Force Majeure by Ruben Ostland http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-force-majeure-written-and.html – this was the impression, upon seeing the excellent oeuvre for the first time, years back - 9 out of 10

 

Force Majeure by Ruben Ostland http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/note-on-force-majeure-written-and.html – this was the impression, upon seeing the excellent oeuvre for the first time, years back

9 out of 10

 

 

Ruben Ostland has won the Palme D’Or twice, first for The Square http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-square-written-and-directed-by.html and then last year, for the marvelous Triangle of Sadness (which is the space between the eyebrows, that apparently indite that state, or lack thereof) before those two marvels, there was the equally outstanding Force Majeure, adapted recently and turned into a comedy in Hollywood, which is much less successful and admirable then the original

 

The marvelous director has been the president of the Jury for the recent Cannes Film Festival, which has had its debut with the controversial and contested Jeanne du Bary, staring the still stigmatized (if less so in Europe, albeit there have protests, messages concerning the launching of the prestigious do with that oeuvre) Johnny Depp as Louis XV, role in which critics have said that he does not feel comfortable.

His daughter, Rose Depp, has also used Cannes as the venue for a disputed production, The Idol series (or is it just a new season, it has been aired on HBO last evening, and aside from the luring scenes, of which I have seen only the one wherein Weekend – if that is his name, I will not bother to check, what is the point – seems to be somewhat abusive, or just into the kinky stuff, BDSM, which she wants, it is not clear…I have read that the man is a famous singer, nominated for the music of Fifty Shades of Grey  http://realini.blogspot.com/2015/01/50-shades-of-grey-by-e-l-james.html  a film that was also delving into masochism, sadism I hear) the first time when a series is on the croisette…

 

Force Majeure deals with an extreme situation, obvious from the title – we could in fact argue that there are at least of two other incidents that could have easily turned into catastrophe, one on the slopes (by the way, spoiler alert, why is the father leaving the children in that fog, what if he were not to find the way back to them) and the other with that incompetent, or fatigued, drunk, who knows what driver

The admirable, memorable Triangle of Sadness http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/01/rutan-by-ruben-ostlund-director-and.html is also a motion picture where Force Majeure comes into play, when the cruise on the yacht hits a storm, and  the captain is…Woody Harrelson (who has yet another chance to attack capitalism, the system, just like on Saturday Night Live he recently advanced his ‘sage’ perspective on the world, claiming that covid is just a huge conspiracy and proving that one could be a massive talent, and yet foolish like Trump)

 

If you read Intellectuals http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson, you find that great gifts of the mind go hand in hand with immense silliness, or even gruesome character, and the author studies Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, and Jean Jacques Rousseau

 

The latter left his children at the door of the orphanage and nine out of ten died in that situation…in Triangle of Sadness, due to the extreme weather and equally, or even more because of the incompetence, the drunkenness of the captain, the yacht with the rich is shipwrecked, along with a few of the crew and the couple that had won the ticket for this treat, and are not rich, and we see what calamity brings about.

In Force Majeure, a family with two children takes asking holiday in the Frensh Alps, and while resting on a terrace, a huge avalanche is approaching, seeming to be ready to engulf, and kill the people…the father runs for his life, abandoning his spouse and children and this is the premise, climax of the movie

 

Evidently, such a reaction provokes not just rejection, criticism, but long debates ensue, the wife has stood back to protect their offspring, while their father just took off, something explained later in discussions with Vera and Matts…the latter insists that this is human reaction to peril, and we have the survival instinct

Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/blink-power-of-thinking-without.html the quintessential magic book by Malcolm Gladwell comes to mind and The Thin Slicing Theory come to mind, the way we take decisions in seconds is proved and explained – there is this test wherein participants are given a couple of seconds of video without sound and asked to evaluate, and what they put down matches what those who had attended the course of the professor for a semester wrote, aka two seconds can lead to the same opinions as months of interaction…

However, there are examples of wrong decisions, a murder (Diallo was the name, I wonder) in America, where the police officers took seconds to conclude that a man was a drug dealer and shot him dead, when in fact he was innocent, and then even more catastrophic, the aircraft carrier Vincennes shot down an Iranian commercial airplane and hundreds were killed, because an order had to be given in a short time…

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”