Melancholia

The woman on the moon is being forced to the earth

she's brought with her, cheese curds in her breasts

her milky breasts dripping tears of her temper --

Gentle Ophelia, she of crazy hormones.

Why not end a world with a cosmic bang

why not go down with a stymied prince

a secret assassination first, R and G, the stab

through the arras, you, he, and a whole world, boom.

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Art Means Work. Yes, Work.

This should open your eyes and interest you.  

What to those of us who are 'just plain folks', who believe in 'democratic arts', who may recognize that being called a 'philistine' is a slur, but simply show our social equality in return (Back at ya!) -- what to us appears as an elitist enterprise, ballet, really produces more sweat in a day than a lifetime of backyard barbecues and lawn-mowings.

This clip doesn't show it all:  the blisters and infected corns, the slipped discs, the exhaustion, the struggle just to be able to get a chance to suffer that way!  The schooling, the disciplined adolescence, the foregone 'outside' life, the forced 'early retirement' at 30 or -- if you're truly strong -- 40.  

The sheer physicality of it.

The mental grit needed for it.

Nils Tavernier's film of a decade ago, Etoiles: Dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet, honors the institution it views.

It should also raise the question:  How much guts do I have -- how much have I given?

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The Age Of

Pinter Stoppard Mamet Albee Schaffer and Schaffer Gray and Gray Wilson Kushner Hare and Guare.

Obsessed with film as we are, no doubt that literature's still alive and it's in its plays, its moves and words.

(photograph: Dave Cornish)

Small Car, Big Sound

Listening to Idomeneo not caring about the plot.  

No costumes, an audience of one.

I get it.

The Homecoming

This filmed Harold Pinter play was shown on PBS years ago, in the 70s.  

Despite being 'film', it gives itself away clearly as 'stage', 'theater', an art more highly dependent on actorial talent and most especially, on words.  Rarely does a movie script contain anything like poetry.  Not infrequently, drama contains ample amounts of it.  Certainly Pinter.

Despite our recent generation or two (or three) having their enthusiasm dedicated to cinema, look at what movies miss:  charged, in-your-face, real emotional conflict.

This clip handles two adjacent scenes, the first between Ian Holm and Vivian Merchant, the second between Holm and Paul Rogers.  The play itself, housing 4 men and a woman, lets us know who the outnumbered actually are.  Hint:  it's not the one who doesn't wear trousers.

You won't regret watching this.  The eight minutes you spend will spark your evening.

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