Jeff Bernstein

CLASSIC SCREEN KISS MODERNISED : Time After Time (1979) Coincidentally, the same year, with Sven Nykvist now in Hollywood . . . "If we're gonna kiss each other, I think it'd be a good idea, if one of us closed our eyes." Starting Over (1979)

Surreal SCREEN KISS : The Spiral Staircase (1946) A kiss as a voyage to a new world : crossing the line into stormy love.

ELABORATE TRIPLE SCREEN KISS : Force of Evil (1948)

DEFY THE GODS "the shadow of a magnitude" / Keats, "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" Okay, but what about these Greek gods? What is their fundamental attitude towards human beings? Friend Scrooby, working tirelessly, provides here a translation of the opening of the Trojan Women of Euripides (ll. 1–97), which not only answers the above questions, but also provides a treatment of the origin story of THE ODYSSEY. POSEIDON I have come up from the depths of the salty Aegean sea, POSEIDON, where the Nereids whirl in beautiful dances. Ever since Apollo and I put up smooth stone walls, perfectly measured, around this city of Troy, I have had a soft spot for the Trojans and their home. Now the city is smoking ruins, destroyed by the power of the Greeks, who built a wooden horse (a scheme of Athena's and built by the Phocian, Epeus), inside which warriors were hidden; it went within the walls of the city and brought destruction to the Trojan people. The sacred groves to the gods are now deserted; our temples run with blood. At the base of the statue of Zeus in the midst of his court, Priam, King of Troy, lies dead. Meanwhile, much gold and other spoils of war the Greeks are carrying to their ships. They await a wind to take them back to their wives and children, pleased to be going home after ten years of war. I have been beaten by Hera and Athena—it was they who destroyed Troy— so I'm leaving this famous spot and all of my altars here. Whenever a city collapses, there's no one left to pray, and the gods are no longer given their proper reverence. I hear cries and shouts from River Scamander. There, the women are being divided up, appointed by lot to this man or that man; many shrieking women are meeting new masters. Look there! See the miserable queen of Troy, Hecuba, lying by the door of the destroyed palace, if you want to see her. She is weeping many tears for many reasons; and it's worse for her—she doesn't know her daughter Polyxena is dead, murdered at the tomb of Achilles. Her husband and her sons are dead; and her frantic daughter Cassandra, whose chastity Lord Apollo preserved, is now Agamemnon's property against the wishes of the god, and the Greek king will force her to occupy his bed, and take her. Well then. Goodbye, my city of Troy, and your walls of smooth stone, once prosperous, now utterly destroyed and brought to nothing. If Zeus' daughter Athena hadn't done all this, you would still be standing tall. ATHENA You who are near to my father in power and reverence, may I forget our differences of foretimes and speak to you? POSEIDON Of course, Lady Athena. Talk with one's family charms the heart. ATHENA Thank you for your kindness. There is something you and I must discuss. POSEIDON Do you bring word of a new message from Zeus, or another god? ATHENA No. I want to speak of right where we stand, the city of Troy. This is why I have come to you. I hope to win an ally. POSEIDON You are going to cast aside all your hatred for this place? Now you feel compassion while the city burns to ashes? ATHENA Let's return to my original point. Will you hear my words, and then undertake to do with me what I would wish to do? POSEIDON Of course. But what is it you want? This is what I want to know. ATHENA I want to cheer up the Trojan people, my former enemies; and bring down upon the Greek army a bitter, painful return. POSEIDON What is this with you, first hating very much, and now loving? ATHENA Are you aware my temples have been treated outrageously? POSEIDON I know; it happened when Ajax carried Cassandra away. ATHENA And for what he did the Greeks gave him no punishment at all. POSEIDON And it was with your strength that the Greeks annihilated Troy. ATHENA This is why, if you are willing, I am going to hurt them. POSEIDON I am ready to do as you say. What would you have me do? ATHENA I want their voyage home to be thrown into confusion. POSEIDON While they're still standing here on land, or sailing on the sea? ATHENA When they're sailing home from Troy. Zeus will send thunderstorms and hail and contrary winds relentlessly. He promises me a lightning-bolt to throw down at their ships and I will consume the Greeks in fire. You, Lord Poseidon, will make the passage of the Aegean a treacherous way of mighty waves and much clamour, with whirlpools to drag them down. Fill all the coastlines of Greece with dead bodies. Then they will learn to reverence me rightly in my temples, and other gods, too. POSEIDON I can do that; so we need not waste any more words on it. The beaches of Greece will be covered in many dead bodies. So then. Go on up to Olympus, and take the lightning-bolt from your father's hand, and wait for the Greeks to let out their sails. How dumb are these mortals! They pillaged Troy, desecrated tombs and our temples, yet aren't nearly smart enough to save themselves.

Music The teaser starts as if with Richard Strauss, and ends as if with Penderecki . . . sound familiar, friends?

9. One day a messenger came running up to the monastery door and shouted out the coming of enemy raiders from afar. Look! See the dust rising on the horizon! They’re coming on horseback! The monks gathered to decide the matter. Moses was now seventy-five years old and the elder of the monastery. He said he wasn’t going anywhere. “Those who wish to flee should go now,” he said. “Those who wish to stay, I will stay with you.” Seven monks elected to stay behind with Moses, who reportedly spoke out : “Live by the sword, die by the sword”—was he remembering his nighttime Nile swim? This saint’s story ends in a grand manner. Protecting those entrusted to his care, the agèd Moses fended off the foe the best he could until he fell in death. After a lifetime of patient suffering, he left behind him many disciples. END. 18 June – 29 June 2025

8. There is something in Moses’ legend, a story that shouldn’t be left out of this account of his life. It happened one night that four thieves entered the monastery, and they made the bad choice of coming up to Moses’ door. As they entered in oh so quietly, looking for something to steal, moonlight streaming through the window illuminated a tremendous figure looming before them, who was the strongest man any of the four of them would ever see. Moses stood before this gang of cutthroats who would kill him if they could, to escape. “Please stop,” he said; but this fell on deaf ears, so the first man was spinning around fast without feeling Moses even take his arm; the second man threw a punch, and Moses caught his fist in mid-air and squeezed the man down to his knees; meanwhile the third man brought a chair down onto Moses’ head, the wood shattered into bits but Moses felt nothing, and the third man was pushed down to the floor. By the time that the fourth man had fully brought out his blade, Moses had it in his own hands, and flung it at his feet, along with the fourth man. So all the Monks had gathered in the monastery church, and Moses came in, bringing the four thieves, each tied up one to another with rope, and dragged in, as they had fainted in terror. The monks were astonished at the following : there was not a single violent mark on any of the men. And Moses said : “What shall I do? For I will not hurt them.” tbc

7. “You have travelled far to see me, esteemed keepers of the faith, to learn my thinking, which I would not lightly reveal to you, for there are dangers in too much talking. But your sincerity of constant prayer, of reverence for what you seek to know, are a strong persuader to give me tongue and speak of the goal and end of all things. A bowman who shoots an arrow without a target before him cannot hit the mark.” tbc

6. Sometimes under starlight Moses went down the mountain hauling eight buckets with him on a pole he balanced on his shoulders; it was quite a laborious descent at the best of times, but Moses made it to level desert, and fetched rainwater from the ancient cisterns cut into rock. Moses hiked back up with the fresh water and in the middle of the night he went among the monks, going from cell to cell and pouring before each door a pitcher brimming with drink from thirty miles out. This Moses did in respectful quiet for his friends at heart and in the spirit. tbc [ On the spur of the moment Photograph Botros Saied Egypt 2018 / Lazarists monastery No1 Photograph Christos Simatos Greece 2017 ]

OBAA vibe (?) in Scrooby's hands? Fits magazine 3525 17th Street Apt. 16 San Francisco February 1971

5. Moses the Black had a colossal strength, and his surplus of energy was now cooped up inside a staid monastery; his temperament could bring down the walls to a heap of rough stone if he willed it; so what about the even-tempered monks? What happened surprised the religious men : they put a book in his hand, and Moses responded favourably—he read it; and in the reading of it he stayed calm, placid and gentle and agreeable for the duration of his concentration. Then he would push people around a bit, but soon the holy words won him over, there in the mountaintop monastery, a new faith stimulated his being into action—a long action of thinking. And yet there was a problem from the start : his undifferentiated energy. There was no way Moses was going to sit reading for too long a time, not at first, not with a body full of active rage above and beyond the natural strength of youth. How did Moses better himself? He learned how to control his energy. Plunged into indefatigable studies, Moses subsisted on little bread for weeks, which kept him physically weak. When he ate cooked food and his physical strength returned, he punished his body with long labour such as digging holes then filling them in until Moses was ready to read again. It’s said Moses prayed fifty times daily. He always stood up when he read and prayed, so most of the time he was on his feet, “without bending his knees” —ancient sources praise Moses in this—“or closing his eyes”. Over time he taught himself to stay still for entire days and nights at a time; and after many years he would himself take Holy Orders and become a Monk. His skillful concentration would serve him for the rest of his life; he read many books, and his thinking took on the vitality of the colossal strength of his body. tbc

4. Moses thought it best to beat a retreat after the murder, for the Shepherd’s flocks were the property of a wealthy man with connections. The rustler had failed to consider this beforehand, so there went his perfect plan. Now he was on the run, the murdering thief of four full-grown rams, for one of his fellow thugs had sold him out. Moses crossed desert—bleak terrain and drear, and came to a road paved by the Romans and he crossed a border into Jordan and the rose-red rocks of city Petra; and came to a mountain whose heights all round were hard to access; but he found a way to the top, where a Monastery stood, a perfect spot for someone to hide out until all things could be made good again. tbc [ Fallen Statue of Ramses II Photograph Barry Iverson Egypt 1999 / Nestorian Church Photograph Barry Iverson Egypt 1988 / Palazzo di Colori Photograph Cade Turner Australia 2011 ]

3. It was on a path in the woods, at night, and it was hard to see in the branches; five men, Moses among them, their leader, jumped from the trees onto a Wayfarer of the night, and tore at him, his clothing, the book in a pouch by his waist, all else; but the sounds of barking dogs coming ever closer tore them away from their evil; and they tossed all his items at the man on the dirt and made for the trees, fleeing, not the first time; as they disappeared some looked back and saw a Shepherd they knew (recognised at least) approach with his dogs; he helped the Wayfarer back to his feet. So Moses and his men were sneaking through the long grass by the side of the Nile, and when they thought it safe to speak, Moses addressed his gang, a motley bunch of sordid filth, and asked them, “Who was the man with the dogs?” And those who had recognised the Shepherd spoke up. Moses asked, “Where can I find him?” The next night Moses returned to the side of the Nile, put a blade between his teeth, descended the slope onto a rocky beach and entered the water of the river. A mile ahead, across the placid current of fresh water, Moses could see the fires of the Shepherd burning by his flock. Four hundred yards, Moses struggled to breathe. He’d been using a rudimentary crawl and now he was gassed. He looked up at the stars, floating there in the midst of the current, seeing the Bear rambling up the sky, the Swan with its wings outstretched, soaring high, and Moses refused to quit. He began to swim, this time with frogs and toads in mind. Times past he’d seen them swimming in the river, taking it slow, but continuously. Moses swam a breaststroke with scissor kick, froglike, and paced himself, and the palm trees and the fires on the opposite bank came ever closer as he kept his stroke, and he crossed the Nile under the stars. Now the Shepherd heard the nightbirds whistle by the riverside, but he thought nothing of it until he felt his throat was cut. Then when his dogs ran over from watching the flocks, barking out a bloody murder, their Master fell in a heap at Moses’ feet, and the dogs ran off. Moses cut the throats of four rams, tied them together with rope, and towed the beasts behind him as he swam back to the other side, no easy thing, for the rams got waterlogged and heavy. When Moses returned to the other side he went fifty miles to reach his gang; his plan had been a mighty diversion. tbc

2. “I had to be called bad, a criminal, so worse criminals can call themselves good. What a racket is this world!—just bullies and cowards—and I won’t be a coward but will smash whatever stands in my way if I desire it. Hold on, Moses— what way? Where am I going? I’m homeless, stateless, wandering without a penny in the world and no prospect to get any. Look around here at this world of people! Their contentment is so near to me, but what they have I do not have; even worse, I have no idea how to make my way in the world so that I’ll get for myself a house and family. I’m an outcast. But if this world wants me that, I’ll be that. If no one helps me, I will help myself, and the more I help myself, the stronger I become in body and mind, and then I shall bully the cowards around me in a way that they will never forget! If I have to resort to thievery to survive because the world ignores me and hasn’t a care if I live or die, then why am I solely responsible for the decisions to do what I do? People don’t help me, so I will help them. Let me be blamed and called the criminal. I will be kind if they are kind to me, but if they want me cruel, that’s what I’ll be.” tbc