Topaz written by Leon Uris, directed by Alfred Hitchcock is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – if you are interested, you find more than five thousand notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists, together with a similar number of reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other pages on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html you may even have some comments

 

Topaz written by Leon Uris, directed by Alfred Hitchcock is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – if you are interested, you find more than five thousand notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists, together with a similar number of reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other pages on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html you may even have some comments

 

 

8 out of 10

 

Leon Uris https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/10/exodus-by-leon-uris.html is the author of Exodus, a book about the odyssey of the surviving Jews, after the holocaust of World War II, sailing towards the ancient land of Israel, which was not yet a state at that point, we are given some aspects of the struggle to create the new country

 

Well, new in the sense that it became a political entity – not recognized by the likes of Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist, including some Arab countries – but that is one of the oldest people in the world, they have lived in the ‘Holy land’ for millennia, so they have more of a right to own that than anybody else…

 

Alfred Hitchcock https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/notorious-written-by-ben-hecht-directed.html is the director of Topaz and one of the greatest film makers in history, indeed, the film d’auteur seems to have been created for him, or for the ‘Nouvelle Vague’, a new generation of directors with brilliant ideas

There was a problem with this nevertheless, explained by William Goldman, a winner of two Academy Awards, for Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and All The President’s Men, who looks at the phenomenon, Hitchcock in particular and demonstrates that the whole crew is important, producers, actors…

 

Writers, and he also mentions music – without it, Chariots of Fire would have been less exhilarating, it won Oscar for Best Film – special effects – Jaws had this at the center – in these days, a lot of the movie is made on the computer, especially for an action feature, and the future will see more AI, although we shall see

Adventures in The Screen Trade https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/adventures-in-screen-trade-by-william.html is the wonderful book by William Goldman, in which you find the analysis of the apparent decline of Hitchcock, once he was declared a sort of Deus of cinema, and much more, a fabulous read

 

Now, a few words about Topaz – there is a certain feeling of ennui, taedium vitae, I am worried Goodreads might delete this and much more, they did this to recent note, because it was flagged, some MAGA types are annoyed, or worse by flagged contempt of the orange fool – and the missile crises that nearly led to Armageddon

Our man Havana https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/our-man-in-havana-by-graham-greene.html came to mind, though the marvelous novel of Graham Greene is a satire, while Topaz is a drama – the Americans think that the Soviets are preparing some nefarious, dangerous scheme in Cuba, when Castro was the leader

 

They try to get photos of what is happening there, they have some from very high above, U2 spy planes, I think the name was like that of the band, maybe they took theirs as a joke, from this machine – and they want some spies to get closer, to corroborate, have two or more sources, only some are tortured and killed in the process

The thespian I like most in this movie is Philipe Noiret https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/cinema-paradiso-written-and-directed-by.html glorious in the astounding Cinema Paradiso, and there is a coincidence – John Vernon plays a villain here, and I have started another film with him in it, the post on that one is coming in a few days…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – 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 benefits 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…’

 

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