Murnau’s Faust, 1926

 This was FW Murnau’s last film made in Germany

 before he went off to Hollywood to make Sunrise.

It’s a loose adaptation of Goethe’s dramatic poem,

incorporating elements from the folk puppet plays,

that Goethe’s drew upon, which in their turn 

took Marlowe's Doctor Faustus as a model.

Indeed, there’s a distinct puppet like quality

to Camilla Horn movements as Gretchen, 

especially after she has been denounced 

as a harlot, lurching around in a trance. 

Murnau spent six months filming it, 

crafting a very unreal yet elaborate 

medieval world for his marionettes.

Preparations for a Journey

 
Before going to Burma at the end of next month, I've been testing out various film stocks to take with me. I had some photographs I wanted to try making here in San Francisco, and as I hadn't used my medium format camera very much for a long time until just recently in Los Angeles, I figured I should go ahead and shoot the pictures I had in mind before the images were forgotten using this particularly fine yet costly apparatus.  Anyone familiar with my present work and concerns should keep in mind that these images are meant as contributions to my current long term project, the Old Curiosity Shop (from the novel and related texts by Charles Dickens.)

Leon at Home and at the Shop

I first saw pictures of Leon in his shop, but the ones that have had the strongest effect on me are those above and similar series that show him in his living room and bedroom, masturbating, smoking and relaxing.  Not that the ones of him at work are not enticing, they are, and one can see why he seems to have a thriving business, given his skills as showman; and I hope I will do justice to both aspects of his life.  The question is: which should come first, the home or the shop?  I'll start with the images by which I first came to know of him.

The rest of the post will mostly be set in the porn shop he appears to run with his partner, the guy who shows up with him from time to time, a little goofy looking perhaps, not at all traditionally handsome, but to my mind deeply attractive and sexy and just the sort of person with whom I like to imagine this guy Leon being and belonging.

I'll end with home and the partner, who is very likely the guy who took most of these pictures.