‘One of the presenting symptoms of my Shelley Duvall fandom is amateur numerology. The actress, among the most totemic and inimitable performers of the New American Cinema, was born on the seventh day of the seventh month of 1949. She made seven films with Robert Altman, the director with whom she remains the most closely affiliated. The greatest of their collaborations, 3 Women, was released in 1977.
‘I focus on the dominance of seven in Duvall’s life and profession only to confirm what I already believe about occult signifiers: They mean nothing. Despite the lucky number, a hazy sense of misfortune—of a career that ended too soon, or that never quite matched the incandescence evinced in its first years—has lingered over the actress, who has not appeared in a movie since 2002. (An infamous sit-down in 2016 with an ignoble TV host suggested that she has not been well for some time.) Maybe her setbacks were augured by Altman when he spoke to Cliff Jahr of the Village Voice for an April 1977 profile of Duvall tied to the release of 3 Women, her sixth movie with the director. In the piece, Jahr conjectures that the filmmaker “has unique and untransferable rapport with his actors,” and Altman seems to concur. “I have harmed a lot of them,” he says. “I don’t quite understand it. Ronee Blakley, who got an Oscar nomination for Nashville”—for her portrayal of an unstable country-music superstar in that brilliant ensemble film from 1975—“has not even been able to get an agent to this day.” Later in the article, Altman expresses his deep admiration for Duvall’s talents, but his praise is freighted with anxiety about her fate: “Somebody better pay attention to her now, or they’re all crazy.”
‘It is impossible not to take notice of Shelley Duvall. With her extremely ectomorphic figure, she calls to mind a walking exclamation point. Her long, Modigliani-like face appears taffy-pulled; the focal points of her amazing visage are her enormous, wide-set brown eyes and her two jutting top incisors. If her striking physicality makes the first impression on the viewer, then her demeanor creates the most lasting one. She is unmistakably fey, but her otherworldliness connotes a planet not too far away from our solar system. Duvall is a delight not just to watch but to listen to; her pellucid voice is filigreed by a Houston drawl that she never filed down.
‘She was discovered in that Texas city by Altman’s emissaries, scouting talent for Brewster McCloud (1970). They met Duvall at a party she was throwing with her boyfriend. Charmed by their hostess, the movie men arranged for her to audition for Altman, though she had no idea who the director was (he’d just had a big hit with MASH) or what “reading for a part” meant. Altman was convinced that Duvall’s naïveté was a ruse. “I decided to shoot a test, so I took her out in the park and put a camera on her and just asked her questions,” the filmmaker told David Thompson for the book-length interview Altman on Altman (2005). “I was really quite mean to her, as I thought she was an actress. But she wasn’t kidding; that was her.”
‘Duvall’s untutored wisdom makes her performance one of the few unmitigated pleasures of the antic, exhausting Brewster McCloud. Playing Suzanne, a garrulous tour guide at the Astrodome who deflowers and ultimately betrays the flight-obsessed title character (Bud Cort), Duvall, with her Raggedy Ann eyelashes, emerges as an unorthodox femme fatale. “Hi! Are you trying to steal my car?” Suzanne asks Brewster; the actress delivers the line with vivifying, daffy ingenuousness. In her screen debut, she evokes James Baldwin’s lapidary assessment of the movie legends who held him rapt as a child: “One does not go to see them act: One goes to watch them be.”
‘In pointing out Baldwin’s instructive ontological distinction, I don’t mean to imply that Duvall, especially in her films with Altman, simply presented her unvarnished self—that she took no care when preparing for her roles other than, say, to memorize her lines. Altman, who gave Duvall a small part as a mail-order bride in the western McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), Brewster’s immediate successor, insisted that she observe the entire production for “acting lessons.” She demonstrates a noticeable increase in discipline (particularly with regard to her timing and pauses) in her next project with Altman, the Depression-era-set Thieves like Us (1974), in which she plays Keechie, the sweetheart of Bowie, Keith Carradine’s on-the-lam bank robber. But even though her acting may be more polished, Duvall’s performance style isn’t entirely pruned of fascinating idiosyncrasies, such as her strange way of saying “yes”—a word she enunciates with what sounds like a brand-new diphthong—when Bowie asks Keechie if she likes him.
‘If Suzanne and Keechie are characters brought more vibrantly to life by Duvall’s undiluted “essence,” then Millie Lammoreaux—the prating, self-regarding employee of a geriatric rehab center she plays in 3 Women—endures as the apex of her assiduous preparation. Originating in a dream that Altman had, 3 Women traces the shifting dynamics between childlike Pinky (Sissy Spacek) and Millie, who trains the pigtailed recent arrival to Southern California in the basics of hydrotherapy for the elderly. The two coworkers soon become roommates, sharing Millie’s yellow-bathed one-bedroom apartment. Pinky, growing ever more besotted with her new friend, marvels at Millie’s professed sophisticated taste, largely shaped by McCall’s magazine, and at her refined palate, which favors such chemically saturated delicacies as banana pops and penthouse chicken.
‘“I played her like a Lubitsch comedy—people taking themselves very seriously,” Duvall said of Millie in that Voice profile. Blithely ignoring the fact that most people find her to be a nattering, desperate fool, Millie may have unshakable confidence in herself, but her certitude never fully masks her fragility, especially in the second half of 3 Women, when the power balance between Millie and Pinky is inverted. This indelible, richly textured character was largely the creation of Duvall. “Shelley wrote all of [Millie’s] letters, all of those recipes, all of her diary stuff. I don’t know any writer who could have done it better,” Altman told Thompson. (Duvall to Jahr: “Monologues just came out in fifteen minutes.”)
‘A few weeks after 3 Women was released, Duvall could be seen in a bit part in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, her only non-Altman film from the ’70s (not counting a 1976 PBS adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs Her Hair,” in which she starred in the title role). Playing Pam, a witless Rolling Stone reporter, Duvall, in the meager screen time allotted her, proves the sole source of buoyancy in a project overpopulated by smug, charmless neurotics, its director-cowriter-star chief among them.We are meant to laugh at Pam’s preferred adjective—“The only word for this is transplendent”—but Duvall locates the dignity in the dippy journalist’s enthusiasms.
‘At the end of the most storied decade of her career, Duvall was cast in the film for which she might be most widely remembered—and for which she endured tremendous distress. In Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), the actress, as Wendy Torrance, the initially sunny mom and helpmate of Jack Nicholson’s aspiring novelist, spends the latter half of the film in abject terror; Wendy continually weeps and shrieks as she tries to save herself and her young son from a psychotic paterfamilias. Duvall gives a shattering performance of ceaseless anguish—a traumatized state that mirrors the suffering she experienced in her clashes with Kubrick during The Shining’s months-long shoot, some of which are featured in the short making-of documentary by the director’s daughter Vivian. (More chilling than anything in The Shining is Vivian’s footage of Duvall, lying on the floor in between takes, saying, of an undisclosed ailment, “It comes and goes. . . . It just got so bad” as a matronly crew member tends to her.)
‘Duvall’s final film with Altman—a live-action version of Popeye, in which she stars as Olive Oyl, opposite Robin Williams as the spinach-loving sailor—came out the same year as The Shining. “Shelley, I want to give you the role you were born to play!” Altman told the actress. But, paradoxically, in this outsize part, Duvall seems diminished, flattened, as does nearly everyone else in the shambolic funny-pages transfer. Yet the movie, aimed at kids, can be thought of as an oblique prologue to Duvall’s signal achievement of not only the ’80s (but all of her post-Altman work): Faerie Tale Theatre, a wonderfully outré anthology television series for children (but with multigenerational appeal) broadcast on Showtime between 1982 and 1987. In addition to creating the program, Duvall executive-produced, hosted, and occasionally starred in FTT, which featured a motley group of talents ranging from Mick Jagger to Gena Rowlands as various Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen principals.
‘Welcoming viewers to “Rumpelstiltskin,” the second episode of the first season, in which she plays the miller’s daughter, Duvall offers a quasi confession: “And, I must admit, as an actress, Faerie Tale Theatre also gave me an opportunity for some pretty great roles.” When considered more than three decades later, the statement seems to eerily anticipate the imminent attrition of those opportunities. During the fifteen years between the end of FTT and 2002, when she stopped performing altogether, Duvall’s output consisted primarily of small or supporting parts in minor, largely forgotten movies, and assorted TV work. There are some exceptions. Duvall thrills with the few Italian interjections—Mangia! Simpaticissimo!—she utters as Countess Gemini in Jane Campion’s adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady (1996). And she beguiles as Amelia Glahn, a spinster ostrich farmer hopelessly in love with a sadistic mesmerist, in Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), a pastel-hued fantasia by cult Canadian auteur Guy Maddin. These late-period Duvall performances, just as much as 3 Women, return us to Altman’s command: Pay attention to her.’ — Melissa Anderson, ARTFORUM
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Stills
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Further
Shelley Duvall @ IMDb
Shelley Duvall: The Shining’s saddest legacy
INTERVIEW WITH SHELLEY DUVALL
A THIN LINE
Stephen King damns Shelley Duvall’s character in film of The Shining
OBVIOUS HISTORY: SHELLEY DUVALL WAS PROPOSITIONED AT 17 TO BE IN A PORNO
Actress Shelley Duvall reveals struggle with mental illness
THE SAD AND HEARTBREAKING REALITY OF SHELLEY DUVALL’S MENTAL HEALTH
Shelley Duvall, An Unlikely Star
SHELLEY DUVALL GROWS UP
Head in the Clouds: Shelley Duvall in 3 Women
Missing From the Movies: Shelley Duvall
SHELLEY DUVALL WAS DRAGGED INTO FILMS
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Extras
HELLO, I’M SHELLEY DUVALL !
SHELLEY DUVALL INTERVIEW 1974
SHELLEY DUVALL INTERVIEW @ CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
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Interview
ANDY WARHOL: This is a whole new table. I’ve never sat on this side before. Are you staying out in East Hampton most of the time?
SHELLEY DUVALL: Yes, for most of the summer. I come back about two days a week usually.
WARHOL: Son of Sam was on his way out there.
DUVALL: I just heard!
[Son of Sam]
WARHOL: How could a Berkowitz kill a Moskowitz?
DUVALL: That’s the first thing I thought.
WARHOL: It’s too terrible.
BOB COLACELLO: What would you like to eat?
[orders]
WARHOL: Where did you learn French?
DUVALL: Not from my father.
WARHOL: Duvall is a French name.
DUVALL: My father’s half-French and I’m whatever’s left.
WARHOL: Where were you born?
DUVALL: I was born in Fort Worth but I never lived there. I was visiting my grandmother at the time.
WARHOL: I don’t understand.
DUVALL: My mother was visiting my grandmother when I was born. But I grew up in Houston. I lived there until ’73 and then I moved to Los Angeles.
WARHOL: When did we meet?
DUVALL: You met me in 1970 when I’d just finished Brewster McCloud and was about to do McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Bill Worth told me, “Come down to the Factory and meet Andy Warhol,” and we got there and you weren’t there but we looked at pictures. And I remember the time you told me, “I stayed home from Elaine’s birthday party to watch you on Dick Cavett.” I was so flattered!
COLACELLO: You’re such a charmer, Andy.
WARHOL: But it was true.
COLACELLO: So what’s this new movie you’re doing with Jack [Nicholson]?
DUVALL: It’s from a novel written by Stephen King, who wrote Carrie. It’s called The Shining and we start shooting somewhere between December 1 and February 1. Stanley Kubrick’s writing the script now. He’s directing and it’ll be shot in London and Switzerland for 15 to 25 weeks—a long shoot.
COLACELLO: Is it a big cast?
DUVALL: No, it’s Jack and myself and a five-year-old boy, basically. And there’s a psychiatrist and an ex-gardener at the place where we’re caretakers. It’s very frightening. When I first heard of it I was wondering why Stanley Kubrick would want to do this film and then I read the book and it turns out, I think, to be really primal about fears and about the fears that one has in a relationship with another person.
WARHOL: It sounds like it could be a Robert Altman film, too. Three Women was terrific.
DUVALL: Bob knows me very well and he knows my limitations.
WARHOL: That story was fascinating.
DUVALL: I loved that story. That was an actual dream that Bob had. He had the dream on a Saturday night and he called me up on Sunday morning and said, “Shelley. I just had this incredible dream. Part of the dream was that I woke up and told my wife and wrote it all down on a yellow legal pad and called my production assistant and said, ‘I want you to scout locations for me,’” and then he woke up and discovered he hadn’t told his wife and he hadn’t written it down. It’s amazing—within a week he had the money for the film and we started shooting a month later.
WARHOL: Janice Rule is one of my favorite actresses but her style of acting was so different from yours and Sissy Spacek‘s.
DUVALL: I was just going to tell you it was actually just two women in the dream—Sissy and I. But I think someone like Bergman or Antonioni had already done a film called Two Women.
WARHOL: No, it was Sophia Loren. That was the one where she came out of the ocean. She won an Academy Award for it.
COLACELLO: Did you ever think you wanted to be an actress?
DUVALL: Never.
COLACELLO: How did you get started?
DUVALL: It’s a long story but I’ll tell you. I was living with my artist boyfriend at his parents’ house in Houston and we had a lot of parties and people would come who we didn’t know and his parents’ friends would come—they were really good parents—and one day I was giving a party and these three gentlemen came in and I said, “Come in, fix yourself a drink, make yourself at home,” and I continued showing all my friends Bernard’s new paintings, telling them what the artist was thinking. And they said they had some friends who were patrons of the arts who’d like to see the paintings so I made an appointment, brought the paintings up and showed them one by one. I lugged 35 paintings up there. And instead of selling some paintings I wound up getting into a movie.
WARHOL: They were testing you out?
DUVALL: Yes, they said, “How would you like to be in a movie?” and I thought, “Oh, no, a porno film,” because I’d been approached for that when I was 17 in a drugstore.
WARHOL: What did you do?
DUVALL: The guy left me with the bill for the Coca-Cola. So this time I said, “No, thank you,” and they called my parents’ house and got hold of me and after a while we became such good friends that I had no fear. I said, “I’m not an actress.” They said, “Yes, you are.” Finally, I said, “All right, if you think I’m an actress I guess I am.”
WARHOL: But what were they doing there?
DUVALL: They were on location.
WARHOL: But what made them come to the house? Were they just looking for something to do?
DUVALL: Somebody at the party had called them up and told them if they were bored in Houston we gave a lot of parties. When the film was over I thought it was just an interlude in my life. But three months later I started work on McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Actually during Brewster McCloud I’d already signed a five-year contract.
WARHOL: I guess things really do happen at parties.
[contracts]
COLACELLO: But you never studied acting?
DUVALL: I went to Lee Strasberg a few years ago because I’d heard such good things about him but I went to two lessons and it just wasn’t for me. That’s one piece of advice Robert Altman gave me at the very beginning—never take lessons and don’t take yourself seriously.
WARHOL: He’s right. It’s all magic. The problem is knowing how to keep it once you get it.
DUVALL: I make my own decisions. And I never turn down anything without reading it. Other than that… I’m sort of at a loss for words. It was hard to move here, actually.
WARHOL: You mean you’re living here for real?
DUVALL: I moved here in October.
WARHOL: To East Hampton?
DUVALL: No, to New York from L.A. East Hampton’s just a summer place.
WARHOL: Some people live there year-round now
DUVALL: I like that idea. I think it would be just as nice in the spring and fall as in the summer. Our place looks like Japan. It’s got those short needlepines, little pebbles and everything.
WARHOL: Montauk doesn’t have much of a beach but it’s very beautiful. It’s all rocks.
DUVALL: I want to see the lighthouse.
WARHOL: If you’d seen Peter Beard’s place you’d be so sad now. It just burned down last week with all his work inside.
DUVALL: How terrible. Was it lightning?
WARHOL: No, the boiler room.
DUVALL: God, the boiler room! You should read The Shining.
WARHOL: Does it happen in a boiler room?
DUVALL: You’ll see. It’s frightening.
WARHOL: Carrie was so good.
DUVALL: I still haven’t seen it. Scary movies frighten me. I still haven’t seen The Exorcist.
WARHOL: It’s really good. It isn’t even scary. It’s just intelligent.
DUVALL: I like to see just about every movie that comes out that strikes my fancy.
WARHOL: I’m always worrying about bombs in movie theaters, though. My favorite kind of movies are unsuccessful ones because there’s no one there. And then I like…
[TAPE CHANGE]
DUVALL: …The Omen.
COLACELLO: Why did you move to New York from L.A.?
DUVALL: For several reasons. I’d always wanted to move to New York, from the first time I came here. And then I guess Paul [Simon] was an extra added attraction—a New Yorker boyfriend.
COLACELLO: That’s a nice way of putting it. He’s working so much now.
DUVALL: He’s always working. There’s so much energy here. That’s why I like it, despite everything.
[Son of Sam]
WARHOL: How can people see something on TV and then they can’t wait to read about it in the newspaper? Why is that?
DUVALL: Maybe it’s more real.
WARHOL: Maybe.
DUVALL: New Yorkers have a fascination with the daily paper. I could never understand that when I came here. And I could never understand how people get up to see “The Today Show.”
WARHOL: It’s easy if you have a pushbutton. It’s great. And if you turn it on at seven you see the news three or four times which is even better—all the repeats.
DUVALL: I did an interview with Gene Shalit and I never saw it because I could never wake up early enough.
COLACELLO: Would you like some dessert?
DUVALL: I’m looking over at the chocolate mousse but…
WARHOL: I was supposed to go to the pimple doctor this morning and I never went.
[pimple doctors]
DUVALL: Well, everybody’s got something about them. But did you hear about the guy with no feet?
WARHOL: No, who?
DUVALL: I’m just kidding. But here we’re complaining about pimples and…
WARHOL: Oh, I know. We’re so lucky.
DUVALL: We really are.
WARHOL: So many people have so many problems. When you think that health is wealth, you’re so grateful just to be normal, more or less. Aren’t you?
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20 of Shelley Duvall’s 57 roles
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Robert Altman Brewster McCloud (1970)
‘One of the things about “MASH” was that people wanted to see it a second time. That’s typical of the recent Robert Altman style; “Brewster McCloud” is just as densely packed with words and action, and you keep thinking you’re missing things. You probably are. It’s that quality that’s so attractive about these two Altman films. We get the sense of a live intelligence, rushing things ahead on the screen, not worrying whether we’ll understand. If anything, “Brewster McCloud” is more complex and more difficult than “MASH.” For one thing, we don’t have the initial orientation we had in “MASH,” where we knew we were in the Army and we knew what the uniforms stood for and what was going on in the operating room. Those hooks helped us unsort the narrative. “Brewster” may not even have a narrative.’ — Roger Ebert
Excerpt
Excerpt
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Robert Altman McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
‘Hailed by critc Pauline Kael as “a beautiful pipe dream of a movie,” Altman’s snowbound western sets its scene in the ramshackle, snowbound Washington State town of Presbyterian, where wandering gambler Warren Beatty decides to stick around after striking up a partnership with Julie Christie’s madam, a fraught but profitable teaming that’s threatened by encroaching corporate interests. A film of indelible atmosphere, thanks to the uniquely foggy photography of Vilmos Zsigmond—achieved by “flashing” the negative before exposure—and the droning vocals of Leonard Cohen on the soundtrack.’ — Metrograph
Excerpt
the entire film
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Robert Altman Thieves Like Us (1974)
‘Tewkesbury’s adaptation of Edward Anderson’s novel (also the source material for Nicholas Ray’s They Live By Night) yielded one of Altman’s most slashingly sincere films. Keith Carradine and Shelley Duvall are lovers running from the law through the Depression-era South, their fateful romance played out against a backdrop of two-bit gangsterism, Coca-Cola, and (memorably) the near wall-to-wall buzz of vintage radio broadcasts.’ — Metrograph
Excerpt
Excerpt
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Robert Altman Nashville (1975)
‘This cornerstone of 1970s American moviemaking from Robert Altman is a panoramic view of the country’s political and cultural landscapes, set in the nation’s music capital. Nashville weaves the stories of twenty-four characters—from country star to wannabe to reporter to waitress—into a cinematic tapestry that is equal parts comedy, tragedy, and musical. Many members of the astonishing cast wrote their own songs and performed them live on location, which lends another layer to the film’s quirky authenticity. Altman’s ability to get to the heart of American life via its eccentric byways was never put to better use than in this grand, rollicking triumph, which barrels forward to an unforgettable conclusion.’ — The Criterion Collection
Trailer
Watch: Shelley Duvall on ‘Nashville’
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Robert Altman Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1975)
‘Robert Altman turns his cutting gaze towards American myth-making in one of his most blistering satires. Paul Newman plays the booze-soaked William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill), the buffoonish, self-aggrandizing proprietor of a hokey Wild West show, who begins to fall apart both personally and professionally following the arrival of the show’s newest performer, Chief Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts). Altman’s contrasting of two legendary American figures proves not only to be rich comedic territory, but also stands as a vicious deconstruction of the romantic vision of the Wild West, showbiz, and history itself. Featuring a dizzyingly great ensemble cast (Harvey Keitel, Will Sampson, Burt Lancaster, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall and more), and brimming with verve and wit, BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, OR, SITTING BULL’S HISTORY LESSON is essential Altman.’ — Drafthouse
Trailer
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Joan Micklin Silver Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976)
‘It’s the hot summer of 1919. Visiting her cousin Marjorie (Veronica Cartwright), sweet-but-dull Bernice (Shelley Duvall) is transformed into a smooth-talking man-trap by her vampish kin. However, the “make-over” works too well, Bernice becomes the belle of the ball, captivating every boy’s interest…even Marjorie’s boyfriend Warren (Bud Cort). The now worldly Bernice has the last laugh…a clever and ironic twist. One of the best screen translations of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary work, Bernice also includes the delightful supporting role performances of Dennis Christopher (“Breaking Away”) and Polly Holliday (“Alice”).’ — Kanopy
Excerpt
the entire film
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Woody Allen Annie Hall (1977)
‘In Annie Hall, Shelley Duvall played Pam, a Rolling Stone reporter set up with Alvy by their mutual friend, Rob. By 1977, Duvall’s star was on a meteoric rise after she appeared in McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Nashville. A favorite of director Robert Altman’s, Duvall’s unique look and ability to portray women who were at once superficially girly yet full of psychological depth made her an in-demand actor in the ’70s and ’80s. After Annie Hall, Duvall went on to star in The Shining and Time Bandits, and she even appeared in an episode of the hit ’90s show Wishbone.’ — She Knows
Trailer
Excerpt
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Robert Altman 3 Women (1977)
‘By the time 3 Women came out, Duvall was already well known for her unorthodox looks and behavior. In a 1976 interview with Altman for Film Heritage, F. Anthony Macklin asked, “Can the general audience relate to Shelley Duvall externally? Won’t the general audience back in Dayton, Ohio, think she’s kind of freaky and kind of spacey and kind of weirdo?” It’s to Altman’s credit that he can make a potentially off-putting figure like Millie, played by an actor who often seemed (fascinatingly) disconnected from reality, into someone we can empathize with. But it’s Duvall who arouses our compassion. At times, you want to slap her to wake her up from her self-mythologizing (she imagines herself something of a debutante, and often speaks of men throwing themselves at her—contrary to what we see onscreen), but Duvall, with her Breck-girl curl and sunshine-colored dresses, cuts such a likably wacky figure that we can’t help but accept Millie in all her unreality. Her most poignant moments come directly after she’s discovered that a group of dinner-party guests have canceled on her, and thus foiled her plans to serve them her impeccably prepared pigs in a blanket and “chocolate puddin’ tarts.” Here, briefly, Duvall and Altman let us peek behind the flowery curtain and see the plain soul hidden there.’ — The Criterion Collection
Excerpt
Shelley Duvall interview about “3 Women”
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Stanley Kubrick The Shining (1980)
‘Back in the 1980s, Duvall was a movie star in the rise, with a prosperous future ahead of her. However, after her role in The Shining, she almost considered leaving acting for good. The reason? The young actress went through trauma during the filming of Kubrick’s film, facing tremendously difficult requests by the director, such as the legendary 127-takes of the baseball bat scene, ending up dehydrated with raw, wounded hands and a hoarse throat from crying. The director’s “special” requirements went so far that Duvall started losing her hair. According to Horror Media, Duvall’s role was mostly criticized by Stephen King who declared that he hated The Shining very much mainly because of the misogynistic portrait of Wendy Torrance who, in King’s words “was basically there just to scream and be stupid and that’s not the woman I wrote about”.’ — The Vintage News
Excerpt
Shelley Duvall on Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick: Behind The Scenes on the Set of ‘The Shining’
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Robert Altman Popeye (1980)
‘As a gawky youngster growing up in Texas, Shelley Duvall used to cringe when kids taunted her with “Nahhh, Olive Oyl! Olive Oyl!” Plus ça change. After playing the bean-pole bombshell in director Robert Altman’s Popeye, the 5’8″ and 106-pound Shelley now reports, “Children grab me around the legs in the grocery store and say, ‘You’re Olive Oyl!’ That’s really, really good. It makes that movie one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Such katzenjammer praise is welcome solace after some snooty adults predicted that she and Robin Williams, who co-stars as Popeye, would take a Bluto-size beating at the box office. Most critics, while praising Duvall, said the movie was spinach and the hell with it. “They treated it like it was War and Peace instead of a cartoon,” Shelley scowls. She’s also miffed that neither she nor the movie got a single Oscar nomination. “They never nominated me for anything before, so I guess I shouldn’t expect it now,” says Shelley, who escaped Jack Nicholson’s ax in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining last summer and whose memorable waifishness has been a staple of Altman films since 1970’s Brewster McCloud. “Of course I was disappointed,” she adds. “I had hoped.”’ — People
Excerpt
Excerpt
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Terry Gilliam Time Bandits (1981)
‘Director Gilliam’s second feature is a lavish concoction of wild and wicked fancy. One fateful night Kevin, an 11-year-old with a passion for history, discovers a time-and-space portal in his bedroom wall and a gaggle of dwarves who teach him how to use it, paying visits to Ian Holm’s Napoleon, John Cleese’s Robin Hood, Sean Connery’s King Agamemnon, and the land of unbounded imagination that is the Time of Legend. A fractured fairy tale that thrilled and delighted every kid who saw it.’ — Metrograph
Trailer
Shelley Duvall on ‘Time Bandits’
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Tim Burton Frankenweenie (1984)
‘In this black-and-white short, novice director Tim Burton tells the story of Frankenstein’s monster in suburbia as a children’s fable about tolerance. Loving parents Ben (Daniel Stern) and Susan Frankenstein (Shelley Duvall) encourage their son Victor’s (Barret Oliver) home movies, starring their energetic bull terrier, Sparky. Following a terrible car accident, Sparky is dead and Victor is inconsolable. After an experiment with a frog in his science class, Victor gets the idea to make an electrical experiment of his own. After building a fantastic laboratory with only household items, he reanimates his beloved dog. Unfortunately, the family’s nosy neighbors become fearful of the monster, even though he has done no wrong. The climactic ending acts as an homage to James Whale’s original 1931 film and its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein.’ — Andrea LeVasseur
the entire film
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Fred Schepisi Roxanne (1987)
‘Though Duvall’s screen time is short, her part is pivotal to the updated Cyrano de Bergerac plot. She plays Dixie Smith, the coffee-shop owner and confidante-at-large who facilitates the match between Roxanne (Daryl Hannah), a stunning astronomer, and C.D. Bales (Martin), a small-town fire chief with a nose the size of Pinocchio’s in mid-lie. While Duvall allows that her character “is close to my heart,” it isn’t a role she had to fight and scrape for. “It was just offered to me,” she says. “I didn’t even have to audition for it. I know Steve socially, and he suggested it to me. I did it just to work with him—and just to see if I could still act.”’ — People
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Steven Soderbergh The Underneath (1995)
‘Rarely does a director go into much detail about what he thinks doesn’t work about one of his own films, but Steven Soderbergh got candid in an interview about his disappointment with his 1995 film The Underneath—which he calls “dead on arrival.” The Underneath is a neonoir Soderbergh made between 1993’s King and 1996’s more personal experiment Schizopolis. Soderbergh says that The Underneath came at a difficult point in his career and that his “heart wasn’t in it.”’ — The Criterion Collection
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Jane Campion The Portrait Of A Lady (1996)
‘Kidman, who was so feisty and wild-eyed in “To Die For,” seems quite repressed here from the get-go, and instead of her character simply lacking depth, she plays out as pretty dumb. (Maybe it should have been called “Portrait of a Stupid Lady.”) Malkovich has played this slimy character too many times before, and Parker is overbearing and obnoxious. Better are Donovan, who at least has some cleverness about him, and especially Hershey, who tries very hard to liven up the proceedings. Winters, unusually subdued, is also notable, and it’s nice to see Shelley Duvall, here playing a flibbertigibit who turns out to be smarter than she lets on.’ — Chris Hicks
Excerpt
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Guy Maddin Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
‘Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is the dream-struck fantasia of Peter Glahn, a political prisoner returning after several hard years of incarceration, to his homeland of Mandragora where the sun never sets. While traveling by boat, he spends a few precious minutes in the enticing and rarefied company of Juliana (Pascale Bussières), a beauteous young woman with whom he falls desperately and immediately in love. He disembarks to find a veritable ronde of romance brewing in the smouldering passions of sun addled Mandragora: his ostrich-farming sister Amelia (Shelley Duvall) is sick with heartache for the mesmerist Dr. Solti (R.H. Thomson), who with a greedy and voluminous passion, seeks the favours of both Zephyr (Alice Krige), a fishermans widow now married to the forest, and the statue of Venus recently uncovered and mounted imperiously on a hilltop. Zephyr gives herself to Peter upon his arrival, but he can think of no other than Juliana and her strange connection to the haughty Dr. Solti. Amelia, driven to distraction by her unrequited passion for the Doctor as well as by the unwelcome attentions and misguided vengeance of her handyman, Cain Ball (Frank Gorshin), loses her reason and spirals into homicidal madness, gravely injuring Cain. Peter is also maddened by his unrequited love for Juliana and the way in which it is constantly thwarted by the wily Doctor, and so the story goes.’ — WFG
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Excerpt
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Russell Mulcahy Tale of the Mummy (1998)
‘Unless you find the idea of killer mummy wraps particularly frightening, chances are you’ll find this direct-to-vid thriller as ridiculous as I did.’ — The Movie Report
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Josh Klausner The 4th Floor (1999)
‘The 4th Floor is a 1999 mystery thriller film written and directed by Josh Klausner in his directorial debut and starring Juliette Lewis, William Hurt, Shelley Duvall and Austin Pendleton. The film was released in 1999 on Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, but was not released in the US until 2000 when it went direct-to-video.’ — Wikipedia
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Scott Goldberg The Forest Hills (2023)
‘The Forest Hills is a psychological horror that descends into the fractured mind of a man tormented by nightmarish visions. But beyond the genre trappings, this film is indelibly defined by one profound truth: it marks the final performance of Shelley Duvall. The Forest Hills is an opportunity for audiences to witness, one last time, the singular, unforgettable brilliance of Shelley Duvall as she makes her final, masterful bow.’ — S.G.
Trailer
Shelley Duvall talks about ‘The Forest Hills’
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p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, Haha, perv! ** Carsten, Hi. Thanks for that festival tip, but, if it just happened, then it’s out of our wheel house, alas. Weird or inspired? I hit the Carrington retrospective yesterday. It’s not giant, but there was a lot of work in the rooms. I can see why you in particular are into her paintings and drawings. The show was impressive, although I still prefer her fiction which isn’t as hook, line and sinker locked into the tropes of Surrealism as her visual work is. But it’s nice to see her finally getting her due. ** kenley, Obviously I seriously recommend you dig into those novels when the mood aligns. I will definitely be down for jokingly destroying that university next time I’m in your hood, although let’s spare the dorms? My weekend has fun aspirations, and it’s up to Paris to meet my needs. Surely there’s fun to be had in Toronto before Monday kills the timeframe. Psst, Derek likes being punished, but hush-hush. ** fish, Hi, fish! Really nice to meet you. Thanks for doing what it takes to get inside here. Weirdly, I have no idea what the entrance requirements are. I think, given your interests, you’ll be glad that you read the Kristof when that someday arrives. Please tell me more about your and/or yours if like. I’m interested. ** HaRpEr //, Yep, yep, those books were huge to me for the reasons you mentioned among others. The trilogy is by far Kristof’s most ambitious and greatest work, but she’s always really interesting. Her other books tend to be very short and spare. ‘Yesterday’ is terrific and slight in a beautiful way. Her memoir ‘The Illiterate’ is very good and not what you expect a memoir to be. I think the short fiction collection ‘I Don’t Care’ might be my favorite of her other books. Yeah, I think, say, my past, my mistakes and accidents and all, are the obstacle course that got me here, and the bad has maybe even turned out to be the best. Thank you so much about ‘God Jr.’. That’s really wonderful to hear. The lack of contacts is the problem with London. I think there must be real interest over there in hosting the film, I just don’t where that interest is or how to reach it. Thank you. ** Steeqhen, If you got through that RE you can’t be too anxious, I don’t think. Being anxious before even playing RE is an oxymoron or something. ** Alice, Mid-morning to you, or maybe it’s still earlyish morning. YouTube, why not, yeah. Nice about the festival acceptance. Have a swell next couple of 24 hour periods. ** Laura, Her work is nothing like Duras’s so naturally that would irk her. It meant the asker was looking for a resemblance rather than paying attention. Thanks for the Hegel wrap up, now I don’t have to feel like I have to try reading him again. Happy birthday! A sentence gift … uh, this will not be exciting because it’s entirely dependent on the context it’s resting in, but my favorite line in our new film script is ‘I can’t even ride a bike’, so you can have that, happy birthday! No, my dreams disappear in a flash and never come back. I wish you would have gone extravagantly dressed up for your birthday, not I would have done that if I were you. What did you do, not just garb-wise but overall? ** Hugo, Hi. Wow, your dad is pretty careful with himself. Best wishes in return. ** Uday, The amount you write has no impact on your value here or to me, just so you know. So happy to have been able to introduce Kristof to you. I’ve had a gun pointed at my twice in my life, both by people who would have pulled the trigger if they hadn’t decided it wouldn’t be worth it. Scary shit. Well, at least he had a holster. Whew. ** Thom, Hi. Super highly recommended like I said. I’ve read, I think, three Krasznahorkai novels, all great to one degree or another. I came to him through his collaborations with Bela Tarr, which I assume a lot of people do. I like ‘Epiphyte’. For the reasons you said. Let it be known that when I was in high school my friends and I made a literary zine that we called ‘Aillusionary Fungus’, and we were perfectly happy with that embarrassing name even, but then again it was the psychedelic 60s. Anyway, blah blah, I like the title, and I’m pretty good with titles now that I’m an adult. I hope the tunes reigned, and enjoy what I hope will be at least a wee bit of a vacation for you. ** Okay. This weekend you lucky dogs get to forage about in the oeuvre of the sublime Shelley Duvall, so make the best of that. See you on Monday.
Now available in North America 
HEY DENNIS! I love Shelley Duvall, I think her facial features are so unbelievably compelling. I wish we had more (I’m not going to say conventionally unattractive, because she’s obviously not) unconventional looking people in film, the only ones we seem to have at the moment are maybe Barry Keoghan and Mia Goth (if you squint). I totally loved her in Portrait of a Lady, but I was into Jane Campion a while ago, so I’d maybe feel differently on a rewatch.
Cool to see Agota Kristof here yesterday too, thank you for introducing us to her! Your blog is such an amazing tastemaker, I think her writing is probably some of the best I’ve read recently. You were right that the second book was even better than the first. Hopefully your weekend is lovely, see you!
HELLO!!!!! IM SHELLEY DUVALL!!!!!!
shelley!!! queen of the universe!!!! coolest girl in the world!!!! not a single bad performance in her catalog. there’s this intrepid vitality to her characters, like they don’t know what they’re doing or where they ought to put their hands, but they’re trying their damnedest to get through their movie-size circumstances. their quirks are exaggerated, but their inner worlds are so honest and fully-realized.
ok! we ride at dawn! and of course the dorms can stay…i just wanna knock down the one building i work in, which is all admin offices anyway. lots of file cabinets, lots of flammable paper
ahh…my friend is doing a screening of do the right thing tonight! and then my band is playing some sort of art market tomorrow. i cant imagine those people will be terribly into sludgy metalcore, but…who knows! we get paid either way lol
hopefully you fall headlong into some exciting parisian goings-on! as always, please do let us know, i enjoy living vicariously through your updates. and noted about derek…lol 🤪
Hi Dennis
Oooo Shelley Duvall, the late and greatest. I think the world yearns for someone like her to return. I think what she did in Three Women, and with Altman in general, was a great achievement. I’m still in awe of that movie to be honest.
RE: my dad – his taste is Baldwin, Vasily Grossman, Waugh, Isherwood, Joseph Roth and Sebald. I don’t think we see eye to eye on a lot of things. But we share a similar emotional disposition (I;e his depression and ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time) – Also, back on Kristof – The Notebook trilogy is being published under the penguin modern classics imprint in england soon. I suppose that means it’s gonna get a good deal of second wind over there. The British critical establishment/public haven’t been as receptive to that kind of work I feel. A lot of fiction that gets popular over there strikes me as too well behaved though (Sally Rooney, who seems like a decent person, but who writes Victorian novels I can’t get behind, strikes me as one.)
Also, sorry if I ask one too many personal questions about what you think on this or that. I can never tell when it’s appropriate.
Did the weekend meet your aspirations?
I get creeped out by the amount of information Meta has about me and what ads it shows as a result. I never looked at that forum for bug chasers because I was worried about the effect it would have on my algorithm, but FB showed me an ad for PrEP anyway. It’s obvious that they know the contents of my E-mail. and while the obvious answer would be quitting FB and IG, that wouldn’t stop my data from being surveilled and sold elsewhere.
The latest “Radio Not Radio” episode is up: https://www.mixcloud.com/callinamagician/372026-radio-not-radio/. Going from punk to jazz to soundscapes, it features Poison Ruin, Crass, the Subhumans (UK), the Cortinas, Zaviruga, Settimana Mistica, Huggy Bear, Anakonda, Jill Scott, Tomeka Reid, Adam O’Farrill, Alice Coltrane, Grupo Um, Bobo & Behaja, Midori Hirano, Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet, Eliane Radigue, KMRU, Negativland, Vic Bang, Poppy Ackroyd, Flying Lotus and the Bug!
My new song ‘Feedbackback’ is also out now: https://callinamagician.bandcamp.com/track/feedbackback
Nice stuff, gotta love Shelley Duvall… always a pleasure in a particularly rare way i think… conversationally and onscreen.
Yes, Bela Tarr is a personal hero of mine. I try to steer clear of hero worship, but his approach to how he creates art and how that alligns with his weirdly optimistic outlook… man it just gets to me, like I fully get it in a rare way…
Anyway, been very nice to more actively follow the blog for book recs, Are People Out There was great fun, its weirdly validating to see people exploring their voice in a form that is even shorter than my typical stories!Psyched about The Notebook too of course, if its not at Powells the single volume trilogy is indeed at the library at least.
Not much of a vacation, but I do get a full weekend this time around. Aside from zine editing i’m gonna gather strange tape samples and transcribe some folk songs to work on some collage/drone/acoustic music with my good friend next week. They’re central to our little micro-scene over here and they’re leaving this month. Have put off working with them for some reason, so I really wanna go all out on a duo project, and honor how they’ve enabled us all to take risks and make authentic music. I think the best thing we can do as artists (aside from follow and hone our own voice/craft/whatever) is prop up other artists around us… but also I’m just addicted to forming little duos… it’s very easy to enable each other to try crazy shit that may not work in a duo setting, theres not a whole band to argue, but just one other voice to say “why not… lets go for it!!!”
Hope its good on your end too!
Thank you for this exhaustive post on Ms. Duvall. I worked in an independent video store in college where I discovered Altman’s 70s work, and spent many wonderful afternoons skipping class to watch 3 Women on repeat, stoned and in love with the world of the movie (and, of course, Millie). My fascination with Altman’s Nashville later led my partner and I to move there, and although it was definitely not the city for us, the Parthenon will always be one of my favorite places in the world. Cheers.
SD = divinity itself, indeed some kind of alchemy happened whenever she was paired with the great directors. 3 Women really is all that!
Had myself a big sugar OD today via Biscoff White Chocolate Cake purchased from the pop-up stall Cookie Pie Man. Been bouncing off the walls most of the afternoon here.
Love the description a “walking exclamation point”.
All it takes to comment is putting down a name and an email—I’m surprised you don’t have more commenters or bots, honestly.
Me and mine: very into literature and boys. Really like stories that are about “everything”. DFW is one of my favorite authors. I originally found your blog after finishing Porpentine’s Serious Weakness and looking around for reviews or suggestions of similar books. I read some off your list of suggestions, most memorably B.R. Yeager’s Negative Space, but that one just felt too despairing to me.
I’m impressed you find the time to do these blog posts so consistently. I feel like if I keep up with this even a little I’ll come out more cultured, haha. Hope your Monday’s good.
Hello Dennis — gosh it’s been a while. I’ve been very busy by way of explanation, and at the same time have been wanting to get back in touch for a good while now. I can’t remember when was the last time I wrote here – or that we saw each other for that matter – but I hope the intervening period has been both promising and fascinating for you.
Anyways, the occasion that has brought me back is that I’ve just got tickets to two gigs coming up in Paris, to which I was planning to go to solo but thought I’d ask if you fancied coming along too? The first is Caterina Barbieri with Aho Ssan on the 11th April and then Pharmakon on the 14th May. Let me know if either of those sound good to you. Hope to see you soon whatever, xo, T
Love Duvall and this day, Dennis. I’d forgotten that hilarious shot from Nashville. 3 Women is probably my favorite Altman film, with its dreamy languor, so Joy Williams-like (though I asked her about it at a reading, and she said she had never seen it). And Brewster McCloud, bittersweet with Bud Cort also recently gone.
Getting ready for a long trip, so it’ll be tough to start some Kristof. But maybe a short story collection.
Bill
This is great, hahah love to see a familiar faces. Im listening to the entirety of Radio Ethiopia by Patti Smith, I love when my adhd and chaotic brain decides to sleep in for the day, giving my spirit a chance to do the things it desires without constant inner dialogue and stuff that equates to depressive and grandiose thoughts in one day.
Oh Machine girl was great! I “excused me!” squeezed my waypast 6ft humans to the front before Machine girl started playing, my 5ft self hahaha. By the time the second song started playing, I started to get crushed and I wished I wore a more functional less belted and jewelry outfit because I started getting smooshed and I didnt want to lose my stuff so I squeezed to the side bar hahaha! I dont know if I would or wouldn’t have stayed at the way front if it wasn’t for that. At least I tried, but who knows if I would’ve been crushed if I stayed haha. I wish you couldve temporarily gave me a couple inches off your height for that day, gosh how lucky I would’ve been.
After all that fun we went to Waffle House and 7-11 and I got a granola parfait. Yum.
I love you, your so kind, but not in a romantic way do I say that. Hope your doing well. What else oh! Im working on this spring fantasy mixtape for my cassette. Remember when I recorded “Goodbye and Hello” Tim buckley onto a cassette? Im thinking im going to do Lorca next. Very spiritual and amazing album.
Hmm what else.
heres the playlist im working on if anybody is interested in seeing it progress the next couple days hopefully.
https://youtu.be/MkCZABD6Z68?si=UuMhgGsre-wWqBzv
@Laura: Hope you had a good birthday!
@DC: Interesting fact: Ken Jacobs was a big fan of Altman’s “Popeye”. Probably rooted in his love for old cartoons.
Glad to hear you liked the Carrington show. Here’s hoping it makes its way to Malaga. Before I even delved into her actual works I discovered her as a kindred spirit of sorts. This was when I was studying the Mayan “Popol Vuh” & reading Péret & his work on pre-Columbian myth. A bunch of surrealists back in the day fell hard for Mexico in ways I really related to. Péret & Remedios Varo basically split up because she refused to leave Mexico, while he returned to France. Carrington was Varo’s best friend & also stayed, but not only that—she spent time with indigenous communities & incorporated what she learned into her work (as in “El mundo mágico de los mayas”). So Varo & Carrington almost “went native” in ways I find really simpatico. Carrington’s world is an equal parts Celtic & Mesoamerican dreamspace that takes magic seriously, kind of like Kenneth Anger. And I agree, her writing is equally impressive & unique.
Saw two films that are on the awards circuit. “The Secret Agent”, which takes place during the Brazilian dictatorship & follows a professor on the run. Read an interesting piece about it that whet my appetite, which basically made the case that it’s a film about archiving & record-keeping as acts of resistance. That aspect is true to an extent, but hardly as dominant a theme as the author makes it out to be. I thought the film presented community & solidarity as the firmest bedrocks of resistance. Cinematically it’s pretty unremarkable. What’s interesting though is that it’s the most laid-back conspiracy movie imaginable. Rather than build up tension from some outside threat it envelopes you in a very lived-in environment where danger & corruption are part of the fabric of mundane daily life. If that’s what life in Brazil was like during that regime then the film nails it. I’m not sure if that’s enough to recommend it to you, but I found it interesting as a sociopolitical/historical window.
The other one was “Sinners”, which turned out to be pretty much exactly what I expected. Sure it’s pretty to look at & all that, & Delroy Lindo especially steals the show, but as cinema it’s standard fare. The elements that most interested me (the blues & African spiritual traditions) are both handled superficially: Hoodoo practices are (as always in these Hollywood films) nothing more than plot devices with a vague esoteric sheen, & the blues seemed awfully tame & restrained, in a film that is supposedly a love letter to it. Which makes me seriously question the director’s knowledge of the blues. Lindo has a line in there that I liked: “Blues wasn’t forced on us like that religion. Nah, son, we brought that with us from home. It’s magic what we do. It’s sacred… and big” I wish they’d made a film that seriously & deeply explored what that line’s about, rather than an entertaining period flick that turns into a trite vampire circus. But I’m not naive enough to expect that kind of film from a major studio.
Glasgow Central is on fire !
In the 1600s, Glasgow was just a university town with a thin river called the Clyde running through it.
In the 1700s, Glasgow dug the clyde deeper by hand– and, after London, became the second city of the empire.
In the 1800s, Glasgow industrialised further; ships swelled–from wood to steel–to fill the breadth of the banks; and protestant irish‐-fresh off titanic‐-had, too, swelled to fill the shipyards.
In the latter half of the 1900s, Glasgow, like all other Brittish port towns, deindustrialised; professional fingernails scraped culture in curls from bin strikes of the 70s to the flower show of the 90s. Glasgow ended the 1900s Europe City of Culture.
In the 2000s, university education was universal; everyone could be a young professional; there is an outreach programme for out-of-work-three-months-or-longer where you can help build wooden boats along the Clyde (I don’t think the boats carry anything (A had been involved, I think)).
At Time Of Writing: there have been fires in Glasgow for over a decade now; student housing pops up in their places; one could understand the presence of the working class to be just a three century blip; the firemen are pumping the Clyde straight to the douse the fire; there will probably still be student flats in its place.
Anyway ! Been very engrossed in Jack the Modernist by Robert Glück (my ex, with Hungarian mother of his own, says this is pronounced Gleuwk. I took German to National 5 Level and never learnt what an umlaut was. I’ll take his word for it). And I was thinking about how last time I commented I had intended a follow up where I asked your thoughts on New Narriative works, and the whole L A N G U A G E (did I type it write ? I’m not switching tab to see) scene ? I found the “I have a lot of sex, and I’m smarter than you” a funny take on the movement. I am thinking of the novel X by Davey Davis, which I enjoyed when I read it but I am maybe jaded to the jaded transgender narrator protagonist who has a lot of sex but is clued into queer theory but also–just in case you were worried–that won’t get in the way of that sex (in fact, the dissonance is sometimes a dryly ironic joke we get to share with the pages!). I don’t think I have a problem with these sorts of things per-se; I don’t know what I’m looking for though.
I think my prose is getting better! (not here, apologies, these are but thin rivers from myself at 00:38 on the Dennis Cooper blog). I have probably said this before but I’m mainly having a very fabulous time, and I can feel my prose getting less “M I D D L I N G” every time I write, and–yeah–it’s very lovely just to do for the sake of itself. I haven’t had a single moment of “writer’s block” for two months. It is very lovely to just feel the momentum of something.
I was reading Glück/Gleuwk this morning and wondering what you thought of him; I looked at the back and your wee name was there waving, which was very delightful. I saved up my tips from my cafe job to buy the reprint of Jack the Modernist and then I caved and also bought the having sex with Jesus one, cause it reminded me of A.
The bar named after A, on Victoria Road, is crowdfunding to stay open. Don’t know what to feel about this.
I hope Glasgow Central doesn’t burn down.
Out of The Closet, and Into The Blogs,
A Secret No More !
She/He is Everyone’s Valentine:
Diesel Clementine !!!
Hey there Dennis! Hope your weekend has been well
I ended up putting the mix. Decided to go with YouTube as it was the easiest place to put it up. So far I haven’t had any copyright shenanigans, so it survives…. for now. So far it seems my friends within my circle enjoy it. I have some ideas for a second one, and I think it may follow along the Goth ideas I mentioned a few days ago. That or I’ll continue to go through my techno backlog. There’s a close friend of mine whose quite knowledgeable about the Detroit Techno Scene. I’ve been gravitated towards Underground Resistance and Robert Hood. May also look at some record stores for some fresh ideas. There’s a new one that opened right on my door step, so I’m going to try and take advantage of that.
Lovely to see a post about Shelley Duvall. My close friend Zaff, who I believe I’ve mentioned on here before, has regularly been compared to her, and she wears that proudly. Was just browsing some images of her a bit ago for some clothing ideas. A friend of mine has been wanting me to see her film Mother Goose Rock ‘n’ Rhyme, so this post has inspired me to get to it soon. Without watching it, I already love the wardrobe featured it. Was also watching a late period interview where some fans spent the day with her. It was nice to able to see interactions that are gentle but also curious about her work. Me and Hugo watched 3 Woman for the first time a few months ago, and it was such a captivating experience. A truly spell binding film.
Do you have much on for yourself in the upcoming week? I’m still trying to find work, and have been waiting on the outcome of some interviews I had. Not really sure what to expect of any of it. Really, I’m anxious I wont find anything before the summer, as I will need to move out of my place by then. We’ll see what happens, and I’m hoping it all comes together into something that works for me. Outside of that, I’m seeing some friends tomorrow.
Take care Dennis! Will try to write more to you within the week. It’s been nice to talk here again <33
@Laura Awe, that's lovely to hear you both have that connection. I just mentioned her in my comment to Dennis, but Deadsy play an important part in my close relationship with my long distance friend. I mentioned I was listening to Orgy, and she guided me to them. Commencement is very special to me, and I have some ideas for incorporating some of their songs within my novel. We'll see how it turns out, but I like to think of it as presenting gratitude for the positive impact their music has had for me, among other reasons. Again, Mansion World has quickly become one of my favorite songs, so it's nice to share that love for them with other people
Forgot to post, but here’s the link to the DJ mix!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmFZSZiNBNQ&pp=0gcJCa4KAYcqIYzv
I love Shelley Duvall so so much. Jay’s right about how many really interesting actors there were in the New Hollywood era. Linda Manz, Bud Cort… I’ve been really hankering to re-watch ‘3 Women’ and ‘McCabe and Mrs Miller’ lately so thanks for the reminder. I still haven’t seen ‘Thieves Like Us’.
I think ‘3 Women’ is one of the films I’ve seen the most in my life and I never tire of it. Duvall’s performance is so spectacular and awkwardly charismatic and dissociative. Someone needs to put on a film festival where they screen ‘3 Women’, ‘Persona’, ‘Mulholland Drive’ and other films where women’s personalities meld. Maybe Roeg’s ‘Performance’ as a male footnote.
I really like awkward actors. A hot take I have is that before Spider-Man Tobey Maguire was so great and watchable even in some shitty movies. Quiet and peculiar and distant without being moody. Then he became more normal and sterilized. Though I think I’m biased because I think seeing him hung upside down with half his spider-man mask peeled off was my sexual awakening as a kid haha.
I submitted my chapbook to Green Linden this weekend and am really proud of it. It combines two long poems with overlapping themes. I’m not thinking of my chances but know that they have published a lot of writers I like. I am a little worried about how they’ll respond to certain things but hopefully they’re receptive. It’s called ‘Neuter the Text’. I actually had to pay to submit it but figured I just needed to do it given the slim opportunities granted to chapbooks these days.
Have you heard about the newly released fabled Steve Albini mix of Fugazi’s ‘In on the Kill Taker’? I actually had a rare conversation with my dad because he’s such a Fugazi megafan and couldn’t hide his excitement about it.
The late Shelley Duvall! A perfect close to a good weekend. Got out to the mountains with friends so the gun feels like a thing of the past already. I know my writing doesn’t impact my worth here, but it’s still nice to make an effort. Do you have any favourite card games?