Photography : Chimneys & Skies 2/2 – November December 2019
My photoblog : https://qeht.photo.blog/
Month: December 2019
“Visconti without neorealism is like Lang without expressionism and Eisenstein without formalism”
“Visconti without neorealism is like Lang without expressionism and Eisenstein without formalism”.
Three movie directors, with labels, right?
- Neorealism is often sticked to “Italian” : “a film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class, filmed on location, frequently using non-professional actors.”
- Expressionism? : “a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.”
- Formalism? “if actions and dialogue are important for filmic meaning, the filmic mode (camera angles, editing, cinematography) itself is just as responsible for meaning.”
Movies todays have swallowed and more or less digested all of these.
Labels, right? Stickers. They are always interesting. You can pick one and study the sources, the influences, the evolutions (in the director’s career/in history), the exaggerations, the failures too…
A pleasant exercise is to find the other directors one put in the box (who are formalists, after Eisenstein? Hitchcock and De Palma? And today?).
Another one is to find the other words linked to it. Formalism gives : audience manipulation, for example.
You can also determine where is formalism applied. Montage? Filming? Story’s structure?
How is this useful? For the pleasure of analysis and sorting? Or to apply it elsewhere? Poetry? Photography?
What about my article’s title? What is Visconti without Neo-Realism? An evolution? A loss? A change?
In the end, what about us? What about you? If you create something, what’s the label? Why is it irritating? Or not?
Thanks for reading!
Photography : Chimneys & Skies 1/2
Photography : Chimneys & Skies 1/2 – November December 2019
My photoblog : https://qeht.photo.blog/
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone”
B. Pascal
What if we were many (inside)?
The idea of us having two faces or two sides is pretty common (and fascinating). A part of shadow, or a “the contrary of me, inside me”, anything schizophrenic…
So maybe we really have “another me” inside us. Most of the time, the idea says that the other one is very different. A quiet person has a tyrant inside. A mean human has a shy kid hidden in their head. Etc.
Sometimes it’s funny to extend and combine. For example, take the couple Lennon/McCartney, the tortured intellectual/happy fellow genius songwriting couple of the Beatles. When you read a little more about them, you see… the contrary.
Well, OK. Then you pull the string and ask some questions :
- When does the other one come out?
- How? Who triggers it? Why?
- What is needed? Music? Events? Alcohol?
- What if we all fall in love with the one who can see inside us? Who says “Hello you’re interesting” to everybody else they find inside?
Because yes : What if we were many (inside)? What kind of dance is it? It’s a metaphor, OR COURSE, but what does it show?
What if someone inside, hidden and protected (of course, protected!), one day takes the lead?
What if someone inside is suddenly missing, dead or sick or weakening?
What about three? Four? What if it was an accurate way to talk about us? Therefore what?
Thanks for reading!
The “Part of Shadow” according to C.G. Jung : an investigation
What will you explore in the next 10 days?
What will you explore in the next 10 days?
• The best albums of Arvo Pärt? (or what’s the best version of Brahms 4)
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/top-10-arvo-part-recordings
• Willa Cather‘s life? (or how Tennessee Williams is adapted in movies)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Cather
• Why the black in Pierre Soulages paintings? (or Picasso in the 1930s)
https://www.artsy.net/artist/pierre-soulages
• What does Aldous Harding sing? (or Rose Elinor Dougall)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvYnfuCRhq6PRYK2MltekXA
• Is it the moment to explore Francis Ford Coppola‘s movies? (or Truffaut’s)
All 24 Francis Ford Coppola Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
• What are the elements of the Battle of Kursk? Waterloo?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk
Who else? Pinker? Kundera? Losey? Plath? Masina? Hosoda? Pinter? Doisneau?
What else? Poetry translators’ difficulties? History of Roma? Nietzsche’s last books? Russian cinema? French musicals? Brasil’s cooks? Best Puccini’s operas?
How do you get out of “reacting” in front of what’s talked today?
How to do it? Web searches? Biographies? Books? Documentaries? YouTube?
Thanks for reading!
The Mastroianni/Mitchum State
Robert Mitchum (1917-1997) and Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) were two actors. Both are known for their state of mind, which are different and similar at the same time.
They don’t give a tinker’s damn
Where? Well, it spouts from all the texts, books, articles and interviews about them :
- The characters they impersonate often seem… floating, or watching, rarely “intense”. See Mitchum in Ryan’s Daughter.
- In their relationships with directors. Fellini, for example, adored Mastroianni because he was not the “I have another question” type. He just followed. He did what he was told to do. Like a clay ball.
- In their work. They never seemed to work a lot. But they were ready though. Mitchum is known for partying and drinking all night, then appearing on the set in the morning almost… defeated, then giving a splendid acting work in front of the camera.
- In their lives.
This “I’m not really here” state is hard to name. Aloof sounds a bit snob, right? And indeed I don’t think it’s really a decision.
Here we also touch the Paradox of the Actor : “Do great actors experience the emotions they are displaying?”.
What are the limits of Actor’s Studio‘s methods? Mitchum was much less pulling faces than De Niro in their respective role of the bad guy in the two different versions of Cape Fear (1962 and 1991) – and Mitchum is said to be much more terrifying.
Is it a state of floating? Of being a “watcher”? Of being cool? Clever? Indifferent? Polite? A genius? A zen master like “I observe but I don’t judge”?
Is it a wisdom, an elegance of life, a modern, Chekhovian way of knowing that all is NOT that important, and we’ll die pretty soon, and let’s stand up cool, nothing big deal?
Thanks for reading!
Intention of Effect Kills Effect
Chekhov, Fellini and Sisyphus’ lesson : “Slide, mortals, don’t bear down”
My 100 Best Tracks of the Decade
My 100 Best Tracks of the Decade (or 2009 if it’s too good), in no particular order :
- The Field – Over the Ice (Live)
- Röyksopp – Keyboard Milk
- Loney, Dear – Under a Silent Sea
- Trentemøller – Shades Of Marble (Live in Copenhagen)
- Rover – Tonight
- Marina & the Diamonds – Hermit The Frog
- Digitalism – Blitz
- The Bird And The Bee – Lifespan Of A Fly
- Tim Exile – Family Galaxy
- Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Ballad Of The Mighty I
- Lily Allen – The Fear
- Hanne Hukkelberg – Pirate
- Vitalic – Under your sun
- Katie Melua – The Flood
- The Avener, Kadebostany – Castle In The Snow
- Astrix – Poison
- Baxter Dury – Palm Trees
- Tame Impala – Let It Happen
- Alt-J (∆) – Taro
- IAMX – Tear Garden
- Paul Kalkbrenner – Böxig Leise
- Jacco Gardner – Outside Forever
- The Dø – On My Shoulders
- The Republic Tigers – Buildings and Mountains
- Röyksopp – Running To The Sea
- Madness – Given The Oportunity
- Röyksopp feat. Robyn – Monument (The Inevitable End Version)
- MGMT – Siberian Breaks
- Dominique A – J’avais oublié que tu m’aimais autant
- Charlotte Gainsbourg – Ring-A-Ring O’ Roses
- Jon Bellion – Morning In America
- Kendrick Lamar – King Kunta
- Citizens! – True Romance
- Zero 7 – The Pageant of the Bizarre
- Blood Orange – Charcoal Baby
- The Internet – Come Over
- Blonde Redhead – Mind to be Had
- Agnes Obel – Riverside
- Woodkid – Run Boy Run
- Zedd – Beautiful Now ft. Jon Bellion
- Metric – Gimme Sympathy
(to be continued)
Bellion & Pilots : Where is pop music going?
Every end of the year I explore web’s magazines to find out what they say on “Best Albums of the year”.
This year it’ll be funnier because of the “Best Albums of the Decade”, of course.
It’s been a long time that I learned how to let go about the Fear of Missing Something. Plenty of musicians, everywhere, are just… unknown. So there!
Best Albums 2018? – So last year I listened to a lot a group called “Blood Orange”, a splendid deluxe soul sound. “The Internet”, called I think Neo-Soul…
This month I discovered Morning in America from Jon Bellion, and I was a bit annoyed : how to call this music? Do I need a label, a sticker? Hymnic Power Pop? I asked Wiki and found it’s “hip hop, pop, R&B, indie pop” (haha). I listened to the whole album and was surprised by everything – a great voice, good lyrics, an amazing sense of sound (and production), and a… love for fractured structures.
The track is continuously changing, mutating, it becomes a big bouquet, a pond of ideas, sounds, changes, a festival. No genius, just… cool!
After that, I listened to Twenty One Pilots. How to deal with “Bandito”? Indie rock with mainstream pop assets? It climbs and evolves into other things : poetry, rock, shoegaze, trance? I don’t know, but it’s lemonade to walk on this…
Then the whispering Billie Eilish – deliciously effective, put a smile on my face. “Bury a Friend” is able to make you stand up and put a little shoulder dance. Hop, hop.
In all this : no genius. It’s a matter of “pop effectiveness”‘, a love for powerish hymns. Something like “Beautiful” is ridiculous – but when I found it in my little FLAC (uncompressed sound) player, it stopped me in the street then I was back into walking making stupid arm gestures in the night, yahouuu. A little like Art of Noise in its time.
“Papapapapapapapa piou piou Beautiful” : bim :
(it’s an exaggeration of Zedd’s : https://youtu.be/n1a7o44WxNo )
I also found a NYT article : https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/03/10/magazine/25-songs-that-tell-us-where-music-is-going.html – (a good read)
Of course, the Web is full of trees, for discoverers. Search for “What sounds like Blonde Redhead” and use YouTube to travel…
But also I discovered Willa Cather, an interesting archetype (I wanna write about her and Gertrud Stein). Oh, she was a writer, sorry.
But I’m obsessed with Schubert’s 9th Symphony, and I’m writing a long article about it.
I also have to watch Fellini’s 8 1/2 THEN Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories (which is the same film “transposed” in America). Then my pleasure is to detect what is translated and how.
I should make a page here with my best 100 pop tracks of the decade…
OK, on it.
Thanks for reading!
a french toolbox 