‘Patrice Énard was a French filmmaker, born on September 17, 1945 in Bordeaux, and deceased on June 1, 2008 in Paris. He was also a researcher/iconographer, theorist and film critic.
‘An avid patron of Henri Langlois’ Cinémathèque Française, Énard developed a particular appreciation for Russian cinema — especially the work of Dziga Vertov — the Lumière school and the French New Wave. Those influences led him to conceive of an activist, subversive and deeply political form of cinema. Following studies at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français, he directed some industrial films and news reports on motocross. He completed his military service with the Cinéma des Armées in Baden-Baden.
‘Énard made his first short films in the mid-1960s. From the outset, his provocative style, stripped of all psychology, attests to the fact that he was part of the generation that launched the French protests of May ‘68. Invested in the dialectic of disobedience, his films constantly question their immersion in the ideological context of the time, in order to better escape it. It was as if the genetic codes of that artistic movement were programming the concept of a permanent on-screen revolution.
‘The filmmaker’s work was widely distributed within those circles, as well as in traditional movie theaters that were more open to innovation at the time. The numerous film festivals that had sprung up across Europe and North America also welcomed his films. In 1972, Patrice Énard was honored by the city of Belfort, and Joris Ivens presented him with the Grand Prize at the Hyères International Festival of Young Cinema in 1982.
‘Like all pioneers, Énard often traveled with his films to discuss them with audiences. He encouraged viewers to rely on their own strength and to take power by way of the movie camera. He liked to say, “There are no more filmmakers than films. That’s why the cinema exists.” (“Why Do You Make Films?” Liberation, special edition, 1987).
‘His name is sometimes associated with collectives like Ciné-Golem (with Philipe Bordier), which programmed a radically different form of cinema in the early years of the Sigma Festival in Bordeaux; Cinéma Différent (with Marcel Mazé); and the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative in Paris (with Patrice Kirchhofer). Yet, his career as a filmmaker advanced in opposition to all of those cliques. He rejected the systems and labels of all the trends and artistic movements he rubbed shoulders with — the counterculture, young filmmakers, avant-garde, experimental, etc. In fact, he was all of those things — simultaneously or in turn — but as someone who treasured freedom above all things, he preferred autonomy and continued to produce his films himself.
‘Énard’s cinematic expression evolved toward a fundamentally analytical and experimental form of cinema. Driven by his increasingly personal reflections, he developed his own language and perfected it through the prism of an atypical, radical esthetic. His discoveries and inventiveness were often a source of formal inspiration for commercials and music videos. His later films could be described as a form of cinema-poetry. He raised the bar higher and higher.
‘His deepest desire was always to incite curiosity, to elicit knowledge by way of the big picture. But as time went by, his field of action extended beyond the silver screen, devoting himself to the creation of a network of cinema bookstores (in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Montpellier). One notable example is the legendary bookstore Cinédoc, in Paris’ 9th arrondissement, which Énard crammed full of movie posters, photographs, magazines and books for its opening, to the great delight of cinephiles everywhere and his two bearded partners.
‘Beginning as a researcher/iconographer and special film consultant for Ciné Choc, Fascination, Polar, Cinématographe and Star System, from March 1975 on, Énard served as journalist and editor on several film magazines, including Sex Stars System, Star System, Ciné Eros Star, Ciné Girl, Star Ciné Vidéo, Ciné-Films, Erostory Film. His work as a journalist also testifies to his predilection for the most extreme cinematic forms, from 1970 to ‘80. For example, he applauded the rise of eroticism and the birth of pornography and gore. He shed light on those genres in magazines such as Sex Stars System and Ciné Eros Stars. Interviews by Jacques Rig, one of his pseudonyms, became famous. His critical approach would lead those popular rags, pummeled by censorship, to become cult favorites.’ — Collectif Jeune Cinema
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Stills
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Further
Patrice Énard @ IMDb
Association Patrice Enard
Patrice Énard @ Collectif Jeune Cinema
‘Cinq films de Patrice Énard’
Association Patrice Énard Presents …
‘Le Pornographe’
Buy Patrice Énard’s complete works on DVD here
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HOMMAGE A PATRICE ÉNARD
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The cinema of Patrice Enard
from Association Démocraties Nouvelles
Master of education, Patrice could drive a car very quickly. He anticipated curves, turns, slowdowns and had a very elaborate mental setup, which, on circuits enthusiast, led him to surpass his competitors despite a smaller car. He was not at the service of a “bandwidth”, he built the best trajectories in the imposed sequence of each circuit. 12 08 14 09
What he imagined was not just a reproduction of the configurations of the track. The hazard of a latecomer could thus be integrated without causing discomfort, at most an event complementary to this construction of trajectories. This reveals Guy Debord’s cosmographic strolling as a practice insufficient to transform the old habitus: this ethic of film-editing, which was initiated by Jean-Luc Godard, noting the nihilistic outcome of the “situationist drift”. is clearly proposed, with Patrice, to bring the theory of drift to the critical elaboration of the derived meaning.
It is the phenofilm which inscribes us in the awaited continuation of the current plan and we remain ” in plan ” as for the enjoyment of the imaged events of the genofilm. Indeed, to obey the “logical” sequence of the visible crushes the swarming of the observable in favor of what we recognize, that is to say what we think we know, victims of the familyist empathy of food concessions, clan blackmail, class submissions.
Party of the deconstruction, in particular, of the impression of reality, Patrice Enard, like the great poet Paul Celan, works on the awaited continuation, it is to say that it questions the series and thereby wakes us on the contretype, mimetic plagiarism, of which Lacan, reopening the contribution of Jean Piaget and, periming the Catholic conception of the lie as sin, meant that to make it “pretend”, besides it is a fact of “the inscription of the subject in the chain of signifiers “, is not confused with the fact of performing or taking the other than its” spectacular “. The scene of the very long kiss, in Differences and Repetitions I (1970), implied us to see, by the subtle variations of clothing of the so pregnant Michele, that the furious pleasure of embracing, lived by the greatest number, can be to stereotype in “sad passion” and how much this “armored” emotion, covering all other perceptions like a small mental tsunami, can rob us of the multilateral knowledge of the plans of this surinvested scene. This overinvestment, a petty merchant capture of an affective commerce, also becomes a lie and thus a privation of a greater freedom, which would be that of integrating the social determinants to our reduced love affair, a little ridiculous – which is ready to smile – measured against the clashes of our species.
The intrigance is, in Krishnamurti’s way concerning the disabling psychological fear at every moment, made of “conditioning” which reduces our vital field to banal and impoverished repetitions. Patrice Enard, filming the human dependence – which deprives us to deepen our life and that of the other protagonists of the film of life – by its discrete and persuasive demonstration and not by a sterile denotation – this “denunciation” which directs the superego by his On the moralist side, according to the Nietzschean expression, we restore a psychic and sociological capacity for resistance, which is more sympathetic than the learned demonstrations of man. 12 08 14 07
Patrice shows us the everyday gestures we make without savoring the chance we have to be able to execute them fully, for we are small-imperialists even in this sufficient contempt. 13 11 03 11
Were gestures of speech, so daily trivialized, shown just as well as in The Word in Two (1973), to the point of making clear that acting out in our lives is more often empirical than practical that is to say, enlightened by scientific theorizations: if the people were revolutionary without having to practice the revolutionary theory, it would be noticed day by day; instead, a populism covering the consumer addictions of the people insinuates itself into the councilist conventions that had been embryoed to overcome the capitalist lifestyle. It is therefore necessary to break the fantasmatic knots of the conceptions of the people which remove these addicts and those ignorant from the Marxist theory, updated by the distributive or communal polyhumanist ethics. 14 01 04 08
If the passer-by seems to represent the positions and the trajectories, his ethic remains connotatively disposed to fatalism: “everything passes all broken all tired”. And when handing over corporate powers
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8 of Patrice Énard’s 13 films
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Parcours (1968, 10 minutes)
‘La folie du protagoniste capte l’œil de la caméra et l’entraîne dans son sillage. Ivre de liberté, celui-ci dessine une trajectoire inédite : la sienne. Elle n’est autre que le reflet de son scénario intérieur, à mi-chemin entre fantasme et réalité.’ — democraties-nouvelles.org
Excerpt
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Différences et répétitions I (1970, 20 minutes)
‘Le film interroge le spectateur sur sa dépendance au cinéma dominant. Il l’invite à démonter les mécanismes du système pour accéder à une compréhension à la fois différente et infinie des images et des sons.’ — cjcinema.org
Excerpt
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Différences et répétitions II (1971, 17 minutes)
‘Le son est entré en rébellion avec l’image. Il y a de l’infilmable dans ce qui est montré. Le film soulève une série d’interrogations sur des questions cinématographiques fondamentales – comment, pour qui, pour quoi filmer, qu’est-ce que le cinéma?’ — CJC
Excerpt
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Différences et Répétitions III (1971, 17 minutes)
‘Patrice Enard a mis un pluriel au titre de Gilles Deleuze. Car seul le cinéma pouvait réaliser – au sens de rendre réel – ce lien si étroit qui lie le même à l’autre. Le film est un fleuve d’images avec une bande-son de bruits d’eau. Emportées par les flots, les trajectoires se croisent et se décroisent, échappant à tout scénario. Les protagonistes pourraient être remplacés par d’autres puisqu’ils ne sont que les singuliers figurants de situations répétitives.’ — Le Nouveau Latina
Excerpt
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Le Cinéma en Deux, (1972, 7 minutes)
‘Claude Chabrol, très ouvert et intrigué par ce curieux gauchiste, chevelu en catogan et tout de noir vêtu, défie Patrice Enard : comment va-t-il pouvoir tirer parti du tournage de son « Docteur Popaul » ? Invité à porter sa caméra 16 de cinéaste différent sur le film, Patrice Énard, tout en jouant les figurants dans les scènes de cimetière, regarde autrement « l’autre » cinéma en train de se faire. Et il le défait. C’est sans doute là le premier making off, avec deux f, de l’histoire du cinéma!’ — Le Nouveau Latina
Excerpt
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La Parole en Deux, (1972, 12 minutes)
‘La mise en scène de la parole à l’écran est le sujet du film. Seul le premier plan est synchrone. Tout ce qui suit est une exploration systématique de la production d’un discours à l’écran. Pour unifier cela et pointer les questions de la prise de parole, il fallait un message politique fort, militant. L’un des deux groupes maoïstes de Bordeaux, celui des théoriciens non rattachés au Parti Communiste, se prête avec talent à ce difficile exercice de style.’ — Le Nouveau Latina
Excerpt
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La Vie en Deux, (1980, 15 minutes)
‘Erica Blanc, ou Erica White, ou encore Erica Bianchi possède déjà une filmographie européenne lorsqu’elle rencontre Patrice Énard. C’est l’une des reines de la série B. Elle rédige le texte du film où elle rejoue avec distance et humour sa fameuse « carrière », sa « vie de pellicule ». Au besoin, elle n’hésite pas à réendosser les costumes de ses rôles les plus déshabillés ! Ces scènes sont émaillées de photographies de films dont elle fut l’héroïne.’ — Le Nouveau Latina
Excerpt
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POURVOIR (1981, 90 minutes)
‘Le tournage a duré dix ans. Une fois dissipée la fumée des barricades, la libération sexuelle émerge – en particulier celle des femmes – et le discours freudo-marxiste prend le relais. Le bas du T-shirt de ces dames devient pour le spectateur un jeu de ligne obsessionnel qui à la fois montre et cache. Le style de Patrice Énard se radicalise en une sorte de poésie visuelle, répétitive. Cette musique pour les yeux met en valeur autant de charmantes différences qu’il y a de femmes pour se prêter à cet étrange divertissement en vert et blanc… couleur chair.’ — Le Nouveau Latina
Excerpt
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p.s. Hey. ** jay, Hi. I did start to begin to understand the interesting nature of perfumes whilst organising that shebang. Yeah, the cancelled photo was on the galley of the book before his son nixed it. No, the son had ownership of the photo we wanted so we found a photo of PC that was owned by someone else who didn’t care what it adorned. Before the book was published, the son heard about it and that it featured his dad, and he wrote me a semi-threatening email, but he was mostly concerned that I would portray his dad as gay, and when I told him I hadn’t done that, he backed off. Mario just managed to defeat a boss that was a giant, evil scotch tape dispenser, and now he’s in a place called Shangri-Spa run by Buddhist-y Toads where he is currently trying to cure Bowser’s son who was turned into origami by a evil force and, presumably, once he does, he will get a reward that is as yet unspecified. How was the exhibition, and how did you know it was great before you visited it? ** _Black_Acrylic, Does it actually smell like black pepper? I could almost seeing spritzing some of that on my whatever if so. Thanks a bunch for the link to the free download. You’re a hero. ** Misanthrope, Weirdly, even if I knew how to make a ton of money, I wouldn’t do it, and yet I want a ton of money. Schizo. Ride that grid like a snake into the lake, the sacred lake. ** Steeqhen, Ha, I wondered about Union-J. I had never heard of them before. I figured they were a UK-only briefly lived phenom. If someone opened a perfume shop specialising in pop star branded perfumes and if each one had a tester, I would definitely make a beeline for it. Now you’ve got me wondering what a Death Grips perfume would smell like. There goes my day. Thanks for the link. I’ll read it when I’m done here and have a clear head. Everyone, Do you want to read a poem by Steeqhen? I think you do, right? Go here. Being the amusement park fanatic that I am, I do know about Emerald Park, but not its back story, so thank you! It looks very family oriented. I think the giant potato man would be main reason I would go. But I would go, don’t get me wrong. ** Tyler Ookami, So you’re a sniffer, eh? Sniffing is really big amongst the slave crowd these days. There’s a whole fart sniffing thing going on recently. Maybe you can explain it? Early Nicki Minaj was fun, yeah. I never got Kanya, even the early stuff. I always thought he was a blowhard. There’s a new werewolf film? I’d go see that. Well, if encouraged by something about it. Report back, iow. You’re a contrarian. It’s true: that’s more interesting than falling in line. But, in Dumont’s case, I have to say I think the narrative is right. ** PL, Well, hey there! Amazing to see you! Maybe the Cloudflare monster really is dead. I’m really bad and slow with email. I’ll go look for yours. I could’ve easily missed it. ‘Silver Gods’ does sound quite exciting. I want to see it. I do know ‘Who Killed Teddy Bear?’ It’s been ages since I saw it, but I remember my delight. Astrology? Hm, on the one hand, I don’t really believe in it. On the other hand, every time I’ve read a description of what a Capricorn (my sign) is like, it’s exactly like me. Like, exactly. So, I don’t know. What’s your take on Astrology? Again, lovely get to talk with you again. ** James, So, you prioritise Japanese anuses, that’s interesting. Because of their diet? We can play frisbee with a custard donut, sure. Granted, I’ve only watched her concert film, but I have yet to be convinced that Taylor Swift has written even one half-way memorable song. Your Xmas sounds Xmas-y enough. ‘My Fair Lady’? My mom was obsessed with ‘My Fair Lady’. She owned, like, fourteen different soundtrack recordings of it. Time is still extant and creeping along, at least in Paris. ** David Porter, A 10! I can’t remember the last time I ate a 10. Nice. I can never remember whether boxing day refers to putting things in boxes or about the sport boxing. Happy approaching New Year. ** HaRpEr, Agreed. ‘Legendary’ is massively over-applied too. People have started to do that with me. The legendary Dennis Cooper. Like how? The legendary Aerosmith, the legendary Bon Jovi. It’s a boring combination of lazy and insane. You already know that I’m totally uninterested in identity politics. Generalising is the enemy. The guy who plays the son in Zac’s and my new film, arguably the main character, is trans. We and he have no interest in making that an issue. We want people to watch the film and think son = boy, and that’s it. Not that we’re hiding it. Only a couple of people who’ve seen the film have asked if the actor is trans, and we said yes, of course. But we’ve been advised repeatedly that if we made a big deal about the actor being trans it would make the film more marketable because trans is ‘trendy’ and having a trans performer not portray a trans character is still very rare. But we just don’t want to do it. Why? The guy identifies as a boy, and he’s playing a boy, and that’s the only thing that matters. I would probably prioritise being in people’s wills if I were you, yeah. There’s wisdom for you. ** Steve, Yeah, I’m like you. I seem to have missed Jeremy Fragrance. He didn’t come up in my searching, which I guess says something. People have threatened to give me the Sade perfume, but no one has pulled the trigger. I think I missed the limited Paris run of the ‘Eno’ doc, but, actually I will check to make sure. ** Matt N., Hi, Matt! Wow, that long ago? How are you, how have you been? My year was up and down, mostly down, or, well, ultimately up. Long story. Gosh, I read so many new novels, and I like so many of them, it’s hard to pick. If you look back through the blog a few days, I posted my favorite novels of this year last weekend. Maybe that would be a start? I haven’t communicated with BlaB in a million years. Maybe even a billion years. He sure does get out and about, that Bruce. This year? Zac’s and my new film finally gets born in early spring, and I’ll probably be doing a lot around that. And writing the next film and getting a producer and starting the fundraising to make it. I want to go to Japan. I’m going to go to my favorite amusement park, Efteling, in Holland, for/around my birthday. What is your year looking like, best case scenario? ** Corey, Hi! Does Windex still exist? They don’t have it in France. Paris is pretty quiet at the moment, yes. Everyone is still off on their Xmas getaways. Weekend? Uh, see movies and art mostly, I think? That risograph machine and output looks cool. Very Xerox machine, yeah. I have read Roberto Bolaño, yes. He’s very good. The hype is not unwarranted. This is the Buche we chose and ate. It was very good. Still is, or at least the white chocolate fireplace is still good since that’s all that’s left. I’d like one of those Hanukkah donuts. Is one in your stomach, or was it at one point? ** Okay. Today I give you the opportunity to begin to get to know the work of another very unique and interesting filmmaker whom I gather not many among you are familiar with. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
The French really had a knack for pretty art involving naked people. They still do. And even the stuff where the French people are wearing clothes look pretty cool. Cinema is something I could do a lot more with in terms of stuff to draw on for writing.
Yesterday, Casablanca was on the telly. I’ve never (and still haven’t) seen it all the way through, but, just, visually, man it’s gorgeous. It’s so lovely to look at. I looked up at the time of the shot where the camera cuts to Ilsa’s note in the rain. I just thought, wow. That feels quite *new.* Quite *modern.* It felt very Wes Anderson-y. Just that moment was so visually satisfying.
Filmographic gushing over, time to talk about Japanese anuses (seamless segue). It was the androgynous anime character with their butt out that won me over (what an awful sentence). You wonder what these people think, producing these products. Like someone really had to look at this, this scent professing to smell of anuses, with an uncomfortably boyish-looking cutesy figure on it, and thought, ‘Yeah. Yeah we’re gonna sell this and people are gonna buy it.’ And, I mean, I kinda want to. Think of the conversations that could start. I’m going to stop talking about Japanese anuses. That would be ideal for all.
Japanese food is so scrumptious, though, so. Plus. Regardless of any hypothetical coprophagia.
This is a dreadful paragraph.
Frisbee with a custard doughnut sounds fun and messy, and potentially wasteful. If it’s a ring-shaped doughnut I can see how that would work, it’s the right shape for it, but if it’s like a bun, when you catch the doughnut, it’d just, like. Squelch custard out and that’d be kinda gross, non?
Taylor Swift can do ‘memorable’ songs, I think, but not in the way I want them to be. Annoying earworm-y way. I hate Anti Hero. And Shake Them Off. 22 and We Are Never (However Many Evers There Are) Getting Back Together are okay, and hooky enough. But she’s so not my thing. On the car ride to the theatre, my aunt agreed that Swift sucks.
It was Xmas-y enough, but now I’m just glad it’s over, to be fair. Books in a pile, money spent on more books (some of which, i.e., a majority, by you. Your stuff is weirdly hard to find/expensive, at least here in the UK) and some clothing to do with bands liked by gay people who use the internet, and I’m currently wearing my shirt I got yesterday which labels me as an ‘Unreliable Narrator,’ teehee. So I may be lying to you utterly right now. Ooo who knows?
My Fair Lady was *awesome.* I loved it. I got teary-eyed the way I basically always do at the theatre. It was a great success and a seriously good night out, was a massive mood booster. My brother got annoyed by how giddy I was and how I basically turned to him every other moment to express how much I was enjoying it all.
Ditto re: time over here. Almost lunch o’clock, that’ll probably be a Christmas leftovers sandwich. I may about to be the first to comment? Regardless, best with today. Tschuss!
I’m gonna be so lazy today.
Dennis, Hahahaha, I see what you did there. Ride the snake indeed. That’s hilarious.
There’s a rapper named Zuby I follow online who says $0 to $100k is harder than $100k to $1 million, as far as making money is concerned. I guess that makes sense. It usually does take some effort to make a ton of money, and I don’t think I’m cut out for it, either. I’ll keep playing that lottery, though.
Alex and I are gonna try a new TexMex place tonight. Otherwise, no big plans this weekend. I hope yours is swell.
Thank you for this insight into the world of Patrice Enard! Seems he was yet another genius whose work we were never told about in school. “He applauded the rise of eroticism and the birth of pornography and gore”, so he would be a man after my own heart then.
Blackpepper perfume really does smell like the spice and is defo recommended, but then I would say that wouldn’t I? CDG founder Rei Kawakubo gets her own chapter in John Waters’s Role Models book that describes her brand’s enduring appeal. I presume he receives all the stuff for free which makes me envious naturally.
Hey Dennis,
I’d assume the Death Grips scent would have a lot of crazy odors, but would ultimately be overwhelmed by the burning smell of gasoline.
Yeah Tayto Park was very much a family place, my main memories of the place was the tour of the Tayto factory, the climbing place (idk what the real term would be, but a bunch of paths in the air that you jump around on, whilst harnessed on), and playing the og Super Mario on Virtual Console on my 3DS. Around that time (or maybe a few years prior) they released some Tayto memoir called “The Man Inside The Jacket” and as a little child it seemed like the most important book to have ever been released, on the same level as religious texts. Like those religious texts, I never read it though! Some hot guy I follow on Twitter apparently has family in Ireland because he posted a selfie with a Mr Tayto teddy in the background, which gave me a good laugh.
Woke up today with what I’ve been calling a ‘tickle in my throat’, and has ruined my plan to go gym and study today. Only got out of bed about an hour ago too. Guess I’m just gonna spend these next few days drinking orange juice and taking tablet, whilst watching movies. Doesn’t sound like the worst way to spend the end of the year, does it?
Had some family friends over yesterday which was fun until I felt myself getting too tired from my cough, so I just played Metroid Dread and watched that new Shyamalan movie Trap, which I enjoyed way more than I was expecting. Such a goofy idea of an entire pop concert being a trap to catch a serial killer, but was definitely executed well(ish). Obviously it was inspired by The Eras Tour (plus Kpop) and got me thinking about that terrorist threat at the Vienna show, and what it would be like for someone like Taylor Swift to be working alongside the FBI to catch a killer whilst singing Love Story. Running off during outfit changes, finding out where the suspect is, and then doing improv to draw attention to that side of the show. After attending one of the shows, I honestly think if any popstar could catch a criminal during their concert, it would be Taylor.
Writing a bit, and will probably spend most of the day writing and listening to music. Been going to sleep so late and I wanna fix that tonight, so a 9pm bedtime is the plan.
Hey Dennis! The exhibition was crazy good (as I seemingly foretold yesterday, haha), really amazing. The notes on the side were a little simplistic, but the works themselves were amazing. My friend was great to go with too, he approached the art way more technically in a way that was nice to be around. I also found this Giger artbook I’ve always yearned for in this strange animanga store, so I decided to splash out a little on that.
Anyway, we had a great day out! I think I’ve maybe gotten him into Thomas Mann, if his current mood sticks, so I’m super curious to hear his opinions on that. He’s totally refused to read anything with sex in, and I said he should try Death in Venice, because he’s got a slightly Tadzio-ish type – I.E., sickly boyish blonde guys/girls, myself included.
Hmm, other than that, his/our fujoshi fans online (!?) are all kind of excited to hear we’re hanging out irl. It’s strange, he’s cultivated this online following of people who kind of “ship” us, I guess? Here’s his blogged pic of us hanging out, haha. Anyway, I had a great day – and good news from Mario land. I hope your reward was 100% worth the trouble!
Hey Dennis, I’m not familiar with Enard’s curious body of work. Interesting.
Between the jet lag and allergies, the last few days have not been fun. I did finish Nicholas Rombes’ new novel Lisa 2, v1.0, a shoo-in for my 2024 favorites, at about 3am. It comes with a soundtrack by Mike Shiflet. Here’s an interesting interviewing with both: https://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2024/12/19/mike-shiflet-and-nicholas-rombes-on-their-lisa-2-v-1-0-collaboration/
Bill
Hey! How are you? I’m alright, been trying to take lots of time to myself recently. So sorry for not checking in. Are you doing anything for New Year’s Eve? I think I’m probably staying in. I think most of my friends are. I’ve been writing a lot, I’m really happy with it recently, considering sending a poem of mine to SCAB. So that’s great. I think I’ve finally learned how to chill re: how I feel writing about more maybe to me upsetting things. It helps that I’ve been feeling somewhat more stable mentally too ofc. I also started reading Duras’ ‘The Easy Life’: a really great novel, and it’s one of the books I bought in Berlin in October so it has some sort of sentimental value to me. Do you get like that with books, like the physical items? Hope you had a wonderful Friday.
Btw, you briefly mentioned your plans for next year in this P.S—do you know if you’ll be in Paris during early March? I have a few days off around then, the 3rd to 5th I’m pretty sure, so I thought of visiting then (and really this time). It’d be cool if we could have a coffee again.
Aha ! Perfume post ! I’m nostalgic for my first ever comment on the Dennis Cooper blog. For some reason I can’t see most of the perfumes but can recognise most as I scroll – I’ll have to look at it on a computer to fully take in the post – husband has bought me Gasolin by Rammstein, which I’m very excited for – was at an afters the other night where someone was talking very excitedly about a guy they adore wearing a perfume that smelt of urinals – lo and behold, it’s the same perfume I steal 6 sprays of every time I go to a wee coffee/perfume shop near me – Sadonaso.
(Also, clarification to a comment I made a while ago- the gay club named after A is an actual thing that’s happening irl but I have nothing to do with it. )
It’s my birthday on Sunday ! Get ready for more mature blog comments cause my frontal lobe will fully develop ! Big 25! What were you doing in life at 25? I’m having a birthday party at my flat with the costume theme: “William Burroughs Vs Dennis Cooper” – I think amongst my friends most will be opting for dressing up as what they imagine the boys in your book dress like – there’s still a couple in the Burroughs’ camp though (one friend is sewing a 1950s suit by hand) – I’ll try and break down which side ‘wins’ by an arbitrary category and report the results on here Monday : )
Oh! And I need to get a passport tomorrow – remind me in your response if you feel so obliged.
Have an absolutely gorgeous weekend everyone!
Hejsan Dennis!
I’m back! How are you? I heard your film has landed its world premiere, and I’m genuinely so happy for you. I hope everything goes great and I’m so excited to see it, I really love your previous work so I’m sure ‘Room Temperature’ will be great. How was Christmas???!!!! I just got home from my Grandmas house (who we always sleepover at a couple days after Christmas) and it’s been great. I got ‘Dream Police’ from my aunt and grandma, which I’m really happy about, as well as ’Döden och co.’ , Lukas Moodysson’s novel. I am almost done with it, and I truly adore it. I don’t think there’s an English translation of it, but I’m sure you’d love it if there ever was. It’s about this guy called Lucas (c instead of k, clever) M. who loses his dad and then goes into this kind of spiral where he’s trying to both understand and run away from the thought of his father. Very dark stuff, but honest and beautiful. I also got Moodyssons tv show ’Gösta’, which I binged today. Have you seen it? I gotta say, it’s some of Moodyssons best stuff, it’s truly some of the best tv I’ve ever seen.
I hope the end of the year is looking bright and happy for you. I’m planning on partying with friends and, if I have the time, write another poem or two about this “Jack” character I’ve made up. I have some great ideas in mind. XOXO, Måns
Where is the scent that makes you smell like a cadaver, or my fucking roommate who never took showers? Or what about the one that makes you smell like John Wayne Gacys sex dungeon? (Old unsent comment to Smells)
Had a good xmas. I got The tin Drum by Gunther Grass. I enjoy his poetry but havent necessarily read a novel of his yet.
I finally finished fear and loathing in Vegas after being so obstinant. Ive finally been doing more writing, my goal is to finish some kind of side story to submit, but I do want to finish my book aswell.
I wish Frankie wasnt sitting on my arms right now.
What upcoming movie (independent or not) do you find interesting enough to possibly see in theaters?
Tommorow(or I guess by the time of you reading this) I will be watching Nosferatu in theaters for my birthday. All I want is for people not to forget me. I kind of dont look forward to it or the end of the year , because its always the same
I am planning to get some records because I got a gift card for yellow dog disc. Recommend me something and maybe if I see this i’ll go looking for it!
My back hurts really bad so I cant talk long. How was the custard?
( ´ཀ` )
My gift to you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCkcYxsDVzs&t=3750s
if its your style.
Hey. Yeah, I think your refusal towards identity politics is one of the things that initially drew me to your work. My heroes growing up who were queer, Rimbaud, Genet, etc. were people who were outlaws even among their fellow queers. Rimbaud would roll in his grave if he found out people categorised him as a ‘gay poet’. Rimbaud was so great because he exploited his every suspicion and urge. I think his project was to embody everything and to prove that there is perhaps very little of ourselves that is stable and inherent. He would absolutely not want to be put in a box.
So crazy that people would expect you and Zac to use that one of the actors in ‘RT’ is trans to promote the film. It’s arguably very exploitative to play that up in the promotional stage and to single out the trans person in question in the film. By doing that you kind of otherize them and make them feel as if no matter how talented they are, they will always be seen by the world as being trans above and before everything and nothing else. Their identity is essentially just something that’s being used.
Early on in my university experiences when I was studying filmmaking, we had a couple of terrible professors who were convinced that above all else, great films were about ‘shining a light’ on something and they wanted us to change the world with a powerful message. They basically cared about representation more than anything else. I made this film that did have undeniable trans references in it, but because none of the actors were trans, nor were they playing characters that were explicitly trans, they told me that it should have been more inclusive. Anyway, I did end up having my epiphany that writing is what I should be doing first and foremost, and that it’s possibilities always excited me in a special way, and that what I wanted to express was best done with words, so that’s all the past now.
I had a fairly tedious day visiting family. Every time I see them they tell me that my great-grandfather once thought about writing his memoirs but never did so writing must run in the family. They basically went through all of the expensive things they’ve bought recently and I had to nod along. We had a conversation that went on for an hour about a projector they just bought. My cousins were playing chess in the other room whilst making snide remarks. My aunt married this rich trader guy and they live in this massive house. Their living room was on the cover of an interior decorating magazine once. Curious.
hiii dennis, and whomever might be reading this. missed a few days due to the holidays. one of the tepid celebrators of it; eh about the pomp and commerialization, yay over gifts n jolliness. so i’ll just catch them up here, might need tea or coffee for the length.
goners post was great, as a person who only heard/seen los angeles via the media it inspires and makes, i think it did inspire awe, wonder, melancholy, and a sense of going down a rabbit hole in me. beautiful post. —— paul bartel’s great, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills and Shelf Life are two of my favorite movies — a list that probably is in the ten thousands now, i’m a glutton –, a sharp mind for gorgeous trash that aspire to be everyday. also the post made me find out Shelf Life is getting a blu-ray next month. wild. —– i’ve read Taiyo Matsumoto’s mangas a long time ago, i need to re-add a re-read to my list becuse a lot of great details from his art escaped me. —– lunchboxes puts a fear in me that i can’t explain, i always get a shiver down my spine when i see them. so in short, i might need to curl up after writing this. —— VanDerBeek is an unknown, which is new for me at least. gifs were great. added to my list which probably is gonna be a skyscraper now. —– still can’t think of any list. and i swear it wasn’t due to the clogged toilet, which i would note was clogged for ten hours, i spent at least twenty euros on public toilets. never again will i take a personal toilet for granted, though i was never taking it for granted in the first place. —– poems day is gonna last me a month, poems are like a obscured valley to me, and i am very slow at reading them for some reason, i digest them and every chew takes a hour. maybe 2025 is gonna be my time to get started with reading and possibly writing poetry. either way great post. —– dumont isn’t an unknown to me, though i’m not sure if i’ve seen his movies. i guess that’s a wake up call to get going on that. also added to my list. —– ooo x-mas. merry jolly etc. —– i also gravitated to the japanese anus smell, though i would just assume it’s to be used with an anus fleshlight of sorts. though i wonder if it would burn your willy off. hilarious if it did. will oldham what the, anywho i think i need to also research perfumes. —– and finally patrice enard who i think i’ve heard about but not seen, added to my space length list.
phew, thank you for the carol, that made the toilet situation all the better.
i’ll be short on personal affairs due to the length of this. writing’s weird. if in all honesty i would probably consider this a lost year when it comes to writing, a lot of dead ends, scraps, and just frustration. currently inspired to put down some words on a novel that’s been tickling and circling around my head for a while, some of the ideas probably been in there for like one or two years i think?. a while. so it goes. possibly my toilet problems lit a fire in me becuse i started it back up while i was eying it to flush. also one of my favorite guro artists opened up commissions for the first time, so i paid him to do a cover. might be a curse to do that to a novel not yet finished, feel free to whack me.
reading casey anthony, renowned trapeze artist. i wonder how much this will teach me about trapeze, picked this up becuse one, free teehee, and two, joseph is a blog commenter and reader, and possibly will see this. and i gotta support my fellow posters. it’s good, so thank you to both for putting on my radar. (and also joseph lol’d at me posting about my clogged toilet. that shot him up on the list.)
that might be all? i swear this wasn’t meant to be so much about my toilet problems. though if cloudflare takes this i will shit so hard that i will clog it again.
saw another sex toy by the anus scent company today actually.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gf0jyLzXUAA4CGt.jpg
i’ll let people here play roulette on what it is.