Word: compatriots
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Afghani children in Kandahar, by Kiarostami's compatriot Mohsen Makhmalbaf, do not smile. One comely lad in a Taliban school loads a Kalashnikov rifle and obediently proclaims its virtues - it "kills the living and mutilates the dead" - as a mullah praises his recitation. ("Weapons," a visiting doctor says later, "are the only modern thing in Afghanistan.") Another boy, an orphan in the desert, will peddle anything, including himself, to keep going. He attaches himself to an educated Iranian woman who has returned from Canada to save her sister...
...Afghani children in Kandahar, by Kiarostami's compatriot Mohsen Makhmalbaf, do not smile. One comely lad in a Taliban school loads a Kalashnikov rifle and obediently proclaims its virtues?it "kills the living and mutilates the dead"?as a mullah praises his recitation. ("Weapons," a visiting doctor says later, "are the only modern thing in Afghanistan.") Another boy, an orphan in the desert, will peddle anything, including himself, to keep going. He attaches himself to an educated Iranian woman who has returned from Canada to save her sister. As Makhmalbaf showed in Gabbeh, he is Iran's great colorist; here...
...surmised that she'd perhaps seen his legs before, but not through a slit skirt fashioned from a hotel tablecloth. "Quills" star Geoffrey Rush sadistically lampooned his fellow Aussie Russell Crowe by appearing as a vain over-the-top gladiator, displaying even more legs and obnoxious personality than his compatriot. (Crowe showed up for the event, but not, alas, until after he had been skewered.) James Woods returned as an emperor, referring to his agent "Ten-Percentus." "Chocolat" actor Alfred Molina appeared in a "Traffic" skit and revealed himself as "lower than a drug dealer. I'm a... talent agent...
...Cardinal," goes the Roman maxim. Take the case of the Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, 71, one of several so-called papabili (Italian for "Popables"). Castrillon Hoyos speaks several languages and possesses an attractive combination of real-world pastoral experience and inside-the-Vatican bureaucratic savvy. In 1999, his compatriot Gabriel Garcia Marquez sang his praises in print, recalling how the Cardinal had dressed as a civilian to meet with drug lord Pablo Escobar, and explicitly calling Castrillon Hoyos a contender. The article, in the eyes of some, raised Castrillon Hoyos' profile a bit too high...
There are a few jokes in this little scene in Kitano's first American film as actor-auteur. One is that the old man is himself Japanese-American, baffled by the demeanor of a compatriot from the far side of the Pacific. Another is that the line echoes the title of a Beat Takeshi TV show, You Japanese Are Strange. But the third is on Kitano's loyal worldwide audience. Because his pictures?passion action movies, lurid and pensive?are pretty darned scrutable...