Six months ago, Carter, who is a film major, e-mailed asking if I would post something on Alfred Hitchcock like what my favorite film of his was? I said sure. And then I forgot. Carter e-mailed to remind me.
So let me start with that. Director Alfred Hitchock was a pioneer of British cinema who came over to the US in 1939 where he became one of the world's most prominent directors. He also ended up having program on US TV.
Let me start with my least favorite Hitchock film. REAR WINDOW. Bores the hell out of me but I'm not a Jimmy Stewart fan. It's not the fact that he was conservative in real life before anyone e-mails arguing that. And I'm pretty sure he wasn't as conservative as he pretended. I'm pretty sure he had 'flirtations' with men. But anyway, I don't like him. I can take him in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY because he's a supporting character and I can take him in VERTIGO which I'll get to in a minute. But he's just too off putting for me. I think the parody on REAR WINDOW on FAMILY GUY is more pleasing than the film.
VERTIGO is one of my favorite Hitchcock films -- so much so that I'm not even bothered by Stewart or by Barbara Bel Geddes sending off some in-the-closet-lesbian vibe while she's supposed to be deeply in love with Stewart. Kim Novak makces the film for me as does the location work and the general story. I think it's one of Hitchcock's finest films.
BIRDS? I always want to like it and then I watch. And it's so slow and boring to me. Suzanne Pleshette adds some spark in her scenes but the thing just lays there.
MARNIE is flawed but it holds my attention. I love PSYCHO and it is all that a scary film should be. And a classic like that, in anyone else's filmography would be the thing everyone pointed to as the greatest achievement.
But Hitchcock doesn't have one great achievement, he has many, many classic films. SUSPICION is a tight drama where you wonder if Cary Grant wants to ill his wife Joan Fontaine. NOTORIOUS is pure magic as Cary Grant forces Ingrid Bergman to basically whore herself out for the government only to end up falling in love with her. TO CATCH A THIEF is another classic -- and the first film I ever bought from AMAZON on streaming. It's about catching a cat burglar. But it's not the police that really want to catch Grace Kelly, it's Cary Grant because she's imitating his m.o. and making it seem as though he's back in business. Then there's NORTH BY NORTHWEST with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant on a train, in a house on stilts, on Mt. Rushmore.
Those four films all have Cary Grant and he's the best leading man Hitchcock ever had.
In addition to those four films and PSYCHO, we're still not done.
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is a great and much imitated film (I love THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN). LIFEBOAT is amazing and ROPE works somehow (it shouldn't work as a movie, but it does). You've got this long, long list of great films.
And for me, the best one is . . . FAMILY PLOT. It's his final film and he goes out with a bang. This is a great film. It's funny and it's got suspense and it's got a lot of charm.
Karen Black and William Devane kidnap people.
And along comes Barbara Harris and Bruce Dern. And . . .
Devane's convinced he's being exposed. But she has no idea of his crimes. Barbara Harris is just trying to get reward money from an elderly woman who's paying her to find her long-lost nephew (Devane).
It's really a great film for Hitchcock to go out on and it's my favorite of all of his films.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, April 28, 2022. The bloom's falling off Barack's rose and the persecution of the Kurds gets some international attention.
Building on comments Rebecca ("follow it back to barack") and Elaine ("Joe Biden continues to hurt other Democrats") made last night, let's note how much self-inflicted prominent Democrats have done to the party.
Due to his extreme youth upon being first sworn in as president, it was always doubtful Barack Obama was going to be able to cast through to a natural death on the whorish press he got. A historical reckoning was due and would likely be forthcoming many years before his state funeral.
But Barack appears to be hastening his own reckoning.
Joe Biden's questionable actions as vice president with regard to raking in money via Hunter Biden's corrupt deals? We would not be talking about it now if Barack hadn't fixed the process so that Joe got the nomination.
The press had willfully and gladly looked th other way in real time. They had pronounced Barack scandal free -- ignoring many problems that were visibile all along and I'd certainnly include releasing Iraqis that had murdered US soldiers in a trade for the dead bodies of some British soliders. That was not in the interest of the US and it did not play well with the families. THE NEW YORK TIMES, to their credit, did front page that. No one else did. But they -- and CNN -- made it a one day story. Most Americanns still don't know about that to this day.
Or that the terrorist group who secured the release of their members them publicly mocked Barack to the Iraqi media repeatedly.
Barack knew Joe wasn't up to the job which is why he refused to back Joe for the longest and why his mouth pieces made sure to hype others. At one point, Barack was even willing to back Elizabeth Waren for the nomination. But in his desire to stop Bernie Sanders, Barack conspired with others to deliver the blow to Bernie.
And his thanks? We now know just how corrupt his administration was. We now know that Joe Biden was a part of Hunter's uethical schemes, that Joe was part of pay-to-play and granted White House access and face-to-face meetings to ensure that his family raked in millions.
Joe is the face of corruption.
And that's another reason that Anie Apples and all the rest don't want to get serious about Hunter today.
She's at THE ATLANTIC today but that's not where she was then. And she wasn't overing reality back then. She was whoring -- as a cheap whore will do.
For eight years they sat on their asses ad looked the other way over and over as Barack broke promises, as Barack ad his administration broke ehtical rules, as contempt of Congress was rewarded by Barack.
Someone lied to Cogress? Well, Barack loves James Clapper. And we all know David Peatraeus' downfall was not because of that affair and shared sectrets, it was because David was being asked to run against Barack in 2012.
There was always more than enough scandal to see if we had a functioning press.
Barack pimped Joe and secured the nomination for him. And that's bad when you grasp how unfavorable Joe has become to the American people. There's a reason you should be careful before writing a letter of recommenation for someone -- your support then reflects on you.
But the other reason that Barack should be kicking himself regarding Joe is that all the rot of his administration may be exposed. He brought it on himself.
And he's so unpopular himself today.
I twas always seen as the 'right' thing to support Barack. So people lied. They thought it was the socially acceptable thing to do.
When the corporate media is telling you that there is only good and evil, and we started noting this over a decade ago, and digging through the polling data to show the conflicting responses, you're not going to get honest responses.
The edia has repeatedly demonized Repubolicans for many, many years.
It's not enough that they have a different opinion than I do, they, the voters, have to be demonized. They're evil. They're racist, they're stupid, they're this, they're that.
That sort of garbage shouldn't take place. But if it does, it should be from the rival major party.
Instead, it came from what was supposed to be neutral and impartial media.
It's not just their lies about Iraq that tarnished the media's reputation.
It's garbage like Brian Stelter who pretends to do a media critique for CNN. Howie Kurtz used to do that job. And I could criticize him for being elitist. But he was striving to be impartial when it came to partisan outlooks. Not so with Brian Stelter whose mind must be as grotesque as his body.
The corporate media has refused to take accountability for their consuences of their actions, they refuse to even acknowledge their actions.
Their lack of accountability only further breeds mistrust in them from healthy portion of the public -- throughout the political spectrum.
And, yes, a Special Counsel is needed. And, Elaine is right, it is hurting the Democrats as they go into the mid-terms. Don't be surprised, as Americans continue to face inflation, if the GOP doesn't use Hunter against incumbent Democrats in various races. 'Joe was getting fat while you're struggling to pay bills. Unlike ____, if you elect _____, we will hold the corrupt accountable."
Turning to Iraq. The beggar media has followed corporate media i dismissing any interest in the Turkish government's ongoing bombing of Iraq, setting up military bases in Iraq and targeting the people of Kurdistan. Silence. This has been going on for years. THE NATION hasn't been interested. JACOBIN hasn't been interested. It's not a 'lifestyle' piece so you know THE PROGRSSIVE won't write about it. DEMOCRACY NOW and all the rest of the beggars have refused to cover it.
That may change. Their British poster boy has weighed in.
Shaun Yuan (ALJAZEERA) reports:
Turkey’s latest military operation in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq began early last week, with Ankara launching an air and ground offensive targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in pockets of Duhok province on April 18.
These operations against the PKK, an armed group fighting for the autonomy of Turkey’s southeast and considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, have become a regular occurrence over recent years. However, they are growing more controversial in Iraq, and not just in areas administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
“This operation is basically trying to intervene and establish networks of observation, monitoring, and bases,” Sardar Aziz, an analyst and former adviser to the KRG parliament, told Al Jazeera. “This time Turkey is planning to stay.”
Only days before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the launch of the operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, he met with the KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, an apparent signal that the KRG was supportive, to a certain extent, of the operation. Erdogan has also said that the Iraqi government cooperated with the operation.
Demonstrations took place in Kurdistan.
This is not about the PKK. It is about targeting Kurds and the Turkish government makes that clear with their actions outside of Turkey as well as inside. They persecute the Kurds and they've done it for decades. The PKK is a rsponse to this persecution -- a detail a whorish media always 'forgets' to point out. The PKK did not rise up because things were perfect for the Kurds in Turkey.
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