Thoughts.

29jan2014. Ate a meal. Surfed on the internet at what can be called as an internetcafe. Ate a meal. Bus, to downtown. TheLastBookstore. Bought some books. Returned to the motel. The new roommate returned to the motel shortly thereafter. He didn't seem to be upset at all. I asked him whether he had visited theGriffithObservatory, he said that he didn't. He said that he had acquired a private room, that he had survived a bunkbed for onenight, statedexplicitly that he is leaving a carton of water for my sake, and left the room. Slept. Woke up after1800hours. Bus, toKoreatown. A meal. Bought a bundle of pornographies japaneses. Bus, toRegalCiné. Had to wait 80minutes. There was some kind of event occuring, FilmIndependent. WatchedHer2013. Taxi, to the room. Slept. 30jan2014. Slept again after0800hours. Woke up after1200hours. Now, 1222hours.

Thoughts.

  Now, 06:58. Woke up after0530. Defacated myself. I asked him whether the new roommate was able to enter the venue last night. He said that he was and that one could not have obtained a ticket at the venue, and that I had made a wise decision. He asked me whether I wanted to accompany him toHollywoodsign nearGriffithPark. I accepted, because I wanted to see it. He asked a lot of questions, and used a term "economicallychallenged". I asked him whether it is one of his PCterm or some shit. He revised and said that he was "broke, his bankaccounts are empty, his wallets are thin.". He and I left the hostel and walked towardPershingSquareStation. He said that the downtown inLosAngeles smelled like urine and complained. He asked me what I liked about theCityOfLosAngeles. I asked him whether or not he wanted my true opinion. He said, Yes. I said that it is filled with ultraCapitalism, Meritocracy, and huge gap between the rich and the poor. I said that, in close proximity, the ultrarich and the poor are perceiving each others. He said that it is the beauty of the metropolitans, that it is theReality and one cannot change humannature, and that everybody has opportunities. I asked him whether or not he thought thisReality should remain this way. He repliedaffirmatively and said that moreandmorecities are being urbanised, and cited an example of his hometown, somewhere inVA. He said that moreandmore population will move into the metropolitans to obtains jobs, [Fuck me.] and that various public transportations will help them. I asked him who pays for the public transportations. He replied, Citizens. I asked him, What kind of citizens and said that this kind of statement is pointless unless one defines what kind of citizen versus what kind of citizen. I think he said that every kind of citizen. There was onehomeless black and possiblyschizophrenic, who was shouting something. I asked him whether or not he is a citizen. He said that he is not a productive citizen, therefore not a citizen. We arrived at the entrance ofPershingSquareStation. I said that he would go to theHollywoodsign without me. Returned to the room.
  Thought that he was thesame as the comedians and their audiences at the frenchrestaurant twodays before. SpikeJonez and his latest lover, MichelleWilliams, ZooeyDeschanel, MWard, Gosling, Mara, both of them, Soderbergh, also.
  Plan. A meal atKoreatown. Publiclibrary.central. TwelveYearsASlave or InsideLLewynDavis.

Thoughts.

  Woke up after0700hours. Wished the stranger a good voyage and left the room. Drank fourcups of water at the lobby. Walked to centrallibrary even though Knew that I would have to wait for twohours. Taxi, toEchoPark. Walked. Urinated at a publictoilette. Walked the neighbourhood near the park, which is on the higher ground. Bus whose number Do not remember. Cityhall, L.A.P.D.!. Taxi. St.VincentCircle. A barbershop. 20USD. Walked to the centrallibrary. Felt fatigue and Regretted having walked so much. Printed the list of korean restaurants inKoreatown. Taxi. BetweenWestOlympiaAndVentura. A meal. Bought a few novels atAladdinUS. Surfed on the internet at an internetcafe. Watched a video ofAmySeiMetz. Left it. Bus, RegalCiné. WatchedHer2013. It was good, but I don't like to watch the movies created by the bourgeoisie, concerned with the problems bourgeoisies. Bought a cheeserburger and a milkshake and Ate them. Decided not to watchWolfOfWallStreet and Walked toward the hostel. Bought onecan of dietcoke. Arrived at the room. New roommate was present. FromNYC, he claims that he is a graphicdesigner and that the purpose of the visit is to submit his work to various designers who work in magazines, includingPlayboy. He had the latest issue ofPlayboy in his suitcase and let me skim it. He asked me whether I wanted to accompany him and his friend to a concert inSilverLake? He wanted me to buy the ticket online and, after searching on the internet, told me that it is not available anymore, because it starts in a few hours. He has left the room to buy some food. AlreadyDislike his voice and his dumbassmentality. Hopesincerely that no altercation will occur between him and me.
  Shouldn't have walked so much in the morning and Should have studied ger. and lat. I'm supposed to be on vacation.
  Added. I know what kind of man he is. He left a ticket to a concert at his residence inWilliamsburg.Brooklyn. He asked me whether or not I wanted to accompany him. I agreed. He said that I needed to buy a ticket. He checked and found that it was not available anymore. He said that I should be able to buy a ticket at the venue, which is contrary to the statement he made earlier. I revealed his intention by the method of questionandanswer, and he said that he would get shitfaced at a bar nearby if I were not allowed to enter. He left the room and allegedlybought some food. When I asked him whether he lives inWilliamsburg.Brooklyn, he stronglystated that he is not a hipster. After20:40, he could not suppress himself from expressing it anymore and said that he was unsure whether he would be able to enter by showing someone an email. He left eventually. Hopesincerely that no altercation will occur between him and me.

Thoughts.

  26jan2014.sun. Arrived atLosAngeles, 19:20. Hotel, fifthfloor. Another man unknown. Fourtacos. Twitter, SusanBurke. A performance, betweenSunsetAndGlendale. Taxi. A frenchrestaurant which has existed since 1930s. A room, crackerconvention held by either ultracapitalists, better known as entrepreneurs, or religiousnutjobs. Consumed fourbottles of corona in total. The performance began after20hours. The restaurant was playing the broadcast ofGrammyAwards as if anybody gives a shit. The "standup"act, onecracker who was not funny at all, oneblack.ethiopian.homosexual, onejewish fromNYC, SusanBurke, onecracker who was funny. The cunt recognised me. Her husband was present, also. After the end of the performance ofBurke, Asked someone to call a taxi for me. Someone told me that a taxi had arrived, and Left the restaurant. Hostel. Slept. 27jan2014.mon. Woke up after0700hour. Walked to publiclibrary.central. It would open at1000hours. UPSbranch. They didn't have any type of yellowenvelope. Walked to a store and ate a salad. Everything about the district exhibited ultraCapitalism, Meritocracy, and the values bourgeoisies. The barbershop onSt.VincentCircle is closed on mondays. Walked to the hostel. Walked to the publiclibrary.central. Copied some bibliographies. Studied spanish.verbtenses. Left the library and walked to the hostel. Decided to watchHer2013. Walked toRegalciné betweenOlympianAndHarborFreeway. A convention was taking place atMariottHotel. Corporateexecutives were going to eat something in a restaurant. One of them said, It's some of thebestwork I've done. Premiere ofThatAwakwardMoment. Various individuals waiting to see that boy arrived. ZachApron. Moreindividuals waiting to see the film inside the ciné. Bought a ticket forHer. Waited. There was a screening ofUpstreamColour. Asked someone if it was the film ofShaneCarruth. He repliedaffirmatively and told me to sign up for some kind of club. Said that it was too late, because the movie would start in a few minutes. The other man asked me whether I wanted to watch the movie. Watched the movie. It was great and I felt excitement all over my body during the entirety of the movie. Saw that it was edited by Carruth and DavidLowery. Left the ciné and a taxi. Hostel. Ordered a teriyaki and brought it to the room. The roommate temporary was already in the room. Ate the food. Asked the roommate whether he wanted to drink some beer. He accompanied me to a store where he and I paid for sixbottles of shiner. He and I smuggled the alcohol to the room and drank it. He talked, I talked, and listened. He is from somewhere inMinnesota, which he finds boring. The purpose of his travel is to visit some universities where they teach Engineering and cardesign. He showed me his drawing of sportscars, which I found interesting. He plans to travel toSanFrancisco and visitGoldenGateBridge. Said that it is the place themostfavoured by suicidal persons. He said that he was aware and that someone, the name ofJason, who is fromSanDiego, who works in theUSArmy, who stayed in the room before me, works under the bridge so that he can either prevent suicide or retrieve the corpses. Remarked that I would have very much liked to converse with him. He showed me the photographs taken during his travel in southKorea. He and I, well, I listened to him talk about his hopes and frustrations concerning marriage. He expressed his condition to only marry the asian females. His parents practicesShamanism. He has two older sisters, both of whom are married and live inMinnesota. His father is dead and his mother is retired after working in a flowershop. He repeatedlyrevealed his financial difficulties and I sympathised.
  Tarantino is suing gawkers.com. Fucking whitetrashdumbass. In any case, I don't give a fuck. Tomorrow. What? Paparazzis wait for hours so that they can follow someone who is leaving a place. He hit me with a briefcase. They are only monitoring oneline. That is not true. That is not true. That's a lot of thinking for bear. Ashestoashesanddusttodust. Right, Sent a letter toElynRSaks, she was toobusy, the fucking cunt. Probably will never know. Bitchplease, you must have a mentaldisease. Assume the position and get back down on your knees come on. Right, looked at something concerning ThomasFriedman, and fuckThomasFriedman. Will read the books written by him. It will be an exercise in futility, but Will finish them, because he is considered a great thinker for some reason which I don't understand.

Thoughts onUpstreamColour2013.

  Enjoyed it thoroughly from start to finish.
  Each shot felt like an impression of a piece of memory and held me captivated.

Image. Hustlingmentality~.

Transcript. Tavernier. OnJeanPierreMelville.

1.      I rememberverywell thefirstday I metJeanPierreMelville. I was writing aboutFilms. Thefirstarticle was aboutMelville, and I wanted to do an interview. So I went to see him, and I did a small interview of him. And from then on, Melville asked me what I wanted to do, I said, I would like to direct. So he said, Come meet me and I will try to help you. And he did with me what he did with some young people. We became, how you say, his protégé.  He was taking, most of the time, It happened toVolkerSchlondorff, it happened to many people, long ride. We were driving inParis, and he was explaining us place were related to the story of underworld, it's how PierreLeFou lived there, ** there, it’s in this house somebody betrayed someone, it was a place where people were meeting in theRésistance. So, I mean, we had threehoursfourhoursdrive, sometimes a bite to eat, going to oneortwomovies. And after midnight, the ride was going on, I was brought home in the room I was renting at threeinthemorning, and thenextday thesamething. So had that life, I saw a lot of films with him, and I see echoes of those films inDoulosLe et DeuxièmeSouffleLe. One of them especially, which is CrimeWave[Completed in1952, released in1954], and I know, because Melville loved that film. During the scene where JeanDesailly was chewing toothpick, this come fromCrimeWave. Melville told that to me. He said, I will give him thesamekind of toothpick ofSterlingHayden. And he borrowed things. Thesameway he borrowed [copied] shots fromOddsAgainstTomorrow[1959] The wall ofOddsAgainstTomorrow can be found in many Melville'sfilms, including films which have nothing to do with copandgangster. Laughter ofTavernier. He was obssessed [with] wallpaper, and he was asking his productiondesigner to copy it. Omitted.

2.      I will neverforget thefirstday I came to his studio when he made me visit twostages, the bar, and he was living just upstairs. It was always like night inside, because he had insomnia. And the stairs to the apartment I think you can see in all those films. And certainly inDoulousLe et SamouraïLe. I mean, you can see somebody climbing in fact toMelville’sapartment. Omitted.

3.      He gave me my firstjob, like firstAD. SecondAD was VolkerSchlondorff. As thefirstAD was firedimmediately before the film started, because there was something had to be in war with oneortwoorthreepersons in the crew, oneortwoorthreepersons in the cast, and he was at war with them, it was deadly. And he ccould be, at the same time, a few hours after, themostcharming and delicious man in the world. Omitted.

4.      At the beginning of the film, Melville says, I’m saying goodmorninghello to everybody, and I will not say during film ever, because it’s a big waste of time. Yet calculated by saying good morning to everybody in the crew, he was losing like threeminutes every day. That was something. This would recount for the whole movie. I will neversay hello to you after that. Omitted.

5.      And at the end, Melville said to me, You are hopeless as anAD, which I was. But he did something great to me. He said, I think you can be good as a pressagent And I did, and I was hired byGeorgesDeBeaugard, JeanLucGodard, ClaudeChabrol, **, many directors, threefoursfouryears. Being a pressagent forMelville, you were escaping that [burden]. Laughter ofTavernier. That kind of attitude, which was, I mean, it was getting great result, but I alwaysthought that there must be other way to get what you want. Omitted.

6.      And I became really thepressagent, because Belmondo fired guy who was supposed to be a pressagent. His name was RichardBalducci, who published, he did not publish himself, but he let publish the kind of scandalous column aboutBelmondo in theworst[slander] gossipy. So I [was] there when Belmondo in theStudioJenner was chasingBalducci, caughtBalducci, and forced him to eat the newspaper, and Balducci says, Don't do that to me. I'm a coworker, I’m a coworker, don't do that to me, and Belmondo was putting in the newspaper in his mouth, and then Balducci never came and I took over the film. Laughter ofTavernier. It's how I took over DoulosLe after that scene, which could be DoulosLe. I mean, Belmondo was behaving exactlylike the character in the film. Omitted.

7.      Thefirstshot was start[ing] fromSacréCœurLe. I can seeMelville explaining me in the editingroom that it was a statement he was making againstPigalle and the underworld. He was going away fromBobLeFlambeur. That’s the meaning of thefirstshot. I was taking my distance from the world ofBobLeFlambeur by that zoomer. Omitted.

8.      Shooting went veryveryfast and efficient. And I say, Veryveryfewshots. He knew where to put the caméra. He knew what he wanted. There was no improvisation. What is striking when you see the film is the ["]economy["]. How eachshot counts. There was no coverage. Veryverylittle coverage. You could not edit the film ofMelville in twentydifferentways. Eightypercent of the film was alreadythere in the editingroom. And the lighting byNicolasHayer, who was one of those cameramen that Melville loved, but he was verycharming man, which Melvilled sued at the end of the film, because [of] the shot of the car falling from the cliff. There were twocameras, and NicolaHayer was on one, the operator at the other. ByEconomy, Melville did not want to hire another cameraman, another operator. And Nicolas was the cameraman, not the operator, and he forgot to push the button. Onlyoneshot, nottwo of the stunt. So he sued him. Melville loved to sue. He was in obssession with suing, I mean, actors, part of the crew, coproducteurs. He was alwayssuing his producer, coprucer, exhibitor, he was absolutelyobssessive about that. I mean, talking of an obssession. When he was called by a producer, I mean, I witnessed that onDeuxièemeSouffleLe. I was in his office when he was called, somebody proposing him DeuxièmeSouffleLe. He immediatelyopened the file, and he put thecaseDeuxièmeSouffleLe. Laughter ofTarvernier. It was a legalcase before ** on the contract. Omitted.

9.      InDoulosLe, theonlydisagreement, and I've seenBelmondo questionMelville several times, was the way the women were cast. Belmondo felt that Melville took amateurs, which were notgood and not up to the quality of the film. He was critical of that. And I think he was right, I think he was right. Melville cast his secretary, the girl who was tied up to the [radiator], Melville'ssecretary. Melville does not how to handle women, does not know how to direct them. I don't think he’s interested. It's true of all of his gangsterfilms. Mostimportant things are the men, are the relationship between the men, and the masculine environment. And the feeling Melville deals with are masculine feelings, loyalty, freindship, betrayal, and he’s verygood at that. I don't think Melville was a great screewriter of original stories. [I agree] One must not forget DoulosLe is a veryfaithful adaptation of a good book byPierreLesou. Omitted.

10.   He wanted to describe french gangster at, behaving in fact as american gangster, but put in frenchbackground. In the end, Melville’sobssession was to be the equal ofWilliamWyler. He was the director he was admiring above all the american director. Films as the directors, all masterpiece or shit. There was nothing in between. There was not a film which [was] good thing, but it's not totallysuccesful or veryinteresting. That was the word which he was never using. It was fourstars or that. Like everything fromWilliamWyler is great. And people againstMelville, I'm thinking of people likeJacquesRivette, for instance, alwayssaid that problem withMelville and his gangsterfilm[s] is he wanted to do tragedy, greektragedy by magnifying characters, who were, in fact, inReallife, dispecable. It's something the french screenwriter, MichelAudiard, kept telling me. He said, French gangster, most of them had been at work with frenchGestapo. They were antisemitic. They tortured jews, Résistance. They betrayed everybody. They were betraying each other. You cannot make tragedy with them, you cannot. But Melville succeeded in creating a world of his own, which was, normally he was thinking he was making an american film inFrance, but it's not a copy of an american film. It's not a copy of theReality. It's something completelyspecial completelypersonal, and you find that since thefirstshot ofDoulosLe. It’s veryclear. It’s really thosetwofilms who put him in the mainstream. Before that, he was takenseriously by a few filmbuff, CahiersDuCinéma, people like that, but not by the system. So they were veryveryimportant. And at the end, I heard him veryoften say, inFrance, there are onlytwodirectors, Cluzot and myself. He said, Cluzot, lately. Laughter ofTarvernier. That’s. So I was, when I started making films, I was glad that he had disappeared, because I would have feared his judgement.

11.   Melville was veryproud, all the people with my aim worked with him, all of us where we fought with him, and there was a separation. I had to fight overAînéDesFerchauxLe[1963], which I did not like at all, and I told him, Melville, that I was, I didn’t say that I didn't like the characters at all, but I had a lot of reservation about the film. I think the film was, compared to the great novel bySimenon, full of flaws and it was missed. And he never forgave me. Some years passed by, onenight, had a phonecall. This is JeanPierre. I read your book, [TrenteAnnéesDuCinémaAméricain]. It's great. It's a masterpiece. One of thebestbook written aboutFilms. I said, Thank you, JeanPierre. I mean, out of the blue, full of priase. He said, I would like to show you mylastfilm, DeuxièmeSouffleLe. And he showed me his  film, and it was veryimpressive, and I saidimmediately, I will fight for it, I want to fight for it. It's how we started to work together, and we were veryveryclose during those months. He premiered the film inMarseille. During the traintrip, he asked me, After all those weeks spent together, Have you any kind of reservation about my film. I said, There was a scene in the stickup. I mean, before, maybe there is a little moment, which is tiny bit toolong. He said, This is thebestmoment in the film. I stopped arguing. Laughter ofTavernier. Omitted.

12.   It's verystriking, with veryfewwords and fewshots, a lot is said. And I was looking at films, where you have many things describe that twopersons are pals, and evenafter twentyfiveminutes, you do not believe that. When, inMelville, in twentyseconds, it's clear. Thefirstscene between-MichelConstantin et -Ventura is a great example of that. Omitted.

13.   Meurisse was a veryintelligent actor. Sometimes he overacts. Because he was intelligent, he tried to show toomuch he is moreintelligent than his material, and he has a sarcastic way of delivering the line, but Melville knew how to restrain him, to use that intelligence, the ability to give kind of cynical, sarcastic lines. The film has manymanyparts that are veryverywell cast. Veryverywellcast. And great sense of atmosphère. I think the scene where Gu is trapped by the police, byJeanClaudeBercq is absolutelyterrific. The landscape there give[s] a kind of desolate feelings to the shot. Omitted.

14.   The film was veryveryverywellreceived. There was even a superb article byGillesJacob, who was not, at the time, the president ofCannesFF. He was writing inCinéma, sixtyfive, sixtysix, I mean, the year of the film. The big, big, big. He says, Among the french crimefilms in the last year, we had threemasterpieces. ClasseTousRisques, TroueLe, and now, DeuxièmeSouffleLe. Three great films, and I do not see. Yet, I do not see any link between them. When I read the article, I said, This is bizarre. So, I showed this article toJoséGiovanni, and he sent a letter. He said, Don't you think there is at least onelink? Those threefilms are based on my books. Laughter ofTavernier. I wrote the screenplays of all those films, and this is my dialogue in the threefilms. Laughter ofTavernier. So at least, it creates a link between the threefilms. Omitted.

15.   Giovanni, by the fact that he spent manymanyyears in jail. Tenyears waiting to be [executed] killed, [guillotioned], met those people. He knew the world ofDeuxièmeSouffleLe, but Melville wanted to assign adaptation, screenplayadaptationanddialogue, and Giovanni fought against that. Becuase, he showed that ninetyeightpercent of the dialogue was coming out of the book. The dialogue was Giovanni, and the story was Giovanni. At the end, there was a settlement, which says adaptation byJeanPierreMelville and screenplayanddialogue byJoséGiovanni. And Melville, that originated [hatred] ofMelville forGiovanni. And Giovanni was ratherfair to say that he did notlikeMelville as a man, but he said that the film was veryverywelldirected. Giovanni, as a man and as an artist, was preferring Becker et ClaudeSautet, but he respected the skill ofMelville. So onesubject which was important toGiovanni, and that's grande ** deMelville, that’s is friendship, loyalty, and that's something which is verymoving. The theme, in a way, Giovanni was covering territory already been exploredbrilliantly byJacquesBecker inTouchezPasAuGrisbi[1954], I mean, about aging gangsters, people starting to be disconnected in new world. So, this is something that Giovanni was verysensitive, and, in his way, Melville, too. Melville was feeling a little likeVentura, displaced director, a director out of tune withNewWave. In a way, Ventura, to feel the impression that he is alone, that it's moreandmoredifficult for him to go out, you feel a little bit of despair. Melville, he should have gone deeper into this, but Melville was alsofeeling that it could hurt the film commercially if you are going tooextreme. He tried to do it in themostelegant way possible. Melville was interested in that, being elegant. He was interested in disperse should not showoff, should be read in the subtext, and not advertised. Omitted.

16.   I think he invented the kind of film which are reflection, which are exploring, also the films of memories he has those films, and how those films tried to call in him. Playing with archetypes, those films, I will not say philosophical, but there are like soulful, greek examination of the genre. Like a jazzmusician would take a standard byGershwin, and redo it in his own way. He's takingThisGunForHire[1942] and combine it with maybe one or two other films, and he makes his own version, but in such a way he’s taken different kind of chords, playing with different kind of harmonies, yet you have the melody. Omitted.

17.   I think Melville put the genre to kind of perfection. The probl?me was it was soperfect, it was imitated by many director. But I wonder we are not losing something in it. And I think Melville felt it, because we went toArmeeDesOmbresLe[1969], in which, I think is another masterpiece. DeuxiemeSouffleLe killed a certain category of crimefilms.