#operatic parallels

[yinyuedijun]

oh my god I'm actually STUNNED at the finale of this quest.....the three acts where Sunday is narrating the rise of penacony and the order in a way that parallels the first passages of Genesis of the Bible, the tense operatic background music, the insane design of the three levels, the open references to absolute monarchy and thus one of the most important arguments for authoritarianism in western philosophical thinking, the final boss being a massive monster made up of many mannequin bodies and reminiscent of the commonwealth figure of Leviathan which is a work that in and of itself is titled after a Biblical reference, this boss being named DOMINICUS TO TIE TOGETHER THE THEMES OF RELIGION, EMPIRE, AND ABSOLUTE RULERSHIP???? THIS IS FUCKING CRAZYYYYYY

[knightotoc]

The beginning and end of Crosshair's arc each address a separate frustration I've had with Star Wars backpedaling on its own drama.

The first is the wishy-washiness of the clones' implanted brain chips. The original concept art from Attack of the Clones shows the clones to be victims of brainwashing. The sterile, science-gone-wrong imagery is inspired by Lucas' debut THX-1138, a bleak film with a tenuous and generally confrontational relationship to Star Wars. AotC, with its forbidden romance and evil fetus-growing laboratories, is the SW movie most similar to THX, and also my favorite.

The AotC concept artists went so far as to speculate that the clones did not have souls, an extreme reaction but certainly a dramatic tabula rasa to build characters upon. RotS briefly shows the Jedi's complete trust in the clones and the clones' ruthless betrayal; the explanation for this shocking behavior is implied through a parallel to Anakin, as is everything else in that movie.

But once the darn cartoon had been on cable for a few years, the writers lost faith in the THX reference and Anakin parallel and decided to replace brainwashing/manipulation with a physical Order 66 chip in the clones' brains. The idea that their characters had become too lovable to ever willingly do something so bad is a fundamental misunderstanding of Star Wars, the operatic genre, and human nature.

Season 7, while knocking it out of the park with the Maul stuff, made this brain chip thing even worse by having Ahsoka break Rex's before he had to kill any Jedi. So even though the clones are innocent, the protagonist clone is even more innocent.

And now he's supposed to lead the clones away from the Empire, but why should they follow someone who can't even relate to their fundamental curse? He's like Galahad, the only knight chaste enough to find the Holy Grail, and they're like Bors, who is technically chaste except for that one time he had sex because he got tricked by a magic spell. Thank God for rigid moral hierarchies beyond earthly control!

The only other clones who can't relate to the chip curse are the Bad Batch, since their mutated brains made them immune to it. But while the goodies don't hurt a fly, Crosshair uses his special gift of free will to shoot at a cute little Padawan. And not just any Padawan, but one of the most beloved Jedi to ever do it, the future Kanan Jarrus.

So in a bent around way, Crosshair punches through this annoying loophole the cartoon writers made in one of the movies' darkest scenes. He's not matchy-matchy, but he is still genuinely brainwashed, which makes him the only clone who still follows their original violent vision.

So, the twist at the beginning of Crosshair's arc course-corrects a decision made in a spin-off about the motivations for background characters -- but the end of his arc addresses a much bigger problem, one that affects the greatest scenes and biggest characters in the whole story: amputation.

Luke's spiritual pain from learning the truth about his father is accompanied by the physical pain of amputation. Obi-Wan demonstrates his unexpected badassery through amputation. Luke demonstrates his burgeoning badassery by Force-pulling his lightsaber toward him...shortly followed by amputation. Anakin's repeated carelessness for his weapon and life leads to him stupidly running right into amputation. Kreia proves her twisted devotion by amputation. Cay Qel-Droma becomes dependent on his brother because of amputation. Obi-Wan will not kill Anakin, but he will amputate him.

And these scenes are scary and intense, in the moment. But they do not have consequences. All of these amputees are either alien villains who we never hear from again, or Force-wielders supported by a wealthy institution which instantly provides a perfect prosthetic. Only Kreia runs around with an actual stump, but her signature move is telekinetically spinning three purple lightsabers.

There are several heart-stirring images, such as Anakin's robotic hand holding Padmé's at their wedding, or Luke's hand revealing gizmos instead of blood when he's shot on Jabba's yacht, but these images have more to do with Lucas' problematic theme of "nature > technology" than the theme of disability.

But Crosshair does not have the Force, and he certainly doesn't have the support of any institution. Most dramatically of all, his amputation is not the tragic finale of his battle, but only the penultimate act.

As a fantastically skilled sniper, Crosshair relies more upon his hands than any other SW character I know. His astounding precision is demonstrated most memorably in this scene from an earlier season, in which the music stops to allow his laser fire to ricochet off a spinning disk, down a hallway, and right into his clanker target's head:

This isn't the Force. This isn't believing in something you can't see. This is deliberate!

Throughout the last season, Crosshair has a tremor in his dominant hand which significantly affects his aim. This comes to a terrible head when he misses the shot meant to attach a tracking device to the ship kidnapping his sister Omega (again). After years of doing wrong, he finally wants to do right, and he fails because of his humiliating and unprepared-for disability.

This disability continues throughout the long journey to track her down by their wits, until he is finally captured himself. Just as escape seems close, the Imperials cut off his dominant hand to punish him. In all the other cases of amputation in Star Wars, it takes a guy completely out of the fight. But Crosshair can't afford to lose, yet. He has to keep going.

In the final battle scene, the villain is hand-cuffed to Omega on the other end of a bridge (with no hand rails of course), and Crosshair has to shoot the hand-cuffs off so the badguy can fall without dragging down Omega. Crosshair has to lean his rifle on his brother Hunter's shoulder, balance with his stump, and pull the trigger with his non-dominant hand.

The first Star Wars movie is actually unique among the franchise for having a purely satisfying victory -- the other ones all pile on some tragedy or irony -- but I think that Crosshair's victory is the most satisfying of all.

[putschki1969]

Kaji Fes.2023 Day 1 FULL Video [Reupload]

Find the original post from last night HERE. It doesn't show up on the Tumblr dashboard so only people who actively check my blog have seen it. I exchanged the video with an official one so I guess it might have been a copyright issue. Don't think I've ever had one, very interesting.

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I was quite excited to watch this since I only attended Day 2 last December. I didn’t necessarily regret not going for Day 1 but there were a couple of really neat songs in the setlist that I kinda wished I had been able to see performed live. The audio seems a bit dull but maybe it’s just me… Anyway, it’s still a pretty epic live. Please note that they decided to cut a handful of songs from the broadcast (probably to keep the whole thing at roughly 2 hours). The following songs are not included: fake garden, canta per me, she has to overcome her fear, I beg you and 砂塵の彼方へ.

Here are some random thoughts┗(•ˇ_ˇ•)―→

fake garden

canta per me

the world: Nothing much to say here. Decent performance but I liked the song more when it was led by Keiko.

Liminality: Loved, loved, loved this version with the amazingly talented Yuri Kasahara, Keiko and Kaori. The bridge here might be my favourite of all time.

in the land of twilight, under the moon: Never been a fan.

swordland: Another highlight for me. I think it’s easy to tell that I am a real sucker for YK’s guest vocalists that use a more operatic singing style.

she has to overcome her fear

luminous sword: Always been a big fan of Yuki’s SAO soundtrack. I understand why it gets performed a lot.

星屑: Even though this is a Keiko-centric song, I’ve never really liked it all that much so I don’t have much to say about it.

花守の丘: Solid.

ｗe’re gonna groove: Those who have followed me for a while know how I feel about the accordion. I dislike this instrument with a passion and it’s just featured way too heavily here. Fun fact, when Day 2 started with the accordion, I got really scared and wondered whether or not I would enjoy myself.

Obsession: Can’t say I’ve ever heard this song before. Sadly, it’s nothing that leaves a lasting impression. Also, that accordion…(¬_¬) Weird choice for LINO LEIA. It was fun hearing Keiko sing a bit of English though.

千夜一夜: Once again, not familiar with the song. Like this one a bit more though. Generally, I think I prefer rito’s vocals over LINO’s even though I don’t really know why.

Point Zero: This is one of my all-time favourite YK songs and one of the few tracks I really regret not seeing live on Day 1. Another epic performance by Yuri Kasahara. God, I love her so much.

salva nos: Speaking of regrets, yup, I’ll admit it, I am pretty bummed that I missed this one. “salva nos” and “a song of storm and fire” were the very first YK songs I ever listened to and they quite literally changed the trajectory of my life. Without those two songs, I wouldn’t have looked into more of YK’s stuff and I certainly wouldn’t have discovered Kalafina. One day, I wanna be there for a live performance. At least I got to hear “a song of storm and fire” on Day 2. So grateful for that!! Anyway, super epic.

花の唄: No thoughts.

I beg you

櫂: Ahh, I almost forgot about Aimer’s Mizu no Akashi 2.0. It’s so funny to me that this is literally copy/paste. Lovely melody, I don’t even mind the vocals all that much but damn, it’s not even coming close to Wakana’s Mizu no Akashi.

朝が来る: Decent but nothing to write home about.

My Story: Ohhh, another score track from “Hanako to Anne”. I was actually blown away by Day 2’s “希望の光”. This is not as good but still quite nice. Weirdly enough I am obsessed with the uilleann pipes. How come I can’t stand the accordion but I absolutely love this instrument? Probably because I am really into the celtic sound?

Parallel Hearts: Ugh, never liked this song, not even when Wakana was still around.

stone cold: This on the other hand is a song I’ve always enjoyed but with Wakana no longer in the picture, it’s just not the same. Will never get used to the Kaori chorus. Sorry T_T Still like this though.

the image theme of Xenosaga II: Good stuff.

蒼穹のファンファーレ: Love that this is focusing on the FJ regulars. My favourite performance of the song so far.

[jonathanarcher]

my favorite part about that not so good season 1 xfiles episode where scully's ex boyfriend gets possessed is when he's reading about the married criminals he's pursuing and says they have an "operatic devotion" for one another. cause that's mulder and scully!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they have an operatic devotion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LITERALLY…. I honestly had a lot of fun with the episode because I kept paralleling the married criminals to mulder and scully and losing my mind. because the thing about mulder is no grave can hold his body down. He’ll crawl home to scully. Honestly there were a ton of neat little character beats (and accidental foreshadowing what with scully being abducted for the first time) that I really enjoyed. It was kind of like if beyond the sea was shitty

[dead-set-goat]

Finally got all the weapons in Nier Replicant lol, and experienced ending C. Don’t know if I have the energy to redo the beginning of the game for the E ending stuff (after I get D of course) but it is so tempting. Man, just wish this game was not so goddamn tedious, it’s budget 2010 RPG is showing even beneath the remaster makeup…

Despite all of the gameplay junk, I still think I prefer this over Automata, just a liiiiitle bit more. The character dynamics, the twist, the world and aesthetics are still unique to this day and resonate with me more (confusingly enough, as I tend to be a fan of more on-the-nose post-apocalyptic settings huh). And the Gestalt/Replicant brother-sister struggle parallels... who should I even root for? Simply believe the more subtle nature of this game in general is a lot more impactful and bittersweet, the less bombastic explodastic operatic, the more time I get to chew on my own thoughts you know.

[sweepseven]

There could be some aesthetic and acting decisions that could help with a fem!EC casting, if they want to make sure the audience understands this is mother and son:

• Wrinkly makeup

• Always hyping & pointing to CS being like “that’s my baby he can do no wrong 🥹” while he’s creating gunpowder from bones

• Be smothering/coddling, which could communicated through body language

• Maybe lean into references like Mother Gothel

• Or that one passive aggressive helicopter soccer mom

• Gaslight gatekeep girlboss basically

Hard agree on the wrinkly makeup, but I just can't see past how badly I want the Counselor to be a strictly male character no matter who plays him. Ka is so huge and operatic, it would be so cool if the story and acting adequately served the roles to the point that there is no denying who this guy is, regardless of the artist.

I think what makes CS's relationship with his parent - father or mother - is the inherent tension between what both of them want. Even in the most political read, we always see CS as some degree of heartbroken during Love Dance. The fact is there is no way CS gets 100% of what he wants if his parent gets 100% of what they want: if the coup is a success, CAD will never love CS. Straight up. So for this reason I just can't see the Counselor as coddling or smothering or protective. That would logically lead to a Counselor that cares about their son's feelings, and I think they mostly don't. Maybe the two of them have fun being comically evil or whatever, but at the end of the day CS is just one route to the Counselor getting what they want. And when it fails, CS is also the backup in the form of his invention. The Counselor sees their son as a tool, and maybe in that respect there could be some Mother Gothel parallels, but I don't think there are many signs of much parental love to be found until the very end, at which point CS bears all the consequences for their shared crimes and failures.

[fullmusicbardsquared]

Have you read the aso book? What are your thoughts on the book vs movie if you did. And if not whats your fave and least fave aspect of the movie

I've read all the space odyssey books but ill have to read 2061&3001 again.. I think that the ASO book is really interesting and you can tell that it was being written while the movie was written..it obviously has more character Arcs than the movie and that's probably the biggest difference = its shorter too so it feels more like quests tied together while the movie is more meandering&visual. the book is also a lot more emotional but that's not really..hard. I like how the book gives a more explicit parallel between moonwatcher (the ape who gets the knowledge) and bowman as a starchild with a line about how they're both "thinking about what to do". I also like how Hal has more substance

my favorite aspects of the movie are the actors sets & costume designs..they all really communicate how different 2001 is from the pulpier / more fantastical movies at the time. my least favorite aspect is the monolith theme its just kind of aggravating especially since the rest of the score is just normal classical music. at least make the singing more operatic sir

[the-far-bright-center]

‘Revenge of the Sith may be the greatest work of art in our lifetimes...’

(an excerpt from a long-deleted blog post, archived here)

“Revenge of the Sith is still (and probably always will be) the greatest thing that will ever come out of the Star Wars franchise. I always go further, in fact, and say that it’s the greatest thing that will ever come out of big-budget, action/fantasy cinema at all. George Lucas’s final contribution to his Star Wars legacy—2005’s final prequel offering—was not only an artistic, cinematic and operatic masterpiece, but it was the ultimate, consummate manifestation of everything Star Wars was capable of being and, for that matter, everything that big-scale cinema is capable of being.

It literally does not—and probably can’t—get better than this ever again.

Lucas, who himself pretty much set the standard and invented the genre in 1977, had now taken us to the absolute zenith of what that genre of film-making could produce.

Epic, ambitious, stunning, moving, nuanced, and everything else, it was the glorious completion of Lucas’s original Star Wars saga that I had been waiting for—and something for which I will always be immensely grateful George Lucas came back to film-making to give us. I have already made the case at length for why Revenge of the Sith was an absolute masterpiece of staggering proportions, so I’ll refrain from re-stating here all the ... reasons I eternally bow at the altar of that film and its unfairly maligned architect.

People who didn’t get it or still don’t get it probably never will get it.

I’ve given up arguing with those on the tedious backlash bandwagon, those who join in with the Lucas-bashing for the sake of YouTube channel views, or those who, like [spoilt children] throwing a tantrum, bitterly disavow George Lucas and whine about how the prequels ‘ruined Star Wars’.

Someone who did get it, however, was the noted author and social critic Camille Paglia: she of course famously declared a few years ago that George Lucas was the greatest artist of his time and specifically that Revenge of the Sith was the greatest work of art in the last thirty years.

The respected, if often controversial, academic Paglia didn’t argue that Episode III  was merely the best movie of the last thirty years… but the best work of art in any genre and in any medium.

[...] Predictably a lot of people either assumed Paglia was being sarcastic or they simply pooh-poohed her conclusions. Paglia, however, was not trying to be ironic, and she has reaffirmed and defended her position over and over again and with a passion—Lucas’s final Star Wars film, she maintained, is the greatest work of art in the last three decades.

[...] I cannot think of any film in any genre that has been as absorbing or as immaculate (or as ambitious). Even just conceptually, what Lucas tried to do with the prequel trilogy was staggering and is without any parallel. And while we could argue that the execution was off-the-mark in certain places, the sheer visceral power and broad artistic value of what he did manage to create—even with its various failings—puts Lucas’s saga (and ROTS in particular) into a different stratosphere entirely.

In her own view of it, Paglia especially focuses on the final act of the third prequel—the climactic finale centering on the extended Anakin/Kenobi lightsaber duel against the dramatic lava backdrop and the extraordinarily powerful way that the birth of the Skywalker twins is juxtaposed with the ‘death’ of Anakin and ‘birth’ of Vader. That latter sequence, by the way, in which the death of the mother coincides (and even feeds into) the birth of the ‘dark father’, all of it underscored by John Williams haunting, gothic choral/hymn composition, is just one example (among many) of Lucas’s extraordinarily acute and nuanced levels of vision.

‘The long finale of Revenge of the Sith has more inherent artistic value, emotional power, and global impact than anything by the artists you name,’ she said in this interview with Vice. ‘It’s because the art world has flat-lined and become an echo chamber of received opinion and toxic over-praise. It’s like the emperor’s new clothes—people are too intimidated to admit what they secretly think or what they might think with their blinders off.’

Speaking to FanGirlBlog, Paglia continued her celebration of Lucas’s final masterwork, saying, ‘I have been saying to interviewers and onstage, "The finale of Revenge of the Sith is the most ambitious, significant, and emotionally compelling work of art produced in the last 30 years in any genre—including literature".

Paglia’s assertions flowed from her 2012 book Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art from Egypt to Star Wars, which in part addressed the problem of modern cultural ignorance and the author’s worries that 21st century Americans are overexposed to visual stimulation by the “all-pervasive mass media” and must fight to keep their capacity for contemplation.

In the book, Paglia discusses twenty-nine examples of visual artwork, beginning with the ancient Egyptian funerary images of Queen Nefertari, and then progressing through various artistic works, including creations from Ancient Greece to Byzantine art and Donatello’s ‘Mary Magdalene’.

She explained, ‘Lucas was not part of my original plan for Glittering Images, which has 29 chapters crossing 3000 years. My goal was to write a very clear and concise handbook to the history of artistic styles from antiquity to the present. When I looked around for strong examples of contemporary art to end the book with, however, I got very frustrated. There is a lot of good art being made, but I found it overall pretty underwhelming. When I would happen on the finale of Revenge of the Sith, I just sat there stunned. It grew and grew on me, and I became obsessed with it. I was amazed at how much is in there—themes of love and hate, politics, industry, technology, and apocalyptic nature, combined with the dance theater of that duel on the lava river and then the parallel, agonizing death/births. It’s absolutely tremendous.’

Paglia also entirely recognised the sheer scale of Lucas’s creation and the value of even its various constituent parts as important or worthy works of art. ��The fantastically complex model of the Mustafar landscape made for the production of Revenge of the Sith should be honored as an important work of contemporary installation art,’ she argued. ‘And also that Lucas’ spectacular air battles, like the one over Coruscant that opens Sith, are sophisticated works of kinetic art in the tradition of important artists like Marcel Duchamp and Alexander Calder. No one has ever written about George Lucas in this way—integrating him with the entire fine arts tradition.’

The problem is that Lucas and the prequel trilogy have become so widely misrepresented as ‘bad’ that most people don’t know how to deal with someone like Paglia sincerely proclaiming “Nothing in the last 30 years has been produced—in any of the arts—that is as significant or as emotionally compelling as Revenge of the Sith…”

[...] In fact, contrary to widespread misconceptions about how the Star Wars films are viewed, a Rotten Tomatoes poll ... found that Revenge of the Sith (and not Empire Strikes Back) scored as the best-regarded of the [Lucas] movies according to aggregation of archived reviews. So the idea that everyone dismisses the prequels seems like a misconception; but it is fair to say that a substantial body of people —including a lot of people who, rather incongruously, regard themselves as Star Wars fans—do completely dismiss this film along with its two predecessors.

As I said at the start, people who didn’t get it or still don’t get it probably never will get it.

But what has always struck me as pitiful about the whiny ‘Lucas Ruined Star Wars’ attitude is that it seems to flow from the premise that Lucas—a man whose stubborn commitment to his own singular vision gave an entire generation from the late 70s and early 80s unparalleled joy—somehow ‘owes it’ to those same people to do things precisely how *they* deem acceptable. That’s essentially what it comes down to—that he, as the artist, should make the art that the fans or the public want and not follow his own creative vision.

What people don’t realise, however, is that if he had done that from the beginning, there never would’ve BEEN an original Star Wars trilogy at all—and arguably all of these huge blockbuster SF/fantasy films that people spend their money seeing today wouldn’t exist either. What a lot of people also don’t realise is that Lucas was never setting himself up to be a populist or even mainstream filmmaker. On the contrary, he was the avant-garde film geek, the rogue, the outsider. The fact that Star Wars spiraled into a billion-dollar behemoth was an accident; and when the first Star Wars movie was released in 1977, it was an oddity that no one in the film industry understood or believed in.

But Lucas had stuck to his own creative vision—a vision that was largely incomprehensible to everyone else at the time the film was being made—and his singular vision hit the mark big-time and accomplished something unprecedented.

By the time of the endlessly-maligned The Phantom Menace in 1999 and everything that followed, Lucas was still doing exactly the same thing—following his own vision, trying to create something extraordinary and largely ignoring contemporary trends or opinion. The only difference was that the vast fan-base he had acquired from the original films were older now, far more jaded and over-saturated with blockbuster movies (most of which were influenced by Lucas’s pioneering work in the 70s) and they essentially didn’t *want* something new, creative or challenging—they just wanted the same thing they’d had when they were kids.

In effect, they weren’t interested in Lucas the artist or Lucas the pioneer—they only wanted Lucas the Popcorn Movie dispenser. But Lucas the Popcorn Movie Dispenser had never existed—he was simply an illusion created by the extraordinary commercial success of the Star Wars Trilogy.

What Lucas had in fact envisioned—and created—with the prequel trilogy, especially Revenge of the Sith, was something that transcended the whole summer blockbuster ennui, transcended genre, transcended the very medium of film itself, and could be discussed in the same breath as Shakespeare, Virgil and the Aeneid, Julius Caesar, and a number of equally fascinating and endlessly debatable works of serious and complex gravity.

But there was an audience of millions who were instead looking for something that could be discussed alongside Jurassic Park or Terminator 2. Which is fine—Star Wars of course can also be discussed just as validly in that latter context too; but it also exists in a stratosphere beyond it. And because Lucas’s process and vision was in that higher stratosphere a lot of the time, there was a frequent disconnect that occurred, whereby a lot of people were unable to meet him halfway or relate to the films on those kinds of levels.

But Lucas pushed on with his long-envisioned trilogy; and by the time the final installment of his Star Wars saga arrived in 2005, a sizeable proportion of the old fan-base had either departed or were by now just coming to the party for the thrill of seeing Darth Vader one last time. Some dismissed the film the same way as they’d dismissed its two predecessors, some were full of scathing mockery, while others were ambivalent. Some were suitably entertained, but didn’t take it much further than that.

Another group, a smaller minority—myself included—had just seen something of epic, overwhelming proportions and had the greatest cinematic experience of their lives.

But great art is like that.

Great works of art divides people, provoking endless debate [...] An argument could be made that the greatest artist will go all-out to create something special and substantive, even if it won’t appeal to everyone. Said artist would follow his own creative vision and not compromise it to the committee of consensus or demand.

Lucas, it should be borne in mind, never made ANY of the Star Wars films with film-critics in mind—even the Original Trilogy movies were not critically approved, despite becoming cultural landmarks. And interestingly, the hang-ups of many of those who were scathing about the prequel movies—ROTS included—were virtually identical to the hang-ups of the critics in the early 80s who either just didn’t get those original Star Wars films or were unwilling to praise a rogue filmmaker who was rebelling against Hollywood at the time and who was making something entirely out-of-step with contemporary trends and sensibilities.

Fittingly enough, the Lucas who was out-of-step with the sensibilities of the time during the late 70s and early 80s is the same Lucas who was equally out-of-step with sensibilities and trends at the time of the prequels too. In both eras, Lucas rebelled against the sensibilities of contemporary cinema and carved out his own piece of utter magic according to his own stubborn vision—the difference is that so many of the same people who adored what he had done in the first instance couldn’t understand what he was doing in the second instance.

Even though what he was doing was essentially the same thing.

For that matter, I always suspected that one of the main reasons so many people failed to appreciate (or in a lot of cases, to even understand) this film is precisely because it isn’t contemporary. That’s a key thing to understand about the Star Wars prequels—they were not made in a contemporary style.

Lucas doesn’t make contemporary cinema. Both of Lucas’s Star Wars trilogies are written and designed specifically to NOT be contemporary, but to have a more timeless quality, steeped in traditions from the past.

Lucas, you have to remember, has never been a contemporary or generic filmmaker, but a more avant-garde artist and experimenter who foremost specialises in tone and impressionism. The fact that he invented modern blockbuster cinema is purely an accident. As he himself once said, “None of the films I’ve done was designed for a mass audience, except for ‘Indiana Jones.’ Nobody in their right mind thought ‘American Graffiti’ or ‘Star Wars’ would work”.

 [...] They were not contemporary or generic at all—consequently, a lot of people didn’t understand or relate to what they were watching: because they couldn’t find a point of comparison in popular culture.

To really understand these films, you have to go back to some of the historical epics of the fifties and sixties, particularly films like Ben-Hur, Cleopatra or Spartacus. If you watch any of those films (and all three are timeless, truly marvelous cinematic works) and then watch the three Star Wars prequels, it will suddenly make much more sense. The acting style, the dialogue style, the themes, the epic scope and settings, the vast mythologizing, the way the films are scored, even the intricate costume design—all of it.

There’s nothing surprising about that. After all, it’s easy to overlook the fact now from our current vantage-point, but the original Star Wars trilogy movies weren’t contemporary in style either—they were stylistically based on things like Kurosawa, Flash Gordon and the Saturday matinee serials of the 1930s and 40s. The original trilogy films made no stylistic sense in terms of contemporary cinema or sensibilities in the late 70s or early 80s—they were, in style, a homage to a long-gone era.

So too were the prequels—just a different homage to a different era.

[...]

When you look at everything that makes up Revenge of the Sith, the scope of vision along with the degree of artistic nuance and juxtaposition is breathtaking.

There’s lots of action, yes, as you’d expect; but the action, like so much of what Lucas was doing by this stage, is almost transcendent. Sure, the acting or delivery is off in a few places; mostly due to some of the actors having to perform in non-existent CG environments—remember Lucasfilm and ILM were breaking new ground technologically in these movies, which we take for granted now with all our CG and digital filmmaking, but which at the time were bound to cause some teething problems. But Ewan McGregor is superb in this film, while the maligned Hayden Christensen....in fact does a solid job in any number of key scenes.

And there’s everything else. The special effects aren’t just good, they’re actually often beautiful in a way that most special effects don’t aspire to be. The level of detail and artistry in the visuals mean you could turn the sound off and still be captivated. Some of the backdrops could make extraordinary paintings that could hang convincingly in art galleries. And Lucas is the absolute master of the establishing shot and the scene transition, turning it into an art every bit as nuanced as in a piece of music.

For that matter, the music is extraordinary—and actually if you look at how underwhelming or non-existent the music is in the post-Lucas ‘The Force Awakens’, it becomes clear that Lucas and Williams had a collaborative process that really influenced how these films were scored (and which is now no longer the case). Lucas himself said that the music was 50 percent of what mattered in these films and that is certainly evident.

Much of it, particularly the climatic Kenobi/Skywalker duel and that final act with the birth of the twins, death of Padme and creation of Vader, almost isn’t cinema at all—but opera. This could’ve been something Wagner was composing if he had ever existed in the cinema age.

In fact, the final few scenes of the film don’t even have any dialogue, but are purely musical and visual. Even some of the most stirring parts earlier on in the film are without dialogue; take, for example, the breathtakingly beautiful sequence of Anakin and Padme trying to silently sense for each other across the exquisite, sunset cityscape—it’s all visual, tone and subtle music, pure emotion with no dialogue. A scene like that could almost be part of a silent movie; and it’s also like an impressionist painting in motion.

Even that Kenobi/Skywalker duel itself is more than just an action sequence. With Williams’ epic, stirring, choral score, it too is opera. But it’s opera married to performance art: the level of intricacy, fluency and speed of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen’s dueling is insane, having required an immense amount of prep and practise. The choreography takes it onto the level of dance; of true performance art as opposed to disposable cartoon violence or cheap blockbuster action.

Everything here—to the last detail—is choreographed like a ballet and it is spellbinding.

Yet while other filmmakers would try to sell an entire movie on such an exquisite centerpiece, for Lucas all of this—all of this poetry, opera, dance, music, visual art and everything else—is ultimately mere constituent part to a greater whole: a Shakespearan epic of a tortured fall from grace and a Greek tragedy... wrapped within an even larger epic about the fall of a Republic, the fallibility of religion and the genius of the Devil and failure of the angels.

[...] What Lucas created in fact was the ultimate expression/culmination of the art of the epic itself—fittingly enough, in order to conclude the defining epic of our modern times (what Brian Blessed once described as the Shakespeare of our age). The Shakespeare comparisons aren’t trivial. The evident Star Wars/Shakespeare resonance has even prompted things like Ian Doescher’s book William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge: Star Wars Part the Third—a retelling of Revenge of the Sith as if it had been written by William Shakespeare for real.

[...] Various observers, including academics, have noted the obvious fact that Lucas’s story is also a retelling of the fall of the Roman Republic and birth of the Roman Empire. Lucas himself admitted this, pointing to how Revenge of the Sith in particular is partly a story about democracies become dictatorships and citing the historical stories of Caesar and Augustus. You can quite easily watch the prequel trilogy alongside I, Claudius or something like HBO’s brilliant Rome series.

But none of those references or allusions are the important part. Even the fact that the prequel trilogy—and again, ROTS in particular—is quite clearly in part a story about false-flag wars, banking conspiracies, the corporate and military-industrial complex, the Bush administration and the Iraq War, etc—isn’t particularly relevant to the issue of why it’s such an epic work of significance.

Lucas is the author and architect of our preeminent modern mythology—as interviewer Bill Moyers asserted during his fascinating and revealing 1999 interview with Lucas (for the release of The Phantom Menace). Partly inspired by his friend Joseph Campbell’s thoughts on mythology, but moreover informed by his own careful distillation of elements from various cultures and civilisations (what he has referred to as our collective human ‘archaeological psychology’), Lucas is every bit as influential as Virgil, Homer or Shakespeare were in their respective times, and has crafted out the ultimate mythological saga.

Revenge of the Sith is the final, completing piece of that saga—the piece that gives the saga its full scope and true soul, and the piece that makes every one of the other films count for so much more.

And it does it so well—with such vivid and breathtaking quality—that, even having written an article as long as this one now is (and another before this), I still don’t feel like I’m adequately able to explain its full brilliance.

Neither could Lucas himself, I suspect. I’m not sure Lucas even realised how masterful it was; but, as Paglia and others note, the guy is so mild-mannered and self-deprecating that it simply wasn’t in his nature to boast about his own work. Instead he just took in all the abuse and mockery with mild bemusement, shrugged his shoulders and walked off into the twin sunset, knowing that with Revenge of the Sith he had finished what he’d come back to do.

In fact, what Lucas did was so extraordinary, so complex and so nuanced that it may take another decade or two for people to even appreciate it properly—assuming they ever do. As film experts like Mike Klimo have noted, some of what Lucas did in ROTS and the prequels may have been so sophisticated that he deliberately didn’t talk about it, but just left it there, not knowing that anyone would ever even notice.

This, as I said earlier, goes beyond cinema, and possibly even beyond Star Wars itself. Lucas genuinely outdid himself, and it is unlikely anyone will reach that height again—firstly because no one is going to be in the position Lucas was in again in terms of total ownership of a property, and secondly because no one is going to have that kind of ambition again, especially having seen how much of a backlash Lucas received from the legions of popcorn munchers, YouTube profiteers and ungrateful fans who were really looking for something much more in keeping with a generic, formulaic, standardized blockbuster formula.”

[nitrateglow]

Scattered thoughts on the West Side Story remake

In general, I really enjoyed the film, largely on the strength of the performances. Everyone ranged from pretty good to amazing, with Rachel Ziegler and Ariana DeBose being the standouts. And Rita Moreno's supporting part was brilliant-- I like how she was given a substantial role and not just a lame ass cameo.

The music and dancing were great too. Ziegler's voice is just gorgeous. One trend I don't like in some modern musicals is casting famous people who cannot sing (Russell Crowe in Les Mis and Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia still haunt my nightmares). While not everyone here is a 100% unknown, I like that everyone seems to have been hired because they can actually hit the notes.

I thought the beefed up backstories for some of the characters were really interesting. (Chino's buffed up personality and background were my favorite of these new touches. He goes from being a breathing plot device to a truly tragic figure in this version.) I know some people don't like how Tony was made into an ex-con, but I appreciate that this time around they wanted to make him feel more like a credible ex-gang member. That's something I never bought in the 1961 film.

Speaking of the 1961 version, I haven't seen it in a few years, so I can't compare the two in more detail, though I do remember enough to where I can say I preferred the staging and direction in certain scenes in the older film. A lot of it has to do with my personal aesthetic preferences though.

Like, I'm not as crazy about Spielberg's staging of Tony and Maria's first encounter at the dance. The dancing between the rival groups is spectacular, but there's so much going on that the lovers get overwhelmed by it. The blocking of the scene has them retreat behind the bleachers to have their first dance (a parallel to showing Romeo and Juliet's instant chemistry through a conversation in sonnet form). However, I much prefer the 1961 film's dreamy approach, where time slows and only the lovers remain in focus. I get not wanting to repeat such an iconic moment or it coming off as corny in the 2020s, but I don't think it was replaced by anything of equal inspiration.

Actually, this brings me to a general issue I had with the remake's more pronounced "gritty and realistic" approach. One on hand, it makes sense-- the original show and 1961 film were noted for their realism, or at least, their very expressionist-tinged realism. It's meant to contrast with the romanticism of the lovers, who like Romeo and Juliet, want to go "Somewhere" their love won't be poisoned by divided loyalties and violence.

However, the more pronounced sense of unvarnished reality has two drawbacks in Spielberg's version. One, it makes the "falling in honestly and truly love in less than 48 hours" thing a bit harder to swallow. I can buy love at first sight in heightened, operatic reality-- less so in a setting that wants to resemble everyday reality.

Second, there are a hell of a lot of moments where characters break into song and the extras around them give them "wtf" looks. It's like the gag in Enchanted where Giselle starts singing in the park and Robert's like, "what now," only that movie's a meta-parody of animated musicals and WSS wants me to invest in this world and these characters. Having other people go "0_0" when someone sings takes me out the movie. You can't have your old-fashioned musical and your 21st century "lol irony take nothing seriously" schtick in the same film.

But overall, I really enjoyed this one. It's a remake that isn't just a rehash of a beloved film and it makes decisions that distinguish it completely. I plan on rewatching the 60s version, actually, just to reintroduce myself to it, since it has been over half a decade now.

[handeemuse]

like any other muse who does things art related, would Nick be even more crushed into the floor by an operatic muse?

Absolutely! Nick mentions writing an opera in the tapes, so he'd have no hesitation in putting Muse in a leading role, or even making a role specially for them!

When he finds out about Muse's hobby in opera, he literally falls head over heels, as in he "passed out" right then and there out of sheer joy.

And with an interest in opera, there are only more productions to place Muse as his romantic lead in.

He loves the idea of Muse wearing an ornate costume for the operatic performance and there's only more Phantom of the Opera parallels to draw here.

[seraphtrevs]

Thinking about the Kim and Lalo parallels in 6a and Lalo's blue protagonist shoes. Kim's plan for one little career setback for one privileged lawyer is obviously not in the same league as Lalo's murder of Travel Wire Fred (among his other atrocities), but the sentiment is the same - it's okay to hurt people if your goals are just. Both Kim and Lalo consider their goals to be just. The ends justify the means, and they believe that justice is found outside the law instead of within it.

The cartel plot in BCS serves as an heightened reflection of the more grounded lawyer plot. This isn't to say that the stakes are lower - the first main character to die on BCS is Chuck, who fought and lost his battle with mental illness and died horrifically. Kim literally almost works herself to death - the car crash could have easily killed her. Jimmy loses Marco to a heart attack, reminding him of his own mortality. Because we are mortal, all of us battle with life-or-death stakes. The cartel plot exaggerates these stakes for effect.

Getting back to Lalo and Kim - Lalo's lawlessness is the embodiment of Kim's new ends-justify-the-means philosophy, taken to its most outlandish extremes, and when he enters her story, he brings the operatic stakes of the cartel plot with him. Stepping outside the law means that you lose its protection. In s1, Nacho says he likes to go after criminals because they have no recourse. When Kim and Jimmy go after Howard, they learn how true that is.

[romanceyourdemons]

i’ve seen quite a few horror anthologies, but i honestly have to say i can’t think of one i like more than three… extremes (2004). the omnibus of three short films, directed by fruit chan, park chan-wook, and takashi miike, does not employ an obvious overarching theme or frame, but despite this the three segments feel well-matched as stories of obsession, all three centering around the “backstage” lives of performers and employing heightened, surreal stories and visuals. the first segment, “dumplings,” is visually my favorite, using lurid colors and christopher doyle’s signature careful framing to emphasize how exploitative the shameful spaces of both abortion and beautification can be for women. indeed, this is the only horror film i actually like for its discussion of abortion, for its nuance, directness, and clear relevancy. “cut,” the second segment, is a metacinematic parallel of saw (2004), which employs the flamboyant and surreal visuals typical of park chan-wook’s early filmography to play with diegesis and blur the line between the real and the apparent. it layers this discussion with a discussion of cycles of wealth and abuse in a way that i felt worked well. finally, “box” presents a variety of takes on claustrophobia in an operatic and kaleidoscopic way that felt very effective and intuitive to me, drawing connections between different experiences of suffocation, literal and figurative, without feeling particularly oppressive or like torture porn (a genre that director miike helped pioneer, but which i am not personally a huge fan of). the three segments of three… extremes (2004) are all smartly written, beautifully filmed, and balance each other well, and i highly recommend the anthology

[astrophysicist-guitar-god]

Sotheby’s: First Look: Freddie Mercury's Yamaha Piano

(x)

By 1975, the trusty old upright piano on which Freddie had composed the hits on Queen’s first three albums was no longer equal to his ever more panoramic musical ambitions. With the financial backing of music mogul Don Arden, Freddie set out to find the perfect piano, with a sound that resonated with his evolving musical ambitions. After an intensive search lasting many weeks, he finally found what he was looking for: a rare baby grand with an easy keyboard action, an elegant look, and a particularly clean and clear sound, made by the Japanese manufacturer Yamaha, who had only recently started importing their instruments to England.

The piano would just about fit into the small apartment he was sharing at the time with Mary Austin. As she recalls, ‘Freddie treated the Yamaha with absolute respect. He considered it to be more than an instrument, it was an extension of himself, his vehicle of creativity. He would never smoke at the piano or rest a glass on top of it and would ensure nobody else did either. The piano was always pristine.’

From Bohemian Rhapsody to Freddie’s final operatic masterpiece, Barcelona, this cherished black Yamaha baby grand was at the heart of an extraordinary musical and personal journey, which has no real parallels in the history of pop and rock music.

[video]

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week #120 (Year 3/Week 16):

“Give up my daughter. That’s the price you pay. For the life you choose.”

First watch: Coda, The death of Michael Corleone, Coppola’s 2020 (minimal) re-cut of his 1990 masterpiece ‘The Godfather Part 3′. I never understood the haters. (And the misogyny against Sofia Coppola as Mary was completely misplaced.) Even though part 3 is obviously not as perfect as the first two, it’s still a superb and subtle work. A Shakespearean tragedy, operatic and expansive, it resonates with me deeply. 10/10.

I love how symmetric it is: The “Just when I thought I was out” scene clocks in exactly on the 1:00 hour mark, the Sicily first introduction exactly at the half-movie mark (1:17), and the Cavalleria Rusticana concert start exactly on the 2:00 hour mark..

It’s also a parallel Coppola Family Saga, with sister Talia Shire as Connie, daughter Sofia as Mary, father Carmine composing, nephew Nicolas Cage producing, his parents and a bunch of other family members in the background. Also, Martin Scorsese's mother.

🍿 

3 by Irish John Michael McDonagh, Martin’s older brother:

🍿 'I can't tell if you're really motherfuckin' dumb, or really motherfuckin' smart'.

His brilliant feature directorial debut, the perfectly calibrated buddy cop thriller, The Guard. A philosophical comedy of manners featuring Brendan Gleeson’s and Don Cheadle‘s best roles. Foul mouthed but duty-bound Sergeant Gerry Boyle of the Irish Garda is a character that will not soon be forgotten. It was so good that the moment I finished it, I wanted to see it again. 10/10

🍿 His next film Calvary was completely different and still tremendous. An exceptional examination of abandonment, troubled faith and broken parenthood, it opens with honest village priest Brendan Gleeson who hears a confession by a man who was horribly abused during his childhood. The unseen man promises to kill the priest next Sunday, in order to avenge his own suffering, so the priest knows he has only one week to put his house in order. A profound play with a transcendental finale. 10/10.

🍿 I was excited to continue with McDonagh’s next two movies, but War on Everyone was so horribly disappointing, that his last one, ‘The Forgiven’, will now have to wait. ‘War on Everyone’ was as if a second-rated hack was assigned to remake ‘The Guard’ in a Hollywood Mold, but was ordered to mix it with elements from ‘Lethal Weapon’ and ‘Rush hour’. 2/10. 

🍿  

Sweet Land, an independent art-film from Minnesota, about a 1920′s mail-order emigrant-bride who arrives at a farm with the wrong paperwork. Very much reminiscent of ‘Days of Heaven’ lyrical landscapes. It was the only film directed by otherwise-successful TV-director Ali Selim. It opens with a stirring scene of an old woman dying, told in a unique way, realistic and poetic at the same time.

🍿  

2 more with Jacques Demy:

🍿 Jacquot de Nantes, My 10th film by Agnès Varda. In 1991, Just before her husband Jacques Demy's death, Varda created this bio-docudrama as a dramatisation of his early life. From his happy childhood in the Loire, discovering his love for film-making, under the German occupation and up until he left for Paris to study cinema. The nostalgic fictional recreations are the most French evocations I ever saw. And then, because she’s a great documentarian, she mixes them up with frequent comments by the dying Demy himself, as well as clips from his movies corresponding to these memories.

This is a heartfelt love letter from one great artist to another - Absolutely fantastic! 9/10. 

🍿 My 4th by Jacques Demy himself, his 2nd, the extraordinary Bay of Angels. A doomed romance and the allure of gambling never seen so glamorous and so hopeless. 9/10.

I really must sit through his complete “Oeuvre”!

🍿   

Masaan (”Crematorium”) is a realistic art film about suffering and loss, an unusual and uncomfortable Hindi film, which won various accolades. It takes place in Varanasi, among the ‘ghats’, body-burners on the banks of the Ganges. It tells two separate stories that do not converge until the final scene. The more compelling one is about an ordinary young woman, who’s caught having sex in a hotel room. A cruel policeman (An hateful character if I ever saw one on film), blackmails her father and threatens him that he will “tell” about his daughter, if not paid an absorbent amount of money. 5/10.

(Incidentally, before the opening title, there was a lengthy anti-smoking PSA, and when somebody in the movie lighted a cigarette, a small message appeared at the bottom of the screen: ‘Smoking is injurious to health’.)

🍿  

2 about Father & Daughter Reunion:

🍿 Acidman, another new drama about a fraught relationship between estranged father and his grown-up daughter. He’s a recluse who lives alone “out in the middle of nowhere”, and she tracks him down to the forests of the NW, after having lost contact with him for 10 years. Meanwhile he had became distant and disoriented and is only interested in UFO’s.

It’s a story that is resonant with me, but it was poorly made, all atmosphere, and without a point. 2/10.

🍿 Wild Roots, another excellent feature debut by a young woman director, this one from Hungary. 12-year-old “wild” girl who lives with her grandparents forms a new, complicated relationship with her tough father who was just released from prison after 7 years. You wouldn’t guess that both actors were amateurs. 8/10. (Photo Above). 

🍿 

Tom McCarthy is one of my favorite minor directors, and by now I’ve seen all 9 of his movies. He wrote and directed The Visitor after his terrific debut ‘The Station Agent’, and before writing the script for ‘Up’. A tender and humane story about cold and lonely widower Richard Jenkins who discovers an illegal immigrant couple living in his empty NYC apartment, when he shows up unannounced one night. Made in 2007, it dealt with the painful realities of life after 9/11. Sad and nuanced. With Succession’s Hiam Abbass. 8/10. 🍿

3 more films from the “100% score on Rotten Tomatoes” list:

🍿 Pinocchio, Walt Disney’s 2nd feature (after ‘Snow White'), and one of at least 23 adaptations to the story. Cuckoo clocks, Tyrolean hats, cigar smoking bad boys, Monstro the sperm whale, they are all there. Conveying to children the "middle-class virtues of deferred gratification, self-denial, thrift, and perseverance, naturalized as the experience of the most average American".

 🍿 Polanski’s favorite film, Carol Reed’s morality tale Odd man out; The last hours of injured IRA leader James Mason. Exquisite black and white German Expressionist Noir style cinematography, which Reed later repeated in ‘The third man’.

🍿 Jonah Hill’s 2nd directorial feature, the documentary Stutz, about his therapist. His coming-of-age debut film, ‘Mid90s’ was terrific. This one is OK; Partially-meta, a bit too self-indulgent and self-centered. Robert Downey Jr.’ similar project ‘Sr.’, also from 2022, was better.

🍿  

Grizzly Man, the Werner Herzog documentary about bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell who lived out among ferocious Alaskan brown bears for 13 summers - until he was eaten by one. Herzog used some of the 100 hours of video tapes that Treadwell himself recorded.

🍿  

“Give my love to Tabboulah”  

The Castle, the 1997 feel-good low-brow comedy, considered to be “One of the greatest Australian films ever made”. A story about a simple, low-middle-class family who are fighting (and winning) en eviction forced upon them by Eminent Domain, there called ‘Compulsory acquisition’. With Bryan Dawe, the ‘Front Fell Off’ guy as a lawyer.

🍿  

Between 1909-1914 Denmark was the most prosperous film center in Europe. The 1910 erotic melodrama The Abyss ("Afgrunden”) launched the career of Asta Nielsen, Europe's first great female film star. It’s about a piano teacher who destroys her life by running away with a circus performer she became sexually obsessed with.

🍿  

Riotsville, USA is a new documentary about a little known fact from the turbulent Civil Right Struggle of the 60′s. After the Watts Riots, a report from a government panel recommended a massive infrastructure changes to address poverty and inequality. But the only steps taken were funneling of resources into more militarization of the police to combat “race riots” and “street violence”, both of anti-war and black protesters. A fake ‘War Game’ town called Riotsville was build to train cops from all over the country in how to suppress demonstrations.

America is a deeply, fundamentally racist society, and its history comes down to race; from Slavery to Jim Craw to the civil rights of the 60′s up to today’s GOP. However, this badly-put-together film was weak, arbitrary and meandering. 2/10.

🍿    

2 George Carlin evergreens:

🍿 His perfect 1999 Special You Are All Diseased. There never was, and never will be, a deeper, funnier and more insightful comedian than St. George. Also, nobody understood America better. It includes such classics as American Bullshit and When it comes to bullshit, big time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe, in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims… religion.

The full transcript is worth a read: ...Living in this country, you’re bound to know... that America’s leading industry, America’s most profitable business is still the manufacture, packaging, distribution, and marketing of bullshit… high quality, grade-A, prime cut, pure American bullshit.

🍿 Complaints and Grievance, released on December 11, 2001. Originally named ‘I Kinda Like It When a Lot of People Die’, he had to change the name of it. Still hilarious. This copy is sound only.

🍿  

I’ve seen Black Mirror’s USS Callister many times, even though I never saw any episodes of the space operas on which it is based (Star Trek, Star Wars, etc.). It’s because of the rebelliously-cute Nanette Cole fighting (and winning over) the male abuser. Funny, that Jesse Pinkman joined Jesse Plemons in this episode. 9/10.

🍿 

4 shorts:

🍿 For the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, Wes Anderson created three promo spots, each one a staged re-creation of a nominated movie in the style of the Hollywood-inspired Rushmore plays (Serpico & the Vietnam War one). All three shorts (Armageddon, Out of Sight, The Truman Show) star Jason Schwartzman as Max Fisher, along with the rest of the Max Fischer Players.

🍿 Chuck Jones - The Evolution of an Artist, an old ‘Every frame a painting’ episode by fantastic editor Tony Zhou, about how a good artist became a great one.

Extra: How Kurosawa composed movement. Damn! I need to stop bullshitting and start watching every one of his 31 movies again!

🍿 A History Of The World According To Getty Images is a short documentary about property, profit, and power, made out of archive footage sourced from the online catalogue of Getty Images. It forms a historical journey through some of the most significant moments of change caught on camera, while at the same time reflecting on archive images’ own histories as commodities and on their exploitation as ‘intellectual property’.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[thatscarletflycatcher]

When I say I don't blame Nelly Dean for anything because she's an employee, I don't mean that she doesn't contribute to the chaos, but that her position and "responsibility" are radically different from that of the rest of the characters in the novel. Sure, she was half raised with Cathy and Hindley and had a strong attachment to Hareton, but consider how her being a servant to the family was not considered degradation like it was pointedly meant for Heathcliff; there was always a barrier, and Nelly always was a non-family member. She is paid to cook and clean, and later on to be a sort of ladies maid to the Cathies; demanding of Nelly to go out of her way to help them or save them from themselves strikes too close to "this company is a family and so we expect you to be flexible" (meaning we want you to give part of your labor for free). Nelly doesn't owe the other characters the same things they themselves owe to each other by virtue of being related.

In a similar way, when I meme about Lockwood and say that I like him, I don't mean that he's A Good Person ActuallyTM. I compare him to Bertie Wooster because both are good for nothing leeches of society, creating problems wherever they go, accidentally and on purpose, dodging marriage as symbolic of their dodging responsibility and duty; and in that way they are both hilarious to read about. At least to me.

A third unrelated note on this (that I was thinking about while mentally organizing myself about adaptation reviews) is that, while nature and the seasons and some psychocosmic parallelisms have a strong presence in the novel, I didn't identify (perhaps it was an oversight) the identification of Heathcliff in particular and Cathy by extension, with nature itself that I got from pretty much every adaptation I watched before reading the book. The novel itself, while rural in that way (the isolation, the hardness of farm life and it's few comforts, the harsh winters and the elating springs and summers) is mainly concerned with the human characters as human characters. Even the ghosts lack the operatic drama of the voice in the wind in Jane Eyre (this is not a criticism; they are more chilling this way, I think). So that's a curious thing.

[govindhtech]

Get Intel Simics Simulator Training to The Master Threading

Virtual platforms are compute-intensive, thus using several host cores to speed them is obvious. Multiple host cores may be used to perform a simulation at various granularity levels in parallel using the Intel Simics Simulator. Intel will examine a single device model utilizing threading to accelerate the simulator in this blog article. This is a high-level explanation of “workshop-02” threading in the Intel Simics Simulator Training Package. The Intel Simics Simulator Public Release includes the training bundle.Image Credit To Intel

Target System

Parallelizing a computing accelerator subsystem with numerous parallel compute units is their goal. In addition to compute units, a control unit starts and waits for tasks to finish. Software on a processor sets up accelerator memory descriptors and interacts with compute unit and control unit control registers.

Job Structure

The computing accelerator runs tasks from start to finish before accepting new ones. Each task has a serial setup phase, when software creates work descriptors and the control unit starts computing, a parallel compute phase, and a collection phase. According to virtual platform software and hardware, all computing units execute concurrently throughout the computation phase. Work virtual execution duration relies on data amount and should not alter independent of virtual platform operation.

This is easiest to simulate in serial mode, where a host thread operates each compute unit. This is not efficient for this example, but it is durable and, most importantly, straightforward to model. How can this be parallelized?

Standard Simulator Parallelism

Parallelizing a simulation using Intel Simics Simulator works practically easily on any virtual platform. Parallelizing simulated machines in a virtual network is the simplest model technique. Similar to establishing many virtual simulator instances inside a single simulator session. Each machine (or target) operates serially in parallel with other internally serial simulations. Special network-related link objects are used for all machine communication.Image Credit To Intel

Its simplicity in modeling makes this parallelism method appealing. It involves eliminating process-global data (global variables). No two execution threads may access simulation object data concurrently. This was the first sort of parallelism presented in the Intel Simics Simulator over 15 years ago, a simple step from the serial simulator.

This doesn’t help since all computing units are on one target computer. Let CPU cores execute in parallel while serializing devices for enhanced parallelism. This works well for parallel software tasks, as explained in a recent blog on threading on the basic RISC-V virtual architecture.

This paradigm requires parallelism and genuine concurrency, making processor core and memory simulation implementation more complicated. Left unchanged, device models operate like serial simulations.

Unless Intel make a device a “processor” by implementing the simulator processor API, this doesn’t assist with device models. That’s probably excessive and complex.

Actual Details

To parallelize device models, you need further information about the Intel Simics Simulator threading model. The simulator employs “thread domains” to describe parallelism in a single target system. Simulation objects that assume serial execution are placed in a pseudo-serial universe on each target. Serial world code is executed by one thread at a time.

In thread domains outside pseudo-serial, only “thread-aware” objects are permitted. Thread-aware processor cores, interrupt controller models, per-core timers, and memory-management units are common. Simple device types like the computing unit prefer not to since it’s more work.

Thread parallelization

Most software-compute unit interaction does not need parallelization. Software writes and reads configuration and status registers, inexpensive operations without parallelization. A modest local device model remedy is to thread out just the main computing process.

Serial and threaded cases execute compute kernel code on a work buffer similarly. The compute kernel runs in the device model’s buffer on the main simulation thread in serial mode. Threaded offload throws computational work onto a thread “on the side” with a work buffer outside the device model. The overhead of reading and writing words from memory is avoided by constantly using a work buffer.

For most accelerator models, it’s trivial to read all the data from memory to a buffer, calculate, and publish the results. Virtual platforms may read or write arbitrarily huge amounts of memory in a single atomic simulation step. Perhaps not precisely what a hardware direct memory access (DMA) operation looks like, but it seldom matters.

Remember that compute threads are host operating system threads generated for concurrent work. Simulation execution threads handled by the simulator core scheduler execute thread domain simulation work. The host threads are not devoted to thread domains.

Virtual Platform

Threading and Virtual Platform Semantics

Simulation semantics must be considered while implementing a threaded compute kernel. The controller device must tell software whether the compute activity is idle and ready for a new task, processing, or done. Issue a completion interrupt too.

Serial execution makes this simple. Software sees the status update depending on the accelerator’s task size: a delay is calculated and a timed event is delivered. The real work might be done at the start or finish. It is synchronous on the main execution thread with code handling completion.Image Credit To Intel

In a threaded paradigm, computation is asynchronous to the main simulator thread. Compute work completion time is unknown in advance. One solution is to update the model’s visible state when the computation finishes. This makes the simulation non-deterministic and unlike serial.

Better still, start the compute activity immediately and submit an event using the same virtual time as in the serial instance. If the compute thread has not completed by the time the event is triggered, the completion event handler must wait while blocking simulation progress.

A “done flag” is needed to indicate calculation status. Thread-safe access to this flag is the only aspect of the setup that involves thread programming. Everything else is basic serial code.

Practical Mandelbrot Computation

The Intel Simics Simulator Public Release Training package includes the “workshop-02” example that uses this threading paradigm. It includes entire source code and instructions for running and evaluating compute accelerator improvements, including threading.

Read more on Govindhtech.com