Poe @ MindSay 
edgar allan poe
2. A QUEDA DA CASA DE USHER
Título original do filme: La Chute de la Maison Usher
País de origem: Estados Unidos, França
Ano da produção: 1928
Direção: Jean Epstein
Elenco: Marguerite Gance, Jean Debucourt, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard, Luc Dartagnan, Halma, Pierre Hot
Duração: 63 min
Baseado no conto homônimo de Edgar Allan Poe
Filme apresentado no dia 05/05/2009
Preocupado com Roderick Usher, Allan decide visitar o amigo em seu castelo. Durante a longa viagem para chegar ao local, ele se hospeda num hotel e solicita que o levem à residência do anfitrião. Os populares relutam (pois eles acreditam que a casa de Usher seja amaldiçoada), mas Allan consegue o transporte necessário para conduzi-lo até lá.
Com a ajuda de um médico, Roderick toma conta de Madeleine, sua esposa – que está sucumbindo a uma doença desconhecida. Usher pinta um quadro de sua amada. Cada vez que posa para a pintura, ela fica mais exausta. Parece que o quadro suga as energias de sua modelo e, uma vez finalizada a pintura, Madeleine morrerá.
Jean Epstein realiza uma livre adaptação do enredo de Edgar Allan Poe (que também inclui citações a outros contos do escritor; mais notadamente a “O Retrato Oval”). Na história original, Roderick e Madeleine são irmãos gêmeos – e não um casal. Entretanto, o diretor preferiu eliminar do filme qualquer sugestão de incesto.
O papel de Madeleine é desempenhado por Marguerite Gance, esposa do celebrado cineasta Abel Gance. Outra colaboração é a de Luis Buñuel que, aqui, é assistente de direção e co-autor do roteiro. Um ponto negativo é a versão em DVD lançada no Brasil – que traz os letreiros originais em francês, uma desnecessária narração em inglês e ainda as legendas em português.
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3. O ILUMINADO
Título original do filme: The Shining
País de origem: Estados Unidos
Ano da produção: 1980
Direção: Stanley Kubrick
Elenco: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone e Joe Turkel
Duração: 142 min
Baseado no livro homônimo de Stephen King
Filme apresentado no dia 12/05/2009
Buscando tranquilidade para escrever seu livro, o ex-professor Jack Torrance aceita o emprego de zelador do Overlook Hotel (fixado nas montanhas do Colorado). O inverno rigoroso afasta os hóspedes do lugar nessa época do ano. Ele parte para o isolamento acompanhado de Winifred “Wendy”, sua esposa, e de Danny, seu filho sensitivo – que, desde o começo, sabe que existe algo de errado no local.
Centrado na interpretação histriônica de Jack Nicholson, Kubrick resolve mudar o enfoque da narrativa e o resultado final é confuso. O iluminado a que o título se refere é Danny – e não Jack. O diretor cria uma atmosfera sombria, gerando mais um suspense psicológico do que uma história de horror.
Não fica evidente, em momento nenhum, que Jack é um alcoólatra. Ao omitir esse fato, algumas cenas soam deslocadas e sem sentido. A participação de Scatman Crothers é completamente desperdiçada – e o ator ainda foi vítima do perfeccionismo de Kubrick, que o obrigou a realizar 160 tomadas de uma mesma cena! Em um outro exemplo de maluquice, o diretor exigiu que a frase do livro de Jack – “All work and no play makes jack a dull boy” – fosse datilografada centenas de vezes; e não simplesmente copiada...
Com tantas alterações, não é à toa que Stephen King tenha ficado insatisfeito com o filme (e, anos depois, tenha autorizado uma nova adaptação). Na trilha sonora, ouvimos temas compostos por Béla Bartók e Gyorgy Ligeti.
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Jeffery Combs has a hard time with pussy as Edgar A. Poe in the Masters of Horror episode...
THE BLACK CAT
Ever wondered how crazy Poe was? Ever wonder if it was all the drinking he did that inspired his genius? Or was it the untimely death of his young wife (his first cousin whom he called "Sissy" bringing up all sorts of creepy by today's standards) by consumption that changed him into the master of macabre we know him to be? Well, the Masters of Horror guys bring up the idea that it was all due to the black cat Virginia "Sissy" Poe doted on that drove Edgar over the edge. No matter how many times he thinks he's got that pussy under control, it just keeps coming back to make a demon out of him. While watching this I couldn't ignore the sexual connotations -- Poe struggling to have sex with his wife but big, black puss gets in his way, hissing, glaring, and he just can't take it. He can't get at the kitty, so he drinks while wifey Virginia spits up blood all over the place. Hello, MENSES! Hello, I'm afraid of the vagina! Jeez. At least the Masters of Horror people broke away from season 2's political themes to finally get down and dirty with a dreary tale of Poe woe.
Forget what Poe's true biography was, this tale has nothing realistically to do with him. It is pure despair fantasy pricking you with a cat's claw on your ankles. Plenty of gore and eye pricking nastiness to make you look away and hug your pillow, too. While watching you can't help but feel for the cat. The title says it all. It's not about Poe. It's all about the cat. Go rent it. Go buy it. Watch it with your cat. I rest my case.
Gloomy the Cat gives this one two paws up and a scratch!
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That, o're the floor and down the wall,
Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!
Oh, Lady dear, hast thou no fear?
Why and what art thou dreaming here?
...Edgar Allan Poe
that night
laundry room of hotel
Alright:) More comfortable now--at least my writing surface doesn't move all that much as the train did.
So . . . Venice.
Cold, wet stone and bricked, walled passageways, lost British tourists.
Coldness, seeing my breath in the air, wishing I was alone. Odd, isn't it? I wondered when it would hit. The same feelings I've been trying to grow out of. I mean, I've been trying to grow out of the selfishness of the etiologies. The feelings themselves have naught wrong with them--t is the actions that I took based on fulfilling those wants. Needs? Wants?
All I wanted was to be solitary. I want, still want to be in solitude. To be quiet in a quiet place, to want so much an inner peace . . . to feel real by feeling silent. To feel claustrophobic! Venice is not the place for such feelings. I could nearly hear Fortunato's voice echoing through the streets: "For the love of God, Montresor!" and dying screams. What a strange city.
Walking to San Marco's Basilica was like walking into a cave; deep, dark, glittering with hidden things, presided over by a thousand High and dusty ghosts of empty people. Stern and orthodox. But the candles were warm. Suffocating marble, wet and colorful; like thousand-year-old mathematicians' secrets of alchemy flower-pressed into stone . . . Gold on the ceilings. So high, so tall. Saints must have to peer out of there to see small, distant souls. It felt very impersonal.
We chased pigeons outside, and decided that "the rain in Venice stays mainly on the terrace" was enough of a rhyme to satisfy Mr. Higgins, drat him. We also thought that the slushy-rain could be abbreviated to "slrain", but came to the conclusion that it all sounded a bit obscene.
Spent a lot of time walking on small wet stones on the pavement, feeling wet and cold and claustrophobic--saw markets and expensive restaurants, tourist shops, and a thousand glass beads.
Dad's heart was set on riding in a gondola. Can anybody tell me why? Don't answer that.
I had an odd premonition about the whole gondola thing--I didn't want to go. Not sure. No logical reason. I was persuaded to go, stomach-flipped every second. Got back fine, tho. I still don't like gondolas.
But I forgot to mention the gondoliers. Those who weren't calling out for people to take them out and earn lots of money, were on their cell phones. Gondoliers on cell phones--this was not something I added into my calculations, even with all the modern things I expected that didn't turn out to be present in Venezia:)
had a half of a gondola-race! Well, we tipped our guide 10€ if he could get ahead of the gondola right in front of us and he did! The guide of the other gondola looked at us oddly while Morgan pretended to paddle with her hands.
"What're you doing?!"
"Racing!" and a grin.
"Ok . . . "
"Ciao, Stefano!"
And we did tip him. Offered five more if he could pass a motor boat but he declined . . .
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