Sometimes you think you can't do things and then you take a two week break and you can do them!
I've put my ABC de Natalie website up! Check it out and let me know what you think...
Showing posts with label ABC de Natalie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABC de Natalie. Show all posts
M is for Movies - 4 by Agnes Varda
1. La Pointe Courte
Varda found William Faulkner's novel Wild Palms the intellectual basis of her first feature film. The novel was composed of two unrelated stories that alternated chapters, the film follows his literary structure with alternating stories of a young married couple deconstructing their relationship and a fishing village, La Pointe Courte, with its communal anecdotes in hard economic times. By watching these stories interchange, one stark and rigid the other busy and fluid the 'two unrelated things become superimposed in your mind' -Varda. It is a juxtaposition between private lives and social lives which Varda says can never interchange.
Varda wrote the script at the age of 25 with no prior experience in film, and then she decided she was going to direct it. A small inheritance and a loan from her mother made up half the budget, the other half was 'sweat equity' and the film cost 10% of what films in the 1950's did. Everyone worked for free and the people of La Pointe Courte played themselves, which in the end, is my favorite feature. They couldn't afford even basic sound recording equipment so the film was shot and edited without sound, which is an amazing feat, many times they even had to write down what was said for dubbing. Its really a radical film for its time and is captivating today with its beautiful imagery and haunting dialogue of the couple.
Varda's second film follows Cleo, a French Pop singer, between the hours of 5 and 7 (6:30 actually) as she anxiously awaits the results from a biopsy of a stomach tumor. The fortune of Cleo and the film is relieved immediately, with a dissatisfying visit to a fortune teller. We then follow Cleo as her fortune unfolds and disposition gracefully sways from one emotional extreme to the other. When she is grieving in self pity she'll suddenly perk up by looking in the mirror or dancing down stairs, then when she is feeling giddy and light one of her many superstitions will present itself and her bad luck.
The symbolism in this film adds depth to the characters and the situation, the mirrors of self- obsession, dying trees, the blacks and whites. These elements enhance a transition in the character of Cleo that allows the audience to take her seriously and not just at the face value she had taken so much pride in. I've watched this film 8 times in the last year.
Varda's third film is up for interpretation: is it pastoral or satirical? Is it pro nuclear families or open marriages? Is the central character, the husband, a hero who truly knows how to enjoy life or a villain who knows how to ruin lives? And, indeed, what is happiness?
This is a beautiful pastel film filled with love and family and then more love and more family and some Mozart.
Francoise, a young tall dark and handsome carpenter, is happily married to Therese, a dress maker, and mother of two. ( The actors really were married and the children were their own) Then he meets a 'sunflower' Emilie and falls in love with her too and everyone is happy....until...
There are many times when I am dirty, walking somewhere, and a little pissed off and I feel like Mona from Vagabond, and for some reason I like that feeling. Mona is a bitch, harsh, but watch it and you will agree. She gets what she wants from people and never says thank you, of course, it is obvious she doesn't know what she wants, she's wandering aimlessly.
The portrait of Mona is formed by onlookers and people who have had fleeting encounters with her, she is a stranger, she only tells a few her name and always leaves without saying goodbye. The impact she leaves on those she encounters is the most interesting part of the film ( aside from the cinematography) the men deplore her and the women are envious of her. She is dead at the beginning and she dies at the end, and all throughout she is alone.
Thank you Michael for getting me 4 by Agnes Varda for Christmas!
*also he accidently ordered two box sets off the internet so if anyone wants to buy the second set from us just let me know!
K is for Kitchen
I am very smitten with Smitten Kitchen, Deb Perelman has and makes such great taste from her little kitchen in New York. The recipe index is really bringing me out of my winter cooking blues with it's inspiring and delicious recipes for root veggies, legumes and other winter fare. I have only made one squash soup this winter!! Yay!
The three dishes above have made me seem like I am a very good cook..
J is for Japan
I imagine there are even tshirts made with her face on them and the words 'What did they call each other?'
-Mom you should update your blog because it's so nice!
A is for ART an interview with Elisabeth Belliveau
Dear Sweet Elisabeth
I am in total admiration of you and your work. Your drawings, embroideries, sculptures and animations are so beautiful, sincere, and whimsical they are very representational of you as a person. Gush Gush Gush.
Your latest animation Margaret of the Mountain is a wonderful culmination of your previous work with an extra special treat of narrated prose.
How did this piece come into fruition?
margaret's mountain was made as part of my thesis for my mfa . it was inspired by spending time with my grandmas while i was having the usual old life/love trouble. animation seemed like the best way to spend alot of time alone and think alot, and a way to bring my two favorite things together - writing and drawing.
Who is Margaret?
margaret started as a composite of my grandmas and great-grandmas - inspired from hearing their life/ love stories and drawn from old photographs of them. but in the end the actual stories dropped out of the work- and it became much more abstract and poetic, margaret became a way to think through questions i was having trouble finding answers to.
I just finished my premiere read/viewing of The Great Hopeful Someday.
It is so good!
I love the stanzas that accompany the drawings or the drawings that accompany the stanzas.
Does one bring forth the other?
i read, write, draw and make things in no particular order -and i have no idea wether they all have any business mixing with each other. but sometimes i feel compelled to wear all my favorite clothes all at one time. and sometimes is works. i don't know - i hope so ?
The images you capture in your drawings, to me, represent the beauty of ordinary events that we try so hard to remember but are always the first thing we forget. Do you treat the compiled zines as journals of your life or are they more fictional?
hmm . i do think i have a bad memory and i do worry about forgetting. so writing things down and sketching people and places where some significant thought or thing happened makes me feel calm and engaged with my experiences. i think i need to constantly practice paying attention - it helps me to keep being enchanted with the world and with people. both are really complicated so taking time to write and draw things down helps me makes sense of them. there is something really comforting to know that writing and drawing are skills that you can practice for a lifetime and that there is no end to learning through them. and the zines are based on lives i know and my own and they are fictional too. i like writing something ordinary into being something supernatural and epic. i like thinking that everything matters that everything has potential and practicing my imagination.Congratulations on your ability to synthesize your multidisciplinary art practices into really focused pieces. Are there any other mediums or techniques you would like to work with/incorporate?
i secretly want to make big classic marble sculptures. i just spent a lot of time at the louvre and i fell in love with the big twisted half naked sculptures of greek gods and martyrs and the busts of queens and philosophers. but does anyone know how to do that anymore? where do you get 10 foot high chunks of marble? anyway i think that would be really amazing.
What do you need as an artist to feel inspired and feel like you are growing?
i think i need to just keep looking and reading and trying out new ways to live. i also need to keep alot of love in my life- especially romantic love. sometimes going out for a coffee is enough, but sometimes i need to get on a place and get lost somewhere new. practice starting over and over again. and thank goodness i have seriously amazing friends that make my life totally magical.
I was lucky to meet you during your two week residency here in Halifax at the Anchor Archives,before embarking on your European adventure!
How did you like Halifax and do you think you’ll spend time here in the future?
Halifax made me really happy. the residency was so generous, and it was so great to have the facilities to silkscreen - it is really physical, messy and material somehow much more exciting that just sitting in a ball drawing. halifax seems to have a lot of good people who work hard at what they care about. the community around the anchor archive made me feel super welcome, and i really enjoyed the way food and community seemed to be really valued and shared. i would really like to live in halifax at some point, it seems kind of gritty, really creative, hopeful and really comfortable.
How is the European adventure going?
i just got back to canada a few days ago , so i am still processing the whole europe adventure. i was lucky enough to go to five countries and live in berlin for a month. i worked really hard at going to every museum and gallery and sight i could find. i am totally overloaded with inspiring things, and lots of history, art and key phrases in 4 languages that i get all mixed up. now i gotta find a job , and sleep and catch up with my family and friends and deal with 4 months of mail. ( i love mail ).
Thank you very much Elisabeth! All the best in life and in pastries!
-Natalie
To spend some more online time with Elisabeth you can visit the following websites
http://www.elisabethbelliveau.com
http://light-luncheon.blogspot.com/
http://dearthings.tumblr.com/
http://www.elisabethbelliveau.blogspot.com/
http://light-luncheon.blogspot.com/
http://dearthings.tumblr.com/
http://www.elisabethbelliveau.
* all images property of Elisabeth Belliveau
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