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  • May. 18th, 2009 at 9:44 PM
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Watched Dodesukaden, a film by Kurosawa over the weekend (bits and pieces here and there). I have to actually pay attention since I have to read the sub-titles. It is a rather bleak film. I'd seen it over 20 years ago in SF. It finally came out on DVD recently. Also watched a series yesterday, Breaking Bad. Last night's episode was also bleaker than usual. Also watched Masterpiece Mystery last night, Wallander, a detective series. Also rather bleak, fairly enjoyable but not a happy episode. Have seen two, doubt any will be happy overall, just a few moments here and there.

Tonight I watched Simon of the Desert. This I also saw over 20 years and it also just came out on DVD this year. I love some of the quotes,
The Devil:
"Down with the sacred hypostatis!"
"Death with the anastasis!"
"Long live the apocatastasis!"
One of the priests
"What on earth is the apocatastasis?"
Simon:
"Besides being a spiritual exercise, blessings are good fun too."
"Blessed is the scourge if it wins us glory before the Lord."
And then there's a rockin' dance scene too, doin' the radioactive flesh dance.
Such a strange ending

With respect to apocatastasis, from Wikipedia
"Stoicism
In Stoic philosophy, the cosmos is a physical expression of Zeus' perfect thoughts and apocatastasis is the contraction when Zeus returns to self-contemplation.[3] This will occur when the stars and planets return to their original positions, believed to be an alignment with Cancer, and the universe will be consumed by fire (ekpyrosis). Antapocatastasis is a counter-example or a counter-occurrence when the stars and planets align with Capricorn and the universe will be destroyed by flood. When Zeus turns his thoughts outwards once more, the cosmos will be reborn or reconstituted under the guidance and sustenance of Logos, an emanation of Zeus."
...
Christianity
In Christianity, apocatastasis is the doctrine of the ultimate reconciliation of good and evil forces. Apocatastasis maintains that all moral creatures -- angels, humans and devils - will eventually come to a harmony in God's kingdom, the evil ones through repentance and rejection of evil."
Wikipedia on Apocatastasis

and then the comment on Hypostases brings me to
"Three Hypostases in one Ousia"
Wikipedia on Hypostasis
How many good Catholics out there are familiar with that one? I certainly wasn't but I'm not even close to being a Catholic.

The DVD has a very interesting, IMHO, addition called A Mexican Bunuel primarily dealing with his time in Mexico although it does cover his time in the United States and in France to a certain extent. There is also an interview with Silvia Pinal who played the devil in Simon of the Desert. Simon of the Desert is only about 40 minutes long.



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Comments

( 3 comments — Leave a comment )
[info]greenshadows wrote:
May. 19th, 2009 03:39 pm (UTC)
I read one of the Wallander books some years ago. Not bad but yes, bleak in an oh-so-Swedish way.
(Anonymous) wrote:
May. 20th, 2009 09:05 pm (UTC)
I saw Dodesukaden back in the 80's at a Kurasawa film festival at some theater. Probably the Uptown. They used to do festivals back in the day. I liked it and had a copy on tape until I got rid of most of my tapes a few years ago. I just looked it up in the Wikipedia and it turned out not to be a hit for the man and that compiled with some other sad stuff led K to try to commit suicide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodesukaden
That kind of thing happens, huh.
I mostly enjoyed the film but I'm not sure that I'd bother buying the DVD. It's the sort of thing that should turn up on Turner Classic Movies and I can catch a copy from that. I remember it as being very colorful, albiet kind of weird. Shot in a real dump. garth
[info]alces2 wrote:
May. 20th, 2009 09:14 pm (UTC)
Yes, Dodesukaden is very colorful and in a dump. However he does do a bit of back and forth with colorful versus almost monotone in sections of the film, still hints of color but very evident when compared with the rest of the scene. I hadn't read about Kurosawa trying to commit suicide after a bad review. I had seen that it wasn't considered one of his best and not all reviewers particularly liked it. I've kept an eye open for it on Turner Classic Movies but haven't seen it turn up. Maybe it has and I have just missed it. Same thing with Simon of the Desert. I have yet to see it appear on TCM or AMC. And yes, Dodesukaden is a bit weird. So is Simon of the Desert.
( 3 comments — Leave a comment )