I watch a fair number of movies on TV – mostly from TCM, some from my DVD collection. The routine in our house a movie from 5 – 6 Mon-Thurs. Friday’s we were watching Buffy episodes but have finished all 7 seasons! Now we’re working through Broadchurch – an hour of that a week is all I can take – too depressing. Almost at the end of season one, so no spoilers please.
Saturday is usual my 4 p.m. movie date with a friend. Saturday is the only day I usually see a movie all at once – he & I have watched classic queer films: i.e. Cabaret, Rocky Horror Picture Show, he has never seen & sprawling epics: Lord of The Ring, The Hobbit – those took two weeks per film. Also the Indiana Jones films. Here are some films I watched over the past summer.
Starting with some challenging French cinema. Most recent was ‘Pickpocket’. I loved the voice-over – every French film voice over makes me think of Last Year At Marienbad (which is a good thing as Marienbad is one of my all time favorite films). Pickpocket is low key, almost film noir, with terse dialogue that force the viewer to fill in the story. The same is true for ‘Paris Belongs To Us’ – even more so as one is never sure where this one is going as our heroine is on the trail of a political force that causes people who trail it to commit suicide – at least I think that’s what it is.
Out of Britain is ‘Girl With Green Eyes’ with the wide-eyed Rita Tushingham falling for an older man. Set in Dublin, or was it Belfast? It a curious coming of age story about a young girl & a writer (shades of Lolita). Not as grim as I expected & an interesting look at life at that time. Oi reminded me of ‘Loves of a Blonde’ a Czech film where a young girl who falls for an older man but with a more mordant tone. It was never easy being a young female.
Out of Asia came ‘YiYi’ (China) – fascinating, epic family drama set in modern times. Sprawling cast, fine performances, some amazing party arguments & young girls falling in & out of love. From Japan is ‘The Warped Ones’ (Japan) – set in late 50’s with an amazing jazz score your men, for a change, struggle for identity & meaning in a world they find meaningless. Amazing performances & a plot that takes illogical turns but I was willing to go there. From Korea is ‘The Maid’ – young girls fallen love with older men, again. She becomes his maid while his wife is pregnant. Odd plot twists & an ending out of the blue. Apparently this was inspiration for ‘Parasite.’
In the Italian ‘Seduced and Abandoned’ a young girl is seduced by her older sister’s fiancé & mayhem results. Funny, sad, & more proof of the difficulty of being a young female anywhere in the world.
I did watch some American films – Birdman which was the best film Robert Altman never made – done in Altman’s talk over, rapid fire, busy camera style this was a fun, if overly long, ride. I do love the behind the stage movie – a Hollywood cliche for decades. But I wanted to tell almost every character to shut the fuck up. Nearly everyone was irritating. The flying sequences were exactly out of my dreams.
Finally is Canada’s ‘Edge of the Knife’ Sgaawaay K’uuna. This is a masterpiece. Visually stunning. Beautifully performed & one everyone should see. I watched many more but these are ones I surprised by the emotional pull they achieved, some by disregarding narrative logic, some by singleness of creative vision, all worth seeing.
Saint Jim
<>
Pere Lachaise
section six section seize
‘seize the moment in section six
you have to seize the moment
saiser l’instant’
Jim starts a new song
‘you have to seize the moment
in section six’
I can hear him shout
through stage fog strobe lights
teeny bopper girls rush the stage
police men push them away
as he taunts flaunts
teases pleases
scowler prowler
hurt lost shaman
<>
like those silly little girls
I lust after that idol
I wonder what they saw
that day in Miami
if he did flash the iconic cock
<>
I make my way though a light rain
everything is a line in a Saint Jim song
‘making my way
through cemetery rain’
I know he‘s here somewhere
I see mystic marks sprayed
momentos of worship
‘the blue bus stops near here’
the rain stops
and I am there
<>
it’s not a monument
a flat grey space with a tombstone
his name wrong
James isn’t Jim
his bones beneath my feet
unless they’ve been stolen
relics in sacred altars
for those who think
they can petition this saint
<>
a bunch of flower
some used condom lizard skins
‘lizard skins drying in the sun
show we have seized the moment’
<>
I hear birds
then dozens of people
hiss of cameras
posers smile lean over the tombstone
stoke his name then gone
<>
left alone
I seize my moment
shrug at the security camera
unzip my fly
to flash my cock
the only gesture of his I can duplicate
TOpoet 