Animal Diaries

Luc ne pouvait toujours pas se consoler du départ de Caliban. Mais de penser aux chats de la liberté le réconfortait. Peut-être, après tout, la révolution de velours avait-elle déjà commencé. Et si les chats n’allaient plus tout seuls? Et si des humains avaient enfin, trahissant clandestinement leur espèce, décidé de les aider? Et si les chats avaient accepté cette alliance? Et si Caliban avait décidé de les rejoindre? Cette idée, telle une mélodie intérieure imperceptible, lui donnait du coeur à l’ouvrage.
- François Maspero, “LES CHATS DE LA LILBERTÉ,” a story included as a separate booklet in Chats Perchés, un film de Chris Marker (DVD, arte video, 2004).
In some respects—not least his ability to be au courant while lost in the past—this legendary, unclassifiable filmmaker is the French analogue to sometime diarist Jonas Mekas. Elaborating on Marker’s interests, The Case of the Grinning Cat is preceded by his whimsical bestiary, composed of five short animal pieces—Cat Listening to Music, An Owl Is an Owl Is an Owl, Zoo Piece, Bullfight in Okinawa, and Slon Tango. The filmmaker, however, is the rarest bird of all.
- J. Hoberman, “Cat Power: Chris Marker and his feline friend document post–9-11 France,” villagevoice.com, December 12th, 2006.
For a summary of the Bestiary shorts, see this page on Icarus Films’ site.
4 comments
Lest we forget that words, at times, make sense, let us recall the 20 minute portrait film that CM made of François Maspero in 1970, Les Mots ont un sens. You can catch it still, perhaps, at the Vidéothèque de Paris, if it still exists.
Wikipedia weighs in on his bio:
Now here’s some far out rumination…
– Barbara Marciniak, Earth: Pleiadian Keys to the Living Library (Rochester, Vermont: Bear & Company, 1994), 45-46.
A propos “revolution de velours”:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground
Once I was at Slim’s in San Francisco at a John Cale concert and saw Joan Baez sitting at a table with Václav Havel. So, as per usual, we gotta go out of our way to point out that the VU is not synonymous with Lou. John Cale dressed in black velvet in the early days, did he not?
A propos animal diaries, nice reflection on Chat écoutant la musique here:
cansesclasseled.com
CM quoted:
While John Cale, having studied with Stockhausen, may well have heard of Mompou, I hadn’t:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Mompou
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