Piero Tosi: Visconti's Costumier

Larry's coming to New York

Deconstructing Harry

Richard: You create your own universe,

nicerthan the world we have.

Harry: l can't function in this world.

l'm a failure at life.

Larry: You put art into your work.

l put it into my life.

Ça c'est de la musique!

Mesdames et Messieurs, je vous présente,

Gainsbourg et sa gueule

Oh Odéon!

O Cinema Odéon fica na Rua dos Condes, Nº 2-20, e data de 21 de Setembro de 1927, tendo sido estreado pelo filme mudo de Eric von Stroeheim, A Viúva Alegre. É a única sala de espectáculos de Lisboa alusiva ao período de Art Déco, apresentando pormenores de invulgar beleza e inovadores (frontão de palco em art déco, impressionante pé direito, tecto em madeira de verbena em forma de quilha, lustre de néons, etc.). Pela sua tela passaram clássicos do mudo e do sonoro, estrangeiros e portugueses, de Lang a Tod Browning, Eisenstein, Cukor ou Capra; Laura Alves, Madalena Iglésias, Joselito, etc. É propriedade privada. Está encerrado e à venda desde 1993. Lisboa não se pode dar ao luxo de perder o Odéon. É o local ideal para “a” sala de cinema independente de que Lisboa precisa.

Juntem-se a esta causa aqui.

(vá, não sejam preguiçosos)

Duas curtas a ver

Spike Jonze, uma livraria antiga parisiense, stop motion e arts & crafts e Terry Gilliam e uma inspiração Felliniesque.

Miranda July's Handy Tip for the Easily Distracted

(acho que vou seguir esta dica)

Fellini's fate

Filmmaker Chelsea McMullan’s emphatic new short documents the surreal myths surrounding Federico Fellini’s infamous unmade film Il Viaggio di G. Mastorna Detto Fernet (The Journey of G. Mastorna called Fernet), the story of a man living unknowingly in the afterlife. The avant-garde director described the project as his life’s curse, and legend has it that a magician once told Fellini that if he made the picture, it would be the last thing he ever did. Premiering at September’s Toronto Film Festival, Deragliamenti (Derailments)––an exclusive edit of which we present above––explores the tribulations surrounding the prospective movie and the La Dolce Vita director’s decision to produce the metaphysical tale as a comic strip with artist Milo Manara instead. “Manara saw himself as a vehicle through which Fellini could rid himself of the negativity,” explains McMullan. “The comic is less a visual adaptation of the film and more Fellini coming to terms with the approach of death.” In an eerie fulfillment of the magician’s prophecy, Il Maestro passed away six months after the publication of its first installment, making the comic strip the final project he ever worked on. We talked to McMullen about the enduring influence of the legendary Italian.

What did you find intriguing about the story of the curse surrounding Il Viaggio?

As filmmakers we use narrative to structure our thoughts and feelings, it gives us control over things we can’t explain. That’s why the curse is so fascinating. It had the ability to stifle Fellini from making the film.

Did you worry about the curse affecting you while making the documentary?

I had a bad accident riding my bike home one night and I remember lying on the pavement thinking that this was an extension of the curse. After that I started to be really paranoid. I think I was just living the story, which in way is a good thing, but it didn’t do much for my mental health.

You interview Manara in the documentary. Did he have any interesting insights into working with Fellini?

We conducted the interview in his studio in Verona. Manara explained he and Fellini would often go for dinner to discuss the project, and inevitably Fellini would start sketching his ideas on a napkin. Eventually Manara pulled out a drawer full of a thick pile of them, soiled with Bolognese, wine and olive oil. On each one was a faded sketch, some quite elaborate, others just faded lines, all hand drawn by Fellini.

Did Fellini see comics as being as important a medium as film?

Fellini considered and approached comics exactly as he did films. Visually, by using stills instead of moving images, Manara’s collaboration with Fellini acts as a bridge between comics and cinema.

What is it that still makes Fellini relevant today?

His films deconstruct every facet of popular culture in a single film: religion, paparazzi and celebrity. Fellini had the unique ability to be incredibly playful and dark at the same time. He placed the audience in a room full of funhouse mirrors and told them to look at themselves.

daqui

A very Freudian day

a very interesting day.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

- Freud

Love & Death

Baisers Volés (1968), Truffaut

All men fear death. It's a natural fear that consumes us all. We fear death because we feel that we haven't loved well enough or loved at all, which ultimately are one and the same. However, when you make love with a truly great woman, one that deserves the utmost respect in this world and one that makes you feel truly powerful, that fear of death completely disappears. Because when you are sharing your body and heart with a great woman the world fades away. You two are the only ones in the entire universe. You conquer what most lesser men have never conquered before, you have conquered a great woman's heart, the most vulnerable thing she can offer to another. Death no longer lingers in the mind. Fear no longer clouds your heart. Only passion for living, and for loving, become your sole reality. This is no easy task for it takes insurmountable courage. But remember this, for that moment when you are making love with a woman of true greatness you will feel immortal.

Midnight in Paris (2011), Woody Allen

Criterion January releases

Ou o porquê das edições da Criterion serem muito mais do que simples dvd's.

mais aqui

Les Femmes du 6éme Étage, Philippe Le Guay

A estética deliciosa, o multiculturalismo na Paris dos anos 60 e a comédia das espanholas "orgulhosas e corajosas"

ou Este filme dá-me vontade de redecorar o quarto e comer paella.

Modi

Só depois daquela cena em que Modigliani, completamente desesperado e suado, doente, arrasta-se por um café a tentar vender os seus rascunhos por 5 francos é que percebi a beleza de Montparnasse 19.

Aí comecei a ver os lindos close-ups, as sombras, a doçura de Anouk Aimée e a fragilidade de Gérard Philipe como Modigliani. Só no fim do filme, naquela cena tocante que mais lembra um pesadelo, quando, no meio do nevoeiro, o comprador de arte anda atrás de Modigliani que nem o espectro da morte. Só no fim, quando vejo toda uma vida de procura de reconhecimento e não de riqueza a ser colhida pela ganância e por um amontoado de quadros é que toda a beleza do filme me assola. Mais vale tarde do que nunca. Mas vale mesmo.

Enfin, a vida de artista é difícil.

Lightning Over Water, Nicholas Ray & Wim Wenders

um nó na garganta.