What else can a woman do after being Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman's daughter, Martin Scorsesse's wife and David Lynch and Gary Oldman's lover? After becoming a top model at age 28, the face of Lancome for fourteen years and an underground film sex icon at 40?

Becoming a Porn Star? Maybe, but not an ordinary one.

The as-sophisticated-as-devious Isabella Rossellini now makes short (documentary?) films about bug’s sex life. But in her films we see no real animals; she plays their part.  "If I were a firefly, I will light up my ass at night; and fly here, and fly there...", says Isabella while swaying her hips from one side to the other, in close up and all dressed up like...well, a firefly. In this way, she explicitly explains us the mating habits of lighting bugs; and also, of bees, earthworms, spiders and a few more insects.

Perhaps Isabella’s strange green turn can be interpreted as a weird concoction of the realist legacy of her father and the surreal wickedness of Lynch.

 Anyway, more than a porn star, I would say she’s become a vieja verde.

"Prevention and more prevention. Let’s fully establish a veterinary system for the prevention of epidemics!”

The attraction dictators feel towards cinema is not news. We all know about Hitler's fascination with filmaker Leni Riefenstahl's work, which he generously sponsored. Similarly, the real identity of the scriptwriter of the Spanish fascist film Raza is no longer a mistery; it is well known that the so called Jaime de Andrade was really El Generalisimo, Francisco Franco. But what is probably unknown to many is that North Korean totalitarian leader Kim Jong Il  is actually a Film Theorist, or at least, he has written a treatise on The Art of Cinema. 

 I haven't read it, so I can't tell you what his views are. Yet, I think I can perfectly imagine part of its content, especially after having a look at the excerpt amazon provides:

“The cinema is now one of the main objects on which efforts should be concentrated in order to conduct the revolution in art and literature. The cinema occupies an important place in the overall development of art and literature. As such it is a powerful ideological weapon for the revolution and construction. Therefore, concentrating efforts on the cinema, making breakthroughs and following up success in all areas of art and literature is the basic principle that we must adhere to in revolutionizing art and literature.”

If any of you want to read it, the book is translated in English; I will be delighted to hear your comments on it.

The cool illustration above is another example of North Korean political propaganda, and probably yet another proof that the bad guys also have good taste.

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*UPDATE (31/12):  For more excerpts of Kim Jong Il's book, check this site. I ctrl+C one of my favorites:

"No revolutionary actor has ever actually been a Japanese policeman or capitalist... To effectively embody the hateful enemy, the actor requires an ardent love of his class and a burning hostility towards the enemy."

Christmas time has probably as many supporters as detractors. The religious origin of the festivity, the crazy consumerism and the usual overdose of sentimentalism and kitsch, make of Christmas a difficult-to-swallow season for many people. But like it or not, it's hard to avoid Christmasmania and honestly, there are better causes to fight for; so, in this case, I guess it's wiser trying to stop hating and actually enjoy Christmas (on your own way, of course) Here are a few readings that might help:

- If you are a skeptic because you think you're an atheist and there's nothing to celebrate, you may want to read why you can enjoy the season for no reason.

- If what you can't stand are those honey dripping Christmas films, consider watching Black Christmas (1974)

- If you don't like the gifts you get or consider them excessive, donate them here

- If you are vegetarian/vegan and starve at Christmas dinners try this

Now, if your Christmas skepticism is beyond hope, please just be happy. For all the rest, Merry Christmas!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

This was one of Blu's best productions of 2008.  If you haven't seen it in the last 7 months, here's another chance before the end of the year. Enjoy.

Creatures of horror films are transgressive by nature. Monsters are monsters because they violate human categorical boundaries. Mummies, zombies, vampires et al are impure because they are “categorically interstitial, categorically contradictory, incomplete and formless”*.

Now, the fact that monsters contradict natural categories doesn’t mean that their nature has to be contradictory. “Even the undead ought to obey a few simple rules”, says Stephen Harrigan who complains about there being many inconsistencies among celluloid vampires. 

 First, it is not clear how vampires are killed. In Murnau’s Nosferatu, a vampire dies “if a woman ‘pure in heart’” lies beside him all night “until ‘the cock has crowed’", while in 1931’s Dracula “Bela Lugosi has to be impaled through the heart in his coffin”. But then, Tom Cruise in Interview with a vampire “informs us that the stake-to-the-heart method is ‘nonsense’” and Blade and Carpenter’s Vampires provide their own recipes to kill such bloodsucking creatures.

The case of transmogrification, as Harrigan calls it, is no different; nor is the question of motility. If you think someone turns into a vampire just by being bitten by one of them, you’re missing the subtleties of Interview with a Vampire or forgetting that in Blade, as in “several other AIDS-conscious vampire movies” vampirism is “an infectious blood disease”. Similarly, if you assume that vampires can fly, it is because it’s recent films what you have in mind; 1921’s Nosferatu, in turn, “shuffles arthritically around his castle, and when he rises from his coffin he's as stiff as an ironing board”. But not even something as salient in vampires as dentition is, has a standard: it is not clear whether fangs are retractile or fixed. Actually, Harrigan reminds us, in the case of Bela Lugosi, we never get to see his canine teeth.

To mitigate such a lack of canon of vampirism, Harrigan proposes some standardizing criteria. Here’s a summary:

Mortality and Mortification: “crucifixes and garlic to be regarded as nonlethal irritants. Vampire death to be assured by penetration of heart muscle by any foreign object or by prolonged exposure to sunlight”.
Transmogrification: “Vampirization to be contingent upon total extraction of victim's own blood and its subsequent replacement by blood of donor vampire. If more than 24 hours occur between initial suckage and revivification, victim no longer qualifies for living death designation and will be considered conventionally deceased.”
Motility: vertical flight only, to a maximum of 20 feet above the ground. Sustained flight permissible if vampire takes the form of a bat, owl, or other authentic nocturnal species. Vampire is specifically prohibited from turning into a flying homonculus.
Dentition: “retractable fangs as default characteristic. Strongly recommend, when appropriate, on-screen discussion of physical requirements for said phenomenon--as when a character in Blade observes an "odd muscle structure around the canines."

It’s always good to know what a canonic vampire is like. But just in case, never trust someone who wants to bite your neck.

More on this at slate.com

1.  D.F.W. had a background in Philosophy  (probably influenced by his father who was also a Philosopher)

2. D.F.W  wrote an essay on David Lynch's Lost Highway part of which you can find here or in his A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Sundays are good days to discover things that have been around for a while.

For some millionaires the financial crisis has not only been a source of great headaches, but also of traumatic heartbreaks. As they see their fortunes vanish, a truth of their lives is suddenly unveiled: they have married a cuaima; a gold-digger guarra.

A cruel world this is, queridos.