MAUVAISE GRAINE
[via Billy Wilder in 1934
at the Monaco Garage,
42 Duchamp Blvd, Paris]
But next time don’t make such a frantic entrance.
A slight accident,
dear good friend,
so we’re going to Casablanca.
Eight cylinders. 100 miles/hour.
Everyone else . . .
Do you want to go to the movies?
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 6--01-06 (12:38 AM)
Written while being startled by Billy Wilder’s first directorial effort,
based on his own short story. I find no evidence that there was a
literal “Duchamp Boulevard” in Paris. One could view this film as a chess
game with moving vehicles (often “appropriated”), set to a jazz score.
Jean-Luc Godard probably saw it before he made “Breathless”. Thanks to Tom
Raworth for first alerting me to Wilder’s potential as a source for one’s
own writing.
|