Happy Birthday, Elizabeth! I hope you had a very nice day and I'm glad you had such a blast in Japan. Also, I wanna mention that yesterday I saw your paintings on Instagram. I'm talking about the ones in the style of Franz Kline that you posted as part of your Highlights clip. I don't know how long ago you posted them; I never saw them until now, but they're really good! I didn't know you were doing abstract painting, but I think it's great that you are, and I hope you continue. As you may know (cause I'm sure I've mentioned it) I made a lot of paintings myself back in the mid-90s when I was living at the Burton Street house in Reseda with my Dad and the late great Mr. D. It was sort of a combination of artist's co-op & madhouse, haha, but that's where I got into Abstract, thanks to Dad and Dave. Dad kind of influenced the whole thing because he knew about painters like Jackson Pollack and Willem de Koonig. Back in those days we would go downtown to MOCA, and I remember the first abstract exhibition I ever saw, which was the works of Cy Twombly. His art was totally off the wall, huge canvases and papers that were filled with what looked like scribbling. Some were so big they were laid out on the floor. Twombly's work would generate a lot of controversy : "Yes, but is it art"? I didn't care about any of that. I just thought it was awesome that he did it. We later went to see an exhibition by an artist named Sam Francis, who had a colorful style that I found very appealing . We had so much fun going to museums and galleries back then,...
Well anyway, I mention all of this because I just now saw your paintings, and they make me happy because they are another extension of your creativity. You are living the Art Life, which is the only way to go! :):)
Last night, Grimsley came over, so I didn't have a movie, but tonight I watched an excellent film called "Dark Blue World" (2001), made by a Czech director named Jan Sverak. I came across it in a Google search for "classic World War Two movies", and I remembered the image on the dvd box. It's the story of two Czechoslovakian Air Force pilots who flee to England after Hitler annexes their country in March 1939. Once there, they sign up for the RAF, which is recruiting foreign pilots to supplement their home grown boys. The Brits are the only ones to challenge the Nazis at that point in the war, and the Czech pilots take pride in striking back at the regime that invaded their country.
The story is also an old-fashioned romance. While stationed in England, the two Czechs both fall for the same woman, whose husband - a British Navy Officer - is missing and presumed dead. The pilots have a kind of father/son relationship (the captain is almost a generation older than his friend), and at first the Englishwoman falls for the younger man, but finds him too naive. Really it is the captain she wants, and of course this creates a rivalry that tests the friendship of the pilots.
The story is told in a dual context. In the present, we are in 1950, and the elder pilot, the captain, is being held in a Soviet Prison Camp, back in his own country. Though he fought the Nazis during the war, and though the Soviets fought them too, that did not make them allies. As history shows, once the war was over, the Soviets slammed the Iron Curtain down on Eastern Europe just as hard as the Germans would have, had they been the victors. Now the Czech captain is imprisoned for "crimes against his country", which is nothing but Russian propaganda. This is the present tense of the story; the war is told in flashback.
I give "Dark Blue World" Two Big Thumbs Up. It is the kind of foreign film that has been influenced by Hollywood, in that it tells an epic story and imbues it with all the classic elements of passion and pathos. Think "Cinema Paradiso" or "Il Postino". This film is from a different genre, but it has the same sweeping generational feel, involving nostalgia and regret.
For WW2 fans, there is a ton of aerial combat : Spitfires vs. Messerschmitts. In the end, it's more a human story than one of war. It's about perseverance and loss, and how the world turns no matter what. /////
Just a brief review for tonight, because I won't have time to expand upon it tomorrow, due to Thanksgiving. I wish everyone a wonderful holiday and I will be back tomorrow night at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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