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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.
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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.
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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.
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An exhibition the other day rather startled me with his romantic, slightly wild good looks.
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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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