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p.s. RIP Jonas Mekas. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. I haven’t seen ‘BlackKklansman’ yet, but it’s the only nominated film where, if it won, I would be happy. Great and generous thoughts on Eustache. ** Keatoul, I like that name. London was awesome. And I say that as not a giant fan of the city. Cool, new bloggage. Everyone, Keaton has put new stuff on his blog, and that’s always a trip more than worth taking. Take it. ** Sypha, Well, yeah. But by the time that there’s been time to think about anything in any depth, so few people there are interested in talking about it anymore. Thanks for the London wishes. It went really great, maybe the best screening we’ve had to date. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I had nice talk with Steven Cairns about you if you wonder why yours ears were burning on Wednesday night. He sends the warmest hi. Slow but sure progress sounds great, well, not at least when having to stand there in person waiting for it. The photo document looks really alluring. ** JM, Hi. I hope you enjoyed the pastry. I mean, well, duh, I guess. Got your email, and the rest is the immediate future! Wow, as someone who considers French cinema a Zeus head, that’s a very curious take. Not curious in any bad sense. ** Steve Erickson, I certainly agree with you. About the build up and 180. That used to be a British thing mainly. Well, on Facebook people’s screeds can go on and on. I don’t know about the other platforms. It obviously does have to do in part with the form of the site, the unspoken directive to post headlines and clickbait rather than essays, but I think the hair trigger venters and attention seekers are ultimately to blame. ‘Serenity’ just opened here, but it has a totally weird, completely different name that I can’t remember this morning. Everyone, Mr. Erickson has reviewed the new film ‘Serenity’ here, but adds, and I quote, ‘I feel kinder to the film now than I did when I wrote this immediately after watching it; I really respect the kind of leftfield but mainstream American cinema that it represents and which has almost entirely vanished, and ultimately the areas where it succeeds matter more than its flaws. ** Tyler, Hi, Tyler. Welcome. Well, I mean, sure about the Provincetown thing, but what kind of show? But in theory, yeah. ** Morgan M Page, Hi, Morgan! How cool that you came in here. It was really meeting you and selfie-ing with you. I wish we could have talked longer. Those situations are not geared to actual good talks. Hopefully another time. Thank you. And, obviously, hang out here and talk with me or anyone anytime you like. Take care. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Thanks. It was great, an amazing screening, really fantastic. And London itself was interesting enough. Ha ha. Maybe January is slow here too. I have to think about it, but yeah. There was nothing going on in London in the brief time we were there. We kept saying, What should we see, and everyone kept saying, I can’t think of anything. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. yeah, it went really well, thank you. Tuesday’ll be intense. Awfully glad you’re attending to your cough in the pro way. A lot done: *confetti*. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi, Corey. I saw ‘La Chienne’ so, so long ago that I barely even remember its barest bones. I remember when Renoir’s films were such a big deal, and now I almost never hear anyone mention them. It’s interesting. The puppets … oh, right. Huh. I’m going to remind myself to ask Gisele what she thinks. If there’s a puppet in something, she’ll know it. Thanks, and good day to ya. ** Right. I made a second one of these things for reasons lost to recent time. I hope you find it somewhere as pretty as I do. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Realized pretty immediately after writing it that my Eustache comment was way too concise and not expanded upon especially given the, yeah, curiosity of the take. I love a few of the giants…. you will never be able to take Duras or Rohmer or Bresson from my arms, and more recently I love the work you&Zac have done as well as Philippe Lesage’s stunner Les Demons (which I doubt you’ve come across, it’s a pretty small film about a kid growing up in the era of HIV while there’s also a rampant pedophile active in his town) which is one of my favorite films of the decade. Abel Gance, when it comes to early cinema, also totally influenced and continues to inform my perspective on art…… and his films have a lot to do with the images of records seen on today’s post, actually. RIP Jonas Mekas indeed. I love the ‘behind the scenes’ film he shot for Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Departed’. In general, I think a lot of French filmmaking plays this border between realism and whimsy and tends to refuse to play the middle ground, or explore the complications when we contradict realism with something intrinsically fantastical. That’s just something I’m personally interested in, but I get frustrated when, say, Rivette, refuses to follow up on an idea which seems common to his work – I do love Noroit, though, which is a real epic. I also struggle with some of the more popular overtly religious films, like maybe a few of the Rohmer films I don’t like so much, for much the same reason, really, but replace fantasy with religion. Bunuel is not the surrealist for me!
I adore Godard.
I can see the value in all of them though, really, except for Truffaut, who strikes me continually as a Hollywood obsessive who made a bunch of movies that wouldn’t have flown in the Hollywood of the day and only succeeded due to the fact he belonged to the Cahiers crowd. That may be too harsh a condemnation and I may come around on him, but The 400 Blows may be the only unforgivable classic, in my book. One day I’ll try it again.
ditto to rest in peace Mr. Jonas Mekas
Hey DC,
Nice record collection. Have you seen third man records are bringing out a tiny record player/records for record store day? Like three inch vinyl. I love Jack White generally but I think some of the stuff he’s done at tmr is great.
It was cool to meet you on Wednesday! And thanks for sharing the film. I liked the way people seemed to suddenly get on board with this crazy idea without much convincing. I think that’s pretty true. Like you know the feeling when you’re in a group of people and there’s one guy who’s clearly a massive tosser but nobody else seems to notice?
Well, happy Friday!
Latest FaBlog: Arrested Development
R.I.P. Jonas Mekas indeed.
I’m still a bit baffled by the popularity of vinyl these days, but I do have a soft spot for it. Did I mention the new John Butcher is on white vinyl? I don’t know how long I can resist firing off an order.
Nothing going on in London? Wow. That’s like winning the lottery in reverse.
Just found out there’s a new Brian Evenson collection coming out in June! Yay.
Bill
whats in a name, Keaton smells like roses the same, haha. you are too kind. happy to hear London was. ive thought about it and i dont like to travel to a place where people speak English, haha. of the cities i have been to, there is really only Paris. when i think about everywhere other than Brussels bored me to death. everywhere is the same to me now really, but cities have their charms. records, they have almost no appeal to me at all. i owned only one record over the years, Kiss Destroyer when i was a wee thing. cassettes was the biz. a guy i know wants to move back to the mountains of Cali and listen to his record collection as his like windup. vinyl makes me think hipster. record makes me think album, or re: cords. no. no cords. nice try with the comfort but the look. haha. xoxo
Hi!!
I just read today’s p.s. and I was really happy to see that the London screening was a success! Congratulations! But of course, I’m still all into hearing more details if you feel like sharing! I’m dying to see ‘PGL’, fuck!
Thank you for the tip about A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again! Now that I’m further into The Pale King, I know I definitely want to read more by him. I find it fascinating how his sentences are planned to the very last tiny detail so meticulously and how they still sound effortless, I mean as if he could just sit down and put the whole ongoing, fluid text in his head on paper, just like that, not missing a beat, ever. And his humor, that’s very fine too.
Do you have any special plans for the weekend now that you’re back home? I think I’ll just stay home and read – hermit-life for me again or still. Actually, now that I only work part-time in the shop it’s really fucking hard to make myself dig deeper into psychology and go after all that when I have all these free afternoons I can just spend with reading and watching things… I need to push myself out of this cocoon very soon, though, it’s not good for me to melt into this lazy and ultra-comfortable state for too long.
See you on Monday, Dennis!!
It’s always a pleasure to see records going endlessly around. I remember when I went to my first techno club night at the Orbit back in 90s Leeds. It was to see the DJ Jeff Mills and there was a huge crowd of people stood around the booth, all peering over to see his remarkable technique. His style is pretty cool, just incredibly fast and only playing a few seconds of each record before fading into the next and tossing the old used one aside. I was mostly dancing to the music but his method was a kind of performance art.
Just saw Bridget Riley’s show in LA. Struck by how violent the optical effects felt. Well in terms of Provincetown and the “show” it could mean a lot of different things. I have a project space that I do exhibitions in the summer in. It’s a basement space under Commercial Street, kind of spooky. But what could happen there could be really anything. I could tell you more if you are open. I live in LA but am from Cape Cod and go back and forth when I can.
I miss my permanently broken turn table – I would have listened to my Laura albums recently, had I had it. Dennis, do you get any kind of Medicare or Social Security over there? Mine has started – I get my first SS payment on my birthday, Feb 1st. I’m now officially retired, oy vey. But can’t complain: I’ve got so many good senior privileges…very lucky…can’t believe I’m a senior. I feel like a boy. And would like a boy to share that boyhood with, haha. We’ll see…I’m ready for action! Glad to hear the London screening went so well.