‘There are certain writers who are deliberately out of pace with the literary lockstep that characterizes a period, certain writers who instead of going with the flow of the narrative current or trying to hitch a ride on the trends of the moment end up swimming their way upstream or coming downriver at a slant in a way that leads them into very different waters. Rather than, say, investing in American Minimalism or Dirty Realism, they pursue Italo Calvino’s notion of lightness and the more complex lucidity that this opens for them. Rather than settling into the easy chair of realism, they stand up and stare into the foxed tain of a mirror, trying to catch a glimpse of something more magical. If all writers, like Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History, are propelled into the future while watching the ruins of literary history pile up behind them, then these non-conformist writers are the ones who manage to catch a glimpse in this wreckage of undiscovered and still-unruined avenues that offer them shortcuts to new, impossible futures.

‘The curious thing about literary history is that writers who buck against the accepted norms of their time are often the writers who survive. And, paradoxically, they are often the writers who later come to characterize a given moment. They come to feel necessary partly because we sense in them a particular and peculiar visionary quality, a method of transforming all they touch into something that feels uniquely and complexly their own, and allows it to keep unfolding for the reader.

‘Rikki Ducornet is such a writer, mercifully and productively out of step with her time. She brings to her work a sense of curiosity that many contemporary writers have forgotten. Every object for her, as for Blake, has the potential to be an immense world of delight, opening perpetually up, with this delight being mirrored in the twists and turns of the language that both reveals and evokes it.

‘Ducornet admits, in her essay “Waking to Eden,” to being “infected with the venom of language in early childhood.” Her charged language, textured and deft, has the complexity and resonance of the best eighteenth-century authors. It fulminates and fulgurates, refusing to be polite or to stay still. It is perhaps not surprising that she began her literary career as a poet; she continues to handle her words with an almost mystical respect, with great care and precision. She is able to take everything in with an almost mystical openness, to see the beauty in a dead fox covered with wasps. As a result her work replicates the enchantment we felt when hearing fantastic stories as children or when we first fell into books considered too mature for us.

‘Thematically, her work spools out the struggle between the doctrinaire impulse to control and contain—an impulse leading at its worst to a resentful and deadly fascism in Entering Fire—and the more dynamic (albeit sometimes equally dangerous) impulse to transgress, struggle, and create. In The Jade Cabinet, this impulse is explored in the struggle between reason and imagination, in a man’s lust to conquer and possess all he touches, a struggle that ultimately leads to him being unable to have the very thing he most wants. In books like The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition, there is a struggle between nature and civilization—that which frees and that which binds—but this is coupled with an awareness of how freedom can open into death, and the knowledge of how certain boundaries can be productive. …

‘The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition: A Novel of the Marquis de Sade (1999), centers on Gabrielle, a fan-maker who had created fans with erotic scenes on them for the Marquis de Sade, and who is now accused by the French revolutionary government of taking part in the now-imprisoned Sade’s debauches. The eroticism of the fans and Gabrielle’s descriptions of them are counterpoised to the philistinism of the new order itself and to Bishop Diego de Landa’s genocide of the Mayans in the sixteenth century (about which both Sade and Gabrielle have publicly written). The first half of the novel is presented in dramatic form, as a non-narrated transcript; the second half is narrated by Sade himself, after Gabrielle’s execution. This novel is the most overtly political of Ducornet’s works, though the pleasures of her beautifully rendered style keep it from ever becoming too polemic. …

‘By being out of step with the literary world, Rikki Ducornet has created a genuinely unique world of her own, one of a tension between Eden and its loss, one in which wonder and magic still tenuously exist. A consummate stylist, she has created a body of work that is unique, dynamic, and important, and, above all, that will continue to impact readers for many years to come.’ — Context No.22

 

____
Further

Rikki Ducornet Website
A Conversation with Rikki Ducornet By Sinda Gregory and Larry McCaffery
‘Rikki Ducornet explores transformation’
‘Memory and Oblivion: The Historical Fiction of Rikki Ducornet, Jeanette Winterson, and Susan Daitch’
Rikki Ducornet @ Literature Map
‘Rikki Ducornet’s “Literary Pillars”’
‘Portals, Labyrinths, Seeds’
Book Notes – Rikki Ducornet “The Deep Zoo” @ largehearted boy
Rikki Ducornet @ The Reading Experience
‘Cunnilingus (Rikki Ducornet)’
Rikki Ducornet in conversation
‘”Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” by Steely Dan: Songfacts
‘Surrealist Rikki Ducornet Plumbs Depths of Psycho Trauma’
‘Angela Carter’s American Inheritance; Rikki Ducornet’s World of Fiction’
‘The Dickmare’, by Rikki Ducornet
‘Burning Love’
‘Imagined Bodies in Rikki Ducornet’s The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition’
‘from Rikki Ducornet’s “The Fan-Maker’s Inquisiti
on”‘
Rikki Ducornet interviewed @ BOMB
Buy ‘The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition’

 

____
Extras

Rikki Ducornet Reads for the Bard College Program in Written Arts (04/10/14)

&Now; Conference: Rikki Ducornet, 10/16/09 1/5

Rikki Ducornet & Robert Cohen

 

______
Interview

 

How does the process of writing work for you? How does your writing germinate, and then come to fruition?

Rikki Ducornet: My first novel, The Stain, was set into motion by a powerful dream. That dream unleashed enough energy to fuel four novels—and this to my astonishment. I was an artist, after all, not a writer. Entering Fire, Phosphor in Dreamland, and The Fan Maker’s Inquisition were driven by an irrepressible, irresistible voice. Writing a novel can be a little like speaking in tongues! For example, I woke up one morning with the phrase “A fan is like the thighs of a woman: it opens and closes” running through my head. My novel’s narrator, a fan-maker, had arrived fully formed and clamoring for attention. She kept me busy for two-and-a-half years.

As a girl I lived in Cairo for a year, and my most recent novel, Gazelle, came from memories of that extraordinary time and place. It took decades for the book to surface. The process of writing is as mysterious as it is dynamic. Sometimes I think of it as alchemical—transforming the stuff of life into something new, possibly clairvoyant, hopefully lucid.

You paint and draw, in addition to writing. Is your process of painting similar to your process of writing?

RD: The art I dream is always technically impossible, unless, perhaps, I knew how to work in virtual reality. Then I could recreate my dreams: things made of minerals, water and flames! For me the creative process is always about exploring new territories, blind and without a map. As with writing, I have no interest in repeating myself, although I do return to museums of natural history and old books on botany and biology for inspiration each time—just as I return to Gaston Bachelard when I am writing a novel. But each picture, each book, is its own creature. And if my painting is not driven by words, my writing owes a lot to painting—Vermeer’s luminosity, Goya’s deep shadows.

On a recent visit to Brown University I saw a series of marvelous virtual reality projects—I’d like to call them ‘events’—that made me realize, once again, how infinite, how mutable the process of the imagination is. It is perfectly possible that there will always be new vocabularies and new ways of seeing and being in the world.

Do you think that virtual-reality experiences like that, and forms of electronic communication, will ever take the place of “the book”?

RD: I think there is something profoundly satisfying about holding a text in one’s hands—a book, or a clay tablet, or a piece of knotted string. And although the new technologies are fascinating, there is no reason why the book will not persist—that is to say, if anything persists the current madness! After all, the cinema hasn’t destroyed our love of reading, just as photography has not destroyed painting.

When did you first start writing fiction?

RD: Late. When I began my first novel, I was close to forty. I had been writing poetry and odd, short fictions, but it wasn’t until that book seized me by the scruff of the neck that I realized I was a writer. It felt like coming home. The process was terrifying; I was scared to death for over three years! But also a little giddy with pleasure.

You’ve traveled all over the world—as a child, as well as an adult. Did those experiences have an influence on your fiction writing?

RD: An enormous influence. My father was Cuban and his birthplace, Havana, held an immense fascination for me. It was a stunning city, and I think its architecture ignited my longing for mystery and complexity. As a young adult I lived in Algeria for two years right after the War for Independence. Very few people know that the French used more napalm in Algeria—at the border between Algeria and Tunisia—than the United States used in Vietnam. Torture and genocide—these exemplified that war. I saw what this had done to the Algerian people and, for that matter, what it had done to the French. These are things one cannot forget. The novel I am currently writing is about this.

One of the things I love about your novels is that they are so full of other voices and other cultures. Sometimes a place that writers are told we can’t go is writing from the point of view of someone else. For example, an Asian told he can’t write from the point of view of a white Texan, or a European told she can’t write from the point of view of an African American.

RD: It breaks my heart when one writer tells another what she can or cannot do. I once knew a woman, a professor of literature, who said that Flaubert had no right to write Madame Bovary because he was a man. Such dangerous foolishness! This is just another form that dogmatic thinking takes. And it seems to me that the imagining mind—which is also a profoundly human mind—must be unfettered, boundless. To write from the perspective of another’s world demands a generous and a rigorous leap of the spirit; it demands empathy and mindfulness. Writing is so much about subverting dogmatisms of all kinds, above all the ones that insist you cannot go there! You must not say that! Writers need to go anywhere, to take anything on. And the only rule is to do it well.

Recently a young Navajo writer asked me if he “had to write Navajo.” As if every member of his tribe were a brick in a wall without an autonomous, living imagination. He is a writer of real capacity and he was being made to feel guilty for his unique and restless way of being and creating. I told him that not only did he have the right to write about anything at all, but that it was his responsibility to himself—and to his world—to do so. To, as Italo Calvino asks of us, “dream very high dreams.” I asked him to imagine a novel about Heian Japan written by an American Navajo. What would that, could that, be like? The idea delighted him. To tell the truth, I often feel our species is terrified of the unfettered imagination. Perhaps because it is a place of such sublime privacy. I really think that to write responsibly with an unfettered imagination is one of the most moral things a person can do.

New at the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference this year is an emphasis on the creation of new pieces, rather than the workshopping of old work.

RD: It is a great idea. The worst thing that can happen to a writer is to be workshopped to death. Ideally, a workshop should be a place where the writer feels invigorated and safe enough to take risks. The first time I taught at Centrum—and I had a great group of talented and delightful people—I proposed they create an encyclopedia of an imaginary place. The group was eager to experiment and the project took off in really exciting and novel—and unexpected—ways. They invented a geography, a history, religious festivals, a mythical imagination, nursery rhymes, erotic play, philosophies, mountain ranges, banquets, music—and, above all, were writing without the burden of preconceived ideas. It was an exemplary exercise in a kind of lucent playfulness! And it was tough because within the week they had a good-sized manuscript to give cohesion to. I loved the experience we shared, and the writing was very, very good.

As a teacher, what do you hope that students take away from their time with you?

RD: A new fearlessness. The awareness that writing really matters, even now (and perhaps more than ever!). That writing is a place to think. That a moral vision is part of it. That their responsibility is to their imaginations, the demands of the work itself; that the work must be allowed to reveal itself as it is being written and not burdened by received ideas, dogmatisms of any kind. The understanding that writing is a marvelous vehicle for transformation.

 

__
Book

Rikki Ducornet The Fan-Maker’s Inquisition: A Novel of The Marquis de Sade
Dzanc Books

‘The Marquis de Sade, notorious Frenchman and sexual libertine, makes for a sensual, irreverent and politically illuminating subject in Ducornet’s (Phosphor in Dreamland) lushly imagined seventh novel. This sumptuous tale is equal parts testimonial, epistolary exchange and reminiscence, opening in 1793 with the eponymous Fan-Maker (Gabrielle) facing an unidentified interrogator from the Parisian Comit? de Surveillance, attempting to defend her friendship with Sade, who’s already been condemned to prison for his sexual crimes. In addition to being accused of creating blasphemous, erotic fans for Sade, Gabrielle is also known to have collaborated with him on a denunciatory book exposing Spanish Inquisitor Bishop Diego de Landa’s vicious treatment of the Mayas in the Y#catan in 1562. Landa is accused of torturing and murdering the natives of the New World and stripping the Mayas of their pagan belief system, all in the name of the Church. While it is the notorious book that immediately endangers the composed, eloquent Fan-Maker, she’s also vulnerable as a known lesbian and libertine. At the Comit?’s request, she reads and explains the raging missives she’s received from Sade; they are tantalizingly detailed and incendiary. The theatrical format exacerbates the polemical tone of the book, in which the excesses of French Revolutionary philistines and the Spanish Inquisition’s barbarism are made exhaustively clear. In the latter half of the narrative, Sade becomes narrator, treating the reader to his perspective on the courageous Fan-Maker. He reveals the letter she composed on the eve of her execution, and he lovingly describes her devotion to Olympe de Gouges, a radical playwright and fellow victim of the Comit?. Ducornet’s prose is necessarily and carefully shaded toward purple, often starkly ribald or phantasmic. She convincingly interpolates Sade’s audacious, epigrammatic voice, his passion for carnal freedoms and hatred for banal taboos. Her language is an ecstatic performance, with transformational potency that begs to be read aloud.’ — Publishers Weekly

 

_____
Excerpt

“There is no explosion except a book.”
–Mallarme

–A fan is like the thighs of a woman: It opens and closes. A good fan opens with a flick of the wrist. It produces its own weather–a breeze not so strong as to muss the hair.

There is a vocabulary attendant upon fan-making. Like a person, the fan has three principal parts: Les brins, or ribs, are most often of wood; les panaches, or, as courtesans call them, the legs, are also made of wood, or ivory, or mother-of-pearl (and these may be jade: green–the color of the eye; rose–the color of the flesh; and white–the color of the teeth); the mount–and this is also a sexual term–which is sometimes called la feuille, or the leaf (another sexual term, dating, it is said, from the time of Adam)–the mount is made of paper, or silk, or swanskin–

–Swanskin?

–A fine parchment made from the skin of an unborn lamb, limed, scraped very thin, and smoothed down with pumice or chalk. The mount may be made of taffeta, or lace, or even feathers–but these are cumbersome. A fan trimmed with down has a tendency to catch to the lips if they are moist or rouged. A paper fan can be a treasure, especially if it is from Japan. The Japanese made the finest paper fans, and the most obscene. These are sturdier than one might think. Such a fan is useful when one is bored, forced to sup with an ailing relative whose ivory dentures stink. It is said that the pleated fan is an invention of the Japanese and that the Chinese collapsed in laughter when it was first introduced to China. The prostitutes, however, took to it at once.

–Why is that?

–Because it can be folded and tucked up a sleeve when, having lifted one’s skirt and legs, one goes about one’s business. Soon the gentlemen were sticking theirs down their boots–a gesture of evident sexual significance. One I saw a fan from India: The panaches were carved to look like hooded cobras about to strike the naked beauty who, stretched out across the mount, lay sleeping. That was a beautiful fan.

–Earlier you referred to the three parts of the person. Name these.

–The head, the trunk, and the limbs.

–Exactly so. Please continue.

–Little mirrors may be glued to the fan so that one may admire oneself and dazzle others. It may be pierced with windows of mica or studded with gems. A telescopic lens may be attached to the summit of a panache; such a fan is useful at the heater. The Comtesse Gimblette owns a fan made of a solid piece of silver cut in the form of a heart and engraved with poetry:

Everything

Is to your taste

You snap up the world

With haste!

A red fan is a symbol of love; a black one, of death, of course.

–When the fan in question–the one found in the locked chamber at La Coste–was ordered, what did Sade say, exactly?

–He came into the atelier looking very dapper, and he said: “I want to order a pornographic ventilabrum!” And he burst out laughing. I said: “I understand ‘pornographic,’ monsieur, but “ventilabrum’?” “A flabellum!” he cried, laughing even more. “With a scene of flagellation.” “I can paint it on a fan,” I said, somewhat out of patience with him, although I have to admit I found him perfectly charming, “on velvet or on velum, and I can do you a vernis Martin–” This caused him to double over with hilarity. “Do me!” he cried. “Do me, you seductive, adorable fan-maker, a vernis Martin as best you can and as quickly as you can, and I will be your eternal servant.” “You do me too much honor,” I replied. Then I took down his order and asked for an advance to buy the ivory. (Because of the guild regulations, I purchase the skeletons from another craftsman.) Sade wanted a swanskin mount set to ivory–which he wanted very fine.

–Meaning?
–The ivory of domesticated elephants is brittle because the animals eat too much salt. Wild ivory is denser, far more beautiful and more expensive, too. For pierced work it cannot be surpassed. Then the mount needed thin slices of ivory cut into ovals for the faces, les fesses, the breasts…

–This request was unusual?

–I have received stranger requests, citizen.

–Continue.

–The slivers of ivory, no bigger than a fingernail, give beauty and interest to swanskin and velum–as does mother-of-pearl. I am sometimes able to procure these decorative elements for a fair price from a maker of buttons and belt buckles because I have an arrangement with him.

–Describe this arrangement.

–I paint his buttons.

–Continue.

–The making of buckles and buttons is not wasteful; nonetheless, there is always something left over, no matter the industry. I also use scraps to embellish the panaches–not where the fingers hold the fan, because over time the skin’s heat causes even the best paste to soften. But farther up, the pieces hold so fast no one has ever complained.

–And this is the paste that was used to fix the six wafers to the upper section of the…mount?

–The same. Although I diluted it, as the wafers were so fragile.

–The entire fan is fragile.

–So I told Sade. He said it did not matter. The fan was an amusement. A gift for a whore.

–Some would call it blasphemy. Painting licentious acts, including sodomy, on the body of Christ.

–We are no more living beneath the boot of the Catholic Church, citizen. I never was a practicing Catholic. Like the paste that holds them to the fan, the wafers are made of flour and water. They are of human manufacture, and nothing can convince me of their sacredness.

–Your association with a notorious libertine and public enemy is under question today. Personally, I don’t give a fig for blasphemy, although I believe there is not place in the Revolution for sodomites. But now, before we waste any more time, will you describe for the Comite the scenes painted on the fan. [The fan, in possession of the Comite de Surveillance de la Commune de Paris, is handed to her.] Is this the fan you made for Sade?

–Of course it is. [She examines fan, briefly.] It is a convention to paint figures and scenes within cartouches placed against a plain background or, perhaps, a background decorated with a discreet pattern of stars, or hearts, or even eyes–as I have done here. In this case there are two sets of cartouches: the six painted wafers, well varnished, at the top, and the three large, isolated scenes beneath–three being the classic number.

–And now describe for the Comite the scenes.

–There is a spaniel.

–The girl is naked.

–All the girls are naked, as are all the gentlemen. Except for the Peeping Tom hiding just outside the window.

–And the spaniel.

–He is dressed in a little vest, and he carries a whip in his teeth.

–His master’s whip?

–His master’s whip.

–And the…master is in the picture, too?

–Yes! Smack in the middle. It is a portrait of Sade with an enormous erection!

–As specified in the agreement?

–Exactly. “Have it point to the right!” he said. “Because if I could fuck God right in the eye, I would.” And he laughed. “Point it right for Hell,” he said. So I did.

–The Comite is curious to know about your continued service to the Marquis de Sade.

–I paint pictures for him, and I–

–What is the nature of these pictures? Why is he wanting pictures?

–Because he is in prison! He has nothing before his eyes but the guillotine! All day he has nothing to occupy his mind but executions, and all night nothing but his own thoughts.

–Explosive thoughts.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yes, she’s even good in that horrible film based on ‘Frisk’. Every time I buy a new bookshelf thinking that I’ll then be okay for a while, it gets filled to the brim with a week. Urgh. You/love picked another of my faves too. Love aka the perfect escort meeting love aka the perfect client, G. ** James, Morning from central France. So far my Monday has been waking, drinking lots of coffee, checking email, and diving into here. My impression is that it’s A-okay to read all the p.s./comments and respond to anything should sees fit to. The escorts posts appear once monthly in the middle of the month. There’s also a somewhat more confrontational monthly slaves post that appears at the end of the month. I think it’s only logical that self-identifying gay or straight guys are not in fact a billion percent locked into those categories, but who knows really. Montmartre is a fun word to pronounce because if you don’t speak French it’s hard to pronounce correctly. And it is pretty in the winter. The Paris sewer museum is kind of cool. A bit overly gentrified, but beggars can’t be choosers. I have not read ‘Portrait of an Englishman in His Chateau’, but I’m assuming I should? Actually, some of the best literary critics couldn’t write good fiction themselves even with guns to their heads. The French call hot chocolate ‘chocolat chaud’, which sounds so much fancier, at least when you don’t speak French. Someone told me where the banner gif came from, and I don’t remember. I just found it randomly without a credit. Your comments are clearly the length they need to be, and that’s all that counts. I hope your Monday makes Cloudflare your bitch. ** Bill, Haha, yes, I chose its descriptor wisely. The description of your gig is irresistible. But not as irresistible as the thang itself no doubt. ** jay, It’s a good film: ‘Amateur’. Nora Ephron … I just checked, and I have never seen any of her films. Dare I test her? That amateur pornographer’s stuff does translate as pretty funny, at least in your language use. Oh, it’s a Hideo Kojima work. Hm, maybe I did see it in some form and have forgotten. I’ll check, or check it out if I haven’t, or, I guess, revisit it if I have. I definitely like his stuff. So, you watched him play or cards or did you get a little hands-on too? This weekend I warmed up my Switch after a long, long time and played a video game for most of its hours. ‘Luigi’s Mansion 3’. Old game, but I had it on hand and never cracked it, so … ** Stella maris, Hi, Stella! So sorry about your complicated birthday, but you sound okay now. I love Musso & Frank. I always get Welsh Rarebit and mashed potatoes and peas and scoop out a crater in the mashed potatoes and put the peas in it. Highly recommended. I haven’t been to Bellwether either, but it does seem like it’s the venue du jour. The new Spaceland or something. I look forward to seeing your stuff when you and it are ready. It’s true about the name thing. There’s a poet who comments here occasionally who’s real, given name is Huckleberry Shelf. A name for which greatness is a given. ** Tyler Ookami, Hi, T. Dance sessions, interesting. I found a ballet dancer sex slave recently who’s an upcoming post. Spoiler alert: His only ‘review’ is from a sadist guy who got off by ordering him to execute a perfect fouetté. That domme you met sounds pretty unusually interesting. Wow, I wish I could introduce her to the ballet slave. I was really into butoh for a while. The choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones who I collaborated with a lot in the 80s worked with ‘contact improvisation’ style movement. I don’t believe any of the theater things Ive done are online in full length versions. I could hook you up with a quite good filmed version of one piece of mine and Gisele Vienne’s, ‘Jerk’. If you want to write to me — [email protected] — I can send you a link. I looked around this weekend and saw nary a single individual wearing baggy bell bottom pants, but … ** _Black_Acrylic, Selfie with the hat? Markys is better maybe, I think? Hm. ** Uday, Hey. Happy … Monday. Enjoy your rest. Uh, I’m still coffeeing and vague minded so I’ll have to be boring and say there would need to be great amusement park wherever the character goes. But I know that’s boring and predictable. If you want to watch a really good Parker Posey movie, I would recommend ‘Waiting for Guffman’. My weekend, as I said somewhere above, was mostly taken up playing a video game, and so it was a fine weekend. ** Dom Lyne, Hi, Dom! Stuff’s mostly good with me, push comes to shove. Ha, that title makes me almost want to make a new gif novel. Nice. Should be interesting with your dad at the very least. Congrats on finishing your novel! And with such a healthy length. And, cool, I’ll go scope out the Rebel Satori line-up. I’ve been okay. Spent a month in the States, did a reading in NYC, did the cast & crew screening of our film in LA plus saw a lot of haunted houses. That was great. Hugs snd bisous right back to you. ** Steve, Obviously so sorry about the situation with your parents. I hope the health care aid will ease your mind. I haven’t seen ‘Terrifier 3’, but I am tempted. I’ll expect only what you prioritise about it when I do. Thanks. ** Måns BT, Felicitations, Måns! I can recommend the Christopher Guest films she’s in. Wow, that really is an amazing poem idea. Monumental literally and figuratively. I hope that pans out. And the collection follows. Great! Using an unfamilar voice is the best. I still sort of feel that way about making films. I’ve mostly just been seeing friends and films and this and that. And still trying to solve the external problems besetting our film. I’ve been okay. Winter’s approach is a total boon. Paris is putting on its Xmas drag as I type, and it never looks better. xo, a guy who wants to eat a deep dish pizza in a city where such a thing does not exist. ** Justin D, Hey, hey to you! I think my fave PP films are ‘Waiting for Guffman’ and ‘Best in Show’ I think maybe probably. My weekend was spent inside a video game after having not played videogames for gosh, a couple of years, so it was a relatively excellent weekend, thanks. ** Dev, Dev! Holy moly, you conquered the Cloudflare monster! I was worried that it might have exiled you forever. Excellent! I don’t know the Skeleton House in NO, but you can bet I’ll find out what I can about it. Hooray for your daughter, if you don’t mind me rooting her on. I’ve been vegetarian for the vast majority of my life, and I’m in tiptop shape for a dude my age, so she’ll be fine. How have you been? What have been doing this whole time? You don’t need to tell me every detail, but does anything particularly stick in your memory? So great to see you! ** Okay. Today the blog aims its spotlight at a very interesting novel by Rikki Ducornet that I suggest you look into. Trivia: Rikki Ducornet is the ‘Rikki’ in ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ by Steely Dan. See you tomorrow.

* (restored/updated)

 

‘Parker Posey’s Wikipedia page is severely deficient. In the late nineties, after starring in dozens of independent films, she was given the label “Queen of the Indies” by Time magazine, and that appears to be her only legacy. But in the two decades since her début, Posey has cemented herself as the greatest character actress of the last few decades. I was reminded of this last week, when a promotional video for the Primetime Emmys was released on YouTube. In the video, Posey plays an eccentric acting teacher named Jan (Just Act Naturally), who teaches a master class on Emmy acceptance speeches. Jan, who is invariably dressed like some kind of gypsy—all bell sleeves and costume jewelry—floats around her studio leading her students through vocal warmups, physical exercises, and theatre games. The video is something of an homage to Posey’s particular craft, even as she pokes fun at it.

‘Over the span of her long career, Posey has always played characters you couldn’t take your eyes off of, and not just because she was and continues to be outrageously good-looking. In 1993, she was Darla Marks, a bitchy high-school senior and self-proclaimed “head girl” in the cult classic Dazed and Confused. In an improvised character interview for the movie, Posey waxes pitch-perfectly for three and a half minutes on “the high school, which I love, I can’t stand it.” In 1995’s Party Girl, she played a city girl-turned-librarian who embraces the Dewey Decimal system with aplomb. That same year, in Drunks, she performed another master monologue, and in Noah Baumbach’s Kicking and Screaming, she was Miami, a college senior fed up with her recently graduated boyfriend’s ennui. In Christopher Guest’s Best in Show, she played Meg Swan, one half of what is perhaps one of the best lampoons of a yuppie, J.Crew-wearing, Starbucks-drinking couple ever committed to film. Every line she delivers feels spontaneous, but not insincere.

‘Posey grew up in Mississippi and retains a beguiling southern vocal mannerism—less a drawl than a stretching of her vowels—that she brings, in varying degrees, to every one of her characters. This combined with her almost sing-songy head voice can make many of her characters sound almost vacuous. But it is this delivery that makes her a theatrical genius. Posey appears practically unconcerned with what her characters are saying, and wholly focussed on how they’re saying it. Her character studies are all the more refreshing for never having been repeated (as opposed to those of, say, Seth MacFarlane). Recently, Posey has made some unforgettable guest appearances on television, including a turn as one of Louis C.K.’s love interests on his FX show, Louie. Liz is a bookstore clerk full of intrigue and red flags—one bartender recognizes and refuses to serve her. She and Louis go on a magical date that includes vintage dress shopping and sucking down herring at Russ and Daughters, but ultimately turns very sour; Posey’s execution is both hilarious and haunting. But if I had to pick a single role of Posey’s that exemplifies the breadth of her talent, it would be the aspiring actress Libby Mae Brown, who delivers an audition monologue in Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman in a scene that was not even used in the film. It is a masterpiece of acting, at once poignant and funny, for four and a half flawless minutes. It takes a phenomenal actress to play such a convincingly bad one. How does she do it? She just acts, naturally.’ — The New Yorker

 

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Stills

 

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Further

Parker Posey @ IMDb
Parker Posey Website
‘Parker Posey’s 10 Best Performances: From ‘Party Girl’ to ‘Josie and the Pussycats”
‘Parker Posey: Louie’s a creep!’
‘An Ode To Parker Posey: ’90s Indie Queen’
Interview: Parker Posey
Parker Posey interviewed @ INDEX Magazine
The Parker Posey Film Festival
‘It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s . . . Parker Posey!’
ROCTAKON’S PARKER POSEY MIXTAPE
‘Parker Posey: Film Economics and Funny Girls’
Fuck Yeah Parker Posey!
‘Parker Posey undergoes surgery after breaking her wrist’
‘Parker Posey joins the cast of Woody Allen’s next film’
‘Parker Posey Revisits Her Top-Five Favorite Performances’
‘Live from Sundance: A GQ&A; with Parker Posey’
Parker Posey Fan Club

 

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Extras

Richard Linklater interviewed by Parker Posey

Parker Posey on Rosie O’Donnell (1997)

Parker Posey Loves Pottery

Parker Posey interviewed by Conan O’Brien

 

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Parker Posey’s Diary from the Set of SubUrbia

 

From: Bosepud

Subj: intro.

To: MINDTHEGAP

Sent on: MAC

My intro:

Hi, this is Parker Posey and this is my journal for Suburbia. It’s Richard Linklaters new film, written by Eric Bogosian. Read about what Really happens on movie sets. Discover the genius of Rick Linklater! And get to know the members of the cast! Know the scandal before everyone else does!

Or whatever. I mean, you can put anything, I don’t care.

‘kay, rust mun!

parker

by Parker Posey

*

Date: Mon, Mar 25, 1996 8:33 PM EDT

From: Bosepud

Subj: PP’s S on S

To: MINDTHEGAP

Sent on: MAC

Day 1

I’ve just arrived in Austin to start a 2 week rehearsal on Richard “Rick” Linklater’s (Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise) new film SubUrbia. It’s written by Eric Bagosian, and was originally a Play staged for the theater in New York at The Lincoln Center.

*****I auditioned for the play, was up for the lead, “Sooze”, and was interrupted during a line of my dialog on the second page (of a 10 pg. audition piece), by the director, who said to me, “That’s enough, thank you.” I told him, “No, Thank YOU” and left….of course.****I wonder if he did this to all the actors, and if maybe if I hadn’t of left, if I woulda gotten the part. Different directors work in different ways. I dunno. It’s something I Still think about, wonder about…..contemplate.

A week ago, the whole cast and Rick and Eric got together to read the script 4 times in Los Angeles. There’s really nothing more exciting than hearing a piece of Work read over and over and over and over again. When I slept at night in the Hotel, the Whole script filled my being, and rang in my ears like a silver Bell bought at Tiffany’s. It Echoed through me, is what I mean. By the fourth read threw I was already hearing its essense, its meaning, its story, and its plot.

Just to be really honest for a second, I must admit (and am not ashamed) that I was a little Sad that I couldn’t Highlight as many lines as all the other actors. Giovanni and Aimee and Nicky and Jace, and Steve, and Dina and Ajay ALL have more Lines than I do. Nicky’s highlighter marker ran out during one of his monolouges, and I coulda sworn he threw a Look to me, like, “You really should let me use YOUR highlighter PARKER.” But maybe I was being paranoid. I dunno. This sort of thing always happens to me when I get Immersed in a Role. I “lose” myself. I start thinking like my character and I get confused, as to which thoughts are mine, and which thoughts are Hers. Anyway. Back to me for a second: There are no Small Parts, just Small Actors. And I will be so good in the role of “Erica”.

Hm…

I just realized something….I bet Erica, is Eric’s favorite part, since his name is Eric, and my name is Erica.

Hm…

…..I will save that little tid bit for when I want a close up….

I should talk about the Film, what it’s about. Um….It takes place in Suburbia, U.S.A., and Me and Jace Bartok (“Pony”) come to town ’cause Pony’s playing a concert in his old home town…”suburbia”. Pony was friends with all these losers in Highschool: Giovanni Ribisi “Jeff”, Steve Zahn “Buff”, Aimee “Sooze”, Nicky Katz “Tim”, and Dina Spivy “Bee-Bee”, and then there’s Ajay “Nazeer” who owns the convenient store that they all hang out by. That’s like their Thing. They hang out in front of a Convenient Store, ’cause it’s…convenient. And um….I play Pony’s publicist, Erica. I’m from Bel-Air, Hollywood, and my dad (I’ve named him “John”) is rich, and I shop at all the best stores. There’s more to me, Erica, that meets the eye, and everyone thinks Erica’s really Great and Happy, but deep down, she’s a little girl. She’s fragile. You know, like um…a Hooker with a Heart of Gold…that dichotomy…I think those parts are always the best…and So Does the Academy by the way….3 actresses played hookers, and are up for an Academy Award! Obviously the most winning part for an actress to portray!

Um….

Yeah! Am I right or what?!

So….Anyway. Um….Rehearsals start tomorrow, and it’s gonna take me hours to fall asleep tonight, ’cause I’m so excited!!!!!!! I will fall asleep to one of the tapes I made for my character. (In a couple of weeks I will fall asleep to the tape I made for the film.) It’s all about the process now. About Character.

I ran into Aimee (the lead, “Sooze”) in the elevator and we Hugged like sisters. And Giovanni hugged me too. And Nicky and Jace and Ajay also hugged me. Steve and Dina aren’t here yet, but when they do get here, I’m sure we’ll Hug. I hugged Rick the longest ’cause we’ve worked together before (Dazed and Confused). It’s um….you know…..we’re all becoming a family. We will all get so close. Spend Hours in some Bar talking about the film. We will all have personal jokes by next week, and I’m sure someone will be fooling around and in love with someone else by the weekend. Personally I’M in love the WORK. That’s just me, though. We’ll all have our processes of working. Our means to get into character.

I have to go and figure out what I’m gonna wear for the first day of rehearsal! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t stand it! I’m so excited!!!!!

“Stay gold”, a quote by another character in a film named Pony. Pony Boy from The Outsiders.

(read the rest)

 

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28 of Parker Posey’s 108 roles

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Richard Linklater Dazed and Confused (1993)
‘Richard Linklater’s 1993 masterpiece gave breakout roles to a number of actors, and while Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey often get the most “look at them when” attention, Posey’s performance as the fantastically bitchy Darla Marks rivals them for scene-stealing indelibility. Introduced verbally abusing incoming freshman girls, Darla throws herself into Lee High School’s cruel initiation rites, acting less like an upperclassman and more like a drill sergeant. Yet there’s something perversely entertaining in the sadistic glee she takes in pushing people around, every chomp of gum and shout of “freshman bitches” showing someone who’s acting not out of insecurity, but of pure unadulterated confidence and desire for queen bee status.’ — Indiewire

Excerpt

Excerpt

Parker Posey – improvised character interview

 

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Hal Hartley Amateur (1994)
‘Isabelle is an ex-nun waiting for her special mission from God. In the meantime, she is making a living writing pornography. She meets Thomas, a sweet, confused amnesiac who cannot remember that he used to be a vicious pornographer, responsible for turning his young wife, Sofia, into the world’s most notorious porn queen. Sofia’s on the run, convinced she’s killed him. Together, Isabelle and Thomas set out to discover his past, a past waiting to catch up with him. This is one of those movies that Parker just makes a slight appearance in, but as usual, it’s amusing none-the-less.’ — parkerposey.org

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Nora Ephron Mixed Nuts (1994)
‘Nora Ephron, once known as an expert script doctor, could have used a little doctoring herself: MIXED NUTS is a relentlessly hectic, poorly structured farce that falls embarrassingly flat. All the comedy here comes at the expense of the characters, reflecting a pronounced cruel streak in Ephron’s work for the screen. When this tendency is tempered with a healthy dose of humanism, as in her script for the derivative yet solidly entertaining WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, the problem is less pronounced. But when it involves turning an ex-husband into a philandering ogre, as in HEARTBURN, or making a character unsympathetic just by giving her a laugh like a pig rooting for truffles, as in SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, it’s simply mean. One of the few highlight is a brief scene featuring the then unknown Parker Posey as a wicked out rollerblader’. — TV Guide

Trailer

 

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Daisy von Scherler Mayer Party Girl (1995)
‘While the film is largely beloved as a screwball comedy, in retrospect Posey’s Mary is much more surprising and layered than she even needed to be for the movie to be a success. She doesn’t party as a way of self-medication or clichéd cry for help – she enjoys every moment of her existence, and, even in the end, never shows remorse for who she is, despite discovering her calling as a librarian. While Posey says that she didn’t improvise any of the film and gives full credit to the script, it is easy to see how she was able to carry such a role with such finesse. Posey hasn’t seen the movie since its release, because she doesn’t like to watch herself. Yet the experiences of filming, from “wanting to take [her] eyeballs out and soak them in cold water” from exhaustion to going out dancing with the cast and crew, seem clear as day in her mind. She can remember what it felt like to shoot the climactic Middle Eastern-themed party scene, when she would take 15-minute naps with her co-stars and wear a ten-pound ball of hair on her head, but she can barely recall whether all of this happened before or after she filmed Dazed and Confused.’ — Flavorwire

the entire film

 

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Peter Cohn Drunks (1995)
‘For this groundbreaking 1996 production, an Oscar winner, two Oscar nominees and group of highly regarded major film actors gathered in a church basement in New York City to portray a group of alcoholics at an AA meeting. The stars include Richard Lewis (in his first dramatic lead), Faye Dunaway, Dianne Wiest, Parker Posey. “Drunks” also features the late Spalding Gray and Howard Rollins. Rounding out the cast are the young Calista Flockhart and Sam Rockwell. The New York Times called it “superbly realized.” The Boston Herald critic praised the film as “a powerhouse of drama, humor and heart.”‘ — New Day Films

Excerpt

 

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Noah Baumbach Kicking and Screaming (1995)
‘Posey’s next major role isn’t too far removed from Darla in terms of confidence: Miami is just as certain of herself and where she belongs, and she’s quick to show her irritation at her boyfriend Skippy (Jason Wiles) and his friends’ pretensions. But Miami is far more vulnerable, sad that she’s cheated on Skippy and that he’s used her as an excuse to delay moving forward with his life. Her breakup with Skippy, in which years’ worth of frustration over his group’s self-absorption comes through, is the wakeup call that Skippy won’t take seriously. And yet even as she expresses that she can’t stand him, she can’t help but laugh at his goofiness during the breakup, bringing a mixture of anger and affection that few actresses could accomplish.’ — Indiewire

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Gregg Araki The Doom Generation (1995)
‘The opening credit refers to this as “A Heterosexual Movie by Gregg Araki,” and while fans may recognize the cynicism, this certainly qualifies as the director’s most het-friendly movie to date. Set pieces at convenience stores, cheap motels, and in the wide-open American spaces will be familiar to straight audiences of all backgrounds. Cameos by the likes of Perry Farrell, Parker Posey and Heidi Fleiss will delight hipsters, and the soundtrack is straight out of a Lollapalooza show. Rose McGowan plays Amy Blue, whose breasts are showcased in the great Hollywood tradition, while the ass shots of her male co-stars are kept to a minimum. And when Jonathon Schaech, as Xavier Red, starts licking his own semen off his hand after masturbating, well, whoops, I guess he’s just kind of weird.’ — deep focus

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Todd Verow Frisk (1995)
‘Aiming to explore the extremities of racial and sexual fetishism in the gay world, Frisk exhibits a huge gap between its provocative intent and weak execution level.’ — Emmanuel Levy

 

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Julian Schnabel Basquiat (1996)
‘Schnabel isn’t the first artist to become a filmmaker: Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Cocteau, Fritz Lang, Andy Warhol and David Lynch all painted or designed, and Schnabel shares with them a talent for creating a rich, defining physical context. Also, by shooting his film in the galleries and locales where Basquiat made his art, and using actors who understand the cool, cutting sophistication of the art world, he brings a ring of authenticity to Basquiat. We see David Bowie playing Basquiat’s mentor Andy Warhol (he actually wears Warhol’s wigs and glasses), Michael Wincott as art critic Rene Ricard, Elina Lowensohn and Parker Posey as gallery owners Annina Nosei and Mary Boone, Dennis Hopper as Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger and Gary Oldman and Courtney Love playing fictitious amalgams of real-life characters.’ — NYSWI

Excerpt

 

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Christopher Guest Waiting For Guffman (1996)
‘Director Christopher Guest established a great troupe of regular players for Waiting for Guffman, including Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy and Bob Balaban. Posey became another recurring player in Guest’s films, and she made a terrific impression with her first outing here as a spacey Dairy Queen waitress turned spacey community theater actress. Her audition scene is a marvel of awkward comedy as she “seductively” sings “Teacher’s Pet” out of tune. Her real showcase, though, is her dazed performance of the goofy love song “Penny for Your Thoughts” with Guest’s effeminate Corky St. Clair, with both throwing themselves into their show as much as possible without generating a single spark.’ — Indiewire

Excerpt

Deleted scene

 

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Richard Linklater SubUrbia (1996)
‘Bursting at the seems with subversive speech as if it were the evil-twin devil to Dazed and Confused’s angelic-innocence, SubUrbia’s story of jaded suburbanites slumming and of rebelliousness run amok is ultimately only as engaging as the acting is effective. This is to say that when you have the likes of Geovanni Ribisi, Steve Zahn, Nicky Katt, Parker Posey, each of them at youthful, thirsty stages in their blossoming careers, all of them freed up by that ever-so relaxed Linklater non-“in your face” use of the camera — Well I guarantee you, SubUrbia acts as true seamless marriage between that always-hoped-for trifecta of filmmaking aces: Script, performance, and direction. Drifting off topic myself, I have to just add that at this point in her career, not only is Parker Posey consistently fantastic and off-kilter in everything she does, but Posey was also still a few years away from really exploding onto the scene as an indie ‘it’ actress and mainstream character-actor. However, that was indeed “then” and now when I think of Parker Posey, the last thing I can recall is Scream 3 — No wait, Superman Returns… anyway you get what I’m alluding to, but I digress — Speaking of character-actors, Ribisi and Zahn help SubUrbia soar to disenchanted heights as they effortlessly emote and personify the epitome of slacker embodiment.’ — Pretty Clever Films

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Mark Waters The House of Yes (1997)
‘At the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Harvey Weinstein, at the time still the boss of Miramax, was so smitten with this black comedy about a disturbed young woman (Parker Posey) who thinks she’s Jackie Kennedy that he paid $2 million for the distribution rights. Posey (who was also in town supporting Clockwatchers) won special recognition for her performance. Audiences, however, responded to House of Yes with a resounding NO. The movie grossed $617,403 in theaters.’ — Entertainment Weekly

Excerpt

 

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Jill Sprecher Clockwatchers (1997)
‘Posey co-starred in yet another ensemble comedy with this Office Space precursor tracking four office temps (Posey, Toni Collette, Lisa Kudrow, Alanna Ubach) as they pass the time in a deadening job. As the ringleader of the temps, Posey swings from deadpan contempt to outright fury and pain when she’s wrongfully terminated. “How can you fire me? You don’t even know my name!” Her co-stars are all solid, but Posey becomes the de facto voice of anyone who’s ever had to deal with a corporate drudgery that doesn’t even bother to welcome them into their stifling environment.’ — Indiewire

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

 

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Hal Hartley Henry Fool (1997)
‘Posey had worked with Hal Hartley before in a smaller capacity in Amateur and Flirt, but she created one of her most indelible characters in 1997 with Hartley’s Henry Fool. Playing the nymphomaniac sister of unassuming Simon Grim (James Urbaniak) and lover to Thomas Jay Ryan’s gregarious titular hero, Posey’s deadpan charm fitting in perfectly with Hartley’s deliberately mannered dialogue. Posey returned to the character in the sequel Fay Grim, an infinitely less amusing sequel which nonetheless gave Posey a rare lead role and a chance to play Fay both at her most exasperated and her most grounded. Posey appears as Fay Grim again in the third film in the series, Ned Rifle.’ — Indiewire

Excerpt

 

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Nora Ephron You’ve Got Mail (1998)
‘Memorable lines: “If I ever get out of here, I’m having my eyes lasered.” “I use a wonderful over-the-counter drug, Ultradorm. Don’t take the whole thing, just half, and you will wake up without even the tiniest hangover.” What made the role great: Patricia is completely clueless, self-centered, and oddly ruthless. She wears all black, and tends to say exactly the wrong thing at the worst time. It’s a type of New Yorker only Parker could play.’ — buzzed

Excerpt

 

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Wes Craven Scream 3 (2000)
‘“You! Like I’m ever going to win an award playing you,” Jennifer Jolie yells at Gale Weathers in the third and most self-referential (and laughable) edition of the “Scream” series. Jolie (played by Parker Posey) is an actor playing Weathers (played by Courteney Cox) in “Stab 3,” the movie within a movie, which serves as the setting for the murders of Scream 3, the series’ then-final chapter. It is meta. With streaky blond highlights, Posey looks like a trashy version of Cox’s streaky red days in the first Scream. The hair is almost as loud as Posey, who speaks with a shrill voice and manic energy. As an actor haunted by a masked murderer, Jolie initially lets terror consume her in the funniest of ways. “Where! Nancy Drew wants to know where,” she screams when she gets one too many questions from her onscreen counterpart about a previous murder. With her hair twisted up into two Björk-like balls and a cigarette shaking between her fingers, she’s as funny as she is frightened.’ — backstage.com

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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Christopher Guest Best in Show (2000)
‘We worked with real dog show competitors. So they were around on set when we were filming. So the people in the background that you see are real dog show people. So we would do a take and then Chris [Guest] would say, do you want a recap of how to brush the dog. I remember he brought over a professional groomer. She came over right before a take and she criticized our dog. She said, the coat’s all wrong, this dog would never compete. The color’s all wrong. And we’re like, we’re about to shoot. I love a backstage look at any kind of show. So this kind of thing is heaven for me. I have a Bichon Poodle Maltese.’ — Parker Posey

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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Christopher Guest A Mighty Wind (2003)
‘The occasion for the reunion in A Mighty Wind is a memorial tribute to folk impresario Irving Steinbloom, arranged by his pathologically neat son Jonathan (Bob Balaban). As the Folksmen, a middling group with one minor sixties hit, Michael McKean, Guest, and Harry Shearer are the image of superannuated hippiedom: With his head shaved and a thick beard outlining his jaw, Shearer looks like a fey Quaker; Guest, also bald down the middle, has a dome that’s tufted on both sides and a high, singsong quaver in his voice that works especially well for ballads about the Spanish Civil War. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the Folksmen are the New Main Street Singers—a screechingly cheery and color-coordinated spinoff of the original Main Street Singers—featuring John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, and Parker Posey. They’re like every group you’ve ever avoided while visiting a large amusement park. Of course, in the great all-American tradition, their toothpaste-commercial uplift camouflages weirdness: For starters, Lynch’s character is proud of her past as a porno queen and cultivates her own religion based on the “vibratory power of color.”’ — New York Magazine

Excerpt

Excerpt

 

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David S. Goyer Blade: Trinity (2004)
‘It’s a bit surprising to see you playing a villain in an action flick. I know, right? PP: I almost didn’t go in for the audition. I thought, They’ll want a model, someone with a rack. So what persuaded you to do it? PP: Well, I really liked them. And I felt comfortable talking about my ideas for the character, though a lot of them weren’t executed in the movie. For example? PP: Like, this character’s been alive for 400 years, right? So how would she dress? I mean, isn’t she bored? So I said, “Can we have her in a geisha outfit? A nun outfit? Can she dress like a cavewoman?” In the film, you seem to be channeling a couple of people. Were you mimicking any one in particular? PP: Totally. There’s Bette Davis. Some Nosferatu. I rented all those old F. W. Murnau films, and old vampire movies like The Vampire Lovers. I really liked playing a vampire. Their hunger is insatiable. Even when they eat someone, it’s never enough. They’re like addicts. So that was fun.’ — New York Magazine

Montage of Posey’s scenes

 

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Bryan Singer Superman Returns (2006)
‘I was doing this play. I was doing Hurley Burley for six months, you get a call like “They’re interested in you for Superman!” Well, okay… let ’em figure it out. And maybe I’ll get cast, you know, we’ll see. And um, can I read the script? “No.” Okay, well… is it good? I didn’t see X-Men. I usually don’t see these kinds of movies. But gosh, I hope it’s good, you know — it’s Superman. I got the part and I said, “Am I gonna be able to read it?” you know, to do it? I Googled “Kitty and Superman” and there was a Kitty somewhere in the Superman world. She extracted, like, green energy from plants and solar energy from the sun and she would use this power in… not a good way. And Superman helped her kind of use her powers for good at one point. It was like… just like Google, you know? Very abstract. Like wow, maybe I’ll get to have super powers. (laughter) I’ll have Chris Lee calling me and I’ll be like “Does she extract energy from the sun?!” (laughter). So they literally fly someone from Australia to deliver the script. And I read it at Cafe Mogador in the East Village in New York and yeah, that was like a movie in and of itself. It had this energy, just this (makes a whooshing noise). Already the world was being created. It’s a very… big, majestic movie. And I read it and I was like, “Thank god.” I thought it was really, really good. She was written a little more villainous, like a conscious villain, a baddie, like a bad girl? But I got away with not doing that.’ — Parker Posey

Trailer

 

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Hal Hartley Fay Grim (2006)
‘Hal Hartley’s Fay Grim stars Parker Posey and Jeff Goldblum in a search for a mysterious terrorist named Henry Fool. This man, we learn, has been involved in intrigues involving Chile, Iraq, Israel, France, Germany, Russia, England, China and the Vatican (where the pope “threw a chair at him”). All in the last seven years. We feel deliberately distanced from the film. It is not so much an exercise in style as an exercise in search of a style. The story doesn’t involve us because we can’t follow it, and we doubt if the characters can, either. But am I criticizing Hartley, a leading indie filmmaker, for not making a more conventional thriller, with more chases and action scenes? Not at all. I am criticizing him for failing to figure out what he wanted to do instead, and delivering a film that is tortured in its attempt at cleverness, and plays endlessly. Posey and Goldblum labor at their characters, and are often fun to watch. But in the absence of a screenplay that engages them, they have to fall back on their familiar personalities and quirks. They bring more to the movie than it brings to them.’ — Roger Ebert

Trailer

Excerpt

 

___________________
Zoe Cassavetes Broken English (2007)
‘Parker Posey again proves her necessity to the indie film world with her complicated performance in Zoe Cassavetes’ feature debut. Demonstrating that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the screenwriter-director has delivered a well-observed film boasting highly realistic performances and dialogue, if not plot elements. But it’s Posey’s fascinating portrayal of a thirtysomething Manhattan single woman looking for love that lifts the film above its “Sex and the City” predictabilities.’ — Frank Scheck

Trailer

Excerpt

 

_________________
Hal Hartley Ned Rifle (2014)
‘He came to me with some trepidations. I’ll never forget it. I was in my tiny apartment in Chelsea, standing in my kitchen. He said, “I’ve got this heavy part for you, would you be able to do it?” I was like, “Of course!” It was mythic, loaded. You know — a Fallstian fable. It seemed like the direction that Hal wanted to take had a weight to it. The material was really special and heavy — it had gravitas. We shot it very quickly. It was one of those 20-day shoots. Hal has a great wit. His style is like a forties film style in the present day mixed with the camera movement — his blocking feels a lot like dance in a way. I like working like that, being told where to move. His dialogue isn’t internalized; it’s external. There’s not a lot of thinking before you speak. The words just come out. It’s reactive.’ — Parker Posey

Trailer

 

_________________
Woody Allen Irrational Man (2015)
‘Posey recalled feeling good about her first meeting with Allen, before being cast. “They say if he’s three seconds, don’t worry about it – you could get the part,” she said. “I think Owen Wilson met him for, like, seven seconds and was cast in Midnight in Paris. I was in there for about three and a half minutes, which was a long time for him, and I heard after that he seemed very engaged.” Still, she wasn’t prepared for what would happen the following day: “I get a phone call from my manager and she says, ‘What are you doing today?’ I said, ‘I’m going to Trader Joe’s to get my snacks and then I’m making these pants with a friend. She goes, ‘Because Woody Allen’s assistant wants to know when a good time is to drop off the pages for his film.’ And I burst in tears. I just walked around in a daze. I’m in a really tough business, so I was overcome with emotion.”’ — The Guardian

Excerpt

Parker Posey on Woody Allen’s “Irrational Man”

 

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Woody Allen Cafe Society (2016)
‘That surreal time in the ’30s was inspiring to visit. Women seemed to come into their own in really elegant and offbeat ways. Woody doesn’t like showy wardrobe, so Suzy Benzinger, the costume designer, and I were surprised he liked the more over-the-top styles—like the Schiaparelli dress with the rat chasing the squirrels. I wore vintage pieces that happened to fit, and a few things were copied from original pieces. The wit in movies of that time period was fun to portray. Looking at pictures or interviews, you do see how differently people comported themselves, and the clothes are a big part of that attitude.’ — Architectural Digest

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Hernan Jimenez Elsewhere (2020)
‘The melancholy romance “Elsewhere” is like that endless home improvement project that starts with so much promise, but that your contractor never quite gets up the gumption to finish. That would be the perfect analogy, except “Elsewhere” doesn’t irritate you — exasperate yes — and doesn’t leave you feeling used and broke when all is said and done. The odd spark and eccentric touch — a character raising a family in a travel trailer — is lost in a lot of recycled bits and obvious gags, pitfalls or obstacles.’ — Roger Moore

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Irwin Allen, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless Lost in Space (2018–2021)
‘When Parker Posey was a kid, she set her alarm clock to the tune of Lost in Space. The actress recalled to The New York Times about “getting up at 5:30 in the morning to watch the static turn to color when the show came on at 6.” Little did she know that 50 years later, she’d be lost in space herself.

‘When Posey got the call to play the villainous Dr. Smith on the 2018 Netflix reboot of the hit sci-fi show, she almost didn’t believe it. “I was like, ‘What? Are you serious?’ It was shocking to me,” Posey told Den of Geek. She fondly remembered the character from her childhood. “I loved this character, Dr. Smith. He seemed so unique,” she said.

‘The new iteration of Lost in Space looks pretty different from the show Posey grew up with. It’s much more dramatic and less quippy than the old (in which Dr. Smith was played by Jonathan Harris). Producers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless told the Times they based the new Dr. Smith on the sly con man at the center of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Posey helped them shape this new Dr. Smith: “Parker allowed the Dr. Smith that you’re seeing to exist,” Sharpless said.’ — John DiLillo

Lost in Space | Meet Dr. Smith

Dr. Smith’s “Death”

 

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Ari Aster Beau Is Afraid (2023)
‘Aster’s film follows Beau, played by Joaquin Phoenix, on a paranoid and often head-spinning quest home to his overbearing mother. In Beau’s world, fear rules: a trip to the corner shop becomes a Bondian mission; having sex, Beau’s mother tells him, will result in his death upon completion. Posey plays Beau’s childhood friend and enduring love interest. She is, without giving too much away, very much a scene stealer in a movie ripe with climatic and comedic competition. After several years of taking on mostly television roles, the return to film and live performance has been exhilarating: “It’s like turning on your own jacuzzi jets!” Posey exclaims, as the waitress approaches.’ — Ashley Simpson

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Parker Posey On The Tragicomedy Of Her Beau Is Afraid Role

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Dude, happy slightly belated birthday celebratory noises! Liking that hat. I can imagine it suiting your noggin like the veritable glove. Enjoy parading about. I did not know Marks & Spencer originated in Leeds. I know it’s before your time, but did people really refer to them as Marks & Sparks? ** James, Hi. Yeah, I guess the escorts day is my blog at its most traditional. They’re real profiles, but I use some collaging and editing techniques to protect the real escorts’ identities. I think there’s a pretty big market for sex with straight guys, and I suspect the ‘straight’ ones are most just gay guys who think they can successfully fake being straight for an hour or two. But who knows? Come try Paris again one day when it’s not boiling hot. It’s a swell place, even or especially when you get away from the famous parts. I’m certainly not young, but even after absorbing decades of everything, there’s still a shitload of new things all over the place that make my eyes sparkle. I don’t speak French except very, very rudimentarily, so I’ve only read Rimbaud in translation, and I can highly recommend doing so. You can have it all: essays, fiction, poetry, … writing talent can be very promiscuous. Finishing is a tricky part. I think it’s more like giving up but happily. You’re right, it’s the actual weekend now. How did yours pan out? ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’ve long since run out of space for books, which doesn’t stop my accumulating, but I do find myself asking if I can be sent a pdf instead of an actual book quite a lot. My sense is that most things that are considered innocent fun have their roots in dark, unfun rituals. They just got gentrified over the years like everything else. But love repeats: licking my ass, easy, no worries, I already have enough of my own!, G. ** James Bennett, Hey, James. The world and the people in it are so random and being constantly refreshed, and I can’t see giving up all those unexpected possibilities for thoughts and ideas for something composed that has no expiration date. Or something. That introspection/absorbing combo is tricky to get in perfect balance, but I think it’s possible to see one’s response as a self-assigned essay in progress. Or something. Again. Great luck on the short fiction if you need any. I’m excited for you. And potentially for myself. Later. ** jay, Howdy, jay. There was something really interesting going on between Happy’s face and his decision to call himself Happy. Agreed, I mean with everything you wrote about that/him. Interesting, obviously, that you can study that stuff from a position of being on the inside of it. I never made porn, although I did go through a phase of hiring a lot of escorts years ago, mostly to study objectification for my writing. I always really wanted to make ‘the ultimate’ porn film, but then when Zac and I made our first film, ‘Like Cattle Towards Glow’ which was about sex and mimicked the structure of 70s/80s style porn videos, we ended up making it be about watching sexual desire being carried out without any attempt to make the film have an erotic effect, on purpose at least. Anyway, yeah, an area of great interest for me as well. No rambling, in other words. A Zelda game set in one room is an intriguing prospect, okay. I don’t know ‘Death Stranding’, but I’ll get on learning about it at least. Thanks. How was your weekend from the perspective of one who was presuming what it would be and the perspective of its actual survivor? ** Corey Heiferman, Hello there. Second time was the charm, luckily. Thanks, and I’m happy you were pulled in by Perconte’s films. So the modern dance scene is happening in Tel Aviv? It’s kind of blah here, from what I can tell. I knew Deborah Jowitt a little socially, yeah. She was a pip. And a very fine reviewer, of course. It’s about ballet, not modern dance, but Edwin Denby’s writings on dance are superb. I’m fairly good at project juggling, but one of them always needs to be in the center. I’ve not seen anyone wearing baggy bell bottomed pants, and I live right next to fashion central Rue St. Honore, so I wonder if that supposed trend is actually the case. I’ll look more closely today. Denny Fouts sounds like he needs further investigation, so I’ll do that. ** Charalampos/Corey Heiferman, Hi, wow. It took me a moment to realise that Corey hadn’t just suddenly radically changed his writing style for some reason. Hi, Charalampos. Mm, it’s been so long since I first read Schuyler that I don’t remember what I thought, but your first impression and thoughtful follow through seems right. I … don’t think I can explain his mystique, or at least in the p.s. I would need to really think about that. Ace that your mom loves Rhys! And she hasn’t even read Rhys’s best two novels (‘Good Morning, Midnight’, ‘After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie’, imo) yet. Good to see you! ** Steve, Harlem is my furthest north point too. Probably most New Yorkers’? I hope the support group helps, and even a lot. I don’t know if Martel is angling for French funds. A film needs to be French in some respect or in some part to qualify for government funds here. Enjoy the screening. Always great to have an opportunity to hear Lynne speak. Yes, slam means injecting meth. ** Lucas, Hi. Oh, I would be happy to give you a tour of my favorite bakeries and let them help you bulk up a bit. Few better ways to do that. I like the new collage. Victoire! Everyone, new collage by the mighty Lucas: here. Your ghost boy story idea is a great one, of course. My imagination is spinning off just from a glance at the idea. I would never think about the market when you write something. The unexpected can create new markets. And I don’t know that there really is a market for writing, other than ‘self-help’ and ‘spy’ and ‘famous people’s bios’ and ‘romance’ maybe. ** Justin D, Thanks, or thanks to them, or thanks to their and my collaboration, technically. I mostly watch documentaries these day, so I’ll look for ‘Sam Now’. Thank you, J. Weekend of high excellence to you. ** Bill, I think I only know ‘capeesh’ from really old crime movies. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a real flesh-and-blood person use that word. You’re doing gigs while you’re there? Awesome. What sort of gigs? I like Mark Bradford’s stuff too. I’ve met him a few times, and he seems to be a really terrific guy. Enjoy your next two far-away (from my perspective) days. ** Right. I thought you all deserved some relatively simple fun this weekend, so I restored and updated the blog’s old Parker Posey Day because, well, everybody likes Parker Posey, don’t they? Maybe you’ll prove me wrong. Anyway, that’s that, and I’ll see you back here on Monday.