Category Archives: absurd

Diamond skull by Hirst sold … to himself

 

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For the Love of God [Google gallery] is a sculpture by artist Damien Hirst produced in 2007. It consists of a platinum cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead of the skull. Costing $28 million to produce, the work went on display at the White Cube gallery in London at an asking price of $100 million. It was sold on August 30, 2007 for its asking price, making it the most expensive single work by a living artist. Sold to an unnamed investment group, Hirst has kept a share in the work.

Cultissime!

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd6D8PU95qU]

Buffet Froid (1979) – Bertrand Blier

Context of clip: Depardieu has stabbed Carmet, Depardieu denies, “no I could’nt have done it, I just arrived”. Carmet does not seem to mind dying. Depardieu asks: “how does it feel”. Carmet answers: “Like a sink draining”. At the end Carmet offers Depardieu to take his knife back and says: “You’d better because your fingerprints are on them.” Depardieu thanks him. Spoiler warning: Carmet lives.

Buffet froid is a 1979 French film, written and directed by Bertrand Blier, and starring Gérard Depardieu, Carole Bouquet, Bernard Blier and Jean Carmet.The plot of this film is extremely complex and elusive, for the simple reason that we are left at odds as to the motivation of the characters to perform acts that are systematically the opposite of what is expected of them. Thus, the police inspector allows murders, commits murders himself and pretends not being occupied with his profession when off duty.

The film owes much of its ideological framework to surrealism, re-enforced by an ambience of mystery et theatricality, very similar to the work of Luis Buñuel, who was known to punctuate his work with numerous « gratuitous » murders. We are also reminded of the absurd theatre of Alfred Jarry and Eugène Ionesco.

The location of the metro station of the RER of La Défense, then ending its construction phase and not yet receiving its 170 000 daily employees as is the case today, highly contributes to the atmosphere of the opening sequence of the film: a dehumanized urban space, cold and anxiety-ridden, filmed by night, the only encounters to be expected those of marginalized human beings. All “urban” scenes were filmed in Créteil, in areas under construction at the time.

Bertrand Blier reunites a sublime trio, with his fetish actor Gérard Depardieu), a un-police officer (Bernard Blier) and an assassin strangler of women played by Jean Carmet, all at the peak of their careers.

Digression: Happy birthday Roky Erickson.

On whimsy and monochromatics

Combat de nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit

My previous post on Cohl led me to the French avant-garde of the 1880s and 1890s. Above is what is now generally held to be the first monochrome painting, rendered here in an appropriated version by Allais.

Here is the background:

Paul Bilhaud (born in Allichamps, December 31, 1854 – Avon, 1933) was a French poet and dramatist who belonged to the avant-garde group the Incoherents. He is the author of an all-black painting called Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night.

On October 1 1882 the “Exposition des Arts Incohérents” in Paris featured a black painting by the poet Paul Bilhaud titled Combat de nègres dans une cave pendant la nuit, which was appropriated in 1887 by the French humorist Alphonse Allais, in an album of monochrome pictures of various colors, with uniformly ornamental frames, each bearing a comical title. Allais called his all-red painting Tomato Harvest by Apoplectic Cardinals on the Shore of the Red Sea.

Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night predates Malevich‘s, Black Square on a White Field by 31 years.

Compiling this documentation, I stumbled on Il Giornale Nuovo’s post on Allais: Primo-Avrilesque and on Monochrome (une enquête) by L’Alamblog.

Some positive events in his life

Waiter by Alex van Warmerdam is a superb film by the best Dutch language auteur. The styling of his films always have a retro feel; the interior depicted above reminds me strongly of the Drugstore Cowboy hotel room. In my opinion, Warmerdam deserves an entry in the Sensesofcinema’s directors hall of fame.

See also:

Plot:
Waiter tells the story of Edgar (Alex van Warmerdam), a waiter with a flair for the unfortunate. His wife is sick, his girlfriend Victoria (Ariane Schluter) is overly possessive, customers at work constantly bully him and his neighbours make his life impossible.

Fed up with the way his life is going, Edgar goes to the house of Herman (Mark Rietman), the scriptwriter who invented Edgar and is currently writing his story. Edgar complains about the events in his life that keep getting worse and begs for some positive events in his life, including a decent girlfriend. Herman decides to create Stella (Line Van Wambeke), but soon Edgar realises that Stella will only complicate his life more. Meanwhile Herman is pestered by his pushy girlfriend Suzie (Thekla Reuten), who constantly tries to change the script. Driven to insanity by Edgar and Suzie constantly trying to interfere with his story, Herman decides to make the story more extreme and violent…

Thematically related films:
The Truman Show (Peter Weir, 1998) and Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)

Dutch fabulist

The Dutch fabulist continues to build his own contemporary Northern European mythology, following up on the 2003.

The uncompromising, innovative writer-director himself plays Edgar, the put-upon middle-aged man of the title. Edgar waits tables at the decrepit, cunningly named restaurant The West, where he is abused by his patrons. He is tired of his wife, his demanding mistress and his belligerent neighbours. He goes to the home of Herman (Mark Rietman), the man responsible for writing the story of his life, and begs the author for a change. Much of the blame for his misery lies with Herman’s meddling wife, Suzie (Thekla Reuten), who interferes in her husband’s work by steering Edgar’s life in disagreeable directions.

Van Warmerdam is a master of the theatre of the absurd, as singular a slapstick performer as he is a director. He plays Edgar as a phlegmatic, sullen character who grimly attends to the needs of the patrons at the torpid and soulless restaurant – a space that becomes more and more abstract as Herman loses control of Edgar’s universe.

Van Warmerdam has said that a character whose destiny is completely in another’s hands is necessarily tragic, and he mines this fruitful conceit for all it is worth. His surreal film is a witty and constantly surprising take on fate, creativity and power, taking as its tormented protagonist a man doomed to a life of servitude – not just to his customers, but to the conventions of literary fiction as well. –Dimitri Eipides

A modern character

Van Warmerdam hanteert niet alleen een creatief zwartkomisch scenario, ook maakt hij een knipoog naar de wereld van het scenarioschrijven. Als Edgar aan Herman vraagt waarom die het toch zo slecht met hem voor heeft, antwoordt de gefrustreerde Herman slechts dat hij een ‘modern personage’ is. Een hip, modern filmhuisfilmpersonage, denkt Herman, is een lijdend voorwerp, geen interessante, succesvolle persoon. Van Warmerdam laat Edgar deze opgelegde troosteloosheid met verve aanvechten. Toch loopt Ober nogal abrupt af, alsof Van Warmerdam met eenzelfde writer’s block te maken had als Herman. Hoe graag Edgar zijn leven ook een positieve wending wil geven, de auteur blijft de baas, niet de personages. –René Glas

More Dutch language reviews:
Hyperrealism and surrealism in perfect balance. [Dutch]
Nieuwe Van Warmerdam scoort aardig bij critici [Dutch]

My name, I believe, is Robert Jones

I am, that is to say I was, a great man, but I am neither the author of Junius nor the man in the mask, for my name, I believe, is Robert Jones, and I was born somewhere in the city of Fum-Fudge.

The first action of my life was the taking hold of my nose with both hands. My mother saw this and called me a genius:—my father wept for joy and presented me with a treatise on Nosology. This I mastered before I was breeched. ..

Who else but Borges could start a story by introducing a character who is unsure of his own name? The answer is Poe, the story is titled Lionizing (1835). It makes you wonder if there are any precedents of stories with characters who are unsure who they are.

I am currently reading Poe for the first time in my life. I’d written about Poe without ever having read one of his stories. Much like I had written about Baudelaire and Borges (and decided I was going to like them) without ever having read them. Recently, I found a rationale for my behaviour. It came by way of Oscar Wilde who supposedly said: “I never read a book I must review, it prejudices you so.”

I am reading Poe in Dutch, my native language. Poe is really too difficult for non-native speakers. I mean, how many native speakers know what vituperate means? In Dutch this translates as beschimpen, and while not a word I use every day, nor every month, maybe once every year, I do know what to make of it. Nevertheless, I enjoy difficult words and I learn every day. My main site Jahsonic helps me in this by providing context. Yesterday I came across arcane, I look it up at my place and at Wikipedia and at Answers.com. Roughly it means esoteric.

Then I remember Eric Losfeld and his Editions Arcanes:

Losfeld began secret publishing about 1949, and openly in 1952 when he established Editions Arcanes. For the following ten years or so his feet were planted firmly in the fields of both clandestine and open publishing. His open publications were certainly avant-garde and included works by Nelly Kaplan, Claude Seignolle, Boris Vian, Francis Picabia, Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues amongst others. —Patrick J. Kearney more…

Back to Poe. Please check this post with a very good illustration of Lionizing. And the superb The Nose by Gogol.

Totally unrelated is a Horace Andy track over at Sly and Robbie’s MySpace.

Excuse the rambling post. My name, I believe, is Jan Geerinck.

They show no empathy, remorse, anxiety or guilt …

In search of psychopaths

They are generally considered to be not only incurable but also untreatable. They show no empathy, remorse, anxiety or guilt in relation to their behavior, in short, they truly seem devoid of conscience.

It has been shown that punishment and behavior modification techniques do not improve the behavior of a psychopath. They have been regularly observed to respond to both by becoming more cunning and hiding their behavior better. It has been suggested that traditional therapeutic approaches actually make them, if not worse, then far more adept at manipulating others and concealing their behavior.

Charles Starkweather

Charles Starkweather (1938 – 1959) was a spree killer who murdered 11 victims in Nebraska and Wyoming during a road trip with his underage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. He became a national fascination, eventually inspiring the films The Sadist, Badlands and Natural Born Killers. Charles had an obsession with James Dean; he sympathized with Dean’s rebellion, believing that he had found a kindred spirit of sorts, someone who had suffered ostracization similar to his own.


The Sadist (1963) – James Landis [Amazon.com]

The Sadist is a 1963 black and white American exploitation film written and directed by James Landis, based on real life serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate.

 

Peter Kürten

Peter Kürten (1883- 1932) was a German serial killer dubbed The Vampire of Düsseldorf by the contemporary media. He committed a series of sex crimes, assaults and murders against adults and children, most notoriously in the year1929 in Düsseldorf. As he was awaiting execution, he was often interviewed by Dr. Karl Berg. Later Berg’s book The Sadist (pictured above) was written on the account of Kürten’s murderous career. Kürten gave his primary motive to Berg as being one entirely of sexual pleasure. The number of stab wounds differed due to the simple fact it took longer to achieve climax. It was the sight of blood that was integral to his sexual ejaculation.

Peter Lorre in M (1931)

M – (1931) – Fritz Lang [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

In 1931, Fritz Lang’s movie M was released. It told a fictionalized story of a serial child killer. Some feel it was in part based on Peter Kürten’s crime spree, primarily concerning itself with the atmosphere of hysteria surrounding the case. Lang fervently denied that he drew from this case. The film could just as well have been based on the stories of Jack the Ripper.

And the world will come from your mouth

Dennis Cooper celebrates Alexandro Jodorowsky day.

As always, Dennis spends a considerate amount of time on the artists he celebrates. Here is a list of subtopics:

Jodorowsky is primarily know for directing the midnight movie and cult classic El Topo (1970), a kind of spaghetti western with Buñuelian overtones. Through the Panic Movement he was connected to two other cult figures: Roland Topor and Fernando Arrabal. Most recently Jodorowsky made headlines news by officiating the non-denominational marriage ceremony of rock singer friend Marilyn Manson and burlesque performer Dita Von Teese.

El Topo (1970) – Alexandro Jodorowsky [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Jodorowsky:

“And I imagine…with great pleasure…all the horrible stirrings of the nonmanifested to bring forth the scream which creates the universe. Maybe one day I’ll see you trembling, and you’ll go into convulsions and grow larger and smaller until your mouth opens and the world will come from your mouth, escaping through the window like a river, and it will flood the city. And then we’ll begin to live.” — A. Jodorowsky, 1971.

Very short summaries: the cinema of Lynch

Lynch’s oeuvre in 10 tropes:

the eternal dwarf – dreams and lesbian fantasies – doubles and alter egos – film/theatre within film – red curtains – unusual (long pause) conversations – sound effects – bizarre characters – kinky sex – mysterious titles

INLAND EMPIRE, the new Lynch that runs almost three hours, in a Belgian cinema starting Wednesday. Speaking of Belgian cinema, I’m quite enjoying the film writing of Dave Mestdach in Focus Knack (and Focus Knack in general).

It is my honour to declare war on you

In search of the editors of surrealism

Eric Losfeld (photocredit unidentified)

Eric Losfeld gives a good indication of his surrealist approach to life early in his memoirs. When on his military service in the 1930’s, he writes to Adolf Hitler:

“Sir, I am a Belgian soldier who is bored in a garrison in a city called Namur. I hold you personally responsible for this. Subsequently it is my honour to declare war on you”. [translation mine]

There is no record of what reply, if any, was received from Berlin . –Patrick J. Kearney via here.

When Kearney refers to Losfeld’s memoirs, he must be quoting from Losfeld’s autobiography Endetté comme une mule: Ou, La Passion d’éditer (1979) which costs a prohibitive amount of money at Amazon.com, is unavailable at [FR],and costs even more at [UK], so if anyone knows how to read this cheaply, please let me know. BTW, the title roughly translates as — please correct me if I get this wrong: Indebted for life, or, the passion for publishing.

Entirely off-topic: this and this is dedicated to my girls.