Vecchia guardia / The Old Guard

Alessandro Blasetti: Vecchia guardia / The Old Guard (IT 1934). The hero carrying the flag, his buddy carrying the first martyr

[Vanha kaarti] / [Det gamla gardet].
    IT 1934. PC: Fauno Film S. A.
    D: Alessandro Blasetti. SC: Alessandro Blasetti, Giuseppe Zucca - based on a story by Giuseppe Zucca ja Livio Apolloni. DP: Otello Martelli. AD: Leo Bomba. M: Umberto Mancini. ED: Alessandro Blasetti, Ignazio Ferronetti. S: Giuseppe Caracciolo, Giovanni Paris.
    C: Giancarlo Giachetti (dott. Claudio Gardini), Mino Doro (Roberto), Franco Bramilla (Mario), Maria Puccini (Lina), Barbara Monis (Maria), Graziella Antonelli (Lucietta), Ugo Cesari (Marcone), Umberto Scaripante (Tralicò), Graziella Betti (a girl from the convent), Gino Viotti (mayor), Cesare Zopetti, Aristide Garbini, Idolo Tancredi, Ugo Gracci, Giovanni Grasso, Dina Romano (Carolina), Aldo Frosi (Ronchetti), Amina Pirani Maggi, Walter Lazzaro (Giuseppe Bonamici), Andrea Checci (Pompeo).
    85 min.
    The film was not theatrically released in Finland.
    There is a German spoken speech in the beginning of this version.
    A Betacam SP from Cineteca Nazionale (Roma) with e-subtitles by Lena Talvio viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (The History of Cinema), 13 Jan 2013

Alessandro Blasetti was a director with remarkable scope. He covered a lot of ground from 1920s experimental realism to 1950s rosy comedies starring Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica, and Marcello Mastroianni.

Blasetti was also a Fascist of primo giorno, one of the original Fascists, and when he made a Fascist propaganda film, it was not sur commande but heartfelt, made with conviction.

Vecchia guardia is one of the few true Italian Fascist propaganda films, and its screen life was short. As a rule, explicit political propaganda films are not popular, and they do not serve their cause. Perhaps on the contrary. I have often thought that one of the reasons why Nazi propaganda films were not released in 1930s Finland was that they functioned rather as counter-propaganda. Finns find images and sounds of yelling and croaking dictators and slavishly adoring masses repellent.

Vecchia guardia is quite similar to the contemporary Nazi propaganda films such as Hitlerjunge Quex. It is well made, it has a lot of realistic aspects, it is not impossibly idealized and one-sided, and the director is top-ranking.

One of the hallmarks of Vecchia guardia is its often stark realism. Another one is the staccato rhythm, the blunt editing with royal disregard for smooth transitions in image or sound. In this sense Vecchia guardia resembles avantgarde cinema and may be felt profoundly alienating in a Brechtian sense. There are, indeed, affinities with Kuhle Wampe. There are also affinities with direct cinema and nouvelle vague.

After the Great War the atrocities of the Socialists are getting intolerable, not only their outright violence towards innocent citizens but also their incessant strikes which are turning society into chaos. The most blatant case is their strike at the mental hospital: the madmen turn loose. Decent citizens have no other alternative than to defend themselves militantly. There is tremendous enthusiasm in the conclusion: "a Roma! a Roma! a Roma!". The joyous crowd reaches the Eternal City in the finale, singing a rousing anthem about the call of Mussolini.

Four men of different ages personify Italy's way to Fascism. There is the hero, the dashing activist of the squadra. There is his buddy, a buffoonish strongman with echoes of Maciste. There is his little brother, a teenager who is a technical wizard, also a humoristic character with touches of Gyro Gearloose (Pelle Peloton / Oppfinnar-Jocke / Archimede Pitagorico) in Walt Disney comics. In the final battle against the socialists the young boy is instantly shot, the first martyr of the Fascists, a bit like Horst Wessel. Having witnessed all this, the father, the old, wise professor, finally must face the truth, and he, too joins the Fascists in their triumphant march to Rome.

Blasetti brings a lot of realistic density and humoristic detail into his yarn. Children are important. The wine harvesting scene is delicious. But even though Vecchia guardia is heartfelt, one never forgets that this is un film à thèse, and it lacks the irrestistible drive of great art.

In these remarks I draw from Peter von Bagh, whose writing we published as our programme note.

It seems that the film or much of it has been shot with direct sound.

The undisputed strength of Vecchia guardia is the brilliant cinematography by Otello Martelli. The sense of immediacy is astonishing. Martelli had started with Roberto Roberti, and he went on with Mario Camerini and became a key cinematographer of Neorealism (Paisà, Caccia tragica, Riso amaro, Stromboli, Luci del varietà, Francesco, giullare di Dio, Roma ore 11, I vitelloni, La strada, L'oro di Napoli, Il bidone, Le notti di Cabiria, La ragazza in vetrina). He also shot Sopralluoghi in Palestina for Pasolini. In short, he became one of the most distinguished and original cinematographers in the history of the cinema. But that distinction is already displayed in Vecchia guardia.

A few weeks before our screening it was found out that the film print is in weak condition, and we had to screen a Betacam SP. It is complete and so well made that even on video it is possible to appreciate the high quality of the cinematography, also in ambitious and challenging night scenes.

Anna-Liisa (1922)

Anna-Liisa (1922), the tragic finale: Anna-Liisa confesses that she has killed her illegitimate baby five years ago. The wedding will be cancelled, and Anna-Liisa faces prison. Hemmo Kallio, Axel Ahlberg, Helmi Lindelöf, Emil Autere.

Anna-Liisa / Anna-Lisa.
FI 1922. PC: Suomi-Filmi Oy. EX: Erkki Karu. D: Teuvo Puro, Jussi Snellman. SC: Jussi Snellman – based on the play (1895) by Minna Canth. DP: Kurt Jäger (interiors), A. J. Tenhovaara (exteriors); assistent: Armas Fredman. AD: Carl Fager. ED: Teuvo Puro, Kurt Jäger. Stills: Kalle Havas.
    C: Hemmo Kallio (the master of Kortesuo), Meri Roini (the mistress of Kortesuo), Helmi Lindelöf (Anna-Liisa, the daughter at Kortesuo), Greta Waahtera (Pirkko, her little sister), Emil Autere (Johannes Kivimaa, Anna-Liisa's fiancé), Mimmi Lähteenoja (Husso), Einari Rinne (Mikko, Husso's son, now a lumber boss), Axel Ahlberg (rovasti / provost). Loc: Tuusula. Studio: Vironkatu studio. Shooting schedule: summer 1921 – winter 1922.
    Helsinki premiere: 20.3.1922, released by Suomi-Filmi.
    Original length: 1800 m (probably a rough estimate).
    Surviving prints: 1581 m /20 fps/ 69 min
    There was a Suomi-Filmi vhs release (1991) at 49 min, probably at 25 fps.
    A previous restoration, toned: Suomen elokuva-arkisto 1991.
    New digital restoration (KAVA 2013) based on a duplicate positive. Scanned previously at 2K at Generator Post. Because of frameline issues the image had to be scanned twice, and scene by scene the best alternative was selected. The frameline issues date from the first generation material.
    The entire film was processed digitally frame by frame. Besides dirt removal almost all scenes have been stabilized, and flicker has been removed. Also scratches have been removed when possible. From some of the scenes more dirt, scratches, tear, blotches, joins and all manner of patina has been removed manually.
    The restoration was conducted with Davinci Revival and  PFClean programmes. The definition of light has been remade, and the colour has been added according to original models resorting to the Davinci Resolve programme.
    The DCP has throughout a colour solution similar to tinting.
    The DCP has a music score recorded in 2013 at Forssa Silent Film Festival, by Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola (violin), Eero Ojanen (piano), and Teemu Hauta-aho (bass).
    DCP (with Finnish / Swedish intertitles) viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Erkki Karu), 12 Jan 2014.
    In the presence of Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola and Teemu Hauta-aho.
    Other film adaptations: Anna-Liisa (Teppo Raikas, FI 1911 – never released), Anna-Liisa (Orvo Saarikivi, FI 1945).

After seeing the new restoration I also read the original tragedy:
Minna Canth: Anna-Liisa, a play in three acts. 1895. In: Minna Canth: Valitut teokset. Porvoo-Helsinki: WSOY, 1954. Introduction by Toini Havu.

Revisited Anna-Liisa (1922), one of the earliest surviving Finnish feature films, and the first one that was distributed abroad, including in the United States. In Portland the police interrupted a screening because of a sauna scene (chaste male towel-protected semi-nudity in a long shot). Anna-Liisa was the first Finnish film that was restricted for children.

Based on the last play by the formidable Minna Canth (1844–1897), Anna-Liisa is a tragedy about a young woman of 20 who on the day when her wedding has been announced confesses that five years ago she has suffocated her illegitimate baby.

The social circumstances have changed, perhaps also due to activists like Minna Canth.

In the background is a tale of impossible, forbidden love. Anna-Liisa has been dating the farmhand Mikko, whom her parents would never have accepted for her husband (and the inheritor of their prosperous farm). Keeping the baby would have been out of the question, too. Anna-Liisa has been blocked into a tragic impasse without a happy alternative.

We have been screening Anna-Liisa regularly, and twenty years ago I noticed how deeply it impressed young viewers. There are enduring themes such as the generation gap, the burden of a secret and the agony of forbidden love. Every young generation can relate to them.

Suomi-Filmi was determined to create a high profile Finnish film culture. The artists at Suomi-Filmi admired Swedish masterpieces but they based their films on Finnish classics such as Minna Canth's plays, and made a point of shooting on location and being inspired by nature.

This film adaptation is ambitious. The approach is not completely assured, but the adaptation is  interesting and successful. The play takes place entirely on the same set, inside the Kortesuo house; it obeys the classical unities of tragedy. The film has been opened up to exteriors, it makes use of parallel editing, it has flashbacks, and there is a dream sequence.

Unlike in the play, the film has lumbercamp scenes. Mikko is a negative character in the story, but in the film we also realize that he has grown as a man. Alas, when he returns to claim Anna-Liisa, he does so in an aggressive and destructive way. Any which way, it would have been too late. He had seduced Anna-Liisa. He had abandoned her, not because he wanted to, but there was no way he could have married her at the time of their passionate affair of youth.

The power of nature is an effective original compensation of the silent film to the power of dialogue in the original tragedy.

The violent climaxes are effective.

Anna-Liisa's nightmare sequence (with no equivalent in the play) is memorable, and well made with superimpositions.

The finale of the tragedy is complex and shocking. Anna-Liisa has stayed awake all night at the beach, losing her mind, starting to wade into the lake to fetch her crying baby, until rescued by Johannes.

The wedding announcing party has not been cancelled, although there will be no wedding. Finally Anna-Liisa appears – dressed in black. "Long live God's holy spirit in all of us". "I am nobody's bride". Anna-Liisa confesses everything, knowing that she will now be convicted to a prison sentence. "I have never felt so happy in my life". Johannes, the fiancé who had disowned her, now declares: "You are the one I thought you were after all". The provost praises Anna-Liisa: "She is wandering on the road to eternal happiness."

Although the directors' approach has not been entirely assured before this, they direct the tragic finale with stunning force, without watering down its complexity. On a personal level it's devastating, on a spiritual level it is dignified, on a social level it exposes an awful injustice.

I have been interested in the theme of the cancelled wedding in the cinema. Anna-Liisa is yet another case, as is Nummisuutarit, directed by Erkki Karu in the next year.

At 20 fps, Anna-Liisa may still be too fast at times as certain scenes seem shot at 18 fps or less. The restoration has been conducted with great skill and taste.

Odd Man Out presented by Matti Salo

Neljän tuulen talo / De fyra vindarnas hus / En natt att leva [SE]. GB 1947. PC: Two Cities Films. [Presented by J. Arthur Rank n.c.]. [EX: Herbert Smith.] Assoc. P: Phil C. Samuel. P+D: Carol Reed. SC: R. C. Sherriff, F. L. Green - based on the novel (1945) by F. L. Green. DP: Robert Krasker. AD: Ralph W. Brinton. Makeup: Tony Sforzini. SFX: Stanley Grant, Bill Warrington. M: William Alwyn. Conductor: Muir Mathieson. The London Symphony Orchestra, leader: George Stratton. S: Harry Miller. ED: Fergus McDonell. Casting: Irene Howard. C: James Mason (Johnny McQueen), Kathleen Ryan (Kathleen Sullivan), Robert Newton (Lukey), Cyril Cusack (Pat), Shell (F. J. McCormick), Fencie (William Hartnell), Fay Compton (Rosie), Denis O'Dea (inspector), W. G. Fay (Father Tom), Maureen Delaney (Theresa O'Brien), Elwyn Brook-Jones (Tober), Robert Beatty (Dennis), Dan O'Herlihy (Nolan). The supporting cast was largely drawn from Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Loc: Belfast (Northern Ireland). Studio: D&P Studios (Denham Studios). 116 min. Released in Finland, 12 Sep 1947 by Parvisfilmi, re-released 12 June 1959 by Parvisfilmi. A KAVI print, the 1959 re-release print deposited by Parvisfilmi, with Finnish / Swedish subtitles, viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Crime Films / Hommage à Matti Salo), 7 Jan 2013.

Revisited Odd Man Out, a film which grows at each viewing, for reasons well explained by Matti Salo in his introduction to his personal favourite film, also the favourite film of Roman Polanski and James Mason.

Matti Salo explained the solid poetic concept of the movie, major motifs of which are instantly introduced in the beginning. The precise location is not named in the film, but it has been shot in Belfast, and the novel, as well, is set in Belfast. The period: contemporary, as can be seen from the bomb shelters and ruins. The cinematography by Robert Krasker is first rate, influenced by German Expressionism and French poetic realism, yet brilliantly original. The symphonic score by William Alwyn is based on the leitmotif principle. Carol Reed was an experienced artist who with this film rose to his highest level of achievement (his next films were The Fallen Idol and The Third Man). Matti Salo remarked that it is interesting to compare Reed with Hitchcock. As Reed was growing into his full stature, Hitchcock was experiencing an uncertain period in his career. One of Reed's strengths is his direction of actors. They are all good, and especially great is James Mason's performance as the protagonist, the leader of the organization, who has begun to doubt the way of violence, but who, however, insists in participating in the fatal robbery. One may have questions about the religious component of the story. Everybody fails to fulfill his/her promise except Kathleen. It took many viewings for Matti Salo to detect the meaning of the Finnish title, "The House of Four Winds": it is the tavern which serves as one of Johnny's refuges. (My reinterpretation of Matti Salo's introduction of which I did not take notes.)

AA: An interesting Irish resistance trio by great film-makers: - Juno and the Paycock (Alfred Hitchcock) - The Informer (John Ford) - and Odd Man Out (Carol Reed). All displaying their Expressionist affinities.

Odd Man Out has a noble heritage. It can be compared with You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang) and Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier). James Mason has the same level of inspiration as Henry Fonda and Jean Gabin in those films.

Film-makers with affinities with and perhaps influenced by Carol Reed include Ingmar Bergman (his existentialist fyrtiotalismen period) and Orson Welles (Mr. Arkadin).

In her debut starring role Kathleen Ryan creates a soulful and understated performance. Odd Man Out is also a story of l'amour fou. Perhaps the political story is also one of un amour fou.

The protagonist's war fatigue and disillusionment with violence may have struck topical chords after WWII.

I saw Odd Man Out for the first time in 1969 at 14 in a film society in the company of my father. His ironic remarks about its young rebel martyrology turned me against the film, and first Matti Salo's persistent commitment to Odd Man Out as his personal favourite film has turned me to really to discover it. Now Odd Man Out is for me a story about "all who take the sword will perish by the sword". Yet its deepest sympathy is with those who have failed for a noble cause.

The 1959 print has been in heavy use, but there are enough passages that display the brilliance of the cinematography to make this a worthy cinema experience.

Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra: Epiphany Concert: Music from the Historical Silver Screen, creator: Peter von Bagh, conductor: József Hárs

Ivan the Terrible

Helsingin kaupunginorkesterin (HKO) loppiaiskonsertti: "Historiallinen valkokangas soi". Helsinki Music Center, Epiphany, the first concert at 15.00, 6 Jan 2014.

The duration of the concert was two hours, including an intermission of 25 minutes.

József Hárs, conductor
Peter von Bagh, creator
Petteri Evilampi, visuals
Riikka Holopainen, presenter
Gita Kadambi, general manager

Nino Rota: War and Peace (King Vidor)
Elmer Bernstein: The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille)
Dmitri Shostakovich: The Fall of Berlin (Mikhail Chiaureli)
Sergei Prokofiev: Ivan the Terrible (Sergei Eisenstein)
-- intermission --
Miklós Rózsa: Ben-Hur (William Wyler)
Arthur Honegger: Napoléon (Abel Gance)
Georges Auric: Lola Montès (Max Ophuls)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sea Hawk (Michael Curtiz)

Peter von Bagh: "The Epiphany concerts of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra - we have managed about a dozen so far - have been dedicated to film-producing countries, sometimes to wide-ranging themes, and occasionally to great composers. This time the topic is one of the greatest - history, or even more generally: time. The arch of our eight films spans millennia."

"The films originate from just four countries, but the background of the composers is wider: the Russians Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, the Italian Nino Rota, the Hungarian Miklós Rózsa, the Austrian Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the Frenchmen Arthur Honegger and Georges Auric, and the U.S. American Elmer Bernstein. We are dealing with a film genre which has always inspired a strong presence of a great orchestra." (Peter von Bagh, translated by AA)

Since 1976 Peter von Bagh has been organizing unique, huge concert events with different concepts and varying organizations in the greatest concert venues of Finland. For the 13th time an Epiphany film concert took place with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Historical cinema is a gratifying subject for a symphony orchestra. The two concerts in the 1700-seating music center were sold out.

Some of the scores were familiar, others unknown. Even the most familiar ones sounded more magnificent in the music hall.

The arrangements were successful. Nino Rota's War and Peace, Dmitri Shostakovich's The Fall of Berlin, and Miklós Rózsa's Ben-Hur were arranged in three-part suites with a sonata structure. Sergei Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible, Arthur Honegger's Napoléon, and Georges Auric's Lola Montès had a two-part structure. Elmer Bernstein's The Ten Commandments and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Sea Hawk were played in a single-part suite, a bit like an overture to an opera.

All eight selections were great. The most bizarre case was Dmitri Shostakovich's The Fall of Berlin, with its inseparable linking to the macabre Stalin personality cult. Immediately afterwards was played the music with the strongest independent value as pure music: Sergei Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible. It was the climax of the concert right before the intermission.

For the first time I heard Arthur Honegger's Napoléon, arranged from fragmentary remains. I need to hear it more. The most hummable music was, of course, Nino Rota's "Rosa di Novgorod". It was a popular tune in its own right in Finland, too, as a hit song recorded by many great singers.

A strong start to the concert was provided by the overwhelming emotion of Nino Rota's War and Peace. When the "Rosa di Novgorod" tune was playing there were tears in Natasha Rostova's (Audrey Hepburn) eyes. Also in ours.

An undaunted fighting spirit was on display in Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Sea Hawk. A rousing way to end the afternoon.

Hit by the flu, the maestro Peter von Bagh, himself, could not come, but his notes were read by Riikka Holopainen, with their irreverent remarks such as comparing Cecil B. DeMille's burning bush with an electric fireplace popular in the U.S. in the 1950s.

The Helsinki Music Center has not yet solved the problem of visuals. The slides were screened in triple projections (the same image visible from three angles), and while they were valuable illustrations, they did not do justice to the grandeur of the image.

As a celebration and a revelation of some of the greatest film music the concert was first-rate. The touch of the conductor József Hárs and the orchestra was inspired.

Le Louvre: ancient Orient and Egypt

Code de Hammurabi. Musée du Louvre.

Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris - France. + 33 (0)1 40 20 53 17. http://www.louvre.fr/ Horaires: Ouvert tous les jours de 9h à 18h sauf le mardi. Nocturnes jusqu’à 21h45 le mercredi et le vendredi. Visited on 2 Jan 2014

On this first visit of mine I embarked on a chronological journey, starting with ancient Egypt and Orient (Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant), 9000 years ago. Today I reached the last pharaon of Egypt, Cleopatra, a few decades before Christ, plus the extension to Coptic Egypt.

7000 years of history and pre-history in a day-long superficial overview (I skipped the most recent 2000 years in my visit of today). Bérénice Geoffroy-Schneiter writes in A Guide to the Louvre (2005) that the history of the Louvre's Department of Oriental Antiquities is "inseparable from that of French archaeological discoveries in the Near and Middle East".

The reconstruction of Le Cour Khorsabad, discovered by Paul-Emile Botta, is a monumental display of the power of the kingdom of Sargon II, king of Assyria.

But I am more impressed by the "birth of writing" exhibition (rez-de-chaussée: antiquités orientales, room 1), focusing on Sumerians around the year 2130 BC, and the Code of Hammurabi (room 3, 1800 BC), "the birth of the law" in its brutal variant of the lex talionis.

Many great archaeologists and diplomats have contributed to the building of the huge collections. They still do. From Meskene (Emar) excavations, in agreement with Jordan, came to be displayed in 1997 a remarkable statue of Ain Ghazal, from 7000  BC, the oldest major work at Le Louvre (Room D in this section).

The ancient Egyptian department was founded by Jean-François Champollion, the scholar who cracked the code of the Rosetta Stone. The stone itself, discovered by Frenchmen, was confiscated by the British during Napoleon's wars and is in the British Museum ever since.

The ancient Egyptian collection is currently displayed in two exhibitions. There is a thematic circuit (rez-de-chaussée, Égypte pharaonique, rooms 1-19). There are rooms devoted to maps, writing, arts and crafts, home, jewels, leisure, temples, Osiris, sarchophagi, mummies, tombs, the Book of the Dead, and gods and magic. The sphinxes and the temple sculptures are displays of majestic power. The obsession with afterlife is uncanny; as if the life on this side were but a prelude to the eternal afterlife.

In the next floor there is a chronological circuit (1er étage, Égypte pharaonique, rooms 20-30), starting with pre Pharaonic art (room 20 from 4500-3800 and room 21 from 3800-2700), and proceeding to Ancien Empire (2700-2200), Moyen Empire (2033-1710), Le Nouvel Empire (2033-1710), Akhenaton and Nefertiti (1353-1337), Tutankhamon and Horemheb (1337-1296), Ramses (1295-1000), the Persian rule (1000- ), the last Pharaohs, Cleopatra [VII], and the Roman rule. In the entresol there are also rooms about the Coptic Egypt.

The time leap of the ancient Egyptian collections is staggering. It is also staggering how rigid and formal Egyptian art was for thousands of years, but not always. There are periods of realism in the beginning and towards the end, and there is the most fascinating period of Akhenaton, breaking with traditional formalism, and venturing both into realism and grotesque exaggeration.

Having visited le Musée de l'érotisme a week ago I discover now the earliest male figurines sporting mighty erections, and the earliest female figurines showcasing their bare breasts with their hands. They are fertility cult figures from an age before the concept of art, and also from an age when the corporeal and the spiritual were undivided. Sexuality was natural and sacred.

Among my favourite discoveries: The Book of the Dead (rez-de-chaussée, Égypte pharaonique, room 17, papyrus roll opened in a vitrine in a very long corridor).

Le Louvre: to photograph or to see I

Selfie with Shakira by Gerald Piqué at Facebook, 29 Dec 2013. "En el Louvre con mi Gioconda! — with Shakira". From the Facebook page of Musée du Louvre.

Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris - France. + 33 (0)1 40 20 53 17. http://www.louvre.fr/ Horaires: Ouvert tous les jours de 9h à 18h sauf le mardi. Nocturnes jusqu’à 21h45 le mercredi et le vendredi. Visited on 2 Jan 2014

There is more and more photographing. Everybody today is carrying a camera or several. I was observing the photographers in front of every artwork. Perhaps the original sense of this is: "I love it, I photograph it". But there may be more senses. "I photograph it, I see it". Perhaps even: "I photograph it, it exists". Often, I'm afraid: "I photograph it, I don't look at it." And sometimes: "I photograph it, I prevent others from looking at it".

There are world-class photographs of the artworks readily available in books, catalogues, and on the internet, including on Le Louvre's own brilliant website.

I have been examining beautiful photographs of many of these works since 50 years, and now I have the unique chance to see the real thing. It is likewise with the photographers. But in many cases the photographers do not stop to examine the artwork at all, but instead start to photograph it. As if the camera lens were superior to one's own eyes.

It is a bit funny and paradoxical. But the main thing is that these huge crowds keep coming and spread enthusiasm for Le Louvre along with their selfies and Twitter feeds. Even on Le Louvre's own Facebook site there is a Shakira selfie in front of Mona Lisa, the tiny lady trapped in her huge bulletproof glass booth like Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem or Hannibal Lecter in the Silence of the Lambs.

Le Louvre

The Great Sphinx of Tanis © Musée du Louvre

Musée du Louvre, 75058 Paris - France. + 33 (0)1 40 20 53 17. http://www.louvre.fr/ Horaires: Ouvert tous les jours de 9h à 18h sauf le mardi. Nocturnes jusqu’à 21h45 le mercredi et le vendredi. Visited on 2 Jan 2014

Musée du Louvre is one of the world's largest museums, and, with over eight million visitors a year, the world's most visited museum.

I spent a day at Le Louvre which I have never visited before.

This is my first visit to Paris as a tourist, and I had always realized a visit to Le Louvre would be too time-consuming for trips on business or research.

One needs perhaps five days to get an overview of Le Louvre. It is a good idea to wear light indoor shoes and no jacket. You get very warm even so, walking all day.

As a sociologist I'm amazed at the crowd. We were on time at the Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre subway station, half an hour before the opening, but on our way towards the entrance we realized we were already in a very long queue. In the first queue to get tickets. It would make sense to get tickets in advance online or otherwise. The second queue was outdoors, at Le Pyramide, to get inside.

All the world is here.

Le Louvre is a legendary place, perhaps a mythical place. From my childhood I remember the popular tv series Belphégor ou le fantôme du Louvre (1965), located in the Egyptian department of the museum.

Barravento

Glauber Rocha: Barravento (BR 1962). Designer: José Júlio de Calasans Neto.

BR 1962. PC: Iglu Filmes. EX: Roberto Pires. P: Braga Netto, Rex Schindler. Ass. P: David Singer. D: Glauber Rocha. SC: Luiz Paulino Dos Santos, Glauber Rocha, Jose Teles. DP: Tony Rabatoni – 35 mm – b&w – 1,37:1. PD: Elio Moreno Lima. Cost: Lúcia Rocha. Title design: José Júlio de Calasans Neto. M: Canjiquinha. Song, in French translation "Je pars à Bahia". S: Geraldo José, Oscar Santana. ED: Nelson Pereira dos Santos. C: Antonio Pitanga = Antonio Sampaio (Firmino), Luiza Maranhão (Cota), Lucy de Carvalho (Naína), Aldo Teixeira (Aruã), Lidio Silva. Loc: Bahia, including the Itapuã lighthouse. 78 min. In Portuguese. A Films sans Frontières 2006 re-release print, VOSTF = with French subtitles viewed at Salle Langlois, La Cinémathèque française (Histoire permanente du cinéma), Paris, 30 Dec 2013

There is an explanation of the title Barravento in the opening credits. It is a storm wind of the worst kind, an instant violent clash of the ocean and the earth.

English Wikipedia synopsis: "In a village of xaréu (Kingfish) fishermen, whose ancestors came as slaves from Africa, persist old mystic cults connected to candomblé. The arrival of Firmino, a former inhabitant who moved to Salvador, running away from poverty, transforms the peaceable panorama of the place, and polarizes tensions. Firmino is attracted to Quota, but he is not able to forget Naína who, on her part, likes Aruã. Firmino orders dispatch against Aruã, that isn’t attained, in opposite to the village that sees the cut net, impeding the fishing. Firmino stirs up the fishermen to revolt against the owner of the net, coming to destroy it. Policemen arrive at the village to control the equipment. In his fight against exploitation, Firmino argues against the master, mediator between the fishermen and the owner of the net. A fisherman convinces Aruã of fishing without the net, since his chastity would make him a protected man of Iemanjá [/ Yemanja]. The fishermen are successful in their piecework, under the leadership of Aruã. Naína reveals her impossible love for Aruã to an old black woman. In his defeat against mysticism, Firmino convinces Quota of taking away Aruã’s virginity, and consequently breaking the religious enchantment that makes him a protected man of Iemanjá. Aruã takes the bait. A storm announces the “barravento”, the violent moment. The fishermen leave for the sea, two of them die, Vicente and Chico. Firmino denounces Aruã’s loss of chastity. The Master reneges. The dead bodies are guarded, and Naína accepts to make the ritual, so she can marry Aruã. He promises the marriage, but before he decides to leave for the city to work and to earn money for the purchase of a new net. In the same place where Firmino arrived at the village, Aruã leaves for the city."

AA: I see Glauber Rocha's debut feature film for the first time. It is already an assured piece, clearly inspired by Luchino Visconti (La terra trema), but completely original, setting the "revolt of the fishermen" story into Bahia among African-Brazilians.

Strengths of the film include a powerful documentary approach to the life of the fishermen, their hard work on the rough sea, risking their lives constantly on their wooden jangada rafts where precise coordination is necessary to negotiate the high waves. In this sense Barravento belongs to the Flahertyan tradition of the cinema. It is a celebration of the physical skills of the fishermen in their battle with the elements.

The fishing is based on a huge dragnet which is hauled to the land by some fifteen fishermen.

Tony Rabatoni's cinematography, based on a moving camera, is excellent, and if Rocha and Rabatoni have been watching G. R. Aldo (La terra trema), Eduard Tissé (¡Que viva Mexico!), and Gabriel Figueroa (his Mexican style inspired by Eisenstein and Tissé), they use their sources of inspiration as a springboard to an original vision. The cinematography is ambitious and successful with a rich and expressive use of field sizes from bird's eye shots to extreme close-ups. Shot on location, Barravento has an intensive sense of the ocean and the jungle.

Orson Welles also filmed a jangada story (Four Men on a Raft) in his unfinished It's All True, but probably Rocha and his friends cannot have seen its footage; nor would they have needed to. But they are in the same league.

The title design by José Júlio de Calasans Neto is original.

The editing is powerful. The rhythm of the montage is based on the rhythm of sea. It is also based the rhythm of the work of the fishermen. Further it is based on the rhythm of the fights between the men; I believe they may be capoeira. There are climaxes of music, dancing, and the ceremonies of candomblé. The music by Canjiquinha is exciting.

Barravento is not a work of psychological complexity, but the characters are impressive in the same way as in films by Flaherty, Eisenstein, and La terra trema. Barravento is a celebration of survival, fight, and sensuality. Finland is a country where every now and then during the studio era there was an unforgettable extended al fresco swimming sequence by the leading lady. Barravento offers a particularly charming Aphrodite sequence like that, haunting, voluptuous, nocturnal.

After the barravento storm there is a moving funeral sequence of two drowned fishermen, but the film ends on a note of a new beginning, never giving up.

A strong poetic movie. The Itapuã lighthouse is a key image.

The sound has apparently been post-synchronized, and a studio echo slightly weakens the impact. The visual quality is often enough great to do justice to the beauty of the definition of light; at times (for example in the beginning) in this print there is a low contrast / slightly out of focus / slightly duped quality. The print is complete.

I look forward to revisiting Barravento.

Montmartre in the movies

Studio 28 exterior on 29 Dec 2013

Studio 28 interior

Studio 28 (10 rue Tholozé), founded in 1928, decorated by Jean Cocteau, house of the infamous premiere of Luis Buñuel's L'Âge d'or, is still going strong as an art et essai cinema. "La salle des chefs d'oeuvres, le chef d'oeuvre des salles" (Jean Cocteau).

Samples of the hundreds of Montmartre films that have been shot on location and recreated in studios:

Montmartre / Die Flamme (Ernst Lubitsch, 1923) (studio reconstruction)
Le Fantôme du Moulin-Rouge (René Clair, 1925)
Moulin Rouge (E. A. Dupont, 1928) (studio reconstruction)
The Murderer Lives at Number 21 / L'Assassin habite... au 21 (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1942)
Garou Garou le Passe-muraille (Jean Boyer, 1951)
An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951) (studio reconstruction)
Moulin Rouge (John Huston, 1952)
French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1954)
Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1954)
La Traversée de Paris (Claude Autant-Lara, 1956)
Bob le flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956)
The 400 Blows / Les quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959)
Boulevard (Julien Duvivier, 1960)
Stolen Kisses / Baisers volés (François Truffaut, 1968)
Dernier domicile connu (José Giovanni, 1970)
Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
Love on the Run / L'Amour en fuite (François Truffaut, 1979)
Les Rendez-vous en Paris (Éric Rohmer, 1995)
Everybody Says I Love You (Woody Allen, 1996)
Amélie / Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001)
The Science of Sleep (Michel Gondry, 2006)
Paris je t'aime: Montmartre episode directed by Bruno Podalydès (2006)
La Vie en rose / La Môme (Olivier Dahan, 2007)
La Rafle (Roselyne Bosch, 2010)
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)

In 1926 Bernard Natan and Rapid Films moved to 6 rue Francoeur. In 1929, Natan merged with Pathé, and he built two studios at rue Francoeur. Film production there was discontinued in 1990. The former Pathé Montmartre studios are since 1999 the house of the legendary French state film school La Femis (Fondation européenne des métiers de l'image et du son).

Musée de Montmartre: Impressions à Montmartre - Delâtre, Müller

Alfredo Müller: Place Blanche (Quatre femmes) (1900). [Marthe Mellot et à droite, Suzanne Desprès.] Photographie Les Amis d'Alfredo Müller. By permission of Heymann, Renoult Associées.

Musée de Montmartre, 12, rue Cortot, 75018 Paris, Tél: + 33 (0)1 49 25 89 39, www.museedemontmartre.fr . Visited on 29 Dec 2013

IMPRESSIONS À MONTMARTRE - DELÂTRE, MÜLLER
Du 14 septembre 2013 au 12 janvier 2014
Le commissariat: Phillip Dennis Cate
Le scénographe: Hubert Le Gall
Commissariat scientifique: Nicholas-Henri Zmelty et Hélène Koehl.
Le catalogue de l'exposition: Phillip Dennis Cate, Nicholas-Henri Zmelty, Hélène Koehl: Impressions à Montmartre. Eugène Delâtre & Alfredo Müller. Éditions Silvana Editoriale, 2013.

OFFICIAL INTRODUCTION: "Le Musée de Montmartre vous invite à découvrir l’âge d’or de la gravure à Montmartre vers 1900. Eugène Delâtre (1864-1938), grand maître de l’eau-forte, collabora avec de nombreux artistes de la Butte dont Müller, Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec et Steinlen. L’exposition présente ses œuvres majeures : vues de Montmartre et de sa vie nocturne, portraits. Les gravures d’Alfredo Müller (1869-1939) représentent notamment ses actrices de prédilection : Sarah Bernhardt, Suzanne Desprès, Marthe Mellot et Cléo de Mérode. L’exposition mettra à l’honneur ses grandes compositions, ainsi que des illustrations de la Vita Nuova de Dante."

LONGER INTRODUCTION: "Le Musée de Montmartre vous invite à découvrir l’âge d’or de la gravure à l’eau-forte à Montmartre. Réunissant pour la première fois à Paris près d’une centaine d’œuvres d’Eugène Delâtre et Alfredo Müller, l’exposition Impressions à Montmartre replace ces artistes dans le contexte de la «révolution de la couleur» qui bouleverse l’art sur papier autour de 1900."

"Montmartre est alors le cœur de l’Europe artistique et littéraire et le théâtre d’une effervescence créatrice qui essaimera dans tout le continent. Il y émerge une génération d’artistes qui s’inscrit entre les grands maîtres impressionnistes des années 1875 et la première génération d’avant-garde du début du vingtième siècle. Cette génération sera fortement et durablement marquée par le japonisme et l’expérimentation technique, notamment en matière de gravures."

"Le parcours de visite fait valoir le rôle fondamental d’Eugène Delâtre dans cette expérimentation. Il se déploie sur deux salles:"

Eugène Delâtre (1864-1938)
"Dans son atelier de la rue Lepic, véritable centre névralgique du Montmartre artiste, Eugène Delâtre fédère un groupe de peintres-graveurs. Maître de l’impression, Delâtre est aussi un innovateur. Ayant commencé ses recherches sur la gravure au début des années 1890, il joue rôle décisif dans le développement de l'eau-forte en couleurs. Conseiller influent et initiateur, il a collaboré avec de nombreux jeunes artistes de la Butte dont Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Steinlen, Müller et Valadon. L’exposition présente ses œuvres majeures: vues de Montmartre et de sa vie nocturne, portraits et scènes de genre."

Alfredo Müller (1869-1939)
"Après avoir étudié la peinture académique auprès du Maestro Michele Gordigiani à Florence, Alfredo Müller émigre à Paris en 1895. Il y rencontre rapidement les graveurs de Montmartre et est accueilli dans l’atelier d’Eugène Delâtre. Durant la décennie suivante, il produit plus de deux cents gravures, en noir et en couleurs. Alliant les nuances de l’eau-forte à des tons très doux, elles reflètent le goût de l’époque pour les effets picturaux riches. Müller représente notamment ses actrices de prédilection: Sarah Bernhardt, Jane Avril, Marthe Mellot, ou encore la danseuse Cléo de Mérode."

"L’exposition, dont le commissariat a été confié à Phillip Dennis Cate, rassemble des œuvres de la Bibliothèque nationale ainsi que de collections privées."

PARCOURS DE L’EXPOSITION

SALLE 1: Eugène Delâtre (1864-1938)

Cette première salle comporte une quarantaine de gravures et dessins de Delâtre, dont une belle sélection d’eaux-fortes en couleurs. Les œuvres exposées représentent notamment des vues de la Butte avec ses rues étroites et ses établissements nocturnes, tels que le Divan Japonais, le Moulin Rouge et le Bal du Moulin de la Galette. L’exposition «Impressions à Montmartre» réunit également un ensemble de portraits: autoportrait, père et fils de l’artiste, portrait de Huysmans, parisiennes élégantes, prostituées, ainsi qu’une représentation saisissante de la mort en fourrures. La presse du studio de Delâtre au 87, rue Lepic est aussi présentée. Elle lui servait à imprimer ses propres gravures ainsi que celles de nombreux artistes post-impressionnistes dont Signac, Toulouse-Lautrec et Picasso. Quelques-unes des œuvres présentées:
La Montmartroise, eau-forte et aquatinte en couleurs, 28,5 x 42,5 cm
Autoportrait, eau-forte et aquatinte en couleurs, 23,2 x 29 cm
Femme à l’ombrelle, eau-forte, pointe sèche et aquatinte en couleurs, 24 x 32 cm
Le Divan Japonais, 1895, eau-forte et aquatinte, 61,9 x 29,5 cm
Couverture de « Balades dans Paris », pointe sèche et aquatinte en couleurs, 25,3 x 42 cm
La Mort en fourrures, vers 1897, eau-forte et aquatinte en couleurs, 32,5 x 50,5 cm

SALLE 2: Alfredo Müller (1869-1939)

La salle consacrée à l’œuvre d’Alfredo Müller présente une vingtaine d’eaux-fortes, un pastel préparatoire et quatre lithographies en couleurs, dont deux grandes frises: Les Paons et Les Cygnes. Parmi les vues de Montmartre exposées, on trouve notamment le pavillon du 73 rue Caulaincourt. Alfredo Müller y eut, au-dessus de l’appartement de Steinlen, un atelier qu’il laissa en 1902 à Auguste Renoir. L’exposition rassemble aussi des portraits d’actrices et des planches de l’album sur la Vita Nuova de Dante, édité par Ambroise Vollard. Une série d’épreuves montre la technique de l’eau-forte en couleurs. Quelques-unes des œuvres présentées:
Notre chère maison de la rue Caulaincourt, 1897, eau-forte en couleurs, 16,3 x 16,2 cm, collection particulière, photographie Les Amis d’Alfredo Müller
Devant la rampe, 1897, eau-forte et aquatinte en couleurs, 39 x 29 cm, BnF, département des Estampes et de la Photographie
La Mort de Béatrice, 1897-1898, eau-forte en bistre, 45 x 37 cm, épreuve d’essai sur vélin pour la suite Vollard 1898, collection particulière, photographie Les Amis d’Alfredo Müller
Verlaine au Procope, 1896, 45 x 50 cm, collection particulière, photographie Les Amis d’Alfredo Müller
Place Blanche (Quatre femmes), 1900-1901, eau-forte en couleurs 65,5 x 41,5 cm, collection particulière, photographie Les Amis d’Alfredo Müller. Les deux femmes en pied sont Marthe Mellot et Suzanne Desprès
Frise Les Paons, 1903, lithographie en couleurs, 57 x 148 cm, collection particulière, photographie Les Amis d’Alfredo Müller

A refined collection of engravings, drawings, etchings, and lithographies, some of them produced with sophisticated multi-colour techniques. Certain images are on display in different versions with interesting subtle differences.

These works represent the highest art of etching. The superb technique is in the service of an artistic view.

In the Eugène Delâtre section there are tender and delicate portraits and macabre fin-de-siècle views of mortality. The design patterns are original variations of art nouveau images such as plants and butterflies.

Alfredo Müller's images impress with their approach to the world of the dancing women. There is also a series on Dante's Divina commedia. The swan images belong to the art nouveau context. The picture of a rainy evening at Place Blanche is my favourite.

Musée de Montmartre et Jardins Renoir

Musée de Montmartre, 12, rue Cortot, 75018 Paris, Tél: + 33 (0)1 49 25 89 39, www.museedemontmartre.fr . Visited on 29 Dec 2013

Official introduction:
MUSÉE DE MONTMARTRE ET JARDINS RENOIR
Le plus charmant des musées parisiens

Le Musée de Montmartre comprend un ensemble de bâtiments des XVIIème et XVIIIème siècles, derniers souvenirs de la vie de campagne, quand Montmartre était hors des murs de Paris. Le porche, construit en 1740, ouvre sur un vaste ensemble de jardi ns. Au centre, la maison du Bel Air, datant de 1660, abrite l'exposition. Elle domine les vignes et ouvre sur une vue qui laisse deviner la vallée de la Seine, avant de se perdre dans la forêt de Montmorency.

Lieu de rencontre et de résidence, le 12 rue Cortot attira de nombreux artistes. Auguste Renoir y eut son atelier en 1876 et 1877. Il réalisa pendant son séjour des toiles majeures, parmi lesquelles le Bal du Moulin de la Galette. Au début du XXème siècle, de nouveaux ateliers en firent une résidence d'artistes. Après Émile Bernard, compagnon de Gauguin, les «fauves» Émile-Othon Friesz et Raoul Dufy y vécurent, ainsi que Suzanne Valadon et son fils Maurice Utrillo. Des écrivains, comme Léon Bloy et le poète Pierre Reverdy, s’y installèrent également. Le Musée de Montmartre est resté imprégné de l’âme de ces personnalités.

Les Jardins Renoir

La visite du Musée est l’occasion d’une promenade dans des jardins, reconstitués en 2012 à partir des tableaux que Renoir a peints sur place. Les nouveaux aménagements sont composés d’arbres fruitiers – poiriers, amandiers – et d’arbustes – lilas, rosiers et hortensias grimpants. Les teintes rouge, orange et jaune des parterres fleuris de tulipes, coquelicots et pivoines font écho à la palette des impressionnistes. Les Jardins Renoir offrent une vue exceptionnelle sur les vignes du Clos Montmartre.

Les jardins Renoir, jardins des peintres

A deux pas de la place du Tertre, les trois jardins Renoir entourent le Musée de Montmartre et dominent les vignes. Partie intégrante des collections, ils permettent une plongée dans les tableaux de Renoir et la palette des impressionnistes.

En 1876, Renoir cherche un local proche du moulin de la Galette, qu’il va peindre. Selon Pierre Courthion, Renoir souhaite « mettre la grande toile et si possible y coucher ». Son ami Georges Rivière rappelle également ce souvenir. « Un matin de mai 1876, nous partîmes de la rue Saint-Georges (où vivait le peintre), Renoir et moi, dans l’espoir de trouver un local désiré. » Plus loin, au 12, rue Cortot : « Le logement qu’elle proposait à Renoir était situé au premier étage, au dessous du toit, et se composait de deux pièces assez grandes, suffisamment meublées pour un homme qui n’attachait au luxe du mobilier aucune importance. Les fenêtres donnaient sur le jardin. Enfin, il y avait au rez-de-chaussée une ancienne écurie où le peintre pouvait abriter toiles et chevalet ».

Inspiré par les trois jardins qui composent le site, Renoir peint durant son séjour au 12, rue Cortot :

Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
La Balançoire, 1876, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Le Jardin de la rue Cortot, 1876, Pittsburgh

Aujourd’hui, le visiteur peut admirer l’ensemble paysager des trois jardins qui rappellent celui de la fin du XIXème siècle. Les nouveaux aménagements sont composés d’arbres fruitiers, poiriers et amandiers, d’arbustes, lilas, rosiers et d’hortensias grimpants. Les teintes rouge, orange et jaune des parterres fleuris de tulipes, coquelicots et pivoines font écho à la palette des impressionnistes.

La constitution des collections

En 1886, une poignée d’artistes, amoureux du Montmartre d’antan et révoltés par les dérives architecturales de l’époque, se réunissent dans un bistrot du haut de la rue Lamarck avec pour volonté de protéger et de voir perdurer la culture, l’histoire et le site de la butte Montmartre. Ils constituent la Société d’Histoire et d’Archéologie « Le Vieux Montmartre », dont la vocation est de rechercher et de conserver tous les témoignages artistiques et historiques attachés à Montmartre. Les collections de la société «Le Vieux Montmartre» sont exposées dans le Musée. Elles comprennent un fonds remarquable de tableaux, d'affiches, d'illustrations, de partitions musicales, qui illustrent notamment l'effervescence artistique autour des cabarets de Montmartre.

Le gestionnaire

En 2011, le Musée de Montmartre et l’ensemble des bâtiments du 8 au 14 rue Cortot ont été confiés par la Ville de Paris à la société Kléber Rossillon. Une extension du musée est prévue en 2014.

Two well-fed black cats guard benevolently the Renoir gardens and their visitors, and the Renoir swing is available for children guests.

This particularly charming museum is on top of Paris, just behind Sacré-Cœur, in the oldest house of Montmartre. The permanent exhibition is about the artist community who lived there during la Belle Époque, before Modernism. There is also a huge miniature of the entire Montmartre with the artists' residences clearly marked.

One of the most touching sections is about Suzanne Valadon and her son Maurice Utrillo who was born in Montmartre. Utrillo is also buried nearby; we happened to pass by his grave on our way to the museum. Marcel Carné, Arthur Honegger and Harry Baur are also buried in the same little cemetery.

Le Lapin Agile, Moulin Rouge, and Le Chat Noir are well represented. On a video monitor is a key sequence from Jean Renoir's masterpiece French Cancan, but unfortunately the clip does not do justice to the beautiful colour of the film. Both Jean Renoir and Jean Gabin were born in Montmartre.

More about the temporary exhibition "Impressions à Montmartre: Eugène Delâtre & Alfredo Müller" in a separate entry.

La Cinémathèque française: La Rome de Pasolini (exposition)

La Cinémathèque française - Musée du cinéma. 51, rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris. http://www.cinematheque.fr/. Visited on 28 Dec, 2013.

The exhibition website
http://www.pasoliniroma.com/#!/en/index

"La culture est une résistance à la distraction"
- Pier Paolo Pasolini

PASOLINI ROMA
LA ROME DE PASOLINI
L'exposition, du 16 octobre 2013 – 26 janvier 2014
Commissariat: Gianni Borgna, Alain Bergala, Jordi Balló
16 octobre 2013 – 26 janvier 2014

Une coproduction du
Centre de Cultura Contemporània, Barcelone: 22 mai -15 septembre 2013
La Cinémathèque française, Paris: 16 octobre 2013- 26 janvier 2014
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome: 15 avril-20 juillet 2014
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin: 11 septembre 2014-5 janvier 2015

ALAIN BERGALA: "Pasolini, qui n'était pas romain, est arrivé dans la capitale en 1950 à l'âge de 28 ans, pauvre, déshonoré, en exil involontaire du Frioul maternel. À sa mort dramatique sur un terrain vague d'Ostie, 25 ans plus tard, en 1975, il était devenu une figure majeure du monde intellectuel et artistique romain. 38 ans après sa mort, la vision qu'il a eue de son pays est toujours la plus actuelle pour les Italiens, et éclaire plus largement le devenir de nos sociétés européennes. Rome a été le principal combustible de cette incroyable énergie de création et d'interventions que Pasolini a déployée pendant ces 25 années de vie artistique et publique. Approcher Pasolini dans ses rapports avec la ville de Rome, c'est entrer de plain-pied dans tout ce qui le constitue et le définit : l'amitié, la littérature, la politique, l'amour, le sexe, le cinéma."

25 ANS DE PASSION

"Pour lui, Rome n'a pas été un décor ni un simple lieu de vie. Il a connu avec cette ville une relation passionnelle, avec des sentiments mêlés de haine et d'amour, des phases d'attraction et de rejet, des tentations d'éloignement et les plaisirs du retour. Les circonstances difficiles de son arrivée à Rome l'ont immergé dans un monde et un langage qui n'étaient pas les siens, ceux des sous-prolétaires des « borgate », des banlieues pauvres et populaires où la précarité de sa situation le contraint d'habiter. Cette rencontre avec l'altérité, comme cela arrive parfois en amour, va être un puissant moteur de création. De cet univers dont il ne savait rien, va naître une puissante inspiration et il va y trouver, sans avoir eu à les chercher, les sujets constitutifs de ses premiers romans et de ses premiers films."

"Plus tard, Rome va devenir pour l'homme public qu'a été aussi Pasolini, analyste infatigable du devenir de la société italienne, le principal espace d'observation, son champ permanent d'étude, de réflexion et de combat. Ce sera aussi le théâtre des persécutions dont il ne va jamais cesser de faire l'objet, de la part des pouvoirs de tous ordres et de l'acharnement des médias pour lesquels il sera pendant vingt ans le bouc-émissaire, l'homme à abattre, à cause de sa différence et de ses prises de position."

"C'est à partir des transformations de cette ville qu'il a tant aimée, qu'il analyse la mutation de son pays au tournant des années 60-70, d'où est issue pour l'essentiel l'Italie d'aujourd'hui. Mutations qui l'éloignent de plus en plus de cette Rome où il assiste, les poings serrés, au triomphe de la société de consommation et à la montée en puissance d'une télévision nationale qui impose le même modèle petit-bourgeois à une population ayant perdu toute innocence et tout sens du sacré. Paris, New York, mais surtout le Tiers-Monde – l'Inde, l'Afrique – vont devenir ses lignes de fuite, même si son centre de gravité reste toujours la capitale désaimée. Rome a constitué Pasolini romancier et cinéaste, mais la rencontre de cet homme et de cette ville a agi, comme en amour, dans les deux sens. Il y a une Rome d'avant et une Rome d'après Pasolini. Ses écrits et ses films en ont créé un nouvel imaginaire, en ont déplacé les lignes symboliques, en ont refondé la géographie, lui ont rendu une langue jusque-là trop minoritaire pour être audible, en ont prévu l'avenir. Petrolio, sa dernière grande œuvre littéraire, inachevée du fait de son assassinat, est l'ultime écriture, terriblement désillusionnée, de ce mythe."

PASOLINI DECOUVRE ET REINVENTE LE CINEMA

"L'écrivain Pasolini naît au cinéma à presque 40 ans, inspiré par ces quartiers périphériques de Rome et par leur population marginale, avec son propre langage, sa propre vision de la vie, jusque-là ignorés, invisibles. Il va inventer pour eux une nouvelle langue cinématographique qu'il définit comme la langue même de la réalité. C'est le succès et le scandale de son premier roman, Ragazzi di vita, et ses travaux alimentaires de scénariste qui vont le sortir de la quasi-misère et lui ouvrir le chemin du cinéma: des cinéastes comme Fellini ou Bolognini lui passent commande de scènes de maquereaux, de prostituées, de marginaux. Ses films vont suivre les mêmes étapes que celles de son amour et de ses désillusions pour Rome et la jeunesse romaine."

"Une première époque (Accattone, Mamma Roma, La ricotta) est celle d'un cinéma réaliste-lyrique, ancré dans la réalité des faubourgs de la ville, suivie de L'Évangile selon Saint Matthieu qu'il veut accessible à tous, croyants ou non croyants. Il tient à se démarquer du néo-réalisme rossellinien comme du cinéma de la Nouvelle Vague qui lui est contemporain, pour trouver ses propres modèles de représentation. Quand il commence son premier film, Accattone, il ne connaît à peu près rien à la technique du cinéma mais il sait exactement ce qu'il en attend : isoler et sacraliser des morceaux du réel, un visage, un coin de mur, un geste énigmatique. Son modèle de représentation, c'est celui de Masaccio, de Giotto : sacralité, frontalité, séparation du fond et du personnage. Puis, avec le temps des déceptions et du désamour de Rome, il manifestera un rejet radical de la culture de masse et de toute récupération consumériste de ses œuvres. Il choisit, par réaction, une forme de cinéma plus cryptée, aristocratique, travaillant la métaphore et le mythe (Œdipe Roi, Porcherie, Théorème, Médée)."

"Dans les années 70, dans sa Trilogie (Le Décaméron, Les Contes de Canterbury, Les Mille et une Nuits), il tente avec l'énergie du désespoir d'échapper à ce qu'il a appelé le « génocide culturel » de l'Italie, en filmant des corps qu'il voudrait encore innocents et un érotisme libre, joyeux et païen. Mais il va abjurer rapidement cette tentative volontariste et réactive dont il juge qu'elle a perdu son sens devant la fausse tolérance sexuelle du pouvoir consumériste. Il tourne alors son dernier film, Salò ou les cent vingt journées de Sodome, objet unique dans l'histoire du cinéma, d'une absolue radicalité, intraitable, une mise à l'épreuve permanente du spectateur à qui l'écran renvoie sans cesse son propre regard auquel il refuse toute entrée empathique. Cette mise à mort du dispositif de l'identification au cinéma coïncide avec le massacre de son auteur, qui n'assistera pas à la première de son film."

C'EST PASOLINI QUI NOUS GUIDE

"L'exposition Pasolini Roma s'organise de façon chronologique en six sections, qui vont du jour de l'arrivée à Rome de Pasolini et de sa mère, à la nuit de son massacre aux confins de la plage d'Ostie, avec un petit flash-back sur ses années frioulanes. On y retrouve, d'étape en étape, quelques fils rouges qui permettent de suivre à la trace la traversée d'un quart de siècle (1950-1975) par cet homme d'une incroyable vitalité : les lieux de vie, les lieux des romans et des films, la poésie, le cinéma, les amis, les amours, les persécutions, les combats et les engagements dans la cité, les abjurations. On y trouve des dessins et des tableaux de Pasolini, dont certains autoportraits, mais aussi la galerie idéale des peintres contemporains qu'il a décrite avec précision dans un poème: Morandi, Mafai, De Pisis, Rosai, Guttuso. Jamais exposition sur Pasolini n'a été riche d'autant de matériaux de toutes natures, éclairant toutes les facettes de ses multiples activités, dont certains sont inédits à ce jour. Tous ces matériaux sont de première main : tout Pasolini mais rien que Pasolini. Des murs-écrans scandent le parcours de section en section, où le visiteur est immergé dans la Rome d'aujourd'hui, dans des lieux pasoliniens qui permettent de mesurer la justesse de ses analyses sur le devenir de la ville."

"Nous avons voulu que cette exposition accompagne au plus près les années romaines de cette vie foisonnante, en tension permanente, celle d'un homme créant et luttant sur tous les fronts. Nous avons voulu que le visiteur ait l'impression que c'est Pasolini lui-même qui lui parle, le guide, et l'autorise avec bienveillance à le suivre et à découvrir en même temps que lui un cheminement imprévisible, sans cesse ouverte aux rencontres, aux doutes, aux revirements, aux abjurations, aux départs nouveaux. Le visiteur y découvrira un homme à la fois exceptionnel (par sa puissance de création, son incroyable vitalité, ses combats permanents, sa passion pour tout ce qu'il entreprend), et un homme comme tous les autres, avec ses moments d'exaltation, de croyance, d'enthousiasme, de joie, mais aussi ses moments de doute et d'angoisses. Nous aimerions qu'en sortant de l'exposition, le visiteur ait partagé ses émotions et emporte avec lui le sentiment que Pasolini est plus que jamais actuel, que ses films et ses livres nous parlent de nous, que ses analyses nous aident à comprendre le monde dans lequel nous vivons aujourd'hui." ALAIN BERGALA

Like Jean Cocteau, Pier Paolo Pasolini was a multi-talent, and although this exhibition focuses on the city of Rome, there are flashbacks and reflections of many other important locations all over Italy and extending to the Middle East and India.

But "all roads lead to Rome".

The scope is epic, covering decades of social change during Pasolini's lifetime, fascinating circles and friendships, and many fields of cultural activity.

Divided chronologically into six sections, each introduced by a huge contemporary map of Rome, marked with spots of special importance.

I paid special attention to the self-portraits painted by Pasolini.

There was a presence of the death drive in Pasolini's life since the days of youth. Pasolini had to suppress his sexual orientation, and all his life he battled in dozens of trials, illustrated in a huge wall-to-wall diagram in the exhibition.

The exhibition's résumé about the circumstances of Pasolini's death includes much unsettling information that I had not been aware of. The official investigations are still going on.

One of the most memorable and substantial exhibitions of a film artist I have visited. Indispensable.

La Cinémathèque française: Jean Cocteau et le cinématographe (exposition)

Jean Cocteau filming La Belle et la Bête

La Cinémathèque française - Musée du cinéma. 51, rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris. http://www.cinematheque.fr/. Jean Cocteau et le cinématographe exposition du 2 oct 2013 au 23 février 2014. Visited on 28 Dec, 2013.

"L'exposition, au Musée du Cinéma, est l'occasion de montrer des fonds exceptionnels collectés par La Cinémathèque française et grâce à la générosité de donateurs. Elle dévoile affiches, scénarios, correspondances, ouvrages précieux, dessins, photographies de plateau et de tournage, ou encore des costumes et objets, dont le célèbre costume d'homme-cheval imaginé par Cocteau pour Le Testament d'Orphée et la robe dessinée par Marcel Escoffier pour La Belle et la Bête."

"Les collections témoignent aussi des activités de critique de Cocteau, et de son implication dans diverses manifestations d'importance, notamment le Festival de Cannes dont il fut à plusieurs reprises Président du jury avant d'en être nommé Président d'honneur."

"Evénement à l'occasion du cinquantenaire de la mort de Jean Cocteau, avec le soutien du Comité Cocteau et de la Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent."

An affectionate and intimate exhibition of Jean Cocteau as a film-maker based on the collections of the Cinémathèque and new precious donations. Many rare images and objects have never been on display before. The mise-en-scène, the art of the display is of the highest level. It was interesting to discover Cocteau's personal contribution to the beautiful posters.

This exhibition fits very well my "self-portraits of artists" emphasis of today's visit in the Musée du cinéma. Le Testament d'Orphée may be the cinema's most beautiful self-portrait of an artist.

The Cocteau spirit was present. I could imagine the hands extending from the walls and feel the invisible wind from beyond.

La Cinématheque française: Le Musée de la Cinémathèque

Asta Nielsen: Self-portrait. Oil, cloth, gauze. Self-photographed at Le Musée de la Cinémathèque.

La Cinémathèque française - Musée du cinéma. 51, rue de Bercy, 75012 Paris. http://www.cinematheque.fr/ Visited on 28 Dec, 2013.

"Dans le magnifique bâtiment de l’architecte Frank O. Gehry, parcourez l’histoire et la préhistoire du cinéma et découvrez les trésors des collections de la Cinémathèque française: instruments d’optique, caméras, lanternes magiques, costumes mythiques, affiches, documents de tournage et objets cultes... Au cours de ce parcours, accompagné de nombreux extraits de films, vous retrouverez les plus grands noms du cinéma, de Charlie Chaplin à Alfred Hitchcock, de Fritz Lang à Luis Buñuel."

The permanent exhibition of La Cinématheque française based on the original Henri Langlois concept is always worth re-visiting. This time I paid attention to the huge Phono-Cinéma-Théâtre poster whose significance I now realize better, having seen the impressive reconstruction of the Paris Exposition Universelle 1900 show in Pordenone last year.

I also paid attention to the self-portraits of artists, including those by Charles Chaplin and Asta Nielsen.

Georges Braque (exhibition) (Grand Palais, Paris)

Georges Braque, L’oiseau noir et l’oiseau blanc, 1960, Huile sur toile, 134 x 167,5 cm, Paris © Leiris SAS Paris © Adagp, Paris 2013.

Georges Braque, L’oiseau noir et l’oiseau blanc,1960, Huile sur toile, 134 x 167,5 cm, Paris © Leiris SAS Paris © Adagp, Paris 2013 - See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/georges-braque#sthash.4vVUSQlo.dpuf

Exposition Georges Braque. 18 Septembre 2013 - 6 Janvier 2014. Grand Palais, Galeries nationales, Paris. Viewed on 27 Dec 2013.

Commissaire: Brigitte Leal. Scénographes: Didier Blin, assisté d'Alice Sabatier. Graphistes: Noémie Lelièbre, Arnaud Sergent.

"Le Grand Palais présente la première rétrospective consacrée à Georges Braque (1882-1963) depuis près de quarante ans. Initiateur du cubisme et inventeur des papiers collés, il fut l’une des figures d’avant-garde du début du XXe siècle, avant de recentrer son œuvre sur l’exploration méthodique de la nature morte et du paysage. L’exposition propose un nouveau regard porté sur l’œuvre de l’artiste et une mise en perspective de son travail avec la peinture, la littérature ou la musique de son temps. Exposition organisée par la Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais en partenariat avec le Centre Pompidou. Exposition réalisée grâce au soutien de Nexity."
See more at: http://www.grandpalais.fr/fr/evenement/georges-braque#sthash.fmQYk5vs.dpuf

"This retrospective, dedicated to the major 20th century artist Georges Braque, will survey all the periods of his artistic creation, from Fauvism to his final works culminating in the magnificent art studios and birds series. The exhibition will focus on highlights in his career, such as Cubism, the Canéphores (Basket Carriers) of the 1920’s, and his final landscapes. Exhibition organized by the Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais and the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition is sponsored by Nexity."

An epic journey into 20th century art via a key figure, Georges Braque.

Condensing key data from the handbill of the exhibition:
1905: discovery of Fauvism.
1906: Cercle de l'Art Moderne in Le Havre.
1907: in L'Estaque and La Ciotat, landscapes reflecting the influence of Cézanne. Apollinaire introduces him to Picasso.
1908: first solo exhibition at the Galerie Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, featuring geometric landscapes now credited as the official beginnings of Cubism.
1909: at La Roche-Guyon, painting the first Analytic Cubist landscapes.
1911: adding stencilled letters and numbers to his paintings
1912: his first collage, Compotier et verre, introducing a foreign element to the work, creating a distinction between colour and form.
1913: Synthetic Cubist period, incorporating pre-existing objects into paintings: pasted papers, imitations of materials, printed symbols.
1914: enlisted in the French Army, sent to the front line on the Somme.
1915: receives a serious head wound, losing eyesight temporarily.
1919: second solo exhibition, including still-lifes. Friendship with Erik Satie.
1922: Les Canéphores, a new classical inspiration.
1924: collaboration with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. First exhibition at the gallery of his new dealer, Paul Rosenberg.
1925: Studio designed by Auguste Perret near the Parc Montsouris in Paris.
1930: Studio designed by Paul Nelson, in Varengeville-sur-Mer, where the artists makes his home for part of the year.
1932: illustrates an edition of Hesiod's Theogony for Ambroise Vollard. Cycle of paintings, engravings and sculptures inspired by mythological subjects.
1933: retrospective at the Basel Kunsthalle. Carl Einstein writes the first monograph on the artist.
1939: moves to Varengeville on the outbreak of war. Experiments with sculpture, paints a series of symbolic vanitas still-lifes.
1944-1949: Les Billards series.
1947: First exhibition at the gallery owned by Aimé Maeght, his last dealer. Meets poet René Char.
1949-1956: Les Ateliers series.
1953-1962: Les Oiseaux.
1955-1963: final landscapes at Varengeville. (My résumé of the chronology on the handbill.)

The Georges Braque exhibition is epic not only in the scope of the artworks on display, but also as a social phenomenon. There was a mass movement to the exhibition, and the spacious rooms were crowded.

In such circumstances I found it impossible to meditate, and took a cinematic approach, instead. I walked slowly, without stopping, from the beginning to the end. Then I watched the entire run of the artworks in reverse, and finally, once more, from the beginning to the end. The exhibition is chronological, and there is an inner story. It would be easy to make a Georges Braque movie in the style of Luciano Emmer and Alain Resnais, showing only paintings, tracking the inner development of the artist only via them.

Witnessing the birth of Cubism (1908) and the collage and montage approaches to painting (1912) are the most unique rewards of such a retrospective. It is also a record of an inner journey of never standing still, always evolving. Richly rewarding.

As a sociologist I was also struck by the huge demand for such an exhibition. Avant-garde art from a hundred years ago is now embraced by the general audience. The enthusiastic reception also proves that when you do a thing like this with passion and loving care, people will respond.

The art of the display is impeccable, and the subtle, non-reflecting glasses are almost unnoticeable.

Musée de l'érotisme (Paris, Place Blanche) (eight exhibitions)

Musée de l'érotisme. 72 boulevard de Clichy, 75018 Paris. Métro: Blanche ou Pigalle. Jours d'ouverture: tous les jours, y compris les jours fériés. Horaires d'ouverture: de 10H00 à 02H00 du matin.

"Dans l'art, il n'y a pas d'immoralité.
L'art est toujours sacré."
-Auguste Rodin

Art sacré (exposition permanente)
De la préhistoire à nos jours, un grand nombre d’objets et symboles témoignent de la vénération de l’homme pour le miracle de la vie. La fécondité et la fertilité qui la perpétuent ont donné lieu, sur tous les continents à des cultes voués aux forces génératrices. Modelés, sculptés, peints ou gravés ces idoles, amulettes, masques et autres objets de cérémonies constituent un patrimoine précieux et bouleversant...
   Si de nombreuses religions modernes voient dans le sexe la raison de tous les maux, les religions primitives croyaient au contraire à un lien naturel entre l’élément religieux et l’élément sexuel, constitutif de l’équilibre entre le corps et l’âme. A.P.

Art populaire (exposition permanente)
Si la frontière est parfois ténue du sacré au profane, l’art érotique populaire, au-delà des tabous et totems, appréhende, lui, la sexualité dans son aspect récréatif. Cet artisanat licencieux, dénommé Curiosa, à donné naissance à une profusion de réalisations singulières : satiriques, humoristiques, empreintes de joie et de santé...
    Expression d’une libre pensée, peut-on dire de l’art érotique qu’il contribue à la démocratie ? Il a pour le moins la vertu de dédramatiser une fonction trop souvent mal vécue et figure au Musée pour la plus grande joie du public. A.P.

Art contemporain (exposition permanente) 
Le XXeme siècle plus qu’un autre a libéré une conscience de soi qui fait place au sexe et au corps, les artistes contemporains ont largement pris en compte notre fonction amoureuse. Libre de toute pression officielle, le Musée des arts érotiques de Paris a depuis son inauguration (1997) présenté les œuvres érotiques de plus de 150 artistes plasticiens.
    La sexualité sublimée serait-elle l’essence même de l’art ? Les expositions temporaires du Musée offrent à ses visiteurs un vaste panorama international de cette créativité foisonnante, parfois trouble, toujours émouvante. A.P.

Maisons closes (exposition permanente) 
Au second étage du Musée qui en compte sept, est exposée une collection mythique, réalisée par Romi – écrivain et journaliste...
    Cet ensemble spectaculaire de documents rares, de photos et œuvres graphiques, tous relatifs à la prostitution en maisons closes, couvre une période qui s’étend de la fin du XIXe siècle à l’année 1946 (date de la fermeture de ces établissements en France). Un univers fantasmatique par excellence, source d’inspiration pour de nombreux artistes.

Stephane Blanquet: Novembre 2013 à Mai 2014
Rendez vous moi en toi. Dessins porn d'après archives porn. Né en 1973 en région parisienne, Stéphane Blanquet agite la scène artistique française depuis le début des années 90. Il a commencé sur la scène graphique par tordre les bulles, supprimer dialogues et couleurs et s’affranchir des règles. Aujourd’hui, il imagine des projets toujours plus ambitieux et place au cœur de sa réflexion l’interaction avec les différents publics et crée une œuvre forte, personnelle et accessible.  

Luz et Sarah Constantin: Novembre 2013 à Mai 2014
Kinkiness. «Kinkiness» désigne en anglais un comportement à la fois farfelu, excentrique, exhibitionniste et vicieux. Sous cet intitulé, Luz, dessinateur à Charlie Hebdo et Sarah Constantin, chanteuse, journaliste et scénariste de BD, cassent les barrières entre artiste et modèle, érotisme et pornographie, fantasme et quotidienneté, modernité et classicisme. Le Musée de l’Érotisme montre, pour la toute première fois, une cinquantaine de croquis et dessins réalisés sur des bibles écrites en latin par ces deux artistes briseurs de norme.

Daiane Soares: Novembre 2013 à Mai 2014
Io Donna. Daiane Soares, mannequin et artiste brésilienne, a choisi la photographie comme langage pour exprimer à la fois l' union et le contraste: vérité et mensonge, peur et courage, plaisir et obligation, force et fragilité... dépassant alors les seuls canons de la beauté immortalisés par des sujets non conventionnels comme ses expositions "la Carne" ou "moi et mes amies". La fusion de la maîtrise et de sa sensibilité s' est exprimée par un travail spécifique sur l' "être femme".  

Myrtille Chartuss: Novembre 2013 à Mai 2014
Myrtille vous fait: Exposition vidéo plan de couple: Exposition photo. Myrtille mi-mique, mi-femme, mi-cartoon, métisse de Joséphine Baker et de Benny Hill, pleine d'énergie, attachante, plouc et sexy, cette bille de clown sur un corps de rêve, cet avatar d'elle-même, cette créature virtu-elle avec des défauts, cette DRÔLE de fille... ben c'est Myrtille!

Last night we were at the Christmas Midnight Mass at the basilique Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre, the sacred hill of the martyrs.

Before Christmas dinner at la brasserie Wepler there is still time, and the famous Musée de l'érotisme is nearby. The idea to visit it on Christmas day may seem blasphemous or at least disrespectful.

From a cinematic tourist's viewpoint even the way to the place is full of legendary / infamous names. Place Pigalle, where many French gangster movies take place. Place Blanche, immortalized by Fréhel's haunting song "Où est-il donc" in Pépé le Moko. Place de Clichy, where Henry Miller spent some "quiet" days.

I like the all-encompassing approach of the Musée de l'érotisme. Indeed, the most atavistic dimension is sacred: the primordial worship of fertility and potency in cultures around the world, the adoration of Venus and Adonis.

But even in the most mundane and base cultural expressions of sexuality one can at least consider the possibility of Auguste Rodin's dictum about the sacred dimension in all art.

Perhaps merely naturalistic records of sexuality are not art. They are artefacts produced for a limited practical use with no further value.

Was it Georges Bataille who formulated that exaggeration is central for artistic value in erotic art and that it is especially prone to caricature and parody. Indeed, the most impressive atavistic cult objects are based on the hyperbole principle. For me, a symbol of the entire place is a dwarfed man transporting his mighty tool, bigger than himself, on a wheelbarrow.

The sacred objects are the most unforgettable in this museum, and all others shine in their benevolent spiritual field. Some objects are beautiful, some are humoristic, some are macabre.

There are four modern exhibitions at the museum. In their livres d'or guests have created uninhibited hommages of their own, often in the form of exaggerated parodies of sex organs.

There is also a non stop screening of vintage hard core pornography, completely different from the contemporary one. The performers are not photomodels, and there are no production values.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)

Mies, joka tiesi liikaa / Mannen som visste för mycket. GB 1934. PC: Gaumont-British Pictures. P: [Michael Balcon], Ivor Montagu (assoc.). D: Alfred Hitchcock. SC: Charles Bennett, D. B. Wyndham Lewis - scenario: Edwin Greenwood, A. R. Rawlinson - additional dialogue: Emlyn Williams - based on the story by Bennett & Wyndham Lewis. DP: Curt Courant. AD: Alfred Junge, Peter Proud. [VFX: Albert Whitlock, n.c.]. M: Arthur Benjamin, including "Storm Cloud Cantata" commissioned for this film. S: F. McNally. ED: H. St. C. Stewart / Hugh Stewart. C: Leslie Banks (Bob Lawrence), Edna Best (Jill Lawrence), Peter Lorre (Abbott), Frank Vosper (Ramon Levine), Hugh Wakefield (Clive), Nova Pilbeam (Betty Lawrence), Pierre Fresnay (Louis Bernard), Cicely Oates (Nurse Agnes), George Curzon (Gibson), B. A. Clarke Smith (Binstead). 75 min. The film was not theatrically released in Finland. Finnish classification number 18965 (1934). Vhs release 1995: Castle Communications. Telecast: 7.12.2008 Yle Teema, 5.5.2010 Yle Teema. A SFI-FA print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Alfred Hitchcock)

Wikipedia: "The film has nothing except the title in common with G. K. Chesterton's 1922 book of detective stories of the same name. Hitchcock decided to use the title as he had the rights for some of the stories in the novel."

Revisited the first film in the "classic thriller sextet" (Raymond Durgnat) which consolidated Alfred Hitchcock's international reputation. Charles Barr states (in English Hitchcock, 1999) that the six films came into being in a conjunction of four forces, represented by four names: Balcon, Bennett, Buchan, and Hitler. All save one were set in contemporary Britain and/or Europe. All films save one were based on novels. All save one were co-written by Bennett. All save one have a strong political dimension. All save one introduce to each other the male and the female protagonist and end on an image of their union. "To get a full sextet of films in each category, then, one needs another title and this is neatly provided by Foreign Correspondent."

Charles Barr points out that the films before the classic thriller sextet "can be taken seriously both in themselves and for what Hitchcock learned from them; indeed, the thrillers that follow represent a narrowing down and in some ways even an impoverishment. Some of his profoundest Hollywood works will seem to reach back to the early English films, and to rework both formal and thematic elements from them that are not present in the thrillers. While it is not a case of Hitchcock, after unproductive years, suddenly finding himself and reaching maturity when he joins Gaumont-British, the films that follow do, however, still constitute a remarkable series."

Heikki Nyman, in Hitchcockin kosketus: Alfred Hitchcockin elokuvat, osa 1: Englannin kausi / [The Hitchcock Touch: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock, Part 1: The English Period, 1994], writes that Hitchcock found in the thriller sextet a new characteristic balance between obsession and freedom (and a sense of humour). Hitchcock also discovered a new tempo, a new pace of storytelling with little regard for logic, although that tempo was not adopted in all films. Nyman reminds us that Hitchcock nevertheless kept making very different films even inside the thriller genre.

For Nyman, the division of Hitchcock's films into espionage thrillers and psychopathological thrillers is not essential. The Hitchcock touch related to seeing and looking had already emerged in the director's earliest films. The 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much is also essentially a film of looks. Seeing, and especially unclear seeing, are present in the 1934 version but not as centrally and not as fully integrated as in the remake. Generally the thematic of seeing is more important in Hitchcock's psychopathological thrillers than in his espionage thrillers.

Nyman observes that the homogeneity of the thriller sextet has often been emphasized, but it should not be exaggerated. A voyage structure is common to all save one. Espionage is common to all save one. Sexuality is central to two; a family theme is central to another two; a father-daughter relationship dominates one; a child is central to three. A political perspective is present in all save one.

Nyman suggests that Hitchcock benefits from a relative vagueness of the political perspective in the thriller sextet (Hitler is named in none of them) as well as in North by Northwest. They have much in common as studies in the closeness of "order" and "chaos", and Sabotage is in this sense a central work. They are also studies about how an "everyman" can get caught into a vortex of chaos. In three of the films there is a breakdown of the order of a family. Besides, two further films have a family theme.

Nyman emphasizes that essential suspense is based on the concept of knowledge and on the privileged position of the viewer, his privileged knowledge. The privileged knowledge of the viewer would from here on become an increasingly central factor in the Hitchcock touch.

Nyman, like Barr, does not see quite The Man Who Knew Too Much to represent such a dramatic recovery in Hitchcock's work as some reviewers have found, as Hitchcock had been making outstanding films all the time.

AA: A suspense thriller plot has been successfully seasoned with a Hitchcock family flavour: a passion for travel, a special love for Switzerland and St. Moritz, and a penchant for practical jokes. There is a new, more personal dimension in the thriller.

In the series of Hitchcock's masterpieces of the 1950s and the 1960s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) is an exception in that the protagonist/s (the identification figure/s) is/are not feeling anxiety about her/himself but for another (the child).

The same special structure of identification and anxiety is already on display in the original The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). This structure evidently also has a personal background in the Hitchcock family situation. The personal story is no longer about "me" or the parents but about the child.

The original The Man Knew Too Much (1934) is rewarding to revisit. It is full of rich and carefully developed detail.

The casting is its weakness. The actors are good, but the performances are not as compelling and engaging as they are in the remake.

A major difference is that the mother plays a more important part in the original film. Her scream thwarts the assassination at Albert Hall here as in the remake. But, unlike in the remake, it is her prowess at the rifle that saves the daughter from certain death.

I belong to those who take Hitchcock's political commitment seriously. The Man Who Knew Too Much was released one year after Hitler's rise to power. In many of his films from this work until Strangers on the Train Hitchcock reflected Hitler and his Übermensch concept ("some people deserve to die") in one way or other. In the cast and the crew of The Man Who Knew Too Much one may detect several people who would have had Berufsverbot in das Dritte Reich.

The print is clean and complete, not brilliant, but often enough good or ok to do justice to Curt Courant's cinematography, sometimes slightly soft or duped looking. (Courant and Peter Lorre had been forced to exile in 1933. Alfred Junge had emigrated a year earlier).