La tristesse durera toujours

Auberge Ravoux

The Auberge Ravoux, Auvers-sur-Oise, in 1890

On this day in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh – at the age of 37 – walked into the wheat fields in Auvers-sur-Oise and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realizing that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn (pictured above), where he died in his bed two days later. His brother Theo hastened to be at his side and reported his last words as “La tristesse durera toujours” (French for “[the] sadness will last forever”).  After Vincent’s death, Theo was not able to come to terms with the grief of his brother’s absence, and died six months later.

World cinema classics #2

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoVYXwMkr0U]

Before Sunrise (United States, 1995)

I had forgotten about this film, a love story, not cheesy. Aside from walking and talking, not much happens. The film starts with Jesse meeting Celine on a train to Paris. Celine is reading a Georges Bataille anthology: Madame Edwarda, The Dead Man, Story of the Eye. Jesse has actor Klaus Kinski’s autobiography, All I Need Is Love. They strike a conversation. Jesse is going to Vienna whereas Celine is on her way to Paris after visiting her grandmother. When they reach Vienna, Jesse asks Celine to accompany him in Vienna.

A reminder of the events

In early 2005, Fernando Botero revealed a series of 50 paintings (Google Gallery) that graphically represent the controversial Abu Ghraib incident, expressing the rage and shock that the incident provoked in the artist. The works were initially presented in Italy, Germany and Greece. In 2006, they had their first showing in the United States. In 2007, the Abu Ghraib series was exhibited at the University of California in Berkeley. Botero has stated that he does not plan to sell the paintings, but instead intends to donate them to museums as a reminder of the events depicted within. Are these on display somewhere now?

Italian underground #1

Cover of Cannibale, issue 3
image sourced here.

Cannibale was an Italian underground comics magazine with humoristic and satirical overtones. Founded by Stefano Tamburini and Massimo Mattioli in the winter of 1977 and last published in July 1979. They were the first to publish Tanino Liberatore‘s RanXerox, who was later translated all over the world. The best known authors were Stefano Tamburini, Filippo Scozzari, Andrea Pazienza, Tanino Liberatore, Massimo Mattioli.

Liberatore was 25 when he started to publish his first episodes of Ranxerox in Cannibale. Here he is in a 2002 interview with Tanino by vakiltd for Greek national television. Italian text and Greek subtitles.

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Aq5rog7Nk]

Sci-fi noir, or, on the longevity of generic categories

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8ohP7qro4]

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lW0F1sccqk]

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3jT95NExE]

Sci-Fi noir is a term coined in the 2000s to denote a category of science-fiction films. Milestone films generally cited in this category are Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville (1965), Ridley Scott‘s Blade Runner (1982) and Ghost in the Shell (1995). As an aesthetic category, it is very near to cyberpunk and neo-noir. The work of Tanino Liberatore‘s RanXerox deserves mention here. One wonders how long this freshly-coined neologism will survive.

This collection of Youtube vids inspired by The Rise of Sci-Fi Noir by Broken Projector.