#lina abbas

[comicwaren]

From Venom War: Lethal Protectors #002

Art by Luca Maresca and Arif Prianto

Written by Sabir Pirzada

[heckcareoxytwit]

A preview of Venom War: Lethal Protectors #2

VENOM WAR: LETHAL PROTECTORS #2

SILVER SYMBIOTE! The AGONY symbiote chooses its next host – SILVER SABLE! The new Wild Pack becomes a terrifying and lethal SYMBIOTE SQUAD to stop the monstrous horde of ZOMBIOTES spreading like a plague across NYC – with extreme prejudice! But can Sable and her alien partner still be trusted?! And what dangerous secret rests within their mysterious cargo?

Written by: Sabir Pirzada Art by: Luca Maresca Cover by: Creees Lee Page Count: 32 Pages Release Date: October 23, 2024

[theyluvkarolina]

𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎…

` ` 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐀’𝐒 𝟏𝐊 𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓! ` `

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 ‧₊˚📀✩♬ ₊˚.

Hello and welcome to Lina’s 1K Event! For this event, I chose 10 (fav # hehe) of my favorite songs and you guys will be able to pick a song and request who (F1 Edition)!

What to do…

Select a song

Request the love interest with the song (same one can be for multiple songs!)

You are also able to come up with your own scenario as long as it correlates with the meaning of the song!

EXAMPLE: “Hello! Can I request __(driver/song)__ with __(song/driver__? (Insert Explanation of what is wanted if there is one)”

Rules…

Nothing that is considered “dark romance” (i don’t believe in anything called dark romance. It’s either romance where the characters are actually LOVING, or a psychological thriller.)

Please be kind with requests! Kindness is key!

PLEASE PLEASE BE PATIENT!!

That is about it! I’m very flexible with rules :)

Who I write for…

Drivers: Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly, Oscar Piastri, Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda, Logan Sargeant, Alex Albon

I also don’t mind incorporating the WAGS as another love intrest in with driver x reader fics! I

WAGS I can Write for if wanted: Lily M, Lily Z, Alexandra, Kika, and Rebecca

Author’s Note(s)…

just realized all my songs are angsty… whoops!!

I do in fact see your requests!! I just prefer to upload the request and fic when the fic is ready 🩷

i try to get my fics out fast but it takes time. please, please be patient.

Happy reading! 🤍 ⋆ ࣪.

𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 ‧₊˚📀✩♬ ₊˚.

1. AS IT WAS | HARRY STYLES - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔. ``

2. FEATHER | SABRINA CARPENTER - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑰 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒔𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 (𝒂𝒉) 𝑭𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 (𝒂𝒉) ``

3. GOODBYE, MY DANISH SWEETHEART | MITSKI - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑺𝒐 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒚 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝑰'𝒎 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝑰 𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒘 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 ``

4. LACY | OLIVIA RODRIGO - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED

`` 𝑳𝒂𝒄𝒚, 𝒐𝒉, 𝑳𝒂𝒄𝒚, 𝑰 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒋𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒉, 𝑰 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 ``

5. LOVER | TAYLOR SWIFT - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑳𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏, 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅? 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 ``

6. NOT ALLOWED | TV GIRL - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝑰 𝒈𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 '𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝑺𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 ``

7. SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS | ABBA - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑺𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 ``

8. “SLUT!” | TAYLOR SWIFT - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒘 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒛𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒅-𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝑬𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏' 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 ``

9. SOMETHIN’ STUPID | FRANK SINATRA - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐨𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭'𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐠𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧' 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐢𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞, "𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮" ``

10. TOUCH TANK | QUINNIE - FIC HAS BEEN POSTED!

`` 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒎𝒚 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝑺𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒌 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 ``

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

rain and mint tea and rambles

Hi maggots. It's me, thinking thoughts, again. I do that far too often.

Monsoon has begun, I do believe. The stupefying heat wave broke to let water crash onto the soil, out of which puffs the scent of petrichor. Ever so often the heat builds in the day, but yields to a thunderstorm come nightfall. Perhaps it'll only last a few weeks, but I'm so glad anyway.

I made a mug of mint tea. By which I mean I dropped a teabag into hot water, in one of the five mugs Lina bought me. I was so delighted last night when the heat slowly revealed the images of a whale emoji, a photo of me edited with Crowley's eyes, and fanart of me that said happy birthday, maggot prince with the Spotify code of a playlist you all added songs to. It's been days since my birthday, but I still keep finding bits of love that you sent my way.

I love the playlist. It's as chaotic as we are. There's Cavetown and ABBA and Queen, Bollywood dance music and sad songs and rap, Taylor Swift and a Rickroll and silly songs and Disney soundtracks.

Everything looks different in the rain. The leaves lose their dusty shroud, glittering emerald and lime and quivering in the damp breeze. The light is quieter, softer, grey. It smells of life. The sky swirls with clouds like Van Gogh tried to make art but ran out of paint, with only the greyish paintwater left.

I'm sorry about all the DMs and asks I haven't replied to yet. I swear it's not because I care. It's because I care too much, I care so much that sometimes it overwhelms me. Please don't stop sending me asks because of that, though. I promise I do read them, even if it takes a while for me to reply. You aren't bothering me. You could never. I love you too much. Be as crazy as you like. It's me.

Weirdly enough, as I wrote that paragraph, Nothing New by Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift played. "Are we only biding time 'til I lose your attention? And someone else lights up the room? People love an ingenue." "How do I go from growing up to breaking down? And I wake up in the middle of the night, it's like I can feel time moving. How can a person know everything at 18, and nothing at 22? Will you still want me, when I'm nothing new?"

It's difficult to believe I'm 20 now. That shouldn't be allowed. It's such a weird age, isn't it, 20? It's so, so young, it's so new, it's so terrifyingly timid.

I swear I knew more at 14 than I do now. I swear so many of you know so much more than I do. I don't know anything at all, most days. I don't know who I am. But you do. Thank you for bringing out not the best of me, not the worst of me, but the realest of me.

I love you. I got into art school, by the way. Life is not going the way I expected it to. And the horrors persist, trapping me in my dreams, suffocating me the way a pillow never could. But then I wake up and I think about you, and that keeps me going.

Look at you, saving a guy, every single day. How insanely wonderful.

The rain has stilled. My brother will be pleased, he bought a ticket to go to a cricket match. I think I'll go for a drive with my mum and Roxie. She loves drives. She knows them as 'car byebyes'. She sits on my lap in the front seat and looks out the window, nose sniffing and getting excited whenever I say look, a bow-wow and a dog passes.

I'll scoot now. If this long letter landed up on your dash and messed it up, I really do apologise, I try not to tag these. If you read it this far, then wow, hi. I love you. If you skipped to the end, I love you. If you don't read this, I love you. I love you all, so much.

I hope you have the loveliest of days.

I'll see you soon, maggots of mine.

[royal-confessions]

“I don't know how Aoun Juma and Lina Abbas met but their wedding looks good and the little kiss to” - Submitted by Anonymous

[the-rewatch-rewind]

What a glorious feeling

Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be discussing number four on my list: MGM’s 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain, directed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Debbie Reynolds.

It's 1927 and silent film stars Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) have just premiered another smash hit. To escape from a mob of fans, Don jumps into the car of Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds), who is surprisingly unimpressed by him, which he is both insulted and intrigued by. Weeks later, when Don is still focused on trying to find Kathy again, and his friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) is running out of ways to get him to snap out of it, the success of Hollywood’s first talking picture prompts the studio head to turn the next Lockwood and Lamont film into a talkie, and Don’s life – and Hollywood itself – will never be the same.

This is a very important movie to me because in a way, it’s the one that started it all. My love for Old Hollywood began in a movie theater at a 50th anniversary screening of Singin’ in the Rain. I’ve mentioned in several previous episodes that I started getting into Old Hollywood in 2002 – this is why. My mom took me to see it, and then based on my reaction started introducing me to more of her faves from around this era, and here I am, 21 years later, still loving these films. I can’t remember exactly when I watched Singin’ in the Rain the second time; I might have seen it again in 2002, I don’t know. But I believe it was 2003 when we bought it on VHS while on a family road trip. We had a little TV/VCR that we used to set on top of a cooler behind the front seats, held in place with bungee cords. I could not get enough of this movie and insisted on watching it probably way more times than my siblings wanted on that road trip, although I think they enjoyed it too, just not quite to the extent that I did. I watched it seven times in 2003, six times in 2004, three times in 2005, once in 2006, once in 2007, twice in 2009, once in 2010, once in 2011, twice in 2012, once in 2013, twice in 2015, once in 2016, once in 2019, once in 2020, once in 2021, and twice in 2022. I can’t remember when, but at some point I ended up with a DVD in addition to the VHS. And one of my 2022 watches was in a theater for the 70th anniversary. While in many ways that was a very different experience from the first time I saw it, since every moment of the movie was deeply familiar rather than fresh and new to me, it felt no less magical. I still love this movie just as much as, if not more than, the first time I watched it, and I am so grateful that it introduced me to a world of films from generations before my time.

There is so much to love about this movie that I don’t even really know where to start. The dialogue is clever and delightful, the casting was perfect and the performances are brilliant, the costumes, sets, and lighting are gorgeous, and the music makes you feel like you’ll never be unhappy again. In some ways, it’s actually kind of similar to Mamma Mia, in that it’s a jukebox musical. Like how Mamma Mia took popular ABBA songs and loosely draped a story around them, Singin’ in the Rain took a bunch of old songs, mostly written by MGM producer Arthur Freed (who came up with the idea) and Nacio Herb Brown, and tied them together with a story. I will say I feel like the story of Singin’ in the Rain works quite a bit better, mainly because the subject matter fits the songs so well. It was a stroke of genius to make the movie that would feature songs from early talkies be about early talkies. Freed and Brown did write one new song specifically for this movie, “Make Em Laugh,” but it bears a remarkable resemblance to Cole Porter’s “Be a Clown” from the 1948 Freed-produced film The Pirate. Screenwriters Comden and Green wrote the “Moses Supposes” song based on an existing tongue-twister, but all of the other songs in the film had been featured in at least one previous movie. These days, Singin’ in the Rain is such a beloved, iconic movie that many of the songs’ origins are all but forgotten, and they’re generally associated with this picture. But it’s always kind of fun to be watching some random old movie that predates this one and hear one of these songs pop up. Probably my favorite instance of this is in Adam’s Rib, which was number 27 on this list and made in 1949, when Tom Ewell’s character is going to visit his mistress, played by Jean Hagen, he’s whistling “You Are My Lucky Star,” and I love that both that song and that actress ended up in this movie three years later.

A big part of what makes Singin’ in the Rain such a perfect introduction to Old Hollywood is that the songs are from Old Hollywood and the story is about Old Hollywood. It’s so fascinating to watch the characters figuring out the technical aspects of adding sound to a medium that modern audiences automatically associate with sound. But even beyond that, this movie breaks the illusion of Hollywood glamor while still sort of trying to hide behind that illusion, in a way that almost feels like it’s laughing at itself. So much of the story is about how movie magic relies on facades and deception. The movie starts with a red-carpet interview where Don tells of his rise to fame and his motto: “Dignity, always dignity,” while the audience sees flashbacks of his very undignified beginnings. Lina is on screen looking quietly glamorous for about 10 minutes before she finally speaks, revealing what the silence of her films has concealed: her voice is almost unbearably squeaky and obnoxious. So in order to make her presentable in a talking picture – which eventually becomes a musical – her voice is dubbed by Kathy. Initially the plan is to credit Kathy as Lina’s voice and use this to help launch her to stardom, but Lina threatens to sue the studio unless they force Kathy to be her voice indefinitely without credit. I don’t think it was usually quite that dramatic, but uncredited dubbing happened all the time. In previous episodes, I’ve mentioned Marni Nixon, who dubbed the singing for many iconic performances, such as Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady and Natalie Wood in West Side Story, without credit at the time, although now her contributions are kind of general knowledge, at least among movie buffs. But we don’t even have to go that far to find an example: it happened in Singin’ in the Rain itself! Betty Noyes, also known for singing “Baby Mine” in the Disney movie Dumbo, sang for Debbie Reynolds in a couple of her songs without credit, notably including “Would You?” which Kathy is meant to be dubbing for Lina. So Betty Noyes sang for Debbie Reynolds when she was singing for Jean Hagen. (Part of the time, anyway. The “Singin’ in the Rain” reprise that Kathy sings for Lina behind the curtain was definitely Debbie Reynolds’s voice.) Even more ironically, when Kathy is dubbing Lina’s dialogue (“Nothing can keep us apart, our love with last ‘til the stars turn cold”), that was Jean Hagen’s normal speaking voice, so Jean Hagen dubbed Debbie Reynolds dubbing Jean Hagen. I just can’t get over how blatantly these filmmakers went, “Hollywood is fake and yes that includes us” – although I suppose it was much less blatant at the time, I’m not sure at what point all of this became so well-known.

Learning about the dubbing didn’t decrease my love for this movie, although some of the other behind-the-scenes trivia kind of did – specifically the fact that nobody seemed to have a very good time working with Gene Kelly because he was so demanding and impatient, particularly with then 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds, who was not a very experienced dancer, which Kelly found exasperating, even though he knew about it when she got the role. Apparently at one point Fred Astaire – also a notoriously demanding perfectionist – found her crying under a piano at the studio and offered to help her with her dancing. She learned fast and committed hard, literally bursting blood vessels in her feet during the “Good Morning” number. Reynolds later famously said that Singin’ in the Rain and childbirth were the two hardest things she ever had to do. Not that she was the only one who worked hard. Gene Kelly was sick with a 103-degree fever when he performed one of the most famous scenes in Hollywood history, dancing and singing to the title song. I used to view this as admirable, but now I’m like, maybe they could have waited to film it until he got better? Similarly, Donald O’Connor, who was smoking four packs of cigarettes a day at the time, had to rest in the hospital for several days after filming the “Make ‘Em Laugh” scene, and again, it’s like, it’s an incredible performance in a great number, but was it really worth going to the hospital for? Both the story within this movie and the story of how it was made raise some very interesting questions about the “point” of motion pictures – as art, as entertainment, and as an industry – that are still being wrestled with today. Personally, I don’t believe anyone should be forced to risk their health for their job, but at the same time I appreciate how dedicated everyone involved was to making this masterpiece the best it could possibly be. It certainly paid off in this instance. It’s easy for me to say now that it would have been worth making a slightly worse movie if that meant protecting the well-being of the actors, but maybe if it was worse I wouldn’t have quite fallen in love with it to this degree and my life would look very different. So I still don’t know how to feel about all this. And I don’t even know how much it matters anymore, given that the only major cast member still alive is Rita Moreno, whom I absolutely would not have recognized without seeing her name in the credits, and I don’t think she personally was injured on this set – although she was originally supposed to sing “I’ve Got a Feelin’ You’re Foolin’” which then got absorbed into the “Beautiful Girl Montage” that she wasn’t part of, which is a major bummer because she deserved a bigger role in this.

Anyway, speaking of complicated feelings, let’s talk about the romantic aspects of Singin’ in the Rain. The romance between Don and Kathy is an important part of the story, and while that’s a little disturbing knowing how terribly Kelly treated Reynolds on set, and that he was approximately twice her age, their characters’ relationship within the movie is mostly very sweet and I don’t really have a problem with it. And I appreciate how much screentime is devoted to the friendship between Don and Cosmo, which Don is shown continuing to value just as much as he always did even after he starts seeing Kathy. It’s always great to see characters refusing to follow the amatonormative idea of a relationship hierarchy, with every other relationship falling far below one’s romantic partnership. I love the scene in Don’s house that leads to the “Good Morning” number partly because it’s an important turning point in the story and it’s a great song, but also because it shows Don and Kathy and Cosmo as a trio, not a couple with a third wheel, which is so lovely to see. But though Don does his best to resist amatonormativity, it still pursues him rather relentlessly in the form of his costar, Lina Lamont. The studio leaks rumors that Don and Lina are romantically involved to increase publicity for their films, and Lina seems to believe them, despite Don’s adamant assertions that, “There is nothing between us. There has never been anything between us. Just air.” Their relationship is yet another example of a Hollywood façade, and one of my favorite scenes is when they’re working on a silent film and pretending to be madly in love when they’re in the middle of a fight. Their scene ends with a kiss, and as soon as the director yells, “Cut!” Don pushes Lina away in disgust, but she is so sold on their romance that she says, “Oh Donny, you couldn’t kiss me like that and not mean it just a teensy weensy bit!” to which he retorts, “Meet the greatest actor in the world! I’d rather kiss a tarantula!” It would be easy to attribute many of Lina’s actions to jealousy after Don falls in love with Kathy, which was definitely an important motivation, but it wasn’t her only motivation. Because while she is portrayed as relatively clueless, she has to know that the rise of talking pictures is bad for her. It’s not just that she’s losing her man, she’s also losing her career. When she tries to use her star power to force Kathy to work solely as her voice, part of that is certainly to get in the way of Don and Kathy’s happiness together, but I would argue that more of it was a desperate attempt to remain in an industry that was moving on without her. Lina is portrayed as the villain, and granted some of the things she does are pretty awful, but at the same time one can’t help feeling sorry for her. She was taken in by the glamor of Hollywood, unable to see that everything from her romance to her popularity was make-believe, and suddenly her entire life is crashing around her. We cheer when the curtain opens to reveal that Kathy is singing for Lina, but we also cry for her a little – at least, I do. I find Lina to be a thoroughly fascinating and compelling character, and Jean Hagen gives one of my all-time favorite performances (she was nominated for an Oscar and absolutely should have won), and I really want to know what happens to her after the events of the movie. Hopefully she realizes that she doesn’t need a man, least of all one who hates her like Don does, and finds a new career that makes her happy.

If being a Lina Lamont apologist doesn’t get me kicked out of Old Hollywood fan circles, this might: I don’t understand why Cyd Charisse is in this movie. I get that the “Broadway Melody” number is a gorgeous spectacle, but it doesn’t have anything to do with anything and it goes on way too long, and in world it makes zero sense. First of all, they have six weeks to basically remake their entire movie, and that number alone would have absolutely taken more than six weeks to put together. Secondly, a big part of the appeal of that number is how colorful everything is, but their film is in black and white. And like, okay, we can suspend disbelief and just accept that, but there is absolutely no way that Lina Lamont would put up with a 15-minute musical number in the middle of her picture, in which, not only does she not appear at all, but Don is dancing very suggestively with another woman. Like, come on. I know that having a random ballet toward the end of a musical was a major thing back then, especially in Gene Kelly films, but that has never made sense to me and it never will. And like, why did they give Cyd Charisse a very distinctive look for most of her part and then change it for the ballet so that she’s barely recognizable? It’s so confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to Charisse, she was a wonderful dancer, and I think it’s great that her appearance in this movie helped put her on the map and lead to bigger roles for her, it’s just that that scene is my personal least favorite part of the movie. Although I guess the message of that whole number can be boiled down to, “when romance fails, turn to your hobbies,” which is something I can definitely get behind. So maybe I wouldn’t cut it out entirely; I would just make it significantly shorter so we can get back to the main story faster.

The thing I find so compelling about this movie is that while it exposes Hollywood glamor as a sham, it also shows that when you see through that, there’s often still something valuable underneath. The smoke and mirrors of movie magic add to the entertainment value, but fundamentally, movies are stories, and storytelling is a deep-rooted feature of humanity. Sometimes when I tell people that I enjoy old movies, they assume that means I’m into the fancy costumes and larger-than-life stars, and like, I guess that’s part of it, but mostly I just really enjoy good stories that are told well, and that’s what a lot of old movies are. And it’s not just Hollywood that tries to glamorize people and their stories; our whole society does it, too, only to a slightly lesser extent. Just as Lina needed to conceal her unpleasant voice and the studio felt that Lockwood and Lamont would sell more tickets if people thought they were actually dating, or just as people thought Debbie Reynolds’s voice wasn’t strong enough for all of Kathy’s songs, normal people in everyday life feel the need to disguise facets of their identity that are less socially acceptable. Don’t act too queer, conform to your assigned gender role, don’t infodump about your hyperfixations; in short, put on a show to pretend to be “normal.” But just as nobody is really as glamorous and flawless as movie stars’ personas pretend to be, nobody is really normal either. Hopefully our society will someday get to the point where people don’t have to keep up this façade, and perhaps future movies will reflect that. But for now, it’s difficult to imagine a more perfect illustration of how the film industry reflects society than the layered deceptions of Singin’ in the Rain. It’s sort of halfway between satire and an honest reflection, and it works remarkably well as both. But it’s also very easy to just watch it as a fun musical without thinking too hard about any of this. I just happen to greatly enjoy overthinking the stories I love, and this happens to be one that lends itself to much overthinking, which is one of the many reasons why I love it.

Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched movies. It’s getting to the point where I know these movies so well that I’m not really sure how to talk about them to people who haven’t seen them, so if you’ve never watched Singin’ in the Rain and still managed to follow this episode, I’m very impressed. Next up is a movie that I’m pretty sure would be number one on this list if I’d started keeping track about two years earlier because I already had it completely memorized before 2003, but in the 20 years I was tracking I watched it a mere 35 times, leaving it at number three. As always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “Well. Someone’s got to break the ice and it might as well be me. I mean, I’m used to being a hostess, it’s part of my husband’s work, and it’s always difficult when a group of new friends meet together for the first time, to get acquainted, so I’m perfectly prepared to start the ball rolling. I mean, I have absolutely no idea what we’re doing here, or what I’m doing here, or what this place is about, but I am determined to enjoy myself, and I’m very intrigued, and oh my, this soup’s delicious, isn’t it?”

[jordanianprincesses]

Girl! Have you seen, one of Hussein’s cousins Aoun I think they are very close, is marrying Abbas granddaughter… Can’t think of a weirdest time for the granddaughter of the Palestinian president to marry the nephew of the Jordanian king… that is just not a coincidence… everything the JRF do is so shady makes me believe in the convenience marriage theories around Rajwa 😏 And it also makes me think that Lena Abbas could have been a good match for Hussein LMAO

Lina Abbas is not Mahmoud Abbas's granddaughter she's his brother's granddaughter. Well everything is possible but I think it's just a coincidence tbh.

She's really pretty! But I like Rajwa more hhhh But I think Lina is more of a princess material.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

The family left their homes on November 10 during the four-hour pause – a day after Israel announced a daily four-hour window to allow Palestinians to flee from the north to the south. At about noon, the family left the house waving white flags. Dina’s two sisters, who are married to two brothers, had left their homes on the first day of the war to stay at their in-laws’ villa, also in Gaza City. Dina was talking to her youngest sister Rulla on the phone as the group cautiously moved forward when suddenly screams pierced the air. Their other sister Lina had crumpled to the floor, blood soaking through her shirt after an Israeli tank fired at them. Rulla dragged Lina, getting her as far as the entrance of the Bakri building on Shuhada street, and tried to administer first aid. She saw a gunshot wound to her sister’s chest. But as the Israeli tank fire continued, Rulla had no choice but to leave her and run inside. Rulla’s husband Bashar Khayal was shot in his hand, and his sister Dalia was also wounded. Behind them, Bashar and Dalia’s grandmother Feryal was lying motionless on the street, killed. Rulla told Dina exactly where they were and begged her to get in touch with the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) to save them. The building was behind al-Zaytoun pharmacy, Rulla said, by the Abbas intersection. Dina called the ICRC. They told her they couldn’t go to the area. ‘Worst feeling in the world’ The next day, on Saturday, Dina got the news she had been dreading. Lina had died, her body still at the entrance of the building. Dalia had also been killed, succumbing to her wounds. Lina’s two young boys, four-year-old Mohammad and nine-month-old Majed, were among those trapped inside the building with their father Tareq Khayal, their grandmother Dalia, their aunt Suha, Rulla, and Bashar. They had no food, water or electricity. Their phone batteries dying, Suha was able to send Dina one last message: “We are alive”. Dina flew to Cairo, Egypt, over the weekend, where her father lives alone, and was joined by her brother who lives in Dubai. “Just the thought of those two young boys not having water to drink or food to eat, the thought that they could die of dehydration or starvation…” her voice trails off, her breath catching.

[shanto1000]

Reader

1.

Wilhelmina Zoe Statham, João Jacob, Mikael Fridenfalk, Game environment art with modular architecture, Entertainment Computing, Volume 41, 2022, 100476, ISSN 1875-9521, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2021.100476. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952121000732)

In the paper Statham et al. Proposed a framework for building the world with modular assets so the work process can be smoother and faster than creating static assets and its benefits of using modular architecture instead of static architecture. The paper highlights the Utility of modular buildings and having the effect of making something bad less severe or painful art fatigue and less delays in making the game. The paper examines various games from different genres such as open-world, city-building, and casual games, and showcases the adaptability of modular buildings. this paper showcases how efficient it can be to use assets properly and how modular architecture can help Game design.

2.

Livytska, Inna. (2019). The Art of Narration and Artificial Narrative Intelligence: Implications for Interdisciplinary Research. Nalans. 7. 309-318.

This book is focused on evaluating storytelling in the framework of AI. The writers bring up various editing and writing techniques that are predominant in literature and humanities, and the authors argue that these can be used in aggregation with storytelling procedures AI bots have. Sim joins Kunin in showing the tensions between human emotional storytelling and logic created by a computer by showing how AI can be involuntary to use rules such as Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale. The book also touches on IDNs – communicating digital narratives, the most common AI bot narrative formats introduced in video games in which the user participates in the storyline. In video papers can webinar videos that are charming and educational, the prominence is on the need for AI to be more than words, including images and moods in order to tell stories that are as human as possible in better features. However, whereas there are many comprehensive points made, it fails to detail practical executions of an AI or afford real-world examples.

3.

Ganz, Adam & Khatib, Lina. (2006). Digital cinema: The transformation of film practice and aesthetics. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film. 4. 21-36. 10.1386/ncin.4.1.21_1.

This book rights that the technical improvement in cinema has made revolutions in filmmaking and aesthetics. The formation, distribution, and excision of digital cinema is possible complete the use of knowledge that is elastic, very cheap, and easy, thus providing an opportunity for testing on styles. It clarifies how technologies permit relationship changes between the leader, actors, and audiences, giving the actors a better range of reactions and narration throughout the story. Iranian films like Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten or Mania Akbari’s 20 Fingers have proved that simple surroundings joined with inexpert actresses give the movie a realistic edge. As the movie industry is not limited to only Western people, the suppression does not touch those who with excessive ideas and solid will is able to make virtuous movies. The assumption is that technology affords many several attainable.

4.

Wolf, M.J.P. (2012). Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203096994

This book by Mark J.P. Wolf explores how people build and are involved with illusory worlds across different media from works to video games, from film to visual arts. It highlights that world-building is an activity that produces from a child's imagination into a work of art. Different storytelling, and world structure are mentioned to create environments, alluring visitors to motion within. Wolf's samples are transmedia stories like Star Trek and Star Wars. The book talks about how these creations establish human imagination-they are at once philosophical, mental, and cultural. Meant for Wolf, these worlds should be studied autonomously, in its mission to congeal world-building as a significant subfield in media and social studies.

5.

Rod McCall; Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 2011; 20 (5): 502. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/PRES_r_00068 OR Blascovich, J., & Bailenson, J. (2011). Infinite Reality, Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution. (first ed.). New York: William Morrow. 298 Pages. ISBN: 9780061809507

This book distorted the idea of a real experience, whether from the perceptions of virtual realism skills or from the changes in people's perceptive sympathies of the real. The opportunity is built on the stress under which humanity can explain its real animation and physical answers created by virtual reality. The public could be asked to 'walk' on a computer-generated tightrope to prove its belongings. People are starting to carry virtual reality with them into normal life- that of gaming, interactions over the Internet, or among workers of social media, such as Nintendo's Wii or Microsoft's motion-tracking Kinect. Such advances have been made in the arena deprived of overlooking the merits that variation brings the ease it transports to physically deprived individuals the weaknesses it brings, with emotional addiction and privacy. Avatars are also images to be discovered as identity.

6.

Visual Culture: Ocularcentrism and Scopic Regimes Book : Visual Culture Studies by Marquard Smit Publisher ‏ : ‎ SAGE Publications Ltd; First Edition (June 2, 2008) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 263 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1412923697 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1412923699 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds Available : https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Culture-Studies-Interviews-Thinkers/dp/1412923697

In this book by Marquard Smith's Visual Culture Studies explores the role of images and visual media in influencing society and observation. Elsewhere art, the book contracts with visual culture in all forms, reaching from ads to social media. It emphasizes how images function not only as pictures but also as active agents in the structure of hearers and reflection of contradictory power dynamics related to class, race, and politics. It also challenges the connection between art and popular culture, digital media effects, and the requirement for interdisciplinary methods in studying visual culture. Finally, Smith calls for a serious appointment with images in a media-drenched world.

7.

Book: Structural Anthropology Author: Claude Lévi-Strauss Genre: Non-fiction, Anthropology, Social Science Publisher: Basic Books (original English translation) Publication Date: 1963 (English edition) Pages: 320 pages ISBN: 978-0465031381 (Paperback) Language: English (originally published in French) Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Available: https://www.amazon.com/Structural-Anthropology-Claude-Levi-strauss/dp/046509516X

In this book,Claude Lévi-Strauss presented the fundamental ideas adopted by structuralism in anthropology. The volume efforts to show how human cultures can be exposed through the deep constructions of myths, relationships, and social organizations. According to Lévi-Strauss, these structures are worldwide and hidden beneath cultural camouflages and can be revealed over the study of relationships as well as differences among different societies-elsewhere the limits of historic and functionalist anthropology. In dealing with the cultural fundamentals as schemes of relations, Lévi-Strauss has unlocked new ways of understanding societal instruments act that have had a deep impression on not just anthropology but also sociology and other human sciences.

8.

Source: book name- The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality ( published in 1994 by Oxford University Press) Writer- Michael Heim Pg num: 1 – 208 The book's ISBN-10 is 0195092589 and its ISBN-13 is 978-0195092585. Available at: https://www.amazon.com/Metaphysics-Virtual-Reality-Michael-Heim/dp/0195092589

The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality by Michael Heim includes various salient aspects of the philosophy of virtual reality (VR). Amusingly, Heim investigates why virtual events should in any possible way be regarded as less real than actual events. He hurls light on self events in VR where one gets to be dissimilar self via avatars and communicates in a different new virtual reality in which the outer world and the self become modified and different. The book touches upon awareness, depiction, and ethics, and asks even questions with respect to how one’s personality and behavior might change in a fully absorbing VR world. A comparable vision is held by Heim while examining the development of VR: the risk of fully embracing humanity who is divided from the real, actual reality is possible and VR will have comprehensive outcomes for humans, for education, and including society.

9.

Source: book name- Aesthetic Theory,1970 Writer- Theodor W. Adorno pp-1 –(416 pg num) volume 88 Available at - https://www.blinkist.com/en/content/topics/aesthetics-en

Theodor W. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory search for to comprehend the nature of art, its freedom, and its purpose in society. Adorno describes that art in its authentic form is free and has no utilitarian use, however it is influenced by social and political factors. Art is a vehicle of truth and it illustrates and expresses arguments and realities that cannot be spoken about immediately. Adorno is vital to the capitalist society in which art becomes a product for entertainment, whereas he states that modernist art does not only serve the purpose of entertainment but also has the capability of evaluating. The book, which is based on negative logic, discusses the possibility of art changing the world through its aesthetic dimension, resisting simplification and supportive critical thinking. Aesthetic Theory is complex and insightful and contends for transformed forms of art as defiant and introspective in the present-day context.

10.

Book: Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media Author: Marie-Laure Ryan Genre: Non-fiction, Media Studies, Literature, Digital Media Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication Date: 2001 Pages: 416 pages ISBN: 978-0801866472 (Paperback) Language: English Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle (if available) Available - https://www.amazon.com/Narrative-Virtual-Reality-Interactivity-Literature/dp/0801877539

In this book by Marie-Laure Ryan's Narrative as Virtual Reality expresses how new interactive media forms- including virtual reality, video games, and collaborating fiction- transform storytelling by forging a new ground of involvement and interactivity. Ryan studies how digital skills redefine old-style story forms so that the user can be involved with stories in an original, participating manner. The book investigates the idea of "virtuality" and queries how these new media make skills immersive and contribution. Ryan interrogates the conjunction of literature, digital media, and narrative theory in order to create a theoretical method for the effect of these technologies on storytelling and the understanding of audiences by user involvement.

[chansonsinternationales]

Hiam Abbas et Lina Soualem : "Le retour à la mémoire n'est pas toujours quelque chose de simple"

[thedeacanedous]

“ I Have A Dream “- ABBA / Cover saxophone by Linas A

https://youtu.be/92Mp79bQSHk?si=ZIeU58LAppYdussr

[comicwaren]

From Venom War: Lethal Protectors #003

Art by Luca Maresca and Arif Prianto

Written by Sabir Pirzada

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this Week # 155 (Year 3/Week 51):

My first Singaporean film, Anthony Chen's award-winning debut feature, Ilo Ilo. There is a new sub-genre emerging in recent years, realistic dramas about live-in maids and domestic workers (Many from South America and from South-East Asia: 'Lina from Lima', 'The second mother', 'La Nana', 'Roma', 'La cieniga', 'A simple life', and also others I haven't seen). Most are terrific, and so is this one, with 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

[That Wikipedia list of movies with 100% score on RT is often a reliable indicator for the type of fair I like to spend my time with]. Highly recommended - 9/10.

🍿

2 more by Aki Kaurismäki:

🍿 My 10th tragic feature by him, and possibly my favorite, The match factory girl. The great Kati Outinen is a sad and lonely young woman who has a one-night stand. Minimalist, bleak and unrelenting, this was no Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Considered by some as the "Best Finnish film". 9/10.

🍿 To Each His Own Cinema, a 2007 anthology of 34 3-minute shorts by different directors about how movies inspired them. Takeshii Kitano, the Dardenne brothers, Zhang Zimou, Jane Campion, Atom Egoyan, Gus Van Sant, Lars von Trier, Roman Polanski, Michael Cimino, David Cronenberg, Wong Kar-wai, Ken Loach, Claude Lelouche, David Lynch, Etc. It was commissioned to celebrate 60th anniversary of The Cannes Film Festival.

The often-repetitive stories were about old cinema houses out in the country, ticket taking, projectionists, watching Bresson and Fellini in small villages, and similar wet dreams for cineastes. A nice touch was that the credits were shown only at the end of each short, so you could try to guess who directed it while watching.

Most of the films were not very good. Among the few stand outs were Hou Hsiao-hsien (A family in 1940s Taiwan goes to see a film in a suddenly decrepit theater), Aki Kaurismäki (Foundry workers on lunch break enjoy a Lumiére silent film of workers on lunch break), Abbas Kiarostami (Iranian women watch 'Romeo and Juliet' and cry), Wim Wenders (The inhabitants of a remote Congo village watch Black Hawk Down) and The Coen Brothers (A cowboy resembling Llewellyn Moss at a repertory art house, debating if he should see Renoir or Nuri Bilge Ceylon).

🍿

Ridley Scott's first stream-of-consciousness film, Boy and Bicycle. Made in 1962, when he was 23, and starring his 16 year old brother, Tony [who would jump to his death from the San Pedro Bridge exactly 50 years later]. A boy skips school, and wanders round the empty docks of his West Hartlepool industrial seaside town. Like a working class scene from 'Dubliners'.

It took Ridley 15 years before he was able to direct his next movie, during which time he specialized in producing commercial advertising. His most famous one, The bike Ride, an advert for bread, also featured a boy on a bike. It was later voted as the 'Best British Advert of all time'.

🍿

My 7th and 8th films by Sofia Coppola:

🍿 Priscilla, another pretty young woman living in a privileged gilded cage (like Coppola's herself did). A beautiful romance without sex, and with an oppressive power imbalance. "The Elvis" and the 14 year old girl [and without a single Elvis song]. 7/10.

🍿 In her shallow The Bling Ring, a group of celebrities-wannabes Valley Girls burgles from Hollywood celebrities homes, and become mini-celebrities themselves. It was pretty, but I couldn't find any deeper meaning there.

🍿

Danish cinema produced dozens of 'Danish Noir' works in the 1940's, during the Nazi occupation, and the 1950's. Mordets melodi ("Melody of murder") is considered Denmark's first horror film, and is my first movie directed by the great Bodil Ipsen. [The Danish "Oscars" are actually called "The Bodil's" after her and the other female influencer, Bodil Kjer].

Like Fritz Lang's 'M', a crazed, ambi-sexual killer continues to strangle women while singing a luring French cabaret song, and the dark, dramatic sets are visually stark.

🍿

Bradley Cooper's new adulatory bio-pic Maestro, about the larger-than-life, overbearing genius that was Leonard Bernstein. Uncanny recreation of his life, but mostly his bisexuality vs. his love for his wife and family. Carey Mulligan was tremendous in it. So was Gustav Mahler. This is the year of the “Great Man” in movies, Napoleon, Oppenheimer, Ferrari, Bernstein… (Photo Above).

🍿

First-watch earlier Buñuel X 2:

🍿 Nazarin, Buñuel‘s own favorite work, about a saintly priest, who mistakenly tries to follow in Christ's footsteps. But all his literal interpretations of the dogmas are proven to lead him, as well as his small coterie of freaks and miscasts, into misfortunes. One of the last of his Mexican films, this religious parable is the one that convinced the Spanish censors to allow him to return from exile.

🍿 Bunuel's only documentary (pseudo-documentary rather), Land Without Bread, describing (exaggerated) misery in a remote Spanish town. Extreme poverty, hunger and destitute rarely seen on film.

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Dil Dhadakne Do is an Indian soap opera, staged on a first-class Turkish cruise ship in the Mediterranean, directed by a woman, and narrated by a dog. It's a 3-hour long American-style 'Rich and famous' sit-com of a large family, full of expected love intrigues of bland characters.

I was hoping for another hopping Song and Dance story, but there were only 3 dance numbers in it, Gallan Goodiyaan, Girls like to dance and the final credit scene.

🍿

3 atypical Christmas fairy tales:

🍿 My second unusual anime by Satoshi Kon, Tokyo Godfathers (after 'Paprika'). An imaginative Christmas Miracle parable of The Three Magis. Except that here they are three unlikely homeless heroes, an alcoholic, a trans woman, and a teenage runaway who likes to spit on people from above. They discover an abandoned newborn while searching through the garbage for presents. Emotional and unorthodox. 8/10.

🍿 The Bloody Olives, a Belgian meta Film Noir of a husband, his wife and her lover who keep murdering each other again and again while decorating their Christmas tree. Full of twists and double crosses.

🍿 "One morning, as Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant banana..."

Malcolm Tucker's Oscar-winning parody Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life was not too convincing: It's too easy to parody Kranz Fuckfuck.

🍿

First watch: Truffaut's second installment of the Antoine Doinel's saga, Antoine and Colette. The boy of '400 Blows' is now 17, and awkwardly falls in love for the first time. Youthfully charming.

🍿

2 by Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli:

🍿 The first half of Dream scenario had me in stitches: Such an original thought experiment, and so unhesitatingly fresh. But exactly at mid-point, when everybody's dreams turn into nightmares, the story progressed into a underwhelming flirtation with broader contemporary themes, fame, cancel culture, public perception. The only anchor left in Paul's life is memories of his lovely wife, Julianne Nicholson. 6/10.

🍿 Checking out his only previous feature, Sick of Myself: That too was a story with an intriguing premise that opened very strong, end completely fizzled halfway. A young barista lives anonymously and unnoticed, being ignored by her self-centered boyfriend and acquaintances. One day at work, a woman is being mauled by a dog and she's the only one jumping to help her. While covered in blood, she is suddenly the center of attention. The rush causes her to start an insane dive into self-mutilation. The second half centered on narcissism, influencers, victimhood and social media, and was highly disappointing. My 5th film with Anders Danielsen Lie. 4/10.

🍿

"Chip, you know how I hate the brown word"...

My first black comedy from John Waters' commercial period, Serial mom.

With Waters regulars Chesty Morgan, Tracy Lords, Mink Stole, Patty Hearst and Ricky Lake [But it could do better with less Fat jokes]. Also, with a lawyer named Nazelrod and a panties-sniffer named Marvin Pickles. The hot rock and roll girl band is called Camel Lips. So the anti-establishment humour is very elementary.

🍿

“I Didn’t Come To Rescue Rambo From You. I Came Here To Rescue You From Him”…

First watch: I did not expect Rambo: first blood to be that watchable, with such excellent Jerry Goldsmith score. A traumatized Vietnam vet feels spat on and maligned. And all the years I thought it but a thoughtless, jingoistic violent flick.

🍿

3 more stand-ups:

🍿 Trevor Noah: Where Was I, his latest stand-up opens with his best line upfront: "I really enjoy every day in America right now. The same way you'd enjoy your last day on earth". It has a few other good jokes, but otherwise it's pretty tame. The venue, The Fox Theater in Detroit, looks magnificent. 4/10

🍿 Sane man, my first stand-up with heavy-smoker, politically incorrect Bill Hicks. I heard the name before, but never seen him perform.

🍿 So, for the second time in a week, I re-watched Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure, a contagiously funny presentation.

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4 Shorts:

🍿 Agnès Varda's Les Fiancés du pont Mac Donald, a Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton-inspired silent comedy from 1962. With JL Godard and Anna Karina.

🍿 Re-watch: From David Firth's, the creator of 'Salad Fingers', the unsettling Cream. Inventing a single solution to all of the world's problems.

The credit page at the end is just as hilariously expansive as the bitter story itself.

🍿 Figs, a gentle 81-year-old black woman who survived a life of oppression, from the cotton fields of Louisiana to becoming a teacher in South Los Angeles.

🍿 The girl with the yellow stockings, a light German story of a young man asking his girlfriend to marry him again and again.

🍿

One I couldn't finish even after trying hard for nearly 20 minutes: The toothless, 1990's Clintonite-lite, political romance Speechless. Trying to cash in on the then real-life hookup between James Carville and Mary Matalin, it was awful on every level.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here).

[carmenvicinanza]

Hiam Abbass

Hiam Abbass, attrice, regista e sceneggiatrice palestinese, è nata in Israele e ha la cittadinanza francese.

È stata diretta da registi internazionali come Steven Spielberg, Amos Gitai, Tom McCarthy, Jim Jarmusch, Abbas Fahdel e altri ancora.

Nata a Nazareth, il 30 novembre 1960 da una famiglia di arabi musulmani, è cresciuta nel quartiere libanese del vicino villaggio di Deir Hanna. Dagli anni ’80 vive a Parigi dove è iniziata la sua carriera artistica.

Ha cominciato a recitare nel film per la tv La nuit miraculeuse del 1989, di Ariane Mnouchkine, seguito da apparizioni in diversi telefilm.

Al cinema ha debuttato nel 1989 con il film La nuit miraculeuse. È stata poi nel cast di Ognuno cerca il suo gatto, Haifa, Histoire naturelle, Venise est une femme, Le mariage en papier, Aime ton père, e Bab el Chams.

Il suo primo ruolo di successo è arrivato nel 2004 quando è stata la protagonista in La Sposa Siriana diretto da Eran Riklis che le è valso la candidatura per la miglior attrice agli European Film Awards.

L’anno successivo è apparsa nel film Munich di Steven Spielberg, in cui ha anche lavorato come consulente per il dialetto e la recitazione, vivendo per tre mesi in un hotel con attori israeliani e palestinesi che hanno avuto molte discussioni che hanno aiutato entrambe le parti ad avvicinarsi.

Ha recitato in diversi altri film prima del 2008, quando è stata la protagonista de Il giardino di limoni in cui interpreta una donna palestinese che lotta contro la decisione dei servizi segreti israeliani di sradicare il suo giardino perché avrebbe potuto essere usato dai terroristi per attentare alla vicina casa del Ministro della Difesa. Per questo ruolo ha ricevuto il premio Israeli Film Academy Award e l’Asia Pacific Screen Awards come miglior attrice.

Nel 2008 ha interpretato la madre di un immigrato siriano clandestino nel film The Visitor di Tom McCarthy e la madre di un soldato iracheno nel film Dawn of the World di Abbas Fahdel.

È stata nel cast del film I limiti del controllo di Jim Jarmusch e in A Bottle in the Gaza Sea,  tratto dal romanzo Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza di Valérie Zenatti.

Il regista Radu Mihaileanu l’ha invece voluta nella commedia drammatica La sorgente dell’amore.

Nel 2012, ha fatto parte della giuria del Festival di Cannes e debuttato alla regia con The Inheritance in cui affronta il tema dell’identità da diversi punti di vista, quello del ruolo femminile diviso tra modernità e tradizione e quello dell’appartenenza nazionale di una famiglia palestinese che vive in Galilea.

Nel 2017 ha interpretato Freysa, la leader del movimento per la libertà dei replicanti, in Blade Runner 2049.

È stata la protagonista femminile della serie tv Succession che ha ottenuto un enorme successo negli Stati Uniti. 

Come acting coach è stata impegnata sul set di Alcuni giorni di settembre di Santiago Amigorena con Juliette Binoche, John Turturro e Nick Nolte e Babel di Alejandro Gonzáles Iñarritu con Brad Pitt e Cate Blanchett.

È stata accanto a Tim Roth in Come together, la storia di un terrorista che, a seguito di un grave incidente, perde la memoria dimenticando il suo passato e i suoi ideali sovversivi, per venire salvato da una medica  siriana rifugiata che non conosce la sua vera identità.

In Bye Bye Tiberias, selezionato per rappresentare la Palestina agli Oscar 2024 e presentato in anteprima mondiale alle Giornate degli Autori del Festival del Cinema di Venezia, è stata diretta da sua figlia Lina Soualem. Nel film, che esplora le tradizioni orali di quattro generazioni di donne palestinesi, interpreta se stessa nel suo personale viaggio di ritorno al villaggio dove è cresciuta e da dove è partita per Parigi, quando aveva vent’anni, per intraprendere la carriera di attrice. Un ruolo che la spinge a mettere a nudo il suo passato, a guardare indietro a come la sua patria è cambiata e a riflettere su tutto ciò che ha ereditato da sua madre e dalla generazione che l’ha preceduta.

Hiam Abbass ha anche un’altra figlia, Mouna, anch’ella attrice, entrambe avute da Zinedine Soualem, noto attore franco-algerino, con una carriera trentennale nel cinema, nella TV e nel teatro francese.

[solrites]

a dismissive wave of her hand, another warm smile. she has a talent for these things, by nature of what she is. a hyper-good judge of character, or something like that. sure, maybe she wouldn't usually give away things like this to strangers - perhaps favorite regulars, but hey - lina has historically always been rather KIND. an encouraging nod of her head. "yes, i'm absolutely sure. it's yours. i often find that people that linger at something want it for good reason. i don't tend to deny those things. joy over profit, as they say." nobody says that except for her, she's pretty sure, but oh well.

hands reach out for the signed shirt, folding it with practiced and skilled hands, passing it to hughie without hesitation. "it's very nice to meet you, hughie. my husband went to an estate sale of a billy joel fanatic a while ago. most things we got for relatively cheap. it's fine, hughie. very nice to meet you. oh!" she holds up a finger, before turning on her heel. lina walks over to one of the many boxes of vinyls, rummaging through them carefully. a glance back towards him, tilting her head in a gesture for him to come over. "i think i have a couple of signed vinyls, if you'd like those, too. just don't let me find it on ebay, or you won't get another soda. i'm more of an ABBA person, one of my daughters made me an enthusiast, as she calls it."

It was the show they should have gone to see. Billy Joel, Madison Square Garden, 2000. It should have been the first time seeing Billy Joel. He’d finally got to see him twenty years later, a joint birthday present from Robin and his dad, but he always thought about the 2000 show. He wouldn’t be able to afford the signed t-shirt from the concert that should have been, no matter how wistfully his eyes kept being drawn to it.

The woman's voice interrupted his meleancholic musings, making him jump a little. "Oh, um-" He's on the cusp of regretfully telling her that he wouldn't be able to afford it, when she tells him that he can have it anyway. "What?" Hughie stares, blinks, and stares some more. "I-I don't-" She offers him a can of soda. Tells him her name. He stares stupidly at the offering, before finally taking it. "I'm Hughie, are you... Sure? I mean, I know that can't be cheap."

[royal-confessions]

“*if* its true that Lina Abbas was a possible bride candidate for CP Hussein, there has to be a tiny feeling of awkwardness, maybe thats why they haven't published a photo of the Prince with his cousin and bride 🤣🤣🤣” - Submitted by Anonymous