Franz Gertsch was een Zwitsers schilder die op grote doeken hyperrealistische schilderijen maakte. Vooral portretten maar ook landschappen. Hij is een van de weinige Europese hyperrealisten. De naoorlogse trend om met fotografische precisie te gaan schilderen vond immers vooral ingang in de Verenigde Staten.
In België zijn drie hyperrealisten het vermelden waard: Roland Delcol, Roger Wittevrongel en Marcel Maeyer.
Vermeer was de oerhyperrealist.
Rust zacht Franz.
Austin Stoker was een Trinidad geboren Amerikaans acteur vooral bekend van zijn prestatie in Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) van John Carpenter.
Hij speelde ook in het blaxploitation vehikel Sheba, Baby (1975), een genre waar wij een zwak voor hebben. Die hele film staat op YouTube.
Jean-Luc Godard was a French-Swiss film director.
Godard rose to prominence as a pioneer of the ‘Nouvelle Vague’ in European cinema. He is best known for his jump cuts in À bout de souffle (1960).
Of the same period and in the same style are other films that defied audience expectations: Vivre sa vie (1962), Bande à part (1964), and Pierrot le Fou (1965).
Also of interest are his lesser known political films during his communist period. There is for example his use of stills such as the Freudo/Marx pinup in Le gai savoir (1969).
We at Jahsonic have little sympathy for the humorless pretentiousness of mr. Godard. He is, however symptomatic of the ‘épater les bourgeois’ tradition of Baudelaire, Brecht and Beckett. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it. We have nothing against going against the grain, but if you do it, do it good, like Debord, who gave the jacket of his mémoires sandpaper covers to damage the books in their vicinity maximally.
Irina Ionesco was a French photographer whose five minutes of fame were gained by photographing her daughter in suggestive poses and settings.
The story of the relationship with her daughter is told by the latter in My Little Princess (2011).
Jean-Louis Trintignant was a French actor who worked with all European art house directors between the 1950s and the 2000s. He is known for his economic acting.
Here he is in My Night at Maud’s (1969):
BDSM-wise (let’s, shall we?) two films come to mind.
Continue readingJacques Calonne was a Belgian artist, actor and musician.
Elza Soares was a Brazilian singer known for her work in samba. Early in her career she covered samba classics such as “Mas que Nada” (1963) and “Chove Chuva” (1963).
Towards the end of her life she came with edgier work such as A mulher do fim do mundo (2015), Deus É Mulher (2018) and Planeta Fome (2019).
Stephen Sondheim (1930 – 2021) was an American composer and lyricist known for such compositions as “Send In the Clowns” (1973).
On a personal level, his connection to the farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) is also of note: a funny farce my father drew my attention to.
Richard Donner was an American film director of blockbuster movies.
His film The Goonies (1985) featured a Rube Goldberg machine to open a gate. The cage of the chicken in that sequence bore the text: “RUBE G. 83”.
This happened in 2015, but I only found out today.
Pierre Jansen was a French composer working in film. He was in particular the permanent collaborator of Claude Chabrol for whom he composed the music for many films.
He also scored the above documentary Acera, or the Witches’ Dance (1972) by Jean Painlevé.