The Art Monk - The Blog of Sandro Sebastian

 Another visit with an American legend, Mark Twain. I'd read this book before, and it recently popped back into my mind as I was thinking about the purpose of the arts and literature, and history. To feel engaged with the past, and feel a voice of a former time period reach through and reassure you in your present world, cheering you up in your current circumstance, you can really become nostalgic for a time period you were never part of.      The innocence of the late nineteenth century, in rural southern America (politely disregarding the malicious racism for a literary experience), I love Twain's unapologetic individuality. He's deliberately teasing our notion of what literature is supposed to do. The children's, magical world he describes is accurate to all generations of children, playing pretend. Acting as pirates, or playing cops and robbers, or having superstitious rituals and "voodoo" magic; that moment before you really learn how the world works, and...

 This is a 1936 noir and crime thriller starring the great Humphrey Bogart in his first major role that introduced him to audiences. It's based on a stage play by Robert E. Sherwood, and features the classic actors Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. The story was compact, fluid and tight, and there was never a moment of plot that wasn't saturated with some kind of dramatic tension that effortlessly handles you through the story. All of the things that we love about classic cinema that are lacking from today's popular culture content.     The story is about a series of strangers that get thrown together in a rural, secluded diner in the desert of Arizona. They are stranded there being held hostage by a notorious gangster by the name of Duke Mantee, (played to perfection by Humphrey Bogart. His edgy, gritty, "frustrated outlaw just on the verge of exploding" demeanor translated crystal clear on screen). Leslie Howard plays a wandering intellectual, with no more purpose ...