[<<] August 2005 Jahsonic (01) [>>]
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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2005, Aug 06; 14:24 ::: Shake Sauvage: French Soundtracks, 1968-1973 (2000) - Various Artists
Shake Sauvage: French Soundtracks, 1968-1973 (2000) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Take for example the Deep Note series, audio CDs that compile cuts from classic 1970s porn films. They do their best to ensure plenty of wa-wa guitars, analog synthesizer music, random bits of dialogue and yes -- the sexy saxophones. Inside Deep Note: Music of 1970s Adult Cinema is the newest in the series, further fetishizing the genre with more cheeseball grooviness and includes a 16-page booklet and an eight-page full color digipack. People who love this music might also enjoy 1970s softcore/horror Spanish director Jess Franco's soundtracks, such as the music to his cult lesbian vampire film Vampyros Lesbos. In fact, there were oodles of softcore and erotic horror films made in Spain, France and Italy in the 1960s and '70s that were tracked with a lot of very cool music -- Chet Baker worked with Jess Franco on a few films -- and music collections from these classics are usually hidden gems that suggest influences such as Bossa Nova, nouveau lounge and campy funk. Some favorites from my collection include the Beat al Cinecitta series, the Easy Tempo series (through #6) and Shake Sauvage. --http://www.tinynibbles.com/pornmusic1.html [Aug 2005]
see also: erotic music - softcore - soundtrack - lounge
2005, Aug 06; 14:24 ::: Love in the Days of Rage (1988) - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Love in the Days of Rage (1988) - Lawrence Ferlinghetti [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Publishers Weekly
Ferlinghetti, the owner of City Lights bookstore in San Francisco and one of the last of the great beats, has produced a slim novel about "what the brain does to the heart," set in the midst of the student revolution of 1968 in Paris. The brain, here, belongs to a mysterious anarchist banker, Julian Mendes. Julian, who on the surface lives a comfortably bourgeois existence, was born in Portugal and came to political maturity under the dictatorship of Salazar. He belonged to an anarchist group in Portugal, but split from the group due to irreconcilable ideological differences Julian was an incorrigibly individualistic anarchist. He was inducted into the secrets of the banking world by a friend of his father's, who made him the heir of a small fortune when he died. In Paris in 1968 for reasons unexplained, he meets Annie, the heart (and eyes) of the book. An American painter somewhat like Joan Mitchell, Annie has gone from abstract expressionism to some compromise with figurative painting. She is teaching at the Beaux-Arts in the spring of 1968, and her students are caught up in the revolutionary currents. She is intrigued and a bit repulsed by Julian, who talks "left" like her father but dresses "right" like a conventional banker. Finally, Julian reveals the gratuitous act that he has been planning, and Annie agrees to become his accomplice. The story belongs to Annie's painterly eye, through which Paris achieves a very pictorial intensity. Annie herself never seems fully surrendered to the story her inner life, in the end, remains as opaque as Julian's act. What will remain with the reader is the lyric hopefulness of the tale, at this distance a slightly melancholic reminder of the events of that tempestuous year. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. via Amazon.comFrom Library Journal
Ferlinghetti is best known as a poet ( A Coney Island of the Mind ) and as publisher of City Lights Books. His first novel, Her , a surreal quest for the ideal woman, achieved a small cult following in the Sixties. This short novel is more realistic, treating the love affair of Annie, a young American artist in Paris, and anarchist banker Julien Mendeswith the 1968 student revolt as backdrop. Primarily a novel of ideas, more French than American in concept, this book is full of political debate, symbolism, and literary allusions. The love story itself achieves meaning only in relation to larger social concepts such as capitalism, anarchism, and freedom. A lyrical, poetic work that will appeal to a small, though sophisticated, audience. Recommended. William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.see also: Lawrence Ferlinghetti - love - anger - May 1968
2005, Aug 06; 14:24 ::: Joost Swarte
Image sourced here.Joost Swarte (born 24 December 1947, Heemstede, the Netherlands) is a Dutch comic artist and graphical designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or clear line style of drawing, and in fact coined the term. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joost_Swarte [Aug 2005]
see also: comics - illustration - Netherlands
2005, Aug 06; 14:18 ::: Ever Meulen
Image sourced here.Ever Meulen (born Eddy Vermeulen) (born in 1946), Belgium. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Meulen [Aug 2005]
Ever Meulen is een Belgische tekenaar die al heel lang aan Humo verbonden is, de Belgische combinatie van radio- en tv-gids en opinieweekblad. Dat blad vinden wij al jaren het beste Nederlandstalige weekblad dat er verschijnt. Er is in Nederland geen rtv-gids die eraan kan tippen, maar ook geen opinieweekblad. Ever Meulen verzorgt meestal de omslagen, maar ook bijvoorbeeld de omslag van de boekenbijlage (zie hier rechts). Het is een mooi voorbeeld van een Ever Meulentekening. Verder vind je door het blad heen bij verschillende rubrieken een van zijn kenmerkende kleine tekeningen, waarvan we er hier ook een paar laten zien. Een bescheiden tekenaar, maar wel een hele grote. --http://www.moorsmagazine.com/cartoon/evermeulen.html [Aug 2005]
see also: comics - illustration - Belgium
2005, Aug 06; 14:02 ::: Jean Dratz
Image sourced here.
2005, Aug 06; 13:04 ::: The Crimes Of Love (1800) - Marquis De Sade, David Coward (Translator)
The Crimes Of Love (1800) - Marquis De Sade, David Coward (Translator) [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Book Description
Who but the Marquis de Sade would write not of the pain, tragedy, and joy of love but of its crimes? Murder, seduction, and incest are among the cruel rewards for selfless love in his stories--tragedy, despair, and death the inevitable outcome. Sade's villains will stop at nothing to satisfy their depraved passions, and they in turn suffer under the thrall of love. This is the most complete selection from the Marquis de Sade's four-volume collection of short stories, The Crimes of Love. David Coward's vibrant new translation captures the verve of the original, and his introduction and notes describe Sade's notorious career. This new selection includes "An Essay on Novels," Sade's penetrating survey of the novelist's art. It also contains the preface to the collection and an important statement of Sade's concept of fiction and one of the few literary manifestoes published during the Revolution. Appendices include the denunciatory review of the collection that it received on publication, and Diderot's vigorous response. A skilled and artful story-teller, Marquis de Sade's is also an intellectual who asks questions about society, about ourselves, and about life. Psychologically astute and defiantly unconventional, these stories show Sade at his best.In fact, however, de Sade (like Diderot) was a passionate admirer of Clarissa, and his book Les crimes de l’amour (1800) contained a preface in which he apostrophized both Fielding and Richardson: “It is Richardson and Fielding who have taught us that only the profound study of the heart of man . . . can inspire the novelist.” He went on: “If after twelve or fifteen volumes [of Clarissa] the immortal Richardson had virtuously ended by converting Lovelace and having him peacefully marry Clarissa, would you . . . have shed the delicious tears which it won from every feeling reader?” Doubtless the author of Clarissa might not have been equally ebullient about Justine, had he lived to read it; but de Sade’s enthusiasm was obviously genuine. --http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/c1718cs/Nltr37.htm [Aug 2005]
Que dit un bon observateur de l'époque, DAF de Sade in Idées sur les romans qui sert de préface aux Crimes de l'amour. Poche classique
"Le roman moderne naît avec Richardson, Fielding, Rousseau et Prévost. Il passe ensuite à Le Moine et à Ann Radcliffe"
Comment comprendre cette filiation pour la pensée sadienne ? Richardson c'est Paméla avec Lovelace, l'enlèvement la séquestration et les grandes passions ; Fieldings c'est Tom Jones, l'errance, le bâtard. Prévost c'est la vie des bas fonds, les amours impossible et les trahisons, Rousseau c'est Julie et le heurt des amours et de la rigueur sociale: de grandes passions en lutte contre des normes, avec la promotion du désir, de l'innocence, de la persécution. On voit comment y situer Le Moine et Radcliffe, on saisit aussi qu'une différence sera introduite par le décor gothique, et à quoi il faudra s'intéresser. On voit aussi poindre Justine. --http://www.up.univ-mrs.fr/wctel/cours/bozzetto/pages/gothlitt.htm [Aug 2005]see also: 1800-1809 - Marquis de Sade - crime - love
2005, Aug 05; 20:45 ::: Purebred (1995) - J. K. Potter
Purebred (1995) - J. K. Potter
image sourced here.see also: grotesque - contemporary art - 1995
2005, Aug 05; 17:34 ::: H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1991|2005) - Michel Houellebecq
H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life (1991|2005) - Michel Houellebecq [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From Booklist
Earlier this year, a quasi-amateur "pulp" writer vaulted into the national literary canon when the Library of America published H. P. Lovecraft: Tales. Now McSweeney's Believer Books makes available in English a perspicacious essay on the reclusive horror-fictionist by a controversially antiliberal French novelist. Houellebecq finds Lovecraft's significance in his rejection of human importance. A thoroughgoing materialist, Lovecraft based the horror in his stories on the perception that humanity was doomed to extinction well before the end of the cosmos. The monstrous, implacable, arational Old Ones--Cthulhu and the rest--that Lovecraft repeatedly depicts as eventually invading and destroying human civilization are simply the imaginative expression of a deeply pessimistic cosmic fatalism that Lovecraft's own stunted life seemingly endorsed. Lovecraft was against life and the world because science and rationality told him they were meaningless and ephemeral. Yet what inspirationally disturbing and vivid fiction Lovecraft's beliefs animated. Without his example, would the fiction of Stephen King, who contributes an argumentative introduction here, and such superb movie shockers as Alien ever have existed? Ray Olson Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --via Amazon.comBook Description
"Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world." In this prescient work—now with an introduction by Stephen King—Michel Houellebecq, the author of the novels Platform and Elementary Particles, focuses his considerable analytical skills on H.P. Lovecraft, the seminal, enigmatic horror writer of the early 20th century. Houellebecq’s insights into the craft of writing illuminate both Lovecraft and Houellebecq’s own work. The two are kindred spirits, sharing a uniquely dark worldview. But even as he outlines Lovecraft’s rejection of this loathsome world, it is Houellebecq’s adulation for the author that drives this work and makes it a love song, infusing the writing with an energy and passion not seen in Houellebecq’s novels to date. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in Lovecraft, Houellebecq, or the past and future of horror. --via Amazon.comsee also: H.P. Lovecraft - Michel Houellebecq - Stephen King
2005, Aug 05; 14:34 ::: European Trash Cinema
European Trash Cinema (magazine) issue 16
image sourced here.This is dedicated to my friend, mentor and editor, Craig Ledbetter: the Godfather of ETC. He originated the term and it's a bit different from the more refined "Euro cult" moniker. Eurotrash has to be, first and foremost, trashy. That can mean Robbe Grillet, Polselli, Franco or D'Amato. It can be art or just plain junk. Here are my 10 favorite EUROTRASH films:
SUCCUBUS
FURY OF THE WOLFMAN [IMDB]
TRANS EUROPE EXPRESS [IMDB]
AMUCK [IMDB]
EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980) - Amazon.com
L'AMANTE DEL VAMPIRO [IMDB]
ZOMBIE LAKE (1981) Amazon.com
VAMPYRES [José Larraz]
BLOOD AND BLACK LACE [Mario Bava]
THE HORRIBLE DR HICHCOCK [IMDB]
I like KILL BABY KILL better than BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, but it lacks that trashy edge that of scantily clad models getting offed. CRIMSON is a perfect example of EUROPEAN TRASH CINEMA and PORNO HOLOCAUST qualifies by title alone as does EUGENIE...HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION. ANY film by Sergio Bergonzelli is automatically ETC. --Robert Monell via http://p210.ezboard.com/fthelatarniaforumsfrm10.showMessage?topicID=55.topic [Aug 2005]
See the website that was started by the editors of the magazine at http://www.eurotrashcinema.com/ [Aug 2005]
see also: European Trash Cinema
2005, Aug 05; 13:05 ::: A Doppia Faccia (1969) - Riccardo Freda
Screenshot from A Doppia Faccia (1969) - Riccardo Freda
image sourced here. [Aug 2005]Surprise! Surprise! There are not many movies where Klaus Kinski doesn´t play a bad guy. This is one of them. And it´s rather twisted. He´s a prime crime suspect, and we follow him solving the case right to a surprise ending. It´s a German Edgar Wallace adaption directed by classic Italian director Riccardo Freda and , yes, it´s a typical Giallo. So I guess all the fans of those "normal" German Edgar-Wallace-Movies didn´t like it very much. It´s only for fans of the director and, of course, the brilliant, astonishing, unforgettable Klaus Kinski. --matalo from Mannheim, Germany via http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0063979/#comment [Aug 2005]
see also: 1969 - Riccardo Freda - Edgar Wallace - Klaus Kinski
Last week, I spent some time in the land of the Cathars, in southern France. The Dutch word ketter, which means heretic is derived from cathar.
2005, Aug 05; 11:01 ::: Cathars
Cathars being expelled from Carcassone in 1209.
Catharism was a religious movement with Gnostic elements that originated around the middle of the 10th century, branded by the contemporary Roman Catholic Church as heretical. It existed throughout much of Western Europe, but its home was in Languedoc and surrounding areas in southern France.
The name Cathar most likely originated from Greek catharos, "the pure ones". One of the first recorded uses is Eckbert von Schönau who wrote on heretics from Cologne in 1181: "Hos nostra germania catharos appellat." --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar [Aug 2005]
The world was evil
Catharism was based on the idea that the world was evil. This was a distinct feature of older versions of Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, such as Manicheanism and the theology of the Bogomils, and the appearance of this idea in Catharism was probably due to the influence of these older Gnostic lines of thought. According to the Cathars, the world had been created by an evil deity known to the Gnostics as the Demiurge. The Cathars identified the Demiurge with the being the Christians called Satan. Earlier Gnostics, however, did not identify the Demiurge with Satan. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar#Beliefs [Aug 2005]The God of the Old Testament was the Devil
They believed that the God of the Old Testament was the Devil, since he had created the world. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar#Beliefs [Aug 2005]Women were equals
Women were treated as equals, because their physical form was irrelevant; their soul could have been a man's soul before, and it might once again become one. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar#Beliefs [Aug 2005]Vegans
Cathar Perfects were also vegans. They were required to avoid eating anything considered to be a by-product of sexual reproduction, including cheese, eggs, milk and butter. Having said this, they were allowed to eat fish, as little was then known about the mating habits of marine creatures which were generally believed to simply appear spontaneously in the sea. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar#Beliefs [Aug 2005]Free love
The idea [of free love] has appeared various times in history such as among the Cathars of Medieval France. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_love [Aug 2005]The last Cathars and Cathar influence
The last Cathar Perfect, Guillaume Bélibaste, was executed in 1321. Other movements, such as the Waldensians and the pantheistic Brethren of the Free Spirit survived into the 14th and 15th century, until they were gradually replaced by, or absorbed into, early Protestant sects, such as the Hussites. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar#Suppression [Aug 2005]Ketter
In 1163 bedacht Eckbert van Schönau de term kathaar. Het woord ketter is verwant met Kathaar. Men geloofde indertijd dat de duivel op aarde zou verschijnen in de vorm van een kat. Duivelaanbidders zouden deze kat dan vereren door hem te kussen, vooral op zijn anus (Walter Map - diaken in Oxford in 1180). --http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharen#Naamgeving [Aug 2005]see also: religion - heresy - 1100s
2005, Aug 05; 11:01 ::: Make Room! Make Room! (1966) - Harry Harrison
Make Room Make Room (1966) - Harry, Jr. Harrison [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Make Room! Make Room! is a 1966 novel written by Harry Harrison, and later used as the basis for the science fiction movie Soylent Green (although the movie changed the plot and theme). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_Room%21_Make_Room%21 [Aug 2005]
The original 1966 book Make Room! Make Room! is set in the year 1999, with the theme of overpopulation and overuse of resources leading to increasing social disorder as the millennium celebrations approach. It mentions soylent steaks, but makes no reference to "soylent green" or to the ideas of euthanasia and cannibalism which form the basic theme of the movie. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green#Trivia [Aug 2005]
see also: science-fiction - suicide - 1966
2005, Aug 05; 11:01 ::: The Sea Inside (2004) - Alejandro Amenábar
The Sea Inside (2004) - Alejandro Amenábar [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2004, The Sea Inside is a life-affirming film about a man who wishes to die. That may seem like a massive contradiction, but in the hands of director Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes, The Others) and actor Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), this fact-based Spanish drama concerns the final days of Ramón Sampedro, the quadriplegic poet who waged a controversial campaign for his right to die. He was denied this right for 30 years, and ultimately arranged for his own assisted suicide, but this remarkable film--and Bardem's keenly intelligent performance--examines the hotly-debated issue of assisted suicide with admirable depth and humanity, just as Sampedro did until his death in 1998. For Sampedro, death was preferable to severe paralysis (he even refused to use a wheelchair), but the film does not suggest a "disposable" attitude toward disability. Instead, it's a thoughtful meditation on life and love as gifts to be cherished, and a challenging drama that begs each viewer to examine their own personal beliefs about what makes life worth living. You may not agree with Sampedro and his ultimate denial of life, but The Sea Inside will urge you to ponder how you would react under similar circumstances, and that makes it a profoundly meaningful film. --Jeff Shannon for Amazon.com
Ramon Sampedro (January 5, 1943 - January 13, 1998) was a ship mechanic from Spain who was paralyzed in a diving accident at the age of 26 and fought for his right to an assisted suicide for the next 29 years. His argument hinged on the fact that he was sure of his decision to die, however due to his paralysis, was physically unable to commit suicide. He argued that suicide was a right and that he was being denied that right. He sought legal advice concerning his right to an assisted suicide, first in the courts of Spain and eventually, the European Commission in Strasbourg. His case drew attention from across Spain and also a significant following worldwide.
He died in January 1998, aged 55 from potassium cyanide poisoning. Seven years later, after the statute of limitations had expired, his close friend Ramona Maneiro speaking on a Spanish talk show admitted to providing him with a cyanide-laced drink and a straw.
He was the subject of the 2004 Spanish movie, Mar adentro. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram%C3%B3n_Sampedro [Aug 2005]
see also: 2004 - suicide - Alejandro Amenábar
2005, Aug 05; 10:46 ::: Bayer and heroin
Heroin was commercially developed by Bayer Pharmaceutical and was marketed by Bayer and other companies (c. 1900) for several medicinal uses including cough suppression. --http://wings.buffalo.edu/aru/preprohibition.htm [Aug 2005]
2005, Aug 05; 10:29 ::: The Bohemian DialecticBasically the paper traces the history of the Beat writers in print, from their early stirrings in the underground press, through to their publication by mainstream publishers. I use the term "bohemian dialectic" to refer to the process which seems to apply to almost all avant-garde movements: an initial emergence in opposition to the social and cultural norms of their time, followed eventually by popularization and absorption into the mainstream. --http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/UnspeakableVisions/page1.html [Aug 2005]
2005, Aug 05; 10:21 ::: Obscenity and the Avant-gardeIt is interesting to note that, of the four alternative presses which I identified above as being the primary publishers of the Beat writers, two of them (Grove and Olympia) had lists which focussed heavily on what many might call obscenity or pornography. It is my contention that this was not merely coincidental, but that there has long been a strong relationship between the avant-garde and obscenity: the Beat writers were simply the most recent (at the time) example of this link. --Unspeakable Visions: The Beat Generation and The Bohemian Dialectic. © August, 1991, Michael Hayward via http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/UnspeakableVisions/Obscenity.html [Aug 2005]
As mentioned above, the books in Olympia Press's Traveller's Companion series were essentially just cheap pornography, "db's" (for "dirty books") as they came to be known, and were written "to order" by writers who needed money. Since the Bohemian lifestyle was one close to, if not beyond, the poverty line, a number of the Beats were in this category. Diane di Prima describes her dealings with Maurice Girodias as she worked on her Memoirs of a Beatnik for Olympia Press (di Prima 1988):
I had met Maurice Girodias in New York, and had written the sex scenes for a couple of dull and innocuous novels he had purchased as skeleton plots to which the prurient interest had to be added, like oregano to tomato sauce. Before I had left town he had asked me to write one myself, and when it became obvious that money was scarce, to put it mildly (everything you could possibly want in San Francisco of 1968 - four hundred pounds of free fish, $85 kilos of grass, great cheap wine, beach and sky - everything except cash. Wherever the "prosperity" was, it wasn't where we were) - when, as I was saying, it became obvious that money was scarce, and would continue to be so, I got to work, and quickly whipped out enough pages for an advance. It was the first and only time I'd written a "potboiler," and it was clearly the course to take [...] Gobs of words would go off to New York whenever the rent was due, and come back with "MORE SEX" scrawled across the top page in Maurice's inimitable hand.--Unspeakable Visions: The Beat Generation and The Bohemian Dialectic. © August, 1991, Michael Hayward via http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/UnspeakableVisions/Obscenity.html [Aug 2005]see also: obscene - avant-garde
2005, Aug 05; 09:44 ::: The Beat writers and their publishersA retrospective look at the Beat writers shows that the majority of their works were published by four alternative publishers. The most influential of these were New Directions and Grove Press, both based in New York. On the West Coast Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Books, publisher of Ginsberg's Howl, also presented work by several of the lesser known Beat writers, while in Paris the Olympia Press was the first book publisher willing to publish William S. Burroughs's material essentially intact, taking chances with experimental and controversial writing considered unpublishable in America at that time. Although lack of space prevents full histories of these important presses from being given here, I have tried to provide at least an overview of each, and of the interconnections between them, as well as showing the role each played in the publication of the Beat writers. --Unspeakable Visions: The Beat Generation and The Bohemian Dialectic. © August, 1991, Michael Hayward via http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/~hayward/UnspeakableVisions/InPrintAlternative.html [Aug 2005]
New Directions Publishers
New Directions Publishers was founded in 1936 by James Laughlin after graduating from Harvard University. The company was incorporated in 1964 as the New Directions Publishing Corporation and continues to operate from New York City. It once specialized in inexpensive pocket-sized volumes with distinctive black-and-white covers. The Press initially focused on publishing ignored and influential writers, these eventually included the likes of William Carlos Williams, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Henry Miller, Thomas Merton, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Delmore Schwartz, Dylan Thomas, Ezra Pound, and Tennessee Williams. Also a significant effort was made publish selected experimental writing and on bringing classics back into print. It made history by publishing quality translations of foreign literature, notable authors included Hermann Hesse.New Directions Publishing Corporation is considedred one of the most distinguished literary publishers in the U.S. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Directions_Publishers [Aug 2005]
see also: Beat writers - publishing - alternative
2005, Aug 04; 21:57 ::: The Voyeur (1985) - Alberto Moravia
Film poster for Tinto Brass's film after a story by Alberto Moravia
The Voyeur (1994) - Tinto Brass [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
In the 1980s Brass spoke with his friend Alberto Moravia about converting his novel, L’uomo che guarda (The Man Who Watches) into a screenplay. This was originally scheduled to go before the cameras in 1986 or 1987. Moravia, an admirer of Brass’s work, was pleased at the prospect, but the film was delayed and he did not live to see the result.
I won’t hazard a guess as to what he might have thought. This is another Brassian sex-film experiment, and despite its darkness, it’s a significant improvement over the previous few films. The story is unusual, and its in-the-family jealousy is vaguely reminiscent of The Key.
In a nutshell: French-lit professor Edoardo “Dodò” is puzzled by his wife Silvia’s frequent unexplained disappearances, and by her brief and unannounced reappearances. He is even more puzzled by his bedridden father’s success with the ladies. But all that’s nothing compared to his puzzlement at discovering that Sylvia is sneaking into his father’s bedroom at night. And when Sylvia’s confession about what she likes about her secret lover exactly matches his daddy’s secret proclivities, well, he’s just beside himself with confusion. But that doesn’t stop them from making up after Dodò finally moves out of his daddy’s apartment into one of his own—directly above daddy’s. --http://www.geocities.com/busterktn/1994a-uo.html
see also: erotic fiction - erotic films - Alberto Moravia - Tinto Brass
2005, Aug 04; 21:02 ::: Deviance-- via The Deviant's Advantage - Ryan Mathews, Watts Wacker [Amazon.com]Deviance follows a linear pattern: Fringe > Edge > Realm of the Cool > Next Big Thing > Social Convention > Cliché > Icon or Archetype or Oblivion.
2005, Aug 04; 19:55 ::: Jean-Pierre Brisset (1837 - 1919)Il existe dans la parole de nombreuses Lois, inconnues jusqu'aujourd'hui, dont la plus importante est qu'un son ou une suite de sons identiques, intelligibles et clairs peuvent exprimer des choses différentes, par une modification dans la manière d'écrire ou de comprendre ces noms ou ces mots.
Toutes les idées énoncées avec des sons semblables ont une même origine et se rapportent toutes, dans leur principe, à un même objet. Soit les sons suivants:
Les dents, la bouche.
Les dents la bouchent,
l'aidant la bouche.
L'aide en la bouche.
Laides en la bouche.
Laid dans la bouche.
Lait dans la bouche.
L'est dam le à bouche.
Les dents-là bouche.from La grande loi ou la clef de la parole via http://perso.wanadoo.fr/clauta/lesdentslabouche.html [Aug 2005]
Paronymy
La fameuse «grande Loi» établie par Brisset ne tient en fait compte que de la paronymie. C'est cette approximation, cette inconséquence épistémologique qui séduiront Duchamp. Un à-peu-près est le plus sûr moyen, à moindre frais, de projeter un ailleurs de la langue, de susciter un exotisme, un extérieur radical aux lois syntaxiques qui nous gouvernent et nous conditionnent. Et puis il y a ce coup d'audace surtout, qui introduit au cœur d'un corpus fantasmé comme scientifique des matériaux littéraires qui relèvent plus explicitement des Monologues de Coquelin-Cadet ou des blagues de l'Almanach Vermot. --http://www.lespressesdureel.com/artBrisset.htm [Aug 2005]Jean-Pierre Brisset
Jean-Pierre Brisset (La Sauvagère, Orne 1837 – La Ferté-Macé, Orne 1919).
Jean-Pierre Brisset was a French writer born of peasant farmers.
He was an outsider artist, much like Henri Rousseau.
His writings are in publication as of 2004. Most of his work was self-published. He has a theory that man descended from frogs.
He is a saint on the 'Pataphysics calendar. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Brisset [Aug 2005]
Pataphysics
Pataphysics is a concept related to Alfred Jarry'Pataphysics or pataphysics, an absurdist concept coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27pataphysics [Aug 2005]
inspired by André Breton's work on Anthologie de l'Humour Noire, humour noire translates as black humour.
Jean-Pierre Brisset as an antidote to the anthropocentric structuralisms of Saussure, Lacan, and Chomsky. Brisset maintains that human beings are immediately descended from frogs. He supports his claim with exhaustive linguistic analyses. Our speech, he shows, is a hypostasis of frogs' croaking in the mudflats; our writing conserves the traces of their obscure hatreds, jealousies, and battles. Brisset, much like McLuhan, affirms the tactility of language, its oral and aural density, its rich, viscous materiality. He "puts words back in the mouth and around the sexual organs." Language arises out of orgasmic screams and bodily spasms. There's no clear dividing line between body and thought, or nature and culture, just as there is none between the water and the land. Language and sexuality are not the clean, abstract structures the so-called "human sciences" have long imagined them to be. Rather, they are forces in continual agitation in the depths of our bodies. --DOOM PATROLS, Chapter 4, Michel Foucault, Steven Shaviro [1995-1997] via http://www.dhalgren.com/Doom/ch04.html [Aug 2005]
see also: France - literature
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