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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>I don’t know if he was bullshitting me, but the fact that I don’t know reinforces his point.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>For instance…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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?)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>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.)))<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>