#BurntOrangeHeresy #Movie #Review: A Surprising Thriller [Stephen Abbott's blog]

The Burnt Orange Heresy was released in early March, 2020, just as the world (including movie theaters) was shutting down. 

I recently saw it in a second-tier theater on their first day open since the lockdown, with and an enforced 25% occupancy rule which was hardly needed, since I was literally the only one in the theater. 

I was greeted at the door with a girl wearing a face mask squirting my hands with sanitizer. The entire building suffered a brief power failure during the previews. Such was the weirdness of that world.

The film suffered from none of THAT weirdness, but it was spooky and ethereal, nonetheless.

Mick Jagger (yes, THAT one) plays Joseph Cassidy, a wealthy art collector who recruits cynical, bitter, pill-popping art critic James Figueras, played by Danish actor/musician Claes Bang, to come to his palatial estate on Lake Como in Italy to perform an enviable task - to interview a hermit-like, elderly artist, Jerome Debney (played with class by Donald Sutherland) a reclusive painter who hasn't been seen much in recent decades. For that matter, nor has Sutherland, himself. He has another task for him, as well, which he performs at first with reluctance, then with efficiency.

Bang brings his latest fling, Duluth school teacher Bernice Hollis (Paris-born Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki) with him to the Cassidy estate, and she first charms the millionaire and then the artist. 

Conversations between the characters about art and its value are rich and meaningful, with the exquisite background of the Italian countryside providing a lavish visual backdrop for the excellent script. 

Talks between the critic and his lover, and his lover and the elder artist, may seem to drag a bit, but it all adds to an understanding of what is going on, and gives significance to what's about to happen.

The story is adapted from a 1971 novel by Charles Willeford, an American mystery writer who originally set the story in Florida's Everglades. The story as adapted here seems pastoral and calm until the final act, when it turns into a thriller, with characters seeming to act of out character. But are they, really, acting so oddly, or was it, in hindsight, inevitable? 

The opening scene shows Figueras giving a lecture to tourists demonstrating his belief that all art is a lie, and is built on lies. He later tells his new lover that she really doesn't know him. 

That's truly an understatement, as both the critic and the millionaire collector have ulterior motives that, when revealed, have dire consequences. The ending is positively Poe-like in its overtones.

See this when the theaters open up again, or rent and stream it. It's beautifully filmed, acted and scripted. 

Note that this is a film for mature adults (it's rated R) with adult themes and sex scenes. The kids won't know who Jagger or Sutherland are, anyway, so leave them home.

What If We're All Quarantined? Our Remote-Working Future May Be About To Begin [Stephen Abbott's Blog]

Will Oremus is a work-from-home dad who won't have to change his life much if he is told he must stay at home because of the Coronavirus/Wuhan Flu.

He writes in a Medium article that his life is a good preview of that lifestyle - one many or all of us might be forced to adopt very soon.

..."Mine is a shut-in lifestyle that millions of people find themselves trying on for the first time. Tech companies are encouraging workers to stay home; schools and colleges are moving their classes online; conferences are being canceled; sporting events are being held in empty stadiums. 

It feels, in some ways, like a dress rehearsal for a future that was already on its way — one in which more and more of us self-isolate voluntarily, interacting with the outside world only from behind screens."

Oremus cites a 2014 Fast Company article asserting that "the future of work is increasingly going to be dominated by remote working."

But like flying cars and self-lacing sneakers, we were promised by futurists that by 2020 (or at least in some distant, unspecified "future") that we would be working, going to school, and shopping remotely, from home. It didn't happen, for most of us.

However, with the unexpected and rather terrifying advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, that time may be close at hand. As of this writing, Italy and Norway are two nations that have been completely shut down over the outbreak, and Ireland has closed all schools and daycare centers for a month, which will cause many adults and youth to stay home.

In the US, every public event is being closed down, out of caution, and fear of being the cause of spreading the outbreak in crowds.

But if a city or state declares a general quarantine, work (for those who can't actually work from home - and only just over 30%, it's been estimated, can) might simply cease. How will they survive? And how will those who cannot?

Some services MUST remain open, so a general lock-down of 100% of the population will be impossible. Aside from utilities (gas, electric, power plants, Internet, etc.) and first responders, delivery services will by necessity have to continue. Uber/Uber eats and grocery store and Wal-Mart delivery services will be vital to keeping people fed and healthy. Home test kits will be needed, eventually, to ensure that a general recovery is underway.

It's too early for self-driving trucks to exist on the roads, although Elon Musk and others are working on such things. That means truckers who are uninfected will be allowed on the roads. And factory workers producing products of vital need, such as TP, canned foods, and medical supplies, will have to remain open (here or, ironically, in China.)  Supply lines will need to continue, or there will be a general collapse of society in a matter of months.

(And as a side note, the entire face of society will change if 50% or more of all workers are even temporarily laid off. Banks would need to be prevented from foreclosing on those who can't pay mortgage payments for months, and the same will be true for renters. A Guaranteed Monthly income may be implemented to ensure people have cash for food. Either alone would fundamentally alter the economy.)

A couple of good things that have helped us prepare for all this is that 5G Internet, where it exists now, has arrived at just the right time to guarantee super fast connections and carry the incredibly large loads of data that will be required for workers to communicate and work product to be sent back and forth; and unlike the false start of the 2000s that ended in the Tech Bust, online shopping is widely accepted and is for most products very much a reality. The use of Internet services at home will likely tax both those loads, as well as the power grid, with so many people at home 24/7, instead of their homes being vacant for 8-10 hours a day.

We have to hope that all this is extreme speculation, and that none of it will come to pass, but we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility, and if this crisis finally introduces a remote-working future for many of us, bring on the future!

-- by Stephen Abbott of Abbott Media Group, a reputation and public relations agency.