h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh god, now you've put me on the spot, Ed. Shall get back to you later...

Yes Ed. I think it's because I've always thought of his paintings as very sexual, even when the subject matter is not literally something sexual. I have very mixed feelings about his work. I always think of him as the 'typical' male painter, expressing very much a male perspective of things. But it's principally the sex/eroticism thing which I associated with you.

That painting you referenced is exactly the sort of his paintings I don't like. But having refreshed my memory by looking on google images, some of them are amazing, eg this alter painting.

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/1632/A103_2_012i.jpg

One of the things about his work I do like is the sense of 'story' in them. Almost literary. So different from the kind of abstract expressionism that came to represent the epitome of 'modernism' in the US. Though I love some of those too, eg Pollack.

In general I find it interesting that much of British painting in the 20th century was always about 'story'. We are essentially a literary culture.

I remember a few years ago seeing a doco about Spenser and his whole thing of almost mysticising his life in Cookham. Referring back to William Blake in some ways I think.

JEllen another British film I forgot to mention is 'Beckett', starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole; it's about Thomas Beckett, the famous archbishop who was murdered at Canterbry Cathedral, and his relationship with King Henry II.

I think what I like about that Spencer (ie the Fitzwilliam one) is the fact that it's so unlikeable. Yes - a male perspective - and from the p.o.v. of a somewhat pathetic male onlooker. He was clearly in awe of, but couldn't quite handle, the women in his life. It's a dysfunctional painting. It's creepy, isn't it?

Yes I think you've summed that Fitzwilliam painting up perfectly Ed.

I just watched 'Portrait of a Lady' again. John Malkovitch really is superb as Gilbert Osmond. I do think he is one of the most poisonous and malignant characters in all fiction. He's all dead inside, and pure calculation, and my goodness he enjoys poisoning the lives of all the women in his life.

I've read the novel twice, and it bears reading again I think. It really is just so complex and intelligent. The film is excellent. Nicole Kidman is pretty dammed sexy in her Victorian costumes, especially after she marries Gilbert. The film is worth watching for that.

But you can't beat the actual novel.

But at least Spencer isn't as creepy as Degas.

Yeah well he seems to be under the impression that all we females are nicey nicey clucking ballet dancers...

I'll start with Beckett and go backward.

I remember really emotionally connecting to the movie Beckett, being fascinated at how such good friends could become so alienated, to the point where one would more or less arrange the murder of the other. Excellent film, and great performances. I should put that on my Netflix queue again.

Hitchcock. A master! Favorite Hitchcock films include Strangers on a Train, Psycho, and Frenzy. I'll never forget that shot in Frenzy where the camera glides stubbornly back down the stairs as we just know that poor girl is being murdered.

Heaven. Saw that one and liked it. Very unusual ending, they never make it clear, do they escape, or just "fly up to heaven"?

Brazil! A dark gleaming masterpiece. I loved it when it first came out, but find it ever harder and harder to watch it again. The ending, the REAL ending, rips your guts out. Parts are darkly funny too, and the catchy tune Brazil will be stuck in my mind forever. Also the incredible dreams of the main character flying. The miniature cars...I could go on and on about Brazil.

Farenheit 451. I've avoided watching the film because I like the book so much. Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors. Another darkly gleaming jewel of a story -- do I sense a theme here? Dystopian (sp?) futures?

Saw Wuthering Heights a long time ago. Also saw If back in college. Don't remember much about either one. Tried to watch that Henry V a while back, but preferred the version with Kenneth Brannaugh.

As for the others, I'll give a look see and see if Netflix has them and if I might want to rent them. But be warned, I've got about 75 movies in my queue already.

PS Do you like The Piano, with Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin? Amazing score, amazing film, and my vote for most haunting final shot.

Not to be confused with The Pianist, the film about the Holocaust. (Another powerful movie, so intense I walked out the first time I saw it.)

>>Yeah well he seems to be under the impression that all we females are nicey nicey clucking ballet dancers...

Ah, but he didn't think that ballerinas were nicey nicey. It wasn't a posh entertainment like it is nowadays. You know his famous statuette? That was originally a photorealistic waxwork, modelled in intimate detail, even beneath the clothing. The girl was fourteen years old. It was exhibited as a piece of installation art, surrounded by sketches to illustrate the theory of 'physiogonomy' - ie that one could tellm personality and character from facial features. The title was 'Illustrations of criminals and various gutter types'. The wee gorl was a dirty little slut, you see? Degas paid the dancing teacher to let him perve the girls.

And then there's all those paintings of women 'at their toilet'. Many of them are shown in a wide, shallow bath. This was especially created so that Degas could see them better. The subjects were prostitutes. Degas' family destroyed most of the ones that showed them peeing.

And now they're all regarded as anodyne decorative art.

Oh wow Ed, you've certainly opened my eyes to Degas. I'm not a huge fan of Impressionism, generally, apart from Bonnard, who I absolutely love. The intensity of colour in his paintings is quite hallucinogenic - a bipola's dream. This one makes me feel high just looking at it on the computer screen.

http://www.abcgallery.com/B/bonnard/bonnard52.html

I also very much like Cezane, except he's not strictly an Impressionist.



Yes JEllen I also very much like 'The Piano'. Brilliant film. I'd so like to visit that amazing beach in the end scene. It's directed by Jane Campion, who directed, 'Portrait of a lady', that I keep going on about.
She also directed, 'An Angel at my Table.'

Have you seen 'Heavenly Creatures', another film set in NZ? Or Picnic at Hanging Rock, set in Australia?

I've also just remembered the films of David Lean, eg Dr. Zchivago, Lawrence of Arabia and Ryan's Daughter.

Yes I so agree about Hitchcock. Apparently he treated his leading ladies, appallingly though.

Hard to choose favourites. But maybe 'Marney' and 'The Birds'.

I once tried (unsuccessfully) to chat someone up in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. I said to a woman who was looking at a Georges Seurat painting,
'I always think this kind of stuff is pointless...or do I mean pointiliste?'

You can see why I was unsuccessful.

And I think Renoir hardly endeared himself to me, when he said,

'I paint with my p***k'.

I've seen Heavenly Creatures. Liked it. Course I like Kate Winslet anyway.

Yeh, Hitchcock treated ALL his actors like cattle. He said once that if he could make a movie without actors he would.

See also Georgia O'Keefe:

'I hate flowers - but they're cheaper than models and they don't move so much.'

But Georgia O'Keefe's 'flowers' aren't really much to do with flowers are they, once she's painted them?

Same with my flower photos. (See link from my PS). I once had an interesting conversation when one friend teased me about showing her porn, and the other couldn'tb work out what she meant:
'But...they're only flowers!'

Even this one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardthebonobo/11189376

Oh my god, Ed........

Hi ho and hello. They've been cutting the grass here, interrupting my sleep.

Your flower photos ARE very good, Ed.