Lovecraft will tear us apart

[zotz]

Got to see Pan's Labyrinth. Not exactly a bundle of laughs, but very good. There was a building near the beginning which might have been inspired by the proposed Monument to the Third International, which wouldn't have jumped out at me except that in the foyer there was a poster for a kids film featuring Tom Hanks, which had something quite similar in it. Of course, there are other things that could have inspired them - some depictions of the Tower of Babel, or the spiralling Malwiya Tower of the Great Mosque of Samarra, but the proportions and threading look more like Tatlin's version. To me, anyway.

Anyway, the fascists were cardboard cut-outs apart from the Captain, a real swine of a man, but everyone else was well-drawn. My efforts to make it to the Cameo more are working. Next, the Filmhouse.

My granddad once told me about going to church some time back for Mass. The priest was fulminating about the evils of supporting leftists - in particular, he had heard of some of the congregation (I can't imagine who he might have been meaning) who had been collecting in aid of Spanish Republicans. This, he declared, was unforgiveable, because they were opposing Franco, an honourable Christian gentleman. Barney got up and walked out. It's been more than 70 years, and he's still not been back. I wonder sometimes whether his entry into the Royal Artillery in 1937 was spurred by being only just too young for Spain. Regardless, it's good for me that he did. He'd never have been in Ayr otherwise.

Sorry. I'm talking shite again. I'll shut up now.

Comments

[johnnyrandom.livejournal.com]

I have a Cineworld Unlimited card and, as I'm currently a gentleman of leisure, I find myself there for my films more often than not. Somewhat limiting. I have, however, made it along to both the Cameo and the Filmhouse over the past couple of days and seen both London To Brighton and Shortbus respectively. Both are highly recommended, especially the latter.

[zotz]

I'm told they're seamy and steamy respectively. Neither is a bad thing.

My friends have these cards, so I have to go to the Cameo on my own (sob!). At least I am actually doing it now. For a long time I wasn't really catching up with any of the films I wanted to see.

[anonymouseth.livejournal.com]

My friends have these cards, so I have to go to the Cameo on my own (sob!)

you could *try* fucking ringing us...

give the cameo five hundred quid and you can get in free for life, and take a friend, and sleep there, in the popcorn.

[sleepycinderell.livejournal.com]

If you really could sleep there, well, if they actually had bed-sized chairs, I could go along with all of you : )

[devilgate.livejournal.com]

I remember a school friend telling me a story that his older brother had told him. When Franco was dying, the head of English at our school had his classes praying for him (for Franco, that is, not for Nobby, as the head of English was known). Makes you long for the US ban on praying in school. Course, it was a Catholic school, so I don't suppose they'd have much chance of enforcing that one.

All respect to your granddad, though.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

My gran (over 80) gave up her life-long religious beliefs (she was a devout Presbyterian) a couple of years ago, apparently as a result of watching nature documentaries... I was impressed.

[stonedsamurai.livejournal.com]

A relative of mine fought in the international brigades in Spain and died (aged 23) within weeks of arriving. Being Irish, there has to be a romantic legend surrounding his death - his dying words were allegedly 'even the olives are bleeding', which became the title of an Irish documentary on the Spanish Civil War. He was a poet (having googled him I discover he is more famous than I realised), so I post one of his poems:

The Tolerance of Crows by Charles Donnelly

Death comes in quantity from solved
Problems on maps, well-ordered dispositions,
Angles of elevation and direction;

Comes innocent from tools children might
Love, retaining under pillows,
Innocently impaled on any flesh.

And with flesh falls apart the mind
That trails thought from the mind that cuts
Thought clearly for a waiting purpose.

Progress in the nerves and
Discipline’s collapse is halted.
Body awaits the tolerance of crows.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

My mother used to take her students to Spain when Franco was still in government. One of her girls nearly got arrested for wearing a tank top and was escorted back to the hotel by the police to change her shirt.

Thank Christ they didn't find out that one of the the kids mooned everyone from the top of the CIVIL WAR MEMORIAL, 'cause that kid would probably have been executed.

Have you read Federico García Lorca's work? It's all set during the time of Franco and the Civil War and it's...well, it's very female oriented, but poor Lorca was a homosexual in a time when it could have gotten him killed. His work reflects that angst and unhappiness very well, and is also very good, if not absolutely devastating.

[zbyszek.livejournal.com]

I thought it curious how the real life events had a fairy-tale quality to them too; the Captain in the house with the store room as the ogre in the castle hoarding the treasure, finally defeated by the sharp wits of the plucky partisans. I don't know if this was intentional, but it would fit with the generally magic realist tone. The depressing thing is that although the Fascists are defeated in this battle, they have, as the Captain points out, already won the war.
It's interesting to contrast Pan's Labrynth to Tidelands, which also uses the idea of a child's retreat into a fantasy world as a mental/emotional protection against the grim reality.
Interesting Tatlin comparison. I thought the scene with the monster eating the faries looked just like Goya's painting of Saturn.