Saturday, 21 March 2009

Bête Humaine
[Judas Was a Woman;
Human Beast]
(1938)

80%

In some ways a depressing view of human existence but one that's most often true. The characters are enmeshed in their own problems and believe that scapegoating others and, thereby, creating more problems can provide solutions. They refuse to accept that problems are always caused by a refusal to face problems. None enjoys healthy sexual relations and the sexual jealousy resulting from forcing others to love you leads – inevitably - to murder.

However, the film extracts maximum empathy from the situations presented. Not an alienating experience, but one in which you could easily imagine yourself being caught up in. The feline Simone Simon plays the ultimate femme fatale; sleeping with men in the hope they'll be so grateful, they'll murder her husband! Jean Gabin is her latest snare - a star incapable of giving a bad performance.


Copyright © 2009 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.