[ExI] exi movie recommendations

[spike at rainier66.com]

It occurred to me to post a message to my fellow US-ians who might otherwise
miss the dark French humor I was introduced to with John's recommendation
Death of Stalin.

 

We US-ians tend to know less about European history that we do our own
history (imagine that) but one of my Chinese import neighbors educated me on
this as I was going on about our civil war: stuff like that happens in Asia
aaaalllll the tiiiiimmmme but they don't make too big a hootenanny over it.
We did that civil war business exactly once, in four centuries Europeans
have been in North America, once.  In that time span, Asians would have two
or three conflicts bigger than our one and only civil war.

 

I don't know if he was bullshitting me, but the fact that I don't know
reinforces his point.

 

If you view Death of Stalin and are US-ian, and if you are in my league of
ignorance of Europe (the industrial-strength variety of ignorance) keep in
mind that script was written by a European for European English speakers.
Some of the jokes won't translate well, particularly the comic
exaggerations, which we yanks might take as literal.

 

For instance.

 

In the script, Stalin has been poisoned, he doesn't know whodunnit, but the
matronly servant brought him the tea which someone poisoned.  He briefly
regains consciousness.  All but Beria think he has had a stroke.  They think
Stalin is trying to appoint a successor.  The polit bureau is gathered at
the bedside of the stricken dictator.  The matronly servant is at the foot
of his bed, completely invisible to the polit bureau, for she is just a
servant, a proletariat, whereas they are Stalin's inner circle.

 

Stalin cannot speak, but he is pointing at her.  Each member of the polit
bureau looks right thru her for she is transparent to them, completely
invisible, non-existent.  Each inner circle guy looks the painting on the
wall behind her and try to interpret the painting as an indication Stalin
means he wants that guy to be his successor.  Meanwhile the matronly
servant, at whom Stalin is actually pointing because she brought the tea she
didn't know was poisoned by Beria, thinks Stalin wants her to be his
successor (who, ME?  ME?)

 

At that, I was laughing so damn hard I couldn't hear the dialog, so I had to
stop the video and roll on the floor RTFLOLing until it was a lot cleaner
than it had been before.  There are advantages to viewing movies on one's
own computer rather than the theatre. 

 

After Stalin perished of the toxin Beria put in his tea, the French movie
script did an intentional exaggeration that Europeans will get but many
yanks may not: the commies came into Stalin's compound and killed the entire
staff in order to contain any leaked information.  Commies are bad, but they
didn't do that particular atrocity, I am quite confident.  I interpreted
that scene as the French version of our US-ian nudge-wink (Oui, of course we
are putting you on (zee seeelly yahnKEEEZZ know nozzing about zee
Europeaaahhhnn HEEEZdorEEE (apologies, we US-ians often don't know how to
spell French accents very well.)))

 

spike

 

   

 

 

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