Noir Film
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adaptation to film noir, a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, and Billy Wilder.
noun: film noir
a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, and Billy Wilder.
a film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace.
plural noun: films noirs.
Take at Summer of 42 (some time ago)
"The outcome of our actions, our fate, is already decided and therefore does not matter. What is important is the manner of our conduct as we go to meet it." You couldn't change what was going to happen to you, but you could at least face it with honor and dignity. The best death was to go down fighting, preferably with a smile on your lips. Life is precarious by nature, but this was especially true in the Viking Age, which made this fatalism, and stoicism in the face of it, especially poignant. "
Daniel McCoy, The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology and Religion
Visit this location at * VARGSANGEN * - Vikings, Gods, Scandinavia in Second Life
breaks through determinism and opens up new roads :-)
Charles de Gaulle
VOTE!! RESIST!! IMPEACH and REMOVE!!
lilac daphne, j c raulston arboretum, ncsu, raleigh, north carolina
I had discarded this photo - initially. But now I think it is good enough. We are living (in the UK at least) in a time of mass death. For the time being, people are stunned and are taking the fact that almost 100 000 people died from Covid19 with disbelief or even fatalism. But the time of reckoning will come. There will be questions. Who decided, for example, to send Covid-infected patients into the homes for the aged - and why?
Agra (Inde) - Quand j’ai croisé la route de cet homme, je ne l’avais pas vraiment remarqué au premier abord. Il avançait dans la cohue de la circulation, en tirant son vélo lourdement chargé, tout en me regardant faire des photos. Jusqu’au moment où j’ai croisé son regard. Un regard perturbant et fascinant qui s’imposait à lui seul. Il exprimait une grande lassitude, proche de la détresse L’homme était visiblement épuisé et probablement fiévreux. Chose rare chez moi, j’ai hésité à faire la photo. Il y avait quelque chose d’indécent à capter l’image de ces grands yeux qui trahissaient un certain fatalisme sur sa condition. Tant d’émotions dans un simple regard. Alors comme pour me déculpabiliser, j’ai zoomé en une fraction de seconde, sans me préoccuper de l’environnement et encore moins de mon cadre. L’indécence aurait été d’esthétiser cette scène. J’avais aussi peur qu’en me posant des questions existentielles, l’intensité de ce regard ne s’estompe. J’ai donc laissé mon instinct reprendre le dessus.
En exposant ce regard, illustration d’un désespoir, j’ai le sentiment de rendre hommage à cet homme et à tous ses compagnons de misère. Mais j’ai aussi pour la première fois, la désagréable impression de lui avoir volé quelque chose. Même si après l’avoir remercié d’un petit geste de la main, l’homme a esquissé un rictus que j’ai interprété comme étant un sourire d’approbation.
- Le flou de l'arrière-plan n'est pas vraiment agréable. C'est étonnant car le 17-55 mm f : 2,8 est un excellent objectif. Insondables lois de l'optique.
All the misery in the world in a single look
Agra (India) - When I crossed paths with this man, I hadn't really noticed him at first. He rode through the rush of traffic, pulling his bike, heavily laden with bags, while watching me take pictures. Until the moment I met his gaze. A disturbing and fascinating look. He expressed great weariness, bordering on distress. The man was visibly exhausted and probably feverish. Rare thing for me, I hesitated to take the photo. There was something indecent in capturing the image of those big eyes that betrayed a certain fatalism about his condition. So much emotion in a simple look. So as if to rid myself of guilt, I zoomed in a fraction of a second, without worrying about the environment and even less about my frame.
The indecency would have been to aestheticize this scene. But by acting on instinct, I was also afraid that by asking myself existential questions, the intensity of this gaze would fade.
By deciding to expose this look, an illustration of despair, I have the feeling of paying homage to this man and to all his companions in misery. But looking at him, I also have for the first time the unpleasant impression of having stolen something from him.
Taken at the John Nash exhibition 'The Landscape of Love and Solace' at the Towner Exhibition in Eastbourne, UK
This lady was totally immersing herself in the scene before her.
This painting was:
Oppy Wood (1918) by John Nash
Oil on Canvas
"Dawn, with its potential for sudden attack, and twilight. harbinger of night time danger were hours of maximum tension. Early evening was often a moment of relative tranquillity on the Western Front.
When this painting was exhibited at Burlington House in 1919 the critic PG Konody noted that, unlike his brother Paul, John Nash did 'not force nature to partake of the madness of man' and in its very brightness it carries a suggestion of transcendence.
In the trenches Nash cultivated a quiet fatalism during his 'enforced gamble with fate' but by the time he painted this he was finally safe and recalled experiencing 'just possibly a feeling of strange pride in having managed to endure it and come out alive and sane'
IWM (Imperial War Museum)"
Pictures in an exhibition by Mussorgsky www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq7Qd9PSmR0
OR
Emerson, Lake & Palmer www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiuU9A5tpbg
I've photographed this chair before, but the light was different. As was the angle. I'm okay with both. The first was all dark and moody-broody. This is more of a ... well, just a photo of a chair, I guess.
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'Fatalism or'
Camera: Mamiya RB67
Film: Ilford HP5+ at 1600iso
Process: HC-110B; 11mins
Washington
December 2024
conceived and staged by Wren Carling Parker ( featured )
Noir
/nwär/
noun
a genre of crime film or fiction characterized by cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity:
Film noir
/ˌfilm ˈnwär/
noun
a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films made in the period 1944–54 and to the work of directors such as Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, and Billy Wilder.
Suspended Animation Classic #253
Originally published October 31, 1993 (#45)
(Dates are approximate)
Heavy Metal and Justine
By Michael Vance
“Heavy Metal” v. 18 #5/$3.95, 100 pages, from Metal Mammoth, Inc./various artists, writers/available at newsstands, comics shops.
Parents always want their children to become adults, i.e. irresponsible, completely selfish, pleasure obsessed threats to society. These must be comic book parents because this seems to be the comic book definition of adult.
“Heavy Metal” was touted the premier adult comics magazine on American newsstands from its beginning. It reprints mostly European comics, translated and unrestricted by America’s ‘prudish heritage’. It often publishes startlingly beautiful art, exceptional or competent story, and promotes the three standards that define adult: explicit sex, bloody, graphic violence, gutter language.
The proof is in the blood pudding. Of nine features in the current issue, only one set of one-page pieces, “StripTease”, fails to obsess on nudity or sexual encounters. The longest story, “Eden”, is a suspense thriller set in the distant future. Extremely well drawn, full of imagination, and competently written, “Eden” is also rife with exploding bodies, bloody mutilation, and nudity. In fact, if sex were removed from six of the remaining stories, almost nothing would remain of “Network”, “A Present from Upstairs”, and “A Pleasant Walk” (each primarily sex dreams), “Reflections” (fictional slice of Peru’s conquest), and “For Private Eyes” (film noir detective fiction) would be severely crippled.
Much of “Heavy Metal” is artistic excellence; most is marred by an underlying fatalism that values nothing outside of instant gratification.
“Heavy Metal” and most comics labeled “Adult” are actually like kids swapping nasty words and lies on a school ground. They use obscenity and sex because these are forbidden to them by adults. By ‘stealing’ these subjects, kids think they’re adult.
“Heavy Metal” is recommended for these comic book ‘adults’.
MINIVIEW: “Justine” #s 1 & 2. This adaptation of the Marquis De Sade’s sick novel of sex as violence is what most call pornography, and publisher Catalan labels “Erotica”. Ultimately, no matter how well drawn or expertly written, what is the value of perversion? Recommended for no one.
Les enfants du bidonville
Varanasi (Inde) - Dans le bidonville de La Kharbuza, on tente de survivre sans se poser la question de savoir si on est victime d’injustices ? La question ne se pose pas. C’est comme ça ! La religion hindouiste n’est pas étrangère à ce fatalisme. Une anesthésie spirituelle.
Certes, la misère règne au « royaume des invisibles », mais ici, les enfants sont comme partout ailleurs. Ils jouent, ils rient, ils pleurent. Grâce au travail acharné de leurs parents qui récupèrent et trient les déchets, ils parviennent à se nourrir au moins une fois par jour. Souvent avec le soutien des ONG indiennes. Il sont soignés gratuitement par l’association médicale « Action Bénarès ». Et pour ce que j’ai pu voir, leurs parents sont présents. Quand une famille est au travail, c’est une voisine ou une grand-mère qui se charge de surveiller les gamins. Dans le bidonville on n’a pas grand chose, alors on s’entraide. Et ce lien est irremplaçable. En Inde, tout le monde n’a pas cette « chance ».
The children of the slum
Varanasi (India) - In the slum of La Kharbuza, we try to survive without asking ourselves whether or not we are the victim of injustice? The question does not arise. It's like that ! The Hindu religion is no stranger to this fatalism. Spiritual anesthesia.
Admittedly, misery reigns in the "kingdom of the invisible", but here, the children are like everywhere else. They play, they laugh, they cry. Thanks to the hard work of their parents who collect and sort the waste, they manage to feed themselves at least once a day. Often with the support of Indian NGOs. They are free cared for of charge by the "Action Bénarès" medical association. And for what I've seen, their parents are present. When a family is at work, it is a neighbor or a grandmother who takes care of the kids. In the shanty town we don't have much, so we help each other. And this emotional bond is irreplaceable. In India, not everyone is this "lucky".
L’art nouveau n’est pas un mouvement pictural à proprement parler mais un style décoratif qui connut un grand succès à la fin du 19e et au début du 20e siècle. Il concerne l’architecture, la décoration d’intérieur, la sculpture, le vitrail et accessoirement la peinture. La terminologie fluctue selon les pays : on parle de Jugendstil en Allemagne, de Sezessionstil en Autriche, de Stile Liberty en Italie, d’Arte joven en Espagne. Le terme Art nouveau a d’abord été utilisé en Belgique par la revue L’Art Moderne créée en 1881 par Oscar Maus et Edmond Picard : ces deux personnages se définissent en effet comme « les croyants de l’Art nouveau », c'est-à-dire d’un art qui rejette l’académisme et se veut novateur. Le terme Art nouveau sera repris par le marchand d’art Siegfried Bing qui créa à Paris en 1895 un magasin à l’enseigne de « La Maison de l’Art nouveau » dans lequel on vendait des objets d’art de renom tels que les créations de Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), Emile Gallé (1846-1904) et René Lalique (1860-1945).
Esthétiquement l’art nouveau est une réaction à l’impressionnisme qui est d’abord un réalisme et qui a tendance à dissoudre les formes. L’art nouveau privilégie le dessin. Le trait est net, les motifs (femmes, feuilles, fleurs, évocations symboliques) sont stylisés. L’artiste utilise les arabesques ou les stries pour rejoindre parfois une abstraction purement décorative. La filiation est nettement symboliste. Ainsi, le peintre symboliste néerlandais Jan Toorop (1858-1903) parsème certaines de ses œuvres de grandes courbes ou de stries purement décoratives qui caractérisent le style « Art nouveau » : O grave, where is thy Victory (1892), Fatalism (1893).
Read more at www.rivagedeboheme.fr/pages/arts/peinture-19e-siecle/l-ar...
"Jeg har oplevet det Grueligste, der kan opleves!" sagde Skyggen, "tænk Dig – ja, saadan en stakkels Skyggehjerne kan ikke holde meget ud! – Tænk Dig, min Skygge er blevet gal, han troer at han er Mennesket og at jeg – tænk dig bare, – at jeg er hans Skygge!" H.C. Andersen
aka --> Enslev Road in the rays of evening Sun.
www.andrewbrooksphotography.com
Book cover commission for
Future Ethics: Climate Change and Apocalyptic Imagination, edited by Stefan Skrimshire
"How are ideas and beliefs about the future shaping political action on climate change? Future Ethics tackles this question comprehensively for the first time. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines, the concepts of apocalypse, crisis and the future are brought to bear on contemporary attitudes and practices. Does the reporting of impending (or passing) tipping points in global warming renew a spirit of resistance or a new fatalism? How is the future of the human species really imagined in society and how does this affect our sense of ethical responsibility to others and to the environment? Can religious or spiritual narratives influence our commitment to the future? This collection of essays from leading thinkers on climate change will be an indispensible guide to the underpinning philosophical questions facing activists, policy makers and students confronting the greatest challenges to our future."
The book is released early summer 2010
(fatalism from Mikhail Bulgakov)
P.S. (write-24.07.2025)
For those who don't quite understand: this is a collage of 2 photos, the silhouette of a man is taken from another of my photos...But I still think that it was me who was like that on 02/24/2022.
Непоправимое или Аннушка уже пролила масло...
(фатализм от Михаила Булгакова)
P.S (написан 24.07.2025 г.)
Для тех, кто не совсем понял: это коллаж из 2-х фото, силуэт человека взят из другого моего фото...но я до сих пор думаю что это именно я был таким 24.02.2022
I can trade this card as a special trade. I will trade it for a card from my favorites.
***
Everybody knows…
shit happens
TAOISM – ”if you understand shit, it isn’t shit”
HINDUISM – “this shit happened before”
CONFUCIANISM – “confucious say ‘shit happens’”
BUDDHISM – “shit will happen to you again”
ZEN – “what is the sound of shit happening?”
ISLAM – “if shit happens it is the will of Allah”
SIKHISM – “leave our shit alone”
JEHOVA’S WITNESS – “knock knock, shit happens”
ATHEISM – “I don’t believe this shit”
AGNOSTICISM – “can you prove that shit happens?”
CATHOLICISM – “if shit happens, you deserve it”
PROTESTANTISM – “shit happens, amen to that”
JUDAISM – “why does shit always happen to us”
ORTHODOX JUDAISM – “so shit happens, already”
TELEVANGELISM – “send money or shit will happen to you”
RASTAFARIANISM – “let’s smoke this shit”
HARE KRISHNA – “shit happens rama rama”
NATION OF ISLAM – “don’t take no shit”
NEW AGE – “visualize shit happening”
SHINTOISM – “you inherit the shit of your ancestors”
HEDONISM – “I love it when shit happens”
SATANISM – “sneppah this”
CAPITALISM – “this is MY shit”
FEMINISM – “men are shit”
EXISTENTIALISM – “what is shit, anyway?”
SCIENTOLOGY – “if shit happens, see Dianetics p. 137”
MORMONISM – “excrement happens” (don’t say shit)
BAPTISM – “we’ll wash the shit right off you”
MYSTICISM – “this is really weird shit”
VOODOO – “shit doesn’t just happen – we made it happen”
DISNEYISM – “bad shit doesn’t happen here”
WICCA – “you can make shit happen but shit will happen to you three times”
COMMUNISM – “lets share the shit”
MARXISM – “you have nothing to lose but your shit”
CONSPIRACY THEORISM – “THEY shit on us!”
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS – “tell me about your shit”
DARWINISM – “survival of the shittiest”
AMISH – “modern shit is useless”
SUICIDAL – “I’ve had enough of this shit”
OPTIMISM – “shit won’t happen to me”
TREKISM – “to boldly shit where no-one has shit before”
SHAKESPEAREAN – “to shit or not to shit, that is the question”
DESCARTES – “I shit therefore I am”
FREUD – “shit is a phallic symbol”
LAWYERS – “for enough money, I can get you out of shit”
ACUPUNCTURIST – “hold still or this will hurt like shit”
DOG – “I just shit in your shoe”
CAT – “dogs are shit”
MOUSE – “oh shit! a cat!”
POLITICALLY CORRECT – “internally processed, nutritionally-drained biological output happens”
EINSTEIN – “shit is relative”
FAMILY GATHERING – “relatives are shit”
MATERIALISM – “ whoever dies with the most shit, wins”
VEGETARIANISM – “if it happens to shit, don’t eat it”
FATALISM – “oh shit, it’s going to happen”
ENVIRONMENTALISM – “shit is biodegradable”
AMERICANISM – “who gives a shit”
STATISTICIAN – “shit is 84.7% likely to happen”
HIP-HOP – “motherfuck this shiznit, beeatch!”
TANTRISM – “fuck this shit”
CYNICISM – “we are all full of shit”
SURREALISM – “fish happens”
Les Bourgeois de Calais - Auguste Rodin
Nées d'un conflit de succession pour la couronne de France, qu'Edouard III revendique à son cousin Philippe VI de Valois, les hostilités ont débuté en 1337. Edouard III a porté l'affrontement sur le sol du nord de la France. Lorsqu'il entame le siège de Calais à la fin de l'été 1346, le roi est fort de la victoire remportée avec éclat à Crécy en 1340 sur les armées françaises. Privée de sa source de ravitaillement par la mer, puis du soutien des armées de Philippe VI escompté au printemps 1347, Calais sombre dans la famine et le désespoir ; le 3 août, le capitaine Jean de Vienne négocie la reddition. Froissart a livré la réponse brutale du souverain anglais : « […] La plus grande grâce [que les Calaisiens] pourront trouver en moi, c’est que partent de la ville six des plus notables bourgeois […]. De ceux là, je ferai à ma volonté, je ferai miséricorde au reste. » Six bourgeois volontaires se sacrifient pour le reste des habitants.
Les bourgeois se tiennent debout, sans contact physique, mais individualisés par une gestuelle propre à chacun. Ils correspondent à la description des Chroniques de Froissart, « tête nue, sans chausses, la corde au cou, les clefs de la ville et du château en leurs mains », c'est-à-dire dans la tenue déshonorante des condamnés. Au premier rang, le vieillard à l'allure vénérable et résignée représente Eustache de Saint-Pierre ; sa position centrale est une allusion à son statut de chef du groupe. À droite, Jean d'Aire tient fermement dans ses mains les clés de la ville qui doivent être remises à Edouard III. À gauche, Pierre de Wissant encourage d'un geste de la main Jacques de Fiennes, qui semble hésiter derrière lui. À côté, Jacques de Wissant, frère de Pierre, s'avance en vacillant, tandis qu'Andrieus d'Andres cède au désespoir en se tenant la tête entre les mains.
Ces six personnages incarnent la variété des réactions humaines face à une mort annoncée. Par ailleurs, Rodin apporte une innovation dans le genre du monument commémoratif en rompant avec la composition pyramidale traditionnelle, qui répondait au sentiment d'exaltation propre à la célébration officielle. A contrario, le sculpteur place tous les personnages au même niveau, comme un cortège en mouvement. En ne privilégiant aucun personnage, il oblige le spectateur à tourner autour du monument pour en apprécier tous les angles et toutes les nuances. Ce choix répond à la conception de la sculpture selon Rodin, qui critiquait vivement les œuvres faites pour être vues sous un angle unique.
Source: histoire-image.org/etudes/bourgeois-calais
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The Burghers of Calais -
Auguste Rodin
In 1346, England's Edward III, after a victory in the Battle of Crécy, laid siege to Calais, while Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege, and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender.
The contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart (c. 1337 – c. 1405) tells a story of what happened next: Edward offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers joined with him. Saint Pierre led this envoy of volunteers to the city gates. It was this moment, and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death that Rodin captured in his sculpture, scaled somewhat larger than life.
Rodin's design (...) was controversial. The public felt that it lacked "overtly heroic antique references" which were considered integral to public sculpture. It was not a pyramidal arrangement and contained no allegorical figures. It was intended to be placed at ground level, rather than on a pedestal. The burghers were not presented in a positive image of glory; instead, they display "pain, anguish and fatalism". To Rodin, this was nevertheless heroic, the heroism of self-sacrifice.
Experimentation for the theme of Film Noir
Found this very difficult. Firstly I am away and so not easy to find appropriate subjects. Quite a lot of annoyance for my travelling companions too as you can imagine !!! Came up with two in the end which I think fit. Hope I chose correctly and that this fits the brief.
(Excerpted from Peter Wehner's article in The Atlantic)
"Beyond that, and more fundamental than that, we have to remind ourselves that we are not powerless to shape the future; that much of what has been broken can be repaired; that though we are many, we can be one; and that fatalism and cynicism are unwarranted and corrosive.
There’s a lovely line in William Wordsworth’s poem “The Prelude”: “What we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how.”
There are still things worthy of our love. Honor, decency, courage, beauty, and truth. Tenderness, human empathy, and a sense of duty. A good society. And a commitment to human dignity. We need to teach others—in our individual relationships, in our classrooms and communities, in our book clubs and Bible studies, and in innumerable other settings—why those things are worthy of their attention, their loyalty, their love. One person doing it won’t make much of a difference; a lot of people doing it will create a culture.
Maybe we understand better than we did five years ago why these things are essential to our lives, and why when we neglect them or elect leaders who ridicule and subvert them, life becomes nasty, brutish, and generally unpleasant.
Just after noon on January 20, a new and necessary chapter will begin in the American story. Joe Biden will certainly play a role in shaping how that story turns out—but so will you and I. Ours is a good and estimable republic, if we can keep it."
Réminiscence archéologique de l'Angélus de Millet – 1934 - Huile sur bois
« Réminiscence archéologique de l'Angélus de Millet » est une référence au tableau « L'Angélus » (1859) du peintre français Jean-François Millet (l'un des fondateurs du mouvement artistique du réalisme). La peinture de Millet (à gauche) représente un couple de paysans lors de la récolte de pommes de terre à Barbizon, avec vue sur le clocher de Chailly-en-Bière récitant l'Angélus, prière marquant la fin de leur journée de travail. Salvador Dalí en avait vu une reproduction sur le mur de son école et affirmait avoir été effrayé par le tableau. Pour lui il s'agissait d'une scène funéraire (pas d'un rituel de prière), le couple étant en train de prier et de pleurer son enfant mort. Sur son insistance, le Louvre a radiographié le tableau permettant d’apercevoir un petit cercueil surpeint par le panier… Afin d’éviter de verser dans les arts divinatoires une explication probable serait que Millet avait à l'origine peint une sépulture, peut-être une version rurale du célèbre tableau de Courbet « Enterrement à Ornans » (1850) pour le peintre et collectionneur d'art américain Thomas Gold Appleton qui avait passé commande mais n’avait jamais pris son tableau. Suite à cette déconvenue et pour vendre plus facilement sa toile, Millet aurait modifié son œuvre en y ajoutant notamment un clocher, l'imagerie de l'Angélus avec des paysans en prière étant un sujet religieux sentimental populaire du XIXe siècle !
Comme Van Gogh, Salvador Dali était également fasciné par ce travail et en a écrit une analyse : « Le mythe tragique de l'Angélus de Millet ». Il peint cette interprétation surréaliste de l’Angélus de Millet (à droite), transformant le tableau original en une parabole inconsciente du pouvoir sexuel féminin. La figure féminine, à droite, pose dans l'expectative, prête à bondir, tandis que le mâle, tête baissée, essaie vainement de protéger ses parties génitales avec son chapeau. La forme de la femme suggère une mante religieuse, thème prédominant dans les œuvres surréalistes, signifiant les sentiments contradictoires d'attraction et de désespoir dans le domaine du désir. Dalí a estimé que la femme n'était pas seulement le partenaire dominant, mais constituait également une menace sexuelle pour l'homme.
La ligne d'horizon basse et le paysage presque vide soulignent la monumentalité de l'étrange structure au premier plan, les cyprès symboles de la mort et de la finalité, soulignent l'atmosphère du fatalisme. Les deux paysans de L’Angélus ont été transformées en ruines architecturales imposantes probablement inspirées par les visites de Dali des ruines romaines à proximité de sa maison d'enfance. Dali transforme les figures de Millet en monuments non pas parce qu'elles doivent être considérées comme des symboles morts, mais parce qu'elles représentent des principes anciens toujours présents, les fondements de la sexualité humaine.
Deux scènes similaires, en bas au centre un homme avec un petit garçon également vu à droite avec une infirmière assise, soulignent le contraste entre l'innocence de l'enfance et les peurs de l'âge adulte (la minuscule représentation père / fils a commencé à apparaître dans les œuvres de Dali à partir de 1929). (Dim : 31,75 x 39,4 cm)
Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus – 1934 - Oil on wood panel
"Archaeological Reminiscence of the Angelus of Millet" is a reference to the painting "The Angelus" (1859) by the French painter Jean-François Millet (one of the founders of the artistic movement of realism). Millet's painting (left) represents a couple of peasants during the potato harvest in Barbizon, with a view of the bell tower of Chailly-en-Bière reciting the Angelus, a prayer marking the end of their working day. Salvador Dalí had seen a reproduction on the wall of his school and said he had been frightened by the painting. For him it was a funeral scene (not a prayer ritual), the couple being praying and mourning their dead child. At his insistence, the Louvre x-rayed the painting allowing a glimpse of a small coffin overpainted by the basket… In order to avoid pouring into the divinatory arts a probable explanation would be that Millet, had originally painted a burial, perhaps to be a rural version of Courbet's famous painting "Burial at Ornans" (1850) for the American painter and art collector Thomas Gold Appleton who had ordered but never picked up his painting. Following this disappointment and to sell his canvas more easily, Millet would have modified his work by notably adding a bell tower, the imagery of the Angelus with praying peasants being a popular sentimental religious subject of the 19th century!
Like Van Gogh, Salvador Dali was also fascinated by this work and wrote an analysis of it: "The tragic myth of the Angelus of Millet". He paints this surreal interpretation of Millet's Angelus (right), transforming the original painting into an unconscious parable of female sexual power. The female figure, on the right, poses expectantly, ready to pounce, while the male, head down, vainly tries to protect his genitals with his hat. The form of the woman suggests a praying mantis, a predominant theme in surrealist works, signifying the contradictory feelings of attraction and despair in the domain of desire. Dalí believed that the woman was not only the dominant partner, but also posed a sexual threat to the man.
The low horizon line and the almost empty landscape underline the monumentality of the strange structure in the foreground, the cypresses symbols of death and finality, underline the atmosphere of fatalism. The two peasants of L’Angélus were transformed into imposing architectural ruins probably inspired by Dali’s visits to the Roman ruins near his childhood home. Dali transforms Millet's figures into monuments not because they must be considered as dead symbols, but because they represent ancient principles still present, the foundations of human sexuality.
Two similar scenes, in the bottom center a man with a little boy also seen on the right with a nurse seated, underline the contrast between the innocence of childhood and the fears of adulthood (the tiny representation father / son has started to appear in Dali's works from 1929). (Dim : 12 1/2 in x 15 1/2 in)
Réminiscence archéologique de l'Angélus de Millet – 1934 - Huile sur bois
« Réminiscence archéologique de l'Angélus de Millet » est une référence au tableau « L'Angélus » (1859) du peintre français Jean-François Millet (l'un des fondateurs du mouvement artistique du réalisme). Dans « La vie secrète » Dali parle de sa redécouverte de l'Angélus en termes de souvenirs d'enfance : "Tous les fantasmes et représentations de mon d'enfance ont de nouveau vigoureusement pris possession de mon cerveau. Encore une fois, j'ai vu passer devant mes yeux extatiques et émerveillés des images infinies que je ne pouvais pas localiser précisément dans le temps ou l'espace mais que j'avais vu quand j'étais petit ». Salvador Dali peint cette interprétation surréaliste de l’Angélus de Millet, transformant le tableau original en une parabole inconsciente du pouvoir sexuel féminin. La figure féminine, à droite, pose dans l'expectative, prête à bondir, tandis que le mâle, tête baissée, essaie vainement de protéger ses parties génitales avec son chapeau. La forme de la femme suggère une mante religieuse, thème prédominant dans les œuvres surréalistes, signifiant les sentiments contradictoires d'attraction et de désespoir dans le domaine du désir. Dalí a estimé que la femme n'était pas seulement le partenaire dominant, mais constituait également une menace sexuelle pour l'homme.
La ligne d'horizon basse et le paysage presque vide soulignent la monumentalité de l'étrange structure au premier plan, les cyprès symboles de la mort et de la finalité, soulignent l'atmosphère du fatalisme. Les deux paysans de L’Angélus ont été transformées en ruines architecturales imposantes probablement inspirées par les visites de Dali des ruines romaines à proximité de sa maison d'enfance. Dali transforme les figures de Millet en monuments non pas parce qu'elles doivent être considérées comme des symboles morts, mais parce qu'elles représentent des principes anciens toujours présents, les fondements de la sexualité humaine.
Deux scènes similaires, en bas au centre un homme avec un petit garçon également vu à droite avec une infirmière assise, soulignent le contraste entre l'innocence de l'enfance et les peurs de l'âge adulte (la minuscule représentation père / fils a commencé à apparaître dans les œuvres de Dali à partir de 1929). (Dim : 31,75 x 39,4 cm).
Archaeological reminiscence of the Angelus of Millet - 1934 - Oil on wood
"Archaeological Reminiscence of the Angelus of Millet" is a reference to the painting "The Angelus" (1859) by the French painter Jean-François Millet (one of the founders of the artistic movement of realism). In "The Secret Life" Dali talks about his rediscovery of the Angelus in terms of childhood memories: "All the fantasies and representations of my childhood have once again vigorously taken possession of my brain. Again, I saw infinite images pass before my ecstatic and amazed eyes that I could not locate precisely in time or space but that I had seen when I was little. ”Salvador Dali painted this surreal interpretation of the Angelus by Millet, transforming the original painting into an unconscious parable of female sexual power. The female figure, on the right, poses expectantly, ready to pounce, while the male, head down, vainly tries to protect his genitals with his hat The form of the woman suggests a praying mantis, a predominant theme in surrealist works, signifying the contradictory feelings of attraction and despair in the domain of desire. Dalí considered that the woman was not s only the dominant partner, but also posed a sexual threat to man.
The low horizon line and the almost empty landscape underline the monumentality of the strange structure in the foreground, the cypresses symbols of death and finality, underline the atmosphere of fatalism. The two peasants of L’Angélus were transformed into imposing architectural ruins probably inspired by Dali’s visits to the Roman ruins near his childhood home. Dali transforms Millet's figures into monuments not because they must be considered as dead symbols, but because they represent ancient principles still present, the foundations of human sexuality.
Two similar scenes, in the bottom center a man with a little boy also seen on the right with a nurse seated, underline the contrast between the innocence of childhood and the fears of adulthood (the tiny representation father / son has started to appear in Dali's works from 1929). (Dim: 31.75 x 39.4 cm).
*Title inspired by Joe Bfstplk--the man with a cloud overhead--one of the cartoon characters in Li'l Abner by Al Capp (1909-1979). The feeling many Filipinos carry with fatalism in their storm ridden country.
© 2009 Bong Manayon | FB: Bong Manayon Photography
Pentax K10D + SMCP FA 24-90/3.5-4.5 AL(IF)
11.04.09 12.35.58
OK, Here's the deal. Since I was a child I have known I will die at 56 years of age. I am now 55 years old. In 482 days I'll be 57 years old. That's the crux of this project. I intend to document my thoughts and life until then. For myself, for my wife and for my children.
Expect this journey to be different from my previous 365 projects. I'm following my rules. If I want to be in a photo I will. If I don't, I won't. I will say what is on my mind in the captions. Most of it will be for my daughters and son. Read it if you like. Disagree if you must. I'll not argue. I'll feel no need to explain myself although I might.
Say what you like about fatalism, self fulfilling prophecies etc. I don't care. Nobody will be more excited than myself if I am wrong. On my 57th birthday, if I see it, I plan to have one Hell of a party.
Wisdom for my daughter as she travels to Ireland tonight...... Enjoy your journey. Never look back. You owe nothing to anyone. Seek wisdom and your own heart.
Taking and editing this image reminded me of a philosophical musing that first came to me some years ago. I often think life is shaped like a tree.
It starts out as a seed in mother earth, and reaches up into the light. Our journey begins as a shoot, then grows into a trunk. Then the branches begin to grow out from the trunk. These are the first choices we make on the path of our destiny. As more choices come to us, so more branches grow – each one is a path. When we reach the end of our lives, the many different paths – the ones we did and did not take – would look like the shape of a tree. Then we become the seed, drop to the ground – and perhaps we grow again someday.
I guess no-one really knows, but it seems like a pleasant thought. Maybe there is some truth in it. I hope to pick the sequence of branches that gets to the seed with the best view. When the time comes, which branch will you pick?
Join me on:
“To live lightheartedly but not recklessly; to be gay without being boisterous; to be courageous without being bold; to show trust and cheerful resignation without fatalism - this is the art of living”
Jean de La Fontaine
Dutch postcard, no. 850. Photo: Warner Bros.
Peter Lorre (1904–1964) with his trademark large, popped eyes, his toothy grin and his raspy voice was an American actor of Jewish Austro-Hungarian descent. He was an international sensation as the psychopathic child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931). He later became a popular actor in a two British Hitchcock films and in a series of Hollywood crime films and mysteries. Although he was frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner in the US, he also became the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.
Peter Lorre was born László Löwenstein in 1904 in the Austro-Hungarian town of Ružomberok in Slovakia, then known by its Hungarian name Rózsahegy. He was the first child of Jewish couple Alajos Löwenstein and Elvira Freischberger. His father was chief bookkeeper at a local textile mill. Besides working as a bookkeeper, Alajos Löwenstein also served as a lieutenant in the Austrian army reserve, which meant that he was often away on military manoeuvres. When Lorre was four years old, his mother died, probably of food poisoning, leaving Alajos with three very young sons, the youngest only a couple of months old. He soon remarried, to his wife's best friend, Melanie Klein, with whom he had two more children. However, Lorre and his stepmother never got along, and this coloured his childhood memories. At the outbreak of the Second Balkan War in 1913, Alajos moved the family to Vienna, anticipating that this would lead to a larger conflict and that he would be called up. He was, at the outbreak of World War I in 1914, and served on the Eastern front during the winter of 1914-1915, before being put in charge of a prison camp due to heart trouble. As a youth Peter Lorre ran away from home, worked as a bank clerk and, after stage training in Vienna, made his acting debut in Zurich in Switzerland at the age of 17. In Vienna he worked with the Viennese Art Nouveau artist and puppeteer Richard Teschner. He then moved to the then German town of Breslau, and later to Zürich. In the late 1920s, Peter Lorre moved to Berlin, where the young and short (165 cm) actor worked with German playwright Bertolt Brecht. He made his film debut in a bit role in the Austrian silent film Die Verschwundene Frau/The vanished woman (Karl Leitner, 1929), followed by another small part in the German drama Der weiße Teufel/The White Devil (Alexandre Volkoff, 1930) starring Ivan Mozzhukhin. On stage and in the cinema, Lorre played a role in Brecht's Mann ist Mann/ A Man's a Man (Bertolt Brecht, Carl Koch, 1930) and as Dr Nakamura in the stage musical Happy End (music by composer Kurt Weill), alongside Brecht's wife Helene Weigel, Oskar Homolka and Kurt Gerron.
Peter Lorre became much better known after director Fritz Lang cast him cast in the lead role of Hans Beckert, the mentally ill child murderer in the classic thriller M (1931). Later, the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew (1940) used an excerpt from the climactic scene in M in which Lorre is trapped by vengeful citizens. His passionate plea that his compulsion is uncontrollable, says the voice-over, makes him sympathetic and is an example of attempts by Jewish artists to corrupt public morals. M was Lang’s first sound film and he revealed the expressive possibilities for combining sound and visuals. Lorre's character whistles the tune In the Hall of the Mountain King from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. ( Lorre himself could not whistle – it is actually Lang who is heard.) The film was one of the first to use a leitmotif, associating In the Hall of the Mountain King with the Lorre character. Later in the film, the mere sound of the song lets the audience know that he is nearby, off-screen. This association of a musical theme with a particular character or situation, a technique borrowed from opera, is now a film staple. Lorre’s next role was the German musical comedy Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Monte Carlo Madness (Hanns Schwarz, 1931) starring Hans Albers and Anna Sten. That year he also co-starred in the comedy Die Koffer des Herrn O.F./The Trunks of Mr. O.F. (Alexis Granowsky, 1931) starring Alfred Abel, and Harald Paulsen. In 1932 Lorre appeared again alongside Hans Albers in the drama Der weiße Dämon/The White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932) and the science fiction film F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Respond (Karl Hartl, 1932) about an air station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Curt Siodmak had written the story after Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. It was the last German film that either Siodmak or Peter Lorre, who played a secondary character, would make in Germany before the war.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Peter Lorre took refuge in Paris, where he appeared with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon in the charming comedy Du haut en bas/High and Low (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1933). Then Lorre moved on to London. There Ivor Montagu, Alfred Hitchcock's associate producer for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), reminded the director about Lorre's performance in M. They first considered him to play the assassin in the film, but wanted to use him in a larger role, despite his limited command of English at the time, which Lorre overcame by learning much of his part phonetically. The Man Who Knew Too Much was one of the most successful and critically acclaimed films of Hitchcock's British period. Lorre also was featured in Hitchcock's Secret Agent (Alfred Hitchcock, 1936), opposite John Gielgud and Madeleine Carroll. Lorre settled in Hollywood in 1935, where he specialized in playing sinister foreigners, beginning as the love-obsessed surgeon in the horror film Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935), and as Raskolnikov in the Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation Crime and Punishment (Josef von Sternberg, 1936). He starred in a series of eight Mr. Moto movies for Twentieth Century Fox, a parallel to the better known Charlie Chan series. Lorre played the ever-polite (albeit well versed in karate) Japanese detective Mr. Moto. According to Wikipedia, he did not enjoy these films — and twisted his shoulder during a stunt in Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (Norman Foster, 1939) — but they were lucrative for the studio. When the series folded in 1939, Lorre freelanced in villainous roles at several studios. In 1940, he co-starred with fellow horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the comedy You'll Find Out (David Butler, 1940), a vehicle for bandleader and radio personality Kay Kyser.
In 1941, Peter Lorre became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He enjoyed considerable popularity as a featured player in Warner Bros. suspense and adventure films. Lorre played the role of effeminate thief Joel Cairo opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941), a classic film noir based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The Maltese Falcon was Huston's directorial debut and was nominated for three Academy Awards. Then Lorre portrayed the character Ugarte in Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942). One of his co-stars in both films was Sydney Greenstreet with whom he made 9 films. Most of them were variations on Casablanca, including Background to Danger (Raoul Walsh, 1943), with George Raft; Passage to Marseille (Michael Curtiz, 1944), reuniting them with Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains, and Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco, 1946). The latter was a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket starring top-billed Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and third-billed Lorre cast against type by director as the romantic lead. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “As far as director Jean Negulesco was concerned, Lorre was the finest actor in Hollywood; Negulesco fought bitterly with the studio brass for permission to cast Lorre as the sympathetic leading man in The Mask of Dimitrios (1946), in which the diminutive actor gave one of his finest and subtlest performances.” Greenstreet and Lorre's final film together was the suspense thriller The Verdict (1946), director Don Siegel's first film. Lorre branched out into comedy with the role of Dr. Einstein in Frank Capra's version of Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), starring Cary Grant and Raymond Massey.
After World War II, Peter Lorre's acting career in Hollywood experienced a downturn, whereupon he concentrated on radio and stage work. An exception was the horror classic The Beast with Five Fingers (Robert Florey, 1946). In Germany Lorre co-wrote, directed and starred in Der Verlorene/The Lost One (1951), an art film in the film noir idiom. Hal Erickson: “In keeping with Lorre's established screen persona, this is a tale of stark terror, disillusionment and defeatism. The actor stars as Dr. Rothe, a German research scientist who during WW2 discovers that his fiancée has been selling his scientific secrets to the British. In a fit of pique, he murders her, but is not punished for the crime, which is passed off by the Nazi authorities as justifiable homicide. (...) Not entirely successful, Der Verlorene is still a fascinating exercise in fatalism from one of the cinema's most distinctive talents.” Lorre then returned to the United States where he appeared as a character actor in television and feature films, often parodying his 'creepy' image. In 1954, he was the first actor to play a James Bond villain when he portrayed Le Chiffre in a television adaptation of Casino Royale, opposite Barry Nelson as an American James Bond and Linda Christian as the first Bond girl. Lorre starred alongside Kirk Douglas and James Mason in 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, 1954), and appeared in a supporting role in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Irwin Allen, 1961). He worked with Roger Corman on several low-budget films, including two of the director's Edgar Allan Poe cycle (Tales of Terror, 1962 and The Raven, 1963). He was married three times: actress Celia Lovsky (1934–1945); actress Kaaren Verne (1945–1950) and Anne Marie Brenning (1953-1964, his death). In 1953, Brenning bore his only child, Catharine. In later life, Catharine made headlines after serial killer Kenneth Bianchi confessed to police investigators after his arrest that he and his cousin and fellow Hillside Strangler Angelo Buono, disguised as police officers, had stopped her in 1977 with the intent of abducting and murdering her, but let her go upon learning that she was the daughter of Peter Lorre. It was only after Bianchi was arrested that Catharine realized whom she had met. Catharine died in 1985 of complications arising from diabetes. Lorre had suffered for years from chronic gallbladder troubles, for which doctors had prescribed morphine. Lorre became trapped between the constant pain and addiction to morphine to ease the problem. It was during the period of the Mr. Moto films that Lorre struggled and overcame his addiction. Abruptly gaining a hundred pounds in a very short period and never fully recovering from his addiction to morphine, Lorre suffered many personal and career disappointments in his later years. His final film was the Jerry Lewis comedy The Patsy (Jerry Lewis, 1964) in which, ironically, the dourly demonic Lorre played a director of comedy films. A few months after completing this film, Peter Lorre died of a stroke in 1964 in Los Angeles. He was 59.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.