A young Sacha Guitry made a film chronicling French artists, some of which were still alive, giving us sad yet beautiful footage of aging painters struggling against physical problems to persist in their artistic pursuits.
One is Monet, whose video I originally found through Open Culture, a site that has been scouring the recent videos made publicly available by British Pathé. This was filmed later in Monet's life when he was suffering from cataracts. But you can't tell. What you notice is his clean white suit somehow surviving next to his giant palette, his tiny dog, and the picturesque surroundings that he painted so often and so memorably.
Monet, Japanese Bridge, 1899, Princeton Art Museum
Another is Renoir, the video revealing the advanced state of his arthritis which deformed his hand greatly and likely caused him an immense amount of pain. But he paints nonetheless:
For those who don't know, the Smashing Pumpkin's Tonight, Tonight video was based largely on the work of the early filmmaker Georges Méliès, after whom the ship carrying the music video's protagonists is named. Méliès' Voyage dans la Lune was the main inspiration:
La Sirène was another film that likely gave shape to the undersea scene
Méliès was made a fictional character in the recent book and movie Hugo. It also stars an automaton!
The clips are from the film The man who fell to Earth. The song is from The man who fell to Earth musical
David Bowie wrote this for the movie The Man Who Fell to Earth. In it, he opens a book of poetry with Brueghel's Fall of Icarus illustrated. I would like to think it's a version of WCW's poems:
Really a short film. Though its only competition in this category (that I know of) is Dead Ringers, this is a really great cinematic experience, and wonderful story--originally written by Alison Smith.
See the full movie here!:
You can get better quality if you get Wholphin, issue 1 from wholphindvd.com
I study art history and I tend to find curious things that incite questions, reveal our corporeal unease, and generally make us think about how we consider the human body conceptually and physically. And so I present to you the strange gems I've come across.
