The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti, 1951)
Sep
18
Madame Flora (Marie Powers) by herself at a small table in a shady bar. DP: Enzo Serafin.
The Medium (Gian Carlo Menotti, 1951)
Sep
18
Madame Flora (Marie Powers) by herself at a small table in a shady bar. DP: Enzo Serafin.
“When I get myself – cleaned up and straightened out, I'm going down and get a ship and I'm going to wind up in South Sea islands. That's where I wanna go!”On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956)
Sep
14
National Sober Day
Finnish poster. DP: Richard Bagley.
Someone mentions getting sober.
“Well, The Rolling Stones tour of the United States is over. It wounded up with a free concert at the Altamont Speedway for more than 300,000 people. There were four births, four deaths and an awful lot of scuffles reported.”Gimme Shelter (Albert + David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1970)
Sep
13
Uncle Sam Day
Mick Jagger seen from the back wearing an Uncle Sam top hat, in front of an unseen crowd. DPs: Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Gary Weis.
It's December 6, 1969 and just like that, the 60s were over. It started out great, the West Coast edition of Woodstock. Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, a 300.000 strong crowd and, of course, The Rolling Stones on the final leg of their US tour. And, of course too, Hells Angels armed with motorcycle chains, sawed-off pool cues and $500 worth of beer, hired to stop fans from climbing the stage. And not in the least due to its proximity to Frisco, lots of bad drugs mixing with that crowd.
– Stefan Ponek, KSN Radio
Even before a single note had come out of Mick's mouth, someone had punched him in the head. More scuffles, Grace Slick begs the audience to keep their bodies off each other unless they intend love. The Grateful Dead, regular deployers of peaceful Angels security, wisely forfeit their performance. The Stones open their set, the final set of the day. By then, the Angels are far into their $500 beer bounty, and the audience far out of their mind. Meredith Hunter, high on drugs, had brought a gun. And the Angels did what they were ordered to: stop anyone from getting close.
“Are the birds gonna eat us, Mommy?”The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963)
Sep
10
chicken
Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren in a promotional photo by Philippe Halsman. Hedren, as her character Melanie Daniels, is attacked by a large crow while Hitchcock calmly enjoys a fried chicken and a glass of wine. DP: Robert Burks.
Feeling rather peckish.
– You want a leg or a breast? – You make the choice.To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955)
Sep
8
leg or breast
Francie (Grace Kelly) and John Robie (Cary Grant) taking a (lunch) break on the Grand Corniche coast road. DP: Robert Burks.
– You boys care for a sandwich? Got tuna fish and minced ham on rye. – No, thanks. – It's nice and cold.The Monster That Challenged the World (Arnold Laven, 1957)
Sep
7
National Salami Day
Coroner Nate Brown (Byron Kane) offering two cops a couple of nice cold sandwiches straight from one of the morgue coolers on his lunch break. DP: Lester White.
Arnold Laven's The Monster That Challenged the World is one of the earliest, if not thé earliest, example of this peculiar movie and television trope: the coroner's lunch break.
Having some cold cuts over some cold cuts never gets old. Or appetising.
Red Roses of Passion (Joseph W. Sarno, 1966)
Sep
5
A blonde lustfully drinks from a cup held up for her by someone offscreen. DP: Anthony Lover.
Homicidal (William Castle, 1961)
Sep
2
Ice cream (melting)
Emily (Joan Marshall), a stately blonde, looking down on a sulky little kid holding his slowly melting ice cream. DP: Burnett Guffey.
Cremaster 1 (Matthew Barney, 1996)
Sep
2
National Tailgating Day
Goodyear (Marti Domination) on the field, holding the two blimps from which she guides the chorus line. DP: Peter Strietmann.
American artist Matthew Barney dreamt of playing #AmericanFootball at Yale. His body, too short for the demanding game, became his personal battleground by way of torturous prosthetics and art performances testing its endurance. A fascination with biology – he considered medicine as his profession – is a recurring motif in his art. This will teach us that stage 1 of the cremaster cycle is the moment when the cremaster muscle – the muscle in the biological male responsible for the ascent and descent of the testes – is at its most ascended or undifferentiated state.
Cremaster 1, the second of the five part Cremaster cycle (1994—2002), is set at the Bronco Stadium in #Boise, #Idaho, Barney's hometown. Due of his personal connection with the place he was able to secure the stadium for a lush musical revue, complete with chorus girls and Goodyear #blimps. Instead of cheerleading yells and the crushing noise of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, we find ourselves quietly poised in an airship high above the field.
In each airship there is an ethereal woman (both played by gender-ambigious Marti Domination), arranging and rearranging grapes in intricate shapes, illustrating the development of the foetus from non-gendered to male. Below on luminous blue AstroTurf, the chorus line follows the same patterns.
Cremaster 1 is arguably the most accessible instalment of the cycle. Everyone, even if not familiar with the name Busby Berkeley, recognises the kaleidoscopic choreography. And those who have never watched a game of football in their lives, may pick up the subliminal patterns created by men dressed to overemphasise their already excessive masculinity.
“Speed is the ultimate, all-time high. That first rush. Wow! Just that burning, searing, soaring sense of perfection.” Ciao Manhattan (John Palmer + David Weisman, 1972)
Aug
31
International Overdose Awareness Day
A hollow-eyed Susan Superstar (or Edie Sedgwick, it doesn't matter) getting ready in the morning in one of the 1960s scenes. The cameraman is visible in the many bathroom mirrors. DPs: John Palmer & Kjell Rostad.
28 is no age to die, regardless if your name is Susan Superstar or Edie Sedgwick. But it happened, right during the wrap-up of Ciao Manhattan. Edie was gone, just like that, snuffed like so many of the other #Warhol Superstars. What did remain was footage, so much abandoned footage shot in the 60s when those stars were shining at their brightest. That footage, set in glitzy black-and-white Manhattan, is where Edie and Paul America race around town on amphetamine. Or see a doctor to get shots of some sorts.
– Susan
And there's colour footage too. Susan, topless, semi-(un)consciously dragged around the floor of her empty pool-turned-Superstar-temple. She babbles, drinks, dances around in her panties. And she ODs. Like Edie would even before this movie had seen the light of day.
They snuff so fast, these bright Superstars.