I like it. I like Melissa Joan Hart, she's funny, I'd like to see her in more movies :-) and I really hope that people can accept her all grown up and won't keep seeing her as teenage Sabrina, since sometimes these things happen. Here she plays Jennifer, while Joey Lawrence plays Vince. They did a series together, "Melissa and Joey" I think, but I'd like to see her in something else too.
The plot is nothing too original, but the movie is nice.
Jennifer loses all her possessions, while Vince has a big gambling debt (the only thing I didn't like, not a bit, is this: the boss and his two men, too silly for my taste: there should be a limit!) so they have an idea: pretend to get married to get all the gifts and share the money. I think she was going to keep all the presents, while he was to keep all the cash.
It starts well, but day after day they get to know and like each other, and they both fall (secretly) in love with each other. They are both good people and they bring out the best in each other. As plot goes, this is basically it, very easy, quite plain, no big switch at any point.
The bits with the gangster and his two men were useless and stupid, they were too unreal.
Jennifer was nice and with a big family who took to Vince quickly and warmly. Vince loves his mother but doesn't have a relationship with his father, who also had a gambling problem, but Vince will stop now, of course. Still, Vince will force himself to ask him for money because her family was paying for everything, and they were a regular family, not rich.
The best part was: every time a member of her family praised her choice, stating how sure they were of his love for her; her sister saying she can clearly see the love in his eyes every time he looks at her... and all the time Jennifer was feeling guilty and miserable because she was having second thoughts, feeling remorse about deceiving her family so.
She told Vince she "doesn't want to marry a man who doesn't love her" and this too was nice because she didn't say "a marriage without love" or "a man I don't love" :-p she only thought that he didn't love her, but she knew she loved him, and maybe was twice miserable for that.
I like it because so often is easier to understand the feelings of others when they don't concern us, but when we are involved it's all more difficult :-p
At the wedding, he doesn't read the vows she wrote for him, instead he gives a speech 'from the heart', telling her how he fell in love with her, and when it's her turn to read what he wrote for her, the only words on the card are "will you marry me for real?" and he kneels down and offers a ring waiting for the answer. She gives another speech, on the same tone as he did, then says yes and they kiss and the priest has to do all the rest quickly because they won't stop kissing :-) It was nice indeed. I like Melissa a lot, I hope to see more of her :-)
sabato 29 ottobre 2016
A strange disappearance by Anna Katharine Green
First of all, it's dated 1880 so it's very old-style, but it's not just that. Even compared to other old books I've read, dated maybe 1901 or 1908, this "a strange disappearance" is very old-fashion. I want to quote two little passages, that will explain better what I mean, but they can be a bit of a spoiler maybe, but not too much anyway.
Quote 1: "will you crown all your other acts of devotion with a pardon that will restore me to my manhood and that place in your esteem which I covet above every other earthly good?"
Quote 2: "the men with a dogged air from which the bravado had however fled, turned and looked from one to the other of us in a fearful, inquiring way that duly confessed to the force of the impression made by these words upon their slow but not unimaginative minds"
Conclusion, it wasn't bad but not exciting either, and rather too old for me.
Now to the story:
the protagonist is a detective, but he is known only as Q., his full name is not disclosed. He seems to be talking to some friends, and he wants to tell them the story of a strange disappearance that happened but of which they knew nothing.
He starts from the day Mrs Daniels went to the police station to report the kidnapping of a girl. A sewing girl by the name of Emily had been taken away from the house by some unknown men. They both work for rich bachelor Mr Holman Blake, who doesn't know a thing about this Emily and doesn't even care. Mrs Daniels however is awfully worried and keeps repeating "she must be found".
Q. investigates with some help from senior detective Mr Gryce. Q. starts following Blake around, during his wanderings in the poor and dangerous places of the city, and even during a journey that came out to be to the house of two escaped convicts.
At last he's forced to say the truth (I admit it really annoyed me his air of superiority and his 'you dare' to the police, as if he was above everyone else and not just a human being like all other men, just more lucky :-/)
He tells them a long story: he had been in love with his cousin Evelyn Blake, but his father would not have it. He strongly opposed marriage between cousins, so Holman went away to try and forget about her. Once on his way to meet a friend, he was surprised by a bad storm and took refuge inside an Inn run by a father with his son and daughter. During the night, the girl Luttra woke him up and urged him to leave; unfortunately her father and brother were not asleep but at the door ready to stop her. Luttra was brave and smart enough to win this round and gain their escape. Once safely away, she explains to him that she had overheard them; their greed for money was about to lead them into killing him to rob him, and she wouldn't have it.
As a thank you, he had her admitted to a good school to give her an education, "a course of three years" , but apparently she only stayed there for two years...
Holman had gone back to loving Evelyn, until his father had enough of it and gave him an ultimatum. He had to get married (not to a cousin!) or he would lose his inheritance, and he only had a month to do it!
He thought of Luttra, and she agreed to marry him. When he met her, his father was most pleased and welcomed her without any questions about who she was but with open arms calling her 'daughter'. Once Luttra had left the room Holman told his old man that he did not love Luttra and was therefore going away, and Luttra heard it all. She was shocked and hurt because she unlike him she did love him and had married him out of love, not realizing he had never spoken of love to her.
Luttra could not stand Holman having to leave his own home, so she went away instead, leaving him free. However, very soon she came back with a black wig to conceal her blonde/red hair, for she could not live in a house that was not her husband's. Only Mrs Daniels knew about her real identity, Holman never knew or even suspected. A year went by this way. Now Holman's feelings had drastically changed after Evelyn's marriage to a Count. Although the Count died and Evelyn was now free again, Holman could not forgive her because she married for money more than love, although this was exactly what he had done himself. No, actually he had done even worse because he had deceived Luttra and had let her go alone, but what do you know, since he was a man the fact was not so vile in his eyes, but she was a woman and had to act superior and blah blah blah, it made me sick.
So, he now loved Luttra and was trying to find her everywhere, not knowing that she was right there in his own house.
Now that the police have all the facts, our detectives find her. Her father and brother got a room opposite Blake's house, that they could watch him and plan something against him; Q designed a way to rescue her and arrest them.
He had Mrs Daniels write a note in French so that Luttra could understand it but her family won't be able to (wow, two years in school and she knows everything now). She had to come out of the room and hide, while Q would wear her shawl and go in pretending to be her. It was a success, they arrested the father, then waited for the brother to come back and arrested him too. The detectives blackmailed the convicts in order to secure their silence over their relationship with Luttra, that nobody will have to suspect any connection between them.
Blake came to confess his love for her, and she was happy, but still firm in her decision to go away to spare him the humiliation, the shame, the uneasiness of her position and family. She was very stubborn and her altruism very annoying, as if Blake was some kind of God she was sacrificing herself to. Mrs Daniels was called and she too asked Luttra to stay but as I said: stubborn. The Countess came as well, welcoming her into her family, but this changed nothing, so Mrs Daniels had no other choice but to show them all the secret will of the late Mr Blake. He had suffered to see her go, so he decided that either Holman got her back in a year's time, or all his money would go to her, his daughter-in-law, and not to his son.
Now she can't stand of course to leave him penny-less, so she agrees to stay. Holman knew nothing about it though.
They have a big party when they sort of re-marry, and the Countess gives a big party for them and helps them answering all people's curious questions about Luttra without actually giving away any information at all, and Luttra gave Q all her gratitude for his help.
Quote 1: "will you crown all your other acts of devotion with a pardon that will restore me to my manhood and that place in your esteem which I covet above every other earthly good?"
Quote 2: "the men with a dogged air from which the bravado had however fled, turned and looked from one to the other of us in a fearful, inquiring way that duly confessed to the force of the impression made by these words upon their slow but not unimaginative minds"
Conclusion, it wasn't bad but not exciting either, and rather too old for me.
Now to the story:
the protagonist is a detective, but he is known only as Q., his full name is not disclosed. He seems to be talking to some friends, and he wants to tell them the story of a strange disappearance that happened but of which they knew nothing.
He starts from the day Mrs Daniels went to the police station to report the kidnapping of a girl. A sewing girl by the name of Emily had been taken away from the house by some unknown men. They both work for rich bachelor Mr Holman Blake, who doesn't know a thing about this Emily and doesn't even care. Mrs Daniels however is awfully worried and keeps repeating "she must be found".
Q. investigates with some help from senior detective Mr Gryce. Q. starts following Blake around, during his wanderings in the poor and dangerous places of the city, and even during a journey that came out to be to the house of two escaped convicts.
At last he's forced to say the truth (I admit it really annoyed me his air of superiority and his 'you dare' to the police, as if he was above everyone else and not just a human being like all other men, just more lucky :-/)
He tells them a long story: he had been in love with his cousin Evelyn Blake, but his father would not have it. He strongly opposed marriage between cousins, so Holman went away to try and forget about her. Once on his way to meet a friend, he was surprised by a bad storm and took refuge inside an Inn run by a father with his son and daughter. During the night, the girl Luttra woke him up and urged him to leave; unfortunately her father and brother were not asleep but at the door ready to stop her. Luttra was brave and smart enough to win this round and gain their escape. Once safely away, she explains to him that she had overheard them; their greed for money was about to lead them into killing him to rob him, and she wouldn't have it.
As a thank you, he had her admitted to a good school to give her an education, "a course of three years" , but apparently she only stayed there for two years...
Holman had gone back to loving Evelyn, until his father had enough of it and gave him an ultimatum. He had to get married (not to a cousin!) or he would lose his inheritance, and he only had a month to do it!
He thought of Luttra, and she agreed to marry him. When he met her, his father was most pleased and welcomed her without any questions about who she was but with open arms calling her 'daughter'. Once Luttra had left the room Holman told his old man that he did not love Luttra and was therefore going away, and Luttra heard it all. She was shocked and hurt because she unlike him she did love him and had married him out of love, not realizing he had never spoken of love to her.
Luttra could not stand Holman having to leave his own home, so she went away instead, leaving him free. However, very soon she came back with a black wig to conceal her blonde/red hair, for she could not live in a house that was not her husband's. Only Mrs Daniels knew about her real identity, Holman never knew or even suspected. A year went by this way. Now Holman's feelings had drastically changed after Evelyn's marriage to a Count. Although the Count died and Evelyn was now free again, Holman could not forgive her because she married for money more than love, although this was exactly what he had done himself. No, actually he had done even worse because he had deceived Luttra and had let her go alone, but what do you know, since he was a man the fact was not so vile in his eyes, but she was a woman and had to act superior and blah blah blah, it made me sick.
So, he now loved Luttra and was trying to find her everywhere, not knowing that she was right there in his own house.
Now that the police have all the facts, our detectives find her. Her father and brother got a room opposite Blake's house, that they could watch him and plan something against him; Q designed a way to rescue her and arrest them.
He had Mrs Daniels write a note in French so that Luttra could understand it but her family won't be able to (wow, two years in school and she knows everything now). She had to come out of the room and hide, while Q would wear her shawl and go in pretending to be her. It was a success, they arrested the father, then waited for the brother to come back and arrested him too. The detectives blackmailed the convicts in order to secure their silence over their relationship with Luttra, that nobody will have to suspect any connection between them.
Blake came to confess his love for her, and she was happy, but still firm in her decision to go away to spare him the humiliation, the shame, the uneasiness of her position and family. She was very stubborn and her altruism very annoying, as if Blake was some kind of God she was sacrificing herself to. Mrs Daniels was called and she too asked Luttra to stay but as I said: stubborn. The Countess came as well, welcoming her into her family, but this changed nothing, so Mrs Daniels had no other choice but to show them all the secret will of the late Mr Blake. He had suffered to see her go, so he decided that either Holman got her back in a year's time, or all his money would go to her, his daughter-in-law, and not to his son.
Now she can't stand of course to leave him penny-less, so she agrees to stay. Holman knew nothing about it though.
They have a big party when they sort of re-marry, and the Countess gives a big party for them and helps them answering all people's curious questions about Luttra without actually giving away any information at all, and Luttra gave Q all her gratitude for his help.
sabato 22 ottobre 2016
Ask any girl - 1959
I love it and I've always loved it, since the first time I watched it. It's very funny and it's sweet. Not original maybe, the story is very much like "Sabrina", with the innocent girl changing herself for the man (she thinks) she loves and wants and the two brothers: the younger a playboy who likes going out with lots of girls and never works, and the older brother, the serious responsible one. She has a crush on the younger but she'll love the elder.
Same thing, you'll say, just like Sabrina, and I reply: so what? Who cares, the film is lovely, and funny too.
The girl here is Shirley MacLaine, so pretty and so funny. The playboy is Gig Young, whom I confess I know only for this film, and the older brother is David Niven, a favourite of mine since always.
The story is very old-fashioned, a girl looking for a job and a husband, who will "settle for nothing less than marriage". Morals are so that she gets thrown out of the boarding house where she was staying simply because she had been photographed with some prostitutes (although of course cleared of all charged :-p), to the point that the word prostitute is too much for this movie, and nobody can say it.
Her friend Ginny settles for marrying the first guy who asks her : "but why?" - "because he asked me" and here she explains her theory that girls don't do the choosing but are merely products on a shelf: men come, take a look, and if they like something "they take us home", and she was getting "pretty scared of staying on that shelf", so Meg Wheeler (MacLaine) has an idea. She asks her boss Miles (Niven) to help her "I want to sell myself - as a wife!". He works in field research and he's intrigued , so he accepts. She wants his brother Evan (Young) to propose to her, so Miles starts dating all the girls in Evan's phone book to find out what he likes about them. For weeks Meg and Miles spend a lot of time together, and Meg learns to laugh like MaryLouise and walk like Ines and dance like Juliet, while dressing like Yvonne, wearing Barbra's perfume and 'blinking' (but I don't think she managed to put on her big fake eyelashes) like Debra O'Toole. Meg has even gone to have her hair done to match Bonny's haircolour, carrot-red. It's not known if she ever managed to cook like Gabriella, but it doesn't matter. Obviously the plan is working, because now Evan can find all the things he finds irresistible combined in just one woman, and he proposes, but now she's not so thrilled, because something has happened. Miles showed her another girl's specialty: kissing, and I love that scene, that one kiss, their only kiss in the film, but it says everything, and changes everything. Spending so much time together they had already started to appreciate one another, they liked each other, and the kiss brought everything to the surface. Now she doesn't want Evan anymore because she had to change herself and he proposed to a fake Meg, not the real one. Before giving Evan her answer, a bit confused poor girl, she wants him to ask for his brother's approval, and again I so love the scene when Evan and Meg get home and Miles is right there in front of them as they open the door. Evan doesn't see him at first, but Miles and Meg instantly see each other and stare at each other, and the way they do that says it all.
She'd want Miles to stop the marriage and say he loves her, but he says "I approve" because he thinks she loves Evan. Meg confesses everything they've done and turns down Evan's proposal.
Now, at the beginning of the film there was another man she had met at her first job: Ross. They dated for a while, until he invited her to his aunt's house without telling her that they'd be alone there. As she finds out she runs away, but now she calls him and accepts that same proposal. Her friend Ginny tells Miles everything and he calls Evan. Together they catch the same train because Miles insists that if Evan loves her he should take her away from there and hit Ross, but then he ends up doing so himself. Meg is utterly drunk and she tells Evan: "I love Miles but he doesn't love me" - "yes he does" - "no he doesn't" :lol: then Miles takes her away and the next scene is Meg and Miles hugging happily on their honeymoon :-)
I've never heard anyone talking about this film, I guess it's true that it's just a little film and, as said already, not at all original, but I love it. Maybe with two different actors I wouldn't have liked it so much, entirely possible and quite probable too, but things being as they are I love it, it's funny and sweet and romantic and adorable.
ITA tutte le ragazze lo sanno
Same thing, you'll say, just like Sabrina, and I reply: so what? Who cares, the film is lovely, and funny too.
The girl here is Shirley MacLaine, so pretty and so funny. The playboy is Gig Young, whom I confess I know only for this film, and the older brother is David Niven, a favourite of mine since always.
The story is very old-fashioned, a girl looking for a job and a husband, who will "settle for nothing less than marriage". Morals are so that she gets thrown out of the boarding house where she was staying simply because she had been photographed with some prostitutes (although of course cleared of all charged :-p), to the point that the word prostitute is too much for this movie, and nobody can say it.
Her friend Ginny settles for marrying the first guy who asks her : "but why?" - "because he asked me" and here she explains her theory that girls don't do the choosing but are merely products on a shelf: men come, take a look, and if they like something "they take us home", and she was getting "pretty scared of staying on that shelf", so Meg Wheeler (MacLaine) has an idea. She asks her boss Miles (Niven) to help her "I want to sell myself - as a wife!". He works in field research and he's intrigued , so he accepts. She wants his brother Evan (Young) to propose to her, so Miles starts dating all the girls in Evan's phone book to find out what he likes about them. For weeks Meg and Miles spend a lot of time together, and Meg learns to laugh like MaryLouise and walk like Ines and dance like Juliet, while dressing like Yvonne, wearing Barbra's perfume and 'blinking' (but I don't think she managed to put on her big fake eyelashes) like Debra O'Toole. Meg has even gone to have her hair done to match Bonny's haircolour, carrot-red. It's not known if she ever managed to cook like Gabriella, but it doesn't matter. Obviously the plan is working, because now Evan can find all the things he finds irresistible combined in just one woman, and he proposes, but now she's not so thrilled, because something has happened. Miles showed her another girl's specialty: kissing, and I love that scene, that one kiss, their only kiss in the film, but it says everything, and changes everything. Spending so much time together they had already started to appreciate one another, they liked each other, and the kiss brought everything to the surface. Now she doesn't want Evan anymore because she had to change herself and he proposed to a fake Meg, not the real one. Before giving Evan her answer, a bit confused poor girl, she wants him to ask for his brother's approval, and again I so love the scene when Evan and Meg get home and Miles is right there in front of them as they open the door. Evan doesn't see him at first, but Miles and Meg instantly see each other and stare at each other, and the way they do that says it all.
She'd want Miles to stop the marriage and say he loves her, but he says "I approve" because he thinks she loves Evan. Meg confesses everything they've done and turns down Evan's proposal.
Now, at the beginning of the film there was another man she had met at her first job: Ross. They dated for a while, until he invited her to his aunt's house without telling her that they'd be alone there. As she finds out she runs away, but now she calls him and accepts that same proposal. Her friend Ginny tells Miles everything and he calls Evan. Together they catch the same train because Miles insists that if Evan loves her he should take her away from there and hit Ross, but then he ends up doing so himself. Meg is utterly drunk and she tells Evan: "I love Miles but he doesn't love me" - "yes he does" - "no he doesn't" :lol: then Miles takes her away and the next scene is Meg and Miles hugging happily on their honeymoon :-)
I've never heard anyone talking about this film, I guess it's true that it's just a little film and, as said already, not at all original, but I love it. Maybe with two different actors I wouldn't have liked it so much, entirely possible and quite probable too, but things being as they are I love it, it's funny and sweet and romantic and adorable.
ITA tutte le ragazze lo sanno
venerdì 21 ottobre 2016
You can't take it with you - 1938
A very old movie who shows all its years, but nice :-) It has a young James Stewart in it :-) and the most bizarre family ever :-p but of course it's very much unrealistic, like stories in fairytales, it totally lacks any sense of reality. It's like a Romeo and Juliet story with a happy ending.
It's about two family, a poor/bizarre one and the other very rich and snob. The rich family sees Mr Kirby (Edward Arnold) as a man who thinks only about money, his annoying and tremendously snob wife (Mary Forbes) and their adorable son Tony (James Stewart :-p). He falls in love with his secretary, Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), but obviously his parents and specially his mother strongly opposes the affair.
On the other side we have the bizarre family of Mr Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) who once had a proper, regular job like Mr Kirby, until one day he realized he was working all the time but he wasn't having any fun, so he went out and never went back :-p Since then, he decided to do only what he liked to do, which seems a lovely idea, but of course it is in this film where nobody puts him in jail or takes away his house because he hasn't paid any taxes at all in the last.. I don't know maybe 50 years, I think he wasn't even married yet when he decided to change life, and now he's Alice's grandpa.
In real life that would not be possible.
His family has been taught to live like that, doing only what they want to do, so there is his daughter Penny who at moment writes screenplays (using a little kitty to hold the papers together :-p) but it's not clear what she eventually does with them. She's married to Paul, who makes firecrackers, and they're Alice's parents.
They have another daughter, Essie, who is a good cook and makes terrific cakes and cookies, but she likes to dance so she goes around the house always dancing, and has a hideous teacher coming to see her every evening (I don't know if he comes every evening, but for sure he never comes in the afternoon, he always arrives in time for dinner..). Essie is married to Ed, who I don't remember what he does, but he sure likes to play a musical instrument I don't know the name of, and Ed and Essie are madly in love and made for each other.
Paul works downstairs in their laboratory, with Mr DePinna who was once the iceman that came knowing on their door nine years ago and was invited to stay for a while and he never left :-p
Mr Vanderhof meets Mr Poppins at the bank, and invites him to stay too, because he doesn't like his job there, and because he likes to make up things, invent new things. How lovely is that thing he shows, that flowery-vase with the little white rabbit coming out :-)
They are all happy and love each other :-) The only modern thing about this movie is a line that Mr Vanderhof says talking to Penny: "Lincoln said: 'with malice toward none, with charity for all'; nowadays they say 'think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights out of you' " :lol: quite true.
Now, Mr Kirby has a big business all planned, but to make it work he needs to buy the whole 12 blocks of , what a coincidence, Mr Vanderhof neighbourhood, but he owns his own house and has no intention of selling, because too many memories of his late wife are connected with that old house.
He doesn't know it at first, though, and goes to Mr Vanderhof house because Alice wants Tony's parents to meet her family and be done with it :-p Alike knows all too well that his mother doesn't approve of her, and tries her best to arrange a nice dinner, preparing everything with the help and cooperation of her family. Unfortunately (:-p) Tony doesn't want them to pretend, he wants his parents to know them for what they really are, so he and his parents (unaware of his trick) come a day earlier, when nobody was waiting for them, and they see Essie dancing around in a tutu, with her hideous "Russian" teacher, Ed playing his music, grandpa throwing darts and Penny painting Mr DePinna: a real mess. When the Kirbys realize the mistake, they're very polite , but the night is a complete disaster; it was already going badly, but then the police comes in, believing them all revolutionaries. Because of their intrusion, the fireworks go off in the laboratory, and they are all arrested. While in jail, Kirby learns that Vanderhof is the one who won't sell his house, and believes it all a plan to use his son to get to him; at this point Vanderhof looses it and makes a big speech on how Kirby is living an empty life, full of money that he won't be able to take with him when his time will come but without any friends. Later he apologizes for his words.
When they go all before the judge, Kirby has like four or five lawyers, I don't remember, and Vanderhof none. I really liked that judge, and how he couldn't help smiling and laughing at the Vanderhof story and all the fracas that came.
Vanderhof must pay 100 dollars because making fireworks in his own house without any legal permit is a serious thing, and although Kirby offers to pay it, he won't accept it. The 100 dollars are paid by the room full of friends, things that impresses Kirby. He has lots of lawyers, but Vanderhof has lots of friends.
Mrs Kirby is still coldly on her positions, and wants to hide the real reason why they were at that house, and Mr Vanderhof tries to lie to help Kirby, but Alice won't stand for it. She comes forward and tells the real reason; Tony backs her up, but maybe a little too late, and now she's very angry, she's the one who doesn't want to be related to them. She says it all then storms out and goes away.
The papers report that Tony's mother said "just an ambitious stenographer" of her.
Alice has gone away and nobody knows where she is, and for once her family is no more happy and dancing, they are all sad. Tony comes looking for her or for news about where she might be, but they don't know and can't tell him. Finally she writes to them, but she says she can't come back because she wants to forget all about it and can't do it there, so Grandpa decides to sell the house and go near her.
Mr Kirby starts having his doubts, remembering a bit of conscience, but not enough to stop him from going through with his business, until Tony comes in saying that he quits his job and wants to go away. Tony says he never liked the job at the bank, and that lately he was keeping at it only because of Alice but now there's no point, and has come to say goodbye.
Mr Kirby wanted to make him president of whatever he was about to do, but now it all probably seems vane to him. So much that he walks out of the bank without a word to anybody, not signing the deal.
Alice hears about the selling of the house and comes back to stop it. Tony arrives and seeing her tries to talk to her, but she's still angry.
Kirby goes to Vanderhof and finds a empty house (because they are moving) but grandpa is still there, and welcomes him in. Kirby asks his advice and help regarding Tony, and grandpa suggests playing together their harmonicas, and something will happen.
They play together, and hearing the music Ed comes in and joins in, and Essie starts dancing, and Alice and Tony comes down to see what's going on, and Kirby sees his son, and finally nods his approval and Alice is all happy and hugs Tony, while Mrs Kirby simply faints :-p
It all ends with them eating all together :-)
ITA l'eterna illusione
It's about two family, a poor/bizarre one and the other very rich and snob. The rich family sees Mr Kirby (Edward Arnold) as a man who thinks only about money, his annoying and tremendously snob wife (Mary Forbes) and their adorable son Tony (James Stewart :-p). He falls in love with his secretary, Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), but obviously his parents and specially his mother strongly opposes the affair.
On the other side we have the bizarre family of Mr Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) who once had a proper, regular job like Mr Kirby, until one day he realized he was working all the time but he wasn't having any fun, so he went out and never went back :-p Since then, he decided to do only what he liked to do, which seems a lovely idea, but of course it is in this film where nobody puts him in jail or takes away his house because he hasn't paid any taxes at all in the last.. I don't know maybe 50 years, I think he wasn't even married yet when he decided to change life, and now he's Alice's grandpa.
In real life that would not be possible.
His family has been taught to live like that, doing only what they want to do, so there is his daughter Penny who at moment writes screenplays (using a little kitty to hold the papers together :-p) but it's not clear what she eventually does with them. She's married to Paul, who makes firecrackers, and they're Alice's parents.
They have another daughter, Essie, who is a good cook and makes terrific cakes and cookies, but she likes to dance so she goes around the house always dancing, and has a hideous teacher coming to see her every evening (I don't know if he comes every evening, but for sure he never comes in the afternoon, he always arrives in time for dinner..). Essie is married to Ed, who I don't remember what he does, but he sure likes to play a musical instrument I don't know the name of, and Ed and Essie are madly in love and made for each other.
Paul works downstairs in their laboratory, with Mr DePinna who was once the iceman that came knowing on their door nine years ago and was invited to stay for a while and he never left :-p
Mr Vanderhof meets Mr Poppins at the bank, and invites him to stay too, because he doesn't like his job there, and because he likes to make up things, invent new things. How lovely is that thing he shows, that flowery-vase with the little white rabbit coming out :-)
They are all happy and love each other :-) The only modern thing about this movie is a line that Mr Vanderhof says talking to Penny: "Lincoln said: 'with malice toward none, with charity for all'; nowadays they say 'think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights out of you' " :lol: quite true.
Now, Mr Kirby has a big business all planned, but to make it work he needs to buy the whole 12 blocks of , what a coincidence, Mr Vanderhof neighbourhood, but he owns his own house and has no intention of selling, because too many memories of his late wife are connected with that old house.
He doesn't know it at first, though, and goes to Mr Vanderhof house because Alice wants Tony's parents to meet her family and be done with it :-p Alike knows all too well that his mother doesn't approve of her, and tries her best to arrange a nice dinner, preparing everything with the help and cooperation of her family. Unfortunately (:-p) Tony doesn't want them to pretend, he wants his parents to know them for what they really are, so he and his parents (unaware of his trick) come a day earlier, when nobody was waiting for them, and they see Essie dancing around in a tutu, with her hideous "Russian" teacher, Ed playing his music, grandpa throwing darts and Penny painting Mr DePinna: a real mess. When the Kirbys realize the mistake, they're very polite , but the night is a complete disaster; it was already going badly, but then the police comes in, believing them all revolutionaries. Because of their intrusion, the fireworks go off in the laboratory, and they are all arrested. While in jail, Kirby learns that Vanderhof is the one who won't sell his house, and believes it all a plan to use his son to get to him; at this point Vanderhof looses it and makes a big speech on how Kirby is living an empty life, full of money that he won't be able to take with him when his time will come but without any friends. Later he apologizes for his words.
When they go all before the judge, Kirby has like four or five lawyers, I don't remember, and Vanderhof none. I really liked that judge, and how he couldn't help smiling and laughing at the Vanderhof story and all the fracas that came.
Vanderhof must pay 100 dollars because making fireworks in his own house without any legal permit is a serious thing, and although Kirby offers to pay it, he won't accept it. The 100 dollars are paid by the room full of friends, things that impresses Kirby. He has lots of lawyers, but Vanderhof has lots of friends.
Mrs Kirby is still coldly on her positions, and wants to hide the real reason why they were at that house, and Mr Vanderhof tries to lie to help Kirby, but Alice won't stand for it. She comes forward and tells the real reason; Tony backs her up, but maybe a little too late, and now she's very angry, she's the one who doesn't want to be related to them. She says it all then storms out and goes away.
The papers report that Tony's mother said "just an ambitious stenographer" of her.
Alice has gone away and nobody knows where she is, and for once her family is no more happy and dancing, they are all sad. Tony comes looking for her or for news about where she might be, but they don't know and can't tell him. Finally she writes to them, but she says she can't come back because she wants to forget all about it and can't do it there, so Grandpa decides to sell the house and go near her.
Mr Kirby starts having his doubts, remembering a bit of conscience, but not enough to stop him from going through with his business, until Tony comes in saying that he quits his job and wants to go away. Tony says he never liked the job at the bank, and that lately he was keeping at it only because of Alice but now there's no point, and has come to say goodbye.
Mr Kirby wanted to make him president of whatever he was about to do, but now it all probably seems vane to him. So much that he walks out of the bank without a word to anybody, not signing the deal.
Alice hears about the selling of the house and comes back to stop it. Tony arrives and seeing her tries to talk to her, but she's still angry.
Kirby goes to Vanderhof and finds a empty house (because they are moving) but grandpa is still there, and welcomes him in. Kirby asks his advice and help regarding Tony, and grandpa suggests playing together their harmonicas, and something will happen.
They play together, and hearing the music Ed comes in and joins in, and Essie starts dancing, and Alice and Tony comes down to see what's going on, and Kirby sees his son, and finally nods his approval and Alice is all happy and hugs Tony, while Mrs Kirby simply faints :-p
It all ends with them eating all together :-)
ITA l'eterna illusione
mercoledì 19 ottobre 2016
Bell, book and candle - 1958
I liked it, but I was just a little bit sad at how it ended. Not too much, because it ended well of course, this is not the kind of movie that one could accept ending badly, but I would have liked it if she didn't have to choose one or the other..
Well, this is the story of a witch, Gillian (Kim Novak). Her brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon), her aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and their closest friends are all witches and warlocks. They have powers, but honestly not all that much, the most of them. I mean, what can Nicky do, other than turn on and off the lights in the street? Their world is not explained detailed, because this is after all a love story not a story about magic, so I don't know if there's anything more to her being a witch. She has the same lifespan as everyone else, I think. Still, she's bored to death, she hasn't much fun with the idea of making magic, and she always have the same friends, and is bored bored bored.
She lives with her cat Pyewacket, and she uses the cat to do her magic.. she can't do magic without the cat... I would have wondered "is it her or is it the cat?" if she hadn't done a spell without Pyewacket, with her Christmas gift.
It is said that witches can't fall in love and can't cry, and also that if a witch falls in love she loses all her powers and stops being a witch.
Gil likes Shep (James Stewart) her new upstairs neighbour, but when Queenie suggests winning him over with a spell she replies "I don't want him that way"; she meets him on Christmas Eve, because Queenie had 'broken' his phone and he came to Gil's shop to make a phone call. They exchange a few words, he's a publisher and he would like to meet the author of the book she's reading, then Queenie comes to take her to go out and they go their separate way. That same night, Shep and his girlfriend Merle go to the Zodiac club, the club Gil had spoken to him about. It turns out that Gil and Merle know each other, they were at school together, in the same dormitory, but they didn't get along. It's a bizarre club, more Halloween than Christmas, very noisy, but Shep seems to enjoy himself, but he has to go because Merle hates the noise (well, Gil and Nicky were doing it on purpose to distress her :-p) (p.s. I sort of liked that French performer, he was cool :-p)
Gil tells Queenie that "all the girls loathed her. She was a liar and a sneak" speaking of course of Merle.
Back home, Gil Nicky and Queenie exchange gifts, and we see again how Gil prefers normal gifts to magical gifts, although occasionally she enjoys it. Nicky gives her a magical gift, a sort of liquid to summon people using an image, and Gil summons the writer :-p Nicky says here that it didn't work when he tried to use it, but when Gil tries it (without Pyewacket) it works. The procedure includes burning the picture, and a sort of green fire comes out, and passing-by Shep sees that fire and comes in "I thought the place was going up in flames", and she offers him a brandy. Nice Queenie leaves the two of them alone taking Nicky away with her :-)
Gil starts flirting a bit, saying how it is nice to have him there (more or less :-p) and he immediately goes "Merle and I are getting married tomorrow. I mean today!" and he starts blabbering, so she understands she has no time and calls Pyewacket; she sings a tune to the cat and Shep does NOT go away. He was about to, but he comes back and kisses her. They spent the rest of the night together (wandering around the city and kissing) and then Shep says things like "I feel spellbound", and "what has it meant for you? these hours?" and "I know it doesn't make sense but I have an idea I must be in love with you. Has it hit you that way?"
He's supposed to get married in a few hours, but he breaks it off. "I'm not drunk. I may be intoxicated but not drunk" :-p and of course Merle doesn't understand what's going on: "you're almost like another person" - "that's exactly the way I feel Merle, like another person, and I just don't seem to want to marry you any longer, and you wouldn't want me to marry you when I don't want to, would you?" and "let's just say that we are 'uncoupling'" and "I almost forgot my hat" :-p I like how he laughs saying that :-p but then again, I always like him :-)
Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs) the writer comes to see him :-p saying he's writing a new book, on witchcraft, and that the Zodiac is their headquarters, of witches and warlocks. He says "ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle. That's how they used to exorcise them, put them out of business, in medieval times of course" when Shep takes him to meet Gil and her relatives. Gil doesn't like this book idea, and tells Nicky "put him off the track", but instead Nicky reveals himself to Redlitch and helps him with the book, for a 50-50 of the money.
After two weeks together, Shep starts talking about marriage and Gil is evasive, saying she's not the type for marriage, then she says "I wish I could", and to herself "I wonder if I could" then her cat looks at her and she says "I will if I want to" and to Shep "I will" accepting to marry him. Shep is all happy and adorable :-) Really adorable :-)
She decides that if she wants to marry him then "renouncing" is the only way, still she does one last spell so that nobody will ever publish that book; obviously now Shep turns it down as "absolute trash".
Gil confesses anyway to Shep, or tries to as he won't believe a word she says to him. He says if you have magic prove it but she won't because she gave it up, but she could if she wanted to, she still has her powers, only she says that if she keeps doing it she'll never stop the habit, sort of.. kind of silly if you ask me, she should have prove it anyway.
She also confesses she put a spell on him, and he recalls that first night and says "I seemed to see you for the first time". He can't believe it but keeps thinking about it, then Queenie admits to him that she's one too but can't prove it either because she swore not to do magic in the apartment house, she took an oath :-p To make him believe and understand, the explains to him about the thunderstorms that troubled so much Merle when they were at school: "Gil made them happen, but she had to do it to settle accounts with her, just as she had to do what she did about you" and she also says that Gil put that spell on him "otherwise you'd have gone and married Miss Kittredge".
This upsets him a lot, because he still doesn't believe in the magic bit yet, but what he understands is very much troubling: "you mean that Gil went after me out of spite against Merle?" and when Queenie replies: "not altogether, she liked you" he gets even more angry: "she liked me?" raising his voice. Queenie doesn't see his side of things, and goes on "that's a great deal for us Shep, it's not as if we could fall in love, love is quite impossible" ... oh dear... of course he's out of himself..
He's very angry now and goes straight to Gil: "you didn't tell me that you went after me deliberately just to spite her, did you?" and "are you in love with me now?" because that's what matters to him, of course, not silly things about magic. He's upset because she doesn't love him!
The only thing she can say is: "I'm more in love with you than I've ever been with anyone", but that's not an answer that can satisfy him of course, and he thinks that "it's all been a merry little adventure" for her.
"I'm getting out of this building" he says, and "I'm not coming back, ever" but Gil says "you will, you have to". He doesn't believe it at first, but he finds himself right back and this time he understands it's all true. He goes to Nicky for help, and Nicky takes him to see Mrs De Passe. She gives him a disgusting potion to drink and asks for 1000 dollars :-p Now he's free from her spell, and he moves apartment. She's angry, she thinks (and threatens) to put a spell on Merle but she can't find Pyewacket, he has left her. When she finds tears on her face, she understands why. It's all clear now, the cat has left her because she's no more a witch, she has lost her powers by falling in love.
Of course in a way she already was, but "I didn't know what it was".
Only now she's alone, and what she feels hurts: "I don't want to be human, not now"
Nicky doesn't care at all "she asked for it" but after two months Queenie is worried for her: "she's so alone, even Pyewacket left her. If only something could be done about getting her and Shep together nature might take its course".
She can't tell him because Gil made her promise not to, and Nicky won't help so Queenie sends the cat to him, so he has to bring it back to Gil - not knowing of the latest news, he still thinks Pyewacket is her cat, but actually he's now Queenie's, and I wonder, now that Pyewacket is her cat, is she more powerful or not? Anyway, I'm sort of sorry that Gil has no more powers now, seems unfair that she had to choose between what she was and love :-/
While there, Shep sees her cry, and now everything changes because he knows she loves him, so happy ending for the two of them, together again, madly in love :-) and "it's real this time, or has it been real all along?"
Of course it had, if you think about it Shep liked her from the start, otherwise why did he go to the Zodiac that time? Merle didn't want to, and it was Christmas Eve and they didn't even know where the club was, and yet he dragged her in search of this place where he knew he would find Gil...
Anyway, magic or not, it ends with them hugging hard, being all happy :-) Sweet :-)
ITA una strega in paradiso
Well, this is the story of a witch, Gillian (Kim Novak). Her brother Nicky (Jack Lemmon), her aunt Queenie (Elsa Lanchester) and their closest friends are all witches and warlocks. They have powers, but honestly not all that much, the most of them. I mean, what can Nicky do, other than turn on and off the lights in the street? Their world is not explained detailed, because this is after all a love story not a story about magic, so I don't know if there's anything more to her being a witch. She has the same lifespan as everyone else, I think. Still, she's bored to death, she hasn't much fun with the idea of making magic, and she always have the same friends, and is bored bored bored.
She lives with her cat Pyewacket, and she uses the cat to do her magic.. she can't do magic without the cat... I would have wondered "is it her or is it the cat?" if she hadn't done a spell without Pyewacket, with her Christmas gift.
It is said that witches can't fall in love and can't cry, and also that if a witch falls in love she loses all her powers and stops being a witch.
Gil likes Shep (James Stewart) her new upstairs neighbour, but when Queenie suggests winning him over with a spell she replies "I don't want him that way"; she meets him on Christmas Eve, because Queenie had 'broken' his phone and he came to Gil's shop to make a phone call. They exchange a few words, he's a publisher and he would like to meet the author of the book she's reading, then Queenie comes to take her to go out and they go their separate way. That same night, Shep and his girlfriend Merle go to the Zodiac club, the club Gil had spoken to him about. It turns out that Gil and Merle know each other, they were at school together, in the same dormitory, but they didn't get along. It's a bizarre club, more Halloween than Christmas, very noisy, but Shep seems to enjoy himself, but he has to go because Merle hates the noise (well, Gil and Nicky were doing it on purpose to distress her :-p) (p.s. I sort of liked that French performer, he was cool :-p)
Gil tells Queenie that "all the girls loathed her. She was a liar and a sneak" speaking of course of Merle.
Back home, Gil Nicky and Queenie exchange gifts, and we see again how Gil prefers normal gifts to magical gifts, although occasionally she enjoys it. Nicky gives her a magical gift, a sort of liquid to summon people using an image, and Gil summons the writer :-p Nicky says here that it didn't work when he tried to use it, but when Gil tries it (without Pyewacket) it works. The procedure includes burning the picture, and a sort of green fire comes out, and passing-by Shep sees that fire and comes in "I thought the place was going up in flames", and she offers him a brandy. Nice Queenie leaves the two of them alone taking Nicky away with her :-)
Gil starts flirting a bit, saying how it is nice to have him there (more or less :-p) and he immediately goes "Merle and I are getting married tomorrow. I mean today!" and he starts blabbering, so she understands she has no time and calls Pyewacket; she sings a tune to the cat and Shep does NOT go away. He was about to, but he comes back and kisses her. They spent the rest of the night together (wandering around the city and kissing) and then Shep says things like "I feel spellbound", and "what has it meant for you? these hours?" and "I know it doesn't make sense but I have an idea I must be in love with you. Has it hit you that way?"
He's supposed to get married in a few hours, but he breaks it off. "I'm not drunk. I may be intoxicated but not drunk" :-p and of course Merle doesn't understand what's going on: "you're almost like another person" - "that's exactly the way I feel Merle, like another person, and I just don't seem to want to marry you any longer, and you wouldn't want me to marry you when I don't want to, would you?" and "let's just say that we are 'uncoupling'" and "I almost forgot my hat" :-p I like how he laughs saying that :-p but then again, I always like him :-)
Sidney Redlitch (Ernie Kovacs) the writer comes to see him :-p saying he's writing a new book, on witchcraft, and that the Zodiac is their headquarters, of witches and warlocks. He says "ring the bell, close the book, quench the candle. That's how they used to exorcise them, put them out of business, in medieval times of course" when Shep takes him to meet Gil and her relatives. Gil doesn't like this book idea, and tells Nicky "put him off the track", but instead Nicky reveals himself to Redlitch and helps him with the book, for a 50-50 of the money.
After two weeks together, Shep starts talking about marriage and Gil is evasive, saying she's not the type for marriage, then she says "I wish I could", and to herself "I wonder if I could" then her cat looks at her and she says "I will if I want to" and to Shep "I will" accepting to marry him. Shep is all happy and adorable :-) Really adorable :-)
She decides that if she wants to marry him then "renouncing" is the only way, still she does one last spell so that nobody will ever publish that book; obviously now Shep turns it down as "absolute trash".
Gil confesses anyway to Shep, or tries to as he won't believe a word she says to him. He says if you have magic prove it but she won't because she gave it up, but she could if she wanted to, she still has her powers, only she says that if she keeps doing it she'll never stop the habit, sort of.. kind of silly if you ask me, she should have prove it anyway.
She also confesses she put a spell on him, and he recalls that first night and says "I seemed to see you for the first time". He can't believe it but keeps thinking about it, then Queenie admits to him that she's one too but can't prove it either because she swore not to do magic in the apartment house, she took an oath :-p To make him believe and understand, the explains to him about the thunderstorms that troubled so much Merle when they were at school: "Gil made them happen, but she had to do it to settle accounts with her, just as she had to do what she did about you" and she also says that Gil put that spell on him "otherwise you'd have gone and married Miss Kittredge".
This upsets him a lot, because he still doesn't believe in the magic bit yet, but what he understands is very much troubling: "you mean that Gil went after me out of spite against Merle?" and when Queenie replies: "not altogether, she liked you" he gets even more angry: "she liked me?" raising his voice. Queenie doesn't see his side of things, and goes on "that's a great deal for us Shep, it's not as if we could fall in love, love is quite impossible" ... oh dear... of course he's out of himself..
He's very angry now and goes straight to Gil: "you didn't tell me that you went after me deliberately just to spite her, did you?" and "are you in love with me now?" because that's what matters to him, of course, not silly things about magic. He's upset because she doesn't love him!
The only thing she can say is: "I'm more in love with you than I've ever been with anyone", but that's not an answer that can satisfy him of course, and he thinks that "it's all been a merry little adventure" for her.
"I'm getting out of this building" he says, and "I'm not coming back, ever" but Gil says "you will, you have to". He doesn't believe it at first, but he finds himself right back and this time he understands it's all true. He goes to Nicky for help, and Nicky takes him to see Mrs De Passe. She gives him a disgusting potion to drink and asks for 1000 dollars :-p Now he's free from her spell, and he moves apartment. She's angry, she thinks (and threatens) to put a spell on Merle but she can't find Pyewacket, he has left her. When she finds tears on her face, she understands why. It's all clear now, the cat has left her because she's no more a witch, she has lost her powers by falling in love.
Of course in a way she already was, but "I didn't know what it was".
Only now she's alone, and what she feels hurts: "I don't want to be human, not now"
Nicky doesn't care at all "she asked for it" but after two months Queenie is worried for her: "she's so alone, even Pyewacket left her. If only something could be done about getting her and Shep together nature might take its course".
She can't tell him because Gil made her promise not to, and Nicky won't help so Queenie sends the cat to him, so he has to bring it back to Gil - not knowing of the latest news, he still thinks Pyewacket is her cat, but actually he's now Queenie's, and I wonder, now that Pyewacket is her cat, is she more powerful or not? Anyway, I'm sort of sorry that Gil has no more powers now, seems unfair that she had to choose between what she was and love :-/
While there, Shep sees her cry, and now everything changes because he knows she loves him, so happy ending for the two of them, together again, madly in love :-) and "it's real this time, or has it been real all along?"
Of course it had, if you think about it Shep liked her from the start, otherwise why did he go to the Zodiac that time? Merle didn't want to, and it was Christmas Eve and they didn't even know where the club was, and yet he dragged her in search of this place where he knew he would find Gil...
Anyway, magic or not, it ends with them hugging hard, being all happy :-) Sweet :-)
ITA una strega in paradiso
lunedì 17 ottobre 2016
Babylon 5 season 1
I like it enough somehow, but it's no special page in science-fiction. My favourite thing is Ivanova, because she's a strong woman, she values her career, but without giving up on her feelings. She's not icy, she's a good character; then I like Lennier. I missed any real relationship between characters, they simply do their job but almost never interact on a human level. There's one scene between Garibaldi and Sinclair, and a little scene between Sinclair and Ivanova, but it's not enough to "feel" the characters.
Another problem is how little futuristic it seems. In episode 2 we have Sinclair using his ship like a claw-machine to grab another ship, and in episode 3 we see Vir playing pocket videogames and Londo watching semi-naked girls dance at the night club. That sounds more like the 90s than like 2258. Again in ep 21 we see the night-club with an addition of gambling. Sure, in ep 3 we also see that they use crystals as usb keys, but that's a small thing for a sci-fi show. Also, in ep 12 we see that workers have less rights than they have now. It's not a matter of budget but of ideas.
"it was the dawn of the Third Age of mankind, 10 years after the Earth-Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs and wanderers. Humans and aliens, wrapped in 2.500.000 tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5."
Michael O'Hare as commander Jeffrey Sinclair
Claudia Christian as Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova
Jerry Doyle as Security Chief Michael Garibaldi
Mira Furlan as Delenn
also
Richard Biggs as Dr Stephen Franklin
Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters
Stephen Furst as Vir
Bill Mumy as Lennier
Caitlin Brown as Na'Toth
with
Andrea Katsulas as G'Kar
Peter Jurasik as Londo
The episodes:
1- Midnight on the firing line (mezzanotte di fuoco) - It starts off with Centauri agricultural colony Ragesh 3 being attacked. Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari thinks the Narn are responsible. Narn ambassador G'Kar said at first that he knew nothing about it, then he said "I just heard", still acting innocent, but not for long; they have a fight and G'Kar sort of threatens him. Londo is very worried because his beloved nephew Carn is on that colony, a job he personally found for him to 'keep him safe, out of military life', the irony. Commander Sinclair has to put on a gas-mask to visit ambassador Kosh. Londo is upset because the Centauri Republic is going to do nothing about the attack. Londo says he'll die 20 years from now, killing and/or being killed by G'Kar. G'Kar remembers how green his planet was before the Centauri ruined it. Sinclair says to him after it's been clear that the Narn attacked it: "you didn't even have the decency to pick a military target" and "the sneak attack is the first resort of a coward", and he adds in disgust: "a poorly-armed civilian colony". Apparently though, the Centauri invaded the Narn sector "and began their 100-year reign of terror"; Ragesh 3 was once Narn, but it's been Centauri's property for a century now. Londo wants to kill G'Kar, shoot him, but the telepath senses that and warns Garibaldi, who stops him. The cmdr stops a raider's attack, then "on the command and control ship" he found proof that the Narn were selling weapons to the Raiders, and also that their attack on Ragesh 3 was unprovoked and uninvited, so either the Narn withdraw or he'll show the proof to the Council..
Lt. Cmdr Ivanova doesn't like the telepathic woman and keeps avoiding her. When they finally talk, it turns out that Ivanova hates the Psi Corps, because when they discovered that her mother was a telepath, they let her choose: 1-join the corps, 2-go to prison, 3-agree to take certain drugs for the rest of her life. Obviously she chose the drugs, she didn't want to abandon her family: once a week for 10 years, strong drugs until she couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide.
The vote for the Earth President: Santiago won, a man who promised to cut the budget, to defend Earth culture against the foreigners.. blah blah blah, usual stuff they always say.
At the end of the episode we see what is Garibaldi's second favourite thing in the world: Looney Tunes cartoons, shared with (I think) the Minbari Ambassador, who didn't understand his enthusiasm or his love for popcorn, but very politely tried both :-)
2- Soul Hunter (cacciatore di anime) - Dr Franklin arrives to start working here. A ship comes out of hyperspace in bad shape; Sinclair grabs it with his ship (literally grabs it, high technology :-p) avoiding a collision with the station. The rescued is identified by Delenn as Shak Tot, a Soul Hunter. She wants to kill "it" "before it's too late, before someone dies". She says that soul hunters are immortal, and they sense death and are drawn to it. They can steal the soul at the moment of death. Several alien ships want to leave the station as soon as they hear about his presence. A con-man is stabbed to death and this alien starts speaking. He says they don't steal, they "save" the souls of special people, but the Minbari won't let them help them: "we have saved only a few. Very rare. Rarest of all their leader, Dukhat, dying. Your fault. Your war." he wanted to take Dukhat's soul but the Minbari stopped him and he died and all that he was was gone.
The dead body of the con-man is launched towards a burning-star because his family can't afford to bring him/it home. Franking: "typical human lifespan is almost 100 years but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. Wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then... it's over" - Ivanova "it doesn't matter, if we lived 200 years we'd still be humans. We'd still make the same mistakes" - F:"you're a pessimist" - Iv:"I'm Russian, Doctor, we understand these things" :lol: Actually I don't know why it's funny, I like the way she says it, I guess :-)
The hunter thinks that the soul ends with death unless they preserve it, while Delenn thinks the soul will be reincarnated in the next generation of Minbari. He calls her Satai Delenn of the Grey Council, stating that she was a leader, not an ambassador, then he escapes from the medlab. Another hunter comes to warn Sinclair that the first one is "deeply disturbed" and might kill someone, because he has stopped waiting for them to die, now he kills them to take their souls. Of course Sinclair stops him. He was about to take Delenn's soul by killing her, but Sinclair turned his machine against him. Delenn is of course alive, which according to the doctor is quite remarkable because a human would have died after losing so much blood. Delenn was about to say something to Sinclair but then she fell asleep and never said it. Sinclair returns the 'collection of souls' to Delenn, and she sets them all free. At this point I have an observation: she sets them free whatever species they might be, because the soul hunter said before that taking Minbari's souls is not at all easy, so he can't have had many.
3- Born to the purple (mistero a Babylon 5) - The Centauri dancer that Londo likes so much has a master who orders her to spy on him. She actually seems to like Londo, for real, but she must obey because she's a slave and he owns her. Londo likes her very much.
She puts something on his drink to make him sleep, then she copies all his personal files into a crystal and leaves. She should give the crystal to her master, but instead she runs away, trying to escape him.
The bastard then tells Londo a few lies about her and the big truth of what she did.
I like Londo's answer when he asks for Sinclair's help: Sinclair sees a great opportunity here, since the Narn-Centauri negotiations are going badly because of the two stubborn ambassadors who hate each other, so he says that he'll help him if he will agree to his compromise on the treaty, and Londo replies "I'll even seal it with a kiss" :-p you know, like they used to say a long time ago, apparently:-)
He said it well :-)
The bastard gets to the girl first, but Miss Winters the telepath helps them get her location from his mind, so they save both the girl and the data. When Adira Tyree (Fabiana Udenio) leaves the station, Londo goes to say goodbye; he gives her back her freedom (Sinclair secured it from the bastard) and he also gives her a jewel (a precious pin) then she boards the ship and is gone.
Side story: Garibaldi is trying to find out who is using an unauthorized channel, but Ivanova doesn't seem as concern about it as he is. She says it might be a malfunction but he doesn't let it go, he keeps at it and he witnesses Ivanova herself using it, to talk to her dying father. It's touching. He says that after her mother and brother died he was so deep in grief he didn't give her the love she deserved, but he's sorry now and very proud of her, then he dies and she cries. He tells her that he tracked the call, but he won't report it as such, but as a computer error.
4- Infection (infezione) - Dr Vance Hendricks comes to the station to see Dr Franklin, who once was his student. He's an archeologist (David McCallum), and he smuggles in ancient organic artifacts for the doctor to study and analyze. One of them takes control of the man who touched it and transforms him; now he goes around with a weapon instead of a hand, killing people. It appears that that organic thing is a weapon, created by fanatics to kill everyone was not "pure race", so the weapon killed all the 'enemies' and then all the creators, because nobody is 'pure'.
This sounds a lot like a Star Trek episode, or two :-p
Sinclair goes heroic on Garibaldi again, and he goes alone. Like Kirk would have done, he talks to the weapon, makes him see that his world he wants to protect so much is dead, and has been for 1000 years, destroyed by those like him who should have protected it, so the "weapon" kills itself, but not Nelson, the man whose body was taken over by it.
Dr Franklin turns Vance in and he's arrested. The doctor is worried that what happened to that world might happen to Earth too, where there is talk of "Earth pure" and hate against aliens and such things, then the artifacts are confiscated for planetary security :-/
Garibaldi confronts Jeff Sinclair as a friend: after the war some people act strangely, sometimes, like he's doing, putting himself in such danger: "some people call that being a hero, maybe so, I don't know, I've never been one, (...) I think they're looking for something worth dying for because that's easier than finding something worth living for" - that was a good scene, between Garibaldi and Sinclair.
A girl comes to the station, she's a journalist and wants to interview Sinclair for Interstellar Network News. She keeps poking around but Ivanova has her own way to stop her from annoying the commander any further "Don't. You're too young to experience that much pain.." :-p
5- The parliament of dreams (palazzo dei sogni) - The station is full of people come to "demonstrate their religious belief": at the Centauri "Celebration of life" Londo and Ivanova are quite enjoying themselves (read: getting ridiculously drunk). Delenn is joined by Lennier (he wasn't on he station before, he introduces himself to her now after calling her Satai Delenn): the Minbari celebration is much more serious, and features the word "death" many times.
For the Earth demonstration, Sinclair assembles a long row of people, each representing a different faith: catholic, atheist, buddhist, muslim, jew, aborigine, shinto, etc etc.
Second story: G'Kar's life has been seriously threatened by an old enemy now dead. Apparently before dying he hired an assassin, to kill him within 48 hours, and G'Kar is freaking out, but with good reasons. The assassin indeed comes, but G'Kar's assistant Na'Toth saves him.
Side story: Sinclair hooks up with an on-and-off girlfriend again, Catherine.
6- Mind war (guerra delle menti) - Bester (Walter Koenig) and an even more annoying girl are psycops looking for a powerful telepath who's been experimented upon. They demand Sinclair's help and question Miss Winters, who knows nothing about it, but they scan her mind because they 'have to be sure'. It's painful, apparently, but right after, Jason shows himself to her, explaining how incredibly powerful he has become and how dangerous it would be if the psy corps got him and discovered how to make others like him. She believes him, and cares a lot about him because they were once lovers, and she asks Sinclair to meet him and Sinclair agrees to help him. Unfortunately they are stopped by the psy corps before they can reach Jason's ship ( or a ship they give to him, not sure), and they try to overpower him with their minds combined, but he's too strong for them, and he kills the girl while Bester is only knocked down, then he leaves. Once outside the station, Jason becomes something else, a big light out in space and he speaks telepathically with them, giving Talia the gift of telekinesis and saying goodbye to Sinclair "I will see you again in a million years".
Something like this also happened on Star Trek. Just saying.
Bester has to yield to Sinclair's condition and agree to their version of the story, that Jason simply escaped. "but that's a lie" - Sinclair:"yes it is. what's your point?" one of my fav Sinclair moments.
Side story: Sigma 957 is the class 4 world Catherine wants to explore for exploitation. Before going she needs approval from G'Kar because that's Narn property. G'Kar warns her many times that the place is not safe, but she doesn't listen to him. "No one here is exactly what he appears" he says "my warning is sincere, ignore it at your own peril".
She does ignore it, and goes anyway, then a big colourful thing appears and vanishes, sucking all the energy of her ship. She'd have no chance of survival, but two Narn ships sent by G'Kar come to help her. He tells her "there are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races... we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know, we've tried".
7- The war prayer (preghiera di sangue) - A friend of Delenn, a performer, is attacked by the Pro-Earth Group; two young Centauri come to the station to escape arranged marriages because they love each other and they too are attacked.
Mayann "I have travelled far and seen much and what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are best defined by their capacity and their need for love"- Londo "she will learn to live without it" - Mayann"as you did". He's touched by this remark. He remembers his father crying and saying "my shoes are too tight but it doesn't matter because I have forgotten how to dance" I like these words.
Londo finds a legal way to let the two lovers be together :-)
An ex-lover of Susan comes to the station. Ivanova left him eight years ago for her career, and now he tells her that he can accept it, and therefore is planning on staying and start working on Babylon 5. She seems to like him a lot, but then Garibaldi discovers he's with the Pro-Earth group, if not the leader, and tells Sinclair and Susan. Sinclair tries to play undercover, and Malcolm is all "we want to put Earth back at the centre of the Universe, our Universe" oh my what an ignorant idiot, and there are so many like him, wanting to feel superior at all costs, when they so are not.
The pro-Earth group members were camouflage-clothes. They were planning on killing the four major ambassadors, but Sinclair and Ivanova stop them and arrest them.
Sinclair also mentions that Earth won the war against the Minbari because "they let us win"
8- And the sky full of stars (un cielo pieno di stelle) - Some men arrive on the station bringing trouble to Sinclair. A new security man is highly indebted because he likes to gamble. Because of this, he sells a power source to those dangerous men for money, and they use it to enter Sinclair's mind after, I think, kidnapping him. He's 39, born of Mars Colony May 3, 2219, just for the record.
They keep him under drugs and enter his mind, but after a while he manages to get free and escape, but he's delusional because of the drugs, and also remembers things he didn't remember before, like Delenn in a grey robe. Garibaldi and everyone else is looking for him, and when they find him he shoots at them, but Delenn approaches him nonetheless, saying "I'm your friend" and he says "I know you" then he collapses. He is cured, but when Delenn asks him if he remembers anything he lies and says no. Luckily for him, since there is there a Minbari man that tells Delenn he must never know or he'll be killed. Still, he doesn't know the meaning of the little he remembers (of having been interrogated by the Grey Council, and then let go) but he's determined to find out.
9- Deathwalker (la morte in agguato) - A woman just arrived and Na'Toth attacks her, furiously, claiming she's Deathwalker; Garibaldi finds her Dilgar uniform, military rank War Master, which seems to prove that she's really Jha'dur (Sarah Douglas) also called Deathwalker. She admits to it when she wakes up: she discovered a serum of virtual immortality (it slows the aging process and prevents sickness) through experiments on aliens like the Narns. Sinclair asks for Lennier and Delenn's help and G'Kar tries to deal with her to get the serum, but Jha'dur asks for Na'toth's head in return! So evil!
Garibaldi is the only one who says "there is no choice" because her experiments were cruel to say the least. She infected, and killed, and experimented upon, she doesn't deserve anything.
"She wiped out entire races, destroyed whole planets, experimented on living beings, now she wants to make everybody immortal? Why?"
Earth wants her too, and Sinclair is inclined to follow the orders "she can save more lives than she took; if she can make the deaths she caused have meaning, isn't that worth considering?" No, I say, it's not that easy, because you can't justify her actions like this. Luckily G'Kar calls Ambassador Kalika (Robin Curtis) and an assembly of people stops her being sent to Earth. The Centauri, Narn, and even Minbari vote no at the Council, so she won't be put on trial on Babylon 5, but lots of aliens demand she'll be given over to them. Ivanova stalls them by making them argue on who should be the first to attack and claim her (:-p), while Sinclair makes a deal with the League (all those alien races that are not Centauri, Narn or Minbari are united in the League and have only one vote in the Council... doesn't seem very fair..): he reaches a compromise: they'll send some of their people to Earth to develop together the serum, and after that Jha'dur will be turned over to them. However, when Sinclair talks to Jha'dur, she scorns his attempt at justice by revealing that the serum needs an ingredient that can not be synthesized but must be taken from living beings "if you want to live forever, another one must die: you will fall upon one another like wolves. It'll make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who'll live forever will be a testimony to my work and the billions who are murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us!"
A Vorlon ship (Kosh's race) comes out while Jha'dur is leaving, and destroys her ship killing her.
Londo's comment: "well, all's well that ends well"
Sort of side story, whose significance is not clear to me. Talia Winters is employed by Ambassador Kosh in some strange negotiations between him and a weird man with some sort of machine in his brain.
It was developed differently, but the evil-doctor-with-the-miraculous-cure dilemma was also a Star Trek episode.
10- Believers (tra la vita e la morte) - An alien child is sick, but a simple surgery procedure could cure him, however his parents won't allow it for spiritual reasons, even if that means his sure death.
They are the "children of time" and if you "open them" their soul will be lost. The doctor and his assistant disagree on the way he's dealing with the situation. The doctor tries to go over their heads appealing to Sinclair, and the parents try to find protection from the ambassadors, but G'Kar, Londo, Kosh and Delenn, they all refuse. Sinclair also refuses, and the doctor wants to operate anyway, with the help of his assistant. The boy lives, feels well, but his parents refuse him now. They take him only to kill him because "that was not their son; because his spirit had gone when he was cut open, and was only a shell now" ... unbelievable.
Ivanova has nothing to do and is very bored, and wants a mission. :-p She goes on a mission to escort a damaged ship to Babylon 5. She finds herself surrounded by raiders and she engages battle alone, but she comes back safe.
11- Survivors (i sopravvissuti) - President Santiago is due to come to Babylon 5. There's an explosion, and head of Presidential Security Lianna takes over the case.
Michael knew Lianna seventeen years ago. He was working in a bad place full of crimes, and he was the only one that was honest and cared about justice and law. He started drinking to get through the day, then he befriended Lianna's father. Things started to go well, until the day some criminals killed his friend to get to him.
He stopped drinking, and that why he goes to the barman "I need a drink! Water! Straight!"
Lianna blames him, and now someone is trying to frame him for sabotage. He is a fugitive now, and starts drinking again, so they find him. She interrogates him, but he's still trying to figure out who could have framed him up, and the only possibility seems to be Cutter, one of her agents. When they confront him, Cutter knocks her down and fights Michael, who luckily manages to communicate with Ivanova just in time. Cutter was working for the Pro-Earth group, against Santiago alien policy. Before she leaves, Michael has a chance to talk to her again, and they clear things up. Before going, she hugs him :-)
12- By any means necessary (a qualsiasi costo) - A Narn cargo ship blows out a cargo bay, and a Babylon 5 worker dies. Their representative tries to explain how the workers can not be blamed for the accident. The equipment is not adequate and there are not enough workers for the amount of work and traffic there is: "the workers have been forced to work triple shifts because they are understaffed in every area".
The accident was caused by cheap equipment, cheap materials, something like that, so Sinclair hopes (naive) to get an increase in the station budget. The increase is denied (obviously, the governments tend to give less and less money for the well-being of their people) , no surprise there, no. The workers contract states that they can't go on strike so they call in sick. That's an illegal strike, and senator Hidoshi sends a man, Zento, to deal with it. What he does is : he orders Sinclair to arrest any illegal striker who won't go back to work! Zento is unhappy when Sinclair ends the situation by studying closely the "Rush act", by which he is authorized to use "any means necessary" so he gives amnesty to all the workers and takes money away from the military budget.
G'Kar needs a specific plant for his religious ceremony, but it was in the cargo that got destroyed. Mollari has the only one on Babylon 5 but he refuses to give it or sell it to G'Kar.
Sinclair has made enemies in the Senate (not Hidoshi though, it would appear) but he got G'Kar's thanks for resolving his religious problem.
13- Signs and portents (premonizioni) - Londo bury for his Government a very important thing called 'the eye', a sort of precious jewel symbol of a noble family or something like that, I don't remember. Lord Kiro and his aunt Nadira come to take it back to their planet. Raiders steal it with the help of Kiro who thinks they'll help him take the power over the Emperor, but he's wrong.
A strange man asks every Ambassador "what do you want?" and at the end he gives the eye back to Londo, who already thought his career was over now that the eye was lost.
Nadira has a vision of Babylon 5 exploding and she warns Sinclair hoping he might avoid that future.
Garibaldi discovers how Sinclair got this command: the Minbari demanded to have a say on who'll be commander of Babylon 5 and they refused any other name: they wanted him.
14- TKO (scambio) - Walker Smith (Greg McKinney) is an old friend of Garibaldi. He was a great fighter until he was set up and his career ruined, but now he wants his last big chance: he wants to fight in the Mutai, a fighting tournament for aliens. There are no rules, the one still standing is the winner. No humans has ever fought in the Mutai, and Smith is initially turned down. An alien, ex-fighter, helps him by telling him what to do. Smith and Garibaldi go to a match, and when the Mutai champion wins, and the Mu-ta-do, the Master of the Game, asks who is brave enough to challenge him, Smith volunteers. The challenge is accepted and when they fight he can hold his own. They are both good fighters, and it goes on for a while like I-punch-you-you-punch-me, and at the end they are both on their knees and it is declared a tie, but Smith is now accepted in the Mutai circle, and he's made history on Earth as the first human ever to fight in the Mutai. He can return to Earth now.
Second story: a rabbi comes to help Susan in dealing with her loss; after her father died she didn't go to the funeral nor she mourned him here on Babylon 5. For some time she refuses to sit the Shiva, the ceremony where she mourns him with her friends and family, but at the end she changes her mind and mourns him and cries, and remembers him with the rabbi, some friends (I suppose, never seen them) and Sinclair "her dear friend". Crying is good, it'll do her good.
15- Grail (il calice sacro) - It starts with a piece of comedy: an alien, of the kind 'we know', all grey and long and thin, is on trial; a man says that the alien's ancestors kidnapped and experimented upon one of his ancestors, who was believed a madman and scorned by everyone.
Main story: a man named Aldous Gajic (David Warner) comes to Babylon 5: he's on a lifetime mission to find the Holy Grail.. yes, exactly. However, these represented here are not our times, where such a mission would be proof of a distressed/insane mind or else of a con-man asking for money to help him on his sacred mission. No, Aldous is really a good man, who demands nothing of others but on the contrary is the first to help. He once had a regular job, but after he lost his family nothing made sense anymore until he met the 'previous seeker' who gave him a purpose in life and believed in him. Now he's doing the same for Jinxo, a petty thief, rather incompetent, probably because he's actually a good man and stealing is a pathetic act of less-worthy people.
There's a creature who sucks the brain of people, and it's used by Douce (or something like that) to help him get rid of whoever he wants (it doesn't actually 'kill', as I understand it, but you're left empty, there's nothing left of you in your head). Jinxo owes Douce a lot of money, that's why he's caught stealing money (well, credits) from Aldous. At the trial, Aldous asks the judge to free Jinxo( that he will call by his real name Thomas) and put him under his care.
Jinxo worked on Babylon 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and each time the station blew up just after he left, so he thinks he is Babylon 5's curse, that if he leaves Babylon 5 will explode, but Aldous sees things differently. He's not cursed, he's lucky and special because he survived, very closely, four times. Aldous has lots of money, a good heart, and can fight, but bad guys never fight honorably so he's taken prisoner and Jinxo runs to Sinclair for help. The judge is also a prisoner. When the cavalry arrives and there's a fight, Thomas tries to free the judge, and Aldous protects him when someone is about to shoot him, so Aldous dies instead. Thomas takes on himself his mission and money and purpose; now he finally has a purpose in life and intends to fulfil his obligation and his promise to the man that turned his life around.
16- Eyes (occhi spaziali) - Garibaldi is building a motorbike (Kawasaki is all I remember of his long description :-p) and Lennier wants to help him with the Japanese manual :-)He's a quick study indeed! Since Garibaldi has no time now, he also offers to work on it himself, and at the end of the episode the bike will be completed and they'll ride it through the station together :-)
A hateful colonel comes to the station to investigate all command personnel , and he's accompanied by Mr Harriman Gray (Jeffrey Combs) from PsyCorps, who's here to scan their minds, but they refuse. The colonel's reason is much more personal, though; he hates Sinclair because he got Babylon 5. The colonel wanted this command, and is quite pissed off over it.
Susan would rather resign her post than be scanned, but she won't need to go that far because Sinclair and Garibaldi discovered the reason behind the colonel's witch-hunt (his hate, read above) and suggests Gray should scan both of them, not just Sinclair. Gray does it, but the colonel is on a frenzy and points a gun at them, so Gray stops him with a word "pain" into his brain :-p
Not a bad episode. I hated Bester, but I'd like to see Gray again :-)
17- Legacies (l'eredità) - A Minbari warrior is dead. He was a great leader and his clan of warriors come to Babylon 5 to honor him publicly; but before the war he was a religious man who wished for a quiet life and a quiet death. Because of this Delenn and her people "steal" the body and cremate him. The warriors make a big fuss over the disappearance of the body and insist on a big investigation. Their leader even attacks Sinclair.
To end this situation, Satai Delenn imposes her authority over him, even ordering him to apologize to Sinclair. When he does, the commander has nice words over the bravery and honor of the deceased and the two man leave at peace.
The other story of the episode: a girl is found stealing, but she also just discovered to be a telepath. Talia would send her directly to Earth, to the PsyCorps, but of course Ivanova strongly opposes the idea. At the end, after considering all her choices, Alisa decides to go with the Minbari :-)
18- A voice in the wilderness part 1 (spazio part 1) - While civilian scientists are surveying the planet below, they are shot at. Missiles. Back to Babylon 5 they go, and they say they believe there's something artificial down there, and probably something worth protecting. Sinclair and Ivanova go there themselves and discover, five miles below the surface, big big machines like they've never seen, but also the image of a man asking for help. They find him attached to some machinery or portal or something and they try to take him back to Babylon 5 to be cured. Meanwhile, on the Mars colony there's a rebellion going on and all communications are off. Sinclair and Ivanova have nobody there anymore, but Garibaldi left a woman when he came to work here. He's worried sick for her and asks for Talia's help in trying to contact her.
19- A voice in the wilderness part 2 (spazio part 2) - The alien that was in that machine recovered a bit of strength, enough to talk and explain, but he has only a few days to live, and without him the planet will explode taking Babylon 5 with it. An Earth ship and an alien ship come for the place and its wonders, but they can't have it.
Delenn's friend and ex-mentor takes the place of the alien into the machine, stabilizing the situation. Now there's no more risk of an explosion.
Garibaldi's friend Lise has been located on Mars. The rebellion is under control now. She's wounded but ok and he can speak to her. He tells her he made a mistake leaving her, but now she's married and about to have a baby.
20- Babylon squared (corruzione a Babylon 5) - Delenn is called back by the Grey Council to be made their leader, but she doesn't want to leave Babylon 5 forever. Apparently they stopped the war because there was a prophecy regarding humans, but one doubts it "what is it that makes the humans so special?" *sigh* humans really think they are so special, don't they? All these movies, throughout the years, all the same: humans are so special, so noble, with so much to teach... how stupid is it, don't they ever take a good look around? The things humans would do for money are endless and indescribable. The things they do for every other reason all reunite under one word: superiority. Humans like so much to feel superior to others. Humans do not want to live in peace like brothers and sisters, each of them wants to be superior to everybody else. They all have that same look in their eyes: "i'm superior because: I have more money; I'm the master and you're the slave; I follow the 'sacred book' rules; I have weapons and you don't; I don't let old superstition guide my life; etc etc etc this might go on forever.
Humans are not superiors. Look around: so much injustice and horrible things going on!
Anyway, Babylon 4 reappears. Apparently it's shifting through time, and Sinclair tries to evacuate as many as possible before it disappears again. Now, why this five-at-a-time-policy? I understand they can't run all at once, it would be a mess, but five at a time? They don't have much time!
There's also a sort of alien on Babylon 4. He's from another time I think. They all escape, and then we see that "the One" so worshipped by the alien was actually an older Sinclair who "tried to warn them" of some great was about to come, and with him there's someone (I think it was Delenn) who spoke very affectionately to him.
Delenn goes back to Babylon 5, not sure is she's still accepted in the Council or not, it's for sure they didn't take well her refusing to be the leader, but she still have at least a friend in the Council. Good.
21- The quality of mercy (il dono della misericordia) - Again we see that in 2258 humans and aliens spend their nights watching girls dancing and undressing, drinking alcohol and playing poker for money *rolling eyes*
A man is a murderer, but they can't afford to send him to Earth or to keep him in prison and can not kill him, so they have only one chance: erase completely his personality. Talia scans him and is horrified.
The doctor goes down below to cure for free those who can't afford to pay, and discovers that there's another one, a woman who is healing people using an alien device. She's not a fraud, though, she's a good woman, and the machine works by giving her patients some of her life-energy. When the murderer escapes, and is wounded, he goes to her and force her to help him threatening her daughter's life, she does so, but when she realizes he'll never let the girl live, she uses the machine in reverse, taking his life force and giving him all her pain and terminal illness. He dies, and she's cured, but feels the guilt of taking a man's life. She'll leave the station, on a journey to redeem herself. She turns her machine over to Doctor Franklin :-)
22- Chrysalis (metamorfosi) - Narn and Centauri have yet another quarrel, over quadrant 37 this time. Neither G'Kar nor Londo wants to back down when that strange man that brought Londo back 'the eye' comes back to offer him his help, and he accepts it. The Narn outpost is destroyed, 10.000 Narns die, everything is destroyed.
Sinclair plans to marry Catherine and Garibaldi and Ivanova are to be best man and maid of honor.
There's a conspiracy and Garibaldi is shot by a traitor security man. The Earth President is killed, although everyone on Earth keeps believing it an accident.
The mysterious man Morden talks to the 'shadows', they have mysterious plans.
Delenn begins a mysterious transformation, and nobody knows what'll be of her, and Lennier is afraid for her.
The episode (and the series) ends without telling us what it'll be of Delenn, of Garibaldi, or of anything else. The new President doesn't seem so keen on aliens, he's probably part of Home Guard too..
The marriage too is on hold, another cliffhanger for next series.
I wonder if I can find the other seasons on dvd...
Another problem is how little futuristic it seems. In episode 2 we have Sinclair using his ship like a claw-machine to grab another ship, and in episode 3 we see Vir playing pocket videogames and Londo watching semi-naked girls dance at the night club. That sounds more like the 90s than like 2258. Again in ep 21 we see the night-club with an addition of gambling. Sure, in ep 3 we also see that they use crystals as usb keys, but that's a small thing for a sci-fi show. Also, in ep 12 we see that workers have less rights than they have now. It's not a matter of budget but of ideas.
"it was the dawn of the Third Age of mankind, 10 years after the Earth-Minbari war. The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal: to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call, home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs and wanderers. Humans and aliens, wrapped in 2.500.000 tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last, best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5."
Michael O'Hare as commander Jeffrey Sinclair
Claudia Christian as Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova
Jerry Doyle as Security Chief Michael Garibaldi
Mira Furlan as Delenn
also
Richard Biggs as Dr Stephen Franklin
Andrea Thompson as Talia Winters
Stephen Furst as Vir
Bill Mumy as Lennier
Caitlin Brown as Na'Toth
with
Andrea Katsulas as G'Kar
Peter Jurasik as Londo
The episodes:
1- Midnight on the firing line (mezzanotte di fuoco) - It starts off with Centauri agricultural colony Ragesh 3 being attacked. Centauri Ambassador Londo Mollari thinks the Narn are responsible. Narn ambassador G'Kar said at first that he knew nothing about it, then he said "I just heard", still acting innocent, but not for long; they have a fight and G'Kar sort of threatens him. Londo is very worried because his beloved nephew Carn is on that colony, a job he personally found for him to 'keep him safe, out of military life', the irony. Commander Sinclair has to put on a gas-mask to visit ambassador Kosh. Londo is upset because the Centauri Republic is going to do nothing about the attack. Londo says he'll die 20 years from now, killing and/or being killed by G'Kar. G'Kar remembers how green his planet was before the Centauri ruined it. Sinclair says to him after it's been clear that the Narn attacked it: "you didn't even have the decency to pick a military target" and "the sneak attack is the first resort of a coward", and he adds in disgust: "a poorly-armed civilian colony". Apparently though, the Centauri invaded the Narn sector "and began their 100-year reign of terror"; Ragesh 3 was once Narn, but it's been Centauri's property for a century now. Londo wants to kill G'Kar, shoot him, but the telepath senses that and warns Garibaldi, who stops him. The cmdr stops a raider's attack, then "on the command and control ship" he found proof that the Narn were selling weapons to the Raiders, and also that their attack on Ragesh 3 was unprovoked and uninvited, so either the Narn withdraw or he'll show the proof to the Council..
Lt. Cmdr Ivanova doesn't like the telepathic woman and keeps avoiding her. When they finally talk, it turns out that Ivanova hates the Psi Corps, because when they discovered that her mother was a telepath, they let her choose: 1-join the corps, 2-go to prison, 3-agree to take certain drugs for the rest of her life. Obviously she chose the drugs, she didn't want to abandon her family: once a week for 10 years, strong drugs until she couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide.
The vote for the Earth President: Santiago won, a man who promised to cut the budget, to defend Earth culture against the foreigners.. blah blah blah, usual stuff they always say.
At the end of the episode we see what is Garibaldi's second favourite thing in the world: Looney Tunes cartoons, shared with (I think) the Minbari Ambassador, who didn't understand his enthusiasm or his love for popcorn, but very politely tried both :-)
2- Soul Hunter (cacciatore di anime) - Dr Franklin arrives to start working here. A ship comes out of hyperspace in bad shape; Sinclair grabs it with his ship (literally grabs it, high technology :-p) avoiding a collision with the station. The rescued is identified by Delenn as Shak Tot, a Soul Hunter. She wants to kill "it" "before it's too late, before someone dies". She says that soul hunters are immortal, and they sense death and are drawn to it. They can steal the soul at the moment of death. Several alien ships want to leave the station as soon as they hear about his presence. A con-man is stabbed to death and this alien starts speaking. He says they don't steal, they "save" the souls of special people, but the Minbari won't let them help them: "we have saved only a few. Very rare. Rarest of all their leader, Dukhat, dying. Your fault. Your war." he wanted to take Dukhat's soul but the Minbari stopped him and he died and all that he was was gone.
The dead body of the con-man is launched towards a burning-star because his family can't afford to bring him/it home. Franking: "typical human lifespan is almost 100 years but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. Wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then... it's over" - Ivanova "it doesn't matter, if we lived 200 years we'd still be humans. We'd still make the same mistakes" - F:"you're a pessimist" - Iv:"I'm Russian, Doctor, we understand these things" :lol: Actually I don't know why it's funny, I like the way she says it, I guess :-)
The hunter thinks that the soul ends with death unless they preserve it, while Delenn thinks the soul will be reincarnated in the next generation of Minbari. He calls her Satai Delenn of the Grey Council, stating that she was a leader, not an ambassador, then he escapes from the medlab. Another hunter comes to warn Sinclair that the first one is "deeply disturbed" and might kill someone, because he has stopped waiting for them to die, now he kills them to take their souls. Of course Sinclair stops him. He was about to take Delenn's soul by killing her, but Sinclair turned his machine against him. Delenn is of course alive, which according to the doctor is quite remarkable because a human would have died after losing so much blood. Delenn was about to say something to Sinclair but then she fell asleep and never said it. Sinclair returns the 'collection of souls' to Delenn, and she sets them all free. At this point I have an observation: she sets them free whatever species they might be, because the soul hunter said before that taking Minbari's souls is not at all easy, so he can't have had many.
3- Born to the purple (mistero a Babylon 5) - The Centauri dancer that Londo likes so much has a master who orders her to spy on him. She actually seems to like Londo, for real, but she must obey because she's a slave and he owns her. Londo likes her very much.
She puts something on his drink to make him sleep, then she copies all his personal files into a crystal and leaves. She should give the crystal to her master, but instead she runs away, trying to escape him.
The bastard then tells Londo a few lies about her and the big truth of what she did.
I like Londo's answer when he asks for Sinclair's help: Sinclair sees a great opportunity here, since the Narn-Centauri negotiations are going badly because of the two stubborn ambassadors who hate each other, so he says that he'll help him if he will agree to his compromise on the treaty, and Londo replies "I'll even seal it with a kiss" :-p you know, like they used to say a long time ago, apparently:-)
He said it well :-)
The bastard gets to the girl first, but Miss Winters the telepath helps them get her location from his mind, so they save both the girl and the data. When Adira Tyree (Fabiana Udenio) leaves the station, Londo goes to say goodbye; he gives her back her freedom (Sinclair secured it from the bastard) and he also gives her a jewel (a precious pin) then she boards the ship and is gone.
Side story: Garibaldi is trying to find out who is using an unauthorized channel, but Ivanova doesn't seem as concern about it as he is. She says it might be a malfunction but he doesn't let it go, he keeps at it and he witnesses Ivanova herself using it, to talk to her dying father. It's touching. He says that after her mother and brother died he was so deep in grief he didn't give her the love she deserved, but he's sorry now and very proud of her, then he dies and she cries. He tells her that he tracked the call, but he won't report it as such, but as a computer error.
4- Infection (infezione) - Dr Vance Hendricks comes to the station to see Dr Franklin, who once was his student. He's an archeologist (David McCallum), and he smuggles in ancient organic artifacts for the doctor to study and analyze. One of them takes control of the man who touched it and transforms him; now he goes around with a weapon instead of a hand, killing people. It appears that that organic thing is a weapon, created by fanatics to kill everyone was not "pure race", so the weapon killed all the 'enemies' and then all the creators, because nobody is 'pure'.
This sounds a lot like a Star Trek episode, or two :-p
Sinclair goes heroic on Garibaldi again, and he goes alone. Like Kirk would have done, he talks to the weapon, makes him see that his world he wants to protect so much is dead, and has been for 1000 years, destroyed by those like him who should have protected it, so the "weapon" kills itself, but not Nelson, the man whose body was taken over by it.
Dr Franklin turns Vance in and he's arrested. The doctor is worried that what happened to that world might happen to Earth too, where there is talk of "Earth pure" and hate against aliens and such things, then the artifacts are confiscated for planetary security :-/
Garibaldi confronts Jeff Sinclair as a friend: after the war some people act strangely, sometimes, like he's doing, putting himself in such danger: "some people call that being a hero, maybe so, I don't know, I've never been one, (...) I think they're looking for something worth dying for because that's easier than finding something worth living for" - that was a good scene, between Garibaldi and Sinclair.
A girl comes to the station, she's a journalist and wants to interview Sinclair for Interstellar Network News. She keeps poking around but Ivanova has her own way to stop her from annoying the commander any further "Don't. You're too young to experience that much pain.." :-p
5- The parliament of dreams (palazzo dei sogni) - The station is full of people come to "demonstrate their religious belief": at the Centauri "Celebration of life" Londo and Ivanova are quite enjoying themselves (read: getting ridiculously drunk). Delenn is joined by Lennier (he wasn't on he station before, he introduces himself to her now after calling her Satai Delenn): the Minbari celebration is much more serious, and features the word "death" many times.
For the Earth demonstration, Sinclair assembles a long row of people, each representing a different faith: catholic, atheist, buddhist, muslim, jew, aborigine, shinto, etc etc.
Second story: G'Kar's life has been seriously threatened by an old enemy now dead. Apparently before dying he hired an assassin, to kill him within 48 hours, and G'Kar is freaking out, but with good reasons. The assassin indeed comes, but G'Kar's assistant Na'Toth saves him.
Side story: Sinclair hooks up with an on-and-off girlfriend again, Catherine.
6- Mind war (guerra delle menti) - Bester (Walter Koenig) and an even more annoying girl are psycops looking for a powerful telepath who's been experimented upon. They demand Sinclair's help and question Miss Winters, who knows nothing about it, but they scan her mind because they 'have to be sure'. It's painful, apparently, but right after, Jason shows himself to her, explaining how incredibly powerful he has become and how dangerous it would be if the psy corps got him and discovered how to make others like him. She believes him, and cares a lot about him because they were once lovers, and she asks Sinclair to meet him and Sinclair agrees to help him. Unfortunately they are stopped by the psy corps before they can reach Jason's ship ( or a ship they give to him, not sure), and they try to overpower him with their minds combined, but he's too strong for them, and he kills the girl while Bester is only knocked down, then he leaves. Once outside the station, Jason becomes something else, a big light out in space and he speaks telepathically with them, giving Talia the gift of telekinesis and saying goodbye to Sinclair "I will see you again in a million years".
Something like this also happened on Star Trek. Just saying.
Bester has to yield to Sinclair's condition and agree to their version of the story, that Jason simply escaped. "but that's a lie" - Sinclair:"yes it is. what's your point?" one of my fav Sinclair moments.
Side story: Sigma 957 is the class 4 world Catherine wants to explore for exploitation. Before going she needs approval from G'Kar because that's Narn property. G'Kar warns her many times that the place is not safe, but she doesn't listen to him. "No one here is exactly what he appears" he says "my warning is sincere, ignore it at your own peril".
She does ignore it, and goes anyway, then a big colourful thing appears and vanishes, sucking all the energy of her ship. She'd have no chance of survival, but two Narn ships sent by G'Kar come to help her. He tells her "there are things in the universe billions of years older than either of our races... we have as much chance of communicating with them as an ant has with us. We know, we've tried".
7- The war prayer (preghiera di sangue) - A friend of Delenn, a performer, is attacked by the Pro-Earth Group; two young Centauri come to the station to escape arranged marriages because they love each other and they too are attacked.
Mayann "I have travelled far and seen much and what I have seen tells me that all sentient beings are best defined by their capacity and their need for love"- Londo "she will learn to live without it" - Mayann"as you did". He's touched by this remark. He remembers his father crying and saying "my shoes are too tight but it doesn't matter because I have forgotten how to dance" I like these words.
Londo finds a legal way to let the two lovers be together :-)
An ex-lover of Susan comes to the station. Ivanova left him eight years ago for her career, and now he tells her that he can accept it, and therefore is planning on staying and start working on Babylon 5. She seems to like him a lot, but then Garibaldi discovers he's with the Pro-Earth group, if not the leader, and tells Sinclair and Susan. Sinclair tries to play undercover, and Malcolm is all "we want to put Earth back at the centre of the Universe, our Universe" oh my what an ignorant idiot, and there are so many like him, wanting to feel superior at all costs, when they so are not.
The pro-Earth group members were camouflage-clothes. They were planning on killing the four major ambassadors, but Sinclair and Ivanova stop them and arrest them.
Sinclair also mentions that Earth won the war against the Minbari because "they let us win"
8- And the sky full of stars (un cielo pieno di stelle) - Some men arrive on the station bringing trouble to Sinclair. A new security man is highly indebted because he likes to gamble. Because of this, he sells a power source to those dangerous men for money, and they use it to enter Sinclair's mind after, I think, kidnapping him. He's 39, born of Mars Colony May 3, 2219, just for the record.
They keep him under drugs and enter his mind, but after a while he manages to get free and escape, but he's delusional because of the drugs, and also remembers things he didn't remember before, like Delenn in a grey robe. Garibaldi and everyone else is looking for him, and when they find him he shoots at them, but Delenn approaches him nonetheless, saying "I'm your friend" and he says "I know you" then he collapses. He is cured, but when Delenn asks him if he remembers anything he lies and says no. Luckily for him, since there is there a Minbari man that tells Delenn he must never know or he'll be killed. Still, he doesn't know the meaning of the little he remembers (of having been interrogated by the Grey Council, and then let go) but he's determined to find out.
9- Deathwalker (la morte in agguato) - A woman just arrived and Na'Toth attacks her, furiously, claiming she's Deathwalker; Garibaldi finds her Dilgar uniform, military rank War Master, which seems to prove that she's really Jha'dur (Sarah Douglas) also called Deathwalker. She admits to it when she wakes up: she discovered a serum of virtual immortality (it slows the aging process and prevents sickness) through experiments on aliens like the Narns. Sinclair asks for Lennier and Delenn's help and G'Kar tries to deal with her to get the serum, but Jha'dur asks for Na'toth's head in return! So evil!
Garibaldi is the only one who says "there is no choice" because her experiments were cruel to say the least. She infected, and killed, and experimented upon, she doesn't deserve anything.
"She wiped out entire races, destroyed whole planets, experimented on living beings, now she wants to make everybody immortal? Why?"
Earth wants her too, and Sinclair is inclined to follow the orders "she can save more lives than she took; if she can make the deaths she caused have meaning, isn't that worth considering?" No, I say, it's not that easy, because you can't justify her actions like this. Luckily G'Kar calls Ambassador Kalika (Robin Curtis) and an assembly of people stops her being sent to Earth. The Centauri, Narn, and even Minbari vote no at the Council, so she won't be put on trial on Babylon 5, but lots of aliens demand she'll be given over to them. Ivanova stalls them by making them argue on who should be the first to attack and claim her (:-p), while Sinclair makes a deal with the League (all those alien races that are not Centauri, Narn or Minbari are united in the League and have only one vote in the Council... doesn't seem very fair..): he reaches a compromise: they'll send some of their people to Earth to develop together the serum, and after that Jha'dur will be turned over to them. However, when Sinclair talks to Jha'dur, she scorns his attempt at justice by revealing that the serum needs an ingredient that can not be synthesized but must be taken from living beings "if you want to live forever, another one must die: you will fall upon one another like wolves. It'll make what we did pale by comparison. The billions who'll live forever will be a testimony to my work and the billions who are murdered to buy that immortality will be the continuance of my work. Not like us? You will become us!"
A Vorlon ship (Kosh's race) comes out while Jha'dur is leaving, and destroys her ship killing her.
Londo's comment: "well, all's well that ends well"
Sort of side story, whose significance is not clear to me. Talia Winters is employed by Ambassador Kosh in some strange negotiations between him and a weird man with some sort of machine in his brain.
It was developed differently, but the evil-doctor-with-the-miraculous-cure dilemma was also a Star Trek episode.
10- Believers (tra la vita e la morte) - An alien child is sick, but a simple surgery procedure could cure him, however his parents won't allow it for spiritual reasons, even if that means his sure death.
They are the "children of time" and if you "open them" their soul will be lost. The doctor and his assistant disagree on the way he's dealing with the situation. The doctor tries to go over their heads appealing to Sinclair, and the parents try to find protection from the ambassadors, but G'Kar, Londo, Kosh and Delenn, they all refuse. Sinclair also refuses, and the doctor wants to operate anyway, with the help of his assistant. The boy lives, feels well, but his parents refuse him now. They take him only to kill him because "that was not their son; because his spirit had gone when he was cut open, and was only a shell now" ... unbelievable.
Ivanova has nothing to do and is very bored, and wants a mission. :-p She goes on a mission to escort a damaged ship to Babylon 5. She finds herself surrounded by raiders and she engages battle alone, but she comes back safe.
11- Survivors (i sopravvissuti) - President Santiago is due to come to Babylon 5. There's an explosion, and head of Presidential Security Lianna takes over the case.
Michael knew Lianna seventeen years ago. He was working in a bad place full of crimes, and he was the only one that was honest and cared about justice and law. He started drinking to get through the day, then he befriended Lianna's father. Things started to go well, until the day some criminals killed his friend to get to him.
He stopped drinking, and that why he goes to the barman "I need a drink! Water! Straight!"
Lianna blames him, and now someone is trying to frame him for sabotage. He is a fugitive now, and starts drinking again, so they find him. She interrogates him, but he's still trying to figure out who could have framed him up, and the only possibility seems to be Cutter, one of her agents. When they confront him, Cutter knocks her down and fights Michael, who luckily manages to communicate with Ivanova just in time. Cutter was working for the Pro-Earth group, against Santiago alien policy. Before she leaves, Michael has a chance to talk to her again, and they clear things up. Before going, she hugs him :-)
12- By any means necessary (a qualsiasi costo) - A Narn cargo ship blows out a cargo bay, and a Babylon 5 worker dies. Their representative tries to explain how the workers can not be blamed for the accident. The equipment is not adequate and there are not enough workers for the amount of work and traffic there is: "the workers have been forced to work triple shifts because they are understaffed in every area".
The accident was caused by cheap equipment, cheap materials, something like that, so Sinclair hopes (naive) to get an increase in the station budget. The increase is denied (obviously, the governments tend to give less and less money for the well-being of their people) , no surprise there, no. The workers contract states that they can't go on strike so they call in sick. That's an illegal strike, and senator Hidoshi sends a man, Zento, to deal with it. What he does is : he orders Sinclair to arrest any illegal striker who won't go back to work! Zento is unhappy when Sinclair ends the situation by studying closely the "Rush act", by which he is authorized to use "any means necessary" so he gives amnesty to all the workers and takes money away from the military budget.
G'Kar needs a specific plant for his religious ceremony, but it was in the cargo that got destroyed. Mollari has the only one on Babylon 5 but he refuses to give it or sell it to G'Kar.
Sinclair has made enemies in the Senate (not Hidoshi though, it would appear) but he got G'Kar's thanks for resolving his religious problem.
13- Signs and portents (premonizioni) - Londo bury for his Government a very important thing called 'the eye', a sort of precious jewel symbol of a noble family or something like that, I don't remember. Lord Kiro and his aunt Nadira come to take it back to their planet. Raiders steal it with the help of Kiro who thinks they'll help him take the power over the Emperor, but he's wrong.
A strange man asks every Ambassador "what do you want?" and at the end he gives the eye back to Londo, who already thought his career was over now that the eye was lost.
Nadira has a vision of Babylon 5 exploding and she warns Sinclair hoping he might avoid that future.
Garibaldi discovers how Sinclair got this command: the Minbari demanded to have a say on who'll be commander of Babylon 5 and they refused any other name: they wanted him.
14- TKO (scambio) - Walker Smith (Greg McKinney) is an old friend of Garibaldi. He was a great fighter until he was set up and his career ruined, but now he wants his last big chance: he wants to fight in the Mutai, a fighting tournament for aliens. There are no rules, the one still standing is the winner. No humans has ever fought in the Mutai, and Smith is initially turned down. An alien, ex-fighter, helps him by telling him what to do. Smith and Garibaldi go to a match, and when the Mutai champion wins, and the Mu-ta-do, the Master of the Game, asks who is brave enough to challenge him, Smith volunteers. The challenge is accepted and when they fight he can hold his own. They are both good fighters, and it goes on for a while like I-punch-you-you-punch-me, and at the end they are both on their knees and it is declared a tie, but Smith is now accepted in the Mutai circle, and he's made history on Earth as the first human ever to fight in the Mutai. He can return to Earth now.
Second story: a rabbi comes to help Susan in dealing with her loss; after her father died she didn't go to the funeral nor she mourned him here on Babylon 5. For some time she refuses to sit the Shiva, the ceremony where she mourns him with her friends and family, but at the end she changes her mind and mourns him and cries, and remembers him with the rabbi, some friends (I suppose, never seen them) and Sinclair "her dear friend". Crying is good, it'll do her good.
15- Grail (il calice sacro) - It starts with a piece of comedy: an alien, of the kind 'we know', all grey and long and thin, is on trial; a man says that the alien's ancestors kidnapped and experimented upon one of his ancestors, who was believed a madman and scorned by everyone.
Main story: a man named Aldous Gajic (David Warner) comes to Babylon 5: he's on a lifetime mission to find the Holy Grail.. yes, exactly. However, these represented here are not our times, where such a mission would be proof of a distressed/insane mind or else of a con-man asking for money to help him on his sacred mission. No, Aldous is really a good man, who demands nothing of others but on the contrary is the first to help. He once had a regular job, but after he lost his family nothing made sense anymore until he met the 'previous seeker' who gave him a purpose in life and believed in him. Now he's doing the same for Jinxo, a petty thief, rather incompetent, probably because he's actually a good man and stealing is a pathetic act of less-worthy people.
There's a creature who sucks the brain of people, and it's used by Douce (or something like that) to help him get rid of whoever he wants (it doesn't actually 'kill', as I understand it, but you're left empty, there's nothing left of you in your head). Jinxo owes Douce a lot of money, that's why he's caught stealing money (well, credits) from Aldous. At the trial, Aldous asks the judge to free Jinxo( that he will call by his real name Thomas) and put him under his care.
Jinxo worked on Babylon 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and each time the station blew up just after he left, so he thinks he is Babylon 5's curse, that if he leaves Babylon 5 will explode, but Aldous sees things differently. He's not cursed, he's lucky and special because he survived, very closely, four times. Aldous has lots of money, a good heart, and can fight, but bad guys never fight honorably so he's taken prisoner and Jinxo runs to Sinclair for help. The judge is also a prisoner. When the cavalry arrives and there's a fight, Thomas tries to free the judge, and Aldous protects him when someone is about to shoot him, so Aldous dies instead. Thomas takes on himself his mission and money and purpose; now he finally has a purpose in life and intends to fulfil his obligation and his promise to the man that turned his life around.
16- Eyes (occhi spaziali) - Garibaldi is building a motorbike (Kawasaki is all I remember of his long description :-p) and Lennier wants to help him with the Japanese manual :-)He's a quick study indeed! Since Garibaldi has no time now, he also offers to work on it himself, and at the end of the episode the bike will be completed and they'll ride it through the station together :-)
A hateful colonel comes to the station to investigate all command personnel , and he's accompanied by Mr Harriman Gray (Jeffrey Combs) from PsyCorps, who's here to scan their minds, but they refuse. The colonel's reason is much more personal, though; he hates Sinclair because he got Babylon 5. The colonel wanted this command, and is quite pissed off over it.
Susan would rather resign her post than be scanned, but she won't need to go that far because Sinclair and Garibaldi discovered the reason behind the colonel's witch-hunt (his hate, read above) and suggests Gray should scan both of them, not just Sinclair. Gray does it, but the colonel is on a frenzy and points a gun at them, so Gray stops him with a word "pain" into his brain :-p
Not a bad episode. I hated Bester, but I'd like to see Gray again :-)
17- Legacies (l'eredità) - A Minbari warrior is dead. He was a great leader and his clan of warriors come to Babylon 5 to honor him publicly; but before the war he was a religious man who wished for a quiet life and a quiet death. Because of this Delenn and her people "steal" the body and cremate him. The warriors make a big fuss over the disappearance of the body and insist on a big investigation. Their leader even attacks Sinclair.
To end this situation, Satai Delenn imposes her authority over him, even ordering him to apologize to Sinclair. When he does, the commander has nice words over the bravery and honor of the deceased and the two man leave at peace.
The other story of the episode: a girl is found stealing, but she also just discovered to be a telepath. Talia would send her directly to Earth, to the PsyCorps, but of course Ivanova strongly opposes the idea. At the end, after considering all her choices, Alisa decides to go with the Minbari :-)
18- A voice in the wilderness part 1 (spazio part 1) - While civilian scientists are surveying the planet below, they are shot at. Missiles. Back to Babylon 5 they go, and they say they believe there's something artificial down there, and probably something worth protecting. Sinclair and Ivanova go there themselves and discover, five miles below the surface, big big machines like they've never seen, but also the image of a man asking for help. They find him attached to some machinery or portal or something and they try to take him back to Babylon 5 to be cured. Meanwhile, on the Mars colony there's a rebellion going on and all communications are off. Sinclair and Ivanova have nobody there anymore, but Garibaldi left a woman when he came to work here. He's worried sick for her and asks for Talia's help in trying to contact her.
19- A voice in the wilderness part 2 (spazio part 2) - The alien that was in that machine recovered a bit of strength, enough to talk and explain, but he has only a few days to live, and without him the planet will explode taking Babylon 5 with it. An Earth ship and an alien ship come for the place and its wonders, but they can't have it.
Delenn's friend and ex-mentor takes the place of the alien into the machine, stabilizing the situation. Now there's no more risk of an explosion.
Garibaldi's friend Lise has been located on Mars. The rebellion is under control now. She's wounded but ok and he can speak to her. He tells her he made a mistake leaving her, but now she's married and about to have a baby.
20- Babylon squared (corruzione a Babylon 5) - Delenn is called back by the Grey Council to be made their leader, but she doesn't want to leave Babylon 5 forever. Apparently they stopped the war because there was a prophecy regarding humans, but one doubts it "what is it that makes the humans so special?" *sigh* humans really think they are so special, don't they? All these movies, throughout the years, all the same: humans are so special, so noble, with so much to teach... how stupid is it, don't they ever take a good look around? The things humans would do for money are endless and indescribable. The things they do for every other reason all reunite under one word: superiority. Humans like so much to feel superior to others. Humans do not want to live in peace like brothers and sisters, each of them wants to be superior to everybody else. They all have that same look in their eyes: "i'm superior because: I have more money; I'm the master and you're the slave; I follow the 'sacred book' rules; I have weapons and you don't; I don't let old superstition guide my life; etc etc etc this might go on forever.
Humans are not superiors. Look around: so much injustice and horrible things going on!
Anyway, Babylon 4 reappears. Apparently it's shifting through time, and Sinclair tries to evacuate as many as possible before it disappears again. Now, why this five-at-a-time-policy? I understand they can't run all at once, it would be a mess, but five at a time? They don't have much time!
There's also a sort of alien on Babylon 4. He's from another time I think. They all escape, and then we see that "the One" so worshipped by the alien was actually an older Sinclair who "tried to warn them" of some great was about to come, and with him there's someone (I think it was Delenn) who spoke very affectionately to him.
Delenn goes back to Babylon 5, not sure is she's still accepted in the Council or not, it's for sure they didn't take well her refusing to be the leader, but she still have at least a friend in the Council. Good.
21- The quality of mercy (il dono della misericordia) - Again we see that in 2258 humans and aliens spend their nights watching girls dancing and undressing, drinking alcohol and playing poker for money *rolling eyes*
A man is a murderer, but they can't afford to send him to Earth or to keep him in prison and can not kill him, so they have only one chance: erase completely his personality. Talia scans him and is horrified.
The doctor goes down below to cure for free those who can't afford to pay, and discovers that there's another one, a woman who is healing people using an alien device. She's not a fraud, though, she's a good woman, and the machine works by giving her patients some of her life-energy. When the murderer escapes, and is wounded, he goes to her and force her to help him threatening her daughter's life, she does so, but when she realizes he'll never let the girl live, she uses the machine in reverse, taking his life force and giving him all her pain and terminal illness. He dies, and she's cured, but feels the guilt of taking a man's life. She'll leave the station, on a journey to redeem herself. She turns her machine over to Doctor Franklin :-)
22- Chrysalis (metamorfosi) - Narn and Centauri have yet another quarrel, over quadrant 37 this time. Neither G'Kar nor Londo wants to back down when that strange man that brought Londo back 'the eye' comes back to offer him his help, and he accepts it. The Narn outpost is destroyed, 10.000 Narns die, everything is destroyed.
Sinclair plans to marry Catherine and Garibaldi and Ivanova are to be best man and maid of honor.
There's a conspiracy and Garibaldi is shot by a traitor security man. The Earth President is killed, although everyone on Earth keeps believing it an accident.
The mysterious man Morden talks to the 'shadows', they have mysterious plans.
Delenn begins a mysterious transformation, and nobody knows what'll be of her, and Lennier is afraid for her.
The episode (and the series) ends without telling us what it'll be of Delenn, of Garibaldi, or of anything else. The new President doesn't seem so keen on aliens, he's probably part of Home Guard too..
The marriage too is on hold, another cliffhanger for next series.
I wonder if I can find the other seasons on dvd...
domenica 16 ottobre 2016
Love affair - 1939
Almost identical to the 1957 film with Cary Grant, but maybe if I had to choose I'd choose this one.
It starts with the news all over the world (USA and England are basically identical, but there is France instead of Italy) that Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) is going to America to marry rich Lois. Basically this Michel is a famous playboy, and everyone wants his autograph or a picture with him. Men :-/
Here he does stop to do the autographs, but then he's rude in what he writes. He meets Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) and everything between them is the same, almost word for word; him hitting on her, and her saying "don't tell me you're embarassed", then they have dinner together, they talk about themselves "that's the only page" says Terry here too. The photographer taking a picture and them throwing it away, the "child rescued" and the pink champagne cocktail and everybody on the ship looking at them, but in this film they didn't go on as much on how hard they tried to hide from gossip. Good, it was kinda boring. There's the visit to his grandmother in Madeira, her collie dog, the beautiful, peaceful place that is her home, and the chapel where she prays. Grandma telling her "there is nothing wrong with Michel that a nice woman couldn't make it right" :-p I don't remember this bit in the other movie.
There is the piano, and grandma playing and Terry singing, but Michel doesn't bring any gift this time. When they go away, Terry comes back and runs to hug her and kiss her, here too.
When they finally talk about their feelings, he confesses he has never worked in his life, not once.. "it would take me at least six months.." - "what are you trying to say Michel?" - "I'm trying to say that it would take me six months to find out if I'm worthy to say what's in my heart" awww this was nice.
July the 1st, at 5 o'clock, on top of the Empire State Building: "it's the tallest building in the world, you can't miss that".
She starts singing in clubs, he starts painting, then when the moment comes she's run over by a car. He waits a long time, there's the same thunderstorm, it all goes as we know. They even have the same seats in the theatre on Christmas Eve, but when we see her at home, I think I could easily see her legs move :-/
He goes to her, they talk but she won't explain why she didn't go, until he finds in her house the painting that his agent gave a woman on a wheelchair as a gift, so he understands about her condition, and they hug, and she cries, and she says "if you can paint, I can walk, anything can happen" which I didn't like there and I don't like here; what's the meaning of it? He already knew how to paint, it's just that now he's taking it seriously!
Anyway, I don't like the ending, but between the two I prefer this one. The scenes on the ship were nicer and less boring because they didn't go on and on about hiding, and the scene when they decide their future and set their date was nicer here, I liked it more.
ITA un grande amore
It starts with the news all over the world (USA and England are basically identical, but there is France instead of Italy) that Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) is going to America to marry rich Lois. Basically this Michel is a famous playboy, and everyone wants his autograph or a picture with him. Men :-/
Here he does stop to do the autographs, but then he's rude in what he writes. He meets Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) and everything between them is the same, almost word for word; him hitting on her, and her saying "don't tell me you're embarassed", then they have dinner together, they talk about themselves "that's the only page" says Terry here too. The photographer taking a picture and them throwing it away, the "child rescued" and the pink champagne cocktail and everybody on the ship looking at them, but in this film they didn't go on as much on how hard they tried to hide from gossip. Good, it was kinda boring. There's the visit to his grandmother in Madeira, her collie dog, the beautiful, peaceful place that is her home, and the chapel where she prays. Grandma telling her "there is nothing wrong with Michel that a nice woman couldn't make it right" :-p I don't remember this bit in the other movie.
There is the piano, and grandma playing and Terry singing, but Michel doesn't bring any gift this time. When they go away, Terry comes back and runs to hug her and kiss her, here too.
When they finally talk about their feelings, he confesses he has never worked in his life, not once.. "it would take me at least six months.." - "what are you trying to say Michel?" - "I'm trying to say that it would take me six months to find out if I'm worthy to say what's in my heart" awww this was nice.
July the 1st, at 5 o'clock, on top of the Empire State Building: "it's the tallest building in the world, you can't miss that".
She starts singing in clubs, he starts painting, then when the moment comes she's run over by a car. He waits a long time, there's the same thunderstorm, it all goes as we know. They even have the same seats in the theatre on Christmas Eve, but when we see her at home, I think I could easily see her legs move :-/
He goes to her, they talk but she won't explain why she didn't go, until he finds in her house the painting that his agent gave a woman on a wheelchair as a gift, so he understands about her condition, and they hug, and she cries, and she says "if you can paint, I can walk, anything can happen" which I didn't like there and I don't like here; what's the meaning of it? He already knew how to paint, it's just that now he's taking it seriously!
Anyway, I don't like the ending, but between the two I prefer this one. The scenes on the ship were nicer and less boring because they didn't go on and on about hiding, and the scene when they decide their future and set their date was nicer here, I liked it more.
ITA un grande amore
sabato 15 ottobre 2016
An affair to remember - 1957
Honestly it didn't have me sigh with romantic emotions. It was ok, but I'm in no hurry to watch it again. Ok is not what I expected from a movie like this, I thought it would have been more emotional and romantic, but for some reason I didn't feel very involved in the story.
It starts with news all over the world (even Italy, for a second I was like: I thought I had switched to English audio, and indeed I had :-p) reporting that Nicky (Cary Grant) is going to marry rich Lois, and is sailing from Europe to America to go to her. Not sure what is he famous for, just for being charming I guess, or why people wants his autograph, but probably just because he's been in the papers and he's famous..
On the boat he meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and they spent some time together, and he takes her to meet his grandmother, and they all have a lovely time. Terry learns that Nicky was once a talented painter, but gave it up because he didn't like criticisms.
They pointlessly try to avoid each other on the ship so to avoid gossip, quite a boring charade, but apparently those days were enough for the two of them to realize they are so madly in love they are open to change drastically their lives in order to stay together. Neither of them is rich, though, and Nicky has never done a day's work in his life, so they set a plan for themselves. He will work hard and long enough, and in six months they'll meet again and get married.
He has to break up with his girlfriend Lois, and she has to break up with her boyfriend Ken, ( I liked him very much, a sweet guy, more than Nicky). He starts painting again, and working, and she sings in clubs. Normal jobs no, the both of them, they call that hard work??
Anyway, after six months she's in a hurry to meet her Nicky on top of the Empire State building, and knowing he was up there she was looking up and not around her, so she had an accident and couldn't make it. Nicky was there and waited for hours.
She can't walk, and refuses to let him know until she knows for sure if she'll be able to walk again or not. A priest finds her a job: she teaches children how to sing, something like a church choir or so. Personally I didn't like so much time on the songs. It seemed nothing more than a time-filler.
The date was in July and it's now Christmas. Lois calls Nicky and Ken takes Terry out. The same night in the same theatre, they meet again. Ken was very sweet, he wanted to tell Nicky everything but she wouldn't have it.
Another full song sang by the children, then finally the conclusion. Nicky goes to her house. Their conversation was nice, when he pretended he didn't go, but only for a second, because he was giving her the answers: he waited from 5pm until midnight, but when he asks her why she didn't go, she simply replies that she couldn't make it. Then there was a bit I didn't immediately understood, but it should be that one of his paintings had been given to a woman in a wheelchair as a gift, and now he finds that painting in her house, so he understands she is in a wheelchair.
Now that he knows, they hug and she cries, and she says :"if you can paint, I can walk, everything's possible" and it ends like that.
I don't like the ending, I don't like the last line, it doesn't make sense, he could already paint before.
It was a bit disappointing to say the truth, I expected more emotions, there were barely any, for me.
ITA un amore splendido
It starts with news all over the world (even Italy, for a second I was like: I thought I had switched to English audio, and indeed I had :-p) reporting that Nicky (Cary Grant) is going to marry rich Lois, and is sailing from Europe to America to go to her. Not sure what is he famous for, just for being charming I guess, or why people wants his autograph, but probably just because he's been in the papers and he's famous..
On the boat he meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) and they spent some time together, and he takes her to meet his grandmother, and they all have a lovely time. Terry learns that Nicky was once a talented painter, but gave it up because he didn't like criticisms.
They pointlessly try to avoid each other on the ship so to avoid gossip, quite a boring charade, but apparently those days were enough for the two of them to realize they are so madly in love they are open to change drastically their lives in order to stay together. Neither of them is rich, though, and Nicky has never done a day's work in his life, so they set a plan for themselves. He will work hard and long enough, and in six months they'll meet again and get married.
He has to break up with his girlfriend Lois, and she has to break up with her boyfriend Ken, ( I liked him very much, a sweet guy, more than Nicky). He starts painting again, and working, and she sings in clubs. Normal jobs no, the both of them, they call that hard work??
Anyway, after six months she's in a hurry to meet her Nicky on top of the Empire State building, and knowing he was up there she was looking up and not around her, so she had an accident and couldn't make it. Nicky was there and waited for hours.
She can't walk, and refuses to let him know until she knows for sure if she'll be able to walk again or not. A priest finds her a job: she teaches children how to sing, something like a church choir or so. Personally I didn't like so much time on the songs. It seemed nothing more than a time-filler.
The date was in July and it's now Christmas. Lois calls Nicky and Ken takes Terry out. The same night in the same theatre, they meet again. Ken was very sweet, he wanted to tell Nicky everything but she wouldn't have it.
Another full song sang by the children, then finally the conclusion. Nicky goes to her house. Their conversation was nice, when he pretended he didn't go, but only for a second, because he was giving her the answers: he waited from 5pm until midnight, but when he asks her why she didn't go, she simply replies that she couldn't make it. Then there was a bit I didn't immediately understood, but it should be that one of his paintings had been given to a woman in a wheelchair as a gift, and now he finds that painting in her house, so he understands she is in a wheelchair.
Now that he knows, they hug and she cries, and she says :"if you can paint, I can walk, everything's possible" and it ends like that.
I don't like the ending, I don't like the last line, it doesn't make sense, he could already paint before.
It was a bit disappointing to say the truth, I expected more emotions, there were barely any, for me.
ITA un amore splendido
Written on the wind - 1956
A good-enough film but I did not like it much. I guess it's because I didn't like the most important character.. It's the story of a rich guy victim of an inferiority complex that he can't let go played by Robert Stack. Unfortunately I didn't like him much, and could hardly understand a word he was saying. His best friend is poor but better man Mitch played by Rock Hudson-he was ok, nothing thrilling but ok. The woman they both love is Lucy, played by Lauren Bacall-like the actress, but not so fond of the character, especially in the end.
The film starts with a gunshot, but then things move back: it was November 1956 and we watch how it all started in October 1955.
Lucy meets Mitch and he takes her to meet Kyle Hadler: big money, big attitude, son of the big boss of the company, a plane he pilots personally, but he speaks highly of Mitch although he's clearly jealous of him and the consideration his own father has for him. Also not sure why Mitch follows him around everywhere, he doesn't seem to like it one bit, so why is he playing nanny bites me.
Kyle takes them to Miami, and in the hotel room Lucy finds lots of clothes, purses, everything she might need (and much more) considering she brought no luggage. Mitch is disappointed "I had Lucy figured out wrong. I figured she'd be different than all the rest" - Kyle:"she is" - Mitch:"no she's not, if she were she'd have spit right in your eye".
Lucy doesn't do that, she came along because it was a sort of adventure like had never happened to her before, and because she kind of likes Kyle, but doesn't accept the gifts and leaves without a word. Kyle goes after her, talks to her and gets her to get off the plane. He says he wants to start over with her, that he's in love with her, and who knows why she likes him and buys it all, and they get married!
After five weeks Kyle and Lucy come back home from their honeymoon, and now she knows all about Kyle's anxieties and fears, but she has never seen him drunk yet; quite an incredible thing as he said himself that he drinks too much.
There's another character to complicate matters: Kyle's sister Marylee who keeps causing troubles because she can't have the man she's obsessed with : "I love you Mitch, I'm desperate for you", problem is he only loves her as a sister, he says, but personally I doubt even that.
She's a real troublemaker, who says: "married a whole year and still sober. And still faithful. It can't last much longer". When their father dies falling down the stairs, it's even worse because she's a terrible company for Kyle, and her jealousy is dangerous. She hints at her brother that his wife might be having an affair with Mitch, because she has understood that Mitch is in love with Lucy.
One could already see how deep was Kyle's complex when he couldn't beat up a guy but Mitch did, and then when Kyle talked to the doctor: "is Lucy alright? Can she have children?" and he replies: "there's nothing wrong with Lucy" implying that there might be something wrong with him. Kyle was again feeling little, I guess. What's more, the doctor says: "the tests we took show a ... let's call it a weakness. Believe me you're not sterile" and "in time we'll be able to correct this weakness". Definitely not the right word to use with him. He starts drinking again, heavily, and Mitch and Lucy have to bring him home (on Mitch's shoulder). He suffers, but he won't talk about his torments to anyone.
When Mitch finally tells Lucy he loves her, she tells him that she's pregnant :-/ Kyle is out drinking again, and when she comes back home Lucy tells him the good news, she thinks, but he's so wasted and broken he thinks it can not be his baby so it must be Mitch's baby, and he hits her. She screams and Mitch comes to help her and to send Kyle away. Mitch calls the doctor but Lucy loses her baby. A miscarriage, he says.
Lucy is afraid, and wants Mitch to take her away. Kyle comes back looking for a gun and finds it. He threatens Mitch who tells him the truth, Kyle would have been the father, that he never tried anything only because she was his wife. Marylee stops Kyle from trying to shoot Mitch by sort of fighting with him, and Kyle shoots himself, by mistake I'd say but then at the inquest it is said that he killed himself because he was depressed. Marylee said it.
Five people could testify that Mitch had threatened Kyle's life, and Marylee could have been the end of Mitch. She tried to blackmail him, marry me or I'll say that you killed Kyle, and Mitch refused the deal, so he was actually worried about what she might say at the inquest. It was not going well for him up to that point, but at the end she didn't, she told the truth, (more or less, maybe she lied so Kyle would look like a suicide and not like an attempted murderer, after all he was rich and he was family, so maybe she protected her family's name).
It all ends with Mitch driving away with Lucy and Marylee alone in that big house, crying in her father's chair.
Now, I appreciated the psychology of the drama, but many things left me like :-/
Why did Mitch go and get Lucy at her office if they had never met before (just an excuse for Kyle being in the city? to force a secretary to have lunch with Kyle?), and why he introduced her to Kyle in the first place. The two of them could make anything up to explain Kyle's presence there, and anything would probably be better than getting the secretary out of the office, taking her to another city and marrying her.
I also didn't like the ending, that it all depended on a spoiled girl growing up and doing the right thing, and that Lucy went away with Mitch as if she loved him now while nothing indicates this: sure she said she needed him there when he said he was going away, but to need a responsible man in the house when you're having all those troubles is not the same thing that being in love.
ITA come le foglie al vento
The film starts with a gunshot, but then things move back: it was November 1956 and we watch how it all started in October 1955.
Lucy meets Mitch and he takes her to meet Kyle Hadler: big money, big attitude, son of the big boss of the company, a plane he pilots personally, but he speaks highly of Mitch although he's clearly jealous of him and the consideration his own father has for him. Also not sure why Mitch follows him around everywhere, he doesn't seem to like it one bit, so why is he playing nanny bites me.
Kyle takes them to Miami, and in the hotel room Lucy finds lots of clothes, purses, everything she might need (and much more) considering she brought no luggage. Mitch is disappointed "I had Lucy figured out wrong. I figured she'd be different than all the rest" - Kyle:"she is" - Mitch:"no she's not, if she were she'd have spit right in your eye".
Lucy doesn't do that, she came along because it was a sort of adventure like had never happened to her before, and because she kind of likes Kyle, but doesn't accept the gifts and leaves without a word. Kyle goes after her, talks to her and gets her to get off the plane. He says he wants to start over with her, that he's in love with her, and who knows why she likes him and buys it all, and they get married!
After five weeks Kyle and Lucy come back home from their honeymoon, and now she knows all about Kyle's anxieties and fears, but she has never seen him drunk yet; quite an incredible thing as he said himself that he drinks too much.
There's another character to complicate matters: Kyle's sister Marylee who keeps causing troubles because she can't have the man she's obsessed with : "I love you Mitch, I'm desperate for you", problem is he only loves her as a sister, he says, but personally I doubt even that.
She's a real troublemaker, who says: "married a whole year and still sober. And still faithful. It can't last much longer". When their father dies falling down the stairs, it's even worse because she's a terrible company for Kyle, and her jealousy is dangerous. She hints at her brother that his wife might be having an affair with Mitch, because she has understood that Mitch is in love with Lucy.
One could already see how deep was Kyle's complex when he couldn't beat up a guy but Mitch did, and then when Kyle talked to the doctor: "is Lucy alright? Can she have children?" and he replies: "there's nothing wrong with Lucy" implying that there might be something wrong with him. Kyle was again feeling little, I guess. What's more, the doctor says: "the tests we took show a ... let's call it a weakness. Believe me you're not sterile" and "in time we'll be able to correct this weakness". Definitely not the right word to use with him. He starts drinking again, heavily, and Mitch and Lucy have to bring him home (on Mitch's shoulder). He suffers, but he won't talk about his torments to anyone.
When Mitch finally tells Lucy he loves her, she tells him that she's pregnant :-/ Kyle is out drinking again, and when she comes back home Lucy tells him the good news, she thinks, but he's so wasted and broken he thinks it can not be his baby so it must be Mitch's baby, and he hits her. She screams and Mitch comes to help her and to send Kyle away. Mitch calls the doctor but Lucy loses her baby. A miscarriage, he says.
Lucy is afraid, and wants Mitch to take her away. Kyle comes back looking for a gun and finds it. He threatens Mitch who tells him the truth, Kyle would have been the father, that he never tried anything only because she was his wife. Marylee stops Kyle from trying to shoot Mitch by sort of fighting with him, and Kyle shoots himself, by mistake I'd say but then at the inquest it is said that he killed himself because he was depressed. Marylee said it.
Five people could testify that Mitch had threatened Kyle's life, and Marylee could have been the end of Mitch. She tried to blackmail him, marry me or I'll say that you killed Kyle, and Mitch refused the deal, so he was actually worried about what she might say at the inquest. It was not going well for him up to that point, but at the end she didn't, she told the truth, (more or less, maybe she lied so Kyle would look like a suicide and not like an attempted murderer, after all he was rich and he was family, so maybe she protected her family's name).
It all ends with Mitch driving away with Lucy and Marylee alone in that big house, crying in her father's chair.
Now, I appreciated the psychology of the drama, but many things left me like :-/
Why did Mitch go and get Lucy at her office if they had never met before (just an excuse for Kyle being in the city? to force a secretary to have lunch with Kyle?), and why he introduced her to Kyle in the first place. The two of them could make anything up to explain Kyle's presence there, and anything would probably be better than getting the secretary out of the office, taking her to another city and marrying her.
I also didn't like the ending, that it all depended on a spoiled girl growing up and doing the right thing, and that Lucy went away with Mitch as if she loved him now while nothing indicates this: sure she said she needed him there when he said he was going away, but to need a responsible man in the house when you're having all those troubles is not the same thing that being in love.
ITA come le foglie al vento
mercoledì 12 ottobre 2016
The end of the affair - 1955
Not a big fan, no. It is a good film, I mean well done, but I don't care much for it. I guess it's because I don't feel any emotion for the first half of the film, and only partially in the second. I don't "feel" their love and I don't see what she finds so incredibly irresistible in him. She tried to explain, but he stopped her so no answer there. Personally I liked her husband much more, and didn't see how could she hurt him like that.
I liked that it started with his voice introducing the situation:
"It began in London during the war. I had been wounded and discharged out of the Army, but I stayed on in London for I was a writer and had become interested in another group fighting the battle for England's survival, the men on the home front, the civil servants"
then he goes on saying he met one of those men, Henry Miles (Peter Cushing), and went to his "sherry party", and there he met his wife. Just when Henry was telling him "we've been married ten years" Maurice Bendrix (Van Johnson) can see his wife Sarah (Deborah Kerr) in a mirror, kissing another man. Only because of this he became interested in her and wanted to meet her; when it happens, he tells her that he saw her and he kisses her. Just like that. She doesn't seem annoyed at all, she seems charmed instead. They talk for a while and stay silent for a while, and enjoy both. Then they go to a hotel, and their affair seriously starts.
Next scene is with them seeing each other after she's been away five days, and he's all talking crazy "don't ever leave me again", and "where were you? What's his name?" being jealous, but she was at her mother's house. When Henry comes home and Maurice leaves, he's all upset because Sarah seems calm: "only the moment matters with you, Sarah. First the moment with me and now the moment with him". I so did not like that man, what did he want from her, without any patience!?!
Another bit is narrated by his voice: "In the months we spent together there was hardly a part of London that we didn't explore. I knew now that whether for joy or misery I was committed to this one woman for as long as she would have me, and I marveled that a love I had entered into so lightly could grow into a deep and abiding passion, one which dominated my whole life" - I guess the problem was right here, for me, I didn't "feel" any of that big passion he claimed to have, and his complaints for their situation seemed somehow like child's whims. "I like when you start a sentence with 'do you remember?', it means we have a past as well as a present, we lack only a future" but in those times of war she reminds him that "we're not the only ones living from day to day"; I guess in those days it was difficult to plan ahead, not knowing what will be of everything.
There's a bit of dialog I found interesting: Sarah"it isn't because you're handsome, which you're not; it isn't because you're clever, which you are" - Maurice"not why, how" - Sarah"when I'm not with you everything seems flat and tasteless". Well, there you are, to me it all seemed flat whenever they were together.
I didn't like very much all their talking of her 'dull husband', poor thing, he wasn't dull, he was a good person, a quiet man, I liked that.
Bendrix is always complaining like a child "I'm just a passenger in your life" and "if only we were married", I thought he was boring.
Anyway, here the first half of the film, the beginning of the affair, ends, and the second part starts, with 'the end of the affair'. She goes to him to spend three days together, and they seem happy, she talks about a man giving a speech in the park against God and says "it seems risky at a time like this, being rude to God" . Not long after she arrived trouble starts. A bomb hits. He's injured, a big door fell over him. She prayed for him, she thought he was dead, and is surprised when he comes back in his apartment. She leaves him saying "love doesn't end just because we don't see each other". He stays several days in a sort of "delayed shock", then tries to reach her but it seems she's never home anytime he phones, then he thinks that she hoped he was dead so she could leave him with an easy conscience, and his jealousy turns into hatred. He goes away to forget her, and comes back after a year, rarely thinking of her but always with hate.
He meets Henry and they talk, and Henry seems worried about Sarah. She's not ill, but she's always out who knows where and Henry was thinking of hiring a private investigator to follow her, but after talking to him he's calming down, and forgetting the idea. A nice scene was when Sarah came back home and found the two men who love her looking at her, both jealous in their own way.
Bendrix hires the investigator himself to follow Sarah. He waits for her to come home one day and talks to her "what happened to us, why haven't I seen you all this time? What did I do?", and he wishes he never met her. The investigator tells him of this very encounter, saying she looked very sad, but dumb Maurice don't understand the meaning of it. Instead, he shows the investigator's report and a letter he found to Henry. When the investigator brings him Sarah's diary, he reads it and understand how stupid he had been (I say this, not him). She really loved him, deeply, and when she saw him under that door she prayed "God, don't let him be dead, I'll give Maurice up forever , only just let him be alive" crying. Her diary reads: "now the agony of being without you starts" and "I made him very unhappy, that's why I promised what I did". Bendrix had been so jealous when the investigator told him she was seeing a man in his apartment, but it turns out that that man is the preacher from the park, and she wants to be convinced that there is no God so she wouldn't have to keep her promise, quite a silly thing in my opinion.
When sweet Henry told her he couldn't have made it without her, she says "you're far too modest Henry. You might have done much better without me". Poor Sarah, she was really torn apart. She really loved Bendrix, and blamed only herself for everything.
Sweet darling Henry, after Bendrix showed him that report was broken, and talked to Sarah: "I can't do without you" and "I don't want anyone else", and that he knew all along she could not have children but "it made no difference, I had you. I haven't been much of a husband, but stick it out a few more years, I will try", so she says "I won't leave you Henry, I promise". If Bendrix had not been such a jerk... well, it's not over, he won't leave her be, so she goes out in the rain to avoid him, already ill, and he knew it, but he won't listen to reason. She talks about God but not about her promise to Henry. Bendrix doesn't care about God and wants to take her away, and even arranges everything by himself. When he finally goes to get her he finds that she's ill, and Henry is taking good care of her, and her mother is there and the doctor seemed optimistic, but when he comes down she's already dead. Like she didn't try to fight, life left her.
Honestly I find all this talking about God, even in her last letter, totally not-relevant. God had nothing to do with it. It was all because of the war, and the fear of death, and the uncertainty of everything, and of course his jealousy and his hatred, his talking to Henry and poor Henry pleading to Sarah, and all the time she went out in the rain because of him, and her conflict inside, she didn't fight the illness properly, she had no strength left.
I didn't like this Maurice at all. It was obvious she had made a vow to give him up from the way she looked (I liked her). I found boring so much talking of God as if he had any fault in what was happening, while he didn't. It's too easy to blame God for everything. They had their free will and they made their choices, is what it was.
I knew she would die at the end, it was the only ending for a movie like this. Besides, Maurice was tearing her apart: I blame him entirely.
ITA la fine dell'avventura
I liked that it started with his voice introducing the situation:
"It began in London during the war. I had been wounded and discharged out of the Army, but I stayed on in London for I was a writer and had become interested in another group fighting the battle for England's survival, the men on the home front, the civil servants"
then he goes on saying he met one of those men, Henry Miles (Peter Cushing), and went to his "sherry party", and there he met his wife. Just when Henry was telling him "we've been married ten years" Maurice Bendrix (Van Johnson) can see his wife Sarah (Deborah Kerr) in a mirror, kissing another man. Only because of this he became interested in her and wanted to meet her; when it happens, he tells her that he saw her and he kisses her. Just like that. She doesn't seem annoyed at all, she seems charmed instead. They talk for a while and stay silent for a while, and enjoy both. Then they go to a hotel, and their affair seriously starts.
Next scene is with them seeing each other after she's been away five days, and he's all talking crazy "don't ever leave me again", and "where were you? What's his name?" being jealous, but she was at her mother's house. When Henry comes home and Maurice leaves, he's all upset because Sarah seems calm: "only the moment matters with you, Sarah. First the moment with me and now the moment with him". I so did not like that man, what did he want from her, without any patience!?!
Another bit is narrated by his voice: "In the months we spent together there was hardly a part of London that we didn't explore. I knew now that whether for joy or misery I was committed to this one woman for as long as she would have me, and I marveled that a love I had entered into so lightly could grow into a deep and abiding passion, one which dominated my whole life" - I guess the problem was right here, for me, I didn't "feel" any of that big passion he claimed to have, and his complaints for their situation seemed somehow like child's whims. "I like when you start a sentence with 'do you remember?', it means we have a past as well as a present, we lack only a future" but in those times of war she reminds him that "we're not the only ones living from day to day"; I guess in those days it was difficult to plan ahead, not knowing what will be of everything.
There's a bit of dialog I found interesting: Sarah"it isn't because you're handsome, which you're not; it isn't because you're clever, which you are" - Maurice"not why, how" - Sarah"when I'm not with you everything seems flat and tasteless". Well, there you are, to me it all seemed flat whenever they were together.
I didn't like very much all their talking of her 'dull husband', poor thing, he wasn't dull, he was a good person, a quiet man, I liked that.
Bendrix is always complaining like a child "I'm just a passenger in your life" and "if only we were married", I thought he was boring.
Anyway, here the first half of the film, the beginning of the affair, ends, and the second part starts, with 'the end of the affair'. She goes to him to spend three days together, and they seem happy, she talks about a man giving a speech in the park against God and says "it seems risky at a time like this, being rude to God" . Not long after she arrived trouble starts. A bomb hits. He's injured, a big door fell over him. She prayed for him, she thought he was dead, and is surprised when he comes back in his apartment. She leaves him saying "love doesn't end just because we don't see each other". He stays several days in a sort of "delayed shock", then tries to reach her but it seems she's never home anytime he phones, then he thinks that she hoped he was dead so she could leave him with an easy conscience, and his jealousy turns into hatred. He goes away to forget her, and comes back after a year, rarely thinking of her but always with hate.
He meets Henry and they talk, and Henry seems worried about Sarah. She's not ill, but she's always out who knows where and Henry was thinking of hiring a private investigator to follow her, but after talking to him he's calming down, and forgetting the idea. A nice scene was when Sarah came back home and found the two men who love her looking at her, both jealous in their own way.
Bendrix hires the investigator himself to follow Sarah. He waits for her to come home one day and talks to her "what happened to us, why haven't I seen you all this time? What did I do?", and he wishes he never met her. The investigator tells him of this very encounter, saying she looked very sad, but dumb Maurice don't understand the meaning of it. Instead, he shows the investigator's report and a letter he found to Henry. When the investigator brings him Sarah's diary, he reads it and understand how stupid he had been (I say this, not him). She really loved him, deeply, and when she saw him under that door she prayed "God, don't let him be dead, I'll give Maurice up forever , only just let him be alive" crying. Her diary reads: "now the agony of being without you starts" and "I made him very unhappy, that's why I promised what I did". Bendrix had been so jealous when the investigator told him she was seeing a man in his apartment, but it turns out that that man is the preacher from the park, and she wants to be convinced that there is no God so she wouldn't have to keep her promise, quite a silly thing in my opinion.
When sweet Henry told her he couldn't have made it without her, she says "you're far too modest Henry. You might have done much better without me". Poor Sarah, she was really torn apart. She really loved Bendrix, and blamed only herself for everything.
Sweet darling Henry, after Bendrix showed him that report was broken, and talked to Sarah: "I can't do without you" and "I don't want anyone else", and that he knew all along she could not have children but "it made no difference, I had you. I haven't been much of a husband, but stick it out a few more years, I will try", so she says "I won't leave you Henry, I promise". If Bendrix had not been such a jerk... well, it's not over, he won't leave her be, so she goes out in the rain to avoid him, already ill, and he knew it, but he won't listen to reason. She talks about God but not about her promise to Henry. Bendrix doesn't care about God and wants to take her away, and even arranges everything by himself. When he finally goes to get her he finds that she's ill, and Henry is taking good care of her, and her mother is there and the doctor seemed optimistic, but when he comes down she's already dead. Like she didn't try to fight, life left her.
Honestly I find all this talking about God, even in her last letter, totally not-relevant. God had nothing to do with it. It was all because of the war, and the fear of death, and the uncertainty of everything, and of course his jealousy and his hatred, his talking to Henry and poor Henry pleading to Sarah, and all the time she went out in the rain because of him, and her conflict inside, she didn't fight the illness properly, she had no strength left.
I didn't like this Maurice at all. It was obvious she had made a vow to give him up from the way she looked (I liked her). I found boring so much talking of God as if he had any fault in what was happening, while he didn't. It's too easy to blame God for everything. They had their free will and they made their choices, is what it was.
I knew she would die at the end, it was the only ending for a movie like this. Besides, Maurice was tearing her apart: I blame him entirely.
ITA la fine dell'avventura
lunedì 10 ottobre 2016
How to marry a millionaire - 1953
Of course I like it, this is a classic, a must-see, still great, brilliant, funny and sweet after sixty years. I like these girls, all three of them. Lauren Bacall (no need to say anything else) plays Schatze Page, the cynic intelligent woman who comes up with the plan: she has been married once already, but to a crook that was already married and that left her penniless, and now she intends to find a husband using her brain and not her heart; Marilyn Monroe (not just beautiful, I find her adorable and quite good) plays Pola: "blind as a bat" using her own words, she keeps bumping into things but she refuses to wear her glasses in public because she's convinced that men don't like girls with glasses so she takes them off whenever people may see her, she even took them off when she was on the phone with a man :-p ; Betty Grable plays Loco, a bit silly sometimes but she knows her way around men :-p
Schatze rent a big apartment in the city and shares it with Pola and Loco. They are three models, and Schatze's plan is simple: to use all their tactics to find (and marry) a guy who's loaded, a millionaire. On their first day in the new place, they meet Mr Tom Brookman, who helped Loco bring her shopping home. She had no money but bought food for three then said she had forgotten her wallet and Tom helped her out. Because of where Loco met him, and because he always wears 'casual' clothes, never a tie, nothing fancy, Schatze is sure that he is " a gas pump jockey", but we see him entering the "Brookman building" and we see him in his office, and we know he has big money, but she doesn't (I believe the that the theory of it is that she immediately recognized him as a charming man, and previous experience had taught her to be careful of charmers).
After three months they are exactly where they started, but money starts to be a problem. She has sold all the furniture in the house already when Loco comes home yet again with a man who helped her carry her bags, only this time she met him somewhere fancy so Schatze is interested. This man J.D. is very nice and very decent and kind of adorable; through him Loco and Pola meet two men that might have been interesting (=rich) but it turned out they weren't (married/crook). Anyway, Loco accepts this married man's invitation to go to Maine with him, not realizing he was taking her to an isolated cabin surrounded only by snow and trees. She thought it was a place with music and dancing and lots of guests... a bit silly. Once there, she meets Eben who is very handsome and young and they fall in love. He is a ranger, but at first she didn't know what this meant. She thought he was rich, which is quite silly too considering he was their driver from the train station to the cabin, but to be fair he DID say that all that land and all those trees were his: she thought he owned all that, but he doesn't, he only watches over it.
Pola wanted to go to Atlantic City to meet her 'millionaire', but since she never wears her glasses she took the wrong plane. On her way to Kansas City (:-p) she meets Freddie, sitting next to her on the plane. They talk a lot and he has her put on her glasses and he tells her that she looks even better with them on and by this he wins her heart :lol: now she never walks without them :-)
Freddie seems to have problems with taxes, and he's a sort-of fugitive.
Schatze had all her hopes on J.D., but he leaves telling her he's doing her a favor because he's 55, too old for her, but he kindly buys back for her all the furniture of the house before leaving. Now she's all alone, without J.D. and without her girl friends, and she feels lonely and finally she accepts Tom's invitation. He kept inviting her out and she kept saying no, but now the go out and eat a hamburger together, and despite her constant statement that "after tonight I never want to see you again" because she believes hi without money, she keeps going out with him. Against her better judgement, she falls in love with him, until one day JD comes back saying he has changed his mind and if she wants him he'll marry her. She says yes, thinking that she finally got what she wanted, what she was looking for all along. Her wedding day comes, right there in that same apartment, and at last Loco and Pola come back. They are both married now: not to millionaires, but to men they love very much. Schatze keeps talking about JD's money (as if trying to convince herself) but in the end she can't go through with it and breaks up with JD, who understands that there is a "young man" in her heart. She admits she's in love with this young man and tells JD his name. As a businessman, of course JD knows Tom, but doesn't tell her the truth. Instead he tells Tom the truth, he tells him that she chose him, then he takes him to her. This is even less realistic than the young man not taking advantage of his money to get the girl because he wants her to love HIM and not his money. Anyway, last scene: our three girls eating hot-dogs or something, in the company of their three husbands. When they joke about the money they don't have and Schatze asks Tom, he tells the truth but they believe it to be a joke. When he takes out of his pocket a big roll of 1000-dollar bills ("keep the change", basically almost 1.000 dollars tip) the three girls faint at once :lol:
Schatze always said that they needed at least one, not necessarily three, and she caught him :-p so much trouble and she had met him on day one :-p
Schatze rent a big apartment in the city and shares it with Pola and Loco. They are three models, and Schatze's plan is simple: to use all their tactics to find (and marry) a guy who's loaded, a millionaire. On their first day in the new place, they meet Mr Tom Brookman, who helped Loco bring her shopping home. She had no money but bought food for three then said she had forgotten her wallet and Tom helped her out. Because of where Loco met him, and because he always wears 'casual' clothes, never a tie, nothing fancy, Schatze is sure that he is " a gas pump jockey", but we see him entering the "Brookman building" and we see him in his office, and we know he has big money, but she doesn't (I believe the that the theory of it is that she immediately recognized him as a charming man, and previous experience had taught her to be careful of charmers).
After three months they are exactly where they started, but money starts to be a problem. She has sold all the furniture in the house already when Loco comes home yet again with a man who helped her carry her bags, only this time she met him somewhere fancy so Schatze is interested. This man J.D. is very nice and very decent and kind of adorable; through him Loco and Pola meet two men that might have been interesting (=rich) but it turned out they weren't (married/crook). Anyway, Loco accepts this married man's invitation to go to Maine with him, not realizing he was taking her to an isolated cabin surrounded only by snow and trees. She thought it was a place with music and dancing and lots of guests... a bit silly. Once there, she meets Eben who is very handsome and young and they fall in love. He is a ranger, but at first she didn't know what this meant. She thought he was rich, which is quite silly too considering he was their driver from the train station to the cabin, but to be fair he DID say that all that land and all those trees were his: she thought he owned all that, but he doesn't, he only watches over it.
Pola wanted to go to Atlantic City to meet her 'millionaire', but since she never wears her glasses she took the wrong plane. On her way to Kansas City (:-p) she meets Freddie, sitting next to her on the plane. They talk a lot and he has her put on her glasses and he tells her that she looks even better with them on and by this he wins her heart :lol: now she never walks without them :-)
Freddie seems to have problems with taxes, and he's a sort-of fugitive.
Schatze had all her hopes on J.D., but he leaves telling her he's doing her a favor because he's 55, too old for her, but he kindly buys back for her all the furniture of the house before leaving. Now she's all alone, without J.D. and without her girl friends, and she feels lonely and finally she accepts Tom's invitation. He kept inviting her out and she kept saying no, but now the go out and eat a hamburger together, and despite her constant statement that "after tonight I never want to see you again" because she believes hi without money, she keeps going out with him. Against her better judgement, she falls in love with him, until one day JD comes back saying he has changed his mind and if she wants him he'll marry her. She says yes, thinking that she finally got what she wanted, what she was looking for all along. Her wedding day comes, right there in that same apartment, and at last Loco and Pola come back. They are both married now: not to millionaires, but to men they love very much. Schatze keeps talking about JD's money (as if trying to convince herself) but in the end she can't go through with it and breaks up with JD, who understands that there is a "young man" in her heart. She admits she's in love with this young man and tells JD his name. As a businessman, of course JD knows Tom, but doesn't tell her the truth. Instead he tells Tom the truth, he tells him that she chose him, then he takes him to her. This is even less realistic than the young man not taking advantage of his money to get the girl because he wants her to love HIM and not his money. Anyway, last scene: our three girls eating hot-dogs or something, in the company of their three husbands. When they joke about the money they don't have and Schatze asks Tom, he tells the truth but they believe it to be a joke. When he takes out of his pocket a big roll of 1000-dollar bills ("keep the change", basically almost 1.000 dollars tip) the three girls faint at once :lol:
Schatze always said that they needed at least one, not necessarily three, and she caught him :-p so much trouble and she had met him on day one :-p
domenica 2 ottobre 2016
Sabrina - 1954
Oh I love it, I've always loved it. I watched it again tonight after many years, and I totally loved it. Audrey Hepburn, so beautiful, so elegant, so graceful, and her Sabrina, so so lovely, and in a way very much a normal girl in which we all see ourselves. Also everything else, from the beginning (well, not so much the very end maybe, and one scene in the middle..).
The Larrabee family is indeed more than just rich: the big house with indoor and outdoor tennis-courts and swimming-pools, and eight cars, and the big garden don't really give you the right idea, until you see the 'Larrabee skyscraper' that would make Tony Stark envious, and it was 1954.. the car with the phone and the dictaphone are the least.
Sabrina grew up near all that, the daughter of their chaffeur, and she had always been in love with the younger Larrabee brother, David (William Holden). She would stay up in a tree and watch the big parties, and watch him courting other girls, and cry over him. Obviously she was never invited because she was 'staff' :-/
Silly girl, thinking of killing herself over such a thing. How could that be love!?! Then she went to Paris to learn cooking and stayed there for two years (now, if they did a whole lesson on boiling water, and another whole lesson on breaking eggs the right way, how is it possible that it only lasted two years, to learn about soufflé, soup, sauces, and everything?)
I liked when the old Baron told her "a woman happily in love, she burns the soufflé. A woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven" , I don't know why but I love it, it sounds very right to me :-) I liked a little less when he says "stop looking like a horse" because she always had a ponytail, but I understand. I like ponytails, and yet he is right, I know.
I loved when Mr Fairchild (her father) and the other servants read her letters and commented on them, I loved their comments: she doesn't think of David anymore "that's good" except at night "that's bad":lol: I loved those moments. Then the older brother Linus ( si pronuncia lainus :-p) played by Humphrey Bogart, decides to marry David off to the daughter of another rich businessman, so that the two companies can merge. Here it comes the only thing that really bores me, the long speech, Linus going on and on about how he doesn't care about money, how he works to create progress so that new factories are made and poor people can find jobs and poor children can wear shoes.. how lovely coming from one who has millions. It's easy for millionaires to 'not care about money', since they have it, and so much they never have to worry about it. The problem is when one doesn't have it and they one must care or they won't be able to pay their taxes and their bills and they'll be ruined.
Anyway.
After two years Sabrina comes back with a new haircut and pretty clothes and David doesn't recognize her and falls for her and she's radiant. She goes to his party dreaming of being his girl, and everything seems to go well until his family gets in the way. If David doesn't marry this Elizabeth the whole merging-business will be ruined, and they won't let it happen. His father is furious but Linus is the thinker in the family. He pretends to be on his side and has him sit down knowing very well that David has two champagne-glasses hidden in his back pockets, so he will be out of the game for a few days, giving Linus time to deal with the situation.
Linus goes to talk to Sabrina but realizes right away she's the romantic type and therefore it'd be quite useless to try to buy her off, so he devices a plan: to have her fall in love with him instead of David, then send her away with a trick.
He starts by dancing with her and kissing her like David would have done, then he takes her out every day. He tells her he had his heart broken twice, and that once he even thought of jumping off the ledge of his tall skyscraper for love. He takes her to dinner, on a boat trip, to watch 'the seven year itch' with Marilyn Monroe, dancing... and he talks to her about being alone "no man walks alone from choice", and about how finding someone really nice is more difficult than ordering some rain in Paris, and he says things like "how do you say in French 'my brother has a lovely girl'? and how do you say 'I wish I were my brother'? " which for some reason always takes my breath away and makes me speechless just like Sabrina.
He tells her that if she were not in love with David he'd ask her to go to Paris with him, that he's tired of everything and wants to run away.... oh he's good, and she buys every word and falls for him. Her father is both worried and disturbed:
Fairchild:" I like to think of life as a limousine. It's all well driving together but we must remember our places. There's a front seat and a back seat and a window in between"
Linus: "I never realized it before but you're a terrible snob"
However, Linus falls for her too, of course, and when she comes to him the last night before he's supposed to leave for Paris (to tell him she can't go out with him) he talks to her and she cries, sort of confessing her feelings for him, until she sees the two tickets for Paris and she's suddenly happy, radiant again, believing he wants her to go with him, but before such a smile , such words, and those tears and everything, Linus can't go through with it and he confesses to her that he planned to leave his own cabin empty, to send her alone, because of David and the business and she "got in the way".
Sabrina: "how inconsiderate of me and how inconvenient for you. Such a busy man having to waste so much time just to get me on a boat"
Linus: "I'm ashamed to say I enjoyed every minute of it" : a line that is taken the good way from those who are watching the movie, but I guess that if I were the girl involved I might take it the wrong way, the bad way, like 'I enjoyed my perfect plan to get rid of you'.
Then of course she refuses all the gifts he had prepared for her (apartment, car, shares) , only "I'll just take one of those tickets. I was happy in Paris. I think you would have been too", then she goes away: "Goodnight Mr Larrabee, I'm sorry I can't stay to do the dishes", funny and sad at the same time, because she was being sent away because she was part of 'the staff'. She goes away very sad. She got over David, yes, but "I'm cured. Now how to get over the cure".
Luckily David is not a bad person, he can tell a love-you-kiss from a goodbye-kiss, and he works out the reason, and understands their feelings. Linus is so much in love that he's now planning to cancel the wedding and the merging and the whole business just to send David to Paris with Sabrina, but David doesn't go. Instead he provokes Linus to get a reaction, sort of insulting Sabrina until Linus punches hi, which proves he loves her ( ...?) so Linus runs off, has a boat taking him to Sabrina's ship and joins her. I've always thought I'd have liked a different ending scene, instead of that silly thing of hanging his umbrella on a passing-by man's coat, but well, nothing can be 100% perfect, can it now?
Just one more thing: I loved Linus' line to David: that he told Sabrina how David would not listen to his father's objections to her, that "you stood up like a man, and sat down like a jerk" :lol:
*sigh* this is so romantic, and the songs 'isn't it romantic?' and 'la vie en rose' are so perfect here, and I can't hear them without thinking of Sabrina dancing with Linus.
"I wish I were my brother" *sigh* oh a tough man fighting his feelings and his love tormenting him, this is always a hit, in every movie. What girl can not love this? I can't, I love it. Always have, always will. :-)
The Larrabee family is indeed more than just rich: the big house with indoor and outdoor tennis-courts and swimming-pools, and eight cars, and the big garden don't really give you the right idea, until you see the 'Larrabee skyscraper' that would make Tony Stark envious, and it was 1954.. the car with the phone and the dictaphone are the least.
Sabrina grew up near all that, the daughter of their chaffeur, and she had always been in love with the younger Larrabee brother, David (William Holden). She would stay up in a tree and watch the big parties, and watch him courting other girls, and cry over him. Obviously she was never invited because she was 'staff' :-/
Silly girl, thinking of killing herself over such a thing. How could that be love!?! Then she went to Paris to learn cooking and stayed there for two years (now, if they did a whole lesson on boiling water, and another whole lesson on breaking eggs the right way, how is it possible that it only lasted two years, to learn about soufflé, soup, sauces, and everything?)
I liked when the old Baron told her "a woman happily in love, she burns the soufflé. A woman unhappily in love, she forgets to turn on the oven" , I don't know why but I love it, it sounds very right to me :-) I liked a little less when he says "stop looking like a horse" because she always had a ponytail, but I understand. I like ponytails, and yet he is right, I know.
I loved when Mr Fairchild (her father) and the other servants read her letters and commented on them, I loved their comments: she doesn't think of David anymore "that's good" except at night "that's bad":lol: I loved those moments. Then the older brother Linus ( si pronuncia lainus :-p) played by Humphrey Bogart, decides to marry David off to the daughter of another rich businessman, so that the two companies can merge. Here it comes the only thing that really bores me, the long speech, Linus going on and on about how he doesn't care about money, how he works to create progress so that new factories are made and poor people can find jobs and poor children can wear shoes.. how lovely coming from one who has millions. It's easy for millionaires to 'not care about money', since they have it, and so much they never have to worry about it. The problem is when one doesn't have it and they one must care or they won't be able to pay their taxes and their bills and they'll be ruined.
Anyway.
After two years Sabrina comes back with a new haircut and pretty clothes and David doesn't recognize her and falls for her and she's radiant. She goes to his party dreaming of being his girl, and everything seems to go well until his family gets in the way. If David doesn't marry this Elizabeth the whole merging-business will be ruined, and they won't let it happen. His father is furious but Linus is the thinker in the family. He pretends to be on his side and has him sit down knowing very well that David has two champagne-glasses hidden in his back pockets, so he will be out of the game for a few days, giving Linus time to deal with the situation.
Linus goes to talk to Sabrina but realizes right away she's the romantic type and therefore it'd be quite useless to try to buy her off, so he devices a plan: to have her fall in love with him instead of David, then send her away with a trick.
He starts by dancing with her and kissing her like David would have done, then he takes her out every day. He tells her he had his heart broken twice, and that once he even thought of jumping off the ledge of his tall skyscraper for love. He takes her to dinner, on a boat trip, to watch 'the seven year itch' with Marilyn Monroe, dancing... and he talks to her about being alone "no man walks alone from choice", and about how finding someone really nice is more difficult than ordering some rain in Paris, and he says things like "how do you say in French 'my brother has a lovely girl'? and how do you say 'I wish I were my brother'? " which for some reason always takes my breath away and makes me speechless just like Sabrina.
He tells her that if she were not in love with David he'd ask her to go to Paris with him, that he's tired of everything and wants to run away.... oh he's good, and she buys every word and falls for him. Her father is both worried and disturbed:
Fairchild:" I like to think of life as a limousine. It's all well driving together but we must remember our places. There's a front seat and a back seat and a window in between"
Linus: "I never realized it before but you're a terrible snob"
However, Linus falls for her too, of course, and when she comes to him the last night before he's supposed to leave for Paris (to tell him she can't go out with him) he talks to her and she cries, sort of confessing her feelings for him, until she sees the two tickets for Paris and she's suddenly happy, radiant again, believing he wants her to go with him, but before such a smile , such words, and those tears and everything, Linus can't go through with it and he confesses to her that he planned to leave his own cabin empty, to send her alone, because of David and the business and she "got in the way".
Sabrina: "how inconsiderate of me and how inconvenient for you. Such a busy man having to waste so much time just to get me on a boat"
Linus: "I'm ashamed to say I enjoyed every minute of it" : a line that is taken the good way from those who are watching the movie, but I guess that if I were the girl involved I might take it the wrong way, the bad way, like 'I enjoyed my perfect plan to get rid of you'.
Then of course she refuses all the gifts he had prepared for her (apartment, car, shares) , only "I'll just take one of those tickets. I was happy in Paris. I think you would have been too", then she goes away: "Goodnight Mr Larrabee, I'm sorry I can't stay to do the dishes", funny and sad at the same time, because she was being sent away because she was part of 'the staff'. She goes away very sad. She got over David, yes, but "I'm cured. Now how to get over the cure".
Luckily David is not a bad person, he can tell a love-you-kiss from a goodbye-kiss, and he works out the reason, and understands their feelings. Linus is so much in love that he's now planning to cancel the wedding and the merging and the whole business just to send David to Paris with Sabrina, but David doesn't go. Instead he provokes Linus to get a reaction, sort of insulting Sabrina until Linus punches hi, which proves he loves her ( ...?) so Linus runs off, has a boat taking him to Sabrina's ship and joins her. I've always thought I'd have liked a different ending scene, instead of that silly thing of hanging his umbrella on a passing-by man's coat, but well, nothing can be 100% perfect, can it now?
Just one more thing: I loved Linus' line to David: that he told Sabrina how David would not listen to his father's objections to her, that "you stood up like a man, and sat down like a jerk" :lol:
*sigh* this is so romantic, and the songs 'isn't it romantic?' and 'la vie en rose' are so perfect here, and I can't hear them without thinking of Sabrina dancing with Linus.
"I wish I were my brother" *sigh* oh a tough man fighting his feelings and his love tormenting him, this is always a hit, in every movie. What girl can not love this? I can't, I love it. Always have, always will. :-)
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