November – The Eyes of Many Elves
November 1st, 2019
Photo by Fung Lin Hall
November
Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.
A few incisive mornings,
A few ascetic eyes, —
Gone Mr. Bryant’s golden-rod,
And Mr. Thomson’s sheaves.
Still is the bustle in the brook,
Sealed are the spicy valves;
Mesmeric fingers softly touch
The eyes of many elves.
Perhaps a squirrel may remain,
My sentiments to share.
Grant me, O Lord, a sunny mind,
Thy windy will to bear!
Emily D on November and Norway
(By Sadie Stein – Paris Review)
Emily Dickinson’s: “November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.”
Kaoru Yachigusa – (January 6, 1931 – October 24, 2019)
October 28th, 2019Kaoru Yachigusa, actress in “Samurai, The Legend of Musashi,” dies
(Yachigusa Kaoru and Toshiro Mifune in Samurai, The Legend of Musashi”)
She was a member of Takarazuka Revue
Yachigusa, who started her career in the all-women Takarazuka Revue, gained popularity through her role as Otsu in the 1954 film, known as “Miyamoto Musashi” in Japan, which featured Toshiro Mifune as the swordsman Musashi. The film won the Honorary Foreign Language Film Award at the Oscars in 1956.
She appeared in a number of other films, including Japanese-Italian musical “Madame Butterfly” and “Yukiguni.”
(Mariko Kaga and Kaoru Yachigusa in With Beauty and Sorrow based on Kawabata Yasunari. )
Kaoru Yachigusa was in “Yukiguni” with Kishi Keiko see previous post on Kawabata Yasunari
Citizen X, 3 Identical Strangers, Elena – 3 Films for Halloween
October 27th, 2019
Citizen X is a 1995[1] American television film which covers the efforts of detectives in the Soviet Union to capture an unknown serial killer of women and children in the 1980s, and the successive bureaucratic obstacles they consistently encounter. The film is based upon the true story of Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted in 1992 of the murder of 52 women and children committed between 1978 and 1990. It stars Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, and Max Von Sydow.
Three Identical Strangers (Five things you may not know)
3 Identical Strangers (wiki)
Three Identical Strangers is a 2018 documentary film directed by Tim Wardle and starring Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran. It examines a set of American identical triplets, born in 1961 and adopted as six-month-old infants by separate families, unaware that each child had brothers. The separations were done as part of an undisclosed scientific “nature versus nurture” twin study, to track the development of genetically identical siblings raised in differing circumstances. Combining archival footage, re-enacted scenes, and present-day interviews, the documentary reveals how the brothers discovered one another at age 19 and thereafter sought to understand the circumstances of their separation.[3][4]
The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival,[5] where it won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling.[6] The film was a nominee in the Best Documentary category at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards. It was also on the shortlist of 15 films considered for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, out of 166 candidates
Elena 
Elena (With Philip Glass soundtrack)
It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival[1][2] where it won the Special Jury Prize.
Peter Bradshaw review
(The above review was written earlier. Since then Andrey Zvyagintsev directed Leviathan.)
Julian Schnabel & Hans Heiner Buhr – 2019
October 25th, 2019
Happy birthday Julian Schnabel (photo via
See more art (previous post)
Happy birthday Hans Heiner Buhr
Hillary arrives in Bosnia.
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The Silence of the Sea – Jean Pierre Melville
October 19th, 2019
photo via
The 10 greatest films of Jean Pierre Melville
“La Silence de la Mer” (1949)
This debut feature is a distant relative to the atmospheric crime films that would ultimately carve his name among the greats, yet even so, “La Silence de la Mer” is vital in any conversation about Melville. It’s a film that relies so heavily on narration, and is so spatially limited (taking place mostly in a single living room), that it should revokes its right to be cinematic but ends up being so regardless.
The Complete Melville at Criterion
Born Jean-Pierre Grumbach
20 October 1917
“Léon Morin, Priest” in English — was Melville’s sixth feature and almost the exact midpoint between early successes like “Bob le Flambeur” (1956), about a gentleman thief organizing the heist of a lifetime, and “Army of Shadows” (1969), his late-career masterpiece about the Resistance. Given his interest in the war, it’s understandable that he was drawn to “Léon Morin” and its story of life during the occupation.
Le Samurai 
The Weight of Harold Bloom & His Western Canon
October 15th, 2019<> <> <> 
Derrida and Harold Bloom
Question-one-should-never-ask-about-work-art – Stanley Fish
Harold Bloom on the Band –
(Harold Bloom thought Levon Helm was the heart and soul of the Band)
On Iris Murdoch
In his edited volume on Iris Murdoch, Harold Bloom wrote that no contemporary British novelist could rival her skill. The Good Apprentice and Bruno’s Dream were both included in Bloom’s Western Canon, and he also admired The Black Prince and The Word Child.
In his New York Times review of The Good Apprentice, Bloom wrote that “Of all her talents, the gift of plotting is the most formidable, including a near-Shakespearean faculty for intricate double plots.” He describes her as “a religious fabulist, of an original and unorthodox sort” who “thinks for herself theologically as well as philosophically,” starting out as an existentialist before turning to a kind of post-Christian Platonism.(via)
Walter Benjamin, Iris and Derrida (previous post)
The Passing of a Killer Poet/Muse, John Giorno
October 12th, 2019News
John Giorno, Storied Artist Who Expanded Poetry’s Possibilities, Is Dead at 82
Do the Undone – John Giorno Installation at Sperone Westwater.
(5 September – 26 October 2019, Sperone Westwater, New York)
Keith Haring, William S. Burroughs and John Giorno, photo by Tseng Kwong Chi.
via Digitized by Backstage Library Works
William Burroughs, Laurie Anderson & John Giorno photographed at Giorno’s loft in New York City in 1980.
Giorno as Muse
JOHN GIORNO AT HOTEL CHELSEA, 1965. PHOTO: WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS.
RIP Robert Forster – He was Cool & Lovely
October 12th, 2019
(Medium Cool Forster, directed by Haskell Wexler)
Robert Forster
His top 10 performances
(Forster played George Clooney’s father-in-law in the Descendants directed by Alexander Payne.
Also in the list is his part in Mullholland Drive directed by David Lynch)
Peter Handke , the Nobel Win & the Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty Kick
October 10th, 2019
(Peter Handke google image gallery)
A Troubling Choice, Authors criticise Peter Handke
Handke collaborated with director Wim Wenders on a film version of The Goalkeeper’s Fear of the Penalty, wrote the script for Wenders’ The Wrong Move, and co-wrote the screenplay for Wenders’ Wings of Desire and The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez. He has also directed films, including from his own novels, The Left-Handed Woman and The Absence. (wiki)
Repost from my previous post on Peter Falk below
Peter Falk is counterweight to Peter Handke?
Wenders had admired Peter Falk in Cassavetes’ films in the 1970’s, and it was probably from Cassavetes that he obtained Falk’s telephone number. He phoned one evening, introduced himself, told a little about the film and explained that he needed a former angel, to which Peter Falk replied after a pause: “How did you know?” When Falk asked whether a script could be sent, Wenders said that he had nothing at all in writing about this ex-angel, not even a single page. If anything, that apparently made the part even more interesting to Falk, who answered: “Ah, I’ve worked like that before with Cassavetes, and honestly I prefer working without a script.”
Falk arrived in Berlin one Friday in November and he and Wenders spent the weekend together, developing the role on the basis of taped improvisations. All of Falk’s scenes were shot the following week, and Falk returned to Los Angeles.
Peter Falk-les ailes du désir (Wings of Desire)
Imagine John Lennon being 79 years old
October 6th, 2019
Photo by Marc Riboud
Imagine: cinematography by Nestor Almendros
Louis Malle, John Lennon, Yoko Ono e Jeanne Moreau, 1971 (AP Photo)
Kristin Scott Thomas played aunt Mimi in “Nowhere Boy” ..(directed by artist Sam Taylor Wood)
Hans Haacke’s Exhibition, Martin Creed’ s Ballet – October 2019
October 1st, 2019
Opening October 24 –
The New Museum Presents Hans Haacke, All Connected
Together – Hans Haacke – (Paula Cooper Gallery)
Trickle Up
See more from previous post
Martin Creed choreographs a piece for classically trained dancers featuring live music. Using video and music composed by Creed and played by his band, Work No. 1020 is performed by five dancers who are restricted to using the five core classical ballet positions, each of which are ascribed a musical note. By limiting the dancers to the five positions, Creed establishes a tight framework in which to examine the changing effects of time, speed, and direction.
Most ballet is not very funny. But by using just the five basic positions of ballet, Martin Creed — better known for his art than his choreographic skills — offers a playful and engaging 70 minutes of repetitions where the limitations actually become the springboard of creativity. It’s a bit like watching a giggly game of chess or perhaps a game of Scrabble created with the human body, which has been intercut with a bit of chat from Creed, some video (including some of Creed’s more notorious vomiting and defecating films) and some songs played by Creed and a band, who limit their musical palate just as the dancers’ physical movement is limited.
