May 12: Special Follow-Ups Edition

Helene Hegemann's German novel Axoltl Roadkill (PMD, January 31, February 20) has generated such an unusual amount of publicity, partly owing to charges of plagiarism against the author, that its translation into English is inevitable. In the meantime, it has been adapted as a puppet-show in Berlin!

http://lovegermanbooks.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-berlin-is-that.html  

Jeannette Catsoulis's review of Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers (PMD, May 7) takes full advantage of the humorous occasion that describing the film provides, without being unfair to its artistic aspirations:

In 1999 Harmony Korine began a video project called “Fight Harm,” in which he encouraged random people to beat him up. Because of his success (otherwise known as injuries), that project was abandoned...  
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At first glance (and second and third), it appears that Mr. Korine has handed an ancient camcorder to a quartet of geriatric mental patients, then released them into a parking lot to have sex with trash cans.
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Shot and edited on VHS tape that seems to have been fermented in a Dumpster, then gnawed by angry raccoons, the characters’ gleeful exploits unspool in freaky — and punishingly repetitive — vignettes. 
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...if there is a point to “Trash Humpers” beyond simply mooning the audience, it’s that this visual experiment — like Johnny Rotten’s sneering rendition of “God Save the Queen” — suggests a future martyred to greed....However crassly delivered, Mr. Korine’s warning against over-consumption is unambiguous: these savages are our future, our “true seed.” 

http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/movies/07trash.html

Nicholas Rombes takes an experimental approach to writing about Peter Watkins's Punishment Park (PMD, May 3):

http://therumpus.net/2010/05/104070-6-punishment-park/

Ben Sachs at The Auteurs puzzles over Izo by Takashi Miike (PMD, May 5) :

To begin with the obvious: Izo is one of the most difficult works of art to be made in recent times.  Viewers complain that it’s overlong and incoherent—and, in their defense, it often feels designed that way.  In scene after scene for more than two hours, a samurai finds himself in a strange new landscape, encounters some odd person or people, and then kills them with his sword.  The film is pure theme and variation, deliberately lacking consistent rhythm or sense of progression that would allow you to enjoy it casually.  Still, nearly every sequence boasts some fascinating juxtaposition—between character and decor, between dialogue and action, in the way images are ordered—that makes it consistently striking to watch, if something of a slog to keep up with.  Even admirers say it seems to last for days.... Miike...has said of Izo, “I want people to watch [it] in a daze and just let it flow.”

http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/1754

Clive James remembers his friend, the late Australian poet Peter Porter (PMD, April 27):

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article7124130.ece

Performances of the music of Luis Andriessen (PMD, April 6, April 21 Follow-Ups) continue to proliferate. Fellow composer John Adams recently led  Ensemble ACJW in Andriessen's De Staat (on texts from Plato's Republic), and spoke of his "enormous regard" for the Dutchman:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/arts/music/12acjw.html

The blog Exposures posted a two-part interview with photographer Eirik Johnson (PMD, April 21):

http://www.aperture.org/exposures/?p=6663

http://www.aperture.org/exposures/?p=6708