marcospenajr

Very early on I developed a somewhat negative feeling about the last hours of Sundays. A mixture of laziness, melancholy and anxiety. Laziness to have to sleep early and wake up in time for Monday's obligations; melancholy for feeling that there was still so much to do and little time available yet again (ah! Another Sunday that ends); and anxiety about another week-end and all that lay ahead of me. Reasons to feel all this? I'm not sure, but when I stop to think, I think I have some answers. But the focus here is not to deal with it. However, I understand it is important to say that today this feeling is already more than the result of habits, it is part of who I am. (I'm typing this text and now it's exactly 10:03 PM of a Sunday in June 2018. A real battle to fill another night of the first day of the week). I recall Aristotle's arguments in "Ethics to Nicomachus" as to how character is formed. Simplified and briefly, it corresponds to that old maxim: your actions become habits and these become your character. In the end, choosing your actions will shape your character. Aristotle calls this "prior choice". But the mainstream of psychology argues that character is formed by the conjunction of unconscious defense mechanisms. Whether by choices (conscious or not) or by defense mechanisms, the fact is that for me the second half of Sunday is the expression of what is empty. Last week I was looking for a movie to watch and I came across the title "Sunday's illness" (in English). That was enough to make me decide to see him. (Undoubtedly I had a direct and immediate match). If the English version of the title was more honest to the original "La enfermedad del domingo", I would certainly look for more details to decide whether to watch it or not. By allowing me to make the decision based solely on the title, I exposed myself to the risk of wasting time with a poor quality film. To my joy and delight, the Spanish film is excellent, profound and makes every minute of every scene and all that invested in thinking about it and feel its impact after its end. The script brings a feeling of mystery, which leads the viewer to stay tuned and feel instigated to await the outcome of the story. As a complex puzzle, we have to observe well to build the complete picture. From the first to the last scene, this is the process for who is following the fit of events. Plaudits to the screenwriter (and film director) Ramón Salazar. If in the role of writer the Spaniard shows all his talent, it is not possible to say the same about his direction. Many scenes are conducted based on some exaggeration. Not the exaggerated, flamboyant, just the opposite, an excess of apathy that makes many passages less plausible. At certain times, minor corrections in posture, physiognomy or intonation of the actors would be enough to raise the film's standard. Here comes my reading about the actings: except for Barbara Lennie playing Chiara, who embodies her character and makes us believe she is a real individual (especially by the expression of her pain), all others deliver very little as a scenic result. Which is a shame, because in representing Anabel in all its complexity of life, Susi Sánchez could have been one of the highlights of the film. Unfortunately, she does not excite us as she would have if directed better. If Salazar's intention was to put verisimilitude, she left us only a very unreal coldness. The real highlight, our great delight, is the photograph given to us there. Ricardo de Gracia, photograph director, was really great doing his job. From what I have been able to ascertain, this is his only job in such a position. I wish he could have other opportunities to execute this talent; Keep his head, hands and eyes so sharp; and that I may enjoy his future works. In "Sunday's illness", he was able to paint the beauty of pain, constant pain, intense and deep. He still manages to wrap it all up in a nebulous atmosphere, while presenting how the visual details can be gratifying to the soul (of course, merit shared with the director). The color palette that applies, mostly in pastel tones, is extremely coherent with the whole movie's picture. Faced with the pain, the emptiness and the disillusioned anguish of Chiara with all that she has lacked in practically all her life - which, however simple and common, is extremely essential and she knows she has not even a chance to conquer - I can't be so negative about my Sundays. All I've ever felt I lack these days is pure ridiculous nonsense in the face of what Chiara had hoped to have in her own.

The Coen brothers (known, among others, for "Fargo", "The Ladykillers", "No Country for Old Men" and "Burn After Reading") sign the script and are responsible for directing "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs". No wonder, the movie looks like a collection of short stories. By the way, this is the way the work is presented, it is something like if the viewer were reading a book of short stories (this way, in the first person). Summarizing and anticipating: the film is very, very good.

It begins with the story of the criminal Buster Scruggs, a lively gunslinger from the old American West, who is always dressed in white, and is all the time smiling and singing. This first story begins in a dazzling location, a desert full of rock formations. Although there is apparently some digital processing for the images, there is already a great delivery of the work. Scruggs gets into a dispute when he arrives in a typical American West saloon. In attempting to refuse to have a previous played hand in a poker table, his opponent tells him, "You see'em, you play'em!" (Something like: "You saw the cards, so you play with them"). This is the moment when Scruggs leaves everyone stunned with his action and his ability. "I do not have a bad nature, but when you are disarmed your tactics must be Archimedes". What exactly Scruggs meant by Archimedes' tactics is a point to be discovered. The movie is full of such references.

Only 12'45" of the movie passed and you just to find it sensational!!! Five bullets, five fingers, and the last one upside down, on its back and through the mirror!!! It's more than fun and creativity, it's pure animation for any afternoon!! But "you can not be the best forever", and the forever lasts less than an eighth of the total of all the stories to be told. Exceptional! Killers-singers in the old western. The strongest, the best survive, goes on ... until finds the next "stronger and best".

James Franco entering a bank in the middle of nowhere and vying with a small, half-crazy old man. A performance to be remembered, though short. The desire to see this story in a long with Franco acting in this way becomes enormous. Money bags to the Coen brothers!! They deserve it. Four Judgments! Four! "First time"??? Fine, hilarious irony, comedy in the midst of lawless savagery. Joel and Ethan Coen do not need to think about robbing a bank, they deserve to receive bags of money.

Can all tragedy, all drama, all humiliation and pain be concentrated in one life? Is Liam Neeson incapable of being a different character? Can a human being be less valuable than a chicken? Some men are content to use others as instruments. If their morality allows them, they are able to use another life as a means to reach a small goal. In the same way, they are able to get rid of such a life, easily, without costing them much. "... government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"; the Coen brothers' message in this direct quote from the Gettysburg Address - from then-US President Abraham Lincoln, who delivered it during the American Civil War on November 19, 1863 (is turning 155 on this 19) - could not be more clear.

Can human being be a force that frightens all nature? It seems certain that the force that drives human beings to conquest, to the will to possess, leads him to overcome what he must overcome. Tom Waits has an excellent performance, makes to get life from the screen the message of how much man's drive to work as a means to conquests is intense, and as intense as the possibility of gain. The work can be sweaty, painful and moral; or amoral, dirty and treacherous (in fact, non-work). Often, "Only footprints in the field and the earth shaken have been left by the turbulent life that had interrupted the peace of the place and moved on". What really matters if the earning potential is high?!

And life can pirouette, and make everything that seemed solid and sure turn into quicksand. Only the despair remains. Just lack and absence. And even in absence is the cooperation that moves us ahead. The history of man is not a story of brave, strong, intelligent, cunning solitary conquerors. The lonely, brave and strong, died without spreading their genes. Humans who cooperated with each other went further, lived longer, built more, overcame more challenges, achieved more offspring, and left history to the spread of their genes.

Where does the human being finally come to? Try to understand who we are? Understanding what, in the end, does differ from one another ... Each of us seems to believe that have the answers, no matter how broad or narrow our experiences, each individual insists to have (and to be) the right measure. You can see this in the most crowded crowd in a big "arena" or in the strictest group in the smallest of cubicles. Each individual is taking his life, judging others, being repulsive, gradually drifting away from futile motives of one another, entertained with nonsense, failing to do, to be, wasting much of life. When the journey is over, when the end of the line arrives, it is not uncommon the traveler has thrown away the opportunity to enjoy the trip without ever having really understood what has happened and what is happening around him.

To the Coen brothers, it remains to be thanked for the excellent doses of comedy, drama, tragedy, suspense and reasons to reflect. The six stories in the film have an incredible sequel and logic between them, although they are subtle and hard to perceive - they are not in the "field of the script itself", but in that of human nature. Joel and Ethan deserve every success they have ever achieved. A success that must still increase in their lives and to which "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is already taking them. The film has gained much recognition, received nominations in the festivals of Venice, Adelaide and Camerimage, having won the award for best screenplay in the first. Admittedly, the film's name will be read a few times at the upcoming Oscar's ceremony.

A late artist, who only devoted himself to painting in the last eight years of his life, although he worked as an art dealer years earlier with his brother Theo. Vicent painted over 850 paintings, but while alive he had only one purchased. He died poor, supported by his brother. He was a creative and prolific artist as few, lived and left life miserable as many. The plot of the story in "Loving Vicent" describes Armand - son of Van Gogh's friend postman Roulin - trying to locate Theo to deliver him a letter that Vincent recounted just before he died. By the way, this is a fact that should be better explored in the animated feature, the two brothers exchanged many correspondences during these eight years in which the painter lived in France, especially in Arles and Saint-Rémy. The animation is entirely made up of oil paintings, based on techniques developed by Van Gogh and inspired by his paintings. A novella documentary, Loving Vicent (original title in English) is a work as exciting and inspiring as the works of the genius about which it narrates. There are 65,000 frames, produced by 100 painters! A great production for a great story. Named for the best animated Oscar in 2018, the film has already garnered nearly 50 nominations and 20 awards. Shame on you, Academy, for not having awarded the film. For those who like to admire beautiful paintings, being thus a fan of the painter who most influenced such art in the twentieth century, production is unmissable, and impossible to watch it just once. His last two months of life, probably the most productive, were lived in Auvers sur Oise. Among the paintings he produced in this city located 30 km away from Paris are "Portrait of Dr Gachet (first version), oil on canvas, 67 x 56 cm, June, 1890", "Sheaves of Wheat, oil on canvas, 50.5 x 101.0 cm, July, 1890" and "Landscape at Twilight, oil on canvas, 50.2 cm x 101 cm, June 1890". Beautiful demonstrations of his level of inspiration and creation in the period. The central point of the film is the treatment given to Vincent's emotional issues and his great artistic restlessness. Here we are presented with the view that he was not mentally disturbed, but emotionally unstable and extremely intense. The direction, the production and the writers deserve our congratulations by so deep sensitivity. A life without recognition, without success, without prominence and full of difficulties. Many human beings would wish not go on living, as Vincent Van Gogh has decided to do so. Still, I prefer to keep the image of the determined painter, who did not give in. Someone who, whenever he felt defeated, repeated to himself: Continue, continue, that is what is needed.