Salomé and Sunday Laundry

I do laundry one day a week, usually Sunday. Laundry time is my time to watch the TV I want to watch. If the kids come in they know I'll put them to work, so they tend to stay away. If they're still not deterred, putting a silent film on usually clears the room. 

My youngest is curious though. She will hang around and watch for a few minutes here and there. When she came in this past Sunday and saw what I was watching, she stayed longer than usual. My heart swelled with hope that maybe she was interested in watching something more cultural and historical. 

https://martinturnbull.com/

"Why does she have lights in her hair?" my daughter asked. "This music is creepy. Is this supposed to be a scary movie?"

It's not supposed to be a scary movie, but she was on to something. Salomé (1923) is one of the the most bizarre movies I've ever seen, up there with Eraserhead (1977), Naked Lunch (1991), and Santa Sangre (1989). 

In its review, at the time, Photoplay Magazine said, “A hothouse orchid of decadent passion . . . You have your warning: this is bizarre stuff.” (Turnbull) 

The movie is a cinematic adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alla_Nazimova

The movie stars Alla Nazimova, a Russian immigrant to the U.S., who, for some time, was one of the most famous, highest-paid actresses in the film industry.  She went a bit off the rails with Salomé though. She produced the film, and likely had a hand in every part of its creation. 

If Salomé had been made today, she would have found an audience for it. She would have been lauded as an avant-garde filmmaker. 

Part of the problem in 1923 was that Nazimova was one of “the most notorious Hollywood lesbian actress[es] of all” (White 1999) and she ran with almost every prominent lesbian in Hollywood, as well as connecting with gay male cultural icons such as Oscar Wilde and Rudolph Valentino. Not only that, she had begun to "embody a gay sensibility" that crept into every aspect of her work, which proved to be beyond the taste of her mainstream audience (Horne 2013). 

The minimalist set design and costumes were created by Natacha Rambova (another Russian emigré, and Alla's "good friend"). The Art Nouveau style of artist Aubrey Beardsley was not what audiences expected either (especially of a biblical epic). 

IMBD.com

  The costumes were most bizarre, starting with     Nazimova's wig of lighted, bobbling baubles. 

There were enormous headdresses, some worn by child-actors who were treated as pets in the film, stiff dresses with elongated shoulder pads, bare chests with nipple stickers, and men in drag. 

I couldn't stop watching it. 

https://fromthebygone.wordpress.com/

It is mesmerizing and disturbing at the same time. The actors move like dancers. The music is eerie, a discordant arrangement of notes that accentuate the hedonistic, macabre scenes. The cinematography and lighting are deliberate and haunting. And then of course there are all those costumes, weird peripheral characters (including those little pet children), and the salacious gaze of Herod and some of his cronies who are clearly shocked at the events and trying not to get excited. 

The film flopped badly, and sadly, Nazimova could not recover from the losses. She made a couple more movies after that, but was unable to recover financially. She ended up leaving the movie industry and returning to the theater. 

https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-alla-nazimova/

I folded clothes very slowly that Sunday, transfixed by Alla Nazimova's movements and expressions, and everything about Salomé. 

My daughter, however, didn't last long. "OK, I'm out of here," she said as she hopped off the bed. "This is the weirdest one yet." 

Sources:

On Netflix, episode 11 of Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers:

Salomé. Prod.: Alla Nazimova, dir.: Charles Bryant, sc.: Alla Nazimova as Peter M. Winters, ard/cos. : Natacha Rambova (Nazimova Productions. US 1923)

Horne, Jennifer. "Alla Nazimova." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013.  <https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-ws0b-qz98>

Turnbull, Martin. "Salomé." Library of Congress,   https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/salome.pdf

White, Patricia. “Nazimova's Veils: Salome at the Intersection of Film Histories.” In  A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema. Eds. Jennifer Bean and Diane Negri. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002: 60-87.

Weeding Norman Rockwell

We weeded thousands of books from the middle school library where I work. Throughout the process teachers and staff glared at us. Some confronted us; How can you get rid of all these books? As a/n <insert subject> teacher, it would kill me to get rid of all these books.

As if I am a secret book burner who would love to have a book bonfire in the middle of the library if  allowed! 

The thought of weeding books is much worse than the act itself though. Once I got close to those books, and held each one in my hand, it was not so difficult to decide if it stayed or went. There were books with yellowing pages, disconnected covers, books that hadn't been checked out in a decade-or at all, ever. We had multiple copies of outdated books, nonfiction books on technology published in 2001, huge encyclopedias of American culture that had three pictures of Black people, showing only enslavement, not their contributions to art or entrepreneurism. Asians in those books were ignored entirely. We also had books that aren't interesting to a middle schooler of this day and age (or ever), like the fifteen books on gardening.  

Weeding books in a collection makes the books you keep more visible, and those books look better for it. Weeding also makes room for new books-yay!  

I did have quite a stack of nonfiction books that I found harder to get rid of: subjects of curiosity, books with beautiful pictures, or ones I felt were important for some reason or other. There was a psychedelic-covered biography of Frank L. Baum, a book called From Cakewalks to Concert Halls on the early history of jazz and popular music created by Black musicians, a tiny coffee table book of Norman Rockwell and his art.                          

  I picked up the book on Rockwell because I thought about how I'd taken him for granted as a great American artist and never paid much attention to his work. After reading about him, I can't help but like him. He suffered from the creatives angst, and probably depression. He was the type who always wanted to do right by others. He was a good person. He tried to make the world a better place through his art, he tried to bring attention to inequity and captured pivotal moments in American history. His artwork is stark reality tinged with nostalgia, even in the time of its creation. He painted scenes of everyday American life, capturing moments of frustration, pride, sadness, embarrassment, and elation.

Most of his paintings/illustrations were the covers of The Saturday Evening Post. He has many iconic illustrations; one could argue that all of his images are. His painting of Rosie the Riveter, is one of them. In Rockwell's painting she looks decidedly more masculine than she has been depicted in later years: 

image @https://learnodo-newtonic.com

I have many favorites now: 

"Girl at Mirror" seems to depict a young girl studying and comparing herself to Jane Russell, a sex symbol of the 40s and 50s. image @ https://learnodo-newtonic.com

"Shiner" was ahead of its time in depicting a girl as the proud combatant in a schoolyard scuffle. image @https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/

"Election Day" Dewey V. Truman image @https://totallyhistory.com

And of course, The Problem We All Live With that hangs in The White House:

We had about five books on Rockwell's art. We kept the two best in our collection and sent two to "the warehouse." The tiny book came home with me.

Do you have a favorite Norman Rockwell painting?

The Curse of Quon Gwon

 I like silent films. 

They are kind of like those beautifully illustrated picture books without words. 

There is a story there, but you have to look at all the details to see it. 

I came across one the other day that was beautiful and unique in many ways:  

I was so impressed with this movie. It is beautifully restored (though some scenes and all dialogue tags are missing) with very fitting piano music created to accompany it. The lighting, the costumes and the cinematography are to be admired as much as any movie today (or more so).

It's a family melodrama about a young, Westernized Chinese girl who marries a more traditional man, and doesn't respect the household gods, and the in-laws, as much as she should. 

Unfortunately, it was never released, and it was thought lost for decades, until the reels were discovered in 2004, in the possession of the daughters of Violet Wong, the lead actress in the film.  

What is most astonishing about this movie is that:

1. It was written, produced, and directed by a woman, Marion Wong (click here for a great article on her)

2. That woman was a Chinese-American, as were all the actors, and crew

3. It presented the Chinese culture to Americans, and showed images of Chinese people in ways they weren't normally portrayed which, back then, was as exotic villains and opium users  

    

Most people don't watch silent movies. But you should really give them a try. Right now you can watch The Curse and a handful of others on Netflix in the Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers series. Click on the box below for a guide that will teach you how to enjoy silent films*:

ARTICLE, SILENT MOVIES 101 by MOVIES SILENTLYSEPTEMBER 22, 2015

Watching a comedy is a good way to start. 

Try one with Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, or Buster Keaton. 

*mobile version may not show text in the box--don't ask me why