Disappearing Act

A few months ago I mentioned the act of going to the cinema involves surrendering a belief in the here and now and disappearing into another world that almost seems real from the time the lights start to dim.

Most of the time when going back out through the foyer it only takes minutes to be back in Preston and walking along the river path home.

But occasionally (very) there is a film that stays with you. You can remember when and where and what your feelings were long after it is over.

Off the top of my head the first film that affected me like that was 2001: A Space Odyssey. The second was Heaven’s Gate. I don’t want to go into the whys and wherefores of those as they don’t involve the actual topic of Disappearing Act.

For this I would like to look at another film where I can’t recall coming out of the cinema or walking back along the Bournemouth beach to Boscombe. I can’t even remember much about the film’s content now as it was back in about 1977 but what haunted me was the atmosphere that it created for me at that time.

The film was Picnic at Hanging Rock an Australian film directed by Peter Weir and based on the 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. I can’t actually remember much of the plot now as I saw it in about 1997 so I’ve just refreshed my memory.

As the story opens, it’s Valentine’s Day, 1900, and the young women of Appleyard College for Young Ladies are setting out on a picnic, chaperoned by two teachers. It’s a hot day, and their destination lies hours away by horse-drawn carriage. After the excitement of receiving Valentine’s cards, emotions are running high. The girls are eager for adventure, yet must always remember the expectation that they behave like proper young ladies.

After a picnic at the foot of the towering Hanging Rock, as it’s almost time for the return journey, a few girls beg permission to take a short walk along the stream…and never return. Hours pass and finally one of the party returns in terror, but with no explanation of what’s actually happened. No sign can be found of the three missing girls, and what’s more, it’s discovered that one of the teachers has also vanished. As night approaches, there’s no choice but to return to the school. An intense manhunt follows, and while one girl is eventually found but again, with no memories of what happened to her or the others.

That’s as far as I’m going on the plot.

Critics wrote in terms of:

Its beautiful cinematography

It gives us the materials to fashion our own work of art, it performs a function given only to the highest art: it makes us think as it fills us with awe and wonder.

It's an arty film... and like the artist, Weir insists on layering colours and depth to his mystery ever so slowly and deliberately, adding a stroke of character here and a brush of suspense there.

It is a film of haunting mystery and buried sexual hysteria.

It had an approval rating of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 48 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10.

I’d just add that whilst I was looking for the information on the film I found that a number of people have recently seen the film and it still retains its magic.

As for the poem I’m going to go back to my mention of Heaven’s Gate above. I’d like to mention it again as it is one of my favourite films and this poem could be seen as a bit of me has performed a disappearing act over the years.

The poem mentions ‘French review’ which is true of the French critics at the time but also relates to an article by Philip French, a British critic, one of the few British or Americans who praised it at the time.

Heaven’s Gate

I was wondering
how Isabelle Huppert still
looks like Isabelle Huppert

when I don’t look like me
though I did
when I looked like Kris Kristofferson

and walked home
overwhelmed
not realizing I’d seen
the worst film ever made

which when I looked like me
was confusing

until I saw Masterpiece
in a French review
and kept the beard
became fluent in sub-titleeze
grateful for someone who knew
what they were talking about.

First published in the French Literary Review, 2017.

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Firsts

There are so many subjects and areas that can be covered by Firsts and that is before it can be narrowed down to the personal. The first humans, your first kiss, the first train, the first time Birmingham City win the FA Cup, but that will be next season so doesn’t count.

I decided after much thought that I’d go with my selection of First discoveries that made a difference to the human race. Not the accidental ones like the use of fire but ones that were as a result of human thought. I was going to try a list of importance but that led to problems so I’m going chronologically.

Cuneiform Script

Writing: I think there is a very strong case to be made for the invention of writing to be the most important of all inventions. Everything else, for humanity, follows on from it. And for that we have to go back to Mesopotamia (where else) in around 3,200 BCE. In southern Iraq there were a series of city states including, for instance, Uruk and at first symbols were inscribed on clay tablets by a reed stylus to show how many goats or beer etc were being counted. That eventually became too cumbersome a system and over only a few years the symbols were modified to create characters representing the sounds of the Sumerian language and consequently other languages. This system is called Cuneiform. Ignore any claims made by Egyptologists.

The Earth is Round: Not an obvious statement from the literal standpoint of a human being. However, in the year 240 BCE a certain Eratosthenes, a Greek citizen from the city of Cyrene (now part of Libya) observed that at noon on the Summer Solstice in Alexandria, the Sun was directly overhead. He knew that in Aswan, about 800 kilometres to the south, the Sun would be at an angle of 7.2 degrees from vertical at the same time. By measuring the angle of the Sun’s rays at both locations and using geometry, Eratosthenes was able to calculate that the Earth had a circumference of about 28,735 miles. This is close to the modern value of 24,850 miles. Apart from the practical advantages from discovering this fact I do feel that this must have been a real psychological jolt to people at the time. I will add to this the first time that it was found that the Earth went round the sun.

Calculating Earth's Circumference

Electromagnetism: the first half of the 19th Century saw an extraordinary growth in the understanding of science and engineering. No one person could claim to have discovered or invented all parts of that growth. Despite what the movies say science doesn’t work like that. But that doesn’t mean that individuals don’t make their mark. In 1831 Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle behind the electric transformer and generator. This discovery was crucial in allowing electricity to be transformed from a curiosity into a powerful new technology. Electromagnetism quickly started the use of electrical energy production, transformation and distribution, light, heat, and sound production and detection, wireless communication, sensors, computation, electrolysis, electroplating and mechanical motors and actuators etc. And the movies.

Cinema: I’m not sure about this one but it seems to me that although humanity has always made images of themselves the invention of a method to actually see oneself moving and talking from youth to age might have a profound influence on human psychology.

Yuri Gagarin

Space: I can’t not include the first time a human being left the confines of our planet. I vividly remember staying up all night (together with most of humanity) watching the moon landings but the honour of the first person into space belongs to Yuri Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, he became the first human being to travel into space. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit the planet, a feat accomplished by his space capsule in 89 minutes. Vostok 1 orbited Earth at a maximum altitude of 187 miles and was guided entirely by an automatic control system. The only statement attributed to Gagarin during his one hour and 48 minutes in space was, “Flight is proceeding normally; I am well.”

I’m going to stick to a top 5 but I’m sure that others will have a different, but wrong, opinion.

The Four Quartets by T S Eliot

Number 1

Burnt Norton

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
                               But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.

Thanks for reading, Terry Q.

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Rocking Chair

Call me a softy if you like, ‘The Woman in Black’ is the scariest film I’ve ever tried to watch. I’ve had a few attempts. One was at the cinema with my daughter. I think she begged me to take her, only to discover how fearful it is.

 “Tell me when it’s gone,” she whispered.

“I can’t, I’m not looking.” I had no idea what ‘it’ was.

There’s a particularly creepy scene concerning a room full of clockwork monkeys playing musical instruments and an empty rocking chair, rocking. Too spooky and reminds me of something chilling my son said when he was little.

I have my grandfather’s rocking chair, I’ve probably mentioned it before because it is special item and means a lot to me. I remember him with fondness, gently rocking as he read the paper or his book, often sharing an orange with me when I was a child. After he died, the chair was untouched in the house he’d shared with my aunt since he was widowed. My sister had children before me and I think our aunt gave her the rocking chair to nurse her first baby. When I bought my house, the chair came to me and for a while, it was the only furniture I had to sit on. It moved with me when I got married and had a special place in the back room. I don’t know if our son, a young child at the time, was teasing when he told me that he’d seen the rocking chair rocking on its own. The thought of it gave me shivers. I felt sure I would be aware if there was anything odd. Over the years, the chair began to look tatty. Covering it with a throw and a cushion wasn’t enough. I had it repaired and recovered, and moved it into my bedroom.

As for ‘The Woman in Black’, I’m told by a friend that the stage play is more scary than the film. I can’t imagine that, but I’ll accept the opinion without the need to see for myself.

Robert Service had the right idea,

My Rocking-chair

When I am old and worse for wear
I want to buy a rocking-chair,
And set it on a porch where shine
The stars of morning-glory vine;
With just beyond, a gleam of grass,
A shady street where people pass;
And some who come with time to spare,
To yarn beside my rocking-chair.
Then I will light my corn-cob pipe
And dose and dream and rarely gripe.
My morning paper on my knee
I won't allow to worry me.
For if I know the latest news
Is bad,-to read it I'll refuse,
Since I have always tried to see
The side of life that clicks with glee.

And looking back with days nigh done,
I feel I've had a heap of fun.
Of course I guess that more or less
It's you yourself make happiness
And if your needs are small and few,
Like me you may be happy too:
And end up with a hope, a prayer,
A chuckle in a rocking-chair.

Robert Service

Thanks for reading, Pam x

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