Robert Bresson – upcoming retrospective in LA/what’s available on DVD/Blu-ray

Bresson is one of my favorite directors and I have posted about him before. This retrospective sounds great.

I have seen most of these either on discs on in a retrospective at the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s – see the small poster below. The image is from Four Nights of a Dreamer.

Here’s a list of all of his films and what’s available on discs. This is what is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Angels of Sin (1943) – never on US DVD or Blu-ray. It has been on an Asian DVD

Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) – on DVD from Criterion

Diary of a Country Priest (1951) –Criterion DVD now out of print

This is the first Bresson film I saw. It was in a class. Most people walked out and there were about three of us left by the end.

A Man Escaped (1956) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

Pickpocket (1959) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

The Trial of Joan of Arc(1962) – never on US discs but has been on TV on TCM

Au Hasard Balthasar (1965) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

Mouchette (1967) – on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion

A Gentle Woman (1967) – never on US disc but it was on VHS from New Yorker Films

Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) – never on US disc

Lancelot du Lac (1974) – out-of-print DVD from New Yorker Films

The Devil Probably (1977) – on Olive DVD, apparently out of print

L’argent (1983) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

Roberto Clemente – born 8/18/34

How great was Roberto Clemente? He played in 14 World Series games and got hits in all of them. I saw him play in the last game of the 1971 National League Championship Series.

Covers: Lay Lady Lay

“Lay Lady Lay” is a Bob Dylan song from 1969. His original version is country but the 1974 live version is loud rock and roll.

Update on gerrymandering in Ohio

How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All – Firesign Theatre

How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All is a 1969 comedy album by the Firesign Theatre. It’s certainly my favorite comedy record. The two sides have some cross-references but are very different.

Side 1 is “How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All”, an imaginative tale that starts with the purchase of a car.

Side 2 is “The Further Adventures of Nick Danger”, a parody of 1940s radio crime stories.

There are lots of cultural references to things like the Beatles and drugs. I think it wouldn’t mean as much to people who didn’t live through this era.

A blue lobster

Joe Walsh owns Klaus Voorman’s cover art for Revolver

Klaus Voorman, an old friend of the Beatles since their days in Hamburg, did the front cover art for Revolver, the Beatles album from 1966.

I didn’t know until yesterday that Joe Walsh owns it. The Rock and Roll Detective, the author of the article I linked to, tracked it down and even told Voorman where it was. It doesn’t say how Walsh acquired it.