Karin’s Travel and Culture Club Newsletter volume 6

Karin’s Travel and Culture Club Newsletter

LATE SUMMER 2021 | vol. 6

VIEW AS A WEBPAGE - we recommend it!

QUOTE of the MONTH

"IN YOUR DISCIPLINE, IF DOUBT COMES, LET IT COME. YOU DO YOUR WORK AND LET DOUBT CARRY ON WITH ITS WORK. AND LET US SEE WHICH GIVES UP FIRST."

B.K.S. IYENGAR (from Sparks of Divinity)

Dear Students,

In this wry quote by Mr. Iyengar regarding discipline, he is obviously referring to the practice of Yoga, but it could also be applied to any other kind of practice.

I once attended a small, invitation-only meeting with Krishnamurti in New York City. The meeting was made up of psychiatrists, psychotherapists and some friends. We were forty or so and all sat in a circle. The entire session revolved around Krishnamurti asking one single question: "Is there security in relationship?" Each person gave their own answer, to which he responded, "Sir/Madam, the question is, Is there security in relationship?" This process went on for two and a half hours.

I sat there watching, saying nothing. I didn't have an answer nor could I think of one. No one seemed to come up with the correct response. At the very end, before we dispersed, we fell into a deep silence. At that moment, it occurred to me that the answer was in the silence itself. In other words, the silence was the answer.

Neither Iyengar nor Krishnamurti were actually asking us to answer a question. In Iyengar’s quote, the answer is implied through his irony. That is, he basically tells us to get on with our lives and see what happens. In Krishnamurti’s presentation the answer is implied by the negation of any answer. The minute one tries to answer his question, the question itself falls apart. Neither Iyengar nor Krishnamurti sought resolution. One does not need to get rid of doubt before embarking on a discipline. Nor is total certainty necessary to enter into a relationship. Rather, the important thing is the question itself.

The French writer Marguerite Yourcenar cautions us to be aware of the "instability beneath stability." This is a difficult concept to grasp. In fact you cannot think it through. The only thing you can do is to teach yourself how to be nimble, pliable, resilient and open to change. Paradoxically, it is possible to make these qualities a permanent state of mind. That alone is where security dwells. "It is," as Yourcenar so brilliantly writes in her book That Mighty Sculptor, Time, "...within ourselves, and without too much hope or belief, that durability must be sought."

When we recognize this fully, it is then that the power of the creative will emerge regardless of the circumstances in the world around us. How freeing it is...

TRAVELING THROUGH HISTORY by Véronique Rignault

Nikolai Astrup : Visions of Norway and Midsummer Night’s Eve

Since moving to Williamstown, Massachusetts three years ago, I have spent a lot of time at the Clark Museum which is just a five minute drive from my house. The scenery around it is beautiful, with a serene outdoor area where one can sit by the reflection pools and have a lovely view of Stone Hill with its cows grazing peacefully in the summer. There are many trails around the museum grounds, and it has quickly become one of my favorite places to walk.

Stone Hill

The current exhibition Nikolai Astrup: Visions of Norway is the artist’s first North American retrospective. Astrup (1880-1928) is one of Norway’s most beloved painters. He is known for his beautiful scenes of nature and daily life in and around his native Jølster. Yet he has been called “the lost artist of Norway” because his work has only recently been discovered by the rest of the world. Astrup spent his childhood in the small village of Ålhus in Jølster. A land of fields and fjords, mountains and lakes, Jølster gave Astrup his subject matter and inspiration. Many of his paintings are of his immediate surroundings, and mostly out in nature.

I was enchanted as soon as I stepped into his colorful world, transported into a place of vibrant beauty and simplicity. By the time I got to his lively and vivid paintings of the Midsummer night bonfires I was almost in tears. I have very fond memories of this celebration which I so looked forward to during my teenage years at a French Waldorf boarding school. Midsummer night celebrations, which date back to ancient Celtic times, were moved to the eve of June 24th to coincide with the feast day of St. John the Baptist as a result of the influence of Christianity throughout Europe. The bonfires, around which villagers gathered to sing, dance, and pray became known as St. John’s Fires, Les feux de la Saint Jean in French. Ceremonies varied, but the bonfires of St. John’s night* were common to all the countries of Western Europe. A symbol of fertility during the Pagan days, many of its rituals had to do with finding a husband or a lover.

Astrup had a fascination with this celebration as a child but he could only watch this magical event from afar. His strict, religious father, who was a pastor in the village, forbid him to attend what was in his eyes, a Pagan display. Being raised with a father who wanted him to be a priest, when his natural inclination was to draw and paint, was very challenging for Astrup, but eventually he was able to pursue his passion and produce a stunning collection in his short life. I feel very fortunate that the first introduction of his work in the United States happens to be in my small, but very connected hometown, and that we are finally able to discover and appreciate Astrup's talents and story through his art.

This fabulous and not-to-be-missed exhibition at the Clark Museum will be up until September 19th. I hope some of you will venture out to see it.

*The herb St. John's wort, which is native to Europe and blooms around the time of the eve of St. John, was adopted as a symbol of that celebration.

Paintings by Nikolai Astrup: (top) Midsummer Eve Bonfire, after 1917, Oil on canvas.

(below) Preparations for the Midsummer Eve Bonfire, 1908, Oil on canvas.

Photograph of Stone Hill by Véronique Rignault

Learn More About The Exhibit

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE by Karin Stephan

THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE...

Directed by Max Ophüls

Produced by Ralph Baum

Screenplay by Marcel Achard, Max Ophüls, and Annette Wademant

Gaumont Film Company, 1953

105 minutes

Ophüls' Masterpiece

"Do not be bewildered by the surfaces. In the depth all becomes law." - Ranier Maria Rilke

Loosely based on the French novelist Louise de Vilmorin’s¹ novel Madame de… (1951), The Earrings of Madame de… (1953) is considered, at least among director Max Ophüls’ aficionados, to be a sublime masterpiece. After seeing this film for a third time, I couldn't agree more. For me, the definition of a masterpiece is a work of art in which all the elements are so perfectly meshed together that you can't add anything in and you can't take anything out. Like other masterpieces filmed during of the 1950s and 1960s (Fellini’s La Strada, De Sica’s The Garden of The Finzi Contini and Visconti’s The Leopard, to name a few), The Earrings of Madame de… is as tightly woven as a 17th century silk tapestry from the Ming Dynasty. It is also just as elegant. Dave Kehr, a curator in the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art, called it “one of the most beautiful things ever created by human hands."

Set in the lush, grandiose opulence of fin-de-siècle Paris, The Earrings of Madame de… is a film about a frivolous and pampered countess, Madame de (Danielle Darrieux) who pawns a pair of diamond earrings, a wedding gift from her husband, General de (Charles Boyer), to get herself out of debt. The earrings then embark on a de Maupassantian journey that begins when the jeweler immediately notifies and sells them back to her husband, who gives them to his departing mistress, who sells them to a dealer in Constantinople, who sells them to the Italian diplomat and a friend of the General, Baron Donati (Vittorio De Sica), who recently arrived in Paris, and who will unknowingly give them as a gift to Madame de with whom he will fall in love.

Sounds like a continuing breathtaking waltz, no? Yes! And that is just the point! The Earrings of Madame de…, famous for its fluid, precise, long tracking shots which reflect the constant movement of life itself, is a profound study in the flawed, and unpredictable contingencies of the human heart. It is a masterpiece in which it is impossible to separate the style from the story, the technique from the telling, the method from the meaning.

Falling into the accustomed mores of French aristocratic society, General de has given Baron Donati and his wife Madame de permission to flirt with each other as long as they don't fall in love. Their tryst begins on the dance floor at the exquisitely lavish balls where they meet first occasionally and then more frequently. Ophüls’ camera follows this romance, juxtaposing each of their encounters in one long sequence, so that it seems like one long waltz, one long continuous movement of life. According to critic Kenneth Turan, this sequence is considered the film’s “visual centerpiece, a montage of gliding, gilded balls in which the countess and the baron realize they are falling in love, a sequence that has to be one of the most visually sublime ever put on film.”² It is a scene in which the flawless acting of Darrieux, Boyer and De Sica caused Ophüls to observe, "The highest reaches of the actor's art begin, I believe, at the point where words cease to play a part."

The film, following the course of this love affair, traces the emotional changes in Madame de as she realizes the depth of her feelings for the Baron. These emotions cause her to conceal the truth about the earrings, and her lie offends the Baron’s sense of honor. Because Madame de has decided to put love before honor, she sabotages any chance of her love being fulfilled and she falls very ill. All of this is filmed with the same, as Pauline Kael puts it, "restless flow of his [Ophüls'] images — and because he does not use the abrupt cuts of montage, so much as the moving camera, the gliding rhythm of his films is romantic, seductive and, at times, almost hypnotic...[we are] dazzled by his audacity and hardly aware of how much he is telling us.”³ And yes, how true that is. If the film doesn't slow down, we should so that we can really see all that Ophüls is trying to tell us.

While a film about opulence, excessive luxuriousness, and aristocratic manners may seem superficial, The Earrings of Madame de… is a very complex film about love and the subtleties and vulnerabilities of the human heart. This includes not only the heart of Madame de but also the hearts of her husband and the Baron, the men who loved her.

In an interview Ophüls was asked, "When you make a film...you have always tried to interpret the works of great writers. Do you have the intention to make a film for which you have written your own screenplay?"

"I think," answered Ophüls, "that I would prefer to be among those filmmakers who are not writer/directors but rather those who wish to serve others, the great poets, who wish to adopt the great dramas."

"Is it because of modesty or it is a necessity on your part?"

"No," Ophüls said, "It is because of love. I love others so much that I don't dare to do my own pieces that I have written."⁴

Listening to Ophüls, this magnificent and masterful filmmaker speak about himself with such humility, you don't have to go very far to know that what may seem superficial on the surface is profound in the depths.

I encourage you to take a look.

Notes

1.Louise de Vilmorin was the last companion of André Malraux, France's once Minister of Culture. She called herself “Marilyn Malraux.”

2. Kenneth Turan, Never Coming To A Theater Near You (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 362.

3.From Kael’s essay in Foreign Affairs: The National Society of Film Critics’ Video Guide to Foreign Films, Kathy Schultz Huffhines, ed. (San Francisco: Mercury House, Inc.,1991) 14.

4.Max Ophüls évoque son film “Madame de…” (1952/1953), YouTube. (my own translation from the French)

For a fascinating, in-depth review of the film I recommend The Cost of Living by Molly Haskell

IMAGE by Véronique Rignault

"Remember, all of man's happiness is in the little valleys. Tiny little ones. Small enough to call from one side to the other."

Jean Giono

RECOMMENDED VIEWING by Anne Curtis and Stefanie London

THE LEOPARD

Directed by Luchino Visconti

Produced by Goffredo Lombardo

Screenplay by Luchino Visconti, Enrico Medioli, Massimo Franciosa, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Pasquale Festa Campanile and René Barjavel

20th Century Fox, 1963

161 minutes

The Leopard is an epic period drama based on the novel of the same title by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.* Set in Sicily in the 1860s, the movie opens with a view of the magisterial villa that is home to Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina (Burt Lancaster) and his family: a wife he manages and four children who he loves. We see the expansive grounds of the villa, then are brought inside where the appointments are gorgeous.

Giuseppe Garibaldi and his growing volunteer army known as the Redshirts are fomenting revolt in Italy. The war has reached the island of Sicily. The first half of the film depicts this civil war, and the Prince’s gradual acceptance that change is inevitable. Even as he finds it distasteful, he secures a future for his family name through the marriage of his nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) to the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), the daughter of a corrupt small town mayor who has grown rich using his position to make profitable land investments.

The film’s second half shifts quietly from this external historical moment to the Prince’s internal pain as he recognizes that he is a middle-aged, fading aristocrat who has no place in the new societal structure. And, it is in the final 45 minute ballroom scene, which critic Dave Kehr calls "one of the most moving meditations on individual mortality in the history of the cinema," that Lancaster does his most superb acting. We recognize (if we haven’t figured it out already) that the Prince also has feelings for Angelica, now his nephew’s fiancé.

The narrative is alternately large and small, personal and political, but most interestingly the nexus of the two. It moves from quiet humor to shouted passion and back, and the use of color is precise, with stunning effect. Every frame could be framed.

Watch it in two parts if you can — it is 185 minutes long — in order to allow yourself some dwell time, time for the sweep and beauty to work on you and to fully absorb this transformative experience.

*Tomasi's novel Il Gatopardo was published posthumously in 1958 and is one of the top selling novels in Italian history. It is a masterpiece in its own right.

FROM THE MACROBIOTIC KITCHEN by Anna Rosa Oriat

Cooking with the Tart Tang of Tamarind

One of the things I love about working as a personal chef is cooking for clients from different ethnic backgrounds, because it exposes me to new ingredients, methods of preparation, and dishes as well as unique culinary traditions. What’s this prickly tuber that I have never seen before (encountering taro for the first time in Hawaii)? You tie a towel around the top of your steamer basket (learning how to steam vegetables the Japanese way near Tokyo)? What is this amazing snack, I love this! (trying sumping, a pudding steamed in banana leaf, for the first time in Bali)? I can’t be using gas or electricity past sundown (learning about the religious practice of Shabbat)?

The common denominator among my clients is their desire to eat plant-based, so I often find myself trying to “veganize” the dishes they are accustomed to eating.

One of my favorite gigs was cooking for a Syrian Jewish family at their summer home near the ocean. Although they had requested macrobiotic food, I was delighted to learn that they shared my deep affection for Middle Eastern cuisine (being part-Lebanese, I am partial to Middle Eastern food - it might just be my favorite). We agreed that I would apply macrobiotic principles to traditional Syrian dishes and use plant-based ingredients - I was in heaven.

One evening Sharon, my client, mentioned a traditional Syrian dish called Bazargan, a grain salad with tamarind that she absolutely loved. I had been experimenting with tamarind in my own cooking, so the mention of it caught my attention. When she added that she rarely prepared it for herself because her family didn’t care for it, I knew I wanted to make it for her…

(Continue reading in Anna’s blog)

Bazargan - Quinoa Salad with Tamarind

The name Bazargan is derived from the Persian word for merchant, a common occupation for Jews in the Ottoman Levant. Perhaps a businessman introduced it to his Syrian family when returning from a business trip:

“Honey – I just had the most delectable salad, you’ve gotta try it!”

Or maybe a Persian emigrant family prepared it for a Syrian gathering:

“This is a staple salad where we’re from, you’re gonna love it!.”

Either way, it is now a dish that often graces the Shabbat table as a side.

GET THE RECIPE!

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ALL ABOUT THE POSE by Karin Stephan

WARRIOR I - VIRABHADRASANA I*

I love Warrior I pose for the exalting feeling brought about by lifting the arms up overhead in a majestic way. In this pose, the hips are turned in the direction of the front foot which means that the midline of the body (middle of the eyes, nose, chin, navel and perineum) falls directly on the inside of the front bent knee. The hip of the back leg is facing the front foot.

Ideally the heel of the back foot, which is turned in, stabilizes the position by pressing down into the surface of the mat (or sand). By maintaining the two parallel lines of the trunk -- which is lifting out of the pelvis -- it is possible to drop the front hip down enough to make the thigh perpendicular to the shinbone.

*Virabhadra is an especially fierce and fearsome aspect of the Hindu god Shiva, and was created out of that god's wrath. Although the story of Virabhadra is an ancient one, the pose Warrior I was not recorded until the 20th century. -S.L

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN - Updates on Our Yoga Macrobiotic Vacations

THE SANIBEL CONNECTION, December 2021

Due to the complexities of this pandemic, it has been difficult to plan our Sanibel retreat. For the safety and care of all our guests we are once again reluctant to run the program. While the circumstances may change radically, because of the unreliability of the status quo, it is in everyone’s best interest to wait one more year. It breaks our heart and we will miss so many of you who join us on this beautiful Island. Let us pray we will all be there together in 2022.

Wishful thinking...we hope these are our shoes in 2022!

FRIPP ISLAND, May 2022

Looking hopefully towards the future, we would like to entertain the idea of running the Fripp Island retreat next year. We will monitor the developments as we go along and let you know as soon as possible what we think is the best route to take. Please stay tuned.