I too thought of that ghastly film. A google discovered this chez Amazon:
>>Life Magazine wrote that one funhouse at the 1939 World's Fair stood
out among the others:
"Dalí's Dream of Venus, the creation of famed Surrealist painter
Salvador Dalí, is the most recent addition to the still-growing list of
amusement-area girl shows and easily the most amazing. Weird building
contains a dry tank and a wet tank. In the wet tank girls swim under
water, milk a bandaged-up cow, tap typewriter keys which float like
seaweed. Keyboard of piano is painted on the recumbent female figure
made of rubber. In dry tank...a sleeping Venus reclines in 36-foot bed,
covered with white and red satin, flowers, and leaves. Scattered about
the bed are lobsters frying on beds of hot coals and bottles of
champagne....All this is most amusing and interesting."
The building's modern, expressionistic exterior, with an entrance framed
by a woman's legs, and shocking interior, including the bare-breasted
"living liquid ladies" who occupied the tanks, caused quite a stir. The
funhouse was so successful that it reopened for a second season, but
once torn down it faded from memory and its outlandishness became the
stuff of urban myth. Now, more than 60 years later, a collection of
photographs of the Dream of Venus by Eric Schaal has been discovered. In
stunning black-and-white and early Kodachrome, they show both the
construction and the completion of the funhouse-from Dalí painting a
melting clock to showgirls parading for their audience. Salvador Dalí's
Dream of Venus reveals not only an eccentric work of architecture, but
also a one-of-a-kind creation by one of the most fertile imaginations of
the 20th century.<<
I don't suppose you went to this exhibition..."Necrophilic fountain
flowing from a grand piano" (1933) seems to be the closest Dalí image =
to your dream, Roanna, oops, Joanna, which is not very. I've loathed
Dalí for decades, but looking at a few just now I decided they possess
some sort of comic genius.
mj
Joanna Boulter wrote:
> I didn't see this film, though I think I read bits about it. I did
> think there was probably some echo somewhere -- that's probably what
> it was. Ta!
>
> joanna
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dominic Fox" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2005 1:37 PM
> Subject: Re: help! tidal piano
>
>
> "And now for something completely different."
>
> Either John Cleese playing the piano, or Holly Hunter.
>
> God that was a terrible film. Apparently some feminists rather liked
> it. I can't for the life of me see why. If it had been a proper
> feminist film, the heroine would have done both of the male
> protagonists in with a carving knife long before the end.
>
> Cathal Coughlan and Sean Hughes, recording together as Bubonique, did
> a spoof of the theme music in the style of Chas and Dave, called "The
> Pianner": "Wemberley, Wemberley, he's the famous Mikey Nyman and he's
> going to Wemberley...". Classy!
>
> Dominic
>
--
Flow My Tears is a novel of nonstop intrigue set sometime in the future of an alternate reality. It has a great ending and really makes you think about life and similar things. - Online review by Keith.
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