Aleksandr Askoldov: Commissar: Take Two

I'd like to try to place Commissar in some kind of context. Aleksandr Askoldov directed only this one film -- for which he was banned from making any other -- but his cinematographer, Valeri Ginzburg, had already worked on movie productions since the 1950s; he continued to do so into the 1990s.

The look and feel of Commissar (remembering that it's in black and white) reminds me in a very good way of works by a number of other great filmmakers and their production teams. For example, Fernando de Fuentes' Mexican Revolution tales; Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini (intense, sometimes surreally-tinged studies of families and people in various tense situations interacting with each other); and Sergio Leone via integration of music, sound effects and action. The story itself has a similar framework as Philippe de Broca's Le Roi de Cœur (1966) with protaganist hiding inside a town or city in between lines, leading the audience to question the sanity of mass humanity. King of Hearts is set in World War One, immediately preceding the Russian Civil War period in which Commissar is set. Whether it influenced Askoldov directly is hard to say: such feelings and worldviews among artists seem to have been part of the convulsive 1960s Zeitgeist, time ghost or spirit of the times -- even before the era's 1968 global crescendo and regardless of country or dialect.   

Today's Rune: Harvest.

Balancing the Books

Every reader I know confronts this issue: how many books can I realistically read in a year? A not unrelated matter: how many books shall I hold onto at one time? As with everything else in life, it's a matter of balance.

After several moves from place to place over the years, boxing books up, unboxing them and shelving them again and again, some time ago it seemed a better balance to keep the size of my library limited in scale. My balancing goal is to maintain a cap on the number of volumes at about 500. Beyond that, extra books must go back into the cultural stream.

I've come to that point again, having to choose which titles must be given up to make room for the new ones.

Above: T.Coraghessan Boyle, The Inner Circle (Viking, 2004).

Below are the other ones I'm sending back into the wider world at the weekend, so far. I enjoyed reading them, and hope others will, too, if they haven't already.

Marly Swick, Paper Wings -- Advanced Uncorrected Proof (1996).
Verso of Proof. Interesting tidbits include this: "$25,000 National Marketing Campaign" (can you imagine that now for a literary novel?); "National Advertising in Hungry Mind Review" and "Midwest Regional Author Tour." These days, authors must do a lot more to edit, publish and market their own work. Spent well, $25,000 would go a long way.


Nanci Kincaid, Pretending the Bed is a Raft: Stories (Delta, 1997).


This was adapted into a good indie movie: Isabel Coixet's My Life Without Me (2003), starring Sarah Polley, Deborah Harry (i.e. Debbie Harry), Maria de Medeiros, Mark Ruffalo and others.

Antonya Nelson, Female Trouble: A Collection of Short Stories (Scribner, 2002).

Antonya Nelson, Talking in Bed (Scribner, 1996).













Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith, Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life (2009).

Because I work in a large library, keeping the size of my personal book collection capped, though demanding diligence, does not require a major psychic sacrifice. Still, I'll miss having these volumes around.

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Vegan and Vegetarian Cuisine

Quick take: Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism, edited by Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz (Greenwood, 2010) provides a global and historical perspective on vegetarianism and its social manifestations. Fascinating, because there have been so many variations based on religion, health, ethics, economics, politics and lifestyle choices.

Some entries include: Punk Rock -- Joey Ramone and Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, for instance. Joan Jett is a vegan and Grace Slick is a "relaxed vegan." In another section, a mention of Chrissie Hynde as vegan restaurant owner. Glimpses at Seventh Day Adventism, Jainism, the Shakers, and more than one entry pertaining to Battle Creek, Michigan (Morningstar is owned by Kellogg). Let's not forget an entry on India and one on Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet (1971) and other works. A link is provided to the Small Planet Institute: http://www.smallplanet.org/

In sum, Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism renders an accessible overview of the varieties of vegan and vegetarian experience, religious and secular.

Question du jour: Is there any good reason not to eat organic vegetarian or vegan meals on a regular basis?

Today's Rune: Partnership.  

Aleksandr Askoldov: Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar: Take One

In making Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar / The Commissar (1967/1988), Aleksandr Askoldov was so audacious he was banned by Soviet authorities from ever making another film. This highly memorable 1967 production was finally reconstructed and released just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, in 1988.

Why the official dissapproval? It's not specifically anti-Soviet. But: set during the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) immediately after the Great War of 1914-1918, it shows the human costs of these convulsions, ones that are not always heroic nor black and white (though he film is shot in black and white). Weaving surrealism through a realistic narrative, the film follows pregnant Red cavalry Commissar Klavdia Vavilova into the mostly Jewish city of Berdichev in the Ukraine, where she is left by a fellow officer to be cared for by a reluctant Jewish family.  Later, the Reds must retreat, leaving the city to the mercy of the Whites, who have already perpetrated many anti-Jewish pogroms during the Civil War. Yefim Mahazannik, member of the family that takes the Commissar in, wonders at one point why world reaction to the Boer War and the Armenian Genocide had been so vociferous in recent years, but so little had yet been said in response to the proto-Holocaust pogroms in Ukraine.

Much more to be discussed, hopefully sooner rather than later. Based on "In the Town of Berdichev," a short story by Vasily Grossman.      

Alain Resnais: L'Année dernière à Marienbad

Alain Resnais' L'Année dernière à Marienbad / Last Year at Marienbad (1961) won't seem particularly bizarre to anyone even tangentially familiar with Surrealism, Existentialism, Theatre of the Absurd, The Twilight Zone (1959-1965) or David Lynch films. 

If you are not in an altered state at the beginning of this flick yet stick with it, you probably will be by the time it's done.

As Joyce Carol Oates posed the question also in the 1960s, where are you going, where have you been? Where are we now? Who are we? Where is here? Were we here before at Marienbad?  Who is the man with the Italian accent?  What does it mean if some things cast shadows and others don't?  Who is Godot and why are we waiting for him? Makes perfect sense that these kinds of questions might be inspired by the War, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We need to be asking the same kinds of questions in 2011, too.

If nothing else, enjoy the visuals.

La Dolce Vita: Fifty Years Down the Road

Watched La Dolce Vita / "The Sweet Life" (1960; US release, 1961) again. The passage of time even since the last time I saw it in 2008 has made it all the better. It's hard not to be dazzled yet again by Anita Ekberg, Nico, Marcello Mastroianni, and my personal favorite in this film, Anouk Aimée (Françoise Sorya Dreyfus).

Fellini follows the existentially lost Marcello as he longs to become something more than a well-heeled celebrity journalist -- often in company with frenetic paparazzi associates (Fellini's character Paparazzo in La Dolce Vita inspired the jaded term we now take for granted). Though maddening in his indecisiveness, Marcello somehow remains sympathetic (he really wants to write novels, but seems to lack self-discipline of any kind). Perhaps because he's mortal and flawed and occasionally has flashes of self-understanding.














Here: Marcello Mastroianni and Nico.

In black and white, sometimes brash, always stylish and meditative, La Dolce Vita provides insight into today's world and refracts a colorful funhouse from the Fellini Rome's chiaroscuro nights and dawns of fifty years ago. The pace may be too whimsical for some ADHD viewers to endure in one shot, but the imagery is breathtaking. Maybe sample a little at a time first and go from there.  

Today's Rune: Journey. 

Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Fukushima

Чорнобильська зона. 
Chornobyl's'ka zona.

Restricted Zone.  
Tschernobyl.
福島
 
Energy matrix. Choices.  Nuclear? Coal-burning? Petroleum? Solar? Wind Power?  Hydropower? Geothermal?  Mass suicide by collective poisoning? Spontaneous combustion? 

What's your favorite form of energy?  Locomotion?  Walk, run, ride, crawl, drive, fly, float, swim, dream, beam, imagine, project? 

福島

Kraftwerk, ""Radioaktivität / Radioactivity," The Mix (1991) version reduxe:  Chernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima . . . And let's not forget yet another notable mix, by Franco-Armenian-American François K (François Kevorkian).



Today's Rune: Journey. [The core of this post was originally dated April 26, 2010].