GSP Ozu

I like a lot of stuff Gotts Street Park puts out … Ozu transported me back to the days when I would spend a lot of wee hours in expensive hotel bars with beautiful women, which was not that long ago, but feels like a lifetime ago:

Jack Kellogg Trades, First Half of 2021

Jackaroo put out a video detailing his first six months of the year. He’s generous to share all the details with the rabble (like me) … here are his first half 2021 trades if you want to study all 927 of them one by one. I, of course, already have.

My buddy @nawkk used OCR to make a useful spreadsheet from these useless screenshots:

Movies Watched -- Caché (2005)

In French. 118 minute running time so at least 20 to 30 minutes too long … I loved Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon so I thought I’d try another of his movies, but this was no good and it’s certainly not a “thriller” … I didn’t know about the Paris massacre of 1961 … but I don’t know why the guy wouldn’t straight-up tell his beautiful wife (Juliette Binoche) the truth about his past … why would he feel that guilty about it?!? I did like the video-in-a-video gimmick where you couldn’t tell if you were watching reality or a taped version, you know, toying with the audience… with the final long shot the ultimate gimmick.

Andrew Sarris got it right when he wrote: “Too much of the plot's machinery turns out to be a metaphorical mechanism by which to pin the tail of colonial guilt on Georges and the rest of us smug bourgeois donkeys.”

One day he was gone, and I was glad.

Movies Watched -- The Onion Field (1979)

126 minute running time but felt like an eternity, could easily cut at least a half hour out if not much more … I loved Joseph Wambaugh’s The Choirboys when I read it 30 years ago, and I may have read The Onion Field and forgotten about it. James Woods plays a good creepy idiot psychopath in this, but the movie is no good, it just doesn’t work, the pacing is no good…. This was a John Farr reco, but I say give it a miss.

We’re sort of a family here

My Heart Went Out To Play

Nice cover by Raquel Rodriguez… beautiful and a great voice, you need it all to make it these days, and even then it may not be enough….

A Priceless Exchange

Assuming you understand what it means….

I Know The Things I'm Not

Norah Jones at 40 … I think she’s as good as she has ever been, maybe better … distinctive sound, wonderful voice, still beautiful…

Movies Watched -- Paris, Texas (1984)

145 minute running time … at least an hour too long … a heartbreak story, totally contrived and I hated the ending … what if mother and son didn’t want to be reunited? People in trailer parks in Texas don’t talk like this … Nastassja Kinski’s fake “southern” accent is painful. This is an affected movie by major German phony Wim Wenders, stupidly awarded the Palm D’Or. Skip it. Let me see if I can find a mainstream critic who had the balls to call this one out. (There are none, everyone was fooled.)

Oh, Travis [not Bickle]

This Is Lyrical Combat, Gentlemen

A classic … over 20 years old and still fresh today. Eminem a mega-talent.

Movies Watched -- The White Ribbon (2009)

In German. 144 minute running time, which I’d normally say is about 44 minutes too long, but this movie was amazing, wow, I loved it … pre-World War I Germany … the sickness, the repression, the cruelty of life in a small village, all foreshadowing the coming horrors of the 20th century … this was a tour de force, recommended, green-go! I think I have John Farr to thank for this reco, who wrote: “A masterpiece in a minor key.” Wrong, there’s nothing minor about this masterpiece. I see now that it won the Palm D’Or, much deserved.

FOR I THE LORD YOUR GOD AM A JEALOUS GOD, VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN TO THE THIRD AND THE FOURTH GENERATION OF THOSE WHO HATE ME.

I’m sick and tired of persecutions, threats and perverse acts of revenge.