Human Dramas

Fear not, America — Andrew Cuomo is riding to the rescue. SMH.

Should workers at GM, whom the Feds bailed out, be going on strike? Shouldn’t they be grateful they have jobs, are well-paid and enjoy terrific benefits?

Shhhh. Headline from nypost.com: “FAA, DOT coordinated to hide cost of 18 Buttigieg flights on government planes: report.” As if those paying attention don’t know he’s a phony.

Chilling excerpt from an NYP editorial regarding the war in Ukraine: “… the mass deportation of children so they can be re-educated and raised as Russians stands out as one of the clearest crimes against humanity.” Mad Vlad strikes again.

He is a great governor but disappointing presidential candidate, but this headline is spot on: “DeSantis: GOP, Trump Share Blame for $32T Debt.” One of my very few criticisms of DT policy is high spending.

Lauren Boebert has proven her sense of entitlement is just as marked as that of liberals. Get over yourself, lady.

What may be the final disc from Netflix by mail proved a huge winner. Frantz (2016) is high quality drama. A French-German production, it is the story of a young woman grieving the loss of her fiance in WWI. Set in 1919, only a year after the armistance, animosity lingers, the French and Germans still unforgiving of one another. One day the woman sees a young man place flowers on the memorial of the deceased, who is buried in a mass grave at what was the front. He is French and claims to have known the titular character before the war. I will say no more about the plot. I did not recognize anyone in the cast. All are outstanding, particularly the leads, Paula Beer and Pierre Niney. The performances are understated, perhaps reflecting the numbness of survivors in the post-war era. Subtitles are required for those who do not speak the languages. The film was directed by Francois Ozon, who has 47 titles, many of them shorts, under his name at IMDb, and 39 as a writer. He collaborated with Philippe Piazzo on the screenplay, remaking Broken Lullaby (1932), directed by Ernst Lubitsch, based on the play by Maurice Rostand, screenplay by Reginald Berkeley, Samson Raphaelson & Ernest Vajda. Shot largely in black and white, the color sequences, I believe, are incidences that are not real, such as a dream or a lie in flashback. 17,000+ users at IMDb have rated Frantz, forging to a consensus of 7.5 on scale of ten. I’ll go with four on a scale of five. I’m not surprised it didn’t fare well at the box office, as its appeal is limited to those who appreciate drama that adheres to real life, the human condition. Made on a budget estimated at $11 million, it returned less than $7.5 million worldwide. I believe it will be a winner in the long run, grow in stature. My one quibble is that it is a tad too long at 1:55, the travel scenes too detailed. Still, Frantz is powerful, gutwrenching and sad, especially knowing the Nazis will soon be delivering more grief… Born in Berlin in 1995, Paula Beer has 23 titles under her name. She has won eight awards on the continent and received twelve nominations… Born in France in 1989, Pierre Niney has been acting since age eleven. There are 42 titles under his name. He has won four awards and received eight nominations. He also writes and directs. Here are the stars in character:

I got the parking spot I wanted but wasn’t sure it would matter in terms of the floating book shop, given Rosh Hashanah. The session went better than I expected. My thanks to Boris and the sweet elderly former USSR English professor, who donated several marketable titles. Here’s what sold: ten kids’ books, The Cat in the Hat (2003) on DVD; The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets by The Editors of Bottom Line Publications; Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin; Embraced by the Light by Betty J. Eadie and Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures by National Museum of the American Indian, Emil Her Many Horses, et al.

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