Ataraxia

  Red River written by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee, directed by Howard Hawks is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html I try and look at what Red River means now, with MAGA embracing ‘values’ that belong to previous centuries, as in XIX, maybe XIII?     9 out of 10   Red River used to be celebrated as one of the greatest motion pictures, indeed, it still appears on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, but then the narrative might have been awkward for one generation, and now it can gain momentum again, what with MAGA screaming for blood, violence, get the aliens out…   Those who lead America now have a vision of history that may be reflected in Red River, for one thing, Native Americans – I think they were Cherokee at some point – were ‘bad, violent’, and America belongs to ‘Americans’, which means WASP, white Anglo-Saxon protestant, or...

  The Burning Court by John Dickson Carr was strongly recommended by my favorite writer, Kingsley Amis: ‘I will offer a small prize to any such person who can read the first chapter of Carr's The Burning Court and not in honesty have to go on’ – however, it is only ranked 4114 th on The Greatest Books of All Time, while The Hollow Man is 441 st – JD Carr has three books on The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time, Three Coffins, The Devil in Velvet and The Hollow Man – you find a few thousand reviews of magnum opera on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel       8 out of 10   I have been thrilled by The Hollow Man https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-hollow-man-10-out-of-10.html by John Dickson Carr, called ‘the best locked room mystery of all time’, just as The Burning Court ‘is hailed as Carr's best non-series novel’, and an impressive achievement in my own opinion, though...

Making Movies by Sydney Lumet If you want to learn about the movie business, you can’t do better than this- 10 out of 10   In this fabulous book, one of the best directors of all time tells you the way movies are made-well used to be made anyway. From working with actors to editing, from the sets arrangements to the money issues, moving to focus groups- we learn a lot about what goes on behind the scenes and how some of the best movies have been made. It is wonderful to listen to the author of The Network talk about the making of it, the performances and the associated issues. I had no idea that placing Sean Connery- who is very tall- and Dustin Hoffman- on the short side- in the same frame is difficult. There are focus groups that tell you what to make with the movie and this is definitely upsetting Sydney Lumet. People are invited to watch a movie and about twenty of them will give opinions which may alter the whole picture. One executive even asked the great director if he could...

  The Set Up by Joseph Moncure March is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and a fabulous work of art – you find multiple notes on films from The NYT 1,000 list on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html     10 out of 10   The Set Up is a splendid, if tragic film   Robert Ryan makes the most contribution to the tremendous success of this chef d’oeuvre – albeit the whole team matters and I think I will get back to this further down – as the thirty-five years old boxer Bill 'Stoker' Thompson, an unlikely hero, perhaps even a role model (if we leave the brutal sport aside) reminding us of Raging Bull He was a phenomenal, outstanding thespian, one of the other major magnum opera in which he has a leading role is The Wild Bunch https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/01/note-on-wild-bunch.html also on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and on my personal list of 200 favorites...

  The Shop Around The Corner by Miklos Laszlo is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – I think I will include it in my Top 200, you find notes on films from The NYT 1,000 list on my blog and YouTube channel at this address https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   10 out of 10   The Shop Around The Corner is a magnum opus, one of the best motion pictures ever made, it could be used, probably was as a lesson for actors and people in the Screen Trade – by the way, one of the best books on films you can read is Adventures in The Screen Trade   https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/adventures-in-screen-trade-by-william.html   James Stewart is magnificent as Alfred Kralik, a clerk at The Matuschek aka Shop Around the Corner, the main character is an example, a role model, well read, honest, hardworking, generous, wise, brave, he may have all the qualities, the owner of the store depends on him, al...

  Woodstock by Michael Wadleigh was the 1971 Winner of The Oscar for Best Documentary, Features and it is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you find many notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   8 out of 10   Woodstock is the epitome of the Flower Power movement, the hippy period in America and elsewhere…well, not in my country, where we had communism, which ended with Ceausescu – I took part in the revolution http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html that deposed the dictator   The rock concert took which place in 1969, and it is estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 people attended, and it was a remarkable achievement as a logistics project, it was incredibly peaceful and memorable There isn’t much else I can say about it, if anything, so I will just digress from here and you should consider th...

  The Beach by Alex Garland Brilliant This book is one of the most enjoyable that I have read in some time. It was mesmerizing. I had such a great pleasure reading it that the end was a disappointment in the sense that I wished it went on. It made me think of some other classics, like The Lord of the Flies, where the same paradise conditions are in place. And yet, humans manage to bring havoc to the most promising settings and in the place that is as close to heaven as you can get. This brings me to another amazing book that I am currently savoring: -            War, What is it Good For Where there are various takes on history and theories are explained on the nature of humans, who seems to be violent. Returning to The Beach- it has a magical pull and even if terrible things happen, I still feel the urge to get there. On the other hand, it may serve as a lesson in positive thinking, with gratitude at the top of the list and the winn...

  A Night to Remember based on the book by Walter Lord  https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2021/04/77-out-of-100-for-night-to-remember.html 9 out of 10     The Titanic has been again on the news, albeit indirectly, because for the past week or so, people have seen at the news coverage of the disappearance of a small submarine that was supposed to take some wealthy people to the wreck of the ship, but a short time after its departure, it lost contact with land   Hence, speculation on what could have happened, the updates on the remaining oxygen that was dwindling, information on the CEO who was on the ship, as the leader of the company that was doing these things, Ocean something, more about the passengers, and if one really wanted, one could know a lot more The message seems to be that exploration is still a risky venture; also, we have to realize that we know much more about outer space – well, let me rephrase that, and say that we have information about the ...

  Shock Corridor written and directed by Samuel Fuller is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you find many notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   8 out of 10   Shock Corridor is on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, and though it is a good feature, it would not get included on my own Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made selection, unless I run out of material   Nevertheless, seeing that we have so much madness at the top, and in general, a film about a mental institution and the patients, guardians, doctor and the main character in it would be interesting, except this issue: When you look at the news and see what MAGA and their Orange Lunatic are up to (that’s right, he keeps calling the other side radical left lunatics, but he is the epitome of derangement) you feel that you are in an asylum   The magnum opus for ...