Vitro Nasu

Network of Stoppages – 1914 (MoMa)

Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp
photo by Man Ray.
Re-thinking Marcel Duchamp by Barbara Rose.

Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp in uniform 1895

Military avoidance

The essay traces military relationships in the work of Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), paying particular attention to his notes of 1912 known as the ‘Jura-Paris Road’. These are interpreted as ‘military texts’ and the author shows how military concerns remained with Duchamp throughout his career, resulting in facetious outcomes that obscured uneasy preoccupations.

Marcel Duchamp was born on 28 July 1887.

Marcel Duchamp and Martin Friedman 1965

Ed Ruscha on Marcel Duchamp (Youtube)

John Cage met Marcel Duchamp in the 1940’s
(Only when Duchamp’s health was failing, Cage decided to seek Marcel out with the pretext of taking chess lessons. So Duchamp, his wife and Cage met and played chess.)

John Cage: Music for Marcel Duchamp (Youtube)

Arts Journal – Marcel Duchamp Interviews

“To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space seeks his way out to a clearing.”
In Artopia we think of Duchamp as one of the great poets of the last century; perhaps too much of a dandy, perhaps too much of a chess-player and a poseur, perhaps too much of a gentlemen — but always a prestidigitator of the first order.

Robert Smithson told me he once confronted Duchamp at a party: “I see you are into alchemy,” he accused. “Why, yes,” answered Marcel.

Dada Perfume Marcel Duchamp Interview

JP: Why did you keep it a secret?
MD: As we have discussed in the past, secrets have been essential to my work, which may or may not have anything to do with art.
JP: I read in Calvin Tomkins’ new biography called simply Duchamp (Henry Holt, 1996) that your brother-in-law Jean Crotti once said that how you used time was your real art work.
MD: Rather, it was how I abused time.

John Perrault and Duchamp

(Time Regained)

A.O. Scott on Mild Mannered Maniac
Born: July 25, 1941, Puerto Montt, Chile
Raúl Ruiz 1941-2011

Time Regained (Cinema Poetry – youtube)

Raoul Ruiz, a highly regarded director of more than 100 films in several different languages, has died at the age of 70.
His films, philosophical yet playful, often deal with the nature of truth and perception while utilizing the notions of parallel realities and identities; few were as willing to toy with the viewer on such a consistent basis.

One of his most ambitious projects was Mistérios de Lisboa (Mysteries of Lisbon, 2010), based on the episodic novel by the 19th-century Portuguese writer Camilo Castelo Branco. The turning and twisting narrative of this four-and-a-half-hour film stretches through three generations and as many countries, all controlled by Ruiz’s flowing digital camerawork. (Obit: Guardian)

Mysteries of Lisbon trailer

Melville as a child actor made his first film “City of Pirates” directed by Raul Ruiz
Melvil Poupaud

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Two two enigmatic films by R. Luiz – Ce-Jour La.. and Comedy of Innocence.

But if I had to pick one anecdote (among so many) that best characterised the warmth and genuinely democratic, open spirit of Raúl, it would be from his International Rotterdam Film Festival retrospective of 2004, when I was standing next to him in a crowded foyer. Suddenly, he spotted and waved to a distant guy; they approached each other, warmly embraced, briefly chatted and parted ways in the throng. Who was he (I asked), an actor, a producer from one of his films? No: “He projected my films here in Rotterdam twenty years ago”. For Raúl, a good projectionist was just as important, just as valuable as anyone who contributed to his work, no less than a Malkovich or a Deneuve, a Jorge Arriagada (composer) or a Sacha Vierney (cinematographer). What a memory he had – and what a profoundly ethical sense, right where it most matters, in everyday life, and in the lived history of that everyday. Adrian Martin via girish

Louis Armstrong working on his autobiography. (1958, Corona Queens – photo by Dennis Stock)

Dennis Stock :born July 24,1928, The Bronx, New York City, NY (Magnum Photos)

Louis and Billie Holiday (Previous post)

Simone

Simone Signoret and Yves Montand (An Oscar for 1960 film “Room at the Top” directed by Jack Clayton)

Billy Wilder

Jack Lemmon

James with pig photo by Dennis Stock

James Dean (previous post)

Dennis watched in horror as Jimmy took off his boots and climbed into a bronze casket. He crossed his arms and shouted, “Shoot.”
Dennis refused, saying that it was in bad taste, and suggested Jimmy get out of the casket before someone came in.
Implicit in the series of photos was Jimmy’s dark side, coupled with his desire to be close to his mother, who had died when he was nine years old.

Dennis Stock How he came to know and love the doomed screen idol.

Shinobu Hashimoto and Akira Kurosawa (made history with Rashomon, Seven Samurai and Ikiru)

Obit – shinobu-hashimoto-dies-at-100

Screenwriter for Rashomon dies – (deadline)

(Samurai Rebellion directed by Kobayashi, screenwriting by Hashimoto)

Mainichi obit

via Gojira fan

See youtube here ..

The Guardian –

Her work is subtle, deliberately anti-dramatic. Her approach goes beyond naturalism and lands somewhere between painful introversion and acute empathy. As such, Certain Women won’t appeal to everyone.

But for those who connect with Reichardt’s approach – and I count myself among them – the film is a minor miracle. Based on the writing of Maile Meloy, it is loosely a triptych of stories in which nothing much happens, full of expressive moments in which nothing is said, but which somehow convey an ache of longing or a small stab of triumph. The tales don’t so much intersect as brush against each other. They unfold in the small-town American northwest and feature four women, who each, in their own way, have something of the unvarnished pioneer spirit that fascinated Reichardt in Meek’s Cutoff (2010).

Found the film from the local library – as Criterion added to it’s collection.
The disc includes an interview to Todd Haynes who was an executive producer of Certain Women.

Another Interview –

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The first sentences from the Magic Lantern by Ingmar Bergman.
When I was born in 1918, my mother has Spanish influenza. I was in a bad way and was baptized as a precaution at the hospital.

(Ingmar Bergman archive here)

Jeanne Moreau visiting Ingmar Bergman.
(Read Ingmar Bergman’s Dangerous Liasions)

As Harriet Andersson acknowledged, his leading performers grew exasperated at his tendency to describe them as “my actresses”, as if they were his chattels. From the very beginning of Bergman’s career in the 1940s to its very end 60 years later, the women in his films have testified to the intense and claustrophobic relationship he cultivated with them.

Jeanne Moreau – beloved actress was brilliant and breathlessly cool.

Shimura Takashi and Ingmar Bergman
(During the awarding of the Selznick-Goldlorbeer-award on 29th June 1961 in Berlin on accasion of the Berlinale Film Festival. )
(Shimura appeared in 21 of Akira Kurosawa’s 30 films)

Happy birthday

More photos of Ingmar Bergman here.

A Double Contradictory Feeling by John Stezaker

John Stezaker (wiki)

see more here…The Approach

(via Mubi on twitter)

Robby Muller

Robby Müller, Cinematographer for Jim Jarmusch and Lars von Trier, Dead at 78

R.I.P. Robby Müller. “When I choose to work on a film, the most important thing to me is that it is about human feelings. I try to work with directors who want their films to touch the audience, & make people discuss what the film was about long after they have left the cinema. (Film Society tweeted)

Mystery Train – Jim Jarmusch

Paris Texas

I don’t know what this life is about. I thought I did for a long time, but now I have no idea.
I am not even sure if it matters what we do while we are here. But I think it is something to leave behind as much love and beauty as is possible.
Robby Muller has died.
If there is anyone who surpasses him as far as leaving beauty behind, I have no idea who that could be.
He was a true artist. John Lurie on Facebook July 4, 2018

Buena Vista Social Club

Coffee and Cigarettes – Cate Blanchet in two roles.

Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves (directed by Lars Von Trier)

Ken Russell July 3rd, 1927 (The Mad music lover – previous post)

(Robert Crumb – Introducing Kafka)

Kafka Imagining (previous post)

Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard photographed by Arnold Newman
Both Tom Stoppard and Franz Kafka were born in Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic today).