Bresson, Sexuality and Religion

[Michael]

And no straight director would photograph Claude Laydu the way Bresson did. So sublimely beautiful and hot. And what about Gerard in Balthazar? He looked pretty hung.

[David Ehrenstein]

Gerard is "rough trade" deluxe!

And then there's Antoinne Monnier (Matisse's grandson) in Le Diable Probablement -- Dennis Cooper's fave Bresson. Dennis has become pals with Guillaume Des Forets of Four Nights of a Dreamer -- whose father is Louis-Rene Des Forets.

[Anonymous]

Speaking of Bressonian orgies LANCELOT DU LAC comes to mind.

[David Ehrenstein]

Indeed. And its an orgy in which bodies disappear entirely and are replaced by piles of armor.

[Guest]

Indeed. And its an orgy in which bodies disappear entirely and are replaced by piles of armor.

Quite right. The sound design in LANCELOT is marvellous, the way Bresson accentuates the armor.

[jguitar]

How about first-hand reports? I knew Demy slightly and his lover David Bombyck (producer of Witness and several other Hollywood films of note) even better. They took up together during the shooting of Lady Oscar. Both died of AIDS.

Yes, that will do nicely. Thanks, David. I had assumed that this was a more or less open secret about Demy, but thought it was curious that I couldn't find any other info. That's interesting news about Legrand. I like Michel Colombier's music just fine, but I think that Demy doesn't match well with him in Une Chambre. It's been a long time since I looked into these things, but I seem to remember a temporary estrangement between Varda and Demy as well, though I'm not sure about chronology here and don't know if it's connected. I've always loved the Bresson parallels in Lola. Weren't Bresson and Demy occasional neighbors on Noirmoutier?

[David Ehrenstein]

Don't know about their being neightbors, but I wouldn't be surprised. If you want to know what Jacques was like look at Marc Michel in Lola.
He radiated that same sweet-sad melancholy.

The last time I saw Jacques was when i went to Paris in '83. He was preparing Trois Places Pour le 26th. We had drinks with him at La Cupole. He was anxious to get back to the house because Matthieu was sick with a headcold ad he wanted to take care of him. Jacques was, among other things, a supremely loving father.

I disagree with you about Une Chambre en Ville, however. I think its' one of Jacques' best films (sadly never released stateside) and Colombier did a great job.

Sanda is truly amazing in it. And it was all based on a true story.

[Guest]

I disagree with you about Une Chambre en Ville, however. I think its' one of Jacques' best films (sadly never released stateside) and Colombier did a great job.

Sanda is truly amazing in it. And it was all based on a true story.

I agree with you David. The sole fact that UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE unites Danielle Darrieux, Dominique Sanda and Michel Piccoli makes it precious enough. Yet my favorite Demy remains LOLA, I'm in love with that movie.

[David Ehrenstein]

I disagree with you about Une Chambre en Ville, however. I think its' one of Jacques' best films (sadly never released stateside) and Colombier did a great job.

Sanda is truly amazing in it. And it was all based on a true story.

I agree with you David. The sole fact that UNE CHAMBRE EN VILLE unites Danielle Darrieux, Dominique Sanda and Michel Piccoli makes it precious enough. Yet my favorite Demy remains LOLA, I'm in love with that movie.

Oh me too. Lola is very special.

BTW Jacques originally planned it as a full-scale musical but couldn't get any interest. So he cut it back to the form we know today.

[jguitar]

I disagree with you about Une Chambre en Ville, however. I think its' one of Jacques' best films (sadly never released stateside) and Colombier did a great job.

Sanda is truly amazing in it. And it was all based on a true story.

I do love the film, it's just that the music/words interaction doesn't have the same magic for me as the Legrand/Demy collaborations. However, I contradict myself in thinking that Colombier's music achieves a certain monumentality in some sections that Legrand never quite evokes--I'm thinking of the strike, for instance, which is one of the most thrilling moments in cinema for me.

We're wandering away from the purpose of this thread considerably here, but it's hard to stop writing about Demy once you start.

[ambrose]

Ozu and Bresson didn't do any gay films, other than "Ohayo" and "Bois de Boulogne" (OK, "Lancelot" too), respectively.

You're blithely overlooking Un condamne a mort s'est echappe -- his gayest film. Then there's the climactic mototcycle ride in Diary of a Country Priest and the babe-a-licious casting in Au Hasard Balthazar, Four Nights of a Dreamer and Le Diable Probablement.

There's a clip of Bresson on YouTube (hope it's still up) Quite the coquette.

The old men who congregate for supper together in I think Late Spring (though I may be thinking of another Ozu of the same period) discuss a colleague who was tossed out of school for writing love letters to another youth. This actaully happened to Ozu himself.

Ozu died not long after completing his last film The Taste of Autumn Mackrel (known in the West as An Autumn Afternoon) Ozu was exceptionally superfond of one of the male leads of that film -- the actor who played the golf-crazy son. When he died shortly afterwards there was a considerable scnadal as his widow broke down at the funeral screaming "Ozu has taken him with him!!"

I wish Mr.Enrenstein was still a regular contributor to this forum if only to reveal the exact source of the rather salacious anecdote related above!(As a veteran journalist he might have been wary about revealing his sources, but the lack of corroborative material has been bugging me since I first came across this discussion.)

[David Ehrenstein]

That story (which I don't consider to be salacious) was vouchsafed to me by a gay Japanese friend whose name would mean nothing to you. I have gay Japanese person who was unaware of Ozu's sexual orientation.

[ambrose]

That story (which I don't consider to be salacious) was vouchsafed to me by a gay Japanese friend whose name would mean nothing to you. I have gay Japanese person who was unaware of Ozu's sexual orientation.

So its an open secret in the Japanese gay community, Mr. Ehrenstein! (As that is all the information I require, I am genuinely grateful as well as slightly apologetic about the use of the word salacious.)

[David Ehrenstein]

You're welcome.

[George Kaplan]

I've always been slightly partial to the "Noriko is gay" reading of Late Spring, and knowing what I do about Ozu, I don't think him being a closet homosexual is too out there. He was definitely a "bachelor".

I'm certain this has been gone into elsewhere, perhaps in this forum, though I think it is in Andrew Britton's brilliant book on Katharine Hepburn, that the Noriko of EARLY SUMMER is perhaps lesbian. The film contains a scene in which Noriko's sexual orientation ("Is she that way?" or something to that effect, per the Criterion disc) is questioned, by a male co-worker, I believe. Then a female co-worker reassuringly says something like, "No, she's just overly fond of Audrey Hepburn." The use of "Audrey" on the Criterion disc I'm certain of, though I believe the spoken Japanese is simply "Hepburn"?

Regardless, as EARLY SUMMER is 1951, the reference must be understood to be the bisexual Katharine, an international superstar who clearly read "dyke" to the Japanese, as well; and not Audrey, who was a working film actress, though just, and still rather obscure, two years from being a star, let alone an internationally-recognizable, exportable commodity. Hopefully the inevitable Criterion Blu-Ray upgrade will correct this problem. As it is now the allusion is nonsensical. But a Noriko (Hara) who moons over/identifies with Katharine Hepburn and resists marriage the way she does is someone else entirely.

[ambrose]

The subtitles on the Bfi Blu-Ray of Early Summer correctly translate that important line of dialogue, in fact Noriko's co-worker and friend says Katharine Hepburns name in its entirety not just the surname!

(side-note) The packaging of Early Summer with What did the Lady forget might actually reflect some sort of inner logic,after all both of these films present the viewer with female protagonists of indeterminate sexual orientation (Noriko/Early Summer:Setsuko/What did the Lady forget).

[David Ehrenstein]

Noriko is likely a lesbian and the pronunciation of Katherine Hepburn's name is a giveaway. The actress who played Noriko is a lesbian (as is also well-known in Japan) and as I have said the schoolboy story actually happened to Ozu himself when his love letters to a classmate were discovered.

[ambrose]

Noriko is likely a lesbian and the pronunciation of Katherine Hepburn's name is a giveaway. The actress who played Noriko is a lesbian (as is also well-known in Japan)

Comparative analysis

[Cold Bishop]

So that's what they meant when they called her a "daikon"!

My apologies, but I can never resist a bad pun when it stares me in the face.