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[The Killer]

#1

Off the Record / Re: TV/Movies Megathread

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 05:10:50 PM

This one is for Savonarola

The Killer (1989)

Another great restauration, no AI-cleaning crapfest/adulteration à la James Cameron and his tech bros (hello True Lies), of the 35 mm movie.
Comparable to Hard Boiled for the quality of the DCP.

I remember a screening with reels jumpings every now and then, with some breaks literally, a dozen years ago or so in an arthouse in the Latin Quarter.

4K Blu-ray scheduled for March over here. The French DVD I had was good for its time, unlike the Criterion  , but that was 20 years ago.

Movie is arguably John Woo's most famous.

#2

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Duque de Bragança - Today at 05:01:14 PM

Man this place is dying, yours and Norgy's post are the only ones today, in like about 10 hours.

I was busy today, with a movie/blu-ray/DVD fair and a screening of Boorman's Excalibur in one of the last cinemas in the Champs-Élysées. 

#3

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by HVC - Today at 04:54:09 PM

Still licking my wounds after Miami beat Vancouver in the final

Twice in as many months American money beat Canadian passion.

#4

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:40:57 PM

"The Left" is in shambles everywhere across the West. My 2 cents is that every generation post Boomer feels they are worse off than their parents. Economic indicators lean that way. The left does not propose a clear vision to solve that, apart from a brief interlude with Obama's Dream and Hope, which turned out to be bullshit. The Right promises to turn back the clock and does politics of nostalgia. It resonates a lot more with ppl these days.

My crystal ball tells me a worldwide conflagration is gonna happen in the next 20 years, after which a reset on income inequality is due to emerge.

I really hope you're not right.

My two thoughts on the wider problem for the left though - which I think are connected - are that it's maybe impossible to "solve" the economic issue because it is a product of an increasingly globalised world.

I don't think there's a way out of that. But I think the "left" is broadly so committed to the social and cultural aspects of a neo-liberal globalised world, they are not able to even imagine alternatives that could meaningfully address the economic effects of that system.

Relatedly generally the period the far and radical right are nostalgising for is the period of peak European social democracy, the short post-war order, the trente glorieuses. But again that is a period that was pre-globalisation and neo-liberalism. I think broadly they are willing and able to imagine alternatives that unwind a lot of that economic model - perhaps because the rise of the rest is starting to fundamentally challenge the position of local elites too not just, as it has for the last 25 years (and will continue to) the position of the rich world's middle and working class.

#5

Off the Record / Re: The EU thread

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 04:26:05 PM

You have made this point about the international brotherhood of xenophobes for a long time. The key is these are all populist movements with general complaints for their compatriots in other countries can get with. For technocratic mainstream center left parties like Labour what they have to say doesn't even make sense to Americans, even those who support the center left mainstream technocratic parts of the Democratic Party. Because you really have to understand the British system and their specific issues to understand or care.

If they had a bunch of powerful ideological points about social values or whatever then some Democratic voters might feel solidarity and start working closely with British center leftists. But they don't so there is nothing really to attract their attention.

I think I'm not expressing myself particularly well on this because I don't think it's necessarily a question of popular support or getting voters to care about other countries. Policy is the least important thing in politics and the least important bit of policy is foreign policy - no-one cares. There are three voters deeply invested in it and they all work for think tanks in our national capitals. What I think this Nationalist International is really good at it is observing, learning from and sharing knowledge about technique - about how to do politics. They don't agree on everything - Meloni is very pro-Ukraine, Orban is very pro-Russia; Trump is all about protectionism and state capitalism, Milei is Menemist neo-liberalism on steroids (the Latin American far right is really interesting). They're not united around policy or even necessarily ideology so much as they are around affect and style. But also, as I say, working out what works and applying it and sharing those experiences and that knowledge. They seem far more open to learning from each other's experience.

FWIW I think there is maybe something similar on the populist/radical left - perhaps just because they're generally less bound by established party structures. It's very new and a UK case but I find it really interesting that the new Green leader (who positions himself as an eco-populist) has done a thing with Hasan Piker. But more broadly his campaign was really galvanised by really slick social media videos. So it's not necessarily a surprise that apparently the Greens and Mamdani's teams have been in close contact and are sharing what they know/their experience.

There's always been a tradition of this in the mainstream parties - I think from a purely UK perspective it's more of an Anglophone thing just because most people don't have foreign languages. So Clinton and Blair shared teams, Labour people embed in Labor and Democratic campaigns in Australia and the US (Canada is a little more tough because technically their sister party is the NDP, but there are staffers going back and forth with the Liberals) - and the opposite is true for the mainstream right. I slightly wonder if part of what's happened is that they've shifted from there being a shared perspective/point of view underpinning it to a consultancy class. So Keating's Labor, Clintons Democrats and Blair's New Labour share a lot of DNA - it makes perfect sense that you have aides and staffers circulating between them. Skip forward 20 years and you have Obama's two key aides working for both the Labour and Tory campaigns for a fee. I know someone whose company did a lot of work for Labour in 2024 - they've since worked on (successful) campaigns for progressive in Portugal, Australia and Canada. But it's a for-profit consultancy. Maybe that goes to the wider authenticity challenge the mainstream has - like writing, political campaigning has moved from something you do for a few close friends to something you do for money.

I also would mostly exclude the US from this I think there are distinctive and particular angles to what's happening in the US. But also fundamentally everyone in the world has to care about what's happening in American politics - I think too much sometimes and it can suck the oxygen out of our own political systems, particularly in the age of the internet and particularly if you're in an English speaking country. For better or worse, we all live in America's internet. The line about if America sneezes the world catches a cold is I think now really true about cultural and political issues as well as the economy.

Also generally I don't think there's anything particularly exceptional or unique about any country's politics. I don't think any of it matters. We are seeing the same thing across Europe (I think the US is different) - I think it has similar causes, similar symptoms. Given that I think it is the same pathology and our superficial differences are a distraction. There are some aspcts of political systems that have a particular structural effect - for example, I think voting system matters in terms of the politics it produces. But in terms of particular issues or ideologies - I just don't think they matter. That's just local flavour.

#6

Off the Record / Re: Who's Hottest (Renaissance...

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 03:55:56 PM

Due to her efforts small and perpetually broke Mantua not only survived (in an era when everyone and the Pope was beating on each other) but also managed to become a leading art city. 

True but very harsh on the poison sellers.

#7

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by The Minsky Moment - Today at 03:53:08 PM

Ketamine should be abolished and reason restored to Elon Musk's brain, so that he can better represent his companies that do useful economic activity and cut the stupid twitter shit already.

#8

Off the Record / Re: Podcasts you like

Last post by Norgy - Today at 02:28:29 PM

I wish you knew Norwegian.

My favourite is "Nervøse Tider", a literal translation is "Nervous Times". The title might suggest it is about today, it is not, but rather a fully radio theatre of the rise of fascism, "alternative" faiths and the class struggle in Norway in the 1920s and 1930s.

Made on a shoestring budget, it has the best production value of all Norwegian language podcasts.

#9

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Norgy - Today at 02:24:02 PM

Still licking my wounds after Miami beat Vancouver in the final

I've been watching some MLS on Apple TV. I would say it is not bad, but has a long way to go as a league. I have no idea how much Miami is paying Messi, but at in his mid-thirties, he would hardly dominate the same way in a European league. Well. Maybe in Liechtenstein or Andorra.

Some Norwegian players had relative success in the MLS, but were distinctly mediocre in the Norwegian leagues.

I do hope that soccer survives the whole nationalist onslaught on all that is foreign. It did not in the late 1920s. When the USA actually had the world's best league outside of England.

#10

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Norgy - Today at 02:18:10 PM

Association football will never be the most popular topic here anyway.

And, I suppose we are set in our ways.

The season for Forest has been a mixed bag of Greek craziness and some much longed for stability with Sean Dyche. Stable as in "sometimes grind out a win, sometimes really go down in flames". The Everton game was as horrible as the Liverpool 2nd half was great. I wonder if James McAtee feels hard done by after not exactly being a regular. Omari Hutchinson can, and probably will, become a very good player.

The Norwegian league ended with Viking from Stavanger pipping Bodø-Glimt for the league title. Viking deserved that, I think. Norwegian club football is in the rather peculiar situation that most of the good players are EU nationals or Africans, while Norwegian youth players leave for clubs on the continent. Some do come back, though.

I watched Jørgen Strand Larsen for Wolves against Forest. He looked far less impressive than when he came on as a sub for the national team against Italy.

Even though we do not know the full draw of our group, people are getting worked up and ready to go. I suppose we should not tell Trump 10 of our players are not the Aryan idol Erling Haaland, but rather a street mix...