tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27924453681368756422024-02-18T19:28:03.206-08:00Flickerflickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comBlogger467125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-71939802277537248372021-08-17T09:02:00.002-07:002021-08-17T09:02:41.615-07:00Sans soleil <p> La première image dont il m’a parlé, c’est celle de trois enfants sur une route, en Islande, en 1965. II me disait que c’était pour lui l’image du bonheur, et aussi qu’il avait essayé plusieurs fois de l’associer à d’autres images - mais ça n’avait jamais marché. II m’écrivait : «... il faudra que je la mette un jour toute seule au début d’un film, avec une longue amorce noire. Si on n’a pas vu le bonheur dans l’image, au moins on verra le noir.»</p><p><a href="https://chrismarker.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sans-soleil-commentaire-francais.pdf">https://chrismarker.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/sans-soleil-commentaire-francais.pdf</a></p>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-18693307488269370042016-02-28T01:21:00.001-08:002016-02-28T01:23:06.938-08:00聂隐娘 The Assassin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">聂隐娘 The Assassin</span></span></span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-64277374936951099632016-02-28T01:13:00.001-08:002016-02-28T01:22:43.619-08:00侯孝贤<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>宣布你是最佳导演那一刹那,你的第一反应是什么?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>没有啊,我没反应。哎呀,我办电影节办了有十年了,而且我又不是第一次参加,我几岁了,我还干嘛……</span> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>这次你只拿了最佳导演,《刺客聂隐娘》没有得到金棕榈大奖,会觉得遗憾吗?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>金棕榈是很简单的,你只要拍的好。但是问题不是这个问题,评审也是个问题,所以这个东西有时候是要正好,水到渠成。<b>我的片子他们不见得看得清楚的,所以能得导演奖我觉得他们已经很有能力了</b>,我的感觉,已经非常不错了。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>《刺客聂隐娘》没得金棕榈,你觉得会不会因为西方人不了解东方文化?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>不是,电影有太多种。<b>我拍电影的方式一般人是不太理解的,我的电影的形式是很个人的,我喜欢怎样就怎样,所以这个不是一般人或者所有人能理解的,因为每个人的背景不一样。</b>所以这个一点都不勉强,这是很自然的事情。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>你之前说,这个电影要有一定阅片量和修养的人才能看懂是吗?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>外国人也不懂,他们感觉。我告诉你评委他们根本不需要懂,从头到尾,他们讲像诗,直观的感受,跟文字一样。不是懂不懂,看电影不应该这样。我拍的唐朝的,在中国大陆一定没问题。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>你觉得得奖后,这个电影的票房会高吗?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>票
房可能我在欧洲的发行人他们最开心,戛纳已经是一个宣传,得了一个奖,他们在发行上会更好。但是其实欧洲我又不是第一次,已经很久了,他们认识我也太久
了,所以我那么多年每拍有一个片子,他们都很开心。我的投资发行公司其实是算是认识很久很久了,所以他们应该是会做的不错。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>你一直提找钱难的问题,是不是资金一直是你的困扰?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>资金我算是ok的,我以前在法国或者其他地方可以找。我说的是,每一个导演,对他们说来讲,最重要还有最需要的是这个,每次找很麻烦,你要累计出你的能量,你有市场,或者你的艺术性,一定有人投资的。你要努力。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>你会为了市场妥协拍商业化的电影吗?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>我不会拍商业化的,商业化你以为很简答,商业化很难的。我要拍自己喜欢的。商业化你要考虑观众,考虑叙事,考虑大家都能不能看的懂,你的节奏能不能掌握,商业片不容易的。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网<span style="color: #990000;">:</span></b><a class="tagnews" href="http://movie.mtime.com/218890/" method="movieidcard" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">《山河故人》</span></a>没得奖你怎么看?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>因为我没有看过这个片子,我不知道。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>想对<a class="tagnews" href="http://people.mtime.com/892869/" method="personidcard" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">贾樟柯</span></a>说点什么?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>我没看片子没办法,我非得看片子不可,因为你片子就是人。你拍的片子就是你这个导演的人,一看就看出来,逃不掉。我虽然认识他,但是每个片子都是一个考验,看你是不是会露出尾巴来,看你是不是真正有那个城府,有那个对人对世界的一种关怀,每个片子逃不掉的。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>你在拍电影的时候,有没有想过以后去拿奖?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>拍电影最重要还是导演自己对电影的情感,还有对你拍的对象,人跟土地的情感,这个是最重要的。你自己非常清楚,其实得奖不得奖是其次,片子就呈现了导演这个人的心态。你是真的,是假的,还有你有没有能力,这都是。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>这次工作团队里的人如果选一个,你最想感谢谁?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>你知道这些人跟我合作多久吗?每一个都超过十年呢,怎么能选一个呢?这是一个团队,电影不是一个人可以做到的,是导演跟这些合作团队的一个情感,跟长期合作的一个默契。这个不是我们两句话就说的那么简单。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b><a class="tagnews" href="http://people.mtime.com/924551/" method="personidcard" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">舒淇</span></a><a class="tagnews" href="http://people.mtime.com/925071/" method="personidcard" target="_blank"><span style="color: #990000;">张震</span></a>他们没有得表演奖,你怎么看?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>这
个很难啦,我又不是这个影展的主席,我是主席的话,我会看到可能不一样的。但这个都是有差异的,因为西方,东方...我们这个表演已经不一样了。西方的表
演他们可以从外一直到里,心理因素种种,这方面他们已经很久了,自从有弗洛伊德的心理学之后。其实东方是,从外在形式开始,然后才是体认,体认每个人不一
样,演员能做到这个程度其实不容易。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>你为什么这么钟爱舒淇和张震?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>舒淇她真的是非常不错的演员,她平常为人就跟那个一样,合作一次就知道,而且合作之前都知道。张震是个老石头,人是很耿直的。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>这部片子听说你拍了很久,有些一拍就是十几遍,下部片子也会这么慢吗?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>不是拍十几遍,有些一次就好。我拍片的方式就是这样子,光弄好,剧本他们看过,就拍了。没有试戏,没有排戏,直接,拍不行再拍,一直拍到我认为不错,就好了。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>大家尊称你为“大师”,是觉得你创造了一种电影语言,影响了世界电影史。你怎么看这种评价?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>战
后出生的那一群,法国的新浪潮,意大利的新写实,德国的新现实,全是从影像出发。其实还是很个人的,你本身的特质,你关注的,或者说你的艺术修养,这个艺
术修养不是你这个时候要就有,你要从小,最重要是你对人,你是怎么样的人,你假如不是有某种目的在拍片,而是你内心有感觉你去拍,哪怕你拍的看起来很奇
怪。所有看电影的人都能看出来。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>这是你</span><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;">第一次拍武侠片,以后还会继续尝试武侠创作吗?</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>你看我的武侠片跟别人一样吗?不一样嘛。因为<b>对我来讲,还是写实,你不能飞来飞去,我没办法拍那种。然后也是有家庭,有它的社会关系,有整个成长背景,所以我拍的基本上只是感觉上好像不太一样,其实跟我以前片子是一样的,只是多了使用武术这方面的能力而已</b>。</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>时光网:</b>周韵请你演姜文的新片《侠隐》,你会考虑吗?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>演戏是另外一件事,我就不知道了。有一次我跟阿城去她家,阿城跟她很熟。她跟姜文谈侠义,我根本没注意。我感觉演戏太难,因为导演太清楚,太理智,要投入不容易。表演这件事是另外一个专业,不是所有人都能做的。</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>时光网:</b>你这次得奖了,能不能给还在起步阶段的年轻导演说一些什么?</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><span style="font-family: 微软雅黑;"><b>侯孝贤:</b>其实每个人都可以当导演,你只要认真,所谓的认真是什么呢?<b>认真地去关切你居住的地方,你成长的土地,还有你周遭的人,你有这种关注力,电影只是一个形式</b>,你写小说也可以,什么都可以,你任何的表达形式其实都可以帮你做到,因为你有这个心,这是最重要的</span></span></span></span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-87037168750163214892015-05-17T02:37:00.002-07:002015-05-17T02:37:48.637-07:00Jackson Pollock Hans Namuth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXsBdD4S5JNmdVlAfipgQmjmuep9rqD3xUfKXXkWaq4fiRJ9JGLo56J8zvpz9odC-OffZZQCUW_0GXJ6jm7mSbf465XvcyavSFnKcI2RP3LCYasPIBB3tMwd785ukvBapK89ct6P6VhiU/s1600/FB_AP_14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXsBdD4S5JNmdVlAfipgQmjmuep9rqD3xUfKXXkWaq4fiRJ9JGLo56J8zvpz9odC-OffZZQCUW_0GXJ6jm7mSbf465XvcyavSFnKcI2RP3LCYasPIBB3tMwd785ukvBapK89ct6P6VhiU/s400/FB_AP_14.jpg" width="390" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Hans Namuth Jackson Pollock</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-62111403940223827122015-05-17T02:33:00.004-07:002015-05-17T02:34:37.504-07:00Pollock's Studio I<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-18d37d04-6135-40f3-6cb0-b4667799789e" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: When did Pollock begin to use the Springs studio? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: We moved out there in November,1945. Pollock started to work in the bedroom upstairs in the house because the barn, which later became the studio, had to be cleared out. It was a mess, filled with lots of rough iron things and some farm implements. Mr. Quinn, the former owner of the house, had something to do with the town roads, so there were all kinds of things in there. You could barely get in, so it was a matter of clearing it out. And that would take time, so he started to work in the house. Pollock's 1947 show was painted in one of the bedrooms upstairs in the house. He painted The Key in the bedroom. I remember because it was in the '46 show. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As you know, he painted on the floor: The Key took up the whole space on the floor. He could barely walk around it. The move into the studio had to follow that, because in addition to clearing it out, we also moved it, to the site it's on now. It was directly behind the house and cut off our whole view. The next show he has is in 1948, and, he had two shows in '49. So it must have been between 1946 and 1947 that the building was cleared out and moved and he began to work in the bigger studio in the bar,. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Was there a change in scale because el Pollock's move of his studio from the bedroom to the barn, </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: Surely, since his 1950 show had some big paintings. It had One Autumn Rhythm hanging opposite it, Lavender Mist, plus the big black and white that Düsseldorf, the Muriel Newman painting in Chicago which is about the size of Lavender Mist, plus some other big things. However, I want to point out that before we moved out to Springs, when we were living on 8th St., Peggy Guggenheim commissioned the mural which I believe is the largest painting Pollock ever painted. That was in 1943. Incidentally, that's not painted on the floor. Pollock didn't always paint on the floor, although he painted a great deal on the floor. For that mural, we had to rip out a wall and carry out the Plaster in buckets every night. We weren't supposed to live in the building, which we rented from Sailor's Snug Harbor. At any rate, we needed to create a wall large enough to hold the mursl, so we broke down a partition between two rooms. That created a wall long enough for him to get that up on. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR. Was that Peggy Guggenheim's dimensions or Pollock's? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: The mural was a commission from Peggy of a fixed dimension to fit into the hallway I believe. She specified the dimension. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Can you be more specific about the date Pollock began painting in the barn? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: In 1949 he had two exhibitions. They were already painted in the barn, so I would say the move took place between '47 and'48. You would see lot of earlier work in the Namuth photographs in the barn because once the barn was cleared out we moved his paintings in. When he took the barn I took the bedroom as my studio. I do know that my mosaic table was done in 1947, before I got the bedroom. I was working in the living room. I remember I moved into the bedroom after the mosaic table was done. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: So you think you moved into the bedroom and Pollock moved his studio to the barn in late 1947?</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: it was probably in 1947, not long after Pollock had his 1947 show. </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: The first "drip" paintings were made in 1947. Do you think moving into the barn had anything to do with greater physical freedom? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: It would be very convenient to think along those lines, but I don't believe that was it. Pollock had a lot more space on 8th St. He wasn't confined to one tiny little room. I think the increase in size has more to do with the fundamental aspects of why he did what he did. He certainly needed the physical space to work as he did, but think he would have found the physical space whenever he was ready to paint with large gestures. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Do you remember how and why Pollock started the "drip" paintings? Did he speak of experimenting with a new technique? When did you first see a "drip" painting? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: I can't remember, that is the point. I am always rather astonished when I read of a given date. I actually cannot remember when I first saw them. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR, Was there a perception that he was entering a new area? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: There was certainly a sense of "I never saw this before." There is that feeling. But with Pollock one had a lot of that surprise to deal with. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Did he have a sense of how important the "drip" paintings were at the time? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: I can only surmise that, I cannot quote him. I have a feeling that he was aware of their importance. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: That they were a "breakthrough"? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: I think he was aware of that. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: When was the first time you recall seeing him paint on the floor? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: He didn't it it when we lived on 8th St. in New York. But, I remember The Key on the floor in the bedroom in 1946. I can't remember him working on the floor in New York, so he must have begun in Springs. I don't have the remotest idea of why he wanted to work on the floor. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Was there any precedent? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: The only thing I remember hearing is that he had seen the Indians sand painters working on the ground. As you know Pollock did not verbalize at all times. He kept things pretty much to himself; occasionally he said something. I only remember hearing about the Indian sand paintings from his in terms of a precedent for working on the ground. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Yet formalist critics discount the Indian influence in order to make him a thoroughly European artist. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK. Of course he was very aware of European art, but what he identified with was about as American as apple pie. His stories about the Indians -- and he made many trips to the West -- were not European in any sense. In finding this flow of paint, this thrust of paint, this aerial form which then landed, which is his so-called breakthrough, he could merge many traditions of art. You recall he had said in a '44 interview that here in the East, only the Atlantic gave a sense of space that he was accustomed to. He did work with his father, who was a surveyor, in the Grand Canyon, so he really had a sense of physical space. In finding this technique of expressing what he expressed, he merged many things out of his American background which does not disconnect him from tradition and his knowledge of European painting. It was a synthesis. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Was the barn heated at this time? Did you sense any changes in Pollock with the change of seasons? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: The barn was not heated at that time. In some early photographs you can literally see between the boards, which means it wasn't insulated or heated. And that means seasonal work. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: So he didn't work in the winter? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: No, not dead, dead winter, until later on. At one point he got one of those terrible kerosene stoves, and if he was working he would ignite it, which terrified me. A little wooden barn, full of pigment and all sorts of flammable stuff, heated by one of those kerosene pot bellies. You know, with a chimney and a big kerosene container on the bottom. Very frightening. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: When he didn't paint, did he draw? </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: Not necessarily. He really worked in cycles. When he was working, the weather didn't especially stop him. He would put layers and layers of clothing on and would ignite that kerosene thing and work. But there were some months, about three months of the year when it was bitter, bitter cold out there. Otherwise. he could manage somehow or other. He did an enormous amount of work considering that there was no heat in the barn. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Did you feel that temperamentally the seasons had an affect on him out there? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: At the time I wasn't aware of it as such. Certainly his relationship to nature was intense. For example, the moon had a tremendous affect on him, and he liked gardening. Just walking on the beach in the winter time, with snow on the sand was exciting. He identified very strongly with nature. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: What do you mean by the moon having an affect on him? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: He painted a series of moon pictures, and spoke about it often. This is one of the things we had in common, because the moon had quite an affect on me too. It made me feel more emotional, more intense - it would build a momentum of some sort for me. He spoke of the moon quite often. In the explanation of Portrait in a Dream I referred to, he spoke of the “dark side of the moon”. There was a whole series of moon paintings, Moon Woman, Mad Moon Woman, Moon Woman Cuts the Circle.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Do you know where his knowledge of mythology came from? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: I think his interest in myth originally stems from one of his high school teachers in California. I can’t remember the man’s name, but he was interested in Eastern philosophy. He introduced him to Eastern philosophy, and consequently he attended many lectures by Krishnamurti. All of which happened long before I met him. By the time I had met him, he had been in Jungian analysis. That would be more in that direction. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">BR: Did he know anything about Indian legends actually? </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LK: I know that he used to relate how his father took him on trips where they used to see where the Indians used to live, so he must have had some contact back there. How much he knew of the myths, I don't know. He had the Smithsonian books on the American Indian. I think there were twelve volumes of that, and sin, ho had them I aasume he had road them. In there, he could have dug out myths, if he didn't know of them prior to that.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Barbara Rose: Jackson Pollock at work: an interview with Lee Krasner June 27,1978 found <a href="http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/container/viewer/Barbara-Rose-Interview-286262">here</a>.</span></i></span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-17335663088856338752015-05-17T00:12:00.002-07:002015-05-17T00:26:11.893-07:00Jackson Pollock Hans Namuth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Jackson Pollock Hans Namuth</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-33023113497222454432015-05-17T00:05:00.000-07:002015-05-17T00:05:01.778-07:00Hans Namuth II<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, what about coming back to New York and getting out of the
Army? What kind of plans did you have? Or did you have any?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: None. I had only a vague idea of making a success of myself and
earning a huge amount of money. To which it never came. But I was determined
to take shortcuts and not to return to photography at first.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, really!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It was an entire mistake.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What did you want to do initially?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I wanted to raise a family and have enough, earn enough money
to travel and do photography only as a hobby. Which I continued to do right
away while I was working with a firm that was engaged in research to make waterproof
paper, some kind of industrial engineers. Fortunately for me, that firm went
bankrupt and I found myself without a job. And I immediately went back to photography
without any hesitation and realized that for a full year and a half I had been
very unhappy. I was doing something that really was not my dish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So what did you do then? Did you set up a studio? Or how did
you start?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I started very timidly. I worked out of my kitchen as a darkroom
and did location work and some assignments for architectural magazines. Then,
as fate would have it, I encountered Alexey Brodovitch and took the courses
that he was giving at The New School of Social Research on direction and photography.
And that encounter with this man probably changed my life. He was no doubt one
of the great teachers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did you pick him? Did you just meet him socially? Or through
other photographers?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Through other photographers. It was also my ambition to be published
in <i>Harper's Bazaar</i>, of which he was the art director. I first started
to study with him and then eventually was invited to work at the Bazaar. My
association with the magazine lasted for several years . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How was he as a teacher compared to . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Ruthless, absolutely ruthless.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Really?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. He was absolutely devastating. And so often quite negative.
But because of his ruthlessness he actually was able to change people's direction
and thinking. He would never let any mediocrity pass by. In the weekly assignments
that we were given when somebody was asked to show his work the following week
and started to explain why he hadn't done any work or why he had done mediocre
work, giving the excuse that he was too busy with other things, or that his
grandmother had died, or some such, his answer to that was, "No alibis!
No alibis!" spoken in a Russian accent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did he differ from Breitenbach as a teacher?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, well, his field was entirely different. Breitenbach taught
me techniques. Brodovitch taught me to think.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I see. I see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: And Brodovitch constantly made us think in new terms when we were
approaching the problem, be it fashion photography, or still life, or portraiture,
or reportage, he always made us think how to do it differently, how to find
new ways of studying a man's or a woman's face and how to bring out new approaches.
This had nothing to do with technique. He knew nothing about techniques himself.
But he knew how to . . . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Develop an image and an idea. That's fascinating.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: As you know, some of the most famous photographers were his students
at one time or another. Like Richard Avedon, Hero, Tam, many, many others. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, it's amazing. Everybody seems to have worked with him at
one point. But he also seemed to have been terribly influential about the developing
of their careers after they had been students of his. Was that true of you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, well, we became friends. Actually until his death there was
a constant rapport. I have the last letter he wrote me; I think I received it
about a month before he died. So from 1949 on we were always quite closely associated
with each other in one way or another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You mentioned that you started taking architectural photographs
for magazines. Was that because you were interested in architecture?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. I have always been interested in design and architecture.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, really?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I've always felt it was a challenge and to this day I like architecture
and give a great deal of my time to architectural photography. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Would you say that's an area in which you've specialized? -
because, I mean, there are so many kinds of things that you've done. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, no, there is no specialization in my photography. I like
to work with people even better. I like to do portraiture. And now, as you know,
films.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You have done fashion photography and everything.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I have done very little fashion photography; well, I did children's
fashions a great deal, yes; for many years. I did a campaign for Dunmoor shirts
for boys. Back in 1950 I actually coined the approach in children's fashions
which is now widely accepted but which at that time was still very revolutionary.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How would you describe that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I wanted children to be themselves instead of posing them in stiff
poses. I took them out of doors. I spoke to them. I made them play games. And
while they were forgetting they were being photographed I photographed them.
The pictures that came out of these sessions were very alive and very spontaneous
instead of stilted. Then of course I photographed my artists.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did that start? Have you always been friendly with artists
since living here? Or are they just people you're in tune with.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes, I've always been friends of artists. But my actual involvement
started with Jackson Pollock back in 1949. Through Pollock I met so many other
artists that I soon became sort of their photographer. When they needed something
they usually called me. And this is usually not a business relationship but
I felt that somebody had to record them. And I think I was one of the few people
who photographed, for instance, Clyfford Still way back in 1950 when he was
really very much of a recluse and still is to this day. I was able to break
through to him thanks to Barney Newman. And one thing led to another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did you meet Pollock? Who was that through, or with? Do
you remember?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, in a way Brodovitch was responsible for that because he
made me aware of the importance of Pollock. I went to one of Pollock's first
shows at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1949, I believe it was - well, I'm not sure
that it was Pollock's first show at Betty's, but it was for me the first show
of Pollock's at Betty's that I had seen. I had absolutely no rapport with Pollock
at all. It was thanks to Brodovitch that I made an effort and went back several
times. And as luck would have it, we rented a house in the Hampton's that year,
that summer, and I immediately became involved with the community activities
in East Hampton. There was an opening of a show of artists of the region one
day and Pollock had a few paintings there. And he was present also. I took my
courage in two hands and approached him and very timidly asked him if I could
come to his studio some day and photograph it. I mentioned to him that I felt
encouraged to ask him because of Brodovitch whom he knew. And immediately that
broke the ice, the mention of his name. Jackson said yes, and we made a date.
I asked, "May I bring my camera and take some pictures?" and he said,
"Sure." The day I arrived he told me that unfortunately he was all
through with the painting but that, of course, I could take some pictures of
him standing there. I asked him, "Could I see what you have just done?"
He said, "Sure, come on in." And in his studio, which you are probably
familiar with, on the floor was an enormous brown painting dripping wet; and
the painting was finished. I was very discouraged and was ready to go home and
asked him I could come back another time. Suddenly he looked at the painting
and started to correct something. Before I knew it he had a pot of paint in
his hand and a brush and then he started to paint and he destroyed what he had
made before and a brand new painting emerged after - I don't know - half an
hour. In the meantime I started taking pictures. You know, he obviously was
not aware of my presence. I shot roll after roll. I was terribly excited. Some
of the pictures were terribly unsharp. Even those unsharp ones became part of
the series which really shows the creative process because those are the same
pictures that you are probably familiar with. And that started the relationship
with Pollock. From that day on I was accepted. Especially after he saw what
I had done; you know, a week or two later I brought him some of the pictures
and that sealed our relationship.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Have you spent summers out in the Hamptons since then?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Ever since, yes. At first we rented a house, then eventually we
found one to buy. It's over twenty-one years that we've been going out there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Getting into - it's hard to know which question to ask first
here sometimes - you spent - what? - most of the summer weekends out there pretty
much like you do now and worked in the city? Or did you spend a month or so?
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No. Most of the summer weekends. My wife and the children were
out there all summer and I returned to the city to work. I soon moved out of
my improvised studio which I had at the house and I found a place, thanks to
a painter by the name of George Sackby, at Third Avenue and 22nd Street, for
$100 a month, almost as big as my present one. And from that day on I was a
professional. I actually had some very good accounts. I photographed automobiles;
which was very lucrative. I photographed commercial ads for magazines. I worked
a great deal with Paul Rand, whom you probably know. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, really? Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: He also became a good friend. He is probably one of the most creative
advertising people around. And always coming back to my first and old love,
photographing painters. The relationship with Pollock led to my first film -
the one we have just . . . Did you see it? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes. The one done in 1951.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: We started it in 1950 and finished it in 1951. All the outdoor
scenes and the glass, all that was done in 1950.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did the glass come about? That wasn't his idea, was it?
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No. It was my idea. I started this film as one starts still photography,
when one takes pictures, only the medium was different. When I suddenly realized
that a film is a different kettle of stew and that one needed to have a different
complexion of things. I had already called my friend Paul Frankenberg into this,
and we worked on the Pollock film together. He studied what I had taken on the
weekends and we saw it together and then discussed it and he mad suggestions
on what to do. He never came out from behind the scenes but directed me and
on a shoestring slowly evolved the bit of film. But I felt something was needed.
My aim was to show, if possible, the man not just in the act of painting, but
what's happening inside, what takes place in his face. How could I show that?
One sleepless nigh I suddenly hit on the idea of showing him through glass.
And when I suggested this idea to him he jumped on it. He said it was a great
idea. And he built this construction on which the glass was resting; he was
a great stage carpenter. He bought this piece of glass for ten dollars. It is
probably worth $100,000 now. This glass painting is now in Ottawa, Canada. I
don't know how much they paid for it but at least that much, they paid Marlborough
at least that much. We had no light. It was done in the open. We had the sun
at the correct angle. We knew exactly when to start work. I was lying flat on
my back photographing up, filming up, watching him work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Was this the first film you made? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It was the very first, with one exception: I did some black and
white footage on Pollock before doing the color as a sort of rehearsal exercise.
But it turned out that this black and white footage, which I had neglected for
many years and forgotten about, is also very exciting and I think should be
preserved and perhaps made into a film, a different kind of film than the other
Pollock one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Was he enthusiastic, as the various weekend sessions went on?
You know, how did he like being an actor?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It worked. I mean it wasn't that he was . . . After all, I was
an unknown photographer and he could have done this with somebody much more
professional than I was. But somehow he trusted me. And I think it was a great
sign of friendship, or rather trust, rather than thinking that he is going to
be in a movie, as somebody who is writing a book on Pollock implies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, really?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Because he was very difficult at times, you know, from what
people have told me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: What do you mean?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, he was a very difficult personality at times.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. E was very taciturn - is that the word? Somehow we didn't
need to understand each other. We had some kind of chemistry going, that immediately
. . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You could just do what you were doing and it worked. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. I knew how not to abuse his time and I didn't intrude too
much. I just worked it so that I was not a nuisance. Actually, we both looked
forward to our sessions as it happened. During the time we were making the film
he was on he wagon, he was no drinking. The day we finished shooting the last
of the glass scene was a very cold October day and we were both frozen stiff
as we had come to the end of a roll, and I called it . . . Will you excuse me
a second?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">[break in taping]</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Let's kind of just pursue the general activity after - How long
did it take to really do the whole Pollock film? That was a series of summer
weekends and then was put together?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Right. Then we put in the missing pieces at Bey Parson's Gallery
in 1951 before doing his show then. And at the same time we put together a number
of written statements of Pollock's together and, helped by him and adding a
few new things, we did the narration. The narration, as you know, was a voice-over
done at the beginning of 1951 in New York City. Pollock being very nervous and
very self-conscious about the whole thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Interestingly enough, I have a tape here that kind of stems from
a radio interview that he gave in Provincetown after we had made this film and
in which he often refers back to the glass painting and events. He was much
less self-conscious. I have it here. If you're interested . . . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, yes, I'd love to. That's fascinating. There are very few
. . . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Actually it was in the Jackson Pollock catalogue - it was transcribed
and is in the catalogue of the big Pollock show.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, the Museum of Modern Art one? The Francis O'Connor?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: It's good to know where it is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I have one copy, the Museum has one, and Lee Pollock has one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Because there's so little material on him either talking or
writing or anything.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, you were doing all kinds of photography then. You've talked
about the automobile accounts and he children's fashions. One thing I'd like
to talk about for a while is the architecture. You've done a fair amount of
that, I think, over the years. It's a kind of consistent activity. Do you work
for the magazine in that case? or for the architect? or the builder? or how
does that generally work? or is it something that interests you and you go out
and do the buildings? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, again, I think that, aside from my interest in design, I
was helped by a personal encounter in he early fifties with Peter Blake. I met
him actually through Jackson. I met many interesting people through Jackson:
like Clem Greenberg; Tony Smith - Tony was a great friend of Jackson's; and
Barney Newman; an endless lot of people. Peter Blake had done a model for an
exhibition showing Pollock's paintings inside an enormous room. I think the
model is still in existence. At least it was published in one of the books,
I think in the catalogue. So through Peter I became associated with a great
number of architects. We did several things together. For instance, we did a
story on the New Canaan and Westport architects who had all emerged from Harvard
under Gropius; we did six architects in their own houses designed by themselves
for Holiday magazine. Peter wrote the text and I did the photography. Breuer,
Eliot Noyes, George Hanson, the three others I can't think of. Then I was commissioned
by Harper's Bazaar to photograph Saarinen, Paul Rudolph, Gropius in Cambridge.
And this way my vision was enlarged enormously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: When you would work on a project like that would you work with
the architect? or really just photograph his buildings? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Preferably with the architect, but it's not always possible; sometimes
it is. Peter and I did many projects together that were not houses designed
by Peter but he had picked them; they were his personal choice. It was very,
very wonderful to work with a man like Peter Blake, you know, to see his vision
and combine it with my concept. It worked beautifully.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Working with an architect would you do things from his point
of view about how he wanted things? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No, not necessarily. I would certainly listen to what he had to
say and carefully follow his concept, but that would not rule out my own interpretation
of the thing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Right. Did you find any of them particularly rewarding or exciting
to work with, or difficult?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I always liked Paul Rudolph's work. Even twenty years ago when
he was just starting he did a few houses in Sarasota and elsewhere in Florida.
George Hanson is wonderful to work with. Eliot Noyes. It's like seeing a work
of art alone and then with the person who did it. It's really a different depth,
a different perspective, and a new dimension.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Do you think that your photographs of buildings or series of
buildings obviously present your idea of them? Or are you trying through the
photograph to show the building for, say, somebody who couldn't go there and
see it in reality?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: There are only two or three ways you can photograph a building,
a good building that you like. That is to show it to the best advantage. You
can easily distort the thing and make it ugly. But you can also somehow redesign
it in a way by choosing the best possible moment of the day, the best light,
the best angle. I think that the honest way is always the best way. The straightforward
way, no tricks and no gimmicks way, is in my opinion, still the best. But when
you have a choice of photographing the building in a very dim light, and have
a choice of making it strong by using a filter, I think one should choose the
latter approach to the building. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Do you have enough time to study the building?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I shall take the time. Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You do? So you look at it and find the angles that you want
to use and things?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I think it's very important. Like all work, things done in haste
usually don't come off. So one has to take the time it takes to do it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: If you're photographing a large building do you take many, many,
many photographs, or selectively?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, selectively, certainly. I've never really photographed a very,
very large building. I only photograph houses really. I don't know how I might
. . . Well, I've done Saarinen's Ark in St. Louis. That was a beautiful work
of art. It's a monument. But there I interpreted things completely wildly and
freely, and, as it turned out very excitingly. It's beautiful photography.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did you do the - there's one incredible kind of angle photograph
of the work that seems to go up like that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It was published in the Forum. Is that where you saw it? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I think so, yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: There were six pages of photographs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes. What kind of camera would you use on a project like that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: What project? - the Ark?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: A 35 millimeter camera.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: For everything?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No, for that; for that particular project. But usually when I
do architectural photography I take a view camera with a tripod and a black
cloth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Eight by ten?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Four by five. Although I have done things with an eight by ten.
Which is still my favorite camera. I think I told you that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You like the large . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I like the large. Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: There is something exquisite about working on that large ground
glass . . . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Every shot counts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, do you find in doing the houses - there are a lot of interiors
you've done as I remember, and people's collections are there and furniture
- do you find that there are similar problems? Or does each house . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Each house has a different problem entirely. In fact, I welcome
that. I don't like routine assignments. As I usually forget what I did the last
time, everything is a new experience and a new agonizing challenge. I have a
bad memory and I start from scratch each time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: When you do a series of photographs like that, do you kind of
plan some kind of visual story? Or are they just a series of images . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: When I do a building, or a house rather, completely on my own,
I study it first and I decide which are the angles, which are the rooms, and
which are the angles in the rooms to do. Then the next thing to solve is the
lighting, how to do it best. So the plan is being made after having seen the
house and studied it. And then one just follows through. To do a house takes
very often more than a day - I'm talking about a normal small house, not a large
one - and often two days, sometimes more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Depending on how complex and . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Exactly. However, I do like to work with the editor or the architect
on the project. It's too much work otherwise. I photographed DeKooning's studio
last weekend, last Monday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, the big place out there. I haven't seen it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: You haven't seen the place at all?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: No.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I can show you the pictures.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: It's incredible, I hear. All the space . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, it's completely wild, and yet it falls so well together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It's marvelous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Who designed it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: DeKooning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: He did?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. He made many mistakes apparently. He tore things down again.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's an expensive way to design, isn't it? You know, one of
the things I'm trying to get at is, you know, things that you did for <i>Horizon</i>
or <i>Holiday</i> and various other magazines. Could you develop an idea for
them, or do they come to you usually and say: here's a project?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Both ways. I've done both. In the case of <i>Horizon</i> they
called me in the first time they did a large story on a particular part of the
country, the Housatonic Valley. Did you see those?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I don't think I remember that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Would you like to see them?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Then after we did that and it was very successful, I suggested
that they should do the same thing for the eastern part of Long Island. And
we did that eventually four years later.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Are these projects that you will take a week off to do, or two
weeks? Or are they done piecemeal?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No, this was done in one period of time. It was very well researched
by the staff of the magazine, and well organized. I think we did a number of
. . . Well, let me get the book. Here is Norman Rockwell. This is Ted Shawn.
This is a group of artists I never heard from again, the Independent Six. I
don't think you know them; do you know heir names? Lindstrom, Fred Lancome,
Stanley Bate, Homer Gann, Franc Epping, Harry Lane.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: No.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: That was 1960. Imagine that. Zino Francescatti, Richard Dyer Bennett,
Mack Morgan, the singer. Russell Lynes. Robert Osborn. These were great fun.
I had known him before. Nice to work with him. James Thurber. Lewis Gannett.
Mark Van Doren. All of these were done in color, but later on I found I couldn't
do them all. Malcolm Cowley, Leonie Adams, Edmund Fuller, Peter Blume, Russell
Carls.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I know him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Do you know him! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes? Do you know this house?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: No.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: God, I found it so incredibly beautiful. I wonder if he's still
there?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I don't know. That's in New Milford?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: New Milford, yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I think so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Try to find out because - </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I think he still is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: You see, it goes on and on. William Styron. Lawrence Langner is
dead now. And Louis Untermeyer. This I think took - let me see - we did two
a day. There are eighteen. So it took ten days. I think we went out for two
weeks' time, five days each. And we were terribly lucky that it didn't take
two months. Nobody had he mumps. And everybody was there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Everybody was there and it worked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Very few people were hostile. I remember when we knocked at James
Thurber's door. We were absolutely on time. When he finally came to open the
door he took one look at us, and the editor said a few words and said we were
here from Horizon magazine to photograph him. And he said, "We have photographers
and other people have mice!" There was a nice reception for you. You know,
I felt like turning around and slamming the door. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Time to leave.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Anyhow he said, "Since you are here, won't you come in."
And then, strangely enough, he warmed up so completely, so beautifully that
within half an hour he said to me, "Have you seen my latest book?"
- which at that time was My Years with Ross. I said, No, but I've been reading
it in the New Yorker. He motioned to his wife to bring him a copy. She did.
He took a pen and opened to a page and said, "How do you spell your name?"
And then he made a drawing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, marvelous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: For the drawing he did like this. And then he handed the book
not to me but to his wife with the pen and she put in two dots, one here and
one there, and then she gave the book to me and said something nice. The drawing
was the face of a dog and the two dots - he couldn't see well enough to place
the dots - one dot was for the eye and one was for the mouth. And that was it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's marvelous. We've got to stop on that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><cite>Oral history interview with Hans Namuth, 1971 Aug. 12-Sept. 8, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Found <a href="http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-hans-namuth-13000">here</a>.</cite></span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-39917339616958356812015-05-16T23:53:00.001-07:002015-05-16T23:54:18.335-07:00Jackson Pollock Hans Namuth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-size: small;">Jackson Pollock Hans Namuth</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-24153912003380301682015-05-16T23:44:00.002-07:002015-05-17T00:06:26.121-07:00Hans Namuth I<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: It's August 12, 1971 - Paul Cummings talking to Hans Namuth
in his studio in New York City. You were born in Germany - right?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Right.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Could you tell me something about life there and growing up
and education and how you got started? You were born in - what? - 1915?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. I grew up during the war years and inflation. I have memories
of the French Occupation and shooting in the streets. The French occupied Essen.
We had a French </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">deserter living with us who taught me my first French. I went to the equivalent
of a gymnasium, Humboldt Oberrealschule in Essen, hating school, loathing school.
I would say it was a prison. Eventually I started to work in a bookshop in Essen
at the age of seventeen and became very affiliated with Leftist groups in 1932
when everything was brewing and for a moment we didn't know whether they were
going to go all the way Left or all the way Right. I think the Communist and
the Socialist Parties at the time lost a big chance of gaining power in Germany
by not uniting in 1931-1932. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's interesting. That seems to be quite a common feeling,
because I've talked to other people who grew up in Germany around that period
and they said pretty much the same thing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: People who seem to have the same type of sensibility.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Things were a little bit different for me because my father joined
the Nazi Party in 1931 after a bad Liberal life, I mean life as a Liberal. He
suddenly became disillusioned about the economic decline he found himself in
and joined the S.A., Storm Troopers, Brown Shirts, and became some kind of district
leader in it. Which brought us only further apart.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Before we get really this far, what did you do in school? Did
you have brothers and sisters?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I have a sister who is younger than I. She lives in Canada. What
did I do in school?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did you have any particular pursuits, or things that you liked
or disliked?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No. I should mention the fact that the thing that marked me most
for life was the German Youth Movement which I found myself drawn into. This
was a very Liberal and, as it turned out later on, anti-Nazi movement which
could almost be compared to today's Hippiemovement and the communes and the
return to earth and back to nature kind of thing. We went out every weekend
and every vacation. We discovered the countries. We traveled all over the place
hiking a great deal. Once a week we'd meet at various spiritual meetings for
singing and so forth. This kind of thing. I joined this movement when I was
twelve and stayed with it for three or four years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Was there an interest in your home in literature or music or
art, things like that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. My mother was very much responsible for pushing me into musical
activities, art, and so forth. I must point out that Essen had already then
a very important museum, the Folkwang Museum and the Folkwang school. The museum
had an extraordinarily good collection of German Expressionists and French Impressionists,
all of which were banned later on. I became thoroughly familiar with art before
I reached the age of seventeen, with contemporary art, I should say - Klee,
Cezanne, Max Liebermann. I got all my artistic background actually away from
school that way. I joined evening classes at the Folkwang Museum. I took trips
on weekends to visit the Baroque churches of Westphalia. I became politically
more and more active, especially when on January 33, 1933, Hitler was elected
to power. I'll never forget the night this happened. I listened to the news
on my radio, a crystal type radio with earphones which I had built myself. Von
Papen had appointed Hitler to become chancellor. This was the most horrible
event of my youth because I realized then that eventually this would mean war.
And I had been a pacifist for the previous two years of my life. Shortly afterwards,
in July of that year, I was arrested for political activities and spent some
days in this terrible prison in Brettinghausen near Essen. I got out thanks
to my father's intervention. And after I was out I set everything in motion
to get out of Germany. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Were you still working in the bookstore?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes, I was working in the bookstore.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That lasted for . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: That lasted almost until I was ready to leave. Which I did in
September. I left Essen and Germany and father and mother and everything on
September 20, 1933. I was eighteen years old. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did your parents know about your leaving?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I made it appear to be a temporary exile. I said that I would
be back very soon. Which, of course, I had no intention of doing. But this made
the departure easier for them. I never went back. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Working in a bookstore you must have had all kinds of availability
for information and everything?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, of course; all vibrations, cultural, political, human, started
there and were centered there. This really brought me into close contact with
life. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Where did you go? Did you know where you were going when you
left?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. I went straight to Paris. That was the only place to go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Was there a reason to go there other than to . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, the reason was that I knew somebody who was going there
also. We more or less went together, and for the first few weeks and for the
first two weeks or so shared a room together in Paris. He was somebody who had
already been there before, so it was easier for me to get acquainted with Paris
and, most of all, find a way of making a living. That was the most difficult
thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What could you do in Paris at that age in the thirties?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: The first thing I did was to sell newspapers in the streets, the
<i>Paris Soir</i>. Actually, that went very well, except that I was scared of
the police because I was not allowed to work. I had a four weeks' visitor's
visa when I arrived and intended to stay with that. And did for years. The French
police were very tough, very tough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, weren't you checked? Did you have to register?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I had to report to the police and I was eventually recognized
as a refugee. But it was very difficult to be under a constant threat of expulsion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did you get to know other people in Paris who were coming there
from Germany or Austria?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, yes. In fact, I was helped with some committees with assistance
and advice and help with my papers, restaurant coupons, lunches and things like
that. Eventually I met all the Liberals of that time, including a writer who
became a very good friend, Rudolph Leonhardt, who recently died in Berlin. Slowly,
gropingly, I started on my way up from newspaper boy to plongeur (which is a
dishwasher), to researcher, secretary, and a few months in the Pyrenees on a
Quaker farm, an experimental farm.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How in the world did you get involved with that? That's kind
of unusual.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It had to do with an unhappy love affair. I was in love with a
girl who left Paris for what is now Israel, then Palestine. For me then Paris
had lost all its meaning and attraction. I went to join the people on the farm.
Eventually I couldn't stand it any longer, and I up and left to join this girl
in Palestine. I never reached her in Palestine. But I went all the way through
Italy and landed in Greece in 1935 where I learned that the girl had gotten
married to somebody else. Thereupon I joined a friend who in the meantime had
become a photographer and had asked me to join him in an enterprise in Mallorca.
I left Greece for Spain in July or August 1935. We had a photographic studio
in Puerto de Pollensa on Mallorca. We photographed people and did what was for
that time some very excellent portraiture work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Was this your first involvement with photography?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: This was my first involvement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That was the beginning of it?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, had you had interest in anything specific before that?
Or were you just trying out these things?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: My dream had been to become a director in the theater, which I
think if Hitler had not come to power I would have taken that direction. Photography
is very close to that in a way because you direct people when you photograph
them. And this was sort of my sublimation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I'm always curious about so many who have directorial interests
who have ended up involved in photography and various aspects of the arts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. I'm often asked whether I had ever wanted to become a painter.
The answer is no, I never wanted to become a painter. I did want to become a
director.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Had you gone to a lot of theater?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, yes! God, yes! Germany had an excellent theater and probably
still does because it's Subsidized by both state and city governments.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's very interesting. How long did you stay then in Mallorca?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Until the season ended, which was in late October. We went back
to Paris and continued to work as a team in Ivry-sur-Seine which, you know,
is in the outskirts of Paris. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Who was this other person?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: George Reichner. He was my age. We were very, very good friends.
He died in 1940 in Marseilles, a suicide. He couldn't take it any longer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: But that really developed your interest in getting back to Paris
and working. What did you do there? The same kind of photography?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Reportage, mostly, portraiture. Those were the days I think when
Life magazine was founded, just barely founded, and the great French magazine
<i>Vu</i> (V-u), which was I think the forerunner of <i>Life</i>, only better;
the great Monsieur Vorgere who later on came to New York and died here. In late
June 1936 we went back to Mallorca, back to Puerto de Pollensa, back to the
same house and installed ourselves. We had an assignment for <i>Vu</i> to photograph
the events of the Olympics in Barcelona, which was like a counter Olympics to
the Munich Olympics, the German Olympics - no, they were held in Nuremberg,
I believe - I've forgotten where they were held. It was sort of the free countries
of the world assembled in Barcelona, and they tried to attract Socialist countries
like Czechoslovakia, Poland, even the Scandinavian countries. The French sent
a team. Then on July 18, 1936, Franco, as you know, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar
and landed in Spain and started the Civil War. Only it did not take the course
he had planned. Half of Spain was immediately fighting back the Franco forces.
And so was Barcelona; after a short period of fighting Barcelona became Republican.
As did all the south of Spain - Valencia, Madrid, Malaga. All the northern part,
with the exception of the Asturias, remained in the hands of Franco. And so
all of a sudden we found ourselves in the midst of a civil war as photographers.
Which was a fantastic event and, in a way, a great journalistic chance to show
our alertness. I remember I woke up in the pensione where we were staying to
sounds of what I thought were fireworks. I thought the festive event had started.
Instead it was machine gun fire. I looked out the window and there was a cannon
in front of my window and shooting away. So we took our . . . I can show you
some of the pictures that I've saved from that time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How long were you in Spain then?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Of course we lost everything we had left behind in Puerto de Pollensa,
because Mallorca was overrun by the Franco forces. We stayed almost a year in
Spain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Were you sending things back?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: We sent things to Paris. We had an agent there who distributed
them. We had things published all over the world. Let me see, I left in March
1937 and went back to Paris. Things became very sticky in Spain because slowly
the Communist Party took over. Russia was the only power that actively helped
Spain. All the other countries united in the non-aggression, non-intervention
agreements that Leonard Blum had so foolishly advocated then. It became very
difficult for us not to join the Communist Party. We felt no inclination to
do so, especially in light of the Moscow trials which were at their height in
those days, 1936. You may remember Radek and everybody else was put on trial.
Koestler's famous book <i>Darkness at Noon</i>, surely you remember, gives you
an idea of what we knew and learned about. Although we felt very much in sympathy
with all of the Leftist causes, we just couldn't think of giving active support.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did you feel a great deal of pressure from the government or
the people to . . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. Very much so. Very much so.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Do you think more so because you were photographers than they
would normally do, or not? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, one . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Because you were doing things that went out all into the world?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes, of course, we were kept under very strict surveillance. Our
sympathies lay with the Spanish Republican cause, and we had a very good reputation.
We were not harassed by the government. But actually we were harassed by the
Russians. I was arrested at one point, and Louis Fischer, the American, saved
my life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, really!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: In fact, I think he writes about this episode in <i>Men and Politics</i>
at one point in his memoirs. We were standing with him and a group of correspondents
near the front lines in Madrid. The first Russian tanks had arrived, which was
a marvelous event because, you know, at last they were able to fight back. And
we with our cameras became under suspicion to have photographed the tanks; I
was - not George. The Russian commander wanted me to climb into his tank and
be carried off to some distance. I refused to do so. Since he didn't speak any
French or German or Spanish, Louis Fischer, who happened to be around, interpreted
and prevented him from carrying me off, and suggested finally that I turn over
my film. Which I did; I emptied my camera and handed him the film and that was
the end of it. Harassment of this kind became more frequent. In fact, my friend
George spent a few days in the famous jail in Barcelona. When he was freed he
decided to quit. Much to my regret. My whole heart was in this fight, and I
had a horror of going back to the indifference of the Western world. When I
returned to Paris I just couldn't understand how indifferent everybody was to
what was going on. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Really! I always got the feeling that many people were involved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: People; yes; but not nations. And not even the majority of people.
Intellectuals were involved. But the whole French press without exception was
. . . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Why do you think it was so important to the intellectuals and
not so much to other types of people?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Because that movement was being played. They were the ones who
foresaw the events to come. You know, like in other periods of history, the
artists and the intellectuals sense more of what the events of the day prepare.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What did you do then on returning to Paris?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: We continued photography. In 1938 the World's Fair took place
in Paris and that opened up, as far as work was concerned, a great number of
opportunities for us and we did very well as a team again. Also we became more
known. We had made a reputation during the Spanish Civil War.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Were you specializing at that point in any kind of work?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Reportage. Just journalistic work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That was it. Well, in doing that and being involved with all
kinds of people, did you develop associations in the intellectual world? Or
did that shift because of your activities? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: You mean my relation to art and artists?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, I mean writers and people like that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. Since I was always associated with the Leftist cause, obviously
I was very much involved with the intellectual movement of the time. I think
we should come to... </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">[break in taping] </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You were talking about the World's Fair in Paris?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, yes, that and various other things. I remember we photographed
Titulescu, the Romanian statesman who was in Paris at that time. And we interviewed
photographically as well as in writing the President of Catalonia, Cavallero,
who was later on killed by the Germans. We had, I think, a fairly good business.
But there was always Spain, and the Spanish Civil War continued. It ended in
1939, that same year that World War II began. The Civil War ended in March and
World War II broke out in September. So the outbreak of the World War found
us in Paris. I was then, as I was in 1933, a German refugee as far as the French
authorities were concerned. I still had my papers not in order and was always
reporting once a month to the prefecture to get my blue stamp and so forth.
So when war broke out against Germany we were asked to let ourselves be interned
by the French authorities. The notice was published in the newspapers that we
were all to report at such ands such a time to the sports stadium of Paris.
I was one of the last ones to go. I realized that if I tried to stay away that
sooner or later I would get caught. And then one of my most miserable periods
of my stay in France began with this humiliating experience of being interned
by the country that we were willing to serve and to help in the fight against
Hitler. It was really miserable. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Where did they put you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, first for days on end we were under the stars in the open
in the big sports arena.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, they just kept you there?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes; until finally they transported us to Brioc in the center
of France where we interned again in a circus, in a tent, for a period of time.
And then eventually we were sent to a village called Villeurbanne - I mean my
group was - and this turned out to be one of the better camps, concentration
camps, I should say, around. We had relative freedom to walk about during the
day and play chess; that is actually all we did. Fortunately I had a passion
for chess playing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Were there many people in your group?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: In this particular village we were about three hundred; we were
about ten groups of thirty each distributed over various barns and cow stables.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So it was really quite primitive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It was very primitive. Very much so, yes. And if we had decided
to escape nothing would have been easier because there were hardly any guards
around. Foolishly enough, nobody ever thought of escaping.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's extraordinary. Well, you had no communication with anybody
or anything, then, did you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, we received mail. And actually some of my French friends
visited me there. They came from Paris and spent a day. And those are the people
who reestablished my faith in France. There is always the official France and
then the other. Eventually a friend of mine and I decided to volunteer for the
Vin d'Anges, the picking of grapes. France was short of manpower. They had all
gone to the Maginot Line and there weren't enough people around to gather the
grape harvest. We spent three very tough and wonderful weeks working in the
fields with a Loire wine farmer of the most wonderful class. The days in the
fields and the nights and the winepress are unforgettable. Once a week we had
a day off and were able to roam around freely and go and have a marvelous meal
in a restaurant and so forth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: But you didn't have any identification on you that you were
. . . ?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No, we were treated as prisoners. However, when this was over
we had to go back to Villeurbanne, back to camp. About this time the French
Government had changed the law that permitted us finally to join the French
Army, the ones who wanted to. And I was one of those. We were able to sign up
in the French Foreign Legion, not for five years as had previously been the
case, but for the duration of the war. Which, of course, could have meant thirty
years. In December 1939 I became a French Legionnaire. I received my basic training
in Morocco - incidentally, I love Morocco, it's a beautiful, beautiful country.
Eventually we were off to Tunisia to fight the Italians who had just declared
war ten days before the war ended. Before we even got a chance to even get near
Tunisia the war had ended. In May 1940 the Armistice was declared leaving us
as German refugees in a very strange situation. Half of France was occupied.
Morocco under General Nogues almost went over to the Allies but then switched
to Petain, to Vichy. I October 1940 It managed finally to be demobilized thanks
to the fact that I was only engaged for the duration of the war. I went back
to Marseilles as a civilian, stateless, with no papers except a French military
passport which helped me in many situations. And eventually thanks to friends
and an American committee under Varian Fry - you may have heard of him?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: . . . and a very dear friend back in New York, Sam Barlow, who
had intervened on my behalf with the State Department, I got an American visa,
a so-called danger visa.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What kind of papers would you get - French documents?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No. I had an American visa in lieu of a passport with which I
was able to travel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So you got papers in order to get to this country then from
France?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did you get here? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, again of course that was a very serious problem. I could
not see myself going through Spain where I had been fighting Franco, and then
go back into this Gestapo- infested country and risking arrest. On the other
hand, I also risked arrest right there in Marseilles because the French had
signed an armistice which included a paragraph in which the French agreed to
surrender any German national who was named by the German authorities to them
in order to be arrested. And several people were picked up and turned over to
the Germans. By the way, Varian Fry's book has the title <i>Surrender on Demand</i>,
which is a quote actually from this paragraph of the armistice agreement. The
Gestapo was very active right in Aix-en-Provence, which is very near Marseilles.
It was very, very sticky. So in February 1941 the chance came to leave Marseilles
by boat, which was ultimately going to Martinique to serve Fort-de-France in
Martinique. And from Martinique I made my way to the Virgin Islands where I
was interviewed by the governor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, really?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I was such a strange animal. I was German and yet I had no passport;
I was traveling on an American visa in lieu of passport; I was a very strange
animal. And I was the only one to arrive. So he received me in audience. From
St. Thomas I finally fetched a boat to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where again I
was stuck for at least ten days before there was another boat finally to New
York. On April 20, 1941, I arrived in New York with a six months' visitor's
visa which actually was the form of visa I had received and very romantically
was called a "danger" visa because I was considered to be in danger,
as many others were; emergency visa I think they called it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's interesting. I always had the feeling that more people
moved as kind of organized groups when they were leaving France. But then you
read that so many did it almost individually; like you really weren't a group;
you kind of found your own way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, God, yes! The Fry Committee it was called - the official name
was the American Emergency Rescue Committee - helped many, many people out and
many of them illegally through Spain and North Africa; but always singly; nobody
could travel in groups. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So you really didn't know what was happening? It was really
a day to day . . . </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Existence. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And then of course, three months
later many who didn't make it out got trapped. Some later on joined the French
Underground. Some were arrested. The friend with whom I had been picking grapes,
Andreas Becker, was arrested in Saintes Maries de la Mer, which is a famous
artists' colony (Chagall, Arp, Max Ernst, and many, many artists had been there
or had lived there), he was arrested and taken back to Germany. Somehow he survived
this whole ordeal. Last year when I was in Germany for the first time since
I had left it with the American Army I saw him and he was well and healthy.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, you couldn't do any photography during this period, could
you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Of course not.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So you were just surviving.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: That's right. I had lost all my equipment. It was gone; confiscated
or stolen. The Gestapo came to our place in Paris and took whatever was still
there. We rescued some of my negatives and I still have some negatives of the
Spanish Civil War. I'll show you some of the prints. They are quite fantastic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You had mentioned someone that you knew in New York. So when
you arrived here you did have a point of contact?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. Sam Barlow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Right. Who is he?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I have a book here that he wrote. He's a writer, musician. He
lived in Gramercy Park. I had met him many years before that in France. He was
the first one to greet me here in New York, and he helped me to establish myself.
As it turned out, I was not allowed to work here at first. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, sure, because you had a visitor's visa.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Because I had a visitor's visa. And it was absolutely silly. I
had to ask for permission; I had to get a labor permit which took months to
get. In the meantime I started to work first as - what should I call it? - a
tutor in a little college town in Michigan - Albion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, yes. How in the world did you get out there? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: This was suggested to me by a committee in New York, the American
Committee for Christian Refugees. It was one of the committees that sprang up.
They actually did a great deal to help. You know, how could we find our way
through this mass of red tape and get a labor permit and so forth and so on.
And I welcomed this. First of all, I wanted to know more about this country.
To go to the Middle West seemed at that time quite exciting to me. This was
still in the deepest isolationist period in America. America did not want to
enter the war, you remember. I found it outrageous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, you had seen quite a different thing happen. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I had great missionary zeal. I wanted to say to everybody that
the only thing to do was to declare war on Germany. You know, it was shocking.
It took Pearl Harbor to do that. And I got right into the center of, you know,
<i>ChicagoTribune</i>country,ColonelMcCormick, and America First. I had a very
interesting time there. In fact, even with my poor English at the time I was
asked to deliver a address to the Lions Club of Albion.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's really getting to the heartland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: The next day the Albion paper reported on the headlines, "German
Jew says America Should Enter War."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Oh, great. Fantastic.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: My task was to tutor this Professor Rathje (R-a-t-h-j-e) who was
teaching French and German at Albion College, to tutor him in both languages,
especially German. I was a member of the family, so to speak.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How much time did you spend there?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: About three months. And then I was really anxious to come back
to New York.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That was enough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. In the meantime I took some time off to do some hitchhiking.
I visited a friend who was living then, as now, in Decatur, Illinois. I hitchhiked
from Albion, Michigan, to Decatur and back. I had a very, very interesting time
doing that. However, to go back to New York I had to start taking a bus. And
back in New York I managed to . . . By then I had a labor permit. But not at
first; my first job I took as a photographer without having any papers; nobody
asked any questions here. It was easy to get a social security number and card;
that was all one needed. And I started working as an assistant . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Where was that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: In some big studio called Stone-Wright on Fourth Avenue, now Park
Avenue South near Union Square. I remember my weekly salary was fifteen dollars.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: That's incredible. Even then.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It was ridiculous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: For what kind of work?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: At first it was just darkroom work and then slowly - oh, I'm wrong,
it was thirty dollars, and thanks to doing a lot of overtime sometimes it was
double that. But still it was very little. Eventually I left and took a job
with a very well-known photographer, Johnny Pruesser. Do you know him? He's
an artist who turned photographer. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I know the name. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: That was where I learned really most of American ways of photography
and dealings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Well, you hadn't really studied much photography, had you? You
just kind of started, didn't you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, actually I had done a great deal of studying with a man
in Paris, Joseph Breitenbach, who is now in New York. When I came to New York
I studied again with him here for awhile to catch up after the war years. He
is a marvelous teacher. He teaches at The New School and also he teaches privately.
So I had done my studying. And of course one learns by doing it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes. In the early years were there any photographers you were
particularly interested in?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. Hoynigen-Huene; Horst; and then, as now, the greatest, Cartier-Bresson;
Robert Capa was a good friend of mine for awhile - we met in Paris and again
in Spain; Stieglitz; Paul Strand; and the great master, Weston, whom I always
loved. Those were the guiding lights of their time, and still are, especially
Weston.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: It's September 8, and this is Side 2. Well, could we start by
talking a little bit about . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Joseph Breitenbach. Yes. He is one of the oldtimers in photography,
somebody who has all the techniques at his fingertips and yet not overemphasizing
it. He can teach camera techniques, photo techniques better than anybody I know
by making it very easy: objects, chemistry. And yet he has a very personal approach
to the visual, and his photography is simply beautiful. I remember all his life
he has taken nudes and has discovered the human body as a landscape. He must
be in his seventies, and he is still doing exactly that kind of personalized
photography. He travels a lot. Every summer he goes to the Far East which he
adores.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How did you find him as a teacher? You studied with him both
in France and in New York.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Well, because simply I felt I needed to be taught. I looked around
and asked people and they recommended him to me first in Paris and then later
on - as I've already said - I felt I had to brush up, having neglected photography
during the war years. And I did my brushing up with him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How was he about matters like style? Did he develop particular
styles in the people who studied with him? Or did he let them go their own way?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: He let them go their own way, which I think is more important
than having to adopt somebody else's style.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So he really gave you a broad range of things –</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Technical things. This is what I went to him for, technique rather
than style.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Right. That's fascinating. You know, his name has come up so
often as a teacher. So many people seem to have studied with him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Maybe you should look him up. I have lost track of him recently.
But he must be in New York. He's a marvelous man. He is very well known in Germany.
He has had several national shows there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: How long did you study with him here then? - very long?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No. Over a period of months I took three evening classes. That's
all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You had shifted from one photography concern to another one.
But then you got involved with the Army quite soon after that, didn't you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What was that all about? What happened with that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I think I told you that my arriving in the United States was merely
due to the fact that France had lost the first battle of the war. And I was
then forced to flee France. Otherwise I would have stayed there; I wanted to
stay. And coming to the United States made me aware of the necessity for the
United States to enter the war. Don't forget that I came here before Pearl Harbor.
And especially in the Middle West where I spent several months - I think I've
talked about that - I felt the indifference and the isolationism terribly strongly.
My desire to do something about everything was so great that I volunteered to
join the OSS at the time. I had a number of interviews. I suppose I was about
to be called when I met my present wife who was very upset at the prospect of
my leaving so soon and I delayed things somewhat at the time when we fell in
love.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What is her name?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Carmen Herrera. She was born in France, to this day is a citizen
of Guatemala, and was brought up in Europe. Therefore I waited until I was drafted,
which came about in December 1943. I had my basic training in Spartanburg, South
Carolina, shortly after which I joined the Military Intelligence Service and
went to military training school at Camp Ritchie, Maryland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What appealed to you in all of these activities?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: What appealed to me?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: It was obviously a very interesting kind of activity than just
being another soldier.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I wanted to come to grips with the thing that had caused me to
leave Germany in the first place, the politics. I wanted to combat the forces
that had driven me out of Germany and Europe - Nazism, Hitler. I was very much
of an idealist in those days. The only way for me to do that was to fight and
to enter the war. I would never have shown the same ardor if I had been sent
to the Far East, incidentally. I wasn't interested. That was not my war. My
war was in Europe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: So it was your personal situation that made it more important
to you than otherwise. That's fascinating. So where did you go and what happened
to you then? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I was in England for about six months before D-Day, mostly in
Tenby, in the south of Wales. When the invasion came I was with the Second Infantry
Division. We landed at Omaha Beach a few days before D-Day in June 1944. I was
with that fighting division throughout the various campaigns that led to the
Armistice in Europe in May 1945, which came exactly five years after Hitler's
Army marched into Paris.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What specific kinds of things did you do? Did you have very
unusual activities?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: My department, my special field was called M.I.I., Military Intelligence
Interpreters. I was with a team that interrogated civilians to find out about
enemy battle situations that needed to be researched. We were actually with
the front lines trying to make it easier for the troops to get into enemy territory:
in other words, tactical information. The civilians, of course, in France were
very cooperative, as you can imagine. It was a very wonderful way of gathering
information.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did your unit get into Germany again?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Oh, yes. After the French campaigns were over we entered Germany
at Aachen. And finished up the campaign in Czechoslovakia where we arrived in
May 1945. I should have taken note of all these things. On the spur of the moment
it's very difficult for me to remember correctly, and then I get all mixed up
with dates and things.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Were you in intelligence interpretation all the way through?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: All the way through, yes. My function when we entered Germany changed
somewhat from interrogating civilians to interrogating prisoners of war.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Was that a great shift in the way you operated then?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Yes. The whole climate of my work became much more severe. After
all, whereas before we had to deal with friendly civilians, now we were facing
enemy soldiers and very few of them still under the shock of battle were willing
to talk. However, we had a few fantastic encounters. I discovered one man, a
German, near Malmedy, who gave us an extraordinary amount of information which
led, I think to a great deal of . . . From time to time we had a wonderful cooperation.
But most of the interrogations were done on very hostile ground</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Why would somebody be so cooperative, do you think?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Because they were anti-Fascist, anti-Nazi. They were very eager
to defeat the Nazis, Hitler. Then we found a few members of the German Resistance.
In France it was easy. But in Germany it was much more difficult.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: You rarely hear about that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Really? Well, there are some documents on that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Yes, but not the way the French . . .</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: After all, remember the attempt to kill Hitler just before the
end of the war.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Right.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Various attempts had been made. So there was a German Resistance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Did you stay there very long after the war? Or were you brought
back here?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: The Armistice was in May 1945 and the Japanese surrender came,
I believe, in July, was it not? Do you remember when V-J Day was? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: I think it was just after the atom bomb; July or August, something
like that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: I spent some time with the War Crimes Division in Freising near
Munich, gathering up war criminals. I traveled throughout the American and the
British zones to arrest a number of wanted Germans and brought them back alive
to Munich and to Freising. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: Were you there during the trials?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: No, no. I was just there in the preparatory stage. And I did not
have any of the big shots. I had some of the minor bastards. I left Europe at
the beginning of October and was back in New York, a civilian, by the end of
October.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: What was it like, you know, coming back to Germany this way?
It was the first time in - what? fifteen years or more since you'd been there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: It was strange, of course. I really had cut my navel cord completely
and totally, not just with my home and family but with the country as such.
I was completely out of it. I had a very difficult time to realize that not
all Germans were guilty of war crimes, guilty of having killed five million
Jews; I felt that every German was either de facto guilty or just guilty by
association. Perhaps I was unjust in that assumption that anyone who had protested
could have done so or left the country. But I think to continue living in Germany
and watching, or witnessing rather, what was going on made the whole German
people guilty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">PAUL CUMMINGS: It's interesting, you know, the idea of coming to France which
you were so attached to and then going to Germany where it started and yet having
those very negative feelings all the way through. Do you think it affected the
way you thought about the people during your interrogations?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">HANS NAMUTH: Surely. Surely it did. So much so that when I left Germany in
1945 I really never wanted to come back; never. And didn't, in fact, until last
year when I had to go to Cologne. In all my European travels I have always bypassed
Germany. Even in Cologne last year I felt very uneasy so many years after. And
yet I have made many friends among the young people since. Like Mary Bauermeister
and many German artists. But whenever I encounter anyone of my generation or
older I have the same negative feelings as I had then. And I really think they're
still there. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><cite>Oral history interview with Hans Namuth, 1971 Aug. 12-Sept. 8, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Found <a href="http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-hans-namuth-13000">here</a>.</cite></span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-27497519834416192512014-09-11T10:43:00.004-07:002014-09-11T10:43:50.321-07:00Atget<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_mojwGBmH6tFQom9JjzUkiMHbcYApuGjnXX4rwjJ9cposGrR1X21-4zy9VPUr8PK4KmPQw7Y9eZD7PIZs069kJgWZHNF_Q-DS-fwEnUIO4imR5DqNyZjADt-yw38FnWE5GAkCraPut0/s1600/013PF1220_6F59R_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_mojwGBmH6tFQom9JjzUkiMHbcYApuGjnXX4rwjJ9cposGrR1X21-4zy9VPUr8PK4KmPQw7Y9eZD7PIZs069kJgWZHNF_Q-DS-fwEnUIO4imR5DqNyZjADt-yw38FnWE5GAkCraPut0/s1600/013PF1220_6F59R_1.jpg" height="327" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Eugène Atget - Hotel de Galliffet</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-64647998951306973882014-06-30T06:11:00.006-07:002014-06-30T06:11:58.431-07:00La belle au bois dormant<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Il était une fois un Roi et une Reine qui étaient si fâchés de n'avoir point d'enfants, si fâchés qu'on ne saurait dire. Ils allèrent à toutes les eaux du monde, vœux, pèlerinages, menues dévotions ; tout fut mis en œuvre, et rien n'y faisait.<br /><br />Enfin pourtant la Reine devint grosse, et accoucha d'une fille : on fit un beau Baptême ; on donna pour Marraines à la petite Princesse toutes les Fées qu'on pût trouver dans le Pays (il s'en trouva sept), afin que chacune d'elles lui faisant un don, comme c'était la coutume des Fées en ce temps-là, la Princesse eût par ce moyen toutes les perfections imaginables.<br /><br />Après les cérémonies du Baptême toute la compagnie revint au Palais du Roi, où il y avait un grand festin pour les Fées. On mit devant chacune d'elles un couvert magnifique, avec un étui d'or massif, où il y avait une cuiller, une fourchette, et un couteau de fin or, garni de diamants et de rubis. Mais comme chacun prenait sa place à table, on vit entrer une vieille Fée qu'on n'avait point priée parce qu'il y avait plus de cinquante ans qu'elle n'était sortie d'une Tour et qu'on la croyait morte, ou enchantée.<br /><br /><br />Le Roi lui fit donner un couvert, mais il n'y eut pas moyen de lui donner un étui d'or massif, comme aux autres, parce que l'on n'en avait fait faire que sept pour les sept Fées. La vieille crut qu'on la méprisait, et grommela quelques menaces entre ses dents.<br /><br />Une des jeunes Fées qui se trouva auprès d'elle l'entendit, et jugeant qu'elle pourrait donner quelque fâcheux don à la petite Princesse, alla, dès qu'on fut sorti de table, se cacher derrière la tapisserie, afin de parler la dernière, et de pouvoir réparer autant qu'il lui serait possible le mal que la vieille aurait fait.<br /><br /><br />Cependant les Fées commencèrent à faire leurs dons à la Princesse. La plus jeune lui donna pour don qu'elle serait la plus belle du monde, celle d'après qu'elle aurait de l'esprit comme un Ange, la troisième qu'elle aurait une grâce admirable à tout ce qu'elle ferait, la quatrième qu'elle danserait parfaitement bien, la cinquième qu'elle chanterait comme un Rossignol, et la sixième qu'elle jouerait de toutes sortes d'instruments à la perfection.<br /><br /><br />Le rang de la vieille Fée étant venu, elle dit en branlant la tête, encore plus de dépit que de vieillesse, que la princesse se percerait la main d'un fuseau, et qu'elle en mourrait.<br /><br />Ce terrible don fit frémir toute la compagnie, et il n'y eut personne qui ne pleurât.<br /><br />Dans ce moment la jeune Fée sortit de derrière la tapisserie, et dit tout haut ces paroles :<br /><br /><br />« Rassurez-vous, Roi et Reine, votre fille n'en mourra pas : il est vrai que je n'ai pas assez de puissance pour défaire entièrement ce que mon ancienne a fait. La Princesse se percera la main d'un fuseau ; mais au lieu d'en mourir, elle tombera seulement dans un profond sommeil qui durera cent ans, au bout desquels le fils d'un Roi viendra la réveiller. »<br /><br />Le Roi, pour tâcher d'éviter le malheur annoncé par la vieille, fit publier aussitôt un Edit, par lequel il défendait à tous de filer au fuseau, ni d'avoir des fuseaux chez soi sous peine de mort.<br /><br />Au bout de quinze ou seize ans, le Roi et la Reine étant allés à une de leurs Maisons de plaisance, il arriva que la jeune Princesse courant un jour dans le Château, et montant de chambre en chambre, alla jusqu'au haut d'un donjon dans un petit galetas, où une bonne Vieille était seule à filer sa quenouille. Cette bonne femme n'avait point entendu parler des défenses que le Roi avait faites de filer au fuseau.<br /><br />« Que faites-vous là, ma bonne femme ? dit la Princesse.<br /><br />- Je file, ma belle enfant, lui répondit la vieille qui ne la connaissait pas.<br /><br />- Ha ! que cela est joli, reprit la Princesse, comment faites-vous ? Donnez-moi que je voie si j'en ferais bien autant. »<br /><br />Elle n'eut pas plus tôt pris le fuseau, que comme elle était fort vive, un peu étourdie, et que d'ailleurs l'Arrêt des Fées l'ordonnait ainsi, elle s'en perça la main, et tomba évanouie.<br /><br />La bonne vieille, bien embarrassée, crie au secours : on vient de tous côtés, on jette de l'eau au visage de la Princesse, on la délace, on lui frappe dans les mains, on lui frotte les tempes avec de l'eau de la Reine de Hongrie ; mais rien ne la faisait revenir.<br /><br />Alors le Roi, qui était monté au bruit, se souvint de la prédiction des fées, et jugeant bien qu'il fallait que cela arrivât, puisque les fées l'avaient dit, fit mettre la Princesse dans le plus bel appartement du Palais, sur un lit en broderie d'or et d'argent. On eût dit d'un Ange, tant elle était belle ; car son évanouissement n'avait pas ôté les couleurs vives de son teint : ses joues étaient incarnates, et ses lèvres comme du corail ; elle avait seulement les yeux fermés, mais on l'entendait respirer doucement, ce qui montrait bien qu'elle n'était pas morte.<br /><br /><br />Le Roi ordonna qu'on la laissât dormir, jusqu'à ce que son heure de se réveiller fût venue.<br /><br />La bonne Fée qui lui avait sauvé la vie, en la condamnant à dormir cent ans, était dans le Royaume de Mataquin, à douze mille lieues de là, lorsque l'accident arriva à la Princesse ; mais elle en fut avertie en un instant par un petit Nain, qui avait des bottes de sept lieues (c'était des bottes avec lesquelles on faisait sept lieues d'une seule enjambée).<br /><br /><br />La Fée partit aussitôt, et on la vit au bout d'une heure arriver dans un chariot tout de feu, traîné par des dragons. Le Roi lui alla présenter la main à la descente du chariot. Elle approuva tout ce qu'il avait fait ; mais comme elle était grandement prévoyante, elle pensa que quand la Princesse viendrait à se réveiller, elle serait bien embarrassée toute seule dans ce vieux Château.<br /><br /><br />Voici ce qu'elle fit : elle toucha de sa baguette tout ce qui était dans ce Château (hors le Roi et la Reine), Gouvernantes, Filles d'Honneur, Femmes de Chambre, Gentilshommes, Officiers, Maîtres d'Hôtel, Cuisiniers, Marmitons, Galopins, Gardes, Suisses, Pages, Valets de pied ; elle toucha aussi tous les chevaux qui étaient dans les Ecuries, avec les Palefreniers, les gros mâtins de basse-cour, et Pouffe, la petite chienne de la Princesse, qui était auprès d'elle sur son lit.<br /><br />Dès qu'elle les eut touchés, ils s'endormirent tous, pour ne se réveiller qu'en même temps que leur Maîtresse, afin d'être tout prêts à la servir quand elle en aurait besoin : les broches mêmes qui étaient au feu toutes pleines de perdrix et de faisans s'endormirent, et le feu aussi. Tout cela se fit en un moment ; les Fées n'étaient pas longues à leur besogne.<br /><br /><br />Alors le Roi et la Reine, après avoir embrassé leur chère enfant sans qu'elle s'éveillât, sortirent du Château, et firent publier des défenses à qui que ce soit d'en approcher. Ces défenses n'étaient pas nécessaires, car il crût dans un quart d'heure tout autour du parc une si grande quantité de grands arbres et de petits, de ronces et d'épines entrelacées les unes dans les autres, que bête ni homme n'y aurait pu passer : en sorte qu'on ne voyait plus que le haut des Tours du Château, encore n'était-ce que de bien loin. On ne douta point que la fée n'eût encore fait là un tour de son métier, afin que la princesse, pendant qu'elle dormirait, n'eût rien à craindre des Curieux.<br /><br /><br />Au bout de cent ans, le Fils du Roi qui régnait alors, et qui était d'une autre famille que la Princesse endormie, étant allé à la chasse de ce côté-là, demanda ce que c'était que ces Tours qu'il voyait au-dessus d'un grand bois fort épais ; chacun lui répondit selon qu'il en avait ouï parler.<br /><br />Les uns disaient que c'était un vieux Château où il revenait des Esprits ; les autres que tous les Sorciers de la contrée y faisaient leur sabbat. La plus commune opinion était qu'un Ogre y demeurait, et que là il emportait tous les enfants qu'il pouvait attraper, pour pouvoir les manger à son aise, et sans qu'on le pût suivre, ayant seul le pouvoir de se faire un passage au travers du bois.<br /><br />Le Prince ne savait qu'en croire, lorsqu'un vieux Paysan prit la parole, et lui dit :<br /><br /><br />« Mon Prince, il y a plus de cinquante ans que j'ai entendu dire de mon père qu'il y avait dans ce Château une Princesse, la plus belle du monde; qu'elle devait y dormir cent ans, et qu'elle serait réveillée par le fils d'un Roi, à qui elle était réservée. »<br /><br />Le jeune Prince à ce discours se sentit tout de feu ; il crut sans hésiter qu'il mettrait fin à une si belle aventure ; et poussé par l'amour et par la gloire, il résolut de voir sur-le-champ ce qu'il en était.<br /><br />A peine s'avança-t-il vers le bois, que tous ces grands arbres, ces ronces et ces épines s'écartèrent d'eux-mêmes pour le laisser passer : il marcha vers le Château qu'il voyait au bout d'une grande avenue où il entra, et ce qui le surprit un peu, il vit que personne de ses gens ne l'avait pu suivre, parce que les arbres s'étaient rapprochés dès qu'il avait été passé.<br /><br />Il continua donc son chemin : un Prince jeune et amoureux est toujours vaillant. Il entra dans une grande avant-cour où tout ce qu'il vit d'abord était capable de le glacer de crainte : c'était un silence affreux, l'image de la mort s'y présentait partout, et ce n'était que des corps étendus d'hommes et d'animaux, qui paraissaient morts. Il reconnut pourtant bien au nez bourgeonné et à la face vermeille des Suisses qu'ils n'étaient qu'endormis, et leurs tasses, où il y avait encore quelques gouttes de vin, montraient assez qu'ils s'étaient endormis en buvant.<br /><br />Il passe une grande cour pavée de marbre, il monte l'escalier, il entre dans la salle des Gardes qui étaient rangés en haie, l'arme sur l'épaule, et ronflants de leur mieux. Il traverse plusieurs chambres pleines de Gentilshommes et de Dames, dormant tous, les uns debout, les autres assis ; il entre dans une chambre toute dorée, et il vit sur un lit, dont les rideaux étaient ouverts de tous côtés, le plus beau spectacle qu'il eût jamais vu: une Princesse qui paraissait avoir quinze ou seize ans, et dont l'éclat resplendissant avait quelque chose de lumineux et de divin.<br /><br />Il s'approcha en tremblant et en admirant, et se mit à genoux auprès d'elle. Alors comme la fin de l'enchantement était venue, la Princesse s'éveilla ; et le regardant avec des yeux plus tendres qu'une première vue ne semblait le permettre :<br /><br />« Est-ce vous, mon Prince ? Lui dit-elle, vous vous êtes bien fait attendre. »<br /><br />Le prince, charmé de ces paroles, et plus encore de la manière dont elles étaient dites, ne savait comment lui témoigner sa joie et sa reconnaissance ; il l'assura qu'il l'aimait plus que lui-même. Ses discours furent mal rangés, ils en plurent davantage : peu d'éloquence, beaucoup d'amour. Il était plus embarrassé qu'elle, et l'on ne doit pas s'en étonner ; elle avait eu le temps de songer à ce qu'elle aurait à lui dire, car il y a apparence (l'Histoire n'en dit pourtant rien) que la bonne fée, pendant un si long sommeil, lui avait procuré le plaisir des songes agréables. Enfin il y avait quatre heures qu'ils se parlaient, et ils ne s'étaient pas encore dit la moitié des choses qu'ils avaient à se dire.<br /><br /><br />Cependant tout le Palais s'était réveillé avec la princesse ; chacun songeait à faire sa charge, et comme ils n'étaient pas tous amoureux, ils mouraient de faim ; la Dame d'honneur, pressée comme les autres, s'impatienta, et dit tout haut à la Princesse que la viande était servie.<br /><br />Le Prince aida la Princesse à se lever ; elle était tout habillée et fort magnifiquement ; mais il se garda bien de lui dire qu'elle était habillée comme ma grand-mère, et qu'elle avait un collet monté : elle n'en était pas moins belle.<br /><br /><br />Ils passèrent dans un Salon de miroirs, et y soupèrent, servis par les Officiers de la Princesse ; les Violons et les Hautbois jouèrent de vieilles pièces, mais excellentes, quoiqu'il y eût près de cent ans qu'on ne les jouât plus ; et après souper, sans perdre de temps, le grand Aumônier les maria dans la Chapelle du Château, et la Dame d'honneur leur tira le rideau : ils dormirent peu, la Princesse n'en avait pas grand besoin, et le Prince la quitta dès le matin pour retourner à la Ville, où son Père devait être en peine de lui.<br /><br />Le Prince lui dit qu'en chassant il s'était perdu dans la forêt, et qu'il avait couché dans la hutte d'un Charbonnier, qui lui avait fait manger du pain noir et du fromage. Le Roi son père, qui était bon homme, le crut, mais sa Mère n'en fut pas bien persuadée, et voyant qu'il allait presque tous les jours à la chasse, et qu'il avait toujours une raison pour s'excuser, quand il avait couché deux ou trois nuits dehors, elle ne douta plus qu'il n'eût quelque amourette : car il vécut avec la princesse plus de deux ans entiers, et en eut deux enfants, dont le premier, qui fut une fille, fut nommée l'Aurore, et le second un fils, qu'on nomma le Jour, parce qu'il paraissait encore plus beau que sa sœur.<br /><br />La Reine dit plusieurs fois à son fils, pour le faire s'expliquer, qu'il fallait se contenter dans la vie, mais il n'osa jamais lui confier son secret ; il la craignait quoiqu'il l'aimât, car elle était de race Ogresse, et le roi ne l'avait épousée qu'à cause de ses grands biens ; on disait même tout bas à la Cour qu'elle avait les inclinations des Ogres, et qu'en voyant passer de petits enfants, elle avait toutes les peines du monde à se retenir de se jeter sur eux ; ainsi le Prince ne voulut jamais rien dire.<br /><br />Mais quand le Roi fut mort, ce qui arriva au bout de deux ans, et qu'il se vit le maître, il déclara publiquement son Mariage, et alla en grande cérémonie chercher la Reine sa femme dans son Château.<br /><br /><br />On lui fit une entrée magnifique dans la Ville Capitale, où elle entra au milieu de ses deux enfants. Quelque temps après, le Roi alla faire la guerre à l'Empereur Cantalabutte son voisin. Il laissa la Régence du Royaume à la Reine sa mère, et lui recommanda vivement sa femme et ses enfants: il devait être à la guerre tout l'Eté, et dès qu'il fut parti, la Reine-Mère envoya sa Bru et ses enfants à une maison de campagne dans les bois, pour pouvoir plus aisément assouvir son horrible envie.<br /><br />Elle y alla quelques jours après, et dit un soir à son Maître d'Hôtel :<br /><br /><br />« Je veux manger demain à mon dîner la petite Aurore.<br /><br />- Ah ! Madame, dit le Maître d'Hôtel.<br /><br />- Je le veux, dit la Reine (et elle le dit d'un ton d'Ogresse qui a envie de manger de la chair fraîche), et je veux la manger à la Sauce-robert. »<br /><br /><br />Ce pauvre homme, voyant bien qu'il ne fallait pas se jouer d'une Ogresse, prit son grand couteau, et monta à la chambre de la petite Aurore : elle avait alors quatre ans, et vint en sautant et en riant se jeter à son cou, et lui demander du bonbon.<br /><br />Il se mit à pleurer, le couteau lui tomba des mains, et il alla dans la basse-cour couper la gorge à un petit agneau, et lui fit une si bonne sauce que sa Maîtresse l'assura qu'elle n'avait jamais rien mangé de si bon. Il avait emporté en même temps la petite Aurore, et l'avait donnée à sa femme pour la cacher dans le logement qu'elle avait au fond de la basse-cour.<br /><br /><br />Huit jours après, la méchante Reine dit à son Maître d'Hôtel :<br /><br />« Je veux manger à mon souper le petit Jour. »<br /><br />Il ne répliqua pas, résolu de la tromper comme l'autre fois ; il alla chercher le petit Jour, et le trouva avec un petit fleuret à la main, dont il faisait des armes avec un gros Singe : il n'avait pourtant que trois ans. Il le porta à sa femme qui le cacha avec la petite Aurore, et donna à la place du petit Jour un petit chevreau fort tendre, que l'Ogresse trouva admirablement bon.<br /><br /><br />Cela avait fort bien été jusque-là, mais un soir cette méchante Reine dit au Maître d'Hôtel : « Je veux manger la Reine à la même sauce que ses enfants. » Ce fut alors que le pauvre maître d'hôtel désespéra de pouvoir encore la tromper. La jeune Reine avait vingt ans passés, sans compter les cent ans qu'elle avait dormi : sa peau était un peu dure, quoique belle et blanche ; et le moyen de trouver dans la Ménagerie une bête aussi dure que cela ?<br /><br />Il prit la résolution, pour sauver sa vie, de couper la gorge à la reine, et monta dans sa chambre, dans l'intention de n'en pas faire à deux fois ; il s'excitait à la fureur, et entra le poignard à la main dans la chambre de la jeune reine. Il ne voulut pourtant point la surprendre, et il lui dit avec beaucoup de respect l'ordre qu'il avait reçu de la Reine-Mère.<br /><br /><br />« Faites votre devoir, lui dit-elle, en lui tendant le cou; exécutez l'ordre qu'on vous a donné ; j'irai revoir mes enfants, mes pauvres enfants que j'ai tant aimés » ; car elle les croyait morts depuis qu'on les avait enlevés sans rien lui dire.<br /><br />« Non, non, Madame, lui répondit le pauvre maître d'hôtel tout attendri, vous ne mourrez point, et vous pourrez revoir vos chers enfants, mais ce sera chez moi où je les ai cachés, et je tromperai encore la Reine, en lui faisant manger une jeune biche en votre place. »<br /><br />Il la mena aussitôt à sa chambre, où la laissant embrasser ses enfants et pleurer avec eux, il alla accommoder une biche, que la Reine mangea à son souper, avec le même appétit que si c'eût été la jeune Reine. Elle était bien contente de sa cruauté, et elle se préparait à dire au Roi, à son retour, que les loups enragés avaient mangé la Reine sa femme et ses deux enfants.<br /><br />Un soir qu'elle rôdait comme d'habitude dans les cours et basses-cours du Château pour y humer quelque viande fraîche, elle entendit dans une salle basse le petit Jour qui pleurait, parce que la Reine sa mère le voulait faire fouetter, parce qu'il avait été méchant, et elle entendit aussi la petite Aurore qui demandait pardon pour son frère.<br /><br />L'Ogresse reconnut la voix de la Reine et de ses enfants, et furieuse d'avoir été trompée, elle commande dès le lendemain au matin, avec une voix épouvantable, qui faisait trembler tout le monde, qu'on apportât au milieu de la cour une grande cuve, qu'elle fit remplir de crapauds, de vipères, de couleuvres et de serpents, pour y faire jeter la Reine et ses enfants, le Maître d'Hôtel, sa femme et sa servante : elle avait donné ordre de les amener les mains liées derrière le dos.<br /><br />Ils étaient là, et les bourreaux se préparaient à les jeter dans la cuve, Lorsque le Roi, qu'on n'attendait pas si tôt, entra dans la cour à cheval ; il était venu en poste, et demanda tout étonné ce que voulait dire cet horrible spectacle ; personne n'osait l'en instruire, quand l'Ogresse, enragée de voir ce qu'elle voyait, se jeta elle-même la tête la première dans la cuve, et fut dévorée en un instant par les vilaines bêtes qu'elle y avait fait mettre.<br /><br />Le Roi ne put s'empêcher d'en être fâché, car elle était sa mère ; mais il s'en consola bientôt avec sa belle femme et ses enfants.<br /><br /><br />Moralité</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Attendre quelque temps pour avoir un époux,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Riche, bien fait, galant et doux,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">La chose est assez naturelle,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mais l'attendre cent ans, et toujours en dormant,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">On ne trouve plus de femelle,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Qui dormit si tranquillement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">La Fable semble encor vouloir nous faire entendre</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Que souvent de l'Hymen les agréables nœuds,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Pour être différés, n'en sont pas moins heureux,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Et qu'on ne perd rien pour attendre ;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mais le sexe avec tant d'ardeur,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Aspire à la foi conjugale,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Que je n'ai pas la force ni le cœur,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">De lui prêcher cette morale.</span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-40265440831692801772014-06-28T23:40:00.003-07:002014-06-28T23:40:46.629-07:00Le bourgeois gentilhomme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQM58TAAmZtNmBb-MdG4KoyzMaiRPcsez1aLyeCZiaXtNmCD8oADfygmMegrXCItYuajsbH_nEehIcf4TuaFZVh2raBU1vItIZnKSbtQQzYVpGUKpT_5dxpeipYmKKTvLn42kzG3r34iQ/s1600/5703961774_518c3543a2_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQM58TAAmZtNmBb-MdG4KoyzMaiRPcsez1aLyeCZiaXtNmCD8oADfygmMegrXCItYuajsbH_nEehIcf4TuaFZVh2raBU1vItIZnKSbtQQzYVpGUKpT_5dxpeipYmKKTvLn42kzG3r34iQ/s1600/5703961774_518c3543a2_o.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Le bourgeois gentilhomme</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-60614981949691951462014-06-28T23:38:00.000-07:002014-06-28T23:38:32.885-07:00Cendrillon<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Il était une fois un gentilhomme qui épousa, en secondes noces, une femme, la plus hautaine et la plus fière qu’on eût jamais vue.<br /><br />Elle avait deux filles de son humeur, et qui lui ressemblaient en toutes choses.<br /><br />Le mari avait, de son côté, une jeune fille, mais d’une douceur et d’une bonté sans exemple : elle tenait cela de sa mère, qui était la meilleure personne du monde.<br /><br />Les noces ne furent pas plus tôt faites que la belle-mère fit éclater sa mauvaise humeur : elle ne put souffrir les bonnes qualités de cette jeune enfant, qui rendaient ses filles encore plus haïssables. Elle la chargea des plus viles occupations de la maison : c’était elle qui nettoyait la vaisselle et les montées, qui frottait la chambre de madame et celles de mesdemoiselles ses filles ; - elle couchait tout au haut de la maison, dans un grenier, sur une méchante paillasse, pendant que ses sœurs étaient dans des chambres parquetées, où elles avaient des lits des plus à la mode, et des miroirs où elles se voyaient depuis les pieds jusqu’à la tête.<br /><br />La pauvre fille souffrait tout avec patience et n’osait s’en plaindre à son père, qui l’aurait grondée, parce que sa femme le gouvernait entièrement. Lorsqu’elle avait fait son ouvrage, elle s’allait mettre au coin de la cheminée, et s’asseoir dans les cendres, ce qui faisait qu’on l’appelait communément dans le logis Cucendron. La cadette, qui n’était pas si malhonnête que son aînée, l’appelait Cendrillon.<br /><br />Cependant Cendrillon, avec ses méchants habits, ne laissait pas d’être cent fois plus belle que ses sœurs, quoique vêtues très magnifiquement.<br /><br />Il arriva que le fils du roi donna un bal et qu’il en pria toutes les personnes de qualité. Nos deux demoiselles en furent aussi priées, car elles faisaient grande figure dans le pays.<br /><br />Les voilà bien aises et bien occupées à choisir les habits et les coiffures qui leur siéraient le mieux. Nouvelle peine pour Cendrillon, car c’était elle qui repassait le linge de ses sœurs et qui godronnait leurs manchettes. On ne parlait que de la manière dont on s’habillerait. - "Moi, dit l’aînée, je mettrai mon habit de velours rouge et ma garniture d’Angleterre." - "Moi, dit la cadette, je n’aurai que ma jupe ordinaire ; mais, en récompense, je mettrai mon manteau à fleurs d’or et ma barrière de diamants, qui n’est pas des plus indifférentes."<br /><br />On envoya quérir la bonne coiffeuse pour dresser les cornettes à deux rangs, et on fit acheter des mouches de la bonne faiseuse. Elles appelèrent Cendrillon pour lui demander son avis, car elle avait le goût bon. Cendrillon les conseilla le mieux du monde, et s’offrit même à les coiffer ; ce qu’elles voulurent bien. En les coiffant, elles lui disaient : - "Cendrillon, serais-tu bien aise d’aller au bal ?" - "Hélas, mesdemoiselles, vous vous moquez, de moi : ce n’est pas là ce qu’il me faut." - "Tu as raison, on rirait bien, si on voyait un Cucendron aller au bal." Une autre que Cendrillon les aurait coiffées de travers ; mais elle était bonne, et elle les coiffa parfaitement bien. Elles furent près de deux jours sans manger, tant elles étaient transportées de joie. On rompit plus de douze lacets, à force de les serrer pour leur rendre la taille plus menue, et elles étaient toujours devant le miroir.<br /><br />Enfin l’heureux jour arriva ; on partit, et Cendrillon les suivit des yeux le plus longtemps qu’elle put. Lorsqu’elle ne les vit plus, elle se mit à pleurer. Sa marraine, qui la vit tout en pleurs, lui demanda ce qu’elle avait. "Je voudrais bien... je voudrais bien..." Elle pleurait si fort qu’elle ne put achever. Sa marraine, qui était fée, lui dit : - "Tu voudrais bien aller au bal, n’est-ce pas ?" - Hélas! oui." dit Cendrillon en soupirant. - Eh bien ! seras-tu bonne fille ? dit sa marraine, je t’y ferai aller."<br /><br />Elle la mena dans sa chambre, et lui dit : - "Va dans le jardin, et apporte-moi une citrouille. " Cendrillon alla aussitôt cueillir la plus belle qu’elle put trouver, et la porta à sa marraine, ne pouvant deviner comment cette citrouille la pourrait faire aller au bal. Sa marraine la creusa et, n’ayant laissé que l’écorce, la frappa de sa baguette, et la citrouille fut aussitôt changée en un beau carrosse tout doré. Ensuite elle alla regarder dans la souricière, où elle trouva six souris toutes en vie. Elle dit à Cendrillon de lever un peu la trappe de la souricière, et à chaque souris qui sortait, elle lui donnait un coup de sa baguette, et la souris était aussitôt changée en un beau cheval : ce qui fit un bel attelage de six chevaux, d’un beau gris de souris pommelé. Comme elle était en peine de quoi elle ferait un cocher :<br /><br />- "Je vais voir, dit Cendrillon, s’il n’y a pas quelque rat dans la ratière, nous en ferons un cocher." - "Tu as raison, dit sa marraine, va voir." Cendrillon lui apporta la ratière, où il y avait trois gros rats. La fée en prit un d’entre les trois, à cause de sa maîtresse barbe, et, l’ayant touché, il fut changé en un gros cocher, qui avait une des plus belles moustaches qu’on ait jamais vues. Ensuite elle lui dit :<br /><br />"Va dans le jardin, tu y trouveras six lézards derrière l’arrosoir : apporte-les moi. " Elle ne les eut pas plutôt apportés, que sa marraine les changea en six laquais, qui montèrent aussitôt derrière le carrosse, avec leurs habits chamarrés, et qui s’y tenaient attachés comme s’ils n’eussent fait autre chose de toute leur vie.<br /><br />La fée dit alors à Cendrillon :<br /><br />- "Eh bien! voilà, de quoi aller au bal : n’es-tu pas bien aise ?"<br /><br />- Oui, mais est-ce que j’irai comme cela, avec mes vilains habits ?"<br /><br />Sa marraine ne fit que la toucher avec sa baguette, et en même temps ses habits furent changés en des habits d’or et d’argent, tout chamarrés de pierreries ; elle lui donna ensuite une paire de pantoufles de verre, les plus jolies du monde.<br /><br />Quand elle fut ainsi parée, elle monta en carrosse ; mais sa marraine lui recommanda, sur toutes choses, de ne pas passer minuit, l’avertissant que, si elle demeurait au bal un moment davantage, son carrosse redeviendrait citrouille, ses chevaux des souris, ses laquais des lézards, et que ses beaux habits reprendraient leur première forme.<br /><br />Elle promit à sa marraine qu’elle ne manquerait pas de sortir du bal avant minuit. Elle part, ne se sentant pas de joie. Le fils du roi, qu’on alla avertir qu’il venait d’arriver une grande princesse qu’on ne connaissait point, courut la recevoir. Il lui donna la main à la descente du carrosse, et la mena dans la salle où était la compagnie. Il se fit alors un grand silence ; on cessa de danser, et les violons ne jouèrent plus, tant on était attentif à contempler les grandes beautés de cette inconnue. On n’entendait qu’un bruit confus :<br /><br />"Ah! qu’elle est belle !"<br /><br />Le roi même, tout vieux qu’il était, ne laissait pas de la regarder, et de dire tout bas à la reine qu’il y avait longtemps qu’il n’avait vu une si belle et si aimable personne.<br /><br />Toutes les dames étaient attentives à considérer sa coiffure et ses habits, pour en avoir, dès le lendemain, de semblables, pourvu qu’il se trouvât des étoffes assez belles, et des ouvriers assez habiles.<br /><br />Le fils du roi la mit à la place la plus honorable, et ensuite la prit pour la mener danser. Elle dansa avec tant de grâce, qu’on l’admira encore davantage. On apporta une fort belle collation, dont le jeune prince ne mangea point, tant il était occupé à la considérer. Elle alla s’asseoir auprès de ses sœurs et leur fit mille honnêtetés; elle leur fit part des oranges et des citrons que le prince lui avait donnés, ce qui les étonna fort, car elles ne la connaissaient point.<br /><br />Lorsqu’elles causaient ainsi, Cendrillon entendit sonner onze heures trois quarts ; elle fit aussitôt une grande révérence à la compagnie, et s’en alla le plus vite qu’elle put.<br /><br />Dès qu’elle fut arrivée, elle alla trouver sa marraine, et, après l’avoir remerciée, elle lui dit qu’elle souhaiterait bien aller encore le lendemain au bal, parce que le fils du roi l’en avait priée.<br /><br />Comme elle était occupée à raconter à sa marraine tout ce qui s’était passé au bal, les deux sœurs heurtèrent à la porte ; Cendrillon leur alla ouvrir.<br /><br />- "Que vous êtes longtemps à revenir !" leur dit-elle en bâillant, en se frottant les yeux, et en s’étendant comme si elle n’eût fait que de se réveiller.<br /><br />Elle n’avait cependant pas eu envie de dormir, depuis qu’elles s’étaient quittées.<br /><br />- "Si tu étais venue au bal, lui dit une de ses sœurs, tu ne t’y serais pas ennuyée il est venu la plus belle princesse, la plus belle qu’on puisse jamais voir ; elle nous a fait mille civilités elle nous a donné des oranges et des citrons."<br /><br />Cendrillon ne se sentait pas de joie : elle leur demanda le nom de cette princesse ; mais elles lui répondirent qu’on ne la connaissait pas, que le fils du roi en était fort en peine, et qu’il donnerait toutes choses au monde pour savoir qui elle était. Cendrillon sourit et leur dit :<br /><br />- "Elle était donc bien belle ? Mon Dieu ! que vous êtes heureuses ! ne pourrais-je point la voir ? Hélas ! mademoiselle Javotte, prêtez-moi votre habit jaune que vous mettez tous les jours."<br /><br />- "Vraiment, dit mademoiselle Javotte, je suis de cet avis ! Prêter son habit à un vilain Cucendron comme cela ! il faudrait que je fusse bien folle."<br /><br />Cendrillon s’attendait bien à ce refus, et elle en fut bien aise, car elle aurait été grandement embarrassée, si sa sœur eût bien voulu lui prêter son habit.<br /><br />Le lendemain, les deux sœurs furent au bal, et Cendrillon aussi, mais encore plus parée que la première fois. Le fils du roi fut toujours auprès d’elle, et ne cessa de lui conter des douceurs. La jeune demoiselle ne s’ennuyait point et oublia ce que sa marraine lui avait recommandé ; de sorte qu’elle entendit sonner le premier coup de minuit, lorsqu’elle ne croyait point qu’il fût encore onze heures: elle se leva, et s’enfuit aussi légèrement qu’aurait fait une biche.<br /><br />Le prince la suivit, mais il ne put l’attraper. Elle laissa tomber une de ses pantoufles de verre, que le prince ramassa bien soigneusement.<br /><br />Cendrillon arriva chez elle, bien essoufflée, sans carrosse, sans laquais, et avec ses méchants habits ; rien ne lui étant resté de sa magnificence qu’une de ses petites pantoufles, la pareille de celle qu’elle avait laissé tomber.<br /><br />On demanda aux gardes de la porte du palais s’ils n’avaient point vu sortir une princesse ils dirent qu’ils n’avaient vu sortir personne qu’une jeune fille fort mal vêtue, et qui avait plus l’air d’une paysanne que d’une demoiselle.<br /><br />Quand les deux sœurs revinrent du bal, Cendrillon leur demanda si elles s’étaient encore bien diverties, et si la belle dame y avait été ; elles lui dirent que oui, mais qu’elle s’était enfuie, lorsque minuit avait sonné, et si promptement qu’elle avait laissé tomber une de ses petites pantoufles de verre, la plus jolie du monde ; que le fils du roi l’avait ramassée, et qu’il n’avait fait que la regarder pendant tout le reste du bal, et qu’assurément il était fort amoureux de la belle personne à qui appartenait la petite pantoufle.<br /><br />Elles dirent vrai ; car, peu de jours après, le fils du roi fit publier, à son de trompe, qu’il épouserait celle dont le pied serait bien juste à la pantoufle.<br /><br />On commença à l’essayer aux princesses, ensuite aux duchesses et à toute la cour, mais inutilement. On l’apporta chez les deux sœurs, qui firent tout leur possible pour faire entrer leur pied dans la pantoufle mais elles ne purent en venir à bout. Cendrillon, qui les regardait, et qui reconnut sa pantoufle, dit en riant :<br /><br />- "Que je voie si elle ne me serait pas bonne."<br /><br />Ses sœurs se mirent à rire et à se moquer d’elle. Le gentilhomme qui faisait l’essai de la pantoufle, ayant regardé attentivement Cendrillon, et la trouvant fort belle, dit que cela était très juste, et qu’il avait ordre de l’essayer à toutes les filles.<br /><br />Il fit asseoir Cendrillon, et approchant la pantoufle de son petit pied, il vit qu’il y entrait sans peine, et qu’elle y était juste comme de cire. L’étonnement des deux sœurs fut grand, mais plus grand encore quand Cendrillon tira de sa poche l’autre petite pantoufle qu’elle mit à son pied. Là-dessus arriva la marraine, qui ayant donné un coup de baguette sur les habits de Cendrillon, les fit devenir encore plus magnifiques que tous les autres.<br /><br />Alors ses deux sœurs la reconnurent pour la belle personne qu’elles avaient vue au bal. Elles se jetèrent à ses pieds pour lui demander pardon de tous les mauvais traitements qu’elles lui avaient fait souffrir.<br /><br />Cendrillon les releva et leur dit, en les embrassant, qu’elle leur pardonnait de bon cœur, et qu’elle les priait de l’aimer bien toujours. On la mena chez le jeune prince, parée comme elle était. Il la trouva encore plus belle que jamais; et, peu de jours après, il l’épousa.<br /><br />Cendrillon, qui était aussi bonne que belle, fit loger ses deux sœurs au palais, et les maria, dès le jour même, à deux grands seigneurs de la cour.<br /><br /><br /> MORALITÉ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">La beauté, pour le sexe, est un rare trésor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">De l’admirer jamais on ne se lasse ;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mais ce qu’on nomme bonne grâce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Est sans prix, et vaut mieux encore.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">C’est ce qu’à Cendrillon fit avoir sa marraine,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">En la dressant, en l’instruisant,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Tant et si bien qu’elle en fit une reine :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">(</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Car ainsi sur ce conte on va moralisant).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Belles, ce don vaut mieux que d’être bien coiffées :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Pour engager un cœur, pour en venir à bout,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">La bonne grâce est le vrai don des fées ;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Sans elle on ne peut rien, avec elle on peut tout.<br /><br /><br /> AUTRE MORALITÉ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">C’est sans doute un grand avantage,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">D’avoir de l’esprit, du courage,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">De la naissance, du bon sens,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Et d’autres semblables talents</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Qu’on reçoit du Ciel en partage ;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mais vous aurez beau les avoir,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Pour votre avancement ce seront choses vaines,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Si vous n’avez, pour les faire valoir,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Ou des parrains, ou des marraines. </span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-38158325477491281502014-06-28T22:51:00.003-07:002014-06-28T22:52:30.146-07:00Le bourgeois gentilhomme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE21zq1J90a5SE2mNKH5A-eBP5oPDCnYF2yREDt8mlgjumjgEYRdV61S0CnabnydkW2uJkfSBMyDtlNGGlZIUaOqxi0n-fSG1SSJrXvmfu4PCNhGg83-9qsdoPwkofyxsLwqkwpmFPM3A/s1600/5703961760_5b6d71916e_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE21zq1J90a5SE2mNKH5A-eBP5oPDCnYF2yREDt8mlgjumjgEYRdV61S0CnabnydkW2uJkfSBMyDtlNGGlZIUaOqxi0n-fSG1SSJrXvmfu4PCNhGg83-9qsdoPwkofyxsLwqkwpmFPM3A/s1600/5703961760_5b6d71916e_o.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Le bourgeois gentilhomme</span></div>
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flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-707802098389453382014-06-28T22:48:00.002-07:002014-06-28T22:48:15.604-07:00Le petit poucet<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Il était une fois un bûcheron et une bûcheronne qui avaient sept enfants, tous garçons; l'aîné n'avait que dix ans, et le plus jeune n'en avait que sept.<br /><br />On s'étonnera que le bûcheron ait eu tant d'enfants en si peu de temps ; mais c'est que sa femme allait vite en besogne, et n'en avait pas moins de deux à la fois.<br /><br />Ils étaient fort pauvres, et leurs sept enfants les incommodaient beaucoup, parce qu'aucun d'eux ne pouvait encore gagner sa vie. Ce qui les chagrinait encore, c'est que le plus jeune était fort délicat et ne disait mot : prenant pour bêtise ce qui était une marque de la bonté de son esprit.<br /><br />Il était fort petit, et, quand il vint au monde, il n'était guère plus gros que le pouce, ce qui fit qu'on l'appela le petit Poucet. Ce pauvre enfant était le souffre-douleur de la maison, et on lui donnait toujours tort. Cependant il était le plus fin et le plus avisé de tous ses frères, et, s'il parlait peu, il écoutait beaucoup. Il vint une année très fâcheuse, et la famine fut si grande que ces pauvres gens résolurent de se défaire de leurs enfants.<br /><br />Un soir que ces enfants étaient couchés, et que le bûcheron était auprès du feu avec sa femme, il lui dit, le cœur serré de douleur :<br /><br />" Tu vois bien que nous ne pouvons plus nourrir nos enfants; je ne saurais les voir mourir de faim devant mes yeux, et je suis résolu de les mener perdre demain au bois, ce qui sera bien aisé, car, tandis qu'ils s'amuseront à fagoter, nous n'avons qu'à nous enfuir sans qu'ils nous voient.<br /><br />- Ah! s'écria la bûcheronne, pourrais-tu toi-même mener perdre tes enfants ? "<br /><br />Son mari avait beau lui représenter leur grande pauvreté, elle ne pouvait y consentir; elle était pauvre, mais elle était leur mère. Cependant, ayant considéré quelle douleur ce lui serait de les voir mourir de faim, elle y consentit, et alla se coucher en pleurant. Le petit Poucet ouït tout ce qu'ils dirent, car ayant entendu, de dedans son lit, qu'ils parlaient d'affaires, il s'était levé doucement et s'était glissé sous l'escabelle de son père, pour les écouter sans être vu. Il alla se recoucher et ne dormit point du reste de la nuit, songeant à ce qu'il avait à faire.<br /><br />Il se leva de bon matin, et alla au bord d'un ruisseau, où il emplit ses poches de petits cailloux blancs, et ensuite revint à la maison. On partit, et le petit Poucet ne découvrit rien de tout ce qu'il savait à ses frères. Ils allèrent dans une forêt fort épaisse, où à dix pas de distance, on ne se voyait pas l'un l'autre. Le bûcheron se mit à couper du bois, et ses enfants à ramasser des broutilles pour faire des fagots. Le père et la mère, les voyant occupés à travailler, s'éloignèrent d'eux insensiblement, et puis s'enfuirent tout à coup par un petit sentier détourné.<br /><br />Lorsque ces enfants se virent seuls, ils se mirent à crier et à pleurer de toute leur force.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet les laissait crier, sachant bien par où il reviendrait à la maison, car en marchant il avait laissé tomber le long du chemin les petits cailloux blancs qu'il avait dans ses poches. Il leur dit donc :<br /><br />" Ne craignez point, mes frères; mon père et ma mère nous ont laissés ici, mais je vous ramènerai bien au logis: suivez-moi seulement. "<br /><br />Ils le suivirent, et il les mena jusqu'à leur maison, par le même chemin qu'ils étaient venus dans la forêt. Ils n'osèrent d'abord entrer, mais ils se mirent tous contre la porte, pour écouter ce que disaient leur père et leur mère.<br /><br />Dans le moment que le bûcheron et la bûcheronne arrivèrent chez eux, le seigneur du village leur envoya dix écus, qu'il leur devait il y avait longtemps, et dont ils n'espéraient plus rien.<br /><br />Cela leur redonna la vie, car les pauvres gens mouraient de faim. Le bûcheron envoya sur l'heure sa femme à la boucherie. Comme il y avait longtemps qu'elle n'avait mangé, elle acheta trois fois plus de viande qu'il n'en fallait pour le souper de deux personnes. Lorsqu'ils furent rassasiés, la bûcheronne dit :<br /><br />" Hélas ! où sont maintenant nos pauvres enfants ? Ils feraient bonne chère de ce qui nous reste là. Mais aussi, Guillaume, c'est toi qui les as voulu perdre ; j'avais bien dit que nous nous en repentirions. Que font-ils maintenant dans cette forêt ? Hélas! mon Dieu, les loups les ont peut-être déjà mangés! Tu es bien inhumain d'avoir perdu ainsi tes enfants ! "<br /><br />Le bûcheron s'impatienta à la fin ; car elle redit plus de vingt fois qu'ils s'en repentiraient, et qu'elle l'avait bien dit. Il la menaça de la battre si elle ne se taisait.<br /><br />Ce n'est pas que le bûcheron ne fût peut-être encore plus fâché que sa femme, mais c'est qu'elle lui rompait la tête, et qu'il était de l'humeur de beaucoup d'autres gens, qui aiment fort les femmes qui disent bien, mais qui trouvent très importunes celles qui ont toujours bien dit. La bûcheronne était tout en pleurs :<br /><br />" Hélas! où sont maintenant mes enfants, mes pauvres enfants! "<br /><br />Elle le dit une fois si haut, que les enfants, qui étaient à la porte, l'ayant entendue, se mirent à crier tous ensemble:<br /><br />" Nous voilà! nous voilà! "<br /><br />Elle courut vite leur ouvrir la porte, et leur dit en les embrassant :<br /><br />" Que je suis aise de vous revoir, mes chers enfants ! Vous êtes bien las, et vous avez bien faim ; et toi, Pierrot, comme te voilà crotté, viens que je te débarbouille."<br /><br />Ce Pierrot était son fils aîné, qu'elle aimait plus que tous les autres, parce qu'il était un peu rousseau, et qu'elle était un peu rousse. Ils se mirent à table, et mangèrent d'un appétit qui faisait plaisir au père et à la mère, à qui ils racontaient la peur qu'ils avaient eue dans la forêt, en parlant presque toujours tous ensemble. Ces bonnes gens étaient ravis de revoir leurs enfants avec eux, et cette joie dura tant que les dix écus durèrent.<br /><br />Mais, lorsque l'argent fut dépensé, ils retombèrent dans leur premier chagrin, et résolurent de les perdre encore ; et, pour ne pas manquer leur coup, de les mener bien plus loin que la première fois. Ils ne purent parler de cela si secrètement qu'ils ne fussent entendus par le petit Poucet, qui fit son compte de sortir d'affaire comme il avait déjà fait ; mais, quoiqu'il se fût levé de grand matin pour aller ramasser de petits cailloux, il ne put en venir à bout, car il trouva la porte de la maison fermée à double tour.<br /><br />Il ne savait que faire, lorsque, la bûcheronne leur ayant donné à chacun un morceau de pain pour leur déjeuner, il songea qu'il pourrait se servir de son pain au lieu de cailloux, en rejetant par miettes le long des chemins où ils passeraient: il le serra donc dans sa poche.<br /><br />Le père et la mère les menèrent dans l'endroit de la forêt le plus épais et le plus obscur; et, dès qu'ils y furent, ils gagnèrent un faux-fuyant, et les laissèrent là.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet ne s'en chagrina pas beaucoup, parce qu'il croyait retrouver aisément son chemin, par le moyen de son pain qu'il avait semé partout où il avait passé ; mais il fut bien surpris lorsqu'il ne put en retrouver une seule miette; les oiseaux étaient venus qui avaient tout mangé.<br /><br />Les voilà donc bien affligés ; car, plus ils marchaient, plus ils s'égaraient et s'enfonçaient dans la forêt.<br /><br />La nuit vint, et il s'éleva un grand vent qui leur faisait des peurs épouvantables. Ils croyaient n'entendre de tous côtés que les hurlements de loups qui venaient à eux pour les manger. Ils n'osaient presque se parler, ni tourner la tête. Il survint une grosse pluie, qui les perça jusqu'aux os ; ils glissaient à chaque pas, et tombaient dans la boue, d'où ils se relevaient tout crottés, ne sachant que faire de leurs mains.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet grimpa au haut d'un arbre, pour voir s'il ne découvrirait rien ; ayant tourné la tête de tous côtés, il vit une petite lueur comme d'une chandelle, mais qui était bien loin, par delà la forêt. Il descendit de l'arbre, et lorsqu'il fut à terre, il ne vit plus rien: cela le désola. Cependant, ayant marché quelque temps avec ses frères, du côté qu'il avait vu la lumière, il la revit en sortant du bois. Ils arrivèrent enfin à la maison où était cette chandelle, non sans bien des frayeurs : car souvent ils la perdaient de vue; ce qui leur arrivait toutes les fois qu'ils descendaient dans quelque fond.<br /><br />Ils heurtèrent à la porte, et une bonne femme vint leur ouvrir. Elle leur demanda ce qu'ils voulaient. Le petit Poucet lui dit qu'ils étaient de pauvres enfants qui s'étaient perdus dans la forêt, et qui demandaient à coucher par charité. Cette femme, les voyant tous si jolis, se mit à pleurer, et leur dit :<br /><br />" Hélas ! mes pauvres enfants, où êtes-vous venus ? Savez-vous bien que c'est ici la maison d'un Ogre qui mange les petits enfants ?<br /><br />- Hélas ! madame, lui répondit le petit Poucet, qui tremblait de toute sa force, aussi bien que ses frères, que ferons-nous ? Il est bien sûr que les loups de la forêt ne manqueront pas de nous manger cette nuit si vous ne voulez pas nous retirer chez vous, et cela étant, nous aimons mieux que ce soit Monsieur qui nous mange ; peut-être qu'il aura pitié de nous si vous voulez bien l'en prier."<br /><br />La femme de l'Ogre, qui crut qu'elle pourrait les cacher à son mari jusqu'au lendemain matin, les laissa entrer, et les mena se chauffer auprès d'un bon feu ; car il y avait un mouton tout entier à la broche, pour le souper de l'Ogre.<br /><br />Comme ils commençaient à se chauffer, ils entendirent heurter trois ou quatre grands coups à la porte : c'était l'Ogre qui revenait. Aussitôt sa femme les fit cacher sous le lit, et alla ouvrir la porte. L'Ogre demanda d'abord si le souper était prêt, et si on avait tiré du vin, et aussitôt se mit à table. Le mouton était encore tout sanglant, mais il ne lui en sembla que meilleur. Il flairait à droite et à gauche, disant qu'il sentait la chair fraîche.<br /><br />" Il faut, lui dit sa femme, que ce soit ce veau que je viens d'habiller*, que vous sentez.<br /><br />- Je sens la chair fraîche, te dis-je encore une fois, reprit l'Ogre, en regardant sa femme de travers, et il y a ici quelque chose que je n'entends pas. "<br /><br />En disant ces mots, il se leva de table, et alla droit au lit.<br /><br />" Ah! dit-il, voilà donc comme tu veux me tromper, maudite femme! Je ne sais à quoi il tient que je ne te mange aussi : bien t'en prend d'être une vieille bête. Voilà du gibier qui me vient bien à propos pour traiter trois ogres de mes amis, qui doivent me venir voir ces jours-ci. "<br /><br />Il les tira de dessous le lit, l'un après l'autre. Ces pauvres enfants se mirent à genoux, en lui demandant pardon; mais ils avaient affaire au plus cruel de tous les ogres, qui, bien loin d'avoir de la pitié, les dévorait déjà des yeux, et disait à sa femme que ce seraient là de friands morceaux, lorsqu'elle leur aurait fait une bonne sauce. Il alla prendre un grand couteau ; et en approchant de ces pauvres enfants, il l'aiguisait sur une longue pierre, qu'il tenait à sa main gauche. Il en avait déjà empoigné un, lorsque sa femme lui dit :<br /><br />" Que voulez-vous faire à l'heure qu'il est ? n'aurez-vous pas assez de temps demain ?<br /><br />- Tais-toi, reprit l'Ogre, ils en seront plus mortifiés.<br /><br />- Mais vous avez encore là tant de viande, reprit sa femme : voilà un veau, deux moutons et la moitié d'un cochon !<br /><br />- Tu as raison, dit l'Ogre : donne-leur bien à souper afin qu'ils ne maigrissent pas, et va les mener coucher. "<br /><br />La bonne femme fut ravie de joie, et leur porta bien à souper; mais ils ne purent manger, tant ils étaient saisis de peur. Pour l'Ogre, il se remit à boire, ravi d'avoir de quoi si bien régaler ses amis. Il but une douzaine de coups de plus qu'à l'ordinaire : ce qui lui donna un peu dans la tête, et l'obligea de s'aller coucher.<br /><br />L'Ogre avait sept filles, qui n'étaient encore que des enfants. Ces petites ogresses avaient toutes le teint fort beau, parce qu'elles mangeaient de la chair fraîche, comme leur père ; mais elles avaient de petits yeux gris et tout ronds, le nez crochu, et une fort grande bouche, avec de longues dents fort aiguës et fort éloignées l'une de l'autre. Elles n'étaient pas encore fort méchantes; mais elles promettaient beaucoup, car elles mordaient déjà les petits enfants pour en sucer le sang.<br /><br />On les avait fait coucher de bonne heure, et elles étaient toutes sept dans un grand lit, ayant chacune une couronne d'or sur la tête. Il y avait dans la même chambre un autre lit de la même grandeur: ce fut dans ce lit que la femme de l'Ogre mit coucher les sept petits garçons; après quoi, elle s'alla coucher auprès de son mari.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet, qui avait remarqué que les filles de l'Ogre avaient des couronnes d'or sur la tête, et qui craignait qu'il ne prît à l'Ogre quelques remords de ne les avoir pas égorgés dès le soir même, se leva vers le milieu de la nuit, et prenant les bonnets de ses frères et le sien, il alla tout doucement les mettre sur la tête des sept filles de l'Ogre, après leur avoir ôté leurs couronnes d'or, qu'il mit sur la tête de ses frères, et sur la sienne afin que l'Ogre les prît pour ses filles, et ses filles pour les garçons qu'il voulait égorger.<br /><br />La chose réussit comme il l'avait pensé ; car l'Ogre, s'étant éveillé sur le minuit, eut regret d'avoir différé au lendemain ce qu'il pouvait exécuter la veille. Il se jeta donc brusquement hors du lit, et, prenant son grand couteau:<br /><br />" Allons voir, dit-il, comment se portent nos petits drôles; n'en faisons pas à deux fois. "<br /><br />Il monta donc à tâtons à la chambre de ses filles, et s'approcha du lit où étaient les petits garçons, qui dormaient tous, excepté le petit Poucet, qui eut bien peur lorsqu'il sentit la main de l'Ogre qui lui tâtait la tête, comme il avait tâté celles de tous ses frères. L'Ogre, qui sentit les couronnes d'or :<br /><br />" Vraiment, dit- il, j'allais faire là un bel ouvrage; je vois bien que je bus trop hier au soir. "<br /><br />Il alla ensuite au lit de ses filles, où ayant senti les petits bonnets des garçons:<br /><br />" Ah ! les voilà, dit-il, nos gaillards ; travaillons hardiment. "<br /><br />En disant ces mots, il coupa, sans balancer, la gorge à ses sept filles. Fort content de cette expédition, il alla se recoucher auprès de sa femme. Aussitôt que le petit Poucet entendit ronfler l'Ogre, il réveilla ses frères, et leur dit de s'habiller promptement et de le suivre. Ils descendirent doucement dans le jardin et sautèrent par-dessus les murailles. Ils coururent presque toute la nuit, toujours en tremblant, et sans savoir où ils allaient.<br /><br />L'Ogre, s'étant éveillé, dit à sa femme :<br /><br />" Va-t'en là-haut habiller ces petits drôles d'hier au soir. "<br /><br />L'Ogresse fut fort étonnée de la bonté de son mari, ne se doutant point de la manière qu'il entendait qu'elle les habillât, et croyant qu'il lui ordonnait de les aller vêtir, elle monta en haut, où elle fut bien surprise, lorsqu'elle aperçut ses sept filles égorgées et nageant dans leur sang. Elle commença par s'évanouir, car c'est le premier expédient que trouvent presque toutes les femmes en pareilles rencontres.<br /><br />L'Ogre, craignant que sa femme ne fût trop longtemps à faire la besogne dont il l'avait chargée, monta en haut pour lui aider. Il ne fut pas moins étonné que sa femme lorsqu'il vit cet affreux spectacle.<br /><br />"Ah ! qu'ai-je fait là ? s'écria-t-il. Ils me le payeront, les malheureux, et tout à l'heure. "<br /><br />Il jeta aussitôt une potée d'eau dans le nez de sa femme ; et, l'ayant fait revenir:<br /><br />" Donne-moi vite mes bottes de sept lieues, lui dit-il, afin que j'aille les attraper. "<br /><br />Il se mit en campagne, et après avoir couru bien loin de tous les côtés, enfin il entra dans le chemin où marchaient ces pauvres enfants, qui n'étaient plus qu'à cent pas du logis de leur père. Ils virent l'Ogre qui allait de montagne en montagne, et qui traversait des rivières aussi aisément qu'il aurait fait le moindre ruisseau.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet qui vit un rocher creux proche le lieu où ils étaient, y fit cacher ses six frères et s'y fourra aussi, regardant toujours ce que l' Ogre deviendrait. L'Ogre, qui se trouvait fort las du long chemin qu'il avait fait inutilement (car les bottes de sept lieues fatiguent fort leur homme), voulut se reposer; et, par hasard, il alla s'asseoir sur la roche où les petits garçons s'étaient cachés. Comme il n'en pouvait plus de fatigue, il s'endormit après s'être reposé quelque temps, et vint à ronfler si effroyablement, que les pauvres enfants n'eurent pas moins de peur que quand il tenait son grand couteau pour leur couper la gorge.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet en eut moins de peur, et dit à ses frères de s'enfuir promptement à la maison pendant que l'Ogre dormait bien fort, et qu'ils ne se missent point en peine de lui. Ils crurent son conseil, et gagnèrent vite la maison.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet, s'étant approché de l'Ogre, lui tira doucement ses bottes, et les mit aussitôt. Les bottes étaient fort grandes et fort larges ; mais, comme elles étaient fées, elles avaient le don de s'agrandir et de se rapetisser selon la jambe de celui qui les chaussait; de sorte qu'elles se trouvèrent aussi justes à ses pieds et à ses jambes que si elles eussent été faites pour lui. Il alla droit à la maison de l'Ogre, où il trouva sa femme qui pleurait auprès de ses filles égorgées.<br /><br />" Votre mari, lui dit le petit Poucet, est en grand danger; car il a été pris par une troupe de voleurs, qui ont juré de le tuer s'il ne leur donne tout son or et tout son argent. Dans le moment qu'ils lui tenaient le poignard sur la gorge, il m'a aperçu et m'a prié de vous venir avertir de l'état où il est, et de vous dire de me donner tout ce qu'il a de vaillant, sans en rien retenir, parce qu'autrement ils le tueront sans miséricorde. Comme la chose presse beaucoup, il a voulu que je prisse ses bottes de sept lieues que voilà, pour faire diligence, et aussi afin que vous ne croyiez pas que je sois un affronteur. "<br /><br />La bonne femme, fort effrayée, lui donna aussitôt tout ce qu'elle avait; car cet Ogre ne laissait pas d'être fort bon mari, quoiqu'il mangeât les petits enfants.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet, étant donc chargé de toutes les richesses de l'Ogre, s'en revint au logis de son père, où il fut reçu avec bien de la joie. Il y a bien des gens qui ne demeurent pas d'accord de cette dernière circonstance, et qui prétendent que le petit Poucet n'a jamais fait ce vol à l'Ogre; qu'à la vérité il n'avait pas fait conscience de lui prendre ses bottes de sept lieues, parce qu'il ne s'en servait que pour courir après les petits enfants. Ces gens là assurent le savoir de bonne part, et même pour avoir bu et mangé dans la maison du bûcheron.<br /><br />Ils assurent que lorsque le petit Poucet eut chaussé les bottes de l'Ogre, il s'en alla à la cour, où il savait qu'on était fort en peine d'une armée qui était à deux cents lieues de là, et du succès d'une bataille qu'on avait donnée. Il alla, disent-ils, trouver le roi et lui dit que, s'il le souhaitait il lui rapporterait des nouvelles de l'armée avant la fin du jour. Le roi lui promit une grosse somme d'argent s'il en venait à bout.<br /><br />Le petit Poucet rapporta des nouvelles, dès le soir même; et cette première course l'ayant fait connaître, il gagnait tout ce qu'il voulait; car le roi le payait parfaitement bien pour porter ses ordres à l'armée ; et une infinité de demoiselles lui donnaient tout ce qu'il voulait, pour avoir des nouvelles de leurs fiancés et ce fut là son plus grand gain.<br /><br />Il se trouvait quelques femmes qui le chargeaient de lettres pour leurs maris; mais elles le payaient si mal, et cela allait à si peu de chose qu'il ne daignait mettre en ligne de compte ce qu'il gagnait de ce côté-là. Après avoir fait pendant quelque temps le métier de courrier, et y avoir amassé beaucoup de biens, il revint chez son père, où il n'est pas possible d'imaginer la joie qu'on eut de le revoir. Il mit toute sa famille à son aise. Il acheta des offices de nouvelle création pour son père et pour ses frères ; et par là il les établit tous, et fit parfaitement bien sa cour en même temps.<br /><br /><br /> MORALITE</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">On ne s'afflige point d'avoir beaucoup d'enfants,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Quand ils sont tous beaux, bien faits et bien grands,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Et d'un extérieur qui brille;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mais si l'un d'eux est faible, ou ne dit mot,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">On le méprise, on le raille, on le pille :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Quelquefois, cependant, c'est ce petit marmot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Qui fera le bonheur de toute la famille.</span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-51568623823295562362014-06-28T22:44:00.004-07:002014-06-28T22:44:57.154-07:00Le bourgeois gentilhomme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-9lrk-FSlQwOkU0kucFfAqWs3BUFBN7NSz4xBVY2TRGOcjXn_VrTAs2thxEpi4KDuXrm63ArPZS4WQIwsc1ogrIl-esqHQexwBLKcdhaneXPqjxtcgf9dQ3pi24kWl1PqIDIYsVmn6Q/s1600/5703961788_eafec511f4_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR-9lrk-FSlQwOkU0kucFfAqWs3BUFBN7NSz4xBVY2TRGOcjXn_VrTAs2thxEpi4KDuXrm63ArPZS4WQIwsc1ogrIl-esqHQexwBLKcdhaneXPqjxtcgf9dQ3pi24kWl1PqIDIYsVmn6Q/s1600/5703961788_eafec511f4_o.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Le bourgeois gentilhomme</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-8497330365136990332014-06-28T22:40:00.001-07:002014-06-28T22:42:21.247-07:00Le petit chaperon rouge <span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Il était une fois une petite fille de Village, la plus jolie qu’on eût su voir ; sa mère en était folle, et sa mère-grand plus folle encore. Cette bonne femme lui fit faire un petit chaperon rouge, qui lui seyait si bien, que partout on l’appelait le Petit Chaperon rouge.<br /><br />Un jour, sa mère, ayant cuit et fait des galettes, lui dit : Va voir comme se porte ta mère-grand, car on m’a dit qu’elle était malade. Porte-lui une galette et ce petit pot de beurre. Le Petit Chaperon rouge partit aussitôt pour aller chez sa mère-grand, qui demeurait dans un autre Village. En passant dans un bois elle rencontra compère le Loup, qui eut bien envie de la manger ; mais il n’osa, à cause de quelques Bûcherons qui étaient dans la Forêt. Il lui demanda où elle allait ; la pauvre enfant, qui ne savait pas qu’il est dangereux de s’arrêter à écouter un Loup, lui dit : Je vais voir ma Mère-grand, et lui porter une galette, avec un petit pot de beurre, que ma Mère lui envoie. Demeure-t-elle bien loin ? lui dit le Loup.<br /><br />Oh ! oui, dit le Petit Chaperon rouge, c’est par-delà le moulin que vous voyez tout là-bas, à la première maison du Village. Eh bien, dit le Loup, je veux l’aller voir aussi ; je m’y en vais par ce chemin-ci, et toi par ce chemin-là, et nous verrons qui plus tôt y sera. Le loup se mit à courir de toute sa force par le chemin qui était le plus court, et la petite fille s’en alla par le chemin le plus long, s’amusant à cueillir des noisettes, à courir après des papillons, et à faire des bouquets des petites fleurs qu’elle rencontrait.<br /><br />Le loup ne fut pas longtemps à arriver à la maison de la Mère-grand ; il heurte : Toc, toc. Qui est là ? C’est votre fille le Petit Chaperon rouge (dit le Loup, en contrefaisant sa voix) qui vous apporte une galette et un petit pot de beurre que ma Mère vous envoie. La bonne Mère-grand, qui était dans son lit à cause qu’elle se trouvait un peu mal, lui cria : Tire la chevillette, la bobinette cherra. Le Loup tira la chevillette et la porte s’ouvrit. Il se jeta sur la bonne femme, et la dévora en moins de rien ; car il y avait plus de trois jours qu’il n’avait mangé. Ensuite il ferma la porte, et s’alla coucher dans le lit de la Mère-grand, en attendant le Petit Chaperon rouge, qui quelque temps après vint heurter à la porte. Toc, toc.<br /><br />Qui est là ? Le Petit Chaperon rouge, qui entendit la grosse voix du Loup eut peur d’abord, mais croyant que sa Mère-grand était enrhumée, répondit : C’est votre fille le Petit Chaperon rouge, qui vous apporte une galette et un petit pot de beurre que ma Mère vous envoie. Le Loup lui cria en adoucissant un peu sa voix : Tire la chevillette, la bobinette cherra. Le Petit Chaperon rouge tira la chevillette, et la porte s’ouvrit.<br /><br />Le Loup, la voyant entrer, lui dit en se cachant dans le lit sous la couverture : Mets la galette et le petit pot de beurre sur la huche, et viens te coucher avec moi. Le Petit Chaperon rouge se déshabille, et va se mettre dans le lit, où elle fut bien étonnée de voir comment sa Mère-grand était faite en son déshabillé. Elle lui dit : Ma mère-grand, que vous avez de grands bras ? C’est pour mieux t’embrasser, ma fille.<br /><br />Ma mère-grand, que vous avez de grandes jambes ? C’est pour mieux courir, mon enfant. Ma mère-grand, que vous avez de grandes oreilles ? C’est pour mieux écouter, mon enfant. Ma mère-grand, que vous avez de grands yeux ? C’est pour mieux voir, mon enfant. Ma mère-grand, que vous avez de grandes dents. C’est pour te manger. Et en disant ces mots, ce méchant Loup se jeta sur le Petit Chaperon rouge, et la mangea.<br /><br />MORALITÉ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">On voit ici que de jeunes enfants,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Surtout de jeunes filles</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Belles, bien faites, et gentilles,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Font très mal d’écouter toute sorte de gens,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Et que ce n’est pas chose étrange,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">S’il en est tant que le Loup mange.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Je dis le Loup, car tous les Loups</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Ne sont pas de la même sorte ;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Il en est d’une humeur accorte,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Sans bruit, sans fiel et sans courroux,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Qui privés, complaisants et doux,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Suivent les jeunes Demoiselles</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Jusque dans les maisons, jusque dans les ruelles ;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mais hélas ! qui ne sait que ces Loups doucereux,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">De tous les Loups sont les plus dangereux.</span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-56039382181649264022014-05-16T14:08:00.003-07:002014-05-16T14:08:40.802-07:00堕落天使 Fallen Angels<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">堕落天使 Fallen Angels</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">堕落天使 Fallen Angels</span></div>
flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-20504153271453904212014-05-16T14:00:00.002-07:002014-05-16T14:00:17.642-07:00Christopher Doyle<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">REVERSE SHOT: You recently said that when a filmmaker gets you, they get the complete package. You are not only involved in the cinematography but also in the re-writing of the story as you shoot.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Christopher Doyle: For better of worse, they do get the complete package. Although I’ve known Zhang Yimou for a long time, I got involved in Hero because of the producer Billy Kong. Originally I was supposed to shoot Crouching Tiger for him but I couldn’t since I was shooting In the Mood for Love and it kept going on forever. Zhang Yimou and I come from a very different culture, different filmmaking culture too. Lots of people seem to think filmmakers are similar and overlook this. Filmmakers might have similar intentions but the way they work is informed by their culture. The way the industry works in America is because Americans are like that, same in France. I’ve worked in China many times but it implies a different kind of engagement. It’s more formal. In Last Life in the Universe, because of the fact that Thai culture has a much more loose way of approaching things, it was an open collaboration. It’s another structure. This comes from the size of the films, character of people involved. For me, actually, on a very personal level I prefer working on films like Last Life in the Universe. I think you can see that, if you really look at it, you can see the person behind the film and you can see their pleasure. There’s not much else there! It’s a small story. Hero is a much more formal film, it’s a very structured film and the way it was executed is much more structured as well. As a filmmaker you have to try different areas and different places. <br /> <br /> RS: Would you compare making Hero to Ashes of Time? Since the latter is also a martial arts film set in the desert, how did your experience in the former help you to work through the challenges of the latter?<br /> <br /> Doyle: Yeah, I could not have made Hero without Ashes of Time. The desert really informs you. I’ve made five desert films. The desert has been one of the important learning platforms. It’s a place that has taught me a great deal about filmmaking because you can’t light the desert. You exchange, it’s temperamental, it’s like some relationships. It’s vast and beautiful and engaging. And yet there are a lot of details in the desert. It’s all there. The desert taught me to look more. To be more observant, more patient and to do less. Don’t intrude. Take what you have and make it what you need. The city of Hong Kong also taught me that. In Hong Kong the space is so limited and people move so fast and there’s certain kind of energy and all those things are reflected in Hong Kong-style filmmaking. <br /><br /> <br /><br />RS: What was the process of composing the mise-en-scène in Hero. You have these huge spaces and also this extremely complex choreography. In addition, there’s a wide spectrum of colors that define the narrative structure of the film.<br /> <br /> Doyle: Zhang Yimou is a cinematographer; he has a certain visual energy. I’ve done many films where we have avoided red and that was a very conscious choice; up to In the Mood for Love, there’s no red in Wong Kar-wai’s films. For Chinese, red has a very special significance. It means joy. It’s the color for marriages, temples…in many ways it’s the most beautiful color…and it’s a very auspicious color, with many associations in Chinese culture. That’s why we have avoided in the past. In Hero, we wanted all these cultural associations. The point of departure is color. You have a Rashomon kind of story. And then color. The easy one was red, red as passion. We were not sure about the others and that was the journey, specifically based on locations. Sixty percent of the film is shot outdoors, and, for example, you cannot change the color of the lake. We knew the lake and the forest with the yellow leaves were very important. So we searched for the locations and from them we reworked the script, instead of imposing a color to a particular location. I think this also comes across in Last Life in the Universe. The house is very much a character in the film. When we found that house I insisted on it, because it had such a presence that I felt the film would be three times better. In Hero, we were choosing colors depending on the locations. The most difficult one was the flashback, in the Emperor’s palace, when they almost assassinate the Emperor. We basically ran out of colors and we were not going to use pink! Green was the choice, it was the only color we felt comfortable with. I knew Fuji has an interesting green so we went along with it. <br /> <br /> [Vittorio] Storaro claims green is the color of knowledge. It’s not as simple as Storaro and other people claim. It’s not a theoretical exercise; it’s a practical one. To say the stuff that Storaro says to the kids is really misinformation. It’s dangerous, it confuses people, and makes them think that film is a theoretical exercise. As a cinematographer you’re dealing every minute with weather, people’s emotions, technical problems. The style comes from the contingencies of the film and that’s very important to realize for younger filmmmakers. <br /> <br /> RS: Like the black-and-white shots in Fallen Angels. They were the result of a problem…<br /> <br /> Doyle: We fucked up with the film stock. It was old. We couldn’t re-shoot…so of course it was foggy in color. We said: “maybe this can represent something so let’s pick some other pieces,” and that’s what we did. Because of a mistake, a certain structure came out of the film and you can write a PhD about it if you want. What happened was that we gave it a system, so we made the most important parts of each scene in black-and-white. But that was a solution to the problem, not an original concept. We just appropriated the mistake and made it work. It’s a more intuitive, open, or, maybe, Asian way of working. <br /> <br /> RS: Fallen Angels was completely groundbreaking. It’s a film in which the closer you get to the image the less you see. This is obviously very different from Hero, in which everything is supposed to be pristine and harmonic…<br /> <br /> Doyle: Hong Kong and the desert are two very different spaces. Both films are totally informed by the location where they happen. In addition, Wong Kar-wai and Zhang Yimou are two very different filmmakers in their approach to the image and storytelling. Hero, above all, is a celebration of martial arts chivalry. <br /> <br /> RS: Is it true that Tony Leung’s apartment in Chungking Express is your actual apartment?<br /> <br /> Doyle: I still live there… it’s actually a Japanese tourist stop. Especially after the movie came out in 1995. They would take photographs of my house all day. It’s right in the middle of Hong Kong. As a result of this, everybody knows where I live. Just ask in the street. Downstairs, there are lots of bars. They all know me because I’m always in the bar. <br /><br /> <br /><br />RS: I’d like to talk about Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake, on which you worked. Would you agree that contemporary cinema is, to a great extent, defined by an appropriation of other cinematic traditions, genres, visual styles? Wong Kar-wai once said that current filmmakers no longer make original works of art, they recycle what has been done before.<br /> <br /> Doyle: No. I think the only time I see films is on planes. I take a lot of planes, so I do manage to see lots of films. But to me film is not the basis of my life, my creative energy comes from other things, usually music, or people, or the way in which I live. The people who decide to work with me know that. Therefore, what you mention is their job. Gus Van Sant knew that. Psycho is not a film but a conceptual artwork. I don’t think you need to see the film. It’s just a concept, a very expensive one. It cost $20 million to make and $40 million to promote. If you went to Hollywood, and tell them let’s do some performance art, they wouldn’t give you 60 million. They did in this case. My role in Psycho was not to know, not to remember the original film. <br /> <br /> Same with martial arts films. Because of where I live (Hong Kong), the people I’ve worked with, I know the working details. In fact, I know better than Zhang Yimou the actual physical procedure to make a martial arts film. However, it’s much more his job to try to make his own film. That was a difficult thing for me to work with because Zhang didn’t know the procedure to shoot a martial arts film. Now, the West is taking over, The Matrix and all that…they are borrowing this style but they’re structuring scenes much more systematically…storyboards, all kinds of preparation. <br /> <br /> However, Hero was shot like an old-style Hong-Kong martial arts film. To be honest, you don’t know what you are going get while shooting. The martial artists don’t know either, but they make it up as they go along and they continuously try new things. It’s choreography. Which means the communication is quite difficult and the logistics are quite complicated as well. Basically, what you need to do is to try to direct the film in a certain direction and then take what you need. You’re dealing with very special people. Martial artists come from a very proud tradition and you know, they can beat the shit out of you…<br /> <br /> RS: So in Hero, Zhang, the choreographer, and the martial artists planned a scene and then you adapted to what they were doing…<br /> <br /> Doyle: Zhang Yimou tried but it’s much less planned than other forms of cinema. The wind is too strong so someone cannot fly, or, on the lake, it’s very difficult to get people in the air, you need wires…it’s a very slow procedure. Sometimes, you get two or three shots in a day. It takes a lot of concentration and collaboration. Even if you have a plan, then you have actors that are tired, or we are in a very high altitude, most of film is at 3000 thousand feet, physically it’s quite difficult to do. So it’s not a Tarantino kind of exercise, it’s much more organic. Zhang’s main reason to make a martial arts film is political. If you make a genre piece, you have much more scope than if you make a film about people taking ecstasy in Beijing. It’s much easier to get things across. There’s still censorship, and script supervision in China. <br /><br /><br />RS: The ultimate message of Hero seems to defend a kind of internal imperialism. It has been widely criticized as racist. What’s at stake in this film?<br /> <br /> Doyle: There’s a really strong reaction for people who know Chinese history, especially in some areas in China and Taiwan. It’s a little bit revisionist for some people in terms of the white-washing of this historical character. There are many films about this period, like Emperor and the Assassin, so the jury is still out. There’s a debate about what this emperor really did. He was the first emperor of China; he did unite the country. How did he do it? He was an extremely ruthless man. Zhang’s intentions and personal relationship with the politics of his country are much more complex than that. I don’t know and I don’t think I have the right to talk about it. I don’t choose films based on the script but based on the person. If it was too disgusting, I’d stay away from it. <br /> <br /> RS: After seeing To Live and Red Sorghum, which are very critical films, it’s surprising that Hero…<br /> <br /> Christopher Doyle: You’re saying he sold out, right? I can’t judge, but many people say that…I can’t judge. By the way, Zhang is a very rich man…I have very rich friends in China and I’m not really sure…I’ve seen the way society is evolving now…it’s going in a direction I don’t personally like…but look what they come from…look at the shit they’ve been through…At a personal level, I can reject certain aspects the way China is changing. But I don’t think I have any right to criticize them because they’ve gone through a hell I don’t truly know, I don’t have any right, or precision, to be critical. Zhang has to evolve the way he wants, that’s his choice. <br /> <br /> RS: In Hero, calligraphy is represented as an artistic process, having an organic relationship with the individual psyche and also his abilities as martial artist. In the end, this same calligraphy is used in order to offer the unity of China, “Our Land,” as an ideal and to endorse the Emperor’s slaughtering practice.<br /> <br /> Doyle: In Chinese it’s slightly different. The ideogram Tony Leung writes, on the one hand, means “Under Heaven”; it means there is a god. It also means “Under the Emperor.” Of course, it still has this implication that this is our place, also that it’s a gift, given to us by Heaven, it’s a unified place but it’s a gift. It’s not quite as heavy as “our land.” You have to take into account that China means “Central Country.” Chinese people have a very centralist worldview. <br /> <br /> RS: In the trailer of Hero, the film is introduced as “Quentin Tarantino presents…”<br /> <br /> Doyle: Oh really? <br /> <br /> RS: According to what I’ve heard, Miramax was hesitant to release the film and Tarantino volunteered to make it happen. Though his intentions might be good, Hero is being sold to audiences as a Tarantino product with Jet Li created by the producer of Crouching Tiger. <br /> <br /> Doyle: To me it implies that they want to trick everybody into seeing a martial arts film and make all the money in the first weekend and then they don’t give a shit. Hero is not a martial arts film as Crouching Tiger is. If you go to the film, expecting back-to-back action, you’re going be disappointed. Crouching Tiger, because of who Ang Lee is, has a more American background. This doesn’t have a user-friendly American narrative structure. It’s much more literary. I think it’s the wrong angle to promote the film. <br /> <br /> RS: How would you compare the work of Zhang and Wong Kar-wai to that of Tarantino, who is a great appropriator, combining different film styles and traditions?<br /> <br /> Doyle: He’s like that in person too…He never stops talking. Quentin is quite fun in a bar…. I think that, in a positive way, he references enough stuff so people go to see the other films. Tarantino promotes a certain vision of cinema that is different. However, I do think his intentions are good. Personally and most of the people I’ve worked with, we come from a different place. Whatever you’re appropriating, you’re absorbing it, it’s filtered through your unconscious and it comes back as something else. Wong and I reference multiple things, but we’re not repeating them. The opposite, we usually avoid repetition. It’s impossible not to repeat other things. Nothing is original, but it can be very personal and the angle, the intention can be very personal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Trouvé </em></span><a href="http://www.reverseshot.com/legacy/summer04/doyle.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>ici</em></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>.</em></span><br />
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flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-19445883010450186982014-05-16T13:43:00.007-07:002014-05-16T13:43:50.814-07:00堕落天使 Fallen Angels<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-25055768012185399052014-05-16T13:26:00.002-07:002014-05-16T13:28:11.429-07:00Christopher Doyle 王家卫<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">DU KE FENG (CHRISTOPHER DOYLE): What does redux literally mean? And where does the word come from?<br /><br />WONG KAR WAI: The first time the word redux appeared in a film title was when Francis Ford Coppola used it for his film Apocalypse Now Redux [2001]. For Coppola the word means "reassessed" and "reconsidered." But in our case it has nothing to do with reconsideration. It's more about rescuing a film that means a lot to us. Our film could have been called Saving Ashes of Time. The laboratory where we stored all our negatives went bankrupt overnight following the Asian economic crisis in 1997. So on short notice we had to retrieve all the materials in the middle of the night before the debtor-receiver took over the laboratory the next morning. While checking the materials we salvaged, we noticed that some of the original negatives and sound tapes had deteriorated into pieces. We decided to rescue the film from a life of existing only on DVD or bootlegged Chinatown VHS. At first, we thought it was only a simple restoration. Not until a few years later did we realize that it was actually an odyssey. We spent the first few years searching for missing materials. It took us from Hong Kong to overseas distributors and to various Chinatowns across North America. By the time we collected all the materials, we realized that a 100-percent restoration of the original version was out of the question, so we trimmed out the parts that were beyond repair and replaced them with other options. From there we embarked on another five-year journey from restoration to redux. To revisit a dream that is more than 15 years old is complicated. Technology helps much of the time but not always. The hardest part is to restrain myself from looking at it with the experiences and changes that I went through in the years since; I just wanted to make sure [the film] was what it was supposed to be back then, when we were making it. <br /><br />DKF: I couldn't have done Rabbit-Proof Fence [2002, with Phillip Noyce] if I hadn't learned from Ashes to listen to the rhythms of a place. I feel the organic evolution of the storytelling has as much to do with the space in which it takes place as it does the idiosyncrasies of our working style.<br /><br />WKW: Unlike today, shooting in the remote desert in the western part of China was an adventure. Arranging the trips for our eight lead actors back and forth between Hong Kong and our location was in itself a nightmare.<br /><br />DKF: Those were the days: Shooting one actor's side of a conversation, then shooting the other side two months later, when the actor he or she was supposed to be talking to finally arrived.<br /><br />WKW: Do you still remember what happened on the last day of shooting?<br /><br />DKF: Thankfully not.<br /><br />WKW: I have kept in my file a picture of your naked butt. To me, it's like a metaphor of the way we worked then.<br /><br />DKF: I could say I wanted to be naked for the whole shoot, or I could claim the heat was getting to me. But mostly I was apologizing (in my way) for not getting all the shots we had in our hearts and our heads. Or perhaps I just wanted to be as true (or do I mean "blue") as the desert sky.<br /><br />The happenstances of our shared and separate ways have meant that WKW and I are not able to sit this interview out (i.e., meet to talk). Deadlines have always been less relevant than the one this magazine gave us, so this e-mail is our recourse. As in our approach to our films, it is as much the talking as the gesture that is the content. -DKF<br /><br />WKW: It is not very often that a director is offered the chance to make a big-budget martial arts epic. I jumped at this opportunity with all my knowledge about this genre, fearing that there wouldn't be a second chance. To separate ourselves from the previous adaptations, we simply put the original novel aside and went ahead to invent our own vision. It's more than a standard martial arts film; it's Shakespeare meets Sergio Leone in Chinese.<br /><br />DKF: Action is a bitch to shoot, as is football or any endeavor whose rules and conventions are unfamiliar (to me).<br /><br />WKW: For me, shooting an action scene is no different from shooting a love scene. What really matters is what happens before the penetration and not after.<br /><br />DKF: We tried to give each episode its particular look. This effort seems to me more evident in Ashes of Time Redux. Is it the music? Or the reworking of the structure? Or have perhaps other martial arts-based films educated our eye?<br /><br />WKW: You mean Kung Fu Panda put us on the map?<br /><br />DKF: Well, they say the Minister of Film (or whatever he or she is called) apologized to the Chinese people for not having made Kung Fu Panda themselves. Maybe in the States we should change the name [of our film] to Ashes of Panda.<br /><br />Monday afternoon at a café in the Toronto airport, watching Roger Federer beat Andy Murray at the U.S. Open. -WKW<br /><br />WKW: Dear DKF, normally you dance to my music, and now I have to match your steps. Not easy, but let's figure out the dance floor first: How long ago did we finish Ashes of Time? Fifteen years ago, or four months ago, or at some point in between?<br /><br />DKF: Fifteen years ago? [The film] certainly is taking its time finding its time, and yet it feels immediate enough to be the new film it has become. Even now there are moments and images I can't stop rethinking and reworking. Perhaps that is what one does in the films that follow.<br /><br />WKW: Another picture that I have kept in my file is of Leslie, taken by you, with a note. May I quote what you wrote then? "Leslie hates me when I say my habitual ‘anytime' if I'm not completely ready to shoot. He thinks I'm more up and down, emotionally, than he is. But I'm not so sure. We've made four films together now, and we intend to make many more. I've come to know the fine details of his moods and needs and how much he gets into his role." The night Leslie died we were shooting Eros [2004] with Gong Li and Chang Chen. When the news reached our office, we thought it was an April Fools' Day joke. Soon we realized it was true and we had lost him.<br /><br />DKF: We have not lost Leslie, but I didn't know that I could miss him so till I missed him so. We aren't immortal in or through our art-we live in the ways of those we touch to love. Leslie is where he needs to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: x-small;"><em>Trouvé </em><a href="http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/christopher-doyle-and-wong-kar-wai/#_"><em>ici</em></a><em>.</em></span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-39348980544898869732014-05-05T00:24:00.001-07:002014-05-05T00:24:12.902-07:00一代宗师 The Grandmaster<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-83922153158742771632014-05-05T00:15:00.000-07:002014-05-05T00:16:25.663-07:00一代宗师 The Grandmaster<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:这部影片的评价两极化,你都有关注吗?大家的各种看法和你最想要表达的东西是一样的吗?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:对于外界的评价当然有耳闻。电影是个载体,每个人看完都有自己的感受,让观众自己讲比较好。有些观众评价影片的结构,有些关心感情的起伏,也有人认为这部电影多精致、再现了民国的氛围,但我觉得,这部电影最重要的还是讲述民国武林,武林就不能没有功夫。这部电影最大的挑战是怎么去把功夫表现出来。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">一开始我和八爷(袁和平)有过沟通,我希望《一代宗师》从画面和动作上能看出每个门派。每个门派都有自己的手法和哲学,叶问和宫二,如果不是从小到大练习功夫培养的思维方法,他们的人格就不完整。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:但普通观众不一定能看出门派的差别,能帮忙普及一下吗?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:譬如说,分辨咏春拳和八卦掌,八卦掌是走圆形的,是走偏门抢攻的,它的方位是前后左右上下,所以宫二会说“咏春拳只有眼前路,八卦掌要兼顾到身后身”,因为咏春拳基本上是直线的,攻和防是在一起,只有眼前路。咏春拳以前的电影里有很多表现,但拳理是什么,我想通过电影给大家看。梁朝伟这次展现的咏春八脚(撑、踹、蹬、凿、扫、钉、摊、挑),大家在以前的电影里都没见过</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">八卦掌在电影上也没有具体地讲过,比如六十四手就是八卦掌的基本功能,宫家的六十四手则是带有形意路的八卦掌,因为形意拳和八卦掌两门是通的,形意比较刚烈,补充了八卦掌的阴柔,两个一起练就会刚柔并重。我们从小听过的郭云深老师(注:清末武术家)的半步崩拳,我拜访过很多形意门的老师,包括这部电影的编剧徐皓峰也是形意门的,他对这门派很有研究。我们就把形意的半步崩拳都放在电影里了。</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">八极拳最有名的是李书文,我们都希望很具体地表现出来,你不掌握这些特点,没法展示这些拳的拳理和它的风格。八极拳有个说法叫“硬开门”,不等你开门,他们就会硬闯进来。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:你觉得门派的风格会影响到人物的命运?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:对,你选择哪个拳种,它的拳理和训练过程慢慢和你的人融合在一起。叶问是坚持做人只有眼前路、没有身后身,因为咏春的拳理就是回头无岸。我为什么把叶问跟宫二对立,他们也是一阳一阴,代表了两种人生态度,一种人眼睛永远望着前面,宫二是永远看后面,到最后她宁愿留下,因为她一生都在回头。所以为什么梁朝伟说她缺一个转身,她没往前看。那老猿挂印的那个回首望月,就是说很多时候回头是一种回想,一种反思,但有时候也是怀旧。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:你曾在发布会上说还可以剪辑3个月,上映版本不是你最完美的版本吧?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:所谓3个月、6个月,对于这部电影你可以继续慢慢弄,每个阶段都有不同的看法,今天这个版本是今天这个看法,明天做出来会有不一样,哪个好我不敢说。有时候是你迷在这件事里面、有自己特别的感受,观众不一定会认同这一点。我不认为现在上映的是半成品,这部电影我花了很长时间,绝对不会匆忙剪出来嘛。有观众感觉我很赶,所以就觉得声音或画面还没做到完美,这个意见我也有注意。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:有香港媒体报道说你希望4小时完整版能上映,真的是这样吗?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:我想这应该是多年以后的事情,就像《东邪西毒》终极版那样(笑)。4小时版本准确的意思是:我们拍的素材是可以剪辑成4个小时,会让每个角色的故事都完整,但这样的安排不会是一个最佳的结果。</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">我原来的想法就像民国的章回体小说,小时候看平江不肖生的武侠小说,每个章回都是讲一个人物,或许这个人物下个章回就不见了,再下去也不会出现。人生也有点像这样。我曾想让《一代宗师》就用10个章节讲10个人物,但我心想观众肯定不会习惯。我们没有这个能力要求大家牺牲一天里的4个小时看这个电影,尤其是当你对这个电影还不太了解时。我们往后有机会会做4个小时的电影,愿意看的人过来看一下。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:张震扮演的一线天、赵本山扮演的丁连山在4小时版本里都会有完整地讲述?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:是的。但这是以后的事情,如果遇到合适的机会可以把他们的故事发展开来。就像丁连山和宫保田,他俩是第一代中华武士会的精英,当年和辛亥革命都有关联,故事都很精彩。</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">这些人身在武林,其实都裹挟在政治里</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:宗师们的人生变故和大时代关系很大,这么看来,一线天、丁连山等都和军政界有瓜葛?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:宫老爷子开场来到佛山是代表中华武士会,这个组织就是同盟会的嘛。这些人身在武林,其实都裹挟在政治里面。我们后来在电影里没有选择讲述背景,宫老爷子为何是1936年来到广东,那时候刚好是两广事变(广西的新桂系和广东的陈济棠粤系借抗日之名反抗蒋介石)所以南北分家,宫老爷子在这个时候说“南拳北传”是非常不适宜的,所以他会面对困难,但他还是坚持自己的想法:“拳分南北,国也分南北吗?”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">一线天基本就算是特工,民国是个暗杀的时代,所谓面子和里子,面子上是做光彩的事情,里子却是搞暗杀。一线天的原型来自两个人,一个是八极拳的大师,叫李书文,他出手不留情,但人非常懒,他说有用的一招就够。另一个是台湾的大师,叫刘云樵,他在民国时代是一个特工,也为抗日做了很多事情,之后到了台湾也是发扬八极拳。</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:电影中你对主角的军政背景还是做了虚化处理,为什么?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:《一代宗师》确实有政治关联在里面,但所谓的江湖、武林,是相对于朝廷的,它和政治有关联,但永远要保持着距离。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">新京报:宗师南下,这和你家当年从上海南迁到香港很像,拍这部片是不是也有个人情怀在里面?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:唯一的个人情怀是:我原来的构想是从家旁边那条路的武馆讲起。为什么一线天要开理发厅,因为小时候我家对面有一个上海理发厅,那时经常去理发,也没觉得有多奇怪,后来做资料搜集时才发现,原来形意门最早来到香港就在楼上开宗立派,楼下的理发厅里很多都是他们的徒弟。最早我想拍香港街道上的武馆,但发现他们都来自内地。于是现在的故事就是从他们的根说起,最后他们流落到了香港。</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">最有意思、最值得去探讨和纪念的是那个时代的精神。从清朝到共和、北伐、抗日,在这个过程里,很多人在面对困难时,还保持着自己的情操。那个年代的人对信、义、家庭、国家都有自己的坚持。应该珍惜的是民国的精神,在民族最困难时还有这一批人坚持可贵的信念。宫二为何在最后说,面对这个大时代,民国就是这个大时代。为何有些武师选择留在香港,不是因为他们没落了,而是要保持他们的尊严。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">1 宫二的戏份超过叶问引发了较多争议。可能多数观众都是来看“一代宗师叶问”的,为何做出这样的安排?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:这个戏份的比例我没仔细算,但人物戏多戏少很重要。宫二是我杜撰的人物。她非常传奇,民国这样的奇女子很多,比如施剑翘。(注:施剑翘是奉系第二军军长施从滨之女,为报杀父之仇枪杀孙传芳。)宫二对观众来说是比较新鲜的,叶问呢,之前电影也拍了很多,大家对他比较熟悉。以前观众关注的是叶问的打,但我希望观众看到他的成长。他的成长不是从7岁开始,而是从40岁开始的。最有趣的是,叶问40岁之前什么都有,但40岁之后开始变得一无所有,唯一留在他身上的是武术赋予的精神。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">2 叶问妻子张永成这个角色呢,和宫二完全不一样?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:我跟宋慧乔说,你不是普通的大家闺秀,这个女人是一种大智慧。在这个戏里面,她第一个出场是在屏门后面。一般来说我们看电影,从男性的角度欣赏女人,好像女人是男人的宠物,这个故事相反,这个女人是把男人当成是她的宠物。为什么梁朝伟到最后没有再娶,因为有这个女人。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">3 很多资料说,叶问1950年去香港后绝口不提他在内地的事直到去世。这是否就是电影中所指“只走眼前路,不管身后身”?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:那个年代的人啊,都不太喜欢讲往事,就像戏里面章子怡对未婚夫说的,“没消息就是消息”。叶问到香港之后,从来不喜欢拍照。我在想,一个人为什么不喜欢拍照,可能是照片总是会让他想起某一些岁月,他不愿意再去想,所以不想再拍。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">4 片中叶问说因为战乱他没有去东北,但有观众发现片中有个叶问在宫家门口徘徊的镜头,他到底有没有去东北?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:这个应该交给观众去琢磨,可以说他去了,也可以说这只是叶问的梦想。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">5 张震扮演的一线天剧情很少,有观众觉得删除也可以,但你为何还保留了几段戏呢?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:张震和梁朝伟平行。两个都是开宗立派,但叶问有了光环,成为一代宗师,另一个就成了一代理发师。也就是戏里说的人活一世,有的活成了“面子”,有的活成了“里子”,能耐是其次的,都是时势使然。张震、梁朝伟的两场重要打戏都是在雨中,这不是观众说的重复,而是要强调他们都是一个平台出来的,面对这么多人,最后都能站着,但最后的境遇是不一样的。但这个武林啊,不能全都是拿着光环的人,很多人默默在做很多事情,他们没有光环,他们默默地把祖宗传下来的东西还给众生。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">6 你以往的电影中,人物都有着家长里短的对话,但《一代宗师》中人物说话格言警句变得很多,这是为什么?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">王家卫:《2046》《花样年华》里面的人物都是我们身边的人,不可能在生活中讲一些特别玄的话。《一代宗师》讲述的是武林人物,那些深刻的话都不是我们编出来的,而是去访问武林的老师傅时他们随口讲出来的。他们是武者,讲话有一些特别的气场。如果你要拍一些武术宗师,缺少这样的台词,观众也不会认为这是真的宗师。</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: x-small;">Trouvé <a href="http://www.bjnews.com.cn/ent/2013/01/16/244491.html">ici</a>.</span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-54876803239170135152014-05-04T13:29:00.003-07:002014-05-04T13:29:25.299-07:00송혜교 Song Hye-kyo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXypILkpU1izikb8u2KO7TU3nEuNKdBW5C_4OVpzep4zzkq1wB1rLERo0TwkOGkKZFIUEdEeVyYbJqjQoFhSms32kD2_bqp-D2PwwX71SqoO9ZdIGO0N5cISoY57vV84lN2D93xC78ufE/s1600/66523397201301172246432337058323721_021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXypILkpU1izikb8u2KO7TU3nEuNKdBW5C_4OVpzep4zzkq1wB1rLERo0TwkOGkKZFIUEdEeVyYbJqjQoFhSms32kD2_bqp-D2PwwX71SqoO9ZdIGO0N5cISoY57vV84lN2D93xC78ufE/s1600/66523397201301172246432337058323721_021.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">송혜교 Song Hye-kyo</span></div>
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flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2792445368136875642.post-30621615486288967282014-05-04T13:27:00.000-07:002014-05-04T13:28:29.169-07:00一代宗师 The Grandmaster<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Il y a plus d’une dizaine d’années que le projet The Grandmaster traînait dans vos tiroirs…</em><br />En 1996, je flânais dans une gare de Buenos Aires où nous tournions Happy Together, et j’ai aperçu le visage de Bruce Lee en couverture d’un magazine. J’avais toujours adoré ses films, mais j’ai été stupéfait par la persistance de son aura, si loin de chez nous, plus de vingt ans après sa mort. J’ai alors compris ce qui le rendait si hors du commun. Son physique, son attitude en rupture avec les autres acteurs de films de kung-fu avant lui qui étaient avant tout des combattants machos, plutôt plus âgés, alors que lui était séduisant, plein d’assurance, charismatique, et parlait anglais. Ensuite, il fut le premier à avoir apporté par sa présence une forme de modernité à cette figure du héros martial chinois. Eduqué en Occident, sa grande intelligence a été de ne pas suivre les règles, mais de les analyser pour mieux s’inventer les siennes propres. Il était capable mieux que quiconque de communiquer l’idée la plus complexe des arts martiaux de la manière la plus simple. Moi qui avais jusqu’alors surtout filmé des femmes, je me suis dit que je voulais faire un film sur la beauté d’un tel homme chinois.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Sauf que The Grandmaster n’évoque pas Bruce Lee. Comment le projet a-t-il ainsi dérivé ?</em><br />Bruce Lee se référait sans cesse dans ses écrits et ses propos à Ip Man, son maître en arts martiaux, et je m’y suis intéressé. Sa vie est un reflet passionnant d’un pan de l’histoire chinoise au XXe siècle. Il est né sous la monarchie, a traversé le temps de la république, vécu la guerre sino-japonaise et a fini dans la colonie britannique qu’était Hongkong. C’est aussi ce que je voulais raconter, à travers lui. Surtout, deux ans plus tard, alors que je recherchais l’angle personnel à adopter, je suis tombé sur un documentaire et j’ai été frappé par une séquence extrêmement émouvante. On y voyait Ip Man vieillard, s’enregistrant trois jours avant sa mort en train d’effectuer une démonstration de wing chun. A la fin, il marque un temps d’arrêt, et la caméra est trop loin pour que l’on sache s’il a oublié le mouvement suivant ou s’il est simplement trop faible pour poursuivre. C’était bouleversant. Le document en question est légendaire : de son vivant, nombreux sont ceux, y compris Bruce Lee, qui lui ont offert beaucoup d’argent pour qu’il leur enseigne cette démonstration, et il a toujours refusé, préférant prodiguer son savoir à ses étudiants plutôt qu’à une seule personne dans un échange marchand. Et c’est là que j’ai su quel film je voulais faire : une histoire d’héritage, de générosité et de noblesse, qui ait à voir avec l’énergie de cet homme à porter cette flamme.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Entre-temps, vous avez réalisé trois autres films. Pourquoi a-t-il fallu si longtemps à celui-ci pour se faire ?</em><br />Le projet nécessitait une préparation et des moyens de production importants. Il a fallu attendre que la croissance du marché du cinéma chinois ait suffisamment progressé pour qu’il devienne possible de réaliser un tel film à cette échelle économique. Ensuite, ce n’était pas évident d’exiger de stars comme Zhang Ziyi et Tony Leung qu’elles consacrent un an à s’entraîner, puis deux ans au tournage. Il fallait attendre le bon moment.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Une fois de plus vous avez commencé à tourner sans scénario arrêté ?</em><br />En effet. On a démarré très simplement, avec la biographie d’Ip Man pour trame. C’est une histoire d’héritage, de verticalité et d’horizontalité, d’un grand maître du Sud et d’un autre du Nord qui se trouve être une femme (un personnage fictif, car à cette époque les femmes n’avaient pas de place dans les arts martiaux). Je ne sais pas pour les autres cinéastes, mais pour moi ces quelques informations que je vous donne sont suffisantes pour constituer le commencement d’un film. L’idée originelle était de tourner d’abord la scène d’ouverture avec Tony Leung, mais il se trouve qu’il s’est cassé le bras dès le premier jour. En attendant qu’il se rétablisse, on a dû déplacer la production au Nord et commencer par s’attacher au personnage féminin. Cela a apporté une autre dimension à cette part du film, plus longue et détaillée.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Quels autres accidents ont pu ainsi façonner le cheminement du film ?</em><br />Ma manière de faire a peu à voir avec l’idée de cheminement, justement, parce que je tiens à garder toujours le récit aussi flexible que possible. Une des raisons pour lesquelles je ne veux pas partir d’un soi-disant «scénario complet» est que je ne veux pas d’un destin tout tracé, je ne veux pas que les choses se fassent scène par scène, selon une trame écrite alors que je ne peux rien anticiper des nombreux accidents qui vont survenir, bons ou mauvais. Je prends les choses comme elles viennent. Nous savions où le film devait s’achever : quand Tony Leung s’installe à Hongkong, où il crée son école et finira ses jours. Comment y arriver ? Il fallait laisser la route se tracer d’elle-même. Ma méthode est très organique.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Vos collaborateurs disent que le sens de vos scènes naît de leur tournage même…</em><br />Tout est affaire de hasard, rien n’est destiné à l’avance. Comme l’accident de Tony qui nous a poussés à aller au Nord en pleine saison froide, travailler jour et nuit sans dormir sur les décors afin de pouvoir tourner au plus vite, puis filmer des combats sur des semaines, par -20°C. Plus tard, il a fallu y retourner dans la chaleur étouffante de l’été pour compléter ces scènes hivernales, et les acteurs ont ainsi dû tourner en manteaux de fourrure alors qu’il faisait plus de 40°C. Malgré tout, ce tournage fut une expérience très détendue. Le «lâcher prise» est une des valeurs des arts martiaux, et il fallait s’y accorder pour faire un tel film. C’est ce que j’en ai appris : oublier la technique, partir sans structure, se laisser porter par le cours des scènes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Il paraît que The Grandmaster restera comme le dernier film tourné en pellicule Fuji. Et, justement, il n’y est question que de nostalgie, de mondes et d’époques perdues…</em><br />Il y avait une certaine dimension métaphorique, presque poétique, à ce que nous tournions ainsi en pellicule, ce qui est devenu rare : on nous en envoyait des stocks régulièrement, jusqu’à ce que l’on reçoive un message de Fuji, un mois avant que nous arrêtions de tourner, nous annonçant que leur dernier envoi de pellicule serait bel et bien le dernier, que la production s’arrêtait, que c’était la fin. Je l’ai pris comme un indice, un signe que le film devait s’arrêter là. J’ai gardé la dernière boîte, en souvenir. Et cela résonnait au fond avec cette idée que l’esprit, la dimension philosophique des arts martiaux se perd au fil des temps, et qu’un jour cela ne devient rien de plus qu’une page d’histoire.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Tous vos films, même ceux qui se déroulent dans une époque passée, n’ont cessé de porter un regard plus ou moins déguisé sur la vibration du Hongkong présent. In the Mood for Love parlait de la colonisation, 2046 d’un certain état de paralysie. Ici, il est question de l’invasion japonaise, faut-il y voir un écho au Hongkong redevenu chinois ?</em><br />Ce n’est pas ça, il ne s’agit pas d’invasion : on n’envahit pas sa propre famille. Les Hongkongais ont peur de la Chine, mais je crois qu’ils ont tort. En revanche, il est question dans le film de la rivalité entre les grands maîtres du Nord et du Sud, et leurs philosophies respectives. Et j’y vois une métaphore des pôles Nord et Sud de la Chine moderne. Au premier plan, il est question de l’histoire chinoise, mais quand vous regardez le film vous comprenez comment s’est construit le Hongkong contemporain, par l’afflux d’immigrants au gré des secousses historiques sur le continent, qui ont considérablement influencé la population locale. Ce sont les guerres et les changements politiques en Chine qui ont amené le sang neuf, la finance et d’innombrables ressources à Hongkong. A travers la métaphore de l’école fondée par Ip Man, le film montre aussi une culture sur laquelle Hongkong a pris racine et qui s’est perdue. Ce que je veux dire avec ce film, c’est : «Voilà d’où nous venons, voilà qui nous étions autrefois.»</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em>Vos derniers films tournent de plus en plus autour de l’époque de votre enfance, quand vous arrivez à Hongkong avec votre mère à l’âge de 5 ans alors que votre père reste coincé à Shanghai par la Révolution culturelle…</em><br />Je ne dirais pas que je tourne autour, mais que c’est peut-être plutôt quelque chose qui me manque aujourd’hui. Une certaine élégance, un certain caractère de cette époque, qui manquent à notre temps. J’ai beaucoup filmé le présent, et en attendant qu’il m’inspire à nouveau je préfère revisiter cette expérience et la partager avec le public.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Entretien avec Julien Gester, trouvé </span></em><a href="http://next.liberation.fr/cinema/2013/04/16/tout-est-affaire-de-hasard-rien-n-est-destine-a-l-avance_896652"><em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">ici</span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">.</span></em></span>flickerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01536023789779188862noreply@blogger.com