More About Vampires (from 1970s movies)

 Up until last night we have had a very dry March.  There has been no snow, which is quite unusual, and no rain, which is very unusual.  But the flowers got watered last night, with the rain gauge showing 1.8 inches of water in it this morning.  That's a lot of water, and our creek was running high all day.  There was thunder and lightning to accompany it all, but somehow Deb slept through it all, for once.

Though piano practice has been going well, the path carved by the program into my brain is getting a bit well worn.  Even the two pieces I am working on for the NEXT program are coming up fast.  What to do?  I don't know yet, but just dropping the program is one possibility, and giving my neurons a rest period.

Tomorrow night is the full moon, and we will have an all-day celebration, which includes listening to an opera (Wagner's Rienzi this time), baking a moon pie (Deb's special apple recipe, with yours truly as the head peeler), a wood fire, and perhaps a shepherds pie.  Music, relaxation, food, wood fire--it all sounds so romantical.  Glad I am invited!

In movie news, we watched a number of jazz shorts from 1929-39 this week on Criterion, featuring entertainers such as Bessie Smith, Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and, in the best of the bunch, Louis Armstrong.  There were also two rather funny short films starring Bing Crosby as himself.  That counted as Deb's movie choice, and it lasted about 160 minutes.

My choices began with Fassbinder's 1974 filmed version of the novel Effi Briest, which I have not read but would now like to read.  The film is wonderfully done, with Hannah Schygulla as Effi, and turning in a wonderful performance of a girl of 17 who marries a an older man, a serious man who becomes her teacher rather than her lover and best friend.  She ends up having a brief affair with a younger man, and many lives unravel years later when the truth becomes known.  Very sensitively handled, beautifully filmed in black and white, and acted superbly throughout.  Highly recommended, this was our 2nd viewing so far.  There is also a 1955 and a 2009 film version, which we haven't seen.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My 2nd choice was from the leaving March 31st folder, and it was called The Velvet Vampire, 1971.  Another female vampire hungers for a young married couple.  Invited to her desert ranch, they are attacked from all angles by the bloodthirsty beauty (Celeste Yarnell, looking suitably pale and vampish).  Not as arty as last week's Daughters of Darkness, from the same year, it nonetheless has a  few moments of interest, but it's biggest fault lies in being filmed in a very sunny desert environment, which more or less spoils the mood we have become used to when watching such films.  The acting is sometimes quite painful, especially that of the young wife.  Hammer film it is not.

Celeste Yarnell seems quite suited to play the part of a murderous vampire.

Showing on Criterion until March 31st.  

 

We also watched the finale episode of Elementary, an underrated and very good Sherlock Holmes series, updated to present day and taking place mostly in NYC.  Seven seasons of great stories have come to an end, right back where it started.  No doubt we will rewatch many of them, if they remain available on Prime.

 

In addition to Saturday's opera, it's Deb's film festival weekend.  And someday I'll post some more art from the DIA, unless they have run out of the stuff.

 

In conclusion, Great Lakes shipping is back, as the huge freighters head upriver, many aiming for the far end of Lake Superior before filling up with grain, turning around and coming back.  It's always fun watching them go past our house.  I plan to take photos of them soon, too, and perhaps keep track of a few ships over the coming year, courtesy of shipfinder.com. 

 

Mapman Mike