Wrapping up my week up here in State College, PA. I’m told that swine flu is running rather rampant across campus, with dorm rooms and individuals being put under quarantine… hopefully I’ve managed to avoid it myself. Been watching a lot of TCM (Turner Classic Movies) up here, notably Hitchcock’s Marnie, which I loved and an interesting special hosted by Liza Minelli about her father who was a renowned director. I like how theatrical-looking old Hollywood productions are. The division between film and stage was once very different than it is now. Also saw a couple excellent Buster Keaton flicks, which made me realize exactly who Pee Wee Herman was ripping off. And also rented another Ingmar Bergman movie that I loved, called in English, Wild Strawberries, the story of an old man reviewing his life (largely in dream form) as he approaches death. Good stuff. I want to watch more Hitchcock, but I would place Bergman as one of my favorite directors right now. Simply spectacular.
Reading a really interesting book right now, also, about the history of the French theatre from around the Revolution onwards, and one of the key points they make in this book is that public pageants, spectacles and events take on themselves a kind of theatrical character - as much as anything that occurs on the actual stage.
Speaking of Hollywood schlock, though, what do you guys make of this 2012 movie that’s coming out?
Is Daniel Pinchbeck somehow behind this? I hope so! May the end of the world be only simulated in the media…
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3 Comments
Buster Keaton was a serious athlete! He did all his own stunts!
Roland Barthes’s Mythologies section on the Striptease seems somehow relevant to the spectacle/pageant/theatrical business.
Yeah Keaton’s stunts are friggin riculous! Love that guy’s work. Thanks for the reference Justin. It seems like SUCH a French way of looking at things… have never managed to get through that whole Barthes book before, but maybe I have the French culture and historical background to cipher it out now…
Really interesting how Copeau was given an opportunity to export his theatre to America pretty much expressly for the purpose of spreading good will towards and influence under French culture. Few people seem to discuss the political purpose - usually unstated overtly - of so much of theatre…