– That is unfortunate because there is so much work for just one god
Lord Jim es una de las más magníficas y angustiosas novelas de uno de los escritores más magníficos y angustiosos en lengua inglesa, Conrad. Realmente la novela de acción tiene poca, trata sobre la culpa y cuando el pasado nos alcanza… Me has dado motivos Jordi Barberà para repasar la peli aunque me temo que como todas las adaptaciones directas del gran autor polaco (no así Aguirre o Apocalypse) será más traditore que traduttore 😉 El cartel que has elegido sí que es una pasada psicodélica.
Revisando Lord Jim es interesante descubrir en los títulos de crédito, como actor, a Christian Marquand, haciendo de «oficial francés». El hermano de Nadine Tritignant, marido de Tina Aumont, padre del hijo de Dominique Sanda y protagonista de Dios creó la mujer junto con Brigitte Bardot (ríete tú de Warren Beatty), juntó a sus amigos (ahí es nada) Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau, Ringo Starr, Ewa Aulin, Elsa Martinelli, Sugar Ray Robinson, Marilú Toló, Anita Pallenberg, Florinda Bolkan y Enrico Maria Salerno, entre otros, para hacer aquel trip maravilloso que fue Candy. Un fin de semana del fatídico año de 2001, yo me paseé por las praderas de Benoni y bajo el sol sudafricano, oyendo las músicas del mundo entre banderas multicolores y múltiples tribus, igual que Eva Aulin e igual de alucinado que ella en su sesentayochero y sesentayochista periplo. Fue sin duda el «fin de semana de las maravillas». Uno de tantos de mi mágico año en Sudáfrica. Strange, Bright, Daysindeed.
14 de septiembre de 2021. Por cierto que el pintoresco Marquand tiene la facultad de aparecer de repente en los sitios más insospechados… como en la página 247 del libro de David R.L. Litchfield The Thyssen Art Macabre, dedicado a esta saga de robber barons teutones y a los métodos por los que reunieron su sobrevalorada colección de arte, como ¡amante de la segunda esposa del barón Heini, la socialité y supuesta amante del hermano de Franco, Nina Dyer -Carme Cervera sería la quinta-! Que a esta arribista le regalen 100 millones de euros por el alquiler de la deficiente retahila de falsificaciones malhabidas y segundones de dudosa procedencia de su nazi aristócrata indica cuál es la política cultural de la socialdemocracia Carmen Cervera regresa al Thyssen tras firmar un acuerdo millonario por la cesión temporal de «su» museo (que también corre a cuenta nuestra).
And, silently, in the middle of the night, I stumble against a piece of wirting that would be the perfect stuff for a Terrence Malick monologue:
«Don’t look back, he had told the king: yet he too is guilty of retrospection as the light fades, in that hour in winter or summer before they bring in the candles, when earth and sky melt, when the fluttering heart of the bird on the bough calms and slows, and the night-walking animals stir and stretch and rouse, and the eyes of cats shine in the dark, when colour bleeds from sleeve and gown into the darkening are; when the page grows dim and letter forms elide and slip into other conformations, so that as the page is turned the old story slides from sight and a strange and slippery confluence of ink begins to flow. You look back into your past and say, is this story mine; this land? Is that flitting figure mine, that shape easing itself through alleys, evader of the curfew, fugitive from the day? Is this my life, or my neighbor’s conflated with mine, or a life I have dreamed and prayed for; is this my essence, twisting into a taper’s flame, or have I slipped the limits of myself—slipped into eternity, like honey from a spoon? Have a dreamt myself, undone myself, have I forgotten too well; must I apply to Bishop Stevens, who will tell me how transgression follows me, assures me that my sins seek me out; even as I slide into my sleep, my past pads me, paws on the flagstones, pit-pat: water in a basin of alabaster, cool in the heat of the Florentine afternoon”.
Pag 249, The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel
Hear this page
In The Court of the Crimson King
In the Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson, 1969, Island Records/Atlantic Records
The Thin Red Line – «Just this rock»
Sean Penn’s monologue in The Thin Red Line, Terrence Malick, 1999, EEUU, 20th Century Fox
Days of Heaven, Linda Manz’s words
Me and my brother; it just used to be me and my brother. We used to do things together. We used to have fun. We used to roam the streets; there was people suffering with pain and hunger. Some people, their tongues were hangin’ outta their mouths. … he used to juggle apples. He use- he used to amuse us, he used to entertain us. (what else have I gotta do today?) In fact, all three of us’d been goin’ places – lookin’ for things, searching for things. Going on adventures. They told everybody they were brother and sister. My brother didn’t want nobody to know. You know how people are. You tell ‘em something, they start talking. I met this guy named Ding Dong. He told me the whole world is going up in flames. Flames will come out of here and there, and they’ll just rise up. The mountains are gonna go up in big flames. The water’s gonna rise in flames. There’s gonna be creatures runnin’, um, every which way – some of them burnt, half their wings burning. People are gonna be screamin’ and hollerin’ for help. See – the people that’ve been good, they’re gonna go to Heaven and eckscape all that fire. But if you’ve been bad, God don’t even hear ya, he don’t even hear ya talkin’.
The farmer didn’t know when he first saw her; or what it was about her that caught his eye. Maybe it was the way the wind blew through her hair.
He knew he was gonna die. He knew there was nothing there could be done. You only live on this earth once. And up to my opinion, as long as you’re around you should have it nice.
From the time the sun went up, till when it went down, they were workin’ all the time. No- non-stop. Just keep going. You didn’t work, they’d ship you right outta there. They don’t need ya, They can always get somebody else.
This farmer: he had a big spread and a lot of money. Whoever was sittin’ in the chair when he’d come around, why’d they stand up and give it to him? Wasn’t no harm in him. You’d give him a flower, he’d keep it forever. He was headin’ for the boneyard any minute, but he wasn’t really sq- goin’ around squawking about it… like some people. In one way I felt sorry for him, because he had nobody to – stand out for him. Be by his side. Hold his hand when he needs attention or something. That’s touchin’.
He was tired of livin’ like the rest of ‘em, nosin’ around like a pig in a gutter. He wasn’t in the mood no more. He figured there must be something wrong with him, the way they always got no luck; and they oughta get it straightened out. He figured some people need more than they got, other people got more than they need. Just a matter of getting us all together.
I’ve been thinkin’ what to do with my future. I could be a mud doctor. Checking out the earth underneath.
We’ve never been this rich, all right? I mean, we were just – all of a sudden living like kings. Just nothin’ to do all day but crack jokes and lay around. We didn’t have to work. I’m tellin’ you, the rich got it figured out.
I got to like this farm. Do anything I want. Roll in the fields. Talk to the wheat patches. When I was sleeping, they’d talk to me. They’d go in my dreams.
Nobody sent us letters. We didn’t receive no cards. Sometimes I feel very old, like my whole life’s over. Like I’m not around no more.
Instead of getting sicker, he just stayed the same. He didn’t get sicker. He didn’t get better. They were kind-hearted and thought he was goin’ out on his own steam. I dunno, the doc must’ve come over, or someone gave him something. Probably some kinda medicine or something. I coulda just taken it and put it in a ditch. Like they do to a horse: they shoot him right away.
Just when things were about to blow, this flyin’ circus come in. After six months on this patch, I needed a breath of fresh air. They were screamin’ and yellin’ and bopping each other though. He- the big one pushed the little one said ‘C’mon, I started, you start.’ The little one started in. If they couldn’t think of a good one to come back with they’d stop fighting. The little one said ‘No, I didn’t do this’; the big one said ‘Yes, you did do this.’ They couldn’t sort it out. The devil just sittin’ there laughin’. He’s glad when people does bad. Them he sends ‘em to the snake house. He just sits there and laughs and watch while you’re sittin’ there all tied up and snakes are eatin’ your eyes out. They go down your throat and eat all your systems out. I think the devil was on the farm.
He’d seen how it all was. She loves the farmer. He taught me keys on the pianos and notes. He taught me about parts of the globe.
Nobody’s perfect. There was never a perfect person around. You just got half devil and half angel in you. She promised herself she’d lead a good life from now on. She blamed it all on herself. (It’s good. I like it.) She didn’t care if she was happy or not. She just wanted to make up for what she did wrong. The sun looks ghostly when there’s a mist on the river and everything’s quiet. I never knowed it before. And you could see people on the shore but it was far off and you couldn’t see what they were doing. They were probably calling for help or something, or they were trying to bury somebody or something. We seen trees and the leaves are shaking and it looks like shadows of guys comin’ at you and stuff. We heard owls squawkin’ away, ooming away. We didn’t know where we were goin’, what we were gonna do. I’ve never been on a boat before. That was the first time. Some sights that I saw was really spooky that it gave me goose pimples. And I felt like cold hands touching the back of my neck. And it could be the dead comin’ for me or somethin’. I remember this guy, his name was Blackjack. He died. He only had one leg, and he died. And I think that was Blackjack making those noises.
This girl – she didn’t know where she was going or what she was gonna do. She didn’t have no money on her. Maybe she’d meet up with a character. I was hoping things would work out for her. She was a good friend of mine.
Carmen Cervera regresa al Thyssen tras firmar un acuerdo millonario por la cesión temporal de «su» museo (que también corre a cuenta nuestra).
