Pretty much my favorite video on youtube.



 Czesław Niemen/Akwarele/Marek Piwowski - "Success" (1968).

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku dorobō nikki) by Nagisa Ōshima (1969).

Full film with (slightly dodgy) subtitles.

III.

The Woman and I were alone in a room. She told me a Love Story. I knew it was her own. I understood why she could not love me. And as the Woman told me the story — she suddenly became mad — and kissed me in her ravings — she tore her clothes and mine — she tore her hair. Her eyes were wild — and nearly blank. I saw them looking into mine. She kissed me passionately and cried: “Why are you not HE?” “Why not?” And I tried to calm her. But did not succeed. And finally she cried: “What makes me kiss you — it is He I want, not you. And yet I kissed you. Kissed you as if it were He.” — I didn’t dare to move. It was not fear that made me stand still. It was all much too terrible for Fear. I stood there spell-bound. Suddenly the woman moved away — it was ghastly. Her look. Her eyes. — The Woman stood immovable, her eyes glued on mine; when suddenly she screeched: “Tell me you are He — tell me — you are He. And if you are not He I will kill you. For I kissed you.” I stood there and calmly said, what I really did not want to say, for I knew the Woman was irresponsible and mad. I said, “I am not He.” And as I said that the Woman took a knife from the folds of her dress and rushed at me. She struck the heart. The blood spurted straight ahead, as if it had been waiting for an outlet. And as the Woman saw the blood and saw me drop dead she became perfectly sane. She stood motionless. With no expression. She turned around. Upon the immaculate white wall she saw written in Blood Red letters: “He killed himself. He understood the kisses.” —— There was a scream. I awoke.

- Alfred Stieglitz, "One Hour's Sleep: Three Dreams" from 291 Issue One (1915).

Picture: Still from "El Ojo del Laberinto" by Mario Caiano (1972).

Now I see the rocky island again.
I see it quite clearly.
A rocky island far out in the sea, and a second, smaller island.
They lie on the far edge of the inhabited world.
On one island, for centuries, some forgotten men have lived.

And because they live on the far edge of the inhabited world word has not reached them that the Earth is round.
They have retained the belief that the Earth is flat and that the ocean far beyond ends in a yawning abyss.
I see a man on top of the rock.
For years he stood alone looking out over the sea day after day, always in the same place.
He is the first one to doubt.
Then, years later, three other men join him.
For many years they gaze across the sea from the rock.
Then, one day, they decide to risk the ultimate.
They want to reach the edge of the world, to see if there is really an abyss.
Musicians accompany their departure.
Then the men set out, pathetic and senseless.
In a boat that is far too small.

It may have seemed like a sign of hope that the birds followed them out into the vastness of the sea.

- Werner Herzog and Herbert Achternbusch (Island in the Sea of Time - closing segment of Heart of Glass, 1976)

Picture: "Book of Blank Maps" - undated and author uncredited.

Island in the Sea of Time.

The Shout by Jerzy Skolimowski (1978)

There are even single-word poems, or single words that ought to be poems; the best one I know of is the Tierra del Fuegan word “mamihlapinatapei”.

- John Barth, (A Few Words About Minimalism)

Mamihlapinatapei - a look shared by two people with each wishing that the other will initiate something that they both desire but which neither one wants to start.

Picture: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert in "Flesh and The Devil" (1926).

Ouled Nail dance, Algeria (1938).

Rythmixxx by Rafael Gray.

The Free Life by Alan Parker paired with a scene from Sex and Fury.

"I’ll wander around the streets until I’m dead tired

I’ll learn to live alone and look every passing face

square in the eye and still stay what I am."

- Cesare Pavese (from the poem Agony)

Picture: Stills from "Blast of Silence" (1961)

"The weirder you are going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that person."

- P. J. O’Rourke

Picture: Still from Shûji Terayama's "Throw Away Your Books, Go Out into the Streets!" (1971)

It was a face which darkness could kill

in an instant

a face as easily hurt

by laughter or light

‘We think differently at night’

she told me once

lying back languidly

And she would quote Cocteau

‘I feel there is an angel in me’ she’d say

‘whom I am constantly shocking’

Then she would smile and look away 

light a cigarette for me

sigh and rise

and stretch                                          

her sweet anatomy                                              

let fall a stocking                                              

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Number 8”                                            

Picture: Still of Klaus Kinski from "Five For Hell" (1966)

                                   

Ozu Pillow Shots (possibly my favourite video on YouTube)

God Speed You! Black Emperor by Mitsuo Yanagimachi (1976)

"Can we not admit certain skilled men, gifted with intelligence, talent or even genius and so indespensable to society, rather than stagnate should be free to disobey laws in certain cases?"

 - Michel (Bresson's Pickpocket)

Picture: Illustration from "Survival in the City" (1974)