Negative capability

This past weekend I watched "The Age of Innocence," Martin Scorsese's 1993 adaptation of the classic "Gilded Age" novel. I hadn't seen it since its first release 15 years ago. I liked it quite a lot at the time. Very restrained, tense, subdued. At first, the director of "Goodfellas" and "Raging Bull" might not seem like a natural partner for Edith Wharton, but I thought that the two social observers were really quite well suited for one another. "The Age of Innocence" is very much a New York piece, and Scorsese is certainly the king of New York movies. (Woody Allen is in the court, too; I just don't think he's in the royal family.)

"The Age of Innocence" captures the glittering banality of the lives of the social elite - which I dare say has probably not changed much in 130 years. Scorsese brilliantly captures the material details of Fifth Avenue mansions: banks of flowers, fragile fine china, hordes of bric-a-brac, things things things.

Daniel Day-Lewis is excellent in the film as the repressed and unhappy Newland Archer. Duh. And his soft American accent is very believable. Is there anything that Day-Lewis can't do?

Michelle Pfeiffer had a good look going on in the film, but I don't think she was the right person cast for Countess Olenska. I didn't think she was sophisticated (in a moderately Euro-trash manner) enough.

But Winona Ryder gives a brilliantly subtle and scary portrayal of a manipulatively sweet young American schemer who traps Archer in a loveless marriage. I've known plenty of people like that (not to mention any names - like JDA).

I know that some people criticized Scorsese in this film for relying so heavily on an "outside narrator" to express Edith Wharton's sardonic commentary. But I love Joanne Woodward's voice - she's perfect. I wonder if I could get an entire "book-on-tape" of Miss Woodward reading "The Age of Innocence" - or some other Wharton novel?

Here's a little trivia question about "The Age of Innocence": What popular 19th century opera is featured in the opening AND closing scenes of the movie? It certainly fits the theme of the film, which is essentially about people who have lost their souls in pursuit of material prosperity.

"The Belfrey of Bruges," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

In the marketplace of Bruges stands the belfrey old and brown
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town.

As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower I stood,
And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood.

Thick with towns and hamlets studded, and with streams and vapors gray,
Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay.

At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys here and there,
Wreathes of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into air.

Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour,
But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower.

From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swallows wild and high;
And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky.

Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the older times,
With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes.

Like the psalms from some old cloister, when the nuns sang in the choir;
And the great bell tolled among them, like the chanting of a friar.

Visions of the days departed, shadowy phantoms filled my brain;
They who live in history only seemed to walk the earth again.

All the foresters of Flanders: mighty Baldwin Bras de Fer,
Lyderick de Bucq and Cressy, Philip, Guy du Dampierre.

I beheld the pagents splendind that adorned the days of old;
Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the Fleece of Gold;

Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies;
Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.

I beheld proud Maximilian, kneeling humbly on the ground;
I beheld gentle Mary, hunting with her hawk and hound;

And her lighted bridal-chamber, where a duke slept with the queen,
And the armèd guard around them, and the sword unsheathed between.

I beheld the Flemish weavers, with Namur and Juliers bold,
Marching homeward from the bloody battle of the Spurs of Gold;

Saw the fight at Minnewater, saw the White Hoods moving west,
Saw great Artevelde victorious scale the Golden Dragon's next.

And again the whiskered Spaniard all the land with terror smote;
And again the wild alarum sounded from the tocsin's throat;

Till the bells of Ghent resounded o'er lagoons and dike of sand,
"I am Roland! I am Roland! There is victory in the land!"

Then the sound of drums aroused me. The awakened city's roar
Chased the phantoms I had summoned back into their graves once more.

Hours had passed away like minutes; and before I was aware,
Lo! the shadow of the belfrey crossed the sun-illumined square.


[This is also where the climactic final scenes of "In Bruges" takes place.]

My day in the Keewenaw (the U.P. of the U.P.) included a stop at the lovely Vertin Gallery, a very impressive restoration in the heart of downtown Calumet. My friend and former student Meeghan is exhibiting a number of her "big black crow" paintings there. Interestingly, Calumet has become something of an artists' mecca in recent years. (In the 2000 census Calumet's population was just 879, but 100 years ago it was a big copper mining boomtown and was the largest community in northern Michigan.) Painting above the bar at the Michigan House Cafe and Brewery in Calumet. I stopped in for a nice burger and fries. The building dates from 1905, when it was constructed as a "showcase bar" for the local Bosch Brewing Company. German immigrant artists from Milwaukee came up north to decorate the tavern. It was a wonderful day out and about. Capping the day, on the way back to Iron Harbor I stopped at picturesque Canyon Falls, on the Sturgeon River near L'Anse.

After our prolonged beautiful September, fall colors are reaching their peak this weekend. But we also have experienced a wintry blast of northern air that has been accompanied by snow and sleet. So today I took a drive up to the Keewenaw Peninsula that turned out to be an opportunity for me to see not only reds, yellows and browns, but also grays and whites as well. I'll post a few pictures today, and probably a few more over the next several days as well - I don't want to tire you out.
When I pulled out of my driveway it was clear and crisp.
But at Lake Michigamme it had clouded over, and sleet was swirling about. Traffic was held up for a few minutes by a construction project - they are straightening a dangerous curve around one of the lake's arms. I was able to step out and take a few snaps.
At Baraga, there was clearing again. L'Anse Bay is a nice place to stop and stretch your legs. But a little too chilly today for a picnic.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nasas-mission-to-bomb-the-moon-2009-06

I would just like to take this opportunity to dis-associate myself from the upcoming catastrophe of the unprovoked bombing of the moon that will commence Friday morning. I mean, what have the Moonians done to deserve this? Okay, the tides are kind of a nuisance, but you get used to them after a while.

Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate everything that NASA has done for us. TANG was great, and I really appreciate Velcro. But I'm concerned about the precedent that this makes. Are we going to start bombing every celestial object in sight?

Here is a movie clip in honor of our nearest space neighborhood: