I just finished watching The Queen's Gambit and I will freely confess that I was moved to tears by it. It evoked so many lovely memories of my son, Patrick, when he was a little boy and a young man. And having the special connection with it that I mentioned in a previous post was rather overwhelming. One of my personal and unexpected delights was discovering that the actor who plays one of the central male characters was, when he was a little boy, the actor who played Liam Neeson's son in the charming movie Love Actually.
As you live through the last 75 or 80 hours until the first results start coming in on Tuesday, I can strongly recommend this as a binge watching experience.
8 comments:
I share your nostalgia for the past and the mixed pleasure of reminiscing about watching a child grow from childhood to adult maturity. As L.P. Hartley wrote, “The past is a foreign country[.]”
If you are looking for other Netflix series to serve as a distraction form the suspense of waiting for the election results, I would recommend “The Kominsky Method,” starring Alan Arkin adn Michael Douglas as two friends confronting the medical complications and disappointments of aging. And there is also a very good documentary about Frank Sinatra, titled, appropriately enough, “Sinatra,” which discloses details about his topsy-turvy life as a singe of romantic ballads and a Hollywood tough guy and explain why his anthem was “I Did It My Way.”
As a side note, I would like to say a word of tribute in honor of the passing of a Hollywood legend, the first, and arguably the best, James Bond. In 1957, Sean Connery was cast as the love interest of Lana Turner, the Sweater Girl, whose career was in a decline. He was 27, and she 37. The movie, “Another Time, Another Place,” was being filmed in England. At the time, Turner was dating a mob under boss named Johnny Stompanato, who was in the employ of the mob boss who ran Los Angeles, Mickey Cohen. When Stompanato heard rumors that Turner and Connery were becoming romantically involved, he flew to England to confront Turner on the movie set. He arrived on the set waving a gun and threatening Connery. Connery wrestled the gun from Stompanato and then decked him, knocking him out cold. Turner then had Stompanato kicked out of the country by Scotland Yard. So Connery did not just play James Bond, he was James Bond. When Connery returned to the U.S., he had to lie low because Mickey Cohen was threatening to have him knocked off.
As a post-script, when Turne returned to the U.S.. Stompanato started abusing her physically. One day, during an argument with Turner, he threatened to kill Turner and her 14-year old daughter. There was a tussle, and Turner’s daughter took a carving knife and stabbed Stompanato to death. At her daughter’s trial, Turner testified that her daughter had acted in self-defense and she was acquitted with a verdict of justifiable homicide. (In the movie “L.A. Confidential,” a police officer, played by Guy Pearce, confronts a woman in a nightclub who looks like Lana Turrner, mistaking her for a prostitute. She is seated next to Stompanato. Pearce’s partner, played by Kevin Spacey,
tells him that he has just insulted the real Lana Turner.)
MS
Didn't know any of that re Lana Turner. Interesting. I did see 'LA Confidential' but a long time ago. The scene you describe does ring a (dim) bell, though I don't recall a whole lot about the movie. Except that it was long, violent, and the plot was somewhat convoluted.
I actually think I will recall Connery for some of his later roles (well, later than 1957 I mean) such as his performance in 'Jaws', just to mention one.
LFC,
I believe you are confusing Sean Connery with Robert Shaw, an English actor who played the boat captain Quint in Jaws. He was also an outstanding actor. He portrayed Henry VIII in the movie “A Man For All Seasons.” (As you can tell, I am a cinema buff.)
MS
You are right of course. My bad! And I'm younger than you, though not by as much as I'd like ;) so I can't even cite age as an excuse.
I do recall Connery as Bond though. He was very good at the slightly self-deprecating wry humor that all the Bond scripts called for, which as the series continued almost crossed the line into self-parody. But the way Connery delivered a line like "shaken not stirred," before the whole series began its descent into parody, was something no subsequent Bond could match. And Connery's physical presence was also something no subsequent Bond really matched, I think, though I'm not enough of a movie fan or cinema buff to have seen more than a smattering of the series, and toward the end wild horses cdnt have dragged me to see a Bond movie bc the series just deteriorated.
Btw more than one academic has written about the Cold War angle in the Bond movies as part of the broader reflection of espionage etc in pop culture artifacts, and those that straddled the line betw pop culture and higher art, like the John Le Carre novels. In the intl relations lit, James Der Derian is someone who did this kind of postmodernist take on the theme of espionage. Ok starting to ramble so I need to turn off the phone for the night.
Tonight on PBS I watched one of the most disturbing, heart wrenching documentaries I have ever seen, and despite its very painful subject, I recommend that everyone who has an opportunity to see it, do so. The documentary is “Always In Season.” It is about the death of a 17-year old African-American young man, Lennon Lacy, who was found hanging by a belt strap from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, on August 29, 2014. The local authorities ruled it a suicide. but his family and friends maintain that he was lynched. In addition to interviewing the family, residents of Bladenboro, Lennon’s friends, both black and white, and his white girl friend who was 15 years his senior, the documentary presents a history of lynchings in the South, including a reenactment of a lynching of two men and two women in Georgia in the 1930’s. The documentary is a must see, but I must warn, it is very, very painful to watch.
As an attorney, I found the conclusion that Lennon committed suicide entirely unacceptable and contrary to the evidence presented in the documentary. The following are a few of the factors that lead me to this conclusion:
1. The police prevented the medical examiner from taking photographs at the scene.
2. The medical examiner who conducted an autopsy concluded that “the cause of death in this case was due to asphyxia secondary to hanging.” (duh) but offered no explanation as to how he was able to hang himself from the bar of the swing set.
3. He was found wearing a different pair of sneakers, and of a different size, from those his mother said he left the house wearing.
4. He was scheduled to play a high school football game that night, and had taken a selfie before the game in which he indicated he was looking forward to playing the game.
5. An African-American mortician who indicated he had seen the body states that there were multiple bruises on Lennon’s body. Obviously, a person who commits suicide generally does not first pummel himself. Such bruises would be a sign of a struggle.
6. He was dating a 32-year old white woman who states in the documentary that she had received warnings about her engaging in a inter-racial marriage.
7. Two white teenage neighbors, one of whom had displayed a Confederate flag on a fence by his home, disappeared and left town after Lennon was found dead.
The FBI was called in to investigate the death, and in June, 2016, it released a report stating that they found “no evidence to pursue federal criminal civil rights charges.”
I have obtained the email address of the director of the documentary and I intend to write her and advise that, if Joe Biden is elected, she contact his Attorney General and request that the investigation be re-opened. I am also going to contact my senators and Congresswoman (assuming she wins her re-election bid) and demand that the investigation be re-opened. I would urge those of you who watch the documentary to do the same. I am convinced based on what I saw in the documentary that Lennon Lacy was murdered, and he and his family deserve justice.
Errata; "interracial relationship," not "marriage."
Also on Netflix is a documentary series move on dancers. It is very good, on the dance and the persons (each episode focuses on one or two people).
If you're curious in the analysis of your son's game, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIMaTKOZG-8
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