Haphazard travels of Sirman Deville to the Leaning Tower

[niminy-piminy]

A/

[niminy-piminy]

i expect this is the last "haphazard travels" installment.
thus making the whole (Old Good) Europe covered.
thus bringing this "covid cine-dodecameron" into full bloom.

i don't plan to watch in the near future any spaghetti western so i am just copy-pasting (as an intro) my last two spaghetti posts...

2015 poll viewing No5:
SON OF THE LOVELY CAPITALISM (Suranga Deshapriya Katugampala)
https://letterboxd.com/film/son-of-the- ... apitalism/

Suranga D. Katugampala is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and a naturalized Italian.
Born in Sri Lanka, he immigrated to Italy with his family at a young age.

https://youtu.be/NmL6b3Wfxm4

Finished all "Eight Films by Cecilia Mangini"...
https://www.another-screen.com/cecilia-mangini

DIVINE LOVE
STENDALÌ (STILL THEY TOLL)
As there is a recording of the last remaining Kauai 'O'o bird's mating call (can be heard in the other thread), these two films capture two different vanishing traditions of the human specie — either 1/ various rites connected with a religious pilgrimage or 2/ a mourning chant.

When Mangini arrived in the town in 1960, she could find only two women who remembered fragments of the chants.

BEING WOMEN
MARIA’S DAYS
Plights of women (in general) in capitalism (labor exploitation & domestic slavery) vs. a portrait of one specific individual elderly lady.

THE BRIDLE ON THE NECK
THE SONG OF THE SWAMPS
Poverty (born of exploitation) giving rise to uninhibited brats whose destiny is either to become 1/ social reformers/revolutionaries (eventually saints) or 2/ criminals. If anyone wonders how to deal with those brats before they come of age (and either become adult activists or adult prisoners), the clue is given in MARIA’S DAYS.

She (Maria) is ... the witchy woman with piercing eyes who causes mischief-making children to flee.

BRINDISI ’65
TOMMASO
Elaboration on labor exploitation in general vs. individual delusions related to labor in capitalism.
1/ In TOMMASO one can hear about the plights of the working class (unemployment, occupational accidents, labor exploitation), and in-between naive rambling of young Tommaso about soon going to work in a factory, earning a lot of money and buying possessional goods (first of all, a fancy motorcycle).
2/ In the grand finale of BRINDISI ’65 a crowd of young men (in majority soon to be workers in the local factory) watches a scene of puppet theater in which a suitor is asking for a hand in marriage, but is kicked in the ass by the father due to his precarious (penniless) condition. All the young boys (with just one exception of a thoughtful young gentleman) laugh heartily (not realizing puppets are enacting their fate).

I never heard of Cecilia Mangini before.
I lived in socialist Czechoslovakia till my late teen years and heard then a lot of anti-capitalist rants (even in prime time news on daily basis) but Cecilia Mangini was never mentioned.
Even in 1980s socialist Czechoslovakia, (i believe) Pasolini would be kicked out of the communist party and Cecilia Mangini would face censorship.
The then anti-capitalist agenda was rather vague (so it would not slip into domestic fault-finding typical of the Prague Spring in 1968 that had to be "corrected" by Warsaw Pact invasion) and was always followed by extensive easy-going numbing entertainment for masses (less glamorous than numbing entertainment in capitalism but otherwise basically the same).
Me and most of my 1980s countrymen (living in quasi-socialism and having naive notions about capitalism) were (many still are) quite similar to Tomasso or the laughing crowd in the puppet theater.
Even in 1980s Czechoslovakia (and (i believe) in other countries of the Soviet block as well) anarcho-communist Cecilia Mangini would be an outcast.
Socialist regime that would fully appreciate Cecilia Mangini's work is yet to come!

[niminy-piminy]

1975 poll No6
CLOUDS • NUVOLE (Manfredo Manfredi) 13m ... no dialogues

https://vimeo.com/149368203

[niminy-piminy]

2007 poll No14:
EUROPA (Matteo Botrugno, Daniele Coluccini)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403160/

Three mentally ills, penned in a white, aseptic room. A nurse, Europa, looks and studies their repetitive actions and their obsessive immobility. The infinite realities of human psyche will worm in a de-objectived reality, pervading it. Inspired by the Europa’s greek myth, which lyrism is transposed in a visionary contest.

https://vimeo.com/20696273

[niminy-piminy]

1962 poll No2:
TO ARMS, WE’RE FASCISTS! (Lino Del Fra, Cecilia Mangini)

finally (after many digressions), i finished this remarkable film in which Curzio Malaparte and Gabriele D'Annunzio (especially D'Annunzio — viz stills 2,3,4 below) are not portrayed in a positive light.

https://twitter.com/jirinvk/status/1462 ... 51745?s=20

btw. i decided to store the film stills mainly on twitter.
stills stored on the pic sharing websites sooner or later disappear.
however, on twitter pics are stored forever (i believe).
at the core of my heart, i am a conservative person and don't like when stills that i notice & cherish are later gone.
however, despite being deeply conservative by nature i don't take cocaine (viz still 1 above) and thus there is a good hope i won't become retarded fascist in my old age.
with the help of god almighty (and anti-Alzheimer nasal spray containing the substance called protollin that can trigger the clearing of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain) there is a good hope i won't follow in D'Annunzio's footsteps (i.e. will not wear "his shoes") in the autumn/winter of my conservative life.

https://twitter.com/ellapeaches1984/sta ... 19874?s=20

[...]

Hmm, now I'm starting to think again about joining twitter now, or buy penis shoes...

[Lencho of the Apes]

I remember a rather different pair of penis shoes featuring in live performances by the band The Tubes.

[niminy-piminy]

a full wardrobe of the "bad hombre"
or "defiant dandy"
or "randy dandy"...
https://sartorialnotes.com/2016/11/14/t ... dannunzio/

[...]

Given your interests in randy dandys and architectural delights, I assume you've seen, and perhaps already posted something from http://mubi.com/films/dannunzios-cave? If not, you might find it worth a browse.

[niminy-piminy]

i have seen "d'annunzio's cave" in the past and luckily i didn't post anything anywhere about it.
at the time i watched it, i was (i have to admit) ignorant of d'annunzio's bio trivia.
i might have had some vague suspicion the guy was not completely okay but i never bothered to delve into details.
thus (in my sweet ignorance) i ofc liked the cave (called the "junk museum" by the authors of TO ARMS, WE’RE FASCISTS!).
only now, after the film, i somewhat explored mr. d'nunciated.
btw. i also noticed there is a new (2020/2021) biopic about him https://letterboxd.com/film/il-cattivo-poeta/ called "bad poet" (but not sure if a "bad poet" is a good film).
and in dandyism i only take interest since exploring the zanzibar group.
i am a completely anti-dandy (normcore) type and before "zanzibar" i never admitted it could be anything subversive about being dandy (it seemed only superficial).
but those Alain Jouffroy's elaborations about "distance established by elegance" and creating "a kind of void around the person" (via elegance) started to somewhat haunt me.

since then i am somewhat at doubts if i don't miss something not trying to distance myself, to enter the void, to drop out, etc.,etc. via dandy appearance (wearing only ordinary normcore attire).
thus, noticing d'annunzio was (among other things) a dandy i couldn't miss the opportunity to examine his wardrobe.

[niminy-piminy]

and btw. (speaking about elegance) i still can't forget this memorable post about a new winter coat!

Oh cool. I rented 'they came to a city' from the library, and when I returned it today the librarian stopped me & asked if I was interested in psychogeography, as he was a member of a Yorkshire society and would I be interested in their activities?

I knew my new winter coat was a winner! All the strangers are chatting to me today, and none of them are mental! Weird.

[...]

i am a completely anti-dandy (normcore) type and before "zanzibar" i never admitted it could be anything subversive about being dandy (it seemed only superficial).
but those Alain Jouffroy's elaborations about "distance established by elegance" and creating "a kind of void around the person" (via elegance) started to somewhat haunt me.

That is the beauty and downside of dandyism, the distance it creates can provide something of perspective space separate from the "norm" and attract the notice of those likewise seeking something other, but embraced too firmly, the norm can feel lessened, beneath the dandy and thus potentially lead towards elitism and dismissal of day to day living amongst the "commoners".

[sally]

huh i'm so old now i don't even remember what coat that was, it certainly isn't the main one i have now, which is in no way elegant, merely warm, which is far more important now that the first (icily elegant) frosts of the year have attacked my windows.

on the topic of dandy distance i would let a rich man buy me a distanced-by-death fur coat (although i wouldn't buy one myself, i couldn't support animal cruelty)

[niminy-piminy]

and did you ever attend (or are you still attending) meeting(s) of Yorkshire psychogeographical society?
if there would be a local psychogeographical society and i knew what type of outfit grants me an invitation i would start wearing it!

[sally]

no i never did contact them, on reflection i decided there was far too much psychogeography near me (CATHY! JANE! JANE!) and that i got spooked enough on those damned hills not to need any more of it.

i bet there's hundreds of lurking psychogeographers in prague tho, you just need to find their secret signs...

[niminy-piminy]

with a zero first-hand testimony, i infer that a meeting of the psychogeographical society might look like this...

[niminy-piminy]

their secret signs...

now, i am prone to believe devoted psychogeographers wear a tie split to resemble the scissors!


viz
https://youtu.be/_GkJH1CceYw

[niminy-piminy]

1962 poll No15:
THE HOT CITY (Raffaele Andreassi)

The most insipid film on the subject of suicide.

https://youtu.be/xtcJcekZoG8

[niminy-piminy]

after watching IN THE SHADOW OF THE BLUE RASCAL (viz another thread), i tried something about the red rascals...

1986 poll No11:
THE MORO AFFAIR (Giuseppe Ferrara)

- We chose the armed fight because it's the only way to frighten you.
- Like it or not, we are a revolutionary vanguard!
- What if he's really kept into a submarine?
- The RB are delirious victims of a revolutionary myth and a blind instrument of disintegration and ruin!
- The socialists are a joke and Craxi is an illusionist!
- Be strong, my sweet, in this absurd and incomprehensible ordeal. It's the ways of the Lord!

https://twitter.com/jirinvk/status/1476 ... 44901?s=20

[niminy-piminy]

after finishing "red rascals", i am watching another feature for the 1986 poll (TAROT by Rudolf Thome).
and i see this combination of films (THE MORO AFFAIR & TAROT) is highly unfortunate!
as i said several times (in various threads) i don't care about cars, they seem to me all the same BUT (unfortunately) i didn't fail to notice a heroine of the TAROT (pic 1) is using the same car (Renault 4) of the same hue (red) as was the car in which Aldo Moro was assassinated (pics 2-3).



now, it is really hard to follow TAROT'S plot without my mind permanently making connections between TAROT's heroine and the Red Brigades.
i like Rudolf Thome and was really looking forward to seeing another film by him BUT my TAROT's viewing gonna be completely ruined by the reappearance of the damn red MORO coffin/car!

[niminy-piminy]

2009 poll highlights:

Antonio Ligabue: Between Fiction and Reality (Salvatore Nocita, 2009, 68m)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527594/

Flavio Bucci, who played the artist in the Rai TV movie in 1977, guides viewers through the life and career of painter Antonio Ligabue and the places dear to him. The film combines footage seen here for the first time, scenes from the 1977 TV movie, and interviews with key figures in the art world, psychology experts, and the painter's acquaintances, in an attempt to reconstruct the enigmatic artist's troubled existence and his controversial output.

https://youtu.be/w5jVaRx9jIo

Antonio Ligabue (1899-1965) → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Ligabue

Ligabue lived with support from the City Hospice of beggars. He began to paint in 1920. In 1928 he met Renato Marino Mazzacurati, who appreciated his artistic capabilities and taught him the use of oil painting. In those years Ligabue devoted himself to painting and continued to wander aimlessly along the River Po.