Antonioni Film Synopses

The Lady Without Camelias (1953)- Stardom comes too quickly for Clara Manni. Leaving her parents’ drapers shop in Milan, she becomes a film star overnight, thanks to a small role in a film. Her producer, Gianni, quickly derails a promising career, however. Passionately in love with Clara, he imposes marriage on her and forbids her to appear in another film unless it is worthy of her talents. Gianni finally finds her such a role – as Joan of Arc in his next big budget picture. The film is a disaster and Gianni is ruined. Clara leaves him and goes off with a young diplomat, Nardo, who has come to love her through her films. With Nardo’s encouragement, Clara restarts her acting career, the hard way

http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_La_Signora_senza_camelie_1953_rev.html

The Girlfriends (1955)- Roman couturier Clelia (Eleonora Rossi-Drago) leaves the big city to work at a boutique in Turin. She moves into a hotel and makes several new friends, but is soon drawn into their extremely unpleasant lives. Clelia enters a doomed relationship with a poor architect’s assistant (Ettore Manni), sees her new best friend Rosetta (Madeleine Fischer) commit suicide after being jilted by her married lover (Gabriele Ferzetti), and is eventually fired from.

http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2331

Sheba and the Gladiator (1959)- Zenobia, Queen of Palmira, revolts against Rome and defeats the Roman troops... But she makes a big mistake when she falls in love with enemy officer Marco Valerio

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051985/

The Adventure (1960)- A group of rich Italians head out on a yachting trip to a deserted volcanic island in the Mediterranean. When they are about to leave the island, they find Anna, the main character up to this point, has gone missing. Sandro, Anna's boyfriend, and Claudia, Anna's friend, try without success to find her. While looking for the missing friend, Claudia and Sandro develop an attraction for each other. When they get back to land, they continue the search with no success. Sandro and Claudia proceed to become lovers, and all but forget about the missing Anna. Written by

http://www.imdb.com/SearchPlotWriters?Dork%20%7Btkarapit@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca%7D
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053619/plotsummary

Eclipse (1962)- Michaelangelo Antonioni's L'ECLISSE (ECLIPSE) is a visually stunning film with a strange, abstract plotline. Monica Vitti stars as Vittoria, a beautiful woman who, in the opening scene of the movie, dumps her boring boyfriend Riccardo (Francisco Rabal). Vittoria's mother (Lilla Brignone) passes her time at the stock exchange, watching the numbers rise and fall as if her whole life depends on the next high or low. In contrast, Vittoria wanders the streets of the city unhindered, dreaming, floating independently and waiting for whatever fate befalls her. She begins an affair with a powerful, handsome, emotionally vacant stockbroker, Piero (Alain Delon). Their relationship is fun, flirtatious, risky, and dangerous all at once--but mostly, it is an expression of true human affection, which the other characters in L'ECLISSE seem to lack. However, the plot of L'ECLISSE is hardly Antonioni's focus. As sweeping pans of the calm, dusty streets mix with the intense cacophony of the stock exchange, the director compares and contrasts the structure of city life with the still, silent aspects of a more natural environment, observing society's evolution into a technological monolith. L'ECLISSE is part of a trilogy of Antonioni films, along with LA NOTTE and L'AVVENTURA

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800145964/details

Red Desert (1964)- Cold, rain, and fog surround a plant in Ravenna. Factory waste pollutes local lakes; hulking anonymous ships pass or dock and raise quarantine flags. Guiliana, a housewife married to the plant manager, Ugo, is mentally ill, hiding it from her husband as best she can. She meets Zeller, an engineer en route to Patagonia to set up a factory. He pursues her, they join friends for a dinner party of sexual play, then, while Ugo is away on business, she fears that her son has polio. When she discovers the boy is faking, she goes to Zeller, panicked that no one needs her. He takes advantage of her distress, and she is again alone and ill

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058003/plotsummary

The Three Faces (1965)- Former empress Soraya is cast in three episodes, the first of which, "The Screen Test," functions as a prolog to the other two. Directed by Antonioni, it presents a view of Soraya on the night of her screen test for this picture. Reportedly, however, "The Screen Test" was struck from the release print and the negative destroyed. "Famous Lovers" casts Soraya as a married woman having an affair with a struggling writer, Harris. The final episode has her playing an executive on a trip to Rome who is entertained by Sordi, a gigolo hired by her travel agency

http://movies.tvguide.com/faces-woman/review/120447

Blow-up (1966)- A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he accidentally captures on film the commission of a murder. The fact that he has photographed a murder does not occur to him until he studies and then blows up his negatives, uncovering details, blowing up smaller and smaller elements, and finally putting the puzzle together.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060176/plotsummary

Zabraski Point (1970)- An epic portrait of late Sixties America, as seen through the portrayal of two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who's helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) and dropout Mark (who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot)... Written by

http://www.imdb.com/SearchPlotWriters?Michael%20Brooke%20%7Bmichael@everyman.demon.co.uk%7D
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066601/plotsummary

The Passenger (1975)- A reporter arrives at a desert hotel in a North African country in the Sahara Desert to report on the guerrillas fighting there. He meets a man who dies suddenly, and who resembles the reporter so much, that he decides to change identities with the dead man--to escape his personal problems and more. The life is of a man is made of his ingrained habits, and that will haunt him as he tries to start a new relationship with a young, strange woman he meets subsequently.... Written by Artemis-9

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073580/plotsummary

Fellini's Film Summaries

Casanova (1976)- A carnival in Venice is the prelude to a series of erotic encounters that follow Giacomo Casanova through the cities of 18th century Europe. It is the age of Voltaire – sexual and intellectual awakenings abound. Casanova's life becomes a freakish journey into sexual abandonment. Any meaningful emotion or sensuality is eclipsed by increasingly strange situations. In Venice, he "defiles" a fake nun for the pleasure of a rich voyeur; in Paris, he attempts to convert a mature woman's soul into a man's using intercourse; in Dresden, his body is pounded by two hefty women and a hunchback. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini

Amarcord (1973)- A year in the life of a small Italian coastal town in the nineteen-thirties, as is recalled by a director with a superstar's access to the resources of the Italian film industry and a piper's command over our imaginations. Federico Fellini's film combines the free form and make-believe splendor with the comic, bittersweet feeling for character and narrative we remember from some of his best films of the 1950s. The town in the film is based on Rimini, where Mr. Fellini grew up. Yet there is now something magical, larger-than-life about the town, its citizens and many of the things that happen to them. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071129/plotsummary

8 ½ (1963)- About a film director named Guido Anselmi who cannot find inspiration for his next film. Under the pressure of coming up with a new idea, as well as the pressure put on him by friends and family he retreats into dreams and flashbacks from his memory and fantasies that are interwoven with reality. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056801/plotsummary

Night of Cabiria (1957) The film follows Cabiria as she searches for love but encounters frequent heartbreak. Mistreated and taken advantage of by almost everybody she encounters, Cabiria eventually meets a man who promises her a respectable future and falls head over heels in love with him. What follows is a series of humiliating episodes, in which the defiantly positive Cabiria is hurt, but never broken. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nights_of_Cabiria

Satyricon (1969)- In first century Rome, two student friends, Encolpio and Ascilto, argue about ownership of the boy Gitone, divide their belongings and split up. The boy, allowed to choose who he goes with, chooses Ascilto. Only a sudden earthquake saves Encolpio from suicide. We follow Encolpio through a series of adventures, where he is eventually reunited with Ascilto, and which culminates in them helping a man kidnap a hermaphrodite demi-god from a temple. The god dies, and as punishment Encolpio becomes impotent. We then follow them in search of a cure. The film is loosely based on the book Satyricon by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, the "Arbiter of Elegance" in the court of Nero. The book has only survived in fragments, and the film reflects this by being very fragmentary itself, even stopping in mid-sentence. See:

http://www.wildsound-filmmaking-feedback-events.com/fellini-satyricon.html

Roma (1972)- A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens. blending autobiography (a reconstruction of Fellini's own arrival in Rome during the Mussolini years; a trip to a brothel and a music-hall) with scenes from present-day Roman life (a massive traffic jam on the autostrada; a raucous journey through Rome after dark; following an archaeological team through the site of the Rome subways; an unforgettable ecclesiastical fashion show). See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069191/plotsummary

City of Women (1980)- Marcello is in the compartment of an Italian train, facing forward when the mineral water of the woman seated across from him starts to fall toward him. He catches the bottle and makes eye contact and follows her when she leaves the compartment. For a few moments she finds him attractive too. Then suddenly she gets off the train and starts walking through a field. Marcello follows her, loses her, finds himself in a large hotel surrounded by women. A feminist conference is taking place and he tries to escape. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080539/plotsummary

Spirits of the Dead (1968)- Toby Dammit- About a disheveled drugged and drunk English movie star who nods acceptance In the Italian press and his producers fawn over him. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063715/plotsummary

Variety Lights (1950)- Variety Lights is a bittersweet drama about a group of second-rate theatrical performers on tour. The actors, dancers, and performers struggle to make money from town to town, playing to minimal crowds, while the aging manager of the company falls in love with a newcomer, to the chagrin of his faithful mistress, played by Fellini's real-life wife, Giulietta Masina. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_Lights

Il Bidone (1955)- Aging small-time con man Augusto, who swindles peasants, works with two younger men: Roberto, who wants to become the Italian Johnny Ray, and Bruno, nicknamed Picasso, who has a wife and daughter and wants to paint. Augusto avoids the personal entanglements, spending money at clubs seeking the good life. His attitude changes when he runs into his own daughter, whom he rarely sees, and realizes she's now a young woman and in need of his help to continue her studies. His usual partners are away, so he goes in with others to run a swindle, and they aren't forgiving when he claims he's given the money back to their mark. They leave him beaten, robbed, and alone. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047876/

La Strada (1954)- A carefree girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047528/plotsummary

La Dolce vita (1960)- Marcello is a society gossip columnist. During one of his rounds, he meets again Maddalena and spends the night with her in a whore's bedroom. When he comes back home the next morning, he discovers that his girlfriend Emma poisoned herself because of him. Later, he is at the airport where the famous star Sylvia is arriving : he will go with her a few days... A chronicle of a decadent society where there is no more values except alcohol and sex, and no solutions but suicide. See:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053779/plotsummary

The White Sheik (1952)- The first two days of a marriage. Ivan, a punctilious clerk brings his virginal bride to Rome for a honeymoon, an audience with the Pope, and to present her to his uncle. They arrive early in the morning, and he has time for a nap. She sneaks off to find the offices of a romance magazine she reads religiously: she wants to meet "The White Sheik," the hero of a soap-opera photo strip. Star-struck, she ends up 20 miles from Rome, alone on a boat with the sheik. A distraught Ivan covers for her, claiming she's ill. That night, each wanders the streets, she tempted by suicide, he by prostitutes. The next day, at 11, is their papal audience. Can things still right themselves? See:

http://www.imdb.com/SearchPlotWriters?%7Bjhailey@hotmail.com%7D

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044000/plotsummary

Juliet of the Spirits (1965)- Giulietta (Giulietta Masina) explores her subconscious and the odd lifestyle of her sexy neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), as she attempts to deal with the mundane life and philandering husband (Mario Pisu) that oppress her. As she increasingly taps into her desires, as well as her demons, she slowly gains more self-awareness and, ultimately, independence. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliet_of_the_Spirits

Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse

Eclipse (1962)- Michaelangelo Antonioni's L'ECLISSE (ECLIPSE) is a visually stunning film with a strange, abstract plotline. Monica Vitti stars as Vittoria, a beautiful woman who, in the opening scene of the movie, dumps her boring boyfriend Riccardo (Francisco Rabal). Vittoria's mother (Lilla Brignone) passes her time at the stock exchange, watching the numbers rise and fall as if her whole life depends on the next high or low. In contrast, Vittoria wanders the streets of the city unhindered, dreaming, floating independently and waiting for whatever fate befalls her. She begins an affair with a powerful, handsome, emotionally vacant stockbroker, Piero (Alain Delon). Their relationship is fun, flirtatious, risky, and dangerous all at once--but mostly, it is an expression of true human affection, which the other characters in L'ECLISSE seem to lack. However, the plot of L'ECLISSE is hardly Antonioni's focus. As sweeping pans of the calm, dusty streets mix with the intense cacophony of the stock exchange, the director compares and contrasts the structure of city life with the still, silent aspects of a more natural environment, observing society's evolution into a technological monolith. L'ECLISSE is part of a trilogy of Antonioni films, along with LA NOTTE and L'AVVENTURA.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800145964/details

Here is a clip from the last few minutes of the film there is a bunch of interesting imagery, that i think deserves some investigation. As well the film as a whole, with its context in the country and in the city seems to have some interesting ties to LNM.

Aronson's design

the inspiration . . .

and the design: plastic painted panels, the residence behind . . .

As designed by Derek Lane for the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C.

set model by Derek McLane

citation below

McLane:[Based on Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of the Summer Night, the setting is late 19th–century Sweden]. In the first act, before we go the country, there are these portals. They’re translucent and they have these Magritte-style birch trunks on them. Various pieces come on- and offstage—bedrooms, sitting rooms. At the end of the first act, when we go to the country, the portals fly out, and the country house appears, surrounded by a forest of enormous leaves. The house’s windows light up, and it has a human-size door [even though it is a half-height unit]. In the second act, the house changes positions a number of times, sometimes going all the way offstage. Desiree’s bedroom is a large canopied bed. There are a couple more units—garden architecture—that come downstage in different combinations, as we move to scene to scene. For the banquet scene, a really huge chandelier comes in, all the way down to the floor, with tables and chairs set up in front of it. My favorite part of this design is the giant photographic leaves."

excerpt from Derek McLane: A Designer’s Diary, Part II. Apr 1, 2002 12:00 PM, Derek McLane. in Live Design. retrieved 19.05.09 from http://livedesignonline.com/mag/show_business_derek_mclane_designers/

593. Love and Age, by Thomas Love Peacock

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919.
The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Thomas Love Peacock. 1785–1866

I PLAY'D with you 'mid cowslips blowing,
When I was six and you were four;
When garlands weaving, flower-balls throwing,
Were pleasures soon to please no more.
Through groves and meads, o'er grass and heather, 5
With little playmates, to and fro,
We wander'd hand in hand together;
But that was sixty years ago.

You grew a lovely roseate maiden,
And still our early love was strong; 10
Still with no care our days were laden,
They glided joyously along;
And I did love you very dearly,
How dearly words want power to show;
I thought your heart was touch'd as nearly; 15
But that was fifty years ago.

Then other lovers came around you,
Your beauty grew from year to year,
And many a splendid circle found you
The centre of its glimmering sphere. 20
I saw you then, first vows forsaking,
On rank and wealth your hand bestow;
O, then I thought my heart was breaking!—
But that was forty years ago.

And I lived on, to wed another: 25
No cause she gave me to repine;
And when I heard you were a mother,
I did not wish the children mine.
My own young flock, in fair progression,
Made up a pleasant Christmas row: 30
My joy in them was past expression;
But that was thirty years ago.

You grew a matron plump and comely,
You dwelt in fashion's brightest blaze;
My earthly lot was far more homely; 35
But I too had my festal days.
No merrier eyes have ever glisten'd
Around the hearth-stone's wintry glow,
Than when my youngest child was christen'd;
But that was twenty years ago. 40

Time pass'd. My eldest girl was married,
And I am now a grandsire gray;
One pet of four years old I've carried
Among the wild-flower'd meads to play.
In our old fields of childish pleasure, 45
Where now, as then, the cowslips blow,
She fills her basket's ample measure;
And that is not ten years ago.

But though first love's impassion'd blindness
Has pass'd away in colder light, 50
I still have thought of you with kindness,
And shall do, till our last good-night.
The ever-rolling silent hours
Will bring a time we shall not know,
When our young days of gathering flowers 55
Will be an hundred years ago.

from http://bartleby.com/101/593.html

from 'How the Show Reached the Stage'

the story from Craig Zadan . . .
(executive producer of a special benefit Sondheim: A Musical Tribute (1973), and with Neil Meron one half of Storyline Entertainment)

re. the original motive and metaphor:
"It was something that we always wanted to do. A musical that dealt with love and lovers and mismatched partners . . . love and foolishness, tying it all together with age." (Harold Prince)

re. the move away from the original concept:
"The way all this worked was that Madam Armfeldt, who was like a witch figure, would reshuffle the pack of cards and time would revert and we'd be back at the beginning of the weekend again. The characters would then re-form, waltz again, and start over. It was all to be presented like a court masque with a music-box quality. . . . Hal finally persuaded me that instead of being as dark as Bergman, we should go entirely in reverse. . . . He wanted the darkness to peep through a whipped-cream surface. Whipped cream with knives . . . "

re. the Aronson design:
"For the new musical, Boris Aronson began creating a modern setting of six sliding panels made of transparent plastic painted over with birch trees, and Florence Klotz went to work creating an elegant turn-of-the-century costumes."

re. the adaption by Hugh Wheeler:
". . Basically his book became a straightforward telling of Bergman's story, although Prince and Sondheim planned to treat the show as an operatta instead of a musical comedy."

re. the conceit of the lieder singers:
"When Steve wrote the very first song he said that he brought in a liebeslieder group standing around a piano and I couldn't see why. Then I got the idea for a singing overture and the whole use of the lieder singers, who would represent the people in the show who aren't wasting time." (Harold Prince)

re. the departure from the New York idiom:
" . . Steve said at first, 'I don't know if I can write this . . .what do I know about Sweden at that time?' And I told him - and I always go to the top - 'What did Shakespeare know about ancient Rome? Just do it. You're not writing a documentary. Just write what you're feeling about those people!'"

re. the relationship to the film:
". . . Hal and Steve never said that they going to retell the story of Smiles of a Summer Night. They decided to lyricize the various aspects of love. That was the intention. And there's a point of view to everything that's on that stage from the old lay to the maid in the grass."

re. the voyage as an organizing principle:
" . . . we decided that the one thing all the characters had in common was that they were going off for a weekend in the country. Hal and Hugh outlined a series of events revolving around the invitation and I wrote the number 'A Weekend in the Country'."

re. thoughts from the choreographer, Patricia Birch:
" . . . I was somewhat apprehensive about doing Night Music. I realized that the show was almost anti-choreographic. Here was a musical that was going to be built on all of Steve's beautiful waltzes, and I could hear myself saying that I don't ever want to break into 'The Grand Waltz' because I don't think that is what Bergman is about, nor do I feel that's what's written, nor was it going to be possible to start poking 'numbers' in."

re. the notice by a critic in Boston:
" A Little Night Music was greeted modestly in Boston. 'It suffers,' said Kevin Kelly in the Boston Globe, 'from a kind of complicated simplicity that stirs admiration but not much feeling . . . It's distinctive, charming, pleasurable, and remote. I appreciate all of its qualities, except its over-worked intricacies, and wish it had the power to make an impression on my emotions since it is a musical dedicated to the mystery of emotions . . . I think it is a musical for a very special, very limited audience.'"

re. another critic in Boston:
" It slows down in the end, saunters and dawdles when it should gallop apace, and loses some of its bright edge of irony. Even so, A Little Night Music is a lovely show, a civilized entertainment, elegant and amusing." (Elliot Norton, The Boston Herald American)

re. the quality of the show, and a note to us:
from Flora Roberts: " . . you have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Unfortunately, the show's biggest problem was that the first fifteen minutes were dull. But Hal was right to keep the piece simple and quiet."

and Prince's response?: " . . I said its Chekov in style, let's stick to Chekov and they've got to go with us. The only reason for doing it was we wanted to do this kind of musical. If we gave them a wham-bam opening number so that they felt comfortable, we would, in the long run fail. And we stuck to our guns and we were popular."

re. the notice on the New York opening February 25, 1973:
Clive Barnes in the New York Times: "At last a new operetta. A Little Night Music is heady, civilized, sophisticated, and enchanting. It is Dom Perignon. It is supper at Lassere. And it is more fun than any tango in a Parisian suburb . . . Yet perhaps the real triumph belongs to Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the music and the lyrics. The music is a celebration of 3/4 time, am orgy of plaintively memorable waltzes, all talking of past loves and lost worlds. Then, of course, there are Mr. Sondheim's breathtaking lyrics. They have the kind of sassy, effortless poetry that Cole Porter mastered . . People have long been talking about Mr. Prince's conceptual musicals; now I feel I have actually seen one of the actual concepts . . . Good God! - an adult musical!"

other criticisms included:
" . . exquisite and rather lifeless. It is over-refined operetta, attractive to the intellect but cool to the touch . . . something special, remote elegant and unablet reach the heart." (Douglas Watt, Sunday Daily News)

"I think Steve's score to Night Music is glorious but I found the show too polite. I thought Hugh Wheeler's book was tastefully written and a fine piece of craftsman ship, but it lacks feeing and that's a pity. The abrasivenessthat is part of Steve is what stimulates him most. On the other hand, he was dealing with musical styles that are very dear to him . To have reference to all of those styles was very rewarding for him. But I don't know why the show was as successful as it was . . . and I don't think they did either. . . . The reason that it did so well at the box office was probably because of its neatness and placidity . . . there is nothing disturbing about it. The feelings those people have are very real - at least in my head they're real - but they're not as disturbing or real or foolish or anguishing in the production as I wish they had been." (James Goldman)

(Goldman also makes some interesting remarks about the problem of the double opening and the lieder singers . .)

re. using movie techniques in the final scene:
. . .The last scene in Night Music, which takes place everywhere on the estate, appears to be happening only on the lawn. What no one else realizes is that the young wife and her stepson are running along a hall and down an alley and off to the country. Desiree is having her scene with her lover in her bedroom. The countess and Fredrik are having a conversation on the lawn, and so on . . . it's all over the place. It's actually a situation that can't be done on a stage, but I told Hugh Wheeler not to worry about it, to write it as though it were a movie. What I did was put it all on the landscape and I don't even think the audience quarelled with it . . . or even asked where they were. I think people sense some things. I think people sense that you know where they are so they leave it alone. I think if they ever sense that you're unsure of what you're doing, that insecurity filters through the work." (Harold Prince)

. . . he then invokes the succesful abstraction of movies by Fellini and Antonioni . . .

Craig Zadan
excerpted from ? ,
originally from Sondheim & Co. New York: Nick Hern Books, 1990.

Bergman Looming Large

Bergmans films have captured the attention of many people around the world. He was considered to be a contributor to art house cinema and his films are said to capture the inner world of the psyche and achieve. Bergman has become the hallmark for the existential/philosophical relationship drama (although he too has made other kinds of films). The picture above is from his film The Seventh Seal and it captures the essence and artistic quality of some of his films.

When Bergman passed away many people around the world mourned the death of a great artist:

New York Times
Mervey Rothstein (30/7):
"For many filmgoers and critics, it was Mr. Bergman more than any other director who brought a new seriousness to filmmaking in the 1950s.
[...]
Bergman was the first to bring metaphysics - religion, death, existentialism - to the screen, Bertrand Tavernier, the French film director, said. But the best of Bergman is the way he speaks of women, of the relationship between men and women. He's like a miner digging in search of purity."

This website details the films, theatre and writings. As well it goes through his universe and the timeline of his life with all things that have occurred in between.

http://www.ingmarbergman.se/universe.asp?guid=FE220371-903F-496E-AF32-3659682D1FAC

Goodbye for Now and Love Always

Candy darling was a Warhol star, she was a transvestite. The website listed below gives a short biography of her life including childhood. It also takes a look at the development of her name and some of the movies she appeared in and how she progressed as an actor.

I think the most interesting part of the information listed on her was the section that detailed her experience in the movie Women in Revolt. Her co-stars and herself, did not get along well and neither did the directors with the actors. I think a lot of very interesting conversation was listed that lets you get a glimpse into the fireball she was. She was needless to say a very strong personality.

She died of leukemia and left a goodbye letter to some of her friends. This is listed at the end of the page:

To whom it may concern

By the time you read this I will be gone. Unfortunately before my death I had no desire left for life. Even with all my friends and my career on the upswing I felt too empty to go on in this unreal existence. I am just so bored by everything. You might say bored to death. It may sound ridiculous but is true. I have arranged my own funeral arrangements with a guest list and it is paid for. I would like to say goodbye to Jackie Curtis, I think you're fabulous. Holly, Sam Green a true friend and noble person, Ron Link I'll never forget you, Andy Warhol what can I say, Paul Morrissey, Lennie you know I loved you, Andy you too, Jeremiah don't take it too badly just remember what a bitch I was, Geraldine I guess you saw it coming. Richard Turley & Richard Golub I know I could've been a star but I decided I didn't want it. Manuel, I'm better off now. Terry I love you. Susan I am sorry, did you know I couldn't last I always knew it. I wish I could meet you all again.
Goodbye for NowLove Always
Candy Darling
Tinkerbell HI!

Peter Hujar, Candy Darling on Her Deathbed, 1974. Vintage gelatin silver print, 15 7/8 x 19 7/8 in. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/exhibits/downtown/portraits1.html

In the letter there is a sense of unreal optimism as in there is something better waiting for me. The letter has a kind of upbeat tone to it and does not make her sound defeated by the disease, she is merely moving on.

http://www.warholstars.org/stars/candy.html

see also
http://www.screenhead.com/funny/art/
http://www.delijst.net/delijst/filedump/index.php
for a treasure trove of related chotkes . .

magical transitions

some excerpts from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show": More than a Lip Service (citation below), posted here as part of our research for educational purposes . . .

"Much of this movie's humor comes from its parody of the Hollywood musical genre. The Rocky Horror floorshow scene is obviously a take-off on Busby Berkeley production numbers. However, the dancers in The Rocky Horror Picture Show make only a minimal effort to stay in step and are not above saying "shit" when they go particularly spastic. Rocky Horror's slap-dash vigor and spontaneity consciously affront the mechanical modes of dance traditionally seen in musical pictures. If song and dance did actually originate as aspects of religious ritual behavior used to differentiate the sacred from the profane moment, then Rocky Horror attempts to restore this original continuity of style and content. While in most musicals, elaborate style is used to gloss over the insignificant content of songs and dances to plots and themes, in this film the less polished numbers call attention to their artifice and to their ritual functions. Rocky Horror's songs and dances often have ceremonial functions that might be obscured if not presented in song and dance. . . .

In The Rites of Passage, Arnold Van Gennep describes the life of the individual as a series of transitions from one stage of psycho-social development to another, and from one socio-economic role to another. He notes that each of these transitions or passages is accompanied by ceremonial behavior "whose essential purpose is to enable the individual to pass from one defined position to another which is equally well defined."5 Later researchers expanded this concept to include the transition made by society as a whole, labelling ritual behavior that functions in this way as "rites of intensification."6 Even when there is violent conflict, social and personal evolution does not occur by total conquest and subjugation, but by stages Van Gennep labelled "separation," "transition," and "incorporation," through which compromises take place, compensations are made, wounds are healed, and equilibrium is restored.

There has been at least some interest in recent years in the nature and function of ritual symbolism in an essentially profane world - i.e., a world without overtly meaningful religious ceremony.7 As the anthropologist Solon Kimball has noted, "There is no evidence that a secularized urban world has lessened the need for ritualized expression of an individual's transition from one status to another."8 Rites of passage or intensification function to reduce the harmful effects of individual life crises and the evolutionary crises of whole cultures by ritually acting-out and dissipating hostilities and tensions, and then symbolically depicting a transition to a new pattern of behavior incorporating new elements acceptable to everyone involved. . . .

This "normal" vision is the only daylight scene in the film. [The story begins with a standard, almost comic-book conception of a Midwestern marriage, and with Brad's and Janet's betrothal in a churchyard parody of Grant Wood's classic picture, "American Gothic."] Van Gennep has noted that the sacred and profane coinhabit the same physical dimensions, and the difference between them is largely a matter of human perception. There- fore, ceremonies often occur at night, a natural, symbolic transition after the ritual death of (separation from) the old day and before the birth of (incorpora- tion into) the new. Curry, perhaps in reference to his double role, later sings "By light of day I'm not much of a man, but by night I'm one hell of a lover." There is a good deal of apparently gratuitous Christian symbolism in this scene, I believe because the film identifies "straight" sexual repressiveness with Christianity, and the "dead" sexual mores suggest a dead religion. Curry's emphasis on "hell" underscores his transsexual vitality. The lack of any kind of vitality in Christianity is parodied by Brad's proposal beginning in the graveyard and continuing into the church accompanied by a casket. . .

The second scene, Brad and Janet's rainy, nighttime car-ride down a deserted road, is a classic set-piece of horror films as well as a perfect example of the first stage of a rite of separation. Physically and symbolically, Brad and Janet are stuck at a "dead end"; they must progress to some new level of experience. The car-ride also places the film within a general cultural context we have been discussing; Janet is reading the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and Nixon is protesting his innocence on the radio. Both Brad and Janet seem fairly insensitive to what is happening politically in their environment; Brad continues to ignore the unu- sual (and sacred) signs around him throughout the film, until, in the floor show scene near the end he sings, "It's beyond me. Help me, Mommy." Janet, a less hypocritical and more sensitive character, participates rather easily in the events at Frank's castle. (When she joins Frank in "I Can Make You a Man," even he is surprised). She is at least aware that the appearance of a castle on a thought-to-be-deserted midwestern US road is a bizarre thing. . . .

Their entrance onto the castle grounds is an appropriately marked transition from the profane world of daily life to the sacred world of ritual. The transitional ground of the forest, the warning sign on the gate, the Transylvanian flag, and the massive ornamental door are all normal ceremonial aspects of rites of separation and transition, emphasized in the film by Janet's singing "Over at the Frankenstein Place." Their entrance into the castle is further marked by what Van Gennep calls "purifications," rituals that mark the individual's separation from the profane world and his old life and his preparation to begin the transition. These would include at least the singing and dancing of "The Time Warp" and the removal of Brad's and Janet's clothing. Frank notes that their nakedness makes them "vulnerable," and this is precisely the act's ritual signifi- cance. (Their sharing a libation with the Transylvanians would have been a further such ritual, but Riff-Raff breaks the bottle, an additional sign of his hostility.) Frank emphasizes the sacred aspect of Brad's and Janet's new condi- tion when he notes their shivering, presumably from the rain, and says he will "remove the [profane I cause, but not the symptoms." He knows that it is his own sexuality and the highly unusual activities at the castle to which Brad and Janet are reacting. . . .

With Brad's and Janet's changes of costume, the transitional phase of the rite of passage begins. Frank's singing of "(In Just Seven Days) I Can Make You a Man" is intentionally ironic in terms of his creation of Rocky, and adds reso- nance as well to Brad's initiation. . . .

Eddie's entrance on his motorcycle from Frank's deep-freeze is a scene of remarkable vitality and energy, but Frank's pick-ax murder of Eddie marks a turning point in the film. . . .

. . . . Frank completes the seduction of both Brad and Janet, beginning their initiation in his new sexual tradition, but later he makes a horrible mockery of the eucharistic meal that is often the climax of the rite of incorporation - the participants discover they are literally eating Eddie, the bond between the races. The meal is aborted, and the film races toward its climax.

The appearance of Dr Scott, who has been mentioned throughout the film as Brad's and Janet's teacher, adds a further dimension to this analysis. Scott is paralyzed from the waist down, a classic image of impotence and incompleteness. He is, of course, Frank's mortal enemy, in every sense, for he believes that Frank has come to subvert human morality, i.e. puritanical sexual traditions. Frank's sneering "Or should I say, Dr Von Scott," also seems designed to identify Scott with the death-oriented tradition of Nazi science; it's no surprise when Dr Scott justifies Frank's murder with the phrase "Society must protect itself." . . .

. . . . When the characters are "reincarnated," they find themselves dressed for Frank's floorshow in his uniform: high-heels, black fishnet stockings, and black corsets. Even after the sonic transducer has been shut off and the medusa has been reversed, it is clear that Brad, Janet, and even Dr Scott have been irreversably charged to some degree with Frank's sexuality. Midway through the scene, Dr Scott's paralyzed legs (dressed in black stockings and heels) suddenly come alive and kick out from beneath his wheel-chair blanket. (A "transducer" is literally a device that transmits energy from one system to another.) Van Gennep notes that initiation rites frequently climax with the participants being ritually killed and resurrected, and the floor show scene certainly seems to fill these requirements of separation and incorporation . . . .

. . . as Victor Turner has pointed out, "Human social groups tend to find their openness to the future in the variety of their metaphors for what may be the good life and in the contest of their paradigms."9 The Rocky HorrorPicture Show provides a paradigm for bisexuality that smacks of psycho- logical regression - magical thinking and polymorphous perversity are considered part of very early (pre-teen) developmental stages by most psychologists. The S-F parody might also be considered juvenile by unsympathetic observers. On the other hand, this "regression" is most likely an attempt to recapture lost - not to mention repressed - elements of the personality, elements which in a healthy personality are not destroyed or replaced, but supplemented by further elements such as "logical thinking." . . . "

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show": More than a Lip Service (Le "Rocky Horror Picture Show,"
du bout des lèvres)
Author(s): Mark Siegel
Source: Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, Science Fiction and the Non-Print Media (Nov.,
1980), pp. 305-312
Published by: SF-TH Inc
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239358
Accessed: 14/05/2009 15:04

Maggie remarks:

In this article Rocky Horror picture show is described as a mutant form of organized religion. It begins by going through the role of the audience as participants rather than the viewers and notes that the participation from the audience details their acceptance of the films values rather than rejection or mockery. The article also goes into great detail about the transitional stages that both Brad and Janet go through. From separation from the every day norms of their lives to incorporation into this new world and a new way of living that highlights their sexual right of passage outlined by the events in the film.
This aspect of the article peaked my interest as I see a connection with this idea of transitional stages in some of the characters of Little Night Music; Anne is going through a transitional stage with her inner struggle about having sex with her husband who is much older than she is. As well I believe that each character that visits Mrs. Armfeldt's house goes through a separation from the world they existed in at the beginning of the play and then in turn each character gets reincorporated into a different kind of world in Mrs. Armfeldt's house, very similar to the transition that Brad and Janet must go through when they arrive at the castle in Rocky Horror Picture Show. The characters that I believe to through this transition are Henrik, Anne, Petra, Fredrik, Carl-Mangus, Malla and Charlotte. Desire, Fredrika, and the others that inhabit Mrs. Armfeldt's home, all seem to be playing the same game throughout the play; much like Frank-N-Furter and his crew in the castle. The whole concept of the transition from separation to reincorporation interests me and I think that it lingers throughout Little Night Music. I believe this concept could potentially be investigated more.

David suggests:

themes that have resonance for our show: the disruption of the dance back into the normal, rites of intensification, transformation/transfiguration, seduction, the power of the night canopy, the gate, arriving by motorized means, the forest, the eucharistic meal, physical paralysis (leading into rejuvenation), regression leading to recapture of the lost elements of humanity . . .

Life is Short. Have an Affair.

Life is short. Have an affair, it's their moto. This is a website where you can arrange to have an affair on your spouse, partner or lover? Interesting concept seeing as the whole affair thing lingers in LNM. I think the whole idea of having a place to go that will assist you in facilitating an affair with out the drama is an original one to say the least. When I say 'eliminates drama' I mean the whole idea of the website is to be able to of have an affair with someone else who is married or in a committed relationship that also is looking to have an affair on his or her spouse. It eliminates the confusion of having an affair with someone who is single who could potentially want a commitment from you then you’re in a rock and a hard place because you have a spouse to worry about. You know exactally what you are getting yourself into. See? less confusion…

On Tyra Banks show they did an episode where they had the creator of the ashleymadison.com website face the music when he had to witness the destruction he helped facilitate. You could see when Tyra was asking him questions he was scrambling a little bit. He also explains his goal for the website and why exactly the website runs.



The idea of a place that facilitates infedelity of any kind seems a little out of the ordinary and kind of leaves a diffrent taste in my mouth. I think the website has some interesting content on it about what exactlly this place does is might be interesting to look at. Even take a look at the comments section, there are some unexpected boasts about the website.

http://www.ashleymadison.com/

Maggie hits a home run

hi there
answers (?!) below . . . .

On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 12:18 PM, mg06yk mg06yk@brocku.ca> wrote:

So i have been attempting to figure out what this is, but i have no idea, thats not to say that i have not attempted to come up with ideas. I did not post this on the blog along with other things because i am not sure that i am remotely close to on the right track but here is my rant:

What are starlight ashes? Do they have something to do with space? yes

Are they the smell of eternity? most definitely

Could it be dead Hollywood stars that were cremated? you bet

I am not sure why it comes off this way but it is reading to me as some kind of glamorous, glimmering destruction. yup. diamonds dripping puss . .

Perhaps a Hollywood stars that died from lung cancer? yes, nicotine!

Hollywood stars that smoked? But didn?t smoke just any cigarette they smoked classy cigarettes with a cigarette holder, the one you see in 101 Dalmatians that Cruella Deville always has in her hand. bingo, but also Jimmy D and the tightly held butt (no pun intended)

But they only lit up when it was evening after a long day of work. Or maybe smoke like Marlene Dietrich in this picture:

brilliant

Or a smoke filled evening martini bar where that atmosphere is thick with??
. . . .lust? hope? disappointment? revenge?

The other avenue that came to mind was more of a scenic element like a late night sandstorm sand resembling ashes:
stunning

interesting . . .

Perhaps maybe it is a supernova explosion in the sky that marks the life of a new star:

or the death of an old one . . .

I'm really not sure
ah, but you are ;-)

Fever Hallucination Common in the Elderly

Browsing through some Blogs on the internet I ran into some notes from people who had a first hand experience with a Fever Dream. From what I understand Fever Dreams usually occur when a person has a temperature and in the middle of a REM cycle they produce a dream, possibly a scary nightmare that is extremely disjointed. I found it interesting when reading about some peoples encounters with Fever Hallucinations, typically seen in children and the elderly when the have a fever these, do not necessarily occur in the evening they can happen anytime.I think the topic of Fever Hallucinations deserves further investigation.

I stumbled upon a couple blogs that detailed an experience with fever hallucinations. What i found interesting in it was the fact that when he was writing in this state of hallucination he thought he was creating a masterpiece however, when his fever broke and he was back to normal it was just mindless jabber written on the page. Here is the link to this blog:

http://metatime.blogspot.com/2005/12/fever-dreams.html

Are they aware that they are dreaming?

If they are then they might be having a lucid dream. In a lucid dream you are aware that you are dreaming. There are different levels of awareness in lucid dreams, they range from mere awareness that you are dreaming, to the ability to actively participate in the dream in order to change or manipulate the actions or outcomes. There are also different ways to achieve a lucid dream from a sleeping or awake state. Apparently you can help control a lucid dream by keeping a dream journal and doing other things. For more information see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream

Julie, are you there?

smoldering ashes of a fire once hot . .

some recent words in the night sky

icons and abstractions:

warhol's factory
candy darling
midnight cowboy
Desiree is Julie Newmar?

time and place:

ashes
cobwebs
dust
moonlight and evensun

she is in fever dream
living at the end of century - household dressed in her period livery . . which is?

the mediated body:

scabs
bites
zombies
ghosts
vampires
nicotine and cheap cologne
greasy brylcream . . .

starlight ashes
vodka pouring from full bottles

no moral centre, we're running around naked and intoxicated on the vapours of the night

frames:

the daughter and the aunt: the one last thing she has to do is get her daughter settled . . (*check the relationships here)
chateau (is important!)
Sondheim and his desire to musicalize Ring Round the moon and to do Chekovian work
Bergman looming large
broad quotations from many performances/oeuvres . . .

a deck of cards dealt by Armfedlt: this was the original model
( . . . she was controlling the characters as if cards in a deck)

Breaking the convention of the RHPS with Object Theatre: Rocky's packing foam in them there shorts

The Collins Theatre Center did a production called the Rocky Horror Puppet Show where they incorporated life sized puppets some were attached to their bodies and some that were free standing and operated by multiple people. This is the only version of the musical where I have seen a deviation from the typical presentation. Here is the website for the show, you will find multiple images here as well as a video: http://www.collintheatrecenter.com/PastShows/2006/RockyHorror/MAIN.htm

Richard O'Brian: Where's his head at?

I stumbled across an interview Richard O'Brian (the writer of Rocky Horror Picture Show) and Mike Hosking that has some interesting content regarding the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Richard O'Brian explains that "someone dressing up in fishnets and high heels is rather empowering...sexual and empowering." The interview is in 2 parts on youtube. It allows you to get a small glimpse into his modivation, inspiration and really just lets you know where his head was at in the process of writing the script and music.

A Taste of Rocky to Wet your Pallet

The UCF Conservatory Theatre did a production of the Rocky Horror Show in 2007. Their production included cross dressing, lots of colours and a multilayered set. I have added the video of the song Sweet Transvestite to get a taste of their performance. I think this is a good example of what the typical performances of RHPS look like as well it effectivly displays the kind of atmosphere, costuming and overall tone that is typically seen on the stage in this musical.

techno trash