[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eqXWUie-Og]
Blood of the Beasts (1949) – Georges Franju (If embedded play does not work click here.)
My series “world cinema classics” is usually dedicated to fictional feature films. This film is short, and documentary, but nevertheless, the poetic qualities of the French language original give an air of uncanny fictionality which made me consider it for the series. An excellent film if hard on the stomach.
Previous “World Cinema Classics“
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asXcgiF_66s]
Eyes Without a Face (1960) – Georges Franju
And happy 70th birthday Édith Scob. (via Video Watchblog)
Previous “World Cinema Classics“
Ubu et la grande gidouille (1987) – Jan Lenica
Ubu et la grande gidouille is a 1987 French language feature animation film by Jan Lenica based on the work of Alfred Jarry.
From the excellent collection of experimental films by Youtube user TheMotionBrigades, from which { feuilleton }, culled to report on Karel Zeman. Also check, from the same collection, new work by Walerian Borowczyk such as Encyclopedia de Grand Maman.
Tomorrow is Brigitte Lahaie 52nd birthday. While researching for this post I stumbled upon the following clip which is a perfect example of the non-eventfulness I appreciate in some films. The first time the concept of non-eventfulness took shape was when I saw the extended scene in La Maman et la putain where one of the female protagonists puts a record on and listens to it in real-time (I believe this actually happens twice in that same film).
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZzV7HLSYpk]
Unidentified clip of early Lahaie (when she was still a brunette)
Please notice how the food Lahaie is about to eat, gazes back at her in the clumsy editing.
The most powerful image of Lahaie I know of is the one where she is photographed standing topless sort of straddling a Great Dane dog. Here.
And here is her Google gallery.
Happy birthday Brigitte.
Utopia in the United States
Founded by Charles Fourier, died 170 years ago today
François Marie Charles Fourier (April 7, 1772 – October 10, 1837) was a French utopian socialist and philosopher. Fourier coined the word féminisme in 1837; as early as 1808, he had argued that the extension of women’s rights was the general principle of all social progress. Fourier inspired communism, situationism, 1960s countercultures and Hakim Bey. He was the subject of a study by Roland Barthes Sade, Fourier, Loyola (1971), is mentioned in André Breton‘s Anthology of Black Humor (1940) and has a whole convolute dedicated to him in Walter Benjamin‘s Arcades Project.
Previous Icons of Counterculture.
See also: Knots of indecision
Today is Jacques Tati day. He was born 100 years ago.
Instead of watching his films, treat yourself to his music:
Extraits Des Bandes Originales Des Films De Jacques Tati [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Extraits Des Bandes Originales Des Films De Jacques Tati is an anthology of tracks from several Jacques Tati films: Jour de fête (1949), Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953), Mon Oncle and Play Time (1967). With music by Jean Yatove, Alain Romans, Franck Barcellini, Francis Lemarque and James Campbell.
Ma Mère by Bataille, cover by publisher 10 | 18
#1) 10/18 is a publisher in France (with a sub collection named domaine français). Their series of Georges Bataille novels are illustrated by Hans Bellmer. One of the nicer book illustrations around. I like the overall feel of the design. Can someone tell me more about the graphic designer over at the 10/18 publishing imprint?
Here is the 10/18 cover of Madame Edwarda.
#2) In 1997 André S. Labarthe produced a documentary on Georges Bataille. The focus was Bataille’s extreme, perverse, surreal story ‘Madame Edwarda‘ where the prostitute reveals that she *is* God (‘je suis DIEU’) – perfectly merging the sacred and profane, a key notion for Bataille … in the final section of the clip, the infamous Chinese torture victim is shown … in his last work, the heavily-illustrated ‘Tears of Eros,’ Bataille said this about these photos:
posted by hiperf289 (check his other Youtube clips)
[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtxBXILSY4M]
Enki Bilal mix (background music ID anyone?)
Enki Bilal belongs to the French/European graphic novel tradition (brought to the U. S. via Heavy Metal magazine in the late 1970s) which also holds Jean Giraud, Jacques Tardi, Guido Crepax, Georges Pichard, Milo Manara and Tanino Liberatore‘s ultra-violent RanXerox.
Bilal turns 56 today.
Mémoires d’un vieux con (1975) Roland Topor
Published by André Balland in 1975.
“Memoirs of an Old Fart”, I believe untranslated in English. Translated into Dutch by Edu Borger as Memoires van een oude zak.
