DC's

The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Flamboyant *

* (restored)

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Henry Faulkner was an American artist and poet known for his rebellious spirit. For example, the usual appearance of his bourbon-drinking goat at different meetings and social events.

‘In 1930, Henry was adopted by Dan and Dora Whittimore and went to live with them on their 100-acre (40 ha) farm in Falling Timber Branch, a town fourteen miles north of Manchester in Clay County, Kentucky. His new family viewed art as “the devil’s work” and Henry’s effeminate and flamboyant personality often clashed with his adoptive father’s standards for how his son should act. When Henry’s nervousness and strange behavior strengthened, Dora Whittimore elected to send him to the Kentucky Children’s Home.

‘After getting arrested for shoplifting perfume, powder, and other small feminine articles (which Faulkner said were for a girlfriend, but were much more likely to have been for female impersonation, a trade he continued through the 1940s), he was placed with his older brother Harvey and his wife Ida.

‘Faulkner began to display his artwork around 1959, around the time of his alleged relationship with Tennessee Williams. In this period, viewers were exposed to the stylistic aspects of Faulkner’s vibrant and bold landscape compositions. Faulkner died on December 5, 1981 at the age of 57, in a car crash in Lexington, Kentucky, when he was struck by a drunk driver.’

 

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Urgent! German Satanic Sensation Targets U.S. and Canada! Be Prepared!
by gus

THIS SHIT IS COMING FULL CIRCLE NOW. THE SEPARATION OF THE CHAFF FROM THE GRAIN HAS BEGUN. THERE ARE THOSE WHO WILL FOLLOW SATAN, AND THOSE WHO WILL FOLLOW CHRIST. THE SIGNS ARE EVERYWHERE. THE ANTICHRIST ENERGY IS INCARNATING HERE ON EARTH THROUGH BILL KAULITZ, AND PEOPLE WILL ACCEPT HIM AS THE MESSIAH OF THE NEW AGE. NATURALLY, THE AC WILL ALSO INCARNATE AS AN INDIVIDUAL BECAUSE WHERE THERE IS AN ENERGY FIELD, THERE IS A SINGULARITY SUSTAINING THAT FIELD. BILL KAULITZ HAS THE ‘LOOK’ AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANTICHRIST RETURNING AS A ROCK STAR.

He appears to be genetically engineered. Anunnaki ? Nephilim? He really looks engineered to look so “cute” that no girl in this planet will be able to resist. He is abnormally skinny , almost like he was designed to look like a woman.

The FAKE androgynous look is the give away. There is also a lot of satanic themes in Tokio Hotel’s music and video clips! The dark-looking satanic female archetype. It’s an artificial beauty, very attractive. It tries to emulate the androgynous look, though it’s still a genderized body .. this is the biggest deception. On the surface it has feminine beauty, but in reality it is still an imperfect being, a carrier of duality (both sexes non-unified, fused). So, is this the new symbol they are trying to shove down our throats, in alliance with the robotic agenda? This band “Tokio Hotel” is clearly in hands with the Illuminati. I’ve watched two music clips from them: one was about suicidal tendencies and the other depicts robots kissing each other -> satanic agenda for the robotization of humans and humanization of robots. It’s all over the place.

Started by a pair of twins when they were barely seven, the band’s original name was Devilish. This is probably due to youthful enthusiasm and as they matured they decided to be more deceitful about their true intentions and changed it … Barely eighteen, both twins have been covered for years in piercings (deliberately inflicted holes in various body parts) and tattoos they got by defying their elders, and have boasted getting drunk with the child welfare office, being wanted by the army, destroying private property, and taking the virginity of countless young girls, all before they graduated high school. Most sinister is that none of these girls were ever heard from again, as if the earth swallowed them up after they got too close to the hellish twins.

YOU’RE LAUGHING NOW, BUT YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO GO DOWN IN FLAMES!

 

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BRDG is Tokyo based collective project for audiovisual expression leaded by producer Yasushi Fukuzawa. We cultivate the network of visual artists, musician, programmer, engineers and designers to expand creative environment of Tokyo, the city where the edge & the pop coexists. Our mission is to organize showcase events in various forms with advanced technologies like multichannel audiovisuals, projection mapping, VR holograms etc that maximize and diversify audiovisual expression, and above all to produce MVs with creaters around us.

SyncBody
Video: Daihei Shibata
Artwork: Hiroshi Sato

Hallelujah
VIDEO : Yuki Kubo
MUSIC : Ryu Konno + NOEL-KIT

 

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‘On a regular day, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven wore brightly colored makeup, postage stamps on each cheek, and a shaved head shellacked in various hues. Her accoutrements also included live birds, packs of dogs, a tomato-can bra, arms full of bangles, and flashing lights. Her unconventionally forthright poetry and rugged found-object sculptures—often incorporated into her outfits—unsettled social hierarchy and accepted gender norms, and distinctions between art and life. The Baroness was a dynamo in New York’s literary and art scene at the turn of the century, part of the Arensberg Salon group that included Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Beatrice Wood, Francis Picabia, Mina Loy, and many others. She combined sculpture, fashion, poetry, and performance to embody an anti-bourgeois lifestyle driven by passion and an emotional reactivity to her surroundings.

‘Born Else Hildegard Plötz in Germany in 1874, she ran away to the vaudeville theaters of Berlin as a teenager, and before long, she was part of the inner circle of Munich’s Art Nouveau movement. Following several sexual flings that took her across Italy, she helped her second husband fake his own death and start a new life on a Kentucky farm. After they parted ways, she traveled through Virginia and Ohio before arriving in New York, where she briefly married an impoverished Baron and took on his title. The Baroness became a downtown Manhattan legend, known as much for her dazzling costumes and aggressive seduction techniques as for her visceral sculptures and witty poetry. Most importantly, she invented the readymade—a sculpture pulled directly from the materials of daily life, radical in its implications that art can be anything.’ — artsy

 

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Sebastian’s mother has dressed her apartment in him. School pictures from first, second, third grade cover the walls; fourth, fifth, sixth too. His eyes look less and less delirious and bottomless the closer the pictures get to high school; ironically enough he looked more blitzed as a nine-year-old than as a sixteen-year-old, when his eyes aren’t visible at all but are hidden behind long red bangs.

He breathes in his mother’s Glade air freshener, Refreshing Spa scent, from an old bread bag. His field of vision flutters and becomes neon green. His head and arms are pulled backward, his chest moves forward like in one of those simulated car crashes. He is filled with images he can’t defend himself against. A deserted house next to the train tracks where he lived when he was little, his classmates naked there, a woman being torn to pieces under a subway train before his eyes. The snapping sound of her ribcage being crushed. White flashes bloom like lilies, again and again. He falls backward into a warm, dark coffin and grabs in vain for the edges to pull himself up.

He thinks of his youth, which, just like the air freshener, will soon be gone. He inhales again; a green cloud floats into the room. He sees himself sitting there with a pale and sallow face; under his skin something dark hovers that threatens to break through, become stretch marks, wrinkles, varicose veins, beard, and furrows. The skin of his face is still taut and proud, conceited; but soon the days in which his worth can be measured in BMI and he can allow the androgynous contours of his body to be his only merit will be numbered. He can still swallow sedatives with sparkling wine to tame his exaggerated, spastic movements; he can put on a little makeup, go out somewhere and find success in a corner. He is still offered drinks, he still has unknown tongues whispering in his ears. The blackouts happen a few hours a week; he hears that he was unusually nice and fun, wakes up in the morning in unknown parts of the city, takes pictures of his companion from the night before. Then goes home to crash listlessly in spews of accessories spread out on the floor. (more)

Eli Levén

 

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Pet Shop Boys – Flamboyant


Big L – Flamboyant


Dorian Electra – Flamboyant


Sílvio Caldas – Flamboyant


The Click – Mr. Flamboyant


Barbara Brewster – I Enjoy Being Flamboyant

 

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‘In the evaluation of colored gemstones, color is the single most important factor. Color divides into three components; hue, saturation and tone. Hue refers to “color” as we normally use the term. In ruby the primary hue must be red. The finest ruby is best described as being a vivid medium-dark toned red. Secondary hues add an additional complication. Pink, orange, and purple are the normal secondary hues in ruby. Of the three, purple is preferred because, firstly, the purple reinforces the red making it appear richer. Some rubies show a 3-point or 6-point asterism or “star”. These rubies are cut into cabochons to display the effect properly. Asterisms are best visible with a single-light source, and move across the stone as the light moves or the stone is rotated. Such effects occur when light is reflected off the “silk” (the structurally oriented rutile needle inclusions) in a certain way. Furthermore, rubies can show color changes — though this occurs very rarely — as well as chatoyancy or the “cat’s eye” effect.’ — International Colored Stone Association

 

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Vachel Lindsay was one of the nation’s most famous poets, with a reputation for flamboyant performances and a colorful range of aesthetic interests. After a series of health and financial setbacks, he came to Spokane in 1924 as a kind of kept literary man – he was given room and board at the Davenport Hotel in exchange for serving as a kind of cultural ambassador.

‘Lindsay was an idealist and deeply odd; he brought two life-size dolls of French children with him to meals at the Davenport. His rages and flights of fancy helped make him a divisive figure in staid Spokane.

‘Lindsay left Spokane in 1929, returning to his native Springfield, Ill., before embarking on a national tour in an effort to revive his reputation and his finances. By the end of 1931, though, he was broke and paranoid. He drank a bottle of Lysol and died.’ — The Spokesman Review

The Leaden-Eyed

Let not young souls be smothered out before
They do quaint deeds and fully flaunt their pride.
It is the world’s one crime its babes grow dull,
Its poor are ox-like, limp and leaden-eyed.
Not that they starve; but starve so dreamlessly,
Not that they sow, but that they seldom reap,
Not that they serve, but have no gods to serve,
Not that they die, but that they die like sheep.

 

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Alien Quadrilogy Alien Head
‘What’s special about the packaging is that the discs are held in the dome of an alien’s head. The head is made of a heavy, hard plastic that has an oddly soft feel to it. The paint is airbrushed on, with amazing attention paid to eye and jaw detail. The plastic itself has a rough feel to it, and if you look closely, you’ll see a small sparkle of some other material built in. The plastic cap that comes off is translucent, and hides the DVDs when they are placed within. You can see the eyesockets of the alien skull through the cap, which adds to the frightening aspect of this head. The rear of the head is also beautifully done, and tapers off to a dull point. The discs inside the package are identical to the ones in the original Alien Quadrilogy packaging.’

 


Alice Cooper Old School 1964-1974 Box Set
‘The set is packaged in a 12″ square box that is designed to look like a school desk. The original album cover was designed by Craig Braun who is also responsible for designing the famous Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers album cover with Andy Warhol. Includes: Four CDs that include exclusive demos, rehearsals, rarities, live performances, interviews and more * DVD with over two hours of footage, including new and candid conversations with the band and never-before-seen archival clips * 12″ LP bootleg of the 1971 Killer tour live in St. Louis * Replica of a rare 7″ single by The Nazz * A deluxe 60-page book written by Lonn Friend, featuring previously unreleased photos * Special extras including reproductions of original ticket stubs, tour program, set list and five art prints of rare poster designs and illustrations * Five Golden Tickets have been hidden in Old School box sets worldwide for a very special VIP concert and meet-and-greet with Alice * The Limited Edition is individually numbered.’

 

Danny Elfman & Tim Burton Danse Macabre
‘This limited-edition box set collects expansions of the 13 original scores that Elfman has composed for Burton’s iconic films: 16 CDs each packaged with artwork by Burton, adding up to more than 19 hours of music. Grammy-winning designer Matt Taylor has crafted a large scale, tin-covered music box complete with an embedded music chip playing “The Music Box Suite” arranged and performed by Elfman specifically for this historic collection. And, with a flip of the lid, a delightful working zoetrope is revealed featuring strips of art and photos by Burton and Elfman that come to animated life with a spin. Additionally, the package contains a bonus DVD of an exclusive conversation between Elfman and Burton discussing every film and score in their quarter century collaboration. There are over 8 hours of previously unreleased music including additional masters, cut songs, song and score demos, work tapes, orchestra-only song mixes, and foreign-language songs. There’s Danse Macabre: 25 Years of Danny Elfman and Tim Burton: A meticulously researched, lavishly illustrated 260+ page fine linen-wrapped hardbound book, titled with gold foil stamping, and featuring a foreword by Johnny Depp. A collectible created exclusively for this treasure box is a distinctive Skeleton Key USB Flash Drive inspired by the art of Tim Burton. A pull of the key unlocks a USB drive loaded with MP3s of an additional 21 exclusive bonus tracks unavailable anywhere else.’

 


Lost: The Complete Collection
Every Episode in the Series (Seasons 1 through 6) * Over 30hrs of Season 1-6 Bonus materials (previously released materials from Season 1-5 and the all-new Season 6 bonus material) * A unique series of featurettes that takes viewers on very personal tours of Oahu where the series was created, with key cast and crew as they reflect. * Exploring the global phenomenon that is Lost, bonus showcases events ranging from the series cast and crew at San Diego’s famed Comic-Con convention to international voice recordings, local events and even fan parties, all of which helped make the show into a worldwide favorite. * A closer look at some of the props with cast, writers and producers, exploring their significance, stories and emotional ties to the characters. * Humorous yet emotional look at every character who died on the series * 16 hilarious Lost “Slapdowns” featurettes showcasing celebrity Lost fans who confront Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to ask press questions about the final season, including the Muppets and cast members Nestor Carbonell, Michael Emerson, Rebecca Mader and more. * The exciting collectible packaging also includes: a Special Edition collectible ‘Senet’ Game as seen in Season Six, a custom LOST island replica, an exclusive episode guide, a collectible Ankh, and a black light penlight.

 



Band of Brothers Military Kit
‘This Band of Brothers Military Kit is by far the most elaborate (but still sophisticated) Limited Edition DVD packaging I’ve seen. It is an exact replica of a Military Kit that contains a big digipack, 2 Omaha Beach Strike Maps, Pocketbook World War 2 Manual, Newspaper-clippings, Numbered Flier, dogtags and a numbered card. What I love about it is that the whole packaging doesn’t look like it’s trying too hard unlike other Special Edition DVDs that try hard to be unique that everything’s just a big bunch of random mess. You’re lucky if you get to purchase one because its very rare- limited to 6,000 worldwide.’

 

Shaun Tan The Arrival Deluxe Limited Collector’s Edition
‘This deluxe clamshell box set opens like a suitcase, revealing a vintage pattern (worn and stained) interior. A leather handle with a travel luggage tag completes the case. A leather strap with a metal buckle fastens the suitcase. The luggage tag is printed on two-sides with a contents description and the unique edition number. Includes: The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land books are presented side by side in the suitcase with the print placed on top. The print is contained within a semi-transparent envelope with a protective backing card. Each print will be signed and numbered individually by Shaun Tan. Print Dimensions: 478mm x 312mm (height x width). A special limited edition of the original ‘The Arrival’ has been produced. This edition is wrapped in a special dust jacket to give the appearance of being wrapped in protective tissue secured with a string. Sketches from a Nameless Land is bound with a textured cover. Total weight of The Arrival Collector’s Edition Suitcase complete with contents and outer wrapping is approximately 5kg.’

 


Rammstein Liebe Ist Für Alle Da
‘This limited edition box set includes not just every note of music recorded by the band Rammstein this year including five extra tracks that weren’t “good enough” for the record, but the metal flight case in which its housed is filled with industrial-strength handcuffs, lubricant and six pink dildos that reflect the sizes of the six members’ wienerwursts.’

 

Harry Potter Limited Hogwarts Castle 1-6 DVD Box Set
The limited edition box Set includes all 6 Harry Potter movies, each movie is represented as Special Edition 2-Disc Set. Hogwarts Castle with wooden base icluding all six Harry Potter movies and a protective plexiglas cover. The draw in the base has extra space for the remaining two movies (Part 7.1 and 7.2) coming out next year. This box set were exclusive made for Germany and France, This one is made in Germany. Measures 37 cm x 38 cm x 31 cm. Weight: 5 kg Castle is brand new, factory sealed.

 

Merzbow Noise Embryo Mercedes 230 Edition
‘The Story of the Merzbow CD packaged in a car has spread itself across the globe. Alot of rumors have circulated and the truth has been hard to come by. I decided to talk directly to Anders at Releasing Eskimo, the Swedish label that put out the Merzbow car. Here’s what he said: “A while ago I had a Mercedes 230 that I didn’t drive much. The police told me that I had to move it or they’d tow it away. Well, I didn’t want to keep it and I didn’t have anywahere to store it so I decided to use it for something else. I rigged the car’s CD player with our latest release of Merzbow’s “Noise Embryo” CD so that the music started when the car was turned on and it was impossible to turn it off. I put it up for sale as an extremely limited edition of the “Noise Embryo” CD but no one ever bought it, and in the end the car broke down. So we took out the CD and got rid of the car.”‘

 

Brain In A Box: The Science Fiction Collection
‘This nearly exhaustive, lavishly packaged collection documents the Science Fiction genre’s musical legacy across virtually every major genre on its five discs and 113 tracks. Each volume is divided by sub-genre–Movie Themes, TV Themes, Pop, Incidental/Lounge, Novelty. The film disc alone contains a wealth of rarities, including music from Them!, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Andromeda Strain, Fantastic Voyage, and other notables. The packaging: a 6.5-inch square, metal-lidded cube emblazoned on three sides with 3-D lenticular images of- a brain floating in bubbly liquid. But the profusely illustrated, hard-bound, 200-page book (designed to emulate the Big Little Books of the 1940s and ’50s) that’s included gives the subject its serious due, with an introduction by Ray Bradbury and contributions from an array of other notables, including Forrest J. Ackerman, Billy Mumy, Joe Dante, Dr. Demento, and Matt Groening. Perhaps the best half-cubic-foot of sci-fi brain food every assembled.’

 


NEGURA BUNGET Virstele Pamintului EARTHBOX
‘Limited edition of Negura Bunget new album “Vîrstele Pămîntului”. Handmade woodbox (27 x 16 x 4 cm) with burn-in finishing, roped and filled with real Transilvanian’s earth (to match the concept of the album titled “The Age of Land/Earth”). Includes: the deluxe 8 panels digipack-cd of the album, exclusive 60×90 poster, 12×12 album sticker and Negura Bunget 2,5cm metal pin. This is a state-of-the-art collector item, 100% handmade so each copy is unique and different. Handmade Wooden Box limited to 555 copies.’

 


Coil Colour Sound Oblivion (Advance Patron’s Edition)
‘Colour Sound Oblivion is Coil’s exhaustive 16-disc live DVD box set, amassing 14 performances plus a slew of goodies in a beautiful hand-made package. The hand-made, numbered wooden box features four cloth DVD wallets, each made of the band’s different stage costume materials. The DVDs, each in a notated cardboard sleeve, are grouped accordingly. The included “Coil Reconstruction Kit” features all the video projections with their accompanying instrumental backing tracks. Also included are more than 100 photos, an insightful 15-page booklet, the program to John Balance’s funeral ceremony, and a personalized dedication card and special totemic gift. The last thing you see before the last disc spins out is a simple written message: “What Coil did for you, you can do for others…” The numbered tag on the inside of the lid is red for the first 200, and blue for numbers 201 and higher. Upon ordering the package during the period of its limited release, the purchaser received in advance of the box’s delivery a framed certificate officially noting the authenticity and number of the edition ordered signed by Peter Christopherson.’

 

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‘Delonix regia. In English it is given the name Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant. In India it is known as Gulmohar (Hindi and Urdu -‘Gul’ means ‘Peacock’ and ‘Mohr’ is ‘Flowers’. In Vietnamese it is known as Phượng vĩ (means “Phoenix’s Tail). In Guatemala, it is known as “Llama del Bosque”. In India and Pakistan it is referred to as the Gulmohar, or Gul Mohr. In West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh it is called Krishnachura. In Puerto Rico, a town located about 12 miles away from Ponce where the tree is widespread, has been nicknamed “The Valley of the Flames” or “El Valle de los Flamboyanes”. In Vietnam, this tree is called “Phượng vỹ”, or phoenix’s tail. Because of the timing of its blooms, in Cambodia the tree is called the “flowers of pupil”, and often generates strong emotions among graduating high school pupils, as the Poinciana bloom when they are about to leave their school and their childhood behind.’ — eurekamag.org

 

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‘She was the hero and tattooist of “Godmother of Punk” Patti Smith, provided inspiration for Tennessee Williams and was part of Paris’ bohemian Left Bank scene of the 1950′s. It was there Australian born flamboyant artist Vali Myers became friends with famed French writers Jean Cocteau, Jean-Paul Sartre and Jean Genet, before moving to Italy where she spent 40 years in semi-seclusion and finally returning to Melbourne in the mid ’90′s to set up her first ever studio.

‘Raised in Sydney, Australia, Myers moved to Melbourne at 14 and begun working in factories to put herself through dance school. After working her way up to head dancer at Melbourne’s Modern Dance Company at 17, Myers sought to expand her mind and creative talent and hopped a boat to Paris. Upon her arrival in 1949, the post-war environment at the time meant there were no jobs for dancers but unwilling to go back to Australia, the stoic creative lived on the streets for almost 10 years. Myers became part of the Left Bank bohemian scene of the 1950s – she was featured on the cover of Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken’s 1956 book Love on the Left Bank and editor of the Paris Review, George Plimpton published an article honouring her work, which Salvador Dali also praised as “totally original”.

‘To escape opium addiction, Myers moved with her then husband Rudi Rappold to a valley in Positano, Italy, where she stayed off-and-on for decades. She began to spend more time in New York starting in the early 1970s where she was befriended and championed by Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, George Plimpton, and others. After living for more than a decade at New York’s Chelsea Hotel, Myers moved back to Australia in 1993 exclaiming, “Australia’s the weirdest fuckin’ country.” Having always moved around she had never had a studio to work from. Renting her first in Melbourne aged 65, Myers worked to raise money to feed her numerous pets and showed her work regularly until her death in 2003.’ — Jessie French, Sex & Fashion

 

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‘If humans had radio antennas instead of ears, we would hear a remarkable symphony of strange noises coming from our own planet. Scientists call them “tweeks,” “whistlers” and “sferics.” They sound like background music from a flamboyant science fiction film, but this is not science fiction. Earth’s natural radio emissions are real and, although we’re mostly unaware of them, they are around us all the time.’

‘The source of most VLF emissions on Earth is lightning. Lightning strokes emit a broadband pulse of radio waves, just as they unleash a visible flash of light. VLF signals from nearby lightning, heard through the loudspeaker of a radio, sound like bacon frying on a griddle or the crackling of a hot campfire. Space scientists call these sounds “sferics,” short for atmospherics.

‘Even if there is no lighting in your area, you can still hear VLF crackles from storms thousands of kilometers away. Some sferics travel all the way around the Earth. Radio waves can propagate such great distances by bouncing back and forth between our planet’s surface and the ionosphere — a layer of the atmosphere ionized by solar ultraviolet radiation.’ — science.nasa.gov

 

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‘Described by W. B. Yeats as a “scholar, connoisseur, drunkard, poet, pervert, most charming of men,” Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock (1860–1895) is surely the greatest exemplar of the Decadent movement of the late nineteenth century.

‘A friend of Aubrey Beardsley, patron of the extraordinary pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon, and contemporary of Oscar Wilde, Stenbock died at the age of thirty-six as a result of his addiction to opium and his alcoholism, having published just three slim volumes of suicidal poetry and one collection of morbid short stories.

‘Stenbock was a homosexual convert to Roman Catholicism and owner of a serpent, a toad, and a dachshund called Trixie. It was said that toward the end of his life he was accompanied everywhere by a life-size wooden doll that he believed to be his son. His poems and stories are replete with queer, supernatural, mystical, and Satanic themes; original editions of his books are highly sought by collectors of recherché literature.’ — M.I.T.

The Other Side: A Breton Legend

NOT that I like it, but one does feel so much better after it–“oh, thank you, Mère Yvonne, yes just a little drop more.” So the old crones fell to drinking their hot brandy and water (although of course they only took it medicinally, as a remedy for their rheumatics), all seated round the big fire and Mère Pinquèle continued her story.

“Oh, yes, then when they get to the top of the hill, there is an altar with six candles quite black and a sort of something in between, that nobody sees quite clearly, and the old black ram with the man’s face and long horns begins to say Mass in a sort of gibberish nobody understands, and two black strange things like monkeys glide about with the book and the cruets–and there’s music too, such music. There are things the top half like black cats, and the bottom part like men only their legs are all covered with close black hair, and they play on the bag-pipes, and when they come to the elevation, then—” Amid the old crones there was lying on the hearth-rug, before the fire, a boy whose large lovely eyes dilated and whose limbs quivered in the very ecstacy of terror.

“Is that all true, Mère Pinquèle?” he said.

“Oh, quite true, and not only that, the best part is yet to come; for they take a child and—.” Here Mère Pinquèle showed her fang-like teeth.

“Oh! Mère Pinquèle, are you a witch too?”

“Silence, Gabriel,” said Mère Yvonne, “how can you say anything so wicked? Why, bless me, the boy ought to have been in bed ages ago.”

(cont.)

 

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Upon the southern slope of one of those barren hills that rise abruptly here and there in the desolate expanse of the Landes, in South-western France, stood, in the reign of Louis XIII, a gentleman’s residence, such as abound in Gascony, and which the country people dignify by the name of chateau.

Two tall towers, with extinguisher tops, mounted guard at the angles of the mansion, and gave it rather a feudal air. The deep grooves upon its facade betrayed the former existence of a draw-bridge, rendered unnecessary now by the filling up of the moat, while the towers were draped for more than half their height with a most luxuriant growth of ivy, whose deep, rich green contrasted happily with the ancient gray walls.

A traveller, seeing from afar the steep pointed roof and lofty towers standing out against the sky, above the furze and heather that crowned the hill-top, would have pronounced it a rather imposing chateau–the residence probably of some provincial magnate; but as he drew near would have quickly found reason to change his opinion.

The roof, of dark red tiles, was disfigured by many large, leprous-looking, yellow patches, while in some places the decayed rafters had given way, leaving formidable gaps. The numerous weather-cocks that surmounted the towers and chimneys were so rusted that they could no longer budge an inch, and pointed persistently in various directions. The high dormer windows were partially closed by old wooden shutters, warped, split, and in every stage of dilapidation; broken stones filled up the loop-holes and openings in the towers; of the twelve large windows in the front of the house, eight were boarded up; the remaining four had small diamond-shaped panes of thick, greenish glass, fitting so loosely in their leaden frames that they shook and rattled at every breath of wind; between these windows a great deal of the stucco had fallen off, leaving the rough wall exposed to view.

Above the grand old entrance door, whose massive stone frame and lintel retained traces of rich ornamentation, almost obliterated by time and neglect, was sculptured a coat of arms, now so defaced that the most accomplished adept in heraldry would not be able to decipher it. Only one leaf of the great double door was ever opened now, for not many guests were received or entertained at the chateau in these days of its decadence. Swallows had built their nests in every available nook about it, and but for a slender thread of smoke rising spirally from a chimney at the back of this dismal, half-ruined mansion, the traveller would have surely believed it to be uninhabited. This was the only sign of life visible about the whole place, like the little cloud upon the mirror from the breath of a dying man, which alone gives evidence that he still lives.

Theophile Gautier

 

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Valentin Ferré Projet Lab #6 – Hauntology

 

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‘A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881 is a painting by the English artist William Powell Frith exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts (London) in 1883. It depicts a group of distinguished Victorians visiting the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1881, just after the death of the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, whose portrait by John Everett Millais was included on a screen at the special request of Queen Victoria. It is visible in the archway at the back of the room.

‘The subject of the painting is the contrast between lasting historical achievements and ephemeral fads. The portrait of Disraeli represents the former, and the influence of the Aesthetic movement in dress represents the latter. Aesthetic dress is exemplified by the principal female figures in green, pink and orange clothing. Oscar Wilde, one of the main proponents of Aestheticism, is depicted at the right behind the boy in the green suit, surrounded by female admirers. Behind him, further to the right, a group of opponents glare disapprovingly at him as he speaks. Among them are the journalist G.A. Sala and the artist Philip Calderon.

‘At the left of the painting, Anthony Trollope is portrayed gazing at an “aesthetic” family. In the centre of the composition Frederic Leighton, President of the Academy, talks to a seated woman. William Thomson, the archbishop of York, stands beside him wearing a top hat. Lillie Langtry appears nearby in a white dress. Other famous figures of the day depicted include Robert Browning, Thomas Huxley, William Ewart Gladstone and Mary Braddon. The actors Ellen Terry and Henry Irving are visible standing behind Wilde.’ — goldenagepaintings.com

 

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George Kuchar Dynasty of Depravity (2005)

 

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‘Among British artists the flamboyant George Chinnery (1774-1852) is a most unusual case. He spent the last fifty years of his life in India and on the China coast, where he died and lies buried, and almost all his best work was done in the East. Other ‘orientalist’ artists from Europe might dip a toe (sometimes more) into Asia, and return to make a living by working up and recycling their sketches, but Chinnery never came back. In Calcutta, Canton and Macau he became something of an exotic creature himself – exuberant, droll, unpredictable – a man who relished his status as the oldest of old hands on the China coast. Both George Chinnery and his wife Marianne appear, thinly disguised, in James Clavell’s hugely successful novel Tai-pan as ‘Aristotle Quance, genius of the brush and inveterate philanderer…and his domineering Irish wife, Maureen…’. One of his earliest works only recently rediscovered is an appealing pencil and watercolour portrait of Marianne, whom he had married in Dublin in 1799, which contradicts his later claims that she was extremely ugly.’ –– Asia House in London

‘DESPITE HIS NAME OF ‘CHINNERY’ WHICH SOUNDS ALMOST AS IF MADE-UP OR A FICTITIOUS PSEUDONYM, GEORGE CHINNERY WAS NOT CHINESE BUT THOROUGHLY ENGLISH AND WAS NOT EVEN A FLAMINING FAGGOT AS HE WAS MARRIED AND HAD CHILDREN. AS YOU ARE SADLY AWARE, FLAMBOYANT AND FLASHILY DRESSED MEN ARE ALWAYS SUSPECTED OF BEING GAY AND I MEAN GAY AS IN A HOMO AND NOT ‘MERRY’. OF COURSE THIS MAY BE TRUE IN SOME CASES AS LIBERACE, ELTON JOHN AND WRITER OSCAR WILDE COME TO MIND.’ — kee hua chee


Cody LeBoeuf ‘A Trip for George Chinnery’

 

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Jorge Pardo

 

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Sergey Esenin’s flamboyant personality, peasant origins, and craving for self-destruction have forever canonized him as Russia’s favorite “hooligan poet.” Esenin died at the age of 30, tired of life and poetry. His suicide, still a mystery, triggered a wave of suicides among his fervent adepts. The novelty and magnitude of his poetry continues to astonish his readers.’ — The Melancholic

my cute, that the images

my cute, that the images,
as a holy, all repent.
I fucked seven times have, —
eight relies!

 

You do not own

You do not own,
not own, not.
I now another
give it French style.
And now another
I give to fuck-
Who among you is dearer:
Dick you plead.

 

nate, take, to devour

nate, take, to devour
My soul black earth.
God crushed us ass,
And we call it the sun.

 

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REGALIA, n. Distinguishing insignia, jewels and costume of such ancient and honorable orders as Knights of Adam; Visionaries of Detectable Bosh; the Ancient Order of Modern Troglodytes; the League of Holy Humbug; the Golden Phalanx of Phalangers; the Genteel Society of Expurgated Hoodlums; the Mystic Alliances of Georgeous Regalians; Knights and Ladies of the Yellow Dog; the Oriental Order of Sons of the West; the Blatherhood of Insufferable Stuff; Warriors of the Long Bow; Guardians of the Great Horn Spoon; the Band of Brutes; the Impenitent Order of Wife-Beaters; the Sublime Legion of Flamboyant Conspicuants; Worshipers at the Electroplated Shrine; Shining Inaccessibles; Fee-Faw-Fummers of the inimitable Grip; Jannissaries of the Broad-Blown Peacock; Plumed Increscencies of the Magic Temple; the Grand Cabal of Able-Bodied Sedentarians; Associated Deities of the Butter Trade; the Garden of Galoots; the Affectionate Fraternity of Men Similarly Warted; the Flashing Astonishers; Ladies of Horror; Cooperative Association for Breaking into the Spotlight; Dukes of Eden; Disciples Militant of the Hidden Faith; Knights-Champions of the Domestic Dog; the Holy Gregarians; the Resolute Optimists; the Ancient Sodality of Inhospitable Hogs; Associated Sovereigns of Mendacity; Dukes-Guardian of the Mystic Cess-Pool; the Society for Prevention of Prevalence; Kings of Drink; Polite Federation of Gents-Consequential; the Mysterious Order of the Undecipherable Scroll; Uniformed Rank of Lousy Cats; Monarchs of Worth and Hunger; Sons of the South Star; Prelates of the Tub-and-Sword.

Ambrose Bierce

 

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—-

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** jay, Hey Jay! She’s singular. She was at a gallery opening I was also at once. I was completely awestruck but I managed to tiptoe over to her to gush and ask her for her autograph, and she was unsurprisingly incredibly kind and sweet and hilarious. Thanks for the props, my pal. I hope you’re still enjoying your home-shaped independence. ** kenley, True, all true, meaning I agree. One building, easy. *devil horns* How was your gig? I’m sure your charisma made your metalcore akin to a movie in which Shelley Duvall has a big part. Weekend: mostly trying to catch up on stuff. New possibility arose of showing ‘RT’ in Amsterdam, but it seems pretty iffy. Had my biweekly Zoom Film/Book Club. Watched ‘Megadoc’, the documentary about the making of Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’, which wasn’t so interesting apart from making me not want to see the film and proving Shia LaBeouf is an insufferable jerk, which I already knew. That was basically it. New week! Yours! So … ? ** Hugo, SD in ‘Three Women’ is one of the world’s all-time highlights. The best Brit fiction seems well behaved but is actually creepy and subversive. ** Steve, Not completely. Hm, I look at all kinds of outrageous sites on the blog’s behalf, and those visits have never followed me into Meta that I can tell. Double header. Everyone, Two recommended visits courtesy of Steve. (1) ‘The latest “Radio Not Radio” episode is up. Going from punk to jazz to soundscapes, it features Poison Ruin, Crass, the Subhumans (UK), the Cortinas, Zaviruga, Settimana Mistica, Huggy Bear, Anakonda, Jill Scott, Tomeka Reid, Adam O’Farrill, Alice Coltrane, Grupo Um, Bobo & Behaja, Midori Hirano, Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet, Eliane Radigue, KMRU, Negativland, Vic Bang, Poppy Ackroyd, Flying Lotus and the Bug!’ And, (2): ‘My new song ‘Feedbackback’ is also out now‘. ** Thom, Howdy, Thom. Yep, agreed, about Bela Tarr. And cool that ‘Are People Out There’ sank into you pleasurably. How did the gathering and collaging go? Always so great to have a conducive collaborator. And you saw ear to ear without slug or fisticuffs? ** LC, Hi, LC. My total pleasure. I’ve never been to Nashville. It’s still on my dream list. That whole Tennessee/Kentucky area. I have been to Kentucky ages ago. All I remember are the caves. Cheers in return! ** _Black_Acrylic, Yep, yep, ‘Three Women’, few better things. I hope your sugar crash wasn’t too hard. ** fish, Hi, fish! It’s that easy? Huh. I’m surprised too about the number of comments considering the fairly giant traffic this place gets, and also grateful since I don’t know if I could handle many more. Literature and boys, no argument there. I love DFW too, obviously. I’ll try to culture you up, although you sounds pretty culturally with it. Thanks! ** T, T! My old pal! So proximate and so mysterious! Me too. It’s so good to see you! Zac and I are often saying, ‘I wonder what Thomas is up to?’ Both of those gigs sound delicious. We’re a bit hampered by traveling around to show our film, but I think I should probably be there on those dates. I’ll look into it, and let’s do it and more importantly see each other. Let me know when you’re free. xo. ** Bill, ‘Three Women’ and ‘McCabe …’ are my favorite Altmans. Interesting: yeah, I would have guessed Joy Williams would know it. Amazing you saw her read. I still haven’t been lucky enough to be in her proximity. Long trip to the far east, or maybe it’s more like west from you? ** ⋆˚꩜。darbbzz⋆˚꩜。, I was at the concert on the ‘Radio Ethiopia’ tour where Patti Smith fell off the stage and broke her arm. Trivia. Nice, the Machine Girl gig. I’m 6’1″ and I always feel bad for the shorter people at gigs, especially those who are standing behind me and quietly hating me. Mixtape! Accessible! Everyone, the great ⋆˚꩜。darbbzz⋆˚꩜。 made a mixtape! It’s still in progress but we can listen in. I say we do, what do you say? Join me in its presence here? Coolness. ** Carsten, I can or I mean could see all of that operating in the Carrington work. I actually quite enjoyed ‘Sinners’. It settled on me well. But I’m not a stickler about the authenticity aspect. I thought that, for a big Hollywood film, it was nicely dreamy. I didn’t expect it to be as pleasurable as it was, I guess. ** Diesel Clementine, Thanks for the Glasgow fill-in. The times I’ve been there I thought there was was something very strange about that city, and you may have just pointed me in the right direction. Yes, the only and best needless to say way to extract your writing from the middling category is through the hard work you sound like you’re putting into it. If you could see my early writing, and I pray you never will, you’d be very proud of yours. I like Robert Gluck a lot. He’s an old friend, but, nevertheless, I think one of the best fiction writer du jour. ‘Jack’ is my favorite of his. I didn’t see a burned up Glasgow on the news this morning, so I assume it’s still in tact if possibly blackened a little. ** Alice, Hi. Great about the mix being ours to overhear! Everyone, Alice has uploaded a DJ mix they made to youtube, and that’s your cue to gift yourselves by clicking this. Looking forward to it! Great hopes that you hear back about the interviews in a highly positive manner. My week: try to solve yet another snag in my visa application process, see some films, eat Ethiopian food, talk with Zac about the new film script, and the rest remains a mystery. ** HaRpEr //, Yes, she’s kind of a god. Nice Tobey Maguire info: I can see that. My hopes are high re: the chapbook submission, naturally. Great that you fed it to them. Let’s hope they’re wise enough. I haven’t heard the Fugazi/Albini tracks yet, but of course I will. ‘In on the Kill Taker’ is my favorite Fugazi. ** Uday, Hi! I haven’t played a card game in such a long time that I think my favorite is probably still ‘Go Fish’. ** Right. Today you get a restored thematic post directed towards those out there who appreciate stylish extroversion. See you tomorrow.

Shelley Duvall’s Day

 

‘One of the presenting symptoms of my Shelley Duvall fandom is amateur numerology. The actress, among the most totemic and inimitable performers of the New American Cinema, was born on the seventh day of the seventh month of 1949. She made seven films with Robert Altman, the director with whom she remains the most closely affiliated. The greatest of their collaborations, 3 Women, was released in 1977.

‘I focus on the dominance of seven in Duvall’s life and profession only to confirm what I already believe about occult signifiers: They mean nothing. Despite the lucky number, a hazy sense of misfortune—of a career that ended too soon, or that never quite matched the incandescence evinced in its first years—has lingered over the actress, who has not appeared in a movie since 2002. (An infamous sit-down in 2016 with an ignoble TV host suggested that she has not been well for some time.) Maybe her setbacks were augured by Altman when he spoke to Cliff Jahr of the Village Voice for an April 1977 profile of Duvall tied to the release of 3 Women, her sixth movie with the director. In the piece, Jahr conjectures that the filmmaker “has unique and untransferable rapport with his actors,” and Altman seems to concur. “I have harmed a lot of them,” he says. “I don’t quite understand it. Ronee Blakley, who got an Oscar nomination for Nashville”—for her portrayal of an unstable country-music superstar in that brilliant ensemble film from 1975—“has not even been able to get an agent to this day.” Later in the article, Altman expresses his deep admiration for Duvall’s talents, but his praise is freighted with anxiety about her fate: “Somebody better pay attention to her now, or they’re all crazy.”

‘It is impossible not to take notice of Shelley Duvall. With her extremely ectomorphic figure, she calls to mind a walking exclamation point. Her long, Modigliani-like face appears taffy-pulled; the focal points of her amazing visage are her enormous, wide-set brown eyes and her two jutting top incisors. If her striking physicality makes the first impression on the viewer, then her demeanor creates the most lasting one. She is unmistakably fey, but her otherworldliness connotes a planet not too far away from our solar system. Duvall is a delight not just to watch but to listen to; her pellucid voice is filigreed by a Houston drawl that she never filed down.

‘She was discovered in that Texas city by Altman’s emissaries, scouting talent for Brewster McCloud (1970). They met Duvall at a party she was throwing with her boyfriend. Charmed by their hostess, the movie men arranged for her to audition for Altman, though she had no idea who the director was (he’d just had a big hit with MASH) or what “reading for a part” meant. Altman was convinced that Duvall’s naïveté was a ruse. “I decided to shoot a test, so I took her out in the park and put a camera on her and just asked her questions,” the filmmaker told David Thompson for the book-length interview Altman on Altman (2005). “I was really quite mean to her, as I thought she was an actress. But she wasn’t kidding; that was her.”

‘Duvall’s untutored wisdom makes her performance one of the few unmitigated pleasures of the antic, exhausting Brewster McCloud. Playing Suzanne, a garrulous tour guide at the Astrodome who deflowers and ultimately betrays the flight-obsessed title character (Bud Cort), Duvall, with her Raggedy Ann eyelashes, emerges as an unorthodox femme fatale. “Hi! Are you trying to steal my car?” Suzanne asks Brewster; the actress delivers the line with vivifying, daffy ingenuousness. In her screen debut, she evokes James Baldwin’s lapidary assessment of the movie legends who held him rapt as a child: “One does not go to see them act: One goes to watch them be.”

‘In pointing out Baldwin’s instructive ontological distinction, I don’t mean to imply that Duvall, especially in her films with Altman, simply presented her unvarnished self—that she took no care when preparing for her roles other than, say, to memorize her lines. Altman, who gave Duvall a small part as a mail-order bride in the western McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Brewster’s immediate successor, insisted that she observe the entire production for “acting lessons.” She demonstrates a noticeable increase in discipline (particularly with regard to her timing and pauses) in her next project with Altman, the Depression-era-set Thieves like Us (1974), in which she plays Keechie, the sweetheart of Bowie, Keith Carradine’s on-the-lam bank robber. But even though her acting may be more polished, Duvall’s performance style isn’t entirely pruned of fascinating idiosyncrasies, such as her strange way of saying “yes”—a word she enunciates with what sounds like a brand-new diphthong—when Bowie asks Keechie if she likes him.

‘If Suzanne and Keechie are characters brought more vibrantly to life by Duvall’s undiluted “essence,” then Millie Lammoreaux—the prating, self-regarding employee of a geriatric rehab center she plays in 3 Women—endures as the apex of her assiduous preparation. Originating in a dream that Altman had, 3 Women traces the shifting dynamics between childlike Pinky (Sissy Spacek) and Millie, who trains the pigtailed recent arrival to Southern California in the basics of hydrotherapy for the elderly. The two coworkers soon become roommates, sharing Millie’s yellow-bathed one-bedroom apartment. Pinky, growing ever more besotted with her new friend, marvels at Millie’s professed sophisticated taste, largely shaped by McCall’s magazine, and at her refined palate, which favors such chemically saturated delicacies as banana pops and penthouse chicken.

‘“I played her like a Lubitsch comedy—people taking themselves very seriously,” Duvall said of Millie in that Voice profile. Blithely ignoring the fact that most people find her to be a nattering, desperate fool, Millie may have unshakable confidence in herself, but her certitude never fully masks her fragility, especially in the second half of 3 Women, when the power balance between Millie and Pinky is inverted. This indelible, richly textured character was largely the creation of Duvall. “Shelley wrote all of [Millie’s] letters, all of those recipes, all of her diary stuff. I don’t know any writer who could have done it better,” Altman told Thompson. (Duvall to Jahr: “Monologues just came out in fifteen minutes.”)

‘A few weeks after 3 Women was released, Duvall could be seen in a bit part in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, her only non-Altman film from the ’70s (not counting a 1976 PBS adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” in which she starred in the title role). Playing Pam, a witless Rolling Stone reporter, Duvall, in the meager screen time allotted her, proves the sole source of buoyancy in a project overpopulated by smug, charmless neurotics, its director-cowriter-star chief among them.We are meant to laugh at Pam’s preferred adjective—“The only word for this is transplendent”—but Duvall locates the dignity in the dippy journalist’s enthusiasms.

‘At the end of the most storied decade of her career, Duvall was cast in the film for which she might be most widely remembered—and for which she endured tremendous distress. In Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), the actress, as Wendy Torrance, the initially sunny mom and helpmate of Jack Nicholson’s aspiring novelist, spends the latter half of the film in abject terror; Wendy continually weeps and shrieks as she tries to save herself and her young son from a psychotic paterfamilias. Duvall gives a shattering performance of ceaseless anguish—a traumatized state that mirrors the suffering she experienced in her clashes with Kubrick during The Shining’s months-long shoot, some of which are featured in the short making-of documentary by the director’s daughter Vivian. (More chilling than anything in The Shining is Vivian’s footage of Duvall, lying on the floor in between takes, saying, of an undisclosed ailment, “It comes and goes. . . . It just got so bad” as a matronly crew member tends to her.)

‘Duvall’s final film with Altman—a live-action version of Popeye, in which she stars as Olive Oyl, opposite Robin Williams as the spinach-loving sailor—came out the same year as The Shining. “Shelley, I want to give you the role you were born to play!” Altman told the actress. But, paradoxically, in this outsize part, Duvall seems diminished, flattened, as does nearly everyone else in the shambolic funny-pages transfer. Yet the movie, aimed at kids, can be thought of as an oblique prologue to Duvall’s signal achievement of not only the ’80s (but all of her post-Altman work): Faerie Tale Theatre, a wonderfully outré anthology television series for children (but with multigenerational appeal) broadcast on Showtime between 1982 and 1987. In addition to creating the program, Duvall executive-produced, hosted, and occasionally starred in FTT, which featured a motley group of talents ranging from Mick Jagger to Gena Rowlands as various Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen principals.

‘Welcoming viewers to “Rumpelstiltskin,” the second episode of the first season, in which she plays the miller’s daughter, Duvall offers a quasi confession: “And, I must admit, as an actress, Faerie Tale Theatre also gave me an opportunity for some pretty great roles.” When considered more than three decades later, the statement seems to eerily anticipate the imminent attrition of those opportunities. During the fifteen years between the end of FTT and 2002, when she stopped performing altogether, Duvall’s output consisted primarily of small or supporting parts in minor, largely forgotten movies, and assorted TV work. There are some exceptions. Duvall thrills with the few Italian interjections—Mangia! Simpaticissimo!—she utters as Countess Gemini in Jane Campion’s adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady (1996). And she beguiles as Amelia Glahn, a spinster ostrich farmer hopelessly in love with a sadistic mesmerist, in Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), a pastel-hued fantasia by cult Canadian auteur Guy Maddin. These late-period Duvall performances, just as much as 3 Women, return us to Altman’s command: Pay attention to her.’ — Melissa Anderson, ARTFORUM

 

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Stills





















































 

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Further

Shelley Duvall @ IMDb
Shelley Duvall: The Shining’s saddest legacy
INTERVIEW WITH SHELLEY DUVALL
A THIN LINE
Stephen King damns Shelley Duvall’s character in film of The Shining
OBVIOUS HISTORY: SHELLEY DUVALL WAS PROPOSITIONED AT 17 TO BE IN A PORNO
Actress Shelley Duvall reveals struggle with mental illness
THE SAD AND HEARTBREAKING REALITY OF SHELLEY DUVALL’S MENTAL HEALTH
Shelley Duvall, An Unlikely Star
SHELLEY DUVALL GROWS UP
Head in the Clouds: Shelley Duvall in 3 Women
Missing From the Movies: Shelley Duvall
SHELLEY DUVALL WAS DRAGGED INTO FILMS

 

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Extras


HELLO, I’M SHELLEY DUVALL !


SHELLEY DUVALL INTERVIEW 1974


SHELLEY DUVALL INTERVIEW @ CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

 

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Interview

ANDY WARHOL: This is a whole new table. I’ve never sat on this side before. Are you staying out in East Hampton most of the time?

SHELLEY DUVALL: Yes, for most of the summer. I come back about two days a week usually.

WARHOL: Son of Sam was on his way out there.

DUVALL: I just heard!

[Son of Sam]

WARHOL: How could a Berkowitz kill a Moskowitz?

DUVALL: That’s the first thing I thought.

WARHOL: It’s too terrible.

BOB COLACELLO: What would you like to eat?

[orders]

WARHOL: Where did you learn French?

DUVALL: Not from my father.

WARHOL: Duvall is a French name.

DUVALL: My father’s half-French and I’m whatever’s left.

WARHOL: Where were you born?

DUVALL: I was born in Fort Worth but I never lived there. I was visiting my grandmother at the time.

WARHOL: I don’t understand.

DUVALL: My mother was visiting my grandmother when I was born. But I grew up in Houston. I lived there until ’73 and then I moved to Los Angeles.

WARHOL: When did we meet?

DUVALL: You met me in 1970 when I’d just finished Brewster McCloud and was about to do McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Bill Worth told me, “Come down to the Factory and meet Andy Warhol,” and we got there and you weren’t there but we looked at pictures. And I remember the time you told me, “I stayed home from Elaine’s birthday party to watch you on Dick Cavett.” I was so flattered!

COLACELLO: You’re such a charmer, Andy.

WARHOL: But it was true.

COLACELLO: So what’s this new movie you’re doing with Jack [Nicholson]?

DUVALL: It’s from a novel written by Stephen King, who wrote Carrie. It’s called The Shining and we start shooting somewhere between December 1 and February 1. Stanley Kubrick’s writing the script now. He’s directing and it’ll be shot in London and Switzerland for 15 to 25 weeks—a long shoot.

COLACELLO: Is it a big cast?

DUVALL: No, it’s Jack and myself and a five-year-old boy, basically. And there’s a psychiatrist and an ex-gardener at the place where we’re caretakers. It’s very frightening. When I first heard of it I was wondering why Stanley Kubrick would want to do this film and then I read the book and it turns out, I think, to be really primal about fears and about the fears that one has in a relationship with another person.

WARHOL: It sounds like it could be a Robert Altman film, too. Three Women was terrific.

DUVALL: Bob knows me very well and he knows my limitations.

WARHOL: That story was fascinating.

DUVALL: I loved that story. That was an actual dream that Bob had. He had the dream on a Saturday night and he called me up on Sunday morning and said, “Shelley. I just had this incredible dream. Part of the dream was that I woke up and told my wife and wrote it all down on a yellow legal pad and called my production assistant and said, ‘I want you to scout locations for me,’” and then he woke up and discovered he hadn’t told his wife and he hadn’t written it down. It’s amazing—within a week he had the money for the film and we started shooting a month later.

WARHOL: Janice Rule is one of my favorite actresses but her style of acting was so different from yours and Sissy Spacek‘s.

DUVALL: I was just going to tell you it was actually just two women in the dream—Sissy and I. But I think someone like Bergman or Antonioni had already done a film called Two Women.

WARHOL: No, it was Sophia Loren. That was the one where she came out of the ocean. She won an Academy Award for it.

COLACELLO: Did you ever think you wanted to be an actress?

DUVALL: Never.

COLACELLO: How did you get started?

DUVALL: It’s a long story but I’ll tell you. I was living with my artist boyfriend at his parents’ house in Houston and we had a lot of parties and people would come who we didn’t know and his parents’ friends would come—they were really good parents—and one day I was giving a party and these three gentlemen came in and I said, “Come in, fix yourself a drink, make yourself at home,” and I continued showing all my friends Bernard’s new paintings, telling them what the artist was thinking. And they said they had some friends who were patrons of the arts who’d like to see the paintings so I made an appointment, brought the paintings up and showed them one by one. I lugged 35 paintings up there. And instead of selling some paintings I wound up getting into a movie.

WARHOL: They were testing you out?

DUVALL: Yes, they said, “How would you like to be in a movie?” and I thought, “Oh, no, a porno film,” because I’d been approached for that when I was 17 in a drugstore.

WARHOL: What did you do?

DUVALL: The guy left me with the bill for the Coca-Cola. So this time I said, “No, thank you,” and they called my parents’ house and got hold of me and after a while we became such good friends that I had no fear. I said, “I’m not an actress.” They said, “Yes, you are.” Finally, I said, “All right, if you think I’m an actress I guess I am.”

WARHOL: But what were they doing there?

DUVALL: They were on location.

WARHOL: But what made them come to the house? Were they just looking for something to do?

DUVALL: Somebody at the party had called them up and told them if they were bored in Houston we gave a lot of parties. When the film was over I thought it was just an interlude in my life. But three months later I started work on McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Actually during Brewster McCloud I’d already signed a five-year contract.

WARHOL: I guess things really do happen at parties.

[contracts]

COLACELLO: But you never studied acting?

DUVALL: I went to Lee Strasberg a few years ago because I’d heard such good things about him but I went to two lessons and it just wasn’t for me. That’s one piece of advice Robert Altman gave me at the very beginning—never take lessons and don’t take yourself seriously.

WARHOL: He’s right. It’s all magic. The problem is knowing how to keep it once you get it.

DUVALL: I make my own decisions. And I never turn down anything without reading it. Other than that… I’m sort of at a loss for words. It was hard to move here, actually.

WARHOL: You mean you’re living here for real?

DUVALL: I moved here in October.

WARHOL: To East Hampton?

DUVALL: No, to New York from L.A. East Hampton’s just a summer place.

WARHOL: Some people live there year-round now

DUVALL: I like that idea. I think it would be just as nice in the spring and fall as in the summer. Our place looks like Japan. It’s got those short needlepines, little pebbles and everything.

WARHOL: Montauk doesn’t have much of a beach but it’s very beautiful. It’s all rocks.

DUVALL: I want to see the lighthouse.

WARHOL: If you’d seen Peter Beard’s place you’d be so sad now. It just burned down last week with all his work inside.

DUVALL: How terrible. Was it lightning?

WARHOL: No, the boiler room.

DUVALL: God, the boiler room! You should read The Shining.

WARHOL: Does it happen in a boiler room?

DUVALL: You’ll see. It’s frightening.

WARHOL: Carrie was so good.

DUVALL: I still haven’t seen it. Scary movies frighten me. I still haven’t seen The Exorcist.

WARHOL: It’s really good. It isn’t even scary. It’s just intelligent.

DUVALL: I like to see just about every movie that comes out that strikes my fancy.

WARHOL: I’m always worrying about bombs in movie theaters, though. My favorite kind of movies are unsuccessful ones because there’s no one there. And then I like…

[TAPE CHANGE]

DUVALL: …The Omen.

COLACELLO: Why did you move to New York from L.A.?

DUVALL: For several reasons. I’d always wanted to move to New York, from the first time I came here. And then I guess Paul [Simon] was an extra added attraction—a New Yorker boyfriend.

COLACELLO: That’s a nice way of putting it. He’s working so much now.

DUVALL: He’s always working. There’s so much energy here. That’s why I like it, despite everything.

[Son of Sam]

WARHOL: How can people see something on TV and then they can’t wait to read about it in the newspaper? Why is that?

DUVALL: Maybe it’s more real.

WARHOL: Maybe.

DUVALL: New Yorkers have a fascination with the daily paper. I could never understand that when I came here. And I could never understand how people get up to see “The Today Show.”

WARHOL: It’s easy if you have a pushbutton. It’s great. And if you turn it on at seven you see the news three or four times which is even better—all the repeats.

DUVALL: I did an interview with Gene Shalit and I never saw it because I could never wake up early enough.

COLACELLO: Would you like some dessert?

DUVALL: I’m looking over at the chocolate mousse but…

WARHOL: I was supposed to go to the pimple doctor this morning and I never went.

[pimple doctors]

DUVALL: Well, everybody’s got something about them. But did you hear about the guy with no feet?

WARHOL: No, who?

DUVALL: I’m just kidding. But here we’re complaining about pimples and…

WARHOL: Oh, I know. We’re so lucky.

DUVALL: We really are.

WARHOL: So many people have so many problems. When you think that health is wealth, you’re so grateful just to be normal, more or less. Aren’t you?

 

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20 of Shelley Duvall’s 57 roles

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Robert Altman Brewster McCloud (1970)
‘One of the things about “MASH” was that people wanted to see it a second time. That’s typical of the recent Robert Altman style; “Brewster McCloud” is just as densely packed with words and action, and you keep thinking you’re missing things. You probably are. It’s that quality that’s so attractive about these two Altman films. We get the sense of a live intelligence, rushing things ahead on the screen, not worrying whether we’ll understand. If anything, “Brewster McCloud” is more complex and more difficult than “MASH.” For one thing, we don’t have the initial orientation we had in “MASH,” where we knew we were in the Army and we knew what the uniforms stood for and what was going on in the operating room. Those hooks helped us unsort the narrative. “Brewster” may not even have a narrative.’ — Roger Ebert


Excerpt


Excerpt

 

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Robert Altman McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
‘Hailed by critc Pauline Kael as “a beautiful pipe dream of a movie,” Altman’s snowbound western sets its scene in the ramshackle, snowbound Washington State town of Presbyterian, where wandering gambler Warren Beatty decides to stick around after striking up a partnership with Julie Christie’s madam, a fraught but profitable teaming that’s threatened by encroaching corporate interests. A film of indelible atmosphere, thanks to the uniquely foggy photography of Vilmos Zsigmond—achieved by “flashing” the negative before exposure—and the droning vocals of Leonard Cohen on the soundtrack.’ — Metrograph


Excerpt


the entire film

 

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Robert Altman Thieves Like Us (1974)
‘Tewkesbury’s adaptation of Edward Anderson’s novel (also the source material for Nicholas Ray’s They Live By Night) yielded one of Altman’s most slashingly sincere films. Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall are lovers running from the law through the Depression-era South, their fateful romance played out against a backdrop of two-bit gangsterism, Coca-Cola, and (memorably) the near wall-to-wall buzz of vintage radio broadcasts.’ — Metrograph


Excerpt


Excerpt

 

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Robert Altman Nashville (1975)
‘This cornerstone of 1970s American moviemaking from Robert Altman is a panoramic view of the country’s political and cultural landscapes, set in the nation’s music capital. Nashville weaves the stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress—into a cinematic tapestry that is equal parts comedy, tragedy, and musical. Many members of the astonishing cast wrote their own songs and performed them live on location, which lends another layer to the film’s quirky authenticity. Altman’s ability to get to the heart of American life via its eccentric byways was never put to better use than in this grand, rollicking triumph, which barrels forward to an unforgettable conclusion.’ — The Criterion Collection


Trailer

Watch: Shelley Duvall on ‘Nashville’

 

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Robert Altman Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1975)
‘Robert Altman turns his cutting gaze towards American myth-making in one of his most blistering satires. Paul Newman plays the booze-soaked William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill), the buffoonish, self-aggrandizing proprietor of a hokey Wild West show, who begins to fall apart both personally and professionally following the arrival of the show’s newest performer, Chief Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts). Altman’s contrasting of two legendary American figures proves not only to be rich comedic territory, but also stands as a vicious deconstruction of the romantic vision of the Wild West, showbiz, and history itself. Featuring a dizzyingly great ensemble cast (Harvey Keitel, Will Sampson, Burt Lancaster, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall and more), and brimming with verve and wit, BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, OR, SITTING BULL’S HISTORY LESSON is essential Altman.’ — Drafthouse


Trailer

 

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Joan Micklin Silver Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976)
‘It’s the hot summer of 1919. Visiting her cousin Marjorie (Veronica Cartwright), sweet-but-dull Bernice (Shelley Duvall) is transformed into a smooth-talking man-trap by her vampish kin. However, the “make-over” works too well, Bernice becomes the belle of the ball, captivating every boy’s interest…even Marjorie’s boyfriend Warren (Bud Cort). The now worldly Bernice has the last laugh…a clever and ironic twist. One of the best screen translations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary work, Bernice also includes the delightful supporting role performances of Dennis Christopher (“Breaking Away”) and Polly Holliday (“Alice”).’ — Kanopy


Excerpt


the entire film

 

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Woody Allen Annie Hall (1977)
‘In Annie Hall, Shelley Duvall played Pam, a Rolling Stone reporter set up with Alvy by their mutual friend, Rob. By 1977, Duvall’s star was on a meteoric rise after she appeared in McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Nashville. A favorite of director Robert Altman’s, Duvall’s unique look and ability to portray women who were at once superficially girly yet full of psychological depth made her an in-demand actor in the ’70s and ’80s. After Annie Hall, Duvall went on to star in The Shining and Time Bandits, and she even appeared in an episode of the hit ’90s show Wishbone.’ — She Knows


Trailer


Excerpt

 

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Robert Altman 3 Women (1977)
‘By the time 3 Women came out, Duvall was already well known for her unorthodox looks and behavior. In a 1976 interview with Altman for Film Heritage, F. Anthony Macklin asked, “Can the general audience relate to Shelley Duvall externally? Won’t the general audience back in Dayton, Ohio, think she’s kind of freaky and kind of spacey and kind of weirdo?” It’s to Altman’s credit that he can make a potentially off-putting figure like Millie, played by an actor who often seemed (fascinatingly) disconnected from reality, into someone we can empathize with. But it’s Duvall who arouses our compassion. At times, you want to slap her to wake her up from her self-mythologizing (she imagines herself something of a debutante, and often speaks of men throwing themselves at her—contrary to what we see onscreen), but Duvall, with her Breck-girl curl and sunshine-colored dresses, cuts such a likably wacky figure that we can’t help but accept Millie in all her unreality. Her most poignant moments come directly after she’s discovered that a group of dinner-party guests have canceled on her, and thus foiled her plans to serve them her impeccably prepared pigs in a blanket and “chocolate puddin’ tarts.” Here, briefly, Duvall and Altman let us peek behind the flowery curtain and see the plain soul hidden there.’ — The Criterion Collection


Excerpt


Shelley Duvall interview about “3 Women”

Watch the film here

 

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Stanley Kubrick The Shining (1980)
‘Back in the 1980s, Duvall was a movie star in the rise, with a prosperous future ahead of her. However, after her role in The Shining, she almost considered leaving acting for good. The reason? The young actress went through trauma during the filming of Kubrick’s film, facing tremendously difficult requests by the director, such as the legendary 127-takes of the baseball bat scene, ending up dehydrated with raw, wounded hands and a hoarse throat from crying. The director’s “special” requirements went so far that Duvall started losing her hair. According to Horror Media, Duvall’s role was mostly criticized by Stephen King who declared that he hated The Shining very much mainly because of the misogynistic portrait of Wendy Torrance who, in King’s words “was basically there just to scream and be stupid and that’s not the woman I wrote about”.’ — The Vintage News


Excerpt


Shelley Duvall on Stanley Kubrick


Stanley Kubrick: Behind The Scenes on the Set of ‘The Shining’

 

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Robert Altman Popeye (1980)
‘As a gawky youngster growing up in Texas, Shelley Duvall used to cringe when kids taunted her with “Nahhh, Olive Oyl! Olive Oyl!” Plus ça change. After playing the bean-pole bombshell in director Robert Altman’s Popeye, the 5’8″ and 106-pound Shelley now reports, “Children grab me around the legs in the grocery store and say, ‘You’re Olive Oyl!’ That’s really, really good. It makes that movie one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Such katzenjammer praise is welcome solace after some snooty adults predicted that she and Robin Williams, who co-stars as Popeye, would take a Bluto-size beating at the box office. Most critics, while praising Duvall, said the movie was spinach and the hell with it. “They treated it like it was War and Peace instead of a cartoon,” Shelley scowls. She’s also miffed that neither she nor the movie got a single Oscar nomination. “They never nominated me for anything before, so I guess I shouldn’t expect it now,” says Shelley, who escaped Jack Nicholson’s ax in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining last summer and whose memorable waifishness has been a staple of Altman films since 1970’s Brewster McCloud. “Of course I was disappointed,” she adds. “I had hoped.”’ — People


Excerpt


Excerpt

 

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Terry Gilliam Time Bandits (1981)
‘Director Gilliam’s second feature is a lavish concoction of wild and wicked fancy. One fateful night Kevin, an 11-year-old with a passion for history, discovers a time-and-space portal in his bedroom wall and a gaggle of dwarves who teach him how to use it, paying visits to Ian Holm’s Napoleon, John Cleese’s Robin Hood, Sean Connery’s King Agamemnon, and the land of unbounded imagination that is the Time of Legend. A fractured fairy tale that thrilled and delighted every kid who saw it.’ — Metrograph


Trailer


Shelley Duvall on ‘Time Bandits’

 

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Tim Burton Frankenweenie (1984)
‘In this black-and-white short, novice director Tim Burton tells the story of Frankenstein’s monster in suburbia as a children’s fable about tolerance. Loving parents Ben (Daniel Stern) and Susan Frankenstein (Shelley Duvall) encourage their son Victor’s (Barret Oliver) home movies, starring their energetic bull terrier, Sparky. Following a terrible car accident, Sparky is dead and Victor is inconsolable. After an experiment with a frog in his science class, Victor gets the idea to make an electrical experiment of his own. After building a fantastic laboratory with only household items, he reanimates his beloved dog. Unfortunately, the family’s nosy neighbors become fearful of the monster, even though he has done no wrong. The climactic ending acts as an homage to James Whale’s original 1931 film and its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein.’ — Andrea LeVasseur


the entire film

 

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Fred Schepisi Roxanne (1987)
‘Though Duvall’s screen time is short, her part is pivotal to the updated Cyrano de Bergerac plot. She plays Dixie Smith, the coffee-shop owner and confidante-at-large who facilitates the match between Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), a stunning astronomer, and C.D. Bales (Martin), a small-town fire chief with a nose the size of Pinocchio’s in mid-lie. While Duvall allows that her character “is close to my heart,” it isn’t a role she had to fight and scrape for. “It was just offered to me,” she says. “I didn’t even have to audition for it. I know Steve socially, and he suggested it to me. I did it just to work with him—and just to see if I could still act.”’ — People


Trailer

 

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Steven Soderbergh The Underneath (1995)
‘Rarely does a director go into much detail about what he thinks doesn’t work about one of his own films, but Steven Soderbergh got candid in an interview about his disappointment with his 1995 film The Underneath—which he calls “dead on arrival.” The Underneath is a neonoir Soderbergh made between 1993’s King and 1996’s more personal experiment Schizopolis. Soderbergh says that The Underneath came at a difficult point in his career and that his “heart wasn’t in it.”’ — The Criterion Collection

Watch the film here

 

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Jane Campion The Portrait Of A Lady (1996)
‘Kidman, who was so feisty and wild-eyed in “To Die For,” seems quite repressed here from the get-go, and instead of her character simply lacking depth, she plays out as pretty dumb. (Maybe it should have been called “Portrait of a Stupid Lady.”) Malkovich has played this slimy character too many times before, and Parker is overbearing and obnoxious. Better are Donovan, who at least has some cleverness about him, and especially Hershey, who tries very hard to liven up the proceedings. Winters, unusually subdued, is also notable, and it’s nice to see Shelley Duvall, here playing a flibbertigibit who turns out to be smarter than she lets on.’ — Chris Hicks


Excerpt

 

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Guy Maddin Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is the dream-struck fantasia of Peter Glahn, a political prisoner returning after several hard years of incarceration, to his homeland of Mandragora where the sun never sets. While traveling by boat, he spends a few precious minutes in the enticing and rarefied company of Juliana (Pascale Bussières), a beauteous young woman with whom he falls desperately and immediately in love. He disembarks to find a veritable ronde of romance brewing in the smouldering passions of sun addled Mandragora: his ostrich-farming sister Amelia (Shelley Duvall) is sick with heartache for the mesmerist Dr. Solti (R.H. Thomson), who with a greedy and voluminous passion, seeks the favours of both Zephyr (Alice Krige), a fisherman’s widow now married to the forest, and the statue of Venus recently uncovered and mounted imperiously on a hilltop. Zephyr gives herself to Peter upon his arrival, but he can think of no other than Juliana and her strange connection to the haughty Dr. Solti. Amelia, driven to distraction by her unrequited passion for the Doctor as well as by the unwelcome attentions and misguided vengeance of her handyman, Cain Ball (Frank Gorshin), loses her reason and spirals into homicidal madness, gravely injuring Cain. Peter is also maddened by his unrequited love for Juliana and the way in which it is constantly thwarted by the wily Doctor, and so the story goes.’ — WFG


Trailer


Excerpt

 

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Russell Mulcahy Tale of the Mummy (1998)
‘Unless you find the idea of killer mummy wraps particularly frightening, chances are you’ll find this direct-to-vid thriller as ridiculous as I did.’ — The Movie Report


Trailer

 

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Josh Klausner The 4th Floor (1999)
The 4th Floor is a 1999 mystery thriller film written and directed by Josh Klausner in his directorial debut and starring Juliette Lewis, William Hurt, Shelley Duvall and Austin Pendleton. The film was released in 1999 on Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, but was not released in the US until 2000 when it went direct-to-video.’ — Wikipedia


Trailer

Watch the film here

 

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Scott Goldberg The Forest Hills (2023)
The Forest Hills is a psychological horror that descends into the fractured mind of a man tormented by nightmarish visions. But beyond the genre trappings, this film is indelibly defined by one profound truth: it marks the final performance of Shelley Duvall. The Forest Hills is an opportunity for audiences to witness, one last time, the singular, unforgettable brilliance of Shelley Duvall as she makes her final, masterful bow.’ — S.G.


Trailer


Shelley Duvall talks about ‘The Forest Hills’

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Haha, perv! ** Carsten, Hi. Thanks for that festival tip, but, if it just happened, then it’s out of our wheel house, alas. Weird or inspired? I hit the Carrington retrospective yesterday. It’s not giant, but there was a lot of work in the rooms. I can see why you in particular are into her paintings and drawings. The show was impressive, although I still prefer her fiction which isn’t as hook, line and sinker locked into the tropes of Surrealism as her visual work is. But it’s nice to see her finally getting her due. ** kenley, Obviously I seriously recommend you dig into those novels when the mood aligns. I will definitely be down for jokingly destroying that university next time I’m in your hood, although let’s spare the dorms? My weekend has fun aspirations, and it’s up to Paris to meet my needs. Surely there’s fun to be had in Toronto before Monday kills the timeframe. Psst, Derek likes being punished, but hush-hush. ** fish, Hi, fish! Really nice to meet you. Thanks for doing what it takes to get inside here. Weirdly, I have no idea what the entrance requirements are. I think, given your interests, you’ll be glad that you read the Kristof when that someday arrives. Please tell me more about your and/or yours if like. I’m interested. ** HaRpEr //, Yep, yep, those books were huge to me for the reasons you mentioned among others. The trilogy is by far Kristof’s most ambitious and greatest work, but she’s always really interesting. Her other books tend to be very short and spare. ‘Yesterday’ is terrific and slight in a beautiful way. Her memoir ‘The Illiterate’ is very good and not what you expect a memoir to be. I think the short fiction collection ‘I Don’t Care’ might be my favorite of her other books. Yeah, I think, say, my past, my mistakes and accidents and all, are the obstacle course that got me here, and the bad has maybe even turned out to be the best. Thank you so much about ‘God Jr.’. That’s really wonderful to hear. The lack of contacts is the problem with London. I think there must be real interest over there in hosting the film, I just don’t where that interest is or how to reach it. Thank you. ** Steeqhen, If you got through that RE you can’t be too anxious, I don’t think. Being anxious before even playing RE is an oxymoron or something. ** Alice, Mid-morning to you, or maybe it’s still earlyish morning. YouTube, why not, yeah. Nice about the festival acceptance. Have a swell next couple of 24 hour periods. ** Laura, Her work is nothing like Duras’s so naturally that would irk her. It meant the asker was looking for a resemblance rather than paying attention. Thanks for the Hegel wrap up, now I don’t have to feel like I have to try reading him again. Happy birthday! A sentence gift … uh, this will not be exciting because it’s entirely dependent on the context it’s resting in, but my favorite line in our new film script is ‘I can’t even ride a bike’, so you can have that, happy birthday! No, my dreams disappear in a flash and never come back. I wish you would have gone extravagantly dressed up for your birthday, not I would have done that if I were you. What did you do, not just garb-wise but overall? ** Hugo, Hi. Wow, your dad is pretty careful with himself. Best wishes in return. ** Uday, The amount you write has no impact on your value here or to me, just so you know. So happy to have been able to introduce Kristof to you. I’ve had a gun pointed at my twice in my life, both by people who would have pulled the trigger if they hadn’t decided it wouldn’t be worth it. Scary shit. Well, at least he had a holster. Whew. ** Thom, Hi. Super highly recommended like I said. I’ve read, I think, three Krasznahorkai novels, all great to one degree or another. I came to him through his collaborations with Bela Tarr, which I assume a lot of people do. I like ‘Epiphyte’. For the reasons you said. Let it be known that when I was in high school my friends and I made a literary zine that we called ‘Aillusionary Fungus’, and we were perfectly happy with that embarrassing name even, but then again it was the psychedelic 60s. Anyway, blah blah, I like the title, and I’m pretty good with titles now that I’m an adult. I hope the tunes reigned, and enjoy what I hope will be at least a wee bit of a vacation for you. ** Okay. This weekend you lucky dogs get to forage about in the oeuvre of the sublime Shelley Duvall, so make the best of that. See you on Monday.

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