We Joined the Navy cameo (video clip)

Here is the scene in which Dirk appears in "We Joined the Navy!" It's only about a 2 minute long scene, and he only appears in the last 30 seconds, but it's fantastic nonetheless! I'll have screencaps coming up later today, too :)

As Time Goes By

I made a new video tribute today... actually, I made it this month. It's taken me forever to prepare, since I had to rip all of Dirk Bogarde's movies to my hard drive. Yup, this one includes EVERY one of his movies, and in chronological order, no less! The only exceptions are Blackmailed, Upon This Rock & We Joined the Navy since they're being stubbornly elusive.

The video is set to "As Time Goes By" sung by Bryan Ferry. It starts with Dirk Bogarde's first starring role in Esther Waters (1948) and ends with his last performance in Daddy Nostalgia (1990). Here is the full list of films, in order:

Esther Waters (1948), Quartet (1948), Once a Jolly Swagman (1949), Dear Mr. Prohack (1949), Boys in Brown (1950), The Blue Lamp (1950), So long at the Fair (1950), The Woman in Question (1950), Hunted (1952), Penny Princess (1952), The Gentle Gunman (1952), Desperate Moment (1953), Appointment in London (1953), They Who Dare (1954), Doctor in the House (1954), The Sleeping Tiger (1954), For Better For Worse (1954), The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), Simba (1955), Doctor at Sea (1955), Cast a Dark Shadow (1955), The Spanish Gardener (1956), Ill Met By Moonlight (1957), Doctor at Large (1957), Campbell's Kingdom (1957), A Tale of Two Cities (1958), The Wind Cannot Read (1958), The Doctor's Dilemma (1958), Libel (1959), The Angel Wore Red (1960), Song Without End (1960), The Singer Not the Song (1961), Victim (1961), HMS Defiant (1962), The Password is Courage (1962), The Mind Benders (1963), I Could Go On Singing (1963), Doctor in Distress (1963), The Servant (1963), Hot Enough for June (1964), King and Country (1964), The High Bright Sun (1964), Little Moon of Alban (1964), Darling (1965), Modesty Blaise (1966), Blithe Spirit (1966), Accident (1967), Our Mother's House (1967), Sebastian (1968), The Fixer (1968), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Justine (1969), The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971), Night Flight From Moscow (1973), The Night Porter (1974), Permission to Kill (1975), Providence (1977), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Despair (1978), May We Borrow Your Husband? (1986), The Vision (1988), Daddy Nostalgia (1990)

Later this week I'm planning on screen-capping the video and captioning the photos with which film they came from, so that if a specific clip looks intriguing you'll know which movie to watch :)

Dirk Bogarde Home Videos

There's a documentary on Dirk Bogarde called "The Private Dirk Bogarde" in which they play a good deal of clips from his own home videos. But they're interspersed throughout the 2+ hour long movie, and usually used as background for someone talking over them. So I thought it would be neat to compile all of the home video clips without the documentary audio! There ended up being almost 30 minutes worth of footage, so I divided the clips up into three separate youtube uploads. The accompanying music is Liszt's Consolation No. 2 in E Major performed by Vladimir Horowitz. If you're interested in viewing the entire documentary, it's available on youtube here.

cute little clip

I was perusing the Dirk Bogarde documentary "The Private Dirk Bogarde" tonight, looking for clips from home videos when I came across this one that I had to single out & share. Isn't it just the cutest thing ever?! I love that they documented so much of their life on film.. I'd complain that not enough segments are available, but then I realize how lucky we are to even have these!

New tribute video!

This one is a little more crazy than my last one, but I had so much fun making it, and I think it's really fun to watch too! I tried not to include any of the same clips I did in my first video, but a few snuck in because they fit so well.. only 3 or 4 at the most, though :)

Clips in the video are from: Song Without End, By Myself, Hot Enough for June, Hunted, Sebastian, Despair, The Singer Not the Song, Darling, Archival footage from dirkbogarde.co.uk, Night Porter, The Mind Benders, The Blue Lamp, Modesty Blaise, The Wind Cannot Read, The High Bright Sun, The Servant, Accident, Doctor in Distress, King and Country, Providence and Death in Venice.

The song is Ooh La La by Goldfrapp.

Tribute to The Night Porter

I was very hesitant to watch The Night Porter, since I'm a bit of a movie prude and don't like my films overflowing with sex and nudity -- and I was under the impression that NP was just a porn film in disguise. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I finally caved in and watched it last month! It wasn't nearly as explicit as I expected, and the film was shot so beautifully that you hardly notice when it is. It's a sad, uncomfortable but beautiful story about a Nazi and a concentration camp prisoner who have a doomed, deep, twisted love for one another.

I made this video last night as a tribute to the movie -- it's set to "I'm a Fool to Want You" sung by Billie Holiday.

All Gone - a tribute to The Servant

I made this one yesterday.. I've had the idea floating around in my head for the longest time, and finally got around to it last night. This one is more of a tribute to the entire film, so it's not concentrating on Dirk Bogarde as much as my other videos have. Sarah Miles & James Fox take up a sizable chunk of space here. You might notice Wendy Craig is virtually absent, though, but that's just because I didn't like her character.. I'm being ornery :)

I might do another one in the future that's a tribute to Dirk's performance in the film, like I did with Modesty Blaise... but that is another video for another day..

Modesty Blaise (and a programming alert)

Modesty Blaise is a hilarious, random, psychedelic, awfully fun film that you do NOT want to miss when it airs on FOX Movie Channel this afternoon at 2pm EST. Dirk Bogarde is outlandishly over the top as a white-wigged villain and Modesty Blaise's arch nemesis. If you miss the whole film, here's a quick little peek at the awesomeness that is Dirk Bogarde in this movie. The genius is in the details.. subtle glances and movements.. taking on a spot-on American accent for a Patton-style speech.. the rhythm of a phrase. And pay special attention to his pronunciation of the word "torture"... it kills me.



There will be more on Modesty Blaise here in the near future... I just had to post a programming alert, but so enjoyed this film that I couldn't bring myself to mention it without going into a little more detail :) I also took about eight gazillion screen-caps from the movie (okay, more like 140, but still..) so I'll share some of those in my next post about MB as well.

Uncomfortably Near

I think these words from the moody torch song "Angel Eyes" fit the film Accident to a T. This one scene in particular. I wrote about it here last year, and I think it bears repeating... this scene is so seminal to the film and exemplifies the feeling of discomfort that permeates the entire movie.

Dirk Bogarde's character, middle-aged and married, has a small uncomfortable crush on one of his students, played by Jacqueline Sassard. When he's asked to join her & another student on a little boat trip he reluctantly agrees. The ensuing trip is a combination of lovely cinematography, soft jazz and palpable awkwardness.

Pay special attention to the part when Dirk realizes the proximity of his hand to her thigh and clumsily repositions, tucking his hands under his armpits. The juxtaposition of his discomfort with the beauty and ease of everything going on around him is like gawky poetry.

I put together this little video with scenes from Accident set to Nancy Wilson's Angel Eyes. Hope you enjoy it :)

He gazed a gazely stare

I think that like 80% of what I write on my blogs is pretty lightweight fluff, but one post that I'm pretty proud of is the review that I wrote on The Mind Benders last October. In it I said that Dirk Bogarde's performance was the best of any actor in any movie I'd ever seen. Astonishingly, I think that over the course of the last year the only performances I've observed that could have possibly surpassed this one have all been played by ... Dirk Bogarde.* I obviously think he's a feast for the eyes, but that would just make him my number one movie crush. He's my favorite actor because he is just so good at his job that it's almost incomprehensible. And even if some of his other roles have come close, I still think that this is the best example of his range, depth and skill as an actor. Please check it out if you haven't already :)

And now, here I go again... scenes from The Mind Benders set to David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World. It might look like this week is turning into "David Bowie and Dirk Bogarde Week", but I promise, musical variety is on the horizon ;-D




*Okay, one exception. Oskar Werner. He's pretty darn good.

making love with his ego

In 1960 Dirk Bogarde played the famed composer and pianist Franz Liszt in the sweeping biopic Song Without End. The film portrays Liszt as a 19th century rock star -- at one point a woman quickly snatches up his gloves from the stage in a move that reminds one of Frank Sinatra's bobby-soxers and the Rolling Stones' groupies. And nobody could have played this massive talent with the massive ego better than Dirk Bogarde. He brings an enormous confidence and a brilliant air of arrogance to the role that few other actors could have pulled off.

I know I'm a bit goofy, but I couldn't help but think of Ziggy Stardust while watching the film... so here is my little tribute to Dirk as Liszt as Ziggy...

Dirk Bogarde Week!

I'd like to announce that this week is officially Dirk Bogarde Week! (wheee!!!)

August 10th marks one year since Dirk Bogarde was featured on TCM's Summer Under the Stars. In Kate World this means one year since I discovered my new favorite actor. So OF COURSE this calls for a celebration!

I'm really really hoping you'll stick around and pop back in throughout the week to check out all of the Dirk Bogarde Goodness that I have in store. Tribute videos, artwork, movie reviews, drop dead gorgeous pictures, new scans and me doing my darnedest to convince everyone how awesome he is!

Usually I like the whole "save the best for last" way of doing things, but I am SO excited about my big tribute video that I couldn't really wait until the end of the week to post it! It's a montage of clips from 15 Dirk Bogarde movies set to I'll Be Seeing You by Francoise Hardy and Iggy Pop. Enjoy!!! :)

The Wind Cannot Read - Music Video

I just realized today that I never posted this on the blog before! I made this video a few months ago for my Song of the Week on Silents and Talkies, but completely forgot to post it here, where it really belonged :)

The images are all taken from The Wind Cannot Read, and accompanied by the theme song from the movie, sung by Vera Lynn. I tracked down an old 45 in England on ebay and converted it to mp3 to use for the video. I hope you like it!

The Password is Courage Trailer

I'm watching this one pretty soon, and finding the trailer on YouTube has made me even more excited about finally seeing it!! Enjoy! :)