Two Films From 1935

It's Friday night here at the Homestead, and it is pouring rain.  It will continue to do so all night.  By contrast, last night was one of the finest astronomy nights I have ever had in this area.  Conditions were superlative, and I took full advantage.  It was dark enough to begin at 8:30 pm, and I finally started packing up around 2 am.  My eyes had seen enough!  I got work done in four different constellations, and some of the low-lying southern sights I saw I thought I would have had to travel to NM to see properly.  I am still euphoric today, as I slog away at my notes and diagrams.  I was in bed around 3:30 am, and oddly enough I had a terrific astronomy dream, too.  Bonus!

By coincidence, Deb and I each chose a film from 1935 to watch this week.  On Wednesday evening (it was cloudy) I selected "The Count From Old Town," a Swedish comedy.  Likely it only survives because it is the first film that featured Ingrid Bergman with a leading role.  But it is actually a really good little film, an inoffensive comedy that was filmed mostly outdoors in Old Town, Stockholm.  Bergman is a maid in a cheap hotel, and meets the love of her life.  But is he the mastermind jewel thief criminal that dominating the headlines?  She radiates charm and beauty in every scene she is in, but doesn't always steal the show from a cast of fantastic (most likely stage) actors and actresses who all get to share the limelight.  Now showing on the Criterion Channel, and recommended viewing.

 The Count of Old Town, a Swedish film from 1935.

 This was Ingrid Bergman's first starring role.  She would have been 19 or 20.  

Tonight we watched another Fred and Ginger film, the justly famous Top Hat.  With unforgettable songs like "Dancing Cheek To Cheek," a supporting cast to die for, outrageous modern art sets, hotel rooms that would put Buckingham Palace to shame, and several off-screen anecdotes that make the film even more fun, this is required viewing for film musical fans.  The duo dance up a storm several times, but Astaire really excels in many of his tap routines, including a soft shoe routine on a wooden floor sprinkled with sand.  The plot is silly, but there are some hilarious lines, most of the best ones delivered by Erik Rhodes as the fashion fop Alberto Beddini.  

From 1935, Deb's film choice this week.

The world's most famous ball room dancers. 

And in other film news, it is film festival weekend!  Once a month we take turns selecting three films to watch over a weekend.  It's Deb choice, and she has selected three by Richard Lester, an American director who based himself in the UK.  Stay tuned for more soon, including a quick summary of my September reading.  And maybe someday that Canaletto spread I've been promising.

Mapman Mike

 

Syberia 3, Teotihuacan, and Fred and Ginger

First, the rain.  Since Thursday afternoon, we had 4" of rain through Sunday night.  That's a lot of rain, especially for an area already suffering from record high water levels in the surrounding lakes and rivers.  More is expected tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday.  What to do with it all.

For the past several weeks I have been playing Syberia 3, a game for PC, off and on in the evenings.  It's a rather tedious game, and not very special.  I am playing it only out of loyalty to the first two games in the series.  Anyway, as per usual, when I turned on the game to play, Steam downloaded an update.  Then, when the game finally loaded, all my progress was erased.  No saved games, no nothing.  Weeks and weeks of work down the tube, with no desire to start all over again.  I downloaded some saved games from the web, but so far they refuse to load.  Harrumph (and under my breath, many more worse words).

We finally sat down and played a mostly full round of our newest board game, called Teotihuacan.  It is certainly one of the better board games we now own.  It is an evening's commitment to set up the board and play, but it is a lot of fun, and as the game board changes with each new game, no sure fire strategy will help you win the next game.  And you get to build a pyramid, and decorate it.  How cool is that?  I think Tokaido Road and this game are our two favourites.  Now that the basement had been reassembled, I have room to store and display all of our board games.  Some have never been played yet.

Deb's weekend movie pick was Swing Time, starring Fred and Ginger.  From 1936, and directed by George Stevens, this b & w classic has some superb dancing and some memorable songs, including "The Way You Look Tonight," and "A Fine Romance," written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.  Great dance numbers (and music) include "Never Gonna Dance," and Fred's black face tribute to Bill "Bojangle" Robinson.  Some great hoofin'.  The plot, of course, is virtually non-existent. 

 Showing on the Criterion Channel until the end of August. 

And now we return to our regular programming, featuring another fine landscape painting from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Bernardo Bellotto

View of the Tiber in Rome with the Castel Sant'Angelo, 1743 or 1744

oil on canvas, 34" x 48", unframed. 

The museum did a complete reorganization several years ago, something which I think destroyed the overall layout and made finding any specific painting much more difficult.  One of the newer spaces is called The Grand Tour," and purports to show how Italy was on everyone's grand tour in the 18th Century, and the artists who did souvenir type works of art.  Canaletto, Guardi, Panini, robert, and Bellotto are some of these artists, and thanks to them we have some rather good impressions of Rome, Venice, and other cities because of their painstaking renditions for rich tourists to carry home.  This particular painting has always been a favourite of mine, and it is large enough to get in close and observe all of the wonderful details of the time.

Detail of the bridge.

 Detail of far left side.

Detail of St. Peter's dome.

Detail of the Castel, which once served as Hadrian's tomb.

Castel, further detail.

Paintings like this hang in every great museum of the world, and are always worth stopping to look at more closely.  This one has an evening twilight colour that cannot be captured in a photo, but is magical and difficult to describe in person.

I had my first piano lesson this afternoon with Philip Adamson, bringing him my newest program.  We got to work on the Bach Prelude and Fugue, and the Schubert Impromptu in C Minor.  Very helpful.  I will return in a few weeks for help with the Haydn Sonata and the Bartok Allegro Barbaro.  I will not likely make my August memorization goals.  For every three notes I stick into my head, two of them pop out the other side.  I'll get there, but it will take more time.

Mapman Mike