was faved, this album stuck with me because it was their most eclectic, weird and it seems everyone hated it. Why? cos' they would not like them to play like that? or just philistines ;)....

from In the Evening to All of My Love through the greatest weirdola of 'em all, Carouselramba....with the keys that would define the 80's...maaan, I'm Gonna Crawl....

Anyhu, recently I got on on youtube a podcast of a Spanish guy, JCM (Jose Calvo Monturiol),  obsessed with this album, hid fave Zep LP, who wants to make justice to the album, and way more...He is a lifelong fan of Zep and a player in his own right. 

*****

There are seven episodes of In Through the Out Door (from 1974 to 1980, complete with the whole year events, up to the death of Bonham  (September 25th 1980) 

and also a new podcast of Post Zeppelin now, 1981-1989).  even more fasinating and still going on..loved the Michael Winner story ;).

The whole gig takes you to many hours of watching and listening and it's for the most super interrested freaks & geeks of LZ, It's super well documented and presented in such a nice way -personal and subjective-you gotta love it...or surely don't :)  I did. And I was talking about ot to all the guys I met and thought they can relate. So I thought this is a better way to present it and share it here. Just for the sake of music...

Thank you Jose for your passion, dedication and hard work, it was a pleasure (and a pain:) and a blast to watch and re-remember all and learn more....The song Remains the Same !!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g8Dq45nZOI&list=PLqsprcaJ7OIdEXU46JJjSFE2EP6t_ufPS

RIP Dan McCafferty (Nazareth)

 I saw Dan McCafferty twice with Nazareth. In Bucharest.

Then I saw them once more without him (2018). It sucked. 

Though Dan was so frail, his throat singing was so great. Hair of the Dog if it bit 1000 times...He was 76, Retired (or?) from Nazareth in 2013. Too much Razmatazzz :()

they played Sala Sporturilor in Brasov in the early nineties (the first ofem all coming). a buddy of mine tried to give them palinca upfront....wild...

This is the pic I took in February 2012 at Hard Rock Cafe in Bucharest.. I think he was on coke but hey. he did a great gig. 

hre's my account of that evening...and it was a very emotional one...

Where's my white bycicle? :(((