The Driver’s Seat (1970) – Muriel Spark

In search of Muriel Spark

The Driver’s Seat (1970) – Muriel Spark
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Very early on in her 1970 novel The Driver’s Seat, Muriel Spark lets us know that the heroine, Lise, an office worker on vacation somewhere in Southern Europe, is going to die.

The Driver’s Seat (1974) – Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
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Starring Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol… . This film is based on the best-selling Muriel Spark novel. Elizabeth Taylor, in one of her least-known performances, stars as a deranged, psychotic spinster looking for a man to whom she can give herself – completely (see above). Set in Italy’s romantic and tragedy-filled Rome, she embarks on a series of chilling adventures as she seeks to keep a date with a mystery lover…but when she finds him, she demands much more than love… She demands murder. (for similar storylines about a character who demands to be murdered see Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and Martin Amis’s London Fields)

See also: Italian cinema – 1974 film – Andy Warhol

The Breast (1972) – Philip Roth

In search of grotesque fiction

The Breast (1972) – Philip Roth
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The Breast (1972) is a novel by Philip Roth, in which the main character, David Kepesh, becomes a 155-pound breast. Throughout the book we see Kepesh fighting with himself. Part of him wishes to give into bodily wishes, while the other part of him wants to be reasonable. In many ways this book has a lot in common with Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis. –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Breast [Sept 2006]

See also: independent body parts in fiction – breast – 1972 – American literature

Art Blakey and friends – Moanin’

Mr. Dante Fontana brings us a Google video of Moanin’  by Art Blakey and friends, originally recorded for Blue Note in 1958.

The Devil, Probably (1977) – Robert Bresson

In search of favorite films

The Devil, Probably (1977) – Robert Bresson
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Dennis Cooper’s favorite film, he said recently, and posted on Bresson here and here.

But there was no mellowing for Bresson: his last two films, The Devil Probably and L’Argent, are among his blackest works, the former probably the most borderline-nihilistic teen film ever made.  –girish

See also: Robert Bresson – 1977 – French cinema