You're a Big Boy Now (1966),based on David Benedictus's book, is an experimental comedy, not particularlyfunny and not particularly experimental.Bernard is am awkward boy, employed as a librarian in the library that hisfather manages. His father is ashamed of his ineptitude and decides to sendhim to live by himself. His protective mother is terrified at theidea that he will be all alone and pays the landlady (who keeps a chicken asa pet) to inform her if heis visited by girls. Instead, he spends the first night alone exploring thered-light district. His tie gets stuck into a machine that projects the actof a stripper and he is rescued by a girl who works in his father's office, Amy,a good girl who used to be very ugly in school.One day, while chasing a kite that flew awayin the park, he sees Barbara, a sexy girl. And he sees her again, dancing ina restaurant where he's dining with Amy. Amy tries to take his virginity, butthe landlady's chicken attacks her and his parents get informed of the mischief.His still obsessed with Barbara.Barbara's fictionalized biography is told by a dwarf (sort of a French novela` la Marquis De Sade). Bernard writes her a letter, and she writes backinviting him to her dressing room after the show. She succeeds in takinghis virginity but he is deeply disappointed by the experience (by his failureto perform).Her landlady walks immediately to his father to denounce his sleepless night.Amy also learns about his night and confronts him at the library.And she also has news for him: his father made a pass at her.He's indifferent to everybody now. He's more preoccupied with Barbara's job,which he now hates: everybody watches her underwear while she's dancing inthe cage.The landlady kicks him out, disgusted by his lifestyle (and perhaps resentfulthat he doesn't care about her loneliness), so Bernard moves in with thego-go dancer, who is hysterical because he can't perform his sexual duties.Both his mother and Amy are looking for him (his mom convinced that Amyis the seductress).Bernard finds Barbara in bed with his best friend and colleague at thelibrary, packs his things and moves out.Both mom and Amy ask his father for help. Just then Bernard shows up,and announces that he wants to leave town.Barbara and the landlady show up to further confuse the situation.Bernard, disgusted, steals the precious Gutenberg Bible of his father andruns away, chased by everybody through the streets of the city.Barbara captures him and becomes a hero. Amy rescues Bernard from jail.Amy and Bernard walk away happy together. Finian's Rainbow (1968) is an adaptation of a 1947 stage musical (starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark).The Rain People (1969) is a road movie of sorts,a feminist counterpart to Easy Rider.Natalie is a young traditional housewife. One night she cannot sleep next toher husband. She wakes up,gets dressed and drives away. She stops at her parents'house to explain that she needs to be free for a while. At a gas stationshe calls her husband Vinnyto tell him that she loves him but that she needs to get away from him.She also tells him that she is pregnant.She talks about herself in third person ("she is pregnant").She takes a hotel room. She has no luggage.She remembers her happy marriage, when she was still in love.After resting a bit, she keeps driving.She picks up a hitch-hiker, Killer (James Caan). It turns out he is a formercollege student who got injured playing a violent sport. His mind doesn't work wellanymore. She flirts with him, ecstatic that he is so obedient (probably incontrast with her husband). He tells her of his accident and how he ended upraking leaves on campus and how eventually they gave him money to leave.Now he has a lot of money but no place to go.Natalie drives him to the house of a former girlfriend, who cruelly does notwant to have anything to do with him. He was hoping to get a job from herfather but the girl coldly tells her father that Killer is retarded and canonly rake leaves. Natalie, disgusted, drives Killer away, but then realizes thatshe cannot take care of the boy. She tells him to go back to his mother butKiller says that his mother died. She is desperate: she can hardly take careof herself and now she also has to take care of a retarded boy. She pickedhim up hoping in something exciting and instead she got stuck with someonewho needs help.She calls her husband and humbly confesses that she is a bad housewife, thatshe hates to take care of her husband. She wants to get an abortion.She tries to help the boy find a job and a place to stay.She realizes that everybody wants to steal his money but she cannot waste anymore time after him and leaves. She is driving too fast and is stopped bya cop, Gordon (Robert Duvall). He gives her a speeding ticket but is intriguedthat a married woman would be driving alone so far from home. After a stopat a cafe, he escorts her back to the town to pay the ticket. On theway he behaves like a clown and an acrobat on the motorcycle.She takes him to the place where she left Killer. Killer has gone mad andhis employer wants Gordon to arrest him. Killer was merely venting his angerbecause Natalie abandoned him. Natalie begs the cop not to arrest him, butthe employer refuses to return most of Killer's money. The cop learns fromKiller that Natalie ran away from her husband and makes a pass at her.She starts driving away with Killer, but then Killer disrupts a telephoneconversation with her husband, and she decides to dump the idiot and returnto the cop.Gordon and Natalie start making love in his trailer, but his wild daughterinterrupts them. The child knows all about sex and talks like a trucker.Her father kicks her out in her pyjama and then resumes the seduction ofNatalie. His wife and a child died in the fire that burned down their house.Outside the wild girl befriends Killer, who has somehow found his way to thetrailer park. She gives the idiot a tour of the trailer park and tells himhow she spies on her dad when she comes home with a hooker and she has tostay outside for a couple of hours.Inside Natalie is letting Gordon make love to her but then suddenly realizesthat Gordon is making love to his wife, not to her. Natalie gets up and wantsto leave, but Gordon gets violent. Killer breaks the door and jumps on Gordon.Nothing can stop a furious Killer who keeps beating the cop, with flashesof his old games. The little girl grabs her dad's gun and shoots Killer.Natalie cries and drags the dead body towards her car, promising she willtake care of him.The Godfather (1972)Un uomo onesto, immigrato italiano che si e` fatto strada lavorando duro,va a chiedere giustizia al boss mafioso Don Vito Corleone, noto come Godfather(il padrino). Due mascalzoni hannotentato di violentare sua figlia e l'hanno picchiata brutalmente. Il tribunaleli ha condannati ma li ha lasciati andare subito. Lui vuole che Corleone lifaccia uccidere. Ma Corleone e` risentito che lui non abbia mai coltivatola sua amicizia e venga adesso a "comprare" un favore invece che a offrirglila sua amicizia. Alla fine l'onest'uomo capisce e gli bacia la mano.E` il giorno del matrimonio della figlia di Corleone. E` una festa tradizionale,con musiche e balli all'antica. Anche nel giorno di festa nell'ufficiodi Corleone sfilano i questuanti, tutti alla ricerca di un favore.Vito Corleone rappresenta no soltanto la gang ma anche la famiglia.Al tempo stesso dietro la facciata bonaria e patriarcale si cela un grottescolivello di violenza. Quando un produttore rifiuta di aiutare un amico del Don,gli infilano nel letto la testa del suo cavallo preferito.Una famiglia rivale, capeggiata da Sollozzo, propone ai Corleone di entrarenel business della droga, ma Vito e suo figlio Sonny (James Caan), che e` anchel'erede designato, tenteggiano. I sicari di Sollozzo decidono di fare senzadi loro e sparano a Vito, che viene ricoverato in fin di vita.L'invulnerabilita` dei Corleone e` infranta.Il pacifico mondo di ricatti e patti sprofonda in una specie di guerra fredda.Mentre il patriarca e` fra la vita e la morte, Sonny organizza la rappresaglia.L'altro figlio, Michael (Al Pacino), e` un giovane onesto che si e` sempretenuto alla larga dalla malavita e la cui ragazza e` una maestrina per bene.Coincidenza vuole che Michael vada a trovare il padre in ospedaleproprio la sera che Sollazzo ha progettato di farlo strangolare. Michaelintuisce che qualcosa non va, fa spostare il padre in un'altra stanza, ein tal modo lo salva. Un poliziotto corrotto quasi lo arresta, ma gli uominidei Corleone arrivano in massa.Michael decide di far la sua parte. Il padre, che non ha ripreso coscienza,sorride dal letto d'ospedale. Michael escogita un piano per ammazzaretanto il poliziotto corrotto quanto Sollazzo: finge di voler far la pace echiede un incontro; sapendo che lui non e` un gangster, si limitano aperquisirlo e non si preoccupano troppo; ma un'arma e` stata nascosta nei bagnie Michael nel mezzo della cena va a prenderla e li uccide entrambi.La morte del poliziotto scatena pero` l'ira della polizia, che finisce perincidere sull'attivita` dei Corleone. La polizia da` una caccia spietataall'assassino del poliziotto. I Corleone non hanno scelta: mandano Michaela nascondersi in Sicilia, protetto questa volta non da gangster ma da picciotti.Nel piccolo paese Michael scopre i rituali tradizionali, all'antica, del popolosiciliano. Si innamora di una bella ragazza e ottiene l'approvazione delpadre a corteggiarla. Il matrimonio e` questione di giorni.Intanto Sonny casca in un agguato (complice il cognato Carlo, che picchiala moglie dopo che Sonny lo aveva messo in guardia) e viene massacrato.A consolare il vecchio Corleone e` rimasto soltanto l'avvocato di famiglia, Tom.Corleone piange, ma non compie ilpasso logico di assumersi la responsabilita` per questa catena di sparatorieche ha minato la pace della sua famiglia.La notizia arriva in Sicilia. Dicono a Michael che non e` piu` al sicuro neppureli`, che deve andarsene al piu` presto in un'altra zona della Sicilia. Stannofacendo i bagagli quando un ragazzo mette una bomba nell'auto e l'auto saltain aria con la moglie. Michael intuisce cosa sta per accadere ma non fa intempo a intervenire.Vito Corleone, ancora convalescente, decide di mettere fine alla guerra fra le famiglie. Convocaun meeting generale di tutte le famiglie e offre il ramo d'ulivo all'arcinemicoche gli ha ucciso il figlio. Gli impongono di accettare il traffico dinarcotici e di proteggere le altre famiglie. Lui accetta.Michael torna in America e chiede subito alla vecchia ragazza, che per un annonon ha saputo nulla di lui, di sposarlo, promettendole che il business di suopadre diventera` legale nel giro di pochi anni. E` anche quello un rituale: un uomo potente deve avere una moglie rispettabile,che sappia crescere i figli e tenere la casa.Michael e` in realta` il nuovo boss. Suo padre e` nulla piu` che un pensionatodi lusso.Michael prende in pugno la situazione con l'autorita` di un veterano.Decide di spostare il business da New York a Las Vegas, convinto che il futurostia nel gioco d'azzardo, e mette persino in pensione l'avvocato fidato.L'attore di Hollywood che deve tutto al "padrino" accetta di essere l'attrazionedel nuovo casino. Michael vuole il casino di un potente di Las Vegas, pressocui lavora il fratello debole, Freddy, ma si sente trattare come un pezzentee medita la rivincita.Vito, vistosamente invecchiato, stramazza al suolo mentre sta giocando nell'ortocon il figlio di Michael, Anthony. Il funerale e` imponente.Ma Michael capisce che la morte del vecchio patriarca segna anche la fine dellatregua con le altre famiglie.Michael presenzia come padrino al battesimo del nipote, figlio della sorellaConniee di Carlo. Durante il battesimo i suoi uomini uccidono tutti i capi rivali.I gesti del battesimo sono intervallati con gli omicidi.Alla fine del battesimo Michael va a fare i conti con Carlo. Sospettando che siastato complice nell'assassinio del fratello, lo fa confessore promettendoglil'incolumita`. Appena lui confessa, lo fa strangolare davanti ai suoi occhi,poche ore dopo aver fatto da padrino a suo figlio.La sorella fa una scenata e gli sputa in faccia. Sua moglie e` li` e gli chiedese e` vero che ha fatto uccidere il cognato. Michael la guarda negli occhi erisponde di no. Adesso Michael e` il capo incontrastato della malavita.Michael si rivela un boss ben peggiore del padre, un mostro senza cuore chevive di menzogne laddove il padre viveva di parole d'onore.Il senso dell'onore e il principio del rispetto per la famiglia sono scomparsi.E` rimasto soltanto il freddo calcolo e la crudelta`.The Godfather II (1974)La seconda parte torna indietro nel tempo. Si apre in Sicilia e mostra comel'intera famiglia di Vito Corleone fosse stata massacrata dal boss rivale.Sua madre ando` a supplicare il boss di salvare lui, Vito, bambino muto, mail boss non si piego`: uccise lei e poi fece dare una caccia spietata a lui.Lui venne salvato dai parenti, fatto sgusciare fuori dal paese sottotempo,e imbarcato per l'America.Poi il racconto salta mezzo secolo e passa alla prima comunione di suo nipote.La festa in riva al lago e` gigantesca. I Corleone si sono ormai trasferitiin pianta stabile in Nevada e Michael medita di espandere il suo controllodei casino di Las Vegas. Alla festa un senatore non meno corrotto di lui glioffre il controllo di quattro casino in cambio di una cifra spropositata e loumilia confessandogli il suo disprezzo per gli immigranti disonesti come iCorleone. La festa continua nel lusso piu` barocco. Un senso di imponentedecadenza sovrasta la reggia dei Corleone. Michael smaltisce i suoi doveri dinuovo patriarca, ora trattando il matrimonio della cognata ora minacciandoun parente, Frankie, che potrebbe ostacolare i suoi affari con un ebreo, Roth.Nottetempo qualcuno tenta di assassinare Michael. Michael va a dare labuonanotte a suo figlio Anthony.L'azione si sposta di nuovo a New York all'inizio del secolo. Vito (DeNiro)e` ormai un giovanotto, cresciuto nel quartiere degli immigrati.Innamorato di un'attricetta di teatro, assiste impotente alla prepotenza delbrutale Fanucci che minaccia di sfregiarla se il padre negoziante non pagala tangente. Fanucci tiene in pugni l'intero quartiere.Vito e` garzone in una drogheria, ma il padrone deve licenziarlo per far postoal nipote di Fanucci. E` felicemente sposato e vive con grande semplicita`e umilta` in un piccolo appartamento. Trova un altro lavoro.Michael intuisce che l'attentato e` stato organizzato da Roth, ma deve averavuto un complice all'interno della famiglia Corleone. E Michael vuolescoprire il traditore (e` suo fratello Fredo).Michael chiede aiuto a Frankie, che vive a New York nella casa paterna.Frankie, convinto che Michael voglia tradirlo, va a cercare un accordo coni rivali, ma viene quasi ucciso da questi e scampa soltantoper una coincidenza.Michael e` a Cuba con Roth, suo socio nell'impresa di controllare il giocod'azzardo a Cuba. Michael si fa portare una valigia di soldi dal fratelloFredo e gli chiede aiuto nello sgominare Roth.E` la notte di capodanno. Mentre Michael festeggia fra la folla, Roth e`ricoverato in ospedale. Michael manda il suo fedele sicario a ucciderlo,ma i soldati arrivano in tempo e lo uccidono. Nel frattempo Michael dice aFredo di sapere che e` lui il traditore. Le sirene danno l'allarme che iribelli stanno attaccando. Michael fugge e invita Fredo a scappare conlui, ma Fredo non si fida e si nasconde fra la folla. Tornato a casa,Michael apprende che Roth e` scampato e che la moglie ha perso il figlioche stava aspettando.Chiede notizie di Fredo, ma nessuno sa dove sia. Al suo fianco c'e` soltantoTom, l'avvocato.Flashback. Vito ha un altro lavoro, e non tollera l'idea che Fanucci siarricchisca alle spalle degli italiani che lavorano e in particolare deisuoi amici. Durante la festa del santo patrono, Vito uccide il temuto Fanucci.Si apre un processo contro la famiglia Corleone, grazie ad alcuni gangster chehanno deciso di confessare: fra essi Frankie.Michael, sempre piu` solo, va dalla madre a chiedere conforto, a tentaredi resuscitare il mito di suo padre.Fredo gli spiega perche' lo ha tradito: perche' per tutta la vita lui, ilfiglio maggiore, lo ha dovuto servire. Ma Michael non ascolta: lo disconoscee mette alla porta.Vito e` diventato un eroe per aver liberato il quartiere dell'odiato despota.E da eroe diventa anche re: anche i piu` prepotenti tremano appena scopronodi chi si tratta.Al processo contro Michael un colpo di scena: Frankie, chiamato al banco degliimputati, nega tutto cio` che ha confessato alla polizia.Ma questa vittoria gli costa cara: la moglie decide di lasciarlo.Lui tenta di fermarla, ma lei gli confessa che non perse ilbambino: lo fece abortire perche' non voleva piu` figli di lui. Il loroprimogenito Anthony non e` normale, e lei considera responsabile lui, ma lui,ancora una volta, non ascolta.Michael la mette alla porta e naturalmente non le lascia portare via i figli.Flashback. Vito e` tornato in Sicilia e per prima cosa e` andato a compierela sua vendetta privata contro l'uomo che uccise i suoi genitori.Muore la madre di Michael e Fredo. Michael rifiuta di incontrare Fredo alfunerale. La sorella Connie, che lo ha sempre odiato, lo implora di perdonareFredo e, in lacrime, si offre di prendere il posto della madre al suo fianco.Michael va ad abbracciare Fredo davanti a tutti. Fredo e Connie si stabilisconoalla villa sul lago e si prendono cura dei figli di Michael, visto che loro nonne hanno e alla madre dei bambini sono consentite soltanto brevi visite.Michael e` deciso ad eliminare Roth. Michael si oppone perche' e` un grossorischio e non e` neppure molto utile alla loro causa. Michael lo maltratta,benche' Tom sia sempre stato fedele alla famiglia.Tom va a tranquillizzare Frankie, che e` in prigione e sta per essere liberato.Fredo va a pescare all'alba nel mezzo del lago. La fortezza sul lago e` avvoltain una luce cupa.Roth rientra negli USA dopo essersi rifugiato per un po' in Israele e avertentato invano di trovare asilo in altri paesi, e, benche' protetto dallapolizia, viene ucciso da un sicario di Michael. Frankie viene ucciso nella vasca da bagno.Fredo viene ucciso nella barca.Michael e` seduto in salotto, e si prende la testa fra le mani.Flashback. Fredo, Sonny e Michael sono grandi. Michael e` il bravo ragazzo,annuncia che si e` arruolato nei marine. Fredo e` mansueto e insicuro.Sonny e` gia` il piu` aggressivo (quasi prende a pugni Michael).Michael e` ancora seduto in salotto: ricorda e guarda nel nulla.Ha ucciso tutti. Adesso e` davvero solo.L'intreccio di presente e passato e` condotto attraverso flashback diun'austera eleganza. Il film vive anche di un'accurata ricerca etnica:paesi siciliani, feste patronali, matrimoni, battesimi, l'intero patrimoniofolkloristico degli immigrati italiani diventa una metafora su cui siappoggiano tutte le altre metafore (della famiglia, del potere, dellacorruzione, della solitudine).Nel constrato fra Vito e Michael si avverte il cambiamento dei valori morali,e in particolare della famiglia.La rievocazione delle due epoche (l'inizio del secolo e gli anni '50) e deidue ambienti (i poveri immigrati siciliani e gli affluenti criminaliamericani) e` impeccabile, quasi oleografica.Il film si trasforma poco alla volta in una meditazione sulla solitudine. If English is your first language and you could translate my old Italian texts, please contact me. The Conversation (1974) is an existential thriller that borrows fromAntonini's Blow-up and Brian De Palma's Blow Out, but alsofrom some of Scorsese's urban dramas of loneliness.An intricate story is the pretext for painting a devastated moral landscapeand filling it with an unbearable sense of paranoia.The protagonist's neurosis is initially only unpleasant, but then it becomesa metaphor for the tragedy of the individual in the urban society, ever morealienated and isolated.At the same time, paradoxically, technology makes it possible thatnobody is ever truly alone, that someone is always watching.While Harry (Hackman) is walking around a shopping area,a hitman aims at a couple. We hear their voices distorted by an electronicdevice. Microphones are sending their voices to a van whereStan, an associate ofHarry, is taping them. Their movements are followed by another associate.The "hitman" is actually just another associate and the "gun" is nothing buta long-distance microphone.Harry's job is spying on other people.Harry is jealous of his privacy and has virtually isolated himself from therest of society. But in his apartment he enjoys playing the saxophone toold jazz records.His apartment is also his studio. Harry works some magic on the tapes andreconstructs the "conversation", totally indifferent to the content.Harry is so paranoid about secrecy that he doesn't want the landlady to havea key to his apartment and always makes phone calls from telephone booths.He calls the mysterious customer who has hired him to record aconversation between his wife and another man.Harry is an amoral, no-scruple, surveillance specialist who would work foranybody to spy on anybody.Then Harry meets his girlfriend, but his paranoia makes itimpossible to have a normal relationship with her. On the way back home in the subway, he thinks about the two lovers.The following day he is in the high-rise office building where the mysteriouscustomer (the Director) works.Harry wants to deliver the package personally but instead hehas to deal with an intermediary, who gives him the money and warns him againstgetting too curious about the tapes. Harry refuses to surrender the tapes andleaves in a hurry. In the elevator Harry meets first the man and then thewoman he had taped.Back in the studio, Harry listens and re-listens to the tape to find out whatthe conversation was about.Using the most advanced techniques, he manages to hear what was not obviouson the tape.He hears that they make an appointment to meet in a hotel.He hears that they suspect someone could kill them.Harry preaches that one in his line of business should never get personal,but he is shaken.Harry goes to church to confess to a priest.Years before, he had been involved in another case that resultedin some death, and is afraid that he may involuntarily be hurting someone again.At a convention of surveillance systems, he meets one of his famous competitors,Bernie.He also meets Stan, who has left him after Harry snapped at him for askingtoo many questions about the tapes.Harry tells Stan that he thinks someone is following him.It is the mediator, who tells him the Director will accept the tapes in person.After the convetion,Harry, Stan, Bernie and some other friends have a little party in the studioHarry has another conversation with his girlfriend. The friends pay tributeto Harry, who is the master of recording people. Bernie knows that threepeople were killed after he showed taped them. Harry snaps again whenStan turns on the tapes. Stan boasts of the way they taped them: that was alsoa masterpiece of an operation.Bernie plays a joke on him, though: he has recorded the conversation he hasjust had outside with his girlfriend. Harry snaps again and kicks everybodyout.Harry keeps thinking about the two appointments: the one he has with thecustomer and the one the lovers have made. The latter is two hours afterhis. By turning in the tapes, will he give the Director the weapon to killthe lovers? His girlfriend puts him to sleep, but he has a Freudian nightmarein which he talks to the ghost of the Director's wife about his own childhood.The following day he calls the Director's man. He doesn't find him and, asusual, refuses to leave them his own phone number. Minutes later theDirector's man calls: they have his super-secret phone number.They have the tapes and invite him to their office to collect the money.When Harry arrives, they are listening to the tapes. Harry counts his moneywhile the Director is paying no attention to him.Harry can't resist and takes a room at the same hotel where the lovers aremeeting. He manages to send a microphone into their bathroom and overhearstrouble. Harry walks outside on the balcony and sees a man killing a woman.Harry walks back hysterical, turns on the tv and covers his ears. When he recovers, Harry breaks into the lover's room: it has been tidied upas if nobody had been there. There is nothing to make one suspect of a murder.Except that, when Harry flushes the toilet, a stain of blood appears.Harry breaks all the rules and takes the bus back to the Director's building.But the usual man blocks him and physically removes him from the building.Outside, Harry sees the wife in a limo. The following day, the newspapercarries the news that an executive has died in a car crash: he was theDirector.Harry runs to see what is going on in the building and sees boththe wife and her lover in the hall crowded with reporters.He realizes that, contrary to what he feared, the couple killed the Directorin the hotel room.Back at home, he receives a threatening call, and realizes that they havebugged his apartment. No matter how thoroughly he searches, he can't findthe microphone that they planted. He basically destroys all of his furniture,and then even the walls and the floor. When nothing is left intact, Harrypicks up his saxophone and plays alone in the ruins.Inspired by Conrad's "Heart Of Darkness", Apocalypse Now (1979) ismore than a war movie.The protagonist is insane, but his folly is the logic of horror and terror, the logic of war. He seems to come out of a Greek tragedy. Helicopters flying low over the jungle, bushes on fires.A man (Sheen) lying down under a fan, smokes a cigarette.The noise of the helicopters fades into the noise of the fan and viceversa.The man is a captain who is waiting for a mission in Saigon andkeeps dreaming of the jungle while drinking heavily.Without warning he gets assigned to a new mission, escorted to an airfiedand flown into action.Sheen has been selected because he oncecarried out an assassination for the secret services.The army wants him to carry out another one: a renagadecolonel who operates in Cambodia (Brando). Sheen's mission is to followhis trail in the jungle of Cambodia, find him and kill him. The missionis top secret and he can use any means.Sheen travels on a boat up the river in the company of a few eccentric soldiers(including a surfer and a rock and roll fan). They reach thetheater of a massacre, under another whirlwind of helicopters.As the helicopters approach in formation, peasants run away and get readyto defened their village. The helicopters charge and destroy. Then theyland and the jet fighters finish the job. The boat has been airlifted.Sheen and his men can resume the journey up the river.During the trip Sheen keeps wondering what the renegade colonel saw in thejungle that made him, an official groomed in the best schools for high office,to desert.They reach an American camp. At night the soldiers gather for a show:a helicopter unloads two centerfold babes who dance on a stage.To kill time, Sheen's boat races with other boats.Sheen keeps studying the renegade's dossier and learns that he ordered themurder of friendly Vietnamese officials.The army couldn't bring back into the fold: the colonel simply disappeared. From his letters he learns of a strong, righteous personality.This only deepends the mystery. One day they meet a boat of peasants. As the Vietnamese move suspiciously,of the man loses control and fires on them. It turns out they had nothing tohide, but a puppy. The woman is still alive and one of Sheen's man would liketo take her to the camp. Sheen coldly shoots her: the orders are not to stop. The boat reaches an American camp under attack. The soldiers are panickingand Sheen can't get any useful information from them.The boat resumes its trip. Sheen keeps reading the dossier and learns thathe is not the first to be sent after Brando. The previous "executioner"deserted and join the colonel.The boat is ambushed and one of Sheen's men dies.The boat cruises enveloped in thick fog and Sheen can feel Brando's presence.Another man is killed when the boat is attacked with spears.The boat keeps advancing in a more and more surreal landscape. The suspenseis increasing. A city in the jungle soars in front of them.They are met by an army of canoes. Hundreds of people(white people) stand up on the canoes and stare at the boat.Sheen is greeted by an American photographer who tells him about the colonel'sreligion. The colonel has started a cult and those are all his people.The staircase by the river bank is littered with dead bodiesand surveilled by armed men. A trail leads to a temple.Sheen recognizes the agent who was sent before him on the same mission.He seems to be hypnotized. There is evidence that the colonel has gone insane,that everybody has gone insane. Sheen is captured, rolled in mud, and finallyled to Brando's presence. A few words and then he is tied to a post.At night, Brando walks into Sheen's hut, covered with mud, and throws into hislap the severed head of one of his men.Sheen is given freedom in the village. Brando delivers a deranged soliloquy in the shade. He worships horror.During a religious cerimony, while the people of the village are celebratingin front of the temple, slaughtering cows for the gods,Sheen walks behind Brando and slaughters him.As he walks outside, the people of Brando get on their knees.They all walk him to the boat. And Sheen leaves on the boat (taking with himthe agent who had preceded him). One from the Heart (1982) is another musical, probably his best foray in the genre. The Outsiders (1983) is an adaptation of S. E. Hinton's novel (1967) and Rumble Fish (1983) is an adaptation of another Hinton novel (1975).The latter is the better of the two.The Cotton Club (1984) is a historical movie before it is a gangstermovie. The reconstruction of the roaring years is impeccable.And it is a musical in the tradition of the very 1930s that it evokes, asmusic is co-protagonist of the story. The story alternates with musical numbers.Coppola directs it in a surreal, oniric, almost psychedelic way, indulgingin Kafkian atmospheres, in decadent and sophisticated scenes. Themelancholy, anemic jazz of the musical soundtrack underscores the sense ofdecay, alienation, disorientation, depravation.Everything turns at the slow, mellow, languid pace of the jazz music of theCotton Club.The Cotton Club is the night club where a serious trumpet player performs.The audience is made by the high society of the slums, by the powerful gangstersand pimps of the city.One night the musician saves a gangster's life and the gangsterhires him. At the same time, the musician's brother enrolls himself in the gang.The owner of the club throws a party (filmed with a stylized, baroque touch).The goal is to convince the gangster and his rival to make peace, but the planbackfires as the two gangsters quarrel and the rival is cut apart. The trumpet player falls in love with a girl, but he loathes her after hefinds out that she's the gangster's girl.All the time,the show goes on at the Cotton Club: sensual, elegant, malicious showsplay continuously in front of the crowd of celebrities.A black tap danceris in love with a white dancer, who is the girl of a rich attorney: she returnshis feelings, but, ambitious and with no scruples, cold and sarcastic,ignores his romanticism and his offers of marriage.His brother abandons him when, in order to please her, he decides to start asolo career. A racist bodyguard beats him and humiliates him.The gangster hires the trumpet player to entertain his girl, but he offends herin public. They argue all the time but they are falling madly in love.Finally, they make love.While the gangsters kill scores of people (images of shootings superimposed over a jazz singer), the musician moves to Hollywood and becomes an actor.His specialty is gangster movies.The Great Depression destroys his career. The musician returns to New York,to the club that the gangster bought for his girl and where the white dancer nowperforms.The gangster argues with the musician's brother over money.Then the gangster has to witness a musical duetbetween the trumpet player and his girl full of offensive innuendos.The tap dancer finds the white dancer but they have the usual problems.However, the tap dancer makes peace with his brother.The gangster orders the execution of a man who works for the musician's brother.The latter takes immediate revenge and kills the killer (can't help killing alsothree children who were passing by).The gangster's men are after him: he kidnaps the faithful (and gigantic)assistant of the owner and asks for a ransom.In the meantime, the tap dancing brothers reunite on stage.The musician volunteers to bring his brother the ransom, butshortly thereafter his brother is killed by the gangsters.Two years later the Cotton Club is throwing another big party for a crowd ofcelebrities. Between the musical numbers the mob plots.Lucky Luciano and the owner plan to get rid of the gangster, who has becomea dangerous liability.Backstage the black guys take revenge over the racist bodyguard who hasalways harrassed them.The gangster quarrels with his jealous wife and his girl, disgusted,leaves with the trumpet player, half arguing and half flirting as usual.The trumpet player performs on stage.Then the gangster, jealous and furious, threatens the girl and the musicianfinds the courage to confront him. The gangster pulls out the revolver andstarts shooting, but is kicked out of the club.The tempo is set by faster and faster tap dancing.The gangster is plotting revenge, but is instead killed by Luciano's men(superimposed to the tap dancer's breathtaking rhythm). The audience hails the tap dancer.Musical numbers keep playing on stage, loud music drives the action.The girl, who doesn't know that her husband is dead, leaves the musician.Another show starts on top of the action, the audience clapping and laughing.The show continues at the station where the trumpet player is about the leave.At the train, she is waiting for him.More dancing, more clapping.The owner decides to retire, he can sense that an era has finished.The plot is poor and quite stereotyped. This is mainly an orgy of jazz.A sense of moral emptiness pervades these meaningless lives, that arecondemned, doomed from the beginning. Most of these lives are bought andsold. (Translation by/ Tradotto da Daniele Perri Ispirato da "Cuore di tenebra" di Conrad, Apocalypse Now (1979) è più di un film di guerra.
Losing My Virginity - The Autobiography By Richard biblioteca particola
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