heart of glass
yesterday was really fun. i started a story with these three words on the bus - "esme was furious". it seemed then as though it might turn out to be a cheap and lurid gothic romance. i have never attempted to write a story on the 8.10 bus to grimesthorpe on a friday morning before, i did have a seat but there were a lot of people crowding around it so i ended up leaning my notebook against the window and writing at something of a slant. during lulls and breaktimes at work i managed to complete the story, and it did not turn out at all as i expected. the plot centred around a phone sex line which is not really what you expect from a melodramatic gothic romance. though it is quite cheap and lurid.
when i got home there was a parcel for me which almost never happens, full of really nice things from thom. he sent me a pro/con notebook which i think may well shape my future decisions.
i started re-watching "heart of glass" and realized how much i forgot about it. it's oddness lies in the acting under hypnotism of course, but also the way it is the poetry that carries it. the speech is stylized, melodramatic, like lines of poetry and it is the combination of this and the dreamy popul vuh soundtrack which carries the hypnotic theme through. it reminds me of a play i once watched called "beggars belief" at the mac in birmingham. the whole play was based on recreations of paintings by pieter breughel of peasants and beggars. it was extremely unnerving to see these famous depictions come alive in the theatre. the piece was largely physical with elements of slapstick and violence, there was no intelligible speech but rather emulations of words or sounds which could be interpreted only through context or tone. similarly in "heart of glass" speech is used sparingly with sometimes several minutes going by without any. there is a scene where two men in a tavern discuss the impending death of one of them whilst drinking beer from tankards, the clothing, fleshtones and features of the men sitting in the gloom of the tavern make them seem as though they have stepped directly from a breughel painting, and mirrors the look of the actors in "beggars belief". sadly i have no recollection of the company behind the production and though i know that they took their inspiration form breughel i don't know if they were influenced at all by "heart of glass". there is also a scene in the original "solaris" which incorporates a breughel painting of a crowded snowscene, this serves as a the catalyst for the main character's real and/or imagined memories of childhood and becomes part of the action as the painted snowscene and memories of his family in the snow become inseperable. it is interesting to see the lines between various forms of visual art blurring to present the same idea - though a film or play has the advantages of action, dialogue, music, lighting, script, direction and to some extent advertising and packaging does a painting which overtly lacks these advantages have the more impact for it's simplicity?
perhaps the only certain thing is that nothing refers only to itself, to extract the most out of an idea or piece of art there can be no boundaries between them.
when i got home there was a parcel for me which almost never happens, full of really nice things from thom. he sent me a pro/con notebook which i think may well shape my future decisions.
i started re-watching "heart of glass" and realized how much i forgot about it. it's oddness lies in the acting under hypnotism of course, but also the way it is the poetry that carries it. the speech is stylized, melodramatic, like lines of poetry and it is the combination of this and the dreamy popul vuh soundtrack which carries the hypnotic theme through. it reminds me of a play i once watched called "beggars belief" at the mac in birmingham. the whole play was based on recreations of paintings by pieter breughel of peasants and beggars. it was extremely unnerving to see these famous depictions come alive in the theatre. the piece was largely physical with elements of slapstick and violence, there was no intelligible speech but rather emulations of words or sounds which could be interpreted only through context or tone. similarly in "heart of glass" speech is used sparingly with sometimes several minutes going by without any. there is a scene where two men in a tavern discuss the impending death of one of them whilst drinking beer from tankards, the clothing, fleshtones and features of the men sitting in the gloom of the tavern make them seem as though they have stepped directly from a breughel painting, and mirrors the look of the actors in "beggars belief". sadly i have no recollection of the company behind the production and though i know that they took their inspiration form breughel i don't know if they were influenced at all by "heart of glass". there is also a scene in the original "solaris" which incorporates a breughel painting of a crowded snowscene, this serves as a the catalyst for the main character's real and/or imagined memories of childhood and becomes part of the action as the painted snowscene and memories of his family in the snow become inseperable. it is interesting to see the lines between various forms of visual art blurring to present the same idea - though a film or play has the advantages of action, dialogue, music, lighting, script, direction and to some extent advertising and packaging does a painting which overtly lacks these advantages have the more impact for it's simplicity?
perhaps the only certain thing is that nothing refers only to itself, to extract the most out of an idea or piece of art there can be no boundaries between them.