I just got back from New York, and haven't been up here in over a week to update. I flew there because my grandfather died on Tuesday, 10. May, and his funeral was last weekend. I would never have thought that he would die before my grandmother: he was always fairly healthy, and lived on his own until about two months before he died. It was somewhat abrupt. But one can't pick the day or the time. It was good to see my family, and all my cousins (on my father's side), but I just wish it were for a happier reason.
I got to spend a few days in the city after his funeral, and visit a few old haunts, not trying to foget exactly, but just seeing what I could while I was there. On Monday, I saw a 1924 film from F. W. Murnau, who is best-known for his Vampire film "Nosferatu". This film was called "Der letzte Mann" (in English "The Last Laugh"), and it was interesting, although I didn't think it was one of his best. The beginning was very exciting, but the end (with its 'dream') lost me. It was at the Moma and there was a live pianist playing along with it, so that was something one doesn't see everyday. I was curious to know (but never found out) if the piano player was improvising, or if he was playing a score written especially for the film...
Tuesday, I went to the Met to see two exhibits, one on Max Ernst and one of photos from Diane Arbus. Both were (as with a lot of exhibits I see nowadays, whether in London, Paris, Berlin, or NY) not well put together, although the material itself was interesting. I especially liked Ernst's forests, with their ring-shaped suns. He did most of these by a process of scraping paint off of prepared canvases while some materials lay underneath (e.g., wood), producing patterns within the shapes made. Some of it reminded me of the young Cy Twombly....
The Diane Arbus exhibit was tired, and far too much material. I would have preferred a small exhibit, with a few of her not-so-often seen photos carefully arranged (perhaps next to the better-known ones?). But like the RAF exhibit at Kunstwerk in Berlin a few months back, it was a huge mass of material (books, notes, newspapers, etc.) dumped on the viewer. It would take at least three visits to go carefully through it all.
Tuesday night, however, I made it down to the Pioneer Theater on 3rd for the last showing (there at least) of the new film from Hal Hartley, and that was really well-made ... it was labelled by Hartley as "a science fiction" and I think he was doing with New York city what Tarkovski sometimes did with the Russian countryside in a film like "Solaris" (at the very beginning) or "Stalker," in other words, making what is totally normal appear strange and futuristic.
The dialogue was hartley-ish as ever, had that clipped style that is like dialogue in a film from Mamet (but far better), and even had some of the rough edges smoothed out. It suited the science-fictionish quality of the film well, and the actor Bill Sage did a great job in the lead role and was there after the last showing to take questions from the audience. You could tell (or at least I thought I could) that it was a film he really loved making and that meant a lot to him.
To see more about the film, and for showtimes (it's being privately distributed, so the distribution is not that wide), you can take a look here: http://www.possiblefilms.com/
That's all for now...
D.
I got to spend a few days in the city after his funeral, and visit a few old haunts, not trying to foget exactly, but just seeing what I could while I was there. On Monday, I saw a 1924 film from F. W. Murnau, who is best-known for his Vampire film "Nosferatu". This film was called "Der letzte Mann" (in English "The Last Laugh"), and it was interesting, although I didn't think it was one of his best. The beginning was very exciting, but the end (with its 'dream') lost me. It was at the Moma and there was a live pianist playing along with it, so that was something one doesn't see everyday. I was curious to know (but never found out) if the piano player was improvising, or if he was playing a score written especially for the film...
Tuesday, I went to the Met to see two exhibits, one on Max Ernst and one of photos from Diane Arbus. Both were (as with a lot of exhibits I see nowadays, whether in London, Paris, Berlin, or NY) not well put together, although the material itself was interesting. I especially liked Ernst's forests, with their ring-shaped suns. He did most of these by a process of scraping paint off of prepared canvases while some materials lay underneath (e.g., wood), producing patterns within the shapes made. Some of it reminded me of the young Cy Twombly....
The Diane Arbus exhibit was tired, and far too much material. I would have preferred a small exhibit, with a few of her not-so-often seen photos carefully arranged (perhaps next to the better-known ones?). But like the RAF exhibit at Kunstwerk in Berlin a few months back, it was a huge mass of material (books, notes, newspapers, etc.) dumped on the viewer. It would take at least three visits to go carefully through it all.
Tuesday night, however, I made it down to the Pioneer Theater on 3rd for the last showing (there at least) of the new film from Hal Hartley, and that was really well-made ... it was labelled by Hartley as "a science fiction" and I think he was doing with New York city what Tarkovski sometimes did with the Russian countryside in a film like "Solaris" (at the very beginning) or "Stalker," in other words, making what is totally normal appear strange and futuristic.
The dialogue was hartley-ish as ever, had that clipped style that is like dialogue in a film from Mamet (but far better), and even had some of the rough edges smoothed out. It suited the science-fictionish quality of the film well, and the actor Bill Sage did a great job in the lead role and was there after the last showing to take questions from the audience. You could tell (or at least I thought I could) that it was a film he really loved making and that meant a lot to him.
To see more about the film, and for showtimes (it's being privately distributed, so the distribution is not that wide), you can take a look here: http://www.possiblefilms.com/
That's all for now...
D.
neyrissa:
I'm sorry for your loss...