Just how much can Bowie change something we all know?

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Angels in America, David Bowie, Dutch, Play, Production, von Hove

On the twenty eight of October 2013, we had a guest speaker attend University College Cork. Dennis Flannery of the University of Leeds, was here to present to us his body of work that he had completed on Ivo van Hove’s production of Kushner’s ‘Angels in American’. In Hove’s production of the famous play that touches on many important issues in society, such as sexuality, love, and disease, A.I.D.S. in fact, there is also a very clear and very powerful stage presences of the work of singer/songwriter David Bowie. Bowie’s presence is so strong that expect the spoken word, every other sound used in the performance is a sound recorded by Bowie. The music used in Hove’s production is Bowie’s best hits from the 1970s and 80s, with the expection of the 1995 album used for when the angels appear and 1993 Ian Fish UK Heir which is used a lot in the performance. The reason for the use of Bowie’s music is that is shows the character’s emotions and feelings. von Hove wanted to do something with David Bowie’s music for a long time, he wanted to show what impact Bowie had on society, and the fact that Hove chose Bowie’s music from around the period of which the play is set suits this play perfectly and ties in with its themes seamlessly. von Hove wanted this production of the play to be known for it’s big Bowie hits but his musical directer Wim Selles wanted music that worked more appropriately for the play, but von Hove sees his work as musical theatre. In the production itself there are 22 Bowie pieces, some are used to set a scene while others are used to highlight certain characters such as ‘ghosts’ The final song used in the performance is ‘Heros’ which is fitting for the end. Throughout the play we can see the importance of the music and it becomes clear to us that Bowie is the patchwork between actors, characters, story, and emotion.

     The fact that Bowie was becoming a major superstar in the United States at this time, and that his persona was very ‘Gender-fuck’  seems perfect to highlight how homosexual culture was being to filter into the mainstream culture of America at that time, so by using music that people can relate to but also has homosexual hints to it, von Hove blends the two cultures perfectly and shows that the two are not that different and this helps to get the plays message and emotions out to all audience members.

     I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Flannery’s seminar on Ivo von Hove’s production of ‘Angel’s in America’ and felt that it related wonderfully to the American Literature and Film MA, as both the play and Bowie had such a massive effect on American society, both then and now. 

Oh My God, It’s been a long time.

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Beauty, Blue Velvet, Darkness, David Lynch, Film, H&M, Lana Del Rey, Movie

First off, I would like to apologise for the lack of posts, but work and college has really been getting in the way, but now I’m back and I promise to blog a lot more in the future. Let’s get right into it so, In this blog post I will be focusing on David Lynch’s icon film ‘Blue Velvet’. The movie stars famous faces such as Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern. This film is not only beautifully shot, with vivid colours, such as the opening shot with the red roses, but it also plays around with deeper, darker ideas such as that just below the surface is the rotting darkness of our society, all the violence and pain that rarely noticed by society and how it seems to inhabit our world so effortlessly. I don’t want to get too into the story because I feel that this is a movie you should go into not knowing anything or much about it like I did the first time I watched it. This movie is said to have brought back Dennis Hopper’s career from the brink of failure, and I can see why. His character is more terrifying than any other I have come across and the reason for this is because he is so realistic and believable. Say what you will about Pennywise the clown being scary but Frank Booth will make you never want to touch a Pabts Blue Ribbon ever again. I feel that this film laid a few building blocks in Lynch’s mind for the development of his television series Twin Peaks with similar ideas and characters. This film was not only influential for Lynch himself, but in 2012 the Swedish clothing company H&M had pop-star Lana Del Rey pose for their new autumn collect and the adverts where clearly influenced by Lynch’s film with Lana even covering the song ‘Blue Velvet’ in the advertisements. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqdIxGYtPqs 

Lynch’s film ‘Blue Velvet’ shocked and still does shock audiences till this day, with its graphic imagery and dark themes and hidden symbols, but it’s influence whether it be to Lynch himself or to the artists and film-makes who have studied and analysed this movie time and time again, will carry on long into the future. 

Halloween and all its scares.

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Classic, Film, Halloween, Horror, Literature, Movies, Penguin, Spooky

Halloween has come and gone but it always finds a way to draw us back into the world of horror novels and films. America is a country where Halloween is massively celebrated, while us Irish like to believe that we celebrate the Celtic Halloween tradition of ‘Samhain’ it is pretty evident that we in fact celebrate the Americanised modern Halloween. In that statement what I am saying is that we celebrate this time of year by watching scary American horror films or by reading spooky novels, a lot of which are now made into films by Hollywood. Hollywood plays a major part in this time of year with certain horror films being produced and released at this time of year. The biggest horror film of the year has to be “The Conjuring” directed by James Wan. Though it was released in theatres in July, the release of the DVD was October 22nd, perfect for Halloween. Though Halloween is often thought about in regards to movies, there is the select few who still prefer to read a horror novel that watch a CGI packed modern horror movie. A novel that I often find mentioned around this time of year is Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” which is one of the modern classics when it comes to literature, especially horror literature. In celebration of Halloween the publishing house Penguin released a new collection of classic horror novels but with beautiful new covers which were designed by Guillermo del Toro.

It’s things like this that show how literature and film, have had such a major impact in shaping our modern day Halloween and how we choose to celebrate the spookiest day of the year.

Does the sun rise any more? Yes it certainly does.

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Book, Ernest, Hemingway, Novel, TheSunAlsoRises

Thinking about Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun also Rises” two weeks after reading it and it’s only now that I begin to realise what a good novel it actually is. The novel shows us what life for an expatriate was like in Europe after World War One. Glamour and drinking were the game but then Hemingway also shows us in this novel how not all expatriates were as reckless as Lady Brett Ashley and Mike. In fact, Hemingway gives us insight into the life of a working, wounded ex-soldier named Jake, and his struggles of love, friendship and picking up the bill at the end of every boozing session. 

Though the book is very easy to read, and its messages are simple enough to understand and appreciate, there is more to what meets the eye in this book. With its hidden messages of ideas of masculinity and its subtle critiques of America this novel offers more to its readers than they often tend to pick up on.

With well drawn characters and vivid scenes of the Spanish fiestas this novel is overall an entertaining one, even if some of the drinking scenes get a bit repetitive after a while. Non the less, I think Hemingway helped show the image of the expatriate in Europe in a more positive light to all the Americans at home, as they would have had more negative views of them at the time. Now let’s raise a glass of absinthe to Jake, Brett, Mike and Cohen and their fantastic adventures at the fiesta.   

First post.

Hello,

This is my first post here. I’m not a blog person, but as part of my University course (Masters in American literature and film) We have been asked to set up our own individual blogs that relate back to our course. This is mine, as you can see. Well here it all goes, I hope to be both critical and fun when it comes to the literature and film I study throughout the course and this is where I shall be keeping you guys updated. I don’t actually know how long the first post is meant to be but I’m going to finish mine here. Talk to you all later.