#La Penna

[libriaco]

Antimuffa

Molto […] preoccupante, per chi esige una presenza vitale della cultura classica nella scuola, è […] la proposta di eliminare lo studio delle lingue antiche, e, quindi, la lettura diretta dei testi, riducendo il contatto con l’antichità alla lettura di traduzioni, accompagnate da illustrazioni amene. Tale proposta non solo trova sostegno in ambienti ministeriali, ma incontra facilmente il consenso di quanti, anche fra le persone colte, vogliono allo stesso tempo una scuola più facile e più conforme alle meraviglie del progresso tecnologico, libera dalle muffe del passato.

A. La Penna, Sulla scuola [1999], Roma - Bari, Laterza, ebook, 2014

Immagine: Hendrick Bloemaert, Vecchio che legge (1636), olio su tela, Museo di Belle Arti, Budapest

[papesatan]

2.43: suona il campanello ed entra lemme un bimbo, sorridendo accartocciato sotto il peso dello zaino. Lo guardo male, ché odio quando si presentano con largo anticipo sull’orario di apertura, ma invece di sedersi, mi si ferma a fianco, scrutandomi, demone dolce. 

- Che vuoi? - ringhio selvatico, mentre lui preserva il sorriso, replicando con affetto:

- Ti ho portato un pensierino.

- Cosa? Un pensierino??? :0 :0 :0

- Sì, guarda! - e tira fuori dallo zaino una penna con un graziosissimo pupazzetto simboleggiante sora morte per degno tappo. La penna perfetta per me! - Avevo un euro in più, così ho pensato di farti un regalo! Guarda, se spingi l’interruttore fa pure le luci multicolore! 

Resto paralizzato :0 a bocca aperta, ma non faccio neanche in tempo a dire un “grazie…”, che mi si lancia addosso stringendomi forte al petto (o meglio allo stomaco, insomma, dove arriva). Commosso, gioco un po' coi suoi capelli e penso a quanto sono stupido, ché non avrei davvero alcun motivo per lamentarmi, quando poi momenti come questo mi ripagano caldamente per tutto il resto.

[lobbycards]

The Brain That Wouldn't Die, US Lobby Card #6. 1962

[letterboxd-loggd]

Journey to Italy (Viaggio in Italia) (Voyage to Italy) (1954) Roberto Rossellini

June 18th 2024

[persa-tra-i-miei-pensieri]

Programmi e cartoni dell'infanzia

Disegno doodle fatto in macchina

[danielebarillari]

Jep Gambardella, Toni Servillo “La Grande Bellezza”

Pen on paper 13x21cm

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/19/2022: THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (1962)

"PLEASE…LET ME DIE!"

I have a slightly fraught relationship with Mystery Science Theater 3000. For the most part, my feelings are highly positive: Especially in the Joel Hodgson era, the show oozes love, finds pleasure in maligned and forgotten movies, and only veers into negativity when the film is really insulting. In some cases (many, possibly even most!), MST3K renders the unwatchable watchable, opening the viewers' eyes to a whole world of production that they might otherwise consider unthinkable. Occasionally, though, I worry about some of the programming choices. I don't think that the beguiling oddity PHASE IV really deserves to be riffed upon; ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE may be ridiculous, but it knows that and enjoys itself accordingly without anyone's help; and when we get into the territory of a gorgeous work of art like DANGER: DIABOLIK!, it's really like…what the hell are you guys thinking?!

Anyway. Just in case you're worried that I'm about to try to hot take-ify the infamous BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, that's not what's going on here. This is a perfectly absurd, surprisingly gory and sleazy movie with about one page worth of original content couched in enough padding to protect it from a nuclear holocaust. It's the perfect movie for MST3K, and it's a good thing that so many people have seen it that way. Still, I think it has a little more to offer than just being mindbogglingly dumb and incompetent. A little.

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE, which crawled so FRANKENHOOKER could run, concerns the exploits of cold-hearted surgeon Bill Cortner (Jason Evers), who is frustrated by the cowardice of colleagues who won't let him randomly experiment on the patients who enter his operating theater. He gets a golden opportunity to dick around in God's domain when his shitty driving decapitates his fiancée Jan (Virginia Leith); he hauls her noggin off to his country estate, where he is fully prepared to preserve her consciousness until a suitable replacement body can be had. While Bill cruises strip clubs and bikini contests for transplant material, Jan discovers that his reanimation techniques have given her psychic powers, and she forms a deadly bond with a Thing (Eddie Carmel) locked in a nearby closet. The two monstrosities plot their bloody revenge amid an avalanche of exciting monologues from Jan about her horrific existence.

In spite of its astounding cheapness and its shred of a plot, THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE has a certain amount of chutzpah that makes it endearing, perhaps even uplifting in some perverse way. You think for sure that when Jan wakes up in the pan, it's going to break her heart, but she immediately downshifts to righteous wrath. Virginia Leith reportedly hated this movie, but you wouldn't know it from the gumption she gives her bombastic tirades about how nothing could be more horrifying, and thus more powerful, than herself. Meanwhile, Bill encounters a string of hardboiled adult entertainers who are so streetwise, and so fiercely protective of themselves, that it's actually kind of affecting to watch this seemingly well-heeled doctor slip around their defenses with his veneer of normality in order to do something awful to them.

Adele Lamont in the much shorter, less gory, less nude cut of the movie. Always check your running times!

Of particular interest is poor Doris (Adele Lamont), implied to be a lesbian with the most beautiful body anyone has ever seen, but with a hideously scarred face courtesy of a man who she once "trusted—all the way!" It's painful to watch Bill maneuver relentlessly to gain Doris' hard-won trust, especially since they used to know one another; back in school, Bill defended the disfigured Doris from male mockery after her "accident", and now he's leveraging his heroic track record to fuck up her life even worse. Bill has a Patrick Bateman-like habit of speaking so frankly as to appear to be kidding, escaping all suspicion. He plies Doris with the promise of an experimental makeover, not-joking, "I'm gonna make your face beautiful again. Cut it off and give your body away." Finding this threat impossible to take seriously, Doris relaxes, and heads off to her potentially tragic fate. In this sequence, the padding and repetition almost work to the film's benefit; Doris tries so hard, over and over, to get rid of Bill, that you really wind up feeling like it's not her fault that he eventually bends her to his will. Especially if you've ever been worn down by an ill-intentioned man like this, you gotta feel for Doris.

"A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y." Diane Arbus, 1970

The other cast member you might feel for is the "mass of flesh" made of "broken limbs and amputated arms" that Bill keeps in the closet, played by sideshow performer Eddie Carmel. The "Jewish Giant", made most famous by Diane Arbus, is caked in makeup to make him look optimally freakish, even though "freak" was once an official job title for the actor. Carmel is an interesting guy who also held titles such as mutual funds salesman, standup comedian, and rock singer in the band Frankenstein and the Brain Surgeons. He's worth looking up, even if his presence in this exploitation movie is limited to the finale.

The last thing I'll say about THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE is that it is occasionally stylish, much to my surprise. In between the endless monologues and meandering-around, there are shots that look like cinematographer Stephen Hajnal actually enjoyed setting them up—and there is occasional evidence of some form of humor, like the Grecian-style bust that foregrounds Bill's entrance to the country lab with Jan's severed head under his arm. Just because I noticed this, today I am going to find out if Jennifer Lynch's art house shocker BOXING HELENA would make a good double-bill with THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE. I actually feel slightly worse about that movie, since Lynch made it when she was very young, laboring under her own immaturity and her father's towering reputation, which is apt to magnify her youthful mistakes. Somehow that feels just as grim to me as what happens to poor Doris.

Forgive my shitty picture of my TV, I have limited means here!

PS Jennifer Lynch's SURVEILLANCE is one of my absolute favorite recent genre films, in case it sounds like I'm dismissing her outright! It has my highest recommendation.

[omarfor-orchestra]

FERMATE IL GIOCO FERMATE STO CAZZO DI GIOCO NON STO SCHERZANDO

[deathshallbenomore]

cioè ma ti immagini che devo addentrarmi nella giungla degli orrori amministrativi anche domani ma che è una violazione dei diritti umani pronto amici della corte edu avrei un problema c’è qualcuno?

[thecryptandtheincubus]

{{VENDU}}

- Ƈօʟʟɛƈȶɨօռ ʟǟ Ɖɛʀռɨɛʀɛ Ռʊɨȶ ɖ'Ǟʋʀɨʟ -

ᖘꗛᙁᙁᕔ ᕔᙏᙏꗞԸĬꞆᕔ

LAPIDARIUM : Ammolite

CURIOSITAS : Plumes

LIEU DE TROUVAILLE : Autun (Bourgogne)

[lobbycards]

The Brain That Wouldn't Die, US Lobby Card #8. 1962

[ferrari-desmosedici-wwe-fc]

Avrei voglia di buttare un po' di soldi 😬

[turnthelight]

Appunta bene le idee.

[iannozzigiuseppe]

"Nella mente del Serial Writer" - La Penna d'Oca collettivo di autori - recensione di Giuseppe Iannozzi

Nella mente del Serial Writer La Penna d’Oca collettivo di autori Il Mistero non è mai stato così affascinante e ricco di sfumature Di Carlo Edizioni di Giuseppe Iannozzi Se si pensa alla narrativa del mistero è impossibile non ricordare Edgar Allan Poe, che diede finalmente una struttura ben definita, moderna, a questo genere letterario. “Il castello di Otranto” (1ª ed. originale 1764) di…

[oubliettemagazine]

Tre monologhi. Penna, Morante, Wilcock di Elio Pecora: differenze e similitudini nella vita e nella personalità di tre artisti

Il monologo è un racconto da parte di una voce sola. Ma non è un racconto univoco. Racchiude in sé la vastità e l’immensità di una scrittura che esce dal silenzio e anima la pagina scritta che sembra diventare parlata. Tre monologhi. Penna, Morante, Wilcock di Elio Pecora Pecora riunisce in un solo libro tre monologhi, che raccontano tre persone differenti, le indagano, rivelandone forze e…

[zeroloop]

Mini fotocamera HD 1080p penna portatile piccola telecamera di sorveglianza per Home Office sorveglianza Nanny Cam supporto rilevamento del movimento con 5 filtri di inchiostro

Questa è una fotocamera spia con forma di penna. La sua caratteristica principale è che può registrare video HD a 1080p e scattare fotografie con risoluzione 2560*1440. Nella confezione di vendita sono inclusi: una mini videocamera, un cavo di ricarica micro USB/USB, un lettore di schede micro-SDcard, cinque pennini sostitutivi, un fermaglio, e un manuale multilingua, tra cui l’italiano. La…