Curiouser and Curiouser
Smoking a long-stemmed pipe isn’t a traditional thing for a young lady to do, but trust me, Marie-France Pisier ROCKS THAT LOOK in the very strange and beguiling SERAIL (AKA SURREAL ESTATE), a sort of alternative universe sequel to CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING, which you can read about over at The Daily Notebook in this week’s The Forgotten.
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August 19, 2010 at 11:56 am
I like the sound of The Great Garrick. Your description of it reminded me of a scene in J-P Melville’s Un flic in which all the drinkers/diners in a regular-looking café turn out to be plants.
August 19, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Oh, The GG is sublime! One of the few times Whale found really congenial material outside the horror genre. The interplay of theatre and life is obviously a them which chimed with his interests. It really does anticipate Rivette in important ways, while still being a Hollywood romantic comedy of the traditional kind.
August 19, 2010 at 1:20 pm
The Great Garrick is hands down my favorite Whale — and one of the greatest movies of the 1930. Jacques Rivette avant la lettre it should be shown as a doubel feature with eith L’Amour par terr or La Bande a Quatre
Serail i find is “close but no cigar.” Eduardo De Gregorio’s an interesting characters. In Straub-Hullet’s Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer ou peut-etre qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir a son tour (aka. Othon) he sports the loveliest pair of kneecaps I’ve ever seen.
Of course that was back in 1969. Goodness knows what they look like now.
August 19, 2010 at 2:09 pm
August 19, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Claire Denis’ two-part diptych – ”Jacques Rivette, le Veilleur” (Rivette, the Nightwatchman) is one of the greatest achievements of Cineastes de Notre Temps and my favourite of her films. The second part, “The Night”(actually set and shot at nighttime) is just as great. It’s Rivette talking about film with Serge Daney.
The masterpiece of that show is supposed to be another Rivette movie seen by few – Jean Renoir, le Patron. Criterion unfortunately used only portions of this as excerpts for their Renoir DVDs rather than the whole thing.
August 19, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I may be about to get my hands on the Renoir doc, which I’ve heard wildly enthusiastic reports on for a while now.
August 19, 2010 at 8:23 pm
> One of the few times Whale found really
> congenial material outside of the horror genre
I’m hoping that you count “Show Boat” as one of the other occasions that he found it.
August 19, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Corin Redgrave’s widow is Kika Markham — one of the stars of Rivette’s Noroit
August 19, 2010 at 11:41 pm
She also appears in LES DEUX ANGLAIS ET LE CONTINENT (sic?) and is a well known British TV actress naturally associated with revolutionary politics in the past and now taking over from Sylvia Syms in playing Mrs. Thatcher. Her late father David Markham was a very progressive actor.
August 19, 2010 at 11:44 pm
Showboat certainly counts… maybe that’s the only other great non-horror one. I await a watchable copy of By Candlelight to be sure.
Am I right in thinking Kika M did some Dennis Potter on TV? Ah yes, Blade on the Feather.
August 20, 2010 at 3:43 am
I have ALWAYS said that a long stem ‘Churchwarden’ pipe looks fabulous when smoked by a woman! I’m introducing it into everything I draw…somehow.
August 20, 2010 at 10:38 am
Doesn’t it blacken and erode the teeth, though? All the pipe-smokers I’ve seen had teeth like Lon Chaney in London After Midnight (see Clouzot in the extras of the Le Corbeau DVD).