The Sparks Brothers [2021)

Whole world falling apart.

But falling apart in a certain way.

The Freedom Convoy in Ottawa drawing the ire of little shit Hitler Trudeau.

https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-canadian-mp-accused-of-spreading-disinformation-for-pointing-out-wefs-corrupt-influence-over-trudeaus-govt/

Klaus Schwab: “When I mention our names…like Mrs. Merkel…even Vladimir Putin, and so on: they all have been Young Global Leaders of the Economic Forum…but, um…what we are really proud of, now…is the young generation like Prime Minister Trudeau…um, President of Argentina…and so on…so we penetrate the cabinets…so…yesterday, I was at a reception for Prime Minister Trudeau, and I would know that half of this cabinet, or even more half [sic] of this cabinet are…for our actually Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum.”

David Gergen: “That’s true in Argentina as well.”

Schwab: “It’s true in Argentina, and uh, it’s true in France now, I mean, with the President, uh, with the Young Global Leader, but…what is important for…”

There are two parallel online databases–one shorter, and one longer–maintained by the YGL (Young Global Leaders program) of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF) aka Davos. Here is the longer, more inclusive database:

https://www.younggloballeaders.org/community

This is ostensibly a list of “alumni”.

It should be noted that in neither database is listed Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, or Vladimir Putin.

Indeed, I can find no record on WEF websites which draw attention to any of the these three leaders having been “trained” by the WEF.

[it should be noted that the Young Global Leaders formerly went by the name Global Leaders for Tomorrow]

Perhaps, in a strictly accurate sense, neither Trudeau, Merkel, nor Putin were in the YGL program.

But this is disingenuous.

It is the same program.

Just simply renamed.

And this is where I need researchers more talented than myself to DIG!

It is ESSENTIAL to delineate the hideous world order under which we now live.

Go back to the year the program started.

In the early-1990s.

Why is it essential?

Because Schwab is bragging (you must read between the lines…listen to his tone of voice) that these leaders are BEHOLDEN to him.

And while we cannot yet put our finger on the very years these three leaders were trained, we can cite with more authority the strange network which Schwab has built up.

Let me introduce you:

It’s time people stopped worshipping Trump.

Face the truth.

The motherfucker has pushed the vaccine in myriad ways the past few months.

So here you go.

Maybe Bartiromo was just gathering intelligence.

For what it’s worth, I like her more than Trump at this point.

Same with Putin.

I like him more than Trump.

I could see Putin (a former Stasi officer) treating a WEF invitation as a chance to gather intelligence.

It should be noted, there are VERY FEW Russians included in the HIGHLY-EXCLUSIVE Young Global Leaders program.

But Canada is of much concern.

If Trudeau was really in the Global Leaders for Tomorrow program and is beholden to Schwab.

Things start adding up.

If you are looking for members of the climate cult, look no further than the YGL.

Comb through all 98 pages (as I did).

You will find some doozies!

The head of New Zealand.

The head of Belgium.

And the Canadians beholden to Schwab just keep on coming!

Don’t buy into the Tulsi crap.

She’s fake as a plastic lei.

Owning politicians.

And fake news.

Wire services.

The “choke points” of the news industry.

I’ve heard that Bono was among the Global Leaders for Tomorrow.

I can’t yet verify that.

But I can verify this.

Heads of state (verified):

New Zealand

Belgium

France

Do you need some vaccines to really start to round out this picture?

Right.

GAVI.

Former (recent) heads of state: Mexico.

How about some really weird, pseudo-philanthropy, social-engineering stuff?

Eyes open!

But the Canadians keep coming hot and heavy.

And fake news can be proffered and gate-kept by means other that simply wire services.

This is information warfare.

Censorship can be achieved in many ways.

How about “deplatforming”?

How is that done?

I first went through the shorter database.

A mere 60 pages or so.

Then found there to be a larger database (the 98-page one).

Who was left out of the shorter one?

This guy.

There are so many it’s hard to remember who is on which list.

I will have to leave some out.

Pick a concentration.

A specialty.

Trace it through the 98 pages.

It’s astounding and heartbreaking that Kissinger protege Klaus Schwab wields this much power.

It appears that the Bilderberg group is no longer the prime focus of the New World Order.

It is, rather, the World Economic Forum.

And George Soros is no longer the living, breathing James Bond villain-to-end-all-villains.

That is, rather, Klaus Schwab.

Schwab puts the words in the mouths of Prince Charles and Pope Bergogio.

6uild6ack6etter.

Gates and Schwab are weaving the same hideous tapestry.

Fauci is a rather mid-level functionary.

At a Vatican event here.

Hand-in-glove with Gates in many other places.

But Klaus Schwab is at the top of the pile.

The pinnacle of the shit heap.

He “penetrates cabinets”.

Former (recent) heads of state:

Mexico

Georgia

I’m leaving out all of the forays the WEF Young Global Leaders make into the private sector.

Neuroscience.

Pharmaceuticals.

Cyber”security”.

Skull and Bones had their election (2004): Bush vs. Kerry.

Win-win.

And now the WEF is starting to pick off U.S. Presidential candidates.

And “penetrating cabinets” (transportation, in this case.

Gabbard.

Buttigieg).

Buy the regulators.

So you won’t be regulated.

I’m not at all telling you about all of the bankers the WEF “owns”.

But here’s another government connection.

The New World Order is not just white men.

Perhaps they are pulling the strings.

But they have puppets of every make and model.

Every color.

Every gender.

Every woke permutation.

Some are tokens.

But many hold key, KEY positions in major economies.

Major regional powers.

When Schwab spoke about essentially controlling half of Canada’s cabinet, he wasn’t kidding.

Supranational banks.

Soros buys prosecutors.

Gets them elected.

“Bail reform”.

Goal: cause chaos/anarchy.

Societal collapse.

The antithesis of law and order.

Absurd policies which increase crime.

So it is biblical that Canada’s truckers should have taken such a stand.

Because no government on earth appears to be owned more by the WEF than Canada’s.

There was a lot of mention of Argentina between Schwab and Gergen (didn’t Gergen attend Bohemian Grove? [Alex Jones once did a great ambush interview with Gergen]).

Remember, Bohemian Grove is where people (like Kissinger) do a “mock” sacrifice of a child (called the “Cremation of Care”) under a giant sculpture of Moloch (in the form of an owl).

This is out in the woods near San Francisco.

Or maybe you need some Jesuits to go with Fauci, Bergoglio, and Francis Collins?

[Bergoglio Argentine Jesuit]

The places with the fastest-disappearing freedoms (Canada, Australia…) seem to be big focuses of the Young Global Leaders program.

To Myanmar’s credit, they appear to have rid their country of the Soros influence.

Need some more vaccines?

Need some critical race theory?

Klaus Schwab controls the Elvis of that racket.

How about the U.S. Congressman most heavily invested in Big Pharma?

Yep, Schwab has him too.

Even Trump hired one of these dumb fucks.

How about some transhumanism?

Keep in mind: I am giving you an overview that is far from exhaustive.

There are more Argentines.

More Brazilians.

Could Chinese communist news be more fake and insidious than it already is?

Yes.

How?

Make the anchors beholden to Klaus Schwab.

The World Economic Forum is a threat to every country on earth.

But Schwab seems to idolize China.

Russia has been smart enough to make Soros persona non grata.

China should do the same with Schwab.

EVERY country should do the same with BOTH of them!

Wikipedia thoroughly compromised.

Now does it make sense why you can’t find any real news or facts on Wikipedia?

Why it is so politicized and liberal-, communist-, GLOBALIST-biased?

But this is recruiting.

EVERY. SINGLE. COUNTRY.

These may not be the Prime Ministers today, but they will be.

Own New Zealand, France, Belgium…own Mexico and Georgia.

These high-profile recruits make scamming the third-world even easier.

The only type of people who could enter this Young Global Leaders program and not come out blackmailed are the Putin and Bartiromo types.

HARD individuals.

And I cannot guarantee that either of them made it out unscathed.

Let’s check in on those current heads of state (which we can confirm were Young Global Leaders):

New Zealand

France

Belgium

Costa Rica

Finland

(and recently

Mexico

Georgia)

Belgium and Finland, eh?

Maybe Schwab just wants to control the countries with the most pale women?

His father was a Nazi collaborator (after all):

https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/02/investigative-reports/schwab-family-values/

Once you control the Prime Minister and the head of finance, what can’t you do?

How about somebody over where Fauci works?

Make it look like charity.

Make it look like philanthropy.

Tokens.

I am leaving out Google.

And Meta.

And AWS.

But here’s an interesting one.

This is basically a public intelligence-gathering organization masquerading as a leadership academy.

This is a transnational conspiracy operating (mostly) in plain sight.

I am leaving out think tanks.

Brookings.

Because there are so many damned Canadians!

Make it look like a Disney movie of diversity.

Unimpeachable.

Unassailable on the surface.

All answering to Klaus Schwab.

All thankful to have been chosen for this exclusive club.

All owing their current places in business and industry (or government) to his benison.

I’m leaving out princes and princesses (Norway).

I’m leaving out other royals who are also ambassadors (Saudi Arabia).

Being a European, Schwab really wants to collect all the European heads of state.

He wants the complete set.

Not timely enough?

How about some vats???

Everyone must bend to the will of Schwab.

He will kiss China’s ass.

But only insofar as they kiss his.

I owe no allegiance to China.

I don’t even LIKE them.

But I would urge them to BREAK ALL TIES IMMEDIATELY with Klaus Schwab.

Not timely enough?

Need more proof that Schwab is behind the plandemic?

How did he and Bill Gates “flood the zone” with bogus information and fearmongering?

How did they economically shut down the planet (thereby gaining a death-grip on humanity)?

Here’s one vector.

You will eat the bugs…and worship the little Scandinavian midget girl…and you will be happy.

How were all these levers pulled?

I rest my case.

-PD

Democrats [2014)

For so long I dreamed.

Of visiting Africa.

Merely in film.

To say that I was not narrow-minded.

And to honor the one friend I have ever known from that beautiful continent.

A native of Chad.

Tchad.

And a former resident of Côte d’Ivoire.

Because I love geography.

But, even more, I love people.

And I am pleased to report that this documentary, about ZIMBABWE, is a masterpiece.

Directed by a Dane (as in Denmark) by the name of Camilla Nielsson.

And currently available in the U.S. for streaming on Netflix.

It is a recursive process.

For so long I cried.

When I thought of slavery.

When I saw the beautiful face of a black man.

And the teeth with many gaps.

I now know.

I can say.

My dear friend.

You look like you may have come from Zimbabwe.

But recursion may become tiresome.

So we will plop with geography for a moment.

Sadly ignoring Chad and Ivory Coast for the time being, we must locate (firmly) Zimbabwe on a map.

Champagne Castle.

Remove your sanctions.

Remove your sunshades.

Looks like South Africa (south)…and Botswana (west)…additionally Mozambique (east)…and gets hairy from there.

But you needs must only remember that the two Zs flock together: Zimbabwe and Zambia.

And so to the north (by way of northwest [not possible]) is Zambia.

Lusaka.

And over Angola is Luanda.

Lusaka.

Luanda.

You are really getting the hang of this 🙂

Have you thought about working for the State Department?

Recursive.

Going back.

But wait…there’s less!

Just remember that Zimbabwe is southeast Afrique.

Not on the coast.

That’s -zambique.

But landlocked.

Have you ever heard the rot of colonialism?

No no.

Have you ever heard a landlocked brass band?

The pitiful, wailing clarinets…

Landlocked is potentially poverty.

At the mercy of your neighbors.

Over land. Over sea.

One. Two. If.

Recur thyself!

No…

We must say it: MUGABE!

A big, fucking rockstar of totalitarianism.

Nah…

Dictatorshit!

Yes. His dictator shit!

As when the Dalai Lama was a boy.

And they kept his turds.

Because he was some kind of golden child.

But President Mugabe (since 1980) will forever have the ignominy of that desafinado military band behind him.

Celebrations like dirges.

Gloriously out of tune!

Nothing slight about it!!

And every head bows…and every knee genuflects in fealty.

A spry 93 years old.

And President of Zimbabwe for a mere 37 years.

He ain’t a king.

And worse: he’s only 4th on the list of usurping motherfuckers!

You’d have to go to shitholes like Angola (ahh, Luanda…), Cameroon, and the kicker (!) Equatorial Guinea to find jerks who have managed to outlast the black Hitler.

But I like Mugabe.

[what?????????]

No, no…let me explain.

First: the guy does have a Hitler mustache. More or less.

But that’s not why I like him. I don’t dig Hitler.

Wait…do I like Mugabe?

Well, there’s a time and place for everything (and everyone).

As you watch Democrats (mercifully…for all involved…NOT about the U.S. Democratic Party), you might grow attached to the various fuckers involved.

Politicians.

Lawyers!

But Third World lawyers.

Some sad shit…

But most importantly: brave, noble human beings.

You wanna see a real revolution?

Watch this film.

You wanna see some real sacrifices for democracy?

Watch this film.

To be sure…democracy is ugly!

And we Americans are the best at it.

Anything goes!

Fight, fuck, kill…but more like lie, cheat, deceive…yeah.

Democracy brings out the worst in people.

But it arrives at the best result.

It’s a goddamned crucible.

Just to think…that the master copy of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (ostensibly the subject of this film) was on a fucking Dell laptop.

Dell.

Right up the road from me.

Round Rock.

In the Westerns…

Michael Dell’s Horatio Alger story…at UT-Austin.

Even closer to me.

And #vault7.

So that we know that every scintilla–every Oxford comma was hacked by the CIA and/or NSA and known throughout the Five Eyes…even before the leaked hard copy hit newsstands in Harare.

Ah!

Another capital…

Reçu.

I can never go back. Enough. TO give you a full telling.

I guess Paul Mangwana is still alive.

This.

The character that grows on you.

From chuckling social engineer.

To political operative shitting his pants.

How do you say “damage control” in Shona?

Exactly.

And Susan Rice is a bitch.

But that’s neither here nor there.

Because Democrats so precisely parallels the recent U.S. election.

The drama. Allegations.

The swaggering strongman.

Yeah…Juan Williams would ride to town on that correlation.

So is Trump Mugabe?

Fuck no.

Not yet.

And probably not ever.

But liberals will have a field day with this possibility.

Social justice warriors will mouth off like the surly reporter from South Africa.

What an asshole!

And so we sympathize with Mr. Mangwana.

What a precarious position he was put in!

To try and bring the illusion of constitutionality to the ZANU-PF party.

But wait a minute…wait a minute…you ain’t heard nothing yet!

Remember, remember…that a black leader can repress black people.

America thought it was fine and dandy…and candy-shop clean when it elected CIA agent Barack Obama.

That turned out to be a big mistake.

One doesn’t investigate one’s own employer pursuant to crimes against humanity (9/11) when such equates to biting the hand that feeds.

Obama lost control.

And tried to get a little African in his lame-duck months.

Oops.

Yes…only democracy in the Middle East? Israel? You’ve got to be joking.

And Zimbabweans were so hopeful after the Mwangana/Mwonzora conclave wrapped up its two-year-overlong constitutional convention.

Got a little #MAGA in you?

Check out how a constitution is crafted.

If wasn’t all ass-kissing in Philadelphia.

Some genuinely contentious points.

And the Obamacare “Repeal and Replace” that just narrowly failed.

Think that wasn’t stressful?

Freedom Caucus gonna be outta jobs.

Saving their butts.

Sorry fuckers…

But I wouldn’t take their job for anything.

To be in that position.

Because.

We live a little while.

And then we die.

And so Camilla Nielsson deserves a Nobel (or at least a can of General Snus)…because she captured REAL, FUCKING LIFE here.

She doesn’t tell you what to think.

She says (in effect): “figure it out”.

Here’s the facts. Figure it out.

“I have seen what I have seen”, wrote Ezra Pound in his second Canto.

I can’t explain it.

Some drumming.

Women making turkey noises.

Weird, macarena dances.

And a little boy gets beaten to death.

All to write a new constitution.

And Douglas Mwonzora is right: Mugabe is evil.

That is a totally valid perspective.

Having seen this film.

[ahh…]

One source.

Never was anything decided on the basis of one source.

But circumstantial runs up against direct.

Very good, Eric Bolling!

And Tony Shaffer was better with MacGuffin.

But that’s just because this is Dossier du cinema.

Not cool enough for diacritics.

One final word…

Mugabe persists from the Soviet era.

Figure it out.

Is he a friend of NATO?

Do the geopolitical math.

Ruminate on AFRICOM.

Pound…was no patriot. Of his own country. In a traditional sense.

And the most I can bring you is this.

This attestation to genius.

The genius of Democrats by Camilla Nielsson.

And the sad face of former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai…leader of the opposition MDC party.

Sad.

Like his face had been bashed in few too many times.

And maybe we don’t wanna know.

But the cowed look says it all.

And Douglas Mwonzora risks it all.

Three days in jail without food or water. Plus another 18 days to make it a full three weeks.

Mr. Mwonzora.

So calm.

Collected.

That cool we see in Jafar Panahi.

Yes.

You can jail me.

But you will have to thoroughly kill me.

To stop me.

From doing what I love.

-PD

2 Comments

JFK [1991)

There is very little doubt in my mind that this is the most important film ever made.

For once in American history, someone stood up.

That man was Jim Garrison.

When I used to spend time in New Orleans I shuddered at the courage this man had.

He had the courage to take on everything.

But this epic would not have received its rightful place in history without the auteur Oliver Stone.

Making this film was an immense act of courage.

Search your heart.

Sit alone at 2:00 a.m. on the outskirts of Nola.

3:00 a.m.

Later.

The deepest, darkest part of the night.

Oliver Stone captures the beauty of humanity in the story of Jim Garrison.

Few dramatic performances have ever affected me so much as Kevin Costner’s here.

But you must look deeper.

Look to Jim Marrs.

Long ago I heard Alex Jones proclaim on air that JFK was his favorite film.

Long ago I saw JFK as a first-run film in the theater.

But I didn’t see this 3-hour-8-minute version.

I’m pretty sure of that.

Because I was just a child.

I heard the drums.

I heard the moving music of John Williams.

But, alas, it was 3’08” which was before me.

It takes a lifetime to appreciate what Mr. X is getting at.

It is packed tight as a can of sardines (even at 3’08”).

Eisenhower’s farewell address.

Really listen to it.

The nervous glances aside.

What is he announcing?

Does he not have immense testicles to yell such from the tower?

But let’s take a trip…

Acting. Real fucking acting.

Joe Pesci.

God damn!

If Costner didn’t have the Garrison role, Pesci might have taken it.

Stole the show.

Kevin Bacon at Angola.

In Angola.

Leadbelly, not Neto.

IS THIS THE MPLA?

I THOUGHT IT WAS THE UK!

Donald Sutherland.

You can see the parallel now in Dr. Steve Pieczenik.

You gotta watch it.

Vietnam.

Donald Sutherland gets even closer than Pesci.

It’s that moment he says, “bubba”.

Yeah, that’s the right track.

That’s a lifetime of work.

That’s putting your ass on the line.

Have you ever put your ass on the line?

Really laying it all out there and staring into the void.

That’s the encouragement.

The words you need to hear from someone who’s paying attention.

Someone who’s saying, “Don’t be afraid of the bastards. Hit ’em back.”

Contrasted with Pesci as a walking pot of coffee.

Yeah.

Feel that fear for a moment.

You don’t live in a bubble

You have family.

You have people you love.

You risk it all because you know it is the right thing to do.

To ask questions.

To object.

To use your mind where none dare tread.

Who’s the Jim Garrison of today?

Yes, it is Alex Jones.

He has earned that.

But it is also very much James Tracy.

Sissy Spacek cannot compete with Costner.

And she shouldn’t.

But she’s indispensable.

The back and forth in the hallway.

She ain’t walking down that hallway anymore.

Watch JFK and you’ll understand why Anderson Cooper is a coward.

Watch the hit piece directed at Garrison.

Sad, sad men (the SAD/SOG).

Yeah.

Come to know Lyman L. Lemnitzer. Very few LLLs in history.

Don’t stop at Operation Mongoose.

Know the much more important Operation Northwoods (otherwise known as 9/11).

For all of the bigots out there, come to understand just how many things Israel COULD NOT have done (which were essential to 9/11).

And yet they are no doubt involved.

On the wrong side.

Just like their appalling treatment of the Palestinians.

Notice I didn’t say Jews. And I didn’t say anti-Semitism.

Pesci’s character nails it.

But we still need Gary Oldman as Oswald.

What’s on the gravestone?

Oswald.

Maybe it’s not rogue elements after all.

It’s the whole damn thing.

But who warned us?

They were inside the machine.

Eisenhower.

Garrison.

Kennedy.

Martin Luther King.

Go to Dallas.

Feel the evil.

Unsolved.

Covered.

Covered over.

Like a pothole filled with steaming shit.

Thanks Michael Ovitz.

Did you really convince Costner to take the part?

More importantly, thank you Costner.

Yeah, that’s some method acting.

And it’s far too important not to feel.

With every fiber of one’s being.

Stone took the right take.

There could be only one like that.

In the courtroom.

We don’t even notice the cuts.

Academy Award for editing.

Including a chap named Scalia.

Tommy Lee Jones as the incarnation of evil.

Dainty. Subtle. Shades of James Mason from NXNW.

Tommy Lee Jones from my hometown.

San Antonio.

I seen him at a Mexican restaurant.

And we hold out hope that the planet remembers us.

Ed Asner.

Ed Asner who stood up when the shit hit the fan after 9/11.

Where were these other fuckers? Still basking in the glory of JFK?

That’s too bad because their words then ring hollow.

How about Field of Dreams? Go the distance.

Back, and to the left.

John Candy as perfection.

A serious role.

Fuck all you motherfuckers!

Martin Sheen is for real.

Charlie Sheen, while not in this movie, put so many social activists to shame.

Real testicular girth.

Jim Garrison as Earl Warren.

The glasses.

The Coke bottle disorientation.

But the erudition.

The evil erudition.

Sean Stone is what we’re fighting for.

The kids.

That’s real shit.

Mohrenschildt in Pappy Bush’s pocketbook.

A directory.

Not the whole Rolodex.

Just the kind of thing you’d take on an ice-skating trip in a thunderstorm to Houston.

It’s always raining.

And a little hunting.

Parse that.

It comes back to Cuba.

Zachary Sklar.

Ellen Ray.

Enough to write a book.

And publish it.

Jack Lemmon.

The fear.

Naïveté. Étouffée.

A lot of work for a little piece of meat.

Oliver Stone’s not the genius. Jim Garrison is.

Always will be.

But Garrison needed Stone.

Counter gangs. Webster Tarpley.

Frank Kitson. Low intensity.

Critical mass.

Where Jane Rusconi and Yale University come in.

Impressive.

I take it all back.

A dick-measuring contest about how many books one has read.

Garrison. Stone. Rusconi.

Impressive.

District attorney.

Ok, I take it back again again: Oliver Stone is a genius.

But we need it again.

-PD

6 Comments

SNL Season 1 Episode 12 [1976)

Wikipedia generally gives a nice overview of some of these early Saturday Night Live episodes, but not in this case.

Even so, that’s alright.

We’ll make do.

It might be enough to focus on the divide between droll host Dick Cavett (his pitch for “his” Nebraska Pimp book as part of “Looks on Books” kinda sums it up) and impassioned musical guest Jimmy Cliff.

Cavett is that sort of personality that everyone likes. Always a warm smile. A wry smile, perhaps. A smart guy, but not too smart. Cavett was, in some ways, in the exact middle of the cultural road.

He was just hip enough to be marginally “with it” in a revolutionary era (witness the Weekend Update attempts to cover “war-torn” Luanda, Angola) steaming with frustration.

And so the natural way to play off his image is to have him do risqué things. For example, the skit “Our Town” substitutes New York City for the Grover’s Corners of playwright Thornton Wilder.

Cavett describes the more prurient details of NYC. At one point, it is fairly obvious that he is describing the old Times Square full of sex shops and massage parlors. As always, the exercise of watching this show gives us an opportunity to reflect on days gone by. For example, this must have been around the time of a sanitation workers strike in the Big Apple.

[Speaking of Big Apple, the home movie sent in by someone (whose name I have forgotten) makes nice use of apples (and plums) as actors in a stop-motion Super-8 experiment.]

But yes…Dick Cavett is kind of like a bathroom sanitizer. You’re glad he’s there (when the place is sullied), but he is generally harmless and flavorless.

What is staggering about this episode is that I remember a friend from college who (on second thought) reminds me quite a bit of Cavett. The craziest part is that Jimmy Cliff does a song in this episode which played a part in my college days (funny enough, in relation to the aforementioned gentleman).

It’s funny how the mundane can make us sentimental. However, Jimmy Cliff is not at all himself mundane on the song in question: “Many Rivers to Cross”.

Jimmy Cliff couldn’t be more different in persona from Dick Cavett. Cliff delivers the first great, desperate performance in SNL history. Sure, Simon & Garfunkel were great in the early season, but they were pretty…composed…easily poised.

On “Many Rivers to Cross” Jimmy Cliff sings like his life depends on it. The guitars are out of tune. The drummer is barely in control of the song. A bongo player (who alternates on timbales…with brushes) adds a bit of flavor. The SNL horns (Howard Shore’s band) add some nice stabs and swells of excitement.

But it is Jimmy Cliff. Singing right in tune. Dead serious. Pinging each note in absolute perfection.

Closing his eyes. Lifting his head back. Singing so the veins bulge out in his neck. …ending the performance out of breath.

Cliff absolutely deserved to perform the three songs he did on this episode. However, neither of the other two match the intensity of “Many Rivers to Cross”.

And so it takes me back.

These memories I mentioned. They’re important to me.

If I’d only chosen to have my taxes done by H. & L. Brock…I coulda been a contenda.

How do we become losers?

Is it from the very first hand we’re dealt?

Some things feel like a lost cause.

Life is unkind. Sometimes.

But what I want to know is…will it pay off?

Jimmy Cliff was ready when the opportunity arose.

How significant was this performance for the acceptance of reggae in America?

It doesn’t matter.

Those questions don’t matter.

What matters is what each one of us feels…in little moments of reflection.

I’d like to think that I’d belt it out just like Jimmy Cliff.

That’s when you give it all you have.

It’s when your passion raises you head and shoulders above the rest.

It’s a passion. A hunger. Of going from nothing to something.

I think quite a few of us feel like nothings.

It’s all we ever get to be.

We’re behind.

I can only speak for myself.

No wife. No kids.

In school for the millionth time.

And my dreams seem light years away…in the rearview mirror.

Will I find them again down the road?

Is this a loop? A mere episode?

-PD

Comment ca va? [1976)

Ça va. From the year I was born.

If you search Google for “comment ca va godard,” you might get 83,000 results in 0.42 seconds. Google tacks on the time to remind us of its power.

Well, I must admit I was a bit powerless in slogging through this film. Keep in mind, the first time I saw Pierrot le fou I thought it was overrated. Also keep in mind, by that point Godard was already my favorite director (by a long shot).

I came to regard Pierrot le fou as one of Godard’s best films, but it had to grow on me.

Perhaps Comment ça va will also grow on me.

What must be remembered is that Godard loves games. For me, the end of this film is easily the most brilliant part.

Godard (or his collaborator Anne-Marie Miéville) plays with the editing program like it is Pac-Man. There is something very ATARI about the whole affair–that green console font and the playful symbolism of a wandering cursor.

But admissions on my part should be more specific here: I was really tired.

So perhaps I did not give this film a fair shake.

It should be no surprise to viewers of Godard’s mid-seventies oeuvre that this film makes little to no effort to entertain. It is, as are many of his films of this era, an investigation. In this case, the investigation is filmmaking itself. It is, in that sense, a bit like his earlier masterpiece Le Gai savoir. The role of Anne-Marie Miéville should not be underestimated here. It is as if Godard and Miéville were recalibrating their artistic sensitivities with this film. While many (most?) filmmakers would leave such a “product” on the shelf and chalk it up to practice or research, Godard had been in the habit of releasing these “attempts at film” for some time. As I have mentioned in previous articles, there is a particular connection between the French word essai (a test, an attempt) and the English usage of essay (particularly, for our purposes, the genre known as film essay).

And so this is very much a film essay which we are dealing with. As such, I feel like a teacher compelled to “grade” said essay. This is the traditional job of critics: to assess value. It is, perhaps, a far more subjective form of the S & P, Moody’s, Fitch gambit.

So yes, I dozed off briefly at a few points. I feel bad about this. One school of thought says that it was Godard’s job to entertain me, but I do not entirely subscribe to that way of thinking.

But let us consult Italian Wikipedia (the English site is slacking) to jog our memory…

It does indeed feel to be shot in Grenoble (certainly not Paris)… I could verify this, but I am very lazy on such points.

The contributors to Italian Wikipedia make a very good point in comparing the film under consideration to Godard’s earlier Letter to Jane. Indeed, the director once again fixates on a particular photo and what it means. We, as the audience, spend a great deal of time staring along with the creators at a picture from a protest in Portugal. 1976.

What is new here is that Godard employs his editing equipment in a novel way. A photo from a French protest three years previous (1973) is superimposed upon the Portuguese picture. It is a similar methodology as found in Letter to Jane when Jane Fonda’s facial expression was compared to other Hollywood actors (including her father Henry).

The story (if it can be called that) involves esoteric distinctions between “the left” and communism. Exactly.

What is not at all clear is that Odette (played by the very, very beautiful Anne-Marie Miéville) is the lady helping with the editing of a film. We see Odette’s face in her interaction with her young worker boyfriend, but we only see her hands (unless I dozed off one too many times) on the typewriter in her directorial capacity. What is significant is that her collaborator is her boyfriend’s father. We see his face. Boy do we see it. Over and over and over again. It should be noted that the typewriter is a motif in Godard’s work stretching all the way back to the machine-gun edit in Vivre sa vie and culminating is Godard’s magnum opus Histoire(s) du cinema.

In our film, the typewriter and the eyes of the dictator (as in dictation…taking dictation) frame a philosophical investigation of language. We might call it “lost in transmission.”

What is at stake are the alienated products of journalists. The father (head of a newspaper) deprives his staff of true journalistic activity when they become merely glorified secretaries. There is no time to think. Deadlines deadlines. And, as such, dead text. An anonymous caption for a photo (no byline) is the sole work of the editor. A journalist merely types. No time for discussion.

And thus the extension: why should a picture need a caption at all? Shouldn’t a picture tell a story and thereby eliminate the need for text? Is a complex picture which requires explanation inferior? And why not let the picture speak for itself in such a case? Why always explain what the reader is to feel???

A dictatorship falls. Strikes ensue. We hear a radio tell us Franco is dead. A subtle touch. From Portugal to Spain.

Carnation Revolution. Yes, I thought of Angola, but not Mozambique. And it makes sense. Mozambique. The only Marxist Western (as in horses and cowboys)…Vent d’est (1969).

Saint-Brieuc. It was a factory strike in ’72. We are one year off. 1975. Deadline deadline. Go to press.

Now television has completely won. Your show. Shows. On demand. One senses that the battle of art films vs. mass communication was [for Godard] not about format (film vs. video), but rather a question of diffusion and delivery.

The speed of news. The news cycle. “Information cascade” and Operation Mockingbird.

-PD

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paulydeathwish

musician and film critic

Tag Archives: Angola

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Comment ca va? [1976)