Still in haste

[selenak]

Still confined to internet cafés, or, this morning, to the business center of a hotel. Fortunately, there are no impatient Japanese travellers waiting behind me. They'd make my guilt reflex kick in.

I read the recent articles about Chaplin in Sight and Sound. Oh, if only my trusty laptop weren't broken down. Once I kidnap my father's laptop, which will be soon, I'll probably write about Chaplin myself. Ever since I went to a class about silent movies way back when I was still at the university, I fell in love and was lucky enough to see several of the films the way they were meant to be watched, on the big screen. But you can't write longer texts in a café or a business center.

Meanwhile, here's another review of Sylvia:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16974

This one is by Diane Middlebrock, who wrote the recently published Her Husband about the Plath/Hughes marriage. Her review is more mixed than the others, but she brings up some interesting points, for example that Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were actually a far less conventional couple for their time than the movie can show, time-sharing taking care of the babies and household duties so that one of them (Plath) could write in the morning and one of them (Hughes) in the evening. Sounds just like common sense, but wasn't that usual in the late 50s and early 60s, alas.

Speaking of marriages, these last months quite a lot of people have heard about American diplomat Joseph Wilson, who went to Nigeria to investigate the supposed attempt by Iraq to buy nuclear material there, came back reporting that he had found this hadn't been the case, was soundly ignored, wrote a scathing article about it in the NY Times and then had his wife outed as an CIA agent. Here's the newest on that affair:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1068124,00.html

Comments

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

This review of Sylvia to which you link has aroused my interest in Plath. (Of whose works I only own a copy of Ariel, second-hand.)

It's only mildly irked me for spoiling a movie I haven't seen (Swimming Pool, although I probably stand a better chance of seeing it now with the spoilery information than I would have otherwise), and tickled me by referencing Regeneration, which I have seen (movie), heard (audio tape) and read (full book trilogy).

And it's made me want to rewatch Morvern Callar, and more's the pity that it was playing tonight and I didn't go see it; but then, I wouldn't have read this article prior to it anyways.

Oh, you must read Ariel.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As for the life, ironically so far a book questioning the entire validity of writing biographies, Janet Malcolm's The Silent Woman, is imo the best take on it. But I'll leave you with the poem from which saava took the quote of my new icon, and which is very apropos now that the movie is out:

Lady Lazarus

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it-----

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?-------

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The Peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand in foot ------
The big strip tease.
Gentleman , ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:

'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart---
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

Or a piece of my hair on my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

[kathyh]

I'll probably write about Chaplin myself. Ever since I went to a class about silent movies way back when I was still at the university, I fell in love and was lucky enough to see several of the films the way they were meant to be watched, on the big screen.

I'm relying on you then to tell me how to find Chaplin funny, because I just don't. Admittedly I've never seen any of his films on the big screen, but when they were on TV here my grandmother (part of his original audience) used to nearly fall off her chair laughing and I could never understand why.

Incidentally I believe there is a big new DVD box set of Chaplin's films. Not wanting to tempt you or anything...

I know there is a new DVD box out, that's why...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...they had the articles.

And what they show on TV are clips of the early Mutual serials, at the wrong speed, with the wrong music. If I'm in Britain again, or if you come to Germany, I'll sit you down in front of his feature-length stuff The Kid, or Gold Rush, or City Lights and I promise it will make you laugh and cry. That's the magic of Chaplin.

Or maybe you have events in London like we do in Munich? For example, the restored original Gold Rush shown in a symphony hall with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra playing.

[kathyh]

And what they show on TV are clips of the early Mutual serials, at the wrong speed, with the wrong music.

I didn't know they showed them at the wrong speed. That might account for a lot.

If I'm in Britain again, or if you come to Germany, I'll sit you down in front of his feature-length stuff The Kid, or Gold Rush, or City Lights and I promise it will make you laugh and cry. That's the magic of Chaplin.

You can try *g*. I can't guarantee it will work.

Or maybe you have events in London like we do in Munich? For example, the restored original Gold Rush shown in a symphony hall with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra playing.

Yes, we do. Usually at the Barbican. Often with composer/conductor Carl Davis who, I think, writes new music if the original is lost.

Chaplin

[cavendish.livejournal.com]

Hi There!

feature-length stuff The Kid, or Gold Rush, or City Lights and I promise it will make you laugh and cry. That's the magic of Chaplin.

You can try *g*. I can't guarantee it will work.

Works with me all the time; especially with Gold Rush and City lights. :-).

I have a copy of Gold Rush as *.avi (The 1940th (?) reedited version with Chaplin's original voice over & music) in case anybody is interested. ;-)

F.

Chaplin fans of the world, unite!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'll write that post as soon as my situation improves (see latest entry.)