Reflections on ... Mademoiselle (1968)

“Mademoiselle (1968, Tony Richardson). The wildest screenplay I can remember written by none other than Saint Jean Genet himself. In a remote French farming village lives a frustrated school mistress (Jeanne Moreau) whose suppressed sexual desires explode into secret wanton acts of violence. She delights in smashing birds’ nests, poisoning the farm animals’ drinking water, drowning pigs and setting fire to her neighbor’s houses, all in the name of sexual gratification. But the village blames the new stud in town for all her mayhem, so Jeanne springs into action. She lures him into a field and, in what is easily the most startling scene in the film, seduces him by crawling on all fours like a dog and licking his hands and boots. That accomplished, Jeanne immediately cries rape and the villagers stone him to death. A heroine only Jean Genet could create in this midnight movie way before its time.”

From John Waters’ book Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters (1983).

I would have read Waters’ intriguing description of Mademoiselle when I was still in my teens but only just now got around to watching it. (When Jeanne Moreau – one of the essential faces of mid-century European art cinema - died last year, I added loads of her films to my Cinema Paradiso wish list). Mademoiselle is less lurid and sensational than Waters makes it sound – it’s actually a punishingly austere and slow-moving, bleak art movie. But boy, it’s still genuinely bizarre and disturbing! (Especially the images of animals in torment. Apparently, the audience booed at Mademoiselle’s Cannes premiere in '68. I can kind of understand why!).  Genet’s script explores his recurring preoccupations: the nature of evil, sadomasochism, violence, Catholic hypocrisy. The school teacher’s thwarted erotic obsession with the Italian lumberjack finds a twisted expression in acts of deliberate destruction: sexual and emotional repression unleashes evil. Interestingly, Genet wrote the script with Anouk Aimee in mind.  Much as I love Aimee, who else but Moreau – with her hints of perversity and eerily aloof self-possession - could essay a role like this? I love her secret Mona Lisa-like half-smirk as she surveys the chaos and flames she’s created. (In real life, Mademoiselle’s director Tony Richardson was then married to Vanessa Redgrave but would abandon her to be with Moreau). Richardson wanted Marlon Brando for the male lead but thank god it went instead to the insanely rugged and handsome Ettore Manni. He’s so sexy you can understand why Moreau goes berserk over him! Mademoiselle was a French-English co-production: the Italian characters speak in Italian with English subtitles while the French peasants are dubbed in English, with British-accents, which feels weird. The film’s message about anti-immigrant prejudice and the scapegoating of minorities certainly feels timely. Fifty years later, time has not mellowed Mademoiselle!

Further reading: many years later Moreau would star in another Jean Genet adaptation - Querelle (1982), R W Fassbinder's last film.

Read my epic 2010 interview with John Waters here.

19 June 2013 Dr Sketchy Set List

This was the first time I’d DJ’d for a Dr Sketchy at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern since the Valentine’s one in February 2013.  As a freaked-out casualty / terminal worry wart I was sure I would have forgotten everything I ever knew about using their decks. Then when I unpacked my DJ bag I quickly realised my headphones were missing the little “adapter” attachment that makes them compatible with the hole in The RVT’s console, so couldn’t use them at all. (I must have left it behind the last time I DJ’d, which would have been at the May 2013 Lobotomy Room at Ryan’s in Stoke Newington). Obviously this meant I couldn't listen to the track first in my headphones before playing it – so I had to ensure I cued the right one every time and hope for the best! (Luckily, all night I only played the wrong song once – not that anyone else would have been the wiser!). Plus I drank three pints of lager on an empty stomach (I went to the venue straight from work) – a recipe for things getting potentially sloppy. But in fact, I felt exceptionally relaxed and in control and (if I do say so myself!) think it was one of my tightest, most flowing and consistent sets ever. Maybe drinking three pints of lager on an empty stomach is the answer!

As usual, I initially eased into things with some Mondo Exotica (Yma Sumac, Martin Denny), hopefully invoking a taboo, primitive and sensual Tiki ambiance, and then alternated between wailing greasy rhythm and blues and rancid tittyshaking sleazy instrumentals. I also worked in some Beat, beat beatnik beatsville rock’n’roll novelty songs: Bing Day’s finger snapping, flute-laced “Mama’s Place”, Mamie Van Doren belting out the theme tune to her (frankly awful!) 1959 exploitation film The Beat Generation. I do love ersatz beatnik novelty tunes! 

Speaking of which... 

Two Beatnik poetesses (or at least, the 1950s Hollywood interpretation) in full flow. First, Philippa Fallon in High School Confidential (1958). To me, her sneering delivery anticipates Lydia Lunch:

Below: Maila Nurmi (aka glamour ghoul / horror movie hostess Vampira, out of her Morticia Addams-style drag) reciting a poem in The Beat Generation (1959) and wearing a pet rat as a fashion accessory. Sadly, the audio quality not so great on this one. I do love Nurmi's restless, swaying body language in the clip -- like someone on amphetamines. You can watch the whole film on Youtube. 

What links these two clips? The presence of character actor Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester in The Addams Family!) in both. In High School Confidential he's accompanying Fallon on piano; in The Beat Generation he's tough guy / cop Steve Cochran's partner

The emcee this time was Ebeneezer Valentine (think surly Scottish escapee from Trainspotting). There were two burlesque artistes and models: Frankie Von Flirter and Millie Dollar. For Frankie’s first pose I dove into eerie 1950s Cool Jazz (the sound of one finger snapping in an echo-y morgue) with a David Lynch-ian twist, starting with doomed heroin-ravaged Cool Jazz icon Chet Baker’s “You’re My Thrill” (he did a great vocal version of this jazz standard, but at Dr Sketchy I always play the instrumental that appears on his 1965 album Baker’s Holiday: Plays and Sings Billie Holiday. It has a sexy bump-and-grind burlesque rhythm), and then followed it with two songs from Lynch soundtracks. “Up in Flames” appeared in Wild at Heart (1990), memorably sung by raspy-voiced blues mama Koko Taylor. I opted for the more ghostly Julee Cruise interpretation, as featured on her underrated (and long out of print) 1993 The Voice of Love album (I snapped it up on CD at Amoeba Records when I was in San Francisco in April. What a coup!).  Milt Buckner’s slinky “The Beast” (a perennial Dr Sketchy favourite) appears in Mulholland Drive (2001).

In the second half, Frankie appeared in drag king mode for her Top Gun-inspired routine. Because of her military uniform, Clare Marie (Dr Sketchy’s ornately tattooed glamazon promoter) requested military-inspired music for these poses, which explains Dietrich’s “Give Me the Man” (she’s pining for a Foreign Legion soldier, ideally as played by young Gary Cooper in Morocco) and the Sadomasochism-tinged “I’d Love to Take Orders from You” by Mildred Bailey.

I’d never worked with Millie Dollar at a Dr Sketchy before, and I loved her hard-boiled, tattooed old-school stripper persona. Her big number ended with her twirling her pasties individually, and then ensemble – talented woman. Her orange spangly costume (the colour of a tequila sunrise!) had a belly dancer / harem girl look, which inspired me to journey into Middle Eastern / Turkish exotica for her poses: “Turkish Coffee” by Omar Kay, Eartha Kitt’s “Uska Dara”, “The Maharajah of Magdor” by The Blue Echos. (I also like to think I was being timely and topical, and showing solidarity with the Turkish protesters in Istanbul!).

As well as the usual vintage sleaze, I raised the tone a bit by playing some foreign language Continental artistes: France’s Serge Gainsbourg and Juliette Greco, Germany’s Hildegard Knef (I love her world-weary, sixty cigarettes-a-day guttural voice). For one of Millie’s poses I also played Anouk Aimée’s musical number from the key nouvelle vague film Lola (1961). A friend of mine went to Paris recently and kindly brought me back a boxed set of CDs entitled Nouvelle Vague: Chansons et musiques de films, which includes this song. I've always treasured Aimée as one of the most haunting and beautiful of French actresses (I've already blogged about Aimée’s performance in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita – and her sensational cat’s eye sunglasses). She gives her career-best performance in Lola as a naive, love-struck cabaret chanteuse and single mother. Normally Aimée was called upon to be enigmatic, or to suffer eloquently (something her sorrowful dark eyes were ideal at conveying) but in Lola she plays against type, channeling effervescent Marilyn Monroe at her most childlike, and is beguiling. 

I've always loved Aimée’s delivery of this song in her sexy showgirl outfit – so it was quite disillusioning to get the CD and see that in fact, it’s not Aimée singing at all! It certainly sounds like Aimée's own hesitant, whisper-soft voice, but she’d been dubbed by  professional singer Jacqueline Danno! The liner notes explain that the director Jacques Demy knew he wanted a musical sequence for the film, and filmed Aimée “speak” the lyrics like reciting a poem – and then later on, his composer Michel Legrand knocked-up the accompanying music and Danno painstakingly sang along to Aimée's lip movements so they could be synced. Sounds chaotic, but that’s probably why the best 1960s French nouvelle vague films still feel so fresh, playful and spontaneous: they were cobbled together in a haphazard fashion and on a tight budget.

Anyway, that’s show biz!

I probably won't be DJ'ing again now until 13 July 2013 -- the next Lobotomy Room night at Paper Dress Vintage! Details here. In the meantime, follow me on tumblr -- although perhaps not from your work PC! (NSFW alert!).

Taita Inty (Virgin of the Sun God) - Yma Sumac
The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish - Martin Denny
Kismiaz - The Cramps
Se Acabo - The Del Rio Bros
The Monkey Bird (Conga Twist) - The Revels
C'mon-a My House (in Japanese) - Eartha Kitt
One Mint Julep - Sarah Vaughan
Slow Walk - Sil Austin
Night Walk - The Swingers
Welfare Cheese - Emanuel Laskey
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Big Maybelle
I Can't Sleep - Tini Williams and The Skyliners
Beaver Shot - The Hollywood Hurricanes
Little Queenie - The Bill Black Combo
Greasy Chicken - Andre Williams
Mama's Place - Bing Day
Beat Generation - Mamie Van Doren
Intoxica - The Centurions
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
Hanky Panky - Nancy Sit
Margaya - The Fender Four
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
Scorpion - The Carnations
Night Scene - The Rumblers
Last Call for Whiskey - Choker Campbell
I Ain't Drunk, I'm Just Drinkin' - Jimmy Liggins
The Sneak - Jimmy Oliver
La Valse des Si - Juliette Greco
La Fille de Hambourg - Hildegard Knef
You're My Thrill - Chet Baker (instrumental version)
Up in Flames - Julee Cruise
The Beast - Milt Buckner
Are You Nervous? The Instrumentals
Wait A Minute, Baby - Esquerita
He's The One - Ike and Tina Turner
Rockin' Out The Blues - The Musical Linn Twins
I'm a Bad, Bad Girl - Little Esther
Lola - Jacqueline Danno
The Immediate Pleasure - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Some Small Chance - Serge Gainsbourg (Strip-tease soundtrack)
Turkish Coffee - Omar Kay
Uska Dara - Eartha Kitt (1960s version)
The Maharajah of Magador - The Blue Echoes
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Pass The Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies
Chattanooga Choo Choo - Denise Darcel
Boss - The Rumblers
Club Delight - Jack Jolly
Cocktails for Two - Cliff Duphiney
Give Me the Man - Marlene Dietrich
I'd Love To Take Orders from You - Mildred Bailey
Two Little Girls from Little Rock - Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
Bikini with No Top on the Top - Mamie Van Doren and June Wilkinson
The Whip - The Frantics
Thirteen Men - Ann-Margret
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury
Drummin' Up A Storm - Sandy Nelson
Viens danser le twist - Johnny Hallyday
Handclappin' Time - The Fabulous Raiders
Suey - Jayne Mansfield
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner