Jottings

[poliphilo]

1. We finally got to meet the new baby next door. His name is Zaim (I hope I've spelt it right). We hear him going feed me feed me feed me at four o'clock in the morning.

2. The Great Madcap (dreadful title!) is a moralising comedy from Bunuel's Mexican period. (Isn't it amazing what oddities turn up on DVD?) It says on the case that it's a hidden gem, but it's not. What it is, is a moderately engaging adaption of a crummy middle-brow play with weak performances and some quirky touches and occasional splashes of local colour. If you didn't know Bunuel was responsible, you'd never guess it.

3. I caught the end of a documentary about Lautrec last night. I don't know why exactly, but anything to do with Lautrec- apart, of course, from that horrid Luhrman film, brings tears to my eyes. The presenter, Waldemar Januszczak, said Lautrec was the Rembrandt of the19th century. Yes, indeed. 

4. We were shown photos of Lautrec clowning about naked on a boat. And, yes, the legend is true- he did have a big dick. 

5. This will be the 55th time I've celebrated Christmas. I'm trying to be honest here and not strike any attitudes. So what do I feel? I feel a weary sense of inevitability. Yeah, here we go again. 

6. Let's have some more Lautrec. This one's called In Bed

Comments

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I've always felt the same sense of sadness with Lautrec as I have with van Gogh as well. I went to the museum in Toulouse and have read many bios (LOVED the Jose Ferrer "Moulin Rouge").

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Lautrec was a lovely man- witty, funny, randy, kind, free-thinking, outrageous, brave- the life and soul of any party. Everybody seems to have liked him.

One thing I learned last night: he was one of the very few people to go on publicly championing Oscar Wilde after Wilde's fall.

Can you recommend a biography?

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I think the one I really enjoyed was just called Toulouse-Lautrec and the author was Julie Fray or Frey, something like that. Most of my books are packed down now, so I can't dig it out and see for sure.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I'll see if I can chase that down.

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

I saw a wonderful exhibit of Lautrec works a few years ago in Vienna. They were lithographs for advertising posters and for several they had a number of different stages so it was possible to see how the ideas and images developed. While I can't quite call him the Father of Modern Advertising Art, he was pretty close.

I am a friend of IdahoSwede's and of Pondhopper. I think it might be interesting to become friends as I am a practising Eastern Orthodox and my daughter is a Pagan Priestess in California. I don't think anyone has ever accused me of being a Nazi - neo or otherwise; but I did have a lover once who swore I'd been trained by the Jesuits.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Father of modern advertising? I think you're probably right. I don't know of anyone before him who was producing such arresting images.

It's nice to meet you. I'll friend you back. I look forward to reading your lj.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

"El Gran Calavera" is the Original title of the Buñuel film which should translate more as "The great rake/roué" or some such idea. It really isn´t one of Buñuel´s best, you are dead right about that.

This is also my 55th Christmas. There is a bit of the weariness. I no longer get out all the decorations I had when my daughters were still here but just now we finished decorating the tree and it is making me rather happy.

The Lautrec is wonderful.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

"Madcap" just isn't modern English.

The most Bunuelian thing in it is the opening shot of a whole lot of tangled legs.

Decorating the tree is one of my favourite Christmas things too. The tree decorations are old friends- and we try to add one or two new ones each year.

Lautrec's pictures of lesbian couples are just so tender. W.J. (don't ask me to spell his name again) said the only subject Lautrec painted with comparable tenderness was his mother.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Decorating the tree is one of my favourite Christmas things too. The tree decorations are old friends- and we try to add one or two new ones each year.

I also add a new one or two but this year there were 8 new ornaments from our travels here and there.

My daughter and I were commenting about how each ornament is really a memory.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I thought about you today--Laura Dern, the actress in David Lynch's latest movie--was interviewed on National Public Radio. She said she was first hired by Lynch for Blue Velvet when she was 17, and the script disturbed and amazed her. She said she got a call from one of the people affiliated with this latest film saying he had been asked by Lynch to provide "a soldier [?], a one-legged woman, and a monkey by 3:15 that day, and was Lynch joking or what?" Laura told him, Welcome to a Lynch film! He meant what he said! So the man rounded up the soldier, the woman, and a monkey for that day's filming.

She further said that Lynch told her he was planning a movie about "a woman who gets in trouble." She waited for more information, but there wasn't more (of course), but she said that simple line sustained her for the three years of filming.

He doesn't use celluloid--he uses a small digital camera.

Three hours long. The people coming out were baffled and bewitched...one said, if this film were an IQ test, I'd be in trouble!

--

I like the painting above very much. How sensual and comfortable--one can feel the heat of it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've known Lautrec all my life, but I've only just clicked onto him, so to speak. I thought he was all can-can dancers and absinthe and hadn't bothered to look closer and see how much he cares for his people.

A soldier, a one-legged woman and a monkey- I can't wait!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I also heard a brief interview with Lynch, who talked about dreams, how one can tell one's dreams to another, but the other can't experience it the same, no matter how well articulated...he never explains his plots, just lets them happen to the viewer, like dreams.

I must say, my dreams are never so weird! (But of course they are, and so are everyone's.)

[senordildo.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen The Great Madcap, but your review matches my previous expectations. I'll eventually see it, but probably not before I've caught up on some of Bunuel's other Mexican films. I'm especially eager to see El and The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz. Apparently Bunuel's worst Mexican film was A Woman Without Love. He claims it was his worst anyway.

I sent off that Christmas music CD a few days back. I'm not sure if it'll reach you before Christmas, but hopefully it'll arrive before New Year's. It'll be in small bubble-wrap envelope, addressed from San Francisco.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've seen El, but so long ago my memories of it are worthless.

The Young One is coming out on DVD here in the New Year. I've already ordered my copy. I remember it as a terrific little film.

I'll look out for the CD. In my recent experience packages don't take long to cross the Atlantic.