maandag 7 september 2009

Clichy Revisited


As Maks points out here, Vanessa Contenay-Quinones' gorgeous new video - not to miss, see below or here - is based on the Danish 1970 taboo-breaker Stille dage i Clichy, again based on Henry Miller's best novel which quite made my day when I discovered it on Dad's so very sober looking bedroom shelf at age thirteen, a pre-beatnik study already written in the early 40s though unpublished until 1956 (by "sex" publisher Olympia Press, for sure).
Actually, the movie isn't nearly as hot as Vanessa's voice, but features a remarkable soundtrack, Andy Sundstroem's hommage to the location nicely oscillating between Clichy and cliché, mélancolie style Parisienne. However, the icing on the nipple is Country Joe McDonald's (yes, he of the notorious Woodstock Fish cheer) title track, a laidback and tenderly explicit roundup of Miller's carnal accounts in exactly five minutes and forty seconds. Lots of sexy surprises, guaranteed, even if you already know what rhymes best with luck.

Andy Sundstroem - Clichy

Country Joe McDonald - Quiet Days in Clichy 1
Country Joe McDonald - Quiet Days in Clichy 2

3 opmerkingen:

  1. I've always enjoyed this soundtrack. It seems to capture an era. I didn't know Country Joe had it in him.

    I bought a DVD of the movie when I was at the Henry Miller Museum in Big Sur last year, but I can't bring myself to watch it. I fear I will be disappointed...

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  2. That Chickipedia link doesn't mean to go where it goes, right? The link is damaged, but when created it goes to some wannabe cheesecake site.

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  3. fixed that link. wannabe cheesecake, hmm, sounds great.

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