the end of Frank Cole (4 reading days)

Over the past four days I finished reading the Cinema of Frank Cole.
Notes:
"Placebo Singers of Howard Stone" by John Greyson
Page 93 "The camera did not observe, it stored"
Page 95: history of the placebo.
Makes final film sound very homo-erotic.

"Call me Dr. Death" interview by Gary Nichol

"To Live or Not To Live" by Peter Mettler
Page 119, "Frank abhored decay and transformation, disappearance, loss of control".
Page 120, "I believe filmmakers make variations of the same film over and over again".

Postcards to Rick Taylor
Page 127: Sadness.

"Reading the Desert" by Deirdre Logue
Page 135 "Back home, the pictures show the difference between signs pointing in the right direction and signs pointing in the only direction.".


"Sahara Journal" by Cole
Page 136, "I could prove it symbolically, not scientifically, because I am an artist, not a doctor".

"A sending without any Recipient" by Yann Beauvais
"Why should these wells be marked on his map? ... Everything conforms to what is written".

"Regarding Frank Cole" by Ben Vandoorne
Page 156, "In the desert there are roads and paths. But the crossing does not truly begin until these roads and paths disappear. From then on, you are not crossing the desert, you are part of it. The desert is an ideal observation point for seeing ourselves more clearly. It is the heart of the world."

"Life without Life (the camels are more human)" by Steve Reinke
Page 159, "film is fetishism; video, narcissism"
"I'm always disturbed by the use of foleyed audio in otherwise documentary film. I wish it were inverted; I wish we listened to the world and made up whatever images we wished."
Page 161, "This grotesque foley betrays a comically sadistic view of reproduction".


"I come here for the rites of your unworlding" by Mike Cartmell
Page 169, "The story has a structural and necessary lack in it, a fundamental incompleteness." 
Page 174, "moments of unwatchability..."

"Life without" by Julie Murray
Page 177; physicals/metaphor of sand.

Frank Cole again

Read a few more articles from Frank Cole:
"Candid Camera" by Frank Cole
Page 77: "The final sound in the desert is flies" (reminds me of the grasshoppers in WS)

"A Strange Couple" by Fred Pelon
"he mistakenly sees the body as fundimental for surviving"

"Dead Serious" by Geoff Pevere
"look at dancing as a way of transporting the body to another realm. And Frank, who was possibly the most unnervingly able-bodied person I'd ever met was always trying to drive his body somewhere else".
"walking away ... exodus from responsibility"
"losing oneself in the wilderness ... defining Canadian themes"
"Frontiers ... open on vast expanses of nothingness".

"In the Theatre" by Mike Hoolboom
Page 92: The only way to make the films that cinemea require wa to live them first"

Frank Cole

Read four chapters on the Frank Cole book.
"Whatever Remains" by Tom McSorley.
Page 46-47, rare description of the importance of film co-op movement in Canada.

"How" by Frank Cole
(Travel diary from test journey)

"Engravings" by Mike Hoolboom and Jean Perret
Page 60: "He invents true histories that are his alone to see..."
Page 61: "The cinema offers us a trace of what was once a glimpse of the ghosts we are becoming".

"Wrecked Cars and Affection" by Laurie Monsebraaten
Two reviews, one from when the film came out, the other a current update with new insights.

"Nothing to do with You" by Mike Hoolboom
Page 68: "The director, always off screen, never hesitates to become part of the scene. He understands there is no way to be neutral and underlines his complicity with rehearsed, straight man banter.

Life Without Death, the cinema of Frank Cole

Began reading "Life Without Death, the Cinema of Frank Cole" edited by Mike Hoolboom and Ton McSorley, Canadian Film Institute, 2009.

"Life During Wartime, an interview with Charles Cole" by Korbett Matthews.
   Biographical details from his father. What would my father say about my life?

"Saltwater Road to the Sahara" by Richard Taylor
Notes: page 28: "he imagined himself traveling to various places in the world, without leaving tghe confines of his jail cell" (evocative idea to explore).
Page 29: "Depressing films seemed to buoy him up with hope".