Updates

You can see more pix on my Flickr page of Sean Rigg’s memorial from Friday.

It was the correct decision

And now former first minister Jack McConnell has entered the fray by calling the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi as a “grave error of judgment”. Well what a surprise NL spouting the usual ‘tough on crime’ drivel.

Also, rather disingenuously, Director of the FBI Richard Mueller attacks Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill in letter by stating that the actions in the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi made a ‘mockery of the rule of law’…

Well, it seems to me that MacAskill made a judicial decision as opposed to a political decision in releasing this man.

If MacAskill did what these people say he should have done then he would have been trampling all over the rule of law. He would have been making  a decision about an individual case subject to political considerations such as the pressurses the US establishment can bring to bear or how things may play out with News International.

Making such decisions on the political basis suggested will mean that those with powerful friends (Pinochet for instance) will get treated differently from those that the powerful loath or for whom they have some other reason to do down.

War and Futurism

Nevinson's Bursting Shell (1915)

We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world – militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman. (From Futurist Manifesto by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti)

I re-visited the Futurism exhibition at the Tate Modern. Marinetti, who founded the Futurist Manifesto, glorifies war seeing it as a noble deed. Marinetti and co. confront modernity by revelling in human suffering. Indeed the Manifesto was written in 1909, 5 years before the outbreak of the First World World where Italy took a neutral stance until 1915 when it entered the war on the side of Britain and France. The Futurists were vocal in supporting the war. They regale militarism and patriotism, the technology of warfare. Marinetti’s understanding of war is based on a Romantic notion, with modern technological warfare to advance their ideology.

The British painter Christopher Nevinson was influenced by the Futurists, yet he broke with them once he had seen the realities of war; blood, mustard gas, death,mud and the horrifying nightmare that goes along with the barbarism and futility of war.

Indeed Valentine de Saint-Point wrote Manifesto of Futurist woman (1912) to counter Marinetti’s blatant misogyny. Unfortunately, her central arguments weren’t about equality between men and women, more that women should become more masculine.

The political dynamics of Futurism led, inevitably, to Fascism. They got a frosty reception from the Vorticists in Britain, the Russian Cubo-Futurists ( a number of them were woman and also repelled by the misogyny of Marinetti) while the Orphists in France saw the way forward as bringing a new lyricism to art. They all had to break from the reactionary dead end that the futurists had made for themselves.

In the realm of the censors

I haven’t witnessed a good old-fashioned walk out from the cinema since….1991..with the screening of Oshima’s Ai no corrida (In the Realm of the Senses) at the Duke of York’s cinema in Brighton.

The film was made in 1975 but it didn’t receive a classification until 1989, released in 1991 (possibly languishing during those years in the vaults of the BBFC).

It’s described as probably the most famous erotic film ever made. Indeed it is haunting, and powerful. Essentially the film is about a sexual relationship that intensifies, becoming obsessional and disturbing for both of the characters.

The nature of their relationship develops in a claustrophobic manner along while their sexual fantasies  lead to a tragic climax (based on a true btw). What got the film in trouble with the censorious censors was the unsimulated sex (the film was seized by American customs when originally released).

I saw the film when it was released in 1991. What was entertaining, unintentional I hasten to add, was the sheer number of people walking out of cinema. The walk outs proved to be a distraction, listening to people slam the back of their seats as an expression of their disgust (?) as they stormed out. The walk outs  mainly happened during the intensification of the sex scenes.

I have to say I was utterly bemused watching this spectacle. And I admit I have never ever walked out of a screening. Indeed, films have created a various set of differing responses… I have been.. repulsed, shocked, delighted, engaged, shocked, appalled, enlightened, scared…and bored. But I have never walked out as a result.

In the Realm of the Senses captivated and engaged me, I certainly didn’t feel the urge to walk out. I am unsure why these people walked, ..possibly…definitely…maybe…due to shock at the unrelenting sex scenes, along with a large dose of moralism misguidedly based on making a political point….

The cinema was originally packed but towards the end, well the section where I was sitting was empty. So the reason I am reminiscing about this is because the BFI is screening this specific film from next weekend as part of the Oshima season.

And I have booked my ticket.