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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)

2005, Jun 06; 13:32 ::: Serpieri the Sweet Smell of Woman (2000) - Paolo E. Serpieri

Serpieri the Sweet Smell of Woman (2000) - Paolo E. Serpieri [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Druuna is a popular erotic science fiction and fantasy comic book character created by Paolo Eluteri Serpieri, featured prominently in Metal Hurlant and Heavy Metal magazines. Druuna is often the main character in Serpieri's works, starring in six volumes of the Morbus Gravis series between 1985 and 1997.

Serpieri has styled Druuna to be strikingly beautiful, appearing of Mediterranean descent, with long black hair, tanned skin, and a voluptuous body. In most cases, Druuna's role is that of a willing sexual object, submitting to sexual advances of all kinds with little or no complaint, other than the occassional sad pout. She is frequently depicted as sparsely clothed, and Serpieri's high quality renditions of Druuna are often reproduced as poster prints. Most of Druuna's adventures revolve around a post-apocalyptic future, and the plot is often a vehicle for varied scenes of softcore pornography and sexual imagery. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druuna [Jun 2005]

see also: Eurpean erotica - erotic comics

2005, Jun 06; 12:34 ::: Sun Ra - Cry of Jazz (1959) - Edward Bland

Sun Ra - Cry of Jazz (1959) - Edward Bland [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Description
Filmed in Chicago & finished in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is filmmaker, composer and arranger Edward O. Bland's polemical essay on the politics of music and race - a forecast of what he called "the death of jazz." A landmark moment in black film, foreseeing the civil unrest of subsequent decades, it also features the only known footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his beloved Chicago period. Featured are ample images of tenor saxophonist John Gilmore and the rest of Ra's Arkestra in Windy City nightclubs, all shot in glorious black & white. Rarely seen in cinemas, this is the first commercial release of The Cry of Jazz. --via Amazon.com

see also: Sun Ra - jazz - 1959

2005, Jun 06; 12:06 ::: The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971) - Howard Alk

Fred Hampton (1948 - 1969)

Fred Hampton, Chicago Black Panther, Murdered by the Chicago Police at age 21.

Author: Dave (daver@dis.org) from Bay Area, California, 9 April 2003

Fred Hampton, founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was assassinated by a special unit of the Chicago Police Department on December 4th, 1969 as he lay face down in bed. He was 21 years old when he was murdered. The police fired 99 unanswered shots into his apartment, wounding Fred as he slept. Apparently drugged by an informant, Hampton was unable to awaken. After the raid the police put two more shots into Hampton's head and said "Now he's good and dead."

This film follows the last year or so of Fred's life and the investigation immediately following his murder.

The first part of the film shows Fred speaking and organizing and provides a brief glimpse into the Panther community programs such as free breakfasts for school children, as well as a fairly good portrayal of Hampton's dynamic speaking abilities, vast depth of knowledge for someone so young, and his passion for the revolutionary struggle of all oppressed people worldwide regardless of race.

The remainder of the film focuses on Fred's murder including footage of the crime scene. The attacking police unit was so secret that the local precinct was not notified to clean things up after the bodies were removed. As a result the Panthers and their attorneys filmed and collected a vast amount of evidence which proved the police and states' attorneys were lying. The police and government arguments are given, interspersed with contradictory proof by the Panthers and their attorneys proving that this was not a raid gone sour, but rather a carefully planned assassination. The photo of the police smiling joyously as they carry Hampton's body out of the apartment is ominous.

This film was made right after Fred Hampton was murdered, and before the Panthers were aware that one of their own - William O'Neal - was actually an FBI informant who provided the police with the map of Fred Hampton's apartment. It was also filmed years before the information about the FBI's COINTELPRO campaign was made public. It is a great piece of history which gives a rare fair treatment to the Black Panther Party.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0067456/

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was a radical African American activist. He was the deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) when he was shot to death in his apartment during a raid by an elite tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office (SAO), facilitated by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton [Jun 2005]

see also: documentary film - civil rights - Black power - 1969

2005, Jun 06; 12:01 ::: What It Is... What It Was! (1998) - Andres Chavez, Denise Chavez, Gerald Martinez

What It Is... What It Was!; The Black Film Explosion of the '70s in Words and Pictures (1998) - Andres Chavez, Denise Chavez, Gerald Martinez [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

From Booklist
Ever since 1970s black activists coined the derogatory label blaxploitation to describe the likes of Sweet Sweetback's BaadAsssss Song, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, and Mandingomovies full of snappy street patter, outrageous pimp suits, and comic-book-style action--debate has raged over whether they are valid popular artwork or just demeaning. Most of the actors, writers, and directors interviewed for this book--'70s veterans like Melvin Van Peebles, Pam Grier, and Fred Williamson as well as current stars Ice-T, Samuel L. Jackson, and Keenan Ivory Wayans--disagree with the label. Their remarks are copiously accompanied by publicity posters for the controversial films. The garish graphics are intended to be the volume's main attraction, according to the introduction, and dating from a time when their kind of thing was still painted rather than assembled from photographs, they're pretty nifty, all right. But the text, especially the contributions of the stars of the blaxploitation genre, makes this a special bit of film history. Mike Tribby, Amazon.com

see also: Blaxploitation - film - 1970s - sleaze - trash

2005, Jun 06; 10:46 ::: Sleaze

photography by Enrico Sacchetti
image sourced here.

This week, it's sleazeweek at groovyageofhorror

The more I ease into sleaze, the more I get the impression that it's an oddly downbeat genre. Sure, there's a lot of sex, but it's all smothered in so many depressing circumstances and negative emotions that I can't imagine anyone getting very turned on by it. The point doesn't seem to be presenting sex for a reader's enjoyment, as in erotica. If there's an emotional "kick" that sleaze delivers, I'd say it's allowing the reader to wallow in sordid nihilism, disgust, and vicarious self-pity. The degraded and degrading sex is just one of the more potent ways to deliver it. --http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2005_06_05_groovyageofhorror_archive.html

see also: sleaze - nihilism - disgust - depressing

2005, Jun 06; 10:46 ::: Radical

A radical politician is a politician whose views are far removed from the mainstream. Many radical politicians become revolutionaries. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_politician [Jun 2005]

In political science, the label "radical" denotes "one who desires extreme change of all or part of the social order". (Britannica Deluxe CD2000). The term is said to have been used by the English parliamentarian Charles Fox who, in 1797, demanded a "radical reform" of the electoral system amounting to universal male suffrage. It was thenceforth applied to any who lobbied for electoral reform.

The passage of the Reform Act of 1867 gave the vote even to workers and the Radicals, having been strenuous in their efforts on behalf of the working classes, thereby earned a deeply loyal following; British trade unionists from 1874 until 1892, upon being elected to Parliament, never considered themselves to be anything other than Radicals.

English Radicals derived much of their ideas from 'philosophical radicals', particularly John Stuart Mill who held that right actions were to be measured in proportion to the greatest good they achieved for the greatest number.

In continental Europe, as, for instance, in France, Italy, and Spain, Radicalism developed as an ideology in the nineteenth century to indicate those who supported, at least in theory, a republican form of government, universal male suffrage, and, particularly, supported anti-clerical policies. By the twentieth century at the latest, radicalism, which did not advocate particularly radical economic policies, had been overtaken as the principal ideology of the left by the growing popularity of socialism, and had become an essentially centrist political movement as far as "radicalism" survived as a distinct political ideology at all. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radicalism [Jun 2005]

see also: politics - revolution

2005, Jun 06; 10:26 ::: The Memphis Group

Carlton Cabinet (1981) - Ettore Sottsass

Invitation, first memphis presentation, Sept 18 1981, graphics by Luciano Paccagnella.
image sourced via http://www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/memphis.html [Feb 2005]

The Memphis Group was an influential Italian design and architecture movement of the 1980s.

The group was founded by Ettore Sottsass on 11 December 1980, and resolved to meet again with their designs in February 1981. The result was a highly-acclaimed debut at the 1981 Milan Furniture Fair. The group disbanded in 1988.

Named after the Bob Dylan song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, the movement was a reaction against the post-Bauhaus "black box" designs of the 1970s and had a sense of humour that was lacking at the time in design. Prepared to mix 20th century styles, colours and materials, it positioned itself as a fashion rather than an academic movement, and hoped to erase the International Style where post-modernism had failed.

While designers such as Philippe Starck were influenced by Memphis, the continuing rise of minimalism in the 1990s saw a return to seriousness. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group [Jun 2005]

see also: Memphis Group - design - architecture - eighties

2005, Jun 06; 10:00 ::: Egg chair

Ovalia (1968) - Henrik Thor-Larsen

OVALIA was exhibited for the first time at the Scandinavian Furniture Fair in 1968 and was an immediate success. The chair was sold up to 1978 and was in demand throughout the world. It is just as contemporary today as it was then and is back in the spotlight for its relaunch. Apart from a few improvements, there have been no visible changes to the design.

OVALIA is a classic furniture design. A chair with a lot of attitude. Hollywood was well aware of this when it was decided to put Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in an OVALIA each for the launch of the films MEN IN BLACK I & II. --http://www.ovalia.com/eng_ovalia.htm [Jun 2005]

see also this gallery - furniture - 1968

2005, Jun 06; 00:43 ::: Pretentious

  • Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified.
  • Making or marked by an extravagant outward show; ostentatious.
--AHD

2005, Jun 05; 19:23 ::: List of mainstream movies with unsimulated sex

The following mainstream films have scenes with real/unsimulated sex, meaning the passive actor/actress is penetrated by or performing fellatio on a penis. While any of the sex scenes might be considered pornographic, the main intent of these films are not pornographic. These films push the boundary of what is acceptable in mainstream story-telling.

  • In the Realm of the Senses (1976) - fellatio to male climax between Matsuda Eiko and Fuji Tatsuya
  • Devil in the Flesh (1986) - fellatio between Maruschka Detmers and Federico Pitzalis
  • The Idiots (1998) - several unsimulated sex scenes
  • Seul contre tous AKA I Stand Alone (1998) - includes 25 seconds worth of near-pornographic material in the uncut version
  • Baise-moi (2000) - several sex scenes involving Karen Lancaume and Raffaëla Anderson
  • Intimacy (2001) - fellatio between Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance
  • Irréversible (2002) - a few brief glimpses of unsimulated sex (homosexual activity at a club early in the movie, a second-worth of fellatio at a party later on). the central rape scene of the movie, however, is simulated.
  • Ken Park (2002) - Tiffany Limos has a sex scene with the two male leads, with unsimulated fellatio
  • The Brown Bunny (2003) - Chloë Sevigny performs unsimulated fellatio on Vincent Gallo to climax
  • Nine Songs (2004) - multiple unsimulated sex scenes between Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley

--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mainstream_movies_with_unsimulated_sex [Jun 2005]

see also: unsimulated - sex - mainstream film

2005, Jun 05; 19:23 ::: Psychosis

Psychotic Reaction (1966) Count Five

Psychotic Reaction (1966) Count Five
image sourced here.

Psychosis
Psychosis is a psychiatric classification for a mental state in which the perception of reality is distorted. Persons experiencing a psychotic episode may experience hallucinations (often auditory or visual hallucinations), hold paranoid or delusional beliefs, experience personality changes and exhibit disorganized thinking (see thought disorder). This is sometimes accompanied by features such as a lack of insight into the unusual or bizarre nature of their behavior, difficulties with social interaction and impairments in carrying out the activities of daily living. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis [Jun 2005]

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung - Lester Bangs [Amazon.com]

Vintage presents the paperback edition of the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs--the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s--edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rock critics, Greil Marcus. Advertising in Rolling Stone and other major publications.

"Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" was a 1971 essay by Lester Bangs, later collected in a book of the same name (ISBN 0679720456). The essay, which talks about what would usually today be called garage rock, contains the phrase, "...punk bands started cropping up who were writing their own songs but taking the Yardbirds' sound."

This is believed one of the first uses of the word "punk" to refer to a type of rock music. A large section of the essay is concerned with the imagined long career of the garage band The Count Five, after their hit "Psychotic Reaction", In fact, the band split after one album, and their other records are entirely a product of Bangs' imagination. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotic_Reactions_and_Carburetor_Dung [Jun 2005]

see also: psychiatry - garage rock - Lester Bangs

2005, Jun 05; 19:10 ::: Jennifer and Rutger

Jennifer Jason Leigh plays 'Tralala' in 'Last Exit To Brooklyn', NYC 1989 by Allan Tannenbaum

Jennifer Jason Leigh (born February 5, 1962) is an American actress. Born Jennifer Lee Morrow, she is the daughter of actor Vic Morrow and screenwriter Barbara Turner. The name “Jason” is in honor of family friend Jason Robards.

Leigh took acting classes with Lee Strasberg before she began acting professionally as a teenager. In 1977, she had her first credited role in an episode of the TV show Baretta. Several TV movies—including a portrayal of an anorexic in The Best Little Girl in the World, for which Leigh lost weight to 86 lbs—followed. In 1982, Leigh played a central character in director Amy Heckerling's Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

As an adult, Leigh has gravitated towards portraying fragile, damaged or even psychotic characters. One prominent recent role in this vein was that of an angry punk singer in Georgia (1995).

Her performance as a manipulative stage mother in Childstar won her a Genie Award in 2005. As she was not in attendance at the ceremony, director Don McKellar accepted the award on her behalf. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Jason_Leigh [Jun 2005]

The Hitcher is a 1986 Hollywood movie, directed by Robert Harmon, and written by Eric Red. The thriller stars Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

In addition to scenes shot in the studio, filming locations include Amboy, California, USA, Barstow, California, Death Valley National Park in California, Imperial County, California, and Lake Mead in Nevada. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitcher [Jun 2005]

Rutger Hauer (born January 23, 1944, Breukelen, the Netherlands) is an international movie star. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutger_Hauer [Jun 2005]

2005, Jun 05; 17:49 ::: Natural High Vol. 1 - 4 (2001-2005) - Various Artists

Natural High Vol.4 (2005) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Track Listings
1. Ben E. King - Supernatural Thing (Pt.1) 2. The Notations - Take It Slow 3. Margie Joseph - Come On Back To Me Lover 4. Prince Phillip Mitchell - Make It Good 5. The Staples - Love Me, Love Me, Love Me (45 Edit) 6. Johnny Bristol - I Sho’ Like Groovin’ With Ya 7. Aretha Franklin - It Only Happens (When I Look At You) 8. Sergio Mendes And Brasil ‘77 - The Real Thing 9. Pratt & Mcclain - Whachersign 10. Marilyn Scott - Let’s Not Talk About Love 11. Wee Gee - Remember The Love 12. Side Effect - Georgy Porgy 13. Wornell Jones - It Must Have Been Love 14. Brenda Russell - It’s Something 15. Sadane - One-Way Love Affair 16. Chaka Khan - Any Old Sunday 17. Michael Franks - One Bad Habit 18. The Meters - Be My Lady (45 Edit) 19. Debra Laws - Meant For You 20. Leroy Hutson - Nice And Easy

Natural High Vol.3 (2003) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Track Listings 1. Street tough - King, Ben E. 2. It's all right now - Harris, Eddie 3. Do it to my mind - Bristol, Johnny 4. Do you realize - Aquarian Dream 5. Strange funky games and things - Dee, Jay 6. Hang it up - Rushen, Patrice 7. Easy does it - Hutch, Willie 8. Doin' it - McCrae, Gwen 9. Good times in life - Webb, Art 10. Something to fall back on - Joseph, Margie 11. Here we go again - Barretto 12. Is it love you're after - Turner, Spyder 13. Endlessly - Crawford, Randy 14. In my garden - Ware, Leon 15. Settle for my love - Rushen, Patrice 16. Deep - Rome, Richie

Natural High Vol.3 (2002) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Track Listings
1. Open Up - Chic 2. Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen 3. You're a Star - Aquarian Dream 4. Keep the Fire Burning - Gwen McCrae 5. Toque de Cuica - Airto Moreira 6. Maracatu Atomico - Gilberto Gil 7. Sideway Shuffle - Linda Lewis 8. Game of Life - Chameleon 9. You Can't Hide Love - Art Webb 10. Simple and Sweet - Roy Ayers 11. Feeling Something - Ronn Matlock 12. Call on Me 13. Feel Like Loving You Today - Donald Byrd 14. Rockin' You Eternally - Leon Ware 15. Mysterious Maiden - Chico Hamilton 16. Very Special - Debra Laws

Natural High Vol.3 (2001) - Various Artists [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

1. Spoiled (Ben E King) 2. Midnight Lover (Side Effect) 3. That's Why I Came To California (Leon Ware) 4. Riding High (Faze O) 5. Loving You (Donald Byrd) 6. Funky Sensation (Gwen Mccrae) 7. I Can't Forget About You (Ronn Matlock) 8. Move Me No Mountain (Dionne Warwick) 9. Overdose Of Joy (Eugene Record) 10. Sweet Rain (Dee Dee Bridgewater) 11. Sandman (The Undisputed Truth) 12. How Long? (Debra Laws) 13. Paradise (Leroy Hutson) 14. Remind Me (Patrice Rushen) 15. Holdin' On (to Your Love) (Terry Callier) 16. Warm Weather (Pieces Of A Dream)

see also: soul

2005, Jun 05; 17:35 ::: Cult actresses

CULT ACTRESSES Laura Antonelli Barbara Bouchet Monica Bellucci Penelope Cruz Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Jason Leigh Christina Lindberg Sophie Marceau Franka Potente Chloe Sevigny

CULT ACTRESSES (Exploitation Stars) Rene Bond Uschi Digard Edwige Fenech Marie Forsa Laura Gemser Serena Grandi Brigitte Lahaie Christina Lindberg Lina Romay --http://www.cinebizarre.com/main_star.htm [Jun 2005]

see also: cult - actress - cult movie stars

2005, Jun 05; 17:00 ::: Mini expo

2005, Jun 05; 14:57 ::: Marie Liljedahl (1950 - )

Marie Liljedahl
image sourced here.

The Seduction of Inga (1969) - Joe Sarno [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

The Seduction of Inga (1969) - Joe Sarno [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

One of the most beautiful films to be shot in Sweden, although filmed with black and white stock, Inga (Jag en oskuld, 1967) introduced Marie Liljedahl to audiences in the United States. During the film, there is a dialogue scene that takes place in a suana during which the is a beautiful shot of her that dollies back before she comes toward the camera. During an early scene of the film, characters are kept at a diagnal to each other, one in the foreground of the shot, the other in the background, during their conversation. There is then a cut to a scene during which Greta is sunbathing and reintroduced to a former lover. Marie Liljedahl enters the film by entering a living room from what appears to have been her bedroom, as though already dressed for bed, she had returned to say good night; in the film she is about to leave to meet Greta, who is her aunt. Characters during the early scenes often deliver lines at a diagnal to each other, but in close shot, one behind the other at their shoulders, almost off to the side, as they both face the camera.

Marie Liljedahl also appeared in the film Inga Two/The Seduction of Inga (Nagon att alska, 1971). For anyone who has seen her in film, particularly of interest is her brief inclusion in a dialogue scene in Eva-den uttstotta. Shown in the United States as Swedish and Underage (1973), the film stars Solveig Andersson. During the film there is a dialogue scene where Ms. Andersson, in an attic, is trying on a hat in a mirror shot. The line delivered by Marie Liljedahl is "But I don't see a connection between them." --http://scottlord.aaawebpage.com/scottlord.htm [Jun 2005]

See also: Joe Sarno - Eugenie

2005, Jun 05; 13:56 ::: Zeta One (1969) - Michael Cort

Zeta One (1969) - Michael Cort [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Description
This sexual cocktail of "Austin Powers"-type kitsch is based on a story from the popular sixties magazine Zeta. Following a game of strip poker, blonde bombshell Ann Olsen (Yutte Stensgaard) learns that Special Agent James Word (Robin Horden) is investigating Public Enemy No.1, Major Borden (James Robertson Justice). With the assistance of the nerdy Swyne (Charles Hawtrey), Borden is investigating a race of sexy, scantily-clad super women, led by the shapely Zeta (Dawn Addams). It seems that attractive young women are being abducted from Earth and then brainwashed into serving Zeta, all wearing kinky, fetishistic outfits. Borden's plan is to track down Zeta and her seductive sirens and become their new ruler.

2005, Jun 05; 13:21 ::: La Bâtarde / The Bastard (1964) - Violette Leduc

La Bâtarde / The Bastard (1964) - Violette Leduc [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

The New Yorker
Remarkable ... filled with sudden anguished, tender phrases of sensual beauty.

Kirkus Reviews
"La Bâtarde is one of the most extraordinry books to have come out of France in some time."

An obsessive and revealing self-portrait of a remarkable woman humiliated by the circumstances of her birth and by her physical appearance, La Bâtarde relates Violette Leduc's long search for her own identity through a series of agonizing and passionate love affairs with both men and women. When first published, La Bâtarde earned Violette Leduc comparisons to Jean Genet for the frank depiction of her sexual escapades and immoral behavior. A confession that contains portraits of several famous French authors, this book is more than just a scintillating memoir—like that of Henry Miller, Leduc's brilliant writing style and attention to language transform this autobiography into a work of art.

Violette Leduc was born the illegitimate daughter of a servant girl and was encouraged to write by Maurice Sachs and Simone de Beauvoir. Her first novel (L'Asphyxie [In the Prison of Her Skin]) was published by Camus for Gallimard and earned her praise from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet. She went on to write eight more books, including Ravages, L'Affamee, and La Folie en tete [Mad in Pursuit], the second part of her literary autobiography.

"Notoriety aside, Leduc is first and foremost a first-rate writer. Not someone who just tells a provocative story and is unafraid to reveal the most offensive parts of her personality and of her experience, but someone who is in love with words, struggles with them, wrestles with language, dies for adjectives, is tortured by her search for le mot juste."—Women's Review of Books

"Whoever speaks to us from the depths of his loneliness speaks to us of ourselves. In La Bâtarde, a woman is descending into the most secret part of herself and telling us about all she finds there with an unflinching sincerity, as though there were no one listening."—Simone de Beauvoir

-- http://www.centerforbookculture.org/dalkey/backlist/leduc.html [Jun 2005]

But popular and commercial success eluded her until 1964 when La Bâtarde (The Bastard) was published--minus the Thérèse et Isabelle section, which her publisher deemed too explicit in its depiction of lesbian lovemaking. ( Thérèse et Isabelle was finally published in 1966 and made into a film in 1968.) --http://www.glbtq.com/literature/leduc_v.html [Jun 2005]

Therese (Essy Persson) and Isabelle (Anna Gael) in
Therese und Isabell (1968) - Radley Metzger [Amazon.com]
(© 1998 First Run Features. All rights reserved.)
image sourced here.

Violette Leduc (1907 - 1972)
In 1968 Radley Metzger made a film of Leduc's novel Therese and Isabelle. The film was a commercial feature about adolescent lesbian love, starring Essy Persson and Anna Gaël. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violette_Leduc [Mar 2005]

See also: Essy Persson - erotic fiction - lesbian - Radley Metzger - 1964

2005, Jun 05; 12:38 ::: The Sexual Life of Catherine M. (2002) - Catherine Millet

The Sexual Life of Catherine M. (2002) - Catherine Millet [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

From Publishers Weekly
Millet, art critic and editor of Art Press, has become a literary sensation in France with the publication of this graphic memoir of some 30 years of her sexual adventures. Millet's "gift for observation" and her "solid superego" are as useful in her career as an art critic as they are in her erotic explorations: her ability to concentrate and observe puts her inside "other people's skins." Comparisons have been made to The Story Of O, but Millet is more in the tradition of Jean Genet and Violette Leduc, whose descriptions of their sexual encounters were not meant to titillate so much as to explore the meaning of the erotic. Millet's "quest for the sexual grail" takes her to group orgies, gang bangs in French parks and other serial sex escapades. Before long, the sex begins to seem utterly routine, in spite of the elaborate staging. Millet and her readers are then free to consider more closely some questions she raises: how oral sex compares to vaginal intercourse; why sex in disgusting circumstances is not about "self-abasement," but raising oneself "above all prejudice"; or why solitary sex is more pleasurable for her than sex with a partner. Toward the end of this curiously graceful memoir, Millet comes close to explaining her need for all this sex: only by sloughing off the "mechanical body" she'd been born with could she experience actual sexual pleasure. While women readers will find much of interest, male readers may have to overcome a certain emperor's new clothes-type discomfort, as they realize that Millet may know more about the male body than they do. --Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. via Amazon.com

From Library Journal
In this steamy work, a best seller throughout Europe, the editor of France's Art Press shatters gender assumptions by detailing her rollicking sex life.

Catherine Millet (born 1948) is a French art critic, curator, and founder and editor of the magazine Art Press, which focuses on modern art.

She is best known, however, as the author of the 2002 memoir The Sexual Life of Catherine M.; the book details her sexual history, from childhood masturbation to an adult fascination with group sex. The book was reviewed by Edmund White as "the most explicit book about sex ever written by a woman".

She is married to poet and novelist Jacques Henric, and has been in a monogamous relationship since 1994. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Millet [Jun 2005]

bukkake
Some women have gone public regarding their sexual enjoyment of bukkake; one prominent example is Catherine Millet. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukkake [Jun 2005]

See also: erotic fiction - group

2005, Jun 05; 12:38 ::: The Surrender : An Erotic Memoir (2004) - Toni Bentley

The Surrender : An Erotic Memoir (2004) - Toni Bentley [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

From Publishers Weekly
"I am sitting on the threshold. Perhaps this is the final paradox of God's paradoxical machinations: my ass is my very own back door to heaven. The Pearly Gates are closer than you think." Bentley is writing of her rhapsodic experience with sodomy. So some will call this memoir blasphemous, others spiritual; some pornographic, others erotic. What it is, is wonderfully smart and sexy and witty and moving, a tale of unbounded passion that leads to transcendence. The tale is paradoxical in more ways than one: aside from Bentley's ass leading to heaven, she finds that submission leads to freedom—a freedom she had never known as a dancer with the New York City Ballet (about which she wrote her first book, Winter Season), nor in her failed marriage, nor in any of her other polymorphously perverse sexual experiences. While deeply serious, Bentley is also hilarious as she describes the delights of crotchless panties ("they come in many different styles—each with its own je ne sais quoi") and touching in an imagined obituary for her lover, A-Man ("He was the only one who took time to be friends with my cat.... He was the one with whom I couldn't tell whose pleasure gave me more pleasure"). Bentley's honesty about the most intimate of subjects is daring and delightful for those willing to follow her to, so to speak, the end. --Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
If you knew the name Toni Bentley before her self-combustion in The Surrender (ReganBooks, $24.95), it was probably for her extraordinarily agile contributions to the tiny world of ballet writing: Her first book was Winter Season (1982), produced at the tender age of 21 (early for a writer, not for a dancer). Exquisitely written -- as fleet and muscular as a thoroughbred -- the book was a splendid manifestation of grace and grit. She went on to ghostwrite Suzanne Farrell's virtuosic memoir, Hanging on to the Air, in which Bentley (a Balanchine product herself) captured the heady business of falling in love with one's own Pygmalion. Bentley wrote two more books after that, but she seemed to undergo the typical arc of the aging dancer: The books were less ambitious, signaling a diminishing agility -- these were character parts, no bravura performances. There was Costumes by Karinska, about Balanchine's costume designer, and then Sisters of Salome, about the seductions of dancing the part of the legendary femme fatale. But the principal roles seemed to elude her.

Now, in her fifth decade, Bentley has turned the camera on herself in what can only be called a spectacular flameout. The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir is her account of her addiction to anal sex and her burning jones for an inamorato she identifies only as A-Man. The book, none of which can be adequately described in a family newspaper, is mind-boggling in its rawness. It is dirty, foul-mouthed, gawdy as redlight porn -- an apotheosis of female self-loathing. And yet the prose yearns, with the perverse grace of a long-past-it dancer, for readers to see it as art. More than one book critic -- mostly men -- have referred to it as "a masterpiece."

Bentley calls her erotic quest "Finding Paradise," and she even summons God into the equation: "I am an atheist, by inheritance. I came to know God experientially, from being [expletived] in the [expletive]." You get the idea. Aside from the shock factor, which is considerable, there is a creeping ridiculousness here: Throughout the book she alludes to "the backstory" of her love story, the "behind-sight" of her perspective. When she confronts A-Man's Other Woman, she writes, "I guess she didn't know the whole of it. Or the half of it. Or the back half of it." By the time you finish this paean to her stern, you're red-faced as a schoolgirl: Not from the naughtiness, mind you. From the horselaughs. This once elegant writer is hoofing her heart out. And peeking in you are made to feel -- there's no other way to say it -- as silly as an ass. --via Amazon.com

inspired by http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/001700.html [Jun 2005] which features some recommended reading on Catherine Breillat

See also: erotic fiction - anal

2005, Jun 05; 11:55 ::: Gender studies

Gender studies is a theoretical work in the social sciences or humanities that focuses on issues of sex and gender in language and society, and often addresses related issues including racial and ethnic oppression, postcolonial societies, and globalization.

Work in gender studies is often associated with work in feminist theory, queer studies, and other theoretical aspects of cultural studies. While work in gender studies is principally found in humanities departments and publications (in areas such as English literature and other literary studies), it is also found in social-scientific areas such as anthropology, sociology, and psychology. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_studies [Jun 2005]

Criticism
Rosi Braidotti (1994), interviewed by Judith Butler, criticized gender studies as, "the take-over of the feminist agenda by studies on masculinity, which results in transferring funding from feminist faculty positions to other kinds of positions. There have been cases...of positions advertised as 'gender studies' being given away to the 'bright boys'. Some of the competitive take-over has to do with gay studies. Of special signifigance in this discussion is the role of the mainstream publisher Routledge who, in our opinion, is responsible for promoting gender as a way of deradicalizing the feminist agenda, re-marketing masculinity and gay male identity instead." Calvin Thomas (2000) counters that, "as Joseph Allen Boone [] points out, 'many of the men in the academy who are feminism's most supportive 'allies' are gay,'" and that it is "disingenuous" to ignore that mainstream publishers such as Routledge, and their marketing strategies, have helped feminist theorists. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_studies#Criticism [Jun 2005]

see also: gender

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