Our Illuminati

Has anyone seen this marvelous movie? For me it had a wonderful ethereal quality and the dancing is wonderful.

David Nathanson

When you can, see 2 more by Satyajit Ray: Kapurush: The Coward and Nayak: The Hero. The former stars the heroine of Charulata…brilliant as ever. They both have the slow building, mesmerizing quality of Charulata, but set in India in the 1960′s. Nayak (the one I liked best) has a Fellini-like feel (complete with dream sequences) and deals with issue of India cinema. Clearly a theme for Ray. Both available on Netflix. Neither is a thoroughly transporting as Charulata, but worth renting!

Dear friends,

The 2011 Esalen film seminar, co-led by Brother David and myself, will be July 24-31, 2011: “Films Envisioning a Hopeful Future.” In addition, I will be leading by myself April 10-15, 2011, a 5-day version of our co-led 7-day 2010 film seminar “Imagining the Feminine in Film.”
Both seminars are described and open for registration today Sept 17 at www.esalen.org. Search “Francis Lu” in the leaders tab under
workshops to find the descriptions and online registration.

We filled very quickly last year within one week, but several people came in through the wait list.
So if you do not get in, get on wait list. Please contact me with any questions at francislumd@gmail.com.

Francis

The previous video had Penelope singing with Estrella Morente’s voice. That video was taken down my youTube due to copyright issues. So here’s another video with stills from the production.

Makes me cry hearing this voice.

Here are the words.  What would I do with the internet?

Tengo miedo del encuentro
Con el pasado que vuelve
A enfrentarse con mi vida.

Tengo miedo de las noches
que, pobladas de recuerdos,
Encadenan mi soñar.

Pero el viajero que huye,
Tarde o temprano
Detiene su azar.

Y aunque el olvido,
Que todo lo destruye,
Haya matado
A mi vieja ilusión,

Guardo escondida
Una esperanza humilde,
que es toda la fortuna
De mi corazón.

Volver…
Con la frente marchita,
Las nieves del tiempo
Platearon mi sien.

Sentir…
Que es un soplo la vida,
Que veinte años no es nada,
Que febril la mirada,
Errante en las sombras,
Te busca y te nombra.

Vivir…
Con el alma aferrada
A un dulce recuerdo,
Que lloro otra vez.

I am afraid of the encounter
With the past that comes back
to face my life again.

I am afraid the nights that,
populated of memories,
put chains to my dreaming.

But the traveler that flees,
sooner or later
Stops its (his of her) chance.

And although forgetting,
That all destroys,
Has killed my old illusion,

I keep hidden
A humble hope, that is all the fortune
that I have in my heart.

Returning…
With a wilted forhead,
The snows of  time
Silverplated my temple.

Feeling…
That life is a puff of air,
That twenty years is nothing,
That my sight is feverish,
Wandering in the shadows,
seeks
You and calls you.

Living…
With the soul grasping at
a sweet memory for which,
I cry again.

The Spanish translation was done by Helena, our Uruguayan  Goddess.

Just saw this movie. Very heavy but well done.

I saw Salt – well worth missing.

Dear friends,

It was a special treat to be with all of you.  In many ways, this was the best of the 24 film seminars, but I said that last year! Here is the link to the description of the seminar:  http://www.gratefulness.org/readings/feminine_films.htm

Many thanks for putting together this wonderful way to communicate.

Francis

For six glorious days, 31 souls sat together, watched 19 films and searched for the feminine.  Our leaders were the usual lovelies, Dr. Francis G. Lu and Br. David Steindle-Rast.

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The first day of our workshop, we were given a beautiful bound book for writing down our notes and a big pile of readings.  To see all the readings, here is the list.

Here is the page that Francis has put up on Brother David’s Gratefulness.org website

The Feminine has been imagined in film by screenwriters, directors, actors/actresses and the film audience since the beginning of the cinema. In this seven-day seminar, we will view and discuss about 15 feature films that evoke in the participants—both male and female– aspects of the Feminine: heroine, caregiver, waif, lover, anima among others. The Feminine will be revealed in the play of consciousness seen in film, theater, country singing, radio and television shows among other settings. The seminar will explore female relationships with men and women, gender roles and gender identity through active imagination stimulated by the films and discussion.

Here are Films that were shown in this order:

Queen Christina (1933)
King of Masks (1996)
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
The Red Shoes (1948)
Charulata (1964)
Love and the Goddess (1988) From Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth: Joseph Campbell in conversation with Bill Moyers on the Goddess (30’ from Episode 5)
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Children of Paradise (1945)
All About Eve (1950)
All About My Mother (1999)
Volver (2006)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
Tootsie (1982)
The African Queen (1951)

“The one-sided patriarchally masculine value-canon of occidental consciousness and the fundamental ignorance regarding the essentially different female and feminine psychology have contributed in a major way to the crisis of our time. Hence, understanding the Feminine is an urgent necessity not only in order to understand the single individual
but also to heal the collective.“
-Erich Neumann (1952)