David M Rubin

The stunning male Hooded Merganser in front and his beautiful mate behind always swim away from birders and often dive just before you get focus.
#divingducks

#birds #birding #ducks #birdphotography #art #pnw #photography #wildlife #nature #wildlifephotography #oiseaux #vögel #canard #eastcoastkin

Man in prison talking to his brother through a screen . He passes him a book. “Is it about prison life?” “Yeah, it's by Wilde.” Thick Walled Room

What they were reading:

Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol in Kobayashi’s Sugamo Prison

Pier Paolo Pasolini and Maria Callas on the set of MEDEA (1969)

Pasolini was BOTD in 1922

Men breaking rocks w sledge hammer in prison quarry

5 men w rifles in a line scrambling on a hill

Wrapped for winter young Keiko Kishi (!) w flowers alongside a Japanese soldier

Keiko lounges back in Tokyo next to guy in white shirt

The Thick-Walled Room 1956 Masaki Kobayashi. This anti-war film that set him up for directing the Human Condition trilogy

Kubuki actor swordsman dressed as woman saying What miserable men, bound only by greed!

Same man listening to another say: This man is the personification of vulgarity.

Referencing 1820s men in a 1960s film based on a 1930s novel who would blush at 2020s greed & vulgarity

Man in purple dressed as woman being nestled on by gorgeous woman in striped kimono in field of surreal trees and a band of deep blue light low on the horizon

After 60 years, An Actor’s Revenge remains relevant & empowering. Law, power, money, gender, sexuality, art, expression, mattering… & the ramifications of violence & anger. Ichikawa shows how much good & love is in our world of suffering

Coolest thing ever. Pier Paolo Pasolini at Piero della Francesca’s True Cross in Arezzo (PPP & PDF)

Czech poster for ACCATTONE (1961)

Written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini - BOTD in 1922

❤️‍🔥 Maria Callas and Pier Paolo Pasolini in Greece, 1969 ❤️‍🔥 On the iconoclastic Italian polymath's birthday, you can watch Callas in his hypnotic adaptation of Euripides’s immortal tragedy MEDEA (1969) on the Criterion Channel alongside 10 of his other masterworks.

Figure in purple w back to us and woman in kimono backlit by trees and deep blue night says I can swing between snake and Buddha like an acrobat. Actors Revenge by Ichikawa

Fujiko Yamamoto can swing between snake & Buddha like an acrobat & we have no reason to doubt her

Turquoise clad scarf head wrap thief lady on shadows. After Hara, Tanaka & Takamine, I like her & Kuga best when I find them in films. Magic charisma & funny

Fujiko Yamamoto was a huge star in Japan. Here in Actor’s Revenge. Was also in Equinox Flower (Ozu) & Undercurrent (masterpiece — called in Japanese Yoru no Kawa).

“Somebody remarked: “I can tell by my own reaction to it that this book is harmful.” But let him only wait and perhaps one day he will admit to himself that this same book has done him a great service by bringing out the hidden sickness of his heart and making it visible.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

EVERY—NIGHT DREAMS / APART FROM YOU - American Cinematheque

Tonight I'm seeing Naruse silent films with a live Benshi performer providing narration. A first for me.

www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/...

Monica Vitti y Michelangelo Antonioni en los Campos Elíseos. París, 1960

With Stormbringer and Mournblade, Michael Moorcock made runeswords a pop cultural trope since the late 1960s - with the 9th century Sæbø sword, found in 1825, we have actual archaeological evidence that this was done for real - and the sagas have demonic rune blades galore!

#wyrdwednesday

Naruse made many films from Fumiko Hayashi’s books. Want to check those out.

This and Makioka Sisters. I’m sooo deficient in the Japanese lit behind all these spectacular films.

Man in purple dressed as woman being nestled on by gorgeous woman in striped kimono in field of surreal trees and a band of deep blue light low on the horizon

After 60 years, An Actor’s Revenge remains relevant & empowering. Law, power, money, gender, sexuality, art, expression, mattering… & the ramifications of violence & anger. Ichikawa shows how much good & love is in our world of suffering

Love it. I only wish it was 45’ longer. I never say that … ever. But the ~3rd quarter was confusing regarding plot. And they dropped Fujiko from the action. She is awesome and I loved the sub world of absurd top thief arguments.

An Actor’s Revenge by Kon Ichikawa based on Otokichi Mikami novel. Starring Kazuo Hasegawa seen here

Kubuki actor swordsman dressed as woman saying What miserable men, bound only by greed!

Same man listening to another say: This man is the personification of vulgarity.

Referencing 1820s men in a 1960s film based on a 1930s novel who would blush at 2020s greed & vulgarity

I’m in US and CC has the ones I listed plus Harp, Fires, & Conflagration streaming

Man w coat and shades & camera in front of stone wall

Man w glasses and cig directed an actor dressed as a woman

Been hanging with 2 who do NOT back down from what is AND help load us up with compassion. Abbas Kiarostami & Kon Ichikawa

CC has a bunch of Ichikawa including Actor’s Revenge, Her Brother, Makioka Sisters…

Actor in training kneeling before sensei actor on podium. Yellow lit

Wood wall and paneling w opening to right w two very made up kibuki + actors

Man dressed as fancy kimono wearing woman kneeling to gorgeous long black hair blue clad kimono concubine on cushions

Thief lady lounging in a dingy attic on her elbows scheming

An Actor’s Revenge 1963 Kon Ichikawa w Kazuo Hasegawa & Fujiko Yamamoto. Stunning dark visuals. ~ a Ballad of Narayama stage vs cinema vein

Man w coat and shades & camera in front of stone wall

Man w glasses and cig directed an actor dressed as a woman

Been hanging with 2 who do NOT back down from what is AND help load us up with compassion. Abbas Kiarostami & Kon Ichikawa

Bridge w tiny figures walking ivef over a river that is going over a waterfall w a beautiful spring or summer tree filled mountain behind

Another gorgeous long shot from Ichikawa’s Makioka Sisters. Masterpiece of empathy, interconnectivity & impermanence. Bridges, seasons, group, & individuals

Turquoise clad scarf head wrap thief lady on shadows. After Hara, Tanaka & Takamine, I like her & Kuga best when I find them in films. Magic charisma & funny

Fujiko Yamamoto was a huge star in Japan. Here in Actor’s Revenge. Was also in Equinox Flower (Ozu) & Undercurrent (masterpiece — called in Japanese Yoru no Kawa).

Actor in training kneeling before sensei actor on podium. Yellow lit

Wood wall and paneling w opening to right w two very made up kibuki + actors

Man dressed as fancy kimono wearing woman kneeling to gorgeous long black hair blue clad kimono concubine on cushions

Thief lady lounging in a dingy attic on her elbows scheming

An Actor’s Revenge 1963 Kon Ichikawa w Kazuo Hasegawa & Fujiko Yamamoto. Stunning dark visuals. ~ a Ballad of Narayama stage vs cinema vein

Next up: 2 more weeks on patience (vs anger), followed by last 3 of 6 perfections: effort, concentration, wisdom!