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Tag Archives: Belgian
NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio [2009)
Film directed by Andreas Pichler.
https://thoughtmaybe.com/natos-secret-armies/
Reference point:
http://www.journalof911studies.com/resources/2014GanserVol39May.pdf
Formed in 1956.
The year after the Warsaw Pact (Comecon [1955]).
A legitimate fear.
Let me be unequivocal.
In my opinion, communism is bad.
One might even say evil.
But no one should be killed or tortured for their political beliefs.
A crime must be committed in order for rule of law to come into play.
It is not a crime to hold naive theories (like communism) on what is a good economic system.
A Marxist can only be punished insofar as they promote the overthrow of the government.
I do not think Joe Biden was duly-elected.
But I am not calling for him to be overthrown.
That is not my place.
I could play no role in that.
The only entity which could overthrow Joe Biden’s regime would be the U.S. military.
They should do what they think is right.
They do, however, have an obligation to NOT FOLLOW illegal orders.
Would all orders emanating from a President who was not duly-elected be illegal?
I would think they would be.
But it is not my role to decide that.
Our military will either let us suffer and cease to exist as a country (under the criminal leadership of Joe Biden), or they will make their voices heard.
Every time our military follows an order of Joe Biden, they are making the choice that that order is legal and valid.
And that is their choice.
History will judge them.
It is not my place to give the military advice.
Even though they work for me.
And Joe Biden also derives his (stolen) power from me.
I repudiate Joe Biden.
He is not the legal President.
But what can I do about it?
Here’s what I CAN’T do about it.
I cannot act like a Marxist and encourage the overthrow of the government.
I don’t encourage that.
But I do encourage our military leaders to think.
I do encourage our military leaders to take the situation and condition of the country into consideration.
And I do encourage our military leaders to be abreast of the “irregularities” (to put it nicely) of the 2020 election.
It is up to them to decide what to do.
If they think they are following legal orders by carrying out the commands of Joe Biden, then there’s not much I can do about that.
Joe is right.
We the people would need nukes and fighter jets.
But we the people will only allow our rights to be infringed UP TO A POINT.
An unjust law is no law at all.
Natural law.
I reserve the right to peacefully protest and to utilize my First Amendment rights of free speech.
I wish Biden well.
I hope he keeps us out of WWIII.
I wish he would get us out of NATO.
But I know he won’t.
Because he’s a corrupt moron.
I hope the 2022 midterms actually happen.
I hope Bill Gates doesn’t unleash a smallpox attack.
I hope the 2022 elections are actually free and fair.
I believe the 2020 elections were neither free, nor fair.
Trump won.
I am very disappointed with Trump’s stance on the COVID vaccines.
I am also quite disappointed that Trump called Zelensky a hero.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Trump won.
Would I vote for Trump again?
I don’t know.
I voted for him two times.
I might prefer Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, RFK Jr., Robert Malone, Joe Rogan, Alex Jones…
I think any of these people would make a fine President.
And I am liking Tulsi Gabbard more and more.
Which brings us to NATO.
NATO is clearly (CLEARLY!) at fault in the Ukraine war.
NATO precipitated this war.
And the presence of the USA in NATO is unnecessary.
Being in NATO is an unnecessary danger for the United States.
NATO should not even exist anymore (because its enemies…the USSR and the Warsaw Pact alliance) no longer exist.
NATO is no longer a force for peace.
Was it ever?
That brings us to our current film.
Years of Lead.
Anni di piombo.
Italy.
Guido Salvini.
Good guy.
CIA using groups like Ordine Nuovo (fascists) in Italy.
New Order.
New World Order.
Britain wants to maintain that MI6 are choir boys.
P-26.
But what about SHAPE?
And SACEUR?
Gladio (Italy) reported (“responded”) to SACEUR.
It is GOOD to know how communist revolutions work.
It is GOOD to stop them before they happen.
But it is VERY, VERY BAD to murder innocent dumbasses who are wearing Che Guevara t-shirts.
And it is even worse to indiscriminately bomb banks and train stations to scare a population into not voting communist.
The formula was:
-NATO-led (right-wing) stay-behind networks commit terrorist attack on behalf of US/NATO
-attack blamed on leftists
-population avoids voting for communists out of fear
Children were killed in these operations.
Bombings.
Mass shootings.
All blamed on leftists.
And most (if not all) carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups under orders from US/NATO.
P26.
Switzerland.
Felice Casson.
Good guy.
Daniele Ganser (whose article I posted near the top of the page).
Good guy.
Italian intelligence may have stolen the 2020 U.S. election.
Via the military/satellite company Leonardo.
In the days of Gladio, the prime mover within Italy was SISMI.
Military intelligence.
Italy.
Switzerland.
Belgium.
Germany.
But Italy was hit the hardest.
Along with SISMI (which no longer exists per se), another suspect would be VSSE of Belgium.
Only the Vatican’s intelligence agency is older than VSSE.
VSSE is the CIA of Belgium.
Belgium also has a military intelligence organization (GISS).
Strategy of tension.
Look it up.
It dominated the USA in the years after 9/11/01.
And it has dominated the past two years of COVID (with biological warfare [disguised as a naturally-occurring pandemic] replacing higher-intensity forms of terrorism).
The W. Bush administration denies that the USA had anything to do with the terrorism of the stay-behind networks (like Gladio) which they set up in all NATO countries following WWII.
Yeah, sure.
This same Bush administration says it’s just all “made up” by the Russians.
All evidence points to the various security services in Europe (Italy, Belgium, etc.) protecting these stay behind networks from prosecution when they committed these acts of terrorism.
So the Bush administration was (in 2006) relying on an implausible deniabilty.
It’s possible, but highly unlikely, that the United States didn’t participate in these terror activities.
And it is even less possible that they didn’t know about them and condone them.
It remains to be discovered just what just the U.S. and NATO played in this terrorism.
There is no question that NATO/US set up these stay-behind networks.
And there is very little question that these stay-behind networks committed acts of terrorism upon European civilians.
Indeed, the original mission of these stay-behind networks appears to have changed from “use in case of emergency [a Soviet takeover of Western Europe]” to “use for any purpose which will cause Europeans to fear communist political candidates”.
This violence should not have been committed.
When children are killed (as they were by a bombing in Munich at the Octoberfest), then the end does not justify the means.
Try telling the father who lost his young son and daughter to that bombing.
The girl was ripped open by the bomb.
The boy had bomb fragments which went through his head.
They both suffered.
They did not die instantly.
They both spoke to their father.
The girl said, “Please help me, father.”
The boy said, “I’m ok. I’m just cold.”
They both died soon after.
And that father had to live with that grief.
All so that communists would not be voted into power in Western Europe.
Bullshit!
FUCK THAT!!!
SDRA8 in Belgium.
Absalon in Denmark.
TD BDJ in Germany (where a former Nazi, Gehlen, was head of post-war German intel).
LOK in Greece.
Stay-Behind in Luxembourg.
I&O in Netherlands.
ROC in Norway.
Aginter Press in Portugal.
Red Quantum in Spain.
P26 in Switzerland.
Özel Harp Dairesi in Turkey.
AGAG in Sweden.
Plan Bleu in France.
OWSGV in Austria.
The name of the Finnish version is unknown.
Italy.
Giulio Andreotti.
Vincenzo Vinciguerra.
Licio Gelli.
Propagada 2 (Masonic lodge).
Nazis and fascists in South America.
Operation Condor.
CIA-backed Nazis in Ukraine.
Lebed.
Stepan Bandera.
Azov Battalion.
Ihor Kolomoyskyi.
The second or third richest person in Ukraine.
A Jew.
Who supports (and funds) the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
https://www.newsweek.com/evidence-war-crimes-committed-ukrainian-nationalist-volunteers-grows-269604
Now why would a Jew support an anti-Semitic (goes without saying) Nazi group?
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS60927080220150505
SISMI was preceded by SID.
Let’s get into the hideous details.
Piazza Fontana bombing.
Milan.
17 dead.
88 wounded.
Bomb went off in an agricultural bank.
Two farmers had just closed a deal with a bank manager.
Does that sound like the kind of target leftists would hit?
A bank for farmers?
No.
But that wasn’t the only bomb of the day.
Other than the 4:37 p.m. bombing of the Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura, there were three other bombings that same afternoon in Rome and Milan.
AA11.
UA175.
“AA77”.
UA93.
Four in a day.
There was a U.S. Navy officer (David Carrett) indicted for his role in the Piazza Fontana bombing by the aformentioned Guido Salvini.
A US/NATO intel official (Sergio Minetto) was also indicted by Salvini.
The CIA coordinator for northeastern Italy (Carlo “Uncle Otto” Digilio) was likewise indicted by Salvini.
The head of SISMI (Sergio Siracusa) was charged by the aforementioned Felice Casson.
It seems the Piazza Fontana investigation was obstructed by SID (SISMI) director General Gianandelio Maletti (a P2 Masonic lodge member).
Neo-Nazi/neo-Fascist Franco Freda got life in prison in 1979 for the bombing.
As did Giovanni Ventura.
As did Italian secret agent Guido Gianettini.
All three were then acquitted on appeals in 1981.
Freda and Venturi still each got 15 years for bombings they committed in Padua and Milan.
Gianettini was acquitted in 1982.
All defendants acquitted in 1985 (including alleged conspirators Valpreda and Merlino).
Two members of the Italian secret services went to jail for misleading the investigation.
Now what possible reason might they have had for doing that?
I don’t know…maybe because the bombers were working for them???
Gian Adelio Maletti got one year in prison.
Antonio Labruna got 10 months.
For the death of 17 people.
But in 1987, here comes our good friend from Operation Condor.
Stefano Delle Chiaie.
Tried for the Piazza Fontana bombing.
Acquitted.
By 2000 it had come to Delfo Zorzi.
He received life in prison for the bombing.
Carlo Digilio received immunity in exchange for information.
Zorzi was then acquitted on appeal in 2004.
U.S. intelligence knew about the Piazza Fontana bombing (and the Piazza della Loggia bombing five years later in Brescia) before they happened.
But they did nothing to stop them.
Why?
This sounds awful similar to what the CIA did in South America with Operation Condor.
In Brescia, it appears that the target was even more stupid.
Why would right-wing false-flaggers bomb an anti-fascist protect?
That makes no sense.
France was the only member of NATO to ever withdraw from the alliance.
And if they had been smart (which they evidently are not), they would have stayed out.
But they didn’t stay out.
Nevertheless, SHAPE was forced by France’s withdrawal in 1967 to move to Mons, Belgium.
The Brabant massacres.
The Brabant killers.
The Nivelles gang.
De Bende van Nijvel.
Les Tueurs fous du Brabant.
Delhaize grocery stores.
28 deaths.
Burglary.
Etterbeek. 1981
Theft.
Dinant. 1982
Armed robbery (grocery store).
Maubeuge (France). 1982
Armed robbery.
Wavre. 1982
Death of policeman.
Armed robbery (restaurant).
Employee tortured and killed.
Beersel. 1982
Robbery.
Murder of taxi driver.
Brussels. 1983
[car found in Mons {SHAPE}]
Armed robbery (grocery store).
Rixensart. 1983
Armed robbery (grocery store).
Uccle. 1983
Armed robbery (grocery store).
One employee killed.
Halle. 1983
Armed robbery (grocery store).
Houdeng-Gougnies. 1983
Armed robbery (textile factory).
One worker killed.
Temse. 1983
Service station robberies.
More murders.
Armed robbery (restaurant).
Owner killed.
Ohain. 1983
Armed robbery.
One customer killed.
Beersel (again). 1983
Armed robbery.
Two owners of shop killed.
Anderlues. 1983
AND THEN IT ALL STOPPED?!?
Nothing in 1984.
Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).
Three people killed.
Braine-l’Alleud. 1985
Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).
Five people killed.
Overijse. 1985
Armed robbery (Delhaize grocery store).
Father, mother, and daughter killed in the parking lot.
Son ran back into the shop and was shot at point blank.
Eight deaths today during this robbery.
Aalst. 1985
Buckshot in 12-gauge Winchester pump shotguns was a rare type similar to a former Belgian special forces unit called Group Diane.
SDRA8.
SDRAVIII.
S.D.R.A. VIII.
In Greece, there was CIA coordination with General Lucian Truscott.
LOK is Greek special forces.
There is some evidence they were involved in the Greek military coup of 1967.
This coup happened one month before national elections.
There were 10,000 arrests in this coup.
This ushered in the Regime of the Colonels which lasted in Greece from 1967-1974.
A secret NATO army in Greece appears to have been named Red Sheepskin (or Operation Sheepskin).
Arms cashes of the stay-behinds were found near Arnhem, Netherlands.
Operation Gladio again connects to Operation Condor by was of Stefano Delle Chiae.
In Spain (where many Nazis hid out before fleeing to South America).
We also find another connection to Vincenzo Vinciguerra.
William Colby is the only CIA Director that I like.
-PD
Tokyo Fiancée [2014)
I have been absent.
Because work.
Not working, but looking.
Labor.
Jobs.
Money.
Healthcare.
I have been absent because anxiety.
Always.
But better.
Walking.
Stretching.
Exercise.
Rest.
Time.
And now the cosmos brings me a perfect film.
Because Pauline Étienne.
Actress full of joy.
But the grand auteur is Stefan Liberski.
Every color.
Every gesture.
You must pinstripe, tuck up your hair you haven’t.
You must primary color.
Yellow and red. Made in U.S.A.
“You must fall in love with me,” says Pauline Étienne.
“I command you.”
[she continues]
And of all the girls in the world, the Belgians and Finnish are the most diabolically beautiful on film.
Godard said the Swiss.
Clear bias.
And so we have a Belgian film set in Japan.
If we try hard, we can hear Debussy. Estampes…
Pagodes…
Sado Island… […]
To dream in the rain.
Cross the bridge.
And the river steams.
You seek a nectarine.
A noisy kiss.
Pauline Étienne.
Buttermilk legs joy rollerskate skinny.
Was taken from Salinger.
Joyce said spittoon.
As cuspidor.
The most beautiful word.
Girl.
Some films, books so good…too much to handle.
My wish.
To marry.
To have that happiness.
A mere handful of fives away from Valentine’s.
When Colombia and Ecuador will be pumping out roses for Starbuckers.
All along.
They said that sex was uncouth.
Or resorted to farm metaphors of propagating species.
But.
They couldn’t talk about love.
Excitement.
When your breath is stolen by a cold kiss.
In the autumn.
Winter.
And yet warmth from optimism.
But we must get on to the little back alleys of Tokyo.
And for a moment stop this dream.
To be born.
In Japan.
Of Belgian parents.
Does not a Japanese make.
I can suck the life out of Auden.
Elliptical.
Though I thought I was aping Céline.
But director Stefan Liberski is aping no one.
personne
We must mention the author and not the auteur, though in French there is no difference (save for the milieu of cinema).
And she gives us a fantastic story.
Amélie Nothomb.
No thumb.
Better than “all thumbs”.
Rhombus.
Can you suck on a diamond lozenge from a ring?
Lots of sucking.
But that’s the aw-kward + loneliness which makes a great film.
This one just happens to pull in Belgique and Nippon to boot.
It depends.
On her yellow socks.
On her haircut.
Pauline Étienne.
On sweater with blue stripes.
Like Edward Hopper did the cinematography.
But the Francophones have it figured out.
Every trick.
Which is to say.
No tricks.
Just emotion.
Realism.
No bullshit.
Embrace the history of film.
Compare and contrast.
What works? What doesn’t?
What speaks to you? How does a culture (French, par exemple) see a film?
Answer: it doesn’t fucking matter.
What matters is the overflowing love and romance which infuses Tokyo Fiancée.
Only thing Lars von Trier ever did well was film Kirsten Dunst in the nude.
Stefan Liberski surpasses von Trier’s entire oeuvre with this one film.
Yes, I’m polemic as fuck!
I’ll take François Truffaut (the film critic) and a bottle of white wine for my friend.
I like red.
And Guy Debord.
I’ll take chances.
Damn.
I have taken so many fucking chances.
But we get scared.
Worn out.
Frightened by inexperience.
All of that is in the film.
Taichi Inoue is really sweet as Rinri.
But I keep coming back to Pauline Étienne.
She has cast a spell over me.
And I must ask: who does she signify?
Forget the character name.
For each sad soul who dreams their way to the end.
She represents someone.
Fondue.
Teeth which nave never left the village.
New born yellow as unripe baby corn.
On the farm.
Maybe.
A different register (accent?) of French in Belgium.
Immediately recognizable to a Parisian.
And with little modesty lambasted as yokel French.
But perhaps the Belgians and Quebecois have this in common.
A cause for solidarity.
And add in the Swiss…with their weird counting and smoky lisp.
Is it?
Tokyo Fiancée hits harder than La Religieuse (2013) because it is not stilted nor steeped in period costumes.
Just tell a fucking story, we say.
Pauline Étienne. Born in Ixelles.
How could anyone from such a place be any less than ravishing?
When we think in microcosm.
If we only know one Indian person.
They become India.
For us.
And complicate this with a multicultural relationship.
That is the gasoline of Tokyo Fiancée.
It is clean. And genius. Like Magritte.
A bowler hat. An apple. And MoMA depth.
We want to be in this Japan.
Because the eyes have captured the essence of magic.
Ingenuity.
Frivolity.
Fun.
Tokyo Fiancée succeeds at every point where Lost in Translation failed (which was at every point).
This is the real deal.
Real acting.
Real art.
Not a dilettante piece.
Sofia Coppola should send her usage permissions for My Bloody Valentine and Kevin Shields tracks to Stefan Liberski posthaste.
Such music is the only thing which could make Tokyo Fiancée any better.
And yet, it is a perfect film.
Don’t fuck with perfection.
Maybe again MBV and Liberski can have a meeting of minds.
But make sure to include the Anna Karina of our age.
Pauline Étienne.
An actress for which Francophonie has been searching for 60 years.
Well, here she is.
And this is the model: Tokyo Fiancée.
Let the joy in her heart hit the screen (splat!).
Jump on the bed. Ahhh!!!
In the mountains. Wooh! The rush.
An actress with all 21 petals on her Fibonacci daisy.
Which is to say, fully capable of cinema immortality.
I believe it was Mallarmé who wrote of “bursting pomegranates” (!)
Very few films have ever had this effect on me.
And I needed this one very bad.
To confirm that there are quirky, special people in the world.
That there are eyes who see beauty in the details I notice.
And that genius in the cinema is not dead.
Thank you Mr. Liberski.
And thank you Pauline Étienne for your performance which has brought hope to a very sad person in Texas.
Je veux exprimer ma plus profonde gratitude.
C’est infini.
-PD
C’est arrivé près de chez vous [1992)
Writing is a healing exercise.
We try.
We do the best we can.
Sometimes we have to laugh at how bad things are.
Nietzsche would say we’ve lost something.
And he’s right.
But still we must laugh.
Because nobody knows the troubles we’ve seen.
Jesus wept.
Jesu swept.
We must laugh because the walls are closing in on us.
Our lives should have turned out so much better.
But let’s be optimistic.
Let us remember the good times.
Times when we sang.
Cinema…CINEMA!!!
Times when we shat and sang.
And shits yet to come.
Future shits.
It is not wrong to count life in such base terms.
When we venture out in the world, we only hope that a pretty girl smiles at us.
It’s like a bunch of flowers.
And so we must smile.
With all the bravery we have.
If you drink, drink.
If you smoke, smoke.
If you do nothing, do nothing.
Life is too very sad. Doesn’t make.
So very sad. Oui!
In Belgium, perhaps, they can laugh.
As in my heart song Aaltra.
Always a dark song. Like Jeanne Dielman.
And here is Tarantino back through the French.
Au contraire! This film predates all Quentin-directed features.
But not by much.
However, QT had the distribution advantage by a few months.
Seems Man Bites Dog (our film “in English”) beat Reservoir Dogs to market by way of film festivals.
In particular TIFF.
But really this is like a Belgian Pulp Fiction (and so much better than that hunk of shite which was still two years away).
As you might know.
Two directors I can’t stand:
Spielberg and Tarantino.
In that order.
Quentin has some redeeming qualities.
Spielberg very few (if any).
But you might want to know about the film I’m reviewing.
Ultraviolence meets Spinal Tap.
Yes, I know that’s not the full title.
But you probably know what I mean.
Kubrick of A Clockwork Orange meets mockumentary.
If someone had described this film (or any other) on such terms, I wouldn’t have watched it.
So I’m glad I didn’t encounter my own review.
Because C’est arrivé près de chez vous is brilliant.
The camaraderie chez Malou…
Rémy Belvaux supposedly committed suicide in 2006.
But it’s probably just as likely that Bill Gates had him whacked.
God damn it…
André Bonzel hasn’t died (according to English Wikipedia), but neither has he been born.
A precarious situation, that.
But Benoît Poelvoorde is gloriously alive!
Damn it!!!
Is it strip-tease or stripe-ties?
Une Femme est une femme.
We are learning the language.
French speakers English.
And English speakers French.
And Turkish.
And Romanian.
And Farsi.
Allors…
Tarantino has acknowledged his debt.
And so I too apologize to Mr. T.
It’s a sad life. When you’re 39.
Rest in peace, dear Rémy.
-PD
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles [1975)
Lots of commas.
And sub-clauses.
And finally Santa.
Enfin.
That something happens in this film is a miracle.
It is a monument of nothingness. [hang on]
A monument of boredom. [wait for it]
A truly glorious feminist film. [truly]
Quite simply, this is one of the hardest films I’ve ever tried to watch (much less review).
I was familiar with the late Chantal Akerman’s style at least a bit.
[may she rest in peace]
Nothingness. An obsession.
It’s closer to the Warhol end of the spectrum than Bergman.
Uncomfortable shots. The time-image.
We don’t have time to read about the time-image. [Bergson]
Deleuze. De loser.
We. Miss out.
And so when we are thrust into a film such as this…
There ARE no films like this.
The nausea of which Sartre spoke. Wrote.
I knew that Akerman admired Godard.
She was already in my good graces for that.
But I almost didn’t make it through this 3-hour-21-minute film.
From one J.D. to another.
Jeffrey Dahmer to Jeanne Dielman.
Dielman’s life is just as horrible.
She might as well work the 11 p.m. – 7 a.m. shift at a chocolate factory.
Belgium.
Every activity she caresses. Like finest lace.
And so we see the Godard of Vivre sa vie.
That is the premise.
The “ooh-la-la”.
But it is much more Marina Vlady than Anna Karina.
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle.
Washing dishes. Interminably.
That lifeless, empty stare.
Perhaps it is Brecht.
Distancing. Reality. But symbolic. Unreal.
Verfremdungseffekt.
Epic. 201 Dalmatian minutes.
Force the issue.
We dummies still worship Delphine Seyrig.
In the same way we worship Anamaria Marinca.
Because we’re sick of Western women…sick of soul-sucking Western culture.
Sick of the Easter bunny. Sick of Santa Claus.
We want the East. The Eastern bloc.
And further East. Chinese acting.
Brecht.
Delphine from Saussure.
Cup and Saussure.
Such amazing acting by Seyrig. To not act.
To act as if she wasn’t being watched.
To shine shoes and drop the brush. [An event! Here…]
To disturb the cream bottle. Precariously returns.
To not apologize to the camera.
To get her apron caught…
The hardest button to button.
And the adrenaline-pounding rush of shopping for buttons.
Buttons. Those little things which go through eyelets.
Like trying to find the correct shade of mauve. All over town.
And so in the end it ends as an action film.
You think I kid.
But Akerman must have had a soft spot for Chabrol…(viz. Hitchcock).
Let’s play the quiet game for three hours…and see if it will drive you nuts.
Doniol-Valcroze pays a visit.
But it doesn’t matter.
What matters is the can of Ajax on the side of the tub.
The green and red.
Might have my brands wrong.
Tiny daggers of color.
Nowhere.
But there’s one.
-PD
Aaltra [2004)
Everything happens for a goddamned reason. I wanted to type. So I did.
It leaves me uneasy. It’s the start of a faux writer.
But it fits this film. If ever a film was accursed (like the archetypal poète maudit), then it is this immortal piece of cinema.
Long ago…in a messy room not so far away…I took a gamble on this Belgian film. Because it was Belgian.
Belgium.
What is Belgium? It’s not France. It’s not Netherlands. For the world of art, it exists as a sort of other Switzerland.
(At least that’s how I had it in my mind.)
I think of the great César Franck. The great Symphony in D minor.
And I think of René Magritte. [particularly L’Assassin menacé]
And so I jumped into this film as blindly as anyone.
What I could not have predicted was the sheer perfection which followed upon rolling tape.
There is strictly zero plot outlined on Wikipedia for this film.
Thus, you needs must only remember two names: Gustave de Kervern and Benoît Delépine.
These two directors blessed the world with a film equal to any of the nouvelle vague triumphs (not least because they chose to shoot in grainy black and white).
These two writers concocted a story which only Louis-Ferdinand Céline could have dreamt up.
And finally, these two actors (the same two gentlemen) schooled thespians the world over on how drama should be approached in the 21st century.
We must trust the images.
There are two handicapped spaces for rent, but a veteran from the Belgian Congo pushes them aside.
“Bwana, bwana”…like he’s in his Popemobile.
When you have lost the function of your legs, a bottle of rum is not begrudged.
The tide is high. Now that we’ve fallen asleep.
Two heads bobbing in the water. Wheelchairs in wet sand.
But it is sad as anything. Two grown men. A level of breakdown sobbing which is painful to watch.
Why me?
I can’t believe this.
The gags in this sob story (juxtaposition intended) modulate ad nauseam like Bobby Hebb’s “Sunny” sung in Finnish.
Ah, Finland…
From Belgium to Finland.
Beware of pity (warned Stephan Zweig).
Maybe it’s best just to suck on the tailpipe of your Motocross dreams in Brazil.
Two crippled chaps on their way home. Ambulance blues. Drivers stop at a pub to shoot the shit (out in the agricultural boonies). Two extra pints grasped at intervals by disembodied, transient hands.
Have you ever been cold and hungry?
Think about it (Jerry Lee implores). Next time you see a beggar. They may have the most unbelievable backstory imaginable.
Because people are nice and charitable (on average) for a maximum of about 10 minutes (if at all). Usually nothing.
Must be a drug addict. Doesn’t really need that wheelchair. Probably got it at Homeless-Props-Are-Us.
When you’ve just been fired and you come home to find your wife fucking another man. And he doesn’t even stop.
When you live in a barn and cook your miserable meals on a hotplate.
I’ve slept on that cot. That’s why this film might be unbearable (and absolutely necessary).
Did I mention that this is a comedy?
Two blokes paralyzed and the doctor a paragon of efficiency (drumming for reflexes as they lay ridiculously side-by-side on parallel provincial hospital beds).
Meet me in my office in 30 minutes or you’re fired.
Nothing is more awkward. Crammed in the same room to convalesce. Enemies whose childish fight has left them forever outcasts.
Adding insult…(mugged…no money…no IDs…no passports)…to injury.
Bloody jawdropping genius.
-PD
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