Scrooby's Musings

[Scrooby]

The Skew

Chinatown (1974), 1:53:45



22:49

[Scrooby]

Colossal Clue : The Wounded Muse

Alma : "I want you flat on your back. Helpless. . . . With only me to help. And then I want you strong again. . . . You might wish you were going to die, but you're not going to." (1:58:28–1:59:06)

Remind anyone of Annie Wilkes in Stephen King's Misery? (1987)

[WorldForgot]

The Skew

Chinatown (1974), 1:53:45



22:49

Bro what

[Scrooby]

[Scrooby]

Staring into the lens.


Animal Mother aiming at the lens.


Staring into the circular lens flare from the flaming monolith.


Don't Mess with Texas.

[Scrooby]

[WorldForgot]

Staring into the circular lens flare from the flaming monolith.


Don't Mess with Texas.

In your Cinematography dot com post you included more context, ie the talk of Oswald earlier in the flick. I found that bit of info insightful to this allusion you're gleaning! I know it's fun to parse out mysteries, but I wanna mention that your ish iz more pertinent when there's more of your voice and discovery within the text itself. 

[Scrooby]

Zodiac-like Cross


1:31:09


1:36:33

Sure, WF. Increasing, but easing in. . . .

[Scrooby]

Phantom Thread Music Cue ?

48:00

= Beethoven, Piano Sonata #31, Op. 110 : 3. Adagio (for example, at 2:00)

[Scrooby]

14.

Concealed, meanwhile, beneath the disguise of a young woman,
Achilles deceived everyone, except for Deidamia,
who came to know him as a man—indeed, intimately so.
Now she herself had to conceal what she knew, too, and her love
besides; and lived in endless agitation of being caught
by her sisters. What happened was, when Achilles stood tall
in the circle of girls after Thetis departed (leaving him
to apply or put by his simulated modesty at will),
the girl he chose as closest companion was Deidamia,
though all the girls, in fact, eventually pressed their bodies
against his, in that magic circle. With mild words the boy
from the wilds meticulously pursued her, seizing her
gaze at every chance, inviting her with his seductive eyes.
Now he stands much too close to her (and she doesn't avoid him),
now playfully tosses flowers on her, now knocks fruit baskets
over on purpose so they bend together to retrieve them,
now he taps her—suggestively—with a magic Bacchic wand.
Together they sat and he showed her each slender lyre string,
producing sweet sounds recalling the songs of Chiron;
then he guided her hand, and coaxed her fingers to pluck a tune
from the resonating instrument. And then he embraced her
and blessed her with a thousand kisses. Other times she listened :
where is Mount Pelion? Who is Aeacus? Their constant talk
bewitched her. One time Deidamia took up the lyre
and sang to the face of Achilles. She also counseled him
in demure body posture; and demonstrated to the boy
how best to spin the raw wool, untangling the messes made
with his innocent thumb. Throughout all this the sound of his voice
always held her spellbound, and the authority of his weight
on hers, and how he smartly stayed away from her friends; also
the light of his eyes, and how he often took deep breaths while
he spoke with her. Just as he readies to speak out his deceit,
she slips from him and refuses to hear any confession.
Thus, in this way, Rhea's son Zeus, sovereign of Olympus,
gave dangerous kisses to his untroubled sister Hera,
who thought of him no more than a brother, until dignity
of family gave way, and the sister feared his altered love.

15.

At last, frightened Thetis' deceit will be exposed—just not yet.
There was a forest reaching high up into the open sky.
In its shade went the sisters to celebrate the biannual
festival to Bacchus, bearing dismembered parts of cattle,
tree trunks dug out of the earth—all sorts of offerings to please
the god in his visionary frenzy. By law, men must stay
away. Old King Lycomedes reiterated the law :
"Off-limits are the woods to all males!" And that wasn't all.
Standing at each boundary point was a fearsome priestess, there
to catch any man straying unlawfully into the female
camp. During all this Achilles laughed silently to himself,
while he led the company of maidens in worship, waving
his arms around all wrong (yet so becoming in the girls' eyes).
All the congregation marvels at him. No longer the most
beautiful of them all is Deidamia. Achilles
now surpasses her as much as she surpasses the others.
So he wears the fawnskin on his well-knit body, and his head
is garlanded with a wreath of purple flowers, and his hand
holds the Bacchic thyrsus wreathed in ivy, and all the sisters
stand before him with eyes devoted to his comely figure.
Forgetting their prayers, all had lifted to him adoring faces.

[Scrooby]

Adolph von Menzel, "A Flute Concert of Frederick the Great at Sanssouci" (1852)






Barry Lyndon (1975), 2:12:23–2:14:33

[Scrooby]

What is up and what is down?

Interstellar (2014), 1:35:01
2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968), 2:07:52

[Reel]

You're just fucking with us now

[Scrooby]

[Scrooby]

The Muse on Her Throne.

Alma (ἄνεμος anima) : "Reynolds has made my dreams come true, and I have given him what he desires most in return."



1:17. Bottom left of fiery frame : See the Χρυσόσκονες (glitter-gold) of Parnassus?

Behind Alma on her Throne of Nature? Depiction of a draped personage on a pedestal, or Corinthian column?

*

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
the brightest heaven of invention!
Shakespeare, Henry V, 1–2

*

ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα . . .
Homer, Odyssey, 1.1

[man] [to me] [ speak of] , [Muse] . . .

*

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,
quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus
insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores
impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?
Virgil, Aeneid, 1.8–11

*

In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas
corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas)
adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi
ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.1–4

di : goddess
adspirate meis : breathe into me . . .

*

Magnanimum Aeaciden formidatamque Tonanti
progeniem et patrio vetitam succedere caelo,
diva, refer.
Statius, Achillied, 1.1–3

*

Tiresias
tu lucis inopem, gnata, genitorem regens
manifesta sacri signa fatidici refer.
Seneca, Oedipus, 301–2.

Loose translation : "Forget any muse. Daughter, recount the sacred prophetic signs to me. Though blind I'll guide you to light."

*

Note the darkness in the frame : Alma enthroned in a deep darkness. Through most of creative history, the Muse has been depicted as a loveliness.

For example


Simon Vouet, The Muses Urania and Calliope (c.1634)

Seneca, however, in a number of places, jeers (laments?) at the ongoing effort of creative exertion; for example, his reference to Sisyphus and friends at the outset of Thyestes (6–12). This echo is picked up by Stephen King's Misery. And the torch has passed to PT.