All the hubbub yesterday about funding the Veronica Mars movie made us think that we should make a plug for the effort to restore and digitize the classic French movie musical by Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It’s the 50th anniversary of the film this year and Demy’s family (lead by the awesome director Agnès Varda) is trying to raise a modest 25k Euros to finish paying for the process of restoring it to its original splendor for a debut screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May (and for all posterity). If you’ve never seen the movie, it’s full of colors, awesome wallpapers, a 20-year old Catherine Deneuve in her first major role, sung dialog all the way through (it totally works), the realities of young love, the town of Cherbourg, lots of great shots, and a main song that will be stuck in your head for weeks. Watch it regardless, but you have 32 days to help them meet their goal and keep one of the best movies alive for years to come.

Film Diary: Krylya, 1966, directed by Larisa Shepitko

Russian director Larisa Shepitko’s career was cut way too short when she was killed in a car accident at age 41, but thankfully we have access to her two major works through Criterion’s Eclipse Series. Wings is her first feature after graduating from the All-Russian State Institute for Cinematography and it is already a mature, quietly stunning film. The combination of a memorable performance by Maya Bulgakova as the main character, universally human moments, and beautiful compositions makes this film stand its ground with its contemporaries and mourn for all that could have been for this remarkable director. I highly recommend both Wings and The Ascent.

So yeah, it’s been quite a while since my last Philatelic Friday post, but what’s a year here or there? I was spurred on by finding an old binder (a Mead Organizer with a puppy and kitten on it–total 80′s style) full of more stamps (it’s funny how I don’t even remember having collected so many). I have several sheets with stamps from different countries and this Vietnamese stamp caught my interest with its rather contemporary design and great color scheme.

1976 Vietnam

It didn’t occur to me how difficult it would be to pin down some information on the stamp. Searching the text brought up lots of Vietnamese language pages which wasn’t too helpful. Finally I pinned down this page and translated it to find that this seems to be half of a stamp set issued in 1976 marking the re-unification of the country. According to this Wikipedia page about the postal history of Vietnam, these must have been issued in July/August as it still has the name of the North Vietnamese state printed on them (the text along the top). The whole page is an interesting read as you consider that stamps were originally issued there in 1862 under French colonial rule and then there was a Northern and Southern state. Anyhow, that’s a lot of history for a 12-cents stamp!

1970 New Zealand (overprinted 1971 or 1973)

This seemingly simple stamp from my shoebox led me down a bit of a rabbit hole. I picked it out because of its bright colors and appealing design of a Magpie Moth and I figured the price change didn’t get in the way too much. So the original stamp comes from this lovely set of pictorials from 1970 and was designed by Eileen Mayo, but like all printed matter that goes through multiple passes, errors can occur, which you can see documented here. When the rate increased in 1971, there was no longer a use for 2½¢ stamps so they decided to overprint the stamp with a surcharge (which still kind of blows my mind as it seems like a lot of extra, and not so attractive, trouble to go through, but there were more than 37 million stamps left), and apparently the way the surcharge was printed can affect its value. There are actually three variations of the overprint: photogravure on un-perforated sheets and letterpress on perforated single sheets done in England in 1971, and then a letterpress overprinting in New Zealand in 1973. It’s kind of amazing to think of all the details and work that went into this little stamp.

Loved the cover of this book of Bergman scripts that we came across at Powell’s (Grove Press, 1970).

Film Diary: Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965, directed by Milos Forman

I’ve always known about Milos Forman from his more Hollywood fare, but had never seen any of his earlier Czech work. I really loved this film for its beautiful shots, wonderful simplicity, and resilient humanity. His protagonist Andula was played by his former sister-in-law Hana Brejchová in her first film and he captures her unconventional beauty in such artful ways.

The camera loves her, but he also lets his eye linger on even the least consequential of characters. I particularly liked this small moment…

There are so many great compositions…

It’s not an epic movie, but it captures a small-town girl’s story with situations that are sadly comical and ultimately timeless.

photos by Yvonne

Film Diary: Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?, 1966, directed by William Klein.

This DVD was another random library pick we added to our pile of movies to watch, but after seeing a Louis Malle film that William Klein worked on (Zazie dans le métro) which was so visually interesting, we pushed it up in our queue. Turns out he was a famous photographer for Vogue and for his directorial debut, things start off like a somewhat surreal fashion documentary…

The movie seems to be referred to as a spoof on the fashion industry, but its scope is broader than that. While it satirizes fashion, politics, reality television, and pop culture, it also questions what makes art, identity, and self. It doesn’t quite rise to the level of masterpiece as there is a rather silly side plot which detracts a bit. Overall though, it’s beautiful to look at with an amusing absurdist sensibility.

The titular character of Polly Maggoo is played by model Dorothy McGowan in her only film role. It would have been interesting to see what else she could have done as an actress as she’s very charismatic and perfect in this role. She reminds me of a cross between Sarah Ferguson and Diane Keaton and you can see why she was one of Klein’s favorite models. It’s funny that as in the film, she was discovered in a mob of Beatles fans.

There are also some great animated sequences that will bring to mind Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python work and the closing credits are presented as an awesome continuous illustrated landscape.

photos by Yvonne

Film Diary: Miss Julie, 1951, directed by Alf Sjöberg.

We picked up this DVD from the library just because it was on Criterion. Little did we know that Sjöberg is considered Sweden’s 2nd best director and this film certainly supports the case. He expands the original August Strindberg play that was set in a manor house kitchen into a cinematic masterwork. I imagine the play must be extremely intense and claustrophobic considering the story, but the film is able to bring a stark beauty to the class/gender/power struggles. That’s not to say there aren’t things that are troublesome as far as how Strindberg writes women and Sjöberg portrays them, but that doesn’t detract from the feeling that you’re watching something unusual and significant.

On a design note, I really liked the hand-drawn opening credits over the mysterious woman peeking out from behind a curtain. It was an auspicious beginning.

Dongguan, China

Living Things Among Us is our regular blog photo feature. Please submit your own here!

This installment of stamps from my shoebox gets an extra family/travelogue spin.

stamp 1985 China; portrait and my brother George at a memorial in Humen, China

I vaguely remember receiving these stamps when I was younger and being told that we’re related to the subject, Lin Zexu, who started the first Opium War. In truth, he is related to our grandma’s cousin, so our claim on him is a bit tenuous, but I always thought it was cool that a distant relative was stamp-worthy. As it turns out, he has not only been commemorated on stamps (these were to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth), but there are several memorials and statues of him and he is celebrated as a Chinese hero, scholar, and patriot.

1985 China

We had some down time on our recent trip and took the hour drive from Dongguan City to Humen’s Weiyuan Emplacement, the site of the burning of opium in the above stamp. You can walk through the battlements looking out on the Pearl River and tour a museum that is devoted to the Opium Wars. It had a lot of information and presumed artifacts, but it wasn’t presented in a particularly coherent way (maybe it was just a translation issue). It also had a wing entitled “National Education Base for Anti Drugabuse” which we found comical in its attempt to scare people into not trying drugs. It was a particularly hot day so we didn’t stay long enough to tour the whole area, but it was definitely an interesting historical site and a testament to how history is made by individuals.

Weiyuan Fort below one of China’s longest suspension bridges

walking inside

almost every cannon had tourists posing on it–funny to think of how many people will have the same exact shot of their visit

I really liked the design of their tickets. It was free to get in, but you had to show your passport.

Humen Naval Battle Museum

Pictures weren’t allowed in the museum, but I couldn’t help myself in the Anti Drug hall. I wish I could have properly captured the entrance relief sculptures of the horrors of drugs, but here’s an idea. I don’t mean to make light of drug abuse, but their approach was so propagandist and over the top.

uh, don’t do drugs or you’ll end up sitting in front of a chain link fenced graffiti wall