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Showing posts from January, 2019

The Sopranos: 20 years Later

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This week marks the 20th anniversary since the television show" The Sopranos " debuted on HBO , and with all the celebrations going on this week I wanted to put in my two cents about the series. It feels like only yesterday that we were all talking about the show.  Every Sunday night HBO would air the show, and by Monday we were all talking about it.  the show seemed to capture our imagination, and we were always drawn back to it no matter what happened each week. The Sopranos was about a family in New Jersey that happened to be in the mob.  Tony Soprano was the head of this family and it was his character that drew us in every Sunday night.  Of course James Gandolfini had a lot to do with us coming back to the show each week.  Along with the cast of Edie Falco James Gandolfini and Falco turned a unusual drama into a weekly viewing ritual.  I am of course not listing the others such as Steven Van Zandt ,  Tony Sirico , Michael Imperioli , and Lorraine Bracco and m

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

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Orson Welles last movie " The Other Side of the Wind " was finally released back in November of 2018.   33 years after Welles' death in 1985 Netflix premiered it on it's platform.  The film had a limited run in theaters starting in October.  The film is a stunning piece of cinema due to it's editing and it's photography.  The film with-in the film concept is nothing new, and Welles denied that the film was autobiographical, but it is hard to say that it is not.  The film is about a director played by the legendary John Huston whose career is in decline and who dies in the end.  The film is about friendship, betrayal, and power.  It is in essence one long flashback into the director's last days, and who he was, and who he cared about.    Peter Bogdanovich plays a up and coming director who is friends with Huston's character.  In that way it is a personal film for Welles.  Being a friend to Welles was a challenge, and the film shows it.  The compa