Not Quite What I Expected

The title was Eternal Love or Love Eternal- I forget which. I understood it was a ghost story.

Samurai meets girl. Girl dies. Girl comes back from the grave. You know, the usual thing.

I was expecting some of that soulful Japanese film poetry- sad-faced maidens and lots of mist and moon.

Well we got that. We also got people taking their clothes off and having sex at ten minute intervals.

1970s ghost-porn

M.R. James was never like this.

Afterwards we read the notes. Love Eternal is just the dummy title for us dummy westerners. The real title is Sex Story of the Peony Lantern.

More Dylan

The second part of the Dylan film has great footage of him talking to the press. The reporters are asking stupid and/or pompous questions and he's swatting them away like flies, mainly saying "no" or turning the question back on the questioner, but it's all good humoured and he's giggling at the inanity and some of the press people are laughing right along. I guess what we're seeing here is the birth of celebrity culture.

The film ends with the incident on the English tour where some protesting folkie in the audience shouts "Judas" and he replies "You're a liar; I don't believe you-" then turns to The Band and tells them to "play it fucking loud." That happened here- in Manchester's Free Trade Hall (now a hotel.) Epic stuff.