RIP John Updike (1932 – 2009)

John Updike (1932 – 2009) dies. I have never read anything by him. My only memory remotely connected to the physical me is a foreign professor who came to teach us English at the HIVT, where I studied for translator.

He described a scene in one of Updike’s Rabbit novel sequence in which the main character inserts a gold coin into the vagina of his partner, Janice.

I was instantly put off by the scene, although I am not naturally aversed by debauchery.

The whole story was described by this teacher as terribly a middle-class everyman, perhaps best described in Europe as the petit bourgeois who was a fan of the work of Jacques Brel, one who was laughed at by Brel despite (or perhaps, because) being a fan. It is a character I find difficult to indentify with.

For a writer of such fame, it is strange that so few of his works have been adapted for film (see unfilmability), is this due to the aforementioned unfilmability or just that no filmmaker was inspired enough by the stories of Updike?

From IMDb:

  • (6.30) – The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
  • (6.24) – Too Far to Go (1979) (TV)
  • (6.22) – The Roommate (1985) (TV)
  • (5.43) – Rabbit, Run (1970)
  • (5.38) – A & P (1996)
(The films are preceded by their IMDb scores which are a fairly reliable assessment of tastes.)

The Witches of Eastwick is Updike’s most famous work in filmland (it is far too easy for a writer to be famous in bookland, one has to research every artist outside of his own domain to assess future longevity). In 1987, the novel was adapted into a film starring Jack Nicholson as Darryl, Cher as Alexandra, Susan Sarandon as Jane, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Sukie.

I have fond memories of The Witches of Eastwick:

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHVIv-hSg14]

The previous excerpt on the war of the sexes …

Jack Nicholson to Cher:

“Scale against size. … You see! Women are in touch with different things. … I see men running around trying to put their dicks into everything … trying to make something happen, but it’s women who are the source. The only power, nature, birth, rebirth … cliché … cliché … but true.”

… even sounds surprisingly Paglia at her most chthonic.

Introducing Iliazd

Espantapajaros - Oliverio Girondo by Iliazd

Espantapajaros – Oliverio Girondo

Jahsonic added this as a favorite on 27 Jan 09.

A Journey Round My Skull added this as a favorite on 26 Jan 09.

AJRMS found this on the incredible flickr photostream of Iliazd.

Iliazd is the compiler of the following photostream[1], in its own words interested in “art, architecture, books and the Kabbalah,” with a special focus on various subdocumented avant-gardes.

Its name is probably inspired by Georgian writer Ilia Zdanevich, who adopted the pseudonym Iliazd in 1919.

Ilia Mikhailovich Zdanevich (April 21, 1894– December 25, 1975, Georgian ილია ზდანევიჩი) was a Georgian writer and artist associated with the Dada movement. He was born in Tbilisi, to a Polish father and a Georgian mother. His father was a French teacher, and his mother, V. Gamkrelidze, was a pianist and student of P. Tchaikovsky. In 1919 he adopted the pseudonym Iliazd. Zdanevich’s 1923 poster for his and Tristan Tzara‘s Soirée du coeur à barbe [Evening of the bearded heart] is a widely-known example of avant-garde typography and graphic design. Ilia Zdanevich died in Paris.

RIP Charles H. Schneer 1920-2009

RIP Charles H. Schneer, 88, American film producer

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yYeZMx1Y7U]

skeleton scene in Jason and the Argonauts

Charles H. Schneer (1920 – January 21, 2009) was a film producer most widely known for working with special effects pioneer, Ray Harryhausen, best-known for producing films such as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts.

The sequence in which seven animated skeletons (see above) rise from the earth and attack Jason and his comrades is widely considered to be among the greatest achievements of motion picture special effects.

Jason and the Argonauts is World Cinema Classic #81.

John Belushi @60

John Belushi, American actor (1949 – 1982)

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VstaFz_ZPg&]

A Youtube tribute to Belushi set to the Ramones “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes to Bitburg)“.

John Belushi would have celebrated his 60th birthday today, had he not died from a drug overdose in 1982, aged only 33.

John Adam Belushi (1949 – 1982) was an American comedian, actor and musician, notable for his work on Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon’s Animal House, and The Blues Brothers.

Happy birthday Sonny Chiba

Sonny Chiba, Japanese actor and martial artist celebrates his 70th birthday today.

Sonny Chiba was brought to the attention of mainstream international audiences by Quentin Tarantino. Before that, he was known to the martial arts film crowd for his film The Street Fighter.

I am fascinated by street fights, so were the Rolling Stones and the track “Street Fighting Man” is considered by many their most political track. I suppose in a Debordian way.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LYT4JC2dd4]

Opening credits of Karate Kiba

Sonny Chiba is connected to the pseudo-biblical passage “Ezekiel 25:17” by way of Pulp Fiction.

“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and goodwill shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

Tarantino had borrowed this text from Chiba’s Karate Kiba.

As to me, for martial artist I prefer Bruce Lee as I’ve seen him in The Tenant and my Chiba as “Cheeba Cheeba”.

Rasputin’s member and Strindberg’s women

Tomorrow Thursday 22nd is Grigori Rasputin‘s and August Strindberg‘s anniversary. Rasputin is then at 140, Strindberg at 160.

Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin

Edel‘s Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1995)

Rasputin is known today for the sensationalized accounts as playboy, mystical healer, debauched religious charlatan and political demiurge. Accounts of his life have often been based on dubious memoirs, hearsay, and legend, such as the story of his most honest organ.

Rasputin's Member by Best Ever.

Rasputin’s member, fact or fiction?

Strindberg is known for his misogyny (Strindberg’s misogyny), his interest in oneirism and the unconsciousness (A Dream Play and a chronology of the discovery of the unconscious in the 19th century) and as a founding father of literary realism.

CLIP DELETED

Mike Figgis‘s Miss Julie, the”And now kiss my shoe”-scene

Your best introduction to the life of Strindberg is his autobiographical novel Inferno. Written in French in 1897 at the height of Strindberg’s troubles with both censors and women, the book is concerned with Strindberg’s life both in and after he lived in Paris, and explores his various obsessions, including alchemy, occultism, and Swedenborgianism, and showing signs of paranoia and neuroticism.

August Strindberg

August Strindberg

Inferno has often been cited as proof of Strindberg’s own personal neuroses, such as a persecution complex, but evidence also suggests that Strindberg, although experiencing mild neurotic symptoms, both invented and exaggerated much of the material in the book for dramatic effect.

Happy birthday Radley Metzger!

Unidentified photo of Radley Metzger

Radley Metzger, American filmmaker, distributor and producer turns 80 today.

If all roads lead to Rome, Metzger‘s birthday leads to The Image, one of the sexiest films of the 1970s.

She lifts her skirt for her mistress.

The Image / The Punishment of Anne (1975) – Radley Metzger [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

The Image is a 1975 film directed by Radley Metzger. The film is based upon the 1956 French novel L’Image, written by Catherine Robbe-Grillet, wife of Alain Robbe-Grillet.

The story of Jean (played by Carl Parker), a writer who meets an old friend, Claire (Marilyn Roberts), at a party and is soon drawn into her world of sadomasochism along with her slave, Anne (Mary Mendum, aka Rebecca Brooke, and Metzger’s girlfriend at the time).

Watch out for the fountain scene if you ever get to see this gem, it makes very clever Freudian use of a free Parisian spectacle.

The film is World Cinema Classic #80.