‘Master craftsman, Dadaist prankster, and unrepentant sensualist, Walerian Borowczyk and his films have yet to be both fully discovered and appreciated. Born in Poland during the 1920s, Borowczyk trained as a painter and sculptor before establishing himself first as a poster artist and later an animation filmmaker. Having relocated to France during the late 1950s, Borowczyk produced a succession of startling, often comic short films that were as innovative as they were provocative. When Borowczyk made the transition to feature films, he joined the ranks of the titans of world cinema.
‘Not only was Borowczyk a trailblazer for fine artists working in film but he also brought a keen, painterly eye to framing and editing objects, animals, and bodies. Expertly marrying film to both classical and electronic music, Borowczyk’s approach to cinema harked back to the silent days (Méliès, Keaton, Eisenstein) and even pre-cinema (Muybridge, chrono-photography, and zoetropes). From the outset, Borowczyk favored both fantasy and eroticism, tendencies in his work that became more pronounced with the relaxation of censorship. A sense of earthy humor masks a distinctly moral sensibility, eager to satirize the corruption of institutions, whether they be feudal, clerical, or bureaucratic.
‘Margolit Fox, in her 2006 New York Times obituary, wrote of Borowczyk that he was “described variously by critics as a genius, a pornographer and a genius who also happened to be a pornographer.” The problem with this assessment is that even at its most sexually explicit, and be warned, the work could get very sexually explicit indeed, Borowczyk never betrays a desire to arouse. His most notorious film, 1975’s The Beast, opens with a scene of unsimulated horse-mating, and ends with a dream sequence in which a maiden is ravished, in a variety of ways and positions, by a man-beast with a massive and rather silly-looking tool of reproduction that keeps spouting…well, you get the idea. I can’t imagine a human being finding such stuff genuinely stimulating in the way that pornography itself actually has to intend in order for it to be pornography (and no jokes about Comic-Con attendees and their predilections, please). So if Borowczyk’s not a pornographer, what is he?
‘Arguably the most controversial aspect of Borowczyk’s filmography is his approach to women. While his gaze is undeniably male and unashamedly voyeuristic, Borowczyk’s heroines are far from shrinking violets, often ready to toss off their corsets and use their sexuality as a means of transcending social constraints, while the men are left dithering between conflicting desires for physical gratification and public respectability. If Borowczyk’s erotic obsessions rendered him a marginal figure in the history books, then it is high time to reevaluate this remarkable artist’s major contribution to cinema.’ — collaged
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Stills
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Further
Walerian Borowczyk @ IMDb
FRIENDS OF WALERIAN BOROWCZYK
‘The Walerian Borowczyk Collection’
WALERIAN BOROWCZYK @ CULTURE.PL
‘Object Lessons: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk’
‘Walerian Borowczyk by Way of Daniel Bird’
WB @ Mondo Digital
WB @ MUBI
Obituary: Walerian Borowczyk
‘Walerian Borowczyk: The Motion Demon’
‘Movies Directed by Walerian Borowczyk: Best to Worst’
‘Installation view of Walerian Borowczyk: The Right to Be Forgotten’
‘Walerian Borowczyk’s Heroines of Desire’
‘Walerian Borowczyk: The Listening Eye’
Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection # The Criterion Forum
‘WALERIAN BOROWCZYK – POSTERS AND LITHOGRAPHY’
‘The Artistry of Walerian Borowczyk’
‘The Ghost of Goto: Walerian Borowczyk Remembered’
‘The erotic fables of Walerian Borowczyk: A ’70s art-porn pioneer rediscovered’
‘Erotica and Subversion: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk’
‘Eastern European Animation Department — Renaissance (Walerian Borowczyk, 1963)’
‘TERRY GILLIAM TALKS WALERIAN BOROWCZYK RESTORATION’
‘Walerian Borowczyk: Nature or Culture?’
‘A Guide to the films of Walerian Borowczyk’
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Extras
Love Express: The Disappearance of Walerian Borowczyk (trailer)
Obscure Pleasures: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk (trailer)
Daniel Bird introduces his new documentary on Walerian Borowczyk
Table Ronde autour de Walerian Borowczyk
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Interview
(with Daniel Bird)
The main crux of your documentary film OBSCURE PLEASURES: A PORTRAIT OF WALERIAN BOROWCZYK (2013) is an interview Borowczyk gave in 1984. What was the original context for this interview, how did you find it, and what were the steps you had to go through legally to be able to manipulate and use it to make a new film?
Daniel Bird: The original context of the interview was a program about the Annecy Film festival (directed by Keith Griffiths) which was part of the Visions TV series (produced by John Ellis) broadcast on Channel 4. Peter Hames, who has written extensively on Czech and Slovak Cinema, gave me a typescript of the full interview back in 1996. (Peter was the programmer of my local Film Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, where I first got to see Borowczyk’s short films, along with those of Lenica and Svankmajer). As is usually the case, only a tiny fragment of the interview was used in the program. Nevertheless, I think it is a unique document in that it is one of the few instances where Borowczyk is on camera answering a variety of questions about animation, the graphic arts, ‘Polishness’ and sex. I thought it would be a good idea to edit the rushes into a rounded portrait. John kindly gave me permission to access the rushes from the BFI National Film Archive and I had them transferred.
How much of the original interview was used, and to what extent was the line of questioning re-organized? I ask because when talking about animation, he is seated, comfortable, leaning on a table, whereas when he is asked about his erotic films, he is standing, in a more exposed fashion, against a white wall, and the questions take on an accusatory tone. It almost seems like a different interview because there is such a sharp contrast tonally and visually.
DB: First, it is important to say something about the context in which I edited the film. During the last couple of years I have been working on a project involving the digital transfer and restoration of Borowczyk’s short films and early features. These transfers have been financed by Arrow Films, with support from the Polish Cultural Institute in London with additional support from contributors to a Kickstarter campaign. From the outset, these restorations were envisaged as part of a box-set of Blu-rays and DVDs. While I think both IMMORAL TALES and THE BEAST are wonderful, I was concerned that they would overshadow Borowczyk’s early films, particularly the shorts. Therefore, Michael Brooke (with whom I co-produced the series) and I, set about devising supplementary features as well as a book designed to re-introduce Borowczyk, so to speak. It is not the case that Borowczyk’s films can be divided up into ‘animations’ and ‘sex films’ – these are just different facets of the same artist. This ‘portrait’ of Borowczyk is just one of the supplementary features designed to put forward the case. For me, it was essential to provide a platform for Borowczyk to talk about his films himself. To answer your question, In terms of how much of the interview was used, I would say about eighty percent. Besides the discussion of Annecy, the only section which was not used was a passage about computer animation. While fascinating in itself, it just didn’t fit. About the set up of the interview, I do not know why the questions about sex were filmed the way that they were. That said, I quite like the abrupt shift. To focus on the sexual aspect of Borowczyk is a bit like focusing on violence in Peckinpah’s cinema – yes, it is what made him infamous, but it was not just what he was about.
In the interview, Borowczyk claims to not really be influenced by much Polish art. To what extent do you believe this is the case? Both of them seem to say there is no surrealist tradition in Poland, that the art is more folkloric or pastoral, but if you look at the graphic arts from at least the 1960s onward – the famous Polish posters – that obviously seems to be untrue.
DB: I don’t think he was being deliberately evasive. There is a tendency to shoehorn artists into the traditions of their own country. Of course, these are influences, but they are not the only influences. Borowczyk, for example, trained in the post-impressionist style, and his satirical drawings are clearly influenced not so much by socialist realism as Daumier. Also, John Heartfield’s photo-montage clearly plays a role in some of his posters, as does Max Ernst. Norman McLaren is an obvious influence on his early films with Lenica, and, as I have already mentioned, Léger had a strong presence in Polish art during the mid 1950s. Borowczyk is right in saying that there is no formal surrealist tradition in Poland, like there was in Czechoslovakia. However, Polish art is often surrealistic. Witkacy, Schulz and Gombrowicz are the names which are the most important in this respect. Of course, Poland arguably had the strongest tradition of posters in Eastern Europe during the late 1950s and 1960s, however, I think the posters from all Eastern Bloc countries are very strong during this period. I think this was the result of three factors. First, the relative freedom of the ‘thaw’ period, second, an economic poverty which resulted in an aesthetics of poverty (not just in posters, but also films and theatre), and third, that these artists were not trained as graphic designers, but painters – they were familiar with not just the surrealists, but all sorts of other ‘-ists’. Borowczyk did, however, feel comfortable being associated with surrealism in France. He regularly adapted the work of Pieyre de Mandiargues, for example, and made a film about the Serbian painter, Ljuba (L’AMOUR MONSTER DE TOUS LES TEMPS – see video below). It is also worth remembering that the word, surrealism, was coined by Apollinaire, who was of Polish decent.
How are Borowczyk’s films looked upon in Poland, and has that changed over time?
DB: Traditionally, I think he was valued by his peers – painters like Jan Tarasin and Jerzy Tchórzewski, the Różewicz brothers, writers like Mrożek, critics like Kałużyński. However, most critics deemed him as the less talented half of the Borowczyk-Lenica pairing – to the point where they started describing their films together as Lenica-Borowczyk – which is just wrong. That’s not how their names are credited on the films, Lenica himself acknowledged that Borowczyk was proposed the initial ideas for many of their films together. And, let’s face it, I love Lenica’s graphics and films, but he is very much indebted to Saul Steinberg. In short, I think he was a great poster designer, but ultimately Borowczyk is, for me, a more original artist. Today, things are changing. A new generation of critics are rediscovering Borowczyk afresh – Michał Oleszczyk, Kuba Mikurda, Kamila Kuc – there are new books of essays and documentary films underway. Officially, however, he is still something of an outlaw. Poland, remember, is a Catholic, conservative country.
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18 of Walerian Borowczyk’s 45 films
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w/ Jan Lenica Dom (1958)
‘Borowczyk, who was commonly known as ‘Boro’, was a self-obsessed megalomaniac who never ceased to hold a grudge against his native Poland, which he left in 1958 after his sensational success at the Brussels Expo 58, where he won the international competition with Dom (House, 1958) – the stupendous, Surrealist animation he made in collaboration with his fellow graphic designer Jan Lenica (the soundtrack is by Wlodzimierz Kotoński, of the PRES electronic studio). The film’s combination of uncanny, sardonic humour, mastery of collage technology and its combination of realism, retro and the abstract made it look unlike anything before or since.’ — Frieze
the entire film
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Renaissance (1963)
‘Another strange but surreal animated film from Borowczyk starts off in the dark when it quickly turns to light and we see what appears to be a room with nothing but destroyed items in it. Soon the items begin to morph themselves back to what they originally were. Here’s another winner from the director who brings his strange but imaginative views to the animation world. Having seen a number of his softcore flicks I can’t believe some would rather watch those lazy films when it’s obvious the director had a great mind to work with. This movie is really a lot of fun because it allows the viewer to try and guess what items are being formed while all the visuals are going on. I must admit that I didn’t guess a single one but the greatest scene for me is when the screen goes black and we see some sort of drawing, which really isn’t a drawing as it turns out to reveal something else.’ — Michael_Elliott, imdB
Excerpt
the entire film
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Les Jeux des Anges (1964)
‘Les Jeux des Anges was just extraordinary: that sense that you are on a train with walls of the city going past, and then the sound of angels’ wings – incredible.’ — Terry Gilliam
the entire film
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Rosalie (1966)
‘A haunting, minimalist short that mostly consists of a monologue to camera by the young Rosalie (Ligia Branice), on trial for the murder of her new-born infant. Based on the short story ‘Rosalie Prudent’ by Guy de Maupassant.’ — Corpo Clandestine
the entire film
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Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal (1967)
‘Mr. and Mrs. Kabal’s Theatre (Théâtre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal) is a 1967 French animated film directed by Walerian Borowczyk. It is Borowczyk’s first feature-length film and his last animated film. It consists of a sequence of loosely connected scenes, much like a vaudeville program, in which Mr. and Mrs. Kabal perform absurd, surreal, and sometimes cruel acts. A mixture of cut-out and drawn animation is used, but also clippings of old illustrations and photographs and even a processed live-action appearance by the director himself. Most images are black-and-white, with only the occasional coloured element. The sound design adds a lot to the surreal atmosphere. Mrs. Kabal speaks in an illegible collage of cut-up human sounds, sometimes translated into subtitles. The film won the Interfilm Award at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival in 1967.’ — collaged
the entire film
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Diptyque (1967)
‘Borowczyk presents two seemingly distinct ‘volets’. In the first we see an old farmer and his dog shot in stark black and white. The second features a succession of tableaux vivant in startling colour featuring houseplants and kittens.’ — IMDb
the entire film
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Goto, Island of Love (1968)
‘Goto: Island Of Love is a very surreal film based on a small island called Goto, where all inhabitants live under the dictatorship of Goto III (Pierre Brasseur – The Girl From The Dead Sea, The Return Of Monte Critso). Goto III is married to the beautiful Glyssia (Ligia Branice – Winter Twilight, Behind Convent Walls) who manages to save a man from execution (Grozo played by Guy Saint-Jean) by letting him fight in a gladitorial fight to the death. After Grozo defeats his opponent, Glyssia has her husband give him a job as the Island’s dog walker and fly catcher (yes, you read it correctly). Little do Goto and Glyssia know however, is that Grozo has plans to take over the throne of the island and make Glyssia his wife. The film, although containing a small amount of nudity, gives us an insight into the films that were to come from Borowczyk.’ — letterbox.com
the entire film
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Blanche (1971)
‘Blanche is set in 13th-century France where Michel Simon, who must have been well over 80 at the time, plays an almost senile baron with a simple but beautiful young wife (Branice) who everyone, including the King, lusts after. There is a lecherous page and a handsome but rather vacant lover too, and the film is a kind of fairytale dance of death where tragedy is probable, even if a happy outcome isn’t entirely out of the question. Almost the whole film takes place in the Baron’s castle, where the king comes to stay. And its winding stone staircases, gloomy corridors and rooms full of bizarre decor and mechanical devices are as important as any characters in the film. Once again, every tiny detail is made to count double.’ — The Guardian
the entire film
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Immoral Tales (1973)
‘Four erotic tales from various historical eras. The first, ‘The Tide’, is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. ‘Therese Philosophe’ is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. ‘Erzsebet Bathory’ is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while ‘Lucrezia Borgia’ concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.’ — IFC
Trailer
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The Beast (1975)
‘As I was not particularly enchanted with Borowczyk’s Immoral Tales, it came as little surprise to discover that the bulk of what worked least in The Beast came from that – an extended dream sequence in which a young aristocratic woman is raped, then pleasured by the titular animal who pours over her what could only be described as gallons of semen. In the booklet accompanying this release, Arrow producer Daniel Bird and film critic David Thompson argue persuasively that the exaggeration of the Beast’s physicality (never mind the utter fakeness of the costume) indicate that the film in general, and this sequence in particular, are meant to be viewed as comedy. I buy it, but I can’t say I was laughing. I’m just a man, standing in front of his readers, admitting that I totally have my limits and that semen humor isn’t for everybody. Nor, really, should it be.’ — Criterion Cast
the entire film
Walerian Borowczyk’s The Beast (La Bete) Unboxing
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La marge (1976)
‘LA MARGE is one of the oddest films in the legendary Borwoczyk’s filmography. The great master would typically deal in period pieces for his live action epics, but LA MARGE is very much of the time it was made in. I would say that as much as any other film from the seventies, that it belongs to the decade. Everything from the clothes to the music, to the look and attitude makes LA MARGE one of the quintessential features of the 1970’s and, to my eyes, one of the best. … LA MARGE, in a way, can be viewed as Borowczyk’s last effort to really score a hit with an almost mainstream film. It was based on a well known novel by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues (whose work Borowczyk would film five times), it would be scored with some of the seventies biggest musical acts (including 10CC, Elton John and Pink Floyd) and it would star an actress who two years before had become the biggest box office draw in French cinema, Sylvia Kristel.’ — Jeremy Richey
Excerpt
La Marge ending clip
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L’amour monstre de tous les temps (1977)
‘L’Amour monstre d tous les temps (The Greatest Love of All Times, continues Borowczyk’s flirtations with minimalist documentary focusing on erotica. These films come off more like preliminary visual notes for future films of greater significance, not as complete documentaries or short subjects. This one’s a portrait of Serbia’s erotic surrealist painter Popovic Ljuba, with Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser on the sound track. Coming to it with an interest in independent cinema per se, it is not much of a film, but as an introduction to an artist I previously knew nothing about, it did awaken curiosity.’ — Weird Wild Realm
Excerpt
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Immoral Women (1979)
‘Borowczyk presents three separate stories centered on beautiful women and how sex changes their lives for the better or for the worse, and unfortunately the quality between the three fluctuates wildly. The second story, “Marceline”, is by far the best and most intriguing of the trio. Marceline, a young French teenager from a well-to-do family, is a free spirit, enjoying frolicking in the beauty of nature with her pet bunny, Pinky. As she explores her budding sexuality on her lush and spacious green lawn, Pinky nuzzles into her nether regions as she reaches orgasm. She professes her undying love for her fuzzy companion, but soon finds that her parents don’t approve of all the time she spends with Pinky. To give away more would be criminal, but there are plenty of surprises and startling violence and sex (as well as more male nudity) before our story ends. “Marceline” is the reason IMMORAL WOMEN gets one of my highest recommendations. It is a strange and distinctly European mix of beauty, emotion, violence, and sexuality; even by itself, out of the context of an anthology film, it is one of Borowczyk’s greatest accomplishments. It is anchored by an endearing leading lady, Gaelle Legrand. Burdened with an unfortunate frizzy hairdo a la Little Orphan Annie, she’s no Marina Pierro, but who is? With a lovely figure, piercing blue eyes, and pouting beauty, she resembles a 1970s variant of Helena Bonham Carter, and gives a wonderful performance. The beautifully composed and photographed “love scene” between Marceline and Pinky is the most erotic sequence in the film, which may surprise some viewers.’ — dvddrive-in.com
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Lulu (1980)
‘Lulu tracks the rise and fall of a beguiling dancer whose sexuality is tied directly to her fortunes. The titular nymph-like seductress flits from romance to romance, strategically positioning herself for social and financial gain. Each of her lovers embodies a Victorian archetype, from the old professor showing off what would now be called a “trophy wife” to the bohemian artist to the bourgeois newspaperman to the naive young man. Borowczyk’s adaptation of Wedekind’s melodramas emphasizes the satirical nature of the story, skewering upper middle class attitudes towards sexual relationships. And believe you me, this is HIGH melodrama, folks! Lulu’s story is sketched out in a series of five scenes, each highlighting one of her relationships. After her first husband suffers a heart attack while walking in on her lovemaking with a young artist hired to paint her portrait, Lulu inherits his fortune. She doesn’t dispense with her philandering ways after marrying the artist, however, and her relentless–to say nothing of ENTIRELY SHAMELESS–affairs lead to the artist’s suicide. Her performing star continues to rise, and she effectively blackmails a successful newspaper owner into marrying her, but she kills him after an emotional confrontation over the fact that she’s sleeping with his son. From here, the unwitting murderess is forced to live in squalor and sell her body to support herself, leading to her death at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Yes, I know–it’s pretty much four seasons of Falcon Crest jammed into ninety-five minutes of film. This stop-and-start structure mimics a stage production very effectively, and Borowczyk’s frank camerawork evokes the experience of watching a theatrical piece, to the point where some shots are partially obscured by columns, doors, or screens. The period setting is deftly handled by the director, featuring highly detailed sets and thoroughly researched costumes. While not as bombastic as the also-Period-Piece Dr. Jekyll and his Women, which would follow in 1981, there’s an exploration of similar themes using a similar set-up of familiar literary/cinematic source material.’ — Love Train
Excerpt
the entire film
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981)
‘Dr. Jekyll and His Women is Walerian Borowczyk’s sexed-up interpretation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novella. Amping up the story’s existing criticism of Victorian morality to ELEVEN, Borowczyk creates an explicit nightmare world where sublimated passions destroy anything and anyone unfortunate enough to get in their path. Udo Kier stars as Dr. Henry Jekyll and is supported by a fabulous cast of genre veterans that includes Howard Vernon (who played Dr. Orlof along with approximately a million other fantastic roles), Marina Pierro (who was so plush and lovely in Borowczyk’s “Behind Convent Walls”), and Gérard Zalcberg (already beloved of the Empire as mute henchman Gordon in “Faceless”). The film’s structure is similar to that of Borowczyk’s infamous erotic mindfuck The Beast (yes, the one where the woman has sex with the bear-monster)–it’s established that all the characters are screwed up, there’s an escalating outburst of sexual violence, and ultimately a tragic ending underscoring themes of destruction and dissolution.’ — Love Train
the entire film
Excerpt
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Scherzo Infernal (1984)
‘A harshly sensual world in the fiery inferno of Hell. Big-breasted tailed demoness & demons whose tails are phalluses strut, rut, reproduce, nurse, & generally show off amindst the flames. An angelic prostitute confronts God. All voices, male or female, are done by Yves Robert in his own voice, which has a disturbing effect all its own.’ — Weird Wild Realm
the entire film
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Emmanuelle 5 (1987)
‘First Emmanuelle film to not star Sylvia Kristel. Basic storyline is that Emmanuelle is at the Cannes Film Festival (advertising her new film) and has to run away from a bunch of reporters who strip her naked (?), leaving her running along the road in the nude. She then dives onto a boat and runs off with the captain to a fictional Arabic country. Once there she meets the countries dictator, who wants her to join his harem. She escapes and all hell breaks loose. I was actually quite surprised how good and how well made this film was. All the rest before it weren’t much good. 4 being terrible. Very surprised. Definately has it’s tongue in it’s cheek. Brilliant soundtrack. A reworking of the original “Emmanuelle Theme” is in there, all 80s up. Sounds amazing.’ — letterboxd.com
Teaser trailer
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Love Rites (1987)
‘The final feature by the great Walerian Borowczyk, who delivered a uniquely spare and poetic–and obnoxiously uneventful–erotic reverie with extremely dark overtones that erupt in the horrific final scenes. Where the film is most intriguing is in the sensuous and detailed imagery of Walerian Borowczyk, who can always be counted on to come up with something visually arresting (such as a seduction sequence viewed entirely through outside windows), even when not much is happening onscreen (which in this film is unfortunately quite often). This is especially true in the unforgettable climax, when Miriam slashes Hugo with her claws. The sequence is a triumph of surreal grotesquerie, mixing beauty and horror in a manner that recalls Borowczyk’s masterpiece DR. JEKYLL AND HIS WOMEN.’ — fright.com
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p.s. Hey. Heads up that the blog will be going on vacation for two weeks while I’m on the US West Coast hosting a screening of ‘Room Temperature’. The last post for now will be on Saturday, and the blog/posts will return on July 1st. ** Misanthrope, As if there aren’t enough actual harmful things out there to worry about. The shrooms should’ve done something if they were real. But the tasting like shit aspect pans. ** _Black_Acrylic, ‘Human Traffic’, no, but I’ll seek and bookmark if possible. Thanks. Ooh, Cookie Pie Man. That little chocolate pie thing looks irresistible. ** Dominik, Hi!!!! Welcome back to the fold! Right, the shooting in Graz was very weird. World is pretty fucking crazy, although Paris seems to still be in a lull. LA, however, yikes! I’ve been good, thank you. Just doing my usual film stuff mostly and enjoying the unfortunate ending of spring weather. What are your return to normal plans? Love making everyone else take a handful of shrooms and never come back from their trips, G. ** Bernard Welt, Yeah, Mark’s lived there for several years now. Hit him up at the opportunity. He has new book of short stories titled ‘Whites’ coming out next month, and it’s as timely and timeless as his novels, and it’s killer. Nice and convenient there about the citizenship. And I wish for rich people who want to make tiny dents in their fortunes to help a couple of wide eyed rapscallions make their films. You have a much better chance. Lovely about Tim and of course ‘G-9’. Surely that’ll be YouTubed or something? Advice? Be yourself. I’m not very up on journals, it’s true, but, goodness gracious, I can’t imagine you having much trouble getting your and Tim’s collab thing published. My goodness. Might even try The Paris Review? I’ve been my usual slow guy about email, but I just downloaded the PeeWee thing not two minutes ago finally, and thank you ever so much!!!! Love, me. ** Carsten, Me too. I’m down to nicotine and caffeine myself. I think I fed my imagination enough psychedelics over the years that it can manufacture trippy shit if I concentrate. I’m seeing Neil Young here in Paris at some big arena. I’ve seen him a bunch back in the day, but I think he might be nearing his live retirement age, so I want to take the chance. I think my peak Jarmusch is ‘Ghost Dog’ maybe. ** Steeqhen, Shannon sounds like a total pip! Shrooms are, or can be, a nice entree into the psychedelic drug realm. A very nice lobby. Or can be. My LA roommate is playing the open world Mario Kart so I’ll get good look when I get there because he basically spends most of his days playing some iteration of Mario Kart. Basically we need to find 10k to finish the game. Maybe we’ll try to find it before we get to the point where our next film’s funding has to be paramount. No, there was a growth on my baby toe on my left foot. Doc said it was like a rock growing bigger and bigger. He just sliced it out. It was weirdly easy. Luck with the big move today. ** Hugo, Hi, H. Ah, it’s still kind of nice outside here, but it’s supposed to start getting summery hot any day, fuckers. Yeah, CD-rom games of the 90s when they were pretty experimental and overly ambitious were very formative to me. I guess they were not unlike the IRL haunted houses I love so much. Anyway, that was what we’re going for in the game. Some adventure, mostly retro charm. I remember 21 being like, ‘what’s the big deal?’, yes. I should be here in late July if you guys want to come over here. Very early happy b’day. I don’t mind talking about Ryan Trecartin whatsoever. And I wish you the best with the trouble amongst your good friends. Stressful. ** Alice, Hey, Alice! Hugo just said you guys might come over and visit the big P. I hope you do. There seems to be a very exciting, snowballing trans writer and artist scene in London loosely gathered around the great Pilot Press. One of the writers, Hesse K, who has a fantastic novel out called ‘Disquiet Drive’, came over with some of their crew to do a reading here with them, and they were super vibrant and impressive as writers and people. And I think other presses are springing up in that scene too. It’s very invigorating. Watch parties are the best. I think I need to rewatch ‘Showgirls’ because I saw it when it came out and thought it was just awful, but it has so many champions that I think I might’ve missed something. What did you think? If you’ve never seen MBV it’s a singular and amazing thing. And, yes, earplugs. Great about you wanting to make scrapbooks. It helped me a bunch, as I said. Have you started drawing? How is that feeling? ** pancakeIan, The only chocolate pancakes I’ve had were chocolate chip, and I can recommend those. No, the Marbled Swarm narrator is based on nobody other than some weird realm of my imagination. Well, and the actor Pierre Clementi, the narrator’s supposed father whom he supposedly resembles and wishes he was. There was a Virgin Megastore here in Paris that strangely survived for a few years after the chain went completely bust, I don’t know how or why. But then it finally died. I remember never ever finding anything in a Virgin Megastore that I remotely wanted to buy, but my tastes are pretty offbeat. Later to you. ** julian, Well, there’s the virtue of chocolate’s taste of course. And the short-lived but welcome energy burst. And it’s supposedly good for the digestion. I’m sure there are other pluses. From my memory of Rimbaud’s biography, I think he was in fact heavily pooh-poohed in the Paris writer community because of his age. And probably by regular adults too. I think he used to cultivate and keep lice in his hair that he would throw at adults who disrespected him. My psychedelic of choice is LSD/acid. But I grew up when LSD was new and pure and not cut with all kinds of other crap, which I think it often is now. But LSD is also a huge commitment. Shrooms are nice because they mostly just bliss you out and mess with your eyesight and thinking in a relatively mild way. Not entirely unlike Ecstasy at least used to feel. ** Uday, Hi. Enjoying the sleepover, I trust. I don’t find your commenting predictable from my side of things. A Nixon yaoi?! That’s something. I was extremely too young to know him. My parents were friends with him and Pat in the years before he was President. I only have one memory of walking into the living room and seeing him sitting there with my dad. Thanks to your mind for including me. ** Steve, Oh, gotcha, chocolate, of course that’s what that must have been. I never did mushrooms in my teens. Mushrooms weren’t a popular drug back then. It was LSD, mescaline, peyote, hashish, opium, basically. I didn’t do mushrooms until, gosh, my late 20s? Saturday, nice! Countdown. No, I was a stand-out at my college radio station for totally sure. And my slot was 6am – 10am. I was the dj who was known for being the one who got lots of listeners calling in to complain because I assaulted them upon awakening with raucous stuff when they wanted to be eased awake with, I don’t know, the Eagles or something. ** jay, Haha, your dad, funny, yes. I don’t think shrooms would take you all that deep unless they’re somehow dosed with a heavier, weirder drug. You do (or at least I do) often get a half-hour, forty minutes of mild paranoia at the the beginning — shrooms’ big drawback — but then that fades away and you just feel pretty blissy. Yeah, try to talking to your friend? When that situation happened withy friend and I found out, I called him up and yelled at him, and he just kept saying, ‘Oh, that boy wanted it’, and that was all I needed to hear to cut my friend completely off. Hopefully something like that won’t happen with yours. Hi back to your sister! How cool. ** HaRpEr //, Churlish, haha. I mean, I guess the marking up you got was to be expected? I went through that in a certain way back when. I asked a prominent writer/editor to read this early prose thing I wrote, and he gave it back to me having taken a pen and drawn a big X over every page and said it was a disaster. When that same piece was the centerpiece of an early book of mine that got nominated for a biggish literary prize, I sent him a copy. Bastard. My experience with shrooms is that they start out causing a short period of anxiety/paranoia that then fades out and is replaced by a bliss effect. So you kind of have to know you’re going to have to pass through that and that it’s the drug not you. ** horatio, Hi! Oh, I plan to watch your film finally today. Sorry for my delay. You should be careful and sure if you do psychedelics, but I’ve never known anyone who got violent or anything like that. I think that’s mostly ‘in the news’ as it were. But, yeah, don’t do them, if you do, unless you’re feeling generally good, I would say. Thanks, my toe is improving hourly, it seems. Yes, I kept the scrapbooks. They’re in my archive at NYU. One of them was published in book form. ‘GONE Scrapbook 1980 – 1982’. The books had a lot of collaging and written texts and things. Kind of all over the place. How its the water color painting going? Is that clarifying the character for you in a new way? ** Right. Today I give you the opportunity to get to know (or continue to know) the wacky and sometimes wonderful oeuvre of the Polish filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Hi!!
It’s so good to be back – and luckily a few days before you leave for the US again! Really, this place always feels like a safe haven from the world’s general bullshit.
The shooting in Graz came as a total shock. I mean, obviously, things like this happen – but only elsewhere, far away. What a naïve little bubble to live in. And the protests in LA too, yes – or rather, the response to them! Jesus. I’m really glad to hear Paris still seems to be holding on to some sense of normalcy, at least.
How’s the new film script coming along?
My foreseeable plans are pretty boring, as they mostly consist of work, but we’ll see what else comes up. I really crave to be in a state of obsession – fixated on a character or characters from a movie or series – but it’s just not happening. It’s not something I can control; my brain just happens to latch onto someone or something from time to time, and then I’m down the rabbit hole. I love being down there, and it’s been such a long time since it last happened – well over a year. I’m parched.
Honestly, that might be even better! Love quietly leaving Archive of Our Own after stumbling across a Barack Obama x Shrek fanfiction, Od.
Dennis, Yeah, I have my own personal hangups about some things, but I don’t let them affect how I treat other people. IOW, I don’t treat others like shit because of them.
After that “mushroom” experience, I just gave up on ’em and never sought them out or anything. Drinking was enough for me. Oh, and some acid now and then. 😉
Walerian Borowczyk’s work will not be featuring in my local cinema any time soon, I don’t think. Thank you for today’s showcase!
Human Traffic is online via YouTube here should you feel like revisiting the 90s. Might just watch this again myself tonight, ahead of Friday’s MUBI Twin Peaks rerun. Nostalgia ain’t always such a bad thing!
Little Sparta Day has been completed way ahead of schedule, and emailed to you just now. Finished today in a flurry of inspiration and I hope you will like it.
Totally great Day today. Of course the only Borowczyk I’ve seen are the ones that get called pornographic, but I’ll remedy that. I could see putting him in proximity with Dušan Makavejev, a favorite. (When I showed WR: Mysteries of the Organism in a cinema history class, I had a student from the former Yugoslavia who said that when WR appeared without notice on the state TV, they knew the regime was crumbling.)
Speaking of: I’ve had my first publication of porn *ever*, in Crooked Fagazine, in distinguished company. I helped Billy Miller with Straight to Hell last few issues, but it crumbled like Yugoslavia before my own writing could get in.)
Paris Review, yeah, I was wondering. Well, what have I got to lose?
Pilot Press — wonderful. XO
Funnily enough, I randomly came across a clip from The Beast the other day, and of course I was taken aback by how bizarre it was. I assumed it was just an early example of the kind of monster fetish porn we see more nowadays, which would have been interesting enough on its own, but knowing more about the artist I’m even more fascinated. I’m gonna have to watch some of these, just based on the visual strength of these stills. Ah, I guess chocolate just being tasty is virtuous enough. I’m reminded of the Xiu Xiu song “Chocolate Makes You Happy”. That anecdote about Rimbaud throwing his lice at people is cool and very nasty. It makes Verlaine seem like even more of a freak for being able to overlook that. No one my age has ever told me about getting LSD laced with anything but I’m sure it happens. The crowd I hang out with tends not to be that into drugs, so there’s that, too.
I’ve never seen any Borowczyk. When it comes to euro-sleaze I found Jess Franco more appealing as a kid. Sun-soaked Spain already did it for me then, unlike the musty Slavic vibes I always got from stills of Borowczyk’s stuff. And the women of course—Soledad Miranda was one of the chief sex symbols of my youth. But that’s the thing with eroticism, it’s so rooted in aesthetic preference & sheer attraction. Not to reduce these guys to just eroticism though.
I’m sure Neil Young will be great. I have Iggy to look forward to in two weeks, another potential retiree…
Ghost Dog is beautiful, yeah. My other big favorite is The Limits of Control, which is obscenely underrated. Probably his most avant-garde work yet, a genuine tone poem made up entirely of moods & vibes, almost musical. By the way, Ken Jacobs used to tell me that Jarmusch was one of the very few narrative/”commercial” filmmakers he respected these days.
Your flight is on Saturday? Do you fly coach or do you get to splurge? I ask as a tall person with a fucked-up spine who hates flying & thus especially coach. So much so that I’m moving to Spain by car this summer.
Wicked post, but the approach to women does seem to be a bit of a turn-off, at least from the stills. Would have to watch to be able to actually make that pronouncement. Are you ever planning to bring back/expand/make a sequel to the “How to write an awesome fan letter” post? I remember enjoying it, but it may no longer be your jam. The sleepover did go well, thanks. Are you a fan of them? It seems like a great way to manage to have an actual conversation. And it was certainly better than what came after: I have to update some documents and bank stuff. Very boring. I do enjoy little bank branches, however. Until about three years ago, when I’d take long walks to clear my head instead of acting in moments of extreme anger, I’d often take refuge in these little 24 hour ATM kiosks that have a guard and air conditioning. There’s something about clean white bank rooms that is timeless. It could really anywhere spaciotemporally and one would still be there under those harsh fluorescent lights. As interesting as these banks are due to their lack of things, thus leaving space to be filled (‘Like being a pedestrian in LA’, I once said to the complete incomprehension of my friends), what I have to do in them is very boring. Wishing you a day where you have the chance to use a gluestick at least once, and further that that gluestick does not rub off on your fingers.
How’s your toe doing? Can you walk far? In the last six months of his life, my dad had pain walking because his nails had become severely ingrown. (Physically, he was no longer strong enough to keep cutting them and needed to have a nurse do it.)
RIP Brian Wilson and Sly Stone. Damn, it hurts to lose both of them in two days.
According to a book on psychedelic culture in the ’70s, mushrooms suddenly became far more available around that time because Terence McKenna began selling mail order spore/cultivation kits then.
Did you respond to the Eagles requests with “Metal Machine Music” or “Frankie Teardrop”?
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE is great. I miss that perverse mix of horror and sexuality.
Hi ! As usual, I did not know Borowczyk . But I liked what I saw of his animated film here. I can see how Terry Gilliam was influenced by his style , with ‘Monty Python’ and such . Even though I’m not British, I’m a Python fan .
Oddly enough, considering my screen name, I haven’t had actual pancakes for years . Because they’re usually made with eggs, which I don’t consume as you know. I was basically brought up with 2 moms, and one of them was an awesome chef. She made great eggless pancakes. But never chocolate chip ones. So that will have to remain a mystery for me.
I recall your Marbled Swarm narrator comparing himself to Pierre Clementi. I really need to bulk up on my classic films one of these days. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen parts of ‘The Leopard’ and ‘The Conformist’, which he was in . I hope it’s ok, but I snooped in on your Soap2day link you provided yesterday to someone. I’ve already found a bunch of movies I’ve been wanting to see for a while…….so thanks ! These days everything is divided between so many different streaming services, and they all want money .
I’m not surprised that you had a Virgin Megastore in Paris………interesting that it lasted longer than the rest. I think now only the airline still exits. I never bought much either, mainly browsed. They had this gay themed magazine for sale there usually, called ‘XY’ . Lots of interesting articles and photos, to say the least . But that went under too, a few years back.
later…..
Hey Dennis! I agree with most of the other commenters – I’ve seen his work as pornography, but never really looked beyond that. I really should remedy that, all of the things I think about often are long-form pornographic/erotic works (Bataille, some of Frisk, that eroguro yaoi game I liked). Maybe there’s just something about it as a genre where feeling emotional catharsis/sexual catharsis/good taste have more of a weird argument, where one occassionally wins out or dominates the conversation, and then falls back into the background for a few pages. You’ve talked about visual pornography in similar terms, but… sadly text seems to be the only things that really holds my attention in this way. Hmm, your description of shrooms kind of sounds amazing. Thirty minutes ish of paranoia sounds cool in theory, but I’m sure I wouldn’t feel that while I was experiencing it. Your descriptions of drug use are, like, spectacularly evocative and vivid. I’m sure you get this a lot, but you’re really good at getting sense across in prose.
My time with my friend was complicated, and I’m still digesting it. He was really lovely to me, referenced lots of in jokes, and kind of skirted around the issue when I subtly alluded to the social fallout. When I really pressed it, he got really awkward, wouldn’t make eye contact et cetera. We talked it over for a while over a shared plate of waffles, and I think I got my thoughts across. I sort of rambled, but yeah, I think a success. He seemed really ashamed, which is something I was terrified was going to be absent. I’m planning to move near him so, yeah, I think I’ll try and stay friends with him, at least to try and keep him going on a good path. Shit, sorry that happened between you and your friend, I found today almost unbearably stressful so I can’t imagine how awful it would be to have the conflict escalate. Love to you, see you!
Hey Dennis,
The move was a bit of a mess, eventually got everything down, despite having to take a break to go get some food to stop myself from fainting. But then after putting on the mattress cover it looked wrong, which had me convinced I had gotten the wrong sized duvet and bedsheets. Had me on the verge of tears because I was so tired and drained. Thankfully they were actually the right size and the mattress protector was just weird. Still put me in a shitty mood. Hopefully I will have some motivation tomorrow.
Sounds like an interesting situation down there. Sometimes when I’m low or looking for visual stimulation, I watch videos of surgeries, toenail stuff, wart/cyst removals. I don’t know why, but it’s just so soothing to me… it’s like controlled and ethical mutilation.
Hey Dennis
Well, the weather is finally nice and breezy, and I can now sleep with my window open, which is always a plus. The issues with my friends have subsided for now since one of my friends is not up somewhere in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. I think they’re gonna do some soul searching up there or something. I always wanted to do the same, but I always feel bizarre. I suppose I just need people; I’m prone to bouts of loneliness. It’s weird, I feel like I’m too old, but I’m only 21, and I have a lot more to do. I feel like I should be doing more, but ehhh. I’m also a bit bummed that Brian Wilson passed. I really thought he was great.
BTW, odd question, but it’s something I wanna look for because of the novel I’m trying to write right now, do you know any particularly memorable scenes of consensual oral sex in writing? Preferably, I want the scene to be between guys and in the third person, but I’m down to look either way for this. I could probably open up “The 120 Days of Sodom,” but Sade doesn’t have a style that I find all too helpful for what I want. If you got nothing, it’s fine, but it was something I wanted to work on.
Hope you have a wonderful day, utmost sincerity.
Yeah, ‘churlish’ is good actually. The marker was sort of talking down to me like I was a child who had been very naughty but showed promise. If I could only do something sensible with it… It was expected, yes. I mean, I have disregarded all of the rules they tried to impose on me as a writing student, so I hardly expected a gold star. The X that editor wrote on every page seems overly dramatic, though a great twist of fate knowing that you sent him a copy.
I really am sad about Brian Wilson. ‘Pet Sounds’ was the first album I ever loved. It was not a surprise to hear the news because I was aware of his health issues and everything, but it’s still a great loss and feels weird. His genius is of course well documented but I do think that when you go and listen to the ‘Smile’ sessions you see that the scope of his ambition and what he wanted to do for pop music even exceeded The Beatles, and I don’t say that to disparage the boys at all.
I guess there is a trans writing scene in London. I hadn’t thought about it much but you’re right. That gives me hope. I’d love to be published by Pilot Press one day. I don’t think I fully fit in with their general aesthetic. I’m too gaudy or something and don’t have an academic bent, but I won’t hold out hope for one day.
I like the story of Victor Hugo patting a scowling young Rimbaud on the head after reading at an event in some salon that Verlaine invited him to and calling him ‘our little Shakespeare’. There’s also a great story about him and Verlaine being kicked out a different reading because Rimbaud shouted ‘Merde!’ after every line of a poem that some washed up writer was reading. I think he was at his most chaotic during that early period from what I’ve read. It was Verlaine who became the chaotic drunken one later on. Rimbaud used to walk around Verlaine’s house before he left his wife just smashing things randomly and masturbating into the milk as a joke. Most of this is legend of course but I’d like to believe it.
Correction: will hold out hope (in third paragraph)
Hi there Dennis! Yes, the plan is to head out to Paris sometime in July. Hugo has mentioned the prospect of meeting with you. I’m excited about it! There are aspects of Paris that I know I’d like to see. I’m aware of the burial place of Oscar Wilde being there. However, I’m out of my depth when it comes to finding places to see. It’ll be helpful to have advice there.
Thank you for mentioning Pilot Press. I wasn’t familiar with the publication but the works I’ve seen on their website seem fascinating. I saw one today which was a release of an unrealised film treatment by Derek Jarman about the last days of Pasolini’s life. I’m very drawn to that. I’ll keep in mind ‘Disquiet Drive’ too!
I’ve been fortunate enough to find myself within trans spaces in London. A close friend of mine moved there to study and has been very accommodating. It broke me out of my social boundaries—new connections formed because I actively sought them out. A distinct occasion was when I went to the Prince Charles Cinema to see Harmony Korine’s Aggro Drift. He was in attendance, so I was pulled to go there. I saw two people in the line who I felt connected to. By coincidence, they sat in the exact seats next to me. One of them mentioned the game Fear and Hunger and it pushed me to start a conversation. It’s been a year since that experience and both of them are now close friends. I’ve grown a social circle that’s both stable and secure. Once I’ve finished my studies, I’m considering moving there and working as a librarian. We’ll see how that goes, but I feel optimistic about my circumstances.
We ended up giving the watch party a miss! I’m going to reschedule it for later. I spent most of the day outside shopping for notebooks and a guitar. Will update you on my thoughts when I see it!
I used to be committed to drawing when I was younger. Somewhere in my boxes are comics that I would draw for myself. Other interests took my mind and I never followed up on it. However, I keep up with the practice when I’m sketching ideas for my writing. I’ve been told by others that I have a dreamy and intimate style. I appreciate that others see those factors in me. They relate to my engagement with others. In some ways, developing an extract acts as a means to deconstruct my way of communication. Drawing helps me there.
Hope all is well for you!
I have been more or less emotionally stable lately, not the most fulfilling life but not terrible. I don’t know what else to say about that.
Borowczyk’s shorts I have seen a few but not the features yet though I know his reputation, what he does, etc.
I saw The Phoenician Scheme today. It’s in an odd place of being basically perfect in some ways but not especially distinct. It’s still worth it, though.
I also watched a Japanese film called R-100 that I kind of thought was fantastic. The premise is that a widower with a dying daughter who attempts to deal with his loneliness by hiring a dominatrix who is allowed to beat and humiliate anywhere at any time no matter how public. If that seems like a contrived metaphor, that’s entirely the point since it’s really just the hinge for something more metafictional. It is experimental in a very chaotic way that is sort of tough to explain. It seems this director, like Sono, has had questionable at best sexual conduct but I’m still curious about his other films (but I tend to seek things through questionably legal methods so maybe there’s less of an ethical quandary there).
Hey Dennis!
Responding a few days late because I got sidetracked, but it truly has been a blur these past months, which is both for the best and a curse.
As of now, I’m jumping back into poetry, along with planning to pull the trigger on starting an online lit mag of my own to help foster that weird queer art I’m looking for. Likely a lot of bells and whistles to line up for it to launch well, along with finding a good webpage to host it, but that will be a cinch once I nail down the mission statement. Also I’ll be making my acting debut in a staged reading of two plays next month, which is also my birthday month. A little intimidating at first announcement, but nothing too out there.
Hey Dennis! I’m sure you hear this a lot but thank you for including links to the films you discuss in your blog posts- I watched a couple of the shorts on here & will definitely be checking out Borowczyk’s features. The wig creature in Dom was so charming, loved the stop motion to bits. Infernal Symphony was cool too- I don’t speak really french so I couldn’t understand the dialogue, but I found the line work to be quite striking. It kind of reminds me of these stick & ink illustrations my roommate Connie makes- my favorite of hers being a comic about an old man felating an eyeball/optic nerve. We have that one on our kitchen wall, haha >:)
It’s good to hear that your toe is healing well, and thank you for the link to your scrapbook! I recognize some of these pages… a couple weeks back someone posted excerpts from it on tumblr but they didn’t provide a source or context, its good to know where they came from now. The painting is going alright, my plan is to use acrylic paint to layer on top of the water colors. I hope it will help me narrow down character traits as I’m gradually forced to make choices with this image. There are traits that I know I want the character to possess- poor sense of boundaries, socially inept, edgelord, obsessive, androgynous- but I guess I’m unsure how uhhh… machiavellian (?) I want him to be.
Have fun at the west coast Room Temperature screening! ^__^
I’m a big fan of early industrial music, but I never got around to listening to Fad Gadget. My mistake because as I’m listening right now I’m falling in love. I’m surprised by how much sex appeal he had. I guess a lot of the early industrial musicians were pretty sexy in their own way. JG Thirlwell seems to owe a lot to this guy, now that I’m listening to more. Last night I watched Scherzo Infernal, which I thought was really interesting even if I only half-understood the Spanish subtitles.