Classics: “The Great Gatsby”

Twenties atmospheres, the age of jazz, prohibition[1], lights, parties, beautiful cars and cocktail dresses. How not to be fascinated? One immediately thinks of jewels, make-up, sets. To wealth!

Through The Mirror

Twenties atmospheres, the age of jazz, prohibition[1], lights, parties, beautiful cars and cocktail dresses. How not to be fascinated? One immediately thinks of jewels, make-up, sets. To wealth!

Probably those who lived these years would not really agree with the imagery that was created around the magical twenties, since struck by lights and colors, it is easy to forget that that decade is right between the two world wars, and that all that exaggeration, display of power, money and happiness served to cover a majority of the population in misery and depression.

The manifesto of the decade, at least of the American one, we know well how different lives were in Europe !, is undoubtedly THE GREAT GATSBY, issued in 1925 by the skilled hands of Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1900). The novel, for those few who did not know it, is based on the indecipherable and ambiguous figure…

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“Appearance or Protagonist?”

There is a beautiful monologue in the film “The Holiday”, entrusted not by chance to my favourite character (the only one who has nothing to do with the love story), in which a melancholic Kate Winslet is asked as she never continues to act as a friend, shoulder, appearance, when it is clear that she would have everything she needs to be a protagonist.

Through The Mirror

There is a beautiful monologue in the film “The Holiday”, entrusted not by chance to my favourite character (the only one who has nothing to do with the love story), in which a melancholic Kate Winslet is asked as she never continues to act as a friend, shoulder, appearance, when it is clear that she would have everything she needs to be a protagonist.

That’s a good question, don’t you think?

It happens to everyone to be the appearance of someone’s life, but what happens when it tends to be the appearance in one’s own?

How can we find out? And how does the circle break?

The man who is changing radio station every thirty seconds, pressing more and more restlessly, does it because he knows what he wants and will not stop until he gets it? Or is it simply a nervous tic, completely involuntary? Will he be a…

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“Who is afraid of the dark?”

The book didn’t exactly come out yesterday, but I’m sure you could still find it in the bookstore or order it, and it’s worth it, possibly before you see the movie so you don’t spoil the final twist! Prepare yourself a good glass of red wine, find a comfortable spot on the sofa, warm the room and leave only the essential lights for reading. Make sure you are alone, and please … Don’t say a word!

Through The Mirror

They’re watching.
They’ve wiretapped the apartment.
They’ve got their daughter.
They told them they’d hurt her if they spoke about it.
They told them, “Don’t say a word . . .”
Or else . . .[1]

I’m not afraid of loneliness.

I’m not afraid of the dark.

But I have to stop reading thrillers after sundown, when I’m alone in the house! Because the atmosphere, the suggestion and the pathos are fine, but risk a heart attack because the neighbor banged the window a little harder than usual, or shoot with the tennis racket in hand at every creak of a piece of gear a little older is not good for my health, neither physical nor mental.

By the way: what’s a tennis racket doing at home? no one has ever played tennis in my house… Bah.

Nathan Conrad is a psychiatrist who treats the seriously ill and desperate…

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“11.22.63 _ Save President Kennedy (or don’t)”

The soundtrack is another good point of the show, during the 8 episodes of the first and only season, you can listen to songs of the quality of Stay (Just a Little Bit Longer) by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, Then He Kissed Me by the female group The Crystals, Sam Cooke’s soul with Bring It On Home To Me up to the symbolic Soldier Boy sung by Shirelles.

Through The Mirror

Abrams and King, as soon as I read these two paired names I was convinced. I haven’t even watched the trailer, but I went to browse around the plot and I found it absolutely brilliant: Kennedy was one of the most beloved presidents of the States, but is it because he is dead too soon? In the short time he was President he made positive choices for his country, but would he continue to go on like this if he stayed alive?
Could some of the recent wars have been avoided? Could Kennedy have saved the world?
Based on this question, Jake Epping’s (James Franco) ride through time begins in an effort to change the fate of the President.
11.22.63 is the date that must be changed, but this secret assignment will be hampered not only by Lee Harvey Oswald (the one who was found guilty of the crime –…

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“The Granma ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ “

Every time I reread it, I return to grandmother’s stairs with the scent of her kitchen, with the voices of my mother and her sisters who argument about how much salt is needed here and how much time the bread should be left on the oven to rise

Through The Mirror

When my grandparents were still healthy, my brother, my parents and I used to drive on the highway at least one weekend a month to visit them. Each time the welcome was what I imagine is reserved to the royals, a banquet with lots of food to feed the army, which however punctually disappeared within a few hours.

Grandma despite being one of those women of other times who does not waste time in kisses and hugs had her very personal way of showing us the infinite love she had for us: preparing pizza in a wood oven.
Lots of pizza.
She served it hot, a moment ago baked, and left us free to play in every part of the house and patio.
I imagine the sadness of those grandchildren who will find tofu and quinoa banquets in the future, considering the new vegan fashion … which I hope will…

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“About New Moon”

In the film you can see my elbow. Not even that of the other three, but it was a wonderful experience, extraordinarily tiring and yet satisfying. Absolutely to be redone, sooner or later.

Through The Mirror

Some of you will remember it, about ten years ago the vampire fashion was at the top, especially the glittery ones.

Now, as an avid fan of bad and bloody vampires, I was a bit perplexed, but all the people who read Twilight recommended it to me, so I fell for it, to the umpteenth “you absolutely must read them” by my friend Kekka, I read them.

I admit that I immediately fell in love with the writing style, not so much with the plot which is reduced to being the classic teenage love triangle with the only difference that the two suitors are supernatural beings. But it is written really, really well (credit for Stephanie Meyer), so much so that I was convinced to go with the aforementioned Kekka to wait for the fourth volume to be released outside the old bookshop in Via Nazionale, in which there were…

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“To write is a dangerous job”

When the winter storm subsided at 4 in the morning, I was only a few pages away from the conclusion. <> I wondered. I remember collapsing with the book in my hands, having had troubled dreams and that when I woke-up I had decided never to read such books again.

I finished it the next night, and didn’t keep my promise, I read about it, thriller, noir, horror; but still today Anne Walkes remains one of the most chilling women who come to visit my nights from time to time.

Through The Mirror

It’s Winter, full night, the sky has decided to come down in buckets while lightning and thunder are breaking down. A sudden drop in current almost makes me scream, I can barely keep from running into my parents’ bed as I did as a child. But it is certainly not the storm that terrifies me, it is the book that I am reading in one breath in the weak light of the lightshade in the grandparents’ house that creaks and rasps and already makes me anxious. I started the book a few hours earlier, but I can’t get away from it, despite the cold, the sleep, the anguish that is rising up page after page.

I had already read Stephen King’s novels, but usually given the eternal description of every detail, even the most useless, I never found myself anxious  Not even when I read IT, except in a couple…

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“Sometimes the only way to stay Sane is to go a little Crazy”

The feeling that this book has left me is the desire to move on! To overcome the small and big difficulties of life, because making a small mistake is enough to interrupt it.

Through The Mirror

“In a strange way we were free. We’d reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our privacy, our liberty, our dignity: all of this was gone and we were stripped down to the bare bones of our selves” [1]

I do not often see the film first – beautiful, exciting, attractive: I highly recommend it! –and then look for the book from which it is taken, but in this case it would have been difficult to find it, because “The girl interrupted” was for years in the psychology department, being more than a novel, a real diary of the author and of her broken up years. It is almost ironic that it has been misunderstood as a genre because it is precisely what happened to the protagonist. At seventeen Susanna Kaysen, after a short visit from a doctor she had never seen…

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