Comments on: Cultural References and more

By: janet D

janet D — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:57:42 +0000

Would "red balloon" refer to the children's story, "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown? The red balloon is in the child's room at the end of the evening… "goodnight light and the red balloon…"
Just a thought!

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:09:04 +0000

I think the color definitely eliminates it.

By: hullaballoo

hullaballoo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:58:29 +0000

Okay, I just looked up that film (La Tour de Nesle), and IMDB says that it's one of the few COLOR films that was produced in the French cinema during the 1950s. The film Don was watching was black and white. So I guess it's still a mystery. I think I'm still going for Last Year at Marienbad, or possibly Hiroshima Mon Amour. It's been years since I've seen either of those movies, so I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time…

By: hullaballoo

hullaballoo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:48:44 +0000

Hmm. Interesting about Queen Marguerite of Burgundy and her wanting to take revenge against her one night stands. I was thinking Bobbie reminded me of Alex in Fatal Attraction, and we know what happened there. She is the type who would get all up in Don's business the more he tried to resist her. Maybe she'll be the figurative body at the bottom of the lake from "A Place in the Sun?"

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:48:32 +0000

Look what thus spake drake has:

But what of the film that Don watches while playing hooky from work? The internetz has been transcribing and discovered that the French narration is in fact a recitation of the FranÃ§ois Villon poem "Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis" (translated as "Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past,") and a quick search shows that the film La Tour de Nesle (1955,) by Abel Gance, uses that poem to end the film. I haven't seen that particularly obscure Gance film to confirm, but the story perhaps has allusions to the Bobbi character, in the depiction of Queen Marguerite of Burgandy as a women who wants to take revenge out on her one night stands, only to have the tables turned on her by Buridan.

By: hullaballoo

hullaballoo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:22:10 +0000

Maybe my Ernie's references are off. I mean, physically, the scenes don't resemble each other–Ernie's was dark with richly saturated colors, while the scenes at the Savoy were kind of pale. I just remember Hitchcock filmed Kim Novak's character (and other blondes at the restaurant) as if they were ghosts–all wraithlike and ethereal, floating through the restaurant. In FTWTY, they achieved a similar effect by doing the slow dissolves/zooms as Betty descended the stairs. In both scenes you had these apparitions of womanhood, these projections as envisioned by the male protagonists of the story. But the realities of those women were starkly different from the visions of them. It's why Jimmy Stewart kept trying to reconstruct Kim Novak's Judy character, but no matter what he did, she was never completely "it." I think Don is going through the same thing with Betty–she's never going to be "it," despite the number of furs he gives her.

By: Roberta Lipp

Roberta Lipp — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:42:13 +0000

THAT'S IT!!!

Carlotta. They said it a lot.

wheww. I guess for now I'll leave it up there, in NvK, as it led to all this discussion. someday I'll just change it to the niagra thing and delete all this. all this… evidence that my memory is shot to shit.

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:37:16 +0000

Vertigo is on next week. I posted. I think cultural history is both culture and history, Coop. Okay, that was stupid, sorry.

By: hullaballoo

hullaballoo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:23:46 +0000

I don't think Vertigo had a Rosetta Stone line. They did say Carlotta Valdes a lot, though. Carlotta, Rosetta…they sound similar…a little. Okay, I'm stretching.

By: Deborah Lipp

Deborah Lipp — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:15:58 +0000

I forgot about Ernie's. Now I have to rent it too.