#LexBarker

[majuuorthrus]

I was helping playtest a friend's TTRPG today, which involves creating monsters and battling them in a style similar to Pokemon

This is Lexbark

[movieart-ch-blog]

Just in: Original French poster of WINNETOU - DER SCHATZ IM SILBERSEE, 120x160cm, now 1 copy available at www.movieart.ch

[doomonfilm]

Thoughts : La Dolce Vita (1960)

8 1/2 will forever be my favorite Federico Fellini film, but since the first moment I publicly stated my love for the film, a popular refrain began to emerge... ‘Have you seen La Dolce Vita?’.  Funny enough, I’d seen plenty of his older films, but that particular one had eluded me.  So I sought it out, and needless to say, I was blown away by the epic scale of the narrative, and that’s even in comparison to the mind scramble that 8 1/2 is. 

Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) is a socialite journalist with his thumb squarely on the pulse of what’s hip in his community.  From the top tier celebrities to those that make the gears turn, everyone seems to love Marcello, even when his tactics to get the best stories cause scenes and scandals.  Over the course of seven days and nights, Marcello, his faithful photographer Paparrazo (Walter Santesso), and everyone that gets caught in their gravity chase story after story and event after event, having little to no regard for each event’s significance in the bigger picture or how their presence impacts them.  Among the many events that take place, Marcello neglects his wife Emma (Yvonne Furneaux) in hopes of winning over the beautiful Maddalena (Anouk Aimee), nearly breaks up the engagement of famous actors Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) and Robert (Lex Barker), attends parties, views supposed acts of God, ruminates on the true nature of love and much, much more.

It’s funny how people who can live in the moment while being oblivious to the damage that choice often leaves is as old as time.  With this self-involvement comes an illusion of importance, where validation is sought after in moments that ultimately mean nothing in the bigger picture.  You would think that this would make it easy for people to treat one another as equals, but La Dolce Vita also manages to examine how the haves often take advantage of the have-nots across the spectrum of experience.  For example, Marcello and Emma clearly have a relationship that is damaged beyond repair, but her need for him is a way to absolve him of the guilt that comes with shallowness, and therefore, he refuses to let her go.  In a shocking (but unexpected) series of events, God and spirituality are thrown into the mix, and their importance in the midst of a self-obsessed society is questioned.  Fellini once again manages to present us with socialites lost in the imitation of life.

This presentation comes off as a ballad of the self-involved, with deeply dark humor found in the shallowness of the connections among the characters.  In the world that Fellini has created for La Dolce Vita, the celebrities and people of stature wear their arrogance like an armor as they pick and choose their very public battles.  The focus on this sensationalist style of celebrity and tabloid journalism plays as a prophecy to the TMZ approach we find today, somehow managing to be as equally prophetic as a film like Network without even seemingly trying to be.  As briefly mentioned before, many of these celebrities make a conscious choice to live very intimate and privately moments purposely within the public gaze.  As a result, many of the ‘star’ characters come off as socially schizophrenic, both fawning for and attempting to hide from the gaze of admires and the paparazzi.

La Dolce Vita wouldn’t be a Federico Fellini affair without a never-ending parade of beautiful people and strong personalities, and the movie has that by the boatload.  Even Rome steps up as an unbilled star character in its own right, with its balance of beauty, poverty and all that lies in-between.  The aforementioned cast is not only grand in scope, but extremely multicultural and hailing from all over the world.  Fellini seemed fascinated by ‘the process’ of creation, with some of his films seeming to examine the machinations and existential dread attached to film and celebrity, with La Dolce Vita being a lighthearted (but biting) condemnation of both.  The cinematography is stunning, as the camera seems to move throughout the streets and social settings with equal parts joy and curiosity.  Nino Rota is a bit more reserved on the score front this time, but does provide some wonderful moments with diagetic sound and tunes made in the style of popular music at the time.  A lot of the humor is found in the interplay of Italian, French and English being spoken, similar to The Science of Sleep (with Spanish replacing Italian in that context). 

Marcello Mastroianni turns his swag all the way up, maxing out his charm and suave sensibilities to the point the frame can barely contain it.  In contrast, Yvonne Furneaux plays the total opposite, a tragic figure hopelessly caught in the trap of a search for admiration she will never receive.  Anita Ekberg injects a jolt of energy into the film, with her childlike fancy immediately taking center stage during her time on screen.  Anouk Aimee, one of my favorites of the Fellini troupe, turns in a performance that is somehow both calculatingly cold and infinitely alluring.  Walter Santesso somehow happens to always pop up with his camera, commenting in a manner that can sometimes reflect audience thoughts.  Alain Cuny balances a sense of existential dread against a passionate and loving nature for his friends and family.  Annibale Ninchi manages to portray aspects of a human echo as Marcello’s father, with his general indifference and fleeting fascination having completely taken over, aspects that we can wholly attribute to Marcello as well.  The emergence of Nico somehow brings an aire of the mystic without having to lean on the supernatural or other obvious tropes.  Brief but memorable appearances by Alain Dijon, Lex Barker, Magali Noel, and name here also stand out.

If it’s not obvious already, I could go on an on about Fellini films, as pretentious as that sounds.  The man is a true visionary, one of my all-time favorite filmmakers, and someone that I can only hope and aspire to be remotely compared to as a filmmaker... maybe one day.  We can all dream.

[gcastillor]

Lex Barker, nacido el 8 de mayo de 1919 - murió el 11 de mayo de 1973, fue un actor estadounidense que conoció su mayor fama al sustituir a Johnny Weissmüller en el papel de Tarzán en la década de 1950. Después alcanzó especial popularidad en Alemania por varias películas rodadas en dicho país, adaptando novelas de Karl May. En España se le recuerda como el primer esposo de Carmen Cervera. #alexandercrichlowbarkerjr #lexbarker #tarzan #undíacomohoy #nació8mayo1919 #murió11mayo1973 #rip

[craighodgkins]

My Year of the Book - Day 55: I may have missed out on the real heyday of Saturday movie matinees (with an A and B feature, a cartoon, newsreel and at least one serial), but I more than made up for it via my local hometown library, which lent out 8-millimeter projectors and the films to go with it. It was in those pre-teen days before channels such as Turner Classic Movies that I filled many of my late nights watching shortened versions of Universal’s classic horror flicks and the celluloid heroes of my Dad’s era, such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Lord Greystoke, alias Tarzan. I’d seen every episode of the late 1960s TV series starring Ron Ely, and it never bothered me that more than a dozen men played the lead thru the mid-60s (and a few more since). In fact, it was fun to compare them, and pick out your favorites. These two books were a big help in keeping everything straight (A first-world problem, I know). Both were published around the time and publicity of the new TV series, with “The Big Swingers” coming out in 1967 and Gabe Essoe’s “Tarzan of the Movies” following a year later. “Swingers” more than doubles as a biography of Tarzan’s creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs (who led a fascinating life), and it’s author, Robert W. Fenton, took his research to a whole new level, actually buying the Burroughs estate in Tarzana (named for the character) and many of ERB’s files. Both books are chock full of action photos and production information, and Fenton’s bio also details all 26 of ERB’s Tarzan books, which he wrote from 1912-1940. No slouch behind a typewriter, ERB also wrote 11 under-appreciated “John Carter of Mars” tales and 30 other novels. My favorite Tarzans? In no particular order: Lex Barker, Mike Henry, Johnny Weissmuller and Ron Ely. The worst? Tarzan #3, P. Dempsey Tabler, a 41-year old former boxer turned opera singer with a gut and a toupee who made one silent serial in 1920. #tarzan #movieseries #edgarriceburroughs #booklover #booksofinstagram #bookworm #bookish #bookgeek #movieheroes #bibliophile #mylibrary #yearofthebook #research #book #reading #childhoodmemories #saturdaymatinee #biography #ronely #mikehenry #lexbarker #johnnyweissmuller

[therileyandkimmyshow]

#podcast 1970 we play #nerd #geek #popculture #nostalgia #retro #trivia #quiz about #celebrities #films #movies #television #TV shows #music and we play a #GoldenAge #goldenage of #radio #oldtimeradio #OTR #otrstarring #actor #LexBarker who was born #May 8, 1919.  https://rileyandkimmyshow.blogspot.com/2019/05/podcast-1970-soundcloud.html

[thesun68]

Neuverfilmung Winnetou

Was hab ich da nur wieder gemacht? Auf Facebook habe ich die Neuverfilmung von Winnetou kritisiert – denn ich liebe Lex Barker und ein Winnetou ohne Lex Barker ist für mich kein  Winnetou . Ausserdem ist es ein Frevel, solch ein Kulturgut neu zu verfilmen, dann wurde auch noch die originalstory  abgeändert. Kaum auf der Seite von Jürgen Vogel kritisiert, kam natürlich das ein bzw andere Like,…

[uptownbill]

Funny how even in deepest, darkest Africa the abandoned white guy rises to highest heights to become king of the jungle and gets a white queen. #tarzan #tarzanandjane #racematters #whitesupermacy #whiteentitlement #lexbarker #JohnnyWeissmuller #MaureenO'Sullivan #edgarriceburroughs

[knitsybitsyspiders]

#mrblandingsbuildshisdreamhouse #carygrant #myrnaloy #melvyndouglas #reginalddenny #sharynmoffett #conniemarshall #louisebeavers #ianwolfe #lurenetuttle #lexbarker #hcpotter #tcm #1948

[therileyandkimmyshow]

#podcast 2336 is your #popculture escapism. We play #trivia #quiz & a #GoldenAge #goldenage of #radio #oldtimeradio #OTR #otr #drama starring #actor #lexbarker who was born #onthisday #May 8, 1919 https://rileyandkimmyshow.blogspot.com/2020/05/podcast-2336-soundcloud.html

[pinknachowitch]

#randolphscott #robertryan #lexbarker #westernclassic #rkoradiopictures

[pinknachowitch]

#warmovie #jeffchandler #lexbarker

[pinknachowitch]

#western #lexbarker #jackarnold