[New-Poetry] Advice -- Film/Lit course w "Poetry" angle

[Roger Day]

I think that films about or containing poets suck. Period. They harp
on our need for *biography*. Poets as *characters* - oh so whimsical,
or some cheap *intellectual* fixing on the shingle or worse, the heavy
hand of intellectual ballast being tied to a "vulgar entertainment.".
The only film that  I think fared otherwise was Regeneration, although
that was a complete hack-job of the novels.

Films that *reflect* or use poetry as a source, either obliquely or
otherwise, fare far better, IMO How about Powell & Pressburger's A
Canterbury Tale for starters? Then there's the filmic career of
Shakespeare.

How about flims *by* poets? Cocteau:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Cocteau. La belle et la bête? Then
there's Auden & Night Train. Murder in the Cathedral by Eliot was
filmed.

http://www.ubu.com/papers/kelman_ken-film_poetry.html

Simon Armitage:
http://www.thescaremongers.com/simonarmitage/film-tv-theatre-radio.html
- Feltham Sings is a good piece.

Epics have had a good time of it: Beowulf, Tristan and Isolda. The
Arthurian epics - how about Monty Python's The Holy Grail.  Maybe
Franco-Japanese animation will spark their wits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_31. (a whole list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_Arthurian_legend).

An offering from myself http://www.badstep.net/image/moving/index.html
and a really bad film with Ezra Pound reading:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVGboLQyNYI

Roger

On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 9:45 PM, amy king <amyhappens at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Poets,
>
> I'm teaching a Film/Lit course in the fall and wonder if anyone can
> recommend a few good films that offer up poetic content, to put it vaguely,
> or a representation of a poet that doesn't completely romanticize the poet,
> disintegrating the person in the process.  For instance, I wouldn't use that
> Sylvia Plath film that came out a few years ago, starring Gweneth Paltrow.
> Anything that incorporates the poet's writing would be wonderful ...
>
> Did anyone see "Before Night Falls" who thinks it's worthwhile?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Amy
>
> _______
>
> Recent
> http://www.tarpaulinsky.com/Reviews/kiss-me.html
> http://jacketmagazine.com/34/dickow-king.shtml
>
> Alias
> http://www.amyking.org
>
> Your Suggestions
> http://amyking.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/poetry-exercises-wanted/
>
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>



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to objects and their fields"
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