You know that cinema and films in general are younger than I, but because of my age I feel better with old films and stories.
This weekend I was watching on of my favourites Battleship Potemkin (1925) by Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein.It is a classical film with a very modern story, in my opinion. Eisenstein copied some of the new techniques started by Griffith and did marvelous things with them. He was a geniuous of manipulation and creating situatuons with big contrasts.
My friend Jack in her/his pots about originality complained with anger about how unoriginal things were. Well, I have some experience, and originality is creation, and creation is making things where anything existed before. All the rest is wit and work. Using this fantastic thing of the Internet I found a good version of the famous Odessa clip of this film.
I hope you like it. I know that for some purists this things should not be done. They are like a sin. You may probably talk about the heresy they did with Metropolis (1926) by Fritz Lang. They remastered the film with a soundtrack by Queen conducted by the sinful Giorgio Moroder (I would leave him to you Jack!). Maybe you like it or maybe not, but you sure have an opinion.
The new things people do with music are not really so new, plagiarism is somethig like Fran Perea copying Pure by Lightning Seeds, Hombres G copying At The Zoo by Simon and Garfunkel and many more very close to us. The reason for this..? Empty brains and big egos! It is more decent to sample and mash-up other creations as a simple tribute to the authors. The combinations of sound and notes exists very probably anywhere else, like in nature, but the first one who identifies it can be called the author, the rest is copying.
Something about the song A Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. Maybe this is a song "From Hell". The legend says that it is deeply conected and influenced by Jimmy Page, a firm follower of the occultist Aleister Crowley. Jim bought Crowley's mansion in Foyers, Scotland by Loch Ness. In that house died John Bohham, the drummer of the band. It is said that the stairway really exists hidden inside the house. Maybe a visit would make all clear.
Will you join me?
Monday 27 October 2008
Monday 20 October 2008
To Jack!
My dear young friend!
200 years is nothing to me. You say that you are old and to me that sounds like a short nap!
You said to me that you like "Holiday in Cambodia".
Here is this little present to you. Keep your eyes open! Watch behind your back and do not fall asleep in class where all the eyes are watching you!
Carpe Noctum!
*Jello Biafra is still one of the most active democracy activist in the country that was once a province of Great Britain.
** I will continue to inform you. I have a lot to teach you!
200 years is nothing to me. You say that you are old and to me that sounds like a short nap!
You said to me that you like "Holiday in Cambodia".
Here is this little present to you. Keep your eyes open! Watch behind your back and do not fall asleep in class where all the eyes are watching you!
Carpe Noctum!
*Jello Biafra is still one of the most active democracy activist in the country that was once a province of Great Britain.
** I will continue to inform you. I have a lot to teach you!
Slow down
Talking about slowing down...
Life was different before I fell sleep. Now I see people doing so many strange things!!! always hurrying!!!
I take a taxi and the taxi driver and I talk, and talk. It seem we are friends. The the driver stops and I have to pay. I was just a comedy, a willing suspension of disbelief for some minutes. I give the driver the money and we do not touch. I want to hold that hand. The hand of a friend.
Feel the blood inside the veins, the sweat in the palms! Make it real, take the farce further...
Life was different before I fell sleep. Now I see people doing so many strange things!!! always hurrying!!!
I take a taxi and the taxi driver and I talk, and talk. It seem we are friends. The the driver stops and I have to pay. I was just a comedy, a willing suspension of disbelief for some minutes. I give the driver the money and we do not touch. I want to hold that hand. The hand of a friend.
Feel the blood inside the veins, the sweat in the palms! Make it real, take the farce further...
Sunday 19 October 2008
More films. The Coen
You will have to excuse me, but a person of my age that has slept in so many theatres has some culture of films.
I insist the Burn After Reading does not honor the name. It should be "Burn after watching". I did my homework and went to see the film this weekend!
The story is ok, the actors not bad, but why do they have to finish all the story in three minutes of conversarion when they still had time for more film?
I returned home and watched "No country for old men". Just to make me feel better.
By the way Mr. Bean, some bad or weak films with Brad Pitt in it:
Less than Zero
Contact
Interview with the Vampire
The Mexican
Spy Game
Seven Years in China
Do you need more?
Carpe Noctum!
I insist the Burn After Reading does not honor the name. It should be "Burn after watching". I did my homework and went to see the film this weekend!
The story is ok, the actors not bad, but why do they have to finish all the story in three minutes of conversarion when they still had time for more film?
I returned home and watched "No country for old men". Just to make me feel better.
By the way Mr. Bean, some bad or weak films with Brad Pitt in it:
Less than Zero
Contact
Interview with the Vampire
The Mexican
Spy Game
Seven Years in China
Do you need more?
Carpe Noctum!
From science to entertainmet
I am surprised our mutual friend Jack has been so imprecise this time! I imagine that when he talks about cinema and Louis and Auguste Lumière, he refers to that December 28 in 1895 (technically the 19th. century but the invention was part of the movement to the 20th.) in the Salon Indien in the Grand Café in the Boulevard des Capucines. Louis and Auguste didn't try to create entertainment. They wanted to show the world theis invention: the cinematograph.
Simple scientific difusion, no business or killing time. In fact, five years later the brothers abandon de the invention. But, George Méliès, how was in the Salon Indien in that day (with our friend Jack I imagine) immediately talked to Antoine Lumière (the father of the inventors) to try to bay a cinematograph. But he didn't succeed.
George Méliès, owner of the Houdin Theatre in Paris, was a magician and an illusionist. One of those that, like Jack was mesmerized by the possibilities of the invention from the point of view of creating magic tricks and making people believe lies. Méliès films are pure theatre and magic shows. No science and seriousness like the work of the Lumière brothers.
George bought a copy of the cinematograph in England. Bad days for the patents that Edison knew how to profit!
I have slept so many years that I have dreamed almost everything that can be dreamt or filmed. New films based in old stories just want to entertain and mesmerize simple minds. The cinema exists because our retina does not work correctly.
If you have interested in the Lumière brothers experiments you have to watch their first ten films which are less than 15 minutes long all together.
I am happy you like cinema Jack, I am happy.
Let the game be played and the players roll the dice!
Carpe Noctum!
Simple scientific difusion, no business or killing time. In fact, five years later the brothers abandon de the invention. But, George Méliès, how was in the Salon Indien in that day (with our friend Jack I imagine) immediately talked to Antoine Lumière (the father of the inventors) to try to bay a cinematograph. But he didn't succeed.
George Méliès, owner of the Houdin Theatre in Paris, was a magician and an illusionist. One of those that, like Jack was mesmerized by the possibilities of the invention from the point of view of creating magic tricks and making people believe lies. Méliès films are pure theatre and magic shows. No science and seriousness like the work of the Lumière brothers.
George bought a copy of the cinematograph in England. Bad days for the patents that Edison knew how to profit!
I have slept so many years that I have dreamed almost everything that can be dreamt or filmed. New films based in old stories just want to entertain and mesmerize simple minds. The cinema exists because our retina does not work correctly.
If you have interested in the Lumière brothers experiments you have to watch their first ten films which are less than 15 minutes long all together.
I am happy you like cinema Jack, I am happy.
Let the game be played and the players roll the dice!
Carpe Noctum!
Wednesday 15 October 2008
Tuesday 14 October 2008
Some people...
Some people think that they have a lot to say and talk a lot. Some people think they do not have nothing to say and do not talk, or talk very few things.
I have lived-slept so many centuries that nothing can surprise me. I think I know you before I do. You make me think of other people I have seen.
Some of you are just like little Billy Budd Sailor, some others seem to know everything (you know who you are) Much Ado About Nothing, and some others make me feel I am back in Walden
It is very interesting I have found you. You say more about yourselves than you think. It is a great game to see you in class, and try to discover the guilty look.
Enjoy the game!
I have lived-slept so many centuries that nothing can surprise me. I think I know you before I do. You make me think of other people I have seen.
Some of you are just like little Billy Budd Sailor, some others seem to know everything (you know who you are) Much Ado About Nothing, and some others make me feel I am back in Walden
It is very interesting I have found you. You say more about yourselves than you think. It is a great game to see you in class, and try to discover the guilty look.
Enjoy the game!
Saturday 11 October 2008
The Last Laugh
This is about the subprime mortgages and the consequences we have to suffer. If you cannot see the video try this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g
From a comic point of view.
From a comic point of view.
Thursday 9 October 2008
Carpe Noctum
Carpe Noctum!... I think.
If this is what the world of reality has to offer I think I will go back to sleep with myself and my thoughts, my worries and my fears
If this is what the world of reality has to offer I think I will go back to sleep with myself and my thoughts, my worries and my fears
After all these years...
"He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well-oiled fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the barrel incrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock worm-eaten."
What we think is different, old and useless is very frequently the same old thing, and still useful. Do you think we need to throw the objects we do not use for some time or we must keep them?
Cheerio!
Sorry I'm late!
Sorry I'm late! Better sorry than late! I just woke to find myself in the middle of this. It seems I'm always late. You know that. I'm even late to choose a name for my blog!
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