BEFORE SCROLLING TO THE WEB PAGE BELOW ABOUT TINTO BRASS, PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THESE NEWS ITEMS, WHICH ARE FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING I’VE EVER HAD TO SAY:

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 Bush’s 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 Security’s 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.

NOW, BACK TO THE MAIN PART OF THE WEB PAGE:

Did you happen to record Monty Python’s Flying Circus when it was shown on PBS back in the 1970s?
Do you still have the tapes?
Is there a TIME-LIFE logo at the end?
If so, please write to me. Thank you!

THE WORKS OF TINTO BRASS

Erotic and Commercial Experiments—Continued

Capriccio

(a.k.a. Love and Passion, 1987)

REVISED NOTES, POSTED ON MONDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2002: On my first viewing, nearly a year ago, I thought the first 15 minutes enchanting, but the rest of the movie didn’t do much for me. Well, that’s putting it mildly. Actually it horrified me. But a second viewing changed my mind, and Capriccio is now one of my favorites. Brass had wanted to make this film, from Mario Soldati’s novel, immediately after The Key, but had to wait a few years to convince a producer. The story, which I at first thought overly simplistic, is of Jennifer and Fred, a couple whose marriage is beginning to fail. A business trip to Capri after the war reunites them with their previous lovers, the scary pimp Ciro and the hot-tempered hooker Rosa. The disillusionment that both Jennifer and Fred suffer has the unexpected consequence of renewing their marriage. On my first viewing, my basic problem was Jennifer’s crush on the scary Ciro, which I found disturbingly unrealistic. More specifically, the one scene that turned my stomach and turned me off to the entire movie was when Jennifer lured Ciro into attacking her. But when I watched the film again (Why, you ask? Because I wanted to write about it), I realized how dumb I was. All my life I’ve been witnessing otherwise-intelligent women swooning over dangerously scary guys—and seeming to enjoy being victims of violence. For the life of me I’ll never understand why that is. So okay, the movie is perfectly realistic. How could I have thought otherwise? Still, though, I wish that scene had been written differently, without the sexual violence. Anyway, that aside, Capriccio beautifully explores the minds of people who are a short step away from self-understanding. The acting by the four leads is completely convincing, and Nicola Warren in particular is superb. (She is obviously a professional actress, but she has made no other movies, and Google searches turn up absolutely nothing. Strano!) The more I think about it, the more beautiful I think this movie is. (And no, in case you’re wondering, the sex scene at the end is faked. And if you’re wondering why Mario Soldati is not credited, well, that’s simply because he didn’t want to be. I don’t know why.)

Interesting to see Brass’s daughter Beatrice as Alice the babysitter. (Is she the one who’s credited simply as “Bea”? Is the baby she’s babysitting her real-life son? Is his name Matteo? Is the girl watching the parade Brass’s niece Lulù?)

NOTE: Ciro, in addition to being a personal name, is also the name of the film splicer invented by famous editor Dott. Leo Catozzo. The expensive models are the best splicers in the world, and the inexpensive models are the worst splicers in the world. I don’t know if that bears any significance on this film, but just in case it does, now you know.

TECHNICAL NOTES: Capriccio was made in English, but every English copy we have found looks just terrible. The only copy we know of that looks nice, bright, clear, sharp, colorful, and widescreen (1.66:1) is the Italian dub. Oy.

ANOTHER NOTE: This is the first of Brass’s films in stereo.

YET ANOTHER NOTE: Brass’s next script was L’uomo che guarda, from the Alberto Moravia novel, which was scheduled to go before cameras in late 1986 or early 1987, but was delayed by seven years. (See Variety, 2 April 1986, p. 42.)

The out-of-print Region-2 PAL DVD from somewhere in Scandinavia, which is full-screen (cropped) but at least in the original English. This will not play on most US equipment.	The widescreen Italian Region-2 PAL DVD, which seems to contain only the Italian-dubbed soundtrack. This will not play on most US equipment.

Luigi e Aurelio De Laurentiis presentano
un film di Tinto Brass

Capriccio

Copyright © 1987 Famous Films Productions n.v.

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