#Jean Rougeul

[edwordsmyth]

The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting, Raúl Ruiz (1978)

[letterboxd-loggd]

8½ (Federico Fellini's 8½) (1963) Federico Fellini

May 25th 2023

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

A healthy immune system defends the body against disease and infection. However, for one in 10 people, mostly women, the immune system malfunctions and attacks its own cells. This causes more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The reason women may be more affected, according to a couple of recent studies, may be linked to a faulty mechanism that is supposed to shut down one of a woman’s two X-chromosomes.

One study from Stanford University shows that a molecule called Xist (pronounced ‘exist’), which turns off one copy of the X-chromosome in every cell in the female body, can trigger a rogue immune response. Another study from France, not yet peer-reviewed, shows that when certain genes on the silenced X-chromosome become active again, it can cause lupus-like symptoms in older mice.

Since most autoimmune diseases are diagnosed after puberty, more in girls than in boys, sex hormones were thought to be the primary driver of this difference. For example, four in five patients with autoimmune diseases are women. Ten times more women than men get lupus. And 20 times more women develop Sjögren's syndrome, an illness that mainly causes dry eyes and dry mouth.

“Our study shows that you do not need female sex hormones; you don't even need a second X-chromosome; just this Xist [molecule] could have a major role in developing some autoimmune diseases,” says Howard Chang, a dermatologist and molecular geneticist at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, who led the study.

“There is clear evidence now that the sex bias in autoimmune disease is not only linked to hormones but also to the presence of the number of X chromosomes and to the process of X chromosome inactivation,” says Claire Rougeulle, an epigeneticist who led the second study at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the Université Paris Cité in France.

That so many antibodies exist that target/destroy the molecules required to silence or shut-off the X-chromosome, “was not known at all,” says Jean-Charles Guéry, an immunologist at the Toulouse Institute for Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases (Infinity) in France.

Paradoxically, the increased risk of autoimmune disease in women may even be an evolutionary adaptation to protect the lives of their children. “Women have a better immune system to fight things,” says Johann Gudjonsson, a dermatologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Women tend to produce more antibodies than men, which protects both them and their babies through breastmilk, says Vanessa Kronzer, a Rheumatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Hormones are also involved. Female estrogen hormones boost immunity while male hormones not only suppress immunity but also protect against autoimmunity. These differences in sex hormones were thought to explain why women have more robust immunity, making them also more vulnerable to developing autoimmune diseases than men. But that may not be the only reason.

SILENCING ONE X CHROMOSOME

Each cell in a woman’s body has two X-chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father. Men have an X-chromosome from their mother and a much smaller Y-chromosome from their father.

The Y-chromosome contains just about a hundred genes, but the X-chromosome contains more than 900.

To make sure the activity of genes located on the X-chromosome is equal in both men and women, one of the two X-chromosomes in every female cell randomly shuts down. This happens early in fetal development when the Xist molecule and its partner proteins coil around one of the X-chromosomes and switch it off. If both X-chromosomes remain equally active, the cell will die.

As a result, the female body contains a mosaic of cells in which either the mother’s or the father’s X-chromosome is silenced. This X-chromosome inactivation is the reason female Calico cats develop a patchwork of orange and brown fur. While some of their hairs express a black color from one active X-chromosome, others develop an orange color from the other.

However, X-chromosome inactivation is far from perfect, and 15 to 23 percent of genes remain active. One such gene that continues to function, when it should not, has been linked to lupus. More evidence comes from boys and men who are born with an extra X chromosome who also have an increased risk of developing autoimmune diseases, suggesting the critical role of the X chromosome.

XIST TRIGGERS AUTOANTIBODIES

Chang has been studying the Xist molecule for many years and in 2015 he discovered that many proteins working together with Xist were involved in autoimmune disorders and were attacked by rogue antibodies, called autoantibodies. Instead of fighting foreign invaders, such as germs, autoantibodies mistakenly target an individual’s own cells.

To test whether faulty X-chromosome inactivation was the reason more women suffer from autoimmune diseases than men, Chang’s team engineered male mice that produce the Xist molecule, which is usually only present in female cells.

However, Xist molecule alone did not cause the autoimmune disease in the engineered male mice.

Only when researchers injected an irritant into these genetically modified male mice did the levels of autoantibody rise and trigger a lupus-like disease. With the addition of the irritant, the autoantibody levels in Xist-producing males matched those in females and were higher than in normal males without Xist. These engineered mice also showed more extensive tissue damage and signs of heightened inflammation when exposed to the irritant.

That suggests that even with Xist, either a genetic susceptibility or an environmental trigger is needed to cause the female-biased autoimmune disease. The study hints that only when cells get damaged, either by an environmental trigger or due to genetic susceptibility, Xist molecules and its protein partners leak outside of the cell and cause the immune system to produce autoantibodies against the Xist-protein complex, which then initiates an autoimmune disease.

“So that's one major reason why, of course, most women do not get autoimmune disease,” says Chang. “Even though every woman is expressing Xist throughout their body.”

X-CHROMOSOME TIES TO LUPUS

Rougeulle collaborated with Céline Morey, a fellow epigeneticist in Paris, to understand what happens when the X-chromosome is not completely turned off.

They engineered female mice to display imperfect X-chromosome inactivation—in which most, but not all, the genes on the second X-chromosome were shut off. The researchers resorted to incomplete inactivation because blocking all Xist activity would keep both X-chromosomes fully functional and kill the mice. While French scientists weren’t expecting their mice to develop an autoimmune disease, they were surprised when engineered female mice showed symptoms of a lupus-like condition.

“You don't see the symptoms of autoimmune disease in these mice right away, but you begin to see it as they get older,” says Morey.

This supports Guéry’s 2018 study that showed that when a gene that promotes inflammation escapes inactivation in immune cells, it increases risk of developing lupus.

The common theme between the Stanford and French study is that both link the X-chromosome, and the process of X-chromosome inactivation, to autoimmunity, says Rougeulle.

Mechanisms linked with X-chromosome inactivation do seem to explain the sex differences in some autoimmune diseases such as lupus and Sjögren's, says Guéry. “[But] you cannot have a single mechanism for all autoimmune diseases.”

PREDICTING WHO MIGHT DEVELOP AN AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

The Stanford study discovered that autoantibodies against many proteins associated with Xist are found in the blood of patients suffering from auto-immune diseases, such as lupus, scleroderma, or dermatomyositis.

While some autoantibodies were specific to certain autoimmune diseases, others were common among several. So, it might be possible to develop a panel of autoantibodies that could be used to distinguish between different disorders.

Rougeulle warns, however, that the current studies do not show whether the autoantibody levels rise significantly preceding the diseases, so more studies are needed before a diagnostic tool can be developed.

[byneddiedingo]

Marcello Mastroianni in 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963) Casti: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimée, Sandra Milo, Rossella Falk, Barbara Steele, Madeleine Lebeau, Eddra Gale, Guido Alberti, Jean Rougeul. Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi. Cinematography: Gianni Di Venanzo. Production design: Piero Gherardi. Film editing: Leo Catozzo. Music: Nino Rota.  At one point in 8 1/2 an actress playing a film critic turns to the camera and brays (in English), "He has nothing to say!", referring to Guido Anselmi, the director Marcello Mastroianni plays, and by extension to Fellini himself. And that's quite true: Fellini has nothing to say because reducing 8 1/2 to a message would miss the film's point. Guido finds himself creatively blocked because he's trying to say something, except he doesn't know what it is. He has even enlisted a film critic (Jean Rougeul) to aid him in clarifying his ideas, but the critic only muddles things by his constant monologue about Guido's failure. Add to this the fact that after a breakdown Guido has retreated to a spa to try to relax and focus, only to be pursued there by a gaggle of producers and crew members and actors, not to mention his mistress and his wife. Guido's consciousness becomes a welter of dreams and memories and fantasies, overlapping with the quotidian demands of making a movie and tending to a failed marriage. He is also pursued by a vision of purity that he embodies in the actress Claudia Cardinale, but when they finally meet he realizes how impossible it is to integrate this vision with the mess of his life. Only at the end, when he abandons the project and confronts the fact that he really does have nothing to say, can he realize that the mess is the message, that his art has to be a way of establishing a pattern out of his own life, embodied by those who have populated it dancing in a circle to Nino Rota's music in the ruins of the colossal set of his abandoned movie. The first time I saw this film it was dubbed into German, which I could understand only if it was spoken slowly and patiently, which it wasn't. Even so, I had no trouble following the story (such as it is) because Fellini is primarily a visual artist. Besides, the movie starred Mastroianni, who would have made a great silent film star, communicating as he did with face and body as much as with voice. It is, I think, one of the great performances of a great career. 8 1/2 is also one of the most beautiful black-and-white movies ever made, thanks to the superb cinematography of Gianni Di Venanzo and the brilliant production design and costumes of Piero Gherardi.

[reginadeinisseni]

Il Caso Mattei - L'Intervista

TONINO GUERRA

Il caso Mattei è un film del 1972, diretto da Francesco Rosi e dedicato alla figura di Enrico Mattei, presidente dell'ENI, morto in un incidente aereo il 27 ottobre 1962.

Ha vinto il Grand Prix per il miglior film al 25º Festival di Cannes ex aequo con La classe operaia va in paradiso di Elio Petri.[1] Nello stesso festival Gian Maria Volonté, protagonista di entrambi i film, ebbe una menzione speciale.

Francesco Rosi

Soggetto

Tonino Guerra

, dal libro

L'assassinio di Enrico Mattei

di

Fulvio Bellini

e

Alessandro Previdi

Sceneggiatura

Tito Di Stefano

,

Tonino Guerra

,

Nerio Minuzzo

,

Francesco Rosi

,

Fulvio Bellini

(non accreditato),

Alessandro Previdi

(non accreditato)

Produttore

Franco Cristaldi

Fernando Ghia

Casa di produzione

Vides

Distribuzione

in italiano

CIC

Fotografia

Pasqualino De Santis

Montaggio

Ruggero Mastroianni

Musiche

Piero Piccioni

Scenografia

Andrea Crisanti

Interpreti

e

personaggi

Gian Maria Volonté: Enrico Mattei

Luigi Squarzina: il giornalista liberale

Gianfranco Ombuen: ingegner Ferrari

Edda Ferronao: signora Mattei

Accursio Di Leo: personalità siciliana

Furio Colombo: assistente di Mattei

Peter Baldwin: Mc Hale

Aldo Barberito: Mauro De Mauro

Alessio Baume: giornalista del "Time"

Arrigo Benedetti: sé stesso

Sennuccio Benelli: giornalista

Luciano Colitti: Irnerio Bertuzzi

Terenzio Cordova: funzionario di polizia

Umberto D'Arrò: giornalista

Thyraud De Vosjoli: sé stesso

Vittorio Fanfoni: giornalista

Gianni Farneti: giornalista

Felice Fulchignoni: personalità siciliana

Franco Graziosi: Ministro delle partecipazioni statali

Elio Jotta: gen. commissione d'inchiesta

Salvo Licata: giornalista

Giuseppe Lo Presti: personalità siciliana

Andrea Artoni: controllore di volo (sé stesso)

Dario Michaelis: ufficiale dei carabinieri

Camillo Milli: giornalista in televisione

Blaise Morrissey: petroliere americano

Michele Pantaleone: sé stesso

Ferruccio Parri: sé stesso (immagini di repertorio)

Renato Romano: giornalista

Francesco Rosi: sé stesso

Giuseppe Rosselli: giornalista

Jean Rougeul: funzionario americano

Ugo Zatterin: sé stesso

Edy Biagetti: guardia del corpo di Mattei

Doppiatori originali

[angelobadalamenti]

8½ (1963) dir. Federico Fellini

[1001movies]

undefined

8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

[perfettamentechic]

30 maggio … ricordiamo …

30 maggio … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2014: Hanna Maron, è stata un’attrice tedesca naturalizzata israeliana, già attiva nel cinema muto. Fu una delle personalità più in vista del Novecento. (n. 1923) 2014: Joan Lorring, attrice statunitense. (n. 1926) 2008: Gert Haucke, attore e scrittore tedesco. (n. 1929) 2007: Jean-Claude Brialy, attore e regista francese. (n. 1933) 2006: Robert Sterling, nato William Sterling, ) è stato un…

[lentecreativo]

“L'hypothèse du tableau volé” (1978)

[dweemeister]

8½ (1963, Italy)

As a bored and depressed teenager and before I ever delved into classic movies, I looked online for lists of the best films ever made. Certain titles from more reputable websites kept appearing – one of those frequently-mentioned titles was Federico Fellini’s 8½. Soon after, I began actively seeking out these films. I was fifteen years old when I first encountered 8½, and I remember thinking to myself that there was something about Fellini’s film I could not quite grasp at the time. I stopped, barely a third into the movie, made no judgments, and did not finish it. Nine or ten years have passed (this was one of the first movies in my classic movie adventure so I know how old I was; I just don’t remember which year I saw it in), and upon this revisit to 8½ and completing the film, it is the greatest artwork about artist’s block I have ever seen. The film comments on the torment surrounding artistic creation, and how an individual’s personality – their ego, ability to examine themselves, and attitudes towards others – make that struggle unique to that artist. At times a bawdy comedy, 8½ – referring to the fact that Fellini had directed six feature-length films and three short films before this production, equaling 7½ – is also a dramatic surrealist fantasia filled with behavioral inconsistencies and fanciful sequences entangling dreams and reality.

And so by 1963, Federico Fellini, who gleamed off the Italian neorealist master Roberto Rossellini (1945′s Rome, Open City and 1948′s Germany Year Zero), and directed neorealist-inspired films in I Vitelloni (1953), La Strada (1954), and Nights of Cabiria (1957), was beginning to dip into the fantastical. These later fantastical films, however, were primarily steeped in modernity – demanding much from the audience, as Fellini uses impossible images to express ideas and states of mind that would become uncinematic if explained by dialogue.

In the midst of starting production on his next movie while resting at a Roman spa, acclaimed director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is struggling over how to approach the autobiographical elements he is integrating into a science fiction piece. Late in pre-production, Guido is having tensions with (and not just limited to) his mistress, Carla (Sandra Milo); wife, Luisa (Anouk Aimée); and producer, Pace (Guido Alberti). His friends, Rossella (Rossella Falk) and Mario (Mario Pisu), are unsure how to help him, as he drifts day-to-day between his loud, bickering-heavy reality and his fantasies. Those fantasies are not always clearly indicated by 8½’s editing by Leo Catozzo – the movie begins with a suffocating traffic jam, progresses to images of Guido’s childhood in a seaside village, his Catholic school days where he was punished for dancing with a prostitute (Eddra Gale), and features a handful of sexual fantasies that include the film’s darkly uproarious harem scene involving all the women from Guido’s past and present life (the movie is suggestive, not explicit, with sex – the former always more difficult to film). Claudia Cardinale stars as Guido’s fantastical Ideal Woman and as Claudia, an actress who appears briefly, but notices something about Guido’s idea and his persona that pierces his psychological armor.

Fantasy and reality, in competition across 8½, are harmonious in the closing minutes. Whether or not the ending is a statement of Guido’s (and, by the fact this film is at least somewhat biographical, Fellini himself) impeccable artistry, comic relief, or both is perhaps the most vexing question I continue to wrestle with. At twenty-five years old, I find myself giving tentative answers to the film’s questions; this write-up might read much differently if written at a later stage in my life.

The screenplay by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, and Brunello Rondi (Flaiano, Pinelli, and Rondi being frequent Fellini collaborators) models Guido as Fellini’s alter ego. Marcello Mastroianni, as Guido, inhabits the role with a physical fatigue similar to his role of Mario in Le Notti Bianche (1957). But if Mario was less tragic and more fashionable, he would be Guido. Mastroianni is excellent in displaying his character’s brokenness due to constant rumination over his noncommittal habits, inability to express his feelings, and his search for sexual gratification compounding his emotional and social emptiness. All of this will affect his artistry. The moment Guido walks outside his hotel room, he is besieged by the film’s crew and actors who have not even been officially cast. What do you want for this scene? When will we start shooting? I can’t wait to appear in your film! The barrage (those were paraphrases) lasts all morning until the moment late at night Guido slams his hotel door shut, readying himself to be with a woman he only seems to care for. His creative side is so exhausted that not even Mastroianni’s dialogue delivery changes tone when producer Pace fumes at the excessive production delays – no sarcasm, not even a nonplussed shoulder shrug. Mastroianni, debatably the greatest Italian actor of all time, exemplifies incredible discipline in this role.

With an unsustainable, ridiculous situation unfolding, 8½ partly becomes a tragicomedy – if the film weren’t so absurd and racy, it would be more difficult to watch. In this movie about an Italian, Felliniesque director unable to make a movie, Fellini has crafted a movie teeming with introspection and visual splendor. Guido’s sexuality seems inspired by Rubens’ portraits; his relations to everyone (but especially women – who, to him, are either maternal figures or harlots) predicated on what they can do for him. He might not fit the stereotype of the tyrannical director, but his self-worth has become defined by the most external: his professional accomplishments and his romantic conquests that seem to be without indications of abusive behavior. As the viewer intuits Guido’s character, his biographical flashbacks are understood as less reliable, more subjective. To what extent are those flashbacks colored, censored by nostalgia for a childhood or adolescence that Guido chooses to remember? There are no answers to that question in 8½. The film’s aforementioned introspection falls to the viewer. Guido, expending so much time thinking about his upcoming production, leads a life unexamined.

At this point in his life he arrives at what appears to be a spiritual dead end. That just so happens to contribute to his director’s block. Hearing from the others working on Guido’s film, we hear their concerns about the structure of the movie and nobody understanding what it is saying. To the crew, it is a jumbled patchwork of philosophical avant garde for the sake of being philosophical avant garde.

In outdoor scenes, cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo (1962′s L’Eclisse, 1965′s Juliet of the Spirits) has his camera motion side-to-side in the direction of character movements, suggesting restlessness. When characters are shown with a shallow foreground, one feels Guido’s anxiety considering the demands and hopes of others. In moments where there are fewer characters and when they are placed further away from the camera, the camera moves more dramatically, as if floating in air. It contributes to the dreamlike quality of several scenes – including Claudia Cardinale’s introduction in the movie – even when Guido has no space to fantasize. The production design and costume design by Piero Gherardi (La Dolce Vita and Juliet of the Spirits) showcases ‘60s elegance, with Rome’s rich mingling at the spa Guido is staying. Here, 1960s Italy clashes with what appears to be Ancient Roman and Renaissance-era architecture (free-to-read English-language literature on the film does not specify if these outdoor sets were constructed for 8½ or are actual attractions, but the film was shot entirely around Rome and the Lazio administrative region – where Rome is located). The aesthetic differences in architecture at the spa are reflections of the contradictory and unsettled statuses Guido’s imagination and soul.

So too is Nino Rota’s celebratory, yet mysterious and varied score. Like his work on La Strada, Rota has a main theme influenced by circus and carnival music. Where in La Strada (that film partly inspired by Fellini’s memories of circuses and clowns) that decision made literal sense because the characters are traveling circus performers. Here, it is to echo the madness of Guido not knowing what to do and being surrounded by a gaggle of irate businessmen, sycophantic actors looking for a job, and confused craftspersons having to alter their work due to their ineffectual director. For 8½  – a fragmented story where Guido’s bitter life is intercut with his daydreams – the score lacks stylistic cohesion. Interspersed with the circus and carnival music is Rota’s take on jazz, mid-century popular music, and brief quotations of classical music. In another film about a different subject, this Rota’s score would be bothersome. Because of the protagonist’s nature and unpredictable editing (at least, for first-time viewers), these frequent and rapid musical transitions fit the film.

Fellini also faced his own writer’s block while figuring out the screenplay to 8½. At some point during writing, Fellini resolved that the protagonist – originally a writer – would be changed to a movie director (read: Fellini himself). Bear with me on this one: everything that Guido says within the film about the film he is making can also be said about 8½. And yet 8½ never descends into self-conscious or self-referential meta humor taking the viewer out of one of the most rapturous pieces of cinema. That is because it paints a tapestry of individuals living among our troubled protagonist: rich and poor; vulgar and refined; conciliatory and uncompromising; vacuous and perceptive; and so forth. The film poses existential questions about how Guido’s self-perception is impacting how he treats others and his artistic abilities. And though you might not sympathize with Guido given his misadventures, you will wonder how similar you are to him. Reaching the answer, do you flinch at what you have found? 

8½ dispenses with conventional cinematic form. Compared to films of the French New Wave – ongoing during 8½’s release and more intent on breaking norms – Fellini’s film, despite being inundated with autobiographical meta, achieves an intense thoughtfulness without ever taking itself too seriously. Fellini, himself in artistic transition, makes a stunning statement by obscuring the separation between his neorealist origins and reverie. The answers to Fellini’s questions, as well as Guido’s and ours, are found in both.

My rating: 10/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. 8½ is the one hundred and forty-seventh film I have rated a ten on imdb.

[eyeliketwowatch]

8 & 1/2 - Seen it at least that many times

Some of my favorite movies are ones that are so ambiguous as to be nearly imcomprehensible. They tend to stand up to multiple viewings and act as mirrors that allow me to see different subtexts or themes each time I go back at different points in my life. This is one of my top ten of all time. I first saw this on PBS in the seventies, probably when I was in my late teens, and it reached out and grabbed me by the throat at the time and hasn't let go in 30 plus years. There is something about the character of Guido in this film that I deeply identify with. The struggle with creativity, the feeling that everyone is looking at you for answers or guidance and you just feel like a fraud, the feeling of a need to escape. So many classic scenes in this one that it's hard to pick out a favorite. The flirting looks of Barbara Steele while her buffoon of a middle age boyfriend babbles on about this or that nonsense. The lines of sauna guests lined up for their mineral water while 'flight of the valkyries' booms from the speakers. The 'asa nisi masa' sequence, the 'harem sequence', the midnight walk through the deserted cinecita sets with Claudia Cardinale only to realize that she ISN'T the answer to all your questions, and is just another actress, the opening dream sequence, the wonderful music by Nino Rota throughout, the grand 'circus' finale.

Anyhow, had this to say in '02 for Netflix on a recent viewing of the criterion collection DVD:

My favorite movie of all time, and simply the best DVD package I have seen. Both discs are jam packed with goodies, interviews, stills, documentaries. The audio commentaries are great. A beautiful print and the new translation of the Italian dialog is way superior to any version I have seen previously. A Must See.

Double Feature Suggestions: Woody Allen’s “Stardust Memories”, Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz”, “La Dolce Vita”, don’t bother with the musical remake “Nine”

5 stars

Released 1963, First Viewing August 1979 with many revisits since

[anocturnalanimal]

“Se invece di buttarle via, si leggessero qualche volta le carte dei cioccolatini, si eviterebbero molte illusioni.”

JEAN ROUGEUL

[michaelcosio]

Jean Rougeul - IMDB

[haidaspicciare]

Jean Rougeul, “8½” (Federico Fellini, 1963).

[perfettamentechic]

30 maggio … ricordiamo …

30 maggio … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic #felicementechic #lynda

2014: Hanna Maron, è stata un’attrice tedesca naturalizzata israeliana, già attiva nel cinema muto. Fu una delle personalità più in vista del Novecento. (n. 1923)

2014: Joan Lorring, attrice statunitense. Nel 1946 ottenne una nomination all’Oscar alla miglior attrice non protagonista per il film Il grano è verde(1945. Giunta all’apice della sua breve carriera sullo schermo, l’attrice apparve…