In this issue: Re: Find a Grave Cabinet re: Lola Montez, Find a Grave RE: Cabinet Re: Ghosts of Pere Lachaise [chat] Re: Find a Grave Re: RE: Cabinet, etc Early supernatural films Today in History -- Oct 24 Today in History -- Oct 25 weird Jim Morrison Re: weird Jim Morrison Re: weird Jim Morrison Onions' "The beckoning fair one" <WAS: Nominations> Ghosts this week Ghosts this week: MAYERLING and the Strauss Waltz Thackeray Etext avail: Edward Stewart White's "Lukundoo" Re: Ghosts this week RE: Thackeray Introduction, and Favorite Ghost Stories Re: Ghosts this week Re: Ghosts this week: MAYERLING and the Strauss Waltz Re: Ghosts this week Pere Lachaise Re: Pere Lachaise [cat chat] Re: Thackeray Today in History -- Oct 26 Chat: Bierce/Ghost Movies -----------------------------THE POSTS----------------------------- Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 09:17:08 -0400 From: Kay Douglas <gwshark(at)erols.com> Subject: Re: Find a Grave > you can >see many of the graves that have been mentioned from La Pere Lachaise, >including Chopin, Moliere, Balzac, Wilde, and, um, Morrison. > >http://www.findagrave.com/tocs/geographic.html Ack... boy, you can tell it's been a long time since college French. That's LE Pere Lachaise. Incidentally, I'm curious as to why the entry for Chopin at Find a Grave says [BODY] after the listing. Is part of him elsewhere - his heart in Poland or something? Kay
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 09:17:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Cabinet In a message dated 10/23/99 11:26:45 AM, you wrote: <<That set is wonderful, though. Something Gordon Craig-ish, perhaps?>> Even the stills from Cabinet of Dr Caligari evoke the spookiness of the film. I saw this first years ago at a silent film festival, on a big screen (NOT a cinemascope screen, just a regular one), and it was delicously scary. Very stylish film. Another creepy moment: the first appearance of the vampire in Nosferatu. Eeek! smiling, phoebe
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 09:33:46 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: re: Lola Montez, Find a Grave > >I'll have to try to see this one; I'm dying to see exactly how the "spider >dance" was done. There's little of Lola dancing in the Ophuls flic, and no spider dance, alas. Thanks for the site. Heloise and Abelard are also in Pere Lachaise. Together I hope -- hard to separate them in eternity! I read that Flashman book! -- Thanks, Kay. Carroll
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 23:38:41 +1000
From: Craig Walker <genre(at)tig.com.au>
Subject: RE: Cabinet
We had a silent film fest here a few years ago and I went to allk the
screenings -
I had never seen Nosferatu or Caligari :)
What a night that was as a double :)
Craig
+---------------------------------------+
Craig Walker
Genre Manipulations - Reality Engineers
Ph: Intl +61 2 9550-0815
Fx: Intl +61 2 9564-5689
Mb: Intl +61 419 22-0013
ICQ: 1053193
genre(at)tig.com.au
"Cross a Goldfish with an Elephant
and you get an Elephant ...that
never....erm....something"
+---------------------------------------+
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gaslight(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
> [mailto:owner-gaslight(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA]On Behalf Of Zozie(at)aol.com
> Sent: Saturday, 23 October 1999 23:17
> To: gaslight(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
> Subject: Cabinet
>
>
>
> In a message dated 10/23/99 11:26:45 AM, you wrote:
>
> <<That set is wonderful, though. Something Gordon Craig-ish,
> perhaps?>>
>
> Even the stills from Cabinet of Dr Caligari evoke the
> spookiness of the film.
> I saw this first years ago at a silent film festival, on a
> big screen (NOT a
> cinemascope screen, just a regular one), and it was
> delicously scary. Very
> stylish film.
>
> Another creepy moment: the first appearance of the vampire in
> Nosferatu.
> Eeek!
>
> smiling,
> phoebe
>
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 08:53:38 -0700 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: Ghosts of Pere Lachaise [chat] De Carlo played Lola in a 1948 movie called "Black Bart": Cheerful outlaw Charlie Boles leaves former partners Lance and Jersey and heads for California, where the Gold Rush is beginning. Soon, a lone gunman in black is robbing Wells Fargo gold shipments. One fateful day, the stage he robs carries old friends Lance and Jersey...and notorious dancer Lola Montez, coming to perform in Sacramento. Black Bart and Lance become rivals for both Lola's favors and Wells Fargo's gold. Marta Carroll Bishop wrote: > > I swear I saw a movie about Lola Montez with Yvonne de Carlo once, but > can't find it in my Golden Retriever video guide. Could it be SALOME, > WHERE SHE DANCED? > > Carroll - -- Marta "The Cemeteries of Omaha" http://members.xoom.com/martadawes "The New Twilight Zone" http://members.xoom.com/newtwilzone
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 09:26:32 -0700 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: Find a Grave I found this info on a website about Chopin: "At Chopin?s funeral in 1849, Mozart's Requiem was performed along with Chopin's own Funeral March, one of the most famous compositions ever written. At the composer?s request, his body was buried in a Paris cemetery, but his heart was removed and carried by his sister to Warsaw where it was interred at the cathedral in the Polish capital. More than one hundred years after his death, Chopin?s grave site in Paris is covered in flowers throughout the year by new generations of admirers." You guessed right! Marta Kay Douglas wrote: > > > you can > >see many of the graves that have been mentioned from La Pere Lachaise, > >including Chopin, Moliere, Balzac, Wilde, and, um, Morrison. > > > >http://www.findagrave.com/tocs/geographic.html > > Ack... boy, you can tell it's been a long time since college French. > That's LE Pere Lachaise. Incidentally, I'm curious as to why the entry for > Chopin at Find a Grave says [BODY] after the listing. Is part of him > elsewhere - his heart in Poland or something? > > Kay - -- Marta "The Cemeteries of Omaha" http://members.xoom.com/martadawes "The New Twilight Zone" http://members.xoom.com/newtwilzone
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 11:26:41 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: RE: Cabinet, etc In a message dated 10/23/99 2:03:13 PM, Craig wrote: <<What a night that was as a double :)>> The film I mentioned earlier, the Bernhardt one, is a terrific double-feature which can be had from Video Yesteryear?... Queen Elizabeth PLUS Nazimova's screen silent (styled a *Pantomime* in the credits) of Wilde's Salome. It is sensational! Holds up, too. Costumes are based on the Beardsley drawings and they are incredible. Nazimova is an androgyne in this one. She looks like a gorgeous 12-year-old boy; supple and wispy as a willow, but OH the eyes! The film also has as a plus underscoring of organ music played by Rosa Rio herself! Jack Kolb and the other film buffs on the list will probably know more about this, but I recall hearing that Nazimova was so upset with the film's reception she tried to buy all the prints and the negative and destroy it. Fortunately, she wasn't successful. Maybe I'll look at that tonight. It's pretty spooky, too. phoebe
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Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1999 16:37:27 -0700
From: Jack Kolb <kolb(at)UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Early supernatural films
>Jack Kolb and the other film buffs on the list will probably know more about
>this, but I recall hearing that Nazimova was so upset with the film's
>reception she tried to buy all the prints and the negative and destroy it.
>Fortunately, she wasn't successful.
You're very kind to accord me this status, Phoebe; I don't deserve it, and
I don't know anything about Nazimova's reaction (though I can probably find
out: that's the feeble claim of a scholar).
I of course agree completely with the praise of the original Caligari and
Nosferatu. But I would argue that Carl Dreyer's 1931 Vampyr may be the
best supernatural (for want of a better term) film ever made. It is
available from the same sources as Caligari or Nosferatu. Example: a
sequence from the perspective of the not-yet-dead victim of the vampire
(through an admittedly convenient glass opening in the coffin) as he is
being buried.
Another of my favorites is Jean Epstein's 1928 expressionist adaptation of
Poe's Fall of the House of Usher ("La Chute de la Maison Usher"). I saw
this in my first year of college; sequences in it remained in my
imagination and were confirmed when, a year ago, I found it was available
on videotape. This is truly an amazing film, not horrific, not even very
frightening, but as memorable as an early Eisenstein or Cocteau.
Another "haunting" film is Renais "Last Year at Marienbad." It's not a
ghost or supernatural film, but it does transcend (I think) its somewhat
rigid confines. And of course I would add "The Innocents" and "The
Changeling" (though I think the latter cheats a bit) to my list of bests.
Jack Kolb
Dept. of English, UCLA
kolb(at)ucla.edu
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Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1999 00:46:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Today in History -- Oct 24 Interesting things that happened October 24th: Birthdays on this date: In 1904 Moss Hart, playwright In 1911 Clarence M. Kelley, FBI head Events worth noting: In 1836 The match is patented. In 1851 William Lassell discovers Ariel and Umbriel, satellites of Uranus. In 1861 First transcontinental telegram sent. In 1871 Mob in Los Angeles hangs 18 Chinese imigrants. In 1901 Anna Taylor, first to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live.
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 00:17:26 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu> Subject: Today in History -- Oct 25 Interesting things that happened October 25th: Birthdays on this date: In 1825 Johann Strauss the Younger, composer, Waltz King In 1838 Georges Bizet, composer In 1843 Gleb Uspensky, Russian author (Power of the Soil) In 1877 Henry Norris Russell, astronomer (Hertzsprung-Russell diagram) In 1881 Pablo Picasso, doodler (Guernica) (or 10-05) In 1884 Eduardo Barrios, Chilean novelist (The Love-Crazed Boy) In 1888 Richard E. Byrd, polar explorer In 1902 Henry Steele Commager, historian In 1909 Whit Bissell, actor In 1912 Sarah Ophelia Colley (aka Minnie Pearl) (in Tenn), entertainer Events worth noting: In 1825 Erie Canal opens for business in New York. In 1854 The Light Brigade charges -- Battle of Balaklava (Crimean War). In 1923 Senate begins investigating Teapot Dome scandals of Harding admin.
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 08:38:43 -0500 From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU> Subject: weird Jim Morrison Morrison believed, apparently, that an >artist should be naked--indeed, he was arrested for getting partially >naked at one of his concerts. And even that, as w/ most of what that strange boy did, is still open to question. I've read some books that review the 'eyewitness evidence' and it is quite divided--meaning that nobody really was sure, even at the time, what they really saw. Yet from other things I've read (including Grace Slick's not-very-good autobio) if Jim had, er, displayed himself onstage, there should, apparently, have been no doubt whatsoever about what was visible! Morrison probably belongs in Lachaise, if for no other reason than his persistent decadence... He had undeniable talent, but in my opinion was so mixed-up that he probably never got hold of the half of his real abilities. He was also a legend of unpredictability and outlandishness even among his generally weird 60s fellows... Athan (whose band in the 60s used to play Doors tapes during their breaks...) ayc(at)uiuc.edu
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:43:16 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: weird Jim Morrison Sounds like a ghost story Athan might tell us. I'm just glad I got the right Morrison -- Van's the one who sings with the Chieftains, right? Carroll
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:02:41 -0500 From: athan chilton <ayc(at)UIUC.EDU> Subject: Re: weird Jim Morrison >Sounds like a ghost story Athan might tell us. I'm just glad I got the >right Morrison -- Van's the one who sings with the Chieftains, right? Think so! athan ayc(at)uiuc.edu
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 13:20:31 -0600
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Onions' "The beckoning fair one" <WAS: Nominations>
As Bob C. points out, we have discussed Oliver Onions' "The beckoning fair one"
in the early days of the Gaslight list. David C. sent me a copy of the original
story which I etexted into plain ASCII. Since this was pre-WWW days for
Gaslight, it has never reappeared on any of Gaslight's three websites.
Also, I was more naive about copyright in those days; when "Beckoning"
resurfaces in HTML, it will be on a U.S. website.
Stephen
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 12:43:12 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)alice.gloaming.com> Subject: Ghosts this week Now that many of us have divulged our favorite ghost story are we planning to read one this week? Is it too late for an impromptu story Stephen? I checked the website and don't see anything listed for this week. I was disappointed by the Hallowe'en listings for AMC. Not that I don't like a lot of the fun monster movies they're playing but I was hoping for more ghostly ones. All day Saturday seems to be atomic age giant insects and monsters, including most of the Japanese Godzilla movies. Turner Classics offers a little better fare with the original "Haunting" and the original movie version of Collins' "Woman in White". I only have the schedules through Saturday so there's some hope that on the actual day a more ghostly fare will turn up. If you haven't seen the promos for "House on the Haunted Hill", I have to say that Geoffrey Rush's homage to Vincent Price is well done. He takes "Price" as a surname for the character and looks so astonishingly like Price that he even almost manages to obtain that wonderful look of sardonic disdain. Deborah Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:24:32 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Ghosts this week: MAYERLING and the Strauss Waltz Hi Gaslit Ones: I was happy to wish Johann Strauss the Younger happy birthday this morning. Gruss Gott, liebe Johann! What would we be without the Viennese waltz, especially yours? Think of that space station in 2001 A.D. without THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE. Think of New Year's in Vienna without waltzes by the Strauss family. Think of all that eros aroused by those familiar syncopated triple-beat measures, those dizzying circles, how many little Austrian babies must have resulted? (The lullabye too is often 1-2-3, 1-2-3, maybe that's why.) Not just Austrian babies, of course. Think of MAYERLING without Strauss waltzes and marches! I saw the original Saturday night. I've been following my own eccentric and sometimes retrograde path since Arthur Schnitzler was discussed on this list (Stephen tells me we'll read ANATOL one of these days). I saw Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT, with eyes wide open, not once but twice -- once from the husband's viewpoint, once from the wife's. I read the DREAM NOVEL (Nicole/Augustina/Alice's nightmare, where she laughs cruelly in her sleep, is a bit different in Schnitzler's novel: in her dream, her husband is crucified and on the cross watching as she is involved in an orgy of her own. In both versions he wakes her up knowing she is having a nightmare and she cries in his arms. As he later cries in hers. For the past week I've been attending a Max Ophuls retrospective. I've seen Ophuls film adaptations of Schnitzler's LIEBELEI (early) and the marvelous LA RONDE, and countless other Ophuls films, many revolving like the Viennese waltz around loveless sex or evanescent sex, military officers in splendid huszar uniforms, the shadow of death (what do you think all those uniforms are for, just impressing pretty chicks?): war, honour, senseless duels. . These are (surprisingly) moral stories, moral films, in an age when morality isn't something a lot of people want to confess to. Odd to find out how appealing the morality of Schnitzler, Ophuls, Stanley Kubrick is right now. It's not the old morality, yet it's "old-fashioned" in its longing for deeper human meaning, expressed often by showing fashionable, selfish action and disastrous results: lavish scenery, pretty clothes, cynical betrayal, and a bad taste. Schnitzler, Ophuls, Kubrick -- they are perhaps ahead of their time, not behind it. Enfin, the Suicide Pact at MAYERLING, the royal hunting lodge in the Vienna Woods. (Suicide pacts were fashionable in Vienna even before this famous one was carried out and somewhat hushed up. Ophuls doesn't deal with Rudolf-Marie directly, but their ghosts are there all the time, a dark precedent for a gloomy Sunday. One of the Ophuls films, FROM MAYERLING TO SARAJEVO, deals with the assassination of another Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo -- the shot that started World War I. (He was allowed a morganatic marriage, since the Royal Family was afraid he might repeat Rudolf's dark pattern.) Well, there's my haunting for you. That intense, passionate, star-crossed couple (Charles Boyer in his best part ever, with a luminous, huge-eyed young Danielle Darrieux.) And all those fiacre rides, clip clop clip clop (that's for you, Phoebe) and Strauss waltzes, _echt_ German Romanticism all awhirl. They've made new prints for video, you can now read the subtitles where once they were an undecipherable white on white. And the dialogue! -- those unforgettable lines! -- Marie (as Rudolf shouts at her, mad with drink, shame, despair): "Mon pauvre amour, comme tu souffres." Rudolf's reply: "J'ai honte, Marie." Or the Empress's speech to Marie, meeting her the first time: "Vous etes tout pres de mon coeur, Marie." But of all the scenes, the one I like best is at the court ball to which Rudolf brings Marie. They've been given 24 hours to finish their affair, and are allowed this indulgence. Rudolf shocks everyone by introducing Marie to his Emperor father, then by opening the ball dancing with her. (A Strauss waltz, of course.) And here's the Great Moment. Rudolf's wife, making her progress through the ballroom, pauses near Marie. Men bow, ladies curtsey low. But Marie? Marie stands straight and tall, in her perfect decolletege, no bending of her swanlike neck, no humbling herself to her royal lover's wife. (I'm a democrat from America, I love this stuff. Born to it.) I found the video in an ordinary video store (I did call first to reserve). Directed by Anatol (!) Litvak, 1936. 91 minutes. I think I told y'all once before that Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson were said to have flown to Paris to see MAYERLING before he abdicated. (Rudolf was given the choice of getting rid of Marie in that final 24 hours or abdicating. In a sense he does both, in a way nobody's likely to forget. Two shots at Mayerling.) That's my ghost story. It's obviously still a good strong haunting. Don't, for God's sake, confuse it with the later remake with Catherine Deneuve and Omar Shariff, which isn't bad but is, in comparison, pretty dull. And make sure it's in French, avec English subtitles. Carroll
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:28:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Thackeray Anyone hooked on Vanity Fair? I think Becky is a winner. phoebe
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 16:27:34 -0600
From: sdavies(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
Subject: Etext avail: Edward Stewart White's "Lukundoo"
From: Stephen Davies(at)MRC on 10/25/99 04:27 PM
To: Gaslight-announce(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
cc:
Subject: Etext avail: Edward Stewart White's "Lukundoo"
(LUKUNDOO.HTM) (Nonfic, Chronos)
Edward Stewart White's "Lukundoo" (year?)
lukundoo.sht
In response to the requests for something short and Weird for this
week's reading, I've made an etext of White's "Lukundoo". I'm unsure
of the year when this was written, but I'll add that detail when I've
tracked it down.
The views expressed in Gaslight stories are not necessarily the
views of our enlightened readers.
To retrieve all the plain ASCII files send to: ftpmail(at)MtRoyal.AB.CA
with no subject heading and completely in lowercase:
open aftp.mtroyal.ab.ca
cd /gaslight
get lukundoo.sht
or visit the Gaslight website at:
http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/gaslight/lukundoo.htm
Stephen D
mailto:SDavies(at)mtroyal.ab.ca
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:31:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Zozie(at)aol.com Subject: Re: Ghosts this week In a message dated 10/25/99 8:02:17 PM, you wrote: <<I was disappointed by the Hallowe'en listings for AMC. >> I'm disappointed with ALL the Hallowe'en fare. Mostly slashers and yes, giant insects. I love them, actually. Any of you as amused as I am by Tremors? But slashers don't do it for me. REAL ghost movies? Are there any? Blair Witch Project is pret-ty darn scary. Another odd one is that Abbott & Costello romp about ghosts. I saw it as a child and it spooked me. Anyone remember that? Follow that Ghost, maybe? Some such title. I'll admit I find Candyman really scary. hauntingly yours, phoebe
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 17:54:51 -0500 From: majkia <majkia(at)home.com> Subject: RE: Thackeray <<< Anyone hooked on Vanity Fair? I think Becky is a winner. phoebe>>> its been a very long time since I read the book, so can't say how close to true the A&E production is, but I am enjoying it tremendously and find the humour wonderful. Just the right amount, not to over done. Majkia
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 19:19:40 +0001 From: Ellen Moody <Ellen2(at)JimandEllen.org> Subject: Introduction, and Favorite Ghost Stories Dear Gaslight Friends, I've just joined this list and thought I'd say hello. My name is Ellen Moody and I love all sorts of books, and if you want to know more about me beyond my having a Ph.D. in English Lit and my having taught in senior colleges for some 17 years now, there's a bio and much evidence of many literary endeavours on my homepage: http://mason.gmu.edu/~emoody. Although my original interests are Arthurian, Renaissance, and 18th century, for the past few years I have been reading Victorian literature. I always loved Victorian novels, art and poetry (a book by me on Anthony Trollope is due out later this month), and from my teaching have developed an interest in Darwin -- and gothics and ghost stories. I rejoined this list when I read on Victoria that you all were reading ghost stories this week. I am just now teaching a sophomore level literature course which is a study of gothic romances and novels beginning with Ann Radcliffe and ending on Isak Dinesen and Valerie Martin's _Mary Reilly_ (which we read with _Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde_). This past two weeks we have been reading the _Penguin Book of Ghost Stories_ edited by C. A. Cuddon. So there's my introduction. What is my favorite ghost story? I'm not sure, I like so many and for such different reasons. However, I'd say one of the greatest I've ever read is Margaret Oliphant's 'The Beleaguered City'. M. R. James read aloud is scarier than you think. Sheridan Le Fanu can be magnificent. This week I read for the first time Ambrose Bierce's 'The Moonlit Road': chilly, nihilistic. This week I have read about 8 of them for my class, and of the modern ones we are talking about my class, I was most taken by Edith Wharton's 'Afterward' and A. S. Byatt's 'The July Ghost'. My favorite book on ghost stories is Jack Sullivan's _Elegant Nightmares_ which I recommend highly if you've never come across it. I shall come back and report on what my class liked best eventually. Cheers to all, Ellen Moody
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 18:49:59 -0700 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: Ghosts this week "Hold That Ghost", and one of my all-time favorite movies; I love A$C. Marta Zozie(at)aol.com wrote: > > In a message dated 10/25/99 8:02:17 PM, you wrote: > > <<I was disappointed by the Hallowe'en listings for AMC. >> > > I'm disappointed with ALL the Hallowe'en fare. Mostly slashers and yes, > giant insects. I love them, actually. Any of you as amused as I am by > Tremors? But slashers don't do it for me. REAL ghost movies? Are there > any? Blair Witch Project is pret-ty darn scary. Another odd one is that > Abbott & Costello romp about ghosts. I saw it as a child and it spooked me. > Anyone remember that? Follow that Ghost, maybe? Some such title. > > I'll admit I find Candyman really scary. > > hauntingly yours, > phoebe - -- Marta "The Cemeteries of Omaha" http://members.xoom.com/martadawes "The New Twilight Zone" http://members.xoom.com/newtwilzone
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 19:07:10 -0700 From: Marta Dawes <smdawes(at)home.com> Subject: Re: Ghosts this week: MAYERLING and the Strauss Waltz Speaking of Mayerling, the palace where they died is supposedly haunted by Marie Vetsera; she glides through the halls and reenacts her nightly trips to Rudolphs' chambers, even passing through the sealed door at the end of a secret passage that was closed off after their death. Marta Carroll Bishop wrote: > > Hi Gaslit Ones: > > I was happy to wish Johann Strauss the Younger happy birthday this morning. > Gruss Gott, liebe Johann! What would we be without the Viennese waltz, > especially yours? Think of that space station in 2001 A.D. without > THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE. Think of New Year's in Vienna without > waltzes by the Strauss family. Think of all that eros aroused > by those familiar syncopated triple-beat measures, those dizzying > circles, how many little Austrian babies must have resulted? (The > lullabye too is often 1-2-3, 1-2-3, maybe that's why.) Not just > Austrian babies, of course. > > Think of MAYERLING without Strauss waltzes and marches! I saw the > original Saturday night. I've been following my own eccentric and > sometimes retrograde path since Arthur Schnitzler was discussed on > this list (Stephen tells me we'll read ANATOL one of these days). > I saw Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT, with eyes wide open, not once but > twice -- once from the husband's viewpoint, once from the wife's. > I read the DREAM NOVEL (Nicole/Augustina/Alice's nightmare, where > she laughs cruelly in her sleep, is a bit different in Schnitzler's > novel: in her dream, her husband is crucified and on the cross > watching as she is involved in an orgy of her own. In both > versions he wakes her up knowing she is having a nightmare and she > cries in his arms. As he later cries in hers. > > For the past week I've been attending a Max Ophuls retrospective. > I've seen Ophuls film adaptations of Schnitzler's LIEBELEI (early) > and the marvelous LA RONDE, and countless other Ophuls films, many > revolving like the Viennese waltz around loveless sex or > evanescent sex, military officers in splendid huszar uniforms, > the shadow of death (what do you think all those uniforms are for, > just impressing pretty chicks?): war, honour, senseless duels. . > These are (surprisingly) moral stories, moral films, in an age when > morality isn't something a lot of people want to confess to. Odd > to find out how appealing the morality of Schnitzler, Ophuls, > Stanley Kubrick is right now. It's not the old morality, yet it's > "old-fashioned" in its longing for deeper human meaning, expressed > often by showing fashionable, selfish action and disastrous results: > lavish scenery, pretty clothes, cynical betrayal, and a bad taste. > Schnitzler, Ophuls, Kubrick -- they are perhaps ahead of their time, > not behind it. > > Enfin, the Suicide Pact at MAYERLING, the royal hunting lodge > in the Vienna Woods. (Suicide pacts were fashionable in Vienna > even before this famous one was carried out and somewhat hushed up. > Ophuls doesn't deal with Rudolf-Marie directly, but their ghosts are > there all the time, a dark precedent for a gloomy Sunday. One of the > Ophuls films, FROM MAYERLING TO SARAJEVO, deals with the assassination of > another Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo -- the shot that > started World War I. (He was allowed a morganatic marriage, since > the Royal Family was afraid he might repeat Rudolf's dark pattern.) > > Well, there's my haunting for you. That intense, passionate, > star-crossed couple (Charles Boyer in his best part ever, with a > luminous, huge-eyed young Danielle Darrieux.) And all those fiacre > rides, clip clop clip clop (that's for you, Phoebe) and Strauss > waltzes, _echt_ German Romanticism all awhirl. They've made new > prints for video, you can now read the subtitles where once > they were an undecipherable white on white. And the dialogue! -- > those unforgettable lines! -- Marie (as Rudolf shouts at her, mad > with drink, shame, despair): "Mon pauvre amour, comme tu souffres." > Rudolf's reply: "J'ai honte, Marie." Or the Empress's speech > to Marie, meeting her the first time: "Vous etes tout pres de mon > coeur, Marie." > > But of all the scenes, the one I like best is at the court ball > to which Rudolf brings Marie. They've been given 24 hours > to finish their affair, and are allowed this indulgence. Rudolf > shocks everyone by introducing Marie to his Emperor father, then by > opening the ball dancing with her. (A Strauss waltz, of course.) > And here's the Great Moment. Rudolf's wife, making her progress through > the ballroom, pauses near Marie. Men bow, ladies curtsey low. But > Marie? Marie stands straight and tall, in her perfect decolletege, > no bending of her swanlike neck, no humbling herself to her royal lover's > wife. (I'm a democrat from America, I love this stuff. Born to it.) > > I found the video in an ordinary video store (I did call first > to reserve). Directed by Anatol (!) Litvak, 1936. 91 minutes. I think > I told y'all once before that Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson were said > to have flown to Paris to see MAYERLING before he abdicated. > (Rudolf was given the choice of getting rid of Marie in that final > 24 hours or abdicating. In a sense he does both, in a way > nobody's likely to forget. Two shots at Mayerling.) > > That's my ghost story. It's obviously still a good strong haunting. > Don't, for God's sake, confuse it with the later remake with > Catherine Deneuve and Omar Shariff, which isn't bad but is, in > comparison, pretty dull. And make sure it's in French, avec English > subtitles. > > Carroll - -- Marta "The Cemeteries of Omaha" http://members.xoom.com/martadawes "The New Twilight Zone" http://members.xoom.com/newtwilzone
===0===
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 20:18:30 -0400
From: "John D. Squires" <jdsbooks(at)ameritech.net>
Subject: Re: Ghosts this week
I have said before I like the giant insect movies of the '50s &
"Mimic" was a pretty effective update. Ditto on "Tremors",
a neat little '50s B movie with updated effects & humor. I
have never liked slasher movies, though the original "Halloween"
does have merit. You will also find some unexpected thrills in
another Jamie Lee Curtis movie, "Road Games" (1981) with
Stacy Keach, of all people, in the lead.
AMC has also been running "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" this
month, though not as part of its Halloween series. No thrills,
but a charming ghost story.
Keep a light on.
John Squires
Zozie(at)aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 10/25/99 8:02:17 PM, you wrote:
>
> <<I was disappointed by the Hallowe'en listings for AMC. >>
>
> I'm disappointed with ALL the Hallowe'en fare. Mostly slashers and yes,
> giant insects. I love them, actually. Any of you as amused as I am by
> Tremors? But slashers don't do it for me. REAL ghost movies? Are there
> any? Blair Witch Project is pret-ty darn scary. Another odd one is that
> Abbott & Costello romp about ghosts. I saw it as a child and it spooked me.
> Anyone remember that? Follow that Ghost, maybe? Some such title.
>
> I'll admit I find Candyman really scary.
>
> hauntingly yours,
> phoebe
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 17:21:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ginger Johnson <ferret(at)eskimo.com>
Subject: Pere Lachaise
Colette is indeed buried in Pere Lachaise. A lovely story I read
somewhere says that there is often found a red rose on her grave - left by
the cats of Paris.
Also I think Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are buried there too.
Ginger Johnson
"It isn't the extravagances of life we regret, it's the economies."
- Somerville and Ross
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 21:19:36 +0300 From: cbishop(at)interlog.com (Carroll Bishop) Subject: Re: Pere Lachaise [cat chat] >Colette is indeed buried in Pere Lachaise. A lovely story I read >somewhere says that there is often found a red rose on her grave - left by >the cats of Paris. > >Also I think Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are buried there too. > >Ginger Johnson - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ginger -- my cup runneth over! The red rose from the cats of Paris seems to belong to the King o'the Cats story, which I always remember at Hallowe'en. I think I posted a version from Jacobs (ed.) English Folk Tales (or Fairy Tales). It may be in the Archive. And Gertrude and Alice! What a party! Carroll
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 21:57:40 -0600 From: Tracy Cooper-Posey <tracy.cp(at)home.com> Subject: Re: Thackeray At 06:28 PM 10/25/99 -0400, you wrote: >Anyone hooked on Vanity Fair? I think Becky is a winner. Just finished watching it. Loved Dobbins. That intensity!! Tracy Tracy Cooper-Posey * Edmonton, Alberta * mailto:tracy(at)sashaproductions.com EYES OF A STRANGER -- No.7 on the ebook romance bestseller list!! CHRONICLES OF THE LOST YEARS -- A Sherlock Holmes Mystery DARE TO RETURN, May 2000 * http://www.sashaproductions.com *
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Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 00:38:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Champ <rchamp(at)polaris.umuc.edu>
Subject: Today in History -- Oct 26
Interesting things that happened October 26th:
Birthdays on this date:
In 1855 Charles Post, who had a way with breakfast cereals
In 1911 Sid Gillman, NFL coach (LA, San Diego, Houston)
In 1916 Francois Mitterrand, French President
In 1917 Felix the cat, cartoon character
In 1919 Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, shah of Iran (1941-79)
Events worth noting:
In 1825 Erie Canal between Hudson River and Lake Erie opened.
In 1861 Transcontinental telegraph service inaugurated in US.
In 1863 Soccer rules standardized; rugby starts as a separate game.
In 1881 Shootout at the OK corral, in Tombstone, Arizona.
In 1903 The "Yerba Buena" is the first Key System ferry to cross the San
Francisco Bay.
In 1918 Austrian National Day.
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Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 21:58:00 -0700 From: Deborah McMillion Nering <deborah(at)alice.gloaming.com> Subject: Chat: Bierce/Ghost Movies >This week I read for the first time Ambrose Bierce's'The Moonlit Road' Welcome, Ellen. You might have missed my posting earlier about the Southern Ghost stories website of the same name, Moonlit Road, has posted a live reading complete with sound effects and different voices of this piece. I believe it's a full 25 minutes. http://www.themoonlitroad.com/ Ghost Movies aplenty, all available on video for those who don't want the giant bugs: "The Haunting", "Ghost and Mrs. Muir", "The Changeling","Portrait of Jenny", "Ghost Breakers" (Bob Hope, one of my favorites), "The Uninvited", and "The Legend of Hell House"--very much a 'do over' of "The Haunting" with it's own twists, "Carnival of Souls", "The Innocents", "Kwaidan" for older ones. Newer and not so obvious "Haunted", "The Frighteners" and "The Woman in Black"--absolutely chilling movie version of Susan Hill's extremely chilling book. You can also get on video a gorgeous Chinese import called "Chinese Ghost Story" but only stick to the first one. After that they kind of turn into martial arts vs. ghosts and demons films (unless that's what you want). Recently saw "Stir of Echoes' based on a book by Richard Matheson (Legend of Hell House) and it wasn't too bad. Not too over the top. I don't want monsters for Halloween...I want ghosts. Where I came from Halloween was always about the spirits of the dead returning. If anyone can add any other very good ghosts only to this list that would be great. Booo! Deborah (Thanks, Stephen, for "Lukundoo") Deborah McMillion deborah(at)gloaming.com http://www.gloaming.com/deborah.html ------------------------------ End of Gaslight Digest V1 #106 ******************************