menarddg3

[menarddg3]

Experiment 50

[menarddg3]

There stands no Bodhi tree mind y'ea no mirror Mind stands no dust ever alights here, ever.

[menarddg3]

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (dir. Wong Kar-Wai, 2000) - Corridor Glance Scene. @George David Maynard at Termite 🐈 Cat ProdInk$

[menarddg3]

The Ox-Bow Incident (William A. Wellman, 1943) written by David George Menard offscreen.com Volume 22, Issue 2 / February 2018. @George David Maynard at Termite 🐈 Cat ProdInk$

[menarddg3]

Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986): We Live in a “Strange World” written

by David George Menard offscreen.com Volume 21, Issue 2 / February 2017. @George David Maynard at Termite 🐈 Cat & 🐕 Dog ProdInk$

[menarddg3]

THE GARDEN OF ALLAH: Hollywood Homosexual Haven written by Michael Hone. @George David Maynard at Termite Cat 😸 ProdInk$

[menarddg3]

Sappho (Greek: Σαπφώ Sapphō c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos.

Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music.

In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the "Ode to Aphrodite" is certainly complete.

As well as Greek lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style. TBC. @George David Maynard

[menarddg3]

THE GARDEN OF ALLAH is a 1904 romance drama literary work written by British novelist, Robert Smythe Hichens, who set the story's action in the North African desert. It was adapted into three American-made films, two silent flickers and later, an excellent sound film starring Marlene Dietrich, Charles Boyer, Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, John Carradine, Alan Marshall, Joseph Schildkraut, and Lucile Watson. The screenplay was written by William P. Lipscomb and Lynn Riggs; indeed, their script was based on Hichens' novel. This Technicolor movie was produced by the famed Hollywood producer, David O. Selznick, in the mid-1930's.

The Garden of Allah is a 1936 American adventure drama romance film directed by Richard Boleslawski, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer. The screenplay was written by William P. Lipscomb and Lynn Riggs, who based it on the 1904 novel of the same title by Robert Smythe Hichens.

Robert Hichens's novel had been filmed twice before, as silent films made in 1916 and 1927. The supporting cast of the sound version features Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Joseph Schildkraut, John Carradine, Alan Marshal, and Lucile Watson. The music score is by Max Steiner.

In short order format introductory synopsis, Boleslawski's film tells the story of a trappist monk, Boris Androvski (Charles Boyer), who feels enormous pressure at having to keep his vows as a monk, so he flees his monastery. Yet he is the only one who knows the secret recipe of "Lagarnine", the monastery's famous liqueur, a recipe passed down from one generation of monks to another.

Meanwhile, the beautiful heiress, Domini Enfilden (Marlene Dietrich), is newly freed from her own prison of caring for her just-deceased father and also seeks the exotic open spaces of the North African desert to nurture her soul. @George David Maynard

[menarddg3]

THE SHANGHAI GESTURE: A PLAY WRITTEN BY JOHN COLTON - F. Orion Pozo reviews Johnny Colton's play, titled "The Shanghai Gesture." Pozo writes "Still relevant almost 100 years after it was written ..."

Pozo reviews Colton's play and published it through Amazon.com in the United States on March 4, 2012:

I became interested in this play after watching the 1941 movie of the same name that was adapted from it.

To get the movie past the Hollywood censors many changes had to be made to the story and I wanted to see what the original 1918 play was about. Fortunately my local university library has a copy.

Here are some excerpts from a March 16, 2009 OffBroadway.com review of a recent production of this play.

"Written in 1918 and last produced in New York on Broadway in l926 The Shanghai Gesture is a 100-year-old historic American play that has always been controversial for its bold confrontation of still-relevant issues."

"The Shanghai Gesture confronts issues of women's rights, the sex trade, child abuse/slavery, and what happens when one country imposes its culture upon another."

"It takes place in China in the roaring twenties when Shanghai was a truly cosmopolitan city filled with Russian refugees, its people exploited by opium traders and adventurers from all over Europe and Great Britain, and visited by American entrepreneurs.

Mother Goddam is a Manchu princess shamed and discarded by an aristocratic English merchant and sold into sex slavery who can never return to her home. A survivor, she has risen to great power and reputation within a complex society where she runs an elegant brothel frequented by governors, mandarins, and princes who chose amongst women who are beautiful and tastefully dressed. Tonight there is great excitement, for she is having a dinner party - and society folk, the British and other European aristocrats and their wives are coming to dinner.

What transpires during the dinner is hypnotic, humorous, erotic, terrifying, shocking, surprising, sad, and utterly fascinating. Many secrets - those of each guest - are revealed, and the ultimate secrets - those of Sir Guy Charteris - literally change lives. Even Mother Goddam must face an unanticipated revelation of a secret of her own.

Unlike Madame Butterfly, Mother Goddam chooses not to view herself as a victim. Instead she outwits and punishes her male oppressors. This single fact made this play (produced so soon after women had gotten the vote) a great favorite with female audiences as well and it was taken up as a popular feminist tract.

It played the Martin Beck (now the Hirschfeld) for an extraordinary 210 performances and then moved to the 46th Street Theatre (now the Richard Rodgers) where it continued to play for many months more."

There is not a lot to add to a review like that. In the book's introduction, John D. Williams talks about the significance of the title. The verb "shanghai" as in "to be shanghaied" originally meant to kidnap or force someone to work on a ship by drugging them. It is not much used these days but it came to take on the more general meaning of being coerced into doing something against your will.

From this comes the gesture that some know as the Shanghai Gesture. We all have seen it at one time or another. In the UK they call it "cocking a snook."

Williams describes how it is made. "Place the fingers of your right hand extended. Distend the thumb of your right hand until it touches your nose. The little finger of your right hand is stretched venomously toward the world. You say nothing but you think much, and that is that." He goes on to say: "When the world puts its heel on a derelict, when life is just a little too hard, when a man is marooned, by parents or otherwise, before he has a chance to plead, he is wont to accept his condition -- if there is no way out -- but he only accepts his fate after making the Shanghai Gesture."

It has a long history. The gesture can be seen in The Festival of Fools, a print made in 1560 by artist Pieter Bruegel (the elder). This may explain why a fool is pictured on the cover of Gary Indiana's 2009 novel The Shanghai Gesture.

@George David Maynard, A good job of work by F. Orion Pozo in reviewing John Colton's play "The Shanghai Gesture."

[menarddg3]

Watch "Los Angeles Plays Itself | Documentales TCM | TCM" on YouTube

TCM presents "Los Angeles Plays Itself" produced & narrated by Thom Andersen - indeed, an excellent job of work!

Consisting mostly of shots from other films, this documentary discusses the many representations of the city of Los Angeles in film and on television. Professor Thom Andersen compares the city as it exists in real life with its depictions on screen to examine how L.A. and its massive community have been misrepresented over the years. In addition to critical analysis, Andersen explains how directors portray the city itself as a character, and he also delves into L.A.'s dark history. Bonne job, Francine!

@George David Maynard

[menarddg3]

The Fall of the American Empire (La chute de l'empire américain) is a 2018 Canadian crime thriller, a film written and directed by famed cineaste, Denys Arcand. The crime movie stars Alexandre Landry, Maxim Roy, Yan England and Rémy Girard. The short synopsis tells about a man (Landry) who, after an armed robbery in Montreal, discovers two bags of money and is unsure what to do with them. Arcand's film is based on a 2010 old Montreal shooting; though the film is thematically related, yet it is not a direct sequel to either Arcand's 1986 movie, The Decline of the American Empire, or his 2003 motion picture, The Barbarian Invasions. All of Denys Arcand's cinematic oeuvres are relevant to the present political climate in North America, today. @George Maynard, Cinephysics Cineaste at Termite Cat Productions Ltd., West Hollywood California 90028.

[menarddg3]

THE AGONY OF THE ECSTASY, written in 2001 at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Montreal; it is an apocalyptic narrative fictional story filmed in Chris Markers' photo-roman style of filmmaking, using still photographs and musical score sound. The film piece was produced in 2002 and shown around the world, just as it is, flawed and imperfect, just the way I like it. @Termite Cat Productions Ltd., A George Maynard Film & Sound Group, 7047 Franklin Avenue, Suite 131, West Hollywood CA 90028

[menarddg3]

Post American Avant-garde, Post-post Expressionist Literature, for your reading pleasure, especially the last piece - George Maynard in the White Room with some kind of 'Shroom wearing a Mexican Hat, in a slow inflationary roll-off to a quasi-stable vacuum - AH! WILD WICKED WILDERNESS

THE PERFORMATIST'S HAND WRITES, AS IT DOES, ITSELF DOES IT WRITE:

TERMITE CAT CINEASTE by George David Maynard$.

[menarddg3]

THE CABINET OF DOCTOR CALIGARI (directed by Robert Wiene; the screenplay was written by Carl Mayer & Hans Janowitz; cinematography by Willy Haneister; a silent horror mystery film budgeted at $12,371, and released on March 19, 1921) - It starred Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinz v. Twardowski, and Rudolph Lettinger. @George Maynard

[menarddg3]

https://offscreen.com/view/the-long-day-closes-terence-davies-1992

The Long Day Closes (directed by Terence Davies, 1992): Essay written by David George Menard offscreen.com Volume 23, Issue 2 / February 2019. @George David Maynard

[menarddg3]

Watch "Vera Lynn - We'll Meet Again (1943)" on YouTube

WE'LL MEET AGAIN (1943) performed by the famously fabulous Vera Lynn. George Maynard