A relatively short post…

After shocking everyone with what may appear as a massive post, I now will refrain myself, not censor, and post relatively short posts, considering that “short” is a relative term. What is short? How short is short? But first a shameless promotion of our up and coming release Le Marquis De La Croix.

It is a bold individual who dares follow one of Margot’s pyrotechnic posts!
She is a great publicist for the many enterprises with which she is involved, even using an image of Ms. Hesketh, relaxing after her manifold exertions, to titillate her (that is Ms. Hesketh’s!) many actual and prospective fans!
My Dear Margot. There are several matters in your post to which I think that I wish to respond but I would like to give the issues some thought.
Richard

You are that bold individual, one of maybe three who read the post. I know that it must be difficult to avoid staring at the pictures for long periods of time. The challenge would be to respond to all of the several matters in my post. I imagine I will have to wait. While I wait I will continue to publicize our endeavors. Here’s another.

**When the army came marching in with a canon. Amy faces them with an old pistol that is not seen but it’s there.**

In response (in part) to Margot, I am intrigued that you are surprised by the variety of responses that your films have evoked. We (you) are dealing with profound and (in our civilization) dark corners of the soul (the Greeks knew differently!). Through education, religion, social mores, peer assumptions and pressures, people have learned how they should respond, not how their psyches demand that they respond. Hence the hostility. You have it in your grasp to transform (minimally, moderately, maximally?) such inhibitions.
Having sermonized again, I shall yet once more eagerly embrace my inner academic; ‘Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto.’ I am a human being; I think nothing human alien (foreign) to me: which might be glossed in this context ‘You are a human being; you (should) think nothing alien to you.
The author was Terence, c.190 – 159 B.C. And the Romans knew more than most about torture and cruel death as public spectacle!
Richard

I remember a long, very long time ago, Jac was going to show his back then just finished film on Haiti to a group of nuns and priests, as well as some townspeople in Ossining, NY. The Order of social minded Catholic priests had contributed to the film with hard cash. Jac had one big concern. The film he made was very strong, with scenes that were graphically shocking. It was, after all, about the suffering of the people of Haiti. It had some symbolic scenes, one of them was a couple crucified in the sugar cane fields. They were young, they were naked.

He crossed his fingers and waited until the screening was over. One of the nuns there had worked in Haiti, serving the poor, for many, many years. She cried. One of the townspeople got up and said “This film is what Guernica was for the Spanish Civil war, it is that poweful“. Was Jac surprised? Were his fears unfounded? More than anything, he was relieved … and a bit proud to be compared to Picasso.

Margot: Good lord, what a voluminous post. Loved all the information and pictures; I can just imagine how long that must have taken you to write. Have you ever considered maybe writing 2 or 3 smaller posts rather than one humongous opus? It would take me days to write what you did. I’m certainly not complaining, I’m just trying to make things easier on you. You’re like James Cameron making Titanic and then having to go bigger and more impressive in his next project, so he takes 12 years to make Avatar. Go easy on yourself. A Margot post doesn’t have to be a spectacular production every time. Sometimes smaller…and therefore more frequent…can be just as good.
Ralphus

There’s so much going on that I think I would take years to tell it all. I take advantage of the time I have free, when I have it. I do tend to write a lot, it’s my job and my training. I will try, however, to contribute more often with less words, like now.

One bit of news is that Le Marquis de La Croix is in its final leg of post-production and it should be coming out next month.

Regarding the Maleficarum censorship debate, I read the negative review of the film that was posted on Facebook, using Google Translate. I didn’t agree with one word of it, even though it was interesting to read someone else’s perspective of a film I obviously liked. Knowing now that he was indirectly connected with the Cinemateca certainly explains his motivation.
Like I said long ago, a theatrical release of Maleficarum…and being censored…was a win-win for your movie. It’s likely that the publicity you got for being banned generated a lot of interest in the film that might not have occurred otherwise. Controversy sells. And people have an inert motivation to rebel and do the opposite if you tell them they can’t see something. The impressive showing for the film during its 3-week run is evidence of that.
Now send the DVD to the states and let Roger Ebert review it. Look what he and Gene Siskel did for I Spit on Your Grave. Today Bolivia, tomorrow the whole freakin’ world!
Ralphus

That review was almost a ghost writer type of article. There’s one reviewer who trashed Sirwiñakuy in ways that are an overkill, insulting Jac personally and not really reviewing the film. Well, he linked the “review” of Maleficarum all over the place mentioning that he works at that paper. Obviously he was behind the review. The reviewer couldn’t attack the film that much except to say that it was Gore and Porn… he did mention that the tortures and period settings were believable. Kudos. But he then went to say that the “actors direction” was bad. This comment was echoed at Jac’s radio interview along the mistakes two other journalists made, one saying that it was Jac’s third film and another saying that he directed Sirwiñakuy.

It was clear that both, the review and the radio interview were “prepared” to appear just before the debate and to shine a bad light on the film rather than on censorship.

Reine Margot: Well, if your previous post was the mother of them all, this latest one is the god-mother.
I especially like the picture of Amy in the water…so cool she’s hot!
YikYakker

Maybe the previous post was the granma of them all. BTW, people should read it before it gets buried under all the new posts. (Actually, it’s already buried way, way under tons and tons of posts.)

Amy in the water is cool and hot, I agree. It was a needed vacation and all too short… They wish they had taken a week, but time is limited now with all the work at hand. Amy is in the middle of writing her new script, releasing The Via Crucis of Camille – Crux 9 and pre-producing the second part of Dead But Dreaming. That’s a lot of work. But she wishes she was still in the water, under the hot sun.

Margot: If I haven’t commented on your last incredible post: It was terrific! That picture of Amy in the river was sensational as well. I think that your highly informative and insightful posts will also make the forum THE source for inquisitive GIMPers to learn more about Red Feline as well as the world of GIMP in general. There is a point where an online forum transitions from simply being an exchange of views by enthusiasts to being a source for information and an accurate picture of the GIMP status quo. Posts like yours, Amy’s, Rick’s, Blakemore’s and others too numerous to mention (or I am just too lazy to go back and research them all) add a whole different dimension to the forum. And I for one greatly appreciate them all!
John Galt

I hope to have a lot new to say in the coming days. All efforts are on the release of Barbazul and Le Marquis de La Croix but we are preparing the production of Dead But Dreaming II. Amy is working on her script and the plan is to work on that movie before the end of the year.

But we have a new release now: The Via Crucis of Camille – Crux 9. The ninth segment of the work Camille and JJ did a while ago. This is the next to the last segment. It’s very, very interesting to see the development of their work on this series. It is, after all, the early seed for our present work.