And dreamt that only by wishing I could bring some silk into their lives

[sovay]

We interrupt your regularly scheduled vampirism for a couple of announcements.

On the 24th of this month, I will be performing in Music to Cure MS: The 8th Annual Accelerated Cure Project Benefit Concert. Details can be found at the website, but the salient points are three to five o'clock in the evening, many fine musicians, and a cause worth buying tickets for. I will be singing the "Embroidery Aria," from Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. You should be there.

Lola Montès (1955) is a film I can't imagine why it took me until last night to see. If you crossed it with with Ulrike Ottinger's Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia, in fact you'd get Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. I need to see more by Max Ophüls. He's completely rewired my view of Peter Ustinov.

This is brilliant.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful, Sovay--about your performing in the benefit concert, I mean.

Someone needs to do punnett squares for all the various film crosses you mention.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(and yes, that YouTube video really is brilliant. I sent it to my brother and his wife)

[sovay]

That's wonderful, Sovay--about your performing in the benefit concert, I mean.

Thank you! I'm looking forward to it.

(and yes, that YouTube video really is brilliant. I sent it to my brother and his wife)

What impresses me most is that it's smart. Nothing with that premise should be.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Ha! I wondered if you were watching that. I stumbled across it when I was up after finishing Twelve, and couldn't pull myself away for half an hour. I'd known about it previously, from Danny Peary's Cult Movies, but hadn't actually realized it was A) in colour and B) in French. Even though it's Ophuls. Yeah, I don't know either.;)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Also...my mother spent some time being obsessed with Peter Grimes, to the point that I ended up buying it for her on DVD and CD. Sometimes I still get this urge to look at her and sing out, randomly/hysterically: "Peter Grrriiiiiiiiimes! Peter GRRRRIIIIIIIIIIMES!/i>"

[sovay]

but hadn't actually realized it was A) in colour and B) in French. Even though it's Ophuls.

I'd never seen anything by Ophüls before. Do you have recommendations as to what to track down next?

Sometimes I still get this urge to look at her and sing out, randomly/hysterically: "Peter Grrriiiiiiiiimes! Peter GRRRRIIIIIIIIIIMES!"

That's rather wonderful.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

The weird thing about Ophuls is that because of his background, he started making films in Germany, then went to America, then ended up in France, so you have examples from all three phases that are probably equally good. I'm not hugely familiar with his German stuff, but La Ronde and The Earrings of Madame De... are total classics--he's very fond of a large cast and interlocking stories that go around in a loop, making him like an elegant European precursor to Altman. In the U.S. he mainly did weird little Films Noir like Caught, and that's also got its own appeal--the appeal of seeing somebody slumming hard, like watching frickin' Fritz Lang make movies about cops and gangsters and losers on the run. His stuff is very interior and psychological, too, comparatively; he's less interested in the corruption of the system than in the ways people lie to themselves and others.

[sovay]

The weird thing about Ophuls is that because of his background, he started making films in Germany, then went to America, then ended up in France, so you have examples from all three phases that are probably equally good.

That's very neat. Also—

His stuff is very interior and psychological, too, comparatively; he's less interested in the corruption of the system than in the ways people lie to themselves and others.

—sounds great. The three films you mention are the ones I was already interested in for various reasons (stone classic status, presence of James Mason), so I shall let you know what I think when I get to them!

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

Oh cool, and break a leg!

Any chance that your performance will end up on YouTube, or otherwise accessible? Cuz that would be cool to see, and I will be sorry to be elsewhere!

[sovay]

Any chance that your performance will end up on YouTube, or otherwise accessible? Cuz that would be cool to see, and I will be sorry to be elsewhere!

I don't know; I'll find out! Maybe if nothing else, someone does the equivalent of archival recordings.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

It's awesome that you're singing in the benefit concert. If I lived in the area, I'd definitely go.

Happy Birthday!