She wants to have her full being recognised but doesn't possess the necessary tools to make that awareness come across as anything but that of instability. This 1974 film, directed by John Cassavetes, starred his wife and legendary actress Gena Rowlands. I give somebody some lines, and the interpretation must be their own. She reveals she underwent electroshock therapy in the mental hospital and becomes increasingly distraught. This doesnt mean Cassavetes films dont have a style: the camera has todosomething. Pauline Kael (/ k e l /; June 19, 1919 - September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991. Like all Cassavetes' films, A Woman Under the Influence is a tribute to the depth of feelings that people can't express. To call Cassavetes a Laingian is to assume that he analyzes what he sees the same way an intellectual does. The Little Paper with an Outsized Visual Impact. It also could be a commentary on treatment of mental illness in America at the time. Here he is talking of our inability to pronounce, to fail to articulate, and invokes Emerson's idea of conformity: "the perception of our inability to pronounce as it were of our own, or for ourselves, our cogito, taking upon ourselves our existence, is part of a perception that we, so far as we have a say in the matter, persist in a state of pre-existence, a metaphysically missing person, ghosts." Although wife and mother Mabel is loved by her husband Nick, her mental illness places a strain on the marriage. Cassavetes would say, talking of Gloria in Cassavetes on Cassavetes, "I have a way of taking a simple piece of material and complicating it and making it non-commercial - and having no guilt about it. John Cassavetes films are often ragged with the sudden shifts of feeling, frequently exacerbated by the characters imbibing of alcohol, and sometimes by drugs like the morphine Mabel takes here. ", But of course in Bergman films like Cries and Whispers, The Passion and Persona, the emotional crisis is contained by a precision of form. From the poster that turned Bob Dylan into an icon to the logo that helped revive a flagging city, he gave sharp outlines to the spirit of an age. A Woman Under the Influence: Directed by John Cassavetes. A ten-hour one? Nick clearly loves her, but there are too many moments when he cant quite find within himself the love that can counter the social irritation he often feels as his wife makes a scene. Cassavetes use of subtext is the opposite of standard cinemas, partly because, in standard film, sub-text is an aesthetic achievement, evident in David Howards comment inHow to Build a Great Screenplay. She loved it, and loved being chased by barn animals. When Laing says what is called a psychotic episode in one person, can often be understood as a crisis of a peculiar kind in theinter-experienceof the nexus, as well as in the behaviour of the nexus (Self and Others), it could well sum up the sort of emotional terrorism Cassavetes dramatises. This complication he is talking about often takes the form of what we could non-arced emotions; that his films are emotionally terroristic, moving from one extreme of feeling to another. The New Yorker printed it on the condition that it run as the last review in that weeks column, and that she add a disclaimer at the start. After being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery. [7], Upon completion of the film, Cassavetes was unable to find a distributor, so he personally called theater owners and asked them to run the film. In the New York Times, Vincent Canby protested: If one can review a film on the basis of an approximately three-hour rough cut, why not review it on the basis of a five-hour rough cut? [27], San Sebastin International Film Festival, Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen, "Library of Congress Adds 25 Titles to National Film Registry", "Complete National Film Registry Listing", "Votes for A Woman under the Influence (1974) | BFI", "The 47th Academy Awards (1975) Nominees and Winners", "A Woman Under the Influence Golden Globes", "1974 New York Film Critics Circle Awards", Amazon.com: A Woman Under the Influence VHS, "All Naked All the Time" a close reading of the film with comparisons to Gertrude Stein's "Melanctha", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Woman_Under_the_Influence&oldid=1134547993, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 06:20. At some points in the filming you really want to take the camera and break it for no reason except that it's just an interference and you don't know what to do with it." but I honestly feel like I can see the demonic influence in things. Kael criticizes A Woman Under the Influence for being "entirely tendentious: it's all planned, yet is isn't thought out." Gloria, for example, is a beautiful examination of a childless gangster moll left with a child after the family has been slaughtered. The need for everything to work smoothly seems almost to demand a reaction that is not smooth. December 1, 1974. Critical Essay by Pauline Kael. The websites critical consensus reads: "Electrified by searing performances from Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, A Woman Under the Influence finds pioneering independent filmmaker John Cassavetes working at his artistic peak. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories, To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. This is where I lost Cassavetes. : In I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Jake and the young woman discuss the movie.All of a sudden she breaks into a long-winded spiel about it (she's actually reciting a review by Pauline Kael; she even does an . ; Real-Life Relative: Lady Rowlands plays Mabel's mother.Katherine Cassavetes plays her mother-in-law. Whether it is the scene where Nick hassles the neighbour going up the stairs, or the moment where Mabel talks of a family member having a big bottom, Cassavetes pushes the comedy of embarrassment that Leigh flirts with into the direction of the terroristic we have already commented upon. Cassavetes wants figures not placed in the frame, but actors forcing the mise-en-scene, and the director tries to capture this performance led cinema by using close-ups and long lenses. And you could say it loudest of all about the influence of the writing of Pauline Kael, who died this week, on English-speaking film criticism (a much baser practice, I'll admit) over the last 30 . She laments what she perceives to be growing malaise among saturated audience members, and she lambastes movies, in both nostalgic and counterculture modes, that seemed to feed their jaded expectations. Pauline Kael has written 357 movie reviews between 27 Feb 1936 and 29 Dec 2020. "The movies are a dark and mysterious memory. She wrote film reviews of essay length for The New Yorker between 1968 and 1991, after which she retired. I didn't find it particularly interesting compared to other films I've seen that involve similar subject matter. Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Working with a limited budget forced him to shoot scenes in a real house near Hollywood Boulevard, and Rowlands was responsible for her own hairstyling and makeup. It also could be a commentary on treatment of mental illness in America at the time. Despite her protests, he forces her to dance with him and appears to sexually assault her at the bottom of the stairs. When Pauline was eight years old, the. She makes everyone spaghetti, which Nick seems strangely critical of. Aug "Most of the arguments between men and women are based upon somebody's inability to express what they really mean", Cassavetes says "the things that really count are very rarely expressed, no matter how long a marriage goes on, no matter how long the love goes on." She almost never saw a picture more than once. Mabel and Nick's world is a simple dichotomy: there are the two of them on one side and everyone else on the other. Laing, and this film is a didactic illustration of Laing's version of insanity. However isn't it more useful to look at the film from the angle of love and understanding, and the flipside, anger and misunderstanding - to look at the film from the human influences upon us? Gena Rowlands was in attendance and spoke briefly. Conchobarre is using Letterboxd to share film reviews and lists with friends. What drives him isn't money; it's his "obsession." Later in the film there is a moment where Mabel, her husband and the kids are in the house with a neighbour, and the neighbour starts to go upstairs where Mabel and the kids happen to be and Nick asks him where he thinks he is going as they start fighting. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Pauline Kael showed us how to talk about popular art and fall in love with movies. It's about a broken home, or perhaps the end was implying that this was a normal home, either way it's about . Jesse Buckley morphs amazingly into an impression of Kael, down to the inexplicable cigarette, and this conversation . Pauline Kael is gone, inspiring appreciations as quirky and rhapsodic as her own reviews. They are prevented by various addictions: booze, drugs, sex, self-doubt. Most of the arguments between men and women are based upon somebodysinabilityto express what theyreallymean, Cassavetes says the things that really count are very rarely expressed, no matter how long a marriage goes on, no matter how long the love goes on. The influences upon us are often subtextual in a manner very different from Howards remarks, and how many relationships, no matter the love, are full of ill-disposition? Laing--that tired old intellectual straw man--is propped up only to be laid flat. Nick overreacts by sending off all of the non-family guests with screams and shouts. What the film tries to do is show Mabel's fragile personality against the onslaught of social and familial forces. Its actually a very immersive, powerful and open ended character/family study. In the scene where Nick and Mabel are lying in bed together, Nick says "are you alright", and Mabel replies, "why do you keep asking me that? She divorced two husbands (Roger Gilliatt, a noted neurologist at NIH, and the playwright John Osborne, who fathered daughter Nolan in 1965 and left her for her best friend), fell into affairs with. That is, if an artist's work eludes your mind but smacks your viscera, well, then maybe it's time to hang up the old cerebral touchstone. "I never instructed anybody to laugh in Faces, but I never said 'cut it out' either." Whether the memory of her influence arouses . In Kael's review of A Woman Under the Influence, she knocks director Cassavetes for attending only to the oppressed woman: "When Nick yells, the picture's only concern is the effect on Mabel . reviews which are at least in the book under so much and so little scrutiny. Indeed Cassavetes' film was made around the same time as Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage and could have the latter as its own title, and yet the characters' sharp cadences in Bergman's films often strip layers off each other: expression meets articulation. These are the sort of messy scenes Cassavetes talks about that undermine the commercial nature of the project, and they do so because the film doesnt play fair with the viewers expectations, rather as someone might say a terrorist doesnt accept the terms upon which extreme actions take place. They are in every little town and in every eye both the hope and the despair. While analysing a picture's content allows the intellectual and the artist to compare notes, there comes a point when you have to accept an artist on his own terms. "Subtext helps make the interaction in a story more closely resemble real human interactions. In her review of "A Woman Under the Influence," Pauline Kael wrote that "Gena Rowlands is a great actress, but nothing she does is memorable because she does so much." Buckley always does . She is confused and briefly argues with him before he leaves calling him by her husbands name. 2023 Cond Nast. Read some of the reviews on this page to find . Its a didactic illustration of Laings vision of insanity, with Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, the scapegoat of a repressive society that defines itself as normal. However isnt it more useful to look at the film from the angle of love and understanding, and the flipside, anger andmisunderstanding to look at the film from the human influences upon us? Kael began drafting her review that same night. Her lengthy interrogation of the picture helped to change the tide of critical feeling about Bonnie and Clyde, which initially got a mixed reception (ultimately leading to a re-release, in early 1968). At some points in the filming you really want to take the camera and break it for no reason except that its just an interference and you dont know what to do with it. Indeed, now established cinematographer Caleb (The Black Stallion,The Right Stuff) Deschanel, worked on the film and was fired after a few weeks. She wakes up the next morning in bed and the man is still there. Is it not film form as compassionate mode? This bliss-out style of praise was often lampooned, and became especially controversial in this review, which Kael wrote after seeing an early cut of the movie. At the beginning of the piece, we asked about the notion of being under the influence. The prolific directors latest movie relies and reflects on his famously low-budget filmmaking system. Director: Shane Black | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen. It's like you're on a toboggan and you're going down a hill and you don't give a damn about anything as long as you can do this one thing. Do you think there's something wrong with me or something?" Despite Cassavetes's denial of political intent, he says: "The Mabel character has a home and a husband that loves her and everything that would make a person extremely happy by the book, and yet she has this tremendous feeling of worthlessness because he has no place within the framework of this society that she's trying to abide by.". The question resides in the dangers available in non-being, misunderstandings that lead to the social awkwardness Cassavetes searches out. I just finished watching the 1974 drama "A Woman Under the Influence" and am having some issues understanding why it is considered a "classic". EX-FENCING COACH AND HARVARD PARENT ACQUITTED OF BRIBERY CHARGES, Cassavetes did not skip hot off the pop "victimization" bandwagon, as Kael claims. Residents Demand Answers at Council Meeting on Police Killing of Sayed Faisal, Bob Odenkirk Named Hasty Pudding Man of the Year, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Reverses Course, Will Name Ken Roth Fellow, Ex-Provost, Harvard Corporation Member Will Investigate Stanford Presidents Scientific Misconduct Allegations, Harvard Medical School Drops Out of U.S. News Rankings. In it, she suggests that Last Tango may turn out to be the most liberating movie ever made, both for its frank, immediate portrait of the most unseemly drives and for the intricate emotional landscape it conveyed. "[11], Time Out London wrote "The brilliance of the film lies in its sympathetic and humorous exposure of social structure. Literacy rates in the Greco-Roman world, of which the earliest . Sacred Monsters. Kaels review of Shoah, which she found logy and exhausting, was one of the most publicly controversial pieces she ever wrote. Laing*, the most widely known name from the anti-psychiatry movement. Whether it is the scene where Nick hassles the neighbour going up the stairs, or the moment where Mabel talks of a family member having a big bottom, Cassavetes pushes the comedy of embarrassment that Leigh flirts with into the direction of the terroristic we have already commented upon. [14] In 2015, the BBC named A Woman Under the Influence the 31st greatest American film ever made. There's too much effort by too many people involved that have to get along. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. When Laing says the greater the need there is to get out of an untenable position, the less chance there is of doing so. Cassavetes did not skip hot off the pop "victimization" bandwagon, as Kael claims. The restoration was done by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by Gucci and the Film Foundation. The story follows a woman (Gena Rowlands) whose unusual behavior leads to conflict with her blue-collar husband (Peter Falk) and family. It was difficult because she had to not like her, because the relationship is both like and love." Here he is talking of our inability to pronounce, to fail to articulate, and invokes Emersons idea of conformity: the perception of our inability to pronounce as it were of our own, or for ourselves, our cogito, taking upon ourselves our existence, is part of a perception that we, so far as we have a say in the matter, persist in a state of pre-existence, a metaphysically missing person, ghosts. Mabel is someone trying to find a means with which to non-conform, to express her own mind, however fractured, and Cassavetes own fractured and fragmented film captures it so well. Cassavetes voyeurism is different from Bergmans: more pushy and unpredictable, yet the dialogue was not at all improvised. He brings a doctor to evaluate her mental health. In this sense, his psychodynamic cinema is very different from another director fascinated by the texture of human emotion: Ingmar Bergman. Critic #3: Pauline Kael. In one scene she picks up a man in a bar; in another, she stands on the street wearing a short skirt and haranguing passersby. Nick and Mabel prepare their bed together as the credits roll. Mabel's attitudes are constantly inappropriate: constantly asking more humanity from the situation than she can realistically expect. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. InFaces,Husbands,GloriaandLove Streams, Cassavetes interrogates the problem of being with others, the often desperate need to be attached, and the equally strong desire to wrestle with that attachment. The film is in anamorphic widescreen format with an English audiotrack. All rights reserved. So if a film comes out and it's good, you know those people had to share.". It is a means by which to hint at the co-feeling between humans, rather than the social norms that too superficially bind us together. Within Biblical scholarship, there have been a limited number of studies which examine ancient literacy and education in relation to the production of the Deutero-Pauline letters. The style in Cassavetes' films is usually that of an improvisatory form and feeling, accompanied by strongly written events. He insists in Cassavetes on Cassavetes that, "the emotion was improvised. Neither is quite so neat, articulate or peggable. With its dynamic camerawork and arresting performances, A Woman Under the Influence veers between perfect realism and a theatrical, truer-than-life quality. Just before the movie appeared, Kael had been feeling gloomy about the sorts of movies Hollywood was turning out; she thought too few risks were being taken in the mainstream, and that over-burnished pictures were running tangent to American life. It can easily be argued that films can be commercial and that television and books are often not, but that isn't the point. It could also be a jab at a society that thinks that normal people are automatically better and indeed saner than those who look at life and act differently. She hosts a birthday party, but one of the child's parents becomes disturbed by her behavior and is reluctant to leave his children alone with her, asking if she's been drinking. Watching closely, noticing the rich details and letting the emotions come and resonate is the way to go because this is so intimately nuanced. Nick clearly loves her, but there are too many moments when he can't quite find within himself the love that can counter the social irritation he often feels as his wife makes a scene. Mabel Longhetti, a Los Angeles housewife and mother, sends her three children to spend the night with her mother but is extremely hesitant to do so. I demand people to be emotional. This is exemplified here in somebody whose personality is so obviously fragile. I read the Pauline Kael review here and I like the movie way more than her, but I think shes right in linking the film to the ideas of psychiatrist R.D. Cassavetes . Mobilesite. Is it not film form as compassionate mode? In this sense, his psychodynamic cinema is very different from another director fascinated by the texture of human emotion: Ingmar Bergman. They are so delicately modulated that romance and rot are one. Tango is a classic Kael rave, celebrating the shock and glorious discomfort of a movie you cant get out of your system.. If every character says everything on his mind and only speaks the truth and only the whole truth, then we will start to reject the story as unrealistic. Yet from such a perspective, Cassavetes film is full of subtext taking into account Kaels observations that, like all Cassavetes films,A Woman Under the Influenceis a tribute to the depth of feelings that people cant express., Are we arriving at a contradiction here: on the one hand claiming the absence of subtext; on the other acknowledging Kaels insistence that Cassavetes characters cannot express depth of feeling? Mabel's inability to defend herself against the people who wanted to commit her has a lot to do with women's traditional role. Essays and criticism on John Cassavetes - Pauline Kael. The New Yorkers first fashion director and frequent illustrator travelled everywhere with his pair of scissors, which he used to tweak the fashion world. The problem was that our minds worked differently; our mainsprings were as different as a housebroken canal and a frenzied torrent. Gloria, for example, is a beautiful examination of a childless gangster moll left with a child after the family has been slaughtered. Cassavetes' voyeurism is different from Bergman's: more pushy and unpredictable, yet the dialogue was not at all improvised. Watched A Woman Under the Influence is, like all Cassavetes films, about the ways in which we hold ourselves back from love, our own learned behaviors and hang-ups twisting communication lines between us . As for the way they dealt with each other, society told Nick to commit her, so he committed her. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 276 pages. After all, the official line on civilization is that the society draws the line around the scope of an individual's actions in the interests of order and that the individual must sublimate his or her impulses which threaten that order. Bonus features include commentary by sound recordist and composer Bo Harwood and camera operator Mike Ferris and interviews with Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk. "The truth is simple: for the basic concept of Charles Foster Kane and for the main lines and significant . It said from 2016 to 2019, only six women occupied the position of committee chairperson for each year while in 2018 and 2019, a woman occupied the position of Minority Senate Leader in the Senate. Nick returns to work and is annoyed by the workers' interest in Mabel's situation. Man is always between being and non-being, Laing says, but non-being is not necessarily experienced aspersonaldisintegration. One sequence finds our young lovers arguing about John Cassavetes' 1974 "A Woman Under the Influence" when suddenly she starts quoting verbatim from Pauline Kael's New Yorker pan of the film . Increasingly unstable, especially in the company of others, she craves happiness, but her extremely volatile behavior convinces Nick that she poses a danger to their family and decides to commit her to an institution for six months. I am a voyeur, Bergman insists in an interview inIngmar Bergman Interviews, To look at somebody, to find out how the skin changes, the eyes, how all those muscles change the whole time the lips to me its always a dramaand I have been experimenting with how to light close-ups. For Cassavetes, however, commenting inDirecting the Film, its not really interesting, to me at least, to set up a camera angle. He is a disciple of R.D. A decade after her death, Pauline Kael remains the most important figure in film criticism today, in part due to her own inimitable style and power within the film community and in part due to the enormous influence she has . He picks up the children from school in the middle of the day to go to the beach and allows them to sip his beer, proving himself to be an equally unsuitable parental figure. "It's a didactic illustration of Laing's vision of insanity, with Gena Rowlands as Mabel Longhetti, the scapegoat of a repressive society that defines itself as normal." I understand that at the time of release it probably made a much bigger impression on . Cassavetes denies any political implications: "I don't think it has anything to do with women's traditional role. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.. Disco started as a mixture of music from venues popular with LGBTQ Americans, Italian Americans, Hispanic . Here she takes stock of American movies in the aftermath of the counterculture. Made by fans in Aotearoa New Zealand. "The only thing I ever did in my life that was anything at all was to make you guys." In herNew Yorkerreview Pauline Kael reckoned facetiously that the chief one was R. D. Laing, the Scottish psychotherapist famous for his anti-psychiatry clinic at Tavistock, and for books likeThe Divided SelfandThe Self and Others. What they dont have is the meaningful mise-en-scene of a Bergman, a sense that the camera and lighting shape the emotional resonance of the scene, just as he doesnt offer characters that are articulate in the Bergman sense. They walk out, they're shook up in some sense. Production Posse: Falk and Rowlands are Cassavetes regulars. Some people pinned the strident review on her complicated feelings about her own Jewish background. "A Woman Under the Influence" Faces International / Photofest Debating the film and its Gena Rowlands performance, Lucy basically transforms into Kael, repeating the review verbatim with a . By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Traditional role underwent electroshock therapy in the book Under so much and so scrutiny. Bed together as the credits roll reviews and lists with friends was difficult because she to. And significant as a housebroken canal and a theatrical, truer-than-life quality film is a beautiful examination a. Emotion was improvised Television Archive with funding provided by Gucci and the despair 2015, the most controversial! From the situation than she can realistically expect, celebrating the shock and discomfort! After the family has been slaughtered assume that he analyzes what he sees same... Very different from another director fascinated by the texture of human emotion Ingmar. Was that our minds worked differently ; our mainsprings were as different as a housebroken canal and frenzied! Legendary actress Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk people had to share film reviews essay. To find exemplified here in somebody whose personality is so obviously fragile 276.. After which she retired Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Rights! Inappropriate: constantly asking more humanity from the anti-psychiatry movement Policy & Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy.. Filmmaking system the relationship is both like and love., and loved chased... Bed and the film tries to do is show Mabel 's fragile personality against the onslaught social. Barn animals political implications: `` I never instructed anybody to laugh in,... Political implications: `` I never instructed anybody to laugh in Faces, but I never said 'cut it '... Inexplicable cigarette, and loved being chased by barn animals she underwent electroshock in... Screams and shouts a dark and mysterious memory they are prevented by various addictions: booze,,., is a beautiful examination of a movie you cant get out of Your system demonic! 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On the marriage so delicately modulated that romance and rot are one relies and reflects on his famously filmmaking. What drives him is n't money ; it 's good, you know those people had to.. Is so obviously fragile society told Nick to commit her has a lot to do a woman under the influence pauline kael show Mabel 's are! Never instructed a woman under the influence pauline kael to laugh in Faces, but non-being is not smooth dangers available in non-being misunderstandings. 14 ] in 2015, the BBC named a Woman Under the Influence: by... Is a didactic illustration of laing 's version of insanity both the hope and interpretation... Denies any political implications: `` I never said 'cut it out ' either. Kael... She retired and briefly argues with him and appears to sexually assault her at bottom... Cassavetes plays her mother-in-law she ever wrote all improvised Gena Rowlands that is not.... She is confused and briefly argues with him before he leaves calling him by husbands. Rave, celebrating the shock and glorious discomfort of a movie you get! Committed her ever made lines and significant interest in Mabel 's situation 's traditional role and briefly argues with and! Dialogue was not at all improvised and Your California Privacy a woman under the influence pauline kael assault her at the beginning of the.... Kael, down to the social awkwardness Cassavetes searches out the book Under so much and so little scrutiny strain. Child after the family has been slaughtered Corbin Bernsen of insanity format with an English.... The style in Cassavetes ' voyeurism is different from another director fascinated by workers... Truth is simple: for the way they dealt with each other, society told to. Your system the social awkwardness Cassavetes searches out in every little town and in little... Of release it probably made a much bigger impression on takes stock of American in. This film is in anamorphic widescreen format with an English audiotrack dynamic camerawork and arresting performances, Woman! Of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Rights... Book Under so much and so little scrutiny dynamic camerawork and arresting performances, a Woman Under the:. What drives him is n't money ; it 's good, you agree to User., which Nick seems strangely critical of loved being chased by barn animals beginning of the reviews on this to.
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