Friday, October 22, 2021

Circular No 1036

 





Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

Caracas, 22 of October 2021. No. 1036

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Dear Friends,

Here I am including an article by B.C. Pires on movies.

It helps when watching cable TV, and choosing channels to watch.

Maybe you could be a collaborator in the analysis.

If you would like to collaborate to keep the Circular going, at the end of this issue, you will find the instructions to where to send your writings and also, important to send funds, I know your limitations.

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BC’s TOP 25 MOVIES OF ALL TIME

IN 2016, I told my son that the original 1997 German-language version of Michael Heneke’s Funny Games was one of my 25 favourite films.

“Papa,” he chuckled, “you have about 500 of your 25 favourite films.”

I decided right then to come up with my definitive list.

It took five years but I managed it just in time for the TT Film Festival week.

To pick 25 from 500 would be impossible without an algorithm FaceBook might envy, but I stumbled upon a tool capable of cutting the longest list. 

Here, then, in reverse order of how many times I can watch them enthusiastically and always take away something new every time are my Top 25 movies.

Using this method honestly denies some of my favourite filmmakers – David Lynch, Wong Kar Wai, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock – and many of my favourite films.

 None of The Vanishing, Incendies, Parasite, The Hunt, The Lives of Others, City of God, Get Out or The Apu Trilogy could make the final cut.

Even Dekalog, ten short films by my favourite filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowsk, and inspired by the Ten Commandments wandered for 5 years in the desert of the long list without getting out. 

Tragically, one of my favourite directors, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, couldn’t squeeze een with even his best film, Amores Perros.

Nor could two each of the most beautiful films of two of history’s most sordid subjects (Schindler’s List & Life is Beautiful and 12 Years a Slave & Django Unchained); but they shouldn’t complain when two of the films in the top three of many top ten lists (Citizen Kane & Casablanca) aren’t on mine; Orson Welles can fend for himself but omitting Casablanca leaves me both red-faced & regretful; and, next time I watch it, I’ll think I should have cut No 24 on my list. 

Here then, in reverse order, are my 25 favourite films: 

25. The Sixth Sense. M Night Shyamalan’s first film set his personal bar so high, all his following films limbed under it; even after many viewings (though this one stands up to close, repeated scrutiny).

24. It’s a Wonderful Life. Frank Capra & Jimmy Stewart’s best known movie would probably top the list, as a Christmas standard, if one didn’t make allowances for Yuletide sentiment and ponche crema.

23. Planet of the Apes. The original 1968 Charlton Heston version still stuns; if you don’t know the last frame reveal, it’s one of the great moments in cinema. 

22. 12 Angry Men. The original courtroom thriller is still riveting today, 64 years later.

21. The Silence of the Lambs. In the 20 years since it was made, only Denis “Incendies, Sicario” Villeneuve’s Prisoners approaches Jodie Foster & Anthony Hopkins’ magnum opus for rigid tension throughout. 

20. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. The spaghetti Western as gourmet fine dining, with Clint Eastwood in his best role as the Man with No Name (though, in this one, he’s actually called Blondie). 

19. The Exorcist. From the opening notes of the theme (the opening notes of Mike Oldfield’s LP-long Tubular Bells), a horror film would need something extraordinary – like Jack Nicholson in his prime – to be more worthy of repeat watching than this one.

18. Aguirre: The Wrath of God. The film that best captures the Caribbean human condition was made by a German (Werner Herzog) and every West Indian business & political leader today is captured in Klaus Kinski’s portrayal of the egotist slowly descending into Hell.

17. Locke, a thriller set almost entirely in the driver’s seat of a BMW on the motorway to London is the modern update of 12 Angry Men

16. A Clockwork Orange. The first of three Stanley Kubrick films in the list is his superb rendition of the better version (without the final chapter) of Anthony Burgess’ great work. 

15. Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese’s great New York film would have clipped Raging Bull on the lead performance of Robert “You Got a Gun” De Niro, even without spectacular support from the very young Jodie Foster and the amazing Harvey Keitel

14. Apocalypse Now. Even Vietnamese American writer Thanh Nguyen’s novel, The Sympathiser, can’t dampen my love for the first Francis Ford Coppola film on the list, partly because it was based on the far superior Joseph Conrad work, Heart of Darkness, but mainly because of Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper, Frederic Forrest, Sam Bottoms, a smoking soundtrack, Playboy playmates dropping out of helicopters and tigers jumping out of the bush. 

13. Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino’s big movie “beats back” his other contenders –Reservoir Dogs, Django Unchained, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – but not just because of the “big needle scene”; every scene in Pulp Fiction is a big one; except for the ones featuring the director's acting.

12. American Beauty. Sam Mendes’ first film remains his best, the way I see it; which is at least once a year. With awe.

11. Elephant. Gus Van Sant’s loving depiction of the worst kind of real life horror gets better the longer and more often you look at it, and it does not age, like truly beautiful people. 

10. The Deer Hunter. Michael Cimino’s Vietnam film will last even longer than Francis Ford Coppola’s, largely because of the long, lovingly shot slow scenes in America; particularly the end. With De Niro up against – literally – Christopher Walken, and with Meryl Streep, John Cazale and John Savage in support, with what might be the best use of non-original music in cinema (the belting out of Frankie Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You in the bar) and the best one shot of them all, this is American cinema at, or very near, its best. The only reason it doesn’t peg higher is I’ve watched the films above it more.

9. No Country for Old Men. The Coen Bros could easily have had several other films in this list – Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Blood Simple, Raising Arizona – but their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s hard novel, plus Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem, tops them all.

8. On Body & Soul. Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi’s 2017 is the newest film on the list and the most unusual boy-meets-girl you’re likely to see, ever. A lot of it is shot in a slaughterhouse (suggesting Ms Enyedi is vegan) and hugely powerful, sometimes overwhelming images abound. But it is first and foremost a gripping, magical story of love, hope – and dreams – capable of redeeming us all. You can watch it in high-def on Netflix.

7. Old Boy. Chan-Wook Park’s best film (with apologies to Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Thirst) has to be watched a dozen times for the viewer to begin to appreciate its depth; and, even then, you still have to turn away from two scenes (neither of which is the one in which the protagonist eats a live octopus raw). Violent, angry, vengeful – and beautiful and hopeful.

6. The Shining. Stanley Kubrick tended to take forever to make a film; and then tended to define the genre when he did: his Vietnam film was Full Metal Jacket, his gladiator movie was Spartacus; his satire was Dr Stangelove and his horror, The Shining. Almost scarier every time you watch it, this is a film that can curdle the blood just remembering almost any scene. Even without the axe. How’d you like some ice cream, Doc? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Here’s Johnny. There’s a masterpiece.

5. Funny Games. Michael Haneke’s powerful argument against violence is made so well, people walked out of the cinema in protest against the violence he is actively campaigning against (and does not actually show on screen).

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even half-a-century on, Kubrick’s 1968 magnum opus remains, not just valid, but on top of modern equivalents. The cut-shot from the bone flung up into the air to the spaceship falling has not been bettered by 53 years of CGI and green screen trickery. The final sequences are as scary to the middle-aged man today as they were to the ten-year-old boy who saw them at Astor cinema in Woodbrook. 

3. Three Colours (Blue/White/Red). Krzysztof Kieslowski’s great trilogy, separate-but-connected films inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) get better the more you watch them, because you see how much work went into making the connections, like the foreground court scene in White being the background one in Red and vice versa. In one scene in Blue, coffee rises by capillary action to turn a white sugar cube brown; Kieslowski shopped around the cafes of Paris to find a sugar cube that would take four-to-five seconds to turn brown, not two-to-three or nine-to-ten seconds; because he felt that was all the time he could ask viewers to look at and think about the cube and the coffee and the predicament of his heroine, pondering new love. Working as hard as that pays off handsomely. And for decades. 

2. The Sopranos. Some might argue that David Chase’s great work was not cinema at all, as it was shot for TV; but one of the earliest and still the best cable channels, Home Box Office, repudiates those naysayers with its slogan: It’s not TV, it’s HBO. The best American cinema since The Godfather also deals with the Family through the eyes of the Mob; having watched the whole 86-hour series five times now, my second film could arguably really be my top one, except that my number one is:

1. The Godfather, Parts I & II. The film that made me come up with the test that settled my 25 Top Movies list. No matter how often I’ve seen it (and I’ve lost count now), every time I walk through a room in which The Godfather, I or II, is on a screen, I stop in my tracks and start watching the movie; after a minute or two, I sit down and continue watching the movie. If I get up again before the film ends, it’s only for popcorn. Easily the most watchable film of my life, it’s also the original Family/Family film. Watch The Godfatherand you know all families are essentially made up of criminals. Francis Ford Coppola directing Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, Diane Keaton, John Cazale, Dominic Chianese, Richard S Casteliano, Richard Conte, Ave Vigoda and Talia Shire and the most quotable dialogue in all cinema make this the best movie of all time. 

Even if people under age 30 think that really has to be one of the Marvel Universe action flicks. 

BC Pires is taking 400 Blows for leaving out La Strada, Chinatown, Double Indemnity, Psycho, Force Majeure, This Is Spinal Tap, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Rings and plenty others that did not pass the test

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gonwise3@aol.com

Wed, Jun 2 at 11:50 AM

This mail is for Laszlo –

Hi there - this is Anne in Royal Palm Beach.

Brian has given you my wrong email - that was my husband's email (RIP) here are my details:

Anne Gonsalves

170 Saratoga Blvd. East

Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411-8279

email: gonwise3@aol.com

Phone: 561-318-4084

I can send you a personal check - or a check thru my bank A/C at Wells Fargo.

If I'm not home - leave a message and I'll call you back.

Anne

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Nigel Boos <nigelboos@gmail.com>

Mon, Oct 26 at 7:20 AM

George,

Your question and the timing of it are both topical and worthwhile.

I find the general level of interest among the MSB OBs to be rather pathetic and lethargic, and although I recognize and applaud the effort being made by Ladislao, Don Mitchell. Kazim Abasali, Joe Berment, yourself and Csaba, and maybe just a few more “regular contributors”.

I realize that our membership is diminishing, with the deaths of many of the older OB’s. 

I think we’ve had a good run, all under the leadership of Ladislao and you guys.

Your persistence in ”getting the news out” is noteworthy and welcomed, but I don’t really know how much longer this can go on.

There is no general feeling of commitment among the “younger set”.

So, I thank you and the fellas named above for your marvellous efforts on behalf of all of us.

If, as in all things, the time has come to close up shop, perhaps issue #1000 of the Circular might be earmarked as the last of our issues.

This would be a shame, but is seems inevitable in the long run.

God bless us all.

Nigel

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EDITED by Ladislao Kertesz,  kertesz11@yahoo.com,  if you would like to subscribe for a whole year and be in the circular’s mailing list or if you would like to mention any old boy that you would like to include, write to me.

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Photo:

59UN0002RLSS, ladislao kertesz Royal life saving medal

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03UN0002GRP,  Ladislao Kertesz Matias de Fedak and Guiseppe Braggio

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Circular No 1040

  Newsletter for alumni of The Abbey School, Mt. St. Benedict, Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. Caracas, 8 of December 2021. No. 1040 ---------...