Monthly Archives: September 2006

Foreign answers to Proust’s In Search of Lost Time

The two novels listed are supposed to be the foreign equivalents to Proust’s epic . (source: 1001 Books)

Can anyone think of other epic novels from different countries that are considered ‘foreign’ answers to In Search of Lost Time? Criteria are length, level of introspection and lack of plot. Would Robert Musil‘s The Man Without Qualities (1921-1942) count?

See also: modernist literature

Barrington pickpocket

George Barrington robs Prince Orlov.

George Barrington (May 14, 1755 – 1804) was an Irish pickpocket. A book on him was mentioned in the 1959 film Pickpocket by Robert Bresson. —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Barrington

At one point in the film, Jeanne asks Michel if he “believes in nothing” and he replies, “I believed in God, Jeanne, for three minutes.” — Culture?Ugh!

The absences and overall minimalism in Bresson are accentuated by repetitions. (In Pickpocket: repeated scenes in Michel’s room, the Metro, the racetrack, of staircases, writing in his journal etc. ) Paradoxically, this combination creates a sort of hollowed-out, emptied-out vessel into which we pour….our own projections, ideas, feelings, and (very important) spiritual yearnings. But we don’t see the spiritual in his films; we see the material. Concrete surfaces are paramount here; and yet they are the portal to the spiritual. We intuit an inner life, a metaphysical life, via our immersion in the material. Quandt has called Bresson’s cinema both minimalist and maximalist for this reason.  —Girish Shambu

White Chicks, Some Like it Hot and John Currin

One of the advantages of having children is that you get to live twice. I get to hear music, see films, read books that I would never see at my age, if it were not for my daughters.

So it came to pass that I saw White Chicks (Google gallery), the 2000s version of Some Like it Hot. Both films are examples of cross-dressing in film (my favourite in this genre still being Ed Wood’s 1953 Glen or Glenda?). White Chicks differs from these films in that it adds a racial dimension (whiteface/blackface, see Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and minstrel shows).

Enter John Currin; proving that high art and low art often make use of the same tropes. Currin’s grotesque portrayal of the ‘white chicks’-stereotype reminded me of this 2004 film. See this John Currin Google gallery, and especially this, this, this, this and this.

Take one look at John Currin’s paintings and you could assume he likes stupid women with big tits. Pouting, wide-eyed ingénues look vacantly out of his canvases while ladies in mini-skirts measure each other’s immense breasts. There is nothing politically correct here. –Francesca Gavin 05 September 2003 via http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1164971

Psychological realism 6/10 (reflects the zeitgeist), feelgood factor (I laughed out loud) 7/10, oddity value 6/10.

The Comfort of Strangers (1990) – Paul Schrader

The Comfort of Strangers (1990) – Paul Schrader
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Saw The Comfort of Strangers (1990) on VHS; at the same time I went to the Fnac and read bits of this 100-page novella. With a runtime of 107 minutes it is probably a better idea (quicker and better) to read this story than see it.

Nevertheless: What will you miss when you read instead of see:

  • Music by Angelo Badalamenti
  • Armani’s 1980s chic clothing
  • Sumptuous interiors of Venetian villa and views Venice itself (armchair travelling)
  • Saint George slaying the dragon painted by Paolo Uccello
  • Christopher Walken
  • Screenplay by Harold Pinter

Notes:

  • Paul Schrader is probably the most ‘European’ of American directors
  • Compare the throat slashing in Comfort with the one in Haneke’s Caché.
  • What was the drug that Everett’s wife was given: it left her conscious but unable to move?

Most memorable moments:

  • “Robert started to hurt me when we made love … Though it took a lot of time, … I liked it.”
  • Walken striking Everett in the stomach

Rating (film): Psychological realism 4/10, feelgood factor: 3/10, Oddity value 5/10.

Ballardian psychogeography

K punk has an analysis of an interview with Iain Sinclair by Tim Chapman which touches upon psychogeography, the art of the 20th century flâneur.

Of all the intriguing moments in Tim Chapman’s fascinating interview with Iain Sinclair over at the ever-excellent Ballardian (Sinclair so much more arresting and engaging as a commentator and critic than as a novelist, where writerly obsurantism fogs over all his insights and sharpness), this is one of the most telling: —k punk

Tell me Something Good (1974) Rufus and Chaka

A live version and one with Stevie of Tell me Something Good.

With the help of Stevie Wonder (who wrote it in a very Sly & the Family Stonesque vein), Rufus & Chaka Khan broke into both the pop music and R&B charts in 1974 with the hit “Tell Me Something Good”.

Connection: (“wanting connections we found connections (Eco)”) An unlikely place to find a cover version of this track is Return of the Super Ape (1978) by Lee Scratch Perry & Upsetters

Digression: I find it strange that after 10 years of internet something like Youtube should come along: audio and video on demand. Why strange? Because we do not have audio on demand. There is no such thing as Youtube for music/audio only. For audio, one always has to resort to the download paradigm (Limewire, Napster, etc…) or filesharing sites and one-click-hosters such as YouSendIt. I found two live versions of Tell me Somehing Good without even trying, but I had to download it from limewire to find the studio version, without being able to share it with you on the fly.

And here is my fave Chaka track.

Fassbinder and Ozon

Water Drops On Burning Rocks (2000) – François Ozon
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

French director François Ozon directed this film based on Fassbinder’s play. Ozon’s work is very reminiscent of Fassbinder’s. Incidentally Ozon and Fassbinder share an appraisal of the work of American director Douglas Sirk.

Most memorable line (I paraphrase) “and you know how difficult it is for me to find pleasure,” said reproachfully by the older man (pictured right) to his submissive young male partner (pictured left).

Rating: Psychological realism 8/10, feelgood factor 3/10, oddity value 7/10. Recommended.

Digression: In the back of the photograph, you can see American actress Anna Thomson (one more picture here, who was the lead in one of the more interesting American productions of the 2000s: Fast Food Fast Women (2000).

He opened his eyes at 4am and his last day began

Via Bookslut:

You know, thank god we have privileged old white men like John Updike and Martin Amis to help us really get inside the minds of poor Muslim young men drawn to martyrdom. Perhaps the war on terror can finally come to an end now that we truly understand where they’re coming from with books like The Terrorist and Amis’s new short story at the Guardian, following the last days of Muhammad Atta. –Jessa Crispin

On 11 September 2001, he opened his eyes at 4am, in Portland, Maine; and Muhammad Atta’s last day began. –Martin Amis via the Guardian.