MangoZeen

I love SUNSET BOULEVARD.

The Director Billy Wilder paints a paean to fading glory in this 1950 film. Young writer and ancient femme fatale joined in a tragic menage a trois with fame for the fantastic ending choreographed by John F. Seitz’s cinematography. Gloria Swanson charging the camera. “All right, Mr DeMille, I’m ready for my […]

Paris was my home from 1982-1986. Two of those years were spent on Impasse Dantzig. My 16 year-old girlfriend had an atelier in an old artist commune on Impasse Dantzig. Candida worked as a model. A few magazines liked the melange of her Puerto Rican, Jewish, and French roots. I thought she was beautiful.

We went […]

The Taliban ruled the majority of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Normal citizens welcomed the Islamic militants in hopes that peace could be restored, instead a strict Sharia law was imposed on their subjects.

The burqa was draped over every woman and education was banned for any females over the age of eight. The Koran was the only book […]

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN originated from a Disneyland ride. Moving figures portrayed a bucolic pirate raid on a seaside town. All fun and games with a ho-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.

Reality had blood running in the streets and screams filled the ears of the hunted and hunters. Even worse Long John Silver liked young […]

In 1960 Nancy Kwan earned a Golden Globe nomination for her title performance in THE WORLD OF SUZY WONG.

Once a month my Irish grandmother took my older brother and me to the Loew’s Orpheum in Boston. I was 8. My grandmother was an indeterminate age. She claimed to have been born in the Year of […]

Yesterday Rosie O’Donnell announced to the public that they won’t be seeing her on THE VIEW anymore. This ‘news’ came after a heated hissy fit with her co-host Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Rosie’s earned a first place slot from CNN and Fox News on a day where GW Bush announced that 2008 will see troop reductions in […]

Unsurprisingly Thailand scored in the Top Eleven nations for intellectual property theft according to the USA, which only produces fast food, fat people, SUVs, and Harleys.
Other honorees of free market intellectual freedom are China, India, Russia, Egypt, Argentina, Chile, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.
China tops the list because some 85-90% of copyrighted goods sold […]

Back in 1958 America and France movie studios collaborated to film THE NAKED GOYA. Anthony Fransciosa starred as Goya painting the renowned nude of the Duchess of Alba played by Ava Gardner. I think I saw the movie at the drive-in and my mother covered my eyes, when the actress took off her clothes.

Six was too young an age […]

Last year I bought THE 300 SPARTANS (1962) from my favorite DVD dealer, a deaf-mute rice farmer. His uplifted thumbs indicated the copy was 100%. He was right and the childhood favorite spun the heroic tale of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans and their allies withstood the onslaught of the Persian king. They died to the […]

No limos or red carets for Oscar parties on Soi 6, despite some of the best acting performance coming from the upper rooms above that salubrious strip. The short time bars had closed at 2am and the girls sought their pillows, lovers, or a bottle of cheap Thai whiskey to help bring in the dawn. […]