Our Man in Vienna

-Harry`s Film Impressions (33)

von Herbert Kuhner am 15. Dezember 2019 um 14:11

Veröffentlicht in: Film, Text

Black-and-White and Color

In the old days, there were black-and-white films. Then color came in. There was Technicolor, and the cheapie versions were Cinecolor, Eastmancolor and trucolor. Color was mostly for luxury A-Films. It was a matter of cost.

Later directors chose between color and back-and-white. It depended on what suited the film better.
Black-and-white can have a stark effect. Color invariably looks glossy. Color-TV sank the black-and-white film. Oil paintings and watercolors didn’t cancel out graphics.

Fortunately, now-and-then, there still is a director who reverts to using an effect that has gone out of fashion. That’s not hindsight, but rather foresight.

Cinemascope and the Widescreen

New chapeau always becomes old hat,
and old hat keeps making a come-back as new chapeau.

Way back in ’53, I saw The Robe, which was the first film shot in Cinemascope. This was definitely new chapeau, but I didn’t like this headwear at all. I preferred the rectangular screen at the time, and I still do.

Cinemascope may be good for a panorama, but close-ups are no-go. And as far as being supine goes, lying down in Cinemascope is fine, but if someone assumes an upright position, we get a panorama to his right and left.

Cinemascope was always a variation. It never replaced the rectangular screen – till now. It has made a come-back with a new name, “the widescreen,” and this elongation, is doing what Cinemascope couldn’t do. It is killing the rectangular screen, and its bantam cousin, the flat panel screen, is replacing the regular TV-screen.

I guess I might as well resign to it. I’ll try to get used to looking at a film through a mail slot.

The widescreens have not only taken over Cineplex Complexes and your TV-set, they are ubiquitous. They can be found in restaurants, pizzerias, ice-cream parlors and what-have-you. Not only are they equipped with “surround” sound, they literally surround you.

A Celluloid Stinkbomb

You knew the film was a stinkbomb
before you saw it,
but you went anyway –
and you were right.
They win and you lose.
You paid for the ticket, didn’t you?

(If you watched it on TV,
you still lose.
You wasted your time,
didn’t you?)

to be continued . . .

– Herbert Kuhner

-What’s the Difference? and Other Political Aspects

von Herbert Kuhner am 14. November 2019 um 18:41

Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics, Text

What’s the Difference?
and Other Political Aspects

What’s the difference
between Them and Us?
Their scoundrels are imposed on them.
We elect ours.

You can force dictatorship on a population,
But you cannot force democracy on a population.

There’s not a bad side
and a good side.
There’s a worse side
and a better side.

It seems that the most important aspects
are often externals.

There are many who seek political shelter
under the wrong roof.

Inhumanity seldom leads to humanity
but invariably to more inhumanity.

Regretfully those who are oppressed
often end up emulating their oppressors.

Is Compassionate Conservatism
related to Communism with a Human Face?

Individuals may have the right to possess more
when others have something,
but they do not have the right to have much
when others have nothing.

The question that has to be asked
is whether those dedicated to a good cause
are as dedicated
as those who are dedicated to an evil cause.

Dictators who approach death
invariably murder at random.

Revolutionaries who murder women and children
are fighting for a world
in which it is decent and honorable
to murder women and children.

He who lives by the sword
will die by the sword –
in the meantime: Duck!

Your heart should be in the right place –
the same goes for you mind.

The question is –
do you need a lie to cling to
in order to face the future?

I regret that there’s no one in charge up there.
I’d like to have someone to blame for the mess.

Them and Us

We voted for Nixon
and got Kissinger,
who was even more versed in duplicity
than the man we voted for.

We voted for Bush and Cheney.
What’s the difference between them?
Dick was slick.

My foolish view:
Henry and Dick are the American
arch-villains of our time.

Henry (the Kiss of Death) Kissinger
and Dick (Darth Vader) Cheney.

Dick Cheney as Darth

It’s a Topsy-Turvy World

“There are alternate facts.”
– Kellyanne Conway,
not Eric Blair, alias George Orwell

Truth isn’t always truth.
It is somebody’s version of it.!”
– Rudy Giuliani
(What a lovely way to describe lies!)

You’re entitled to your own opinion,
but not your own facts.
– Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Divine Commands

God told Abraham that Isaac had to go, before reneging.

Bush fils also got commands from above, but there was no reneging:
“God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did.”
(Thus spoke George W. who went AWOL during the Vietnam War.)

The Middle East was a mess before Bush and the thousands of casualties he caused.

Is it less of a mess now?

Bowing and Bussing

Previously Obama and spouse bowed upon entering the royal ambiance.
But George W. had him beat. He held the royal hand and kissed the royal mouth.

And by the way, what’s the result of Bush’s Divine consultation?
“God told me to invade Iraq”

Where’s Iraq now? Gone with the wind, as is part of Syria.
Of course, the Advisor is to blame.

Franklyn D. allegedly said of Chiang Kai-shek, “He’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard!”

You could say of the Middle-Eastern royals. “They are barbarians,
but they are our barbarians.”

God told Abraham that Isaac had to go the way of all flesh on the express route – before reneging.

Bush fils also got a command from above, but there was no reneging

Binding-of-Isaac

Bussing Bush

Michelle will never forgive the Birther-in-Chief Trump
for calling the location of his predecessor’s birth into question.
Right-on!

She grabbed her husband’s predecessor and planted a kiss on his sallow cheek.
He’s the man who invaded a Middle-Eastern country to displace a dictator and establish democracy there
Eeni- meenie-miney-mo!

George Bush fils set off the Sunni-Shia Song and Dance that is still going on
with ever-increasing intensity. It was the Dance of Death for four thousand Americana and hundreds of thousands Iraqis. Yes, he’s a real sweetie pie!

You might as well buss Deadeye Dick Cheney, or for that matter, Henry the Kiss-of-Death Kissinger

“Fine” Klu-Kluxers

During a Klu-Klux-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, August 11 to 12, 2017, civil rights activist Heather Heyer was killed when a Klu-Kluxer rammed his car into anti-fascist demonstrators.

Donald Trump comments: “You had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

Pastor Darrel Scott backs him up:” It seems we’re giving these counter-protesters a pass,” saying “let’s not act like they did not go with the intent to shut that protest down by any means necessary.”

(Actually, when there is a demo, the “Antifa” element comes onto the scene, ready to beat back!)

Yes, fellows you’ve got a point. In World War II, there were also “very fine people” in both the Axis and Allied sides.

via GIPHY

Don the Predator

“I moved on her and I failed, I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married….I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them.

It’s like a magnet. I just kiss, I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it.

You can do anything – grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
– Trump, in 2005 at the age of 59.

This has been described by Trump and his supporters as merely “locker-room talk.”

Good for the Evangelicals

Yeah, Don might be a groper and worse, but he’s the right man for the Evangelicals. Yes, Evangelicals support this predator since he’s working to outlaw abortion.

If a lady gets pregnant after having been “predatated” by such a predator, it’s her tough luck.

Don is right there to bring the knitting needle back into play again and to bring back the backstreet abortion.

There are two elements here: the dirty talk and the description of sexual assault.
Dirty talk is a common male form of communication, like it or not!

In this instance, Trump was either engaging in „boasting,” or presenting an accurate account.

Assaulting women is a criminal act and perpetrators belong behind bars.

The wealthy and the famous cannot accommodate all the female fans that come at them with one thing in mind.

Why would anyone who has women constantly volunteering to bestow their favors on him try to “impose” themselves on others? The answer is simple. ‘Cause that’s the way they want it. It’s the predatory instinct.

Primitive millionaires and celebrities think that wealth and fame gives them the right to live out their despicable fantasies.

When money is no object, you don’t have to worry about shedding someone you want to shed.

Question: “What did you unload?”
Answer: “I unloaded a wife.”

Don

Good Enough to Grope

Jessica Leeds tell of how she was ushered from economy into business class on a flight in the 1980’s to a seat next to our locker-talker. Don, true to his boasting, did his “locker room” bit and Ms. Leeds fled to her original seat.

Don the Mimic

„Oh, I was with Donald Trump in 1980,“ Trump said, mimicking Leeds‘ accusation. „I was sitting with him on an airplane, and he went after me on the plane!“
„Yeah, I’m going to go after you,“ Trump said dismissively, waving his arms. „Believe me – she would not be my first choice. That I can tell you!”
No, but since the stewardess brought her to the seat next our locker-room man,
he did his locker-room bit.

Yeah, she was good enough to grope, but she didn’t have the appeal of a porn star.
Rudi comes into the picture:
“I don’t think there’s a slight suspicion it’s true. I know Donald Trump. Look at his three wives! Beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance!” He names the lollapalooza in question and widens his eyes in disbelief.

Don

Paternal Pride

Donald Trump: “My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka!”
Howard Stern: “By the way, your daughter –“
Trump: “She’s beautiful.”
Stern: “Can I say this? A piece of ass.”
Trump: “Yeah!”

“Take Your Hand Off!”

Trump spoke dismissively of arresting officers who protect suspects’ heads
while putting them in police cars. “You can take the hand off!”
If Trump becomes a suspect, should police not protect his head
while hustling him into a police car?

Consiglieri

Rudi made a slight error when he kept the Command Center in the Twin Towers
after the first attack in 1993. BANG!

Rudy Giuliani, prosecutor and then Mayer cleaned up New York. Rudy sent the mobsters packing. He got rid of the competition.

Later, he became Consiglieri to the Biggest Don. Now The Don is tottering, as is Rudy.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

from Mike: a piece about my late friend and mentor Emile Capouya:

Like all idealists Mike wanted to change the world, and he wanted it to be a better place when he left it. Somewhere along the way, like most of those who share that ambition, he realized, that when the time came to say adieu, it would be a worse world. But he, like all the others in that club, never stopped trying. He had his flaws like all of us, but he was a good guy and one of the good guys.

Mike, like all thwarted idealists, was mad at God and man in that order. You can’t be mad at man without being mad at God. It’s like being mad at an egg rather than the chicken. Since God allegedly made man in his image, the result is not a very pretty picture, which certainly reflects on the Deity. And if you don’t believe in God, God can stand for the system of the universe.

– Herbert Kuhner

-VALIE EXPORT Goes Guggeheim & Jewish Museum

von Herbert Kuhner am 28. Oktober 2019 um 21:54

Veröffentlicht in: Allgemein, Polemics, Politics, Text

VALIE EXPORT
Goes Guggeheim & Jewish Museum

Read the entire story here

-Willy, Herby and Harry: Better Late than Never

von Herbert Kuhner am 18. Oktober 2019 um 1:22

Veröffentlicht in: Text, Translation

Willy, Herby and Harry: Better Late than Never

The Assembly-Line Prince/Der Fießbandprinz was completed in 1973. I was 37 at the time. I had a real-life protagonist, Herb Andress. He was my age. I am now in my mid-eighties. My friend Herby passed away back in 2004. An adventurer, Casanova and rascal went the way of all flesh. I mourn him. I said, “Herby, I will write an honest account and make it read like fiction, but it will be you, and I will describe the adventures that you have had some being “close calls! And not always being considerate to women, to put it mildly. But it is a story that had to be written and it was made to measure for me.

176 Seiten/pages €18,- (click here)

Willy Verkauf-Verlon sent me a selection of new poems shortly before his death in 1994. I selected some, translated and added them to Seiltänzer/Tightrope Walker.

Willy Verkauf-Verlon, artist and poet had a peripatetic life
which took him from Austria (in 1938) to Britain, Palestine
and back to Austria again. The poems reflect his Jewish odyssey
with incision and humor. They accurately depict post-war Austria
and the world in general as viewed by a Jewish individualist
and non-conformist.

104 Seiten/pages €12,-

Willy Verkauf, Künstler und Lyriker, hatte ein paripathetisches Leben, das ihn von Österreich nach Großbritannien, von dort nach Palästina und wieder zurück nach Österreich brachte. Die Gedichte spiegeln seine jüdische Odyssee mit schneidender Schärfe und Humor wider. Sie zeigen das Österreich vor dem „Anschluss“, in der Kriegszeit und in den Nachkriegsjahren aus der Sicht eines jüdischen Individualisten und Nonkonformisten.

I have published books of poetry by Else Keren, Tamar Radzyner, Stella Rotenber (Mnemosyne, Alekto), Alter Brody and Wände/Walls: Austrian Jewish Poets (Proverbis) and Alter Brody (PEN Austria/Löcker). Samuel Greenberg translated into German by Ecevit Unzunkaya is on the way by same outfit.

Gerald Grassl of Edition Tarantel has adopted me and become my Maxwell Perkins. I am in his debt. He has salvaged both Willy and Herby. I am eternally grateful to this marvelous man of culture.

Next I will relate translation shenanigans that I hope will bring amusement, rather than mordancy.

-Herbert Kuhner

contact:

Gerald Grassl
Redaktion Tarantel 
Vivariumstraße 8/4/18
 1020 Wien
tarantel-wien@gmx.at

-Harry`s Film Impressions (32)

von Herbert Kuhner am 9. Oktober 2019 um 2:27

Veröffentlicht in: Film, Polemics, Text

Film Accents and Contractions

Have you noticed that in most American films set in foreign locations, the actors playing the foreigners use accents and they don’t use contractions? That is because, although they are actually speaking English, they want to create the impression they are speaking foreign language. Thus, they try to make the dialogue sound strange.

That’s all wrong!

When foreigners speak their own language, the language sounds natural. Thus, when the film is made in English language, the dialogue should be spoken in a natural and unstilted fashion.

On the other hand, if the story takes place in a location where English is spoken, and a Frenchman, or what-have-you, turns up, he, of course, should have an accent.

In Papillion, the method was right. The plot unfolds in France and French Guiana. The actors were all English native speakers who were playing Frenchmen, and they all spoke English naturally. If a character had shown up with a French accent, he would have thrown the whole film off.

See what I mean!

No Monitors for Mansur
and No Smoking for Spielberg

Steven Spielberg had heard of Mansur Madavi. When he was in Vienna for the showing of Schindler’s List, he sent a messenger with a request for a cassette of Dicht hinter der Tür. Madavi told the messenger that it was impossible to judge a film on a TV monitor, but that he’d be glad to show Spielberg the film on a large screen.

That was that!

„Bait“ German: „Zerschossene Träume“

While in Southern California, Peter Patzak was called upon to see Spielberg in his Hollywood building. I remember working for Patzak years ago. I rewrote his script of Bait three times, but if you ever view the film, you won’t find my name on the titles. Anyway there’s security galore and strictly no smoking. When he was let in Patzak sat down in front of the great director made a joke about the security and lit a butt, grimacing à la Bogart.

That was that!

As Austrian filmmaker was hustled out by a bevy security guards, office toadies were flitting spray cans. But back to Mansur! I beg to differ. I’d rather see a film on my old fashioned TV-monitor. I saw The Robe back in 1953, which was the first Cinemascope film. I was eighteen at the time and I’ve always despised the stretched view since then.

Now it’s called Wide Screen and the TV versions are called Flat Screen or Panel-TV. Cinemascope has finally done in its competitors. The rectangular screens are as dead as dead as the proverbial door nail. Today all films are viewed through a giant mail slot. Anyway, broke my vows and went to see A Single Man, based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, which I read in 1964.

On my left there were two empty seats, which were then occupied by a couple. To my dismay, the young man carried a bucket of popcorn in bright red-white-and-blue colors. The container merited the word “bucket;” it was huge, so there was no hope of them getting to the bottom of the bucket soon. After they sat down, the sound of the chewing and crackling, as well as the smell, were overpowering. I stood up and excused myself out of the row and took an empty seat a few rows back, hoping that no other occupant would come, since the seats were reserved. Loud trailers and ads and then the film! Not only is it impossible to get characters standing up without a panorama to the right and left, close-ups consist of cut-outs of faces. With all the distractions, I couldn’t judge the film. Actually this is a commercial advantage. They all look and sound alike. No good ones and bad ones. For this viewer, only bad ones.

No, I prefer viewing at home, but when my old set breaks down, I’ll be forced to replace it with the ubiquitous panel. But at least there will be no popcorn.

Popcorn and Gum

The Cineplex is a nightmare. There’s popcorn galore with its overwhelming odor, as well as the snapping and crunching sound effects. But that’s not all, on top of that, there’s the snapping and popping of gum. These sounds can be heard over the constant breaking of the film’s sound barrier.