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For this Special Thursday Cinema Night, first up is Rocco and His Brothers (1960), an epic Italian social drama from renowned auteur Luchino Visconti, whose films Ossessione (1943), The Leopard (1963), and Ludwig (1973) we previously watched. A single mother with four sons moves to Milan, and they all cope with their poverty in different ways, with two of the brothers taking up boxing, one going to school, and one working for a car company. Everyone seems to get along fine until, uh-oh, two of the brothers fall in love with the same woman, a prostitute, leading to an increasingly bitter division within the family. Currently ranked #142 on the Letterboxd Top 500, and generally considered one of the best films of the 1960s.

Next is The Queen’s Gambit (2020), a seven-episode Netflix miniseries starring Anya Taylor-Joy as an orphan chess prodigy in the 1960s who overcomes patriarchy, drug addiction, and state-sponsored child abuse to rise through the ranks of the chess world. Will her personal problems derail her ascent to glory, or will she prove all the naysayers wrong anyway? I guess we’ll see. This is by far the best-known and best-regarded work to date of director Scott Frank, and one of the highest-rated miniseries on Letterboxd. A big hit during COVID lockdowns. Episode 1 tonight.

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

Doesthedogdie.com links:

CWs for Rocco and His Brothers:

  • Kissing.
  • Implied sex.
  • Objectification of female characters.
  • Cheating.
  • Alcohol.
  • Drunkenness.
  • Profanity.
  • Prostitution.
  • Smoking.
  • Implied sexual assault.
  • Fistfighting.
  • Stabbing.
  • Cutting of flesh.
  • Blood.

CWs for The Queen’s Gambit:

  • Child abandonment.
  • Someone leaves without saying goodbye.
  • Child abuse.
  • Domestic violence.
  • Abusive parents.
  • Gaslighting.
  • Drug addiction.
  • Drug use.
  • Someone is drugged.
  • Crying baby.
  • Drug overdose.
  • Death of parent.
  • Shower scene.
  • Natural bodies of water.
  • Mannequins.
  • Vomiting.
  • Needles.
  • Mental hospital scene.
  • Hospital scene.
  • Menstruation.
  • PTSD.
  • Unstable reality.
  • Mental illness.
  • Anxiety attacks.
  • Nervous breakdown.
  • Flashing lights.
  • Screaming.
  • Underwater scenes.
  • Profanity.
  • Hate speech.
  • Discussion of religion.
  • Suicide.
  • Self-harm.
  • Suicide attempt.
  • Sex.
  • Objectification of female characters.
  • Loss of virginity.
  • Chronic illness.
  • Terminal illness.
  • Car crash.
  • Someone is hit by a car.
  • Honking horns.
  • Screeching tires.
  • Unconsciousness.

Links to movies: