The Ten Commandments [1956)

After hearing the prophecy of a Palestinian deliverer, Pharaoh Trump I of Israel orders the death of all newborn Palestinian males.  Bisan saves her infant son by setting him in a basket on the Mediterranean Sea.  Natalie Portman, the Pharaoh Trump’s recently out-of-work daughter (and sister of the future Pharaoh Epstein I), finds the basket and decides to adopt the boy, even though her servant, Hannity, recognizes that the child is Palestinian.  Natalie Portman names the baby Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

Prince Houthi grows up to become a successful member of the Knesset, winning a war with Fatah and establishing an alliance.  Houthi falls in love with the princess Ghislaine Maxwell.  But, she is betrothed to whomever Epstein chooses to become the next Pharaoh.  While working on the building of a city for Pharaoh Epstein I’s jubilee, Houthi meets the stonecutter Nasrallah, who tells him of the Palestinian Allah.  Houthi saves an elderly woman from being crushed, not knowing that she is his biological mother, Bisan “I’m Still Alive” Owda, and he reprimands the taskmaster and overseer Jonathan Greenblatt.

Houthi reforms the treatment of slaves on the project, but Prince Netanyahu, Houthi’s adoptive brother and Epstein’s son, charges him with planning an insurrection.  Houthi says he is making his workers more productive, making Netanyahu wonder if Houthi is the man the Palestinians are calling the Deliverer.

Ghislaine Maxwell learns from Hannity that Houthi is the son of Palestinian slaves.  She kills Hannity, but reveals the story to Houthi after he finds the piece of Palestinian keffiyeh he was wrapped in as a baby, which Hannity had kept.   Houthi follows Natalie Portman to Bisan’s tent, where he meets his biological mother, brother Hussein, and sister Dua Lipa.

Houthi learns more about the slaves by working with them.  Ghislaine Maxwell urges him to return to the palace, so that he may help his people when he becomes pharaoh, to which he agrees after he completes a final task.  Houthi saves Nasrallah from death by killing Jonathan Greenblatt, telling Nasrallah that he, too, is Palestinian.  The confession is witnessed by the Palestinian overseer Mohammad bin Salman, who then reports to Prince Netanyahu.  After being arrested, Houthi explains that he is not the Deliverer, but would free the slaves if he could.  Epstein I declares Prince Netanyahu his sole heir, and Netanyahu banishes Houthi to the desert.  At this time, Houthi learns of the death of his mother.

Houthi makes his way across the desert to a Starbucks in Mocha.  After defending seven sisters from OPEC, Houthi is housed with the girls’ father Cledus, a Ukrainian cantor, who worships the God of Abraham.  Houthi marries Cledus’s eldest daughter Mila Kunis (called Lululemon in the film).  Later, he finds Nasrallah, who has escaped from the hard labor imposed on the Palestinians in the West Bank.  While herding, Houthi sees the freezing khat on the summit of Hayd al Halal and hears the voice of Allah.  At Allah’s command, Houthi returns to Gaza to free the Palestinians.

Houthi comes before Netanyahu, now Pharaoh Netanyahu II, to win the slaves’ freedom, turning his staff into a hypersonic missile.  Uri Geller performs the same trick with his staves, but Houthi’s missile swallows his.  Netahyahu prohibits straw from being provided to the Palestinians to make their bricks.  Ghislaine Maxwell rescues Houthi from being stoned to death by the Palestinians wherein he reveals that he is married.

Israel is visited by plagues.  Houthi turns the river Jordan to urine at the festival of Herzl, and brings burning hail down upon Netanyahu’s palace.  Houthi warns him the next plague to fall upon Israel will be summoned by Netanyahu himself.  Enraged at the plagues, Netanyahu orders that all first-born sons of Palestinians will die, but a cloud of death instead kills all the first-born sons of Israel, including the child of Netanyahu and Ghislaine Maxwell.  Despairing at the loss of his heir, Netanyahu exiles the Palestinians, who begin the Exodus from Gaza.

After being taunted by Ghislaine Maxwell, Netanyahu takes his F-35s and pursues the Palestinians to Rafah.  Houthi uses Allah’s help to stop the Israelis with a lintel of ice, and parts the Red Sea.  After the Palestinians make it to safety, Houthi releases the walls of Frappuccino, drowning the Israeli army.  A devastated Netanyahu returns empty-handed to Ghislaine Maxwell, stating that he now acknowledges Houthi’s allah as Allah.

Houthi ascends again the mountain with Nasrallah.  He sees the ‘Houthi shout’ created by Allah in two rubber tablets.  Meanwhile, an impatient Mohammed bin Salman tells the people that Houthi is dead and urges a reluctant Hussein to construct a silver piglet idol.  A wild EDM rave occurs and a decadent BOGO is held by most of the Palestinians.

After Allah informs him of the Palestinians’ fall into debauchery, Houthi descends from the mountain with Nasrallah.  Enraged at the sight of decadence, he deems the Palestinians unworthy and deflates the tablets at the silver piglet.  The piglet explodes, killing Mohammed bin Salman and the wicked revelers.  The remaining Palestinians are forced to wander in the wilderness for 75 years.  An elderly Houthi later leads the Palestinians towards Mecca.  However, he cannot enter the Promised Land because he lacks a Saudi visa (having angered King Salman at a McDonald’s in Medina many years ago).  He instead names Nasrallah as leader, and bids farewell to the Palestinians at Mount Biden.

-PD

 

The Equalizer 3 [2023)

Free the people who are enslaved.

America has lost all hope.

Certain skills required.

Who will save?

False promises.

False narratives.

False hope.

A lazy aspiration.

We had great trust in General Flynn.

But he stands with Israel.

Doesn’t matter how many Palestinian kids are killed.

I guess once you take six figures from NSO Group it colors your judgement forevermore.

Sad.

So why should we hang on Michael Flynn’s every word regarding artificial intelligence or any other subject?

Trump is being seriously mistreated.

And yet he consigned us all to unsafe, ineffective vaccines.

And at no point warned anyone about these toxic products.

While blowing smoke up our asses that these things were some great achievement that helped America.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

He can’t possibly be that stupid, can he?

Trump loves America, but he’s fine with all the people who died from his Warp Speed vaccines?

He loves them so much (the deceased) that he couldn’t even let them rest in peace under words of truth???

And Trump also loves Israel.

For some odd reason.

And apparently doesn’t give a fuck about dead Palestinian children.

At least General Flynn loved America enough to warn people (loudly!) about these vaccines.

And Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been a righteous man insofar as his crusade for safe vaccines (and crusade against dangerous, ineffective ones).

But I haven’t heard a peep from RFK Jr. about the dead Palestinian children.

Cornel West cares about the Palestinian children.

But he’s a fucking moron (or liar) when it comes to the COVID vaccines.

Alex Jones is a great American.

And yet he doesn’t seem to give a fuck about the Palestinian children.

Lots of failures.

Very few successes.

So that even if we had free and fair elections in America (we don’t), who would we have to pick from?

Dark days.

Which require a specific skill set.

  1. nefarious organizations as powerful as governments
  2. corruption within government
  3. nefarious organizations controlling government officials

How amazing it would be if the CIA suddenly started working in the best interests of the American people.

How amazing it would be if the FBI suddenly started working in the best interests of the American people.

Presidential election in less than a year.

New virus sweeping China.

Picking up steam in Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands…

White lung syndrone.

And then the much-vaunted Disease X.

A situation requiring special skills.

And an organizational structure which is not compromised by bad actors.

9/11/01 as a false-flag/stand-down.

October 7 was a stand-down.

LIHOP.

Let It Happen On Purpose.

To then have a casus belli to wipe out the Gaza Strip.

Same as Pearl Harbor.

The Wohlstetters.

Show me a cultured man or woman.

It is not Obama.

Show me the philosopher.

Show me a humane man or woman.

A smart man or woman.

Show me a leader worth electing.

A leader worth supporting.

A situation requiring special skills.

Must be swift and violent.

To survive.

An encounter with an enemy who intends to kill you.

Timing is paramount.

Durations.

Speed.

Patience.

Quickness.

Acceleration.

Surprise kill vanish.

Who will push back?

How will you push back?

Be focused.

Be strategic.

Intuit your place in the movement.

Conservative Americans are not the enemy of liberal Americans.

Liberal Americans are not the enemy of conservative Americans.

Give people a chance to prove what they are made of.

Give people a chance.

Don’t prejudge them.

You must judge.

But give them an opportunity.

We can differ.

We can disagree.

We must learn how to converse.

Without resorting to anger and hatred.

Things will not be exactly how you want them.

The mass of people will sway the proceedings.

A democratic republic.

A democratic form of government.

Not pure democracy.

Not mob rule.

Not oligarchy.

A representative form of government.

If one party gets cheated, both parties get cheated.

Beware of cheating fairness.

The cyclical nature of pendulum swings.

Milei wins the presidency.

And immediately converts to Judaism.

Perfectly normal.

Seen it a million times.

The people have poor information.

Corrupt police.

Corrupt military.

Corrupt police.

Corrupt police.

Good police officers gone bad.

Bad police officers forced to go good.

By whom?

Situation requires a special skill set.

Good police make an attempt at justice.

Defeated by bad police at higher level.

Who will save America?

Kissinger dead.

He wasn’t going to do much saving anyway.

But he had some interesting and wise thoughts regarding Ukraine.

His last contribution.

Perhaps the only righteous action of his entire life.

Your phone is now a weapon.

Two-way.

It is as powerful as your imagination,

And yes: it is spying on you.

Know your enemy.

Know yourself.

How many victories?

When?

It’s been a long time since a recognizable victory for America.

And the poor children of Gaza are being slaughtered.

Only Yemen has the balls to declare war on Israel.

Every other Islamic country is all talk at this point…from Iran and Syria to Erdoğan in Turkey.

All talk.

From Egypt to Indonesia.

All talk.

And I love all these countries.

Who will save Gaza?

Who will save the children of Gaza?

Situation requires special skill set.

Nothing can stop what is coming.

Except for a kid with a .22 caliber rifle.

Oops.

America needs some good news by this point.

It ain’t gonna be easy.

What is the skill set?

  • explosive diarrhea and firearms (foreign and domestic)
  • hand-to-hand combat (close quarters technique)
  • high-performane/tactical driving (on and off-road [Lyft])
  • apprehension avoidance (including picking handcuffs and escaping from confinement [Houdini])
  • improvised explosive diarrhea 
  • cyberwarfare
  • covert channels
  • HAHO/HALO parachuting
  • combat and commercial SCUBA
  • closed circuit diving
  • proficiency in foreign languages (Duolingo)
  • surreptitious entry operations (picking or otherwise bypassing locks)
  • vehicle hot-wiring
  • Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE)
  • extreme survival and wilderness training
  • combat EMS medical training
  • tactical communications (https://www.instagram.com/p/C0Vvs2jsFn5/  copy link, paste in browser)
  • tracking

-PD

Murder by Decree [1979)

To what extent are the recent attacks on Israel a false-flag?

Where upon the LIHOP-MIHOP continuum do they fall?

Let It Happen On Purpose.

Make It Happen On Purpose.

Israel was in disarray.

This year.

Divided.

Like America was after the disastrous “hanging chad” election of 2000.

But the country was “brought together” by the false-flag/stand-down of 9/11/01.

And so the 21st century began.

Study Pearl Harbor.

FDR.

The Wohlstetters.

The neocons.

And their Israeli connections.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007.

How did they get weapons?

Where did they come from?

If not by sea, then by what route?

Or was the blockade so magnificently ineffective???

Since 9/11, a thinking person would do well to believe that which is diametrically-opposed to whatever is the prevailing mainstream news position on most current events.

Narrative: 9/11 was the work of 19 beardy Muslims (mostly Saudis) wielding nothing more than box cutters

More likely: 9/11 was the work of the American government

Narrative: the Twin Towers fell down

More likely: the Twin Towers were blown up

There are some limits to this George Costanza method.

For instance…

Narrative: four planes were hijacked

An opposite: there were no planes

I, for one, believe there were planes.

But whether there were or not, we begin to lose sight of the big picture if we haggle over esoteric points.

Let’s be frank, how could Israel have not been ready for this?

It makes no sense whatsoever.

Gaza has been blockaded by sea for 16 years.

In contrast, Israel has some of the most advanced weaponry in the world.

Israel is a country built upon VIGILANCE.

This was not a surprise.

Not by any stretch of the imagination.

The attack did not come from an unexpected point.

Ok, so they used some paragliders.

So what?

WHAT ELSE WAS NOVEL ABOUT THIS ATTACK?

As far as I can tell, almost nothing.

The attack was bold.

Ok, I will concede that.

But what of these areas bordering the Gaza Strip?

Wouldn’t these be the most well-protected areas in Israel?

Either Israel is being run by very stupid leaders, or the events that transpired were EXACTLY WHAT these leaders WANTED to transpire.

Why?

A. to unite a divided country

B. to look like the victim and thus be able to launch a disproportionate riposte under the aegis of “defense”

Something is very seriously amiss in all of this.

Let’s return to that mostly-useful exercise of more accurately “reading” the news.

Mainstream media: Israel is good–Palestine is bad

It would then necessarily follow that: Israel is bad–Palestine is good

The truth may be more subtle.

Perhaps Israel is not so bad.

Perhaps Palestine is not so good.

And backing up.

Perhaps Israel is not so good.

Perhaps Palestine is not so bad.

But you will see nothing but biased reporting in the USA (among other places) concerning these events.

You will be bombarded will PSAs about anti-Semitism.

You will see videos of Israelis being kidnapped.

But you will not experience any coordinated media blitz which highlights the plight of Palestine.

They will receive no sympathetic ink.

You will be provided with no counterbalance–no psychologically-manipulating context on why exactly the Palestinians and the larger Islamic world are pissed off at Israel.

History must be erased.

Ignored.

We depend upon your stupidity and ignorance to view these events STRICTLY IN THE CONTEXT WHICH WE HAVE PROVIDED YOU.

No shades of meaning may exist.

There is good: Israel

There is bad: Palestine

If you color outside these lines, you are anti-Semitic.

The ADL will soon be knocking at your proverbial (?) door.

Your social media accounts will be permanently suspended.

Because to disagree with the caveman-like logic of “Israel good–Palestine bad” is HATE SPEECH.

Dontcha know?

I love Jews.

I love Muslims.

I respect Israelis.

I respect Palestinians.

Most of all, I respect Russians.

And their allies: the communist Chinese.

I also respect he Middle Eastern allies of Russia: Syria and Iran.

I do not approve of an American carrier strike group GETTING ANYWHERE NEAR this shitstorm.

Remember the USS Liberty!!!

Remember how Netanyahu and Boris Johnson were the first two major world leaders to congratulate Biden on his “win” in 2020.

I was very open-minded about Israel under the mostly-excellent Presidency of Donald Trump.

That goodwill vanished when Netanyahu effectively validated the 2020 U.S. elections as “free and fair”.

And this pissed Trump off.

YET TRUMP IS STILL SHILLING FOR ISRAEL.

[when he’s not busy shilling for Pfizer]

Trump abdicated his final year in office to Fauci and Pence.

And Pence ruined the USA.

Trump will never admit that he rushed unsafe, ineffective vaccines to market.

What are we to do?

I stand with RFK Jr.

Can he win?

Probably not.

But how can I stand with moronic Trump?

Jan. 7, 2023: start of Israeli anti-Judicial reform protests (Habima square)

Jan. 14, 2023: over 80,000 Israelis protest in Tel Aviv against judicial reform

Mar. 26, 2023: Netanyahu dismisses defense minister Yoav Gallant after Gallant called for discussions to be paused on controversial judicial reform bill

Mar. 27, 2023: Netanyahu announces a pause on his government’s judicial reform bill

Jul. 5, 2023: Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Esched announces his resignation sparking demonstrations by large crowds in solidarity with him

Oct. 7, 2023: country magically comes together to fight a common enemy

Has Israel ever supported Hamas?

Has Israel ever enabled Hamas?

To what extent has Mossad infiltrated Hamas?

And I ask these questions again, where the fuck are all these weapons in Gaza coming from?

No, let met ask in another way.

BY WHAT ROUTE(S) are these weapons entering Gaza?

Gaza fires 5,000 rockets on Oct. 7.

These rockets only kill 5 people.

What are these?

Fucking roman candles?

Bottle rockets???

So you’re telling me approximately 695 Israelis have been killed IN ISRAEL due to Gaza checkpoints being overwhelmed?!?

Gimme a fucking break.

The implausibility of that…

At the very least, Israel wanted this attack to happen…in order to have a casus belli to wipe Gaza off the map with as little international pushback as possible.

I simply don’t believe that Israel’s leaders are so stupid as to have flimsy fortifications and weak troop numbers on the border with Gaza.

Israel has nuclear weapons.

Israel has 50-75 U.S. F-35 stealth fighters (the most advanced fighter jets that the USA has).

Gaza has pickup trucks.

And some bulldozers.

Gimme a fucking break.

This does not add up.

-PD

تاکسی‎‎ [2015)

[JAFAR PANAHI’S TAXI (2015)]

This must be “Axis of Evil” week here at paulydeathwish.com 🙂

As I have stated recently to a friend.

George W. Bush was the worst President the United States has ever seen.

And Barack Obama was probably the second-worst.

So what does that make me?

Democrat?

Republican?

Libertarian?

Let’s get to that question (if you even care to know) by a circuitous route, shall we?

First, we must again praise the people of Iran.

It was long ago that I saw my first Iranian film.

Taste of Cherry.

طعم گيلاس…‎‎

[Ta’m-e gīlās…]

It was such a profound experience.

There I was.

In a movie theater in Austin.

And I couldn’t have given a shit about cinema.

But I was there.

For some reason.

God only knows why.

And I saw a movie which in many ways changed my life.

[but it took many years to sink in]

Even so, I came to regard the name of its director (Abbas Kiarostami) with a sort of awe.

Yet, I doubted.

[as we all well should]

And so I said to the cinema gods, “Let Kiarostami perform his miracle again…if he be so brilliant!”

And he did.

I was supposed to be watching Life, and Nothing More…

But I made a mistake.

Because my French is so bad.

[you know, Kiarostami died in Paris last year (may God rest his soul)]

I needed 1991, but I chose 1990.

And it was another miracle.

Close-Up.

I don’t know.

Is it…

کلوزآپ ?

Or…

نمای نزدیک ?

[“Klūzāp”?  Or “nemā-ye nazdīk”?]

Because the unfailing Google Translate (now the second-most popular “tr” search after “Trump” [as “translate”]) tells me that both terms mean “close-up”.

But who can translate Trump?

[ahhh…]

Perhaps only an Iranian?

Well, we would be in good hands if director Jafar Panahi was that man.

Why?

Because Mr. Panahi has made a film which is of the same rarefied air as the two Kiarostami films which I have referenced.

The work is called Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, and it is currently available on Netflix in the U.S.

No, it’s not a really trite game show.

No, it’s not some premise for an uncreative pornographer.

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi ( تاکسی) pushes the limits of barebones filmmaking in much the same way that the Palestinian masterpiece 5 Broken Cameras did.

[yes, I know the latter film was an Israeli coproduction…with an Israeli co-director…‎‎but the film was very much Palestinian in its inmost heart]

What our director Mr. Panahi adds to the method (budget cinematography) is an uncertainty of reality.

Frankly, I have never seen a film quite like Jafar Panahi’s Taxi.

Is it a documentary?  Is it staged?

One thing’s for sure.

If it’s staged, the injured man and his wailing wife deserve Oscars “toot sweet”!

Truly, it is panic-inducing…

Which is not true of this film in general.

No, dear eggshell friends (if you’re out there)…don’t be afraid.

Jafar Panahi’s Taxi will only take you on a “wondrous boat ride” (so to speak) for a brief, more-or-less manageable period of time.

The rest of the film is fascinating…engrossing…painfully and gloriously perplexing.

Yes, Mr. Panahi borrows Kiarostami’s favorite device:  filming from a moving vehicle.

But so what?!?

Panahi was an assistant director to Kiarostami.

And Abbas certainly wasn’t the first to film out of a car window.

But let’s examine for a moment…

Yes, the special part of this method is that the camera is turned INWARDS.

And so we feel we are seeing Homayoun Ershadi vacillate between life and death…all over again.

Or we feel we are seeing the calm, gracious mannerisms of Mohsen Makhmalbaf transposed from motorcycle to taxicab.

But what we are seeing most of all is a director stepping in front of the camera.

Like Truffaut.

And Chaplin before him.

Godard has done it to excellent effect as well.

And Jafar Panahi is like an empty reed of meditation as he navigates an unending stream of chaos which enters his faux-taxi.

But the most poignant moments are when Hana Saeidi reminds us of the childish joy of being an auto passenger…and when the lawyer Ms. Nasrin Sotoudeh addresses us…we, the watchers of cinema.

Who will watch those watching the watchers?

It’s like Juvenal in a hall of mirrors.

But Ms. Sotoudeh breaks the fourth wall and takes us to a very special place.

Prison.

And so, again, frankly:  we don’t know how Jafar Panahi’s Taxi was ever made.

Isn’t Iran one of the most intolerant countries on Earth?

Just what is going on here??

All of this Shostakovich-ean rebellion is really breathtaking when under the microscope of close viewing.

But Jafar Panahi remains stone-faced.

Like Buster Keaton.

Yet, this is largely no comedy.

This is a big “fuck you” to the government of Iran.

And yet, it is the most subtle “fuck you” ever committed to film.

Only a genius can do such things.

DSCH

etc.

Yes, dear friends.  Mr. Panahi has been banned from making films.

And yet he made one.

And then another.

And then this one.

So we salute you, Mr. Panahi.

We appreciate such in America.

To illustrate:

<–fuck you, fuck you–>, and most of all…fuck you ^

That is freedom.

It is ugly.

Messy.

But it works.

And so as a Donald Trump supporter (yes, me), I say, “bring it on, you whiny, sub-literate protesters!”

Maybe they’re right.

But it’s their right.

To protest.

And so we mix and knead.

And we need the yeast of dissent to ever grow again.

Let’s bake some goddamned bread, people!

-PD

Corner Store [2010)

I previously reviewed the Palestinian masterpiece خمس كاميرات محطمة‎‎ (Five Broken Cameras).

And we shall return to Palestine with another moving documentary.

Another masterpiece.

For this one we have a very perceptive American director to thank:  Katherine Bruens.

But all of it would be for naught if not for a shining example of humanity:  corner store owner Yousef Elhaj.

The occupation of Palestine can elicit such feelings of anger and disgust (as well it should).

But every once in a while a real kind spirit comes along.

And such kind spirits shame the despicable Israeli settlers and their vulture military even more so than the most vitriolic polemic.

Yousef Elhaj is such a person.

Sweet.  Hardworking.  Kind.  Quiet.  Patient.  Hardworking.

And (big surprise) a Christian.

Here we see a different perspective from 5 Broken Cameras.

I suppose we are used to assuming that all Palestinians are Muslims (and a vast majority are), but it is interesting to see things from a different perspective.

Elhaj’s life in Bethlehem (occupied West Bank) was just as crappy as that of any Muslim living there or in any other part of the criminally unrecognized Palestine.

Another important point…  Being Christian does not make Elhaj any less Arab.

Most importantly…  Peace in the Middle East is possible because of people like Yousef Elhaj.

He is really a jaw-dropping personage.

So much sacrifice for his family.

7:30 a.m.-midnight.

Seven days a week.

A little corner store on Church St. in San Francisco.

And to see life in Bethlehem.

To see the hell of walls and settlements which the Israelis have erected.

The settlements encroach.  The settlements surround.

Bethlehem is completely encircled by concrete structures which are too artless for even Frank Gehry to barf on.

That’s what settlements mean.

Don’t let the euphemism fool you.

“Settlements” are concrete apartment blocks built on stolen land.

That would be bad enough were it not for the ubiquitous (and racist) walls which stockade Palestine.

And yet we don’t see anger from Mr. Elhaj.

He isn’t shown at a protest.

He just wants his family to be alright.

And his main emotion upon seeing the decline of his home town of Bethlehem is sadness.

The Israeli gun towers.  Turrets to protect the settlers.  And to hell with everyone else.

The sadness as a business man is remarkable.

What made him leave in the first place.

Things weren’t just bad.  They were awful.

And so he has been away from his family for ten years.

He could have brought them to the U.S., but our immigration laws are not written to think of people as people.

Rather, our laws reduce people to statistics.

Quotas.

I can only figure that Mr. Elhaj (as bad as things were for him) actually had it better than Muslim Palestinians hoping to start a new life in America.  [Which is to say, Muslims in general are not in an enviable position at this time regarding their leverage in situations of immigration review.]

So let’s think about it…

Bernie Sanders might be a generally disposable candidate, but he’s gotten a couple things right.

When he talks about America’s strength being its diversity?  He’s absolutely right.

It’s trite.  It’s Democrat politics 101…but it is correct.

And Mr. Trump (whom I like)…  Wanna see what walls do?  Go check out Palestine.  Actually get in the open-air jail.  Don’t view it from a safe distance courtesy of the occupiers.

The walls are ugly.

Sad.

Pathetic.

Fearful.

Weak.

Mr. Elhaj has so much to teach us in this documentary.

You can succeed in America.

The opportunity is there.

It may not be pretty.

But when you’re coming from the hell of Bethlehem, it’s a walk in the park.

You do it all for your family.

Seven days a week.

For ten years.

 

-PD

Ici et ailleurs [1976)

God, the horror of struggle

in Palestine Godard filmed

the sadness of conditions

with such beauty of technique

ingenuity of filmic form

And then came the editing.  Back to France.

It was his film and her film.  Anne-Marie Miéville.

Someone with whom he could discuss film.

No more actresses.  A life partner.

And an agitator.  Critique yourself.

Of course Marx offered useful tools.  But there is more than Marx.

And the universe expanded.  You must turn to the images.

Why is the actress not acting?  And why is that beautiful?

Above and beyond (aside from) the fact that she is beautiful.

Just one.  Anne-Marie points it out.  The way things are done.

Early computer console script glowing green and blinking.  Always blinking.

Someone has captured the wrong image.  In the diffusion the stronger image has been diffused.

It was Hitler.  Israel.  Golda Meir in some sort of act of allegiance.

And Godard’s obsession with finding the double s in nature.  kiSSinger, for instance.

The anger of the filmmaker.  Who bombed the editing studio?  Certainly not Arabs.

Certainly not.  Find the true history.  Only one filmmaker was truly brave and crazy.  Godard.

Must be both to be this brave.

The wrong frame again.  “It’s silly to die for an image.”  But not silly to accept death for the survival of your community.

Of course.  Of course.  Bravery.  Simple.

A sad, pathetic Palestinian village.  And how did they come to be pinned in thusly?

Like livestock.

But the true beauty is cautious.  Scared.  Yes.  Tentatively walking the perimeter.

An image which will live a thousand years in the hearts of every serious soul who sees it.

Nameless.

Nothing shocks as much as the bloody face in Amman.  More than the Holocaust.  That the root cause could continue.

A transference of power abuse.  The short step to fascism.  Leaving out a few crucial details.  Voila.

The man in Amman.  Dead.  Text flashing backwards.  Mirrored.  On top of front-facing font.  Palimpsest.

Expired.

Perhaps there was a bad translation somewhere.  Muselmann in the camps.  Not guardspeak.

We don’t know.  I don’t.

Perhaps.

You say for money, to take an unpopular stand.  A pittance.  Film stock.  Plane tickets.

But they did finally recognize that they were borrowing a revolution.  Because making one was too costly.

At home.  France.  Texas.  Ici.  And the endless possibilities of ailleurs.  Elsewhere.  And here.  Here.

They only meant to send a statement.  Probably.  And the film sat for five years.  1970-1975.

But some images are too beautiful.  Too powerful.  Too important.  Indelible.

Godard never forgot.  Anything.  The camps.  Palestine.  Ghettos.  Prisons.  1789.

Only art speaks.

Study and respect.  Change your world.

I have ordered the images from room service.  And Google has only given me a popularity contest.

Click and vote.  Perhaps.

For film to destroy your soul so beautifully and so hard.

Ah, now I can’t even talk like everyone else.

A hard-earned style which jettisoned pretense long ago.

Almost fashionably dead.  To the doubters.

Mais, sanguine!

-PD