![]() Reviewed by roger-212 3 / 10 Short and flat.very little mood to keep you interested.Ī rather flat - and short - version of Poe's classic story. These are small little things in the film and aren't grand summations of Harrington's beliefs or anything, but I liked thinking about them in light of his body of work. Later, while talking about great poets, he has Usher say that poetry must be read in the original, citing an example of Nabokov's struggle to translate Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, because while the poem's meaning could be translated, "the meaning is not the poem." Attempts to dissect art or take it in a literal sense are bound to butcher its aesthetic beauty or miss its deeper, more profound truths. And yet, ".the line between the two, that's where the mystery lies it's a maze of ambiguity," something that called to mind 'Fragment of Seeking' or 'Picnic' for how the art reflected the artist's sexuality. We also get some lovely little musings on artists and poets, such as "You must never forget that the life of the artist is less important than his art." That's something you could see Harrington believed with how he made 'The Wormwood Star' 44 years earlier, putting all of the focus on Marjorie Cameron's art and poems and none on her personal life or beliefs. It's a rather lugubrious story but that was in keeping with the source, and there are some wonderful shots in the film's climactic moments. All these years later it seems perfectly suited to where he was in life, facing his own mortality, sensing faded glory, and yet still having a playful sense of the macabre. "Now you understand: we share the same soul."Ĭurtis Harrington's final film, made when he was 74, is a version of Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' mirroring his first film, made at 14 and while in high school. Reviewed by gbill-74877 7 / 10 Facing mortality That talk is foreboding for Truman's remaining time at the House of Usher.-Huggo In their time together, Roderick and Truman increasingly talk about death, not even so much in Madeline's context, but in general and in relation to it as a theme in poetry. Roderick implies that Madeline's imminent passing means more to him than the loss of a loved one. The family doctor believes she will not survive to her imminent next birthday, for which Roderick has arranged a masquerade party. Truman will learn that Roderick shares the mansion with his ailing twin sister, Madeline Usher. While Roderick in return doesn't think he can offer him anything of value that couldn't be learned from textbooks, he invites Truman to stay at the mansion for however long he will be in Los Angeles. Having just arrived in Los Angeles from his home in New Orleans, Truman Jones is meeting with elderly Roderick Usher at his secluded mansion in order to learn about poetry from a master.
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