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November 04, 2006
Lust for Art
Yesterday was my first full day in Amersterdam. My partner, Lumena, and I did the tourist thing for the day by going to the Van Gogh Museum. As it turned out, part of the permanent collection was unavailable for viewing until December. It was still worth it to see work I hadn't seen previously, especially Van Gogh's almond blossom paintings like the above example, and Van Gogh's direct imitations of Japanese paintings. Seeing Van Gogh's copies of Japanese art inspired the idea of a double feature of one of the films about Van Gogh, possibly Lust for Life with Mizoguchi's Utamaro and His Five Women. Maybe it's over-simplifying things but both films are about artists who deliberately went against the standards of their time, and chose unfashionable subject matter, Van Gogh with his peasants, Utamaro with his prostitutes.
Lumena and I tried to visit the Netherland Film Museum. No exhibits were going on at the time. We did go to a Record Store where Lumena had picked up a couple of DVDs for me last year. I picked up four movies not available stateside: Renoir's Toni, Ophuls' Earrings of Madame De . . ., Tati's Jour de Fete, and Nick Ray's Savage Innocents. Had they had English subtitles, I would have gotten Malle's Zazie and Tony Gatliff's Exiles. I never even bothered to browse the stores extensive Asian or horror selections.
Today is low-key. Just walking through the open markets near where we are staying. Otherwise just overcoming the double whammy of jet lag and the change of weather from hot and sweaty Miami Beach to the constant cool here in Amsterdam.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at November 4, 2006 08:22 PM
Comments
Hope you're having a great time in Amsterdam..
Seems like you missed the Dejima Filmfestival in Amsterdam this weekend.. I saw some great new Japanese films there..
Posted by: Stephan73 at November 6, 2006 08:36 AM