Classical Music, Poetry and stuff

[Prospero]

Highly recommended in London - Kevin Spacey as Richard III

I guess its a step forward from Keyser Soze...

Actually The usual Suspects was a pretty good film, I thought.

i LOVE the local landscape but had no idea there were bears there either. Did you see my eariier post about your hometown Ashville which I know slightly. (Good friends live not far away in Tryon).

[robertlouis]

Highly recommended in London - Kevin Spacey as Richard III at the Old Vic. He totally commands the stage making a darkness palpable. Directed by Sam Mendes.

Hoping to see it this Thursday.

[robertlouis]

Actually, I guess this is the right thread to mention the latest in your imaginative and always interesting series of avatars, Prospero.

The eyeball-slicing scene from Un Chien Andalou still has the ability to shock and disturb 80 years on, despite the modern audience's constant exposure to endless gore.

God only knows how the film's first audiences reacted!

[Prospero]

Well I hope you can get tickets Robert Louis.... I got mine months back and even joined friends of the old vic in order to be sure of seats. It's pretty much sold out for the entire run but you might get returns.

[Stavros]

I have had an intense loathing of Salvador Dali for years, the essay on him Orwell wrote is all that needs to be said, the films are rubbish. Bunuel was quite an amusing sort of film-maker, but sort of like an anarchist version of Woody Allen....

[Prospero]

You're right Stavros - Dali was a fake but actually technically a better painter than most of the other surrealists. For me the best surrealist is the infinitely subtler Max Ernst. Bunuel's later films were fun. But this scene is still mightily disturbing.

[robertlouis]

Well I hope you can get tickets Robert Louis.... I got mine months back and even joined friends of the old vic in order to be sure of seats. It's pretty much sold out for the entire run but you might get returns.

Inside influences, dear boy.....

[robertlouis]

You're right Stavros - Dali was a fake but actually technically a better painter than most of the other surrealists. For me the best surrealist is the infinitely subtler Max Ernst. Bunuel's later films were fun. But this scene is still mightily disturbing.

One of the first paintings that ever had a real impact on me was Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross in Glasgow Art Galleries, which I saw first as a young child. The unique perspective of the crucifixion from above is till a very arresting image.

Amazing that the dour presbyterian baillies of Glasgow had the imagination and courage to purchase it on behalf of the city.

[Prospero]

It is a fine painting.... and though I agree with Stavros by and large regarding the lack of honesty in much of Dali's dealings, loathe is a strong word to apply to this playful shaman.

[trish]

I think a lot of Dali's earlier work has merit. His later fame and greed corrupted his art. The Sacrament of the Last Supper is in the Smithsonian and the original is a wonder to see. I've a print of The Landscape of Port Lligat hanging in my bedroom.