Sort of a cross between F FOR FAKE and the Beatles' MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR. It's an amusing show, although Dali's English is really a chore to try and make heads or tails of:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8VetReVqTs
Welles narrates SALVADOR DALI - A SOFT SELF-PORTRAIT
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Le Chiffre
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Le Chiffre
- Site Admin
- Posts: 2078
- Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2001 11:31 pm
Re: Welles narrates SALVADOR DALI - A SOFT SELF-PORTRAIT
An amusing online review:
Focuses on a crazy "happening" of Dali's, which Orson Welles narrates with bemused awe. Old Dali is kind of what Welles would like to be, a complete nut, but Welles always had the dual edge of being a rampant hedonist. Still he makes it seem like Dali just snaps his fingers and a huge crowd of attractive, barely dressed local hippie children come a runnin' to sing and dance and parade around with Dali leading the way holding a giant papier mache rhino head and completely lovingly straightfaced deadpan serious! If Dali were to laugh or act foolish he'd ruin the effect, but since he carries his egotistic self-importance to such lengths he shows an acute aware of comedic timing and genius rivaling perhaps only Jack Benny.
Meant as a one-hour special for network TV and done in the heady early 70s style of shows like the Leonard Nimoy-narrated IN SEARCH OF... the show's bombastic library music cues and Dali's endless monologues of broken twisted meta-language get on the nerves after awhile, no matter what your substance. It takes the old duffer about five minutes to say: "The only crazy thing about Dali is that he is... not crazy... at all!" But as far as acid culture goes, this man set the bar high and early. Even in 2009, hippies would probably flock from all over the world at a snap of his fingers... even if they were skeleton zombie fingers due to Dali's TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD style resurrection, and that's probably not far off... if you know what I mean.
Comments:
Flickhead: "Wow... you actually saw this too, huh? And here I thought I hallucinated the whole thing."
Focuses on a crazy "happening" of Dali's, which Orson Welles narrates with bemused awe. Old Dali is kind of what Welles would like to be, a complete nut, but Welles always had the dual edge of being a rampant hedonist. Still he makes it seem like Dali just snaps his fingers and a huge crowd of attractive, barely dressed local hippie children come a runnin' to sing and dance and parade around with Dali leading the way holding a giant papier mache rhino head and completely lovingly straightfaced deadpan serious! If Dali were to laugh or act foolish he'd ruin the effect, but since he carries his egotistic self-importance to such lengths he shows an acute aware of comedic timing and genius rivaling perhaps only Jack Benny.
Meant as a one-hour special for network TV and done in the heady early 70s style of shows like the Leonard Nimoy-narrated IN SEARCH OF... the show's bombastic library music cues and Dali's endless monologues of broken twisted meta-language get on the nerves after awhile, no matter what your substance. It takes the old duffer about five minutes to say: "The only crazy thing about Dali is that he is... not crazy... at all!" But as far as acid culture goes, this man set the bar high and early. Even in 2009, hippies would probably flock from all over the world at a snap of his fingers... even if they were skeleton zombie fingers due to Dali's TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD style resurrection, and that's probably not far off... if you know what I mean.
Comments:
Flickhead: "Wow... you actually saw this too, huh? And here I thought I hallucinated the whole thing."
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