Jeff Bernstein

D a r i a 2. POLYME. So fortunate a man—and such failure! Have I not done my utmost for the boy? Look at him—and he makes me act the spy in my own home—lowered there on his knees in his room, praying to a who knows what! After my long life, do I deserve this? I am much prosperous in business, my family is loving and secure, my position in the city of Rome is firm, yet Cris, my eldest, is shameful! He threatens to bring scandal upon me, and ruin his parents, and the prospects of his sisters, and leave himself penniless. His martyr's church will be the death of us! This house has never seen such a havoc! SERVANT. What do you intend, my excellency? POLYME. I want five of the most sensual women in the city to be brought to me, the five most renowned courtesans on the river. SERVANT. Ah, you're going to console yourself, sir. POLYME. Not me, you idiot! Him! SERVANT. This sickness requires strong medicine. POLYME. Just one woman. Come closer and I will tell you my plan. tbc [ A fairy tale for the night Photograph Kateryna Kutsevol Germany 2019 ]

D A R I A I am Daria, a Vestal Virgin. I live here in the old city of Rome. I haven't any family, only Rome. When I was six years old I was lifted from my dear father's lap and taken here, this cold temple, where the flame of Rome burns, and we Vestals are meant to keep it lit. There are six of us here in the temple. This white robe I'm wearing is the Vestal's traditional garment, and these six braids winding around my head is the style common among us. We also wear a veil, when we're seen in public on holidays. Here—the eternal flame sacred to Rome, the fire my sisters and I are entrusted to maintain at all costs for the people. This hearth fire represents the spirit of the city. The flame is auspicious and must never go out. If the fire dies it's easily relit, but we're whipped for it. We have to be very careful in here; even slight suspicions lead to punishment. The other day a girl was stripped naked and beaten through a curtain with a stick. I'm not sure what she did to deserve it. Look, my robe is silk; isn't it pretty? It's fastened with these shoulder straps; Ovid's advice is that these narrow straps are best. Living in the temple as a Vestal is considered a very rare privilege. I was chosen for my beauty and speech. No blemishes on my body excluded me, and my power of speech was highly praised. All of us here are from respectable homes. Here in the temple I reached maturity; I'm sixteen years old by my reckoning; and as a Vestal Virgin I must keep my chastity for the next thirty years. I wonder what I should think about this. I live here, have my friends, I do my chores. Unlike other unmarried girls in Rome I make my own financial decisions —and I stand to inherit a great deal one day. But I am not allowed to marry. I will never have a husband beside me. I will have no hearth and home of my own. Gods in Heaven! Will you show me mercy? Is there no god at all who hears my voice? A Virgin was found guilty of incestum, the breaking of our law of chastity— do you want to hear what happened to her? A prison cell was dug under the ground outside the city walls, and a dirt mound was piled up over it. There were steps that led down to it. Inside was a chair, a burning lamp, a jug of water, milk, and oil. The Vestal Virgin was put in a cart that was covered so we heard no sound from her as she made her progress, and all the people stood speechless as she went past, and they followed her silently, looking sad, as on the gloomiest day; and the cart came to the place of the cell. The girl, wearing a veil, went down into it. Then the dirt was collapsed over the steps and the Vestal Virgin was buried alive. Why did she think it worth it, I wonder? tbc [ Eternal flame Photograph Sandra Roberts United States 2014 / Ghost Photograph Javiera Estrada United States 2019 ]

Leave, leave your work; come, readers, come, run into this cool shadow; I bring great news for rejoicing all over. Leave, leave your work; come, readers, come, run into this cool shadow. And one Daria, a noble and a wyse virgyne of the goddess Vesta, arayed herself nobly with clothes as she had ben a goddesse and prayd that she myght be given entree in to him, and that she myght restore hym . . . S O O N [ Darkness : he and I Painting Seongah Park South Korea 2021 / Colors circle Photograph Panos Pliassas Greece 2020 ]

sudden ATMOSPHERIC SHIFT : eg, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) : correspondent transition from open space to moonsand. Gangs of New York (2002) : infernal to icy. The Master (2012) : suddenly, the freedom of open space. The Shining (1980) : sudden snow. The following paragraph appears in the middle of the last chapter of The Sun Also Rises, and is a virtuoso sudden ATMOSPHERIC SHIFT. The novel has been a social one, but here, all of a sudden, appears an elaborate sequence with one character only, the narrator. The climax of the novel is not a character interaction but a solitary physical exertion. By virtue of the fact of its placement in the narrative, the sequence seems expressionistic, and resonant with "extra" meanings (ie the sequence is "symbolic"—eg, the boy and girl and their intimacy, and the narrator set apart from all that—eg, the narrator noticing the "dark" and the "dark shadow" and plunging into it—eg, the Catholic narrator anointing himself with "fresh water"). Hemingway's technique is visual : Bergman could have artfully placed this scene within a film. After lunch I went up to my room, read a while, and went to sleep. When I woke it was half past four. I found my swimming-suit, wrapped it with a comb in a towel, and went down-stairs and walked up the street to the Concha. The tide was about half-way out. The beach was smooth and firm, and the sand yellow. I went into a bathing-cabin, undressed, put on my suit, and walked across the smooth sand to the sea. The sand was warm under bare feet. There were quite a few people in the water and on the beach. Out beyond where the headlands of the Concha almost met to form the harbor there was a white line of breakers and the open sea. Although the tide was going out, there were a few slow rollers. They came in like undulations in the water, gathered weight of water, and then broke smoothly on the warm sand. I waded out. The water was cold. As a roller came I dove, swam out under water, and came to the surface with all the chill gone. I swam out to the raft, pulled myself up, and lay on the hot planks. A boy and girl were at the other end. The girl had undone the top strap of her bathing-suit and was browning her back. The boy lay face downward on the raft and talked to her. She laughed at things he said, and turned her brown back in the sun. I lay on the raft in the sun until I was dry. Then I tried several dives. I dove deep once, swimming down to the bottom. I swam with my eyes open and it was green and dark. The raft made a dark shadow. I came out of water beside the raft, pulled up, dove once more, holding it for length, and then swam ashore. I lay on the beach until I was dry, then went into the bathing-cabin, took off my suit, sloshed myself with fresh water, and rubbed dry.

On the living and the dead / 20 May 2025 Our responsibility to the dead— consider it, good reader : if we fail to live righteously so that the saviour returns, and with him the Resurrection, then the dead will never come back to life. If we have love for those gone before us, and love each other, we'll stop our pretence of life—and thereby our wasting of it— and feel at last the bond of the human, thereby saving ourselves, and our loved ones, and our world from planetary error, and every soul who has come before us. Fail to live, and more than life is lost.

"Why, my brothers and sisters, we should get down on our knees; we should beg our mercy. You're dead to the knowledge of yourself and your people . . . and to the knowledge of your God."

"Don't let go!" / Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

You who pass by, who live after us, do not harden your hearts against us; for if you pity us God may sooner have mercy on you. You see us hanging here, five or six of us. As for our flesh, which we have tended, now it is rotten and our bones reduced to powder. No one is laughing now. Pray to God that he may have mercy on us all. But not all people have good sense; may his grace not be lost to us. Intercede, then, Art; help us to recover. We are dead and no one can harm us, but pray to God that he may have mercy on us all. The rain has soaked us, the sun has baked us, birds have dug out our eyes and plucked at our eyebrows and beards. There is nothing to laugh at here. Pray to God that he may have mercy on us all. adapted from Villon, L'Epitaphe / Gloris Swanson in Stage Struck (1925) "Dear Director, is the shot over?" "You're really about the best friend I have, Jake." God help you, I thought. The Sun Also Rises

Hydriotaphia : or, Urn-Burial Sir Thomas Browne fourth edition London, 1736.

Agony in the Garden CRYST. Behold, my friends, who are so dear to me, so faithful, my body dreads; I tremble at what is to come. My enemies now will come near to me with all of their strength and destroy this flesh. But you are weary, weary with fear. Look you, lay yourself down and rest a bit. Please, my friends, be not sad at heart, but hold yourself here quietly, and wait for me awhile in this place. Be wise now and witted in your thinking, so that you stay wakeful always. PETER. Yes, O Lord, at your word we shall sit here, for you care for us, and speak for the best. JOHN. You are our help and healing; we shall not leave. JAMES. Which way has he wandered? To east or west? PETER. Let’s sit down. My limbs are as heavy as lead. JOHN. And I must lie down. I feel I must sleep. JAMES. And me. I can no longer hold up my head. CRYST. My flesh dreads and trembles at what’s to come. Father, O healer and builder of bliss, all our help and healing are in your hands. So that I do not go astray, give me strength! I shall now return to my disciples, my friends who have come to show me kindness. What? Are you asleep? Every one of you? Will you leave me so easily? and leave me alone in my sorrow and struggle? Whom may I move and tell my misery? I wish that you were awake and willing. Good Peter, do sit up now. Let me see; you are surely fallen in this struggle. Might you even for the space of an hour have stayed awake to sit mildly with me? What, my friends, are you all so fast asleep? My flesh is full of fear and would defend itself; and soon I must prepare for it. And when I am gone you shall forsake me, one and all, and say you never knew me. Judas, my friend, draw near me. The hour comes that shall prove everything I have said. Go now before us, Judas, show us the way. JUDAS. O my master, I ask you for a kiss, for I give you all my love. CRYST. Take this kiss, Judas. And with this kiss I am betrayed. SOLDIER 1. I am lost! I cannot see in the dark! CRYST. You there! Please, who is it that you look for? SOLDIER 2. We’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth. CRYST. See then, all of you. I am him you seek. SOLDIER 3. Stand, traitor! We come to bring you your death. PETER. What is this? I shall kill you, you bastard! CRYST. Peace, Peter. Neither meddle nor move yourself. Put up your sword. SOLDIER 1. Come, fellows! Let’s grab him! SOLDIER 2. I’ve got a strong hold on him. SOLDIER 3. So do I. CRYST. You throw me about like a common thief? SOLDIER 1. Go on, all of you! Go, I order you! See no more of this but quickly be gone! Adapted and modernised from York Mystery Play No. 28 by Scroob.

WITT. You ever get lonely? WELSH. Only around people. “Don’t you like it better when we’re alone?” “Yes,” I said. “I felt very lonely when they were all there.” "I have been alone while I was with many girls and that is the way that you can be most lonely." A Farewell to Arms (ch 20; 34)

A monumental 'glass half full' moment—for Nolan to bring to life. While the two men spoke to one another, a dog lying nearby raised its head, and pricked up its ears : this was Argos, Odysseus’ great-hearted dog, whom his owner had bred before leaving for Troy all those years ago, and so had taken no joy in him. In the old days he had run through the wilds, going off with the house servants on hunts for goats and deer and rabbits. These days, though, he was left alone, his master long gone, his fur matted by the filth of the farmyards and infested with fleas; for he sometimes followed the slaves when they went off to manure the fields. So there lay Argos, smelling of mule and cattle filth; and just now, coming aware of his old master Odysseus standing near, his eyes widened, and his tail began to wag. But he was no longer able to go to his master, for he’d lost the strength to walk. Odysseus, however, had seen the movement of his head, and looked : then he looked away, and wiped the tear that fell from his eye. . . . And Argos, now that he had seen Odysseus his master one more time, in the twentieth year, let black death take hold of him, and his spirit ran away. FRANK CAPRA. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries. ☞ If storyteller Nolan wrings tears from the audience here, he will have unequivocally graduated to the highest level of world storyteller.

LANA. You know what I think? I think we're both going to make it big! LANA. I'm very optimistic!

GORGEOUS LENSING : Halation in Our Betters (1933) CINEMATOGRAPHER : Charles Rosher, the first person to win an Oscar for Best Cinematography (1929). "It's wonderful how you've made your way in London." CONSTANCE BENNETT : "Shall I tell you how I've done it? By force of character, wit, unscrupulousness, and push."

Hemingway and EWS : humorous hanky-panky timeclock TAXI DRIVER : "How long you gonna be?" DR BILL : "I don't know, maybe an hour or more. But maybe only 10 minutes." RINALDI : "I only like two other things; one is bad for my work and the other is over in half an hour or fifteen minutes. Sometimes less.” NARRATOR : “Sometimes a good deal less.” RINALDI : “Perhaps I have improved, baby. You do not know. But there are only the two things and my work.” A Farewell to Arms, ch. 25

The Sisters (1938) : the KUBRICK SWITCH This editing conjunction brings to mind :

Fitzgerald opposing Austen The following character moment in Gatsby exemplifies the difference between Jane Austen's time and Fitzgerald's. In the former, as we just saw in an earlier post, a humanness, an ingenuous expression of the loss of a loved one, appeared on page one of Persuasion. In Gatsby, Mrs. Wilson also mentions the loss of a loved one : "My dear," she cried, "I'm going to give you this dress as soon as I'm through with it. I've got to get another one tomorrow. I'm going to make a list of all the things I've got to get. A massage and a wave and a collar for the dog and one of those cute little ash-trays where you touch a spring, and a wreath with a black silk bow for mother's grave that'll last all summer. I got to write down a list so I won't forget all the things I got to do." Mrs. Wilson mentions the death of her mother. Here, its idle integration in a continuum of blather reduces the force of the loss—here there is no EMOTIONAL REVERSAL—and exposes Mrs. Wilson as exemplarily inhuman.

Gatsby : showing character ☞ Mr. McKee, the photographer in the "artistic game", is evaluating Mrs. Wilson for a photograph : "I should change the light," he said after a moment. "I'd like to bring out the modelling of the features. And I'd try to get hold of all the back hair." "I wouldn't think of changing the light," cried Mrs. McKee. "I think it's—" Her husband said "Sh!" and we all looked at the subject again whereupon Tom Buchanan yawned audibly and got to his feet. Why the urgent appeal of "Sh!"? What is happening here in the interaction between husband and wife? The wife is humiliating the husband by presuming to correct him in business in front of strangers.

Spielberg and Gatsby Why the long party sequence in chapter 2 of Gatsby, a sequence that appears early in the book yet at face value seems to have zero relevance to a forward-moving plot? The party sequence in the Manhattan apartment is equivalent to the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. The taking of Omaha Beach plunges the viewer into a gruelling nightmare that goes on and on, leaving one woozy with the nihilism of it all; similarly, the aimless, relentless, grabastic party in the small apartment at 158th Street. * Altman and Gatsby A moment of casual, shocking violence at the party— "Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" shouted Mrs. Wilson. "I'll say it whenever I want to! Daisy! Dai—" Making a short deft movement Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand. recalls a similar moment in The Long Goodbye :

Homer in The Great Gatsby, ch.1 We walked through a high hallway into a bright rosy-colored space, fragilely bound into the house by French windows at either end. The windows were ajar and gleaming white against the fresh grass outside that seemed to grow a little way into the house. A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding cake of the ceiling—and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea. Anyone who has read Homer would automatically think of Odysseus' odyssey in the use of the adjective phrase wine-coloured rug. eg, οἴνοπι πόντῳ ("wine-dark sea", 5.132; 221; 349). This association is corroborated by the proximate use of sea. Evidently the narrator urges us to make this connection with the ancient vibe. For that matter, high hallway recalls such expressions in THE ODYSSEY as δόμου ὑψηλοῖο ("house high/lofty", 4.304; οἶκον . . . ὑψόροφον ("house high-roofed"), 5.115; ὑψερεφὲς δῶ ("high-roofed house", 15.432; ὑψηλοῖσι δόμοισιν ("high/lofty house", 17.110). While rosy-colored recalls ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς ("rosy-fingered dawn", 3.1). FRIEND SCROOB leaves it to the good reader to augment the above commentary.

Scorsese and Ballhaus remember Fassbinder Fear of Fear (1975)

Jane Austen, Persuasion : well-toned opening Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed. This was the page at which the favourite volume always opened : [ he reads a paragraph ] Precisely such had the paragraph originally stood from the printer’s hands; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary’s birth—“Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset,” and by inserting most accurately the day of the month on which he had lost his wife. Amusing. A character whom the young'uns today would deem a narcissist? Amusing. Austen's slight or not-so-slight dig at the establishment?—and she would know. Amusing. The Baronetage as quasi–Holy Bible. Early glimmer of THE SOMBRE. Here, the vibe of "the dying of an era". THE SOMBRE. "most accurately" connotes how heavy the loss has been for the man. THE SOMBRE. Austen demonstrates a sure hand, modulating easily and well from amusing to suddenly ingenuously moving. ☞ Here, storyteller Austen successfully grades into emotional REVERSAL. A genius move, right off the bat.

The Great Gatsby : paragraph 3. He didn't say any more but we've always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence I'm inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon—for the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth. Narrator is signalling that more meanings inhabit the text transmission than the reader may expect or imagine, and that the best course of action to reckon with the story is to slow down, slow wayyy down. Indeed. The reader, perhaps unconsciously, is agreeing to go with the flow. . . . Artist's wry, self-referential humour. Will this story be boring? (eg, "Hi, Lloyd. Little slow tonight, isn't it?") This reflection promises the reader that this story will tell all, in the manner of a confession or salacious novel; yet this reflection is an example of FAMOUS LAST WORDS.

The Great Gatsby : Cinematic Prose Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light. This prompts the reader to visualise, in cases unconsciously, a flower, eg :

Darling, let us go see the rose, if this morning it has opened its red dress to the sun; or if in the night it has lost the drape of its red dress and its color kindred to yours. Ah! Look how in such small space, darling, how at this place it has been left to decay ! O unmotherly nature, that this flower lasts only from morning to night ! If you trust me, darling— while you blossom in freshness, enjoy, enjoy your youth : for like that flower, old age shall wither your beauty. Pierre de Ronsard (1552). A locus classicus for the English Elizabethan poets, such as "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" and Shakespeare's sonnets.