oestadodascoisas

Blog in lethargy

An angel at my table de Jane Campion

New Zealand poet Janet Frame is the subject of Jane Campion's biographical drama, which presents a poetically evocative look at the authoress' turbulent life. The film begins with a look at Frame's childhood, showing her as a bright but odd-looking, emotionally fragile young girl with a knack for writing. Frame faces great difficulty in adapting to the conventional rural life around her, and her social awkwardness only worsens as she grows older. After she fails in her attempt to become a schoolteacher due to an intense panic attack, she is subject to a psychiatric evaluation and shamefully misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic. Frame is subsequently committed to a mental institution, where she suffers years of unnecessary shock treatments and other horrors. Her salvation comes through her writings, however, which attract the attention of a renowned author who arranges her release. While the nightmare of Frame's institutionalization is presented with great sensitivity and power, Campion and screenwriter Laura Jones, to their credit, refuse to simplify her story to this one pivotal event. Instead, they pay equal attention to Frame's subsequent life, as she slowly adjusts life in the outside world, experiencing literary success and her first romance. Expressive visuals add immeasurably to the total effect, while Kerry Fox's superb performance creates a truly affecting portrait of Frame.

Mário Cesariny

Faz-me o favor de não dizer absolutamente nada!
Supor o que dirá
Tua boca velada
É ouvir-te já.

É ouvir-te melhor
Do que o dirias.
O que és nao vem à flor
Das caras e dos dias.

Tu és melhor -- muito melhor!--
Do que tu. Não digas nada. Sê
Alma do corpo nu
Que do espelho se vê.

Mário Cesariny

Marc Ribot

Quinta-feira passada o Luís e eu fomos parar à casa da Música e a três filas do palco vibramos com Marc Ribot a tocar Albert Ayler.

«(...) Whether or not Ayler is “jazz” or not is, in my opinion, up for grabs. He can be productively written into a history of jazz, into a history of wider improvisational music, into a history of punk rock in terms of the intensity of the experience — and also productively written into a history of religious/ritual music. Whether he’s jazz or not, I don’t know, but he definitely seems to have come out of the free jazz movement. You know, this term fools a lot of people. They seem to think it means, “gosh, now we can do whatever we want.” But in fact, every one of the major free jazz players invented a new formal system of improvising (...)».

...na serra

Primeira paragem da manha para um cafézinho em Arcos de Valdevez daí foi um sem parar pelos altos e baixos da serra da Peneda: Lindoso, Castro Laboreiro, Lamas de Mouro, Melgaço, Prado, Paderne, Ponte de Mouro, Alvaredo, Penso e Lapela. Na despedida ainda restou um tempinho para parar em Monção e revisitar as muralhas de Valença.