(Jean-Pierre Kalfon et Bulle Ogier dans L’Amour Fou)
Made in 1968 (one can smell May in the air) Jacques Rivette’s third feature like his first, Paris Nous Appartient, deals with the interplay between theater and life. Sebastien (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) is staging Racine’s classical tragedy Andromache. His wife Clare (Bulle Ogier) is supposed to play the leading female role. But no sooner have rehearsals started she balks and retreats into a world of her own, clearly clinging to the edge of sanity. Eventually Sebastien abandons the play and joins Clare. Together they destroy their apartment in a restaging of the tumultuous break-up of Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
(Jean-Pierre Kalfon et Bulle Ogier dans L’Amour Fou)
That’s the “plot.” The film is many other things. Rivette was very much influenced by Roland Barthes'...
(Roland Barthes)
... writings on Jean Racine. He also drew on Hitchcock’s Marnie and Rossen’s Lilith as models for Clare’s emotional collapse. And beside the Godard/Karina contretemps the climactic scene was clearly influenced by Vera Chytilova’s Daisies.
Rivette let Kalfon stage Andromache by himself – as if it were going to be performed. He also had Andre S. Labarthe film the rehearsals with a 16mm film crew. Hence L’Amour Fou is in 35mm and 16 I tandem.
(L’Amour Fou)
(Jane Birkin and Marushka Detmers)
(Jane Birkin and Marushka Detmers)
While there has been no end of blather about the alleged ‘daring of La vie d’Adele, if you’re looking for a real "envelope pushing" lesbian love story Jacques Doillon’s 1984 masterpiece, La Pirate starring Jane Birkin and Marushka Detmers is the one to see. Sorry about the subtitles. You’ll have to either learn French or Japanese. But the action is easy to follow.
(La Pirate)
Last but far from least there’s Martin Scorsese’s It’s Not Just You Murray. Made in 1963, it has been by and large remade by Marty as The Wolf of Wall Street.
(It’s Not Just You Murray)
(Leonardo DiCaprio)
See what I mean? Enjoy!
(It’s Not Just Your Murray 1)
(It’s Not Just You Murray 2)
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p.s. Hey. Mr. David Ehrenstein brings his Petit MacMahon theater back into the fold this weekend to fill the local portion of your weekend with a superb triple-bill. Please treat yourselves, should you find the rewarding time, and, in any case, do treat our masterful curator with a comment-shaped treat, thank you! And, of course, supercharged thanks to Mr. E, without whom ... ** les mots dans le nom, Hi. No, I didn't write the questions and answers. They were magically out there and available. I'm happy that you found gorgeousness in the Gladman novel. Intentionality in fiction is tricky. Fiction is all intention all the time, so that's just second nature, but finding a way to either hide the intention or make the intention's availability part of the point is tricky. Mushroom soup with truffle, wow. I mean, yeah, I mean, yum. With eye candy! ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff, and thanks again so much for the awesome post, sir. Thanks about he Santa thing. Yeah, I just got to wondering one day. Grin, whoa, I haven't thought about them in ages. I did like them, yes. I was kind of fan of the young Nils Lofgren's stuff with Grin and his early solo things too before he got eaten up by his Neil Young band identity and duties. Yeah, they were curious. He did some nice things under the Crazy Horse guise back when they were a separate entity as well. My favorite song on the first Crazy Horse album is Lofgren's 'Beggar's Day', which retrains some of that Grin idiosyncrasy. ** Rigby, Morning or afternoon, Rigs. I forget where that igloo one is, shit. In Europe somewhere, I think. Uh, ... no, I can't remember. Am I cool with 'being' Monk? Who wouldn't be? Thanks, wow, thanks. A band ... ? Good thing you warned me about that 10 quid bet because ... well, never mind. So, if the band that shall not be named is taken out of the running, ... uh, that's hard. I'm going to do an eery-money-mo thing. Hold on. Okay, Pavement won. And what band are you and yours aligned with? ** Tosh Berman, If I know my Santa Claus, I think the most he would do is let Amazon buy some of his stock. Too late on the protectionist thing re: Santa. The Santa whom we know and look upon was essentially invented by the Coca Cola company. ** Steevee, I did read about that Fox News Santa/Jesus thing, yeah. And the Duck Dynasty thing. No, no one over here gives much of a fuck about all of that tiny, stupid celebrity stuff in the US that gets blown up into giant, stupid weeklong superficially political discussion stuff in the US. Those mini-crises-cum-phenomenons happen way too often and die out sans resonance too quickly to read as bastions of any meaningful meaning outside the hothouse, I think. ** Sypha, Hi. That is a nice depiction of Santa's abode. I wish I'd found it in my searches, and I don't why I didn't. Ha ha, well, obviously I need to find a fresh way to be polite. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. That community event type thing for young locals with MS sounds like a fantastic thing, obviously. She sounds very cool. As do you, always, obviously. A Leeds Xmas full of getting important things done sounds very nice. Cool light thing. ** Nicki, Wow, Nicki! Incredibleness to see you, my old and dear pal! Ha ha, oh, the blog has become a place of utter randomness since you left. It's just one random post after another. That one was pretty typical. How the heck are you? Am I going to get lucky enough to get some kind of catch-up from you? Would be awfully cool. In any case, tons of love to you! ** Wolf, Wolferino! Yay! I get to share Xmas with the Wolf! Yes, it's true, I am like you, and Xmas is a resplendent time, especially here in Paris, and, oh boy, is it prettiness incarnate here right now. You know. Ooh, gingerbread. With chocolate and orange peel? Let me dwell on that combo for a moment. Yes, my mouth responded in a highly positive fashion. I can only imagine that if you sent a letter to Santa c/o the Recollets, Chrystel would pop it in my mailbox without even thinking twice. New laptop! Sweet! Nothing like a new laptop five years later. I've been there, yep. I'm really good, pal, thank you. Life is good. Not a trace of snow yet. It's gotten cold enough here, but not when the sky wasn't empty. Oh, yes, please do try to be around for the holidays. Buches of love to you! ** David Ehrenstein, Thank you so very much for the enlightening weekend just ahead, my friend! ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris! Ha ha, interesting about Australia. Kiddiepunk and Oscar B. are down there for Xmas right now, and maybe they'll chime in with local Xmas color. Oh, shit, yeah, the interview. No, it's good that you remind me. I'm really such a space case about things sometimes, I'm so sorry. I will set to finishing that this afternoon. Yeah, I'm really sorry to be so slow. I don't why I get so scattered. Yeah, the French, like, invented New Orleans or something, I think. You take care, too, man, and I'll get the interview finished and to you as soon as I can. ** Okay, that's it for Santa's comments. Commence with your time in Le Petit MacMahon now or at least sometime over the course of the two coming days, please. Have fine weekends with and without this blog's input, and I'll see you on Monday.