Let this blow your mind as it blew mine:
It is from the 1969 film Picasso Summer starring Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux. Adapted into a screenplay by Ray Bradbury from his short story “In a Season of Calm Weather,” it is set to music by Michel Legrand. Despite a weak plot, the music and three animated sequences by Wess Herschensohn moved me no end! Not only did they explore Picasso in a way that helped me to see his work more clearly, the one sequence above also widened my perception of war. After watching the above, I turned off the film to search it on the web, and found this:
It is from the 1969 film Picasso Summer starring Albert Finney and Yvette Mimieux. Adapted into a screenplay by Ray Bradbury from his short story “In a Season of Calm Weather,” it is set to music by Michel Legrand. Despite a weak plot, the music and three animated sequences by Wess Herschensohn moved me no end! Not only did they explore Picasso in a way that helped me to see his work more clearly, the one sequence above also widened my perception of war. After watching the above, I turned off the film to search it on the web, and found this:
and this:
Together, these three videos entered my life as Picasso's Guernica never had before! In my search, I found that the creative reactions to Picasso's Guernica may rival commentary on any Shakespeare play.
Together, these three videos entered my life as Picasso's Guernica never had before! In my search, I found that the creative reactions to Picasso's Guernica may rival commentary on any Shakespeare play.
Here is my own:
Slate grey noon and rain in
June
Copyright © 2013 S.L.Chast
Posting for dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night ~ Week 103.
Slate grey noon and rain in
June
sat me down to pull war
and people
from out my 2D
cartoon-framed
vision in a sheltered
life not Iraq,
Syria, Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Israel, Palestine and
elsewhere.
Horses
are gone but not foot
soldiers engaged to
dishearten from land mines
and hidden bombs:
providers, mothers, priests,
and young ones with
explosives strapped to their
childhoods.
Doves
are there too close to
open-eyed blood we
pour in to food, zapping out
strength and hope
drowning all openings to the
villains’ millions,
billions—not humans, but dollars—trillions.
Copyright © 2013 S.L.Chast
Posting for dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night ~ Week 103.
16 comments:
Stunning, Susan. Just stunning.
The video was something like Plato's cave. Liked your poem also.>KB
Oh the horrors of war as depicted by Picasso are universal.. sure some tools have changed, but landmines and other instruments of war have replaced earlier tools ... a great write Susan
amazingly done. thank you so much for sharing this all~
wow.
i watched the first...and will come back for the other vids...but your verse...so strong the images...the bombs strapped to their childhoods....and all coming back to the money...powerful verse susan.
Im caught searching for words to comment on this. So good. :)
The poem drew me in, and the line about explosives strapped to their childhoods made me shiver and touched me deeply.
Very moving, Susan!
Poignantly fascinating but truly sad. There can never be a finality to conflicts when man are divided through boundaries,greed and creed. Pity! Great thoughts Susan!
Hank
Wow, this was a very interesting video..caught in the madness. Your poem was raw with the horror's of war I think you captured it with the pen.
Wow on the music and images from the video ~ I'm speechless dear ~ Thanks for sharing ~
Wow...
Susan, if you've not heard of Ludwig Meidner, he was a German Expressionist in the early part of the 20th century. In the years 1912 and 1913, he painted a number of landscapes that were eerily prescient of the coming war. The works, collectively "Apocalyptic Landscapes", depict chilling scenes of war and degradation, and might even be the equal of Guernica, especially in light of their predictions of the ensuing conflagration.
Very moving.
Thanks for the reference. Turns out I have seen some of his work, but now I know the name and the overall effect.
Gracias for sharing Picasso's Summer (1969 H.S. Grad/Vietnam draft) and your poignant recall to the absurdity of choices to go to war.
I have a copy of Guernica in my study, and I as see it most days I remember *war* -- not wanting to distance myself from the horrors any more than I distance myself from the dancing children. "Your" video with with me -- your poetry -- you and Picasso and other creative souls. Thanks for weaving "it" and us together, with LOVE!
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