fusillo

I forgot the grades!

Nice review, the other one didn’t convince me not because Donjunio panned the film, but because his analysis is flawed. Since you're talking about Mereghetti, let me share a little story. A few years ago, when he was presenting "La mostra della laguna" with Dandini, I heard him talk about a film presented in Venice called "guardami." It’s a story set in the world of adult cinema. The protagonist is a porn star who gets diagnosed with breast cancer. Mereghetti's judgment: a moralistic film. He said that the protagonist gets cancer because she is a porn star. A small detail: in the end, the protagonist recovers. So where is the moralism then? The director, who was also present on the show, kept repeating, "In the end, she recovers... In the end, she recovers." Mereghetti didn’t understand or pretended not to understand. Now I wonder: why listen to such characters?

Well Grasshopper, if you liked "Caminhos", I have a suggestion for you. Get "O primeiro canto", the next CD from Pontes, which is just as beautiful as "Caminhos". Every now and then I see it at the newsstand for €8. You'll find yourself wanting to review it and there you'll have plenty of space. Bye.

I agree with Hal on the subject of music: in a story where music plays such an important role, it should have been explored more deeply. The Beethoven references are numerous: even the doorbell of the writer's house rings the "TA TA TA TAAAN" from Beethoven's Fifth. However, I do not find that the film establishes a causal link between violence and art. Perhaps with the exception of one scene. That is the confrontation with Tim and Georgie, in which Alex explicitly states that he was inspired by the music from a stereo coming from an open window. For the rest, it seems to me that the relationship Kubrick wants to affirm is related to pleasure. Both provoke pleasure in the protagonist, and once Alex is conditioned not to commit violence, he is also deprived of the pleasure that music gives him (not to mention the sexual pleasure). Finally, to displease Stoopid, a brief mention of the book-film relationship. They end differently. In the book, although healed from the effects of the Ludovico treatment, Alex gets a good job and thinks about getting married and having children. You all know how the film ends. For this reason alone, in my opinion, the film is to be preferred.

Well, I guess it takes a voice outside the chorus. I liked it. Considering how it was made (they were filming over the weekends) and how long the production lasted (virtually from the end of the Scafroglia case until last year), all in all, Guzzanti put together a nice film. There are then some brilliant inventions. The very idea of the "vertical" expansion of fascism and the consequent colonization of the "Bolshevik and traitorous" red planet is brilliant. The work on the newsreel language is extraordinary. It's what holds the scenes together. The squadron attack on the Befana had me in stitches, and the quotes aren't bad either: the one from Schindler's List, with the red minimmo (or minimma) seems like a nice touch. And since there are plenty of ones...

mmmmhhh, I don't know this heat. I've noted them down. Until next time!

Igordimi, if you know those albums, I tend to think that the only problem with my review lay in the word "sbrodolate"... Come on, as Battiato used to say, a bit of lightness and stupidity helps to live better. :-) Then, I have no intention of sounding pedantic, but between "Desperate Straights" and "In Praise of Learning" there's quite a leap. The hand of the Cow is certainly felt in the orchestrations of "Desperate..."; however, the lyrics and melodies are those of the Slapp. When the Cow started writing for Krause, "In Praise of Learning" came out. And in "In Praise...", apart from "War", written again by Blegvad and Moore, there are compositions that, excluding the two instrumentals as well, with a lot of effort I could consider simple songs, and only because Dagmar Krause sings over them. Do you know why Blegvad left? Because in the score of "Living in the Heart of the Beast" (his words) he got lost; he literally couldn't play it. Furthermore, consider that "Hopes and Fears" and "Western Culture" both came out in 1978. Apart from Dagmar Krause, featured only on "Hopes...", the same people played on both records. What was the point of releasing two albums under different names if between Henry Cow and Art Bears there was the sequentiality that you see? Answer: Tim Hodgkinson and company wanted to keep the two projects well separated because they believed they were incompatible with each other. And I referred to this in the review... As for Frith post-Bears, "Gravity" is a really beautiful album in my opinion. Moreover, it's quite sunny, which is something after the Bears... We get each other... Maybe, if you’re not familiar with it, you might like it. And the albums from News from Babel are also great. Bye.

"Kubrick is a pure mannerist distorter of literary texts": you have chosen the least suitable film to support an inherently unsustainable thesis. Anthony Burgess's novel is a good novel, and Kubrick followed it to the letter except for the ending. The film ends with the chief droog Alex Delarge almost cured of physical ailments and definitively liberated from the effects of the Ludovico treatment, ready to resume his old life, even bolstered by the support of the prime minister himself. The novel goes further and has a moralizing ending: Alex works at a sort of audiotheque, earns well, and is satisfied. One day he meets the fourth droog, the one who is not a policeman and who, in the meantime, has gotten married. He is with his pregnant wife. After this encounter, even Alex will feel the desire to get married and have children. Personally, I prefer Kubrick's ending between the two. Burgess, in the appendix to the Einaudi edition, claims to be fully satisfied with Kubrick's "translation." And if he says so… The review is a hodgepodge of nonsense.

No davejon, you’re not wrong, just imagine...

A thank you and a hello to all the commentators; I would have liked to include a few more samples, but the server was giving me an error, so I gave up; anyway, the ones I sent should give an idea of how the album sounds. One thing for Igordimi: "sbrodolate," I admit, is a simplifying and coarse term. I used it precisely for that reason. Then you mention the Cow and name "Sort of," an album that the Cow had nothing to do with. You mention Casablanca Moon, but that's also an album by Slapp Happy; the Cow only played with them. "Desperate Straight" and "In praise of learning" are more common works, where the compositional component of the Slapp prevails in the former and that of the Cow in the latter. And if you have listened to "In praise..." as you say, you cannot deny that the compositions are definitely longer and deviate from the canonical song form. Only "war" can be considered a "little song," and it’s no coincidence that it was signed by Blegvad and Moore. Then you don’t mention "Legend," "Unrest," and "Western Culture," which you obviously do not know, otherwise you would have agreed with me. Finally, if you check the link for more info, you will read some of the things that I brutally summarized in the second paragraph. It's Chris Cutler himself telling them. Anyway, thanks for the intervention.