Today’s Links: Did Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier partially inspire Darth Vader?
A few half-hearted Web searches produced no relationship between Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier and Darth Vader. But, to use North-American philosophical jargon, you could see (barely) that Vadier was a “good guy” that fought against the tyranny of monarchy but eventually turned to the “dark side” and orchestrated the killing of such characters as his sibling-like rival, Georges Danton.
All my interest in Vadier comes from Danton—the Criterion Collection film, Danton, to be exact. This 1982 release, starring Gerard Depardieu as Danton, held my attention—this is remarkable because so many European films have lost their exotic luster in my eyes over the years.
Melville’s Pierre: or, The Ambiguities
Another surprising 1999 French film by Leos Carax, Pola X, pulled me in. This is rather ‘strange’ because this film stars Gerard Depardieu’s late son, Guillaume Depardieu. My attention came to this film through the 2007 Scott Walker documentary, Scott Walker: 30th Century Man. Walker performed music for this film—so the web of links thickens.
Adding more glistening threads, it is important to know that Pola X is based on Melville’s Pierre: or, The Ambiguities. One very strong theme for Leos Carax through Melville is the portrayal of this display of contempt by the young artist for the established order. These displays can be a fascinating novelty for too many young artists—and is especially tragic when the baby assumes that this is the first time in the history of the world that such depth of contempt is expressed. Takes one to know one…
My suggestion to the creative youth would be not to conform to established order but to be humble and thoughtful enough to study the rich history of non-conformity to avoid repeating some mistakes—and to find useful models to build upon (Scott Walker: 30th Century Man provides an outline of such a model, by the way). In the mean time kids, here is a warning from elder Ms. Marguerite in Pola X:
This need to spit the world’s sinister truth in its face is as old as the world itself! You know what Musil wrote: “One can’t resent one’s era without being swiftly punished by it.”
The assumption here is that “Musil” refers to the Austrian writer Robert Musil who lived to see the rise of Nazi power (the Nazis banned his books) but did not live long enough to see its dramatic end. This reference to Musil harmonizes with the opening sequence in Pola X with the Stuka dive bombers set to Scott-Walker dissonance.
EST: Erhard Seminars Training
One interesting moment in the American history of non-conformity is the decade-long run (from 1971) of Erhard Seminars Training or est. Here in the rasx() context, est is the American, mechanical, reductionist distillation of Zen Buddhism that played a significant role in establishing the self-centered “nature” of today’s “self-help” industry. My other guess is that the question, “Don’t you get it?” was seared into American pop culture through the power of this movement.
Not only did the 2002 Adam Curtis documentary Century of the Self introduce me to Erhard Seminars Training it also linked such PBS celebrities as Wayne Dyer to this movement (along with John Denver and other pop stars). I mention Wayne Dyer here because he seems to reference Saint Francis of Assisi in his talks, way, way more than Werner Erhard. I don’t want to get into any arguments. But for those who ask in the context of critiquing the lack of collective effort why “everyone is so selfish,” studying the history of est might provide some answers.