Ivory Bunker

picture taken a day before the visit to Esbaluard.

In my latest update, about my trip to Mallorca, I left out one detail. I didn’t plan on doing so, I actually just forgot to mention – and now it seems that, in this ongoing narrative here, this topic actually warrants a post on its own. It may be that the law of coincidence needed to prove itself – as always by exception – and turn a mundane oversight into insight to, and I’m not certain if I’m truly speaking pataphysically here, dedicate a special place to an encounter with the legacy of Alfred Jarry.

Now, I’ve mentioned Jarry before – in this post and elsewhere. And referred to his ‘Pataphysics – while an influence on all my music making, even in the times before I was aware of it*- specifically on two of my releases.  One could call it somewhat of a leit-motif… While I’ll leave it to dear reader to check if they can identify those releases on my bandcamp page – if so they wish -, if rather interested in reading more on the wonderful science that is ‘Pataphysics I can recommend Andre Hugill’s quite recently published ‘Pataphysics: A Useless Guide. Thus said, it is of course important to point out that Ubu entered the world/stage quite a while before Dr. Faustroll enlightened us to the existence of The Science. We should thus travel back further into literary time in order to come back, full cycle, to the present and thus the Balearic scene of my recent Ubu-esque encounter:
The Esbaluard Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palma is a great place to visit in any case.  Apart from its quite remarkable architecture – intriguingly built into a part of the towns former fortification – it hosts artworks by some seminal figures of 20th century creative modernism.  Ceramics by Pablo Picasso, to drop one name here. Or, and another of the surprises on my nincompoop-esque first encounter with the Balearic island, a whole collection of pieces by Joan Miro dealing with the notorious figure that – with a single utterance of ‘Merdre!’ – brought on the transition into modern theater: The incompetently evil Ubu.  A sort of  Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil – story, Ubu – the Ex-King of Aragon usurps the state, kills off his enemies and – driven by Lady McBeth-like Mere Ubu to increasingly evil and stupid deeds – all echoing and satirizing the aspirations of bourgeois mover-uppers – ends in the tragedy of classic drama.  This splendid figment of Jarry’s school-boy days’ imagination was brought to life-likeness as the central character of three plays (Ubu Roi, Ubu Cocu and Ubu Enchaîné) -  and has gone on to inspire, amongst others, the name of rock(?)-band Pere Ubu or the magnificent archive of modernist- to post-modernist art and discourse, ubu web. Now it has, admittedly, been a while since I read the Ubu plays – a quick google effort reveals that an English version is freely available on Project Gutenberg, but I’d rather finish this post before delving into that text again – so I’ll rather than having a go at re-telling, let alone practice my withered skills of literary criticism here invite Dear Reader to read the text for themselves. Or, maybe even better, go to see the play(s) the next time they’re performed at a theater near you. If you’re in or near London you’re quite lucky, as the play is currently being staged at the Barbican! (You will need to pardon Jarry’s French, though…) If you’re more inclined to watch from the comfort of your home there is a 1965 version (in French with English subtitles) available on yeTube:

As the whole surrealist movement was heavily influenced by Alfred Jarry it need not wonder that one of its most prominent members, Joan Miro (Barcelona, 1893-Palma de Mallorca, 1983) held his own fascination for Ubu.

Miro – Ubu’s childhood

During the censorship and generally adverse conditions of the reign of Spain’s catholicism infected dictator Francisco Franco the figure of the vile incompetent king became a tool of masked criticism – especially in Miro’s Barcelona Series. But the work on display at Es Baluard stems from a later date and pays hommage to Ubu directly. It show’s the series ‘Ubu’s Childhood’ as well as pieces made for a bibliophile edition of Ubu Roi. (According to wikipedia Miró created over 250 illustrated books). And while Miro was not the only artist to bring to painting the monstrous ubu – ‘Max Ernst, Picasso, and Réné Magritte all produced works illustrated the monstrous Ubu’s monstrous deeds; [it seems that ]Miró was [also] deeply committed to Père Ubu, illustrating three texts, Ubu Roi (1966), Ubu aux Baléares (1971), and L’Enfance d’Ubu (1975). ‘ (source)

Set up skillfully at Esbaluard the series displayed there speak – especially to someone more rooted in literature than the history of the arts – for themselves. So while I can only recommend anyone finding themselves in Palma to drop by the museum and see for yourselves, here are a few pictures I took as, let’s say, appetizers:

For more information visit the website of the Esbaluard Museum

And for those wondering where the magnificent phrase “Constant Shallowness leads to Evil” stems from:  it is the title of an Album by British Industrial band Coil who – law of coincidence?! – have their own Ubu-esque track, the haunting ‘Ubu Noir’ on their Scatology Album:

Thus I’d say let’s leave it at that…

UPDATE: yesterday, April 17th, a review of a new book on Jarry was published in the Times Literary Supplement. You can read: Merrrrdrrrre!: Alfred Jarry and Père Ubu at the link.

*In similar fashion as the discordianism‘s dogma that ‘everybody is a discordian pope, whether they are aware of it or not’ everybody is a pataphysician, whether actively practising ‘pataphysics or not.

During today’s morning black magic ritual (aka coffee; +coffee) I learned of the passing of one of my favorite film directors, Spanish born Jess (Jesus) Franco. Now, I do not intend to make a habit of adorning this blog with exploiting the (always suspiciously sycophantic) obituary genre. (why, btw., suck up to the dead. And I’m not buying into the whole De mortuis nihil nisi bonum also, but that’s all another essay I’ll probably spare myself writing). Anyway, the first – and a good and personal – obituary by, obviously, a fellow Francophiliac features on Tim Lucas Video Watchblog…

What immediately amazed me is the already large amount of  ‘who was Jess Franco’/'I don’t know (m)any movies by him’ -comments popping up on the blue&white social network. And that’s what spontaneously motivated me to add my signal to what will – certainly – become noise by sheer deluge of JF tributes, obituaries and retrospectives on the ‘blogosphere’…

Jess Franco as we know him as an actor, often playing roles or cameos in his movies

Mind you, I am not a movie-critic (and have no aspirations in that respect) and I wouldn’t call myself a cineast either. And while objectivity is much asked for (and never really fully accomplished, as there is always an observer speaking) in journalism, I like to avoid this variation of the spiel of the absent author on this blog and rather provide you with a voice telling you of a subjective relationship with the wonders of this, humanly constructed, world. Thus, what follows is by no means a full account of Franco’s work as an auteur, nor does it even attempt to do, what others have done considerably better. What it is, is me paying tribute to a great, prolific film-maker who, according to IMDB has directed 199 (!) films, a few of which I greatly enjoyed and drew quite some inspiration from. And from whose movies I sampled twice: “In Secret and Silence” features samples from the great “A Virgin among the Living Dead” – still one of my favorites (trailer) – and the forthcoming track “The Westenra Vortex” by Anathemasochist – my project with fellow Franco appreciatrix Hecate aka Rachel Kozak – features samples from “Jess Franco’s Dracula“. (Full movie on youtube).

(Tomoroh Hidari – In Secret and Silence on Soundcloud – free download)

My first encounter with the work and world of Jess Franco was – as it was, I think, for many – the music to his seminal Film Vampiros Lesbos.

A cult in its own & a great pic of Soledad Miranda

Jess was an outspoken Jazz enthusiast and this specific soundtrack by Manfred Hübler and Siegfried Schwab, with its easy listening exotica became a cult in its own in the 90s hedonistic lounge crowd. The actual movie, starring the beautiful Soledad Miranda – my personal favorite of Franco’s leading women -  I saw much later.

This makes – as far as I remember – the rather bad “Oasis of Zombies” the very first of his films I watched. At that time the name Jess (Jesus) Franco had, however, not yet stuck with me. It was the – very good – “Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun” which eventually triggered my Francophilia and started me off on searching and collecting as many of his films as I could (a journey which is still ongoing, albeit my lack of intentions to track down (most of) his ‘merely’ pornographic films). The great I’m in a Jess Franco Mood blog and an episode of the highly recommended Eurotika series of documentaries dedicated to The Diabolical Mr. Franco soon helped to gain some insight beyond the rather sparse IMDB and Wikipedia pages.

One, amongst a few, recurring themes in his work are the writings of the Marquis de Sade, (from whose writing, btw., one can learn more about the human psyche than from Lacan or Sigmund Fraud – also see this book by Maurice Blanchot) with more than one adaptions of Justine and Juliette respectively and, it seems, a special interest in the story of Eugenie. One of his best – and another one of my favorites adaptation features, again, Soledad Miranda alongside Paul Müller (vs. a shady Jess Franco himself on the heels of their bad deeds) in Eugenie de Sade.

Another favorite motive of the maestro was female (often lesbian) vampires. The connection of Vampires and Sapphic Erotica is, it should be mentioned, not all that novel. And – careful! anecdotal evidence – while a feminist friend of mine once told me that the whole vampire-myth has its sources in veiled references to lesbians (do your own research, should you want to substantiate this claim), it the topic can be quite clearly seen in one (if not thee) earliest published piece of Gothic Vampire Fiction, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Carmilla‘ (Free ebook via Gutenberg.org). This story obviously influenced quite a few movies – wikipedia names Carl Dryer’s famous ‘Vampyr‘ and Roger Vadim’s ‘Et mourir de plaisir’ (English: Blood and Roses) as examples. And Franco took up the motive in more than one of his: Apart from the already mentioned Vampiros Lesbos I found “Female Vampire” (featuring Lina Romay, Franco’s Muse and Wife of many years) and “Daughter of Dracula” quite worth the while. (And I should admit here that the combination of Horror and Softcore, while in its execution not always really that arousing, is a kind of sleaze I’ve been enjoying for quite some time in my life and which certainly gave its own share of inspiration to my debut album, the Necrophonicon!)

Jesus F. also touched on a variety of Exploitation genres – Women in Prison-flics, Cannibals, Nunsploitation and more with results of different quality and tastefulness. There certainly isn’t too much political correctness in them (and back then there was not much pc to revolt against, a thing all those neo-exploitation movies can’t seem to get a handle on doing properly). I am quite certain Mary Whitehouse wasn’t a big fan of these movies and most of them are probably not the first choice to recommend to a Franco neophyte. But if you are into kinky sleaze and can handle the quite open depictions of some male/some male’s more or less perverted fantasies there are certainly some gems of the genre to be found. (the Eurotika docu posted above may give you some hints where to start out on your journey of discovery).

For his many – straight out – porno movies Franco faced quite some criticism and rejection by cinephiles and parts of the industry, but for him as a lover of making films it was a way to survive and be able to do what he obviously loved: make great movies – many of them adaptations of world literature – Doriana Grey, – which personally I did not enjoy all that much -, Dracula vs. Frankenstein  & The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll – both of which I’ve yet to see – or The Story of O.; and the list goes on.

Then there’s also a large number of thrillers – many of which play in an underworld/subculture of – again -  perversion and classic de Sadian Libertine. Succubus – another from my list of favorites, or the splendid She Killed in Extasy (like all films featuring Soledad Miranda, of course, a favorite) or Exorcism - with Lina Romay and Jess, once again, playing the role of the detective – come to mind immediately.