Wednesday, October 22, 2008

the little refugee

again tonight
little time set aside
and write here about
an outdated date
'cause tonight i write not
about today's date
but about Monday's

too tired to work
took a Monday off
just sat around and watch old Horror movies



1st I watched a very young Humphrey Bogart
he was the infamous Doctor X
in The Return of Doctor X (1939)
a lip-less pale make-up doctor with a
stroke of white hair, and glasses
who holds & strokes a
little white rabbit
and runs experiments with synthetic blood
mmm? even though, he's not the main character in the film
and this was his 1st and last appearance on a horror film
still rather recommendable film
little quirky, but it was just 1939!
better plot and script and surely grammar
than we get in many now-a-days films

and then I watched this exquisite suspense movie
a ghostly woman in white, but not quite a ghost story
but a great thriller
The Woman in White (1948)



this wonderful film was based on an epistolary novel by
Wilkie Collins
and it is considered the 1st official and precursor
of the genre of mystery novels!
now I am looking for the book...

so Monday was and
I did lost of seating around
and movie-watching
and TV-picture taking



as for this Wednesday
I wish it was Monday again

[random* notes on old-film watching]
and the moral of the post
just now & then, take a day off
and watch some old films
but truly old
something before the 60's

I feel old-films truly detach you from reality
there are no cell phones ringing on the films
they didn't existed yet
and everybody smokes, apparently lung cancer
wasn't 'invented' yet either
they drank whiskey at 10am
and true men wore hats
but also knew when to take them off

and women ran with very high-heels
without getting their hair messed-up
while
hiding from fictitious monsters or
very real gangsters

and if the film is in black & white
even better!
you get to exercise your imagination
and color yourself the film
you get to decide if that pale shade of gray
on the heroin's dress
is either a light blue or a soft orange

old films are the only cinematic art
that i can think of as the closest thing as reading a book
is it rather refreshing!

go and rent an old film
you'll learn so much!

* as if the rest of this blog is not random

5 comments:

Id it is said...

Watching old films is like reminiscing ones past. You get this warm and cozy feeling while you are watching yet when the movie watching is over you are left forlorn with this yearning for the bygone days, and it doesn't go away for days! I am thus a little wary of bringing an old film to watch...

alberto centurion basso said...

I love the lighter on the table hehe! No solo estabas viendo peliculines ni tomando fotitos Bere bere!

BTW, seguro que recibi exquisitos upadtes de Ground Control, solo es que el pinche Tomas (no Cruz, sino el soldado interestalar) ha andado de planetoide entre unas y otras y no ha podido sentarse bien bien bien a pachequear cosas -tantas que hay en el horno... Pero soon my dear, very soon muchas notitas musicales le estaran llegando a la mas chida de todas...

bereweber said...

@ mr. id it is, wonderful your words, and now i have the forlorn feeling myself, even if my memories, those that make me feel the warm place in the heart, are very different from these old American films for me, every now &then, though, comes one that brings those memories, but hey! sometimes remembering the past for one warm evening is a good thing, glad to see you around here

@ ground control: a-ha! you got me dear betiur :))) y si mi ground control, so good to know you got the signals, now not lost signals anymore, and so good to read que usted está tan bien y contentote y productivo, como quisiera verle a usted y el pollo en persona, maybe next year!!

que se sigan cocinando solo buenas recetas en la cocinita de su vida y un e-brazo attached :)

Georg said...

Hallo Berenice,

Beautiful legs. Did you made them yourself?

As to the "Woman in White", first time I hear they made a movie out of this book.

I have it right here, pocket book from "Penguin English Library". In case you really yearn for this big book (more than 600 pages) and cannot find it in San Diego, I'll send it to you, no problem.

I am quite thrilled by what you say about seeing old movies. Because I am thinking more or less the opposite. To me it seems movies age even faster than books, but not due to b/w vs. color. They just age. The continuous smoking and whiskey drinking is very funny, indeed.

Cheers to you
Georg

bereweber said...

hi Georg

i agree with you in that movies age worse than books, totally!! mamy times i have re-seen films that i saw on the big screen when they came out and to my disappointment aren't as good as the 1st time i saw them...

but the sort of movies i am talking about, before the 60's or so, are so OLD already that i don't think they can age more... and they are so quirky indeed that i find pleasure on those almost innocent made movies with such sordid stories and even mistakes that make them appear so surreal nowadays

on the legs, ha ha, yes i think i 'made' them or more so, at least i put the thighs on them and the clogs and put them also on the table, all by 'myself' so yes, i guess i made them ;)

danke und Guten Tag!