The Fountain

"The Fountain" (2006) is about life and death all the same. A surreal quest for life that takes you from middle age Spain all the way to a dying star of Mayan myths to see where life and death joins together in harmony. The story of a dying woman that has to be finished by her beloved. You might say it takes him ages to become able to... finish it. Among the unalterable facts that we have to accept death seems to be the most fearsome. And yet, if I was to define the human condition in one word, it would be the "but..." we respond to these facts, and indeed many times this rebelling word is what helped us change seemingly immovable circumstances and bend them in our favor. It is this spirit that seeks to alter our condemnation to death, and he travels a long way to finally accept it as the graceful fulfillment and renewal of life. An interesting note about the visual effects in the movie (the dying star sequence): they are not CGI, but microphotographic shots of chemical reactions. I think it is pretty interesting how well this much cheaper solution turned out to be, as I am not sure that any CGI would have been better here, but I am quite sure that this choice resulted in a unique visual world that I may have lost the chance to see if CGI had been used. Beautiful and enlightening film from Darren Aronofsky with the enchanting music by Clint Mansell.

Tenshi no Tamago

"Tenshi no Tamago" (Angel's Egg, 1985) could be another piece in the row of surrealist art that I wrote earlier that I wanted to write about. It is what I like to sometimes call "an inner language film". It is a story of a pure feeling, perhaps "trust" would be the word that gives a good idea of what it is about, but perhaps it is better to say that it is about the fact that in a relationship one will inevitably hurt the other. Due to its nature, this 71 minutes long animated film is basically plotless and ambiguous, we follow the weird journey of two characters in a devastated Gothic world: a girl guarding and egg, and a man who befriends her. The girl gradually becomes confident that the man does not want the egg, but then... Some associate this feeling with a turn in director Mamoru Oshii's own life, namely a loss of faith during the time he was trained to become a priest. But I don't think we need such speculations whether they are true or not, because the feelings depicted are quite general so that many people with different backgrounds may recognize them. The artwork is that of Yoshitaka Amano, and some originals can be seen in the first video I am posting, which was probably made when the film was in an initial stage. The other "trailer" is edited from the film itself, using a piece from the original soundtrack of Yoshihiro Kanno (one that is also a favorite of mine). It is funny to remember that I ordered the cd with the original sound track directly from Japan some ten years ago. Back then it wasn't so easy to order or even to find such things online... Today you may watch the whole thing on youtube.

Blame, Ghosts And Kaosgumi - GMV At Its Best

Youtube can be a treasure mine sometimes, especially if you are looking for contemporary experimental art. I have just checked out the channel of a user called "kaosgumi", and I thought I'd link one of his works here. It uses the manga art of Tsutomu Nihei, more specifically his popular cyberpunk, "Blame!". This is a GMV - Graphic Music Video and those who are familiar with the notion of AMV (Anime MV) may already know what this means: it takes the artwork of the original which is then organized to the taste of the GMV creator to tell a story or simply to convey a feeling to the rhythm of a chosen piece of music. This is a very fine example of GMV, it keeps the atmosphere of the manga, uses simple but effective solutions of animation, and fitting choice of music. The latter is Ghosts IV [32] from the alternative rock band Nine Inch Nails. I have chosen this video to post here, but there are quite a few others on youtube. Check out if you can!

Édith Piaf - La vie en rose

"La vie en rose" is Édith Piaf's signature song, and an atmospheric one at that... I have the feeling of sitting in a Paris café, when I am listening to this song. Many have performed this song since then, but it gains a special significance when she sings it as her life was often stormy but seems to have been fulfilled in singing. The same goes for "Non, je ne regrette rien"; another song which I think is especially suited for her...

Vampires

Since Bram Stoker's Dracula appeared in 1897, it has been a subject of many interpretations and adaptations. In films, I would distinguish between two major types that put emphasis on different aspects of the character. I would label these as "Dracula" and "Nosferatu" films. Dracula films are either based on the novel itself, or, as the majority seems to do, rely more on the stage play adaptation of the book. Examples of adaptations following the book include Coppola's or that of Jesús Franco, but the real lasting image of a vampire is based on the stage play adaptations, and probably on the performance of Béla Lugosi in "Dracula" (1931). Here Dracula has a hypnotic personal charm, a mesmerising gaze that was extremely effective especially at a time when sound was so new that in Dracula there is no film music other than Swan Lake in the opening credits, as the makers were not sure how people would react to it... But the charmeur reading of Dracula is not limited to this film only, and has lived on until nowadays. That Dracula has figurative allusions to relationships of a sexual nature forbidden in the late Victorian era when it was written has been discussed by many. A charming vampire is sympathetic to both those who identify themselves with the seduced and the seducer. In the end, the victims may just throw themselves at the feet of the vampire as you can see in the video I am posting here with Frank Langella in "Dracula" (1979).

On the other hand, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's version of Dracula shows a quite different aspect of the character. His adaptation is titled "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" (Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, 1922), as Murnau was forced to omit references to Dracula due to copyright reasons. The nosferatu also has unearthly powers, but those are more rotten than a vampire's, as Count Orlok himself is repulsive compared to the charming Dracula. Orlok is followed by rats and disease wherever he goes and albeit he possesses hypnotic powers they rather paralyse the victims with fright than lure them with attraction. The same hidden desire is present of course but in a more brutal and frightening manner. A remake was made in 1979 by Werner Herzog, with Klaus Kinski as Dracula (no more copyright issues), titled "Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht" (Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night). It is a very dazzling and dreamy experience to watch this film, quite worthy of the original's reputation. Here we now see the seduction scene as nosferatu does it. In this version, he is much more a victim of his own way of existence, the continuous need to acquire love, and despite all his powers, he is forced to retreat.

These two views on the vampire seem to confront in a scene from "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000) by E. Elias Merhige, a film which tells the story of the making of Murnau's Nosferatu assuming that the vampire was real in the movie. Here, Willem Dafoe as the creature offers his opinion as a vampire on the book "Dracula". Interesting how things depend on interpretation (points of view). He explains the sadness and loneliness lurking in the book, something only a vampire sees, as the others seem to be more fascinated by his power to fulfil his desires.

And finally, I think it is only fitting if I add my own venture into writing a vampire story. Part of it at least... This was written when I was very low... the diary of my sadness follows here. What I found very interesting that this received much more positive feedback from those I took the trouble to impress before than anything else I had previously attempted... a bit ironic maybe, but such are the doings of deep feelings... better move on to see the world in a different light before they devour you... When I wrote this, I felt that the contrast between the creature that forever longs for the essence of life and beauty and another myth, Narciss who has all those but to himself alone and for that reason needs nobody else... that contrast is what my life was about... seeing from the vampire's point of view, life appeared thus:

"Oh, yes, i know... the sunlight... these, whom i call vampires like the sun... they do dance if they see it... and their dance gives me warm feelings... that i want to join, yet i am not able to. Strange isn't it?? now i am starting to remember why is it so strange... yes, i am awakening... and yes, these is no sunshine, just the still darkness of a coffin. With this dream, all the vampires are gone... except the only true one... i... i am still lying in this coffin...

After you awake, the borders of reality and that of dreamworld are still fuzzy. But still, it makes more sense, i am the vampire... Let's just see... I set up a comfortable bed for the young and innocent... i know, even if they like dancing in the sun, sometimes they just want to rest a bit... maybe they even want a little shadow... if they are comfortable, it makes me happy. Lying in my bed, they inevitably give me drops of their innocence... For them, this bed is just a convenient possibility... they could get it elsewhere... maybe not so comfortable, but they could, and they can... I, on the other hand, need these drops, and suck them for more... it is the need that defines the vampire... and the need falls on my side...

I show the young narciss the perfect mirror he looks for. I see into his soul, that his tender heartbeat gets faster if he sees the beauties of himself gradually unfolding in their natural nudity, making the mirror shining from their image. I stand by him to enjoy... and that's it... i do not have a mirror image!!! Seeing this, their smile changes a bit, to a bit uncomfortable, maybe a bit scared at first... but the sunlight is not too far, all they have to do is to step out... Why hurry then... They are determined to go, but why hurry? He doesn't really see into me, but what he knows is enough... he can get away at any time to the sunshine, where i am unable to follow. They know the weak point of the old freak... He however feels that it would be rude to leave without saying good bye and thank you properly, so he begins this procedure with the lengthiness which he thinks is right nevertheless. He says, he will come again, and indeed, there is a possibility, since the bed is comfortable, and the freak who guards it is really managable... maybe even sympathetic a bit in his moody gloominess."

Bette Davis

Two video tributes from Turner Classic Movies to actress Bette Davis. In the first, Meryl Streep talks about the influence Davis had on her carrier, and I must agree with her on at least two accounts. First that it is the radiating determination in Bette Davis that I admire independently from her acting talent. And the second is that she deserves acclaim for her pioneering work, the fact that she dared to play female roles showing the "ugly side" of the character. This is not to say that she could not play more conventional roles well, indeed, some scenes shown here serve as examples for that too. Nevertheless, she was not the beauty idol of her time, neither did she follow the rules of appropriate behavior required from and therefore limiting the performances of many of her fellow actresses. That said, it still remains true that her philosophy on acting was that of classic cinema, that movies have to be more than real life. Finally, I will also post the 80s hit song, Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes with an imaginative video tribute from youtube. Indeed, I think there was something magical in her eyes...

Enya - Orinoco Flow

It has been a busy day today... I have received some stimulation from some attractive images sent to me combined with my fantasy... and also from some difficult task I was given at work. So I decided to go for a long journey with Enya on the Orinoco Flow... yes... sail away... There is some transcendental motion in this song I like very much. I have sometimes the feeling that I see something sad in her eyes, despite the enthusiasm that comes form the song. Is it just a feeling over departure, or quite the opposite, arising from the fact that we actually get to start such a journey rarely? Or from the fact that while we travel we pass by things fast and have no time to get into contact with what we see? But still, the magic that we are going somewhere, to some new place on the wings of our imagination is what affects me into motion from inside and helps me go on here and now...

Vecsey Ferenc - Valse Triste

This sad piece of music is the work of composer and violinist Ferenc Vecsey (1893-1935). A friend sent this to me as played by Ibolyka Zilzer, but the one I am posting is a recording from 1913. By the middle of it the violin cries... near the end, it haunts you from another world...

The Cat Piano

This is another video recommended by a friend who knows too well that I like such stuff... "The Cat Piano" (2009) is a story about cats, whose city is terrorized by a human, who kidnaps cats to build his cat piano, a musical instrument made up of cats arranged according to the tone of their voice and by the press of the keys a mechanism would pierce into their tails making the one with the desired note cry out... The interesting thing is that such thing indeed existed, see the illustration below (and wikipedia for further details). As far as I can gather from the descriptions, the cats' tails were only stretched, not pierced, but still the idea is bizarre... and deserves to be filmed. Naturally, the cats in this short join their forces under the lead of the narrator, who wants to rescue his sweetheart... The film is made by The People's Republic of Animation, a group of young animators, whose work testifies that if you are determined enough to experiment with and pursue what you like to do, you can come up with such excellent work as the one I now post here.

Lord of the Dance and Riverdance

Another example why I like to watch, or in this case even listen to dancing. The video is from Michael Flatley's Irish step dance show, Lord of the Dance. This is the scene where the bad guy appears, and it is titled "Warriors". Although Flatley is not present in this part, I think it is very representative, and I think the performer here, whose name is Daire Nolan, deserves equal attention. There is something very magical in this scene, the synchrony between the music and taps is very obvious here (and not to mention the speed...). The music is that of Ronan Hardiman, who added very much to the Celtic mythological charm of the show through his enchanting score. To include the chief choreographer and lead of the show, I have decided to post something from the first show in which he appeared, Riverdance. Their very fist appearance was at Eurovision in 1994, and was received with standing ovation. Flatley left the show in 1995, and made Lord of the dance in 1996. The very first Eurovision performance is also available on youtube, but I have chosen a part of a later performance from 1995, titled "Thunderstorm".

Rózsa's Score for a Holmes Movie

Some days ago I posted a few Holmes related writings, and also watched the Billy Wilder movie "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). As it follows from the title, the film attempts to discover an aspect of the detective's life little discussed in his adventures, why he is apparently so lonely not counting the company of his Boswell. The film's score composed by Miklós Rózsa still rings in my ears after days I have watched the film, so I thought it best to post it here... sort of bitter-sweet I would say...

Biased Judge

This video makes fun of the Thorpe scandal. In short, the then candidate-for-Prime-Minister, Thorpe got involved in a scandal and was accused of staging a plot to get rid of his male lover to prevent him from revealing their supposed affair. My favourite "fact" of the whole story was that the "so-called" hitman shot the dog which was with the intended victim, but subsequently his gun failed to go off to kill him. Thorpe was found not guilty after a summary by the judge which was heavily criticised for being biased. One of Britain's most inventive comedians, Peter Cook, came up with a parody that was shown the very night after the verdict was announced. Cook was a comedian admired by his fellows for his talent for improvising, and here as a good comedian he senses the public feeling to the matter and plays on them. Then comes this marvellous character comedy... I think my favourite bit is the "so-called hitman" and his "simple murder plot"...

Weightless

It was two and a half years ago that I received the link I am now posting from a friend. I am no great dancer myself, but it has always fascinated me to see how some nice movements make up their own language. I like to watch the harmony of movements in dancing or even in martial arts, that they are able to convey ideas that would be hard to express with words. Indeed, the title of this peace is Weightless, that's the word we would use for what we see, but what we see tells so much more about the concept. Motion has its own drama as well illustrated here. Other than for directing this piece, the credits for music also go to Erika Janunger, who according to her website also studied interior architecture, which after this video does not seem surprising...

A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy

In this Woody Allen comedy inspired by Shakespeare and Ingmar Bergman, three couples spend a weekend in the country, where everything appears peaceful until new romances start to develop... See the trailer here. What I like in a Woody Allen comedy is the fact that it is able to echo aspects of life, some of which are hard to accept, and in the meanwhile it still remains light and funny. Woody Allen has made many a cinematic attempt to convey his experience of life, and among those this is one of the most light-hearted ones, where human desires enter the world of spirits to become free while the part remaining human bears the (comic) consequences of that freedom. Only some will reach complete freedom by the end... I enjoyed this film thoroughly. As an example worthy of the film's spirit, let me just quote here the conclusion on the difference between love and sex: "Sex alleviates tension and love causes it."

The Way We Were

Memories... scattered pictures... They say this is one of Barbra Streisand's best... It is definitely one of my favourites. Unfortunately the video quality is not the best, but it is from a live performance for a TV special from 1975. I have heard this in many versions and from many performers, but I think this remains the best...

David Lynch

Right... let's write a bit about David Lynch... and indeed, not too much about him, because this is one topic - well, "surrealist films" in general - I am constantly prepairing to write about, but apparently never starting it. Yet, I have already posted some pieces here that I have found interesting, so why not go on with the man who is considered "the first popular surrealist"? Indeed, he has risen to popularity from what is called "underground filmmaking" or "midnight movie" circuit. One interesting thing characteristic to most if not all of his films is that there is always a central emotion in them from which the otherwise unexpected, shocking and irrational events stem from, pretty much as if feelings and emotions buried in the core of our inner realm started to filter through the outer layers of our rational self, infiltrating and finally bending the surrounding reality with them. Events unfold through hard-to-connect pieces of the greater whole, as if we looked into a cracked mirror. As we get more and more pieces, we will be able to get the general picture but of course this picture will always remain "cracked". The result is compelling, together with an intense visual style it reflects our partial understanding of the world and our own feelings. From among his early shorts, I think I would pick "The Grandmother" (1970) a metaphoric tale of childhood trauma, and the consequent intense yearning for love leading to the creation of a grandmother. "Eraserhead" (1977) became a cult hit in which a mutant newborn gives plenty of headache to his unwanting parent. Widespread popular success came with the mystery series "Twin Peaks" (1990-1), while another great successes was a would-be series "Mulholland Dr" (2001) that ended up being a full length film. These and much more could be told of David Lynch, whose other interests involve composing music, painting and meditation. Here I will include a short film from 2010, "Lady Blue Shanghai", the latest of his films that I know of. It answers a question "What film would Lynch come up with for a Dior fashion campaign?"

Mating Of Leopard Slugs

One may think of slugs as not the most beautiful creatures on Earth... I think this may improve after watching this video... these guys do flourish when they do it! They do not rush about it that's sure for one thing, these slimy bastards! Be aware because beauty lurks at the most unexpected places sometimes, and my sense of it was definitely triggered... what would be the human analogue I wonder?!?

An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe

When Vincent Price, the famous horror actor was asked which of his films he liked most, he named a little known one, scarcely one hour long. I have found and posted here the full film, its title is "An Evening with Edgar Allen Poe" (1972), and is a one man act of four of Poe's short stories. For Price, who had his roots in theatre, this indeed seems a very good means to show his talent of acting as the dramatic narrator of the stories. Poe had the talent to convey an atmosphere in his few pages long stories, all being very visual and filled with suspense. The first of the short stories thus filmed is one of his most highly regarded ones, an example piece of Gothic fiction and also one of my personal favourites, "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843). The story is of a man who tries to convince us not to take him mad while he explains the terrible circumstances why the reader may think he is. He thus relates his crime while slowly his explanations are mingled with sincere outbursts of memories and feelings he has been trying to avoid by applying the disguise of rationality. The next, "The Sphynx" (1850) is a game with perception and should I say deception. The narrator is on a visit when he starts to observe a strange creature, sees more and more details of it until he is able to identify it. "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846) offers a similar narration to that in The Tell-Tale Heart, a story of revenge over an insult from a friend, but unlike the Heart, the memories don't seem to haunt the narrator. "The Pit And The Pendelum" (1842) is a story of a man thrown at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition. In this final piece we learn of the refined torture methods used by the Inquisition. All these I liked as they are the unaltered stories of Poe delivered by one of the finest actors of Poe's genre at his best. The whole thing is POEtic...

Königin der Nacht - Queen of the Night

Yes... here she is demanding revenge... her blood boils... yesterday's vigil did not amuse Her Majesty. Sarastro may win the battle against her, but I am loosing more and more ground with every minute, and will fall asleep very soon. To console her I offer her a sacred place among the immortals of my blog with a version of her aria I preferred most for its light but acute manoeuvres in the higher regions of the sonar realm...

Laurence Olivier

Laurence OIivier was a very successful actor both on the stage and on the screen. He is probably one of those actors who have become legends already in their lives. This is his Richard III, one of his famous performances. You have to love those little pauses he makes before something important. I like the slow way he builds up the hatred that drives him to achieve his goal. This destructive power is there in everyone, the temptation to ruin when we feel outcast... Such poison spreads slowly and unnoticed till there is tragedy... The other video I have included is a MUST for anyone who has even a minute interest in acting. In it Dustin Hoffman explains the much quoted story of him and Olivier. In short the widespread version goes as follows: when Olivier saw Hoffman who had not been sleeping for days in order to give a more realistic performance of a character, he said "My dear boy, why don't you try acting?", and is usually mentioned to contrast classical and method acting. But I think what Hoffman reveals is much more than that, it is a beautiful story well worth a place in a book of zen anecdotes. It is also a manifestation of love that made me cryish... "Look at me!"

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary

Guy Maddin's take on Dracula is unique indeed. It is a silent film from 2002, and what's more, it utilises ballet as an artistic means to convey its story. I was very much impressed, especially by the scene I post here (and it seems I am not alone, as this seems to be the first hit on youtube from the film). This is the scene where Dracula turns Lucy Westenra into a vampire. A vampire, a foreigner and a lover without respect to the social norms of human relationships... I think this alone should have been enough to make him a "monster" in the Victorian era... and if it is true that in horror our deepest abolished thoughts and feelings return in a monstrous form, then Dracula is a monster of unbound lust. Depending on interpretations he may or may not have a personal charm, but he does have it in this version so nicely delivered by the body language of dancing.

Maria Callas

I could have probably found something more "representative" of Callas, as Bizet's Carmen was not typical of her repertoire, but it has a special significance for me as this is what I first heard of her. I chose this version as I think it illustrates her presence when during the instrumental part she has nothing to do just stand there... it has a charm I cannot really describe other than showing it. This performance has also put me into a balanced mood tonight, so it deserves sharing here. :) Another interesting finding I thought to share is a clever edit of the Ombra Leggiera (Shadow Song) so that we hear Callas and her teacher Elvira de Hidalgo as if they sang together. I think it works out really nice and it is also a nice example of the bel canto tradition which Callas combined with her dramatic talent throughout her carrier.

Holmesian Misadventures

I am just about to finish The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, a collection of pastiches edited by Ellery Queen, and containing mainly comic send ups or adventures gone wrong. As the character is a very popular one, over the past more than hundred years, many authors have contributed their "imitations" to the Holmesiana. This collection is for parodies specifically. The book is organized into 4 sections, beginning with contributions from other detective story writers. These include Agatha Christie, Robert Barr, Caroline Wells, Ellery Queen and others. Probably Maurice Leblanc is the one here, who have made the most serious effort, as he matched his master thief, Arsène Lupin, against Holmes in two novels other than the short story involved here as Lupin's only worthy adversary. Next come famous literary figures, most famous of whom is probably Mark Twain, but I think that James Barrie's story has a personal charm that made it Doyle's favourite of all pastiches, and it is the fact that it was written by a fellow artist as a "gay gesture of resignantion" over the failure of their comic opera. I myself wrote a miniature spy story to a friend of mine then working at the Ministry of Justice to which I can compare that pastiche, and which fact enables me to overly enjoy such an effort. There are then 2 sections for humorists and other devotees, respectively. To cut it short, I will mention only one more name, that of August Derleth. A well known literary figure of the 20th century America, author of a series of novels echoing Balzac's social realism, yet he is probably most remembered for his contribution to the Cthulhu Myth of Lovecraftian horror. He wrote a number of serious pastiches catching the atmosphere of Doyle's stories, one of which is involved in this collection.

Perhaps I can extend the list found in the book with a further comic pastiche unlikely to be well-known, that of Frigyes Karinthy's for which an English translation by Maria Bencsath may be found here. This is probably more absurd than the majority what I have read, but I think it still fits among the others. I have also recently watched a very good send up, "Without a Clue" from 1985 (trailer here), in which Holmes, played by Michael Caine is an actor hired by the detective mastermind Dr Watson (Ben Kingsley) to impersonate his creation. The idea is very well implanted into the world of Holmesian fiction, all the typical characters and circumstances fit into their new places very well, and the whole outcome is very enjoyable, especially if you are familiar with the original. I also very much like Paul Freeman's Moriarty that would pass for any serious adaptation as well... something devilish in him, probably in his eyes...

Detective Stories

For me, detective stories started probably with a film version of Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, followed by some of her novels, the first I think was Dumb Witness. After reading many of her books, I came across The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, which was available in one copy well hidden in the small town library I was a member of. This was a very new experience, since Christie wrote whodunits and until that time I really thought that detective stories are all like that. Later I endevoured to explore the various possibilities there are in detective fiction, and wrote a 10 pages long sort of history of the genre. This was really just a summary, probably very hard to read, and I never intended to add my own experience of the various authors (many of them were not even available for me back then), but rather to provide a view on the variety these stories provide, all the more since variety is something which I find pleasure in regardless of the subject at hand. A year or so ago I extended my essay to a 35 pages long "opus" that reflected the fact that many more authors had become available owing to the widespread use of the internet. And here I am now to add a few more personal details to some of the stories that I have read so far.

Death on the Nile (1978) remains for me one of the most enjoyable films based on a detective story. Ustinov is not as I later realized how Christie described Poirot's appearance, but his delivery has its own charm and I was and am quite content with it. The plot is well adapted to the medium of film, though I should point out that the plot of the film with David Suchet is closer to the book. This was a bit surprising to me as I remember seeing Dumb Witness with Suchet which was quite different from the book, and had the feeling in general that those films allowed for a greater creative freedom in adapting the stories to the screen, while Suchet's Poirot on the other hand is closer to how Christie imagined him. The 1978 film was a star parade in which other than Ustinov also appeared David Niven, Bethe Davis, Maggie Smith, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury and George Kennedy to name a few. No doubt it is greatly due to the marvelous cast that I as a very young audience was struck with the power of magic that such plots can be conceived and could actually happen, and a great deal of that magic is still there if I watch the film today. The plot is a very nice whodunit that allows the time for the intricate details to unfold. Interestingly, nowadays many viewers would say they guessed the solution quite early, and I believe it is not because they thought over the evidence and solved the mystery, but because they have time to arrive at the right solution by random guesswork plus the fact that usually they should look for the least suspicious person. This opposite way of cracking the riddle was not so likely in Christie's time when people were new to such "tricks". This is why I believe that although some thrillers today have much simpler plots, they work with a faster timing not leaving enough time for the viewer to guess, or simply apply dramatic shocks rather than purely intellectual diversions. I am not exclusively partial to any solution but one still has to admire the mastery with which Christie built up her plots and at the same time kept them within realistic, if uncommon boundaries. This is what makes her unique among other Golden Age writers e. g. Dickson Carr, who was also a master of puzzles but whose solutions tended to walk on the edge of reality.

Sherlock Holmes, "the extraordinary man" was another great experience I had. The only detective who was and perhaps is believed by some to be a living person. This is often attributed to the skill of his author, Conan Doyle, to create lasting characters. As Conan Doyle explains it (see here) he started off writing those stories to introduce scientific deduction into the until then mostly heuristic solutions of detective fiction that annoyed him greatly; modelling his hero on one of his professors who had great skills in diagnostics. The Holmes stories are indeed more about deduction than about whodunit-like puzzles. They are of the late Victorian tradition of the rainy and misty London, the same word in which Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde or even Jack the Ripper appeared. In this atmosphere Holmes sets out to solve mysteries related by his friend Dr Watson. From the Memoirs I read first I would probably pick Silver Blaze and The Adventure of the Naval Treaty. I think Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes stays the closest to what I imagine the word "eccentric" means in the case of Sherlock Holmes. Here is a scene to support that:

Further early influences on me were the Hard Boiled detective fiction of Samuel Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. These stories were built less on the plot but used the quick wit of the detective, aimed at more realism and reflected the atmosphere of the depression era. No wonder that two of these, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep resurrected in the classic film noirs of 1941 and 1946 with Humphrey Bogart in the main role. These would be worth a separate entry here, so I think I will leave it at that for now.

Mala Noche

Mala Noche (1985) is the first film of Gus Van Sant, a director most noted for his gay-oriented films. Some of his later films are probably more famous, like Milk or Elephant, yet in his case there might be something in the concept that there is nothing to match the fresh honesty of a first attempt, when you try to add everything into your first shot, perhaps not knowing if there will be a second. There is a sort of greasy reality in this movie, without any visible attempt to achieve it or to compress the story into a network of prebuilt stereotypes where you anticipate the plot because you sense the maker's idea of a character's typical behavior. This is of course not to say that you would not recognize similar things in your own life, it just misses that urge to be more real than reality that - together with the other extreme - streams on and on from the media nowadays. Indeed, the magic of the film is that it gives a feeling of life quite independent from the specific situation depicted, and is therefore of a more general interest than an exclusively gay audience. I remember it took me some 3-4 hours to watch this 75 minutes long film which is a sign of how deeply I was moved by it. I felt very related to the main character in his longing after someone of his dreams... dreams that are always a step ahead of you and give you little chance to touch them, while you become exposed and vulnerable. But what I really liked in him, and I wish I could say the same of myself, is although he does not get this dream of his, he is not blind for the chances life offers while he is after it. And much of life seems to be like that, motivated into motion by something and built from the stuff you find on the way. That doesn't last forever either, but... what does? Still, you can get a handful of moments - sometimes at places you never would have thought if you think exclusively in your dreams - moments, you can say later that those were worth doing the whole thing for...

Carol Burnett and the Comedy of Hysteria

This is a tribute to the American actress and comedienne, Carol Burnett. Her intensive delivery of hysteric comedy scenes is worth a psychotherapy... From The Carol Burnett Show (1967-78).

Red Spectacles

 
This movie is one that would probably be called depressive or labelled as "not for everybody". Probably these statements have truth to them. This is no action movie, in fact action is only symbolic in this film. It lacks any real interpersonal drama that would make it easier to identify with everyday events. But this is in fact the strength of the movie. This movie is an intrapersonal landscape, and it is more about the director, Mamoru Oshii, than about the characters. This is the state that predates (sometimes replaces) dramatic action in ourselves. For this reason it is weird, as every inner thought is to the rest of the world, as it is formless, not made up to motivate actions for others to interpret. We cross rational barriers for behaviour and reality often with a surrealistic sense of humour as we slowly go forward. A blind feeling of being lost in a frustrating labyrinth, while chasing a dream that evades us and flees into reality. Whereas it is true that sticking forever to an inner feeling is depressive, constantly avoiding it by action is only running away from it. I think the movie is a beauty of its kind, while probably it is very well that it never got into the "mainstream". One of my favourites as a rarety for its ability to grasp a feeling before it is necessarily limited by the interpretation or bound by the expectations of the outer world, even though I don't watch it every day to keep the bridge to that very world outside where our dreams have fled waiting to be discovered.

Two Films from Hungary

The two films I chose to write about are "Hideg napok" from András Kovács (Cold Days, 1966) and "A tanú" (The Witness, 1969) from Péter Bacsó. I think these two pair up well, for one reason because they depict life under totalitarian regimes (rightist and leftist, respectively), and secondly because both use tools different from the very down-to-the-facts historical narrative with an exclusively naturalistic depiction of brutality. Before going on, just a few words of history to enable us to place the events into a vague background. For Hungary, the short 20th century was a succession of more or less dictatoric regimes. In a very oversimplified manner, the picture is as follows: it started off with a rightist/nationalist regime of regent Miklós Horthy (1920-1944) succeeded by the open terrorism of Ferenc Szálasi (1944-1945). This was followed by the leftist/communist regime, commencing with the Stalinist terror regime of Mátyás Rákosi (1945-1956) succeeded by the system of János Kádár (1956-1988). A more agreeable version of each system was established by Horthy and Kádár, compared to the open dictatorship of Szálasi and Rákosi which followed closely the patterns of Hitler and Stalin.

In Hideg napok the story unfolds from the reminiscences of four prisoners. As military officers of various ranks, they were involved in the Újvidék (Novi Sad) massacre in 1942 when thousands of people were killed into the frozen Danube, a tragedy of the Horthy era foreshadowing the Szálasi terror. All four tells the events from a different perspective, leaving much unanswered, but what does turn out proves to be fatal to some of them. This narrative solution reminds me of Kurosawa's Rashomon, although we do not get a final, conclusive picture of the whole event, or in fact why the massacre has happened. It appears as an automatic process of which the four narrators had no control and the cruelty of which is emphasized by the fragmented view of reality which avoids signs indicating the ongoing insanity covering in cold mist the road leading to an undeniable tragic outcome. During those cold days all four did what they were told, resisted passively as they could, suspecting but not letting themselves realize the events that they are finally forced to face. They are themselves surprised that they have become part of something they have never planned. In the scene I selected, we listen to the speech of Feketehalmy-Czeydner through the ears of Tarpataki, whose skeptic, sometimes uncertain and still very human relation to the affairs I prefer most of the four narrators'.

A tanú is a black comedy about a simple man, who gets wound up in the show trials of the Stalinist era. Before being made a witness in such a trial, this man is appointed to a number of important positions, none of which he has the skills for. Comedy is an ideal means to express criticism of a system in which the paranoia of the dictator causes events so absurd that they would be laughable, were they not deadly serious. As a parody of the Rákosi regime made under that of Kádár, the making of the movie was strictly supervised and it was actually banned for 10 years after its release. One of the few Hungarian movies that had an international success, and has a real cult following among Hungarians. Although the movie depicts no physical brutality, the serious edge of it comes out when people who lived through that era do not laugh after seeing it. Quite understandable if you remember that human lives actually depended on such or even more absurd conditions. This absurdity survives, though to a lesser extent, in later periods, which is partially the reason that the comic effect works even after decades. However, through the language of comedy, the movie manages to convey "the feeling" to an international audience as well (rare for Hungarian movies). I have chosen a notorious scene from the movie, where our hero is head of orange production in Hungary. Though a practical failure, they manage to produce one orange that they can show to the demanding leadership. At least that's what they think, until something unexpected happens...

One of my Drawings

This is an example what I draw when I have the mood (or simply am bored at work). I have made a video of such drawings, but I hope I can make something better out of them later. This is a drawing that received some treatment in photoshop to make it a bit more interesting, and something more than what I could have done with a pen... I like such landscapes of fantasy, where grotesque creatures and objects rule cities or forests... these express some feelings I have that I could hardly put into words. I would like to walk into such landscapes sometimes, and have a closer look... There is a cold mist that surrounds these places, even suggesting danger, but also a good deal of hypnotic attraction. Messengers of adventures in various territories of my soul...

Why the Moon?

This is the video I had in mind when I gave a name to the blog. I made it some years ago, and a friend of mine already uploaded it to youtube. It is made from photos I received from friends, mainly works of their own. I imagined that some visitors from the moon, so tiny that we would not notice them, arrive and discover Earth through what they capture in these photos... what a carneval of colors, forms, feelings... The bad narration is my own, and among with the rest of the creative board, I am also pasted into the album of these Moon creatures.

My Ars Poetica of Blogwriting

I have long considered creating a blog, but for one reason or another never actually did. The interesting thing about it is that you can write about what you think is interesting to the extent your interest extends. However, unlike a diary written for yourself, anybody can read this, and this can be a motivation to give your thoughts/feelings a form accessible for others as well. During the years I have written/edited/made many things that are very well fitted for a blog, so I think I will simultaneously pick some of these together with completely new ones. And then, we will see where all this leads to...