I really love Wilde's writing :-)
Sir Robert Chiltern has a good position in society and in politics, and he is the ideal man and husband at his wife Gertrude's eyes. Mrs Cheveley (Laura) brings trouble into it. She has proof (a letter) that he once sold a state private information for money, on which he built his wealth and career. She blackmails him into voting against his judgement to favor her interests. He would accept to save his reputation, but his wife has him refuse, so Mrs Cheveley tells her everything. Gertrude's shocked and Robert thinks he has lost her love. They both ask for Lord Goring's help, their dearest friend. He manages to get that letter from Mrs Cheveley because he has proof that she's a thief ( he once gave a diamond brooch to his cousin Lady Berkshire, brooch that is now in her possession). Goring then proposes to Robert's sister Mabel who accepts him in this way:
- Mabel I have told you that I love you. Can't you love me a little in return?
-You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about.. anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Every one in London knows it except you. It is a public scandal the way I adore you. I have been going about for the last six months telling the whole of society that I adore you.
:-D
At first Robert doesn't consent to the marriage because he say Mrs Cheveley in Goring's house the night before, but after Gertrude's explanation all is settled and everyone's happy. :-)
The lines I'd like to remember:
Mabel Chiltern - Oh I love London Society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what society should be.
Mrs Cheveley - Ah! The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analyzed, women...merely adored.
Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are (so it was Wilde who said it, not Lee Van Cleef!! :-p )
You know what a woman's curiosity is. Almost as great as a man's.
Lord Goring - I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.
If we men married the women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it.
lunedì 27 giugno 2016
A woman of no importance by Oscar Wilde
I liked it a lot. Wilde's stories are always interesting, though this one is more melancholic than his other plays. It is a four-act play, with various characters of 'society' plus the protagonists that really matter to the story. A young American girl is among the guests and tells them and us how English Society is "shallow, selfish, foolish". Hester says "you rich people don't know how you are living. You shut out from your society the gentle and the good. You laugh at the simple and the pure" and much more. There is also young Gerald, who has no father and is quite poor, therefore he didn't have a good education. There's Lord Illingworth, who has great sympathy for the boy and just made him his personal secretary, a wonderful position for a man like Gerald. The title of this story comes from his own words. After seeing Mrs Arbuthnot's calligraphy, he says it reminds him of someone he knew. When asked who that person is, he replies "oh! No one. No one in particular. A woman of no importance". At the end, this answer will come again under different circumstances, and this time it will be just and true and it'll leave a smile on the reader's face.
The women call for Gerald's mother, Mrs Arbuthnot, to join them to rejoice on the promotion, but when she comes a bad surprise awaits. She recognizes in lord Illingworth the man that twenty years ago seduced her, made her fall in love, promised her to love and marry her, but that refused to do so when she informed him that she was pregnant. She had begged him, for the child's sake, but he would not, so she left him and he never saw her or the child again. Now, upon seeing her, he understands that Gerald is his own son and is more eager than ever to have him along, but now she won't let her son go with him. She tries everything to convince Gerald not to go with him, to stay with her, but he speaks very hardly and she's about to give up when Hester comes running for help. Lord Illingworth had tried to kiss her, and Gerald who is in love with her instantly rises to her defense, declaring he would kill him for insulting her as he did. Mrs Arbuthnot shouts for him to stop, but he only stops when she reveals the truth about him being his own father. The next and final act sees Gerald writing a letter to him, to decline the offer and insist that it's his duty to marry her (the little idiot *sigh*). Mrs Arbuthnot is shocked and refuses the idea with great decision, of course. He insists, but she's not allowing even the idea of it. "Mother, you must"-"I will not. You talk of atonement for a wrong done. What atonement can be made to me? There is no atonement possible. I am disgraced: he is not. That is all. It is the usual history of a man and a woman as it usually happens, as it always happens. And the ending is the ordinary ending. The woman suffers. The man goes free"
Gerald can't understand until Hester comes in and hearing their words she throws herself in her arms, crying that she must not do such a thing. She then confesses she loves Gerald too, and that there are other places they can go to where Mrs Arbuthnot's past will no longer be important. Hester is rich, and quite happy to share it with Gerald, but she doesn't just want to go away with him, she wants her to go with them and count her as a daughter. While the young ones wait in the garden, lord Illingworth comes to say he wants his son, but she only wants him to go. He reads Gerald's letter, sill on the table, and although he doesn't feel it is his 'duty', he is ready to marry her to have his son, but to his surprise she strongly refuses. When he understands that Gerald and Hester are to get married, he also understands that his money is useless and he can not convince her. Before going he says "it's been an amusing experience to have meet amongst people of one's own rank, and treated quite seriously too, one's mistress, and one's..." but he can't go on because she slaps his face with his own glove, the disgusting man. After he goes away, Gerald and Hester come looking for her. They see the glove on the floor and ask about the visitor. "Who was it?" - "Oh! No one. No one in particular. A man of no importance" Yeah, none at all!!
Let me tell you how annoying it was to 'hear' Illingworth talk of Gerald as 'our son' or 'my son'.. as if he had any claim on him. He doesn't. He had his chance and he refused. I guess people would say 'he's still his father' but I do not like those stories. I don't like them because it's too easy to run away from the responsibility and the hard moments and then easily come back when everything's done and taken care of, and all he has to do is spend some money. I despise that. Love doesn't come from blood alone, love comes from love, from respect, admiration, devotion, and stuff like that.
Nobody should try to buy it with money. Nobody should call himself a man and be so pathetic. They should earn love, not buy it. They should try earning it, giving time and attention and care, not giving mere money.
Wilde's lines I'd like to remember:
Mrs Arbuthnot - When a man is old enough to do wrong, he should be old enough to do right also.
- You are right. We women live by our emotions and for them. By our passions and for them, if you will. I have two passions, lord Illingworth: my love of him, my hate of you. You cannot kill those. They feed each other
Lord Illingworth - if you want to know what a woman really means - which by the way is always a dangerous thing to do - look at her, don't listen to her.
Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.
Mrs Allonby - Men always want to be a woman's first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man's last romance.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly rational being?
The women call for Gerald's mother, Mrs Arbuthnot, to join them to rejoice on the promotion, but when she comes a bad surprise awaits. She recognizes in lord Illingworth the man that twenty years ago seduced her, made her fall in love, promised her to love and marry her, but that refused to do so when she informed him that she was pregnant. She had begged him, for the child's sake, but he would not, so she left him and he never saw her or the child again. Now, upon seeing her, he understands that Gerald is his own son and is more eager than ever to have him along, but now she won't let her son go with him. She tries everything to convince Gerald not to go with him, to stay with her, but he speaks very hardly and she's about to give up when Hester comes running for help. Lord Illingworth had tried to kiss her, and Gerald who is in love with her instantly rises to her defense, declaring he would kill him for insulting her as he did. Mrs Arbuthnot shouts for him to stop, but he only stops when she reveals the truth about him being his own father. The next and final act sees Gerald writing a letter to him, to decline the offer and insist that it's his duty to marry her (the little idiot *sigh*). Mrs Arbuthnot is shocked and refuses the idea with great decision, of course. He insists, but she's not allowing even the idea of it. "Mother, you must"-"I will not. You talk of atonement for a wrong done. What atonement can be made to me? There is no atonement possible. I am disgraced: he is not. That is all. It is the usual history of a man and a woman as it usually happens, as it always happens. And the ending is the ordinary ending. The woman suffers. The man goes free"
Gerald can't understand until Hester comes in and hearing their words she throws herself in her arms, crying that she must not do such a thing. She then confesses she loves Gerald too, and that there are other places they can go to where Mrs Arbuthnot's past will no longer be important. Hester is rich, and quite happy to share it with Gerald, but she doesn't just want to go away with him, she wants her to go with them and count her as a daughter. While the young ones wait in the garden, lord Illingworth comes to say he wants his son, but she only wants him to go. He reads Gerald's letter, sill on the table, and although he doesn't feel it is his 'duty', he is ready to marry her to have his son, but to his surprise she strongly refuses. When he understands that Gerald and Hester are to get married, he also understands that his money is useless and he can not convince her. Before going he says "it's been an amusing experience to have meet amongst people of one's own rank, and treated quite seriously too, one's mistress, and one's..." but he can't go on because she slaps his face with his own glove, the disgusting man. After he goes away, Gerald and Hester come looking for her. They see the glove on the floor and ask about the visitor. "Who was it?" - "Oh! No one. No one in particular. A man of no importance" Yeah, none at all!!
Let me tell you how annoying it was to 'hear' Illingworth talk of Gerald as 'our son' or 'my son'.. as if he had any claim on him. He doesn't. He had his chance and he refused. I guess people would say 'he's still his father' but I do not like those stories. I don't like them because it's too easy to run away from the responsibility and the hard moments and then easily come back when everything's done and taken care of, and all he has to do is spend some money. I despise that. Love doesn't come from blood alone, love comes from love, from respect, admiration, devotion, and stuff like that.
Nobody should try to buy it with money. Nobody should call himself a man and be so pathetic. They should earn love, not buy it. They should try earning it, giving time and attention and care, not giving mere money.
Wilde's lines I'd like to remember:
Mrs Arbuthnot - When a man is old enough to do wrong, he should be old enough to do right also.
- You are right. We women live by our emotions and for them. By our passions and for them, if you will. I have two passions, lord Illingworth: my love of him, my hate of you. You cannot kill those. They feed each other
Lord Illingworth - if you want to know what a woman really means - which by the way is always a dangerous thing to do - look at her, don't listen to her.
Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.
Mrs Allonby - Men always want to be a woman's first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man's last romance.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly rational being?
The hound of death by Agatha Christie
A collection of short stories with a common theme: the occult.
The first, The hound of death (ITA il segugio della morte) is less than twenty pages long. There is a nun, Marie Angelique, who is in a confused state of mind. A moment she's coherent, the next she's talking about the Six Signs, the Hound of Death, telepathy and the power of death...
Mr Anstruther comes across her story by chance and meets her twice, in the company of dottor Rose that has taken a personal interest in helping her but his mention of 'power' makes the reader doubt him, and with reason. The story ends with Mr Anstruther receiving two letters. In the first the nun asks for his help, telling him the doctor wants to learn from her the sixth sign, the sign of death; the second letter comes from his sister. She tells him a rather sinister story about the doctor's and the nun's deaths. The doctor's uncle died, struck by lightning. After that, all his money were to go to the doctor, but he died too, along with the nun, when his house was destroyed. Mr Anstruther thinks that maybe the doctor used the sign of death on his uncle, but he made the mistake of 'completing the circle' and death had come back, to him, but then, in a very British way, he discards the whole thing as nonsense, certain things don't exist, everything must have a perfectly rational explanation.
The red signal (ITA il segnale rosso) story n. 2. This is about premonition, intuition, sixth sense, and spiritism. A dinner at Jack and Claire Trent's house. Among the guests: rich psychiatrist Sir Alington West and his only relative Dermot West. Dermot has experienced before some kind of premonition, a 'signal' inside him, a 'red signal' that means danger. A couple of times already this red signal saved his life. Tonight he feels the same. He's madly in love with Claire, his best friend's wife, and because of this he can't think straight. When Sir Alington speaks of madness and how it is ereditary, Claire is very nervous and Dermot believes he's talking about her. During a séance there's a strange warning: "don't go home". Dermot thinks it's for him, so he's not worried when Sir Alington wants to talk to him at his house. They arrive at Sir Alington's and when the doctor tells him he's absolutely sure that it's a grave case of madness, homicidal madness, that needs seclusion, Dermot goes out of his mind. Not doubting for a second that he's talking about Claire, they fight. Dermot shouts that he'll run away with her and will protect her at all costs, and the butler hears them shout: "if you do that I'll change my will and you'll have nothing"_"I don't care, say a word against her and I'll kill you". Dermot won't listen when Sir Alington tries to talk to him some more, instead he goes away, he meets Claire who tells him that she loves him but there's no hope for them, oh it's so horrible, and then he goes home to find a gun in his drawer and the police at his door. He learns that Sir Alington has been killed and everything is against him. At Jack's house, while Dermot tries to make sense of it all, Jack starts laughing and confesses everything. The house is locked, Dermot can't escape. Jack will call the police because he wants Dermot to be hanged. Jack killed Sir Alington because he had understood everything, including his intention of killing Claire with a knife. Luckily for Dermot, Claire is there with a police inspector and he hears everything, so he's safe. The happy ending is given by the fact that now Jack will probably be hanged, thus freeing Claire. When she said 'horrible' and Sir Alington had spoken of no hope, they meant that by law Claire could not divorce a 'mad' husband, and therefore could never be free. The 'red signal' was right again, and also the 'don't go home' warning was right, but not just for one person!
Story 3- The fourth man (ITA Il quarto uomo) A doctor, a lawyer and a priest talk on a train about the extraordinary case of Felicie Bault and her four personalities and her "impossible death" when the fourth man joins in the conversation, telling them what they don't know, because he grew up with Felicie. They grew up in a house for orphans (but not an orphanage): there was Felicie, whose father had strangled her mother, and Annette: her mother was a "fille de joie" and died of tubercolosis after her father abandoned them. Annette is full of life and beautiful and wants to become famous. Felicie is very slow, everyone thinks she's stupid, but she's very strong and her health is perfect. Annette mocks and humiliates Felicie, and once she even hypnotized her into eating a candle in front of all the other laughing kids. Felicie hates her but for some reason (fascination or forced obedience) she follows her everywhere and obeys everything she tells her to do. As time goes by Annette becomes a singer, she loves the theatre and being a famous artist, but her health is not good and she'll have to leave it all and go back to the house. She's so sick everybody thinks she'll die but she insists that her will is stronger than her body and she'll live. She repeats that until the day she dies. After that day, Felicie starts acting weird, sometimes she's like another person, someone who plays the piano and can act very well, and other moments she remembers nothing about it and is the old stupid self again, until one day she says that she can hear Annette inside her head, trying to take over, to drive her out, and she's terrorized but still says that if that day will ever come, she'll use on her all the strength of her hands... Months or years later she was found dead, strangled by her own hands.
The gipsy (ITA la zingara) Dickie has always been scared of gipsies because every time one gives him a warning, something bad happens to him, until he dies after an operation. His friend McFarlane goes to talk to a gipsy who knew him, and learns that she has the gift/curse of seeing things. She married Maurice because she sensed a great danger over him and hoped to save him, but the next day she dies because in the dark he gave her the wrong thing to drink... she couldn't save him after all, and this was Fate's cruel joke. About Dickie, he was simply an idiot: every time a gipsy warned him of something, he was terrified of the woman but always ran and did exactly what she warned him against. What a genius...
The ramp (ITA la lanterna) An old house is said to be haunted. Once a man and a child lived there; he was a criminal and one day killed himself to avoid prison. The child was left alone, scared, and without food, until he died. Now Mrs Lancaster moves in with her dad and her son Geoff. She can't sense anything, but her old father often hears desperate crying, and Geoff even sees the child, so lonely and so desperate that Geoff wants to help him. Geoff is weak and one day he gets sick, and the doctors have no hope, but Geoff is happy he'll finally be able to help his little friend. When he dies, his spirit joins the other one and now there is the noise of 'two' pair of feet and of laughter instead of crying. The children leave the house together, I guess to go 'to the other side'.
Wireless (la radio) An old, rich woman, Mrs Harter, has a weak heart and her doctor says she must live a quiet, peaceful life, and to his nephew Charles he clearly said that strong emotions could be the end of her. Mrs Harter is very rich and she had tried to find an heir among nieces and nephews. Miriam had been a disappointment because she was young and reckless and easily bored in her company, and had married a man that she didn't like, so she had tried with Charles. He was polite, kind, listened to her stories with interest and would tell her compliments many times a day. Mrs Hartner had therefore changed her will leaving everything to Charles. Now he convinced her that she needed a radio to keep her mind occupied. At first she wasn't happy but she soon got used to it and liked to listen to concerts or other local programs. When Charles was out, she started hearing strange things. From time to time the music would stop and a voice would call her, telling her he was her dead husband coming to get her. She was a brave woman and when the last message said : Friday night , she asked for her will to be sent to her, to check what she had written. She thought what she had left to her maid was not enough, so she gave her some more (she had left her 50, she gave her another 50 to make it 100). She waited, that night, for her late husband; she had prepared everything for her demise, and when she saw a man with a long beard coming in, her heart failed her and she died. Charles was now quite happy of his little plan. He was careful to burn the fake beard and take care of everything that might lead to him. He was in deep trouble and needed a lot of money or he could go to jail, and now he did, he had a lot. He asked for his aunt's will, but it could not be found, and in the end he remembers seeing her with something in her hand, that night, a piece of paper that fell on the fire... without it, it will be valid the old will, the one before this, which stated that everything would go to Miriam, who now has four children. Good, I say, but Charles didn't feel the same way. As if that wasn't enough, the doctor told him Mrs Harter's health was worse than he had imagined, and would not have lived more than one or two months... ah, the irony!
The witness of the prosecution (ITA testimone d'accusa) I liked this, a crime story, quite interesting. The crime has already happened. Leonard is very poor. He meets an old woman, very rich. He is kind to her and she likes having him around. They spend time together. One night she is brutally killed and Leonard is charged with murder. This is the story of his lawyer Mayherne trying to save him. Mayherne believes his words of innocence, but everything is against him. Leonard is optimistic though, because his wife loves him very much and will testify that he was at home. Mayherne is not so optimistic because he doubts the words of a woman madly in love will be able to save him. Mayherne will have many surprises though. The woman, beautiful Romaine, says he's not her husband but they live together (she's married to a madman and therefore can't divorce), but she hates him and will testify that he confessed the murder to her. Mayherne then meets an old, disfigured woman that can prove Romaine is lying. She has letters that prove she loves someone else and wants him hanged. During the trial things go according to Mayherne's plan, and once Romaine is discredited, all the jury is in Leonard's side, and he is found 'not guilty'. After thinking about habits and how Romaine moves her hands, Mayherne realizes she was the old woman. At the end of the story Mayherne meets Romaine again, but we are not told where. I guess she spent some time in jail for lying in court, but maybe she's already out, it is not said. Romaine conferms Mayherne's belief: yes, it was her, the letters were fake, she never loved anyone else and she deeply loved Leonard and had to save him, and the jury would not have believed the words of a woman in love, so she thought of a plan that would have worked, and it ends with the most important line: Romaine knew he was guilty!
The mistery of the blue jar (ITA il mistero del vaso azzurro) This was kind of fun, in a way. Jack loves to go golfing every morning before work. One morning he hears a woman's voice yelling Help and Murder; he runs and he meets a girl who says she heard nothing. The same thing happens again and again, always in the morning. He seems to be the only one hearing it, and that beautiful girl looks at him as if he's insane. He tries going to the same place with another person, again he hears the yell but Dr Lavington appears to have heard nothing. He thinks he's going mad but the doctor tells him he's not, he's probably 'feeling' something, and offers to investigate together. He tells Jack that nobody has ever seen again the woman that lived there before beautiful Felise came. To confirm this, Felise herself comes to tell them of her dreams of a woman yelling the same words, a woman with a blue jar. In Felise's dreams, this jar had apparently a great importance, and Lavington suggested to try a sort of seance. That jar was bought by Jack's uncle, so Jack goes home and takes the jar. He goes to Felise's cottage with Dr Lavington, drinks a cup of coffee there, and then wait in the dark for something to happen. He wakes up the next day but he's no more in the cottage, and can't find them. He meets his uncle and tells him everything, also adding how worried he is for his two friends, when his uncle asks about the jar. What happened to the jar? It was Ming, best piece of his collection, he already had an offer for 10.000 £... Jack tried again to find Lavington but only found a letter. Poor stupid Jack, I say. Felise was so beautiful he never even thought of doubting her words, and he was so relieved Lavington didn't think him mad that he made a hero out of him, again never doubting him for a second, and gave them the precious jar without a moment of hesitation.
The strange case of Sir Arthur Carmichael (ITA lo strano caso di Sir Arthur Carmichael) A strange story. After his father's death, young Sir Arthur lives with his father's second wife and her son. Arthur is now engaged to Phyllis, when something happens to him. He moves in a strange way, only drinks milk and doesn't speak. Doctor Settle calls for the help of his friend Dr Carstairs. As he arrives to the house, he witness this: he sees and hears a cat that is not there, while Arthur behaves like a cat himself. Carstairs learns that there was a cat once, but Lady Carmichael had to 'put him to sleep', if I can use this expression, with hydrocyanic acid. The spirit of the cat is furious with lady Carmichael and almost kills her once, then Arthur falls on into the pond. Phyllis says he can swim very well, but the two doctors have reasons to fear and run to him. They try to get him out and help him, but it looks like it's too late. Phyllis throws herself on him crying desperately "come back to me! come back to me!" and Arthur came back to life, and he was his old self again, with no memory at all of the last month. When she saw him, lady Carmichael died of shock. Carstairs thinks it's because she had killed Arthur with the acid...
How romantic was Agatha, having Arthur come back to life at the sound of Phyllis voice :-)
The call of wings (Il richiamo delle ali) What a strange story, I don't know what to think of it. It's the story of rich Silas Hamer. Once poor, he became very rich and is now a happy man; not interested in power, he loves the comforts that money can buy. One day he witnesses an accident, a poor man under a bus. A man tells him not to feel guilty, nothing he could have done, but he's not feeling guilty, he's feeling scared, terrorized at the thought of death that comes for everyone, the poor and the rich alike. This is because he loves his life now, with all the comforts he can afford. Going home, he meets a man (who will later reveal to be Pan): he's playing a strange, beautiful music, and Hamer is captured by it and shows it. He will hear the same music at night, and every time it'll be better and more addicting. He feels like he's flying, free, a wonderful sensation, but the end of it every time is more difficult and painful; he feels trapped in his home, by the walls, by all the things that he cherished. He realizes talking to a friend that he'll never feel completely free until he has his money and all the things that made his life so enjoyable before. He arranges to leave everything to a priest (or whatever) that will use it to help the poor, and feels finally free. Worried about his future, the cold, the hunger, but in a way feeling that it was important because nothing can compare to that wonderful sensation he felt hearing the mystic music. He takes the train to go to the park (the tube I think) and sees a young man losing his balance and fall. In a second many thoughts dwell inside him, he's the only one who can help, it's dangerous but he can save him if he wants, and in a way this time there's nothing to stop him and he jumps. He saves the guy, but can't save himself, but he had no more fear, the material world he lived in has no more grip on him, he was free, and he felt now those wings that many nights he had felt were calling him, around him.
Now, I can understand the symbolism and the good message and everything, but I still think it's sad: if every story regarding self-improvement, conscience, soul, end with death, it's no wonder if so many people are bastards but alive.
The last seance (ITA l'ultima seduta) This was terrible, I knew what was going to happen and it was hard to read it. A young medium, Simone, is the real thing and her seance are spectacular, always a great success. She's engaged to Raoul, who is very proud of her, so much I feel in him pride is bigger than love. Simone's maid tells him of how ill Simone is, how bad all this is for her, then Simone tells him she's scared, terrorized, feeling something bad is going to happen to her. She cries more than once that she doesn't wanna do it anymore, that he had promised her, but he reminds her she has an appointment for that same day. Madame Exe paid a fortune for that seance. Raoul had been present the last time, and he had seen clearly the child, more than an image, she was solid, flesh and blood, he had touched her but realizing he hurt Simone he forbade Madame Exe to touch her. Today Simone begs Raoul to stop it, she doesn't want to do it, but he makes her feel guilty, the idiot: "as a woman you should understand the pain of a mother that has lost her child" so Simone accepts - seems to me she totally understood that, but he didn't, he did not understand such pain, and the effect of the word 'mum' and what a mother would do to get her child back. When Madame Exe arrives, she has a rope with her. She says she wants to be sure there are no tricks and Raoul is all Sure, tie me up tight, there are no tricks here, Simone is a real wonder! So when the child appears, more real and complete than ever, calling her 'maman', Raoul can't do nothing but shout. Madame Exe touches the child, ignoring Simone's pain. Raoul shouts again, but the woman tells him she doesn't care about the medium at all, she only cares about her child come back to life. She hugs her little child and takes her out of the house. When Raoul manages to free himself, he can see Simone is dead, and her body is half her usual size.
S.O.S. (Ita. S.O.S.) A story kind of like the movie 'The Shining'. A secluded place, a lonely house where many years before a man had killed his wife. The Dinsmead family goes to live in this house. Mortimer Cleveland knocks at their door one night by mere chance: his car has abandoned him. He notices the strange atmosphere and later on he finds the letters s.o.s. written in the dust. Who wrote it and why? Exactly like Poirot, Cleveland will stop and think until he has the solution. Mather and father had told him that Magdalene was adopted and about to inherit a nice amount of money, but Cleveland noticed that Charlotte looks nothing like her mother, and that the tea that was thrown away when he arrived was still hot, not cold at all... he finds out the truth and is able to stop the tragedy. Magdalene was the real daughter, Charlotte the adopted one. The man wanted his daughter to inherit but for this he needed Charlotte to disappear... so he had poisoned her tea. Cleveland saved her though. It is said that they acted like that because of the influence of the house.
The end, no more stories.
The first, The hound of death (ITA il segugio della morte) is less than twenty pages long. There is a nun, Marie Angelique, who is in a confused state of mind. A moment she's coherent, the next she's talking about the Six Signs, the Hound of Death, telepathy and the power of death...
Mr Anstruther comes across her story by chance and meets her twice, in the company of dottor Rose that has taken a personal interest in helping her but his mention of 'power' makes the reader doubt him, and with reason. The story ends with Mr Anstruther receiving two letters. In the first the nun asks for his help, telling him the doctor wants to learn from her the sixth sign, the sign of death; the second letter comes from his sister. She tells him a rather sinister story about the doctor's and the nun's deaths. The doctor's uncle died, struck by lightning. After that, all his money were to go to the doctor, but he died too, along with the nun, when his house was destroyed. Mr Anstruther thinks that maybe the doctor used the sign of death on his uncle, but he made the mistake of 'completing the circle' and death had come back, to him, but then, in a very British way, he discards the whole thing as nonsense, certain things don't exist, everything must have a perfectly rational explanation.
The red signal (ITA il segnale rosso) story n. 2. This is about premonition, intuition, sixth sense, and spiritism. A dinner at Jack and Claire Trent's house. Among the guests: rich psychiatrist Sir Alington West and his only relative Dermot West. Dermot has experienced before some kind of premonition, a 'signal' inside him, a 'red signal' that means danger. A couple of times already this red signal saved his life. Tonight he feels the same. He's madly in love with Claire, his best friend's wife, and because of this he can't think straight. When Sir Alington speaks of madness and how it is ereditary, Claire is very nervous and Dermot believes he's talking about her. During a séance there's a strange warning: "don't go home". Dermot thinks it's for him, so he's not worried when Sir Alington wants to talk to him at his house. They arrive at Sir Alington's and when the doctor tells him he's absolutely sure that it's a grave case of madness, homicidal madness, that needs seclusion, Dermot goes out of his mind. Not doubting for a second that he's talking about Claire, they fight. Dermot shouts that he'll run away with her and will protect her at all costs, and the butler hears them shout: "if you do that I'll change my will and you'll have nothing"_"I don't care, say a word against her and I'll kill you". Dermot won't listen when Sir Alington tries to talk to him some more, instead he goes away, he meets Claire who tells him that she loves him but there's no hope for them, oh it's so horrible, and then he goes home to find a gun in his drawer and the police at his door. He learns that Sir Alington has been killed and everything is against him. At Jack's house, while Dermot tries to make sense of it all, Jack starts laughing and confesses everything. The house is locked, Dermot can't escape. Jack will call the police because he wants Dermot to be hanged. Jack killed Sir Alington because he had understood everything, including his intention of killing Claire with a knife. Luckily for Dermot, Claire is there with a police inspector and he hears everything, so he's safe. The happy ending is given by the fact that now Jack will probably be hanged, thus freeing Claire. When she said 'horrible' and Sir Alington had spoken of no hope, they meant that by law Claire could not divorce a 'mad' husband, and therefore could never be free. The 'red signal' was right again, and also the 'don't go home' warning was right, but not just for one person!
Story 3- The fourth man (ITA Il quarto uomo) A doctor, a lawyer and a priest talk on a train about the extraordinary case of Felicie Bault and her four personalities and her "impossible death" when the fourth man joins in the conversation, telling them what they don't know, because he grew up with Felicie. They grew up in a house for orphans (but not an orphanage): there was Felicie, whose father had strangled her mother, and Annette: her mother was a "fille de joie" and died of tubercolosis after her father abandoned them. Annette is full of life and beautiful and wants to become famous. Felicie is very slow, everyone thinks she's stupid, but she's very strong and her health is perfect. Annette mocks and humiliates Felicie, and once she even hypnotized her into eating a candle in front of all the other laughing kids. Felicie hates her but for some reason (fascination or forced obedience) she follows her everywhere and obeys everything she tells her to do. As time goes by Annette becomes a singer, she loves the theatre and being a famous artist, but her health is not good and she'll have to leave it all and go back to the house. She's so sick everybody thinks she'll die but she insists that her will is stronger than her body and she'll live. She repeats that until the day she dies. After that day, Felicie starts acting weird, sometimes she's like another person, someone who plays the piano and can act very well, and other moments she remembers nothing about it and is the old stupid self again, until one day she says that she can hear Annette inside her head, trying to take over, to drive her out, and she's terrorized but still says that if that day will ever come, she'll use on her all the strength of her hands... Months or years later she was found dead, strangled by her own hands.
The gipsy (ITA la zingara) Dickie has always been scared of gipsies because every time one gives him a warning, something bad happens to him, until he dies after an operation. His friend McFarlane goes to talk to a gipsy who knew him, and learns that she has the gift/curse of seeing things. She married Maurice because she sensed a great danger over him and hoped to save him, but the next day she dies because in the dark he gave her the wrong thing to drink... she couldn't save him after all, and this was Fate's cruel joke. About Dickie, he was simply an idiot: every time a gipsy warned him of something, he was terrified of the woman but always ran and did exactly what she warned him against. What a genius...
The ramp (ITA la lanterna) An old house is said to be haunted. Once a man and a child lived there; he was a criminal and one day killed himself to avoid prison. The child was left alone, scared, and without food, until he died. Now Mrs Lancaster moves in with her dad and her son Geoff. She can't sense anything, but her old father often hears desperate crying, and Geoff even sees the child, so lonely and so desperate that Geoff wants to help him. Geoff is weak and one day he gets sick, and the doctors have no hope, but Geoff is happy he'll finally be able to help his little friend. When he dies, his spirit joins the other one and now there is the noise of 'two' pair of feet and of laughter instead of crying. The children leave the house together, I guess to go 'to the other side'.
Wireless (la radio) An old, rich woman, Mrs Harter, has a weak heart and her doctor says she must live a quiet, peaceful life, and to his nephew Charles he clearly said that strong emotions could be the end of her. Mrs Harter is very rich and she had tried to find an heir among nieces and nephews. Miriam had been a disappointment because she was young and reckless and easily bored in her company, and had married a man that she didn't like, so she had tried with Charles. He was polite, kind, listened to her stories with interest and would tell her compliments many times a day. Mrs Hartner had therefore changed her will leaving everything to Charles. Now he convinced her that she needed a radio to keep her mind occupied. At first she wasn't happy but she soon got used to it and liked to listen to concerts or other local programs. When Charles was out, she started hearing strange things. From time to time the music would stop and a voice would call her, telling her he was her dead husband coming to get her. She was a brave woman and when the last message said : Friday night , she asked for her will to be sent to her, to check what she had written. She thought what she had left to her maid was not enough, so she gave her some more (she had left her 50, she gave her another 50 to make it 100). She waited, that night, for her late husband; she had prepared everything for her demise, and when she saw a man with a long beard coming in, her heart failed her and she died. Charles was now quite happy of his little plan. He was careful to burn the fake beard and take care of everything that might lead to him. He was in deep trouble and needed a lot of money or he could go to jail, and now he did, he had a lot. He asked for his aunt's will, but it could not be found, and in the end he remembers seeing her with something in her hand, that night, a piece of paper that fell on the fire... without it, it will be valid the old will, the one before this, which stated that everything would go to Miriam, who now has four children. Good, I say, but Charles didn't feel the same way. As if that wasn't enough, the doctor told him Mrs Harter's health was worse than he had imagined, and would not have lived more than one or two months... ah, the irony!
The witness of the prosecution (ITA testimone d'accusa) I liked this, a crime story, quite interesting. The crime has already happened. Leonard is very poor. He meets an old woman, very rich. He is kind to her and she likes having him around. They spend time together. One night she is brutally killed and Leonard is charged with murder. This is the story of his lawyer Mayherne trying to save him. Mayherne believes his words of innocence, but everything is against him. Leonard is optimistic though, because his wife loves him very much and will testify that he was at home. Mayherne is not so optimistic because he doubts the words of a woman madly in love will be able to save him. Mayherne will have many surprises though. The woman, beautiful Romaine, says he's not her husband but they live together (she's married to a madman and therefore can't divorce), but she hates him and will testify that he confessed the murder to her. Mayherne then meets an old, disfigured woman that can prove Romaine is lying. She has letters that prove she loves someone else and wants him hanged. During the trial things go according to Mayherne's plan, and once Romaine is discredited, all the jury is in Leonard's side, and he is found 'not guilty'. After thinking about habits and how Romaine moves her hands, Mayherne realizes she was the old woman. At the end of the story Mayherne meets Romaine again, but we are not told where. I guess she spent some time in jail for lying in court, but maybe she's already out, it is not said. Romaine conferms Mayherne's belief: yes, it was her, the letters were fake, she never loved anyone else and she deeply loved Leonard and had to save him, and the jury would not have believed the words of a woman in love, so she thought of a plan that would have worked, and it ends with the most important line: Romaine knew he was guilty!
The mistery of the blue jar (ITA il mistero del vaso azzurro) This was kind of fun, in a way. Jack loves to go golfing every morning before work. One morning he hears a woman's voice yelling Help and Murder; he runs and he meets a girl who says she heard nothing. The same thing happens again and again, always in the morning. He seems to be the only one hearing it, and that beautiful girl looks at him as if he's insane. He tries going to the same place with another person, again he hears the yell but Dr Lavington appears to have heard nothing. He thinks he's going mad but the doctor tells him he's not, he's probably 'feeling' something, and offers to investigate together. He tells Jack that nobody has ever seen again the woman that lived there before beautiful Felise came. To confirm this, Felise herself comes to tell them of her dreams of a woman yelling the same words, a woman with a blue jar. In Felise's dreams, this jar had apparently a great importance, and Lavington suggested to try a sort of seance. That jar was bought by Jack's uncle, so Jack goes home and takes the jar. He goes to Felise's cottage with Dr Lavington, drinks a cup of coffee there, and then wait in the dark for something to happen. He wakes up the next day but he's no more in the cottage, and can't find them. He meets his uncle and tells him everything, also adding how worried he is for his two friends, when his uncle asks about the jar. What happened to the jar? It was Ming, best piece of his collection, he already had an offer for 10.000 £... Jack tried again to find Lavington but only found a letter. Poor stupid Jack, I say. Felise was so beautiful he never even thought of doubting her words, and he was so relieved Lavington didn't think him mad that he made a hero out of him, again never doubting him for a second, and gave them the precious jar without a moment of hesitation.
The strange case of Sir Arthur Carmichael (ITA lo strano caso di Sir Arthur Carmichael) A strange story. After his father's death, young Sir Arthur lives with his father's second wife and her son. Arthur is now engaged to Phyllis, when something happens to him. He moves in a strange way, only drinks milk and doesn't speak. Doctor Settle calls for the help of his friend Dr Carstairs. As he arrives to the house, he witness this: he sees and hears a cat that is not there, while Arthur behaves like a cat himself. Carstairs learns that there was a cat once, but Lady Carmichael had to 'put him to sleep', if I can use this expression, with hydrocyanic acid. The spirit of the cat is furious with lady Carmichael and almost kills her once, then Arthur falls on into the pond. Phyllis says he can swim very well, but the two doctors have reasons to fear and run to him. They try to get him out and help him, but it looks like it's too late. Phyllis throws herself on him crying desperately "come back to me! come back to me!" and Arthur came back to life, and he was his old self again, with no memory at all of the last month. When she saw him, lady Carmichael died of shock. Carstairs thinks it's because she had killed Arthur with the acid...
How romantic was Agatha, having Arthur come back to life at the sound of Phyllis voice :-)
The call of wings (Il richiamo delle ali) What a strange story, I don't know what to think of it. It's the story of rich Silas Hamer. Once poor, he became very rich and is now a happy man; not interested in power, he loves the comforts that money can buy. One day he witnesses an accident, a poor man under a bus. A man tells him not to feel guilty, nothing he could have done, but he's not feeling guilty, he's feeling scared, terrorized at the thought of death that comes for everyone, the poor and the rich alike. This is because he loves his life now, with all the comforts he can afford. Going home, he meets a man (who will later reveal to be Pan): he's playing a strange, beautiful music, and Hamer is captured by it and shows it. He will hear the same music at night, and every time it'll be better and more addicting. He feels like he's flying, free, a wonderful sensation, but the end of it every time is more difficult and painful; he feels trapped in his home, by the walls, by all the things that he cherished. He realizes talking to a friend that he'll never feel completely free until he has his money and all the things that made his life so enjoyable before. He arranges to leave everything to a priest (or whatever) that will use it to help the poor, and feels finally free. Worried about his future, the cold, the hunger, but in a way feeling that it was important because nothing can compare to that wonderful sensation he felt hearing the mystic music. He takes the train to go to the park (the tube I think) and sees a young man losing his balance and fall. In a second many thoughts dwell inside him, he's the only one who can help, it's dangerous but he can save him if he wants, and in a way this time there's nothing to stop him and he jumps. He saves the guy, but can't save himself, but he had no more fear, the material world he lived in has no more grip on him, he was free, and he felt now those wings that many nights he had felt were calling him, around him.
Now, I can understand the symbolism and the good message and everything, but I still think it's sad: if every story regarding self-improvement, conscience, soul, end with death, it's no wonder if so many people are bastards but alive.
The last seance (ITA l'ultima seduta) This was terrible, I knew what was going to happen and it was hard to read it. A young medium, Simone, is the real thing and her seance are spectacular, always a great success. She's engaged to Raoul, who is very proud of her, so much I feel in him pride is bigger than love. Simone's maid tells him of how ill Simone is, how bad all this is for her, then Simone tells him she's scared, terrorized, feeling something bad is going to happen to her. She cries more than once that she doesn't wanna do it anymore, that he had promised her, but he reminds her she has an appointment for that same day. Madame Exe paid a fortune for that seance. Raoul had been present the last time, and he had seen clearly the child, more than an image, she was solid, flesh and blood, he had touched her but realizing he hurt Simone he forbade Madame Exe to touch her. Today Simone begs Raoul to stop it, she doesn't want to do it, but he makes her feel guilty, the idiot: "as a woman you should understand the pain of a mother that has lost her child" so Simone accepts - seems to me she totally understood that, but he didn't, he did not understand such pain, and the effect of the word 'mum' and what a mother would do to get her child back. When Madame Exe arrives, she has a rope with her. She says she wants to be sure there are no tricks and Raoul is all Sure, tie me up tight, there are no tricks here, Simone is a real wonder! So when the child appears, more real and complete than ever, calling her 'maman', Raoul can't do nothing but shout. Madame Exe touches the child, ignoring Simone's pain. Raoul shouts again, but the woman tells him she doesn't care about the medium at all, she only cares about her child come back to life. She hugs her little child and takes her out of the house. When Raoul manages to free himself, he can see Simone is dead, and her body is half her usual size.
S.O.S. (Ita. S.O.S.) A story kind of like the movie 'The Shining'. A secluded place, a lonely house where many years before a man had killed his wife. The Dinsmead family goes to live in this house. Mortimer Cleveland knocks at their door one night by mere chance: his car has abandoned him. He notices the strange atmosphere and later on he finds the letters s.o.s. written in the dust. Who wrote it and why? Exactly like Poirot, Cleveland will stop and think until he has the solution. Mather and father had told him that Magdalene was adopted and about to inherit a nice amount of money, but Cleveland noticed that Charlotte looks nothing like her mother, and that the tea that was thrown away when he arrived was still hot, not cold at all... he finds out the truth and is able to stop the tragedy. Magdalene was the real daughter, Charlotte the adopted one. The man wanted his daughter to inherit but for this he needed Charlotte to disappear... so he had poisoned her tea. Cleveland saved her though. It is said that they acted like that because of the influence of the house.
The end, no more stories.
sabato 25 giugno 2016
Killer in the house by Borden Deal
A thriller more than a mystery, but sort of boring and predictable. It moves so slow I wanted to skip pieces here and there.
The story: Paul has been ten years in prison but once out on parole he found a job, fell in love, married Karen, they had a baby: Kay, now two years old, and Karen is pregnant again. He's happy, but when old jail inmate Syd knocks at his door everything, the life he made for himself, is in danger. Paul thinks of Syd as a dear friend, but when Syd starts criticizing Karen, Paul gets angry and Syd points a gun at him. From now on Paul is trapped. He wants to protect his family and his new life. Syd wants to rob a jewellery store. He escaped from prison killing a guard. Luckily for Paul, the judge assigned to him and the sheriff give him time to find a way out. The judge strongly believes in him.
Paul lets Syd and his two men believe he's in, part of the gang, but he's not. As soon as they leave home, Paul manages to call the judge to inform him, then he helps them arresting Syd and has to shoot one of his men: Smitty. The other one is at home with Karen and Syd offers to help, but Paul realizes soon enough that he did it hoping he'd help him escape. Paul manages to knock Rider out, but can't let Syd escape. Syd takes Kay hostage, so Paul shoots him in the legs. Syd doesn't want to die in the electric chair, so to repay those years in jail's friendship, Paul kills him quickly. Now he's free again, with his family safe. With good actors it could be a nice movie, I'm not saying otherwise (although many of this kind have already been made) but it's too predictable and too slow. The debate between the sheriff and the judge on how much they can trust Paul goes on forever, and Paul's character I don't like. He's not a bad man, but I don't like how he's written. It's a book I found hard to finish and I have no intention of reading it again, ever. None at all.
ITA ultimo colpo
The story: Paul has been ten years in prison but once out on parole he found a job, fell in love, married Karen, they had a baby: Kay, now two years old, and Karen is pregnant again. He's happy, but when old jail inmate Syd knocks at his door everything, the life he made for himself, is in danger. Paul thinks of Syd as a dear friend, but when Syd starts criticizing Karen, Paul gets angry and Syd points a gun at him. From now on Paul is trapped. He wants to protect his family and his new life. Syd wants to rob a jewellery store. He escaped from prison killing a guard. Luckily for Paul, the judge assigned to him and the sheriff give him time to find a way out. The judge strongly believes in him.
Paul lets Syd and his two men believe he's in, part of the gang, but he's not. As soon as they leave home, Paul manages to call the judge to inform him, then he helps them arresting Syd and has to shoot one of his men: Smitty. The other one is at home with Karen and Syd offers to help, but Paul realizes soon enough that he did it hoping he'd help him escape. Paul manages to knock Rider out, but can't let Syd escape. Syd takes Kay hostage, so Paul shoots him in the legs. Syd doesn't want to die in the electric chair, so to repay those years in jail's friendship, Paul kills him quickly. Now he's free again, with his family safe. With good actors it could be a nice movie, I'm not saying otherwise (although many of this kind have already been made) but it's too predictable and too slow. The debate between the sheriff and the judge on how much they can trust Paul goes on forever, and Paul's character I don't like. He's not a bad man, but I don't like how he's written. It's a book I found hard to finish and I have no intention of reading it again, ever. None at all.
ITA ultimo colpo
Due or die by Frank Kane
It's not too bad, but it's nothing interesting really. An old noir, with the usual tougher-than-everyone private investigator (Johnny Liddell) and the usual beautiful soubrette who can't resist his charm and throws herself into his arms. We follow him during his little (very little) investigation, just to hear him say, at the end, that he always suspected the guy, that he guessed there was a bomb... a mix of luck and crap, I say. Lee Loomis, the girl, is sent to convince him to accept a case. "Fat" Mike has a job for him in Las Palmas, a place described like a paradise for criminals. Johnny lets her grace and her 10.000 dollars convince him. He goes to investigate into the murder of a certain Adams, but when he gets there it turns out Mike has been murdered too. Mike's partners tell him a story: they are being blackmailed. Either they pay a million dollars or they'll be killed, and now they want to pay, but of course Johnny keeps investigating. The sheriff is deep into it and tries to stop him in lots of ways, but Johnny is stronger than his two men and smarter than him, it seems. Luckily for him, Lee and an ex-policeman who worked for Mike help him a lot. He avoids being killed or trapped, and refuses to leave town, and when he's given the suitcase that should contain the million dollars he 'guesses' it must contain a bomb instead. He doesn't board the flight to Los Angeles like the blackmailer instructed him to do; instead he buries the suitcase in the desert, thus saving all the passengers on board when the bomb explodes. He follows the sheriff first, then he has Lee help him in reuniting all the partners in one place. He, apparently, knows who is behind everything, and has known for a while, but has no proof. Luckily for him (again) in these stories people tend to confess easily. It's enough for Johnny to tell him that the sheriff will talk, and he admits everything. One of the partners, a lawyer, had killed Adams and Mike to get hold of their new, rich project. He was planning to take the money and then leave for another place where he would have been the only boss. Something like the opening of new casinos.
The guy confesses in front of all the other partners then tries to kill Johnny but fails. Johnny proposes the name of the ex-cop who helped him as the new sheriff, then leaves. It looks like he has a sort of girlfriend somewhere, but he has no problem in 'spending time' with Lee...
Not my thing.
ITA epitaffio per Johnny Liddell
The guy confesses in front of all the other partners then tries to kill Johnny but fails. Johnny proposes the name of the ex-cop who helped him as the new sheriff, then leaves. It looks like he has a sort of girlfriend somewhere, but he has no problem in 'spending time' with Lee...
Not my thing.
ITA epitaffio per Johnny Liddell
The killer from Yuma by Lewis B. Patten
This was my first "western novel" and I liked it. I was kind of surprised, actually, but I really liked it and read it quickly. The beginning is the toughest part. Once I was past the first 50 pages, the other 170 (circa) were very enjoyable. I could picture in my mind every scene as if I was watching a western-movie :-)
It's a story of vengeance and hate, mainly, but not only. Donna Tate has travelled a long way with all the money she has left to bribe a guard in order to help a prisoner escape. Varra was sent to the Yuma prison after he killed a man and the Radek family, who had hired him to do it, betrayed him. After ten years he is now even worse than he was before, a ferocious beast who only wants to kill. Donna is going to free him because the Radeks killed her father too, for no reason. Dan Radek had always hated him, and he wrongly accused him of killing his son and hanged him out of his house for Donna to find. Donna wants the Radeks dead; she can't do it by herself but she knows Varra hates them as she does and has swore to kill them. Another prisoner, Owen Sands, manages to take advantage of the situation to escape himself too. He has only killed once, in self-defence, but he was set up for homicide. He escapes with Varra, and Donna realizes soon how irresponsible she has been, to free such a monster (Varra, not Sands).
Sands had to protect her all the way back, because as soon as Varra saw she was a woman he could only think of taking her by force. A true monster.
When they arrived at Donna's house, Varra left to plan his vengeance, while Sands decided to stay for a while to help Donna. Her house has been burned down by the Radeks, and he wants to help her build a new one. Varra wastes no time: one by one the kills Radek's four sons. At first it seemed like it was Sands but Sheriff Purdy understood the truth quickly enough. He wanted to put Donna in jail to protect her from Radek's anger, but she refused. He wanted to put Radek and his remaining two sons in jail to protect them from Varra, but Varra got to the kids before him. Sands was the only one ready to help the sheriff, all the people in town were too scared of Radek. With Sands' help the sheriff puts Dan Radek in jail, but Varra gets him all the same. After having killed all the Radeks, Varra goes to Donna, he hasn't forgotten his little project, and Sands is terribly afraid for her. Sands and the sheriff get there just in time and there is a battle, shots fired (you know the drill if you've ever seen a western movie) and in the end the joined forces of Sands, the sheriff and a little help from Donna are enough to stop Varra by killing him. Sands had been worried the whole time that the sheriff would try to send him back to Yuma, knowing who he was, but now the sheriff is grateful for his help, he was the only one who helped him and even saved his life, and tells him that he can talk to the governor to avoid his extradition, and he would also like to offer him a job as his deputy, so he tells Donna he's going to stay after all, and she's quite happy about it. Now that it was all over, it was the end of hate and vengeance and desperation, and it was a new beginning, for both of them :-) Happy ending :-)
I liked it. I liked this ending because I liked the sheriff too and he survives :-) Only the bad guys die
:-) A good ending :-)
ITA l'assassino di Yuma
It's a story of vengeance and hate, mainly, but not only. Donna Tate has travelled a long way with all the money she has left to bribe a guard in order to help a prisoner escape. Varra was sent to the Yuma prison after he killed a man and the Radek family, who had hired him to do it, betrayed him. After ten years he is now even worse than he was before, a ferocious beast who only wants to kill. Donna is going to free him because the Radeks killed her father too, for no reason. Dan Radek had always hated him, and he wrongly accused him of killing his son and hanged him out of his house for Donna to find. Donna wants the Radeks dead; she can't do it by herself but she knows Varra hates them as she does and has swore to kill them. Another prisoner, Owen Sands, manages to take advantage of the situation to escape himself too. He has only killed once, in self-defence, but he was set up for homicide. He escapes with Varra, and Donna realizes soon how irresponsible she has been, to free such a monster (Varra, not Sands).
Sands had to protect her all the way back, because as soon as Varra saw she was a woman he could only think of taking her by force. A true monster.
When they arrived at Donna's house, Varra left to plan his vengeance, while Sands decided to stay for a while to help Donna. Her house has been burned down by the Radeks, and he wants to help her build a new one. Varra wastes no time: one by one the kills Radek's four sons. At first it seemed like it was Sands but Sheriff Purdy understood the truth quickly enough. He wanted to put Donna in jail to protect her from Radek's anger, but she refused. He wanted to put Radek and his remaining two sons in jail to protect them from Varra, but Varra got to the kids before him. Sands was the only one ready to help the sheriff, all the people in town were too scared of Radek. With Sands' help the sheriff puts Dan Radek in jail, but Varra gets him all the same. After having killed all the Radeks, Varra goes to Donna, he hasn't forgotten his little project, and Sands is terribly afraid for her. Sands and the sheriff get there just in time and there is a battle, shots fired (you know the drill if you've ever seen a western movie) and in the end the joined forces of Sands, the sheriff and a little help from Donna are enough to stop Varra by killing him. Sands had been worried the whole time that the sheriff would try to send him back to Yuma, knowing who he was, but now the sheriff is grateful for his help, he was the only one who helped him and even saved his life, and tells him that he can talk to the governor to avoid his extradition, and he would also like to offer him a job as his deputy, so he tells Donna he's going to stay after all, and she's quite happy about it. Now that it was all over, it was the end of hate and vengeance and desperation, and it was a new beginning, for both of them :-) Happy ending :-)
I liked it. I liked this ending because I liked the sheriff too and he survives :-) Only the bad guys die
:-) A good ending :-)
ITA l'assassino di Yuma
The second time around by Mary Higgins Clark
It's a bit more boring than the first one I read, but this is because the same things get repeated again and again. It sort of has two parallel stories: 1)Nick Spencer, a man who has convinced a lot of people that he would have found a cure for cancer, disappears after his plane crashes. After that, a big loss of money is discovered in his company, and also that the cure is a fraud, and he is accused of having stolen the money of all those people who invested all their money because they believed in him, and also of breaking every hope people had in that cure. Is he really dead? Did he really steal those money? Did he always know the cure didn't work?
2) Ned also put all his money into Nick's company, but he did it by selling his country house without asking his wife Annie's opinion, because he knew she would have never accepted. Annie loved that house very much, it was the joy of her life, and she was so very hurt, one day she drove into the street too carelessly, had a bad accident and died. Now Ned blames everyone but himself for her death, and without her to remind him every day he stopped taking his meds. Now he's on a frenzy, set fire to Nick's house almost killing his wife (widow) Lynn, then he starts killing other people.
I mean, the stories are certainly linked, but they have two different plot-lines because Ned's story is known, while the truth about Nick is a mystery.
We follow Marcia "Carly" De Carlo, a journalist who's going to write the story. She's also Lynn's step-sister, but it's not her fault :-p her mother married Lynn's father.
She also invested her savings into the company, and always thought of Nick as a good person. Now she investigates to write a good article along with two other journalists, Ken Page and Don Carter. During her investigation she goes back and forth to speak with everyone can have any bit of useful information, then thinks it over and also talks about her findings with Ken and Don. This is the boring bit, I guess, because people tell her things and she thinks it over, joining this and that bit together than she tells it all to her collegues... well, I 'heard' it the first time, and all the others are repetitions. MHC should have done what has always been done under this circumstances: a simple line saying "she told them about her conversation with" and stop. Of course the book would have been a little shorter, but much much better. A lot of pages is not always a good thing in itself. Personally I'll never buy it.
That's the only problem, otherwise the investigation is well done. I'll say now how the two stories go:
Ned is clearly out of his mind, he even talks out loud with his dead wife. He kills his house-owner Mrs Morgan because now that he didn't have dear sweet Annie to take care of him, Mrs Morgan didn't want him around anymore. She had liked Annie but not Ned, he scared her. Then he kills Mr Harnik because he offered to buy the famous house, probably because he didn't want Ned as a neighbor. He kills Mrs Harnik too: she had wanted to call Annie to ask her if she was alright in selling her precious house, but then had not called. He kills the neighbor Mrs Schafley because she always said how much she liked Annie but then she wanted so much to get rid of Ned that never warned Annie that her husband wanted to sell her house. He kills Peg because when he went to buy some stuff at the shop where she worked, she noticed his hand was so badly burned. He also plans to kill Lynn and Carly before killing himself. He will actually come in time to 'save' Carly when a man is about to kill her. He kills the man and Lynn and forces Carly to drive him to the cemetery where Annie is buried.
Nick's story: During her investigation Carly learns that the cure had worked at least once, that Nick would not have run away leaving his son and the girl he was probably in love with here; that someone stole Nick's father's old notes, very important for the research. That a doctor is run-over by a car after talking to Carly. Could he recognize the 'thief'?? That Vivien, Nick's secretary, and probably in love with him, disappeared and was found after five days in a confused state of mind, not remembering anything that happened after she was sixteen.
After seeing how a lawyer used to dye his hair Carly realizes (almost) everything, and what she didn't guess will be revealed to her by Lynn. A powerful, icy man, Mr Garner, instead of buying the cure from Nick had decided to take it all for nothing. With the help of other people he falsified documents to make it look like the cure didn't work, while a man in Nick's company stole all that money.
Garner and Lynn were lovers (this was pretty much obvious to me). She drugged Nick before he went off piloting his plane, thus being responsible for his death. Now lawyer Drexel is about to shoot Carly while Lynn stays to watch without emotions, when Ned enters the house and shoots Drexel first and then Lynn. Carly is scared to death and tries to talk to Ned, hoping he won't kill her. When her about-to-be-boyfriend Casey calls her, she tells him she's "happy she's going to meet Patrick" (Patrick was the name of her dead child), so he understands something's wrong and calls the police, who understand Ned's going to Annie's grave and wait there for him. It's not too clear to me if Ned spared her or if the police shot him, because Carly faints. When she realizes she's alive she thinks Ned spared her, but then we're told that the police were watching the cemetery, sure Ned would return to Annie's grave, and immediately ran when whey received the call, so it could be either way.
The book ends restoring Nick's name and reputation. He had never stolen money, never lied to gain more investors, never took advantage of poor people's hope of curing their loved ones. He had lost his first wife to cancer, and hated the damn thing.
I didn't find the revelation of Lynn's lover's name a surprise. Carly was indeed surprised, but it's not as easy to trick the reader :-)
There's also the fact that icy-man and icy-woman were made for each other.
Cutting a little here and there, this again could be a great movie; I wonder they've never made movies out of Mary Higgins Clark's books? Why? I don't know, they seem very good plots to me. And well written, although I liked the other one more.
ITA la seconda volta
2) Ned also put all his money into Nick's company, but he did it by selling his country house without asking his wife Annie's opinion, because he knew she would have never accepted. Annie loved that house very much, it was the joy of her life, and she was so very hurt, one day she drove into the street too carelessly, had a bad accident and died. Now Ned blames everyone but himself for her death, and without her to remind him every day he stopped taking his meds. Now he's on a frenzy, set fire to Nick's house almost killing his wife (widow) Lynn, then he starts killing other people.
I mean, the stories are certainly linked, but they have two different plot-lines because Ned's story is known, while the truth about Nick is a mystery.
We follow Marcia "Carly" De Carlo, a journalist who's going to write the story. She's also Lynn's step-sister, but it's not her fault :-p her mother married Lynn's father.
She also invested her savings into the company, and always thought of Nick as a good person. Now she investigates to write a good article along with two other journalists, Ken Page and Don Carter. During her investigation she goes back and forth to speak with everyone can have any bit of useful information, then thinks it over and also talks about her findings with Ken and Don. This is the boring bit, I guess, because people tell her things and she thinks it over, joining this and that bit together than she tells it all to her collegues... well, I 'heard' it the first time, and all the others are repetitions. MHC should have done what has always been done under this circumstances: a simple line saying "she told them about her conversation with" and stop. Of course the book would have been a little shorter, but much much better. A lot of pages is not always a good thing in itself. Personally I'll never buy it.
That's the only problem, otherwise the investigation is well done. I'll say now how the two stories go:
Ned is clearly out of his mind, he even talks out loud with his dead wife. He kills his house-owner Mrs Morgan because now that he didn't have dear sweet Annie to take care of him, Mrs Morgan didn't want him around anymore. She had liked Annie but not Ned, he scared her. Then he kills Mr Harnik because he offered to buy the famous house, probably because he didn't want Ned as a neighbor. He kills Mrs Harnik too: she had wanted to call Annie to ask her if she was alright in selling her precious house, but then had not called. He kills the neighbor Mrs Schafley because she always said how much she liked Annie but then she wanted so much to get rid of Ned that never warned Annie that her husband wanted to sell her house. He kills Peg because when he went to buy some stuff at the shop where she worked, she noticed his hand was so badly burned. He also plans to kill Lynn and Carly before killing himself. He will actually come in time to 'save' Carly when a man is about to kill her. He kills the man and Lynn and forces Carly to drive him to the cemetery where Annie is buried.
Nick's story: During her investigation Carly learns that the cure had worked at least once, that Nick would not have run away leaving his son and the girl he was probably in love with here; that someone stole Nick's father's old notes, very important for the research. That a doctor is run-over by a car after talking to Carly. Could he recognize the 'thief'?? That Vivien, Nick's secretary, and probably in love with him, disappeared and was found after five days in a confused state of mind, not remembering anything that happened after she was sixteen.
After seeing how a lawyer used to dye his hair Carly realizes (almost) everything, and what she didn't guess will be revealed to her by Lynn. A powerful, icy man, Mr Garner, instead of buying the cure from Nick had decided to take it all for nothing. With the help of other people he falsified documents to make it look like the cure didn't work, while a man in Nick's company stole all that money.
Garner and Lynn were lovers (this was pretty much obvious to me). She drugged Nick before he went off piloting his plane, thus being responsible for his death. Now lawyer Drexel is about to shoot Carly while Lynn stays to watch without emotions, when Ned enters the house and shoots Drexel first and then Lynn. Carly is scared to death and tries to talk to Ned, hoping he won't kill her. When her about-to-be-boyfriend Casey calls her, she tells him she's "happy she's going to meet Patrick" (Patrick was the name of her dead child), so he understands something's wrong and calls the police, who understand Ned's going to Annie's grave and wait there for him. It's not too clear to me if Ned spared her or if the police shot him, because Carly faints. When she realizes she's alive she thinks Ned spared her, but then we're told that the police were watching the cemetery, sure Ned would return to Annie's grave, and immediately ran when whey received the call, so it could be either way.
The book ends restoring Nick's name and reputation. He had never stolen money, never lied to gain more investors, never took advantage of poor people's hope of curing their loved ones. He had lost his first wife to cancer, and hated the damn thing.
I didn't find the revelation of Lynn's lover's name a surprise. Carly was indeed surprised, but it's not as easy to trick the reader :-)
There's also the fact that icy-man and icy-woman were made for each other.
Cutting a little here and there, this again could be a great movie; I wonder they've never made movies out of Mary Higgins Clark's books? Why? I don't know, they seem very good plots to me. And well written, although I liked the other one more.
ITA la seconda volta
venerdì 24 giugno 2016
The promise by Danielle Steel
I read this when I was 14 and I loved it. I still like it, although not as much. It's a good book with a peculiar love story. Of course the characters seem very unreal now, but that's because nowadays things are different and it's not so common to find so many good and generous people. In this book everyone's good. Even the bad one is not completely bad.
It's the story of Michael and Nancy. He's a rich and young architect, she's a painter who grew up in an orphanage. His mother Marion is a widow who dedicated her life to her work, to build a company that would be Michael's one day. She appears cold and tough, and does not approve of Nancy. Because of this the two lovers plan to run away and marry the same night she refused him her approval. Michael and Nancy are young, full of life and madly in love, but tragedy awaits. A car accident sends him in a coma and destroys her face and hands. Marion is in pain and afraid to lose her son, she needs someone to blame and she blames her. Nancy has no money, and no hope to have a life again, in her condition. Marion proposes a deal: she'll pay for everything as long as Nancy promises to never look for Michael ever again. Nancy accepts because she's sure that Michael will look for her and find her! But Marion tells him , as soon as he wakes up, that Nancy is dead.
Neither of them ever suspected anything, for two long years Nancy had many operations to gain a new face and a new life, and had near her the love of Peter, her surgeon, and Faye, her psychiatrist and friend, while Michael focused only on his work, ignoring life and friends, having only a sex relationship that was of courses doomed from the start.
Feeling that Michael had abandoned her, Nancy tried to start a new life with Peter, because she owed him so much, not only her face. He was always kind and supportive and he helped her start a new career as a photographer, and she changed her name to Marie, trying to forget her past life and start a new one. When Michael's company notices her pictures, Marion suspects the truth and wants to meet her. She's sick, she's tired, and feels now guilty for what she's done, after realizing how Michael withdrew from life. She doesn't reveal the truth to him for lack of courage and fear he would hate her, but tries to make amends by sending him to her, to negotiate her collaboration in their new project, as a photographer. They meet and it's very hard for Nancy/Marie. He can't recognize her, but one day he sees an old painting that he knows was Nancy's, but it's signed Marie and he understands everything, so he runs to her to clear things up. They explain the truth: her deal with Marion, made only because sure that he would find her, and his belief that she was dead, only reason why he never looked for her. Had he known she was alive he would have never stopped looking for her, he still loves her deeply and she loves him, so the book ends with their plan to marry right away, without waiting, feeling they've waited long enough already.
The peculiarity of this book is that most of the time the two lovers are separated and trying to forget each other, to move on, alone. The unreal part is not that fate brings them back together, but the fact that everyone's so good, everyone's trying to help, and in nowadays world that is the most unbelievable thing of all.
ITA la promessa
ITA la promessa
The murder on the links by Agatha Christie
It has always been one of my favourite Christie books :-) there's Poirot being brilliant and romantic, there are not one but two love-stories, and a very interesting case :-) written very well.
One thing I did not remember, maybe I never noticed it before, is that Cinderella is little more than 17 years old, this is what Hastings thinks seeing her for the first time, and yet they fall in love and I know that he'll marry her in later books. How old is Hastings?? I know it's a man's world, and it's the woman that has to be young and beautiful, and the man can be whatever he wants, stupid world, but still, so young!! Or maybe he was wrong and she's not all that young after all... or maybe it's Hastings that's younger than I always believed him to be.
Anyway, this is one of the best Christie books!
Poirot receives a letter from Mr Renault afraid for his life. Poirot and Hastings go and find the man already dead. Inspector Giraud (we are in France now) is described like a hound, he is full of energy and arrogance and he's the type to run around looking for clues, giving importance to little things, and completely ignoring what he can't explain or what goes against his theories.
Mrs Renaud appears calm enough when she tells her story of how two men tied her up and killed her husband, but then she screams and faints when she sees the body for the identification. I really like the way Poirot always admires strong women, and he'll have way of doing that here too.
Other characters: Jack Renaud, the son, who had a fight with his dad because of a woman: Jack wants to marry beautiful Martha but his parents are against it, because they know that her mother has a dangerous past and is now blackmailing Mr Renaud.
There's Hastings, of course, stupid as usual, but also good-hearted as usual. I would accept him much more easily if he didn't doubt Poirot every time. It's so annoying when he does that, as if Poirot had to prove himself every single time.
We also have Cinderella, a girl that Hastings meets by chance one day and then meets again unexpectedly in the proximity of the murder scene later on.
I'll try to explain the story now.
Mrs Renaud's story accuses two unknown south-American men. Shocked to see her husband's corpse, she still sticks to her story. Jack was supposed to be far away, sent on a trip by his father, but in fact he was right here. Martha is very nervous and her mother is revealed to be the same woman that many years ago was accused of having planned the murder of her husband, although a man phisically committed the crime, escaped and changed his name to Renaud!
A girl named Bella Duveen is Jack's ex girlfriend, left for Martha. Hastings thought she was his Cinderella and believed she killed Mr Durand by mistake because jealousy had made her crazy and she wanted to kill Jack. Hastings at that point did the most stupid thing: he held Poirot tightly to give her time to escape. Poirot, old romantic that he is, understands and forgives this behaviour, but I'm not sure that "after seeing her three times I love her so much I'm ready to betray my old friend and my honor swearing the false in court" is acceptable.
Anyway, Giraud arrests Jack. Martha asks for Poirot's help and of course Hastings believes her, because she's beautiful and therefore must be an angel, like in the fairytales..
To everyone's surprise, he doesn't defend himself, but he's freed when Bella comes to confess. Hastings is now surprised realizing that Bella is not Cinderella after all, but her sister. She's actually called Dulcie Duveen, and of course had tried to protect her sister, but Bella is no more guilty than Jack is. Poirot tries one of his shows with the help of Mrs Renaud. Seeing Jack and Martha together, his mother tells him he's not her son anymore and he won't have a penny of his father's fortune because he brought only misfortune in that house. Had he not treated Bella that way she would not have killed Mr Renaud! After this scene everything should be crystal clear to everyone, Hastings too, but he's quite thick and did not understand.
It was a trick because Martha heard all that, and later on that night she tried to kill her to avoid her writing the new will. It was her all along, she had killed Jack's father and tried now to kill his mother because it was for greed not love that she wanted to marry Jack. She's stopped by Cinderella :-) and she dies hitting her head during the fight. Happy ending all around. Poirot has triumphed over arrogant Giraud and Hastings' pretty girl is safe and sound, and in love with him. Poirot at the end helps Jack, telling him to go to Bella because they love each other very much. Having learned about his father's past, Jack hesitates, but Poirot tells him that he is also son of his mother, a strong and brave woman, capable of immense love and sacrifice. I like it so much when Poirot goes all romantic :-D
I didn't understand the title, though. Why "Murder on the links" ? What links??
ITA aiuto, Poirot!
One thing I did not remember, maybe I never noticed it before, is that Cinderella is little more than 17 years old, this is what Hastings thinks seeing her for the first time, and yet they fall in love and I know that he'll marry her in later books. How old is Hastings?? I know it's a man's world, and it's the woman that has to be young and beautiful, and the man can be whatever he wants, stupid world, but still, so young!! Or maybe he was wrong and she's not all that young after all... or maybe it's Hastings that's younger than I always believed him to be.
Anyway, this is one of the best Christie books!
Poirot receives a letter from Mr Renault afraid for his life. Poirot and Hastings go and find the man already dead. Inspector Giraud (we are in France now) is described like a hound, he is full of energy and arrogance and he's the type to run around looking for clues, giving importance to little things, and completely ignoring what he can't explain or what goes against his theories.
Mrs Renaud appears calm enough when she tells her story of how two men tied her up and killed her husband, but then she screams and faints when she sees the body for the identification. I really like the way Poirot always admires strong women, and he'll have way of doing that here too.
Other characters: Jack Renaud, the son, who had a fight with his dad because of a woman: Jack wants to marry beautiful Martha but his parents are against it, because they know that her mother has a dangerous past and is now blackmailing Mr Renaud.
There's Hastings, of course, stupid as usual, but also good-hearted as usual. I would accept him much more easily if he didn't doubt Poirot every time. It's so annoying when he does that, as if Poirot had to prove himself every single time.
We also have Cinderella, a girl that Hastings meets by chance one day and then meets again unexpectedly in the proximity of the murder scene later on.
I'll try to explain the story now.
Mrs Renaud's story accuses two unknown south-American men. Shocked to see her husband's corpse, she still sticks to her story. Jack was supposed to be far away, sent on a trip by his father, but in fact he was right here. Martha is very nervous and her mother is revealed to be the same woman that many years ago was accused of having planned the murder of her husband, although a man phisically committed the crime, escaped and changed his name to Renaud!
A girl named Bella Duveen is Jack's ex girlfriend, left for Martha. Hastings thought she was his Cinderella and believed she killed Mr Durand by mistake because jealousy had made her crazy and she wanted to kill Jack. Hastings at that point did the most stupid thing: he held Poirot tightly to give her time to escape. Poirot, old romantic that he is, understands and forgives this behaviour, but I'm not sure that "after seeing her three times I love her so much I'm ready to betray my old friend and my honor swearing the false in court" is acceptable.
Anyway, Giraud arrests Jack. Martha asks for Poirot's help and of course Hastings believes her, because she's beautiful and therefore must be an angel, like in the fairytales..
To everyone's surprise, he doesn't defend himself, but he's freed when Bella comes to confess. Hastings is now surprised realizing that Bella is not Cinderella after all, but her sister. She's actually called Dulcie Duveen, and of course had tried to protect her sister, but Bella is no more guilty than Jack is. Poirot tries one of his shows with the help of Mrs Renaud. Seeing Jack and Martha together, his mother tells him he's not her son anymore and he won't have a penny of his father's fortune because he brought only misfortune in that house. Had he not treated Bella that way she would not have killed Mr Renaud! After this scene everything should be crystal clear to everyone, Hastings too, but he's quite thick and did not understand.
It was a trick because Martha heard all that, and later on that night she tried to kill her to avoid her writing the new will. It was her all along, she had killed Jack's father and tried now to kill his mother because it was for greed not love that she wanted to marry Jack. She's stopped by Cinderella :-) and she dies hitting her head during the fight. Happy ending all around. Poirot has triumphed over arrogant Giraud and Hastings' pretty girl is safe and sound, and in love with him. Poirot at the end helps Jack, telling him to go to Bella because they love each other very much. Having learned about his father's past, Jack hesitates, but Poirot tells him that he is also son of his mother, a strong and brave woman, capable of immense love and sacrifice. I like it so much when Poirot goes all romantic :-D
I didn't understand the title, though. Why "Murder on the links" ? What links??
ITA aiuto, Poirot!
mercoledì 8 giugno 2016
The green hornet - 2011
:lol: This crazy stupid thing called Green Hornet is rather funny :-) I liked it. I'm not a great Seth Rogen fan honestly, but he's ok in the role of Britt Reid. What I really liked was Jay Chou as Kato. Cool character, cool and cute actor [on youtube I found many music videos too! He's really cool :-) ]
The story is simple: Britt is a rich guy, so spoiled, living a wasted life until his father dies. He hated his father (Tom Wilkinson, always a pleasure) so he fires all the people in the house that worked for him. He knows nothing of anything, he just took for granted all the things he had. The first morning after he fired everyone he wakes up and there's a horrible cappuccino waiting for him, and he gets angry. He learns from his maid that 'Kato' made it before, even though Kato's job was to look after Mr Reid's cars. Britt calls Kato back and everything begins. He is a sort of genius who can invent and build all sorts of things (like the machine that makes the cappuccino, to all sorts of gadgets for the cars that not even Batman or James Bond have stuff like that). One night Britt sees a couple being attacked and he shouts to help them, getting into trouble, and Kato saves him with his special sight that take everything in allowing him to choose what to do, and his super-fast movements :lol:
They run away from the police and once home Britt is so excited that comes up with the superhero-idea: let everyone think we're bad but instead we'll help people! He now owns the Daily Sentinel newspaper, and has them write a lot about this, calling himself the Green Hornet. He doesn't know what to do next, when lenore (Cameron Diaz) comes looking for a secretary's job. She's not just beautiful, she's smart too, and expert on criminology, so they use her to figure out what the GH "will do". They do everything she says, but this way they go against big L.A. boss Chudnofsky (Christopher Waltz). Problems start when Kato invents a sort of stun-gun for Britt, but he takes offense, like: why, you don't need a gun but I do?and all that sort of things, because he seems to think that they're equal, the idiot :rollingeyes: then Kato and Lenore sett for a date ( do I remember correctly if I say that she asked him out? I think she did :D quite understandable too :D and of course he liked her the second he saw her :D ) , and immediately Britt asks her out but she refuses.
Kato lies to him to secretly go on a date with her, but is deeply troubled when she mentions that in her opinion the GH will be dead very soon because he managed to piss off the big criminals and they'll go after him now. Kato is worried and goes to Britt suggesting caution. They fight because Britt insists on 'I'm the hero, you're just the sidekick' and of course Kato replies 'you're nothing without me' which is true, Britt only supplies the money but he himself does nothing. They fight and kick each other until they fall into the pool (and Kato can't swim! How cute, this makes him human after all :-D) and they separate and don't talk to each other anymore. Lenore is angry at them because Britt fired her but then Britt talks to politician Scanlon (David Harbour) and learns that his father 'helped him' controlling the news for him. He's shocked but doesn't want to be bribed so he asks for Lenore's help and hires her again (under her conditions: double money and no more avances). They try to bust Scanlon hiding a recorder in Britt's jacket; when he meets again with him, Scanlon confesses everything, even having killed his father because he had limits and didn't like him working with Chudnofsky: Scanlon confesses because he has already agreed with Chudnofsky to have him killed that same night in that same restaurant. For some reason Chudnofsky 'hired' the Green Hornet to do it (not totally sure why, he wanted him dead before...).
Kato agrees and goes alone but of course he has no intention of killing Britt, he helps him escape and after a long chase and many bullets fired they reach the Daily Sentinel building. Britt wants to put online what he recorded, but no matter what he said before he now finds out that he is NOT a journalist and failed to record the conversation. When the police arrive, Scanlon pretends he's the victim and the GH the criminal, he would get away with everything, but Kato kills him throwing him off the building with the remaining half of his car on top of him. They escape and take refuge at Lenore's house. They confess everything and she realizes she's been the mind behind the GH all along. She plans a way to help them: Britt has been shot, so when at a public speech Britt names I-didn't-get-his-name (Edward James Olmos) in charge of the Daily Sentinel, Kato appears and pretends to shoot hin in the GH's name so he can go to the hospital :-)
The two guys are friends again although it's not clear if Kato and Lenore will keep seeing each other...
I liked Waltz, he was funny and scary at the same time :-p but mostly I liked Kato and I want him and Lenore happy together :-D
The story is simple: Britt is a rich guy, so spoiled, living a wasted life until his father dies. He hated his father (Tom Wilkinson, always a pleasure) so he fires all the people in the house that worked for him. He knows nothing of anything, he just took for granted all the things he had. The first morning after he fired everyone he wakes up and there's a horrible cappuccino waiting for him, and he gets angry. He learns from his maid that 'Kato' made it before, even though Kato's job was to look after Mr Reid's cars. Britt calls Kato back and everything begins. He is a sort of genius who can invent and build all sorts of things (like the machine that makes the cappuccino, to all sorts of gadgets for the cars that not even Batman or James Bond have stuff like that). One night Britt sees a couple being attacked and he shouts to help them, getting into trouble, and Kato saves him with his special sight that take everything in allowing him to choose what to do, and his super-fast movements :lol:
They run away from the police and once home Britt is so excited that comes up with the superhero-idea: let everyone think we're bad but instead we'll help people! He now owns the Daily Sentinel newspaper, and has them write a lot about this, calling himself the Green Hornet. He doesn't know what to do next, when lenore (Cameron Diaz) comes looking for a secretary's job. She's not just beautiful, she's smart too, and expert on criminology, so they use her to figure out what the GH "will do". They do everything she says, but this way they go against big L.A. boss Chudnofsky (Christopher Waltz). Problems start when Kato invents a sort of stun-gun for Britt, but he takes offense, like: why, you don't need a gun but I do?and all that sort of things, because he seems to think that they're equal, the idiot :rollingeyes: then Kato and Lenore sett for a date ( do I remember correctly if I say that she asked him out? I think she did :D quite understandable too :D and of course he liked her the second he saw her :D ) , and immediately Britt asks her out but she refuses.
Kato lies to him to secretly go on a date with her, but is deeply troubled when she mentions that in her opinion the GH will be dead very soon because he managed to piss off the big criminals and they'll go after him now. Kato is worried and goes to Britt suggesting caution. They fight because Britt insists on 'I'm the hero, you're just the sidekick' and of course Kato replies 'you're nothing without me' which is true, Britt only supplies the money but he himself does nothing. They fight and kick each other until they fall into the pool (and Kato can't swim! How cute, this makes him human after all :-D) and they separate and don't talk to each other anymore. Lenore is angry at them because Britt fired her but then Britt talks to politician Scanlon (David Harbour) and learns that his father 'helped him' controlling the news for him. He's shocked but doesn't want to be bribed so he asks for Lenore's help and hires her again (under her conditions: double money and no more avances). They try to bust Scanlon hiding a recorder in Britt's jacket; when he meets again with him, Scanlon confesses everything, even having killed his father because he had limits and didn't like him working with Chudnofsky: Scanlon confesses because he has already agreed with Chudnofsky to have him killed that same night in that same restaurant. For some reason Chudnofsky 'hired' the Green Hornet to do it (not totally sure why, he wanted him dead before...).
Kato agrees and goes alone but of course he has no intention of killing Britt, he helps him escape and after a long chase and many bullets fired they reach the Daily Sentinel building. Britt wants to put online what he recorded, but no matter what he said before he now finds out that he is NOT a journalist and failed to record the conversation. When the police arrive, Scanlon pretends he's the victim and the GH the criminal, he would get away with everything, but Kato kills him throwing him off the building with the remaining half of his car on top of him. They escape and take refuge at Lenore's house. They confess everything and she realizes she's been the mind behind the GH all along. She plans a way to help them: Britt has been shot, so when at a public speech Britt names I-didn't-get-his-name (Edward James Olmos) in charge of the Daily Sentinel, Kato appears and pretends to shoot hin in the GH's name so he can go to the hospital :-)
The two guys are friends again although it's not clear if Kato and Lenore will keep seeing each other...
I liked Waltz, he was funny and scary at the same time :-p but mostly I liked Kato and I want him and Lenore happy together :-D
martedì 7 giugno 2016
Romeo must die - 2000
Well, I liked every scene with Jet Li, but everything else was barely watchable. I mean, not only it hasn't got a surprising finale, but one gets to a point where it actually doesn't matter all that much. There are so many gangs in one city it's just a matter of what door you should knock at. There's black-mob, with boss Isaac O'Day (Delroy Lindo) and his 'second in command' Mac (Isaiah Washington) who would have really surprised me had he been for real the faithful, loyal servant/friend Isaac thought he was. There's Chinese-mob, with boss Chu (I think, that's what I understood at least) who I didn't like a bit, the way he talked and how he looked and acted and everything. His second is Kai (Russell Wong) who does for him everything that needs to be done (just like Mac...) and he also should protect Chu's son Po. But it turns out he doesn't.
Anyway, apparently there are other Chinese families sharing the territory, and white people in for a big, huge business of some kind that requires both O'Day and Chu to sell him a big part of territory, I think the white guy wants to build something over it all, I don't know.
Anyway, he's willing to pay a lot of money if Chu and O'Day can deliver. O'Day has Mac handle all things, trusting him completely... yeah, right, good move, and in the end he acted all surprised at the 'methods' that Mac used.
Anyway, it's nothing special, nothing new, nothing actually of any interest at all, but there's more. That's basically the background.
The main story is that Chu's son Po is found dead, murdered. His brother Han (Jet Li ♥︎ )learns of this while in prison. He's a good guy, of course, he's our hero :-D but he had accepted to go to prison to protect his father, who very happily accepted this sacrifice and went to America with Han's younger brother. Now Han breaks out of prison in his own lovely-funny style and comes to America to find Po's murderer. He meets Trish (Aaliyah), O'Day's daughter, and asks her help hoping she can talk to her brother (D. B. Woodside) and discover something, but she doesn't get the chance to do that because Colin is killed too. It's not that big surprise that Po was killed by Chinese people (Han's surprised, I'm not) and more specifically by Kai under Chu's orders. Han takes care of Kai then he lets his father kill himself.
Another not-surprise (again, O'Day's very much surprised, I'm not) was that Mac was behind Colin's death, and here the only little surprise: Mac had Trish prisoner to gain power over O'Day but when O'Day throws himself at him Mac shoots him (we're not sure he'll make it, but probably he will) and Han doesn't arrive in time to save her, on the contrary when Han confronts Mac it's Trish that saves Han by shooting Mac dead. Nice, she avenged her brother and he avenged his. This is the story.
The 'Romeo' in the title is caused by Han and Trish's friendship, although it never becomes a love story. They like each other and spend time together (mainly about the investigation, though) and their families are sort of enemies. Mac is the one who calls him Romeo when he's about to shoot Han, right before Trish shoots him. The title though is not "completely justified" because yes, they like each other, they care, but they also share a personal tragedy and the hate towards their family's business, so it 'could' be just that. There's nothing that proves they have romantic feelings. Well, the way they look at each other smiling, yes, but that's it. I can't help thinking that the same story between two Americans would have been filmed quite differently. Anyway, I liked Trish and I love Jet Li, always, he's just so cute and sweet and cool. I love every scene with the two of them together - not just when he 'uses' Trish to hit a girl that's trying to kill them because he 'can't hit a girl' :lol: but all of them, and when they dance :-) I thought it would have been weird or embarrassing, but it was nice, she was nice and his smiles were so sweet and adorable :-)
ITA Romeo deve morire
Anyway, apparently there are other Chinese families sharing the territory, and white people in for a big, huge business of some kind that requires both O'Day and Chu to sell him a big part of territory, I think the white guy wants to build something over it all, I don't know.
Anyway, he's willing to pay a lot of money if Chu and O'Day can deliver. O'Day has Mac handle all things, trusting him completely... yeah, right, good move, and in the end he acted all surprised at the 'methods' that Mac used.
Anyway, it's nothing special, nothing new, nothing actually of any interest at all, but there's more. That's basically the background.
The main story is that Chu's son Po is found dead, murdered. His brother Han (Jet Li ♥︎ )learns of this while in prison. He's a good guy, of course, he's our hero :-D but he had accepted to go to prison to protect his father, who very happily accepted this sacrifice and went to America with Han's younger brother. Now Han breaks out of prison in his own lovely-funny style and comes to America to find Po's murderer. He meets Trish (Aaliyah), O'Day's daughter, and asks her help hoping she can talk to her brother (D. B. Woodside) and discover something, but she doesn't get the chance to do that because Colin is killed too. It's not that big surprise that Po was killed by Chinese people (Han's surprised, I'm not) and more specifically by Kai under Chu's orders. Han takes care of Kai then he lets his father kill himself.
Another not-surprise (again, O'Day's very much surprised, I'm not) was that Mac was behind Colin's death, and here the only little surprise: Mac had Trish prisoner to gain power over O'Day but when O'Day throws himself at him Mac shoots him (we're not sure he'll make it, but probably he will) and Han doesn't arrive in time to save her, on the contrary when Han confronts Mac it's Trish that saves Han by shooting Mac dead. Nice, she avenged her brother and he avenged his. This is the story.
The 'Romeo' in the title is caused by Han and Trish's friendship, although it never becomes a love story. They like each other and spend time together (mainly about the investigation, though) and their families are sort of enemies. Mac is the one who calls him Romeo when he's about to shoot Han, right before Trish shoots him. The title though is not "completely justified" because yes, they like each other, they care, but they also share a personal tragedy and the hate towards their family's business, so it 'could' be just that. There's nothing that proves they have romantic feelings. Well, the way they look at each other smiling, yes, but that's it. I can't help thinking that the same story between two Americans would have been filmed quite differently. Anyway, I liked Trish and I love Jet Li, always, he's just so cute and sweet and cool. I love every scene with the two of them together - not just when he 'uses' Trish to hit a girl that's trying to kill them because he 'can't hit a girl' :lol: but all of them, and when they dance :-) I thought it would have been weird or embarrassing, but it was nice, she was nice and his smiles were so sweet and adorable :-)
ITA Romeo deve morire
Red lights - 2012
My oh my, what a disappointment. What a stupid ending, so stupid I had thought of it and disregarded it at once because unacceptable! It ruined everything, the ending was so bad, so so bad, for a lot of reasons, one worse than the other. What a pity. I had better hopes - not expectations, but hopes yes, I had those. The main characters and actors are three: Dr Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) has dedicated her life to expose fake psychics for the fraud that they all are. Tom (Cillian Murphy) is her assistant, a brilliant physicist who could do anything and have whatever position he chooses and even Matheson herself wonders why he follows her. Third: Silver (Robert De Niro), a blind psychic, very famous and mysterious. Now, De Niro's presence was not a guarantee, I know, because a simple look at his filmography will clearly show that he would do practically anything. Maybe it's a sort of vanity, to prove that no matter how many bad movies he does, his reputation will always be the same because he's so great that he'll always be "the great De Niro", I don't know, or maybe he doesn't care about it at all, and follows the simple rule that he's an actor and if they offer him a movie he'll do it, who knows. Anyway, it's a bit different with Sigourney Weaver, and I say I liked everything about her character and the scenes with her, and of course how she played her role. I say she's the best thing of this movie. She's introduced as a tough woman, reasonable to the extreme, then we learn that she has a son in a coma and later on she explains to us that her child fell into a coma when he was four years old, and that if only she could believe in something more, if she could believe in an afterlife, she would gladly switch off the machines that have kept him 'alive' all these years, and set him free.
All of a sudden she looks fragile, sad, vulnerable, and yet the same scientist we saw before. A good character, 'real' and believable.
Half the movie is gone and her character dies. Yep. I couldn't believe it. She's the best part of it and you take her out??
Going on, I must talk about Tom and Silver and the plot. Tom is the most mysterious of all, but also very fond of Matheson and I liked their scenes together, when Matheson was alive, then it all went down. Why? Let me explain. Together they manage to expose every fraud, no fake psychic can fool them, but then Silver comes back. Twenty (or thirty? I don't remember) years ago he was very famous and Matheson studied his case, but the tragedy of her son had left her vulnerable and unable to work at her best. A man who opposed Silver died of a heart attack and the public kept thinking/saying that Silver had caused his death with his powers. For this reason Silver has been away from the theaters for years, but now he's back, and Tom wants to study him, but Matheson refuses. She says that Silver is dangerous because once, for just a second, he made her doubt, but I guess the pain for her son's condition had a lot to do with her choice. It would be too hard on her.
Now, what happens next? Tom goes anyway, alone. Of course he does, obviously.
He's setting up all his machines designed to discover any trick, but then Silver 'looks up' and lights explode, Tom's machines break, the audience is scared, a bit of understandable panic of course, then we see Tom going back to find Matheson on the floor. He calls for help but there's nothing the doctors can do and she dies. Just like that. I guess they made this decision to make us believe that Silver did it again, she opposed him and now she's dead.
Tom becomes obsessed with Silver and sees his presence everywhere. Strange things start happening to him, lights and noises in his house, poor birds going to their macabre death anytime he's near a window, machines breaking and that sort of things, and in his obsession Tom is sure that it's all Silver's fault. Now, to make things interesting, suddenly Silver agrees to be tested by a team of scientists, to prove once and for all his powers are real. Head of the team is Dr Shackleton, who has been looking for telekinetic powers for a long time, and every single time Matheson managed to show him the flaw in his study (although the explanation 'the subject could see the cards reflected on your glasses' was so obvious that made Shackleton look rather silly I'm afraid). Tom witnesses every experiment without finding any trick, but doesn't give up. He's determined to prove Silver's a fraud, so he takes every possible tape and has a student look at them for 'something not right', but this Ben finds nothing, probably because he was wondering if Silver might actually be 'the real thing'.
Up to this point the film still had something going, a certain atmosphere, a sense of mystery like 'is Silver a real psychic? In that case he's a murderer. Is Silver a fake? In that case, how does he do it?'
I missed Matheson a lot, but there still was something valid going on. Then it all went down so quickly. From this point on, every scene and every word is bad. Everything.
Where was I? Oh yes, Ben finds nothing and when Shackleton calls him, nice Shackleton all worried because he's about to sign the papers and declare to the world that Silver's for real, and he wants to know what did he miss, because he always missed something and Matheson would always spot it, but not Ben.
Now, ready for the downfall? Shackleton signs the papers and we see him going in front of the journalists but we're not told what'll be of him, poor soul.
Tom's love interest, a pretty girl who had no significant role whatsoever until now, suddenly proves her importance when in a few moments she can spot what Ben has been missing for hours. During a test Silver has his wristwatch on (first thing the scientists did was to take it off, why did they give it back??). She also notices that his watch is perfectly synchronized with the watch of the man doing the experiment with him (like: man sees a number, thinks of that number, Silver reads his thought and guesses, something like that). She then realizes the watches are a signal, the man is in on it with Silver! (who was that man? Did they let in a stranger in their serious, scientific study? Or is he a scientist himself, bribed by Silver, who is therefore risking his whole career for some money? Actually this could be, men do a lot of stupid things hoping or believing they'll never get caught...)
Still, Silver never touches the watch, how can he know whatever signal he's been given? Here's the big twist: the blind man can see!
.... oh my, that's so dumb. So stupid. I had wondered immediately 'Is he really blind? Are we sure of it?' but then I thought that the serious scientists were doing so much, checking the rings, checking the fingers... of course, I thought, they had a doctor check his eyes. True, it was never talked of any doctor, but come on! That's the big solution? Years wondering if he's real, how can he do it, and the solution is: he can see and he has lots of money?!? That's it? So dumb and unsatisfying.
If that was not bad enough, the story goes on showing Tom at Silver's 'show'. Tom goes to the lavatory and when he's alone a man comes in whistling (clear sign of trouble: you know the old joke, to fake indifference just whistle and look elsewhere? :-/ )
All of a sudden the man attacks Tom, tries to suffocate him with his arm, then to drown him in the toilet's water, then throws him around, and then... he simply leaves, just like that, leaving Tom coughing for breath on the floor.... I thought he wanted to kill him... otherwise what was he doing?!?
There's more: Tom gets up and goes to confront Silver. Again there's a lot of fuss in the theater with lights and electricity gone wild, then Tom throws a coin and Silver catches it in his hand thus proving he can see... so basically Silver exposes himself !?! How could Tom know? And why Silver yields so easily? Is there some big revelation that I missed, somehow?
Then, the ultimate twist, Silver shouts: "how did you do it?" because he understood that Tom was responsible for all the trouble in the theater (well, he knew it wasn't "him" ... ).
So, the big surprise is, Tom has real powers, Tom himself, and at the end Tom "talks to Matheson" saying that he spent so long with her because he was 'probably' unconsciously looking for someone like him, even though he did not know he had powers (how could he not know?). So it was not Silver, it was Tom all along, and many a bird would still be alive had he realized sooner the truth.
Tom will not reveal his powers to the public, but we can see that he goes to switch off the machine keeping Matheson's son alive, now that he's sure there is something 'more' (why? what's the strict connection between telekinetic powers and the existence of God and an afterlife?? and who gave him the right, the power, the responsibility over the guy's life?)
This is how it ends. Awfully stupid. Nonsense. This is my very-personal opinion, of course, as each and every word in this blog. I'm not a critic, I simply write for myself what I like and what I don't like, because in some time I will have forgotten.
Conclusion: my personal opinion is that this film leaves with one question in mind: why did I waste all this time watching this stuff?
All of a sudden she looks fragile, sad, vulnerable, and yet the same scientist we saw before. A good character, 'real' and believable.
Half the movie is gone and her character dies. Yep. I couldn't believe it. She's the best part of it and you take her out??
Going on, I must talk about Tom and Silver and the plot. Tom is the most mysterious of all, but also very fond of Matheson and I liked their scenes together, when Matheson was alive, then it all went down. Why? Let me explain. Together they manage to expose every fraud, no fake psychic can fool them, but then Silver comes back. Twenty (or thirty? I don't remember) years ago he was very famous and Matheson studied his case, but the tragedy of her son had left her vulnerable and unable to work at her best. A man who opposed Silver died of a heart attack and the public kept thinking/saying that Silver had caused his death with his powers. For this reason Silver has been away from the theaters for years, but now he's back, and Tom wants to study him, but Matheson refuses. She says that Silver is dangerous because once, for just a second, he made her doubt, but I guess the pain for her son's condition had a lot to do with her choice. It would be too hard on her.
Now, what happens next? Tom goes anyway, alone. Of course he does, obviously.
He's setting up all his machines designed to discover any trick, but then Silver 'looks up' and lights explode, Tom's machines break, the audience is scared, a bit of understandable panic of course, then we see Tom going back to find Matheson on the floor. He calls for help but there's nothing the doctors can do and she dies. Just like that. I guess they made this decision to make us believe that Silver did it again, she opposed him and now she's dead.
Tom becomes obsessed with Silver and sees his presence everywhere. Strange things start happening to him, lights and noises in his house, poor birds going to their macabre death anytime he's near a window, machines breaking and that sort of things, and in his obsession Tom is sure that it's all Silver's fault. Now, to make things interesting, suddenly Silver agrees to be tested by a team of scientists, to prove once and for all his powers are real. Head of the team is Dr Shackleton, who has been looking for telekinetic powers for a long time, and every single time Matheson managed to show him the flaw in his study (although the explanation 'the subject could see the cards reflected on your glasses' was so obvious that made Shackleton look rather silly I'm afraid). Tom witnesses every experiment without finding any trick, but doesn't give up. He's determined to prove Silver's a fraud, so he takes every possible tape and has a student look at them for 'something not right', but this Ben finds nothing, probably because he was wondering if Silver might actually be 'the real thing'.
Up to this point the film still had something going, a certain atmosphere, a sense of mystery like 'is Silver a real psychic? In that case he's a murderer. Is Silver a fake? In that case, how does he do it?'
I missed Matheson a lot, but there still was something valid going on. Then it all went down so quickly. From this point on, every scene and every word is bad. Everything.
Where was I? Oh yes, Ben finds nothing and when Shackleton calls him, nice Shackleton all worried because he's about to sign the papers and declare to the world that Silver's for real, and he wants to know what did he miss, because he always missed something and Matheson would always spot it, but not Ben.
Now, ready for the downfall? Shackleton signs the papers and we see him going in front of the journalists but we're not told what'll be of him, poor soul.
Tom's love interest, a pretty girl who had no significant role whatsoever until now, suddenly proves her importance when in a few moments she can spot what Ben has been missing for hours. During a test Silver has his wristwatch on (first thing the scientists did was to take it off, why did they give it back??). She also notices that his watch is perfectly synchronized with the watch of the man doing the experiment with him (like: man sees a number, thinks of that number, Silver reads his thought and guesses, something like that). She then realizes the watches are a signal, the man is in on it with Silver! (who was that man? Did they let in a stranger in their serious, scientific study? Or is he a scientist himself, bribed by Silver, who is therefore risking his whole career for some money? Actually this could be, men do a lot of stupid things hoping or believing they'll never get caught...)
Still, Silver never touches the watch, how can he know whatever signal he's been given? Here's the big twist: the blind man can see!
.... oh my, that's so dumb. So stupid. I had wondered immediately 'Is he really blind? Are we sure of it?' but then I thought that the serious scientists were doing so much, checking the rings, checking the fingers... of course, I thought, they had a doctor check his eyes. True, it was never talked of any doctor, but come on! That's the big solution? Years wondering if he's real, how can he do it, and the solution is: he can see and he has lots of money?!? That's it? So dumb and unsatisfying.
If that was not bad enough, the story goes on showing Tom at Silver's 'show'. Tom goes to the lavatory and when he's alone a man comes in whistling (clear sign of trouble: you know the old joke, to fake indifference just whistle and look elsewhere? :-/ )
All of a sudden the man attacks Tom, tries to suffocate him with his arm, then to drown him in the toilet's water, then throws him around, and then... he simply leaves, just like that, leaving Tom coughing for breath on the floor.... I thought he wanted to kill him... otherwise what was he doing?!?
There's more: Tom gets up and goes to confront Silver. Again there's a lot of fuss in the theater with lights and electricity gone wild, then Tom throws a coin and Silver catches it in his hand thus proving he can see... so basically Silver exposes himself !?! How could Tom know? And why Silver yields so easily? Is there some big revelation that I missed, somehow?
Then, the ultimate twist, Silver shouts: "how did you do it?" because he understood that Tom was responsible for all the trouble in the theater (well, he knew it wasn't "him" ... ).
So, the big surprise is, Tom has real powers, Tom himself, and at the end Tom "talks to Matheson" saying that he spent so long with her because he was 'probably' unconsciously looking for someone like him, even though he did not know he had powers (how could he not know?). So it was not Silver, it was Tom all along, and many a bird would still be alive had he realized sooner the truth.
Tom will not reveal his powers to the public, but we can see that he goes to switch off the machine keeping Matheson's son alive, now that he's sure there is something 'more' (why? what's the strict connection between telekinetic powers and the existence of God and an afterlife?? and who gave him the right, the power, the responsibility over the guy's life?)
This is how it ends. Awfully stupid. Nonsense. This is my very-personal opinion, of course, as each and every word in this blog. I'm not a critic, I simply write for myself what I like and what I don't like, because in some time I will have forgotten.
Conclusion: my personal opinion is that this film leaves with one question in mind: why did I waste all this time watching this stuff?
La belle et la bête - 2014
It wasn't bad but I didn't like it much because it paid too much attention on appearances and futile details and not enough to those emotions that should have been the heart of it. It starts with a long part in which this family is introduced: a rich merchant who loses his fortune when his ships sink or disappear; his three sons, very plain and one of them stupid enough to owe a lot of money to bad people; his three daughters: two who keep whining all the time because they can't afford riches anymore, and the youngest - Belle - who must have been adopted because she's lively, optimistic, sweet, who loves her sisters and likes to work in her vegetable garden (Léa Seydoux). I think too much screen-time was lost with all these money problems and whining. Let's not even talk of her garden, and the scene while she works in it, so fake and unbelievable, with those pumpkins..
Anyway, the merchant 'thinks' he's about to get his fortune back, so the daughters ask for gifts: clothes and jewels for the stupid vain girls and a rose for Belle (like in the original fairytale I think, here she says it's the only thing that won't grow in her garden... ). The man goes, only to discover that he has nothing. During his way back, he gets lost, his horse is hurt. He sees a house (big house, more of a castle) which is not locked so he goes inside! Sure, go on.
Once he's in, he sees a big table full of food of any kind when candles lit as by magic, and he's all "I'm hungry" and eats a lot. Then other lights are lit by magic and he sees rich things, exactly what his two daughters had asked for. So he takes all that stuff!! Just like that! I mean, you see a light on and you're certain it's an invitation for you to take all their stuff!!! Still he keeps calling himself a good honest man.
Outside the house he takes a roses for Belle , et voilà, now the beast is angry because 'his gifts were not enough, the man had to steal his precious rose'. The man can go saying goodbye to his family but must come back or his sons and daughters will be killed. Belle is like 'everybody blames me because mother died to give me life, I won't let you die because you brought me a rose' so she goes instead, and they can't follow her because only that horse can enter the magic forest. Finally Belle goes to the beast's castle, but only sees him at dinner. She finds beautiful dresses and jewels and each day she wears them. Not just that, but every morning she comes out of her room with splendid hairstyles, and I would very much like to know who does her hair!
Every night she has visions of the past when the beast was a prince obsessed with the idea of hunting a golden deer. His bride-to-be had him promise he would stop, but he didn't, he killed the beautiful, poor creature only to discover it was his girlfriend, who was actually a nymph, a daughter of the God of Nature or something like that. She wanted to know love and met him (how lucky..) and she still loves him enough to beg his father not to kill him. Still, the prince is transformed into a beast.
Belle misses her family and makes a deal with him: a dance in exchange for a day with my family. They believed her dead, instead she comes back with rich clothes and jewels, so two of her brothers steal them in an attempt to repay the debts. They offer all the 'abandoned-castle' 's riches to the bad man; they all go there and the bad guys break and steal everything they can. They are all killed by stone giants but the gang leader almost kills the beast. Belle has her brother bring him inside where some magic water can cure him, and here she tells him she loves him, thus breaking the curse. The prince goes back to look like Vincent Cassel and the strange creatures in the castle go back to be lovely dogs. Nothing is told about all the people that lived or hunted with him, I suppose they don't matter.. :-/ so they all died, is that it?
Now, who can tell me how it happened that Belle fell in love? After the dance she still despised him, then she saw him in her dream kill a defenceless deer for fun only and shed a tear over his girlfriend's dead, naked body, and bang: eternal love is born... why?? It's absurd, it makes no sense at all. They should have spent a little time on scenes between them, to give her a reason, whatever reason!!
This is why I didn't like it. It was all beautiful dresses, beautiful scenery, but no heart.
ITA la bella e la bestia
ENG the beauty and the beast
Anyway, the merchant 'thinks' he's about to get his fortune back, so the daughters ask for gifts: clothes and jewels for the stupid vain girls and a rose for Belle (like in the original fairytale I think, here she says it's the only thing that won't grow in her garden... ). The man goes, only to discover that he has nothing. During his way back, he gets lost, his horse is hurt. He sees a house (big house, more of a castle) which is not locked so he goes inside! Sure, go on.
Once he's in, he sees a big table full of food of any kind when candles lit as by magic, and he's all "I'm hungry" and eats a lot. Then other lights are lit by magic and he sees rich things, exactly what his two daughters had asked for. So he takes all that stuff!! Just like that! I mean, you see a light on and you're certain it's an invitation for you to take all their stuff!!! Still he keeps calling himself a good honest man.
Outside the house he takes a roses for Belle , et voilà, now the beast is angry because 'his gifts were not enough, the man had to steal his precious rose'. The man can go saying goodbye to his family but must come back or his sons and daughters will be killed. Belle is like 'everybody blames me because mother died to give me life, I won't let you die because you brought me a rose' so she goes instead, and they can't follow her because only that horse can enter the magic forest. Finally Belle goes to the beast's castle, but only sees him at dinner. She finds beautiful dresses and jewels and each day she wears them. Not just that, but every morning she comes out of her room with splendid hairstyles, and I would very much like to know who does her hair!
Every night she has visions of the past when the beast was a prince obsessed with the idea of hunting a golden deer. His bride-to-be had him promise he would stop, but he didn't, he killed the beautiful, poor creature only to discover it was his girlfriend, who was actually a nymph, a daughter of the God of Nature or something like that. She wanted to know love and met him (how lucky..) and she still loves him enough to beg his father not to kill him. Still, the prince is transformed into a beast.
Belle misses her family and makes a deal with him: a dance in exchange for a day with my family. They believed her dead, instead she comes back with rich clothes and jewels, so two of her brothers steal them in an attempt to repay the debts. They offer all the 'abandoned-castle' 's riches to the bad man; they all go there and the bad guys break and steal everything they can. They are all killed by stone giants but the gang leader almost kills the beast. Belle has her brother bring him inside where some magic water can cure him, and here she tells him she loves him, thus breaking the curse. The prince goes back to look like Vincent Cassel and the strange creatures in the castle go back to be lovely dogs. Nothing is told about all the people that lived or hunted with him, I suppose they don't matter.. :-/ so they all died, is that it?
Now, who can tell me how it happened that Belle fell in love? After the dance she still despised him, then she saw him in her dream kill a defenceless deer for fun only and shed a tear over his girlfriend's dead, naked body, and bang: eternal love is born... why?? It's absurd, it makes no sense at all. They should have spent a little time on scenes between them, to give her a reason, whatever reason!!
This is why I didn't like it. It was all beautiful dresses, beautiful scenery, but no heart.
ITA la bella e la bestia
ENG the beauty and the beast
Mr Peabody & Sherman - 2014
Watchable the first time, but once is definitely enough. Mr Peabody is a genius dog who talks (but nobody's overly surprised, I guess in this world it's not so strange). One day he legally adopts a baby he found: Sherman. Mr Peabody built a time machine and he uses it to take Sherman in the past to teach him history. When he's 7 Sherman goes to school (only at 7? Didn't he go before?) and his know-it-all attitude earns him an enemy in Penny (or Jenny??). She starts mocking him, calling him a dog, they fight, Sherman bites her arm and a woman comes to threaten Mr Peabody to take Sherman away. Mr Peabody plans an evening with Penny's parents and that woman too to make peace and show that he's fit to keep a boy. Unfortunately Sherman tells Penny about the time machine and trouble starts, because obviously she wants to try it. At first she wants to stay in ancient Egypt, then they run out of fuel and stop at Leonardo Da Vinci's home to find a solution, then they encounter a black hole, Sherman learns from Penny about the woman who wants to take him away and in angry that Mr Peabody didn't tell him. He throws a tantrum and they end up during the Trojan war. Sherman wants to join the army because he's just a stupid little kid; when he thinks Mr Peabody's dead he goes back home to that same night before they secretly went to Egypt to save Penny. Mr Peabody was not dead, though, and somehow (mistery) found a way to follow him. Now there are two Shermans and two Mr Peabodys in the same house. When they touch each other the time continuum rips, time collapses and Washington, Leonardo, Einstein, Lincoln, Clinton and others are all together in the street (why Clinton??).
Sherman's idea saves the day: they go a slightly bit in the future and come back. This is enough to close the crack in time, for some reason. Every character goes back to its right time. Life is back to normal only now Sherman and Penny are friends and Mr Peabody's happy: every dog should have a child. The end.
It had a few nice ideas and moments here and there, but definitely not a movie I'd watch again. Once is more than enough for me!
ITA Mr Peabody e Sherman
Sherman's idea saves the day: they go a slightly bit in the future and come back. This is enough to close the crack in time, for some reason. Every character goes back to its right time. Life is back to normal only now Sherman and Penny are friends and Mr Peabody's happy: every dog should have a child. The end.
It had a few nice ideas and moments here and there, but definitely not a movie I'd watch again. Once is more than enough for me!
ITA Mr Peabody e Sherman
Penguins of Madagascar - 2014
I liked it enough :-) It was funny. Maybe silly here and there, but surely much better than Madagascar 2 and 3. This is a story all about those penguins, of how Skipper, Kowalshi and Rico saved an egg and adopted Private, but mainly about Dave the Octopus and his hate for all penguins because in every zoo people liked penguins much more than him. Dave has John Malkovich's voice, so it's a pleasure when he's on. Dave kidnaps our penguins but they escape; when cornered in a dead-end street they are saved by the North Wind Squad: Short Fuse the seal, Corporal the bear, Eva the howl and their leader, the dog Agent Classified (that's not actually his name but he never says the true one "because it's classified"... although he says the names of the others all the time, but let's move on).
I had not recognized in Agent Classified Benedict Cumberbatch's voice! How could I? Again, moving on.
The two teams are in conflict, the North Wind Squad thinks they're the only professionals entitled to do this work, but when Dave starts abducting penguins from the zoos all over the world our four won't accept to be left behind. This means they are in each other's way. When Private is abducted too, Skipper accepts to be led by the North Wind team, but their perfect plan fails, and they are all captured.
All the penguins are transformed into monsters, but Private frees the North Wind team and then uses his cuteness as their secret weapon. To invert the effects of the Medusa serum they needed a source of extreme cuteness, so Private uses himself to change back everyone. Penguins are safe, Kowalski gets kissed by Eva and Private finally earns Skipper's respect as an active and productive member of the team. During the credits at the end we see that they go to King Julien and use his cute litlle friend to change back Private who regains all his cuteness :-) Don't know what happens to the poor little thing though..
The end.
I always thought a film without the annoying zebra, the lion and the giraffe would have been funnier and more enjoyable :-) the penguins were the stars of Madagascar and they deserved their own film
:-)
ITA i pinguini di Madagascar - il film
I had not recognized in Agent Classified Benedict Cumberbatch's voice! How could I? Again, moving on.
The two teams are in conflict, the North Wind Squad thinks they're the only professionals entitled to do this work, but when Dave starts abducting penguins from the zoos all over the world our four won't accept to be left behind. This means they are in each other's way. When Private is abducted too, Skipper accepts to be led by the North Wind team, but their perfect plan fails, and they are all captured.
All the penguins are transformed into monsters, but Private frees the North Wind team and then uses his cuteness as their secret weapon. To invert the effects of the Medusa serum they needed a source of extreme cuteness, so Private uses himself to change back everyone. Penguins are safe, Kowalski gets kissed by Eva and Private finally earns Skipper's respect as an active and productive member of the team. During the credits at the end we see that they go to King Julien and use his cute litlle friend to change back Private who regains all his cuteness :-) Don't know what happens to the poor little thing though..
The end.
I always thought a film without the annoying zebra, the lion and the giraffe would have been funnier and more enjoyable :-) the penguins were the stars of Madagascar and they deserved their own film
:-)
ITA i pinguini di Madagascar - il film
I misteri di Laura - 2015
Oh my, this should be a new Italian crime-series, but the plot of this first episode was so dull I knew the murderer before the murder was even discovered. Now, this is a first! It was so obvious that the whole investigation was totally pointless, and the end will all the suspects gathered in the same room to hear her "brilliant solution", in perfect Poirot-style, was completely dull and useless. I watched it to the end only because I like Carlotta Natoli (Laura, the detective in charge) and her domestic moments were nice. Her separated husband Iacopo (Gian Marco Tognazzi) and her new partner chief inspector Maresca (Daniele Pecci) were ok enough I guess, but I didn't like the guy playing the victim's brother at all. This episode was called something like 'the mystery of the locked room' (sigh), or 'il mistero della camera blindata', I think, but there was no mystery. A man's life had been threatened and they were there to protect him. He sat on a chair, Laura and Maresca went out and a man entered again to "give him a phone to uses in case of need" and they didn't follow him in; then he came out and they closed the door, and Maresca guarded it. When the man was found dead, they investigated all the 'usual suspects': wife, brother, business partner.. not caring that it made no sense at all. It was so obvious that he was killed before the door was even closed!
Nothing more than a poor attempt to copy Poirot's movies/stories. I do like Carlotta Natoli, she's nice and funny, but I think one episode is more than enough for me.
Nothing more than a poor attempt to copy Poirot's movies/stories. I do like Carlotta Natoli, she's nice and funny, but I think one episode is more than enough for me.
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