STAR WARS DAY

STAR WARS DAY

Star Wars day or May the fourth iconic data that represents the mythical motto May the Force be with You.

The Star Wars day 2022 in Vigevano took place not on the 4th but on the 7th of May: that is the first Saturday next, and the force was in all those who love the Star Wars saga.

At the event organized by Diapason for Medium Size in collaboration with Bottega dei suoni more than force I felt happiness flow through me when I saw these children

Isn’t it wonderful to see them play so free in a meadow

Of course I also congratulate a lot with all the extras of the international costuming groups officially recognized by LucasFilm: 501st Italica Garrison representatives of the empire and the Sith, Rebel Legion Italian Base  representatives of the Rebellion and the Jedi, Ori’Cetar Clan representatives of the Mandalorians, Saber Guild Trento duelists with lightsaber together with  the section dedicated to children under 18 Galactic Academy Varykbellino.

 

Unlike some very characterized genres, which often either love or hate each other, I believe that Star Wars is universally known and even appreciated, albeit to different levels.

As usual, by now you know me, even in Star Wars I arrived later, with one of my usual trains late …

I remember very well the amazement of Massimo, who was not yet my husband at the time, choosing a film to watch together: “You’ve never seen Star Wars ?!”

At the time there were only the first three movies, released in May in the years 1977, 1980 and 1983, which then in reality became the fourth, fifth and sixth, that is the Sequel Trilogy, after that starting from 1999 George Lucas returned to give other “episodes” that made up the Prequel Trilogy.

Obviously it was love at first sight, or perhaps I should say a lightsaber stroke: a lot to learn I still had

And you?

Needless to say, the soundtrack immediately impressed itself indelibly in my mind. Standing ovation for John Williams

Speaking of impressions… what do you think of these cappuccinos

The dark side of coffee …

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger to hate; hate leads to suffering ...

In the comments the picture of a native character particularly radicalized in fear: Darth Anxiety 🙂

https://www.keepcalmandrinkcoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Chewbacca-roar.mp3
WEST SIDE STORY

WEST SIDE STORY

West Side Story is history, let me play on words.

History of cinema even for those who are not fond of musicals.

Do you like musicals?

They are perhaps the most controversial kind of movies: either you hate it, or you love it.

I love it.

In case you have any doubts, I suggest you to read this post on the blog Come cerchi sull’acqua

West Side Story was born as a play on Broadway and Jack Gottlieb tells us how it was conceived by drawing inspiration from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and how Jerome Robbins had initially imagined Juliet as a Jewish girl and Romeo as an Italian Catholic. The action, set during the Easter / Passover season, was supposed to take place on the Lower East Side of New York City. So the title could have been EAST Side Story or Gangway.

I find it totally understandable that Steven Spielberg said it was the toughest film of his career. 

I started looking at it together with all the positive assumptions, and with all the curiosity to find out how the arduous challenge had been solved.

The beginning shows the imminent demolition of the neighborhood and, personally, I interpreted it as the metaphor of a breaking wrecking ball but not about the past.

Time is to be demolished.

Because despite all the years that have passed, studded with dramatic events, it is as if history had been written today.

And Rita Moreno becomes like a fulcrum of human suffering, around which the repeated cyclically recurring pain manifests itself despite the passage of time.

In this video she receives the Oscar for the interpretation of the character of Anita in 1962

 

And following is the post with which she congratulates Ariana DeBose for the recent victory for having played the role of Anita, differently and yet with equal effectiveness.

For Rita Moreno in Spielberg’s film the role of Valentina was created: Doc’s widow, who helps and supports Tony after his misadventures with justice, but in various interviews she has been defined as the “mother” of West Side Story for how she advised, assisted, supervised tirelessly.

And obviously all of this entered my heart.

Not to mention her iconic joke for me: Tony asks her to translate “forever” because she wants to declare herself to Maria in Spanish and she, frightened by that tragically unreal idea of absolute, replies something like “why don’t I just say I’d like to have a coffee with you?”

Eh!

Undoubtedly, it is still an important statement, right!?

And while drinking your coffee, I once again recommend you the detailed and professional analysis of Matavitatau

Is there a particular song you prefer from the West Side Story soundtrack?

They are all songs destined to stay in your mind once you listen to them, but, just to name three sensationally super famous, are you more for Tonight, Maria, or America?

HOUSE OF GUCCI

HOUSE OF GUCCI

The Gucci family has repeatedly dissociated itself from the portrait that the film portrays, and I will not go into the merits, but now I can finally say that Lady Gaga in the House of Gucci is truly credible, for the vision I had of it.

So, taking up the talk on Patrizia Reggiani, apparently Lady Germanotta’s decision not to meet her did not affect the interpretation, despite Reggiani being annoyed.

Obviously I observed clothes, accessories, and outfits in general, with particular interest both for Gucci pieces and for 80s looks, and I have to say that I enjoyed the work of costume designer Yanti Yates.

Very scrupulous work, starting from months of study in the archives of the Gucci maison.

In an interview with the New York Times,  available in full on Instagram, Yanti Yates stated that Lady Gaga was hugely involved, not least because she is a complete clotheshorse and looks marvelous in everything. She was hugely focused on how her character might appear at a particular moment, and had very strong views on aspects like hair and makeup.

But also difficult work, again according to the statements made during the interview: I would create initial selections, and then she would select from there.

Gaga selected.

It also seems that there have been days when for her it was “not today.”

Moreover, the same Gucci website reports as an iconic statement from Yanti Yates: “Lady Gaga told me that in this movie she wanted to dress like her Italian mom. To create her looks, I was able to draw on both her personal and historical Gucci archives.”

Like her Italian mom

How good does this sentence sound?

At the same time, however, I have this doubt that is spinning in my head, so help me understand if my perception is deceiving me since, actually, in the early 70s despite I wasn’t really in the world from longer (also now I am not, but this is a other story).

Unfortunately I could not find the image of the scene in which Maurizio Gucci introduces Patrizia to his father Rodolfo, but more or less the same goes for the floral dress in this picture.

Obviously I’m nobody to question the reconstruction, which in all other situations I have admired, and I stress it well, but the idea of this dress leaves me perplexed. I’m wrong, right?

I leave you this roundup of outfits.

In addition to the clothes, House of Gucci offers the vision of a fantastic series of precious “vintage” cars.

In particular, I really loved the way director Ridley Scott frames the arrivals at Rodolfo Gucci’s home: focused on the entrance. From the outside to the outside.

This shot occurs more than once in the movie, with different cars arriving in front of that entrance.

For me it was a sort of “story within history,” almost a symbol to mark the time.

In the picture below, with the same principle, in contrast we are witnessing a departure.

Which is also a beginning: the beginning of a strategy for Maurizio being back in the company.

For the rest, I refer you to the review by Matavitatau, me, a bit like Cruella, I really enjoyed the non-original soundtrack.

As for the floral dresses, I felt a sort of temporal disorientation that in some cases conquered me, in others it left me a kind of question mark.

For example, I liked the choice for George Michael’s Faith as soundtrack of the wedding scene: despite the anachronistic incongruity, it gave me a joyfulness that counterbalanced the void created by the absence of Maurizio’s family.

On the contrary, I was perplexed listening to Ritornerai by Bruno Lauzi as the background to the scene in which Aldo Gucci goes with Maurizio and Patrizia to the estate where their historic breeding is located. The song is wonderful, ça va sans dire, and the meaning is centered on returning to the origins, but for my personal perception it is as if something screeches.

Apart from that, I could list one song more beautiful than the other, and I would like to propose them all: Here comes the rain again by Eurythmics, Heart of glass by Blondie, Ashes to ashes by the White Duke David Bowie, Blue Monday by New Order, Una notte speciale by Alice, Sono bugiarda by Caterina Caselli, but also Largo al factotum from Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, Madame Butterfly and much more.

As you choose which one you prefer to listen to first, here are some coffees.

And… the final blessing.

RIDDLE GUESS: WILL THIS BATMAN HAVE SUCCESS?

RIDDLE GUESS: WILL THIS BATMAN HAVE SUCCESS?

Riddle guess: will this Batman have success?

 

Oh, you’re really not as smart as I thought you were says the Riddler.

What?

He is Cedric Diggory, remarkably smart and noble of heart.

Ok, this mug is actually a little too big 🙂

He is Edward Cullen, smart enough to read minds.

In reality, however, he does not drink coffee … what a waste!

He is also Tyler Hawkins almost a Baudelaire cursed flower that hides intense humanity.

And then if it comes to guessing … Neil is an enigma within a riddle.

Seriously, the trailer reveals a much darker Robert Pattison who, even more than with the Riddler, will have to deal with the interpretations of his predecessors.

Riddle guess: will this Batman have success?

The “best Batman” diatribe is perhaps one of those discussions that will never end since we are talking about a character who has entered the hearts of many people.

Waiting to know the outcome of this new challenge, would you like to retrace some bat coffees?

Don’t you find that Ben Affleck always looks a bit defeated?

The interpretation of Christian Bale can be separated from the basic thought, namely: Nolan?

If you agree, I would skip Val Kilmer who we remember more gladly in Iceman, and George Clooney who has a certain conflict of interest with coffee …

Michael Keaton sincerely takes me back to the glorious 80s

Or do we go even further back?

DC explains the origins here

I absolutely mention the Lego version that also reserves the dedicated cup!

And finally a cartoon: this is how you order a coffee.

Here in our home there are the two opposing generations: father and son, and the question is examined down to the smallest detail!

For example: does Batman’s real costume stipulate that he can rotate his head or not?

Are you a bat fan too?
What’s your favorite batman?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TODAY TO EARN YOUR PLACE IN THIS CROWDED WORLD?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TODAY TO EARN YOUR PLACE IN THIS CROWDED WORLD?

What have you done today to earn your place in this crowded world?

The character played by John Cusack asks this question to everyone in Utopia.

In naming Utopia my first association of thought is Thomas More.

Among other things, remaining in the field of cinematographic fiction, Thomas More is mentioned in Leonardo’s Cinderella played by Drew Barrymore, for example.

But I discovered that Utopia is also a movie about Australian Aborigines, and seeing the painful trailer let think that situation has stopped at the time as told by Baz Luhrmann.

Utopia however is in any expression of thought.

It is art, as described in this comment, it’s a song by Björk, it is not for The Offspring, it’s even a video game.

Utopia is a controversial Channel 4 series  then revised for an Amazon production by an exceptional showrunner: Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl and screenwriter by David Fincher, who appears in three different cameos, and disseminates various Easter eggs.

Utopia thus becomes a graphic novel. Viral …

A weird group of fans in search of this mysterious “comic” to be interpreted by riddles, find themselves catapulted into a reality that prefigures dystopia rather than Utopia.

Comics to tell the truth not really, it is a series of drawings by the artist Joao Ruas: some of the inspirations behind his work are the dawn of mankind, folklore, magical realism, the concept of wabi-sabi (侘寂) and human conflict.

Gillian Flynn, in an interview with the New York Times said: “I think it’s a Rorschach  test … It’s a show designed to let you find what you want from it, and have different points of view, which is exactly where we are right now.

Speaking of points of view, John Cusack, in his first role in a series, plays Kevin Christie … but rather than my Agatha, it is inspired by well-known characters of a completely different genre.

Those who follow him have the opportunity to know how much John has a certain aversion to some of Mr. Christie’s alter egos, which is why it was a cathartic interpretation.

In his interview published by The Guardian in addition to defining himself a kind of Cassandra, he gave me an amazing ending!

Cusack rubs his tired eyes. He drinks from his big tin tankard of coffee. (!) Who knows, he says? “Maybe being outspoken hurts your career… I’m just aware it helps me sleep better at night, knowing that I wasn’t passive during this time.”

After all, isn’t such an awareness already a kind of Utopia for many of us?

How do you see Utopia?

An exceptional admirer saw Utopia like this:

Stephen King writes:
I’m loving UTOPIA, on Amazon Prime. Might not be everyone’s cup of tea, given the times we’re living in, but it has the slow build to full steam that I associate with page-turning novels. Horrifying, violent, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

And what song goes with the trailer?

It’s the end of the world as we know it.
R.E.M

But this world, how should it be earned every day in your opinion?

I would rather ask: what have you done today to improve this world?

Even if to tell the truth I would be without answers …

CHRISTMAS WITH WHO?

CHRISTMAS WITH WHO?

Who did you spend Christmas with?

Thanks to Luciana’s gift, I spent it with Agatha: and with Poirot’s Christmas

A reading that takes you back to the classic situation typical of the riddles to be solved: room and windows closed, inside only the victim, no one enters, no one leaves …

Agatha dedicated this story to her brother-in-law, James, according to whom her murders “were getting refined.”
You yearned for a good violent murder with lots of blood…so this is your special story – written for you.

Among other things, there is also a quote from Shakespeare: “Yet who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him?

The one who pronounces it is not Lady Macbeth but a member of the Lee family, reunited for Christmas at the behest of the elderly father, despite divisions and disputes of various kinds.

And families now, families who have been separated throughout the year, assemble once more together. Now under these conditions, my friend, you must admit that there will occur a great amount of strain. People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy.”
Hercule Poirot

What to say?
Sadly true.

In the film version, Poirot was played by David Suchet

Speaking of cinema as well as family reunions, as well as with the Lees, I also spent Christmas with the Colardo and Marinelli families, do you know them?

I saw the first time Every cursed Christmas by chance, without knowing anything about.

So its main feature: the duality of all the performers, for me it was an unexpected surprise as much fun.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can retrieve it here: together with laughter which he will give you.

And you, who did you spend Christmas with?

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