That twee personality, exemplified by the bowler hatted tramp but pervasive in all his work, was a complete turn-off for me. I was much more a Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd kind of guy.
Though I'm rather taken with the censor-baiting sign in that last image, offering Assorted French Tarts. Censors never seem to have much of a sense for the double entendre.
I discovered his Hitler parody much later in life, and realised what a brave chap he was -- at a time when much of the US (and indeed the UK) was rather more ambivalent to Herr Hitler than many may later have wished to remember.
But for whatever reason, I hadn't realised quite what a handsome sort of chap he was.
An exhibition the other day rather startled me with his romantic, slightly wild good looks.
Perhaps that twinkle in his eye explains why he was still fathering children into his eighties. It feels like time to rewatch and perhaps reappraise some of his films.
3 comments:
Why is Norfolk so bad? I used to go on hols there every year when I was a boy and loved it (Diss, Norwich, the beaches, airshows at the US bases...)
It was paradise compared to north Wales where I grew up.
Like the "random rotating books".
I have Bear Pond too, what other Bruce Weber books do you have?
Clearly you are educated...what did you study at uni? What was your experience of uni life?
I have lots of Bruce Weber books, though Bear Pond is my favourite. Anyway I'm glad someone likes the random rotating books. I was on the verge of deleting it: since no-one had mentioned it I'd assumed it wasn't very interesting.
I think I've banged-on somewhere or other about university. I studied archaeology at Southampton. A suitably magpie-like subject that consists mostly of things stolen from a range of other disciplines -- something that suits a butterfly mind like mine. And I did a fair bit of industrial archaeology, too, which almost made my train obsession respectable.
And here's a secret: I'm actually rather fond of Norfolk. It's a very, er, special place. I think my photographs belie the words I use. But what do I know?
You know a lot.
Keep the rotating books ! It'll grow on people.
I really like your blogsite.
Thanks !
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