Fanfare posts tagged with rope Posts tagged with 'rope' at Fanfare. Thu, 28 Jun 2018 13:36:04 -0800 Thu, 28 Jun 2018 13:36:04 -0800 en-us 60 The Department of Time: Con el tiempo en los talones (With Time on His Heels) Amelia and Alonso are sent to the premiere of "Vertigo" at the 1958 San Sebastián Film Festival, to foil a plan by Russia to kidnap Alfred Hitchcock and force him to produce propaganda films. While the Ministry is under construction, a wheelchair-bound Salvador becomes suspicious of a Sony Walkman-wearing construction worker he observes through his office window. <strong>Beyond the Usual Disclaimer</strong><br> <br> This post contains spoilers for the third season premiere of <em>El Ministerio del Tiempo</em>. If you have not seen this episode, I strongly suggest doing so before reading further. <br> <br> <br> <strong>Notes</strong> <em>(contain spoilers)</em> <br> <br> <strong>Whoo boy, where do we start?</strong><br> <br> * Season 3 almost didn't happen. <br> * Fans lobbied RTVE very hard for the show to return. RTVE was known for canceling shows that were not huge ratings successes. <br> * December 2016: Netflix enters into a collaboration agreement with RTVE. Once Season 3 has aired in full on Spanish television, Netflix will be able to stream all three seasons to 190 countries. Which is probably how most of us are watching the show now. <br> * The Netflix agreement was a cash infusion to the show and probably saved it from cancellation. In fact... <br> * Javier Olivares has said that if Netflix hadn't stepped in, the show would have been cancelled and that the crew was getting ready to dismantle the sets. <br> * Season 3's budget was increased by RTVE by 20% over previous seasons. Despite this, the season was not promoted in ads and billboards by RTVE, the way previous seasons had been. <br> * Season 3 aired almost an entire year after Season 2<br> <br> <strong>Meanwhile... </strong> <br> <br> * Rodolfo Sancho (Julían) had missed several episodes during Season 2 to film a different television series: <a href="">Mar de plastico</a> which aired for two seasons. During that time, the character of Pacino was created and added to the main team, as a temporary replacement. When Julián returns from the Siege of Baler, Pacino gets stationed by the Ministry in 1981. <br> * Unfortunately, Rodolfo Sanchez (Julían) was unable to come to an agreement with RTVE, Javier Olivares and the show's production company regarding his filming conflicts and his salary negotiations. The negotiations appear to have devolved into hostilities then broken down.<br> <br> <strong>So:</strong> <br> <br> * The episode begins by showing us the death and funeral of Julián Martinez. His face is not shown on camera.<br> * Olivares killed him off. Gave him a funeral and everything. Without giving Sancho any screen time in this episode. <br> * Of course, this is a time travel show, so it's always possible he will return later on. <br> * Julián was killed during the Spanish Civil War's <a href="">Battle of Teruel</a> in 1936 during a mission to save the life of <a href="">Miguel Hernández Gilabert</a>, known as one of the poets and playwrights of the Generation of '27 and the Generation of '36 movements.<br> * During the opening scene, Julian's birth date on his tombstone is 1975. Rodolfo Sancho was born in January 1975. <br> <br> <strong>On a lighter note.....</strong><br> <br> * Irene says during the episode that she cut herself preparing gazpacho. This is a reference to actress Cayetana Guillén Cuervo's frequent kitchen accidents during her participation in Spanish <a href="">MasterChef Celebrity</a>. (She managed to cut herself in nearly every episode.) Masterchef Celebrity aired shortly before Season 3 was shot. <br> * Salvador complains that he looks like "the bald one from the X-Men"<br> * During their first mission together in episode 11, Alonso calls Pacino "Chapino" by mistake. He does so again in this episode but it comes across as a sign of affection between them.<br> * As we've noted in the past, Amelia has a pretty decent English accent. <br> * Pacino's English, on the other hand, is <em>atrocious.</em> <br> * The less said about Hitchcock's accent the better. <br> <br> <br> <strong>Hitchcock References in this Episode</strong><br> <br> * Alfred Hitchcock is a main character in this episode. What role does he play? One he invented, of course. The MacGuffin. What's a MacGuffin? Let's let Hitchcock himself explain: <em>"No film is complete without a MacGuffin because that's what everybody is after."</em> <br> Wikipedia: <a href="">The MacGuffin</a>. <br> * The episode's title is a play on the title of Alfred Hitchcock's <em>North by Northwest</em>, which was called "Death on his Heels" in Spain. <br> * Hitchcock's famous silhouette from <em>Alfred Hitchcock Presents</em> appears in this episode. <br> * In the scene in which Amelia and Alonso first go to San Sebastián, they are surrounded by birds. Two seagulls appear behind Alonso as well. Amelia is dressed similarly to Tippi Hedren, in the Hitchcock film, <em>The Birds</em>.<br> * The first scene in the Ministry of Time mimics the opening scene of <i>Rear Window</i>, including the text in L.B. Jefferies' casket, the photos on the wall, the lighting and camera shots. Additional scenes in this episode with Salvador would create a <i>Rear Window</i> feel as an homage to the movie, including him being stuck in a wheelchair, watching events outside his window, and he and Irene watching someone do something suspicious through a pair of binoculars. <br> * At least five Hitchcock films are referenced in this episode in almost shot-for-shot reproduction. They are: <i>Rear Window</i>, <i>Vertigo</i>, <i>The Birds</i>, <i>North by Northwest</i> and <i>Marnie</i>.<br> * The main plot is a replay of the film <i>Vertigo</i> with other Hitchcock films thrown in. They even included a scene where the Russian attacks Pacino with a knife, reminiscent of the shower sequence from <i>Psycho</i>.<br> * Hitchcock's predilection for blondes is mentioned<br> * Additional <i>Vertigo</i> references: Marta being given a pearl necklace. Marta's "death" at the bottom of the stairs. Someone being illuminated with a blue light while sleeping. The actual Vertigo Effect from the Ministry's depths. A woman with her hair in a spiral bun. <br> * Additional <i>Psycho</i> reference: The camera angle, when Amelia and Alonso are in the car<br> * <i>Rope</i> reference: The Soviet agent tries to use a rope to kill Pacino<br> * <i>Torn Curtain</i> reference: Killing someone by stabbing them in the neck. In this case, a hypodermic needle.,2018:site.11892 Thu, 28 Jun 2018 13:36:04 -0800 zarq The Knick: Get the Rope An Irish mob storms The Knick leading to strange bedfellows. This was an incredible episode. Tense, fast-paced, surprising, lovely gore, and people bedding each other. <br> <br> The open is Thackery introducing his fool-proof method for finding an appendix after being introduced to one of Frewer's colleagues with fulsome praise. Thackery worries the surgery won't live up to the hype, the audience worries the same thing. After all, we've seen him fail before. We cut to Thackery waking up in his usual brothel to a panicked woman shouting at him. Someone is choking. Thackery performs a tracheotomy** and cut to opening credits. <br> <br> Next up is the Irish cop-turned-pimp propositioning a beautiful and well-dressed young, black woman. The young woman's BF/husband arrives and in the ensuing altercation, the cop is stabbed. <br> <br> There's a mob at the hospital. Post surgery the cop dies and his incredibly drunk mother incites the crowd to start killing every black person they can find. The cops eagerly join in and provide the titular rope. <br> <br> Against objections from the guy whose daughter died of meningitis, Thackery takes in the black patients who were being viciously and brutally assaulted. Once the mob breaks down the doors, Thackery's crew heads to the nearest black hospital with Cleary acting as drafthorse while the remainder of the bedridden patients, fully draped, are playing dead on gurneys. The nuns take the, literally, walking wounded to a church while brandishing a cross like a sword. It is glorious. <br> <br> At the black hospital, Edwards reunites with a colleague from Harvard. They were each first in their respective classes. The look that Thackery gives the other doctor upon learning this is great. Having now known Edwards, the "first in class at Harvard" (relating to a black person) has meaning for him. <br> <br> Once rain and darkness sends the crowds home, Edwards returns to The Knick and makes out with Cornelia. It is entirely obvious that they've done this before--though unlikely that they've risked going further. Finally, Thackery's nurse invites him and his cocaine into her bed. <br> <br> Thackery, his nurse, Cleary and his assistant, and the nuns all make the incredible decision to protect and hide the black patients and Thackery actually goes into the street to physically impose himself between the mob and a man being assaulted. There's a sense that, while they're not bad people, if Edwards had never been hired, all of them would have been content to watch from their windows, and tsk tsk to each other, without lifting a hand to help. <br> <br> **I have seen a field tracheotomy on TV so damn often that I feel fully qualified to perform said procedure.,2014:site.939 Sat, 27 Sep 2014 16:19:15 -0800 Ik ben afgesneden