Russell Martin: 'Picasso's War' (2002)

Russell Martin, Picasso's War: The Destruction of Guernica, and the Masterpiece That Changed the World. New York: Dutton, 2002.

The way it's organized:
Prologue
The Spanish Dead
Remembering the Bullring
Images Spilling from Fingers
Save Spain!
A Wearable Pair of Boots
Exiles
The Last Refugee
Guernica in Gernika
Epilogue

Highly absorbing book, providing background, context, a detailed account of artistic creation, setting, display, impact, rescue, and ongoing installation.

We see why Picasso was moved to perform his artistic duties on behalf of the Spanish Republic, then under attack by Nazi and fascist-backed brutes from 1936 until 1939. Martin shows how Picasso's response to the German-Italian air assault against Guernica on April 26, 1937 led to the creation of his Guernica masterpiece.  

A vivid account of the bombing, how word of it spread (and was also denied by the usual suspects), and how Picasso's work was displayed at the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris Expo, the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) that ran later in 1937. At this utterly surreal expo, giant German Nazi architecture ranged against Soviet symbols, even as German and Italian military forces and equipment faced off against Soviet equipment and advisers in the ongoing Spanish Civil War. 

Most of Europe would be engulfed in the Second World War before the decade of the 1930s was out, but only after Spain was left to burn to the ground.     

Picasso's War includes still-current debates over modern Spanish life, identity and policy. The aspirations of people in the Basque region and Catalonia are notably included. 

Since 1992, Madrid has been hosting Guernica in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; but not without a fight and the creation of a proposed alternate venue at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Basque country. 

I've seen the original Guernica at the Reina Sofía in Madrid and the huge tapestry copy at United Nations headquarters in New York City.  Now I'd like to visit Balboa and, of course, sacred Guernica (Gernika), both in Euskadi, Basque country. 

Here is the author's tribute to his teacher-friend and mentor Angel Vilalta: "Angel continually demonstrated that the best kinds of men were inquisitive and energetic, courageous yet compassionate, attuned to the breadth of the world's worries and pleasures but also equally focused on family and friends." (page 187). 

Today's Rune: Growth. 

Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman: 'Derrida' (2002)

Deconstructing Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman's Derrida (2002). 

In this documentary, we can see layers of Jackie Élie "Jacques" Derrida (1930-2004) over time - sometimes he looks refreshed and relaxed, at other times pensive and taciturn.

Overall, Derrida thinks through words and ideas carefully. 

At times in certain frames he looks like Norman Mailer, then Richard Burton, then Ralph Nader, then Peter Falk -- like a human kaleidoscope.

Derrida was born in Algeria. He was of Sephardic lineage with Jewish-Spanish origins dating back to before the 1492 and later expulsions of Jews and Muslims from Spain. As a boy, Derrida was expelled along with other Jewish students and teachers from "normal" Algerian schools, but he survived the Second World War. This background shaped his outlook as a philosopher. Increasingly, he became attuned to the power of words in discourse and their link to social action. 

In this desultory, entertaining documentary, Derrida speaks about biography, autobiography, history, texts, recording devices, archives, memory, reconstruction, deconstruction, mirrors.

He speaks of the "eye" of the spectator and audience: "between fiction and reality, a phantom eye." (Eg., Facebook)

Seeing his own portrait at one point, he quips: "It's uncanny. It's bizarre." (Iggy Pop expresses similar thoughts in "Success:" upon seeing someone wearing a t-shirt with his face on it approaching him, Iggy sings: "Here comes my face . . . It's plain bizarre . . .")

Derrida speaks of historical dots: "These are facts. Raw facts."

The Story of One's Life: facts vs. autobiography or a biography "in the mode of a story . . . I don't write a narrative. . . I'd love to tell stories, but I don't know how to tell them . . ."

Jackie and Marguerite Aucouturier Derrida, his spouse of many years, decline to say much about their relationship beyond the "raw facts." 

Upon being asked to speak of certain things, he replies, "You need to pose a question."

Of love: "Fidelity is threatened between the who and the what." Initially, one may be seduced by certain of a person's qualities, and later become disillusioned (or as a former brother-in-law once put it: "Love is blind; Marriage is an eye-opener). Or, one loves the "singularity" of another person beyond their most charming traits. 

During a visit to South Africa, after seeing Nelson Mandela's small jail cell when he'd been confined for eighteen years of his life, Derrida speaks of different types of forgiveness and reconciliation.

He delivers general observations and advice: "I am blind to myself . . . It's for others to see. To speak is not to see."

And to the intellectually lazy: "Do your homework and read."

On his archives: "urns in a graveyard . . . An archive is . . . a question for the future."

Of other philosohers: "I'd love to hear something about what they refuse to talk about."

On editing this film, to the directors: "Editing will be your signature, your autobiography."

Fun stuff for a Sagittarian. This post is in honor of Jeron Jackson, RIP. 

Today's Rune: The Self. 
  

Shawn Ryan's 'The Shield' (FX, 2002-2008): Take One

The FX series The Shield (2002-2008) remains fresh, relevant, thoughtful and scary. It works on many levels, focusing on denizens in and around "The Barn," a provisional LAPD outpost with a zone of control in "The Farm."  The tone of the series is gritty and sharp. There's a mix of taut drama, comedic elements and bursts of violence indistinguishable from a contemporary war zone. The Shield fearlessly explores transactions of race, culture, socio-economic class, gender, greed, unexpected kindnesses, and all kinds of weaponry put to mostly dubious use. To boot, the series displays strong primary, secondary and tertiary characters, plot and pacing. 

The characters in The Shield are a mixed but memorable bag. One of my favorites is Van Bro (played by David Raibon), ex-gang member and survivor, albeit with an eye patch and a wheelchair; during the time of the series he's a street artist with an ear to the ground. "I'd appreciate if you kept Van Bro's name out your mouth," he quips to The Strike Team at one point. Van Bro doesn't appear often, but one certainly can remember him once he's introduced, from early on.

Another thread to watch for in The Shield is the Shogun and Game of Thrones style ambition, rivalry and usually thwarted or diverted resolution among a field of characters that range from new cops to old captains, from baby bangers to drug kingpins. Throughout, there's an endless quest in the grand scheme of things, but a quite finite one for most involved.

Today's Rune: Defense.    

Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund: Cidade de Deus / City of God (2002)

Cidade de Deus / City of God (2002), Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund's film based on Paulo Lins' novel -- both grounded in historical and contemporary reality -- causes chills (and evokes empathy) in its observations of life and death in the vortex of drug-and weapons-fueled urban street warfare. Set in the favela of Cidade de Deus that straddles Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, it's an excellent, if often horrifying, film, spanning the latter 1960s to the early 1980s.    

Cidade de Deus / City of God (2002) is like a combination of Lord of the Flies (the 1954 novel and subsequent movies) and A Clockwork Orange (the 1962 novel and later film) - only with heavier weaponry and more widespread violence. Above all, it has the feel and texture (albeit in full color) of a Luis Buñuel masterwork released in 1950 - Los Olvidados [The Forgotten Ones]. 

Age is no barrier to becoming a trigger-happy monster like Li'l Dice here. As Li'l Zé Pequeno, he grows up to become an Al Capone of the favela.

I saw, too, Notícias de uma Guerra Particular / News of a Private War (1999) -- the accompanying documentary by Kátia Lund -- which is also excellent. It brings us up to date to the end of the 20th century. 

Both films remind me of comments made by Frederick Douglass in 1886:  

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." 

Today's Rune: Harvest. 

Pedro Almodóvar: Hable con ella / Talk to Her (2002)

Pedro Almodóvar's Hable con ella / Talk to Her (2002) gives us a vivid, offbeat tale revolving around four main characters -- a matadora, a travel writer, a ballet dancer and a male nurse. It's a strange one. Lydia González (played by Rosario Flores) is the bullfighter (reflecting reality: there have been several, for example Conchita Cintrón, 1922-2009, and Cristina Sánchez, b. 1972). Marco (Darío Grandinetti), the writer, develops a romantic relationship with her and a friendship with Benigno (Javier Cámara), the male nurse who also happens to be a sort of "weirdo" and is now caring for Alicia (Leonor Watling), who in turn had already been "that obscure object of (his) desire," as Luis Buñuel donned such fetish-making for the title of his final film in 1977.   

What I particularly like about Talk to Her is its incisive demonstration of Spanish manners and social relationships; that and a memorable visit to Córdoba, during which Almodóvar pays meticulous attention to Lydia as she suits up for her final bullfight. All in all, it's a wild journey through time and place, roaming right into a plazas de toros of not always quite predictable results. 

Today's Rune: Gateway. 

Julia Newman's 'Into the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil War'

Julia Newman's Into the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil War (2002) looks at its subject from the perspective of women from the USA who volunteered to go to Spain in the late 1930s, ranging from nurses and drivers to the writers Dorothy Parker and Martha Gellhorn, and including the latter's urgent correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt.  A sampling of the eighty or so American women directly involved in the conflict are given voice and image. Filled out with fantastic archival footage, this is an excellent contribution from an international anti-fascist women's perspective of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The advances in motion picture film after the Great War of 1914-1918 give a more contemporary feel to this war, and the examples of footage shown here do great service. Well done. This documentary serves as a general introduction to the whole conflict and also as a special focus on the American women engaged in it. The DVD includes extra goodies.

Today's Rune:  Defense. 

Imanol Uribe: El viaje de Carol / Carol's Journey (2002)

Imanol Uribe's El viaje de Carol / Carol's Journey (2002), based on Ángel García Roldán's 1988 novel A boca ne noche, takes us to 1938 Spain and the last full year of the Spanish Civil War via its protagonist, Carol (Clara Lago). Carol's mother has returned to her Spanish home from New York City to die bringing her in tow, while her father, an American anti-fascist volunteer fighting in the war, is separated from them both by the war zone. Carol's Journey, filmed in the area of Cantabria in the north of Spain and partly in Portugal, features lush green trees and fields, hills and mountains and hoary, well-maintained architecture. The tone is gentle and compassionate. However, the situation is actually quite grave, an eerie calm before full frontal fascism sweeps into town. Already, most of the local powers that be are pro-Franco, a threat, therefore, to Carol and her "free thinking" grandfather, Don Amilio (Álvaro de Luna), and other locals.      

Carol's befriends Tomiche, one of the town scamps (Juan José Ballesta), whose father has been executed by pro-Franco falangists. Tomiche is one of the most pitiful boys you can imagine this side of Charles Dickens, a true waif. Luckily, they have other friends as well. The war's end looms bigger than all of them, though. A beautiful indie style film -- "a little gem," as a blurb on the DVD cover observes. 

For more on Film Movement, here's a link. 

In the Loop

Amando Iannucci's In the Loop (2009): frenetic like Fawlty Towers, inventively invective-ridden like Deadwood -- imagine Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) and Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) playin' the Dozens. If that doesn't bring it home, maybe you've seen Wag the Dog or Wrong is Right? In the Loop has more snap. More bite. And here, we're talking about a devilishly blistering satire of the Anglo-American policy push for the Invasion of Iraq and resulting debacle, that crazy little thing called the Iraq War (2003-2011).

  



















With In the Loop, we go behind the scenes, then watch with horror as VIPs and their attendants run amok, screaming on mobile phones, bumbling from one cock-up to another while fiendishly plotting behind each other's backs. 

Besides the imagery of a blizzard of mobile phones / cellphones and tsunamis of insults, In the Loop delivers "the emotional truth" of the rush to war, sensible opposition to that rush, and -- if you stick with it all the way through -- a well-timed conclusion. The actors -- including James Gandolfini as an American general dubious of the rising chorus for war exactly because it's based on such a flimsy pretext -- are sharp, with a grand party mix of British and Americans. Welcome to the madhouse or, as Scotsman Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi, pictured in the Shepard Fairey-like "poster" above) puts it rather succinctly early on, watch out for "ass-spraying mayhem."

Today's Rune: Protection. 

Tony Scott: True Romance

In Texas, I was eerily in the middle of watching Tony Scott's True Romance (1993; Director's Cut, 2002) about the time Mr. Scott leaped to his death in California. Knowing of his demise put an edgy spin to the the rest of the movie.

Clarence (Christian Slater), his Dad Clifford (Dennis Hopper) and Detroit.

What's does True Romance have going for it? Scott, along with Quentin Tarantino's "naughty boy" script, follows the main characters (played by Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater) from Detroit to Los Angeles. They are carrying a suitcase full of uncut cocaine after a deadly confrontation, hunted by gangsters. The story line is as old as dirt, but appearances by Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini (before they became ubiquitous) along with Val Kilmer (as Elvis' Spirit), Gary Oldman (in dreadlocks), Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, Michael Rapaport and Chris Penn, among others -- makes it a funhouse of quirkiness. Warning to the squeamish: as is Tarantino's wont, much blood flows in between the quips. Pulp Fiction came out a year later.

Today's Rune: Possessions.         

In This World

On a shoestring budget, Michael Winterbottom and his small film crew have created a riveting docudrama -- In This World (2002) -- that combines specifics with universals. The main story line follows the efforts and harrowing (mostly overland) journey of Afghan cousins Jamal (Jamal Udin Tarabi, who looks sort of like singer Eric Burdon of The Animals) and Enayat (Enayatullah) from a Pakistani refugee camp, with the intention of finding de facto asylum in London during the still-ongoing Afghanistan War. Will they make it safely through Iran and Turkey and beyond?

In the tradition of John Steinbeck and many others, Winterbottom and crew's efforts are effective. By the end of this film, any alert viewer would learn a lot about the desperation and resilience of refugees and immigration efforts. From an international perspective, changing one's situation is hard, a long shot, unless one is extremely fortunate to begin with. On the other hand, if one doesn't make the attempt, one has no chance at all.

Today's Rune: Opening.   

"Choice is Deliberate Desire"

Delving into Michael Allingham's Choice Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford Universty Press, 2002), it's hard not to start thinking about the choices we are making all the time, or that are made for us. How so many free choices are really gambles. To at least some extent, we are all gamblers!

Modern life. Any kind of insurance. How much should the deductible be vs. the payment plan vs. the possible payout? How much is risk aversion, a requirement of law, prudence or a feeling of safety?

The dentist. My dentist says I need two crowns, an expensive proposition for anyone who is not a millionaire. What do I do? I think, no I don't -- you are trying to choose for me in order to make more money. Instead, I choose to deal with each crown as necesssary, certainly in a more fiscally paced way. It's a gamble that I can wait as long as I want.

Driving, or more accurately, speeding. Who doesn't make a quick calculation such as, ah, everybody's speeding, what are the chances that a traffic cop will bust me? Just in case, let's keep it to "only five miles over the limit."

A nuclear Iran. The Iranian leadership has chosen to develop nuclear power, which will evidently enable Iran to develop nuclear weaponry, as well. ("Choice is deliberate desire." -- Allingham, page 21). The leadership of many other nations does not like Iran's choice, and in turn some choose to obstruct and delay and (try to) block Iran's choice. The leadership of Israel, managing its own nuclear arsenal, could choose to attack Iran. Likewise, if Iran completes a nuclear weapons system, Iran's leadership could choose to attack Israel. What are the chances either way?

Any way you cut it, choice theory is pretty damned interesting. Given how many daily choices we all make, large and small, we should probably think about the process more often.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.