From: Fred Davidson (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Sep 06 2008 - 05:44:11 PDT
Freya dear, darling, sweetie pie, why won't you tell me how old
you are? "I'm forty-five."* I'm not a widower. Maybe because I've
never been married. Ah, now that's a good reason! I don't have a
flophouse. To the contrary, I have a nice house. I live in a nice
house on a nice street with a nice pool in the backyard that is clean
and spiffy and recently renovated. Two doors down on my right my
neighbor has a shinny new black Bentley, hey now baby!, and a shinny,
brand new, spanking, big, black, Mercedes, both of which he parks in
his garage, and a shinny new black Mini Cooper S which he parks in his
driveway. The Mini Cooper S is for those rare times when you just
don't feel like taking out a Bentley or a Mercedes I suppose. (What
else could it be for? I'll have to ask Andy Rooney if I see him.) I
don't understand your reluctance Freya. I don't understand it at all.
Why won't you tell me? Huh? Stella! Hey Stella! Blanche! Doesn't
anybody here know how old Freya exactly is?
Fred S. (the S. stands for Scott not Stanley) Davidson
*Last Tango In Paris, prod. Alberto Grimaldi, dir. Bernardo
Bertolucci, 1972, 35 mm, 136 min.
On Sep 5, 2008, at 9:49 AM, Freya wrote:
> Dear Fred,
> I don't want to dash your hopes but I've actually seen some of
> satantango. There was a divx on a friends computer that was left
> there by her ex boyfriend. Unfortunately he had only downloaded part
> 4 or something. I do remember however that it featured some
> extensive shots of a cow and some barnyard buildings as well as a
> sort of narrative bit where two guys go into a bar and try to create
> a bit of a fuss or something and everyone ignores them. I have to
> confess that I didn't watch part 4 in its entirety, it seemed
> somewhat futile somehow.
>
> The thing is however that I can't see how this would help any more
> than various films by Andy Warhol or a recent film I saw by Chantel
> Ackerman of spaces within a hotel.Perhaps it would help the more
> academically inclined but I was actually somewhat enjoying the hotel
> film because there were bits that were really good and other bits
> which were just awful and made me want to shout out "Chantel what
> were you thinking? This is all wrong!", but even the bad bits made
> me think about what I would have done differently, and I enjoyed
> that.I would have probably stayed and watched it all (over an hour)
> if I wasn't with a friend who didn't suffer from such afflictions.
>
> I've also seen a reel of Empire by Andy Warhol and I loved watching
> the people wandering in and out and staring at it and walking away
> confused. I also saw a very lovely tape splice during empire which
> was my favourite bit and left me threatening to make a whole film of
> tape splices for a long time thereafter. (how to lose friends and
> alienate people)
>
> Even worse I suspect that I would probably even revel in a nice 16mm
> print of Satantango for its entire duration. It just isn't going to
> work.
>
> For the longest time I liked to tell myself that really I was only
> into experimental film because it was this tiny little scene that
> nobody really knew about and that I could quietly make stuff and
> nobody need ever know or would be able to say "Hey Freya, your're
> not allowed to make films etc" but having been through absolute hell
> on the scene and almost not making it through the last year alive, I
> had to face up to the truth.
>
> Despite the fact that I havn't made an experimental film in about 2
> years and that I've not been to much in the way of film screenings
> either and that in fact the mere idea of doing such things still
> makes me feel a little queasy, the truth of the matter is that I
> still love experimental film.
>
> I KNOW that watching satantango will make no difference.
>
> I'm resigned now that I will be on this list forever...
>
> ...or at least until they cut off my electricity anyway.
>
> love
>
> Freya
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