Jess Franco

The blog ‘Groovy Age of Horror’ presents I’m in a Jess Franco state of mind, a blog by Robert Monell on the films of Jess Franco. Robert Monell is a connoisseur of Jess Franco (who I like to call the European Roger Corman) and “Euro trash”  cinema in general. He is part of the vibrant internet community called Euro Trash Paradise, which can be a viewed as a continuation of the magazine Euro Trash cinema.

European trash cinema has als had its share of academic attention, perhaps most notably in the work of Joan Hawkins with titles such as Sleaze Mania, Euro-trash, and High Art (1999). 

Arthur Russell documentary

Arthur Russell documentary ( watch the trailer )

some more insightful Arthur Russell LINKs :

Nick The Record ( DJ Friendly Records) features
Steven Hall’s reminiscences
collaboration with Allen Ginsberg 

Tim Lawrence ( author of ” Love Saves The Day ” )
is plannin’ to publish Arthur’s biography.

WFMU Arthur Russell special ( listen )

tracklisting :

Dinosaur / Kiss Me Again
The Necessaries / More Real
Jah Wobble, Holger Czukay, The Edge / Hold On To Your Dreams
Arthur Russell / Losing My Taste For the Night Life

Nicki Siano / Move
Peter Zummo / Unisons
Jerry Harrison: Casual Gods / The Doctors Lie
Mimi / Time to Go Home Now
Indian Ocean / Treehouse/School Bell pt. 1

Arthur Russell / Wax the Van
Gary Lucas / Let’s Go Swimming
Allen Ginsberg / Voice of the Bard
Jill Kroesen / Fay Shism Blues
Loose Joints / Tell You (Today)

Via  SpiritualBolshevik

See also:  Arthur Russell

Black Hole (2005) – Charles Burns

Black Hole (2005) – Charles Burns
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Charles Burns (born September 27, 1955) is an award-winning U.S. cartoonist and illustrator. He is renowned for his meticulous, high-contrast and creepy artwork and stories. —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles Burns [Nov 2006]

His work is similar to fellow Fantagraphics artist Daniel Clowes (Ghost World).

Charles Burns Google gallery

See also: graphic novel – the new flesh – illustration

There can be no fictional narrative of Auschwitz

It has often been said that the unique nature of the Holocaust “challenges our imagination with a nearly impossible task” (Lawrence Langer). “There can be no fictional narrative of Auschwitz,” Maurice Blanchot asserted. And Adorno: “After Auschwitz there is no word tinged from on high, not even a theological one, that has any right unless it underwent a transformation.” I believe that these words — these transformed fictional narratives — exist, and that they already existed before Auschwitz. Artaud hallucinating his own death or Bataille his own dismemberment, Simone Weil embracing the abjection of assembly line work or Céline carried away by an insane racist rage — these writers were not acting on their own either. By making the unimaginable their very subject, these artists provided us with that fraction of truth which scholars of the Holocaust are vainly seeking. — Sylvère Lotringer, The Art of Evil in FAT Magazine, Vol. 1 No. 1, 1994, 1995 via http://www.thing.net/~fat/vol1no1/sylvere.htm

Sylvère Lotringer is professor of French literature and philosophy at Columbia University and general editor of Semiotext(e). He frequently lectures on art.

See also: the Holocaust in art and fiction

New issues at Senses of Cinema and Bright Lights Film Journal

An unfortunate collusion of diversions and duties precludes the usual thorough reading (notice I didn’t type “in depth”; simply “thorough”) of new issues of two of the most important online publications on film out there, Bright Lights Film Journal and Senses of Cinema. —Greencine

Of these two Bright Lights has always been my favourite because of their queer sensibility which I find somewhat lacking at Senses of Cinema (although I must credit their Jack Sargeant article on Je t’aime moi non plus). Bright Lights features an interview with Camille Paglia and a special on cult films centered around Barbara Steele (my fave cult actress.)

Carlo Mollino: Photographs 1956-1962

Carlo Mollino: Photographs 1956-1962 (2006) – Carlo Mollino
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

This came out last August. It concerns the photography of Mollino before his polaroid period. While nowhere near cheap, these Mollino photography anthologies are a good investment. The 2002 polaroid edition now commands prices between 300 and 700 euros (although the Hammilton gallery claims to sell it for 37 British pounds).

Book Description
The Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino held photography dear–it was one of his great passions and favorite means of expression, and an excellent way to enjoy another great passion, women. The photographs gathered here were all set in one of Mollino’s private apartments, which he refurbished especially for this purpose. An advocate of retouching, as documented in his treatise The Message from the Dark Room, Mollino also painted on his photos or negatives. Most of what appears here has been revised, most bodies sculpted and reshaped, and visibly so now that time has altered the color of the prints, revealing his handiwork. This portfolio, spanning from 1956 to 1962, ends just before Mollino’s Polaroid work of the 60s. It was made using a Leica and color negative film, and has never been published before.

Digression: also check these Google galleries of the photography of Inez van Lamsweerde, Sze Tsung Leong and Manuel Alvarez Bravo.

Robots, automatons and modernism

Pinocchio’s Progeny: Puppets, Marionettes, Automatons, and Robots in Modernist and Avant-Garde Drama (1995) – Harold B. Segel
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

“While Carlo Collodi’s internationally revered Pinocchio may not have been the single source of the modernist fascination with puppets and marionettes, the book’s appearance on the threshold of the modernist movement heralded a new artistic interest in the making of human likenesses.”

It has been said that Carolo Lorenzini’s Pinocchio (1881 – 1883) was one of the inspiring themes of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. As in the allegory of the story, Pinocchio eventually went on to lead his own independent life, distinct from that of the author.

See also: robots