CINEMA

Italian neorealism, conceived in Italy during the 1940s and concretised in the immediate postwar, when the nation was still in ruins, by three unique artists, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti, is a cinema that holds an implacable but poetic mirror to the human condition under the most extreme circumstances. Working with ludicrous budgets by Hollywood standards, often employing non-professional actors, these men let their subjects do the talking and the effect was powerful and memorable. The canvas included all the curses that humanity has harvested from its fall into class-divided society: slavery, feudalism, and now capitalism, the latter ensuring war, pervasive unemployment, poverty, and untold misery for millions.  But the neorealist movement also gave us visions of faith and love, and the need for moral political action, and therefore hope in a future that seems to be increasingly in doubt by the younger generation.

Ever wanted to know how accurate your favourite historical movie is? History Buffs is the place to find out!
The YouTube channel run by Nick Hodges is a veritable treasure of historical commentary and film information covering a multitude of subjects. This review, dealing with Kevin Costner’s major opus, Dances with Wolves, is a standout effort , delving into the tragic history of the “Plains Indians”, and should be widely watched. 

ED CURTIN—He tells us he didn’t wake up until he was nearly thirty-years-old – in 1976.

Ever since he has devoted his life to the art of waking up his fellow Americans through writing and filmmaking, which he had the great good fortune to learn at NYU film school from that other passionate New York filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, who was his professor.  Scorsese shone a light on Oliver after he had made a short film without dialogue called Last Year in Vietnam.  It was shown to the class, a tough group of critics, but before anyone had spoken, Scorsese said, “Well – this is a filmmaker.”  It was an epiphany that Stone says he will never forget. A pure gift that set him on his way to eventually make his great films. But the journey was hard and took years to complete.

HIRAM LEE–De Havilland was among the liberal anticommunists who shifted significantly to the right. She joined with another member of the ICCASP—future US President Ronald Regan, who was then preparing to spill his guts as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee—to oppose the Stalinist elements within the organization. She later testified about the experience in a private session before HUAC.

ALAN MACLEOD—The depiction of Venezuela has been predictably condemned by the Venezuelan government with Culture Minister Ernesto Villegas writing it off as, “crass war propaganda disguised as entertainment.” But Jack Ryan’s depiction of the country does indeed wildly distort the reality of the situation on the ground. Firstly, Venezuela’s current President Nicolas Maduro is himself a left-wing populist, while the United States’ preferred head of state is the far-right Juan Guaidó, who last weekend attempted another failed coup d’état against the elected government.