Yellow Sticky Notes

Interesting little short from hapa film maker Jeff Chiba Stearns. It tells a period of his life through animated sticky notes... I have once tried to do a similar thing from the drawings I sometimes make at work, so I can very much appreciate this... nice music too, gives you a feeling of just how quick years go by...

Sátántangó

Well... it is a challenge to remain relatively short about a 7.5 hour-long film. Probably I will post more bits than I usually do. I tried to sit down and pick a few scenes I especially found interesting, and ended up with 13. That much I will not post here, but it may be useful to help me write up the whole thing. The film is a very epic one, the action is very little, and the plot is not too complicated either. It conveys feelings, it has an "inner language" element I have written about earlier. A very meditative movie, with extreme long takes. It does summon up in a concentrated manner the feeling I have in me, about the Hungary as it was before the end of the Communist era, that depressed struggle for nothing, which you cannot imagine without constant raining, and which is still somehow beautiful as it is told in the language of slow moving images. The visual language is influenced by its topic, and part of the story is in fact the reaction of sensitivity to that indifferent world, sensitivity which is capable of creating such a beautiful depiction of something yet so stuck in dark hopelessness. Indeed, there is still something left there today that shows the same stagnation. I feel that I even know some of the characters, the plots they have to change things but which they never carry out, the resentful way they live mixed up with some sympathy when realising the fact that all this is due to a naive simplicity on their part. The introductory sequence, first posted here, is a good example of the long takes used in the movie, sort of replacing the descriptive passages of a novel.

The film is based on the novel of László Krasznahorkai, and was directed by Béla Tarr. Its shooting was supposed to start before the fall of Communism, but could only begin afterwards due to topics involved. The title of the novel refers to the six forward and six backward steps in tango, which in turn implies the chronology of the twelve segments the film is broken down to. When Communism is about to come to an end, we find ourselves in a village where life seems to have stopped since the charismatic Irimiás (played by Mihály Víg, the composer of the film's music) has disappeared. The inhabitants are about to leave the place, when they learn that Irimiás is on his way back to them... It seems that a persuasive police captain leaves him no choice but to help the police with their cooperation... The manipulative Irimiás then starts off to rid the inhabitants of their money and involve them into the very system they want to break free from. In the above clip Irimiás describes the mental hibernation the inhabitants live in, whereas in the one below illustrates the sort of quarrels they have. How many times have I heard "THIS" speech...

There is another important subplot that I want to mention briefly, and only briefly. The film had a controversial scene where a little girl torments a cat. I believe this is symbolic, as she torments the only one weaker than herself, similarly to her own torments from her environment. She is sensitivity in the movie, whose injuries from an uncaring world lead to a tragedy that Irimiás can use for his own purposes. That episode alone would be worth a post... Anyway, I decided to add a final post from the end that echoes the structure of the movie, another long take that follows on the mysterious bells we heard of in the introductory sequence.

Crime And Punishment

"Crime And Punishment" is probably one of the best known pieces of world literature. It has been studied by literary scholars, disciples of psychology or by simply those who just love reading a good novel. It is evident that the intriguing topic of the novel could be discussed in hundreds of pages. Here, I only want to mention some points I find very interesting in this novel. There is the unfortunate fate of the innocent bystander for one. This is an interesting point since Raskolnikov was motivated and felt justified to kill the old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna, who lived from exploiting him, among others. But with Lizaveta, whose only "crime" was to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, it was a different matter. He summoned up courage to murder someone he hated, and carried away by the same momentum, he killed someone he did not want to. Whatever we do, it is rarely focused on only the object of our actions, and crime is no exception. It is the involuntary nature of the second murder, that it lacked any personal motive, and was simply forced by the circumstances that makes Raskolnikov's deed really terrible, even for himself. The second and larger half of the novel than deals with the consequences of the murder, how Raskolnikov struggles with recurring memories, how he is finally driven to the point of confession, and finds religious comfort and peace from his menacing consciousness.

Woody Allen's "Match Point" (2005) is based heavily on some of these motifs. It paraphrases the story from a modern point of view. The bystander is a part of the plan from the beginning, a necessary obstacle on the way to the intended murder. The murder is not committed out of need, or to justify some higher moral cause, only to eliminate a person once beloved who is now being reduced to a factor preventing success in life. It would be appropriate to call Allen's work "Crime And Consequences", as it is the very lack of punishment and the consequent mental peace, the absence of "meaning" and the realisation that the world is such a place where one can get away with this deed, which is the disturbing thought that the murderer has to live with. The irony of the modern feeling of life is that one can actually live with it...

Brad Anderson's "The Machinist" (2004) is another modern day paraphrase of Dostoyevsky's novel. Here, we have only a bystander, there is no intent in murder, but neither there is for confession. It is the lack of intent that fuels the struggles against an unwanted reality, and it is the quest for courage to face the truth and suffer the consequences that eventually leads to relief from a much worse alienation. Punishment seems to serve a similar purpose here as for Raskolnikov, it makes it possible for one to find peace with oneself.

The Mass - Era

Era is the name of the musical project of French composer Eric Lévi. The music and the video recall the atmosphere of medieval legends, a mixture of Gregorian choirs with modern electronic music. The lyrics are written in a language that deliberately has no exact meaning, although quite similar to Latin. "The Mass" (2003) is like a pilgrimage to an uphill sanctuary, we gradually increase in spirit until we arrive at the peak and even learn to fly beyond...

Le Révolution des crabes

A nice little short from 2003 by Arthur de Pins. What happens if one day a crab, whose whole race walks in one direction only, suddenly realises he is capable of much more than that? Watch and see in this allegoric little tale... sure, no revolution is welcome in the world of habits...

Nicole Renaud

This post is connected to the previous one inasmuch as Plympton's animation "Eat" uses the accordion music and vocal talents of Nicole Renaud, where I actually heard them for the first time, and took the trouble to track her down some years later, which lead me to this portfolio posted here. She really has a nice voice, something I would call ethereal, almost out of another world. The song around the first minute I think illustrates very well what I mean, which song according to her website is an 18th century Italian love song; but I also like her performance around the third minute. Well, I like the whole thing actually...

Bill Plympton

Your face. from Amalia Loret on Vimeo.

Bill Plympton directed a large number of short animations as well as a handful of full length features. His often grotesque and always humorously designed cartoons are referred to as "plymptoons" due to their unique style. "Your Face" (1987) is not the first one of these, but perhaps still the most well-known one not only because of its form-breaking imagination but also due to the very fitting music composed especially for the short. A personal favourite of mine is "Eat" (2001), which combines the atmosphere of slow French accordion music with a grotesque caricature of gastronomy and expensive restaurant culture. And finally, you may learn how risky it may be to have an overprotective pet in "Guard Dog" (2004).

Bill Plympton (2001) - Eat from Joaquin on Vimeo.

Bill Plympton - Guard Dog from moi on Vimeo.

Earth Song

Michael Jackson - Earth Song

Hochgeladen von martin1976. - Sieh funny Tier Videos.

Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" is part of the HIStory album released in 1995. What can I say... it is a great achievement both as far as the music and the video are concerned. Very moving and dramatic indeed, it relates the ballad of the stormy relation of human and Earth. It drives you desperate about the carelessness of the human race about our environment, and even about ourselves. We cry together with Earth over the wounds we ourselves inflicted. So loud is the lamentation that Nature itself intervenes to blow away disorder... If you care to know more about the details of how and where the video was made, don't miss the written summary after the clip.

Louis de Funès

Today I am posting a few clips from French comedian Louis de Funès (1914-1983). He is probably most famous for his "going crazy" scenes in the role of some domineering personality. His facial expressions and the high intensity of his performances are especially memorable. The first post is one of the most memorable of these from "Oscar" (1967). Another scene from "Le grand restaurant" (1966) shows his abilities for impersonation in the famous Muskartnuss Hitler parody. And finally, I felt obliged to involve a piece from his Gendarme series as well. In this episode from "Le gendarme à New York" (1965), Ludovic Cruchot undertakes the English education of the gendarmes on the way to New York. There are no subtitles for the this one, but I think it is pretty clear what's happening even without them...

Trash Cinema

The above title is rather vague, and by no means does it intend to be a final category, a cinematic cemetery so to speak. There are many things that influence the artisitic qualities of any intended artwork. These are only partially based on technical skills. Related to those is the whole creative process, which together with its outcome is the real piece of art as one friend of mine put it so nicely. In the recognition of an artistic attempt as such, it also matters what audience the artist has in mind (if any) and whether he has the skill to appeal to the taste of his/her target audience. These may be all additional characteristics of the artistic enterprise, which I think would be best defined as an attempt of (self-)expression. The prefix "self-" goes almost without saying, as any work bears the trademarks of its creator. The relation of the very general idea of self-expression to the more specific thoughts mentioned above is an interesting question. For example, if a piece of work is a perfect representation of a technical skill, but has, say, very narrow target audience, than the self-expression itself will have few witnesses, it will be a sort of "l'art pour l'art", with a very narrow communicational channel. I think it is important that such things exist, but art I feel should by no means be restricted to special communication. Indeed, different objects for expression may well determine how narrow or wide that channel be. Another interesting question, which brings me closer to the topic in the title is what if you have something to express, but have not the technical skill or the skill to address the desired audience. These of course can be learned to some extent, nevertheless, it is for this reason that I have an interest in films that usually go down under the header "Trash Cinema". For me, expression remains the central concept, the rest are important but secondary factors which may be disregarded while searching for the essence. A movie, if a technical failure, or non-appealing to some taste may still contain the seed of something intended for expression. Indeed, it has often been the case that some idea discovered in such an unsuccessful attempt later flourished in some more fortunate adaptation.

An interesting case of cinematic influence of the sort is Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" (1994). Of the sort, I say, because the film is no remake of any Ed Wood pictures, but an equivalent attempt to capture the motivation that drove the unhappy owner of the title of the worst director ever. It is not an accurate biography but an impression Burton seems to have had of Ed Wood. I am posting here the scene from the film where Wood, played by Johnny Depp, reacts on some of the comments he receives. For him, such things as settings, obviously fake looking for anyone else, doesn't matter, and he believes none will notice such minute details, they will diminish once he achieved his main goal: telling his story. And in essence, and it must be stressed that in essence only, he is right, telling your own story is the most important, and I think the struggle to achieve this end must have been the charm that made Tim Burton to film this movie. But of course, if you desire that your work be enjoyed by anybody else, you must pay attention to those small details, even just out of respect for your own work. I can appreciate what it may be like to work on your dream-come-true, leaving any links to conventional reality behind, but it is also natural that the way Ed Wood did that cannot be expected to earn the widespread success he so much desired. Depp also pointed out in an interview something that I must mention here, that it was the pioneering boldness of directors like Ed Wood, if not the success of their own work, that made it possible in the following eras for many talented directors to emerge and explore similar territories of the human mind.

So much about impressions of Ed Wood, now, let's have a look at an actual Ed Wood movie. As probably "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1958) is the most notorious one, I have chosen to post its trailer here, though perhaps some other of Wood's films as "Glen or Glenda" would better illustrate his attempts of self-expression. Plan 9 is remembered for its paper made tombstones and flying saucers, the occasionally funny twists of plots and its characters. I think some shots definitely have something nice in the tradition of older Gothic cinema, but the whole thing gets mixed up with something out of the context, that serves no purpose, or probably wasn't even noticed. For me, the silliest thing that happens in the movie, is when at the end our heroes hold the evil conquering aliens at gunpoint. I mean the species that rules the galaxy, controls the dead and is technically way beyond our reach suddenly just throws itself at the feet of a human in its failure to protect itself just because he has a gun. All this in the flying saucer obviously unprotected against intruders with guns...

Interestingly, the two other film makers I wanted to write about here, were also called the Ed Wood of their own kind, though this was not the link that I followed when selecting them. Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho was known for his cheap ninja movies. These would usually have two storylines, one with western actors, one with easterners, so that the movie could be sold in both markets. The connection between the two plots is sometimes very vague, maintained mainly by telephone conversations, which often makes you wonder if they were not better off with one plot... Furthermore the use of cameras seems very interesting, you may be never completely relieved from the suspense concerning who died in the area beyond the margin of the screen which event you may surmise from the battle noises. But the frequent action and some nice acrobatics would eventually make up for these other details when the films were sold. I have chosen a bit from "Ninja Terminator" (1985), that when I saw it made me laugh hysterically. So, the scene is about purchasing a bomb to rid yourself of your enemies. A natural enough activity in a world where ninjas or gangsters stand by every corner. If you wonder, why the big boss here wears a blond wig, it is never explained, but he does take it off in the end when he is dramatically challenged. My absolute favourite line is when the boss after an exhausting description of the advantages of the bomb he is going to buy, asks the essential question: "Will it blow my enemies up?"

I remember I came across a writing that dealt with the Gothic aspects of Joe D'Amato's work. I would have never imagined him being mentioned in that context... He has more in common with the other G of horror stories which I have little to do with these days: Gore. D'Amato, who was known to produce exploitations as well as pornographic and horror movies, should be mentioned here as a contrast, because he never expressed interest in producing any art at all, but as one of his characters put it: "We're not making artsy-farty crap for intellectual faggots. We're out to make money!" It is probably the cheap, almost documentary effect of some of his scenes that makes me remember those as among the most disgusting cinematic experiences I have ever had. Probably, by today, his style is already slow paced, but the reality he achieved caused many to actually accuse him of making snuff movies (movies depicting real murder). Take his "Anthropophagus" (1980) for instance. If I just say that it contains a fetus eating scene and ends with the cannibalistic murderer devouring himself, that should give an idea. What he expresses and exploits are the darkest regions of the human mind for profit, but still, that only works because they are there. It remains an intriguing question what to do with these, an what art can do with them in particular.

David O'Reilly

The External World from David OReilly on Vimeo.

I have recently received a link to the short film "The External World" from David O'Reilly. This little short is a continuous flow of thoughts and events that seem to be connected by a piano concert for which a boy is preparing at the beginning. For me, this is about everyday little frustrations beginning with the boy's torment from his perfectionist piano teacher, and moving on to those experienced by those who are to become his audience. I had this feeling of everyday friction and personal tragedies mixed up with the ignorance necessary to survive, all the way through the short. Except for the very end, where that piano concert, itself an offspring of such stress, seems to bring some calmness to the rush of the world. I then went on to check out O'Reilly's website, whose name was somehow familiar. I think now probably because of Future Shorts. He has a short distributed there, which is made free, and therefore comes with the explicit request of its director that it be embedded as many times as possible (being the only way to distribute it). I am more than willing to oblige, since I liked that short very much. "Please Say Something", is about those questions we never get an answer for in life. Some of them are even impossible to put into words. The feeling when you hope for comfort from someone important about one of these questions, but he/she remains silent. They have the same questions and the same lack of answers. Even god seems to be mystified... And while we suppress these feelings, and deal with the everyday rush, the routine of our existence may just suddenly come to an end.

Please Say Something from David OReilly on Vimeo.

Le locataire

"Le locataire" (The Tenant) is perhaps not one of the best known films of Roman Polanski, but definitely a very interesting one. Made in 1976 as the final piece of his "Apartment trilogy", the film was based on the novel of artist Roland Topor, whom I mentioned already in an earlier post in relation to his visual art. The story is a psychological exploration of the effects of an oppressive environment on individuality, and the resulting suspicion and tension that eventually grow into dramatic proportions. Individual sensitivity pursued into a frantic denial of total submission to the common. Polanski plays the new tenant who is moving in to a flat previous owner of which tried to commit suicide by jumping out of the window. The flat seems nice, but then things start going wrong. It begins with neighbours complaining about his habits, after which he tries to adapt as much as he can, but gradually becomes paranoid about his neighbours trying to turn him into a substitute of the previous tenant. All this seems to be substantiated by some bizarre discoveries he makes about the household. We don't get to know in every detail how much of this is fantasy and how much is not, but the tension thus caused leads to a dramatic climax... twice in fact...

Classical Music In Toons

While searching for pieces from Rossini, I remembered that a great deal of toons utilise his and other composer's music in a creative way. So I decided, I will also post some of these here. In fact, there are so many of these, that it is not an easy choice to make. Still, I should begin with "The Rabbit of Seville" (1949), a Bugs Bunny adventure to the Overture of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. And if we are here, we cannot forget about the other Chuck Jones directed Bugs Bunny cartoon, "What's Opera, Doc?" (1957). It is based on the music from Wagner's operas, especially on the excerpt "Ritt der Walküren" (Ride of the Valkyries) from Wagner's "Die Walküre" (The Valkyrie, 1870), the second opera of his four part Norse mythology based cycle, "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (The Ring of the Nibelung). Hanna&Barbera's "The Cat Concerto" is a Tom and Jerry short, where Tom plays Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. In the end, Jerry exhausts Tom by making him play the speedy ending of the rhapsody many times repeatedly. And finally, although it is somewhat different from the rest, I decided to post the initial animation sequence from Stallone's version of Oscar, which is a speedy version of Largo al factotum I like very much.

Rossini

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) can be held responsible for my earliest good experiences with opera that I remember. His "Il barbiere di Siviglia" (The Barber of Seville, 1816) has such catchy melodies always capable of awakening some good spirits in me that even when I first heard it I needed no knowledge of the background story to fall in love with it. Here I am posting the Overture and Figaro's aria, Largo al factotum, the two bits that I like most from the opera. The other piece I have involved is from Rossini's last opera, "Guillaume Tell" (William Tell, 1829). The Overture's famous finale provided the musical background for many pillow fights I participated in, its fast paced gallop to a dramatic climax providing the rhythm as we "beat" each other senseless...

La Planète Sauvage

"La Planète Sauvage" (Fantastic Planet, 1973) is a milestone among surreal animations. It is a very good example to illustrate how various artists contribute to a single project. To begin with, it is the first feature length film of René Laloux, whose earlier shorts are of an interesting sort of experimental animation: he made many of them with the assistance of the interns of a psychiatric institute he was working at. The drawings are made by Roland Topor, whose name will surely reappear through some of his other works in this blog. It is also a rare if not the the only feature length animation exclusively made using paper cut-outs in Jiří Trnka's studio in Prague. The hypnotic music is composed by French jazz musician Alain Goraguer, and finally the story is based on a book by Stefan Wul, a dentist turned writer of science fiction. The result is a peculiar world of strangely alienated feelings, fearsomely savage for those who have not yet learned its secrets. The story goes as follows: On a mysterious planet, a giant species, the Draags keep humanlike creatures, called Oms (French wordplay on "hommes", man) as pets. An Om called Terr (wordplay on terrible and Earth) grows up in captivity, then escapes and leads the wild Oms against the Draags. It is his fearless desire to share knowledge that helps the Oms to evolve and alter their primitive conditions. The central theme is the confrontation of a highly developed civilization with uneducated intelligence. Whether the two races can learn to live in peace together, we only learn at the end...

Xala

The Senegalese author and film maker Ousmane Sembene is often credited with the title of the Father of African film. "Xala" (The Curse, 1975) is a comic social satire based on his own novel. Its protagonist, El Hadji, is a politician, a member of the first independent government of his country. Despite the new-found independence, the new government does most thinks in the usual western way, starting from their preference of the French language over the native Wolof tongue, to the exploitation of political power to personal ends; and El Hadji is no exception. On the day he marries his third wife however, he becomes impotent due to a curse, and desperately starts to look for a solution. He is even willing to see a "marabout" (a wise man), something he would have previously thought superstitious and ridiculous. During the process he gets closer to his African roots, but alienates his fellow politicians...

Das Rad

"Das Rad" (The Wheel, 2003) is a German short animation. It has been a while since I saw it, but now I just found it on youtube with subtitles, and decided to post it. Two rocks are sitting in the middle of a deserted place discussing the surrounding world, while years pass like seconds. Then strange things begin to happen. It all seems to begin with the discovery of a round shaped object by a human, and the idea what such things may be used for. In a short time (for them), they witness the emergence of the human empire...

What A Parasite!

I had an earlier post from the BBC series "Life in the Undergrowth" (2005) on leopard slugs, well, here is another piece of the same series. I think it is fascinating how close we can get to another world of smaller sizes than ours by the use of modern film techniques. This world is full of weird creatures and their weird habits. This time I have chosen a segment about an orchard spider and a grub hanging to it, slowly sucking its juices away... It is amazing how cruel and beautiful the undergrowth world can be at the same time.

Benny Hill

Benny Hill (1924-1992) was one of the better known British comedians, some even say he was the best known one. His visual burlesque style humor needs no translation and hence it is more easily exported. Hill was attacked by the alternative comedians of the 80s as the prime example of the old stylish sexist buffoonery they wanted to avoid. Though it is true that sex related topics were often dominant in his shows, and that he became most well known for his visual Chaplin style gags in an age when this was/is considered by many to be regressive, I think the whole case is a bit more complex than that. To illustrate this point, I have decided to post here a few of his sketches in which he shows talent for a more intellectual sort of comedy and which are still exemplary of his style. Note that I also think that some valuable peaces may also be found among his quasi-silent visual gags. The first video is a parody of Brando and Steiger in On the Waterfront, from Hill's early BBC shows. The next two are then parodies of two extreme types of movie making, the highly artistic, and the very cheap. The first is an interview with an Avant-garde director whose experimental techniques seem to be more accidental than artistic. The second is a sketch of a hurriedly made movie so full of goofs that it makes you wonder what goes wrong next. I think these also indicate how Hill was able to creatively use the technical side of the visual medium which he was familiar with, being one of the first comedians made by television.

 

Fehérlófia

"Fehérlófia" (The Son of the White Mare) is a tale by László Arany based on folk legends and made into a film by Marcell Jankovics in 1981 (the whole film is on youtube with subtitles). Fehérlófia is the superhuman hero of the tale, who swears to defeat three dragons who brought an end to the reign of the Forefather. In high school, at one of the first literature classes, when everybody had to tell a story he knew, I picked this one. It has always fascinated my imagination, especially the part when Fehérlófia fights the dragons and when he cuts his own legs off to feed the Griffin that brings him back from the Underworld. The story is full of symbolic characters and folk motifs. The animation builds on these, and extends them using both ancient and modern symbols. It is a surreal journey to the Underworld, an endless spin of colors from which new characters are born, often compared to an acid trip, probably because of the fact that the film exploits the Shamanic ("táltos") origins of the story. Here I am posting the introductory sequence, the birth of Fehérlófia. Even if you don't know the meaning of all the symbols, the story is just enchanting...

Doodlebug

The three minute long "Doodlebug" (1997) is the first film of Christopher Nolan, who since then directed one success after the other in only little more than ten years. The short is a skillful delivery of an interesting idea, a short journey on psychological landscapes of insanity. A man tries to catch a bug, while he himself seems to be haunted by some sort of fear. And then he catches the bug...

84 Charing Cross Road

This film is based on the epistolary memoir of the same title by Helene Hanff relating her correspondence with Frank Doel, a British antique bookshop owner and his staff. The letters become less and less businesslike, and friendships start to form. Hanff and Doel become something like an invisible friend for each other until the latter's death. The first scene I post is a humorous one about an employee of the bookshop thanking Hanff the food parcels she was sending during the difficult period after the second World War. The movie is gentle and slow, and yet it has become relatively popular, perhaps unexpectedly so. I think it is because we all have someone who is kind to us, whom we hardly ever see, and yet whom we feel is part of our life. Someone we talk to, no matter the distance, as he or she will surely hear and understand... Which brings me to the second clip here, the last scene where Doel is still alive. By now their conversation is no longer merely written in letters, it has become something more... Interesting that they never meet, I wonder what would come out of that. What would be the experience like to meet the other full of excited expectations as opposed to forever anticipating it eagerly until it becomes impossible. And yet the main thing here is what they already have, this invisible thread of understanding that only two soulmates can establish between one another.

Future Shorts - Le Cafe

"Le Cafe" is a short from the Future Shorts project, a network that allows short film makers to exhibit their own work on large theatrical platforms worldwide. An interesting idea, this basically means that anyone could submit their home made work... they also have a youtube channel and a website where you can check out their collection of short films. The credits for this particular short copied as is from the channel goes to: "Dir. Stephanie Marguerite & Emilie Tarascou / music Oldelaf & Mr D / France / 2007". I chose Le Cafe because this is the first short I saw that I definitely remember I associated with the project, and also because it is very telling of the coffee based work philosophy... There are of course much more shorts available. Maybe I will post some of them later.

Poirot On The Surrealists

This little clip is from David Suchet's Poirot series, from the episode "Death in the Clouds" (1992). I think it is a really intriguing contribution to Poirot's character, whose work and habits otherwise so much revolve around logic to allow him an artistic appreciation of the irrational as expressed by the surrealists, or the Avant-garde in general. Other than that, I think what he says is a very effective brief summary of that kind of art.

Andreas Hykade - Ring Of Fire

"Ring of Fire" (2000) is a short film by Andreas Hykade. For me this film is about beauty, how beauty survives in the world, desires, especially the desire for beauty that you cannot buy, but which may come to you if you are patient. If you are looking for it, all other pleasures are just substitutes till you find it. The quest is long, and falling is a very likely part of it as impatience is human. But beauty is like a caterpillar... part of its essence is freedom. If driven by need you grab it, you may break it. But once it is comfortable with you, it will grow into an eagle that can fly anywhere... It is also about innocence, something that is always tried in the impatient world, something you hide when you adapt, but the core of which will always be there, no matter how much dirt is attached to it. You just need someone or something that wipes that dirt off...

Stephen Fry - The Letter

This skit is from "The Cellar Tapes" (1982), the television version of the Cambridge Footlights Revue, the revue show of the Footlights club run by students in Cambridge. Many comic performers started their carriers here, including Peter Cook and the Cambridge half of Monty Python. It was also here, that Stephen Fry met Hugh Laurie through common friend Emma Thomson. The two would later form a double act of alternative comedy in various shows. Here is a very good example of the highly intellectual style of Stephen Fry, who studied English Literature in Cambridge. The Letter, as this sketch is sometimes called, is full of wordplay and subtle mockery of the literary style of Dracula.

Private Life Is Dead In Russia

The scene I post here is among my favourites from David Lean's "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) based on the novel of Boris Pasternak published in 1957. A confrontation between the poet and medical doctor Zhivago, and the hardcore revolutionary Strelnikov (his name means "the shooter"). The two men used to admire each other, Zhivago admired the former Pavel Antipov's bravery and that on the other hand Zhivago's poetry. Now the poet hates what has become of Antipov, whereas he thinks Zhivago is hopelessly idealistic compared to the historical realities. Indeed, Zhivago often lives in his own world, that is how he got there in the first place, by following the beauties of nature, not knowing where he was going. Thus he finds happiness in simple things. Strelnikov, the revolutionary, wants to change the world, sacrifices his own capability for appreciating such simple beauties, for ideas he does not really believe in. I think he would rather live the life of the poet. He is as ruthless to others as to himself, he maintains that for a greater goal one has to sacrifice one's sentiments. But meeting the poet arises his doubts. I think the reason why Zhivago survives this meeting is because the Commander sees his true qualities, ones that were there in himself long ago. Ones that are now in grave contrast with his merciless present self. It has been argued that one point where the book and the film differ is the person of Pavel Antipov. True, the next, and final confrontation of the two for example is missing from the film, but I think this scene captures a lot of their relation. The whole film is a nice experience, a mixture of epic, lyric and dramatic elements made complete by the score of Maurice Jarre.

Carnivorous Plants

I have always been interested in carnivorous plants. I remember there was a short reading in a textbook when I was learning to read, which introduced three of them, some variety of sundews, butterworts and pitcher plants.  Then of course I discovered Venus Flytrap, and other things. David Attanborough has a series on plant life, but I thought to post here a clip from Planet Earth. Other than the familiarizing ourselves with the menu of a pitcher plant, we also discover that some spiders are clever enough to take their share of the prey...

The Periwig-Maker

"The Periwig-Maker" (1999) is a claymation short set in the time of the Great Plague of London. The film was directed by Steffen Schäffler, and is narrated by Kenneth Branagh. It is based on Daniel Dafoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" which first appeared in 1722, more than 50 years after the event. It may have also been influenced by Samuel Pepys' contemporary accounts related in his diary, in which he mentions his fear of wig-makers using the hair of the dead, a theme used in this short. In those years London could not have been the safest place to live. England was just over the English Civil War when the plague started in 1665. It did not came as a surprise, as there have been many outbreaks before, but this last and biggest one demanded the life of some 100 thousand people, one fifth of the city's population. Hardly had it been over when the Great Fire of London swept over the city... It is to this world that we travel through the diaries of a wig-maker, who witnesses the events, and relates his thoughts about them. In his monologues he reveals his speculations on the feeling of death lurking around every corner and that nobody is in complete safety. In his Gothic isolation he observes the tragic fate of a girl with beautiful red hair left to certain death following that of her mother's. This starts a series of thoughts in him that slowly penetrates his own sanity...

Not The Nine O'Clock News

In the 80s and 90s, there was a new way of alternative comedy following in the footsteps of Monty Python, and other predecessors. Alternatives distinguished themselves from the traditional gag based comedy by deliberately choosing socially important topics and often presenting them in a more intellectual manner. "Not The Nine O'Clock News" (1979-1982) was one of the first alternative mainstream sketch shows that made it possible to several comedy writers to come up with a new style, and starred a new generation of comedians, including Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones and Pamela Stephenson. Atkinson went on to make Blackadder and Mr. Bean, and also started a successful movie carrier, whereas the other two male actors continued with Alas Smith and Jones. Perhaps later I will write about these also, but for now let us see where they started their carriers. The first sketch is a subtle spoof of conservative politics by Rowan Atkinson, a really funny one. Then we see how Americans do politics in a sketch by Jones and Atkinson, and finally to relax we learn about the consequences of teaching a gorilla to speak by Smith, Stephenson and Atkinson.

Funny Thing On The Moon?

I have recently watched Bart Sibrel's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon" (2001), a documentary about how the first landing on the Moon might have been a hoax. Then I also watched the MythBusters episode attempting to falsify such conspiracy claims. The fact that Sibrel provides facts which are falsifiable is at least in his favour. I also believe that some doubt is quite all right about anything, but I have to agree with the makers of MythBusters who claim that one should not jump to conclusions too easily, as there may be several plausible reasons for the same phenomenon. It is also true on the other hand that in natural sciences there is no absolute proof of anything in a mathematical sense, one has to be content with probabilities. Many, including some scientists, often forget about this. There is always some room for doubt, but that itself does not necessarily mean that doubts are true. There are many claims in Sibrel's film, most of which are very technical. I have chosen one that covers the field of photography, as it is likely that most people have some experience with that. I like the experimental approach of MythBusters taken in response to these statements and will post them below.

Santa Fe, Where I Have Never Been

I was fond of reading even when I was very young, in fact I was more fond of it then. The magic of a book is that you can use your imagination to create a world using the written guidelines you are reading (and I think this is the basis of adapting a book to film, to bring this imagination out of your head and try to realise it on screen). I remember one of my early readings was Karl May's Winnetou written in the late 19th century. As Karl May himself, I have never been to any of the locations he is talking about, so I had to rely completely on my imagination. If my memory serves me right, Winnetou got the premonition of death from the church bells of Santa Fe. And it was in that novel that I first read the name of that place, Santa Fe. It sounded sort of intriguing, probably due to the fact that the second word is so short. I kept asking myself what it could possibly mean? I knew, or at least suspected Santa, but Fe? It sounded too short for a name. It occupied me. Then the place itself started to appear, a deserted place for some reason... and slowly some sort of image started to build up in me. Then years passed, and now, from a friend out there, I receive an email, sending me pictures of Santa Fe, the very Santa Fe of my imagination... don't ask me if it is as I imagined it... it is, as far as an innate imagination can resemble the real world. I am posting now some of these images here. If my imagination did the sketches, these photos are the paintings based on them... Well, still plenty of room for imagination, as I have still never been there...

'Allo 'Allo

David Croft wrote many popular British sitcoms, and one of the most successful among them is "'Allo, 'Allo" (1982-1992) which he co-wrote with Jeremy Lloyd. The show revolves around the everydays of René Artois (played by Gorden Kaye), who runs a little café in France in World War II. René would just like to live his life, running his café and occasionally cheating his wife, but the situation makes it impossible, because either (or both) the Germans or the French want some services of him, exposing him to constant danger. Thus, rather unwillingly and in order to survive, René goes along getting from one farce to the other until the war is over. In the first video René describes his situation in his own words. The second is a funny scene where the Gestapo wants to search René's café for some stolen painting, but it turns out that he has more to hide and on top of all that his life depends on the actions of his senile mother-in-law with whom they don't really seem to like each other...

Gothic And Sleepy Hollow

Perhaps the term that best describes Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) would be "neo-Gothic". Now, in order that this term would become more than just an empty label, we should perhaps ponder a bit on the meaning of "Gothic" in fiction. The beginnings of Gothic fiction are usually traced back to Horace Valpole's novel "The Castle of Otranto" (1764), the term itself originating from the parallel revival of Gothic architecture in that era, which is therefore often called neo-Gothic. But since in literature Gothic is the widespread word, when I say neo-Gothic, I mean something new compared to earlier periods of Gothic fiction. Gothic flourished in the early romantic period and lived on in the Victorian era. In my experience, the earlier you go, the more the horror in such stories is mixed with the melodrama and romantic plots fashionable in the era. Take Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) for instance. Two thirds of the story is about the description of the experiences of a schoolmaster called Ichabod Crane in the New York countryside, where we learn about his hopes of marrying the beautiful and wealthy Katrina Van Tassel. We also learn by and by about the legend of a Hessian horseman, whose head was shot off by a cannonball, and whose ghost still haunts Sleepy Hollow in search of his head. But the real Gothic episode comes in the last third of the story, where Crane is chased by the horseman, and is hit by a pumpkin thrown at him by his pursuer. Then Crane disappears, but it is alluded at the end that he was a victim of a practical joke by Brom Van Brunt, who also courted Katrina, and eventually even married her. Now, we have a similar subplot in Tim Burton's film, but only as part of a much more intricate plot.

How did we get this far? By the late Victorian era, and the early 20th century, the horror element started to dominate in Gothic fiction through the succession of such authors as Poe, Stephenson, Lovecraft and so on. In film making, the Universal horror series beginning with "Dracula" (1931) had a great influence by concentrating on the essence of horror often leaving out considerable bits of the original plots. Then as we progressed through the 20th century, the changing lifestyle required faster paced plots, various forms of the "thriller" developed in which there was always some space for Gothic through suspense. Tim Burton's work is then a very good example of what I call here neo-Gothic, the combination of the suspenseful classic horror essense with the contemporary fast paced drama and twist based plots. In his movies Gothic is not just a tool sometimes used, but a determining experience. This transformation is very apparent in Sleepy Hollow. Starting with colors, a greyish world in which blood flows in a very acute red, through the setting of buildings and other locations such as the ominous tree where the horseman is traced back to, and including the musical score of Burton's long time collaborator, Danny Elfman. The plot involves constable Ichabod Crane in the investigation of mysterious decapitations, which do not happen as random as they first seem, especially as we find out more and more about the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow. Johnny Depp plays the skeptic police constable with a strong belief in science, who by the end has to accept that not everything he thinks impossible is indeed so. His performance adds to the attractive appeal of the film, and prompts me even more to recommend this great movie.

Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers (1925-1980) was a master of impersonation and grasping different accents, most of us remember him as the incompetent inspector Jacques Clouseau, always proud of his imaginary abilities, messing up the simplest of cases, and who by some miracle is always saved by those very mistakes, and consequently gains a fame and reputation as a detective. Interesting to know that Sellers' opinion of the character was that Clouseau knew that he was incompetent, but never gave up, which was the reason for his eventual success. The scene I am posting here is from "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976) from Blake Edwards' Pink Panther series. The investigation of a kidnapping case... watch a pro work here... no priceless pianos can stand in the way of justice!

Sellers used his talents in a variety of roles. Although he never won the Academy Award that he wanted very much, he was nominated a number of times. One of these was for his roles in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964). Roles indeed, for he played three of them in this film, a fact that was quite characteristic of him. Dr. Strangelove is a black comedy about nuclear power struggle. In the selected scene see Sellers as the chief scientist convince (himself as) the President of the fact that things don't look so bad just because of nuclear war... Observe the irrepressible outburst of the nazi reflex in the left arm...

Sellers, who impersonated so many different characters in his life, often said he had no personality of his own, that's why he played others with ease. He found happiness in acting, it was indeed hard to catch him out of role, maybe in the home made films he was in the habit of making. Maybe it was such an inner quest for himself that lead him to a book titled "Being There" by Jerzy Kosiński, of which he reportedly stated it was about him. He took a great deal of trouble to convince the author of the book to make it into a film, who thought his novel was unsuitable for the cinema. The story is about a gardener who lived his entire life in townhouse tending a garden, his only connection with the world being the television. When his employer dies, he is suddenly exposed to the outside world and even to fame... Maybe it was the childish innocence that finds itself in a complicated world not knowing what is going around that appealed to Sellers in the character for which he received his final Oscar nomination. He obviously became somewhat bitter for not getting it as this was the role he felt he could give his best. Unfortunately, he was not given the chance to be nominated anymore, as he died of heart attack only a year later.

Lovecraftian Horror

For most people H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is remembered as the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Mythos assumes that there is another superhuman universe behind what is apparent to us, the shear knowledge of the existence of which is enough to drive a human crazy. Where does the feeling of utter horror come from in Lovecraft's work? I think it is a combination of very ancient fears in the human mind. First take the fear of something greater than us, then add what you think the most ugly creature can look like, and place him on this much greater size and power scale and finally place the control of the universe in the tentacles of such creatures and assume quite correctly that the fate of the human race is of no interest to them. Then imagine that these beings are now sleeping for some reason but they can awaken at any time which would make the fate of humanity questionable. It is the cruelty of the accidental and mechanistically indifferent nature of existence that gains the ugliest forms and causes horror in Lovecraft and his readers. I mean imagine that some creature like the one in the picture would appear in the sky reaching down with its tentacles for something to eat... Better still, imagine that such a creature with the size of a galaxy is sitting in the middle of the universe, the most powerful and hideous creature who is at the same time is blind and is an idiot and you get one of the deities of Lovecraft, Azathoth. Then imagine the opposing entity, an equally powerful but wise and omnipresent creature with similarly hideous form and you get Yog-Sothoth. The Mythos, which Lovecraft called simply Yog-Sothothery, takes its name from its high priest, Cthulhu. Lovecraft created his universe gradually in a series of stories using a Gothic writing style in the process, preferring suspense to downright brutality. For example he refers to an old book called the Necronomicon, which reappears in his stories, but nobody who reads it could reveal its full contents to us since they go mad when they understand it. Lovecraft invited other writers to expand this mythic world, most notably perhaps August Derleth whom I mentioned in an earlier post.

 
As for film adaptations, I think it is kind of hard to make a movie that captures all the above mentioned features, because either the suspense, or the visual intensity is likely to get lost in the process. Visually, I think some scenes of Guillermo Del Toro's "Hellboy" (2004) grasp the Lovecraftian legacy, but of course this film is more about the comic book hero than about any of Lovecraft's writings. A film that probably best captures the suspense part is a very close adaptation of Lovecraft's probably most well known work, "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926). The story follows the investigation of a hideous statuette leading to a cult of Cthulhu and finally to Cthulhu himself who lies dormant in his city sunk into the ocean until his sleep is disturbed... The film is black-and-white and silent, was directed by Andrew Leman in 2005 and is about 45 minutes long. I think these settings are deliberately chosen to emphasise the atmosphere and to place the minimalist visual approach into fitting context. The result is impressive, though I think there are still plenty of possibilities for further cinematic exploitation.

Things Will Never Be The Same Again...

This song from Mel C brings me back memories... I remember listening to this music in the radio while on the way to my University entrance exam... I had that very strong feeling that things indeed will never be the same again. Not just because of the University, but because of other changes too. Altogether a feeling of waiting to see all those new things before me, being glad to leave some things behind and yet a little sad about others passing. I also remember a friend of mine who shared this feeling, and it added to the experience that we never had to talk about it yet we knew we think and feel similarly about this song...

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Perhaps Maksim Mrvica dresses differently than most performers of classical music (which I don't mind at all), but out of the many versions I have listened to, it is his that I think really captures the feelings I associate with this Liszt melody. The pace follows the dynamics of emotions awakened by the music and strengthens them in constructive interference while the whole forms a smooth continuum yet with all the details being paid attention to. All in all, a very dramatic delivery, and I think this piece is supposed to be dramatic... especially the end!

Vegetable Orchestra

All right, there has been a lot of talk about alternative music and films... but I think this video that I just found attached to an old email gives a new meaning to the word alternative... I say new although Africans seem to have discovered this long ago... But I mean if the possibility of alternative music is there in industrial noises for example then how about looking around in your garden to see if you can find some alternative musical instruments?