'On the day that Kasparov was defeated by Deep Blue, I found myself thinking of the film "Being There'' (1979). The chess champion said there was something about the computer he did not understand, and it frightened him. There were moments when the computer seemed to be . . . thinking.'
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-being-there-1979
'The classic test of Artificial Intelligence has been: Can a computer be programmed to conduct a conversation that seems human to another human? "Being There'' is a film about a man whose mind works like a rudimentary A.I. program.'
'On the day that Kasparov was defeated by Deep Blue, I found myself thinking of the film "Being There'' (1979). The chess champion said there was something about the computer he did not understand, and it frightened him. There were moments when the computer seemed to be . . . thinking.'
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-being-there-1979
'In due time, Lloyd acquired skills that were superb of their kind. But they were acquired skills. He got no gift from the gods." Perhaps that is what makes him special: He is determined to be a great silent comedian, and succeeds by experimentation, courage and will. His films are about his triumph over their making.'
The Glasses character in "Safety Last" would have blended with the background of the department store where he worked if it had not been for action imposed upon him. But what action!
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-safety-last-1923
'Lloyd is a real man climbing a building; Keaton, as he stands just exactly where a building will not crush him, is an instrument of cosmic fate. And Chaplin is a visitor to our universe from the one that exists in his mind.'
The Glasses character in "Safety Last" would have blended with the background of the department store where he worked if it had not been for action imposed upon him. But what action!
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-safety-last-1923
ANA lounge in Tokyo serves world-class sushi 
The least grandiose thing about Dubai is the Grandiose Supermarket in Dubai Mall 
'Life is like a rollercoaster
It does flips and throws you over
Board your ship that's going nowhere
If you stop, you'll end up somewhere'
Everybody wants to go to Japan'
Soundtrack for a beer in Tokyo Dome hotel, rollercoaster view included
"Conscience. What a thing! If you believe you got a conscience, it'll pester you to death. But if you don't believe you got one, what could it do to ya?"
He finds out.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-treasure-of-the-sierra-madre-1948
Heading to Tokyo, let us know if you want to connect this Sunday at noon 
'Women Talking is heavy on dialogue but light on any sort of discernible narrative. It’s a “message movie” and, while the message is important, director Sarah Polley hammers it home with a stridency that’s distancing. Too often, the characters don’t seem real. They are mouthpieces for victims of male toxicity in isolated communities. Part of the problem is the theatricality of the production, which seems like it’s the adaptation of a play (it isn’t; it’s an adaptation of a book by Miriam Toews). Another issue is that Polley has elected to desaturate the film’s colors to an extreme degree. Presumably this is to emphasize the drabness of the women’s lives but it calls attention to itself too forcefully.'
The most grating character in Women talking is the male, played by Ben Whishaw. Unlike in other similar movies (Promising Young Woman, Men, Vengeance) where the white male is the villain, here he is an insufferable ally figure, always listening, always saying the necessary platitude, but never developing into a real character. James Beradinelli calls the movie a period piece mumblecore, which is an exciting description. Unfortunately, the mumbling feels fake, as if somebody shoved a book about toxic masculinity in the mouths of Bolivian Mennonite women and then had them spit the words out, like bloody teeth following a viscious attack. Sarah Polley has done and will do better
'Women Talking is heavy on dialogue but light on any sort of discernible narrative. It’s a “message movie” and, while the message is important, director Sarah Polley hammers it home with a stridency that’s distancing. Too often, the characters don’t seem real. They are mouthpieces for victims of male toxicity in isolated communities. Part of the problem is the theatricality of the production, which seems like it’s the adaptation of a play (it isn’t; it’s an adaptation of a book by Miriam Toews). Another issue is that Polley has elected to desaturate the film’s colors to an extreme degree. Presumably this is to emphasize the drabness of the women’s lives but it calls attention to itself too forcefully.'
The most grating character in Women talking is the male, played by Ben Whishaw. Unlike in other similar movies (Promising Young Woman, Men, Vengeance) where the white male is the villain, here he is an insufferable ally figure, always listening, always saying the necessary platitude, but never developing into a real character. James Beradinelli calls the movie a period piece mumblecore, which is an exciting description. Unfortunately, the mumbling feels fake, as if somebody shoved a book about toxic masculinity in the mouths of Bolivian Mennonite women and then had them spit the words out, like bloody teeth following a viscious attack. Sarah Polley has done and will do better
'Some will even find it racist because the targets of the film's hero are African-American, Latino and Korean - with a few whites thrown in for balance. Both of these approaches represent a facile reading of the film, which is actually about a great sadness which turns into madness, and which can afflict anyone who is told, after many years of hard work, that he is unnecessary and irrelevant.'
'On the morning the film begins, he is stuck in traffic on the freeway. Nothing is moving. Exhaust fumes rise all around him.
The director, Joel Schumacher, deliberately shoots this scene as a homage to the famous opening of Fellini's "8 1/2," but instead of finding himself floating up into the sky, like Frederico Fellini's hero, the man gets out of his car, slams the door, and goes walking alone across Los Angeles. This is not always a safe thing for a crew-cut white man, wearing a shirt and a tie.'
A film like this could never be made today, or if it did it would be a rant against white privilege. Falling down is way more subtle, a movie about a wounded man who wounds back. As usual, Ebert said it best
'There are times, indeed, when the movie seems less about Alice than it does about the speculations and daydreams of a lot of women about her age, who identify with the liberation of other women, but are unsure on the subject of themselves.'
Scorsese's masterpiece is almost 50 years old, but the movie is timeless, just like Ebert's review of it
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/alice-doesnt-live-here-anymore-1974
'individual scenes. Alice, for example, has a run-in with a fellow waitress with an inspired vocabulary (Diane Ladd, an Oscar nominee for this role). They fall into a friendship and have a frank and honest conversation one day while sunbathing. The scene works perfectly. There’s also the specific way her first employer backs into offering her a singing job, and the way Alice takes leave from her old neighbors, and the way her son persists in explaining a joke that could only be understood by a twelve-year-old. These are great moments in a film that gives us Alice Hyatt: female, thirty-five, undefeated.'
'There are times, indeed, when the movie seems less about Alice than it does about the speculations and daydreams of a lot of women about her age, who identify with the liberation of other women, but are unsure on the subject of themselves.'
Scorsese's masterpiece is almost 50 years old, but the movie is timeless, just like Ebert's review of it
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/alice-doesnt-live-here-anymore-1974
'Yes I’m an animal
Yes I’m an animal
Yes sometimes the things I do are irrational
Yes sometimes the things I do are quite radical'
Single-take surrealism by Ren
“For science to succeed, it must strive for the nonideological pursuit of objective truth… Although no system is guaranteed to eliminate all
biases, merit-based systems are the best tool to mitigate it. Moreover, they promote social cohesion because they can be observed to maximize fairness.”
A summary of our spring activities, including S(c)iesta gettogethers in New York, Miami, Montreal, Abu Dhabi and Tokyo. Plus a survey for a S(c)iesta in Ohrid in the second week of August
Резиме на нашите пролетни активности, вклучувајќи С(ц)иести во Њујорк, Сарасота, Монтреал, Абу Даби и Токио. Плус анкета за С(ц)иеста во Охрид во втората недела на август.
https://qantarot.substack.com/p/libra-net-11-sciestas-everywhere