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tilbageidanmark · 3 months

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Movies I watched this week (Year 4, week 5)

6 more by Icelandic Hlynur Pálmason (After ‘Godland’ and ‘Seven Boats’):

🍿 White, white day is about a grieving policeman whose wife died in a car accident. A masterful feat of slow film making, with unusual choices in its subtle direction. The man renovates a house, takes care of his cute granddaughter, and then, (as in 'The Descendants'), he discovers that before she died, his beloved wife had an affair with some guy. A stunning story of grief, resignation and acceptance. 10/10.

🍿 A painter is a 30-minutes unexplained riddle, about a conceptual land artist, harsh and isolated. A slow meditation about art and relationships, told via stark visuals and few words.

🍿 During Corona, Hlynur's 3 kids were building a tree house in Nest. The camera was fixed at one spot (in 99% of the cases) and recorded hundreds of short clips over a full year of changing seasons. It's absolutely the most captivating 22 minutes of film I've seen this week. (Pálmason used the same technique at the beginning of 'White, white day' recording the house over a long period of time). 10/10 (In spite of watching it with Spanish subtitles only).

🍿 A day or two, a painful, lyrical short about a boy who is left alone in a neglected farmhouse. Inexplicably traumatic. 9/10.

🍿 Milk Factory is basically a home movie with the same little cute girl (his daughter from 'Godland' and all the others) running through a modern gallery at the small fishing town of Höfn, where they live.

🍿 Fortunately, I saved his debut feature Winter Brothers to the very end. Had I started with this tedious, incomprehensible artsy piece first, I would never have discover the rest of his fascinating work. The story takes place in a metaphorical underground, a Siberian-type inferno, where chalk-faced miners use pickaxes and shovels to dig for something in darkness and noise. 2/10.

Now that I've seen everything he's done, 3 features and 5 shorts, my top three of his are: 1. A white, white day. 2. Nest. 3. Godland.

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Like the little heartbroken girl in 'White, white day', mourning the death of her grandmother, (and like the kids in the Danish 'Beautiful Something Left Behind'), Ponette is a 4-year-old girl who must come to terms with her mother's death in a car accident. (Photo Above). This sad and simple story features the most phenomenal performance by a child actress I've ever seen. The grief on her face was absolutely devastating and hard to watch. It's also hard to imagine how the director, Jacques Doillon, managed to coax such genuine emotions during the unbroken, long takes. 9/10.

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Exterminate All the Brutes, a 4 hour meditation about the roots of colonialism, racism and genocide. My first by Haitian documentarian Raoul Peck. An unflinching examination of the shameful atrocities on which our modern life is established. The many genocides that followed the European conquests of the world. The twin principals on which the Americas were founded; Extermination of all the native nations, and the exploitive slavery of kidnapped Africans. Painful truths.

There were some chapters I did not know: That White supremacy was codified for the first time in 1449 with the help of the pope, the king and the Spanish Inquisition. That the first successful slave revolt against colonialism was the Haitian Revolution of 1791. That the Code-name 'Geronimo' used for the killing of Bin Laden was simply one more time of using Indian names for America's worst enemies, all part of the need to 'Exterminate all the brutes'.

The documentary itself was in parts too fragmentary, used too many symbolic reenactments, and employed too many personal anecdotes, for my taste. Still, it's a must see warning. Trump makes his entry only at the last hour. 7/10.

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Only my second by independent writer-director John Sayles (after 'Lianna'), the neo-western Lone star. Real stories of the Anglo, Tejano, and Black communities in a small Texas border town. Also a new sheriff who investigates an old skeleton found at a firing range, and discovers old secrets about his dad and his old sweetheart. Unforgivably humane.

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Gun Crazy, a second-tiered, pulpy Film Noir, a precursor to Bonnie & Clyde and any other 'Outlaw couple on the run' stories. He's obsessed with guns since his childhood. She's high on deadly adventures. After falling in love at a carnival, they embark on a crime spree across America together. In 1950 that mean that the murderous fugitives will die at the end. Strangely, this urban crime caper ends in a dreamy Tarkovski swamp.

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Another Noir, Elia Kazan's medical thriller Panic in the Streets, taking place on the waterfront, this time in New Orleans. Jack Palance debut performance. I watched it after reading the article The Myth of Panic, which analyses how the 'Elites' uses the fear of 'the crowd' to always control narratives in times of mass disasters, The Spanish influenza, The London Blitz, the Atomic age, AIDS, Corona...

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Falcon lake is the charged debut feature of Canadian Charlotte Le Bon. It's a lovely coming-of-age story about a 13 year old boy who falls for a 16 year old girl at a lake cottage in Quebec. He's innocent and caring, until he fucks up and becomes a ghost. Accomplished film making with an indecisive finale. 7/10.

*Woman Director

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"Goddamn-dipshit-Rodriguez-gypsy-dildo-punks. I'll get your ass."

First watch: LA cult movie Repo Man. I guess you had to be there at the time to appreciate its weird punkness. But even though I stuck to the very bitter end, every moment made it worse. Rambling, disjointed, uninteresting. 2/10.

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Junk mail, a grimy Norwegian Noir about a lowly postman who doesn't give a shit: He throws away the mail he doesn't want to deliver, he's shabby and dirty, he stalks a deaf girl and hides in her apartment. And he always steals bites of food from everywhere. But then he gets involves with some robbers and murderers, and saves the girl from suicide. Oslo looks disgusting here. 3/10.

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Leonor Will Never Die, my first meta-film from The Philippines. A different standard told in a different film syntax, which unfortunately left me baffled. An elderly lady who used to be a famous scriptwriter in the golden age of Pinoy Cinema of the 1980's, but now lives in the slums and can't pay her bills, is getting hit on the head by a television set that her upstairs neighbor throws out of the window. While in coma, she re-writes and re-lives her unfinished manuscript, a low-low-brow action movie, and even plays the main character in it. Weird to say the list, but with a surprising dance and song routine at the end which was wonderful. 2/10.

*Woman Director

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2 from screenwriter Etan Cohen, both about dim-witted morons:

🍿 "Whatever you do, keep painting!... "

Another re-watch: Mike Judge's prescient satire Idiocracy, a movie tinged with enough criticism of late-stage capitalism, that Fox C21 decided to abandon, rather than promote it. Featuring real brands like 'Flaturin', 'If you don't smoke Tarrlytons - Fuck you!' 'Crocs, they are so dumb. Could you imagine those ever getting popular?', 'Buttfuckers restaurant'. As well as the actual line 'He's gonna make them grow again'.

Funniest lines from Wikipedia: "Rita, a street prostitute" has been "in a relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson since 2001. They live in the San Fernando Valley with their four children."

🍿 My wife is retarded, a one-note, low-brow, offensive premise played for laughs, and repeated more than a dozen times in the span of 10 minutes. With 'Bill Lumbergh'. 2/10.

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"Nothing about Barcelona?"...

Another Guilty Pleasure Re-watch: Steven Soderbergh's fast action Haywire. A convoluted spy plot, with a female Jason Bourne assassin, and kick-ass hand-to-hand fight scenes.

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2 NYC shorts co-directed by Ellie Sachs:

🍿 In Proof of concept an aspiring auteur tries coaxing her dad and Richard Kind, her uncle, into financing her first short film. Cute.

*Woman Director

🍿 My Annie Hall, a wholesome 30-minute remake of 'Annie Hall' starring seniors citizens. The 94-year-old Alvin (and 73-year-old Annie) had all the quirkiness of the originals without the unpleasant personal baggage. 7/10.

*Woman Director

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And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine is a new documentary about 'The power of the Photograph', produced by Ruben Östlund. It started promisingly with a few minutes of Camera Obscura, and the first ever 1826 photograph by Nicéphore Niépce, but the rest of the time it just jammed hundreds of random clips and images from the internet into fast-moving soup with no depth. 1/10.

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"There is a grown-up way to eat watermelon!"

Everything Is Terrible, The Movie (2009) was an older but much funnier montage. A cynical compilation of bizarre and obscure clips found in long forgotten VHS tapes, it just fast-edited hundreds of ridiculous tidbits from the 80's and 90's into a dumb and absurd mishmash. Much better!

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"Don't forget me". Some YouTube essayist's 'Falling down' was propaganda. In spite of not being a fan of such essays, it was an insightful 44 minute analysis. Diving into sociological and historical background trying to prove that DFENS descent into villainy had some very valid reasons. It end with Plato's 'The noble lie'. (Even the YouTube comments were intelligent, for the most part.)

Apparently, there are many similar essays on the same topic!

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Another unfathomable documentary about the central role the "New Apostolic Reformation" played in instigating the Capitol riot of January 6th. Spiritual Warriors: Decoding Christian Nationalism at the Capitol Riot. Also about C. Peter Wagner, and 'Jericho Marches' and 'Blowing of the Shofars'. Religious fruitcakes are the worst of all nutjob crazies. Mental illness of prophetic levels.

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(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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darylelockhart · 10 months

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Basquiat: A multidisciplinary artist who denounced violence against African Americans

John Harbour, Université Laval

The exhibition Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music, currently running at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, demonstrates that the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is usually associated with painting, also calls upon other media, including music — the main theme of this exhibition — literature, comic strips, cinema and animation, a much lesser-known aspect of his work.

Basquiat was born in New York in 1960 to a Haitian father and a mother of Puerto Rican descent. In the late 1970s, in collaboration with Al Diaz, he drew enigmatic graffiti under the pseudonym SAMO. The artist quickly made a name for himself in the New York art world (becoming friends with Andy Warhol and Madonna, among others). He then produced solo paintings and achieved international fame that continued to grow until his death in 1988.

At the time of the Black Lives Matter movement, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work is more relevant than ever. It highlights racial inequalities and the lack of representation of racialized people in the media, but also the violence suffered by African Americans.

Love/hate for the cartoon

As a child, Basquiat dreamed of becoming a cartoon animator. When he became a painter, the television was always on while he worked in his studio, and regularly ran cartoons. These programmes and films were a great source of inspiration for the artist, who integrated several references to animation and comic strips into his paintings.

One of these works, which can be seen in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition, is called Toxic (1984). The painting depicts a Black man with his arms in the air, with a collage in the background that mentions several titles of animated shorts made between 1938 and 1948.

Could we say that the films are considered toxic by Jean-Michel Basquiat, despite his admiration for them? In fact, I think there is a certain duality in this picture: the artist loves the cartoon, but he hates it at the same time. The dictionary definition of the word “toxic” can mean someone or something that likes “to control and influence other people in a dishonest way.” The term therefore implies that the toxic element (the cartoon in this case) is dangerous in a way that isn’t apparent.

The violence of cartoons

The cartoon is often associated with childhood, pleasure, eccentricity.

This is a universe where anything is possible: in Gorilla My Dreams, directed by Robert McKimson in 1948, for example, the character Bugs Bunny talks, dresses up as a baby and imitates a monkey. It appears innocent. However, the cartoon can also represent the worst of humanity in a very sneaky way through the incredible violence it contains: the characters hunt each other, chase each other, hit each other, cut each other, kill each other and then start again. https://www.youtube.com/embed/G-fpqSdSnD0?wmode=transparent&start=0 Robert McKimson, Gorilla My Dreams, Warner Bros., 1948.

In Porky’s Hare Hunt, a film directed by Ben Hardaway in 1938 and quoted in Toxic, the character of Porky is injured by dynamite, abused even though he is in his hospital bed and tries to kill a rabbit. Basquiat, who consumed cartoons every day on television, knew that they were a reflection of 20th century American society.

The violence that Basquiat denounces is so present in the cartoon that it seems, to a certain extent, to have become commonplace, like the violence seen on television newscasts (which he probably watched while he was painting).

Denouncing racial stereotypes

These cartoons are also violent because they often perpetuate racial stereotypes (not to mention the many stereotypes related to sexual orientation, gender, sex, body appearance, etc.).

Bob Clampett’s 1940 film Patient Porky, which is also mentioned in Toxic, features a scene in which a elevator attendant grossly and monstrously parodies a Black character. In Untitled (All Stars) (1983), Basquiat cites Max Fleischer’s 1920 film The Chinaman, which features a highly caricatured Asian character and Koko the Clown putting makeup on to impersonate him. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_WXrrOIWZKo?wmode=transparent&start=0 Max Fleischer, The Chinaman, Bray Studios, 1920.

By placing elements referring to animation in his compositions, Basquiat attempts to denounce a stereotypical and unfair worldview where racialized people are portrayed in an unrealistic way. Basquiat said that if he had not been a painter, he would have been a filmmaker and would have told stories where Black people were portrayed as human beings, not negatively.

So, the title of the painting Toxic carries several meanings. It refers both to the main subject (Torrick “Toxic” Ablack), but also to its relationship to popular culture and to animation, in this case.

This hypothesis is very likely since Basquiat produced several works denouncing police brutality against African Americans, including The Death of Michael Stewart (Defacement) (1983).

Basquiat died prematurely in 1988 at the age of 27. Other artists from the Black community, such as Montréal painters Kezna Dalz, aka Teenadult, Manuel Mathieu, and animation filmmaker Martine Chartrand have, in their own way, taken up his struggle and continue to fight for greater visibility of Black people in the arts.

John Harbour, Doctorant en littérature et arts de la scène et de l'écran (concentration cinéma), Université Laval

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#art #race #jean michel basquiat #basquiat #contemporary art #painting #comics #cartoons #visual art #Black people #African Americans #featured

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longlistshort · 1 year

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Renée Stout’s exhibition at Marc Straus in NYC, Navigating the Abyss, presents a collection of her recent work in various mediums. From sculpture and painting to photography, her skillful and inventive work draws you in.

From the press release-

Starting out as a photo-realist painter depicting life in everyday urban neighborhoods, Stout soon developed an interest in the mystical and spiritual traditions in African American communities. Fascinated with fortunetelling and the healing power of Hoodoo, Vodou and Santeria still practiced within the African Diaspora in the American Southeast and Caribbean, she delved into ancient spiritual traditions and belief systems. She has drawn inspiration from a wide variety of sources such as current social and political events, Western art history, the culture of African Diaspora, and daily city life. While her artistic practice is rich with references and resonances, her works are eventually unique manifestations of her own imagination, populated by mysterious narratives and imagined characters derived from the artist’s alter ego.

In this exhibition, we encounter a group of portraits depicting Hoodoo Assassins and Agents (#213 and #214) who, in Stout’s imagination, are healers, seers, and empaths from a Parallel Universe in which fairness and balance rules. Erzulie Yeux Rouge (Red Eyes) is a spirit from the Haitian Pantheon of spirits whose empathic nature makes her a fierce guardian or protector of women, children, and betrayed lovers. Ikengas, originating in the Igbo culture of Southeastern Nigeria, are shrine figures that are meant to store the owner’s chi (personal god), his ndichie (ancestors) and his ike (power), and are generally associated with men. Stout’s Ikenga (If You Come for the Queen, You Better Not Miss) is a powerful female figure with her breasts and horns turned into weapons, and she is adorned with jewels and charms to boost her powers. Beyond the playful yet powerful imagination of these female characters are serious undertones of political commentary as Stout ponders the concepts of these deities while witnessing the recent rulings in our society that infringe on women’s rights.

In Escape Plan D (With Hi John Root, Connecting the Dots) Stout maps out her potential escape to the Parallel Universe when the daily news weighs unbearably on her psyche.

Visions of the Fall, in Thumbnails is a series of five small paintings that comments on the current state of our world and its imagined future with the titles as upcoming stages of its evolution.

American Memory Jar is an entirely black sculpture consisting of a glass jar covered with thin-set mortar, plastic and metal toy guns, topped with a doll head and adorned with a bead and rhinestone cross pendant. Memory Jugs are an American folk-art form that memorializes the dead adorned with objects associated with the deceased. Stout’s jar is a bitter but painfully accurate assessment.

While Stout’s work alludes to history, racial stereotyping, societal decay, and a set of alarming tendencies in our socio-political structures and ecosystem, it also reveals possibilities and the promise of healing. Various works reference healing herbs, potions, and dreams. Herb List, Spell Diagram and The Magic I Manifest speak of Stout’s belief in the power of consciousness, in the existence of more solid and fertile grounds, and of individual responsibility.

There is one overarching narrative that clearly emerges from Stout’s work – her personal history and spiritual journey as a woman and as an artist.

This exhibition closes 3/5/23.

#renée stout #marc straus #marc straus gallery nyc #nyc art shows #painting #sculpture #mixed media #art installation #art #art shows #christopher wool

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fyblackwomenart · 1 year

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Jean-René Jérôme (1942 Petit Goave - 1991) "Woman with Pineapple", oil on canvas

#haitian painter #caribbean painters #black women #woc #jean rene jerome #haitian painters #oil painting #jean-rené jérôme

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mybeingthere · 2 years

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Gabriel Alix (1930 - 1998, Haiti).

Gabriel Alix was born in St. Marc and came to Port-au-Prince in 1946 at the urging of his lifelong friend, the legendary Hector Hyppolite. He joined the Centre d"Art at that time.

Alix was an aloof man who was married to an artist, Madeline Mirvil, also a jungle painter. In his early years he painted scenes of typical Haitian life in a naive style but as the years went by, he became one of the great technicians among Haitian artists. In later years, he seemed to concentrate on jungle paintings with an occasional still life.

https://www.artshaitian.com/Pages/haitianart2galix.html

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thehaitianartlover · 1 year

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This 45"x47" original vintage painting of a fabric seller praying was signed by the famous Haitian contemporary Haitian painter Jean-Claude Legagneur. It is an acrylic on board, framed, and in excellent condition. Free Shipping. Check it out! #naderhaitianart #jeanclaudelegagneur #blackhistorymonth #blackartists #blackart365 #contemporaryartist #figurativeart #expressionism #haiti #haitiluxe #haitiantimes #haitianartsociety #haitilegends #naahpelusa #haitianart #haitianartist #haitianartists #haitianmasters👏🏾 https://www.instagram.com/p/CoVdYliO3Ps/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#naderhaitianart #jeanclaudelegagneur #blackhistorymonth #blackartists #blackart365 #contemporaryartist #figurativeart #expressionism #haiti #haitiluxe #haitiantimes #haitianartsociety #haitilegends #naahpelusa #haitianart #haitianartist #haitianartists #haitianmasters👏🏾

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the-cricket-chirps · 7 months

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Jean-Michel Basquiat

Flexible

1982

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bidotorg · 11 months

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In 1981, Jean-Michel Basquiat sold his first painting titled, "Cadillac Moon". It was purchased by Debbie Harry

#BiArtists 🎨#Painter #Ilustrator #American #Bisexual #Haitian #PuertoRican #Artist #Art #BiArtists #Queer #LGBTHistory #BiHistory

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ilovejoyjessie · 1 year

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‘Tankou Simil’ - Photographer: Kyle J. Davis // Emilcar Similien, or simply Simil, is a Haitian painter, known for depicting the silhouettes of black women, adorned with colorful vestments and dazzling jewelry that jumped off the canvas. I'd wanted to do something w/ my art to honor my heritage but couldn't decide how for a while. Then I saw his paintings, posted by @orlandooo7 and planned to "eventually" embark (as us artists often do) on a project to recreate them. But when the plight of Haitian migrants attempting to cross the Mexico border became front page news last year, I knew it was time to bring them to life...

My parents came to the US from Haiti in the early 70s and 80s: my father, from the capital city and my mother, from a small beach town. Not long ago, they left their home to find greater opportunities, just like the people we watched cruelly turned away in 2021 were trying to do. It was painful to see people - my people- suffer as they reached for their chance at a better life. My heart was heavy. So, I had to say something, create something about it. I went hunting for pieces that were as colorful, dazzling and as close to the ones found in two of Simil’s paintings. I even brought the photos of the paintings to my shoot to make sure I hit poses he painted before stylizing my own poses along with Kyle, the photographer. I chose Kyle for this piece because of the incredible things I’d seen them do with lights and shadows. I knew I wanted to get as close to a silhouette as possible on camera and felt their lighting technique was perfect for the concept.

Sometimes I wish I had different talents, the kind that could "make a real difference". But then I remember that just as ancient humans always had innovation, they also always had art and used it to say something about their lives, their desires, and their heartbreaks. My platform isn't a giant one, but if I can make one person see the things that are important to me through it, creating is worth it

#haitian art #seattle artists #art recreation #art blog #black artists

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