Vitro Nasu

Bowie at Berlin Wall – 1987

The Next Day – Marion Cortillard played a sexworker for priests – read more here.

Bowie with Nicolas Roeg and Duncan Jones here (photo via Duncan Jones)

Roeg directing David Bowie

Interview (Bowie’s in space: Nic Roeg on film)

David Bowie as Warhol in Basquiat (youtube)

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Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Bowie

David Bowie and Nagisa

See an excerpt from Merry Xmas Mr. Lawrence (Sakamoto receiving kiss -youtube)

Bowie’s responses to Proust Questionnaire – Vanity Fair

Q: Which living person do you most admire?
Bowie: Elvis.

David Bowie shared a birthday with Elvis, Anthony Newley was his early inspiration.

Previous post Bowie with birthday buddies Elvis and Stephen Hawking. (link to a documentary of David Bowie.)

David Bowie as an African

Wild is the Wind..his tribute to Nina Simone.. (How David Bowie helped Nina out of a slump)..

David with Klaus Nomi

Bowie collaborator Kansai Yamamoto dies aged 76

(David Bowie and Kansai Yamamoto)

Kansai Yamamoto debut Vogue Shoot 1971

Buck Henry as Oliver Farnsworth from The Man Who Fell to Earth)
Buck Henry passed away on the anniversay of David Bowie’s birthday Jan 8.

He was twice nominated for an Academy Award, in 1968 for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Graduate and in 1979 for Best Director for Heaven Can Wait alongside Warren Beatty. His long career began on television with work on shows with Steve Allen in The New Steve Allen Show (1961). He went on to co-create Get Smart (1965-1970) with Mel Brooks, and hosted Saturday Night Live 10 times from 1976 to 1980. He later guest starred in shows such as Murphy Brown, Will & Grace, and 30 Rock.

Buck Henry Appreiciation

the master of despair whose comedies seduced Hollywood
He helped shape one of the most revolutionary films of the 1960s (The Graduate), co-wrote one of the funniest of all time (What’s Up, Doc?) and scripted the movie that became the springboard for Nicole Kidman’s career (To Die For).

During the October 30, 1976, episode, Buck Henry was injured in the forehead by John Belushi’s katana in the samurai sketch. Henry’s head began to bleed and he was forced to wear a large bandage on his forehead for the rest of the show. As a gag, the members of the SNL cast each wore a bandage on their foreheads as well.

With Humphrey Bogarde and Buck Henry (Maltese Falcon – Mystery)

The Next Day – Marion Cortillard played a sexworker for priests – read more here.

Bowie at Berlin Wall – 1987
Take peek, David Bowie’s art collection.

David Bowie showing off his knowledge of contemporary art with Julian Schnabel here on Charlie Rose. (youtube)

Peter Cook, Bowie and Dudley Moore – via

David Bowie returned to space at 69 (Jan 10,2016 Bowie passed away 2 days after his birthday)
See more photos and links here.

The Cop, The Nun and Peter Cook – the Comic Genius
Jan 9 1995, Peter Cook died

An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. Cook was closely associated with anti-establishment comedy that emerged in Britain and the United States in the late 1950s.

(Yumi Shirakawa, Hideko Takamine, Yoko Minamida, Misako Uji and Yumiko Hasegawa visiting Elvis.)

Bowie with Nicolas Roeg and Duncan Jones here (photo via Duncan Jones)

David Bowie Returend to Space at 69 (See more photos and links)

Happy birthday Stephen Hawking..
I saw Theory of Everything.. Eddie Redmayne was excellent.

Eddie Redmayne visits Nasa –

David Bowie’s birthday is today which he shares with Elvis. (Bowie is a Capricorn with
moon in Leo shown here , same as, possibly, Susan Sontag and Mao Tse Tung ).
He starred in two interesting films, The Man Who Fell To Earth by Nicolas Roeg and
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence by Nagisa Oshima.
Oshima’s film about prison camp helped launch Takeshi Kitano’s
international career in film business.

Hashigo

The above photo was taken at Carlsbad Cavern, New Mexico, near my Bed and Breakfast inn. Meanwhile this news is circulating about a NY Subway photo.

(Nina with James Baldwin)
A Raised Voice
How Nina Simone turned the movement into music.

See a painting Homage to Nina Simone here.

It took her one hour to write Mississipi Goddam

Dr. Nina Simone- –Alabama Got Me So Upset (previous post)

Wild is the Wind..his tribute to Nina Simone.. (How David Bowie helped Nina out of a slump)..

Nuovomondo

What Happend Miss Simone? (Film)

NYtimes Obit…Nagisa Oshima dies aged 80.

“Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden.” Nagisa Oshima (NYtimes)

(Nagisa Oshima, Edinburgh, August 21, 1983. Photo: Steve Pyke)

(via artforum)

Oshima was born in Kyoto (Variety)

In 1983, Oshima returned to Cannes with “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” A WWII P.O.W. camp drama based on the experiences of writer Laurens van der Post, the pic starred Tom Conti, David Bowie, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also supplied the soundtrack music) and helmer-to-be Takeshi Kitano as a brutal camp guard.

David Bowie and Nagisa

Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Oshima launched Ryuichi Sakamoto and Takeshi Kitano onto the world stage with “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”, both Kitano and Sakamoto had supporting roles to David Bowie. (see more images -scroll down Gohatto)

Hanging image via

“Death by Hanging” (1968), about a Korean man sentenced to death for rape and murder, addresses the prejudicial treatment of the Korean minority in Japan. (NYtimes)

Hideo Obara

When I was a college student, I went to see the film directed by Nagisa Oshima “KOSYUKEI（Death by hanging)” . After the film screening, Mr. Oshima appeared, and debated with audiences. There was a young man asked a question to Mr. Oshima. Then, Mr. Oshima, answered “Stupid!”. When the young man asked “What? Is it stupid? What do you mean?” Mr. Oshima shouted in a loud voice “I said just You are stupid!” and Mr. Oshima went away and left the hall quickly.
He was always angry in front of the media. I think the “energy of anger” become the source of his works. He was always angry, however, people say that he had never even once a fight with his wife.

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Two good films ignored by the 2010 Oscars.

Duncan Jones who directed the Moon is David Bowie’s son.
It is strange that we do not hear much about him.

1)-Oscar 2010 -Avatar averted. (Actors need jobs and plastic surgeons need custormers)
2) A woman who makes macho film wins for the first time as a Female director.
Jane Campion who did not win for the Piano was not even nominated for “Bright Star”
3) Omission of Farrah Faucett and Bea Arthur from Oscar obituary of the year
4) Penelope Cruz who won the best supporting actress last year got nominated again.
5) Sandra Bullock compensated for her lack of credentials with gracious speech.
6) Abbie Cornish who was excellent in “Bright Star” was not even nominated.

Update: Oscar bosses defend Farrah Fawcett snub (She was not just a TV actress, Farrah appeared in the films Extremities and the Apostle. The Oscar snub demonstrates their total ignorance of their own profession.)

See Farrah in the Apostle here.

Tree by F.B.

This is an illustration by our art department of the tree that Fanny Browne embroiders on a pillow case of Keats.

March 8 – trivia
Happy birthday Anselm Kiefer – Hachiko was born today too.
Two links from Gagosian here and here.

Two years later we now have this on youtube. (See previous post on this tap dance number)
Only Takeshi would conjur tapdancing with “geta”
They look like tap sandals made to look like geta.

Happy Birthday to “Aniki” Takeshi Kitano and to “Kyoju” Ruichi Sakamoto. (Jan 18, 1947 for Takeshi and Jan 17, 1952 for Sakamoto.)

Found this great clip – Sakamoto channelling Warhol and Steve Reich.

Go to sitesakamoto and click on the moving elegy Bring Them Home. (The Professor is an activist for Peace.)

Nagisa Oshima launched the two of them onto the world stage with “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”, both Kitano and Sakamoto had supporting roles to David Bowie.

Recently Sakamoto composed the filmscore for Tony Takitani. (Youtube trailer is here)

Nicolas Roeg passed away – (Tributes from Donald Sutherland, Duncan Jones etc)

BBC obit

Nicolas Roeg was one of the most original film-makers the UK has ever produced.
His early experience as a cinematographer brought a stunning visual quality to his work.

(Best obit – read here)

The Alchemy of Nicolas Roeg (Dan Fox) (Frieze II)

His work sits closer to that of Derek Jarman, Peter Greenaway, Andrea Arnold, Sally Potter, Steve McQueen and other British art house directors, than the storytelling of Lean, Lester, Schlesinger, and other directors he cut his teeth with.

Nicolas Roeg in conversation (Frieze I)

Film director Nicolas Roeg talks to his friend, the artist John Stezaker, about collage, editing and memory, and film’s ability to ‘trap shadows’

BAD TIMING, Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, director Nicolas Roeg on set, 1980, (c) World Northal

Obit from his close friend and a producer Jeremy Thomas

(see Theresa Russell playing Marilyn here )- Look Now, the significance of Nicolas Roeg (previous post)

Thanks to “Walkabout”, David Gulpilil became an actor/activist, and the kid who is not in this photo was Nicolas Roeg’s son).

(Filming The Man Who Fell to Earth)
The documentary of the Man Who Fell to Earth – 2017 here.

(Julie Christie in Don’t Look Now, and Roeg was a cinematographer for Far From the Madding Crowd, Farenheidt 451 and Petulia (Richard Lester)

Don’t Look Now – a review + interviews here.

In all of his films Nicolas Roeg shows what happens when characters from different cultures intersect. From Performance (gangster meets rock star) to Walkabout (abandoned white children saved by Aborigine on his walkabout) to The Man Who Fell to Earth (alien crashing on Earth needs to return to his home planet) this intersection forms the core dramatic element of his films.

Man Who Fell to Earth’ director Nicolas Roeg on sci-fi without ‘buzzes, beeps and bullets’

The World is Ever Changing: Nicolas Roeg on Film-making (youtube)

Nicolas Roeg began as a cameraman, working for such masters as Francois Truffaut and David Lean. His explosive debut as a director with Performance established an approach to film-making that was unconventional and ever-changing, creating works such as Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bad Timing, Insignificance, and, more recently, Puffball.

Happy birthday Nicolas Roeg

Nicolas Roeg: ‘I don’t want to be ahead of my time’
Once audiences make sense of his work, Nicolas Roeg has usually moved on. As the film world rushes to canonize him, he tells Ryan Gilbey about the curse of bad timing

“I’m doing installation pieces and I don’t even want to be credited.” Roeg said.

D. S in Venice

Don’t Look Now – based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier.

Julie Christie

Don’t Look Now – a review + interviews here.

In all of his films Nicolas Roeg shows what happens when characters from different cultures intersect. From Performance (gangster meets rock star) to Walkabout (abandoned white children saved by Aborigine on his walkabout) to The Man Who Fell to Earth (alien crashing on Earth needs to return to his home planet) this intersection forms the core dramatic element of his films.