{"id":9283,"date":"2021-10-07T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9283"},"modified":"2022-01-13T08:33:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T13:33:21","slug":"i-saw-it-at-the-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9283","title":{"rendered":"I Saw It at the Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bernie<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My original impetus for seeing Richard Linklater\u2019s 2012 movie Bernie <\/em>(trailer<\/a>) was that at least some of it was filmed in Smithville, an east Texas town named after my great great grandfather, William Smith (as was Smithville, Mississippi). Smithville is in Bastrop County, where a lot of movies made in Texas are filmed. Add to that, it\u2019s based on a true crime<\/a> My interest was piqued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleverly filmed like a Cold Case documentary, it uses interviews with the principals and various townspeople to gradually build up the story. Many of them are outrageously hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Black does an impressive portrayal of the small town\u2019s genial, much-loved assistant funeral director, Bernie Tiede. Reviewer Roger Ebert<\/a> said his performance \u201cproves that an actor can be a miraculous thing in the right role.\u201d Out of compassion or greed (depends who\u2019s talking), Bernie takes up with a truly nasty elderly woman (Shirley MacLaine), and is accused of murdering her. Bernie\u2019s nemesis is ambitious district attorney Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey), determined to prosecute, no matter what the townspeople think about the crime. These are the kinds of roles where you can go over-the-top, and the cast does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes\u2019 critics rating: 88%; audiences: 73%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lost Leonardo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here\u2019s a story rife with ideas for crime writers! The documentary follows the trail of a painting purchased in 2005 from a New Orleans auction house for $1,175 (trailer<\/a>). After restoration, it was believed (by some) to be the much-copied \u201cSalvator Mundi\u201d by Leonardo da Vinci. Twelve years later, carrying that identity, it sold at auction for $450,300,000. Now presumed to have been bought by Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, some believe it\u2019s headed for Louvre Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Scandinavian documentarians, led by director Andreas Koefoed, never come to a conclusion about the work\u2019s authenticity\u2014how could they, when the art world remains so sharply divided?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it\u2019s the middle of the story in which events become as murky as the overpainting of the possible masterpiece. In 2013, a Swiss art dealer, Yves Bouvier, purchased the painting for around $75 million and sold it to a Russian oligarch  for $127.5 million. The oligarch was displeased with Bouvier\u2019s mark-up and sued. Interestingly, Bouvier ran an international company that specialized in the transportation and storage of art works, luxury goods, and other collectibles, and is currently under investigation in several countries. He exploited the concept of freeports, which rent space (and services) to art collectors and museums. These facilities are outside the control of customs and taxing officials and have come under increasing scrutiny for their possible role in the trafficking of looted Syrian artifacts, tax evasion, and money-laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At present, no one knows for sure where the painting is. Some investigators believe it is in storage in one of Bouvier\u2019s never-neverland storage facilities. Others, that it\u2019s on bin Salman\u2019s yacht. No one knows for sure. Prepare to be astonished!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 97%; audiences: 80%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bernie My original impetus for seeing Richard Linklater\u2019s 2012 movie Bernie (trailer) was that at least some of it was filmed in Smithville, an east Texas town named after my great great grandfather, William Smith (as was Smithville, Mississippi). Smithville … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"I Saw It at the Movies - a dramedy based on a real life murder (no one wanted him found guilty) and a real life discovery-of-a-lifetime or $450 million scam. You decide!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,52,58,261,57,267,104],"tags":[1913,325],"class_list":["post-9283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-crime","category-documentaries","category-journalism","category-movies","category-non-fiction","category-the-morgue","tag-leonardo-da-vinci","tag-richard-linklater"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2pJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9286,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9283\/revisions\/9286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}