‘Alice Rohrwacher says she likes to end her films with images with which she could start a new one. “I like films where the ending and the beginning are somehow similar because they have a similar energy, and that’s the moment when I feel like I can let go of a story.”
‘Stories that call for other stories, such as the tales that shape oral traditions. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Rohrwacher also has a very clear idea about the beginnings of her films. The three feature films she has directed so far begin the same way: at night. The night is the time to tell stories. Also from personal memories. With her family divided between Italy and Germany, Rohrwacher remembers long road trips at night during which, through the sounds, she tried to imagine the invisible landscape they were passing through. And it is there, in the imagination, that the director wants to establish the first link with the viewer.
‘So, let us go back to the beginning.
‘Rohrwacher (Fiesole, 1980) studied classical Greek, History of Religions, Literature and Philosophy. Her first approach to the cinema was through the documentary, but she immediately realised that there was a violence in filming people being themselves, living their own lives. The producer Carlo Cresta-Dina, after watching a short four-minute documentary by the director, encouraged her to write her first fiction feature film: Corpo celeste. She recalls that, as she was writing, she was constantly haunted by a question: Who will direct this story I am writing? When she understood that the proposal consisted of directing the feature film herself, she tried to join a film school – any film school! – but without success. Corpo celeste was therefore a risky venture: shooting a feature film without any previous experience or training.
‘But it was a success. So much so that Corpo celeste premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2011. And in some way, Cannes was to become the director’s home. It was also where she premiered her second feature film, Le meraviglie, in 2014, and this time she also won the Cannes Grand Prix. With the recognition of the most important film festival in the world, Rohrwacher’s rise was meteoric: in a very short time she went from shooting a film for the first time to becoming one of the most highly regarded contemporary directors in the world. Her last feature film to date, Lazzaro Felice, also, almost inevitably, premiered at Cannes, and it was another occasion on which Alice Rohrwacher did not leave empty-handed: she won the Best Screenplay Award.
‘If we had to choose one word to define Rohrwacher’s filmography, perhaps it would be fable. Her films have a unique ability to construct fictions and immerse audiences in them. A pact of imagination to which the viewer surrenders without resistance. Her fictional journeys are sustained by a painstaking formal construction: the delicate image, always in super 16mm and shot by the cinematographer Hélène Louvart; the meticulous treatment of sound; the coexistence of professional and non-professional actors; and the locations and sets. Like fables, however fanciful or contrived, after having carried the viewer to the end, Rohrwacher’s films always end up confronting reality. Like a story whose ending is intertwined with the beginning, in her escape from the documentary through the tools of fiction, Rohrwacher never fails to interrogate the complexities of reality.’ — Tabakalera
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Stills
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Further
Alice Rohrwacher/Wikipedia
Alice Rohrwacher’s Top 10
AR @ IMDb
AR’s films @ MUBI
INTERVIEW WITH ALICE ROHRWACHER
AR’s films @ Letterboxd
Face to face with Alba and Alice Rohrwacher
The fantastic universes of the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher
Alice Rohrwacher on Working With Her Sister
Alice Rohrwacher talks ‘La Chimera’ casting: “I rewrote the main role for Josh O’Connor”
Earth Signs: Reading The Post-Pastoral In Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘The Wonders’
Film director Alice Rohrwacher: ‘Making images is a form of faith’
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Extras
Alice Rohrwacher Interview
Photocall of LA CHIMERA by ALICE ROHRWACHER
Alice Rohrwacher | Directors Dialogue | NYFF56
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Interview
JEREMY O. HARRIS: I’m so enamored with your film and your writing in general. Your directing is so sumptuous. I wonder how you came to develop this poetic sense you have when you tell a story?
ALICE ROHRWACHER: Poetic? It’s not that my thinking sort of comes from above. It’s really from below. It’s something that I just sort of happen across in my walk through life. Something that I experienced, something that I find along the way, something though that is alive and adventurous. And the attempt is not to make something that’s perfect, but maybe to take the road not taken, to go through the forest and to find something that matters and something that will make a film that’s alive. And this is really what matters to me the most. I think breadth is really a very important aspect of my poetics, that the scene breathes in the way that everything breathes. And this is something I shared with my director of photography, Hélène Louvart. On the one hand, we have the body of the scene, the breadth of the scene. On the other, we have the fairytale, the fiaba, and this is the most real thing in my storytelling, because fairytales are born from reality and they return to reality, but they return to reality in a distilled form. And these fairytales are not something that I try to exploit in any sort of way, but they are the most real thing in my poetics.
HARRIS: That’s beautiful. You have such deep patience with the scene. How did the work this time, utilizing an English-speaking actor speaking in Italian for the first time, disrupt or enhance that?
ROHRWACHER: Thank you for this question. It’s a very interesting one. I’m used to working with people who always have to learn another language, by which I mean not just an English actor who’s learning Italian, but maybe a shepherd who’s sort of learning about a scene, older people who are learning about something that is happening. There’s always a language that has to be learned, and the language that I’m referring to is the language of film. Teaching a non-professional actor how to be within a scene is still the same kind of problem. Every time I’m making a film and I come across a situation, it’s a little tricky, and I start asking myself, “Why in the world am I doing this? Why didn’t I choose to do something easier?” Then the light comes on for me and I realize I enjoy this fatigue. I enjoy this struggle. And this is true for Josh [O’Connor], who’s learning about Italy. Everyone is learning about something, and they’re taking a step toward a world that they did not know.
HARRIS: That’s beautiful. When you’re crafting a story that’s this epic, who do you look to as a source of inspiration? I feel so thrilled that the amazing filmmaker, Eliza Hittman, pointed me to your work. It opened my eyes to this new way of telling an Italian story because so many Italian filmmakers that I have met are men. I wonder if there were any filmmakers in your life that sort of inspired you to go down these journeys?
ROHRWACHER: I mean, I don’t feel like I’m the proprietor of anything, really. All my words are sort of shaped, all my words, my voice, my gestures, my imagination, are shaped by centuries, really. They are educated from afar. And these are the utensils that we borrowed from all of humanity, really. So I can never say that I discovered something, only that I felt it. And before me, someone probably felt it, and after me, someone will. My references are very broad, and my films have been nourished by me, myself, my imagination, and my dreams. My memory has been nourished by many different films, and by novels, by this very complex inheritance that we have. Personally, I am from the 20th century, and I feel a sort of duty being between these two worlds, the 20th and the 21st century, a duty to be a witness to the world that’s gone by and to talk about the ties between the two.
HARRIS: That likens being a filmmaker to being a tomb raider, in some small way.
ROHRWACHER: I would’ve preferred to be an archeologist. But I am a tomb raider. We like to dig and we like to find something that’s hidden. And the film is maybe a mechanism for digging. However, like these tomb raiders, we belong to a much larger industry. We’re like the gears inside of that. And we have to remember that even though we feel free, this freedom is often an illusion. Because, regardless, we are working within an industry, a collective hypnosis. And I think in a world like today, in an era of artificial intelligence, where we have more and more specialization, the most human element you can find is an error, or a mistake. That is the kind of breach, the break within reality that opens up the world and shows us another world. As independent filmmakers, it’s also our duty to keep our attention alive to that breach.
HARRIS: I am very in line with that thinking. A couple of years ago, I wrote something for Italian Vogue that was all about us searching for and reaching towards failure in art. Perfection is a trap, but failure is liberation. If you reach towards failing, you can reach towards the sublime. And I think that that’s something that’s missing in a hyper-capitalistic society. Capitalism makes us think that we have to create perfect little products for people, but it is those imperfections that sort of energize the next generation to fill the gaps that we couldn’t fill.
ROHRWACHER: I would say the figure with whom I identify the most is the tightrope walker, but not the one who walks across like it’s nothing, but one who is hesitating, who is sort of wavering a little bit, and despite almost a few missteps manages to make it across. That is the figure that I identify with.
HARRIS: I love that. Your sonography is so lush, as is your sense of costuming. I often feel that when people present a sort of magic realism or fairytales on screen, they work really hard to separate it from the world we’re in. And yet your worlds feel very much like ours, but just a little askew. What is that process of world-building for you?
ROHRWACHER: Well, in order to answer your question, first I have to talk to you about a very important place in my life, which is close to where I grew up. This is the Park of Monsters. It was built in the 16th century in Bomarzo. Maybe you saw an image of this in The Tree of Life.
HARRIS: Oh, wow.
ROHRWACHER: There’s a huge stone monster with the mouth, and the mouth is a door.
HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.
ROHRWACHER: This is in the park. It’s part of the park. In the 16th century, it was built by the Orsini family. In that period, it was very fashionable to have these parks and gardens. They decided to build a park of monsters. And as a child, the stone monsters really frightened me. But there’s one in particular that I was drawn to, and it’s of a little house, and it’s perfect. You go in, there’s a little fireplace, there’s a table. There were chairs that used to be there, but not anymore. But the strange thing is it was a little bit tilted. So, when you go in, it’s leaning off to one side. And when you leave, your whole vision has changed. It sort of distorts your picture of reality, and this is something that I try to do in my filmmaking, to give you something that is very real, like that little house, but a little bit askew, because it opens up your vision. And this is something that I share with my collaborators, my sonographer, and my costume designer. They’re not mine, of course, they work for themselves. But this is a trick, to find something that’s very close to reality but a little bit inclined, and find something in this reality that is pure.
HARRIS: Oh my gosh. Oh, I love that. Bomarzo.
ROHRWACHER:Yeah.
HARRIS: I have to visit it.
ROHRWACHER: You have to visit.
HARRIS: It’s stunning. I think my time is almost up, and I know I barely asked you about the movie, but it was mainly because I didn’t want to ask you questions other people had asked you.
ROHRWACHER: And I gave the answer that is special.
HARRIS: Where’s your curiosity taking you next?
ROHRWACHER: Another movie. Another hopeless movie. One of my favorite moments of cinema is the beginning of 8 1/2, when the character of the director wakes up after the dream and there is this man in his room, opening the door. He says, with a big smile, “What are you preparing next? Another hopeless movie?” I think it’s just perfect, no?
HARRIS: Yes. Your stories fill me with so much light. And as a writer, it makes me want to take new paths. Like the moment in the film when the woman who’s a part of the writer group just sort of steps out and has her own aside. I was like, “Oh, you made your own rules.” That excites me. And it gives me a lot of license, because I often think there are too many rules about what an American can do.
ROHRWACHER: Yeah. Thank you very much.
HARRIS: Thank you.
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12 of Alice Rohrwacher’s 14 films
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Corpo Celeste (2011)
‘Celestial blues are speckled with red and religious icons flicker and fall in Alice Rohrwacher’s first feature. With cinematography by Hélène Louvart, the filmmaker braids the discoveries of girlhood into towering questions of faith to create a coming-of-age tale that is at once lived-in and divine.’ — MUBI
Trailer
Excerpt
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The Wonders (2014)
‘Alice Rohrwacher’s oeuvre to date may be small, but she has quickly established herself as one of the finest chroniclers of girlhood in two uncommonly graceful and astute coming-of-age stories. Her feature debut, Corpo Celeste (2011), tracks not-quite-thirteen Marta (played by the unaffected yet confident nonprofessional Yle Vianello), whose family has returned to Italy after a decade living in Switzerland, as she navigates not only a new town and a changing body but also the confounding lessons promulgated in her confirmation class. The scenario allows for several wry observations on the absurdity and increasing irrelevance of the Catholic Church—a point pushed a little too hard on occasion, via freighted symbols such as an enormous crucifix floating in the sea. More rooted in the material world, though still making space for the fantastical, Rohrwacher’s latest film betrays no such missteps.’ — Melissa Anderson
Trailer
Excerpt
Excerpt
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Una Canzone (2014)
‘The Luce Institute Archive celebrated 90 years of existence in 2014. To celebrate, nine of the most promising directors of Italian cinema made short documentary films from the institute’s collection. Alice Rohrwacher is one of them and her work talks about music, memory and war with Una Canzone.’ — Letterboxd
the entire film
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De Djess (2015)
‘Rohrwacher is a great image maker, & as “Lazzaro” demonstrated, one of the most interesting new voices in contemporary cinema. This extended commercial shows a tremendous evolution in her personal style, blending fairy tales & haute couture lampoon with references to Duras & Borowczyk. At 15 minutes it strains a bit against its vague symbolism & weak attempts at satire, but also suggests potential for greater things.’ — Lights in the Dark
the entire film
De Djess – Alice Rohrwacher Interview
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Violettina (2016)
‘This delicate film-created for Alice Rohrwacher’s production of Verdi’s La traviata-conjures the protagonist’s interiority and spontaneity through sun-kissed 16mm images of a young girl’s hands.’ — IMDb
Excerpt
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Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
‘Alice Rohrwacher’s beautiful and mysterious film Happy As Lazzaro flowers into something inexpressibly moving, yet also disturbing and unaccountable. It is a pastoral enigma, and a satirical attack on exploitative feudal snobbery that may be closer to Italy’s present day than is widely assumed – and also a tale of reincarnation or time travel whose hero is a cross between two figures from the Bible: Lazarus and the Christ Child. Intriguingly, the director has revealed it is inspired by a newspaper story she remembers seeing some years ago. I would love to see a documentary, tracking down specifics.’ — Peter Bradshaw
Excerpt
Excerpt
Excerpt
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w/ JR Omelia contadina (2020)
‘Banding together to honor an endangered pastoral, JR and Alice Rohrwacher each lend some signature sparkle to a people’s lament for their land and livelihood. For her part, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker celebrates and dignifies the humble workers by gazing upon them in a celestial, God’s-eye view.’ — MUBI
the entire film
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Ad una mela (2020)
‘Light and shadow, a girl picks up an apple. Accompanied by distant piano music (J.S. Bach), followed by a poem (read by Pablo Neruda himself): When we bite your round innocence, we are again for a moment also just created creatures: even we have something of an apple.’ — The Vienna Review
the entire film
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Four Roads (2021)
‘During the COVID-19 pandemic, filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher gets in touch with her neighborhoods through her photographic lenses. “It’s April, the countryside is in bloom and a virus is preventing people from approaching one another. Equipped with her “magic eye” and a few metres of expired film, Alice Rohrwacher decides to visit her neighbours, filming them simply, in all their poetic splendour. A real breath of fresh air and an ode to rural life and times.”‘ — Visions du Réel
the entire film
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w/ Pietro Marcello & Francesco Munzi Futura (2021)
‘Following in the footsteps of a long line of documentarians, a collective of three Italian filmmakers known for their politically acute cinema—Pietro Marcello (Martin Eden), Francesco Munzi (Black Souls), and Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro)—set out to interview a cross-section of their nation’s youth about their hopes, dreams, and fears for the future. With today’s political divisions, socioeconomic unease, overreliance on technology, and global weather crisis, the conversations they foster feel particularly urgent—these 15- to 20-year-olds together ask the implicit question: is there a future at all? At the same time, the intelligence, expressiveness, and foresight evinced by these teenagers in this moving and masterful film kindles a form of hope in itself.’ — Grasshopper Films
Trailer
Excerpt
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Le pupille (2022)
‘Inspired by a letter Italian novelist Elsa Morante sent to her friend, LE PUPILLE is a magical fable about a group of mischievous young Catholic schoolgirls during an imaginary wartime. Unfolding over the Christmas holiday, the orphaned girls find themselves blessed with a scrumptious red cake from a generous countess and must evade Mother Superior’s (Alba Rohrwacher) watchful eye for a taste of decadence. Alice Rohrwacher (HAPPY AS LAZZARO, AFI FEST 2018), with her signature whimsical touch, crafts a joyously playful tale about childhood desire, greed and freedom.’ — Anna Li
Trailer
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La Chimera (2023)
‘“No description of what happens in La chimera can adequately convey what happens in La chimera, which feels like watching an occurrence of ancient magic, from the point of view of the spell,” writes Jessica Kiang for Sight and Sound. “Rohrwacher’s real story here—splitting the difference between the earthiness of The Wonders (2014) and the whimsicality of Happy as Lazzaro (2018) (and surpassing them both in vivid strangeness)—is the story of the Tuscan ground and the beautiful secrets that sleep beneath our feet.”
‘Writing for Cinema Scope, Jason Anderson sees Rohrwacher as an “eager revivalist of a quintessentially Italian cinematic mode that peaked with the comedies of Fellini and Monicelli in the ’50s and ’60s.” At Slant, though, Jake Cole suggests that “perhaps the strongest point of reference are the films that Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet made in Italy in the early 1970s—works set in the ruins of amphitheaters and forums that bore silent witness to bloodshed that once engulfed now-tranquil countryside hills and meadows.” In La chimera, “the importance of time is seemingly felt by everyone, suggesting a great sinkhole beneath the feet of the film’s characters, who make note of the fact that even as they justify their looting as reclamation from an extinct people that one day they, too, may be looted by the civilization that takes their place.”’ — The Criterion Collection
Trailer
Excerpt
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ps. Hey. ** Darby 🐻⛓️💦, Hi. Well, I will admit that I’m kind of drawn to finding escorts/ slaves/ commenters that say things that disturb me because I’m very interested in being disturbed, especially by language, so yes. Ha ha, I’m sure I can find a place of honor for the slave bear should I have the opportunity, so thank you, if so. You’re so kind. I’m interested in everything related to amusement parks. I don’t find myself chasing the accidents and damage they cause so much but I don’t exactly avoid those things either. I’m certainly not against a post about Jeff Magnum. I’d have to think how to do it. Do you want to do it? ** Tosh Berman, With you on PE teachers. Mine always tormented me as much as the law and school propriety would allow. Strong sadistic impulse in those dudes. Also, in my experience, a shit ton of very repressed gayness. I remember really, really disliking certain other students, so I suppose if I had been psycho, I could have imagined slaughtering them, but of course I wasn’t. But I guess I mean I kind of can conceptualise the impulse or something. With the faculties, I disliked a lot of them but I also just thought they were annoying and a survivable hassle. ** seb🦠, Hi, seb. Oh, good. I wrote a novel trying to figure out the high school shooter impulse, but I didn’t really figure it out. Game development is your hobby? Wow, that’s exciting. I’ve had daydreams forever about making a game. At one point I really thought hard about it and looked into it, but thank god I didn’t because, at that point, that meant making a CD-rom game which means any game I built would be more extinct than a dinosaur now. Anyway, that’s super exciting. I’d love to know anything more about that. I think I like paranoia songs too. I should do a paranoid songs post, or at least a paranoia post. Happy week’s beginning. What are you up to? ** Cody Goodnight, Hi, Cody! How nice to see you! I’m okay. I seem to have a little bit of a head/chest cold at the moment, but it’s not too bad. How are you? I liked ‘Berberian Sound Studio’ too. How was the D&D session? I’ve never played but isn’t it kind of a longterm commitment thing/ Maybe not. Excellent Monday to you! ** NLK, Hey! Glad you liked ‘Extra Life’. I was originally involved in that piece, wrote it, but Gisele decided to nix my text, although I hear there’s still some in my writing in it here and there, and it would have been nice to credited for that, but hey. I’m going to see it one of these days. No, I didn’t go to the Bresson screenings. It would have been nice. I’ve seen all of them numerous times. Great about the L’argent guy being there. When I first moved to Paris my publisher had a party for me and invited some Bresson actors, and I spent the whole party talking with the ‘star’ of ‘Four Nights of a Dreamer’, who’s a scientist now and was super nice and forthcoming. I asked him for his autograph, and he said I was first person who had ever asked him. Anyway, that sounds great. I wish I’d gone. ** Garrett, Hi. Really happy you liked David’s post. He’s a brilliant guy. I wish I knew what he’s up to these days. That is an amazing feeling, yeah. The kind of slippage between not expecting to like to liking is kind of brief but treacherous in a really interesting way. What you wrote re: David’s thing seems extraordinary. I’m going to go back and read more carefully because I’m rushing a bit this morning because I have to get to an appointment. Thank you. The weekend wasn’t that grim, it turns out. I was just being gloomy, luckily. You have goodness in store for you, do you think? ** Dominik, Hi!!! I was happy to finally realise I should rebirth that post. No, I haven’t read that book. I should, yes? I’ll tell you what I find, manga-wise. I’m heading over to Zac’s to work on the film today, but it’s a little freezing cold outside, so I think I’ll take nicer metro way this morning. I’m perpetually consumed by film worries, yes, but it has become second nature, so I cope. Did love turn you in to a social butterfly? Love making it illegal to speak negatively about the color pink, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey. I hope David saw that. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Was there even Tumblr when I was researching ‘MLT’? It was more than 20 years ago. Ooh, a storm. I wish Paris would get one, honestly. It’s just dead cold here. I’m glad you feeling better, at least. ‘Saw X’ its worth seeing? That’s surprising news. Huh. ** Misanthrope, It wasn’t so grim, actually, but thanks. No ‘Wonka’ for me. I don’t even enjoy watching TC, so, you know, nope. Sure hope you got your laptop sorted. And drove with sufficient gingerness. ** Jeff Coleman, Hi, Jeff. Thanks about David’s post. Yeah, it’s something else. I wasn’t wanted at the New Decadence thing either but I went anyway. Seem to have entered without a fuss. ** Sypha, Hi, James. My school days were before the school shooting phenom started. It was just the basic fear of bullies with coarse behavioural techniques, But I can imagine that fear. I saw you, or, rather your name, at the Decadence thing. I missed the first hour. I thought it was interesting. Parts more than others, but definitely happy I investigated it. What did you think? Are you maybe going to participate in the next one, assuming they do it again? Hope so. ** Okay If you don’t know the films of Alice Rohrwacher, I’m going you a chance to catch up today. And if you do know them, here’s a chance to revisit. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Hi!!
I’ll definitely track down and watch “Futura.” Thank you so much for this post!
I’m not gonna say Sue Klebold’s book reads like the post you shared yesterday (whose approach I’m more interested in/drawn to than the one the book can offer), but I think it’s worth a read, yes.
Yeah, if it’s freezing cold, the metro definitely sounds like the better option. Do you have any news about the producer who might back the film?
Well, I’d say love did his best, haha. It helped that Anita’s friend was really great at skipping any kind of small talk, so my soul didn’t wither and die after 20 minutes.
Huh, thankfully, I’m not on love’s shit-list. I have no problem with the color pink. Love making one last effort to deliver my father’s gift, Od.
P.S. I’m going back to Hungary tomorrow, and the day promises to be a bit hectic, so I might only pop back up here on Wednesday.
Dennis, Thanks. I’ll be driving soon and I’ll keep “gingerness” in mind the whole time.
Good about the not so grim.
I wasn’t able to do the N-D thing because of Wonka, of all things. But I heard you were in there. And your presence was appreciated. 😀
Wish SL would have showed up. Oh well.
Hey Dennis, have you seen this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtrplnegjRA . One of my favorite songs. Ulver’s light shows are next level.
Interesting about Extra Life–yeah, there’s not all that much dialogue now, it’s at least half dancing. Wow, that party sounds like a dream. I’m surprised your publisher was able to track them down like that. Not much to say today, but nice post, I’m excited to see the new one over the holiday.
Alice Rohrwacher is defo a new name to me. My brother Nick has now fixed my DVD Player, so have added Happy As Lazzaro to my rental list. Cheers!
hi dennis! thanks for giving me even more movies to add to my watchlist.
if you’re still thinking about making a game of some kind, i’d recommend twine! it’s super easy to learn+use (even easier if you have basic html knowhow) free, and it has a web version. adding images and audio is a bit of a faff, but you can make some pretty amazing things in it! would love to know what your brain game-thing is/was about, though! CD-ROM games have always fascinated me.
on the topic of game development, that’s actually what i’ve been up to over the weekend (and most of today). a lot of what I’m doing right now is just placeholder assets, but i’ve been trying (and failing) to make a start on scripting scenes. i’m using a visual novel engine built in python (my worst enemy), which is making things even harder than they need to be.
what about you? how’s the beginning of your week going? got any plans for whichever (if any?) winter holiday you celebrate?
Dennis,
I saw most of the Zoom thing, only missing a bit of the first speaker’s performance as I was having difficulties logging into it initially. A shame you missed Golnoosh, she was the second speaker and one of the poems she did was actually made up of lines taken from some of the escort profiles that have appeared on this blog. “Seem to have entered without a fuss.” I’ll say! During the event itself I messaged a friend on Facebook to let him know I had spotted you there and he hadn’t even been aware of it! I don’t know about participation as I like to operate in the shadows and I hate reading my own material out loud (I’m reminded of something Harrison Ford joked to George Lucas on the set of the first STAR WARS: “George, you can type this shit, but you can’t say it.”) Maybe I could employ a friend to do it for me, like when Warhol sent Allen Midgette to do a lecture in his place.
Dennis- So you got ‘raptured away’ too (can’t imagine you have time to re-read posts)? Totally ok- thanks for the chance to spool-out and I hope at least you get it that you glorious blog inspires thought or at least serves as a lightning-rod for it. But wouldn’t it be funny if you were actually AI? Maybe you are/ or maybe you should set sommit like that up? I’ve been back-burning a paradigm for when I really loose it– a way that I can make inputs into an existing structure whether I’ve got it together or not and maybe still make aomething that speaks– like a puzzle-box for the broken mind- right? Only I can’t think of any use for it- like what’s it matter to speak if no-one hears? It doesn’t actually help anyone unless they’re living under the illusion of connection or a future or the like so I’m thinking it’s just for me (it all is anyways- the reaching out the dump and the void). Sometimes that hurts alot more than just being alone and I should just give up but thinking and making and wanting to connect is like the sex-drive of the mind/ an illusion of meaning like soul-porn- nature’s trick- not so much of evolution but something we’re wired to do as animals hmmm wait I read something that touched on this recently… hold on// loading loading loading (circle spinning in my brain…)
Right!- on Weird Studies the boys talked about technology as something mankind “secretes” the way bees make honey– not that they agree but it was a cool converstion and a beautiful image (Episonde #/shit can’t remember but if you’re interested I’ll find it for you)
Not exactly the same as what I was saying but nano-neural-phenotypically-linked
Anyway- when you’re young you keep trying to reach out- and that’s why people go nuts (really at any age- older people just go dark by watching 10,000 hours of crap tv or voting for dictators or eating and eating until they wear their revenge on their bodies-maybe the only thing they feel any power over-).
which brings me back to the fact that you can’t possibly read this shit!!! Funny that I’m back at it. Guess I’m proving my own theory- huh
Right// Have a good day/night whatever diurnal you’re currently wheeling through and Be good WTF be BAD but have an orgiastically great whatever <3 Im gonna go eat some thing probably puke it back up and definitely make some art! Yessss!!! (hmmm…bulemia as a kind of slow-mo deep-throat? In and out/ you do get off in a funny way// maybe if you could fast-flip time like shuffling a deck of cards reverse replay over and over again fast ha ha eat/puke/eat/puke/ {the art is the cum} ha ha)- wtfsorry D anyway I like pissplay not puke—‘play’ urp- /
Talk later (do I need to send roses now that I’ve been such an ass?:)
Hey Dennis – Nice Alice Rohrwacher post. Glad to learn more about her. Really enjoyed the Cheap Trick “gig” and Harry Matthews post, too.
Have you done a “gig” posts for Jefferson Airplane, Sebadoh, Chic, or Butthole Surfers? All bands where I’d love to see what songs you’d pick.
And do you have a favorite Harry Matthews novel? Getting deeper into his work is on my 2024 to do list.
Great talking with you last week. Any news on the movie front with the French producer or anything else? And have you seen Giselle’s new play yet? If so, how much of it had a familiar ring?
I’m getting ready to go off the grid for my surgery. See you sometime in the early New Year. Love to you and Zac! xo
hey man,
I loved Happy As Lazaro and have meant to track her other films down. Thanks for the reminder. Also, amazing to see David Rylance’s day again…man that guy is/was so goddamn smart it tied my head in knots. Also, I listened to cheap trick and realliy enjoyed it, i’d only known them as a reference point before so it was great to dive in.
Two more days of work and then i’ll be free.
hope you’re well man
tomk
Hi Dennis.
How are you? Thank you for the kind words. I’m terribly sorry about your cold. I hope it’s getting better. I’m ok. I have a little chest congestion myself, but it’s doable. The only film I’ve heard of here is Happy as Lazarro. Have you seen it? We actually didn’t do the session since we didn’t have enough to people, but we’re hoping it’ll be rescheduled. I myself am not an expert on D&D, but my boyfriend is insisting I try it. I am enjoying what I’ve tried so far. Instead some friends and I watched Lars von Trier’s Melancholia last night. I have plans to watch biker movies like Marlon Brando’s Wild One and Oliver Reed’s The Damned. I’ll let you know how those are. Have a good one, Dennis!
It feels like Tumblr has existed for decades, but it was actually founded 5 years after MY LOOSE THREAD came out. Still, I assume Columbine fandom already existed online in 2000 and 2001.
Hey dude.
So I didn’t get a chance to read the school shooter post but I’m wondering—despite not being a shooting—do you know of the bath school massacre?
It was basically this sadistic farmer who wired this Michigan school with bombs including over 200 bars of dynamite all because he didn’t want to pay taxes for the school
It’s insanely horrific hearing how the kids died.
It’s also insane how he killed himself by exploding himself in a car of shrapnel which tore a woman’s eye out aswell as splitting a nearby boy in half.
I could feel better. How about you? I lost my wallet and felt like an idiot despite finding it.
My mom always tries to talk about “acting like an adult, doing adult things”
And it makes me want to die
I can’t work a register at work, or anything, that makes me feel stupid and want to die and when I come home or go to the community building it’s like I have to listen to this girl who blows money (that she hasn’t even EARNED) on clothes and coffee and it’s like if being lazy gets you rewarded why do i even try I’m tired.
This is the same girl who used to be my roommate and she was so greedy because she wouldn’t chip in for wifi because she blows her money on labour produced clothing.
my current roommate. She is always like “I’ll ask my mom for money” and I get really needing money and asking your parents but I don’t know how people feel good about themselves when they live off their parents.
I think I’d die if I had to ask my mom for even 5$ but maybe because I know it’s only going to prove her point. That I lack independence and am a nonfunctioning human being.
Sorry if that was a rant. I just felt hopeless and stupid. I can’t wait to move out of this rehab building and be happy. Or not idk. I want to start over.
I have a friend’s birthday tommorow so at least there is that! I’m really excited we are going downtown and all hanging out .
Oh I don’t know if I’d do a Jeff Magnum post but it would be a blessing if someone did! Last December r I was super hyperactive and I wrote a long review of “On Avery Island” in hopes that I could perfectly articulate just how supreme and transformative the album made me feel. I don’t think I finished it hahaha.
What are your plans for today?
Make sure to wear a coat it will be forty degrees here! Can only imagine for u guys 🥶
Do you really think I am kind?