Whereas the first reference to Ray's Pather Panchali is well taken - the old
witch of a grand-aunt with larger than life grotesque silhouette of her
shadow falling on the wall telling a story to frightened kids while trying
to thread a needle - the second makes no sense at all. It is just the
portable box of a peep-hole. He does not tell any story he merely replicates
orally what the image inside the box is supposedly showing. He sings no
songs. He just recites descriptions poem-like. In fact a far more
appropriate reference would have been the monstrous shadows crawling upon
the facde of a colonial mansion in the beginning of a recent Bollywoodian
blockbuster "Tezaab" (Acid) with one hand holding an acid-bulb, pouring it
on a live sapling leading to the instantaneous death of the plant. The film
was incidentally a precursor to the demolition of the Babari Mosque and was
in many ways an extremely well-designed cinemanifesto for the communal
Indian forces.
Sukhbir
>From: "Amrit Gangar" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Phantasmagoria
>Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 12:00:29 +0530
>
>Thank you Michael. I recall yet another interesting reference and that is
>in
>Satyajit Ray's film Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, 1955). Young
>Apu and his sister Durga listen to their aunt telling them ghost stories at
>night and then in a seqeunce we also see them marvelling at the peep-show
>of the 'bioscopewallah' ... the wandering man who would go around
>villages;
>while cranking and changing scenes he would also go on narrating stories,
>sometime also additing musical score standing aside the box. This was
>a very rudimentary bioscope, a precursor to the peep-show parlors that
>had sprouted all over the United State and in Europe by about 1894.
>
>Around 1870, Henry R Heyl projected photographs onto a screen in
>Philadelphia's Academy of Music for a fairly large audience and he called
>his machine the PHANTASMATROPE.
>
>Amrit Gangar
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Chanan <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: 07 October 2000 21:26
>Subject: RE: Phantasmagoria
>
>
> >Wim Wenders... yes, of course, in 'Kings of the Road' there is a
>wonderful
> >piece of shadow theatre, but it's not a period reconstruction. It happens
> >before an audience of children in a cinema waiting for a film show when
>the
> >two protaginists are behind the screen repairing the sound system and one
>of
> >them accidenetally turns on a light that casts their shadows on the
>screen
> >from behind. It is, however, meant to evoke the prehistory of cinema...
> >
> >Michael Chanan
> >
> > http://www.mchanan.dial.pipex.com/chananhome.htm
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: [log in to unmask]
> >> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Amrit
>Gangar
> >> Sent: 07 October 2000 07:10
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: Phantasmagoria
> >>
> >>
> >> In Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander" we see the magic lantern
>show!
> >> Maybe one of Wim Wenders' films ...
> >>
> >> Amrit
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Sean Delgado <[log in to unmask]>
> >> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> >> Date: 06 October 2000 20:15
> >> Subject: Re: Phantasmagoria
> >>
> >>
> >> >>I'm wondering if anyone on the list knows of a film (I'm thinking
>mainly
> >> of
> >> >>fiction) that re-stages a late 18th century, early 19th
> >> phantasmagoria or
> >> >>other "ghost show" from the pre-photo era.
> >> >See Woody Allens "midsummer nights sex comedy" In it one of the
> >> characters
> >> >has a zotrope(?) that eventually catches fire!
> >>
> >_________________________________________________________________________
> >> >Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
>http://www.hotmail.com.
> >> >
> >> >Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> >> >http://profiles.msn.com.
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|