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Post by Aurelia on Jun 23, 2020 11:51:44 GMT -5
Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862) was an artist, poet and model. Born in London to parents of English and Welsh descent, she got into poetry and drawing at a young age. She got her big break working at a dressmaker's store, in 1849 she showed her drawings to the father of Walter Deverell, from there she became acquainted with the Pre-Raphaelites. Despite her own poetry and artwork she's most famous as the model for John Everett Millais' "Ophelia"; to capture the precise details of the drowning victim Elizabeth had to sit in a bath for hours during the winter, one time the lamps keeping the tub warm went out and Elizabeth caught pneumonia. She was also the major muse for Dante Gabriel Rossetti, they married in 1860 despite misgivings from his family; her health was so poor she had to be carried to the Church, only a 5 minute walk from her place.
Whether she had tuberculosis or an intestinal disorder is undetermined, she definitely suffered from depression and an addiction to laudanum. The death of her newborn daughter exacerbated her depression, trips to France and Italy to alleviate her illness did not help. In 1862 while pregnant she was found dead in her bed, overdosed on laudanum. Claims of suicide haven't been substantiated.
I think maybe her somewhat turbulent marriage to Dante Gabriel Rossetti feed the suicide theories. Supposedly when she was buried, Rossetti placed a book of his poetry against her cheek, wrapping a few curls around it. Later, he decided he wanted the book back so that he could publish it. They exhumed Siddal and took the book back... the witnesses said that her body seemed untouched by decay and a story about her hair growing after death until it filled the casket around her was circulated. Very gothic. They reality was rather different, as opening the book of poems revealed... a doctor was needed to disinfect the book in order to ensure it wouldn't affect the living who handled it. |
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Post by Woland on Jun 25, 2020 5:45:23 GMT -5
Agnes Varda (1928-2019) was a Belgian-born film director and photographer, sometimes called the grandmother of the French New Wave. Born Arlette Varda in Brussels, her mother was from Sete, France, her father had Greek ancestry, she legally changed her name to Agnes at 18. During WW2 she lived with her parents on a boat in Sete, afterwards she studied literature and psychology in Paris, later picking up art history intent on a museum career, she switched to photography, making ends meet with wedding and family pictures, moving onto stage photography and international photography jobs. Her photography remained an integral part of her life, often influencing her films and vice versa. Despite seeing fewer than 20 movies by the age of 25, Varda started work on her first film "La Pointe Courte" in 1956, the dual narrative influenced by William Faulkner's "Wild Palms". It was the film debut for the famous french actor Philippe Noiret; in an unfinished short Varda would direct a very young Gerard Depardieu also. An interesting film set in her mother's Sete, one half of the story showed the life of fishermen, the other focused on a young married couple going through problems, with a paltry budget of $14,000, the work was edited by short film director and budding future director Alain Resnais. With its distinctive narrative it has been called a forerunner of the French New Wave.
Her next big movie "Cleo from 5 to 7" is the deceptively simple tale of a young singer awaiting medical results. She meets with friends, kills some time and frets over the results, it becomes something of an existential novel. Shot virtually in realtime, it also featured several key players in French cinema: Anna Karina, Michel Legrand, Jean-Luc Godard and Jean Claude Brialy, it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Over the following decades she would make several documentaries, short films and award-winning movies, winning the Golden Lion at Venice for Vagabond (1985), "The Gleaners & I" (2000), The Beaches of Agnes (2008) and "Faces Places" (2017), the last one earned her an Oscar nomination (the oldest first-time nominee) and an honourary Oscar, the first female director to receive one. She never shied away from difficult material, throughout her movies a warm current of playful intellectualism runs throughout her work. She was married to fellow award-winning director Jacques Demy (winner of the Palme d'Or for "Umbrellas of Cherbourg), after his death in 1990 she still made documentaries about him, even a film on his early life growing up. One anecdote about her time living in America often surprises a lot of people: her husband Jacques Demy was invited to make a Hollywood movie "Model Shop", he wanted to cast a young actor in the lead but the producers wanted a big name, going for Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey). That young actor was always grateful to Demy and Varda for giving him a chance, the self-confidence to know he could make it in the film industry. One producer told him he should forget about becoming an actor and stick to his carpentry work. That young actor was Harrison Ford.
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Post by Woland on Jun 26, 2020 11:58:17 GMT -5
Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) is one of the most popular science fiction novelists. He was born in Nantes, his father was an attorney, his mother came from a family of navigators and shipowners, one of his ancestors was a Scot who served under Louis XI. To continue the nautical theme, his teacher at boarding school was the widow of a a naval captain, lost at sea for the past 30 years. The young Jules spent vacations next to the Loire river, he was fascinated by the merchant ships travelling back and forth, his uncle was also a retired shipowner who had travelled the globe.
As a boy in Catholic school he excelled in Latin, Greek and Geography, in his teens he studied philosophy and rhetoric. He also began writing long novels in the Hugo-esque style, but he went to law school in the interests of his father wanting the eldest son to continue the family practice. A couple spurned romantic interests and the 1848 Revolution did not dampen his creative juices, a series of stomach cramps and facial paralysis would dog him throughout his life. Despite his eminent love for writing, Verne completed his law degree in 1851 while spending lots of time in literary salons.
His time in Paris brought him into contact with Alexandre Dumas pere, helping his son with his plays, Verne would also begin publishing his early travel writing, in 1852 he decided against continuing the family law business and embarked on an illustrious literary career. In the mid 50s he became an agent de change to secure regular income and the hand of Honorine Morel, he still found time to visit the National Library and write stories. In 1862 Verne would meet the publisher Pierre-Jules Hertzel who played a pivotal role in Verne's career; Jules would receive extra income if he contributed 3 volumes of work per year to Hertzel's budding magazine. From that point onwards Verne would publish more of his novels infused with adventure around the globe and the latest scientific developments. Later in life Verne would become mayor of Amiens for 15 years. His legendary novels such as "Around the World in 80 Days", "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" has made him one of the most translated authors ever, second to Agatha Christie. On Verne's influence on science and literature around the world, Ray Bradbury once said "we are all, in one way or another, the children of Jules Verne."
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Post by Woland on Jun 27, 2020 7:09:03 GMT -5
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (1890-1977) was an American comedian, actor and writer, one of the Marx brothers most famous for his razor-sharp wit, grease-painted black moustache and eyebrows, glasses and cigar. He was born in Yorkville on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan, a neighbourhood full of European immigrants, his mother Minnie was a German Jew, his father "Frenchie" came from Alsace. Groucho intended to be a doctor but dropped out of school to support his family, to compensate for his lack of education he became a voracious reader; being the middle child he didn't always get as much attention as his older brothers Chico and Harpo or his younger brothers Zeppo and Gummo, his witty one-liners may have been a way to garner attention. Groucho's mother wanted her sons to be a success, her brother Al Shean was a noted vaudeville performer, with his help she became manager of her son's vaudeville careers, turning them into a singing quartet "The Four Nightingales", during one tour the singing wasn't a success, instead the boys started cracking jokes making the audience laugh. Initially Groucho adopted a German accent onstage to distinguish from Chico's Italian and Harpo's Irish (Harpo would later cease talking onscreen), once anti-German sentiment set in after the Lusitania was sunk Groucho moved to a fast-talking wiseguy. Vaudeville taught them to hone their skills on the stage, a film career would follow in the 1920s.
With his brothers Chico, Harpo and Zeppo, Groucho signed a contract with Paramount to make movies in the 1920s. During this time he invested heavily in the stock market which came crashing down in 1929, Groucho would later remark he didn't fully understand how the stock market work except it was somehow related to the price of pumpernickel bread. Groucho made 5 films with Paramount, the most beloved "Duck Soup" (1933) saw Groucho playing Rufus T. Firefly the leader of "Freedonia". After the Paramount contract expired Zeppo Marx left the group and became a talent agent with the lesser-known brother Gummo. The onscreen Marx Brothers were now 3 and signed a deal with MGM and producer Irving Thalberg. Groucho loved the two movies they made under Thalberg before the latter's sudden death, "A Night at the Opera" and "A Day at the Races" had far bigger budgets and more elaborate plots than their earlier work. One unfunny film with RKO ("Room Service") saw the brothers back at MGM for three more movies. Originally they wanted to retire after "The Big Store" (1941), but Chico's notorious gambling debts persuaded Groucho and Harpo to make two more movies: "A Night in Casablanca" (1946) and "Love Happy" (1949). After this Groucho hosted the radio show "You Bet Your Life" for several years, introducing a new generation to his razor-sharp wit.
Away from the screen Groucho was divorced three times, his son Arthur complained his father was always "on", noting a time in his bedroom he tried to hide a corncob pipe from his father. Groucho returned to his son's bedroom with a briar pipe and some tobacco saying "this'll be better than the corncob pipe you're using." In 1937 upon return from a family holiday in Europe, Groucho had to fill out a customs and immigration form, for occupation he wrote "smuggler", for price of purchases bought from Europe he wrote "wouldn't you like to know?" He and his family were detained for several hours. In 1958 he visited his ancestral home in Germany, to his shock the jewish graves were destroyed by the Nazis, Groucho went to the site of Hitler's bunker in Berlin and performed a 2-minute Charleston Dance on it. For all his legendary one-liners "I refuse to join any club that would accept someone like me as a member", his films, radio work, his books, his letters to T.S Eliot among others, in one interview he said having one of his books selected for cultural preservation by the Library of Congress and being published in the New Yorker under his own name were two of his most proudest achievements.
During the 60s and 70s Groucho would suffer more personal heartbreak and health problems, his older brother Chico died in 1961, three years later Harpo would pass away too; Groucho's son said the only time he ever saw his father cry was at Harpo's funeral. a succession of minor strokes and health problems afflicted him once he turned 80, he became frail and his memory faded, he recieved a Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1974, three years after that his younger brother Gummo died, his family didn't tell him because they feared it would be too distressing for him. Groucho passed away after a 2 month battle with pneumonia in 1977 at 86 years of age, his younger brother Zeppo would die 2 years later. One of Groucho's friends told a story of how he once had to carry an increasingly frail Groucho from his bed to his wheelchair, Groucho was too heavy for him, he struggled to carry him across the room when he heard a whisper in his ear "you always were a lousy dancer." Groucho's final words on his death bed? "Die my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do!".
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Post by Woland on Jun 28, 2020 13:12:58 GMT -5
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was a Russian writer of Ukrainian descent. He was born in Poltava (then part of the Russian Empire), his father was an amateur playwright who spoke Ukrainian and Russian. Upon leaving school he arrived in St. Petersburg with ambitions of a literary career, his first poem met such criticism he destroyed all copies of it and vowed never to write poetry again. Instead he turned to Ukrainian folk tales, his 2 volume collection of short stories were a big success with the critics, along with his story "Taras Bulba". Gogol found it hard to find steady employment in Russia: his brief tenure as Professor of Medieval History in St. Petersburg (despite no qualifications) was a darkly comic failure worthy of his own satirical short stories and plays. From 1836-1848 Gogol went abroad, spending most of his time in Italy working on short stories, plays and his novel "Dead Souls"; after volume 1 was published in 1842 Gogol was pronounced as the best Russian writer of his generation.
Gogol returned to Russia for the last 4 years of his life, he mingled with old friends and developed a new spiritual side which rejected his sinful writing; on 24th February 1852 he burned several manuscripts including most of his proposed 2nd volume of "Dead Souls". Nikolai took to bed and refused all food until he died 9 days later. His bitterly satirical stories mixed with the macabre and the real were and still are a huge influence on Russian literature.
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Post by Woland on Jun 29, 2020 7:55:55 GMT -5
William "Wilkie" Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright and short story writer. He was born in London, the son of painter William Collins, his middle name came from his godfather the painter David Wilkie. Wilkie didn't enjoy his religious upbringing, he enjoyed Italy and France particularly learning the languages. His gift for storytelling came about from a bully in boarding school who wouldn't let Wilkie sleep until he told him a story. After school he took a clerical job at a tea merchant's simultaneously trying to publish his stories. His father would've preferred his son to go into painting or the clergy, he made his son enter law school but Wilkie preferred writing and socialising; Wilkie gained entry to the bar in 1851 but he never practised.
That same year Wilkie was introduced to Charles Dickens, beginning a lifelong friendship with the two acting in plays together, Collins getting published in Dickens' journals; when Wilkie had his first gout flareup he stayed with Dickens in Boulogne. Later on Wilkie's brother married Dickens' daughter. As he published more plays and short stories his gout increased along with opium as treatment, he'd suffer from addiction the rest of his life. In the 1860s he published his most famous novels, granting him the steady income he craved, "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" remain his two most popular novels. Over the years he would travel more, increase his opium intake to counter his increasing gout while his eyesight deteriorated, his novels moved away from the mystery thriller with more social commentary, his ailing health hampered his quality and popularity.
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Post by Woland on Jun 30, 2020 10:46:56 GMT -5
Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) was a French film critic turned film director, a member of the French New Wave with his infamously "talky" movies, his characters always say one thing and do another. He was born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in Nancy, Lorraine. His pseudonym was taken from the director Erich von Stroheim and Sax Rohmer, writer of the Fu Manchu novels. Due to his secretive nature little is known of his early life, he obtained a history degree while studying literature, philosophy and theology also. He taught literature before becoming a freelance journalist in 1940s Paris, during this time he would attend the Cinematheque Francaise meeting future friends and directors Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol and Rivette and others. He switched from literature to film criticism, eventually joining Andre Bazin's now legendary film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, becoming editor in 1956. More politically conservative than his peers, he left the magazine in 1963, making TV shorts and documentaries as his film career slowly took off.
His early short films met with limited success, his breakthrough came with "Bakery girl of Monceau" his first of six "Moral Tales" reworking F.W. Murnau's "Sunrise": Man loves first woman, man loves second woman, man chooses first woman. His third moral tale "La Collectionneuse" won the Jury Grand Prix in Berlin, the fourth and most succesful commercial and critical film "My Night at Maud's" starred Jean-Louis Trintignant focusing on Blaise Pascal's "Wager", due to Trintignant's unavailability and Rohmer needing to shoot the film around Christmas, filming was delayed for a whole year. It won a prize at Cannes and was nominated for Best Foreign Film and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. "Claire's Knee" and "Chloe in the Afternoon" rounded out the tales, Rohmer would make a couple historical films before he embarked on his next series "Comedies and Proverbs", 6 movies about yuppy characters philosophing about love, self-justifying their own selfish actions. The most famous of these "The Green Ray" won the Golden Lion in Venice; to capture the optical phenomenon on film Rohmer had to delay the premiere of the movie for a year. In the 1990s he made another series focusing on each season of the year, in 2001 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival. His final works were historical dramas, after "Romance of Astrea and Celadon" he retired in 2007, dying after a series of strokes in 2010.
Rohmer was something of an eco-warrior, for years he refused to travel in cars, he owned no telephone, he would shoot his films only when the weather was just right at the right time of day. Later in his career he would trim the crew members down, including the assistant director for his movies. His movies often featured youngsters because he found it difficult to get older actors to talk convincingly onscreen. A great fan of literature (he makes an appearance in Rivette's "Out 1" as a famed literary professor), he was a unique voice in French cinema, often shunned the limelight, his films made little money yet his devoted followers prolonged his directing career over 40 years.
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Post by Woland on Jul 2, 2020 11:43:30 GMT -5
Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926) was a Russian painter of mythological scenes and fairy tales. He was born in Vyatka (modern day Kirov, 600 miles east of Moscow), his grandfather was an icon painter, his dad a member of the priesthood. Viktor's younger brother Apollinary would become a famous painter too. As a child Viktor painted scenes of village life and landscapes before studying in St. Petersburg in 1867. For the next 9 years Viktor would continue genre paintings and engravings, becoming friendly with fellow painters Ivan Kramskoi and Ilya Repin, in 1876 he joined the Peredvizhniki exiles in Paris, it was here Viktor became fascinated by fairy tales, he spent the next several years working on some of his most famous paintings. The critics on the other hand did not take kindly to his fairy tale paintings, calling them "not realistic enough", he would have to turn to religious paintings to gain acceptance among the art critics. From 1884-1889 he designed religious frescoes for St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kiev, working with a young and upcoming artist Mikhail Vroubel. Around this time Vasnetsov visited Italy, worked on stage designs and costumes for Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Snow Maiden".
For the last 30 years of his life moved to other artistic mediums: he designed architectural buildings, stamps, mosaics, he worked on stage designs for another Rimsky-Korsakov opera. He also designed a hat for the military based on Kievan Rus' cone-shaped helmets; called the "budenovka", it was worn by Communist forces during the Russian Civil War and later conflicts. Viktor Vasnetsov died in Moscow in 1926 aged 78 years old. His painting "Bogatyrs" was voted most famous Russian painting of all time.
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Post by Woland on Jul 3, 2020 12:09:44 GMT -5
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was a French painter who formed the bridge between Impressionism and Cubism. He was born in Aix-en-Provence near Marseilles, his father's banking firm afforded Paul the financial security his peers hoped for. In school he befriended future optics of professor Baptistin Baille and the future novelist Émile Zola, Cezanne would ditch his law studies in favour of an art career. In the 1860s his friendship with Camille Pissarro influenced his painting style which ironically saw his work rejected by the official Paris Salon 6 years in a row. To escape the Franco-Prussian War Cezanne left Paris for Marseille with his mistress, returning once the war finished with his newborn son. Paul's dad threatened to cut his son off financially, later he relented and built a studio for Paul in Aix-en-Provence in the 1880s, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir would visit Cezanne's studio.
Cezanne would stay in his native Provence, in contrast to the Paris-centric artists, Cezanne's diabetes would hamper the last 15 years of his life, he turned to Catholicism and fell out with his wife. His influence on cubists and modern art wouldn't receive its due until well after his death.
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Post by Woland on Jul 7, 2020 19:32:30 GMT -5
Miles Davis (1926-1991) was an iconic jazz trumpeter, one of the greatest jazz artists of all times and a supremely influential 20th century musician. He was born into an affluent Illinois family, his father a dentist his mother a violinist. As a child he spent summers on his grandfather's pig farm in Arkansas, horse-riding, fishing and hunting across 200 acres. As a child he attended an all-black school in a predominately white neighbourhood in East St. Louis, Illinois, where Miles excelled in mathematics, sports and music, taking a liking to blues, big band and gospel. In 1935 he received his first trumpet from one of his father's patients, by his teens music had become the most important thing in his life, playing in local bands and taking additional trumpet lessons from a member of the St. Louis orchestra. In his high school marching band Miles reflected he was discriminated against due to his race, he added those experiences made him a better musician prompting him to learn music theory. In 1944 Miles was invited to play with a jazz group touring St. Louis, comprising future jazz legends Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Two weeks of performing with them convinced Miles he had to move to New York where the action was. His dad agreed he should attend the Julliard school, but Miles would skip many lessons preferring to play in late night jazz clubs. In mid-1945 Miles would drop out of Julliard after 3 semesters, complaining of a classical European and "white" repertoire yet praised the school for teaching him music theory and improving his trumpet technique. In New York Miles would continue playing with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and Charles Mingus among others, record tracks in the studios as sideman and leader, go on a couple tours along with picking up a cocaine and alcohol habit. In the late 40s and early 50s Miles created his fabled "Nonet" featuring Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans, their recording sessions would be released in his cool jazz classic "Birth of the Cool". In 1949 his performances in Paris made him realise black musicians were better appreciated in France than in the US; his return to the US saw him spiral into depression and heroin usage. In the early 50s he got interested in boxing to keep his fitness levels up, tried several times to kick his heroin addiction while still playing with friends. In 1954 he declared he felt "better than ever", recording with the Miles Davis Quintet, moving away from bebop into hard bop, experimenting more with space. During this time his public persona grew more complex, his public battles with heroin along with a reputation for being cold, truculent and arrogant added to his mystique. After an operation to remove polyps from his larynx his doctor told him to remain silent after the operation; one heated argument permanently damaged his vocal cords, giving him his distinctive raspy voice, a type of growling whisper adding to his mystique. His fortunes changed in the mid 50s with a performance at the prestigious Newport Jazz Festival and the establishment of his fabled Jazz Quintet, four of their albums released in the late 50s and early 60s as per his contract. In 1956 he toured Europe, recording the soundtrack to Louis Malle's film "Elevator to the Gallows", he was so bothered by John Coltrane and Elvin Jones taking drugs he later fired them at the end of the tour, replacing them with Sonny Rollins and Art Taylor; Davis was trying to live healthier and cleaner except he began taking cocaine at this time. He would invite Coltrane back after the latter kicked his drug habit. In 1957 Davis felt tired and even considered retiring from jazz to become a teacher at Harvard University, he hooked up with arranger Gil Evans and thus began a fruitful, musically expansive and ambitious collaboration which saw Miles attain jazz greatness: Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess, Sketches of Spain were highly regarded, his greatest album "Kind of Blue" was honoured as a National Treasure by the US House of Representatives in 2009. It is still the best-selling jazz album of all time, moving from hard bop to modal jazz. As a sign of its universal acclaim it was voted 12th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. The same year "Kind of Blue" was released Miles was arrested and assaulted by police officers, receiving 5 stitches in the hospital; he was later acquitted of the bogus charges. Miles would remark the incident changed his life forever, it made him bitter and cynical about social change in the US. In the early 60s he fell back into alcohol and cocaine to help his joint pain caused by sickle-cell anemia, his temperamental jealousy and erratic behaviour including beating his wife ended in divorce. During this period he toured Europe a couple times until health issues cropped up again, this time a botched hip replacement surgery followed by a liver infection, he was experiencing financial troubles along with his drug and alcohol addiction. In the late 60s his albums would point to his electric and fusion phase which redefined jazz, some purists would claim it "wasn't real jazz". In the late 60s Miles was listening to soul and rock music, his album "In a silent way" was derided by some critics as "selling out", it set the template for his later albums replete with lengthy studio sessions spliced, edited and looped into long tracks, culminating in his epic "Bitches Brew", he even planned a collaboration with Jimi Hendrix thwarted by the latter's premature death. At this point the "sellout" claims grew louder, even claims that Miles was "genuflecting to white culture", abandoning his jazz routes. Miles early 70s work would be tinged with funk and groove, with a little influence from avant-garde composer Karl-Heinz Stockhausen. His 1972 album "On the Corner" was despised by jazz critics, later gaining more favourable praise with the passage of time. In the mid 70s he began recording live performances until health issues popped up once again: ulcers, pneumonia, osteoarthritis, sickle-cell anemia, depression, a hernia, prompting a 5 year hiatus from music. Sex and drugs became the mainstay during his hiatus, he lived in squalor and required another hip replacement, upon his return he hadn't touched a trumpet for 3 years, his first performances weren't well received,a minor stroke left his right hand temporarily paralysed, he finally gave up alcohol and drugs and began to take up boxing, drawing, piano playing and visiting spas to improve his help, acupuncture helped him regain use of his right hand. His final albums couldn't match his earlier heights, jazz was becoming a dead genre by the mid 80s. In 1986 an upcoming young trumpeteer called Wynton Marsalis jumped onstage in the middle of one of Miles' performances wanting to confront the jazz legend over disparaging comments, Miles told him to "get the fuck off the stage". In his final years his health deteriorated, he needed insulin injections to get through live performances, he suffered pneumonia again and needed more polyps removed from his vocal cords. In 1991 he died from a combination of pneumonia, respiratory failure and a stroke. He was one of the most influential and innovate musical artists of the 20th century.
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