Another Stella’s commercial, Le Sacrifice, entered my life for the first time at Cornerhouse, before the screening of a certain film. I’m quite sure it was in 2004. This commercial is dear to me for its many a reference to French cinema of the 1900s, to surrealism and, in particular, to Louis Bunuel. Somebody on YouTube wondered why such “unfathomable” commercial was ever produced. Well, all surrealism is unfathomable; it’s all about a dream. I suppose my answer would be – this ad shows us that when you love your beverage, then no flies in the bottle or the prospect of turning into a oistrich can put you off drinking it! Absurd? But so is often surrealism.
Category: YouTube
The Kiss. The Story of a Dream
Julia Shuvalova, The Kiss. The Story of a Dream.
English translation © Julia Shuvalova 2007
My Favourite Billy Connolly
Time went by, I’ve seen Billy’s many performances, I loved the world tours he made, read about him, laughed at his sketches, certainly found him handsome, and watched Mrs Brown. The only thing I never paid attention to, for some reason, was his birthday. Turns out, he was born on November 24th and is a Sag, like myself. Obviously, I send my belated birthday greetings to him, and my adoration for a fellow Centaur has now grown even bigger. I love the month of December even more now.
Billy Connolly for me is the Henry Miller of stand-up comedy. I’ve never heard so many swearing words being said on stage in my entire life, but I cannot imagine anyone doing it with such gusto and creativity, as Connolly. Having lived in Manchester for over four years now, I also know that what he brings out on stage is the living language. Because when we think of stage we link it to theatre, and when we think of theatre we link it to art, Billy’s escapades at first look outrageous. It’s like Tropic of Cancer or The Rosy Crucifixion is being read aloud. But as I wrote last year about Henry Miller, one of his greatest achievements was in tuning his narrative in with the time in which he was writing. It was impossible to write “lovely” texts on the eve of the devastating military conflict. As far as Connolly’s shows are concerned, the bad language he uses can be heard everywhere, even in the most refined places. The brilliance of Billy is that he takes the genre which sometimes is a collection of pre-written sketches, not necessarily witty or funny, and turns it into a real people’s comedy. Again, just as Miller was able to write “decent” prose – like Big Sur or The Colossus of Maroussi – so Connolly has dazzled the viewers with his thoughtful and even romantic reports from his world tours.
I’m leaving you with the great man’s official website – BillyConnolly.com – and an extract from one of his shows, in which he talks about opera. This is an amazingly talented performance, but make sure you’ve got a few spare minutes and can afford laughing out loud.
Woody Allen and Me
I mentioned The Purple Rose of Cairo in the last year’s post about cinema. The sentence from Annie Hall about a relationship being like a shark that dies unless it moves possesses that powerful blend of humour and profound wisdom that is usually acquired through some rather sad experiences or gloomy observations. And the wrestling scene from Bananas is a brilliant jeer at the familial relationships – and it reminds me of another satyrical scene about family life from La Citta delle Donne (The City of Women) by Federico Fellini.
Most recently I’ve seen Manhattan. I watched it on the big screen, at Manchester’s Cornerhouse. Being a maverick, I watched two films in one day, which I mentioned in this post about the role of sound and colour in films (which was to an extent inspired by that day at the movies) – I saw Manhattan first, and then I watched David Lynch’s Eraserhead. I must sincerely admit that Eraserhead pretty much erased the impression of Allen’s film – except for its opening scene, which has long entered the annals of cinema as one of the best opening scenes ever. Its magical blend of music and the monochrome shots of New York is the perfect portrait of the city “that never sleeps”.
I didn’t intend to list all Woody Allen’s films I’ve seen since 2004 – I only mentioned those that I find corresponding with some of my own views, thoughts, experiences. Simply put, although I’m not Woody Allen, I can be just as clumsy, head-in-the-clouds, doubting, soul-searching, quirky person. Since I’m a woman, we should probably multiply all the above-mentioned qualities at least by two. But all that is hidden underneath, in the internal dialogue with my own self that will remain unheard and unseen, unless I put it in the subtitles (like in Annie Hall). On the surface I’ve got wisdom, buoyancy, even bravura, and the sense of humour for which the Sags are renowned. Life is full of duality for us, you see, but it’s a Sag life, after all.
Happy birthday, Mr Allen!
La Grande Vadrouille, Mon Amour
A short synopsis from IMDb.com:
I have little more to say, except that I want to watch this film again! There are some extracts on YouTube, which you may like to find and see for yourself. La Grande Vadrouille is an undying classic, although when I saw the scenes below I suddenly realised that, being a child, with little knowledge of life, I didn’t see all that was humourous about these extracts.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson in My Life
The final outcome, however, was perhaps the most unexpected, as the fear gradually gave way to a loving obsession with the adventures and unbeatable charisma of both sleuth and his friend. And it was this obsession that made me take an exercise-book (not a notebook yet) and start writing the new chapter in the long chain of Holmes’s meanderings along London’s criminal web. It was in 1989. I passionately filled about half of the exercise-book when it downed on me that there was something wrong about the whole thing. You see, the cover bore a proudly written inscription “Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson”, and I suddenly realised that it was me, not Conan Doyle, who was writing the story. I could very well change the name of the author, but even though I probably didn’t know the word “plagiarism” back then, I knew nonetheless that those two amazing characters had already been created, and the idea of continuing their story lost its charm instantly. This is how I learnt that I wanted to be original and to put my own name to the things I write.
But the film not only remained in my life, it became one of those films that I can watch again, and again, and again. In fairness, this is exactly what I’ve been doing, while in Russia. I probably haven’t missed any single time the series was screened on the Russian TV, and bearing in mind that this is quite a popular film I must have seen each of the episodes more than twenty times. As time went by, I stopped being afraid, and I began to pay attention to acting. And this was when I fell in love with this film once again, this time forever. Almost the entire cast were well-known stage actors, and although the names of the majority of them might not tell you anything, the series can be called star-studded. In the final episode, “The Beginning of the Twentieth Century”, you could see one of the universally acclaimed Russian actors, Innokenty Smoktunovsky, in a cameo appearance. He starred as Hamlet in the 1964 Kosintzev’s adaptation which earned him a BAFTA nomination and the praise from Sir Laurence Olivier. An Oscar-winning Russian film director, Nikita Mikhalkov (Burnt by the Sun) appeared, as Sir Henry Baskerville, in the brilliant adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. By the time he played this part, he’d won the Golden Seashell award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in 1977.
I strongly recommend you reading the article about Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin: The Russian Holmes and Watson, to gain the idea of how the film was made. As the author of the article correctly says, if one knows the Conan Doyle’s Canon, they can easily get the idea of what is happening on screen. Unfortunately, quite a few of the regularly appearing actors have left us, and not only Rina Zelyonaya (Mrs Hudson) and Borislav Brondukov (Inspector Lestrade), but Dr Watson himself (Vitaly Solomin). At the same time, Vasily Livanov is the only Russian actor to have received an honorary OBE for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.
The reason I wrote all this is not just a sudden attack of nostalgia. It was the Sherlock Holmes weekend of ITV Granada, and I watched a few films. I’ve seen some adaptations previously, the latest being with Rupert Everett in the leading role. Yet I keep liking the Russian film – not because it was the first screen adaptation I’ve seen or because I’m Russian. Simply, in my eyes the Russian series brings to the screen the solidity and dramatism of Conan Doyle’s stories in the way that no other adaptation does. Shot entirely in what was then the Soviet Union (the Neva in St Petersburg (then Leningrad) playing the role of the Thames, in particular), the creators of the film somehow not only got under the skin of the characters, but under the skin of the Victorian London and of the late 19th c. We may never know exactly how they managed to do this, but this is what art is about – creating a physical shape for the unthinkable.
The Sherlock Holmes Story on Flickr
London Visit of Vasily Livanov (Robert Graham, 16th January 2007)
Meeting Vasily Livanov (photoset accompanying the above)
Finally, to let you delve deeper into the Russian epic film, here is an excerpt (found on YouTube) from The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the first minute of it you see Sherlock Holmes (Livanov), Dr Watson (Solomin), and Mrs Hudson (Zelyonaya), and this is the dialogue between them:
Holmes: It’s interesting to know, Watson, what you can say about this walking stick?
Watson: One could think you’ve got eyes on your nape.
Holmes: My dear friend, had you read my monograph about the tactile organs of the detectives, you’d have known that on the top of our ears there are these sensory points. So, I’ve got no eyes on my nape.
Mrs Hudson: He sees your reflection in the coffee pot.
The music is by Vladimir Dashkevich. Enjoy!
Can You Pass On Something Good?
“Once upon a time during my travels through Europe I stayed in a small village just outside the old lovely city of Leuven. It was a cold November evening, and the village was all covered with the ghostly fog. A dog was howling in the distance, and it was about to rain. I knocked on the door of the first inn that I noticed. The porter, a boy of about fifteen years of age, gave me a room, but told me that their cook went down with the cold and that I would have to dine in the village. I was rather unpleasantly surprised for I have never been in this village before.
‘We’ve only got one pub’, the boy told me, ‘but surely it is the best one in your life, sir’.
‘What is it that makes this pub the best one?’ I inquired, still wishing I asked the post carriage to drive me to Leuven.
‘They always pass on something good there’, the boy replied.
While travelling, I have come across many strange customs and laws, and I have heard so many puzzling proverbs and sayings that I did not even ask the boy for details of that “something good”. As long as I could have a dinner and a pint, it was fairly good already.
I truly craved a good dinner, and my legs seemed to have been carrying me to the pub by themselves. The pub was a short building with the steep roof and a few lanterns that hanged along the wall. I saw a cart driving up the street towards me. When it went past I turned back, and then I noticed a tall slim gendarme walking down the street. We smiled at each other, but his face was serious as if he was looking for somebody.
When I entered the pub, I took a table in the farthest corner. In most of my journeys I enjoy taking such table. Of course, at times it is delightful to sit in the middle of the dinner hall, especially if you are eating out in a company of your good friends, or your acquaintance is a lady who is lovely to be seen with. But if I dine alone, I take a table in the farthest corner. I ordered a grilled beef steak and, knowing I was in Belgium, asked for a chalice of Artois. The chalice arrived, and the taste and the smoothness of this beautiful drink were such that I instantly forgot about the cold November night outside the pub, about the policeman, about the long months that I spent travelling from country to country.
Furthermore, as I looked around I noticed people who were all jolly and nice, and all women who were there were fair and beautiful in this peculiarly bucolic way that you can only see in the village. I felt very good indeed, and by then my dish had arrived, and I was having another chalice, and the meat was cooked so gently that it was, by Nature, the best meat I have tasted in my life. While I was enjoying the food, I observed that the local people were most considerate, as they passed a hat of the old gentleman on to him. I did not want to leave, for somehow I felt very much at home in the place I barely knew, with people I have never seen before, and most likely will never see again…”
This extract from the imaginary diary was inspired by the new Stella Artois TV ad. As I entered La Publicite section of Artois.co.uk, there was the screening of Pass On Something Good. I was instantly taken by the warmth of the pub atmosphere. The capacity to “pass on something good”, which in the case with La Famille Artois runs in the family, makes you want to find yourself in that pub, on that exactly night. And so, being a wanderer at heart who nonetheless loves arriving and staying (and eating and drinking, of course) at a warm cosy place, I imagined myself as an English gentleman travelling abroad a century ago, and arriving by chance to this place where I was served not only with a perfect steak and beer, but also – with indelible memories.
Closing my notebook and getting to facts, this new Artois commercial is perhaps quite different from the ones we’re all used to. Read Sam’s article on Artois Blog about making this cinead (I can’t just call such ad an ad!). There are also a few interesting facts about it, of which I am going to divulge you all but one. If you ever wondered if or not animals ever audition for their parts, now there is a solid proof that they do. Two apes auditioned for the part of monkey. The one who got the part ended up passing on something very dazzling. Oh, and music was specially composed by Jim Copperthwaite.
One last thing – ArtoisAds and ArtoisBlog have both got their pages on YouTube.
Marcel Marceau on Life and Art
It took me a little longer than I hoped to fulfil my promise, but here I am finally with the English translation of the interview with Marcel Marceau. I will not say anything more in this introduction, and as you read on you will probably agree with me that no words are necessary here.
This is not a mystery. How to do it? Well, the art of mime is that one needs a great concentration, one needs to have a vision of what to show; and one also needs emotion, the laughter, the comical, but not a caricature because when it is too much, it is too much. This is why one needs to learn to restrain oneself and to communicate the essential.
I was a picture, therefore I am an artist who often paints pantomimes.
When I was six years old I had a very profound look, but it wasn’t a caricature, I have always had this depth. Chaplin was very deep, and his profundity touched me when I was little.
I think it is true that an artist remains a child within himself, but when he has had a really great experience in life, he changes, too.
When it was the Second World War, I didn’t yet practise my art. I began to practise it. I started acting when Germany was occupied, and the war was over. Theatre is impossible during the war, for it is a terrible theatre. But I didn’t have yet the knowledge I have now. I was more naive, even if I had seen the unhappiness of life I was still naive, I didn’t have this experience, the experience of terror, hoping all the time that I wasn’t killed. And today when I watch the documentaries about the war that I myself lived through, I say: my God, what a courage they ever had being so young! But I don’t have this courage any longer because I want no more wars, I hate the war, and this is what I am trying to show in my manner at the theatre.
Often the young don’t like the old, it’s like “the old are nothing any longer”, it’s the youth, the future that counts. But they will grow very old one day, too, and so I am instilling the respect to their parents. The respect to a grandfather, a grandmother, the respect to the old, the respect to those who taught us.
I have even written a book on this subject: “The memoirs of a mime who let out a scream of silence”. And even now I am trying to write, in part about the painting, in part about the family. From time to time I visit my children who have grown up now, and I love playing chess. But sometimes I feel a great sadness when I say: what will happen if our world does not evolve so badly? Will one day the eternal piece really have arrived?
Translated from French © Julia Shuvalova 2007
Marcel Marceau: “Mime, like music, knows neither borders nor nationalities”
Looking back at the names of all those great people who have left us this year, including Vonnegut, Pavarotti, Bergman, and Antonioni, 2007 seems to have taken away too much of the incredible talent that had made the 20th c. And now Marcel Marceau, the man who not only revived the art of mime, but also, we are told, inspired Michael Jackson to create his famous moonwalk.
I have just found this interview with Marcel Marceau, but unfortunately I am still not well enough to transcribe and translate it. However, it is in French and has got Spanish subtitles, and I hope some of you will know either one or another. And I will endeavour to update this post soon with the English translation.
Alternatively, – and this would be wonderful if it happened, – if there are any Francophones or native French speakers reading this blog, please feel free to lend a helping hand at transcribing and/or translating.
English translation (2007)
This is not a mystery. How to do it? Well, the art of mime is that one needs a great concentration, one needs to have a vision of what to show; and one also needs emotion, the laughter, the comical, but not a caricature because when it is too much, it is too much. This is why one needs to learn to restrain oneself and to communicate the essential.
I was a picture, therefore I am an artist who often paints pantomimes.
When I was six years old I had a very profound look, but it wasn’t a caricature, I have always had this depth. Chaplin was very deep, and his profundity touched me when I was little.
I think it is true that an artist remains a child within himself, but when he has had a really great experience in life, he changes, too.
When it was the Second World War, I wasn’t practising my art yet. I began to practise it. I started acting when Germany was occupied, and the war was over. Theatre is impossible during the war, for it is a terrible theatre. But I hadn’t had yet the knowledge I have now. I was more naive, even if I had seen the unhappiness of life I was still naive, I didn’t have this experience, the experience of terror, hoping all the time that I wouldn’t be killed. And today when I watch the documentaries about the war that I myself had lived through, I say: my God, what a courage they had ever had being so young! But I don’t have this courage any longer because I want no more wars, I hate the war, and this is what I am trying to show in my manner at the theatre.
Often the young don’t like the old, it’s like “the old are nothing any longer”, it’s the youth, the future that counts. But they will grow very old one day, too, and so I am instilling the respect to their parents. The respect to a grandfather, a grandmother, the respect to the old, the respect to those who taught us.
I have even written a book on this subject: “The memoirs of a mime who let out a scream of silence”. And even now I am trying to write, in part about the painting, in part about the family. From time to time I visit my children who have grown up now, and I love playing chess. But sometimes I feel great sadness when I say: what will happen if our world does not evolve so badly? Will one day the eternal piece really have arrived?
Russian translation (2007)
В этом нет никакой тайны. Как это делается? Искусство пантомимы в том, что нужно обладать огромной силой концентрации, нужно иметь перед глазами образ, который хочешь передать. И, конечно, нужна эмоция, смех, чувство комичного, но не карикатура, потому что слишком – это слишком. Поэтому нужно учиться сдерживать себя и передавать самое основное.
Я – это картина, поэтому я художник, который рисует пантомимы.
Когда мне было шесть лет, у меня был очень глубокий взгляд, но в этом не было ничего карикатурного, у меня всегда была эта глубина. Чаплин был очень глубок, и его глубина тронула меня, когда я был ребенком.
Я думаю, это верно, что художник остается ребенком, но когда он пережил сильный опыт, он меняется.
Во время Второй мировой я еще не занимался искусством. Я начал им заниматься, начал выступать, когда Германию оккупировали, и война закончилась. Во время войны театр невозможен, ибо это ужасный театр. Но у меня тогда еще и не было знания, которое есть сейчас. Я был наивнее, и даже если я видел несчастье жизни, я все равно был наивен, у меня не было этого опыта ужаса, когда ты боишься, как бы тебя не убили. Сегодня, когда я смотрю документальные фильмы о войне, которую и я пережил, я говорю: боже мой, как же смелы эти молодые люди! У меня нет больше этой смелости, потому что я больше не хочу войны, я ненавижу войну, и в театре я по-своему стараюсь это передать.
Часто молодые не любят старых, знаете, “старики ничего не значат”, это молодость, будущее, что имеет значение. Но ведь и они тоже однажды станут очень старыми, поэтому я воспитываю в них уважение к родителям. Уважение к дедушкам, к бабушкам, уважение к старикам, уважением к тем, кто нас учил.
Я даже написал книгу об этом: “Воспоминания мима, который кричал молча”. Даже сейчас я пытаюсь писать, что-то о живописи, что-то о семье. Время от времени я навещаю детей, которые уже выросли, и я люблю играть в шахматы. Но иногда мне становится очень грустно, когда я говорю: что произойдет, если наш мир не будет меняться так ужасно? Настанет ли когда-нибудь день, когда придет вечный мир?
A Short History of the Evolution of the Email
He also had a great sense of humour. Once we were comparing the gone and present civilisations. The question was, whether or not those medieval people, forever stinking and superstitious, were less happy than modern people, who have got things that medieval people wouldn’t even think of. The answer was, of course, that medieval people simply didn’t know about the things that we’ve got, so they were neither less, nor more happy. Had they been transported into our time, tried out different things, and then went back to their time, then they would probably be very unhappy.
Today, however, I saw this video on YouTube, and it made me contemplate on how far the world would have gone, had the 15th c. folks really had Macs in their sacks. In the 15th c. they’d retype their emails many times before entrusting a Mac to a messenger. In the 16th c. they’d discover the spell-checker and possibly some drawing programs. The latter would become extremely useful in the 17th c., during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), as it would allow to draw the schemes of the enemy’s headquarters and positions on the battlefields, as well as the enemy’s portraits. They still wouldn’t know how to save these things, which is exactly the reason why this early electronic history of mankind is not available, not even in cache.
However, because of war, people would realise how costly it may be to send a Mac with a messenger, so they’d create logins. (I anticipate some archaeological discoveries or the mentions in the 17th c. manuscripts of the destroyed white metallic boxes that didn’t seem to contain any information and had been broken in parts in the hope of uncovering the information). The logins and passwords would be sent, as previously, with pigeons.
In the 18th c., inspired by the great surge in development of natural and social sciences, as well as by the new literary genres, people would further experiment with their Macs. They’d learn to use Word, to write their novels and dramas; they’d use Excel to manipulate the complex economic figures (as you might know, Adam Smith was undoubtedly familiar with Excel functions); and the antiquarians would master the use of Access, to catalogue their stupendous collections.
Moreover, in the 18th c. they’d not be content with using just a Mac (which, some people say, is rubbish at RSS applications), so they’d invent a PC. At this time, because of the all-pervasive influence of computers, they’d briefly get back to writing letters on paper. But soon the Revolution would strike, and they’d realise that sending a paper letter may cost one their life. A messenger was now much more dangerous a mercenary than ever before, and it was vital to find the means to avoid using him to send the information. So people would go back to emails, and this time they’d finally discover the “send” button. The 19th c. would thus have started.
But the email users still had to discover many things. By coming across the “send” button, they would be able to avoid the use of messengers, but they still couldn’t protect themselves from being framed. That’s until they’d discover the way to archive private information and to delete sent and received messages. But this would only happen under the influence of the world wars.
In the 20th c., during the wars, it would become clear that it was impossible to spend time typing every word at full, so the electronic shorthand would have been developed. The wars having been finished, shorthand wouldn’t disappear but instead would become an inherent part of email writing. The email users would appreciate the enormous possibilities of punctuation at communicating moods and emotions: 0), ^_^, :-(((, ;-). As there was no longer any real danger in keeping hold of one’s correspondence, people would be deleting sent and received emails less and less often, and already in the new millenium many email applications would offer their users the unlimited mailboxes, and even an option of searching their growing email archives.
But as technology doesn’t stop, neither does email. We’d enter the 21st c. with a huge array of means to deploy emails, which would include sending them via a mobile phone. And if you’d ever had any reservations about the human ability to progress, this short story of the evolution of the email (had it been true) would have proved you wrong once and for all.