Intertitle of the Week: May 10th

The first image after the titles of SECRET AGENT. Seemed too apt not to mention, since today is intertitle day, and May 10th.

On Saturday I encountered an intertitle, or actually a sort of subtitle (Duvivier practically invents the subtitle in his silent melodrama LE TOURBILLON DE PARIS) which read “Tomorrow I return to Scotland,” which seemed like a personal message from Julien Duvivier to me, across eighty-two years.

Cheers, JD!

Guess this is my last post from the US, I’ll be back on Scottish soil Monday, expect more then!

Streets full of water, please advise

New York after the rain.

Actually, the deluge has ended, and now the ripples distorting the skyline are those of heat haze. I’ve been sweating like Sweaty Betty the Serengeti yeti. Returning to my digs, I’ve just wrung out my skin and put on a clean one. (Biologists insist that the Scots shed their skins, but this is not strictly true — we may slough our skins, but the true thrifty Scot never sheds anything. Our old skins are carefully stored on coat hangers and used to wrap haggis.)

Two Duviviers today, of which more later, I hope. LE TOURBILLON DE PARIS (THE WHIRLWIND OF PARIS) contained a striking intertitle, “This is our last dance, Jean. I’m leaving for Scotland tomorrow,” which struck me as magnificently apt. If I’d had more presence of mind I might have tried to grab a photo of it. But tomorrow’s Intertitle of the Week is even more appropriate, and applies to everybody, not just me.