#man from algiers

[theinternetarchive]

a few great films that are free on the internet archive

in decent quality too!

here is the archive collection of these films so you can favorite on there/save if desired.

links below

black girl (1966) dir. ousmane sembene

the battle of algiers (1966) dir. gillo pontecorvo

paris, texas (1984) dir. wim wenders

desert hearts (1985) dir. donna deitch

harold and maude (1973) dir. hal ashby

los olvidados (1952) dir. luis bunuel

walkabout (1971) dir. nicolas roag

rope (1948) dir alfred hitchcock

freaks (1932) dir. tod browning

frankenstein (1931) dir. james whale

sunset boulevard (1950) dir billy wilder

fantastic planet (1973) dir. rené laloux

jeanne dielman (1975) dir. chantal akerman

the color of pomegranates (1969) dir. sergei parajanov

all about eve (1950) dir. joseph l. mankiewicz

gilda (1946) dir. charles vidor

the night of the hunter (1950) dir. charles laughton

the invisible man (1931) dir. james whale

COLLECTION of georges méliès shorts

rebecca (1940) dir. alfred hitchcock

brief encounter (1946) dir. david lean

to be or not to be (1942) dir. ernst lubitsch

a place in the sun (1951) dir george stevens

eyes without a face (1960) dir. georges franju

double indeminity (1944) dir. billy wilder

wild strawberries (1957) dir. ingmar bergman

shame (1968) dir. ingmar bergman

through a glass darkly (1961) dir. ingmar bergman

persona (1961) dir. ingmar bergman

winter light (1963) dir. ingmar bergman

the ascent (1977) dir. larisa shepitko

the devil, probably (1977) dir. robert bresson

cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) dir. agnes varda

alien (1979) dir. ridley scott + its sequels

after hours (1985) dir. martin scorsese

halloween (1978) dir. john carpenter

the watermelon woman (1996) dir. cheryl dune

EDIT: part two here + the letterboxd list

edit: part three here

[clairewritesfanfics]

So viltrumites live for a really long time, basically forever. So imagine the Marks searched for some kind of way to extend Reader’s life span and the did it, they found a way to have their life connected so that she could live as long as they could.

But she doesn’t want to live forever, she never asked them to and wants to live and die as a human.

Would the Marks do whatever they could to convince her to accept or not take no for an answer and do it anyway?

A/N: Greetings, fellow Rizzly enthusiast. Bon appetit!

“See the pyramids along the Nile Watch the sunrise from a tropic isle Just remember darling all the while You belong to me

See the marketplace in old Algiers Send me photographs and souvenirs Just remember when a dream appears You belong to me

And I'll be so alone without you Maybe you'd be lonesome too, and blue”

–You Belong to Me

He understands. He hates that he understands, but despite his rough edges, your Mark is a good man. He knows you, he knows you weren’t cut out for that life, and even if you were, what matters is that you do not want it. He says he respects your choice. It’s your life, at the end of the day. But with each new year and following birthday, with every gray hair and new line on your face while he looks the same… it breaks his heart. So he prioritizes you. He chooses you all the time, making as many memories together as he possibly can. 

MAIN MARK, maskless, mohawk, prisoner

He is always loud, always forceful, but when you told him no? No to his immortal empire? No to a long and prosperous life by his side? He’s quiet. Silent anger rolls off him every step he takes away from you. You chase after him, beg him to understand, but he merely holds a hand up, a plea for you to stop. He needs to think. He needs to be alone. He’s not going to force you, he can’t live in a world where he’s hurt you, but he can’t pretend that everything is fine. So please, for now, let him be.

head cap, shiesty, SINISTER, target

Choice? There is no choice to be made here. You don’t get to make him love you and then just back out like this. He will personally knock you out and carry you to the lab; he doesn’t like it, but he will if he has to. You hate him for what he’s done. You stopped talking to him. It’s okay though, you don’t see it right now, but in a few years, you will understand. Someday, you will forgive him, and until then, he will be right here waiting. He’s waited for you all his life, he can wait for your smile for as long as it takes. 

NO GOGGLES, VILTRUMITE, omni-mark, flaxan, full mask

Disclaimer: The image used in this post does not belong to writerclaire. It was lifted from the following source: https://gamerant.com/invincible-all-alternate-dimension-invincibles-fates/

ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

MAIN MASTERLIST

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[System notice: the ask box is open for discussion and questions and fangirling/fanboying, but it is now CLOSED FOR REQUESTS.]

[firestorm09890]

figured out something I’ve been idly spinning on for a long time while assigning pokemon to the sinners, of all things

It’s about Meursault

I believe his Canto will be about dehumanization. Again. Even though we’ve already seen it multiple times and will probably see it even more. But hey, Limbus Company is a game about the experience of living in this bitch of a world despite it all and dehumanization is a struggle that comes in many forms.

It might be obvious that his canto would do that, considering the murder, but I actually think the discussion of how his victim, whoever it may have been (since The City seems to be over our version of racism and colonialism in favor of… other shit + Classism EX), was not treated as an equal class of citizen as Meursault (this is actually false. more on that next paragraph), will be secondary to Meursault’s own dehumanization.

In his source, he, a settler in French Algiers, kills an unnamed Arab. It is clear that any other white settler would have gotten away with it with a slap on the wrist- the court expected his trial to go quickly and for the main event of the day to be a different trial- but Meursault in particular is not afforded that privilege because the court believes him to be inhuman for- you guessed it- not crying at his mother's funeral. And also being an atheist and going out with his girlfriend the day after that funeral and asking for a cigarette when he wasn't supposed to and only a tiny bit the part where he shot the corpse 4 times, the point is it's over the stupid stuff not the stuff that matters

“[The prosecutor] said that he had peered into [my soul] and that he had found nothing, gentlemen of the jury. He said the truth was that I didn’t have a soul and that nothing human, not one of the moral principles that govern men’s hearts, was within my reach.”

In other words, this is a narrative about how quickly someone who you might think is part of the in-group can be cast out. He’s The Stranger, if you will.

N Corp is the Wing that values the concept of "humanity" perhaps the most in the entire City and I'm certain he has history with that view working to his detriment.

What's actually more important than what's happening within the story is "the cold, uncaring gaze of the anonymous masses"- the real world, that is- not that it's not all happening in-universe too.

I'm pretty sure jokes explicitly calling Meursault a robot have fallen to the wayside (though I don't exactly look for them so I'm not sure) in favor of the joke that Meursault can do literally anything if he is ordered to. He can become S Tier. He can manifest EGO. He could, I don't know, defeat Goku if Dante told him to. And so the tone changes, but... the sentiment doesn't. He's superhuman now, not subhuman, but he's still not a normal human.

The same goes for how the other sinners treat him. He's a wonderful source of information, almost like an encyclopedia. He can run fast with perfect breathing and he's strong and he can give massages. He is the perfect man- something I have seen said on a few of my Meursault posts. The easy solution to any physical problem.

Even his quirk of not being a good judge of when he should be taking action or telling people about things doesn't really matter anymore, since it has an easy "fix"- just telling him exactly what you want to be done. Goodness knows he's capable of it.

Even Vergilius seems to add to this view of him- Meursault gets one of the very few positive special voicelines from him in the announcer booth.

And the only announcer line of his to individual sinners that can't be read in a backhanded way.

He is less than human, or he is more than human. How does Meursault himself feel about any of this? Does he care? His input is valued more than before, which is great, but he still really just expresses observations and recites objective facts, not opinions and personal values.

...They don't actually like his personal values very much. Of the three occasions I can think of where he talks about what he thinks, Heathcliff in particular reacts negatively and loudly to all of them- the first is seen above, from Canto III; the third is in Canto VI, when Meursault had to go "hey I'm not finished talking yet", and though Heathcliff was Going Through It I think he also had it in his mind that he and Meursault do not tend to agree on courses of action; and the second is this one from Canto IV

(Heathcliff's words after Dante says they're going to help)

Keep an eye on this Meursault reaction. When Canto X comes out next year I'm sure we'll find out what those ellipses mean.

I believe that in his canto, the incredible, flawless image of him that the sinners have all built up in their minds will be torn down and they'll all have to contend with that. Heavy speculation, but maybe they'll even turn on him for a little bit, unable to cope with the shock that he's done something so terrible.

You know, how parasocial relationships and cancel culture works in real life.

As much as I like the idea of him having some connection to distortion (Carmen as the sun from the book is just too good), I think if he's anything but 100% human it cheapens his story. He's the perfect specimen by N Corp standards, and he's still not good enough, by metrics he could never hope to understand.

That is how I think The Stranger will be adapted.

[sissa-arrows]

Just saw that Felix Colozzi died this week and was buried in the Martyrs’ square of Al Alia in Algiers.

This man was a settler but by fighting alongside Algerians for the liberation he became one of us. He fought, was captured, jailed and tortured alongside our grandparents and great grandparents. At the liberation he chose to stay in Algeria as an Algerian. He finished his studies to become an engineer and worked in the country he chose to call home and had fought for.

By fighting for liberation and for an Algerian Algeria he also freed himself of his status as a settler. This is what I mean when I say that as a settler there’s only two options to stop being a settler. You either get the fuck out or you join the resistance and fight alongside the colonized for liberation, which will in the process free you from your status as a settler. This is what I mean when I say we need more porteur de valises (more Felix Colozzi, Maurice Audin, Fernand Iveton, Hélène Cuenat, Yvon Bresson, Charles Geromini…) and less liberal settlers also known as Albert Camus.

[ardl]

The Antagonism between the White Settlers and Imperialism

There was nothing new in all this, however. The most difficult struggles of the imperialist countries since the 18th century had not been with the natives in their colonies but with their own settlers. And it should not be forgotten that if England is a second-class power today, this is due to her defeat in a conflict of this type and the subsequent founding of the United States. Without this, North America would now be an ex-colony of Red Indians recently promoted to independence and therefore still exploited by England.

Marx and Engels did not fail to make references here and there to ‘white settlers’, ‘poor whites’, etc, although during the period in which they lived the problem was not acute. But Lenin came out strongly in favour of the Boers in 1900, just as Mao Tse Tung’s China recently gave unexpected support to Biafra and its mercenaries. Finally, the exaggerated schematization in which Marxism was confined after Lenin’s death meant that no place could be made for this uncomfortable ‘third element’ in the noble formulas of the ‘people’s struggle against financial imperialism’.

Instead of scientific analysis, we have tenacious myths that no fact, however brutal, will ever shake. This makes for grave misunderstandings and prevents any true dialogue between revolutionary Marxism and the decolonized peoples. To take a recent example, even the most informed Marxists did not hesitate to accept the popular version according to which Tshombe was the puppet of the Union Minière, the Belgian trust companies and international imperialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tshombe never represented financial capitalism. He represented the white settlers. And it was in this capacity that he was detested and rejected throughout Africa. For this same reason he was the public enemy number one of the trust companies and of Belgian-American imperialism.

Of course, if by Union Minière one means the local staff of the Katanga company, there is nothing to prevent one from saying that Tshombe was their man. Like the Belgian civil servants and army officers, these people represented the parent country before the independence of the Congo, and as such they were on the other side of the fence. The settlers had always called them ‘n*****-lovers’, the most contemptuous epithet in their vocabulary. But individually, each of them prepared for retirement in the colony, some by buying a share in a plantation, others by investing in real estate, etc. When the umbilical cord linking them to the home country was suddenly severed during the independence troubles, they went over en masse to the settlers’ side.

And what more could these local managers and administrators of the Union Minière ask for? From mere agents, obliged to telephone to the head office in Brussels before they took the slightest decision, with Tshombe and the secession of Katanga they became, from one day to the next, the veritable bosses of the company. And if during the reign of Tshombe the Union Minière was forbidden to distribute the slightest dividend, this did not displease these local men, who had no reason to worry about enriching Belgian shareholders and on the contrary every reason to welcome the accumulation of profits on the spot, which would improve the firm’s potential and hence their own position.

But if by Union Minière one means the Belgian monopoly holding that was behind the Katanga plant, i.e. the Belgian bank La Société Générale, then things become quite different. For them, for Belgian high finance, and therefore for international imperialism, Tshombe was the man to be eliminated, and they ended up by attacking him physically—first in 1962–3 at Elisabethville, under the flag of the United Nations troops, a second time in 1967 by sending anti-Castro Cuban pilots to bomb his mercenaries in Bukavu, and finally the third time by sending a cia agent to kidnap him personally and deliver him to Algiers.

White-Settler Colonialism and the Myth of Investment Imperialism - Arghiri Emmanuel

[bullet-prooflove]

Breaking Point: Tim Gutterson x Reader

Tagging: @kmc1989 @noxytopy @baconeggndcheez @ladygrey03 @smiley-asylum

Companion piece to:

Lucky - Tim's assignment doesn't go to plan.

Stars - Tim's not like the other guys.

The Good Book - Tim makes you a promise you don't think he can keep.

Bad Timing - You and Tim have always had a case of bad timing.

Straight From The Heart - Tim speaks from the heart during a late night phone call.

Missed Call - Tim's world crumbles when he listens to your voicemail.

Stars Align - Things start to go wrong just as Tim and yours stars align.

A Ramblin’ Man - Tim makes you a promise about the future.

A Patient Man - Tim awaits news on your condition.

Wait And See - Tim gets creative about your recovery.

You’re on your way out of town when Tim pulls up in one of the quieter neighbourhoods in Lexington. It’s close enough to downtown that there’s a bustling coffee shop on the corner and far away enough that you don’t get the traffic or the noise from the more urban areas of the city.

The house you’re parked outside of is a pretty little thing. White panelling with a grey slates on the roof, a front door in a colour that matches. There’s a couple of rose bushes in the front against the porch, the red offsetting the hues in the cloudy grey.

“Who lives here?” You ask, studying the place.

“Hopefully you and me in the future.” Tim says. You can tell he’s excited by the look in his eyes, the way he smiles as he gestures towards the house. “It goes on the market next month and I was thinking of putting an offer in, it’s got a few things that need fixing up but I could do the work, while you get yourself squared away-”

“Tim.” You say softly and his eyebrows furrow into a frown because he knows that tone, he knows it always comes with heartache and disappointment. “They pulled the deal, I won’t be transferring to Kentucky, at least not anytime soon.”

“Right.” He says, his hands coming to rest on the steering wheel, grasping it tightly between his hands. “Because they can just do that can’t they? They can just…” His palm slams against the wheel. “Fuck…”

He throws the driver’s side door open, stepping out into the road. It takes you a moment to follow, hissing through your teeth as you shove open the passenger side door, the wound in your chest searing as you clamber out. He places his hands on the roof of the car, dipping his head as he sucks in a deep breath before he meets your eyes.

“It’s not gonna happen is it? You and me?” He says, his eyes a storm of despair. “We come so close and then it’s just snatched away every single time. It is killing me not being with you, I feel it in my chest every time one of us walks away…”

He trails off then his lips pursing together into a grim line. He's dying inside, you can see it. With every hurdle, every failure, something in him cracks and he's running out of ways to repair the damage.

“Do you think that I’m not tired?” You ask him, your voice raw with emotion. “That I don’t wish we could spend the rest of our days living this life.” You say pointing at the house. “I want that more than anything, Christ I almost died for that-”

“And I would have followed you right into that grave Lucky.” Tim tells you with a surety you feel in the depths of your soul. “They would have ended up scattering our ashes together off Algier’s point as the sun sets over the river. There is no me without you, there never has been.”

You’re at a breaking point you and him, the shooting has only brought to ahead what you both knew was coming. If you want to be together someone has to compromise, to sacrifice, otherwise the last decade, it’s all been for nothing.

It’s time to make a choice and the truth is you’re exhausted, you know that Tim sees that in you. You’ve been playing in shadows the entirety of your career, both in the military and in the FBI, it’s time to step into the light, to do something different because this job it’ll take everything from you if you let it, it almost had this time.

“We should buy the house.” You say softly and the hope in Tim’s eyes in that moment and there is no doubt that you’ve made the right decision. “I’ll hand in my resignation as soon as we get back.”

Love Tim? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[divortion]

decided to transcribe some of the last words from claudia's notebook

Young girl: "Please, Please don't, please stop!" Man in the last row at the Son of the Sheik Picture Show: "You said you had cigarettes" School teacher: "Guard your heart" GRUMPY waiter taking out trash: "What a creep you are. Don't" Kissing couple under the bridge - Man: "Get a load of this kid" / Woman: "This can't be real, but you're just a child. No please" Oyster shucker on Main Street: "Little lady miss - you devil!" YOUNG MAN AT TRAIN STATION: "WHAT ARE" Musicians at cellar restaruant - Cello: "Is this a joke? You can't Oh god it can't be!" Violin: "It's a devil holy lord." Swan in the lake: (Hard to read. Terrible something... terrible taste?) [Unseen names]: "Sweet lord almighty", "Please I beg you" "Get your hands off-" "Dear God how" Woman in powder room: "Stop what are you. Child stop this instant" French man: "Mademoiselle arrete", "Porquoi tu fais ça moi!" Mother and daughter in town (near Jackson unintelligible) - Girl: "Mama my ice cream no why", Mother: "Good heavens not my child please!" Man on ???: "Keep your distance girl I know what you are I've seen you at night" Fisherman at Algiers Point: "Oh god what in heavens!" FLOWER STAND SELLER: "Dear we're closed now. You CAN'T WAIT YOU CAN'T BE. NO!" Sickly woman in shawl: "God will seek revenge on the evils in this world you devil." (Annotation from Claudia: "I laughed!")

[musings-from-an-elder-goth]

Lisa Frankenstein Filming Locations

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

As promised, here are some of the filming locations for Lisa Frankenstein. As I just saw Kathryn Newton at Spooky Empire in Orlando this past weekend, I decided to stalk filming locations for some of her cooler movies. Or you can just watch the video I made, which covers all the locations but it goes into much less detail:

I found most of the locations on my own, but then received a location list from a person on the film's production team which confirmed the ones I'd already found and gave me the ones I was missing. Big thank you to that person!

***Spoilers below***

We'll start with Lisa's home which is located at 2552 Cypress Lawn Dr, Marrero, LA 70072. The shed in the back yard for the tanning booth is really part of the property, & can just be seen from the street (circled in red in second image).

Now, if you go there, remember, THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY. Perfectly fine to admire it from the street, but do not trespass, do not knock on the door, do not ask for a tour, & do not ask if Lisa is home. Please. Now, if the folks living there say 'Hey' & invite you in when they see you in the street taking selfies with the house, that's another thing entirely - but otherwise, low profile it.

Although they filmed a little bit inside the real house, at least for the scenes where Creature first arrives, most of the house interiors were filmed on a sound stage which I know thanks to Zelda Williams posting this photo:

And that sound stage is The University of New Orleans Nims Center Studio located at 800 - 824 Distributors Row in New Orleans. I know this because of this picture from a behind the scenes video showing the entire cast & crew taking a group photo with two distinct architectural features circled. The next image is a Google street view of the same location with those features also circled.

Per the locations list, the party house Lisa & Taffy go to early in the film is located at 12565 Patterson Rd, New Orleans, LA 70131, which I've confirmed via location detail on Google maps:

And the high school is Belle Chase high school at 8346 LA-23, Belle Chase, LA 70037, which I've also confirmed via architectural detail:

The exteriors for Bachelor's Grove Cemetery & the woods around it, the wooded paths, & the bench scenes all take place in Brechtel Park, which is located in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.

The park offers roads for driving scenes as well as thick woodland with vines & dense ground cover for the cemetery set - which, sadly, was entirely fake. Below is the exact location of Bachelor's Grove.

Bachelor's Grove is located at GPS coordinates 29.9100534 -90.0124431. The easiest way to get there is to take an asphalt sidewalk that you'll find about 100 feet to the right of the entrance. That sidewalk will take you around the north edge of the park and then turn left (south) where you will look for the 2nd marked trail. Follow that trailfor about 50 feet and you'll find a second marked tree, which I call the Twisted Tree, and you're in Bachelor's Grove.

Moving along, the scene at 1:17:37 in the film where Creature goes to retrieve Janet's (Lisa's step-mom's) car and kills the mean old man who is harassing the kid who can't start a lawn mower, was filmed at the south dead end of Dede Street in Marrero, LA at GPS 29.855776, -90.093451.

Rather pleased with myself for finding that one - not easy.

Creature then returns to just outside Bachelor's Grove, which again was filmed in Brechtel Park, with precise location circled in the third image.

Lisa & Taffy arrive there & Lisa psychs herself up to go into the cemetery to kill Creature at GPS 29.906104, -90.009096

This is still in Brechtel Park, they just moved the cars about 30 feet to the west & spun the camera around - the dead giveaways are those posts along the road & the two small hills in the background.

Lisa then runs down a wide, woodland path.

This photo of one of Brechtel Park's wide, wooded paths is the same path, located at GPS 29.908912, -90.011958.

And here's that spot circled below:

When Dale, Lisa's dad (played by Joe Chrest, who also plays the Wheeler's dad on Stranger Things), & Taffy visit Lisa's grave at the end, they are standing in the southern section of Carrollton Cemetery in New Orleans, at GPS 29.947097, -90.121813.

The reason they used this location is because Carrollton is one of the few New Orleans cemeteries that has a large section where all the graves are below ground, as this movie is supposed to be taking place near Chicago.

As for how I know they used this specific location, I have a wine bottle shaped tombstone to thank for that. In the below image, we see that odd tombstone from the front.

And here we see it from the back, as I wasn't able to get a clear image of it from the same perspective of the above image:

Also rather proud of that find.

And the final scene on the bench is also in Brechtel Park at the location circled on the map, GPS 29.909290, -90.010784.

So the only significant filming location I can't find is Michael's red brick colonial, but whatever. Found Michael's house, too!

Anyway, here's to hoping we all find that special someone who was reanimated just for us. 🦇🖤🦇

creaturesfromelsewhere 5-23-2024

[daenystheedreamer]

Various pieces by French sculptor Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier

"Woman from the French Colonies", 1861. Originally titled La Capresse des Colonies (The Goat Tender from the Colonies)

"Jewish Woman of Algiers", 1862.

"Bust after Seïd Enkess", 1848. The sitter is Seïd Enkess, a formerly enslaved Sudanese man from Darfur. Titled as Nègre de Timbouctou (Negro from Timbuktu).

"Bust of a Woman", 1851. Debuted under the title Négresse des colonies (Negress of the Colonies)

While women of colour, fashioned in white marble or coloured materials, were unusual subjects in nineteenth-century sculpture, there are significant examples of works representing them as erotically charged and bound slaves, sexualised Venuses, or a hybrid of both. These reveal conflicting attitudes towards race, sexuality, slavery and abolition. White male sculptors such as John Bell and Charles Cordier intended to bring the pathos of the institution of slavery to public attention, yet they nonetheless traded on the allure of illicit sexuality born of that same system. Many works in this gallery evoke both vixen and victim.

[peachyxuan]

i love being an iwtv fan from new orleans. like yes i did drive past louis and lestat’s house when getting lunch. yes i have also sat melancholically in jackson square. yes i have also watched a show in the saenger and stumbled down royal street and wanted to drag someone’s head all the way to audubon park. haven’t crossed the mississippi for a man living in algiers though

[heroes-fading]

andor thoughts

one second, gotta yap.

The amount of history and care that goes into this show is just absolutely stunning. The war in Algiers, genocide in Palestine, British occupation in India, the Tlatelolco massacre, the French Resistance, fascist Italy...processing this show in conjunction with the history of the CIA's bloody, genocidal interventions that so perfectly mirror the ISB is just. Manufacturing consent in Ghorman! False flags! The fact that Disney let them get away with this is incredible.

Syril and Dedra got the perfect endings for both of their characters. The system eats its own. They are caught in the gears. Dedra was a true believer and all that got her was prison time! Syril threw his life away for a man who doesn't know who he is! AMAZING.

The Luthen and Kleya relationship was so special to me. Luthen defecting from the empire, reeling from the atrocities of the army he joined, Kleya just trying to survive. Luthen knowing this life will kill her soul and letting her join anyway, because what's the alternative?

Partagaz killing himself after listening to Nemik's manifesto goes so incredibly hard. Holy shit. Nemik's manifesto living on. Authoritarianism is leaky. Freedom is everywhere. One of the best pieces of writing from the show.

I don't really have the problem with Bix's ending that other people seem to! Frankly by end of ep 9 I was just relieved she was alive because I assumed she was going to die! But the context of her pregnancy makes her decision to leave make sense, and that is fundamentally a sunrise Cassian will never see. Her decision to return to the last place she felt safe/had community before the empire interceded -- much in the fashion that they did in Ferrix -- also felt narratively satisfying to me! I much prefer that over the alternative of her a) death or b) being completely alone without a sense of community!

Also there are so many other female characters on this show that DO make a different choice. Mon chooses the rebellion over her family. Vel is forced to choose the rebellion over everything. Kleya never even makes the choice, it's so automatic. Dedra chooses the empire over Syril, but they're both fucked either way because the empire does not care about them. This is not a feminist issue to me? I don't get that framing? It feels a little disingenuous?

Overall I think the tumblr style of analysis here is coming up short for me in processing this show. It's fundamentally not about which each character deserves since they're nearly all universally doomed in some way or another. It's about the relationships and complexity that exist within a system that is cold, hard, and unfeeling. The good guys die. Frequently! This is the design of a callous system. Nothing here was lazy or ill-thought out, but deeply intentional!

A character's death is not a judgement of their goodness or morality -- it's a judgement of the system that kills them! No death is random in this show. The cruelty is the point!

No one is getting a completely happy ending. This is the nuance, for me! Vel lives, but lost the love of her life. Mon Mothma lives, but her daughter is cursed. Kleya lives, but in a system that doesn't understand or fully respect her or her surrogate father's sacrifice. Bix lives, with her kid and her community, but never sees Cassian again. These characters are forced to make impossible choices in an unjust world! THAT'S THE FLAVOR.

Rogue One was fine, but between Andor and the film I find the former a lot more narratively well-built and satisfying. Maybe it's a matter of personal preference, but I thoroughly enjoyed Gilroy & co's vision. I'm a lot more interested in a story about fascism and the way it distorts and affects the world it exists in than I am anything else in the Star Wars universe, so that colors a lot for me!

So much of what's discussed in leftist spaces is this idea of "planting a tree you will never sit in the shade in" and how so much of this is bigger than each individual. We are not the heroes of the story, we are the background figures working tirelessly so the people after us suffer a little less. Andor turns that into a sunrise the characters will never see. That's so satisfying to me! I get how that wouldn't be to everyone, but this style of storytelling is so rich and unique -- and it's done with such a deft hand, which many attempts have failed miserably at -- and on top of that, it's also believable and textured!

To call Andor lazy or unimaginative writing just feels so out of pocket to me? It is incredibly intentional and deliberately imaginative, and every arc is so narratively satisfying. Universal critical acclaim is not because "dudes be reviewing." You do have to actually engage with the text at hand!

[sixohsixoheightfourtwo]

inspired by your desert fury gif set tags, do you have any other movies on archive.org you'd suggest?

haha a LOT. Genuinely surprises me how many presumably-in-copyright films are just .. there.... although they do in fact get taken down when/if the rights holders notice. If it's an older US-American film, or a classic non-english-language film, the chances of finding it are pretty good.

here's a few to check out that are notable in some way. Can't vouch for subtitles on everything sorry.

absolutely crazy selection of film noir here - click through to 'show all' and there's probably hundreds to browse through (not all in the best quality ... and with rather a loose definition of noir that encompasses some sports dramas and 1930s gangster films) including some of the great classics - The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Sweet Smell of Success, The Maltese Falcon, The Night of the Hunter (choose the second one on the list for better quality), Night and the City, Gilda, Key Largo, Leave Her To Heaven, Mildred Pierce, Kid Galahad, Angels with Dirty Faces, etc. etc alongside lesser-known films like Desert Fury. If you are looking for some ~subtext then Sweet Smell of Success, Gilda, The Maltese Falcon and Desert Fury are a good place to start.

Agnes Varda's documentary Les glaneurs et la glaneuse / The Gleaners & I and her follow-up two years later, following different types of 'gleaners' who gather things for different reasons, whether artistic or by necessity

Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), considered one of the greatest films ever made (number 14 on the 2022 sight & sound critics' poll)

Agnes Varda's Jane B par Agnes V (1988) (are you noticing a theme. i love agnes varda) - a wacky collaborative essay/portrait - Jane Birkin, ambivalent about turning 40, plays different characters in vignettes that Agnes Varda wants to see her play, interspersed with interviews about her life

Ousmane Sembene's La noire de.... / Black Girl (1966) following a Senegalese girl who travels to France to work, one of the great classics of world cinema

Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966) - hugely influential extraordinary film... everyone imitated this. Documentary-style account of the Algerian war for independence.

Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn! aka Queimada (1969) - not the best quality but i wanted to include it bc I saw it recently (currently on amazon prime in the UK) and it made me Crazzzyyyy. Marlon Brando plays an English agent provocateur sent to provoke a revolt in a Caribbean sugar colony in the mid 19th century. Ohhh it;'s good stuff.

Louis Malle's Zazie dans le Metro (1960) - precocious child visits her drag queen uncle in Paris, only wants to ride the Metro. Thwarted by a strike they go on a wild journey through the city.

Robert Bresson is another of my favourite filmmakers, a very still, austere, minimal style, mostly using non-professional actors - on archive.org you can find Le Diable Probablement/ The Devil Probably (1977), Un Condamné À Mort S'est Échappé / A Man Escaped (1956), Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

I've never seen it but Kurosawa's Seven Samurai one of the best known films of all time is up there like. is anyone paying attention to this webbed site...

Jacques Tati's Jour de Fete and Mon Oncle, classic comedy in a silent film-ish, Buster Keaton-ish style

Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles de Rochfort/ The Young Girls of Rochfort

Thom Anderson's classic Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), documentary / essay film on how the city has been portrayed in film

Werner Herzog's documentaries seem often available - eg Little Dieter Needs To Fly, Lessons of Darkness. (On youtube you can also find Encounters at the End of the world, Wings of Hope, Bells from the Deep, and Fata Morgana.)

John Berger's Ways of Seeing - better quality on youtube rather than archive.org though, iconic & influential art documentary

Jason and the Argonauts (1963) dir. Don Chaffey but really Thee Ray Harryhausen film of all Ray Harryhausen films. legendary stop motion creatures! the og skeleton war!

Hud (1963) dir. Martin Ritt, kind of a revisionist western with Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. super famous film!

Hard Times (1975) dir. Walter Hill - just ur classic great depression illegal bare-knuckle boxing movie with Charles Bronson & James Coburn!

haven't watched them but the classic Toho Godzilla movies are there!

there are several Letterboxd lists that list films available on the Internet Archive however ... since these lists are very long and may not be up to date I find them hard to use and not very useful.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 8/13/2024

i think i'm going to take a break from scifi written by men for a bit

listening

Ahmed Malek's Les Vacances de L'inspecteur Tahar, from the 1972 film of the same name.

if i can be really really real for a minute here the only thing i've listened to more than twice this week is GUESS by charli xcx but i don't want to have the same tuesdaysong twice in a row. this would make for an annoying end of year playlist.

i got an ad for a collected set of Ahmed Malek's Algerian jazz music on instagram. a session musician in Algiers, he made his name as a soundtrack composer with this comedic detective movie and was in demand for the rest of his life-- he's still really beloved in the African jazz scene, his works are super collectible, and his daughter gifted all his masters to a tiny record company so they could rerelease and preserve them.

it sounds exactly how you think a 70s cop movie should sound. impeccable example of the genre. instantly evocative. i wonder if it influenced the wider cop drama soundscape or if it's just an early example?

-

reading

many books disappointed me a great deal this week.

thank you philip.

the only comic i did like was Marauders (2019-2022), trying to get a little bit more into the xmen since my bestie has decided we're watching all their movies. this is really fun bc i knew who kitty pryde was, and she's a privateer captain who looks beat to shit the whole book. extremely fun and gay and swashbuckling, i placed holds for the other volumes already.

the two rogue and gambit books assumed i knew more about those characters than i already did, and had a heavy reliance on flashbacks and references to other issues.

the magic order was insufferable and did not stick its landing. made me worry about the characters and then feel really fucking stupid for worrying about the characters. i don't know why i keep trying mark millar books and thinking i will like them.

HOTELITOR had a very fun concept (mech hotel), but was a little more middle-grade than i was expecting, even from a teen book. very calarts visual style. very power of friendship will undo an evil corporation, which, i wish.

this little mermaid manga was not for me. and that's fine. most manga isn't for me.

we have to take a brief detour into how i store my books (poorly). these big middle shelves hold an unsorted mass, mostly of stuff i'm not sure i want to keep. i'm trying to be more thoughtful about which books i keep bc realistically i do not reread very often (if at all) and i am running out of space. as much as i love weird little scifi and fantasy paperbacks it would be cool if they all fit on one shelf.

here are four books i rapidly cycled through this weekend that are going to be donated.

Michael Moorcock's The Black Corridor, 1969, about a man slowly going insane in a spaceship fleeing a politically violent Earth with his friends and relations in cryosleep. not a very beloved Moorcock book among the Moorcock fans. this has a heavy focus on the rise of British fascism and i'm not now, nor will i ever be, in the mood for this. a shame bc this slim hardcover has proportions that were very nice to hold.

Thomas Burnett Swan's Where is the Bird of Fire?, 1970, three not quite short stories but not quite novellas about mythical creatures at the founding of Rome, Xerxes the Great's empire, and Britain near the fall of Rome. states very clearly exactly what it is on the tin and delivers it, unfortunately i don’t like any of the flavors on offer. every single one of these has the half-coy kind of sex scene common in historical fiction, where in order to represent the past accurately and with full verisimilitude we Must convey that they fucked nasty and had fun doing it. many times. unfortunately a middle aged man wrote these and our erotic sensibilities are Very far apart.

Glen Cook's Cold Copper Tears, 1988, a noirish urban fantasy. there are fourteen books in this series so clearly people like them. i found a lot of the Noir Similes a little tortured. "but kay isn't that the point--" yes but these annoyed me. also there's a rape joke i didn't enjoy on the fourth fucking page. i have very few hard outs in fiction and one of them is on-screen or on-page sexual assault or rape jokes in chapter one. i am slightly less likely to drop a book if it has rape jokes in chapters that are not the first but like. it’s still almost a flat line at 100%.

and the only one i got two-thirds of the way through, and which i partially liveblogged here,

Eric Kotani and John Maddox Robert's Between the Stars, 1988, the third in their Island Worlds series. it stands alone fairly well, which is impressive.

this book is good at differentiating a very large, very clannish cast, which is a hard thing to do in a political opera. people are often differentiated by little physical movement quirks, which a spy later uses to identify someone. it’s a lovely bit of business and definitely the authors’ strong points.

also props for two of the most capable people, an ill-liked matriarch/scientific genius and a femme fatale Russian, for being two of the most interesting characters with the most screen time, both on their own and in other character’s thoughts. unfortunately, with such a large cast and so many factions, the action is often split and meandering. racist in the very specific orientalist way cyberpunk eighties fiction often is, but uncommonly, they remembered Turkey existed and included in the orientalism?

severely suffered from a second act where it tripped over its own feet a lot instead of continued forward motion, quite honestly i got bored and tired of being hit over the head with various points. a very whedonesque quality of needing to comment on the political implication of something the instant after it happens.

this is not a subtle book, and it smacks less of an urgency to get a point across in as few words as possible and more an uncertainty in the authors of getting their point across at all. this is confusing to me bc this was their fourth book together and the third in this series. have some more confidence in your writing abilities. like, if you've already established your baddie as a fascist torturer who literally owns slaves and plans on taking over earth, you don't need to have him also say "Hitler was much-maligned" at a dinner party he's holding in a room full of hunting trophies where the only things on the table are red wine and whole game birds. you've more than established him as evil. the whole book is like this. it's exhausting.

not a book for me! many such cases!

-

watching

my brother was really singing the praises of vampire hunter d's animation and i was like, postapoc roaming vampire bounty hunter? say less! im already getting in!

i watched the 1980s version with some bemusement until he was like "why did you watch that and not the 2000 version." well that would have been so cool of you to be more specific, my boy!!! vampire hunter d (1985, dir. Toyoo Ashida) was still fun but clearly had way less of a budget than Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (2000, dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri)

i enjoyed bloodlust a little more bc it had a postapoc style i enjoyed a little more: showed me big manta rays that hide under the sand, big ruined radio dishes, and lots of beautifully ruined skyscrapers and fucked up highway overpasses. every time you see me post about a BIG!!! FUCKING!!! DISH!!! you should hear this schoolchildren "YAAAAAY!" sample from Jet Set Radio

-

playing

nothing much to report, a lot of grindy genshin impact shit as i try to clear all my map markers before the new nation drops at the end of the month.

-

making

the girls have three litter boxes available to them (laundry room/spare bathroom/utility closet), all in the correct and recommended locations, all with good sightlines and escape routes and all out of the main hustle and bustle of the apartment, all open top, all with the same kind of litter and the same kind of litter mat. they only use the one in my laundry room. since phil has had free roam of the house she has not used the one in the office bathroom. i asked my vet about this and sent her pictures to make sure i was doing everything right and the diagnosis was "yeah that's a little weird of them". can we spread the wear and tear out a little more, girls? so i don't have to deep clean the same litterbox every week?

[postcard-from-the-past]

Moorish man from Algiers, Algeria

French vintage postcard

[mzannthropy]

The Count of Monte Cristo limited series Episode 7 thoughts

Haydee is about to end one man's whole career as Edmond's revenge is nearing completion. It's getting tense! (Spoilers under the cut.)

ETA: The below text includes my unjustly harsh thoughts on Mercedes. Having rewatched the series and done some internal revising, I now feel much more positive about her, especially this version of Mercedes. I don't want to delete or edit the recap, as that was how I felt at the time, so just including this here as a warning.

The episode begins with an entertaining scene of the counts Monte Cristo and de Morcerf in a sauna. Our titular hero approaches Fernand and brings up the topic of arranged marriage between Albert and Eugenie. Fernand tells him that they've planned to do this years ago, but Monte Cristo plants a seed of doubt--he hears that Danglars is now preferring Count Spada as his future son-in-law. So Fernand comes to Danglars's office to clear this up.

The scenes of Danglars and Fernand together are among the best points of this adaptation, largely due to Blake Ritson, who's an absolute gem to watch as Danglars (I never would have thought that Danglars could be made into such an interesting character). It wouldn't surprise me if it turned into a popular ship. In fact, I think it should. And this scene is particularly funny, bc Danglars reveals to Fernand that he does intend to marry Eugenie off to Count Spada, at which Fernand is, understandably, hurt, and taking out some of the lines, it is as if the two of them were going through a breakup.

Danglars wants the marriage to take place asap for financial reasons (he is investing in those railways mentioned in the previous episode). Poor Eugenie is distressed and her girlfriend comforts her, saying they will find a way to get out of it.

Jacopo and Caderousse go to pick up a boy named Gaston, who sleeps rough under a bridge. This is the illegitimate son of Villefort and Hermine, who lives a common thief. The count has him settled at Caderousse's apartment. Jacopo, looking concerned, asks the count if he plans to use the boy, and the count responds in the affirmative. I thought Jacopo would have a villain arc surpassing even Edmond's, seeing how he killed the orderly at the mental institution, but here he is worried about his employer's choices. I'm glad of it, bc I want Jacopo to get out of this alive.

Gaston doesn't appreciate the count's actions and, when he wakes up at night, he steals money from Caderousse's pocket and runs. Out on the street, he is quickly seized by Boville, who has been watching the house, but Gaston, using the knife he has concealed on him, stabs the inspector. Exit Boville. Gaston does a runner, but not before a woman, who lives in this neighbourhood, witnesses the crime.

Gaston is caught, but nobody else is incriminated, as the count has Caderousse's apartment cleared out--he suspected Boville was watching the place. He then rewards Caderousse for his services. Caderousse plans to move to New York and open a tavern there. The count says that in America they are called bars and advises him to set up one near stock exchange so that he has wealthy clients. He tells the count "I hope you find peace one day, Edmond" and Edmond responds that he hopes so too. If this is the last we see of him, it looks like this Caderousse got a redemption arc--and I kinda like it? I think it's an interesting choice for this adaptation, though of course there's still an episode left and it might go differently.

Danglars is involved in getting the information about the man formerly known as Fernand Mondego and his actions in Algiers. Now that they fell out, he is happy to reach out to his contacts in Algiers to dig up the dirt on him. This then gets published in the Enquirer, a newspaper where Beauchamp works at. Fernand is called to parliament. He denies ever betraying Ali Pasha, but this is when Haydee steps in, with receipts!, and tells her story. And thus, the count de Morcerf is finished.

Edmond thanks Haydee as she is boarding a carriage, to which she says: "yes, but at what cost?" She then gives him a half-hug, and it looks like that's all we're getting, bc I strongly suspect we won't see her again. I've been saying we're not getting the Edmond x Haydee endgame, but saying it is one thing, and keeping a hope alive in your heart is another. Ah well...

All is not well in the de Morcerfs' household. Fernand tells Albert: "you brought Monte Cristo into our lives, so you should remove him too". How heroic of you, Fernand, asking your son to fight your battles. But Albert takes on the task, and challenges the count, as you know, in the scene they released a few weeks ago.

In the meantime, the marriage between Count Spada and Eugenie Danglars is agreed upon.

It's the night before the duel and Mercedes visits the count of Monte Cristo. She knows about the duel, bc she has had Marcel, a servant, follow Albert. She doesn't say "Edmond you will not kill my son". She says "So you will kill my son?" I think it's better, I never thought that line in the book was particularly strong and I don't get what people see in it. They have an angsty dialogue, throughout which I kept shouting "fuck off Mercedes" at the screen (I woke up my cat who thought this was directed at her), so I can't tell you much about it, but I do know that Mercedes was not a bit bothered about her husband's newly uncovered misdeeds. Like, not a tiny sliver bit, and this is something that would affect her son, on whose behalf she has come to negotiate. They call each other Mercedes and Edmond in this scene and he reveals to her that it was Fernand who framed him. She begs him to spare Albert and tells him she has always loved him. Unfortunately they kiss (albeit it's short) and I have horrible flashback to another limited series book adaptation where I had to watch Sam Claflin kiss a woman I didn't like when it was not canon. Sigh. Edmond's like, I guess I die then, and Mercedes is like, no! and he says, but he has insulted me. Does she not know how duels work?

The morning of the duel dawns, Edmond is at the location with Jacopo and Maximilien, while Debray and Beauchamp are there for Albert, who has not yet arrived. It goes as it should go--he rides in, explains that he was mistaken and offer apology to the count of Monte Cristo. They shake hands.

Fernand comes to Monte Cristo's house, ready to confront him with his sword. This is when he finds out Monte Cristo's true identity. So, he leaves. After he is gone, Edmond smiles.

Fernand returns home to witness his wife and son packing up. He goes to his desk and takes out a pistol. The shot is heard while the camera is on Albert and Mercedes as they are in a carriage, leaving. Exit Fernand de Morcerf.

[ropermike]

Illya is captured when he and Solo go to Algiers to obtain a rare old stolen book containing a THRUSH code. After a few threats from the villain, he inverts himself on the adjacent hook and burns the rope tying his wrists without burning his hands. U.N.C.L.E. training pays off again.