Spence (Sean Bean): You ever kill anybody?
Sam (Robert De Niro): I hurt somebody’s feelings once.
- Ronin, written by J.D. Zeik and Richard Weisz, a.k.a. David Mamet, and directed by John Frankenheimer, 1998

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Barack Obama [on TV]: It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled…
Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt): Ah, yes, we’re all the same. We’re all equal ( Read more... )

The excessive dependence of the Middle Ages upon the past is part of that Golden Age complex which besets most civilizations, though medieval men carried it to an unusual degree. They believed that they were “ little men in the twilight of the world” or “dwarves sitting on the shoulders of giants” (the ancients). Both the primitive Church and ( Read more... )

“Was nicht verboten ist, ist erlaubt”, announced Schiller’s First Hunter. What isn’t forbidden, is allowed. But you can do better-observe social rules only as far as necessary to trespass them with lawful impunity. “Questa è l’unica speranza-l’uomo nel disordine.”

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Еврейский анекдот наоборот:
- Мойша, а ты знаешь, что Жора - пидорас?
- Что, он занял денег и не отдаёт?!
- Да нет, в хорошем смысле.

Une histoire juive à rebours :
- Moishe, tu savais que Gégé est un pédé ?
- Quoi, il a emprunté de l’argent et ne le rembourse pas ?
- Non, dans le bon sens ( Read more... )

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-Tu sais ce que c’est que la morale ? Moi je vais te dire ce que c’est la morale. La morale, c’est fait pour ceux qui la tiennent, les riches. Et tu sais qui a raison à chaque fois ? C’est les riches. Et c’est les pauvres qui trinquent. Tu veux la voir ma morale à moi ( Read more... )

Gwanghae, The Man Who Became King, distributed internationally as Masquerade, is billed by its distributors as a ”2012 Korean Historical Movie version of [Mark Twain’s] ‘The Prince & Pauper’“. I saw it on 22 September 2012 at CGV Cinemas in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, a reliable local venue for the latest Korean film releases.


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Song Kang-ho does his tough dick thing while the most charismatic bad guy in Asian movies walks on all fours, dealing revenge to evil bipeds, stopping only to lead out of a burning house one smart and tough chick cop, whose sexist oppression by uncouth colleagues fails to deter her from hobbling henchmen with hot lead pursuant to absurd Korean ( Read more... )

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A native speaker of Russian might appreciate this festering travesty of a French classic solely as the inspiration of a popular Soviet self-esteem formula: “Все пидорасы, а я - д’Артаньян” (“Everybody is a fag, but I am d’Artagnan”). Everything else, beginning with the physiognomy, habiliments, elocution, comportment, and gesticulation of its ( Read more... )

Gaspar Noé is the only living film-maker worth watching.

No, Gaspar Noé is the living film-maker worth only watching.

(But sometimes worth hearing, too.)

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“Le temps détruit tout.”