Bettie Page, Bizarre nr. 14
If your interest goes just a little bit beyond vanilla sex, you’ve probably come across Bettie Page.
Bettie Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos, taken by Irving Klaw.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Ynlp7sxZs]
American 2000s documentary
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysclVAOLOd8&]
Bettie’s Punishment
The whole of her is Icon of Erotic Art #38.
“Behold me then safely ensconced in my private Boudoir, a fearful instance of the ill consequences attending upon irascibility—alive, with the qualifications of the dead—dead, with the propensities of the living—an anomaly on the face of the earth—being very calm, yet breathless. —Poe via Loss of Breath.”
Illustration All is Vanity (1892) by Charles Allan Gilbert
I strangely missed English cult poet John Milton‘s 400th birthday, luckily John Coulthart reminded me of it. [1]
John Milton (1608 – 1674) is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica.
On the significance of Paradise Lost, it’s safe to say that it is one of the cult fiction items of 17th century literature, along with Don Quixote (1605), Simplicissimus (1668), Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1669) and La Princesse de Clèves (1678).
Paradise Lost introduces the antihero in Western literature, by not portraying him as stupid and indulgent, but – as in Paradise Lost’s case – downright evil; a precursor to 20th century psychopaths (see Fictional portrayals of psychopaths in literature).
As I said, the protagonist (so pronounced by the Romantics) of this epic is an antihero, in this case the fallen angel, Satan which Milton presents as an ambitious and proud Satan being who defies God, and wages war on Heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Indeed, William Blake, a great admirer of Milton and illustrator of the epic poem, said of Milton that “he was a true Poet, and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.”
On the psychoanalytical side, Sholem Stein has remarked: “Milton worked for Oliver Cromwell and the Parliament of England and thus wrote first-hand for the Commonwealth of England. Arguably, the failed rebellion and reinstallation of the monarchy left him to explore his losses within Paradise Lost” and adds that “Milton sympathized with the Satan in this work, in that both he and Satan had experienced a failed cause.”
Modern editions have all 50 of Doré’s illustrations for Paradise Lost, recounting mankind’s fall from the grace of God through the work of Satan. Among the events depicted are the expulsion of Satan from Heaven, Adam and Eve in Paradise and the nine-day fall of Lucifer’s legions to Hell.
I wish you all the best, and would like to pay my respects to the following blogs, and beg the pardon of any acquaintances I may have failed to list.
This is the best of the blogs, new and old, but with a particular focus on new arrivals over the period 2007-2008. Good fellow travelling.
Since in the early 21st century, art blogs have cropped up around the world to add their voices to the art world. Some notable blogs include BibliOdyssey, A Journey Round My Skull, At Her Discretion, Femme Femme Femme, Hugo Strikes Back, ponyXpress, John Coulthart‘s Feuilleton, Bright Stupid Confetti and Adventures in the Print Trade.
Il Giornale Nuovo was one of the most renowned but has been defunct since 2007.
Litblogs of note include De Papieren Man (Dutch), The Existence Machine, This Space, The Reading Experience, Tales from the Reading Room, Bookride, Livros de Areia, Pimenta negra and Moleskine Literario.
Good film blogs include Elusive Lucidity (Zach Campbell), Esotika Erotica Psychotica, Flickhead, Tim Lucas, Girish, Moon in the Gutter and Cinebeats.
Good music blogs include On The Wire, Simon Reynolds, Woebot (2002-2007), Down With Tunes, Mutant Sounds and Alain Finkielkrautrock.
I’ve always been weary of the genre mix of comedy and horror, but that is probably because of my dislike of the Scream franchise.
Yesterday, I find this[1] intertitle and I thought it was hilarious.
A word on intertitles
Since silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the cinema audience. The title writer became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the scenario writer who created the story. Intertitles (or titles as they were generally called at the time) often became graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action of the film or enhanced its atmosphere.
In the silent film era, films were as much a literary as a filmic medium. I’m quite sure you could ‘watch’ the film by reading the intertitles.
Coming back to Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde, I find the humour in sentences such as “England in the 19th century was not all that it might have been — It might have been Italy but wasn’t,” and “We squirm under the tumult of Good and Evil ever — warring within us, yet were Science to separate them, Bad would flourish. Crime run riot — even Saxophone players would be tolerated,”[3] quite refreshing for 1925, when this film was released. We sometimes think that Monty Python started this kind of absurd humor, but clearly that is a mistake. To my knowledge the earliest modern instance of this kind of humor is Alfred Jarry‘s Ubu Roi, and going further back in the history of derision there is Rabelais and even before that there is the Facetiae by Poggio.
Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde is World Cinema Classic #73.
P. S. Another fave intertitle is this one[2] from Caligari, used to dramatic effect in that film.
Alex Cox was responsible for a substantial part of my 1980s and 1990s film education with his show Moviedrome on BBC television.
That, I wrote a year ago, when I found the Laura Gemser interview from the Alex Cox documentary “A Hard Look”
Last week, I find the very first introduction of the very first broadcast of the cult television programme on cult films.
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8IGJjukTzc]
Moviedrome (first broadcast, May 8th, 1988)
The first film was The Wicker Man. To my knowledge, the transcripts of the introductions by Cox were not published. I do suggest that any serious film student would “read” them from start to finish. I wish I could.
Update:
Maybe there is a way to find the missing texts. Cox has just published an autobiography so it seems.
Has anyone read this?
X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker (2008) [Amazon.com]
[FR] [DE] [UK]
RIP Beverly Garland (1926 – 2008)
Beverly Garland in It Conquered the World (1956) by Roger Corman
Beverly Garland (October 17, 1926 – December 5, 2008) was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. She is known to international cult audiences for her roles in the Roger Corman films It Conquered the World, Swamp Women, and Not of This Earth.
I am the Dying Gaul
This is my death scene, I was not given a deathbed. I do not represent the most famous death scene. I am outdeathed by Jesus Christ who died on the cross and Jean-Paul Marat , both after me.
I seem to have been born in a culture of death, yet I was not given any last words. This fascination with death in Western culture. Why? Why so pervasive?
Why did Jane write A Death-Scene?
Why this fasicnation with crime scenes?
Why did Andy Warhol produce The Death and Disaster paintings?
And why is every sensationalist corner of video-libraries around the world filled with copies of Faces of Death?
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5GDcs8i2ng&]
Why do we enjoy the slow motion death of Bonnie and Clyde and countles other movie death scenes?
Aristotle, had I known him, would have answered me:
Forrest J Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan. Ackerman was influential to the wider cultural acceptance of science fiction as a literary, art and film genre. To a general audience, Ackerman is best remembered as the editor-writer of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, as the producer of Vampirella, and as literary agent.
Vampirella magazine (France, 01/1970), published by Publicness
image sourced here.
Most of us have a passing interest in horror. In his Ways of Hearing book presentation, David Toop revealed that he discovered the Price, Corman and Poe-connection (the connection between 19th century literary horror to 20th century cinematic horror) via Famous Monsters of Filmland.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini @410
Pushing against Pluto’s face Proserpina‘s hand creases his skin,
while his fingers sink into the flesh of his victim.
Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (December 7, 1598 – November 28, 1680) was a Italian sculptor and architect of 17th century Rome, best-known for his marble sculptures the Ecstasy of St Theresa[1] and the Beata Ludovica Albertoni[2].
Update: The Rape of Proserpina, the Ecstasy of St Theresa[1] and the Beata Ludovica Albertoni[2] are Icons of erotic art #35, 36 and 37.
