Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony MarraMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Marra's Constellation of Vital Phenomena was a revelation for me. It was amazing. This is a good book--it has well developed characters and it plumbs the idea of what it is to be free, the constructs that keep us imprisoned, whether internal or external, and explores some lesser known history--of Italy, Hollywood, and xenophobia in America. What surprised me is how funny this was. So many subtle and not so subtle comedic situations. Also a few touching scenes. It wasn't phenomenal but it was presentable ;). As enjoyable as an old movie...
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That’s what intimacy is—not a threshold of knowledge but a capitulation to ignorance, an acceptance that another person is made as bewildered and ungovernable by her life as you are by yours.
Every totalitarian knows you cannot change the future, only the past.
The camera conducts history on the bridge. Party members jostle into its frame. More than a witness or participant, it is a choreographer. The lens absorbs light but also emits its own kind of radiance.
Taking a life is murder, the most mortal sin, this much is clear. But taking a death? For that is what Nino would do: steal Vincenzo’s death from his mother. What is the name of this trespass, both murder’s opposite and its equal? Not even Giuseppe, once among the great lawyers of Rome, can name the crime.
it seems to him the allure of photography is the medium’s faith, despite all contrary evidence, that people can see one another at all.
“In my limited experience, mercy is what we choose not to do.”
What troubled Maria—as much as anything else—was the spectacle of a filmmaker pressing her undeniably singular vision into the service of a picture that denied the singularity of individual experience.
Adhering to stereotype is the only way a screen actor makes himself intelligible to an unintelligent audience.”
I know when they offer you a part, what they’re really doing is telling you what you are.”
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