Sunday 30 November 2014

Ansatsu
[The Assassin;
The Assassination]
(1964)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

WEBSITE: Ansatsu [Assassination] (1964)...

(http://im-wald-des-tapio.blogspot.co.uk)

Territorial Demands

Within its own cultural limitations, this movie succeeds in being a highly politicized tale of the Japanese response to the arrival of American Whites in 1853 - making unreasonable territorial demands.

The inherent xenophobia of the Japanese characters is tempered by realpolitik as the Tokugawa Shogunate granting the foreigners’ demands. This leads to internal political strife (almost a civil war) between those who demand Emperor Worship and the more practical who realise swords cannot beat firearms. Assassination becomes a political tool of both sides in this well-shot and stately film.

(www.japankino.de)

Dying for the Emperor (ie, death worship) is a poor substitute for rational thought and the booklet included with this DVD is necessary prior-reading to make any sense of what goes on in this (to Occidentals, at least) often bizarre Oriental culture.

Saturday 29 November 2014

Lord of War
(2005)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(www.ernieputto.de)

A movie as ethically-confused as its leading participants. We never see those indirectly killed - at close quarters - by the gun-running central character and so feel nothing for their loss. The idea that selling arms to dictators kills is as silly as claiming telephone companies are responsible for obscene telephone calls.

Despite the high-quality acting, performers get scant opportunity to show what they can really do with an underwritten script and a weakly-researched plot. Instead, we get a never-ending sequence of gallows’ humour leavened with stylish technical tricks that lower the entire project into simplistic formalism.

There is no logical argument against the arms’ trade and so no rational argument against the more widespread use of firearms: “If They have them then We must have them, too”.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Friday 28 November 2014

Roommate

Rating: 40%

(www.whitegadget.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 2011
Country/ies:: US
Predominant Genre:: Thriller
Director:: Christian E Christiansen
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: Female college student finds that her new roommate has an obsession with her, which quickly turns violent.
Themes:: Alienation; Destiny; Emotional repression; Grieving; Identity; Loneliness; Narcissism; Self-expression; Sexism; Sexual Repression; Social class; Solipsism; Totalitarianism; White culture; White guilt
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Single White Female
Review Format:: DVD

Erotophobia & Lebensraum

Bizarre White film suggesting White men can only get sex from White women if they find an odd excuse to talk to them; eg, spill beer down their pert chests or abuse their power as university lecturers to fondle teenage students.

The rampant White sexism here is not muted by context since all the men are inadequate with women; leading to an unsurprising lesbianism among women who are socially freer with each other than they are with the inappropriately-aggressive jerks presented here as representative of White masculinity.

The girls all look nice in their sexually-bland Caucasian way; eg, trying hard to look as though they have no deep-seated emotions. But the lack of both character differentiation (although socially accurate about Whites) and dearth of and character motivation makes for weak drama.

Unable to identify with any of the characters and, thus, care about what happens to them creates a catwalk of a movie rather than a fully-fledged story. The central character studying fashion and style at university becomes a perfect metaphor for the inherent formalism of the piece; mocking its absurd attempt to appeal to feminists.

Ultimately, a movie about Whites’ inability to get on with other Whites enough to be able to share the same space - other than politically. A thankfully short exercise in would-be audience manipulation.

Thursday 27 November 2014

Rambo

Rating: 60%

(http://wegotthiscovered.com)

Also Known As:: John Rambo
Year:: 2008
Countries:
Predominant Genre:: Action
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: Group of mercenaries venture into a war‑torn land to rescue a group of aid workers kidnapped by a ruthless local infantry unit.
Themes:: Alienation | Compassion | Destiny | Emotional repression | Empathy | Friendship | Humanity | Identity | Loyalty | Mercy | Narcissism | Political Correctness | Self-expression | Solipsism | Stereotyping | White culture | White guilt | White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Review Format:: DVD

Accurate portrayal of the genocide in Myanmar that also manages to be a solid action movie; using the Greek mythology of a hero who becomes a God through worthy heroics.

Criticizing Christian do gooders for being unarmed, this movie reveals why Christianity has failed to bring about peace - it looks abroad for the charity it lacks at home.

(http://wegotthiscovered.com)

Not finding the right balance between its ostensible story (a particular political situation) and the star, the Burmese never rise much above the level of background artists (Deleted Scenes reveal deeper characterization than is otherwise obvious). Tensions exist within the group not with the oppressors; weakening the dramatic conflict – a blood-soaked mise en scène is the weak replacement.

(http://wegotthiscovered.com)

Nevertheless, for all its simplifications, this is the work of a filmmaker with something worth saying.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
(2003)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(www.rottentomatoes.com)

Unlike this director’s far superior Get Carter, this movie lacks insight into the nature of revenge and the machismo that so often drives it.

Instead we have here a hypnotic thriller that thrives on its characters, good plotting, top-notch actors and a writer (Trevor Preston) with an ear for convincing dialogue. But, this all fails to deliver much in the way of in-depth characterization.

One really wonders why this film was made since there are far better movies about sin, redemption and the ability to escape from one’s past out there - and this adds not very much to that canon of work. Like the psychological inadequacy it details, the film itself is infected with the same emotional retardation.

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Burn After Reading
(2008)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://uk.rottentomatoes.com)

This comedy has a too complicated plot to be really funny because it is successfully evading actually being about anything much. The men are feckless; the women looking for real men. This leads to much humor about the loneliness that leads to lonely hearts’ dating and the meaningless sex that usually follows.

George CLOONEY is unconvincing as a sex obsessed man who would need the services of a dating Website and the film itself implicitly comments on his good looks when the ever excellent Frances McDORMAND sees – with open-eyed delight - that a good-looking man wants to sleep with her. Brad PITT also fails the believability test as the complete fool the actor clearly is not – a strange part for him to accept and to play. Tilda SWINTON is simply wasted in a role that requires very little effort from someone as talented as she is. A film with a big cast but little ambition.

The successful aspects of this movie are the 007 parody allied with the President’s Analyst brand of espionage paranoia: The characters do not know what is going on and neither do we. This suggests that the real mystery in this story is not why a CIA agent would become a drunk, but why such a story should be deemed worthy of being filmed. This film is intermittently-hilarious but unevenly acted by performers who are often simply miscast. The movie’s saving grace is its blistering critique of the inadequacy and incompetence of state bureaucracies, since they are shown as being as wise as we are as to what this film is really all about. This could have been an effective satire on the ability of such agencies to protect us from determined terrorist attacks but, sadly, it ain’t.

Monday 24 November 2014

Lenny
(1974)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	Cinema

(http://companhiadasamendoas.blogspot.co.uk)

Clever film about the White self-repression that inevitably leads to personal hypocrisy and social malaise.

Whites present what they think others will accept and so never learn to know themselves – or each other – from playing endless attention-seeking games with those doing the same.

Whites are screwed-up because they cannot match their own fantasies of superiority with objective reality. Lenny Bruce knew this and could not escape from it himself, despite being Jewish and receiving no benefit from White supremacy he so honestly ridiculed.

Sunday 23 November 2014

Spy Kids

Rating: 60%

(Image: http://uk.rottentomatoes.com)

Also Known As/Subtitle:: Unknown
Year:: 2001
Country/ies:: US
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Author(s)/Director(s):: Robert Rodriguez
Outstanding Performance(s):: None.
Premiss:: The children of secret-agent parents must save them from danger.
Theme(s):: Alienation; Compassion; Courage; Destiny; Emotional repression; Empathy; Ethnicity; Family; Friendship; Humanity; Identity; Loneliness; Loyalty; Mankind; Materialism; Mercy; Narcissism; Nature; Personal change; Self-expression; Solipsism; Stereotyping; White culture; White guilt; White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Charlie & the Chocolate Factory; Incredibles; True Lies
Review Format:: DVD

Clever Bond parody - for all the family - that successfully manages to actually be about the family, itself, and why it needs protecting. It also hints at why parenting is the most difficult job of all, since the fate of the world is always in grave danger from parents who produce monsters bent on world domination.

This visually-imaginative movie easily defies and transcends its own limited genre. The additional bonus is an ethnic mixing which matches that of the leading actor and his director; while implicitly offering a vision of a world where familial bonds are stronger than any other: The villain-defying laser beam hidden in a wedding ring being a case in point.

Unusually, this film is proud of its ethnicity rather than downplaying it or using it as a mere form of dramatic exoticism - as is usual in Hollywood. So comfortable with it, in fact, that it can afford to make jokes at its own expense.

The only hard-to-avoid flaw is that the two siblings here are very good, but not precocious enough for adult audiences to take them as seriously as the adult players are taken. This dramatic imbalance makes the grown-up audience long to see what the adults are getting-up-to more than they do the eponymous kids – otherwise, this exceptional film would have been truly great.

Copyright © 2014 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute this posting in any format; provided mention of the author’s Weblog (Esthetics) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Saturday 22 November 2014

Belle Fille Comme Moi

Rating: 60%

(http://shangols.canalblog.com)

Also Known As/Subtitle:: Gorgeous Girl Like Me
Year:: 1972
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Director:
Outstanding Performance:
Premiss:: A young sociologist, preparing a thesis on criminal women, interviews Camille Bliss in prison. She tells him her life, her murders and her love affairs.
Themes:: Christianity; Compassion; Courage; Destiny; Emotional repression; Empathy; Humanity; Identity; Loneliness; Nature; Self-expression; Sexism; Social class; Solipsism; Stereotyping; White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Really Bernadette LAFONT’s film since she completely overwhelms the narrative and so perfectly embodies her role. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine another actress playing this particular part.

LAFONT plays a young woman with an innocent and unaffected sexuality that men find hard to resist; while also being completely cynical, calculating & manipulative in this satire on repressed Western male sexuality.

(www.whipart.it)

The journey from prison (for murdering her abusive father) and her successful marriage and wealth in her own name is quite an odyssey for a lower-class kid. Yet, the events depicted are somewhat arbitrary and could easily be seen in any order. This makes it difficult for the story to reveal character so that we never get much beyond a mannered, superficial, French farce of a sex comedy – albeit a frequently-funny one.

(http://shangols.canalblog.com)

Friday 21 November 2014

Cinema Paradiso

Rating: 80%

(www.heyuguys.com)

Also Known As:: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso; Director’s Cut
Year:: 1988
Countries:
Predominant Genre:: Drama
Director:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village’s theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater’s projectionist.
Themes:: Compassion; Empathy; Friendship; Humanity; Identity; Loyalty; Mankind; Nostalgia; Self-expression; White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be

Indulges our desire for nostalgia while telling us we should never look back. Impossible, of course, since the future is very much predicated upon the past. And one cannot possibly possess one without the other.

A look at a lost love that is both literally a woman and metaphorically an elegy for a lost world of cinema before it lost its value in the 1960s; leaving us bereft with just a still-twitching corpse that rarely produces anything much of value above the never ending stream of sex, violence & swear words.

A film for people who like stories served-up through the medium of cinema with its possibilities for communal enjoyment that seem so foreign to us today.

Wednesday 19 November 2014

RoGoPaG

Rating: 60%

(http://horrorcultfilms.co.uk)

Also Known As:: Let’s Have a Brainwash
Year:: 1962
Countries:
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Directors:: Jean-Luc Godard; Ugo Gregoretti; Pier Paolo Pasolini; Roberto Rossellini
Outstanding Performances:: Rosanna Schiaffino; Alexandra Stewart; Orson Welles; Ugo Tognazzi
Premiss:: Four short films by different directors.
Themes:: Christianity; Communism; Emotional repression; Mankind; Materialism; Narcissism; Pornography; Sexism; Sexual Repression; Snobbery; Solipsism; Stereotyping; White culture; White guilt; White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

[Let’s Have a Brainwash]

As usual with portmanteau films, this is something of a mixed blessing.

Essentially preoccupied with praising Communism and attacking sexism, mediocrity & the Catholic Church, this movie makes its points well – especially in the final segment – but descends into rhetorical ideology and formalistic denunciations of both materialism and Christianity.

These attacks leave no room for characterization and basic human warmth from the performers - who are merely required to mouthe the lines rather than make them come alive. Even worse given the quality on offer, particularly Rosanna Schiaffino, Alexandra Stewart, Orson Welles & Ugo Tognazzi.

Man is the subject of this film, not any particular man, hence the sacrilegious section on the Passion that so upset an overly sensitive Vatican - it shows Christ as more human than divine.

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Spy Princess

Rating: 80%

(http://www.amazon.co.uk)

Also Known As:: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan
Year:: 2006
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Non-fiction
Author:
Outstanding Performances:: None
Premiss:: The story of a female British SOE agent during World War II.
Themes:: Alienation; Compassion; Destiny; Emotional repression; Empathy; Friendship; God; Grieving; Humanity; Identity; Loyalty; Narcissism; Political Correctness; Religion; Self-expression; Solipsism; White culture; White guilt; White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: Book

Brown-Nosing

Highly-readable book on Second World War state terrorism and sabotage that is informative, educative and well-written.

Where it fails is in properly explaining why an Indian fought for the British Empire; given its White supremacist occupation of India and the fact that appeasement and collaboration never work.

Monday 17 November 2014

Elmer Gantry

Rating: 80%

(http://www.cinema.ucla.edu)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 1960
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Drama
Director:
Outstanding Performances:
Premiss:: Fast-talking traveling salesman with a charming, loquacious manner convinces a sincere evangelist that he can be an effective preacher for her cause.
Themes:: Alienation; Atheism; Christianity; Compassion; Destiny; Emotional repression; Empathy; God; Loneliness; Mercy; Narcissism; Original Sin; Personal change; Redemption; Self-expression; Solipsism; White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Selling God

Movie about religious revivalism in a godless Western, Christian world and the bigotry, hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness attendant in a religious circus-tent - replete with clown.

The debate surrounds whether religion could ever successfully adopt/adapt the principles of marketing in order to evangelize for faith or whether it is simply impossible to use such methods to promote the spiritual life; especially regarding a revealed faith. The film subtly explores these issues without saying all these Christians are self-centerd or that the atheists have all the answers.

Burt LANCASTER steals the show as a sinner compelled towards the light by the very fact of his sinfulness. The patent sincerity in Jean SIMMONS’ performance undercuts any suspicion that she is engaging in flim-flam for cash. The other characters’ lovelessness leaves us lost for words.

Sunday 16 November 2014

Liar Liar

Rating: 80%

(http://whocaresreviews.wordpress.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 1997
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Comedy
Director:
Outstanding Performance:
Premiss:: A fast track lawyer can’t lie for 24 hours due to his son's birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time.
Themes:: Alienation; Destiny; Emotional repression; Identity; Loneliness; Loyalty; Narcissism; Personal change; Redemption; Self-expression; Solipsism; White culture; White supremacy
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Guilt-ridden White Christianity

Although this movie, true to White form, conflates Honesty with Truth, it is hilarious - with Le CARREY on top form in a superbly-muscular physical comedy of the highest order.

Using the obvious trope that lawyers are paid to lie on behalf of their clients, the film pretends to explore the difference between truth and lies. In reality, it dramatizes the difference between honesty and lying. Whites here present themselves as knowers of truth such that when CARREY is forced to be honest about what he really thinks – at any given time – his words are presented as absolute fact rather than mere opinion; elevating his character to the status of godlike infallibility – along with those of Whites everywhere.

At no point, in this comedy, does CARREY’s character admit that he does not know something; making it clear Whites believe that whatever they think must be true, simply because they think it. The movie is, thus, as dishonest as its central character starts out being, because of its inability to analyze its own premiss.

Just because someone is honest about what they truly think and feel does not mean that they know the truth. Here, truth is relative - such that it could never be trusted by an honest man. If someone truly believes that two plus two equals five, that does not make it so – no matter how much they believe it. If the Pope took a lie detector test and was asked: Is there a god? what would the answer prove? (apart from the fact that the Pope believes there is).

Saturday 15 November 2014

Man for All Seasons

Rating: 80%

(https://tashpix.wordpress.com)

Also Known As:: Unknown
Year:: 1966
Country:
Predominant Genre:: Historical
Director:
Outstanding Performances:
Premiss:: Thomas More stands-up to Henry VIII when the latter rejects the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce.
Themes:: Alienation; Christianity; Compassion; Destiny; Emotional repression; Empathy; Friendship; Humanity; Identity; Loneliness; Loyalty; Narcissism; Personal change; Religion; Self-expression; Solipsism; Totalitarianism
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:: Unknown
Review Format:: DVD

Palace Intrigue

A rather too stagey cinematic adaptation of Robert Bolt’s play that does, however, feature a literate script, excellent performances from all concerned and a compelling narrative of that ultimate oxymoron - a political conscience.

As one would expect, the powers that be use any tactic to get their way – no matter that it contradicts previously announced positions. Thus, it becomes clear that the only issue here is not adherence to rational rules nor consistent conduct, but winning power conflicts by hook or by crook, even if such behavior ensnares the ensnarer.

(https://culturalcivilian.wordpress.com)

Although the characterization is a little weak because the dialogue tends toward tendentious preachiness, what we have here is a paean to a man of inflexible will who knows - more than anything else - that he must remain true to himself or render himself a nullity.

Führerprinzip:

One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.

(1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)

Pages:

Sunday 30 November 2014

Territorial Demands

Saturday 29 November 2014

Friday 28 November 2014

Erotophobia & Lebensraum

Thursday 27 November 2014

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Monday 24 November 2014

Sunday 23 November 2014

Saturday 22 November 2014

Friday 21 November 2014

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be

Wednesday 19 November 2014

[Let’s Have a Brainwash]

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Brown-Nosing

Monday 17 November 2014

Selling God

Sunday 16 November 2014

Guilt-ridden White Christianity

Saturday 15 November 2014

Palace Intrigue

Contact Form:

Science:

Sleep of Reason:

Humans & Aliens:

Führerprinzip:

About Us:

Disclaimers:

NB:

NB: