‘French actor Patrick Dewaere (1947 – 1982) was a promising and popular European film star in the 1970’s. In 1982, the actor shot himself. He was only 35 years old. He made his film debut at the age of four under the name Patrick Maurin in Monsieur Fabre/Amazing Monsieur Fabre (1951). More small film roles followed in La Madelon (1954, Jean Boyer) with Line Renaud, and En effeuillant la marguerite/Plucking the Daisy (1956, Marc Allégret) starring Brigitte Bardot and Daniel Gélin. Taunted by his schoolyard friends for his young film endeavours, he learned sensitivity and isolation at an early age. Other films during this period included Gene Kelly’s The Happy Road (1957) and the comedy Mimi Pinson (1958, Robert Darène) with Dany Robin.
‘As a young adult in the early 1960’s, Patrick appeared on French television and in the star-studded war film Paris brûle-t-il?/Is Paris burning? (1966, René Clément). In 1968, he joined Café de la Gare, an experimental theatre troupe where he remained for nearly a decade. The performers also included such future stars as Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou. He became romantically involved with Miou-Miou. A child, Angèle Herry-Leclerc, was born to this liaison in 1974, but the couple broke up after only two years. After initially appearing under the pseudonym Patrick Maurin, he finally opted for Dewaere, which was his grandmother’s maiden name. In this period he played small parts in films. The best was the art house hit Themroc (1973, Claude Faraldo), an absurdist black comedy starring Michel Piccoli as an urban caveman.
‘Patrick Dewaere made his breakthrough in the cinema with his major role in Bertrand Blier’s anarchic comedy Les Valseuses/Going Places (1974). Gérard Depardieu and he played two young rebellious petty thugs who team up with Miou-Miou. The three earned instant ‘anti-hero’ stardom with their roles. He followed this with the romantic comedy Lily, aime-moi (1975, Maurice Dugowson), and the crime drama Adieu, poulet/The French Detective (1975, Pierre Granier-Deferre) as Lino Ventura’s sidekick. Despite Dewaere’s obvious talent for comedy, he was often successfully cast as a fragile, neurotic individual. He earned marks for his off-balanced role in La meilleure façon de marcher/The Best Way to Walk (1976, Claude Miller). In Italy he appeared in Marcia trionfale/Victory March (1976, Marco Bellocchio) with Michel Placido and Franco Nero, and in L’ingorgo – Una storia impossibile/Black Out in Autostrada (1979, Luigi Comencini) about the biggest traffic jam ever seen. He starred again with Depardieu in Blier’s Oscar-winning cross-over comedy Préparez vos mouchoirs/Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978, Bertrand Blier).
‘Infinitely more interested in searching out complex roles than fame, his work in films were more often than not experimental, low budget and quirky in style. He appeared innately drawn to playing sensitive, scruffy, miserable neurotics, misfits and losers. Examples are his characters in the socker drama Coup de tête/Hothead (1979, Jean-Jacques Annaud), the Georges Perec penned Oulipian detective story Série noire (1979, Alain Corneau), Un mauvais fils/A Bad Son (1980, Claude Sautet), Hôtel des Amériques/Hotel America (1981, André Téchiné) with Catherine Deneuve, and the critically-acclaimed Beau-père/Stepfather (1981, Bertrand Blier). Unlike his counterpart Depardieu, Patrick’s fame never branched out to Hollywood, but he was recognized consistently for his superlative portrayals. Amazingly, he was nominated for seven César awards (the French Oscar) but never won.
‘Shortly after the release of Paradis Pour Tous/Paradise for All (1982, Alain Jessua), a black comedy where his character suffers from depression and commits suicide, the actor shot himself with a rifle in a Paris hotel. He was 35 years old. At the time he was working on the Claude Lelouch’s film Édith et Marcel/Edith and Marcel (1983). A shocking, inexplicable end to friends, fans and family alike. — collaged
___
Stills
_____
Further
Patrick Dewaere @ Wikipedia
Patrick Dewaere @ IMDb
Patrick Dewaere Myspace Page
Patrick Dewaere page @ Facebook
Memorial page for Patrick Dewaere
‘La maison de Patrick Dewaere’
‘Patrick Dewaere: Je Suis Mort’
‘Patrick Dewaere, une vie, le dernier rebelle du cinéma français’
‘Patrick Dewaere, mort il y a 30 ans et toujours aussi présent’
‘Une biographie sans tabou de Patrick Dewaere, trente ans après sa mort’
‘Patrick Dewaere: F comme fêlure!’
‘Patrick Dewaere : 30 ans déjà…’
____
Extras
Luc Lagier ‘Wer war nochmal Patrick Dewaere?’
Patrick Dewaere: The Last Interview
Patrick Dewaere sings ‘L’Autre’ (1978)
Francoise Hardy & Patrick Dewaere sing ‘T’es pas poli’ (1971)
_________________________________
Lettre de Gérard Depardieu à Patrick Dewaere
Cher Patrick,
En ce moment, on n’arrête pas de nous bassiner avec l’anniversaire de mai 68. Vingt ans après. Après quoi ! Une émeute de jeunes vieux cons, voilà ce qu’on pensait tous les deux, des batailles de boules de neige…
Cette drôle de révolution aura au moins permis de changer les uniformes des flics, et à Bertrand Blier de tourner Les Valseuses ! Ce fut un véritable pavé lancé à la vitrine du cinéma français. Avec Miou-Miou, nous avions fait sauter les derniers tabous. Les Valseuses ! C’était notre bohème à nous, un temps que les moins de vingt ans ne peuvent pas connaître. Qu’est-ce qu’on a pu faire chier Bertrand sur ce coup. On ne dormait pas, on débarquait au petit matin sur le plateau avec des têtes de noceurs, de débauchés. On était heureux comme des cons, comme des enfants faisant l’école buissonnière. C’était la grande voyoucratie, un mélange d’inconscience et d’insouciance. On piquait la D.S. et en avant la corrida nocturne. C’étaient de drôles de nuits. On avait l’impression de travailler, d’étudier nos rôles, de répéter pour le lendemain. Ben voyons ! (…)
Comme Romy Schneider tu confondais ta vie et le métier d’acteur. Tu supportais mal les duretés de ce milieu. Tu étais sensible, sans défense, presque infirme devant le monde. Je te voyais venir avec toutes ces mythologies bidons autour du cinéma, de James Dean ; cela te plaisait, ce romantisme noir et buté. Tu la trouvais belle la mort, bien garce, offerte. Il fallait que tu exploses, que tu te désintègres. Tu “speedais” la vie. Tu allais à une autre vitesse, avec une autre tension. Ce n’est pas tellement que tu n’avais plus envie de vivre, mais tu souffrais trop, de vivre. Chaque jour, tu ressassais les mêmes merdes, les mêmes horreurs dans ton crâne. A la fin, forcément, tu deviens fou. Dans Série Noire, tu te précipitais contre le pare-brise de ta voiture. J’ai toujours mal en repensant à cette scène. J’ai l’impression d’un film testamentaire. Tu te débats, tu te cognes contre tous les murs. Il y avait l’agressivité désespérée, l’hystérie rebelle de Série Noire. Il y avait aussi la résignation accablée du Mauvais Fils. Ces deux films, c’est toi.(…)
Je te le dis maintenant sans gêne et sans en faire un drame, j’ai toujours senti la mort en toi. Pis, je pensais que tu nous quitterais encore plus vite. C’était une certitude terrible que je gardais pour moi. Je ne pouvais rien faire. J’étais le spectateur forcé de ce compte à rebours. Ton suicide fut une longue et douloureuse maladie. Quand j’ai su que c’était fini, je me suis dit : bah oui, quoi. Rien à dire. Je n’allais tout de même pas surjouer comme les mauvais acteurs. Et puis je te l’avoue, moi, bien en face, je m’en fous. Je ne veux pas rentrer là-dedans. Je suis une bête, ça m’est égal, la mort connais pas. Je suis la vie, la vie jusque dans sa monstruosité. Il ne faut jamais faire dans la culpabilité, se dire qu’on aurait dû, qu’on aurait pu. Que dalle. Il y avait un défaut de fabrication, un vice, quelque chose de fêlé en toi, Patrick.(…)
Malgré tout, malgré moi, je crois que cette lettre, c’était pour te parler de la disparition de mon chat. Il faut subitement que je te parle de lui. Quand il est mort, je me suis mis à chialer comme une pleureuse de tragédie. Je ne pouvais plus m’arrêter de pleurer. (…) J’avais toujours pensé à un chat en pensant à lui. Un chat est un chat. Quand j’ai pensé “Il est malade”, j’ai pensé à un être. Ca m’a fait un mal terrible. (…) Je l’ai enterré dans mon jardin. Le matin, je le retrouvais avec sa tête sur ma poitrine. Dès que je sentais sa présence, j’étais en paix. J’avais ce chat à qui parler. C’est complètement con. On ne peut pas expliquer la complicité. (…)
Des moments de paix, d’abandon, nous en avons eu aussi ensemble, Patrick. Un vrai repos des guerriers. Avec toi, j’aurais aimé avoir une aventure. Te braque pas. Pas l’espèce de sodomie à la godille des Valseuses. Là, ils font ça par ennui, parce qu’ils en ont marre de déambuler. Les mecs se serrent à force de traîner ensemble. Ils s’enfilent parce qu’ils commencent à douter d’eux-mêmes. C’est le problème de la délinquance mal exprimée. On retrouve toute cette misère, toute cette frustration dans le courrier des lecteurs de Libération, dans les récits de taulards.
L’homosexualité, c’est sans doute beaucoup plus subtil que ce qu’on en dit. D’ailleurs, je ne sais pas ce que c’est, à quoi ça ressemble. Je sais seulement qu’il existe des moments. Ils peuvent se produire avec une femme, un homme, une bouteille de vin. Ce sont des états de grâce partagés.
Ils me font penser à une prise réussie au cinéma. Il y a toujours une part d’irrationnel dans une prise réussie. On travaille des heures, on passe son temps à refaire, à reprendre, à modifier, puis soudain c’est la bonne. On ne comprend pas pourquoi, mais c’est l’éclaircie, c’est la bonne. Je ne peux pas m’empêcher de penser, Patrick, que si tu n’étais pas parti, c’est peut-être toi que j’aurais embrassé dans Tenue de soirée.
_________________________________
Lettre de Patrick Dewaere à Gérard Depardieu
____________________
16 of Patrick Dewaere’s 24 films
____________________
René Clément Is Paris Burning? (1966)
‘Although primarily credited to Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, the script was the result of several writers – alongside Marcel Moussy and Beate von Molo, Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost and Claude Brulé also contributed – and there are a few somewhat jarring shifts in style as a result. Despite the political dilution that one suspects was a consequence of getting both the essential co-operation from de Gaulle’s government and the equally essential dollars from Paramount, it does a good job of making the constantly shifting strategies and increasingly chaotic events accessible while keeping the momentum up, but as with most spot-the-star WW2 epics, it’s the vignettes that stick most firmly in the mind: a German soldier, his uniform still smouldering, staggering away from a blown-up truck only to be ignored by a businessman blithely going to work as if nothing were happening; a female resistance worker delivering instructions for the uprising being offered a lift by an unsuspecting German officer after her bike gets a puncture; French soldiers picking off Germans from an apartment whole the little old lady who lives there excitedly watches while drinking her tea.’ –– Trevor Willsmer
Excerpt
___________________
Claude Faraldo Themroc (1973)
‘Themroc is a 1973 French film by director Claude Faraldo. It was produced by François de Lannurien and Helène Vager and its original music was composed by Harald Maury. Made on a low budget with no intelligible dialog, Themroc tells the story of a French blue collar worker who rebels against modern society, reverting into an urban caveman. The film’s scenes of incest and cannibalism earned it adults-only ratings. It was the first film to be shown in the UK’s Channel 4’s red triangle series of controversial films in 1986. This extraordinary romp uses no language whatever, except gestures and grunts.’ — Rovi
Excerpt
Excerpt
_______________________
Bertrand Blier Going Places (1974)
‘Going Places (1974), Bertrand Blier’s stunning, picaresque tale of two aimless punks who casually steal sex, handbags and cars, was the movie that vaulted an obscure hunk named Gerard Depardieu into transatlantic stardom, the film that established novelist and aspiring filmmaker Blier into an influential director. When Going Places zoomed onto American screens in the summer of 1974, critics dismissed its sexism and amorality while defenders praised the film’s eroticism and spirit. Looking back at the politically and sexually polarized 1970s, it’s easy to equivocate that one woman’s misogyny was another’s eroticism; one man’s amorality was another’s elan. What Going Places is about is two men who aggressively assert their liberation at the same time they pine for the return of mother love. It’s about men who want to go places, but whose fondest destination is the womb, as the movie’s memorable last image suggests.’ — Philly.com
Trailer
“Going Places” in 5 minutes – Blow Up – ARTE
_____________________
Maurice Dugowson Lily, aime-moi (1975)
‘If French cinema has made a colossal impact on film enthusiasts all over the world,it is because it has been able to capture all kinds of themes. French people have made films about all subjects which have any link whatsoever with human beings. This is the reason why we can say that in French cinema, we can find both big films and small films. Maurice Dugowson’s film Lily, aime-moi is one of those little films about ordinary people who are usually forgotten but sometimes appear to be of interest to astute journalists. This charming film is the beginning of a tender yet successful collaboration between a great French actor late Patrick Dewaere and its director Maurice Dugowson. After the success of this film their director, actor tandem was seen in F comme Fairbanks. The main theme of this film is daily lives of ordinary people which is shown in great detail. The biggest surprise of the film is that it is not a love story even though there is an extremely charming woman in it. A film to be seen by anyone who is interested in minuscule lives of ordinary mortals.’ — collaged
Excerpt
Excerpt
_______________________
Claude Miller La meilleure façon de marcher (1976)
‘Claude Miller’s most important work is today stronger than it was in 1976. It’s a must, the French cinema at its most ambitious, at its deepest, at its best. And nothing intellectual, nothing to do with the nouvelle vague pretentiousness, “la meilleure façon de marcher” is accessible to all those who have eyes and ears. It features one of the strongest actors confrontations which can be seen on a screen: the sadly missed Dewaere and the subtle Bouchitey literally live their part,they are so real we have the very rare feeling of knowing them intimately. So intense Bouchitey’s performance was that afterward he did not get the roles he did deserve: the directors stayed with the picture of a “drag queen”.’ — collaged
Excerpt
Excerpt
Claude Miller, Patrick Dewaere et Patrick Bouchitey dans CLAP
_________________
Marco Bellocchio Victory March (1976)
‘Victory March was coproduced by France (where it was released as La Marche triomphale) and West Germany (where is known as Triumphmarsch). For this film Michele Placido was awarded with a Nastro d’Argento for best actor and with a special David di Donatello. It was shot in a disused barracks in Reggio Emilia.’ — Wiki
the entirety
_______________________
Pierre Granier-Deferre The French Detective (Adieu poulet) (1976)
‘In the French city of Rouen an election is marred by a fight between the supporters of two of the candidates. In the fracas a man is beaten to death and the killer then shoots a passing police officer! The officer has time to warn his colleagues that the killer is Proctor (Claude Brosset), a well-known thug whose brother is campaigning on behalf of law and order candidate Lardatte (Victor Lanoux). Commissaire Verjeat’s (Lino Ventura) pursuit of Proctor is hampered by Lardatte for whom he has a personal dislike and misses no opportunity to humiliate. As a result he then finds himself with a very short time to capture Proctor, since he faces a promotion and a posting outside of Rouen, which will take him off the case. Verjeat is sure that this is courtesy of Lardatte and his police contacts! To cap it all, his sidekick, the eccentric Inspector Lefevre (Patrick Dewaere), implicates them both in a case of police corruption.’ — collaged
Trailer
Excerpt
_____________________
Maurice Dugowson F comme Fairbanks (1976)
‘Superbe hommage au cinèma, plus particulièrement à l’âge d’or du cinèma amèricain! Maurice Dugowson capte la France giscardienne, la crise et donc la morositè! Le rèalisateur pense tout d’abord à un film de cape et d’èpèe puis il travaille sur un autre scènario abordant les problèmes de vie quotidienne comme le chômage sur fond d’aventures! il en parle à Patrick Dewaere qui donne son accord, même s’il s’interroge sur la nature de son personnage dont il redoute qu’il soit trop nègatif! Dugowson le rassure en lui disant que ce n’est pas son personnage qui est nègatif mais le monde qui l’entoure! C’est le film le plus douloureux de Patrick qui venait de rompre avec Miou-Miou. il devait faire sembler de l’aimer alors qu’il n’ètait plus ensemble! Ce fût très dur pour lui et pour Miou-Miou aussi. Une fêlure apparait avec ce “F comme Fairbanks”, Patrick, ne sera plus jamais le même. Malgrè tout ça il se montre extraordinaire de bout en bout (la scène du cheval est vraiment incroyable, tout comme son numèro d’èquilibriste et sa crise de nerfs en plein spectacle). Un vèritable chef d’oeuvre sur un personnage en dècalage avec son èpoque et un Patrick Dewaere gigantesque et d’une très grande fragilitè.’ — Allocine
Trailer
_____________________
Alain Corneau Série noire (1978)
‘I’ve seen quite a lot of movies in my life. Particularily when I was between 12 and 30 yrs old. It was quite a long ago and “my kind of cinema” has little to do with the current one. But I can say I saw hundred and hundred of movies. And among them, the one living in me everyday of my life is Serie Noire with Patrick Dewaere. Patrick Dewaere was at the time my favorite actor so far, and is still now, 28 years after he killed himself with a gun. The greatest loss in all French cinema with the premature death of Jean Vigo I think. When I feel bad (often) he’s the one I talk to in this place they call my head. Here I sorted the pictures from this incomparable movie (with dialogues from a great French writer, Georges Perec, a story driven from a Jim Thompson book, A hell of a woman, the best cinematographic adaptation this fantastic writer benefited) in the scenaristic order.’ — Scoptophilia
Trailer
Excerpt
_______________________
Bertrand Blier Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1987)
‘Raoul (Gerard Depardieu) and his wife Solange (Carole Laure) are eating in a restaurant when Raoul expresses concern with Solange’s apparent depression, as she eats little, suffers migraines and insomnia and also sometimes faints. He finds another man in the room, Stéphane (Patrick Dewaere), to be her lover and hopefully enliven her again. Director Bertrand Blier wrote the screenplay planning to use Dewaere and Depardieu in the leads, having previously worked with them on Going Places (1974). The familiarity meant the men were comfortable together. David Denby of New York believed the film was made in the spirit of the French New Wave. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was named the best film of 1978 by the National Society of Film Critics.’ — collaged
Trailer
______________________
Jean-Jacques Annaud Coup de tête (1979)
‘Like other young men in his soccer-obsessed town, a belligerent and rebellious factory worker Francois Perrin plays on a local team. His obnoxious tendencies endear him to no one. Trouble brews when a woman cries rape and the team’s star player becomes the chief suspect. To protect the valued kicker, the team owners decide to frame the boorish Francois for the crime. As a result, he loses his job, gets booted from the team and tossed into jail. Shortly thereafter, the team is en route to a key match and their bus gets into an accident (in one of the story’s comical highlights) that disables half the team. Now desperate for players, the owners arrange to get Francois temporarily released. The rest of this lively French farce follows Francois as he gets sweet revenge upon all those who wronged and rejected him. The screenplay was penned by distinguished writer/director Francis Veber, who is best known for writing La Cage aux Folles.’ — Rovi
Excerpt
Excerpt
____________________
Philippe de Broca Psy (1981)
‘This modest, lovely comedy boasts most of the elements we expect from farce – a country house setting, suspended from ‘reality’; a cast of stereotypes supporting a hero who becomes increasingly emasculated by sexual complications, involving his wife, his mistress, and a homosexual; the intrusion of unexpected characters, in this case a trio of gangsters; intricate plot twists, involving much running about the house; repeated deferral of sexual gratification; and, after all seems lost, a happy, if weary, ending. Patrick Dewaere, who would commit suicide two years later, and is most famous for his films with Gerard Depardieu for Bertrand Blier (LES VALSEUSES, PREPAREZ VOS MOUCHOIRS), is wonderfully helpless as the titular hero, Marc, a psychotherapist who holds weekend group sessions for the timid, repressed and dissatisfied in his wife, Colette’s country house.’ — IMDb
Excerpt
Excerpt
____________________
Claude Sautet Un Mauvais Fils (A Bad Son) (1980)
‘After serving five years in an American prison for drug dealing, Bruno (Patrick Dewaere) returns to France clean and sober to begin a new life. His angry father, Rene (Yves Robert), blames his son’s shame for his wife’s death, and Bruno soon strikes out on his own. Switching from construction to bookstore work, Bruno begins a relationship with Catherine (Brigitte Fossey), another fragile recovering addict, and the pair struggle to maintain their sobriety. Few French directors were capable to maintain all through their artistic trajectory, such tenacity, constancy and dedication around the feelings and well known frailties of the ordinary human being as Claude Sautet.’ — eventful
Trailer
Excerpt
_______________________
Bertrand Blier Beau-père (1981)
‘A sensitively handled study of pedophilia, told with a comic flare. Remy is a lounge pianist who loses his wife in a car accident. His fourteen-year-old step-daughter, Charlotte, wants to continue to live with him, but her biological father, a drunken clubowner, doesn’t feel that this is right. She tries living with her father, but misses the comfort of Remy and eventually runs back to him. Her father relents and accepts her wish to live with her step-father. What begins as a simple reunion of father and daughter quickly takes on a whole new meaning when Charlotte confesses her love for Remy one night.’ — Sasquatch Video
Trailer
Excerpt
______________________
André Téchiné Hotel America (1981)
‘Hôtel des Amériques (English: Hotel America) is a 1981 French drama film directed by André Téchiné, starring Catherine Deneuve and Patrick Dewaere. The film, set in Biarritz, tells the ill fated romance of mismatch lovers. This is the first of several collaborations between Téchiné and Deneuve, who became his favorite actress. Hôtel des Amériques quickly establishes the free-flowing narrative structure that Téchiné has become known for. Hélène and Gilles’ relationship does not follow the conventional path of romantic films, instead carrying the unpredictability of real romantic struggles. Téchiné allowed his actors to improvise during shooting, and this lends the scenes spontaneity and a natural sense of awkwardness.’ — collaged
Excerpt
_____________________
Alain Jessua Paradis pour tous (1982)
‘Doctor Valois has invented the “flashage”, a cure for depressed people. After having tested it on monkeys, he tries with a first human patient, Alain Durieux. This is great success, everybody’s happy except may be Alain’s wife, Jeanne, who’s worrying about the changes in Alain’s personality. Other patients use the treatment with similar successes, and Valois’s happy about it. But the monkeys are changing: non-cured ones are made mad by the overstability and stereotyped behaviour of the cured ones. So are the humans. When Valois realizes he can’t stop the process, he decides to “flash” himself. Shortly after the release of Paradis Pour Tous (1982), the black comedy where his character committed suicide, Patrick Dewaere shot himself in a hotel room.’ — collaged
Excerpt
Excerpt
*
p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi, Dominick! Yeah, I hear you. Confinement has reinvented excitement until it’s such a mild feeling that the things that excite me really don’t even qualify. Getting a smile or a smirk is cause for celebration. But oh well. Oh, let’s see, yesterday … Artforum is going to start running a short 7-part GIF work by me, one per day for a week, on their site starting tomorrow, and I was emailing a lot with the tech guy to figure out they could do it since Artforum has never hosted GIFs before, strangely. And these teenaged haunted house makers in LA who call themselves Twisted Experiential — Zac and I have been huge fans of their haunts since they started doing them when they were 12, 13 — are doing a haunt at the big LA art survey show Made In LA this summer, and they’re theming the haunt around the writings of LA authors, me included, so I started emailing with one of them to talk about what they want to do. Also Zac and I would love for them to help design the home haunt in our new film, so I was fishing around to see if they’d be interested. Those two email-based activities were definitely that day’s highlight. Did today turn up anything ‘exciting’ or almost for you? Great to see you! Love, me. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I tried to do a Fornes post years ago, but there was nowhere near enough material online to do her justice at the time. I’ll try again. Btw, if you haven’t seen Michelle Memran’s Fornes doc ‘The Rest I Make Up’ that Bernard and I were talking about, and which is a brilliant film, you can watch it free online for the next couple days if you go here and register. Extremely highly recommended if you haven’t seen it yet. ** _Black_Acrylic, Ha ha, thanks, Ben! Really glad her worked piqued you. Like I said, she’s one of my big favorites. Well, if you can manage to get your mum to watch that film, seems like she’ll either become a horror film fan forever or she’ll whack you on the head. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh! Indeed! I trust you saw her retrospective at the Hammer a few years ago? Here too: the sky and air insanely nice and pretty. Wow, you have very advantageous windows or, rather, views. I can’t believe you can see all of those disparate things from one place. Very Tati, yeah, ha ha, true. My views are, one side, the wall of another building, and, on the other side, my building’s deserted courtyard and the wall of another building. Pigeon activity is as interesting as I get. ** Bill, Yes, she did, before she ended up at Art Center. I’ve known her for decades. She’s fantastic. Oh, wow, ‘Re-animator’ sounds like a good re-watch. Noted. I would care about those tiny tweaks. You’d be amazed. Yes, I thought I had RIPed Penderecki. Very sad. So great. ** Scunnard, Hi, Jared! How great that you’re going to do that book! A fantastic idea indeed! Well, I swore off writing non-fiction (articles, reviews, essays, intros, afterwords, etc.) about 14 years ago, and I haven’t since, and I can’t break that. I’m sorry. I’ll do a blurb or whatever if that would help, of course. ** Nick Toti, Excellent. Yeah, she’s singular and great. Really glad you like her stuff. In case you didn’t see it, as some people have problems seeing the comments here, Steve Erickson directed the following to you yesterday: ‘I watched Nick Toti’s film last night. I am not able to read comments here, but I was wondering if his interjections in the lower right-hand corner during 10-minute takes were meant to reflect the way online media have fractured our attention spans and ability to focus. I’m grateful we didn’t have to listen to that anti-abortion speech for 10 minutes, though! Too bad the Kobek-Shapiro debate never happened!’ ** Misanthrope, Cool, obvs glad you dug the show. Oh my God, Joe M and I agree about something. That might be a first, ha ha. Dude, listen to us and get that looked at. I’m not kidding. Do it for the weirdo and me if nothing else. Are you in touch with Nicholas Cook? He was on FB for a while, but I think he bailed. ** Jeff J, Hi. I have read some of Moyra Davey’s essays, and I like her work a lot, so that book is great news. Frances’s writings are really fantastic. Very recommended. I’ve been good friends with — and a huge fan of — Frances since the 90s. Her first ever public exhibition was in a gallery show curated by me way back when called ‘The Freed Weed’, lucky for me. Can’t say enough good things about her as an artist and as a person. I’ve heard that about the Todd Haynes. I’m not a big fan of his films at all apart from ‘Velvet Goldmine’ and ‘Superstar’ and possibly that Dylan one ‘I’m Not Here’. I find them stiff and dull. I’m all right. Yesterday the tedium of the confinement started really sinking in, but there’s stuff to do, and I’m doing it, and I’m still trying to get inspired/focused enough to start writing something. Not yet. Big up re: your next 24 hours and beyond. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Oh, cool. I hope Nick could see your comment. Wait, I’ll go back an paste it into my comment to him just in case. Hold on. Done. Curious, obviously, about Jonse’s Beastie Boys doc. It’s a theoretically promising combo. Shrapknel … I don’t think I know that. I’ll check it out. I’ve somehow gotten into/addicted to this project/band Sematary. Do you know it? It’s ridiculous and I’m not 100% sure about it, but there’s something compelling there to me. Here’s the Semantary youtube page. ** Okay. Today the blog looks at the career/works of the late and much beloved (in France at least) actor Patrick Dewaere. Very interesting performer/guy if you’re interested. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 