sovay: (PJ Harvey: crow)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2015-05-10 01:30 am

I am the sword of the Lord, and Famine and Pestilence are my sisters

Outside of Patreon reviews, I am not posting a lot right now because the elbow sprains seem to have given me a temporary experience of RSI. Typing for any length of time (among other activities, but this is the one that's interfering with e-mail and online interaction) causes the inside of my forearms to ache in worrying ways and I don't want to turn it into a permanent condition.

Earlier tonight, [livejournal.com profile] rushthatspeaks and I saw Wojciech Jerzy Has' Memoirs of a Sinner (Osobisty pamietnik grzesznika . . . przez niego samego spisany, 1986), adapted from James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824). Rush had read the novel; I hadn't, but knew the conceit. Neither of us knew anything about Has as a filmmaker—I'd heard of The Saragossa Manuscript (1964) and that was it. Memoirs of a Sinner is simultaneously a great portrayal of mental illness and a great portrayal of demonic possession and a solid historical fiction, meaning the characters think in ways strange to me even before we factor in the Calvinism; it has a witches' sabbat and a terrific Devil and a genuinely unearthly Day of Judgment, a towering processional figure that I thought at first was a demon, but suspected was an angel by the end. At least here, Has' style reminds me more than anyone of Peter Greenaway, especially in the organization of figures into informative tableaux and the long lateral tracking shots, but also slightly of Ken Russell's The Devils (1971). For a movie with such a strong supernatural component, it refrains strikingly from visual effects. Weird things happen with time in the editing and space in the structure of the sets; the cinematography gets some compelling, uncanny effects out of the contrasts between natural and obviously artificial lighting. Watching it, I thought it had been made about a decade earlier than it was, but at least that explained where the partly electronic score came from. Would recommend to those members of my friendlist who want to watch the post-gallows confession of a plaintive, sociopathic resurrected corpse. You know who you are.

I really resent the Brattle Theatre showing Psycho (1960) for Mother's Day. I have never seen the movie and I want to see it for the first time on the big screen. I do not want to see it with the kind of audience who will come for the irony of it. I had that happen once with The Birds (1963), thank you very much, and it made me homicidal. Dammit, Brattle.
kore: (Brontes - E)

[personal profile] kore 2015-05-10 11:24 am (UTC)(link)
James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

A favourite of Emily Bronte's!

(I have it, but haven't read it yet)

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2015-05-10 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
That sounds truly strange and marvellous.

Nine

[identity profile] gaudior.livejournal.com 2015-05-10 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Feh and sympathy about the RSI! Mine is at this point fairly managed, so if you want any thoughts about how to get wrists to behave themselves, let me know.

And the movie sounds damn cool.

[identity profile] kenjari.livejournal.com 2015-05-10 12:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you for this write up! I'd read the Hogg novel years ago and liked it quite a bit. And now that I'm learning Polish, I want to seek out Polish films to watch. Osobisty pamiętnik grzesznika ... is clearly exactly what I need to be watching.

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2015-05-10 02:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Would recommend to those members of my friendlist who want to watch the post-gallows confession of a plaintive, sociopathic resurrected corpse. You know who you are.

I think I'm on the fringes of this, but man, I love the category.

I'm looking forward to reading your earlier, Patreon review--I couldn't while I was at my dad's house.

[identity profile] moon-custafer.livejournal.com 2015-05-10 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I really resent the Brattle Theatre showing Psycho (1960) for Mother's Day. I have never seen the movie and I want to see it for the first time on the big screen. I do not want to see it with the kind of audience who will come for the irony of it.

Besides, Aliens (1986) is a much better Mother's Day movie.
ext_104661: (Default)

[identity profile] alexx-kay.livejournal.com 2015-05-10 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
+1
gwynnega: (Default)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2015-05-10 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry to hear about the RSI...I hope it resolves soon.

I think it was last Mother's Day that some cable channel showed Psycho over and over, all day long. It doesn't appear to be on at all today. I hope you get to see it in a theater minus the irritating irony!