On this day, 51 years ago, Michelangelo Antonioni's 'The Passenger' (1975) was released in Italy.
Jack Nicholson on the theme of 'The Passenger' (1975):
"The new film is a risky film; all the films I’ve done in the last few years have had huge risks attached to them, though fortunately people are willing to gamble on the possibility that they just might bring the big one in. The risk of this one is that the strength is in the structure of the film. There is a narrative, but it’s fragmented in a particular way which makes still a second or third narrative point.
The basic theme of 'The Passenger' (1975) is an identity change: it deals with the area of fantasy and the subconscious in a man who says ‘Why don’t I just walk out of my life and become someone new tomorrow?’ It deals with the releasing of all the super-psychic energy which is locked around that fantasy, and makes the comments about why you can and why you can’t do this, how far it’s real and how far it’s a fantasy.
Its success depends on whether it can express a very high-flown and esoteric theme compellingly. The structure is that of a mystery; the man who chooses the change is in a very mysterious situation, and the film tries to reach out and capture an audience by shaping itself fundamentally as a very long and elaborate and elusive chase."
(Jack Nicholson's interview with John Russell Taylor, Sight and Sound, 1974)
On this day, 61 years ago, one of the greatest movies of all time, "The Saragossa Manuscript" (1965) by Wojciech Has was released in Poland.
This film is a favourite of both David Lynch & Luis Buñuel.
Here is what they said about this film:
"'The Saragossa Manuscript' is simultaneously horrific, erotic, and funny. This is one mother of a film"
--- David Lynch
“I loved 'The Saragossa Manuscript'. I saw the film three times, which, in my case, is saying something.”
--- Luis Buñuel
(Quotes taken from 'The Cinematheque')
"There are no entertaining moments in 'Mirror' (1975). In fact I am categorically against entertainment in cinema: it is as degrading for the author as it is for the audience."
--- Andrei Tarkovsky
Full Excerpt:
"'Mirror' (1975) is an autobiographical film. The things that happen are real things that happened to people close to me. That is true of all the episodes in the film. But why do people complain that they cannot understand it? The facts are so simple, they can be taken by every one as similar to the experience of their own lives. But here we come up against something that is peculiar to cinema: the further a viewer is from the content of a film, the closer he is; what people are looking for in cinema is a continuation of their lives, not a repetition. There are no entertaining moments in the film. In fact I am categorically against entertainment in cinema: it is as degrading for the author as it is for the audience.
The purpose of 'Mirror', its inspiration, is that of a homily: look, learn, use the life shown here as an example. There are so many films now, and they are all so different, that very soon it will be impossible to plan for distribution to cinemas. That will be the beginning of a new phase in the development of film, which is after all the youngest art form, it is only about seventy years old. Films will start to be handed out as cassettes, people will take them home, every viewer will find himself face to face with the film he particularly likes. And what of cinema, the mass medium, you may ask ? Mass is not a criterion of quality. The same could be said about the number of people involved in the making of a film. Numbers are not the point. A small team working together is preferable to a large collective.
Another question: What is going to happen to Mirror? We don't know yet. For the moment the film is only being shown in three cinemas, and they started with two. They are trying it out first, because the organs responsible for distribution are afraid it might be a failure. When they heard that people sat on and wouldn't leave, one of the highly placed distribution officials observed that normal people leave the cinema."
[A talk by Tarkovsky in the Building Institute, 1975 about his film 'Mirror' (1975)]
Die einschlägigen Compilations des ersten Halbjahres – mit @wisdomteethuk, Peach Discs, @AirTexture, @Planetmurecords, Recognition, WSNWG, Sonic Groove und Vault Sessions. https://t.co/55CzlryP1Q
A review of ‘Recognition 25 Years’, from the 🇵🇱 label Recognition. ▲
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➡ https://t.co/HIuaxPdU5x
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feat: @JRecognition , Tomas Sroczynski, @Atom_TM_news , Max Loderbauer, Ricardo Villalobos, Jackname Trouble, @porosty_, Robert Piotrowicz, @jurek_p...
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#OnThisDay 1983: Ray Hammond and Peter Gabriel discussed computerised musical instruments and whether or not using them would come to be seen as "cheating".
#InternationalSynthDay