The Mercury Scene @mercuryscene - Tumblr Blog

(Vladimir Nabokov’s Holograph notes from “Speak Now, Memory”) Haha, I just love how he transcribes the “you know”, you can almost feel the sardonism in VN’s commas. Heaven forbid you should be influenced by the author of the book you’re reading. ‘Because, you know, man like, I dunno, I just like to have my own book in my head, right?’

http://web-static.nypl.org/exhibitions/nabokov/fus.htm

#vladimir nabokov #nabokov #interpretation #ulysses #literature #lol

oversizedcanoe

Found this absurdly verbose note somewhere in the writing books of my script, and it’s kind of annoying to find there is a time when I can make seemingly salient and penetrating observations.

I reckon it applies not just to fictional characters, but to real people. I’d rather die than be boring.

oversizedcanoe

OZU & BERGMAN - Two Continents apart

These are a few random notes after watching Autumn Afternoon, the last film of Yasujiro Ozu.

I’ve been meaning to watch Ozu’s films for a while, mainly because Vincent Gallo lauded the loneliness of the final scene – he claimed that after watching all of Ozu’s films it was that last scene in his last film which summed up the entire sensibility of the artist’s work.

I waited almost two hours for that moment and wasn’t disappointed. It’s two shots and it hits you like a tonne of bricks, but to be honest I don’t know if it says more about Gallo’s sensibility and weltanschauung or Ozu’s.

Incidentally for those who have seen Buffalo ‘66 the dinner table scene borrows extensively from Ozu’s camera work - notice the use of illegal cuts.

And this is where I feel like Ozu is the counterpoint or the intaglio of Bergman - they both favour clean compositions, shoot wide shots from low angles (both probably borrowing from John Ford). However where as Bergman shows the disintegration of facades as people devolve into emotional wrecks such as Liv Ulmann’s character in Scenes form a Marriage, Max Von Sydow in Hour of the Wolf, Bibi Anderson’s character in the first half of Persona – in Autumn Afternoon characters such as Michiko always maintain their pleasant façade – leaving their outbursts for off screen, or never out bursting but instead expressing emotion in a solemn, devastated, non violent way.

Then there is the fact that in later Bergman films Sven Nykvist, possibly the greatest camera man who ever lived would do amazing whip-pans and crash zooms – allowing the actors to dictate the movement of a scene, unleashing them from some of the shackles of blocking. However in Ozu’s world characters, like in Barry Lyndon, are almost frozen, even their body language expresses very little – instead of a wild gesticulation you might have the scrunching of a blanket, or the bobbing of a head. But they are still locked onto their marks so as to not force Ozu’s camera to pan, pull out or in any way move. Every frame is locked.

Bergman was a serial monogamist, a lover of women. Ozu apparently had one affair with a Geisha and lived with his mother almost until his death (she died months before him). Only if Bergman came from Portugal or England could they have been from more polar opposites of the Eurasian landmass.

oversizedcanoe

Kubrick himself liked to quote James Joyce, saying “accidents are the portals to discovery. “

onlytwofilm

An interview with Leo V on “Pepper Piq TV” probably around the time of Indian Summer’s release. Leo V was known for his

mercuryscene

A Screencap for a film I’m working on

#vhs #vhs glitch #onlytwo #only two film

retroness-is-fabulous-deactivat

“ The late 1980s ushered in gravity-defying volume, with lift from the crown to the nape of the neck. “

retrostuff88-deactivated2019082

that hair is so 80s

#volume #1980s #1980s fashion #hair #gawddamn #new wave

jfrusciantesite

A sneak preview of something a kind friend got me when I scouted it - Young Guitar Magazine for May, 1990. Coming up after the summer. :)

"The madness begins in the weeks leading up to the UN General Assembly when my email inbox is suddenly disgorging invitations to cover "high-level events" on everything from anti-microbial resistance to climate change," writes AFP's UN correspondent Carole Landry. "NGOs are offering up experts to discuss the refugee crisis and a PR firm asks if we would like to interview the foreign minister of Kazakhstan. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's wife is inviting reporters to talk about 'the advancement of the Turkish economy and democracy.' Everyone is in town for UNGA."

An interesting little read that touches on some of the banalities of reporting on the U.N.