WALL STREET - greed works ...

This speech from Gordon Gekko in Wall Street was probably what made Michael Douglas won the Oscar in 1988.

What can one say about it..

Is he right ? is he wrong ?

Isn't he just verbalizing what all the CEO's and managers in companies are paid for ..

more, more, more, more, more...

And after all.... isn't this the attitude we are forced to take as a way of life in the western world..

That was said in 1987, twenty years ago.. and now.. we are still on that race for money..

So sad, that man has finally lost the battle to greed..

AMADEUS - ...I didn't know you wrote that ?

There are several types of bad guys..

F. Murray Abraham as Antonio Salieri in Milos Forman's masterpiece... is the kind of bad guy that everybody hates...

Envious, obsessed with revenge, coward, ugly ...

And that is contrasted with Mozart, represented as the maximum expression of everything that's good.. talented, happy, and naive.

well now... guess who got the Oscar ?




Below the video which I am helpless to avoid getting shivers on my spine.
Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart")

(From wikipedia)
Words were written by Mozart's friend Emanuel Schikaneder, who also played Papageno in the first performances of Die Zauberflöte

Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen,
Tod und Verzweiflung flammet um mich her!
Fühlt nicht durch dich Sarastro Todesschmerzen,
So bist du meine Tochter nimmermehr.
Verstossen sei auf ewig,
Verlassen sei auf ewig,
Zertrümmert sei'n auf ewig
Alle Bande der Natur
Wenn nicht durch dich Sarastro wird erblassen!
Hört, Rachegötter, hört der Mutter Schwur!

Hell's vengeance boils in my heart;
Death and despair blaze around me!
If Sarastro does not feel the pain of death because of you,
Then you will be my daughter nevermore.
Disowned be forever,
Forsaken be forever,
Shattered be forever
All the bonds of nature
If Sarastro does not turn pale [in death] because of you!
Hear, gods of vengeance, hear the mother's oath!

APOCALYPSE NOW - Saigon...

What a pleasure should be to be a film director and film a sequence like the beginning of Apocalypse Now

Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard is the spitting image of any of us in such a position ... in the middle of a war, uprooted from his family, numb, lonely, alcoholic ...

Ford Coppola, took Heart of Darkness by John Conrad as a guide and showed everyone what was happening in Vietnam in the 70's ... but also as an allegory of what can happen inside everyone's head under certain circumstances.. solitude, despair...

The music could not fit better .. and is where else can one realize the importance of music made for artistic purposes .. not for fun .. to denounce and to show the miseries that welfare societies want to hide..

And along with him ... Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford...

"My film is not a movie. My film is not about Vietnam, It is Vietnam" Francis Ford Coppola

Interview with the Director

THE BIG LEBOWSKI - Let me tell you something pendejo..

Is clear that the Dude played by Jeff Bridges has become an icon of the 7th art...

But the scene I most enjoyed on the movie was when Jesus Quintana appears..

Well ... here in Spain, may sound bizarre, but Jesus is quite a common name...

Even that I can imagine how weird must sound in USA or the UK...

Watching the Big Lebowski by the Cohen Brothers.. John Turturro's performance is superb.. The lick on the bowling ball, little dance when he scores and the way he talks to the guys...

Apart from the two mentioned.. John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman... also make this movie become the cult classic it is

On the back there is the music from The Gypsy Kings covering Hotel California as a rumba...

In summary one of the greatest movies from the 90's..

And not to miss The Man in me from Bob Dylan when the Dude gets kicked in the face and appears flying over Los Angeles..

Por el camino del desierto
El viento me despeina

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - The defendant is not guilty ...

Reading the newspaper a few weeks ago.. there was this article about the book and film To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee..

How in the world didn't I had 2 hours for watching this amazing movie before ?

Well.. I finally found them and had a great surprise of it..

I believe all the characters are very special, well defined and each of them play indispensable roles, while Atticus Finch is the one who links all of them ..

Scout, Jem, Dill, Calpurnia, Boo Radley, Cunningham, Ewell, Mayella, Tom Robinson...

There are unforgettable scenes, the killing of the dog, when Jem and Scout meet Dill, when Atticus throws the glass to Tom Robinson, so many.. Harper Lee's book was just released a year before... I guess all this great situations were flying in the imagination of Robert Mulligan while thinking about making the movie..

In summary this film gathers together so many things about racism, community, family, justice, friendship, prejudice, childhood... which makes it one of my top films from all time..



Below when Gregory Peck was awarded with an Oscar for it..

TRUE ROMANCE - So You're Sicilian huh?

This scene from True Romance was one that I most enjoyed ..

Clifford Worley knows he is going to die in any case.. whether he confess where his son is or not..

So he thinks, OK.. you are going to kill me, but I will make you have a really bad time here in front of your guys..

Great movie with great actors; Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Brad Pit, Christopher Walken..

but now is the day to remember the great Dennis Hopper..

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - Friendo..?

Watching this scene from No Country for Old Men, got me without blinking the whole time it lasted...

I was wondering how the guy at the station shop would have been feeling ... thinking.. . he's going to kill him at any time...

Javier Bardem did Anton Chirgurh seem like a real guy who could appear at any moment ... Gene Jones, the actor who plays the gas station owner, he deserves recognition, as his face expresses superbly the tension.

I guess the Cohen's knew when they were recording this scene it was going to become a classic.