‘Woolgathering’ (1992) by Patti Smith
A small, beautiful book (an interesting mix between poetry and prose) about becoming an artist. It tells of a youngster finding herself as she learns the noble vocation of woolgathering, a worthy calling that seemed a good job for me. She discovers often at night, often in nature the pleasures of rescuing a fleeting thought. Deeply moving, Woolgathering calls up our own memories, as the child glimpses and gleans, piecing together a crazy quilt of truths. Smith introduces us to her tribe, a race of cloud dwellers, and to the fierce, vital pleasures of cloud watching and stargazing and wandering. A quick, hopeful, nostalgic work with full of love!
«careful how you bare yer soul
careful not to bare it all»
«having my breath what more could I ask for…
I had the advantage of the sky with its ability to become,
in the twinkling of an eye, everything»
«stirring hearts
wistful sprouts
turning themselves
inside out»
«one does not become
one is»
#pattismith #woolgathering
'Bird' is a 2024 coming-of-age film written and directed by Andrea Arnold and starring Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan, and Franz Rogowski. The movie was shot on 16mm film, a choice made by director Andrea Arnold and cinematographer Robbie Ryan to allow for more creative freedom. The film uses the 16mm format to capture a coming-of-age story that blends social realism with magical realism. The soundtrack was scored by British electronic artist Burial. It also featured tracks by Fontaines D.C., Sleaford Mods, and Coldplay. Andrea Arnold says this moving, troubling, and ultimately inspiring coming-of-age movie has everything to do with her own upbringing.
Not just filmed in her native Kent, South of London's hinterlands, where more than a third of children are living in poverty, she also recalls her own upbringing: leaving school at 16 and being born to a 16-year-old mother and 17-year-old father, who separated when she was very young.
‘Bird' tells a many-layered, unique story for cinema lovers of an intellectual bent, who have the ability of discriminating between innuendo, metaphor, symbolism, and fact. Absolutely stunning, captivating, memorable, deeply moving, and bittersweet. This is filmmaking of the highest order, remarkable craft in just every department.
#birdmovie #andreaarnold
‘Jane B. par Agnès V.’ (1988) by Agnès Varda
‘Jane B. par Agnès V.’ is a 1988 French essay film directed by Agnès Varda and starring French-English actress Jane Birkin. The film was conceived when Birkin admitted to Varda she was apprehensive about turning 40 and Varda told her it was a beautiful age and the perfect time to make a portrait on Birkin’s life.
#janebirkin #agnesvarda
‘Trois couleurs: Bleu’ (1993) by Krzysztof Kieślowski
“Three Colors: Blue” is a psychological drama film, which is the first instalment in the Three Colours trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, followed by White and Red (both 1994). According to Kieślowski, the subject of the film is liberty, specifically emotional liberty, rather than its social or political meaning.
Julie (Juliette Binoche) is haunted by her grief after living through a tragic auto wreck that claimed the life of her composer husband and young daughter. Her initial reaction is to withdraw from her relationships, lock herself in her apartment and suppress her pain. But avoiding human interactions on the bustling streets of Paris proves impossible, and she eventually meets up with Olivier (Benoît Régent), an old friend who harbors a secret love for her, and who could draw her back to reality.
Upon its release, Blue received widespread critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Golden Lion and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. It remains one of Kieślowski’s most celebrated works. The male lead, Benoît Régent, died of an aneurysm at the age of 41 in October 1994, just one year after the film was released.
The first film (“Blue”) in the trilogy remains my favorite. There is something so rich, spacious and unhurried here — and a wonderful reach and flair in Kieślowski’s film-making. “Blue” is the rarest of all films, a film that reveals its knowledge on humanity through melodic rhythm and artistic imagery. It should be regarded as one of the most insightful and inventive films ever made.
#troiscouleurs #threecolorsblue #krzysztofkieślowski
‘The Day Albert Einstein Died: A Photographer’s Story‘ (1955) by LIFE magazine
When Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, of heart failure at age 76, his funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine’s Ralph Morse.
(1) Albert Einstein’s office – just as the Nobel Prize-winning physicist left it – taken mere hours after Einstein died
(2) Albert Einstein’s papers, pipe, ashtray and other personal belongings in his Princeton office, April 18, 1955
(3) Albert Einstein’s casket was moved for a short time from the Princeton Hospital to a funeral home, Princeton, New Jersey
(4) From left: Unidentified woman; Albert Einstein’s son, Hans Albert (in light suit); unidentified woman; Einstein’s longtime secretary, Helen Dukas (in light coat); and friend Dr. Gustav Bucky (partially hidden behind Dukas) arriving at the Ewing Crematorium, Trenton, New Jersey
(5) Mourners walked into the service for Albert Einstein, passing the hearse that carried his casket from Princeton
(6) Friends and family made their way to their cars after the funeral service for Albert Einstein, Trenton, April 1955. The ceremony was brief: Einstein’s friend Otton Nathan, an economist at Princeton and co-executor of the Einstein estate, read some lines by the great German poet, Goethe. Immediately after the service, Einstein’s remains were cremated.
(7) An unidentified man held a car door open for Albert Einstein’s secretary, Helen Dukas, following Einstein’s cremation
(8) Family and friends returned to Einstein’s home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton, where he lived for 20 years, after his funeral, April 18, 1955.
‘The Fire Next Time’ (1963) by James Baldwin
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, “The Fire Next Time” galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.
Sometimes I have nothing more to say about a book than to read it. This is one of those times (and more important than ever). It’s even a must in my opinion.
#jamesbaldwin #thefirenexttime #nachderflutdasfeuer
