samedi 16 juillet 2011

le cinéma doit-il à tout prix être mal joué?


the naked dawn/le bandit (arthur kennedy/allan dwan, 1953)
sous le pseudo de nina et herman schneider, se cache julian halevy zimet, scénariste marxiste et verbeux, mis sur la liste noire du sénateur mc carthy .... le film est sublime ... arthur kennedy, qui a été finement dirigé par minnelli, n'a jamais été aussi mauvais ... tournage trop rapide ... ou bêtise d'ulmer? ou quoi?

voici maintenant quelques minutes d'un feuilleton anglais (merci à kapellmeister), mille fois mieux joué que le bandit, avec un sens de l'intelligiblité plus technique que les vieux codes de jeux hollywoodiens ne le permettaient ... qu'est-ce que celà prouve?
.... à y réfléchir deux fois, celà prouve que TOUS les faiseurs de films des années 2000, (sauf skorecki dans cinéphiles 3/les ruses de frédéric) à l'imitation servile de cassavettes et pialat, ne se sont essayés qu'à diriger les acteurs ... regardez le bandit: il ne sert à rien de bien jouer (ou de mal jouer), seul importe de retenir le secret perdu du cinéma ... vous avez dit "perdu"? ... ... eh oui, connard, j'ai dit perdu ... .... ....

orson welles talks about alain cavalier

SKORECKI TALKS ABOUT PATER:
le film d'alain cavalier n'a qu'un équivalent au cinema: filming othello, un film oublié en forme de testament minuscule bricolé à partir de ses dialogues d'ivrogne shakespearien avec micheál macliammóir(1899-1978), l'un de ses plus anciens amis, celui qui joue iago dans l'othello original ... .... .... ils parlent, ils boivent, ils mangent, ils théorisent ce qui reste de la vie (et du cinéma); pas grand chose, mais ce "quelque chose" est sacrément vivant dans les yeux du vieux welles ... orson welles inventait en direct, sans en avoir l'air, un art absolu de la mise en scène .... une manière de dire en passant, sans insister: regardez le magicien que je suis, le plus fort du vieil hollywood ... .... je met bout à bout deux plans tournés à un an de distance, et vous n'y voyez que du feu ... .... non, ce n'est pas de la magie, j'ai juste fait le raccord sur la bouteille de vin qu'on buvait il y a un an ... ...
il y a dans pater, ce filming lindon rigolo, politique, bavard, gourmand, et surtout dans la dernière séquence, une scène deux fois filmée, la seconde fois en champ contre champ, une rigueur de moine .... l'anti-roi bégue, en somme ...
cette virtuosité modeste, bricolée, est la seule leçon de cinéma qui me fasse venir les larmes aux yeux, car il s'agit d'un art d'usine, celui qui en principe n'existe plus ...
If we do meet again, why we shall smile/If not, why then this parting was well made (brutus à cassius dans jules césar .... )

ORSON WELLES TALKS ABOUT FILMING OTHELLO:
I have done a great deal of that editing, while I am filming. I visualize the editing, while I am filming. When I change that idea, it is a deliberate change. It is a difference that is bigger than I'd like to admit, and I do admit it, because actors teach you so much. The scenery, the smell of a thing, when you come on a set in the morning, whether it's OTHELLO, or a modern story. If you have a master plan for what your going to do, exactly where the camera is going to be, exactly what the scene is supposed to state, if you are locked into that, you are depriving yourself of the divine accidents of moviemaking. Everywhere there are beautiful accidents. The actors say something in a different way than you ever dream it could be said. She looks differently, there's a smell in the air, there's a look that changes the whole resonance of what you expected. Then, there are the true accidents, and my definition of a film director is the man who presides over accidents, but doesn't make them.

I'm going to stop just here, not only because our time is almost up, but because at this point in the discussion, the Boston film buffs veered away from the subject of OTHELLO. If I've evaded any of their questions, or any of yours, it's not by design. Maybe I should have read into the record some of the things the critics have said against OTHELLO. You might have found that informative. I would have found it depressing. I'm very much afraid that under the banner of fair play, and the interest of what's called a balanced judgment, I couldn't have resisted reading you some of the good stuff as well. Anyway it's an argument that still goes on and on. I spared you both sides of it, and I don't know if I was mistaken. Maybe an anthology of critical reviews might have been rewarding, but after all this is supposed to be my voice on the subject, so that's what you've had. I've tried to be as candid as I can. You won't have expected me to be objective. I started by calling this a conversation, but I'm afraid what you've had is mostly a scrambled, disjointed series of notes. I've been coming at our subject from every conceivable direction of the compass, and I might have put a better shape to this if I had relentlessly pursued a single theme, but that would have neglected all the other themes. I just don't know. In trying to say too much, I may have said too little.
othello, pure genius of light and theatre, and love ....

Of course, my film did not do justice to the play. It is my film and it is Shakespeare's play. No film, indeed no stage production could ever do true justice to that play. No actor ever did full justice to the part. I ask myself now, if I've done justice here in my own movie. I don't mean in the value I may sometimes rather coyly have placed upon it. I just mean this discussion. Now, let's try to sum it up. First, how the picture was made. That story you remember. An Italian producer dreaming of Verdi's OTELLO, and neglecting to mention that he was about to go into bankruptcy, stranded our whole company in a small town off the coast of Africa. With a little money of my own, all I had and absolutely no costumes whatsoever, we improvised our way for awhile, then stopped for awhile and I had to go to work as an actor in other films, in order to earn enough to continue with my own. That went on and on, and repeated itself several times, and it meant that OTHELLO was made so to speak, on the installment plan. This and other circumstances did impose a method and style of shooting, which was contrary to what had been carefully planned. For a description of the finished result, I brought you those critical appreciations, that correspond fairly closely to my own ideas. Some thoughts on the interpretation have come from a couple of the leading actors, with some additions of my own. All judgments having been avoided, I leave you with this confession. This hasn't been as easy as I might have wished. Their are too many regrets, there are too many things I wish I could have done over again. If it wasn't a memory, if it was a project for the future, talking about OTHELLO would have been nothing but delight. After all, promises are more fun than explanations. In all my heart, I wish that I wasn't looking back on OTHELLO, but looking forward to it. That OTHELLO would be one hell of a picture. Goodnight.

www.ubu.com/film/welles_oneman.html
(the one man band, un beau documentaire sur les "inédits" de welles, ses farces et ses facéties, avec oja kodar en madame loyal)

summer 1997

Tough Mama
Meat shakin’ on your bones
I’m gonna go down to the river and get some stones
Sister’s on the highway with that steel-drivin’ crew
Papa’s in the big house, his workin’ days are through
Tough Mama
Can I blow a little smoke on you?

tough mama / from planet waves (1973)/Hershey, USA, 13 august 1997

Dark Beauty
Won’t you move it on over and make some room?
It’s my duty to bring you down to the field where the flowers bloom
Ashes in the furnace, dust on the rise
You came through it all the way, flyin’ through the skies
Dark Beauty
With that long night’s journey in your eyes

Sweet Goddess
Born of a blinding light and a changing wind
Now, don’t be modest, you know who you are and where you’ve been
Jack the Cowboy went up north
He’s buried in your past
The Lone Wolf went out drinking
That was over pretty fast
Sweet Goddess
Your perfect stranger’s comin’ in at last

Silver Angel
With the badge of the lonesome road sewed in your sleeve
I’d be grateful if this golden ring you would receive
Today on the countryside it was a-hotter than a crotch
I stood alone upon the ridge and all I did was watch
Sweet Goddess
It must be time to carve another notch

I’m crestfallen
The world of illusion is at my door
I ain’t a-haulin’ any of my lambs to the marketplace anymore
The prison walls are crumblin’, there is no end in sight
I’ve gained some recognition but I lost my appetite
Dark Beauty
Meet me at the border late tonight

BONUS SUMMER 1997, when dylan was still young and rocking


you ain't goin' nowhere/silvio

(Hershey, USA, 13 august 1997

ROCKING BONUS 2000

leopard skin pill box hat (september 24, 2000)

stockholm, 2007

when the deal goes down .... stockholm 2007 ...., listen to the other fabulously lyrical and almost liquid stockholm 2007 songs on june 27, 23h59

mercredi 13 juillet 2011

the saga of anatahan

la voix off du film, celle qui raconte les évènements d'un ton las, usé par la vie, c'est celle du vieux joseph von sternberg... .... .... telle que je l'ai entendue en 1964, une dizaine d'année à peine après le tournage de ce film/testament sublime, vain, oublié ... ...

the saga of anatahan (joseph von sternberg, 1953)
.... dans une île perdue du pacifique, un groupe de japonais croit que la guerre continue, des années après la défaite du japon .... à l'époque, après une fantaisie inutile, jet pilot, sternberg ne tournait plus ... il avait abandonné le cinéma ... vieux, vaniteux, prétentieux, il m'avait montré une porte sculptée de ses vieilles mains tremblotantes en me disant: "voilà ma nouvelle oeuvre, la dernière ....." ... anatahan est sculpté comme une vieille porte ... ... joseph von sternberg avait construit une jungle de studio .... dans une jungle réelle, sur une île perdue ... .... sa volonté de contrôle était absolue: il avait tout signé: la photo, les décors, le montage, le maquillage, les costumes, le scénario ... c'est un film de pur cinéma, de pure magie .... on peut dire que c'est son plus beau film .... on peut aussi dire que c'est son seul film ...

lundi 27 juin 2011

en 1997, ces 28 chansons, comme pour la toute dernière fois ....

"oui, oui, il est étrangement boursouflé pendant ces quelques concerts magnifiques du printemps 1997 ... .... c'était juste avant ces étranges problèmes de santé, vous vous rappelez, il était atteint d'histoplasmosis cette maladie raririssime qui affecte le coeur, il avait failli mourir .... .... it was just before the strange health problem he had later that year.." ....
just before old bobby nearly died of a very rare heart infection, that is just before he nearly met Him face to face ....

et quelques semaines plus tard, à bologne, il chante (devant le pape jean-paul 2) qu'il frappe devant la porte du paradis ... un vrai mélo, un vrai western ....


she belongs to me (scranton,spring 1997 ... .... maybe)

under the red skies / senor

gambling man/masters of war

i'm younger than that now/positively 4th street

memphis blues again (out of mobile with the)/it sparkles before she speaks

lay, lady, lay/maggie's farm

it's late ... ... .../cocaïne

white dove/i and i

to ramona/till i fell in love with you

highway 61/don't think twice, it's alright

tonight, i'll be stayin' here with you/cold irons bound

tangled up in blue/silvio

blind willie mctell/shelter from the storm

live at the fisher auditorium, philadelphia, 22 avril 1997/pledging my time/absolutely sweet marie

tough mama

27 SEPTEMBRE 1997, BOLOGNE



stockholm, mars 2007

don't think twice it's alright, done in pure country picking style, light and crisp
it's alright ma/watching the river flow/nettie moore (stockholm, mars 2007)

dylan as emmett miller


here's an extraordinary glasgow 2004 version of cry a while, most difficult song to sing with it's changing rhythms, both accelerating and slowing down its own diction .... ..... one of dylan's fabulous emmett miller influenced compositions from 2002's "love and theft" ... here at it's best ...

bob dylan, juin 2011


cold irons bound, londres, finsbury park (feist), 19 juin 2011

she just acts like we never have met/hambourg, dimanche 26 juin 2011


simple twist of fate, londres, finsbury park (feist), 19 juin 2011/forgetful heart (juin 2011)

NEW HOLLIS1960 REAL UNSHAVEN CLOSE UP VERSION OF A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE (CORK, 16 JUNE 2011)
it's a hard, hard, rain's-a-gonna fall/sursee, 24 juin 2011
...

NEW HOLLIS1960 REAL UNSHAVEN CLOSE UP VERSION OF SPANISH BOOTS OF SPANISH LEATHER (Odense, 27 JUIN 2011 )

all along the watchtower (OSLO, 30 juin 2011)

ALL FINSBURY PARK CONCERT IS ON JUNE 27

dylan 1997 (bonus)


" 1997 Albany NY State I think.", says hollis 1960 of this lovely version of the elizabeth cotten song, babe it ain't no lie ... belongs to the set of great spring 1997 "sick songs" i love so much ... check 28 others on june 27 ...

finsbury park, l'intégrale


1. intro. 2. gonna change my way of thinkin' 3. it's all over now baby blue

4. things have changed .... 5. tangled up in blue

(A SUIVRE)

en 1997, ces 28 chansons, comme pour la toute dernière fois ....

"oui, oui, il est étrangement boursouflé pendant ces quelques concerts magnifiques du printemps 1997 ... ....

shelter from the storm .
....... ...... strangest version ever ....
.... .... c'était juste avant ces étranges problèmes de santé, vous vous rappelez, c'était juste avant ces étranges problèmes de santé, vous vous rappelez, il avait été atteint d'histoplasmosis, cette maladie raririssime qui affecte le coeur, il avait failli mourir .... ... it was just before the strange health problem he had later that year.."
....
just before old bobby nearly died of a very rare brain infection, that is just before he nearly met Him face to face ....

et quelques semaines plus tard, à bologne, il chante (devant le pape jean-paul 2) qu'il frappe devant la porte du paradis ... un vrai mélo, un vrai western ....



TOUTES CES CHANSONS, CES 28 CHANSONS DE REVE, SONT reportées AU 27 JUIN

london, 2000, dylan sang ...

... you left me in the doorway, crying, a song he had recorded only three years earlier for time out of mind ....
... 2000 was precisely the year i decided to abandon the idea of finalizing my very last ambitious film project, le juif de lascaux .... i've been questionning the reasons for dropping this film project for two or three months, beginning to think there might be room somewhere to try and eventually direct this ambitious l'escalier de la haine remake ... more than a producer, i've decided to look for some kind of script writer, professional or not ... if there's one around at the time, reading these lines, he should make me some kind of proposal ... as quickly as he can ....

dylan 2000

it ain't me babe .... folk blues in blue, as pure as heaven, as lovely as hell

trying to get to heaven/before they close the door/glasgow, 2004

The air is getting hotter
There's a rumbling in the skies
I've been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes
Every day your memory grows dimmer
It doesn't haunt me like it did before
I've been walking through the middle of nowhere
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door


When I was in Missouri
They would not let me be
I had to leave there in a hurry
I only saw what they let me see
You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I've been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

People on the platforms
Waiting for the trains
I can hear their hearts a-beatin'
Like pendulums swinging on chains
When you think that you lost everything
You find out you can always lose a little more
I'm just going down the road feeling bad
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

I'm going down the river
Down to New Orleans
They tell me everything is gonna be all right
But I don't know what "all right" even means
I was riding in a buggy with Miss Mary-Jane
Miss Mary-Jane got a house in Baltimore
I been all around the world, boys
Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door

Gonna sleep down in the parlor
And relive my dreams
I'll close my eyes and I wonder
If everything is as hollow as it seems
Some trains don't pull no gamblers
No midnight ramblers, like they did before
I been to Sugar Town, I shook the sugar down
Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door
robyn hitchcock's fabulous version with david rawlings and gillian welch:
http://youtu.be/JbT-V8FLFeI


same session, cry a while

1963

this was the year of my second visit to my cousin tsella in the bronx, in new york, and of my first "professional" sixty four hour trip by charter and greyhound to hollywood ...

... john coltrane was playing, johnny hartman taking his time before and between the notes, and the soudtrack softly and slowly whispered that my only love (at the time, it did make sense) was movies .... i was living at errol flynn's old love house on 8425 beverly hills, next to ciro's, where i'd go see sonny and cher two tyears later, in july 1965, same year i witnessed john coltrane in chicago, playing worse than alix combelle on a real bad day, while archie schepp (whom i interviewed a few days later, high on acid, and really making sense), who was playing with old coltrane managed to surpass both albert ayler and lucky thompson ....

le grand cinéma est-il d'extrême droite?

Tourneur travaille avec une petite équipe et un producteur génial, Lewton, petit juif ukrainien, immigré aussi, qui a le génie du cinéma (Lui est un génie du cinéma, ce n’est pas la même chose). Ses films sont brefs – une heure quinze, c’est plus que suffisant –, ce sont des séries B ; ils manquent d’argent, ils doivent fait des entrées ; Tourneur travaille dans un art d’industrie, comme dit Louis Skorecki : il doit faire vite et bien. L’art naît de conquêtes, vit de lutte, meurt de liberté … Si l’on prend Pendez-moi haut et court (Out of the past),
tourneur/mitchum, 1947
Kirk Douglas en fait trop, Mitchum pas assez (comme toujours), et Tourneur ne fait pas assez durer le plaisir au Mexique, pays riche encore de son exotique sauvagerie. Le film fait une heure quarante, un classique français na pas besoin de tant de temps.
in les 4 vérités hebdo, journal d'extrême droite en ligne aux accents très PRESENCE DU CINEMA (nicolas bonnal, lundi 27 juin 2011)

marvin gaye 94, pour les amoureux ... de sinatra

a cottage for sale, part three

judy garland overacts deliciously

frankie laine, torch singer/sam brown, best early crooner's version (1930)

best old time version ever: the velvet fog himself, mel tormé

willard robison sings his splendidly romantic and wonderfully dated "a cottage for sale"


willard robison, composer of this charming hoagy carmichaelian song (1930)

little known sfumato version by the young chris connor, in 1954

the two absolutely perfect interpreters of willard robison's work, miss peggy lee and good old faithful jack teagarden ..... ........ peggy lee's classic version/1962 poignant bluesy jack teagarden's version ... except new obscure version by chris connor, all three videos are films d'occasion productions ....

herzog vs skorecki

i disagree with most of what werner herzog says here (i've been in love with television for more than twenty years now, and i tend to ignore or hate cinema these days) ... but he DOES say all the things he says in a rather elegant way ...
(and i do consider him an extremely minor artist in the field of cinema)-

a cottage for sale, part four



little willie john's high soul falsetto version/his own original version of fever, years before peggy lee's or elvis presley's ... short tragic life, beautiful baby voice ....

le cinéma est-il de droite? (3)


gary cooper, virginia mayo, and raoul walsh acting as cecil b de mille
distant drums/les aventures du capitaine wyatt
(1951)
(à suivre)

a cottage for sale, part two

frank sinatra's glorious version with gordon jenkins from no one cares


chuck berry's splendid unplugged slow rock rehearsal of the song

billy eckstine dying baritone (+ bobby tucker)/ivory joe hunter's soulful rendition, almost forgotten
http://youtu.be/GsjcVjESPko
arthur prysock's superlative sublime barytone version for centuries to treasure

mitchum sings


robert mitchum and the ames brothers go irish/too ra loo ra loo ral
(sons of Russian Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine, the Ames Brothers -five brothers, four sisters- were among the top selling artists of the early 1950s. Their close-harmony style had few equals.)

leaning/night of the hunter

le cinéma est-il de droite? (2)


the cattle queen of montana (ronald reagan/barbara stanwyck/allan dwan, 1954) .... (à suivre)

strange to think about it ....

... i loved both jazz and cinema when i was 20, now i don't love them anymore .... maybe the world changed around me without most people realizing it ...

le cinéma est-il de droite? (1)


charles laughton, leo mc carey/ruggles of red gap (1935)
the gettysburg adress scene/l'acte fondateur de la toute puissante démocratie américaine ....
(à suivre)

jlg/leonard cohen


pour gilles tordjman

introduction to willard robison's a cottage for sale

Willard Robison was born into a Missouri family with a long line of preachers. He broke with tradition, to the consternation of some family members, and pursued a career in music. But he carried his religious values and the love of small-town, rural America into his songs. He was heavily influenced by Negro spirituals, and his early songs often had religious themes such as “Religion in Rhythm,” “The Devil Is Afraid of Music” (which the sheet music calls “a syncopated sermon”), and “Truthful Parson Brown” which appeared in a 1929 film, The Broadway Melody. He played piano, participated in college musicals, and formed his own band in 1917, The Deep River Boys, which toured the Midwest and Southwest. Paul Whiteman heard Robison in Omaha and signed him to a three-year contract.

In New York Robison recorded piano solos and vocals and made piano rolls for the Duo-Art Company. His singing style was straight-forward--like a Johnny Mercer or Hoagy Carmichael without the southern accent. He also played with Busse’s Buzzards, a group led by Whiteman trumpeter Henry Busse. Robison developed his own radio show, “The Deep River Hour,” on WOR in New York. By 1931 the show was running three times weekly. He signed a contract with the distinguished William Grant Still, one of the country’s foremost composers often referred to as the Dean of American Negro Composers, to write orchestrations for the band. Trombonist Jack Teagarden, who had played with the band in Kansas City in 1924, occasionally joined them to record. But after seven years Robison felt that commercial demands compromised his music and he quit the radio show.

Robison wrote the theme song for the Jack Tremaine Orchestra, “Lonely Acres,” and Whiteman’s first theme song, “Peaceful Valley.” In 1962 Teagarden recorded an album of Robison’s songs entitled Think Well Of Me, and he included two Robison tunes on Mis’ry and the Blues, including “Guess I’ll Go Back Home Again (This Summer)” written with Ray Mayer. In 1976 vocalist Barbara Lea recorded a Robison tribute album, The Devil Is Afraid of Music. The lyrics of the title song express Robison’s optimism: “When there’s music in the heart, you won’t find room for evil.”

Robison’s contributions to the jazz standards include “Old Folks,” written in 1938 with lyricist Dedette Lee Hill ... ....


..... ..... and 1929’s “A Cottage for Sale,” written with lyricist Larry Conley, which became a million seller in 1945 for Billy Eckstine and was memorably recorded by Chris Connor in 1956 (who also recorded “Old Folks”). In 1948 Peggy Lee had a hit with “Don’t Smoke in Bed” which was also frequently performed by Nina Simone. The song is variously credited to Robison or to Lee, her husband Dave Barbour, and Robison.

Although Robison often wrote of the simple life, his music was quite sophisticated. His arrangements, in which he often used strings and oboe, had a symphonic flare. He also composed the eight-part “American Suite” in the ‘20s, “Six Studies in Syncopation” for piano, and the five-part “Rural Revelations.”

adieu lester

goodbye porkpie hat

Charles Mingus' Requiem to Lester Young.
Charles Mingus (Bass), John Handy (Tenor Sax), Booker Ervin (Tenor Sax), Horace Parlan (Piano), Dannie Richmond (Drums)
Composed by Charles Mingus
Recorded: New York, May 12, 1959

shelter from the storm (1997)


ob dylan's strangely fat looking on these series of songs ... i wonder why ... this arrangement is one of the strangest he ever did on shelter from the storm, surely not one of his best songs .... dressed like that i POSITIVELY love it ...
says hollis1960, who releases this bootleg on youtube, when i told him how i thought dylan looked strangely fat or something .... : "it's probably from the spring 1997 tour ... can't remember which show...he looked a bit bloated in the face for the whole of that tour...it was just before the health problem later that year.."
... tO BE CONTINUED ON JUNE 27 ... .... .... 28 fabulous performances from the same spring 1997 tour, just before bob dylan's near fatal brain accident, and just before his near fatal encounter with lord jesus christ ... reborn ...

8 X 8 (the end)






i've grown accustomed to her face, which happens to be my fair lady's ending: seven or eight of the very best versions ever of this sweet loerner/lowe standard
1. my personal favourite, perry como .... 2. the strangest most sensual one: marvin gaye ..... 3. the most simple one: nat king cole, ever so young, ever so live ...... 4: dean martin, the only crooner's absolute version ... .... 5. johnny mathis sings to audrey hepburn's lovely images, sweet sweet baritone .... ...6.marlene dietrich (1959, rio de janeiro)....7. matilde santing's lesbian version ... 7 bis: wes montgomery, 1962
MARVIN GAYE'S SOFT LITTLE KNOWN STANDARD ALBUM, JUST A WHISPER AND A DREAM
1. You've Changed/2. I Was Telling Her About You/3. I Wonder/4. I'll Be Around/5. Because of You /6. I Don't Know Why/7. I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face/8. When Your Lover Has Gone/9. When I'm Alone I Cry10. If My Heart Could Sing

ida

  • ida lupino, posing as director


    Ida Lupino's Hard, Fast and Beautiful is a melodrama that takes place on the tennis court. it's a masterpiece, no less /p>

  • ida (2)


    rita lupino directed by her sister, ida lupino/never fear (1949)

    i met ida lupino in hollywood, in 1965 .... she was directing a lousy tv series, and dating a blond actor/assistant three times younger than she was ... ... i loved her walshian films, but i'd never seen never fear, her first film as director, that she directed in 1949, and which was released in 1950.
    the man responsible for saving the print of the film at MOMA's writes: "quite an auspicious achievement, never fear was ida lupino’s directorial debut .... the film stars unknowns sally forrest and keefe braselle as carol and guy, a dance team up-and-coming on the los Angeles night club circuit ... the night after their triumphant performance, carol is sick and later learns she has contracted ... polio (we all know now that lupino was diagnosed with polio in 1934) ... .... carol’s dancing career is over and she turns away from guy, now her fiancé ... .... . as part of her rehabilitation, carol enters the famed kabat-kaiser institute in santa monica to regain her ability to walk and her diminished self-worth .... never fear was produced by lupino and her then husband collier young for their production company, the filmmakers".

    frank sinatra, nat king cole, coleman hawkins, harry carney, johnny hodges, charlie shavers .......


    frank sinatra/sweet lorraine (1946) ... ... nat king cole/piano, coleman hawkins/tenor saxophone, harry carney/barytone saxophone, johnny hodges/alto saxophone, charlie shavers/trumpet, lawrence brown/trombone, eddie safranski/bass, buddy rich/drums

    1/2



    balls and chain 1 (beverly kenney, demo, 1953), balls and chain 2 (beverly kenney/master, with johnny smith, guitar, 1955)/sweet lorraine/nat king cole (1957) ... beverly came first, of course

    dimanche 26 juin 2011

    1947


    it's been a long long time/stan kenton orchestra with "sfumato" debutante, miss june christy

    samedi 25 juin 2011

    mississippi, 2001


    mississippi/standin' in the doorway cryin'

    saint paul .. le temps presse ... (oh it's you that I want, but it's Him that I need)

    I can’t wait, wait for you to change your mind
    It’s late, I’m trying to walk the line
    Well, it’s way past midnight and there are people all around
    Some on their way up, some on their way down
    The air burns and I’m trying to think straight
    And I don’t know how much longer I can wait

    I’m your man, I’m trying to recover the sweet love that we knew
    You understand that my heart can’t go on beating without you
    Well, your loveliness has wounded me, I’m reeling from the blow
    I wish I knew what it was keeps me loving you so
    I’m breathing hard, standing at the gate
    But I don’t know how much longer I can wait

    Skies are grey, I’m looking for anything that will bring a happy glow
    Night or day, it doesn’t matter where I go anymore, I just go
    If I ever saw you coming I don’t know what I would do
    I’d like to think I could control myself, but it isn’t true
    That’s how it is when things disintegrate
    And I don’t know how much longer I can wait

    I’m doomed to love you, I’ve been rolling through stormy weather
    I’m thinking of you and all the places we could roam together

    It’s mighty funny, the end of time has just begun
    Oh, honey, after all these years you’re still the one
    While I’m strolling through the lonely graveyard of my mind
    I left my life with you somewhere back there along the line
    I thought somehow that I would be spared this fate
    But I don’t know how much longer I can wait

    can't wait (le temps presse)/jeudi 22 juin 2011, milan...

    belle (al green): oh it's you that I want, but it's Him that I need

    and now here's the 2000 version of i can't wait, a magical take on a magical song ....

    don was/kris kristofferson


    closer to the bone/kk and dw

    guy clark, don was/ ..... mark erelli/don was

    cow boy jack clement/don was/buddy miller/don was
    stephen bruton and don was/gordie sampson, don was
    TO BE CONTINUED ...
    ...
    all don was are here ..... ...... click to see
    clarinet voice emmett, yes, that's what this sweet singer, vaudeville king, was ....

    but please remember emmett, sweet emmett, never used expensive jazzy swing musicians like the dorsey bros in his vaudeville days .... so what did emmett, greatest blackface ever recorded, sweetest georgia black minstrel ever, what did he REALLY sound like? guess we'll never know ....

    what we do know, however, is that youg hank williams saw emmett performing lovesick blues in a vaudeville tent, somewhere in the far west (or far south) and that he modeled his version, yodel included, on emmett millers's ever so famous howl ...so how DID old emmett sound like? probably more like young "tb" hank williams than his own jazzy versions on vinyl (or cd) ... .... ...

    patsy cline's own magnificent live version on tv (1959), even more sensual and wilder than hank williams'

    lenny bruce is dead/it's all over now, baby blue


    à propos de la forêt interdite

    Au cours de l’été 1963, les journalistes Serge Daney et Louis Skorecki avaient rencontré George Cukor à Hollywood. Quand ils avaient évoqué devant lui la Forêt interdite de Nicholas Ray, le cinéaste s’était carrément foutu d’eux.
    Il trouvait le film ridicule, en particulier la distribution qui comptait, entre autres bizarreries, l’ancienne stripteaseuse Gypsie Rose Lee dans le rôle d’une tenancière de bordel ... ....


    .... .... écrit le journaliste bruno icher dans libération (plutôt un bon journaliste, ce qui se fait rare) ... il faitune erreur historique de taille (par paresse plus que par ignorance, vu qu'il connaît bien les aventures hollywoodiennes du couple SD/LS), à savoir que c'est l'ami daney, parlant à peine l'anglais, qui suivait à la trace son copain de lycée jean-louis noames (futur louis skorecki) qui essaimait les collines hollywoodiennes depuis un an ou plus ....
    1. dire louis skorecki et serge daney, s'il vous plaît, par pure politesse ....
    2. préciser que cette folle de cukor, entouré de ses folles copines, riait à s'éclater la rate à l'évocation de cette merde de mélo écolo signé nick ray (cinéaste viril dont il était évidemment jaloux, et dont il n'eût jamais le dizième du génie)
    3. même si les lignes sont rares à libé, rapopeler que gypsy rose lee (déjà vieille dans la forêt interdite), avait été la maîtresse d'otto preminger, qui lui versa une pension d'amour jusqu'à sa mort ...
    4. comme on avait marché plus d'une heure (pas de voiture, pas de permis) sur ces putains de collines hollywoodiennes pour arriver à la villa cukorienne haut perchée, ce "woman's director" se pinça le nez en me reniflant, et envoya son valet chercher une chemise neuve pour masquer mon odeur, trop forte pour ses narines délicates (pascal thomas raconta -dans elle je crois, ou il était pigiste-, que j'ai gardé ce trophée chemisier pendant des année, ce qui est évidemment faux ....
    5. ces (més)aventures se sont passées en juillet 1965 ...
    @ EJ:
    j'ai vu mieux que dolphy: coltrane jouant avec shepp (shepp sublime, coltrane pitoyable) à chicago, un été de 1965, rollins plusieurs soirs de suite au village gate, en avant programme il y avait cecil taylor, les deux avec des trios de rêve ... ....
    mais sans vouloir questionner la mémoire de mr ginsberg à propos de présence et des cahiers, à part le vieux louis marcorelle (et l'ami simon mizrahi) je suis LE SEUL FRANçAIS (et, excusez mon orgueil, le seul journaliste TOUT COURT, vivant ou mort) à avoir vu ces glorieux cinéastes, tourneur, dwan, walsh,mc carey, ludwig, heisler, renoir, keaton, sternberg, hawks ... ... ... entre 1963 et 1965 ... et donc à avoir vraiment vu sur leurs tournages comment ça se passait VRAIMENT, quelques années avant qu'ils n'aillent raconter à ce crétin de bogdanovich (ou même à l'ami rissient qui s'est lui aussi fait rouler dans la farine) tout ce qu'ils avaient appris par coeur du message auteuriste des cahiers et qu'ils récitaient comme des perroquets ("j'adore filmer à hauteur d'homme, vous savez?") à ces journalistes/cinéastes tardifs

    1933, hollywood

    Most Hollywood historians don't realize that these 2 comedy titans were a team for a short while in the early 30's.
    The Great Jimmy Durante was at the apex of his Broadway musical career when he was seduced by the big studios to get into "The Pictures".
    Buster Keaton was nearing the nadir of his groundbreaking tenure as one of the few giants of the Silent Film Era to actually give Charlie Chaplin a run for his money. His brilliant physical comedy career was actually hurt a bit by the advent of the "talkies"...(I personally love his voice; as you can hear in this clip, he had a deep, melancholy vocal tone with a midwestern drawl that made him quite endearing.)
    Both men were rather short, and Durante, who was about an inch taller, often squated and slouched so he could look up to his partners, including the shorter Keaton.
    One can speculate why their comedy pairing didn't last. I think it's a marvelous pairing of 2 of the most disctinctive personalities in the history of Show Business! Their contrasting energy levels exude robust chemistry and delight us with their timeless interaction.

    what, no beer?/with jimmy durante and buster keaton (1933)

    Jimmy, the raspy voiced bundle of chaotic energy who's always trying to get things done, and Buster, the shy, pensive nebbish who longs for love... It works!
    And just look at that peripheral detail from the 1930's! This timely slice of Americana occured just after the voting out of the age of Prohibition, which forbade the legal sale of alcohol in the US for over 10 years.
    You can feel the crackling spirit of "Happy Days are Here Again" as America was once again a Beer swiling Nation.
    After all, that's what we do best in this country; Celebrate, right?!

    And who better to have a few beers with than the Sultan of Sadness and The Earl of Ebullience!
    copyright MISTER ESOTERIC

    the disease of conceit (1990)


    the disease of conceit (la maladie d'orgueil)/london hammersmith, 08/02/1990

    There's a whole lot of people suffering tonight from the disease of conceit
    Whole lot of people struggling tonight from the disease of conceit
    Comes right down the highway straight down the line
    Rips into your senses through your body and your mind
    Nothing about it that's sweet
    The disease of conceit.

    There's a whole lot of hearts breaking tonight from the disease of conceit
    Whole lot of hearts shaking tonight from the disease of conceit
    Steps into your room eats into your soul
    Over your senses you have no control
    Ain't nothing too discreet about the disease of conceit.

    There's a whole lot of people dying tonight from the disease of conceit
    Whole lot of people crying tonight from the disease of conceit
    Comes right out of nowhere and you're down for the count
    From the outside world the pressure will mount
    Turn you into a piece of meat
    The disease of conceit.

    Conceit is the disease that the doctors got no cure
    They've done a lot of research on it but what it is they're still not sure

    There's a whole lot of people in trouble tonight from the disease of conceit
    Whole lot of people seeing double tonight from the disease of conceit
    Give you delusions of grandeur and evil eye
    Give you the idea that you're too good to die
    Then they bury you from your head to your feet
    From the disease of conceit.

    un rêve télé ou deux ....


    columbo meets monk
    please click on COLUMBO MEETS MONK/cliquer sur COLUMBO MEETS MONK
    .... ... i always dreamed of columbo meeting his distant cousin, monk, somewhere around the corner of this beloved almost forgotten "art d'usine" (factory art) called cinema .... or tevision, if you prefer to name it this way .... it happens to be the actual name for cinema around here, in this deserted planet with plastic flowers falling all around ... (contre la nouvelle cinéphilie, adaptation libre)

    dharma and greg/1999
    ... ... i hated it when you grew old .... i hated even more your ageing on screen as a fat dumb columbo ... but i'll love you forever ... because you made me dream ... and no one knows how to do that anymore around here ...

    hollywood


    guy clark, don was .... a contemporary masterpierce in country blues from deep in the heart of texas ...
    LOTS OF DON WAS PRODUCED ACCOUSTIC ELECTRIC MINOR COUNTRY POP ON JUNE 25 ... ... ... ... ....

    tel aviv revisited


    highway 61/simple twist of fate, both from great tel aviv june 20, 2011 concert

    forgetful heart

    yiddish al


    al jolson in yiddish (remember the jazz singer, the story told, a jazzy vaudeville singer escapes from his father and his future as cantor .... it was the opposite story ...)

    melbourne, 20 avril 2011


    gonna change my way of thinkin'/melbourne, 20 avril 2011

    25 septembre 2000/portsmouth, angleterre/la meilleure version live de frankie lee and judas priest ... thanks to my good youtube friend hollis1960

    1997, bournemouth


    don't think twice, it's alright ....one of his most difficult song to do, in a rare live inspirationnal love moment

    van morrison/bob dylan


    carrying a torch/van morrison (hyms of silence, 1991)/bob dylan (san diego, 2002)

    1958/gene vincent is king


    you win again/hank williams/jerry lee lewis

    you win again/gene vincent

    1957/buddy holl beats gene vincent?

    have i been destroyed? (1/10)


    jacob taubes' student, avita ronell (don't laugh right away, please .... )
    bob dylan/can't wait (2000) ....///can't wait/le temps presse ("time presses on", as used to say saul, alias paul, alias st paul, only rabbi who was also christian ... ... jesus remained a rabbi until his death, didn't even know he was about to found a new religion .... thanks to old st paul) ... would love to hear 2011 version of can't wait, sadly prophetic as i imagine it to be, apocalyptic and all ... (even in english, jacob taubes is still my only teacher these days)

    eloge de sternberg

    http://www.fichesducinema.com/spip/spip.php?article2618
    UN TRAIN DANS LA NUIT

    Dans le train qui l’emporte vers Shanghai, Shanghai Lily rencontre son ancien amour, un médecin des armées qui l’a si peu oubliée qu’il porte toujours sur lui son portrait. Mais un chef révolutionnaire arrête le convoi et le médecin est désigné comme otage.

    (JPG)

    Dans un bel article, Louis Skorecki disait de ce film qu’il « navigue à bonne distance de ses propres travers stylistiques, avec une sorte d’humour froid qu’on prendrait à tort pour du second degré ». Ajoutons à cette très juste remarque que le cinéma, en particulier le cinéma hollywoodien de ce temps-là (le début des années 1930, le début du parlant), ne prolonge pas tant la rêverie du spectateur qu’il n’est un rêve incarné, matérialisé. Rêve, ici, d’une Chine coupe-gorge, d’un train traversant, fantomatique, des nuits noires de jais, rêve d’une réunion cosmopolite de personnages sympathiquement ridicules venus de toute l’Europe et des États-Unis, rêve d’un amour qui a survécu au temps et survivra aux malentendus, rêve, enfin, d’une femme de rêve, Marlene Dietrich, femme encore enfant qui sait aussi bien arpenter nerveusement un quai de gare que sourire aux anges près d’un tourne-disques, avec une grâce comme on n’en voit plus, surhumainement fragile. Un monde s’accorde ici à nos désirs d’aventure, d’exotisme, d’amour fou et de danger, sans prétendre arrimer le spectateur par des effets d’intimidation en quoi consistera l’essentiel, trente à quarante ans plus tard, du grand spectacle hollywoodien. Ici se joue plutôt la carte d’un esthétisme suranné, fait de volutes et de rideaux, de lenteur et de glamour, d’impatience et de secrets. Le film est à l’image de Marlene Dietrich/Shanghai Lily, une femme dont on ne sait si elle est ou non une prostituée et qui ne fera à personne le plaisir de lever l’ambigüité. Sternberg, sourire en coin, invente des bandits complaisants pour arbitrer les débats amoureux, joue à faire trembler ses personnages jusqu’à, dans la magnifique dernière séquence, nous sortir son plus beau tour : un montage en fondus associant la foule d’une gare et le couple qui s’embrasse, et que personne ne regarde. Sternberg connaissait au moins mille et une façons, toutes déviantes, toutes charmantes, de dissimuler l’absence de secret.

    Mehdi Benallal

    louis prima 1938



    loch lomond by louis prima (1938)/... and i can't get started with you by maxine sullivan (and top jazzmen of the time, 1958, such as tyree glenn (tb) and coleman hawkins (ts)) ...... maxine sullivan was a light skinned negro swinger who made a hit, early in 1937, out of loch lomond, old traditionnal 17th century scottish song ....

    skorecki fait de la radio

    un bonus radio, bricolé à libé en 2006, sur
    http://next.liberation.fr/musique/06013709-les-bonnes-ondes-de-dj-dylan


    <
    4th Time Around (from BLONDE ON BLONDE, 1966), live, 2000


    When she said,
    "Don't waste your words, they're just lies,"
    I cried she was deaf.
    And she worked on my face until breaking my eyes,
    Then said (coupé du clip/concert)
    "
    What else you got left?"
    It was then that I got up to leave
    But she said, "Don't forget,
    Everybody must give something back
    For something they get


    I stood there and hummed,
    I tapped on her drum and asked her how come.
    And she buttoned her boot,
    And straightened her suit,
    Then she said, "Don't get cute."
    So I forced my hands in my pockets
    And felt with my thumbs,
    And gallantly handed her
    My very last piece of gum.

    She threw me outside,
    I stood in the dirt where ev'ryone walked.
    And after finding I'd
    Forgotten my shirt,
    I went back and knocked.
    I waited in the hallway, she went to get it,
    And I tried to make sense
    Out of that picture of you in your wheelchair
    That leaned up against…
    Her Jamaican rum

    And when she did come, I asked her for some.
    She said, "No, dear."
    I said, "Your words aren't clear,
    You'd better spit out your gum."
    She screamed till her face got so red
    Then she fell on the floor,
    And I covered her up and then
    Thought I'd go look through her drawer.

    And, when I was through
    I filled up my shoe
    And brought it to you.
    And you, you took me in,
    You loved me then
    You didn't waste time.
    And I, I never took much,
    I never asked for your crutch.
    Now don't ask for mine.

    shelter from the storm ........ ...... strangest version ever ....

    tel aviv revisited (2)


    easy to remember


    from perry como's best lp, we get letters (1957, best year for movies and music), this lovely version of the great rodgers & hart standard it's easy to remember
    i love perry como, crooner's best selling artist ever (he used to sell more than sinatra and dean martin AND bing crosby TOGETHER ...) ... only problem, he often sings bad commercial material with horrible arrangements most of the time .... not on this lovely standard, lovingly put on video by skorecki's films d'occasion ...

    billie holidays lush version, from her late late violin arranged by don ellis lady in satin version/mel tormé's splendid foggy velvet reading .....

    young dean martin's early crooning version

    don was/sweet pea /tim mc graw


    sweet pea atkinson (from was not was)and don was/tim mc graw, one of the greatest nashville heroes .... .... soul vs country

    BONUS 26 JUIN/ 16 JUIN/22JUIN/24/25 ...............


    things have changed/mainz, germany (dimanche 26 juin 2011)

    ballad of hollis brown/mainz, germany(dimanche 26 juin 2011)
    o
    i dreamed i saw st augustine (j'ai rêvé à st augustin, dans ses montagnes de kabylie, 16 juin 2011)/to make you feel my love (24 juin 2011)
    BONUS MILAN, jeudi 22 JUIN 2011

    till i fell in love with you/visions of johnanna (22)
    BONUS 25 JUIN

    desolation row (25 juin)

    don was goes jazz .... and reggae


    monk's dream by john sinclair and don was (beware ben sidran, beware mose allison ....) switchy switch ...... by common sense/and don was
    LOTS OF DON WAS PRODUCED ACCOUSTIC ELECTRIC MINOR COUNTRY POP ON JUNE 25 ... ... ... ... ....

    dylan's like a rolling stone/1965

    le juif dylan est de retour à tel aviv


    " invraisemblable ou pas, crois-moi, c'est la vérité -et il n'y en a pas deux ..."