surrealism for the sake of surrealism
Evening watching Tommy a film billed as a Rock opera.
It's a typical piece of 1970's surrealism from director Ken Russell with music provided by British group The Who.
The music is not generally speaking the Who at their best.
And the film itself is just a little too surreal for my taste.
That's always the problem when Ken Russell is directing.
None of it means anything.
Ah.
Ken.
The artist must show relevancy.
Still I've always had the suspicion that Ken Russell was just a Catholic conversion away from creating a genuine work of art.
Perhaps I'm wrong in this.
Now I'm watching the one good scene in the film.
It's when John Fry of the Johnston Press has an epic pinball play off against Hammy Hamster.
The scene's as incomprehensible as anything else in the film but the music at least is undeniably, unrequitedly, incontrovertibly brilliant.
Sounding very much like Elton John, John Fry sings:
"Every since I was a young chief executive
I've played the silver ball
Taking over newspapers
Buying out them all
And then we fire the staff
With a certain priapic gall
That deaf dumb and blind hamster
Sure plays a mean pinball.
She's a pinball wizard.
Part of the machine
A pinball wizard
But hey
What's it to me
I'm just obscene.
My name is John Fry
I'm head of the Johnston Press
We take over newspapers
And leave em quite a mess
No one's getting pensions
Except us top execs
We really love firing people
My god it's better than sex
I'm a parvenu wizard
Part of the machine
A parvenu wizard
But does anyone know
What any
Of this means?
Yes my name is John Fry
I run the Johnston Press
We take over newspapers
You should see the lives we mess
We buy em up with money
We borrow from idiot banks
You can call us lots of names but
We're really just a bunch of Brit skanks.
We're pinball wizards
We own the machine
Pinball wizards
But does anybody know
What exactly
That means?
Ever since I was a young boy
I've played the silver ball
You don't want to cross my path
In any amusement hall
Ordinary folks get fired
But we don't get fired at all
That deaf dumb and blind hamster
Sure plays a mean pinball."
It's a typical piece of 1970's surrealism from director Ken Russell with music provided by British group The Who.
The music is not generally speaking the Who at their best.
And the film itself is just a little too surreal for my taste.
That's always the problem when Ken Russell is directing.
None of it means anything.
Ah.
Ken.
The artist must show relevancy.
Still I've always had the suspicion that Ken Russell was just a Catholic conversion away from creating a genuine work of art.
Perhaps I'm wrong in this.
Now I'm watching the one good scene in the film.
It's when John Fry of the Johnston Press has an epic pinball play off against Hammy Hamster.
The scene's as incomprehensible as anything else in the film but the music at least is undeniably, unrequitedly, incontrovertibly brilliant.
Sounding very much like Elton John, John Fry sings:
"Every since I was a young chief executive
I've played the silver ball
Taking over newspapers
Buying out them all
And then we fire the staff
With a certain priapic gall
That deaf dumb and blind hamster
Sure plays a mean pinball.
She's a pinball wizard.
Part of the machine
A pinball wizard
But hey
What's it to me
I'm just obscene.
My name is John Fry
I'm head of the Johnston Press
We take over newspapers
And leave em quite a mess
No one's getting pensions
Except us top execs
We really love firing people
My god it's better than sex
I'm a parvenu wizard
Part of the machine
A parvenu wizard
But does anyone know
What any
Of this means?
Yes my name is John Fry
I run the Johnston Press
We take over newspapers
You should see the lives we mess
We buy em up with money
We borrow from idiot banks
You can call us lots of names but
We're really just a bunch of Brit skanks.
We're pinball wizards
We own the machine
Pinball wizards
But does anybody know
What exactly
That means?
Ever since I was a young boy
I've played the silver ball
You don't want to cross my path
In any amusement hall
Ordinary folks get fired
But we don't get fired at all
That deaf dumb and blind hamster
Sure plays a mean pinball."
posted by heelers | 1:18 AM
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