ERUDITS I 4
Elias CANETTI, Die Stimmen von Marrakesch
“Dreimal kam ich mit Kamelen in Berührung und es endete jedesmal auf tragische Weise.”
ÜBER DIESES BUCH
“Der Zufall führte Canetti 1954 als Begleiter eines Filmteams in ein bestürzend fremdartiges Land - nach Marrakesch. Erst aus der Distanz, nach seiner Rückkehr nach London, skizzierte er die Eindrücke dieser Reise. Die Aufzeichnungen sind kein Reisebericht im klassischen Sinn. Es sind Miniaturen von atmosphärischen Erscheinungen einer orientalischen Großstadt.
Elias Canetti streift durch die arabischen und jüdischen Viertel der Stadt, atmet die seltsamen Gerüche, beobachtet die feilschenden Händler in den Suks und die Verkäuferinnen duftenden Brotes, vernimmt die Stimmen der Blinden, Bettler und zungenlosen Krüppel in den Slums, spürt die hilflose Kreatürlichkeit und Nähe des Todes vor den Kamelen mit ihren Schlächtern, staunt über die vielen Gesichter armer Juden in der Mellah, wird Zeuge intimster menschlicher Verhältnisse, sieht Bosheit, Armut und Prostitution und spürt nur die Sehnsucht, die Sehnsucht nach einem besseren Leben.“
Innenseite, Taschenbuchausgabe, Frankfurt, 1980
Eine gekürzte Hörfassung, 1985 vom Hessischen Rundfunk produziert, wird vom Autor auf eindrucksvolle Weise selbst gelesen. Die Doppel-CD erschien 2015 im Hörverlag.
ANOTHER SKY, by Gavin Lambert, 1954
“Another Sky was actually filmed in the mid-1950s, but it was not released (to the extent it ever was) until 1960 […] It was filmed in Morocco, and I must confess to a certain fondness for that country, based on a visit in 2001 where I delivered a paper on Josef von Sternberg’s Morocco, which is close to being my favorite film. Although I never got to Marrakesh or the Atlas Mountains, Lambert’s film seems to me have captured the authentic flavor of a slowly changing country, nearly half a century before my visit. It’s also evident that he had seen Sternberg’s film (which was shot in Hollywood). Lambert was also influenced by the expatriate author Paul Bowles (with whom he later became friendly), whose The Sheltering Sky was filmed on location in 1999 by Bernardo Bertolucci. For all of these, milieu is crucial, and Lambert is blessed by being able to shoot, inexpensively and picturesquely, in the streets, mountain villages, and desert with an unfailing and highly professional sense of composition. (The film was photographed by Walter Lassally, who, after this, his second feature, went on to a distinguished international career working for Michael Cacoyannis, Tony Richardson, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and James Ivory, among many others.)
Although Lambert’s shy English heroine is a long way from Marlene Dietrich’s nightclub diva in Morocco, Lambert borrows Sternberg’s ultra-romantic ending, having the girl pursuing her man (a young indigenous musician, not a bit like Gary Cooper’s Legionnaire) into the desert with passionate and sensual abandon. In his extremely useful book-length interview with George Cukor, Lambert would try to draw the director (Camille, Holiday, The Philadelphia Story, A Star Is Born, Justine) into discussing the similarity of his approach with that of Sternberg, whose work with Dietrich somewhat paralleled Cukor’s work with Greta Garbo.
Shortly after Another Sky Lambert moved to Hollywood, and wrote biographies of Norma Shearer, Alla Nazimova, and Natalie Wood, in addition to a memoir about Lindsay Anderson. He wrote seven novels, including Inside Daisy Clover, which Robert Mulligan filmed from Lambert’s screenplay with Wood in the starring role. He is remembered mostly for his screenplays, especially Bitter Victory, Sons and Lovers, and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. Bitter Victory was directed by Nicholas Ray, who may have been Lambert’s lover. Lambert lamented on his career: ‘The important thing to remember about ‘gay influence’ in movies is that it was obviously never direct. It was all subliminal.’ I think we may also lament that he never pursued directing films after the promise of Another Sky.”
By Charles Silver, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA/PS1 Blog, 2014