.

Now hopefully I get them all because otherwise I might have to go through with the cloning myself multiple times to fulfill my requirements.  And also, I can’t handle the stress of like 10 backup classes, so they had better all be open when I register.

M, W, F

Spanish @ 10

The Ballad Tradition @ 11

T, Th

Civil Liberties @ 10:30

Narrative and Interpretation @ 1:30

Politics of Northern Ireland (1921-now) @ 3

My Top 10:

1. The Battleship Potemkin
   

   The Battleship Potemkin (1925)

2. Greed
3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
4. The Birth of a Nation
5. The Gold Rush
6. The Phantom of the Opera
7. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
8. Foolish Wives
9. The Last Laugh
10. The General
    

TSPDT Consensus Top 5 Films:

• #8 – The Battleship Potemkin
• #27 – The Gold Rush
• #30 – The General
• #51 – Intolerance
• #64 – Greed

AFI Top 100 Films:

• The Birth of a Nation – #44 (1998) – not on 2007 list
• The Gold Rush – #75 (1998) – #58  (2007)
• The General – #18 (2007) – not on 1998 list
• Intolerance – #49 (2007) – not on 1998 list

Nighthawk Awards:

• Best Picture: The Battleship Potemkin
• Best Director: Sergei Eisenstein (The Battleship Potemkin)
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Greed (from the novel McTeague)
• Best Original Screenplay: The Gold Rush
• Best Actor: Charlie Chaplin (The Gold Rush)
• Best Actress: Lilian Gish (Broken Blossoms)
• Best Supporting Actor: Donald Crisp (Broken Blossoms)
• Best Supporting Actress: Zasu Pitts (Greed)

Ebert Great Movies (in order that he added them):

• The General
• The Battleship Potemkin
• Greed
• Broken Blossoms
• The Last Laugh
• The Birth of a Nation
• The Phantom of the Opera
• Faust
• Safety Last
• Nanook of the North
• Cabiria
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• Souls for Sale

1912 is where I begin this project because it was in 1912 that Richard III, the earliest surviving feature length film was released.  1926 is where this post ends because the Academy Awards began in 1927.  So this pretty much covers the pre-Academy era of feature films.

Because these are the pre-Academy years no group existed to decide what was the best film of each year.  So if you’re looking to try to figure out what films to watch from this era, there are several ways to go about it.  First, you can look at TSPDT and their list of the Top 1000 films of all-time.  It’s a good place to start, though it leaves a lot to sort through.  You could try the AFI list which, between the two versions of 400 films in consideration, included 19 different films from this era (aside from the 4 films on the two versions of the top 100 they also nominated Richard III, The Cheat, The Poor Little Rich Girl, Broken Blossoms, Within Our Gates, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Kid, Safety Last, Sherlock Jr., The Thief of Bagdad, The Big Parade, The Freshman, Greed, The Phantom of the Opera and Ben-Hur).  There are 13 films from this era that have been featured on Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list.  You could also try focusing on one director in particular.  Charlie Chaplin began in this era making short films, eventually starting his feature directing career, though his only true classic during this era is The Gold Rush.  D.W. Griffith was the top director of the era and almost his entire career was done before sound ever made it to the screen.  There is Erich von Stroheim, who made far fewer films than Griffith, but each film is worth seeing.  Then there are the foreign directors, the ones who get missed if you stick to AFI, like all of the great silent work of Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau.  While the #1 film on my list (and TSPDT) is Russian, 5 of my top 20 are German films (1 Lang, 3 Murnau and Cabinet).  But really, it’s hard to go wrong.  I’ve seen over 100 feature length films from this era and none of them are bad and only 2 of them are as low as **.5 (Dream Street and The Idol Dancer – two of Griffith’s weakest films).  Films that have managed to survive from this era usually have survived for a reason – either because of their director, their historical value or their quality.

To me, among the actors there are four main names that stick out: Charlie Chaplin, for his amazing ability, Lon Chaney for the way he would disappear into his characters, Emil Jannings, who in the silent era proved that language was irrelevant and Erich von Stroheim, who maintained a dignified air about him even when he was acting the complete cad.  Among the actresses, there was only one; Lilian Gish rises above everyone else in the profession during this era.

Of course, there are highlights of film history all through this era:

• 1912 – Mack Sennett releases the first Keystone Kops films / Carl Laemmle organizes several independent companies into Universal
• 1913 – Lon Chaney begins working in Horror films / D.W. Griffith leaves Biograph after over 500 shorts / Cecil B. DeMille rents a barn that will later become Paramount
• 1914 – Chaplin first appears on-screen as the Tramp / Louella Parsons becomes the first movie columnist
• 1915 – Film debuts of W.C. Fields and Douglas Fairbanks
• 1918 – Warner Bros. release its first film  (Four Years in Germany) / first Tarzan film
• 1919 – Chaplin, Pickford, Fairbanks and Griffith form United Artists / Oscar Micheaux becomes first African-American director
• 1920 – Marriage of Fairbanks and Pickford
• 1921 – Fatty Arbuckle trial
• 1922 – Will Hays appointed head of MPPDA / release of Nanook of the North
• 1923 – Introduction of 16mm film by Eastman Kodak / Hollywoodland sign is erected
• 1924 – Metro, Goldwyn and Mayer form to become MGM
• 1925 – Soviet Union begins to finance national filmmaking
• 1926 – Death of Valentino

My Top Film from each calendar year:

• 1912 - Richard III
• 1913 – Ingeborg Holm
• 1914 – The Avenging Conscience
• 1915 – The Birth of a Nation
• 1916 – Intolerance
• 1917 - A Man There Was
• 1918 – The Spiders Part I: The Golden Lake
• 1919 – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• 1920 – The Golem
• 1921 – The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
• 1922 – Foolish Wives (Nosferatu is my #1, but it’s Oscar eligible in 1929)
• 1923 – The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• 1924 – The Last Laugh
• 1925 – Greed
• 1926 – The Battleship Potemkin

Overlooked film of 1923:

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (dir. Wallace Worsley)

Lon Chaney as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)

I had actually planned to write about the 1922 version of Oliver Twist, also starring Lon Chaney.  I had begun with talking about how if you have only seen Chaney in horror films, then your film horizons need to be expanded, how Chaney was one of the greats of the Silent Era, how he was the first great film Fagin but in spite of his acclaim, today it is easier to find a still of Ben Kingsley or Alec Guinness (or even Timothy Spall) when you Google the words “Fagin” and “Chaney.”  But then going through all the lists I came to a realization.  Hunchback is obscenely overlooked.  Ebert hasn’t covered it, it isn’t included in the Top 1000 (or even the doubling the canon extra 1000 films you can find there though the inferior 1939 remake is) and wasn’t among the 400 films by AFI under consideration for either their original list or the 2007 version.  Yet it is an essential Horror film (and made it to #19 on my Top 25 Horror List) and ranks only behind Phantom of the Opera in the Chaney pantheon.  It is an excellent early example of how books could be translated onto film and how the images we see up on the screen stay with us through our voyages in literature.

Have you read the book?  The odds are no.  Victor Hugo is much talked about and much adapted, but seems to be rarely read.  Les Miserables has been memorably translated into many different forms, but at 1463 pages (longer than War and Peace) isn’t read particularly much.  And of course, Hugo didn’t write a novel titled The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  The actual title of the book is Notre-Dame de Paris.  Hugo’s title emphasizes the cathedral’s place as the center of the book.  But films didn’t go for that.  The first film version was titled Esmeralda and this film pretty much set in stone the notion of Quasimodo as the central character and Hunchback as the title (which is what you will usually find on current printings of the book).

The film certainly wanted to focus on Quasimodo and to give Chaney free reign to show his incredible talent (both for acting and for makeup).  The first shot of him, a couple of minutes into the film, captures him high in the frame, up on the balcony of Notre Dame, watching the proceedings of the Festival of Fools.  Then we cut to a somewhat closer shot and get the first hints of his grotesque looks.  Then there is the title card announcing the character and actor.  Then we cut again, this time to a close-up and we get our first real look at the hunchback: curved spine, distorted face, scar for a right eye, wild hair, rough hands covered with thick, dark hair.  It is a brilliant simultaneous slow and quick reveal that prefigures the same kind of theatrical effect we would get from the first look at the Phantom’s face only two years later.

Movie audiences hadn’t really seen anything like this before.  Here was this grotesque monster, leering and mocking the people below him, later stripped to be punished and determined to be grotesque through and through; yet their sympathies were touched.  He is so gifted that he is able to climb down the outside of the cathedral.  He is so devoted that he will go to any lengths to please those whom he feels he serves.  His love is so strong that in the end, death is more pleasurable than the concept of existence without his beloved.  He is so much more preferrable to Phoebus, has so much more honesty, courage and even dignity.  While it was Chaney who had conceived the project, even having say over the cast and director, and thus no question that his monster would be the center, it is his performance rather than any ego that makes him the star.

When Chaney died in 1930, death was already no stranger to Hollywood; yet no death before Chaney had robbed cinema of so much.  Valentino was revered by women everywhere and good films had been made by Ince and Stiller, but it was Chaney who had the most future to offer to film fans.  This film was the beginning of the crowning of Universal Studios as the champion of Horror.  Great Horror films had been made in Germany (Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, The Golem), but nothing like this had been seen in the States.  His Phantom would cement his reputation as the Man of a Thousand Faces and we can only imagine what kind of makeup we would have seen had he been around to perhaps star in Dracula or Frankenstein or The Mummy or The Wolf Man.

But instead he died.  We were denied the chance to see him become a huge Horror star in the sound era.  And he could have done it.  “No dialogue.  We didn’t need dialogue.  We had faces.”  Norma Desmond says that, of course.  And it’s true most of all about Chaney.  He had a great voice as was proved in his one sound film, but he didn’t dialogue.  He had that face, those moves, those natural abilities.  He was always a star, even if people don’t seem to remember the film that truly made him one.

[ipaper id=21989224]

O Misterioso Caso de Styles - Agatha Christie

Há momentos em que é necessário confiar em si próprio.
Hastings

Ler Agatha Christie é se surpreender a cada final imprevisível e excitante. Agatha é autora de um total de 87 romances, 17 peças e outras histórias que assinava com seu pseudônimo Mary Westmacott, suas obras foram traduzidas para mais de 103 idiomas. Filha de um americano com uma inglesa, ela teve uma vida abastada, praticava piano e canto lírico na adolescência, mas não foi bem esse talento que a consagrou na literatura mundial. Tinha como passatempo a criação de histórias de crimes. Um dia Agatha aceitou o desafio da irmã, o de elaborar uma trama em que não fosse possível identificar o assassino até os últimos instantes da história. Desse desafio surgiu O Misterioso Caso de Styles [The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1917].

Esse além de ser seu primeiro livro é também a estréia de seu mais famoso detetive, Hercule Poirot. Um belga pequeno e atarracado, com bigodes enormes, cabelos negros, um olhar minucioso, além de seu fino gosto por queijos, licores e perfumes. Poirot é inspirado num dos muitos refugiados políticos belgas que após a Primeira Guerra Mundial se instalaram na Inglaterra.

A Dama do Crime cria nesse romance uma trama em torno de uma casa, onde de início temos um assassinato e um gama de no mínimo oito suspeitos. Com sua habilidade de enganar já presente em seu primeiro livro, ela nos aponta os argumentos que incriminam cada suspeito, para depois justificar avidamente sua inocência, é com essa habilidade que Agatha consegue nos enganar e adiar até o fim o veredicto final e com isso a dita punição do réu. A história é narrada por Hastings o amigo inseparável de Poirot, e esse é notavelmente um ponto muito positivo porque permite esconder inferências do mistério que uma narração de Poirot permitiria que o leitor desvendasse facilmente.

Algo notável nas obras de Agatha é seu gosto por mortes súbitas com o uso de venenos e/ou medicamentos, que dão um quê de mistério. A autora chegou a trabalhar na Cruz Vermelha e isso pode tê-la apresentado a esse mundo de armas silenciosas. Com O Misterioso Caso de Styles não foi diferente, porém seu livro escrito em 1917 chegou a ser recusado por seis firmas, só encontrando um editor para publicação em 1921, algo que não chegou a acontecer em seus trabalhos posteriores, como seu segundo livro O Inimigo Secreto. Para concluir sua obra literária Agatha retorna a casa de Styles em seu último romance intitulado Cai o Pano.

Autora:

“Titlul acesta, derivat din numele unei eroine populare a lui Flaubert, e aplicat într-un sistem de filosofie prea puţin cunoscut şi cu puţini sorţi pentru mai departe. Sistemul aparţine lui Jules de Gaultier şi se numeşte: bovarismul. Definiţia lui – facultatea pe care o are un individ sau un grup de a se crede altminteri decât este. Facultatea aceasta construieşte iluzia continuă, iluzia absurdă şi falsă, dar veşnic creatoare de acte noi, adică veşnic creatoare de realităţi de viaţă.

Există un bovarism care e individual. Există şi un bovarism social.

Citită la noi, metafizica aceasta nu ar fi fără de folos. Urmărită cu această metodă, viaţa noastră politică şi viaţa noastră literară vădeşte puternicul contrast între ceea ce indivizii şi grupurile se cred şi ceea ce sunt cu adevărat.

Efortul constant de a identifica imaginea pe care ţi-o faci despre eul tău cu însuşi eul tău provoacă drama şi comedia umană; în politică şi în artă, zilnic asistăm la punerea dramei în decor şi la repetiţia generală. Viaţa e un zilnic spectacol al conflictului între ceea ce ne închipuim că suntem şi ceea ce suntem de fapt. Scrisul nostru nu e decât o imensă cronică teatrală la spectacolul iluziei. Viaţa rămâne să se desfăşoare între doi indivizi: actorul şi spectatorul. Unul creează drama şi celălalt o contemplă. Suntem fiecare faţă de vecin şi actor (când ne priveşte el), şi spectatori (când îl privim noi). Sunt însă oameni cari, într-o limită, sunt totdeauna actori sau totdeauna spectatori. Bovarismul dă însă iluzia actorului că e şi spectator. Rareori, spectatorul adevărat – scepticul – se vrea actor. De altfel, scepticul intră de-a dreptul, ca o lămurire prin contrast, în definiţia bovarismului. E cel ce scapă de iluzii – de toate iluziile poate –, afară de una: că a scăpat de toate iluziile. Şi aici, scepticul aleargă şi el, ca şi caii care trag panoramele la bâlci, după şomoiogul de fân, legat de axa căruţei, lângă botul lor – şi pe care nu-l vor ajunge niciodată.”

來到Calafate,除了去附近的冰川外,還留在Analia及Valentina的家裡作客5天。到埗不久,Analia知道我做劇場的工作,就跟我聊起兩年前,她跟其他社區人士做的劇 El No De Las Locas(瘋人說不)。先說一點歷史…

Patagonia是阿根廷跟智利共同分享的一個龐大地區,正是安弟斯山脈的所在,有美麗的雪山,湖泊,生物,資源,也因此受到強國外資的垂涎。當時控制當地天然資源開採的大權是英國人。由於貧困,工作環境惡劣,加上天氣嚴寒,工人都無法支持下去,只好向資方要求多一些衣服及食物。這些絕對不過份的要求,換來是當時的地方總督Héctor Varela下令把攪事的工人殺清光!方法包括公開槍決,放火把他們活活燒死。官方一直不承認1500個死者的估計。

這個劇所說的瘋人不是那些殺人如麻的地方官員或者是英國商人。這個劇的瘋人是一班妓女。當反抗的工人被殺清光後,總督要找些妓女來慰勞士兵。本來只是一宗尋想的交易,可是妓女們不理前車可鑑,把生死置之度外,各總督說不。你殺了我們的人,我們怎可為你服務!

本來我想燒錄演出的DVD,可惜有太多刮花了的地方,燒錄不了。我惟有用最原始的方法,用相機拍攝電視的畫面。

先是總督下令殺清工人

然後是大眾對工人的悼念

接著是勝利的英國商人在慶祝

下一幕是軍人找妓女慰勞

高潮是妓女們拒絕了軍人

我看過後非常感動。差不多九十年後,一班社區人士透過劇場,來紀念這一段關於自己地區歷史,不忘記這些慷慨就義的英雄。

在香港或中國大陸,我們除了明星之外,從不鼓勵悼念死人,因為他們的死往往記載著當權者的過失。不要說六四事件,你看看沙士的死者,又或者四川地震的遇難者,事發後一年當然會官方地做做秀,以後就設法令你忘掉。

在旅途中,我經常要回答De donde eres / Where are you from?

我會回答我是香港來的。然後大家都會說啊,你是中國人。然後,我會說,不是,我是香港人,跟中國人有點不同,因為我不喜歡49年後的所謂新中國,所以我不想被稱呼為中國人。

阿濃曾經寫過令我深刻的故事。中國歷史上記載著春秋時期齊國一家三兄弟，他們都是太史官，老大寫了真實的歷史，記載當時的權臣崔杼弒君（指齊國大夫崔杼殺齊莊公之事）的事實，被崔杼砍頭了;然後老二接著寫，也被殺了;老三還是接著寫，他們不怕死的正氣,令崔杼放棄再殺太史官，因此,崔杼弒君的歷史就這樣記載了下來…

我是誰?每一個人都曾經問過的問題。就由埋藏在我們心深處的價值觀開始吧!有沒有原則,有沒有信念,是會令我們高尚的犧牲情操流露?不一定是生與死的犧牲,但至少是表現我們的立場,讓人知道你的看法,不做沉默的一群。

Mi-e dor de Poli… Mi-e dor de jucatorii cu 2 picioare stangi care te faceau atat de usor sa treci de la agonie la extaz, de golurile de poveste si gafele copilaresti. Mi-e dor de bucuria salvarii de la retrogradare, de acel stadion plin meci de meci, de bucuria de a juca fotbal. Lupta pentru fiecare minge, clipele de sarbatoare dupa o victorie alaturi de suporteri dar si lacrimile din ochii jucatorilor dupa o infrangere, nu pot fi inlocuite nici de bani, nici de actuala echipa de vedete. Mi-e dor de un stadion plin, de pasiune in cea mai pura forma. Mi-e scarba sa mai vad indolenta in teren, sa vad jucatori cu gandul doar la bani iar la finalul fiecarui meci sa se grabeasca la vestiare. Mi-e scarba de strategii de menagement proaste si scuze penibile din partea conducerii. Dar…inca mai sper sa se schimbe ceva…sa fie cum a fost odata..sa nu iti dai seama cum un simplu meci de fotbal devine pasiune, o pasiune fara de care numai poti trai.

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Tell more friends about us.  Th’ Lip needs to buy more tequila!

Day 1 sure has gotten us off to a rocky start.. For starters it has been one of the longest days in my college life and one of the most frustrating..knowing that I had to watch this movie tonight I searched to find a site that would play it for free on-line since finding a hard copy of the film would probably be next to impossible. But everywhere I looked all they had was the 1962 remake of the classic as opposed to the 1920’s version our book required us to watch, and I couldn’t even find one of those with an audio track that worked..finally after a little searching I found it and we were good to go.

Or were we?…

After setting up the film and sitting down with a bag of chocolate to begin my very first silent movie, I soon realized this was not going to be as easy as I once thought ; it was so hard to follow! For the most part from what I could gather, the film was all about a boy, who fell in love and inherited some money. At one point I looked up and realized I was almost half way through and had no idea what the basic plot line even was. This got me to thinking, what is it with movies of our generation? Sure they have famous actors, epic story lines, big booming musical scores, but what does that all mean? It seems to me like maybe we have lost something that American films were founded upon..making our viewers think..When watching a silent film, it isn’t possible for the viewer to hit the snooze on their brain for a while and still understand what is going on, like we so often seem to do with today’s movies. No, to truly take from the story all there is to offer you must stay actively involved, keep close tabs on the characters and read and comprehend as you follow along. Maybe thats what we need in todays films, shouldn’t we be asking the question, do our movies even make us think anymore? The lesson I have taken here is the simplicity of films. sure its great to have the best actors, the best music, and the best directors for a movie, but what does that all amount to in the grand scheme of things really? I whole lot of nothing! Movies aren’t about all of that, they are simply stories, or art. You don’t need the best of the best, all you need is a story, some characters, a plot, and a conclusion. As long as you’ve got that, no matter who you are, no matter what you have been through someone somewhere can relate and has been changed by it.

After finishing the movie I did a little research and found out some interesting facts about it. It was apparently one of the most controversial movies of its time and was even banned in Germany for its scenes of the war. Infact the film would eventually go on to become the 6th largest grossing silent film of all time! And to think I had never even heard of it before. It just goes to show, you never know what you could be missing.

Tomorrow we are off to our first Comedy, with another film from the 1920’s called, “Safety Last”. Each day I am going to try to leave you with a quote from our film of the day so for today I’ll leave you with a quote from the opening of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.. and until next time LIVE_LOVE_WATCH!!

“In a world old in hatred and bloodshed, where nation is crowed against nation and creed against creed, centuries of wars have sown their bitter seed, and the lies of resentment smoldering beneath the crust of civilization but await the breaking of the seven seals of prophecy to start a mighty configuration.”

                                            - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Betty Caramels - Atlanta Women's Club Cookbook 1921

This is a recipe we found in a very old cookbook that we’ve decided to give a try. We love caramels and it looks like Betty liked keeping it simple. If you make the recipe let us know what you think.

You can find a copy of the cookbook here thank to good old Google Book Search.

Ain’t We Got Fun? (Richard A. Whiting, Raymond Egan, Gus Kahn) a popular foxtrot, was first performed in 1920 in the revue Satires of 1920, then moved into vaudeville and recordings. “Ain’t We Got Fun?” and both its jaunty response to poverty and its promise of fun “Every morning / Every evening”, and “In the meantime, / In between time” have become symbolic of the Roaring Twenties, and it appears in some of the major literature of the decade, including The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and in Dorothy Parker’s award-winning short story of 1929, “Big Blonde”. – wikipedia, adapted

a. Van & Schenck – 1921

Billy Jones in a rare early recording studio shot. He used the pseudonym Victor Roberts only when recording with Victor. Jones found fame as a radio star, being half of the popular singing duo called The Happiness Boys.

b. (below) Billy Jones – Edison Blue Amberol # 4309. Recorded NY 5/23/1921 and released in 7/21/1921.

The following two are links to slide show videos:

c. Benson Orchestra of Chicago : Here is their 1921 recording with a slide show featuring pictures of old Chicago.

d. Doris Day and Gordon Macrae (audio with slides of Doris) from the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953).

I’m Just Wild About Harry Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle) underwent a complete rewrite during rehearsals [for the revue Shuffle Along] and was nearly cut from the show.  Blake’s original version of the song was a Viennese waltz; but according to the authors of America’s Songs, performer Lottie Gee encouraged rewriting the number as an up-tempo one-step. Blake disliked the suggestion and feared it would ruin his waltz but capitulated after Sissle agreed with Gee.
Audiences did not respond well to the revised version during early performances. Blake was on the verge of dropping the number from the show when a dancer took ill and had to be replaced. The understudy was a singer who did not know the steps; so when he was unable to follow the routine he ignored it and improvised. America’s Songs quotes Sissle’s recollection of how the performance saved the song, “He dropped out of line and with a jive smile and a high-stepping routine of his own, he stopped the show cold.” -wikipedia

a. Vaughn De Leath

b. Isham Jones and his Orchestra, featuring Marion Harris – 1922

c. Priscilla Lane in the Warner Brothers film The Roaring Twenties – 1939

d. Al Jolson – This song was selected for Jolson 1949 comeback Jolson Sings Again.

Second Hand Rose (Grant Clarke, James F. Hanley) – Oddly, I’m having trouble finding an article about this song’s origins.

Barbara Streisand – This is a rather lengthy clip from her first television special “My Name is Barbra”, 1965. The song begins, immediately after the bell sounds, at 2:07. The entire medley: a. Second Hand Rose; b. Give Me The Simple Life; c. I Got Plenty Of Nothing; d. Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?; e. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out; f. Second Hand Rose (reprise); g. The Best Things In Life Are Free.

The Wabash Blues (Fred Meinkin, Dave Ringle)

a. Isham Jones and his Orchestra

b. Player piano roll played by Pete Wendling on QRS Roll #1760. Copyright 1921

Say It with Music (Irving Berlin)

Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra

The Sheik of Araby (Ted Snyder, Harry B. Smith, Francis Wheeler) was a response to the popularity of the Rudolph Valentino film The Sheik. In 1926 it received new lyrics by Billy Rose and was retitled That Night in Araby.  A popular hit, the song was also adopted by early jazz bands, especially in New Orleans, making it a jazz standard. It was a well recognized part of popular culture, earning a mention in The Great Gatsby. – wikipedia, adapted

a. Django Reinhardt with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, 1937

b. Fats Waller – 1939

c. Fats Domino

d. Spike Jones

+ Great gag where we have seen a husband preening and preparing himself to go out, top hat and tails, the works. When we cut to him a couple of sequences later, he is finally ready to leave. Only he hasn’t got his trousers on! The gag would be used to equally brilliant effect by Woody Allen in Take the Money and Run but Chaplin makes a great gag even greater by then proceeding to cover his unknown but potentially offensive embarrassment through conveniently passing curtain workmen etc then concocts an eye-popping escape involving a newspaper.

+ After reading a letter that his wife will be finding other accommodation until he quits drinking, rich Charlie turns his back to camera, his shoulders start going, he’s clearly breaking down. He is becoming hysterical with grief… then he turns around and he’s shaking a cocktail. Awesome!

+ The world’s coolest way to put a pocketwatch away.

Wrexham played their first League game on the 27th of August in 1921. The Red Dragons lost 2-0 at Hartlepool United in a Third Division North game. Hartlepool where also the opponents when they recorded their record victory 10-1 in a Fourth Division match in 1962.

Source: Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2006-7

Fundado no ano de 1921, com o nome de Sociedade Esportiva Palestra Itália, o Cruzeiro tinha como cores predominantes o vermelho, verde e branco em seu uniforme.

E para reviver o início da história celeste, a Reebok desenvolveu a Camisa Oficial Retrô 1921, trazendo de volta a tradição de uniforme daquela época.

Com o antigo escudo e as cores de fundação, a camisa traz um modelo diferenciado com muito estilo para o torcedor cruzeirense.

Vale a pena conferir!

Para compra e mais informações, basta acessar a Shop Cruzeiro clicando aqui!

Franz Kafka war leidenschaftlicher Kinogänger. Im Stummfilm entdeckt der deutsche Literaturwissenschaftler Peter-André Alt einen Schlüssel für Kafkas kinematographisches Erzählen.  F.A.Z. Rezensent Alexander Honold lobt das neue Buch Kafka und der Film:

“Nosferatu. Eine Symphonie des Grauens, 1922 in Berlin uraufgeführt, ist eine aus urheberrechtlichen Gründen mythisch verfremdete „Dracula“-Adaption, gespickt mit dramatischen Landschaftsaufnahmen.

Ein Teil der Außenaufnahmen erfolgte im Spätsommer 1921 vor der Kulisse des imposanten Burg-Komplexes von Oravský hrad in der Hohen Tatra, der als schroffes Spukschloß die unheilvolle Begegnung von Opfer und Täter beherbergt.

…Bekannt ist, dass Kafka mit einigen Mitpatienten im August 1921 einen Ausflug in die Hohe Tatra (Slowakei) unternahm; es sei durchaus „denkbar“, suggeriert Alt, „dass die Gruppe anschließend Oravský hrad besucht hat“ und Kafka seinem Roman den Eindruck jenes Schlosses zugrundelegte, welches fast zeitgleich die Kulisse für Murnaus Nosferatu abgab.”

Oravský hrad liegt leider nicht in der Hohen Tatra, wie der Autor falsch vermutet, sondern in Orava (Arwa). Die wunderbare mittelalterliche Burg steht auf einer steilen Felsklippe 112 Meter über der Wasserfläche des Arwa-Flusses unweit von Dolný Kubín.

Murnaus Film  Nosferatu wurde im Jahr 1921  in der Burg, auf dem Burggelände und in der näheren Umgebung gedreht. Ungefähr 110 Kilometer von Oravský hrad entfernt befindet sich das Lungensanatorium von Tatranské Matliare (Matlarenau), wo der tuberkulosekranke Kafka acht Monate Patient war (1920 – 1921).

In Tatranské Matliare fühlte sich Kafka wie “begraben… nicht sehr müde, im Husten sogar sehr kräftig.” Trotz mehreren Kuren auf dem Lande und im Gebirge verschlechterte sich sein Gesundheitszustand.

Ob Kafka mit einer Reihe von Mitpatienten auch Oravský Hrad besuchte, wurde bis jetzt nicht bestätigt. Die eigentliche Distanz zwischen den beiden Orten macht die Vermutung des Autors, die Identifizierung des realen Vorbildes sei ihm gelungen, unwahrscheinlich.

In den autobiografischen Schriften Kafkas gibt es leider wenig Hinweise zur Entstehung des Romans “Das Schloss”. Kafka hat sich auch wenig über direkte Inspiration aus den Stummfilmen geäußert. Trotzdem wissen wir von einigen Filmen, die er sicher gesehen hat: “Die weiße Sklavin”, “Nick Winter und der Diebstahl der Mona Lisa” oder “Der Andere”.

Das alles macht die wichtigste Vermutung Alts, der Schlüssel zu Kafkas Narration liege im kinematographischen Erzählen, nicht weniger spannend. Schon Theodor W. Adorno schrieb (in einem Brief an Walter Benjamin), dass Kafkas Romane die letzten verschwindenden Verbindungstexte zum stummen Film seien.

Die kleine Slowakei wurde oft “das Land der Burgen und Schlösser” genannt. Wenn man mit dem Auto fährt, bekommt man das Gefühl, auf jedem Berg und Hügel steht eine Ruine. Es stimmt zwar nicht ganz, aber mit über hundert Burgen und Schlössern dürfte die Slowakei die höchste Burgen- und Schlösserdichte in Europa haben. Und Oravský hrad ist auf jeden Fall einen Besuch wert.

Lesen sie auch: Die Burg des Grauens: Franz Kafka und Murnaus Nosferatu

Harmloser orientalischer Bandit, The Castle of the Carpathians