Stockard Channing’s reading of the play’s protagonist, Ouisa Kitteridge, remains remarkable.
Anything would be preferable to Six Degrees’ overupholstered cocoon, where sadism is socking a tapestried pillow and masochism is smiling when someone spills wine on the Chinese rug. As the textured interior began to fill up with fatuous sallies between the dealer and his wife, I began to long for Hollywood’s old, salacious take on the art world. Trying to sell a painting out of all that ambience would be as futile as competing for a piece of raw meat in a shark tank. The place looks like the inside of a sack of potpourri. Unfortunately, from the opening shots of the dealer’s Fifth Avenue apartment, I got the heebie-jeebies. Nor was there even anything to indicate that the dealer’s animating principle was to be sadism ( Body of Evidence), masochism ( 9 1/2 Weeks), felony (Terence Stamp in Legal Eagles), or screaming bias (Bronson Pinchot in Beverly Hills Cop).
Here at last was a film with an art-dealer protagonist played neither by Madonna ( Body of Evidence) nor Kim Basinger ( 9 1/2 Weeks). To tell the truth, I had high hopes for the movie. A clammy rot sets in, and the theatrical artifice turns morally toxic under its celluloid sheen. As a movie, Six Degrees relentlessly yaks at you. As theater, the equation played with a tipsy logic, topical daring and comic invention striking a balance that offset the plot’s conventional pieties. He merely, desperately, lived out his fantasy in the midst of other people’s superior reality. The story is true in its essentials-it was reported with great gusto by the New York Times hack in the mid ’80s-and there was never any doubt that the young man was guilty of misrepresentation and psychological trespass but, as in the play, he neither stole nor inflicted bodily harm. The play’s premise concerns a young man who claims to be the son of Sidney Poitier in order to insinuate himself into an affluent urban household, which, as a result of his intrusion, is politely but irrevocably shattered. That the scary plight of the hustling black antihero is left willfully unresolved in order to serve up an epiphany of conscience to its careless white heroine caused nary a whisper of discontent. On Broadway, where it ran like a Restoration comedy on poppers, the messier social issues of John Guare’s play were folded in on themselves-as if a perfect sheet of dough covered everything with a creamy ubiquitousness. Tracy Chevalier’s descriptive and atmospheric novel is an interesting and engaging take on this famous work of art.There is something morally anemic about Six Degrees of Separation. Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring was even more luminous in person than I had imagined. It was an unforgettable experience to view these two Dutch Golden Age masterpieces in the same afternoon. Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier A few years ago, I was lucky enough to see the painting at the center of the novel – The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius – in an exhibition which also included the painting at the center of…
I’m hoping to get to it before the end of the year, and I’ll be very disappointed if I don’t end up loving it. I bought this novel shortly after it was released, but still haven’t read it. Another Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that includes a major dramatic moment at the Met is… In Wharton’s gilded age novel, Newland and Ellen meet for a clandestine tête-à- tête in the quiet antiquities department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This brought to mind other books that feature scenes set in museums, such as…. One of the things I remember most about And Only to Deceive, are the scenes set at the British Museum. Another novel that features all of the above is… I love the Victorian setting, strong female lead, dash of mystery and romance, and the focus on archaeology, antiquities, and museums. It’s perfect for both my Victober and R.I.P reading challenges. I’m really enjoying this fun, easy, and entertaining read. I have Egypt on the mind at the moment, since I’m currently reading…Ĭrocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters I adored this book when I was in Elementary school, and even wanted to create my own Egypt game. To get things started, I decided to go with another YA novel that was also published in 1967… I haven’t read The Outsiders, but I have seen the film adaptation. My chain this month features: paintings, Pulitzer Prize winners, mysteries, museums, Victorians, and Egyptians. The October 2018 book is: The Outsiders by S. The 6 Degrees of Separation meme is a monthly meme hosted at booksaremyfavoriteandbest, that explores the ways in which a chosen book can be linked to six other books.