GOOD ADVICE...

  

“The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. The attack is psychological, Damien, and powerful. So don't listen to him. Remember that - do not listen.”

The Exorcist (Willian Friedkin, 1973)

TIME TALKING ABOUT ITSELF

From the german movie Faraway, So Close! (Win Wenders,1993)
In this scene Otto Tander as the former angel Cassiel and Willen Dafoe as Emit Flesti (Time Itself ?). So, they are in a hurry and on the road:

Emit:
- Can you hear me?
Cassiel:
- Ja!
Emit:
- Let me explain a couple of things.
 Time is short. That's the first thing.
 For the weasel, time is a weasel.
 For the hero, time is heroic.
 For the whore, time is just another trick.
 If you're gentle, your time is gentle.
 If you're in a hurry, time flies.
 Time is a servant if you are its master.
 Time is your god if you are its dog.
 We are the creators of time...
 the victims of time and the killers of time.
 Time is timeless.
 That's the second thing.
 You are the clock, Cassiel.

MANHATTAN (1979)

Woody "The Woodster" Allen, at the top of his game, declares his love to the city of his life in the opening of this masterpiece (he has more then one, you see): Manhattan (1979).

We have three arts Literature, Music and Photography (or cinematography, if you prefer) combined like a Holy Trinity in one: Cinema.

"Chapter one. " 

"He adored New York City.  

He idolised it all out of proportion. "

Uh, no. Make that "He romanticised it

 all out of proportion. "

"To him,  no matter what the season was,

this was still a town 

that existed in black and white 

and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin. "

 Uh... no. Let me start this over. 

"Chapter one. "  

"He was too romantic about Manhattan,

  as he was about everything else. " 

"He thrived on the hustle, bustle

 of the crowds and the traffic. "

  "To him, New York meant beautiful women

  and street-smart guys

 who seemed to know all the angles. " 

 Ah, no, corny. Too corny for a man of my taste.

   Let me... try and make it more profound. 

  "Chapter one. 

He adored New York City. "

  "To him, it was a metaphor for the decay

 of contemporary culture. " 

 "The same lack of individual integrity

 to cause so many people to take the easy way out...

 was rapidly turning the town of his dreams..." 

 No, it's gonna be too preachy.

 I mean, you know let's  face it, 

I wanna sell some books here.

   "Chapter one.

 He adored New York City,  although to him it was a metaphor

 for the decay of contemporary culture. "

"How hard it was to exist in a society desensitised

 by drugs, loud music, television, crime, garbage..." 

 Too angry. I don't wanna be angry.

   "Chapter one. "

  "He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved. "

  "Behind his black-rimmed glasses

 was the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat. "

  I love this.

"New York was his town and it always would be. "

"I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER..."

Two brothers, dockworker Charlie Malloy (Rod Steiger) and ex-boxer and soon to be heroic mob informer Terry Malloy (Brando), on the back sit of a cab talk about the fraternal support the younger never got. This inmortal scene full of gravitas, shame and disillusion belongs to On the Waterfront from 1954. Directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. How great words delivered with royal acting can pass on fancy stuff (look at the poor background of the taxi) How art don't need to be necessarily expensive. Brando can break your tears in a matter of seconds...

So i guess you gotta do all what you can for your dear ones or someday they can face you with the sad truth even in the back of a cheap cab.

Charlie:

(Gently)
Look, kid, I - how much you weigh, son?
(Nostalgically)
 When you weighed one hundred and sixty-eight pounds you were beautiful. You coulda been another Billy Conn, and that skunk we got you for a manager, he brought you along too fast.

Terry:

It wasn't him, Charley, it was you.
(Years of abuse crying out in him)
 Remember that night in the Garden you came down to my dressing room and you said, "Kid, this ain't your night. We're going for the price on Wilson." You remember that? "This ain't your night"! My night! I coulda taken Wilson apart! So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors on the ballpark and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville! 
(More and more aroused as he relives it)
You was my brother, Charley, you shoulda looked out for me a little bit. You shoulda taken care of me just a little bit so I wouldn't have to take them dives for the short-end money. 

Charlie:

(Defensively)
Oh I had some bets down for you. You saw some money. 

Terry:

(agonized)
You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley. 

(Charlie takes a  long, fond look at Terry. then he glances quickly out the window)

R.I.P. DENNIS HOOPER, 1936-2010, MAN!!

No drug could take him away and in his day he must had tried everything! A survivor by his own merit it took a damned prostate cancer to stop six decades of a trip of a movie carrier. Actor and director. Close friend of Jimmy Dean, Elvis and the Duke, Jack Nicholson and David Lynch. With movies like Giant, Easy Rider, The Last Movie (filmed in Perú in 1969), The American Friend, Apocalypse Now!, Blue Velvet, Speed (yeah, man!), True Romance...Okay, I'll take this Tarantino penned scene from the 1993 Tony Scott film True Romance to remember him. Sharing the screen: Chris Walken. as the mob Coccotti.

Sit back and enjoy.

http://youtu.be/WOTJlGqOvng

COCCOTTI

Do you know who I am, Mr. Worley?

CLIFF
I give up. Who are you?

COCCOTTI
I'm the Anti-Christ. You get me in a vendetta kind of mood, you will tell
the angels in heaven that you had never seen pure evil so singularly
personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you. My name is
Vincenzo Coccotti. I work as a counsel for Mr. Blue Lou Boyle, the man your
son stole from. I hear you were once a cop so I assume you've heard of us
before. Am I correct?

CLIFF
I've heard of Blue Lou Boyle.

COCCOTTI
I'm glad. Hopefully that will clear up the how-full-of-shit-I-am question
you've been asking yourself. Now, we're gonna have a little Q and A, and,
at the risk of sounding redundant, please make your answers genuine.
(taking out a pack of Chesterfields)
Want a Chesterfield?

CLIFF
No.

COCCOTTI
(as he lights up)
I have a son of my own. About you boy's age. I can imagine how painful this
must be for you. But Clarence and that bitch-whore girlfriend of his
brought this all on themselves. And I implore you not to go down the road
with 'em. You can always take comfort in the fact that you never had a
choice.

CLIFF
Look, I'd help ya if I could, but I haven't seen Clarence -

Before Cliff can finish his sentence, Coccotti slams him hard in the nose with his fist.

COCCOTTI
Smarts, don't it? Gettin' slammed in the nose fucks you all up. You got
that pain shootin' through your brain. Your eyes fill up with water. It
ain't any kind of fun. But what I have to offer you. That's as good as it's
ever gonna get, and it won't ever get that good again. We talked to your
neighbors. They saw a Mustang, a red Mustang, Clarence's red Mustang,
parked in front of your trailer yesterday. Mr. Worley, have you seen your
son?

Cliff's defeated.

CLIFF
I've seen him.

COCCOTTI
Now I can't be sure of how much of what he told you. So in the chance
you're in the dark about some of this, let me shed some light. That whore
your boy hangs around with, her pimp is an associate of mine, and I don't
just mean pimpin', in other affairs he works for me in a courier capacity.
Well, apparently, that dirty little whore found out when we're gonna do
some business, 'cause your son, the cowboy and his flame, came in the room
blastin' and didn't stop till they were pretty sure everybody was dead.

CLIFF
What are you talkin' about?

COCCOTTI
I'm talkin' about a massacre. They snatched my narcotics and hightailed it
outta there. Wouldda gotten away with it, but your son, fuckhead that he
is, left his driver's license in a dead guy's hand. A whore hiding in the
commode filled in all the blanks.

CLIFF
I don't believe you.

COCCOTTI
That's of minor importance. But what's of major fuckin' importance is that
I believe you. Where did they go?

CLIFF
On their honeymoon.

COCCOTTI
I'm gettin' angry askin' the same question a second time. Where did they
go?

CLIFF
They didn't tell me.

Coccotti looks at him.

CLIFF
Now, wait a minute and listen. I haven't seen Clarence in three years.
Yesterday he shows up here with a girl, sayin' he got married. He told me
he needed some quick cash for a honeymoon, so he asked if he could borrow
five hundred dollars. I wanted to help him out so I wrote out a check. We
went to breakfast and that's the last I saw of him. So help me God. They
never thought to tell me where they were goin'. And I never thought to ask.

Coccotti looks at him for a long moment. He then gives Virgil a look. Virgil, quick as greased lightning, grabs Cliff's hand and turns it palm up. He then whips out a butterfly knife and slices Cliff's palm open and pours Chivas Regal on the wound. Cliff screams.

Coccotti puffs on a Chesterfield.

Tooth-pic Vic returns to the trailer, and reports in Italian that there's nothing in the car.

Virgil walks into the kitchen and gets a dishtowel. Cliff holds his bleeding palm in agony. Virgil hands him the dishtowel. Cliff uses it to wrap up his hand.

COCCOTTI
Sicilians are great liars. The best in the world. I'm a Sicilian. And my
old man was the world heavyweight champion of Sicilian liars. And from
growin' up with him I learned the pantomime. Now there are seventeen
different things a guy can do when he lies to give him away. A guy has
seventeen pantomimes. A woman's got twenty, but a guy's got seventeen. And
if you know 'em like ya know your own face, they beat lie detectors to
hell. What we got here is a little game of show and tell. You don't wanna
show me nothin'. But you're tellin' me everything. Now I know you know
where they are. So tell me, before I do some damage you won't walk away
from.

The awful pain in Cliff's hand is being replaced by the awful pain in his heart. He looks deep into Coccotti's eyes.

CLIFF
Could I have one of those Chesterfields now?

COCCOTTI
Sure.

Coccotti leans over and hands him a smoke.

CLIFF
Got a match?

Cliff reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lighter.

CLIFF
Oh, don't bother. I got one.
(he lights the cigarette)
So you're a Sicilian, huh?

COCCOTTI
(intensly)
Uh-huh.

CLIFF
You know I read a lot. Especially things that have to do with history. I
find that shit fascinating. In fact, I don't know if you know this or not,
Sicilians were spawned by niggers.

All the men stop what they were doing and look at Cliff, except for Tooth-pic Vic who doesn't speak English and so isn't insulted. Coccotti can't believe what he's hearing.

COCCOTTI
Come again?

CLIFF
It's a fact. Sicilians have nigger blood pumpin' through their hearts. If
you don't believe me, look it up. You see, hundreds and hundreds of years
ago the Moors conquered Sicily. And Moors are niggers. Way back then,
Sicilians were like the wops in northern Italy. Blond hair, blue eyes. But,
once the Moors moved in there, they changed the whole country. They did so
much fuckin' with the Sicilian women, they changed the blood-line for ever,
from blond hair and blue eyes to black hair and dark skin. I find it
absolutely amazing to think that to this day, hundreds of years later,
Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. I'm just quotin' history. It's a
fact. It's written. Your ancestors were niggers. Your great, great, great,
great, great-grandmother was fucked by a nigger, and had a half-nigger kid.
That is a fact. Now tell me, am I lyin'?

Coccotti looks at him for a moment then jumps up, whips out an automatic, grabs hold of Cliff's hair, puts the barrel to his temple, and pumps three bullets through Cliff's head.

He pushes the body violently aside. Coccotti pauses. Unable to express his feelings and frustrated by the blood in his hands, he simply drops his weapon, and turns to his men.

COCCOTTI
I haven't killed anybody since 1984. Goddamn his soul to burn for eternity
in fuckin' hell for makin' me spill blood on my hands! Go to this
comedian's son's apartment and come back with somethin' that tells me where
that asshole went so I can wipe this egg off of my face and fix this fucked-up family for good.

LOUIS PRIMA: THE BEST! (And Guelyland song #7))

From one of my favorite movies "Mad Dog and Glory", directed by John McNaughton in 1993 and starred by the holy trinity of DeNiro, Bill Murray and Uma comes this clip with the song I wanted to share with you. And I am sucker for these "karaoke scenes" (you know, when people in the movies start singing like for real, while listening to a record or a radio).

And this is because today, I found the Complete Capitol Recording works of Louis Prima, his wife Kelly Smith and pal Sam Butera with their band The Witnesses. I already own a few old precious vinyls, CDs and even a DVD of them. But this 8 CDs collection were at a price i couldn't resist (got it for a tenner and sales for 160 bucks in Amazon). Even includes a big (LP size) glossy forty pages book with lots of beautiful pictures and great reading (by Bear Family Records, 1994).

Unless we count his voice as King Louis the orangutan in Disney's Jungle Book, this is his most popular song. It was actually taken from the forementioned DVD , the 1999 documentary "Louis Prima: The Wildest" (Don McGlynn). And there was not a better version in our dear YouTube. This is the one everybody has heard, even if only in the David Lee Roth version from 1985.

The irony of this theme is that even if it's one of the most happy smiley songs, the words are quite sad and pathetic. Check out the lyrics!:

I'm just a gigolo and everywhere I go,
People know the part I'm playin'.
Pay for every dance, sellin' each romance,
Ooohh what they're sayin'?
There will come a day, when youth will pass away,
What will they say about me?
When the end comes I know, there was just a gigolo's
Life goes on without me.


'Coz I... Ain't got nobody and there's
Nobody cares for me, there's
Nobody cares for me
I'm so sad and lonely, sad and lonely, sad and lonely
Won't some sweet mama come and take a chance with me?
Cause I ain't so bad.

I... Ain't got nobody and there's
Nobody cares for me there's
Nobody cares for me, nobody cares for me, nobody cares for me

(and I'm sing the love song a long time, she was lonely beat)

[Instrumental]

I... Ain't got nobody and there's
Nobody cares for me there's
Nobody cares for me
I'm so sad and lonely,oh lonely, oh lonely, lonely, lonely
Won't some sweet mama come and rescue me?
Cause I ain't no bad.

(and I'm sing the love song a long time, she was lonely beat)

Baby, mama, sugar, darling
I ain't got nobody baby
And there is nobody
(There is nobody)
There is nobody
(There is nobody)
There is nobody
(There is nobody)
There is no one
(There's no one)
There is no one
(There's no one)
Nobody (repeat several times)
Nobody cares for me

He would be hundred next december. So, we can take this as a warming up celebration. Now let's sing (you know you want) IIIIIIIIIIIII'm got nobooooodY!!

BEAUTIFUL GIRLS

When it comes to cult movies, for me, this one is right up there in the alley among my top ten or even five favorite ones: Beautiful Girls, directed by the tragically gone Ted Demme (1963-2002) from 1996.

My "date movie" of choice (okay Annie Hall and Casablanca would complete the trilogy). I could even have a date as an excuse to watch this one!

It has so many good scenes: the Winnie the Pooh one with the underrated Timothy Hutton and the then just a kid Natalie Portman, the Supermodels speech by the always hateable Michael Rapaport, the "karaoke scene" with Uma Thurman pouring shots to the guys about to deliver Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and so many many more. So i gonna choose one for you, ladies and germs. The one with Rosie O'Donnell, Matt Dillon, Hutton in the grosery store. In english (with some not so acurate spanish subtitles). So, here it goes. Lights, camera, ACTION!!

Gina: I'm finished speaking to both of you okay? You're both fucking insane. You want to know what your problem is? MTV, Playboy, and Madison fucking Avenue. Yes. Let me explain something to you, ok? Girls with big tits have big asses. Girls with little tits have little asses. That's the way it goes. God doesn't fuck around; he's a fair guy. He gave the fatties big, beautiful tits and the skinnies little tiny niddlers. It's not my rule. If you don't like it, call him. Hey Mitch. Thank you.

[Looking at a porn magazine]

Gina: Oh, guys, look what we have here. Look at this, your favorite. Oh, you like that?

Tommy: I could go along with that

.
Gina: Yeah, that's nice right? Well, it doesn't exist ok. Look at the hair. The hair is long, it's flowing, it's like a river. Well, it's a fucking weave ok? And the tits, please! I could hang my overcoat on them. Tits by design were invented to be suckled by babies. Yes, they're purely functional. These are silicon city. And look, my favorite, the shaved pubis. Pubic hair being too unruly and all. Very key. This is a mockery, this is a sham, this is bullshit. Implants, collagen, plastic, capped teeth, the fat sucked out, the hair extended, the nose fixed, the bush shaved... These are not real women, all right? They're beauty freaks. And they make all us normal women with our wrinkles, our puckered boobs, hi bob, and our cellulite feel somehow inadequate. Well I don't buy it, all right? But you fucking mooks, if you think that if there's a chance in hell that you'll end up with one of these women, you don't give us real women anything approaching a commitment. It's pathetic. I don't know what you think you're going to do. You're going to end up eighty-years old, drooling in some nursing home, then you're going to decide, it's time to settle down, get married, have kids? What, are you going to find a cheerleader? Charge it Mitch

.
Tommy: I think you're over simplifying.

Gina: Oh eat me. Look at Paul. With his models on the wall, his dog named Elle McPherson. He's insane. He's obsessed. You're all obsessed. If you had an once of self-esteem, of self-worth, of self-confidence, you would realize that as trite as it may sound, beauty is truly skin-deep. And you know what, if you ever did hook one of those girls, I guarantee you'd be sick of her

.
Tommy: Yeah, I suppose I'd get sick of her after about, what, twenty or thirty years?

Gina: Get over yourself. Thank you Mitch. Say hello to Gertrude.

Tommy: What?

Gina: No mater how perfect the nipple, how supple the thigh, unless there is some other shit going on in the relationship, besides the physical, it's going to get old, ok? And you guys, as a gender, have got to get a grip. Otherwise, the future of the human race is in jeopardy.

Willie Conway: What was that?

Tommy: I don't know, but a great ass.

Willie Conway: Nice tits. Come on let's go.

ROMA

Dirigida por Rodolfo Aristarain (2004).

Roma es el nombre de esta película.

Roma es la última novela de Joaquín Goñez (mi siempre admirado José Sacristán), un escritor argentino a quien los vientos de la vida llevan finalmente a España.

Roma es, finalmente, el nombre de su madre.

La historia nos es contada en flashback. La historia de Joaquín mientras se la narra a su escribiente. Cuando lo conocemos el autor es un tipo cascarrabias y antipático. Cuando nos vamos enterando de quien fué y cómo llegó a ello lo empezamos a entender y al final lo terminamos queriendo.

Debo decir que me deleito en este film pero como más que en una simple película. Ya que es toda una escuela (un curso intensivo de dos horas) donde recibimos invalorables lecciones no sólo de literatura, cine y música sino sobretodo de amor, lealtad, de filosofía de la vida. Una película sincera que no trata de pintarnos las cosas como deberían ser sinó como son. A ratos sentimos que Joaquín esta escribiendo para nosotros y nos sentimos agradecidos por tanta sabiduría que nos vemos tentados a empezar a tomar nota de sus consejos porque los sabemos valiosos y que eventualmente nos servirán. Podría facilmente haber sido nostálgica y graciosa pero prefiere ser real, tan real que la vemos como si fuese nuestra propia vida surcando el ecran y nos sentimos identificados aunque los hechos no concuerden necesariamente con nuestra experiencia. Hay, sin embargo, que reconocer que en algún momento habrá mas de una coincidencia que nos haga pensar lo contrario. Aquí una escena, de entre las muchas, que me gustaron. Joaquín y su mamá (Roma) sentados en la mesa, poco despues de la prematura muerte de su padre:

Roma: Tenemos que hablar de hombre a hombre. Las cosas no andan bien, Joaco.

Joaco: Si tenemos problemas, papá desde arriba nos va a ayudar.

Roma: Quién te dijo eso?

Joaco: La tía Aida. me dijo que papá nos va a proteger siempre.

Roma: No Joaco. Papá no está en ningún lado. No está arriba. No está en el cielo. Ya no podemos pedirle nada. No podemos pedirle que nos ayude porque no está. Se murió. cuando alguien se muere es el final. La muerte es el final. Fin, como en las películas.

Quiero agradecer a mi amigo Alberto Vizcarra que tuvo la cariñosa idea de mandarme el DVD original de esta película desde los Estados Unidos. Créo que sabía cuanto me iba a gustar y no pudo estar mas acertado.

Feliz cumpleaños, Pichón!

SHOLAY

The ultimate curry-western, Sholay (Ramesh Sippy,1975) is fun, naive, cool and entertaining in a very bollywoodian way. A real massala (a film with everything in, like some food). I don't need to speak hindi or be born in Bombay to be able to watch many times this movie and be happy for it. If some one told me that the two main characters were real friends since their childhood i wouldn't have any reason to doubt it because so good is the chemistry between them. I think this movie was the one for Amitabh Bachchan. Dharmendra was already a star (hence, the first billing). Amjad Khan, as usual plays the man you will love to hate (but this was his first time!). The locations are beautiful, and at least the song on the motorcycle (see the clip at the "magic moments" box on the right side of this scroll) is, for this guelylander, unforgettable. We can see the Sergio Leone influence (Once Upon the Time in the West) and even some Kubrick touch with the fascist prison boss (like the one in Clockwork Orange) and of course, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. The train scene is quite memorable as an action piece and the chase of Basanti (Hema Malini) by the dacoits is no much less. Especially after she begs her loyal horse "Run as you never before, this time is for my chastity!"

To a Bollywood fan you don't ask Have you seen it? but how many times !

Gabbar Singh the bad guy asks to the stoic "sheriff" Thakur:

"How do you plan to fight me Thakur? I've long cut off, and discarded, your arms. "

"One uses their feet to crush a snake Gabbar, not the hands. " Right answer...

CHARLTON HESTON (1923-2008)

Many people hate him because of his opinions. Many people, and I, like him because of his movies. Since i was like five (the first time i watched The Naked Jungle A.K.A. MARABUNTA! (1954) I am his fan. So here my homage to the great late Chuck "Stoneface" Heston:


My first Heston movie, a late night long time ago in a far, far away country...

With Gregory Peck as James McKay and Carroll Baker as Patricia Terrill in a scene from The Big Country, my most beloved western of them all. And one of the best soundtracks ever, by Jerome Moross.

Here's a little scene:

James McKay: If it's a fight you want, you've picked the right time for it, haven't you?

Steve Leech: Yeah, I'm offering you a fight. Or ain't that a nice word back east?

James McKay: You're gambling, Leech. You're gambling that if we fight, you can beat me. And you're gambling that if you beat me, Ms. Terrill will admire you for it.

Steve Leech: Out here, we leave a lady's name out of an argument.

(I hope someday I'll say this one somebody. By the way, this was a fist fight not a "gunned" one)

The tough but loyal Steve Leech from the same William Wyler,1958 masterpiece.

A "Semana Santa" classic. As Miguel Angel in La Agonía y el Extasis "Cuándo lo terminarás?(The Pope Rex Harrison kept asking him) Cuando lo termine! (his usual answer)" My mother always quoted him , when she used to take too much time on something (hence the "spanish mix")

An Epic Man if there ever was one. Mr. Heston as Major Dundee.


This one i'm sure doesn't need a presentation.


Remember my father taking me on my 10th birthday from the school to watch this great one.

A studio still as Judah Ben-Hur. No movie has won more Academy Awards then this one.

This pic is worth a click. It gets bigger then life.

Another classic that my father took me to see re-released at the movies when i was a kid.

And this one on it's premiere during the seventies, when he was the "Lord of Sensorround"!

With eeerh..., Julio Iglesias!!


My second favorite movie from all time Planet of The Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968). Chuck as Colonel Taylor with Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius and my dreamgirl since i was fourteen Linda Harrison as Nova.

"FROM MY DEAD COLD HANDS!" Stupid, but brave!

By the way a quote from Planet of The Apes:

Cornelius: Well Taylor, we're all fugitives now.

George Taylor: Do you have any weapons, any guns?

Cornelius: The best, but we won't need them.

George Taylor: I'm glad to hear it. I want one anyway.

Right! Heston wasn't playing Cornelius...

Here he was "The Omega Man" fighting albino vampires, so i guess the use of firearms was justified.

With the great Orson in Touch of Evil. The "last" great B movie (1958). Playing a mexican polis called Miguel Vargas.

As Indiana Jones "Grandpa" Harry Stelle in Cuzco. Secret of the Incas from 1954. When is the "Damned Dirty" DVD coming??

" I marched for civil rights with Dr. [Martin Luther King] in 1963 - long before Hollywood found it fashionable. But when I told an audience last year that white pride is just as valid as black pride or red pride or anyone else's pride, they called me a racist. I've worked with brilliantly talented homosexuals all my life. But when I told an audience that gay rights should extend no further than your rights or my rights, I was called a homophobe. I served in World War II against the Axis powers. But during a speech, when I drew an analogy between singling out innocent Jews and singling out innocent gun owners, I was called an anti-Semite. Everyone I know knows I would never raise a closed fist against my country. But when I asked an audience to oppose this cultural persecution, I was compared to Timothy McVeigh."(Chuck in 1999)

With Poitier and Belafonte...

With Brando and Baldwin, fighting for human rights.

"My Dear Friends, Colleagues and Fans: My physicians have recently told me I may have a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease. So . . . I wanted to prepare a few words for you now, because when the time comes, I may not be able to. I've lived my whole life on the stage and screen before you. I've found purpose and meaning in your response. For an actor there's no greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life. For now, I'm not changing anything. I'll insist on work when I can; the doctors will insist on rest when I must. If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why. And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway. I'm neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I'm still the fighter that Dr. [Martin Luther King] and [John F. Kennedy] and Ronald Reagan knew, but it's a fight I must someday call a draw. I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure. Please feel no sympathy for me. I don't. I just may be a little less accessible to you, despite my wishes. I also want you to know that I'm grateful beyond measure. My life has been blessed with good fortune. I'm grateful that I was born in America, that cradle of freedom and opportunity, where a kid from the Michigan Northwoods can work hard and make something of his life. I'm grateful for the gift of the greatest words ever written, that let me share with you the infinite scope of the human experience. As an actor, I'm thankful that I've lived not one life, but many. Above all, I'm proud of my family ... my wife Lydia, the queen of my heart, my children, Fraser and Holly, and my beloved grandchildren, Jack, Ridley and Charlie. They're my biggest fans, my toughest critics and my proudest achievement. Through them, I can touch immortality. Finally, I'm confident about the future of America. I believe in you. I know that the future of our country, our culture and our children is in good hands. I know you will continue to meet adversity with strength and resilience, as our ancestors did, and come through with flying colors - the ones on Old Glory. William Shakespeare, at the end of his career, wrote his farewell through the words of Prospero, in "The Tempest". It ends like this: "Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. These our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-cap'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep". Thank you, and God bless you, everyone."

(Chuck, 9 August 2002)

BE MY FRIEND...GODFATHER.

I was seven that one night when my father came home and told me "Chaplin is not the best actor in the world, as you say". It was the night he saw The Godfather. To understand that misterious piece of information took me years. Here is the opening scene. When i saw it i saw the light (Rembrandt style!)

Bonasera: I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I gave her freedom, but I taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a boyfriend; not an Italian. She went to the movies with him; she stayed out late. I didn't protest. Two months ago, he took her for a drive, with another boyfriend. They made her drink whiskey. And then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. So they beat her, like an animal. When I went to the hospital, her nose was a'broken. Her jaw was a'shattered, held together by wire. She couldn't even weep because of the pain. But I wept. Why did I weep? She was the light of my life beautiful girl. Now she will never be beautiful again. I went to the police, like a good American. These two boys were brought to trial. The judge sentenced them to three years in prison - suspended sentence. Suspended sentence! They went free that very day! I stood in the courtroom like a fool. And those two bastards, they smiled at me. Then I said to my wife, for justice, we must go to Don Corleone.

Don Corleone: Why did you go to the police? Why didn't you come to me first?

Bonasera: What do you want of me? Tell me anything, but do what I beg you to do.

Don Corleone: What is that? [Bonasera gets up and whispers in the Don's ear]

Don Corleone: That I cannot do.

Bonasera: I'll give you anything you ask.

Don Corleone: We've known each other for many years but this is the first time you've ever come to me for counsel or for help. I can't remember the last time you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is Godmother to your only child. But, let's be frank here. You never wanted my friendship and you were afraid to be in my debt.

Bonasera: I didn't want to get into trouble.

Don Corleone: I understand. You found paradise in America. You had a good trade, made a good living, the police protected you and there were courts of law and you didn't need a friend like me. But, now you come to me and you say "Don Corleone, give me justice." But you don't ask with respect. You don't offer friendship. You don't even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my home on the day my daughter's to be married and you ask me to do murder for money.

Bonasera: I ask you for justice.

Don Corleone: That is not justice your daughter is still alive.

Bonasera: Let them suffer then. As she suffers. How much shall I pay you?

Don Corleone: Bonasera. Bonasera. What have I ever done to make you to treat me so disrespectfully. If you had come to me in friendship then this scum that ruined your daughter would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest man like yourself should make enemies then they would become my enemies. And then, they would fear you.

Bonasera: Be my friend... Godfather. [kisses Don Corleone's ring]

Don Corleone: Good. Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But, until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter's wedding day.

Bonasera: Grazie, Godfather.

Don Corleone: Bene. [Bonasera exits]

Don Corleone: [to Tom] Give this to, uh, Clemenza. I want reliable people, people who aren't going to be carried away. After all we're not murderers in spite of what this undertaker thinks.

MARLON BRANDO 1924-2004

THIS SPINAL TAP

One of my favorite comedies of all time is This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner,1984)
Here three little scenes that can explain what i mean. Just for fun.

*BLOOD IS ACTUALLY RED

[Marty compliments Nigel on his tee shirt]

Nigel Tufnel: You like this?

Marty DiBergi: It's very nice. It looks like hollow wood.

Nigel Tufnel: This is my exact inner structure, done in a tee shirt. Exactly medically accurate. See?

Marty DiBergi: So in other words if we were to take all your flesh and blood...

Nigel Tufnel: Take them off. This is what you'd see.

Marty DiBergi: It wouldn't be green though.

[Nigel points at Marty]
Nigel Tufnel: It is green. You see how your blood looks blue.

Marty DiBergi: Yeah, well that's just the vein. That's the color of the vein. The blood is actually red.

Nigel Tufnel: Oh then, maybe it's not green. Anyway this is what I sleep in sometimes.

*TO ELEVEN!

Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and...

Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?

Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.

Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?

Marty DiBergi: I don't know.

Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?

Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.

Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.

*THE MISTERY OF THE EXPLODING DRUMMERS

Marty DiBergi: Now, during the Flower People period, who was your drummer?
David St. Hubbins: Stumpy's replacement, Peter James Bond. He also died in mysterious circumstances. We were playing a, uh...

Nigel Tufnel: ...Festival.

David St. Hubbins: Jazz blues festival. Where was that?

Nigel Tufnel: Blues jazz, really.

Derek Smalls: Blues jazz festival. Misnamed.

Nigel Tufnel: It was in the Isle of, uh...

David St. Hubbins: Isle of Lucy. The Isle of Lucy jazz and blues festival.

Nigel Tufnel: And, uh, it was tragic, really. He exploded on stage.

Derek Smalls: Just like that.

David St. Hubbins: He just went up.

Nigel Tufnel: He just was like a flash of green light... And that was it. Nothing was left.

David St. Hubbins: Look at his face.

Nigel Tufnel: Well, there was...

David St. Hubbins: It's true, this really did happen.

Nigel Tufnel: It's true. There was a little green globule on his drum seat.

David St. Hubbins: Like a stain, really.

Nigel Tufnel: It was more of a stain than a globule, actually.

David St. Hubbins: You know, several, you know, dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported.