A crooked agent, a dead agent, and somebody's watching

As expected, something's amiss about the two FBI agents, we could see it way back, but now we're getting more facts. You can't say it's clear, nothing's clear in "Damages," but as we near the end of season 2 (episode 10), as we get closer in time to the "shooting" scene that opened the season (now "6 weeks later" - the structure of "Damages" tells the whole season in flashback from the opening sequence, gradually moving closer to that moment in time) we see for sure that one of the agents (the white guy, does he even have a name?) is in touch with some outside forces - perhaps Frobisher? or Patti? - and when found out has his partner killed (and the killers make it look like a drug OD). We also see the agent monitoring the "shooting scene," as Ellen threatens and maybe shoots Patti. And we see him monitor (video surveillance) a hotel liaison between Purcell and Claire, so what's going on there? What is the FBI really interested in, if in fact he is working for the FBI? Meanwhile, Patti's son apparently involved with a very counterculture tatttooed girl whom he doesn't want to introduce to Patti; instead, get an older woman to pose as his girlfriend - not sure the motive there. Hey, it's "Damages." Do the writers even know at this point? Let's hope they're in control, that someone's in control, because we're getting close to the wrap, and I'm not sure anyone can tie together all these strands in 3 remaining episodes. As Marge points out, every character is evil or potentially evil in some way - with exceptions of Ellen and Katie.

Rome Open City - Operatic, Exciting, Totally Worth Watching

"Rome Open City" is a great movie that holds up perfectly after so many years - filmed in the late 40s in what is obviously still a war-ravaged Rome, mostly on location settings, on the cheap. I hadn't seen it in 35 years at least, remembered nothing about it, was completely blown away by the excitement, the tension, the moral/religious quandaries, the emotions, the politics. Sure, Rossellini lays it on a bit thick at times - but that's okay because this film is almost operatic, in fact it will remind you of Tosca, its clear antecedent (a tyrant tortures a political leftist while another, in this case a priest, is forced to listen to the screams of pain). "Rome Open City" is about resistance to the Nazi occupiers. The movie begins as the (Nazi) police storm a building, looking for one of the resisters, who escapes to the rooftop and gets away. (Reminds of the later but in some ways similar "Battle of Algiers.") Story is largely about this guy and his friend, a printer, with whom he hides, their relationship with a few women, one of whom (Anna Magnini, fabulous) is faithful and brave. Others are not. They work closely with a very sympathetic priest, who uses his cover as a clergyman to deliver funds and info to the resistance movement. You're always on edge watching this movie. Anyone could be arrested or shot at any time. The reality of the film is brutal. In so many similar movies, you know the lead characters will survive, because they're stars - but here any character can go at any time. The only flaw I can see, the only thing that really "dates" "Rome Open City," is the musical soundtrack - blasting and melodramatic and unnecessary, though unfortunately typical of many Italian films of the era. Very good new print from Criterion. I had to look up "open city"; never knew before exactly what it meant.

Portrait of the artist as a young skinhead

"This is England" is a sad, sometimes scary film that shows how a young, very vulnerable boy (maybe 10 years old? 12?), only child, father killed in the Falklands (1983), picked on at school, mother's depressed and not able to help much, no other apparent family nearby, gets befriended by some older kids, tough and crazy but friendly and good-hearted. At first all seems reasonably OK, though the boy (Sean) gets way to much exposure to sex, beer, cigarettes and is on the verge of trouble (they bust up some abandoned housing just for kicks). Then, some right-wing skinheads step into the group, and Sean is drawn to them - obviously looking for a strong father figure and protector. This group, many ex-cons, all of them racist thugs, is truly scary, and it's particularly horrifying to see how Sean, and others, can be shaped by their vile ideology. Sean comes to his senses after a particularly horrifying racist attack, and he's young enough to escape unharmed. I suspect the film is quite autobiographical. Has strong resonances for today in the U.S., as we look at Aryan groups, birthers, Tea Party, none of them too far from where the British skinheads and "Nationalists" were in the '80s. It's not a pretty film, not meant to be - all filmed in the depressed northern wastelands (Yorkshire, apparently). Pretty good soundtrack, some heavy-handed use of film clips of the Falklands set against protests and racial attacks. That said, a story quite well told and engaging all the way through. As with all movies about children being bullied, you strongly identify with the child, but this one includes some odd twists as you see him going down a frightful path.

Amazing images, but slowest movie ever - Silent Light

Silent Light is an extremely strange film, a film of extremes. First of all, I thought I'd misread the summary. Could this really be a Mexican film? The characters are Mennonites (exactly like the Pennsylvania Amish), they speak an obscure dialect, something between Dutch and German. The landscape is lush green, forested - nothing in this movie seems Mexican in the least. It looks Scandinavian, quite like an homage to Bergmann, and also (I've read) to Dreyer. Not only the look of the character but the austerity of their lives and the spiritual angst that the main character, Johan -father of the large (6 children) family devoted to his wife (Esther) but in passionately in love with another woman, Marianne (who's no beauty by the way), in their small community. Esther and pretty much everyone knows of his passion, and he anguishes about how to resolve his feelings, his faith, his family commitments. (In Bergmann, he would have killed himself.) Oddly, Esther "dies," but then, with a kiss from Marianne as she is literally laid out for burial, she comes back to life. Religious symbolism laid on pretty heavy, without anything in the movie leading you to think this would happen; the film is all quite realistic, an interior drama. No flying angels or anything. On the downside, I have literally never seen a slower-moving film in my life, more than two hour and, perhaps, 200 shots? I actually fell asleep, lying down and saying to Marge, I won't miss anything, then woke up (20 minutes?) and could pick it right up. The plus side: the director lingers on his shots lovingly, beautifully, and EVERY ONE is amazing, composed like a photo in a museum. The family in the stark white room for the funeral with the long silences of the mourners, the funeral hymn, the slow anguished painful breakfast scenes, the long fast drive on a straight dirt road, the farmhouse in the evening light, Esther standing in the pouring rain by the side of the highway, maybe most of all the (6-minute?) opening take of day breaking - I will never forget them. And the use of ambient sound - no soundtrack, only the lowing of cows, the song of birds, the chirping of insects, throughout, all the time. In some ways, absolutely amazing. This film doesn't quite work on all levels, its spiritual ambitions tripping it up a bit at the end, but it has things you will never see anywhere else. Who knew there were Mennonites in Chihuahua?

Ellen goes for Wes - But what's his motive?

More information in episode 9 season 2 of Damages, as the crooked detective orders Wes, Ellen's new love interest, to kill her and make it look like an accident. I suspect that Wes is actually working against the unnamed detective - either for a government agency or more likely out of some need for revenge against Frobisher: he encouraged Ellen to kill Frobisher, early on. On the lawsuit strand, Patti's husband being considered by Secretary of Energy, but we know he has skeletons, including his investment in UNR, his ties to insider trading, his affair, and of course his link to Patti. David Pell, he UNR link to the insider trader, Finn, confronts Finn. Patti learning more about Finn, as she gets closer to figuring out what's going on with UNR stock. But overall, the story line is drifting away from Patti/Close, too bad because she's the stick that stirs this drink. Ellen will have to confront her. And what's with junior partner, Tom? Patti tells him she is under FBI investigation, and his reaction is to be made she hasn't told him before; he doesn't even ask why she's under investigation or what they have to fear. Maybe there's more to him than we thought - in one of the flash forwards, we see that Patti fires him and that he, too, wants revenge (and provides Ellen with a gun). My guess is that Wes never tries to kill Ellen, he comes to her for help, and she does confront Patti (that's pretty obvious). Tom may be total wimp, or he may be an FBI informant as well. There's still something off about the FBI agents and the investigation, with its disappearing file, but not sure what.

Thugs who look like Yuppies

Okay, I jumped the gun on Uncle Pete, should have learned, in this show above all others, a character's not dead until you see him laid into the ground and maybe not then. Pete turns out to be comatose in the hospital, which helps move the plot a little farther and clarifies a bit more, as Patti talks to him, tears in her eyes, and memories of her childhood with an alcoholic father and Pete, though a ne'er do well, taking caare of her. More important, a new character (Mike?) shows up, beats up one of Pete's collectors, learns Pete's in the hospital and - now I'm pretty sure - kills him by messing with his IV. New character apparently was involved in the botched attack on Ellen, and worries Pete will talk. FBI, with Ellen, has bugged the hospital room, so they know something's up, but Ellen can't make the guy and he leaves the hospital without anyone's seeing him. Meanwhile, Frobisher forced out of the case, threatened by the bookish-looking rogue detective he'd paid to kill Ellen's fiance, David. Hm. Posted yesterday that Marge thinks the detective too cute to be a killer, but to me that makes him scarier. Strikes me that never in any show have I ever seen such wimpy-looking bad guys. The thug who just killed Peter, for example - looks like a gust of wind could blow him away. Pete, too - he makes Tony's uncle (The Sopranos) look like an NFL tackle. And especially the killers going after Ellen and Katy, every one of them looks like a boarding-school kid. Good idea to have one thug look wimpish (e.g., Brother what's his name on the Wire). But when they all do, you have to wonder who does the casting for these shows?

When you don't know what to do with a character - kill him

Poor Uncle Pete - he's dead. We knew it would happen to you, not because you deserved it (most of the characters in Damages deserve an evil fate) but because even the highly skilled writers of this very entertaining series just plain didn't know what to do with you. We've come to learn now that you did all of Patti's dirty work, that you were somehow involved in the attack on Ellen and its cover-up. But who are you and why would you do these things and how come you're a genius at covering up a crime scene but you push around the dry-cleaning racks at a law firm? Now, no need to explain, you're gone, poor guy. That still leaves plenty of characters to root against! We see the bearded detective, whom Marge thinks is too cute for the part but I disagree - he's even more frightening in his cold-bloodedness because he looks like a history grad student - was totally working for Frobisher, was obviously involved in killing Ellen's fiance, has shot another dirty cop in the back, and now is threatening Frobisher. Well, there could yet be another twist there - but he's got his hands pretty damn dirty. Kendrick becomes ever more loathsome, and now we have a new element, illegal stock trading with a cokehead commodities trader with a weakness for escort-service hookers. We're nearly halfway through the 2nd season and nothing's looking like it's wrapping up, everything just gets more complex. Will be interesting to see how Ellen manages to deal with Frobisher as a client - Patti tells her she brought Frobisher in as a client to learn more about him, for Ellen, but Patti will tell Ellen anything. Still unclear whether the FBI guys are on the up and up as well. Wes, Ellen's apparent love interest from her therapy group, continues to meet with the killer-detective, but we have no idea of his motive in getting to Ellen.