A name from the past has come back to haunt me this week, Antonio Gragnaniello. I wrote a warning/diatribe about Antonio over on my site a few years back (read it here) and have gotten quite a few emails this week from fellow traders that have gotten burned by Antonio just in recent months. Yes, he continues to lull traders with tales of grandeur told in broken English.
Allegedly, he and a few other guys (Massimo Lavagnini, Mattia Mariotti, David Oakes, Saad Khan, Javier Castellanos, "plus hundreds of collaborators from all over the world") have a book, Fantastic Cinema, in the works. Allegedly? Yes, some feel that maybe the book is as empty as Antonio's promises but, not to worry, Antonio assures the world that "I could take you hundreds of testimonies to prove of the existence of the book, bur for what? You don?t deserve such an effort. Why do you think we have written all those reviews till today, involving thousands of people, for fun? Why do you think we took months, years to find watch and review Albanian, Mongol, Egyptian, Afghan, Cingalese, Nepali, Estonian, Fijian, Armenian, Turkmen, Srilankan, Cambodian, Bolivian, Honduras, Lybian, Lebanese, Pakistani, Icelandic, Syrian?????? films without even understand the languages: because they are masterpieces or because they are pieces of collection wanted by all?" (sic)
I have to laugh about the idea of Antonio writing a book of movie reviews as I'm sure that the majority of them will be of movies he will insist are not available anywhere (his "protected list"). I also weep for poor David Oakes as I'm sure his job is to clean up Antonio's famously funny broken English. There's nothing funnier in the world to be bitched out by Antonio.
Keep your eyes peeled for Fantastic Cinema. Here's hoping it's real, well-written, and that it's not just a book of reviews for movies you'll never be able to see.
1 comment:
We say ?God makes them and then matches them up?, i?m happy you run across your twin Mathieu http://impossiblefunky.blogspot.com/ , another promise-breaker, another who lives selling bootlegs, another who tries to publicly destroy the people who has different ideas than his - like for example to not divulge films coming from filmmakers, producers, archives or film centres etc... - without the others have the possibility to defend themselves and tell the things how they actually are. I notice that now your tone is more ironic than offensive as was in the famous page everyone knows, although you didn?t achieve your purpose, because during these years i managed to get all the films i needed for the book, in spite of your slandering me. This time i?d dare to say that with that short ?article?, you?ve unintentionally publicized my book. Yes, the book. It does exists, and we are writing it for 14 years. It?s something unique and soon it will see the light of day. Its first edition will be in Italian, so no risk to have my reviews ?cleaned up? by David Oakes (by the way, he?s really a great person), don?t worry, although our intention, soon after the publishing, is start to find a foreign editor and a perfect English translator. By the way, you are right, my English is ?broken?, but does exist a law for which we all must know English perfectly? I manage to let me understand abroad and it?s enough. Or better still i even have the luck to have contributed and still contribute to some English language film magazines. Then, instead of mocking me, try to express yourself in Italian with an Italian and try to write reviews in Italian? And don?t worry, the ?protected? titles don?t exist anymore simply because i don?t Exchange anymore for years. Part of the films the possible readers will find are totally unknown and very very rare to find, but not impossibile, provided that you lose months, years to track down people from secluded countries disposed to help you and spend lots of money. If you want, you can really publicize our book on your sites, but for free!!!
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