


AMY GOODMAN: A little-noticed story surfaced a couple of weeks ago in the Army Times newspaper about the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, reported Army Times staff writer Gina Cavallaro, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks. Disturbingly, she writes that they may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control as well. The force will be called the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive Consequence Management Response Force. Its acronym, CCMRF, is pronounced sea-smurf. These sea-smurfs, Cavallaro reports, have spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, in a combat zone, and now will spend their 20-month dwell time time troops are required to spend to reset and regenerate after a deployment armed and ready to hit the U.S. streets....
FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE.
It gets worse:
NAOMI WOLF: On October 1, 2008, President Bush deployed a brigade which means three to four thousand warriors somewhere in America. We do not know where they are deployed though citizens have informally reported to me having seen military vehicles and troops in Georgia and Alabama. We do know that their official mandate according to the first report is crowd control as well as action in the event of a mass civilian catastrophe. Initial reports described their technology module package as involving Tasers and rubber bullets.... The First Brigade is Bushs force: they are not answerable to Congress or to the Governors of states: they are answerable to the Commander in Chief. In an Alternet posting, I interviewed Air Force Colonel (retired) David Antoon who noted that the troops must obey the president, even if he asks them to arrest Congress or fire on civilians or attack media outlets. If they do not obey orders, he notes, they face five years in prison.... Antoon himself calls the deployment ominous. Troops on our streets makes us something less than a democracy: one definition of a police state is when a leader sends his own military units into civilian streets. Meanwhile the civilian policing of citizens is becoming more brutal. Hundreds of preemptive arrests took place in St Paul, dozens of journalists were arrested.... In St. Paul, funds were sent in advance to pay off the lawsuits against police forces that were guaranteed to arise from the planned abuse of citizens. This sort of thing is happening across the country. The tactic has established a closed circle that has turned citizens law enforcement agencies into contractors of a state that is directing acts of increasing severity against US citizens. Now a military brigade is being deployed....
FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE.
Click here to see an interview with Naomi Wolf conducted in early October 2008.
For the past five years or so I hve been hearing rumors that Halliburton has been building (and has now finished building) 800 prisons throughout the USA, not yet functioning, but just waiting for the right crisis. I have not found reliable evidence for the specific quantity, readiness, functionality, locations, or details, but you might be interested in taking a look at page 5 of this Halliburton press release dated 26 January 2006: KBR has been awarded a contract announced by the Department of Homeland Securitys United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) component. The Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contingency contract is to support ICE facilities and has a maximum total value of $385 million over a five-year term. The contract provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States, or to support the rapid development of new programs.... Now, really, what are the chances of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States? And what are the new programs that could come under rapid development?
FOR THE FULL PRESS RELEASE, CLICK HERE.
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A true gem! Upon completion of Il disco volante, producer Dino De Laurentiis hired Brass to direct the two shortest episodes of this wonderful anthology film starring Mrs De Laurentiis, Silvana Mangano. This is a great example of writing and storytellingpunchy, tight, imaginative, and humorous. (Why cant anyone write like this anymore?) And Alberto Sordi is in top form in these five rôles. Americans dont seem to know Alberto Sordi. Well, suffice it to say that he was easily equivalent to Peter Sellers, but perhaps more physical (and not a real-life lunatic). He was discovered when he was still a kid, at an Oliver Hardy-impersonation contest, and later gained fame as Hardys voice in the Italian dubsand anyone who truly likes Laurel and Hardy cant be all bad, you know.
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The fourth episode, Luciana,
by Rodolfo Sonego and directed by Mauro Bolognini, concerns
Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano who meet at an airport
after their spouses depart on a flight that immediately has
trouble and needs to return, but only after using up all its
fuel. While the plane spends the remainder of the day making
circles in the sky, Alberto and Mangano start to comiserate but
soon begin to fall in love, only to return to their unhappy
marriages once the plane lands again. Its quite a
touching 40-minute story. The third episode, I miei
cari (My Dear Ones), inspired by a novella,
is a blistering nine-minute story of a hospital visit, with
a wife and mother-in-law nagging at Alberto for his shortcomings,
rather than offering support. Perhaps my favorite episode was
the second, Eritrea, written by Luigi Comencini
and Marcello Fondati. Its a wonderful 40-minute
screwball comedy, with an onslaught of plot twists that will
have your head spinning. But when it comes to sheer direction,
as opposed to writing, I give the first honors to the two
short Brass-directed episodes. (Or am I just being prejudiced?)
The opening act, Luccellino (The Little
Bird), has Alberto Sordi as a madly jealous husbandjealous
of his wifes pet birds. The writing alone isnt funny.
The acting alone isnt funny. Albertos facial
expressions alone arent funny. The music by itself
isnt all that funny. But with all the elements put
together, this seven-minute sketch is a scream. The closing
act, Lautomobile (The Car), is
an eight-minute sketch about a husband and wife filing a report
with the police about their missing Jaguar. The delivery by the
two leads makes an already funny script funnier. Apparently
realizing that nothing could improve upon the original, Brass
blimped the cameras and used the actual sound recorded on the
set in the final film. (The usual practice at the time, of
course, was to
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QUESTION NUMBER ONE: Eritrea uses a popular twist song that was also excerpted in Chi lavora è perduto. If you know what that song is, please tell me. Im dying of curiosity. ANSWER: Amore twist! Thanks to Banca Dati del Cinema Mondiale for answering my question! QUESTION NUMBER TWO: Who dubbed Silvana Manganos voice in Luccellino?
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PERSONAL NOTE: The early 1960s were truly a different world. I have only the vaguest recollections of those times (I was four when this film was made), but this film, just like Fellinis La dolce vita, drives me crazy because it really seems that I was there, but that I cant completely remember exactly when or where or how. These two movies capture the period perfectly.
TECHNICAL NOTE FOR THE FEW WHO MAY BE INTERESTED: A few shots seem to have been masked in the camera, but the rest were masked in the lab at 1.85:1.
WARNING! The bootlegs available from Italian shops in Canadaand at least some of the bootlegs available through eBayare incomplete! They cut Luciana down from 40 minutes to 20! Beware!
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SOME FORM OF THIS MOVIE APPEARS TO BE AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET BY SOME FORM OF SUBSCRIPTION:
mininova: La mia signora [DivX-Italian]TNTILLAGE.ORG.
INFORMATION ON THE ORIGINAL
SOUNDTRACK LP IS AT:
Soundtrack Collector.
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| It was issued on video a few different times, many moons ago. But it aint easy to find unless, maybe, you happen to be on the prowl in Italys video shops. |
| Una produzione Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica S.p.A. |
Silvana Mangano |
e |
Alberto Sordi |
| in |
| La mia signora |
| Prodotto da (produced by) | Dino De Laurentiis |
| Organizzatore generale (general manager) |
Fausto Saraceni |
| Direttore della fotografia (director of photography) |
Otello Martelli |
| Direttore della fotografia per la sketch Lautomobile | Bruno Barcarol |
| Scenografia e ambientazione di (Set decoration) |
Mario Garbuglia |
| Costumi per la Signora Mangano di (Mrs Manganos costumes by) |
Piero Gherardi |
| Musica di (music by) | Armando Trovaioli diretta dellautore |
| Chorus | I Cantori Moderni di Alessandroni [uncredited] |
| Trumpet | Michele Lacerenza [uncredited] |
| Edizione Musicali (music publisher) | R.C.A. ItalianaDino |
| Registrazioni Musicali della (music recording) |
R.C.A. Italiana |
| Montaggio di (editing by) | Nino Baragli |
| assistente | Sergio Montanari |
| Aiuti registi (assistant directors) | Silvio Maestranzi Leopoldo Machina Giovanni Nerattini |
| Ispettore di produz. (unit manager) | Egidio Quarantotto |
| Segretaria di produzione (production secretary) |
Mario Milani Ennio Di Meo |
| Segretaria di ediz. (continuity) | Maria Pia DArborio |
| Cassiere (paymaster) | Carlo Sallorenzo |
| Costumista (wardrobe) | Gabriele Mayer |
| Arredatore (set dresser) | Ferdinando Giovannoni |
| Operatore di macchina (camera operator) |
Arturo Zavattini |
| Assist. oper. (focus pullers) | G. Spadini c.s.c. E. Fontana |
| Truccatore (make-up) | Giuliano Laurenti |
| Parucchiera (hair dresser) | Mirella Ginnoto |
| Fonico (sound) | Biagio Fiorelli |
| Teatri di posa e mezzi tecnici (studios and equipment) |
Dino De Laurentiis |
| Negativi e Positivi, Effetti Ottici (raw stock, optical effects) |
S.P.E.S. |
| Dir. | E. Catalucci |
| Sincronizzazione e Doppiaggio (recording and dubbing studio) |
Fono Lux |
| Cooperativa Doppiatori (dubbers) |
C.I.D. |
| La canzone (the song) | Per una notte no (For One NightNo) |
| di (by) | Migliacci-Trovaioli |
| e inciso da (and recorded by) | Gianni Morandi su dischi R.C.A. |
| Musica di repertorio (music excerpt) | AMORE TWIST [uncredited] |
| cantata da (sung by) | Rita Pavone [uncredited] |
| Il film stato girato nel (filmed at) | Centro di Produzione |
| a ciclo completo della (completed at) |
Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica S.p.A. |
| Soggetto e sceneggiatura (story and screenplay) |
Rodolfo Sonego, Alberto Bevilacqua |
| Regia di (directed by) | Tinto Brass |
| PERSONAGGI ED INTERPRETI | |
| Settimo | Alberto Sordi |
| Sua moglie | Silvana Mangano |
| Soggetto (story) | Luigi Comencini, Marcello Fondato |
| Sceneggiatura (screenplay) | Marcello Fondato |
| Regia di (directed by) | Luigi Comencini |
| PERSONAGGI ED INTERPRETI | |
| Eritrea | Silvana Mangano |
| Sartoletti | Alberto Sordi |
| Onorevole | Claudio Gora |
| Soggetto tratto da una novella di (story from a novella by) |
Goffredo Parise |
| Sceneggiatura di (screenplay by) | Rodolfo Sonego |
| Regia di (directed by) | Mauro Bolognini |
| PERSONAGGI ED INTERPRETI | |
| Marco | Alberto Sordi |
| Clara | Silvana Mangano |
| Soggetto e sceneggiatura (story and screenplay) |
Rodolfo Sonego |
| Directed by | Mauro Bolognini |
| PERSONAGGI ED INTERPRETI | |
| Lucia | Silvana Mangano |
| Giovanni | Alberto Sordi |
| Roberta | Marisa Fiorio |
| Commenda | Maria Canocchia |
| Hostess | Laura Borei |
| Soggetto e sceneggiatura (story and screenplay) |
Rodolfo Sonego |
| Regia di (directed by) | Tinto Brass |
| PERSONAGGI ED INTERPRETI | |
| Husband | Alberto Sordi |
| Wife | Silvana Mangano |
| Hanno inoltre partecipato | |
| ??? | Elena Nicolai |
| ??? | Laura Durell |
| ??? | Elena Fabrizi |
| ??? | Mino Doro |
| ??? | Lamberto Antinori |
| ??? | Alfredo Censi a.s.c. |
| ??? | Maria Tedeschi |