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Paul Coleman

@mondain.bsky.social
222 followers 380 following 234 posts

An accomplished monologuist, as Huneker said of Villiers, needing but a vinegar-cruet as an audience.

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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 10h
Having departed Pordenone at zero dark thirty this morning, Mrs. C and I are back on the wine trail. We’re bound for Hungary after a week’s cinematic interlude at #PordenoneSilent. Here’s the ethereal Dolomite view out the train window as we cross into Austria from Tarvisio.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
With its Vienna-Secession-gone-to-seed decor and Trump-coiffed male cast, the dreamscape of 𝙂𝙚𝙣𝙪𝙞𝙣𝙚 (Robert Wiene, 1920) was sufficiently nightmarish to give censors conniptions. What remains, with comprehensible (and Philistine) bookends, is still deliciously odd. #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
With 𝙇𝙖 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙖 𝙙𝙞 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙚 (Mario Almirante, 1921), #PordenoneSilent again reminds us there’s nothing new under the sun or in front of the projector’s lamp. The film prefigures 𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙜𝙤, and as with 𝙇𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙚 𝙞𝙡 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙩𝙤, once more we wonder: is she, or isn’t she? (Dead, that is.) #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
I format film names in Yaytext, then copy and paste.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
What a magnificent program and performance. Thank you!
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The spirited, indefatigable 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪 narration, the precise, delicate musicianship, and the transfiguring beauty and emotion of Kenji Mizoguchi’s film made #PordenoneSilent’s presentation of 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣 (1918) a rare and abiding cinematic experience. #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
𝙈’𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙨 (Marshall Neilan, 1918), alas, though inspired by a Bret Harte story, seems content to devolve, via intertitles, into a comedic showcase of rustic American dialect and matching antics. An arch indictment of a Bible-addled school board provides some relief. #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The Swedish films are shining at #PordenoneSilent. I’ll mention again the stunning 𝘽𝙚𝙧𝙜-𝙀𝙟𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙘𝙝 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪. Now I bring you 𝙂𝙮𝙪𝙧𝙠𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙨𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙖 (John W. Brunius, 1920): a screwball comedy par excellence. If you deem Eugene Pallette 𝘴𝘶𝘪 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘴 (as did I), let me tell you about Emile Stiebel. #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Pola Negri’s “Pola” in 𝘽𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖 a femme fatale? Ha! Now, Hedda Vernon’s “Loni” in 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙂𝙞𝙛𝙩 (Hubert Moest, 1919)—there’s the real deal. “Blondes gift,” I should point out, is German for “blonde poison.” #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The name of 𝘽𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙖 (Aleksander Hertz, 1917), like its American intertiltles, gives the impression that Pola Negri’s character is a femme fatale. In fact, though, Negri plays the part sympathetically, as a talented and complex figure undercut by the chicanery of others. #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Alice and Ralph? Lucy and Ricky? Laura and Rob? We owe them all to Mrs. Sidney Drew and her husband, Sidney. See, e.g., 𝙁𝙤𝙭 𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙩 𝙁𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚 (Mrs. Sidney Drew, 1915). #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
You think you know love stories? Go see 𝘽𝙚𝙧𝙜-𝙀𝙟𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙘𝙝 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙝𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪 (Victor Sjöström, 1918), then we’ll talk. #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
In 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙣’𝙨 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 (D.W. Griffith, 1909), a pompous, egotistical politico’s hat and mustache (read dyed-blond combover & long tie) are ridiculed by a cartoonist. Politico sets out to kill artist; she literally disarms him while the male publisher & editors cower. #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
𝘿𝙞𝙚 𝙏𝙚𝙪𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚 (Hans Mierendorff, 1919? 1920?) briefly, and plausibly, explores the possibility of a Christian, pietistic form of hedonism; then the ending—“Just kidding! It was all a bad dream!”—sets us back on the straight and narrow. #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It has taken me a day to realize that public transportation is one of the themes of this festival. 𝙎𝙘𝙝𝙬𝙚𝙗𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙝𝙣 (Germany, 1902), showcasing an astounding system, has me wanting to beat a hasty path to Wuppertal. #PordeneneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Mary Astor puts the swash in Douglas Fairbanks’s buckle in 𝘿𝙤𝙣 𝙌, 𝙎𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙕𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤 (Donald Crisp, 1925). #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Italia Almirante Manzini is like Kay Francis and Norma Shearer rolled into one in 𝙇𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙖 𝙚 𝙞𝙡 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙩𝙤 (Augusto Genina, 1919). And wow, what a plot! #PordenoneSilent #GCM45
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In Soave, we stayed at the winery Monte Tondo, which, like the surrounding community, celebrates the history and aesthetics of viniculture. I should have bought a bottle of their excellent Foscarin Slavinus, but, fearful of missing out, chose the widely lauded wines of Inama and Pieropan instead.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
On our winish route to Pordenone, Soave was an afterthought: quantity, supposedly, eclipsed quality. But on close examination, we found its basalt-grown whites much to our liking, and its walled, crenellated central city charming. It’s a region that loves its wine, and now it has a new admirer.
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Reposted by Paul Coleman
dan mentos @danmentos.com · 22/09/2026
[job interview] interviewer: so god killed all your kids? job: that's right
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
After three days in Alto Adige, with its Traminer and Teroldego, we came to Valpolicella’s Corvina and Rondinella. Today we leave for Soave, seeking Garganega. Between these regions, cities serve as “cultural watersheds.” We crossed Trento into Valpolicella, and will traverse Verona into Soave.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Here’s the shrine to antique bottles and hoary vintages deep in the cellar at Cantina Martinelli in Mezzocorona. The winemaker and I shared observations about “natural” wines. I (apologetically) told him I usually preferred wines with sulfites. He said, “Yes, it can be like the salt in the bath.”
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Mrs. C and I are off to the renowned festival of silent film at Pordenone. We’ve been there metaphorically many times, through its association with Telluride, where we were once habitués. Now, at last, to Pordenone itself! We’ll stop for wine in Alto Adige on the way, and Somló in the afterglow.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
“The Moment of Truth” (𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙘𝙠𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 S1E10, 1960) casts Tijuana as a setting just distant enough, just sufficiently exotic, to host a tale of violently insecure masculinity—disguised as “honor”— that is gothic in tone and baroque in complexity.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The Bridey Murphy craze was likely fading from the memory of the show’s audience, but depiction of hypnosis and dissociative identity disorder in “The Dark Divide” (𝘾𝙝𝙚𝙘𝙠𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 S1E9, 1960) might have aroused some recollections.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Norma Crane smolders, Kent Smith equivocates, and Lawrence Tierney (!) is in high Trump mugshot dudgeon in “One to Get Lost” (𝙉𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙙 𝘾𝙞𝙩𝙮 S1E20, 1959). Jeanette Nolan completes an exquisite mid century cast. John Brahm directs. Indulge.
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Reposted by Paul Coleman
The Whimsical Muse @whimsicalmuse.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I don't know who needs to hear this, but one day, you will pull a loose book from a bookshelf and that hidden door will finally open for you.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
As Mrs. C (with red suitcase) and I are off to the airport bus, I lament my photographic injustice to Hanoi. In addition to a near-typhoon, there have been many gustatory and cultural matters to attend to. I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah, but Hanoi is now my favorite city.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Here’s another view from this a.m. Hanoi is beginning to stir with vitality that will soon be overwhelming. The commute is gearing up, buses running, pedestrians on errands or constitutionals. The woman in the center is calling at al fresco restaurants, delivering herbs and other greens.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The trams of Europe grace their cities with transportation efficiency, but Hanoi takes street tracks to a whole other level. Here, Vietnam Railways (Đường sắt Việt Nam) SE7, the early train bound for distant Ho Chi Minh City, trundles by doorsteps and cafes a few blocks from Hanoi’s main station.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Favorite teapots in the cupboard. Starting a paper subscription to the London Review of Books, and having a few issues lying around.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I’ve been in Hanoi for about a week: a few days buying tea leaves, coffee beans, and used M42 lenses to bring home, and several keeping my camera and shoes dry. This early morning, the clouds are briefly at rest, allowing the patriotic pennants with which the city is festooned a chance to flutter.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I’m in the Turkish Airlines lounge at IST. For years, it was dimly lit, lined in mahogany, abounding in books, like something out of Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence. They remodeled it. Now, as I said to Mrs. C, it has all the charm of a Luby’s Cafeteria in Beaumont, Texas. Time marches on.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Heybeliada is adorned with trellises, window boxes, and potted plants, its multi-storied houses slightly askew. An insouciant, almost supercilious languor prevails. The town’s few dogs laze about in quiet resignation; an abundant population of cats, as throughout greater Istanbul, runs the show.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
After a couple of nights on the southwestern fringe of Istanbul, Mrs. C (seen in the center of the photo, in her white fisherman’s hat) and I plied a course to Adalar. We took the train to Kartal and caught this ferry to Heybeliada, our place of repose for the next two days.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Mrs. C and I are in Istanbul, on our way to a nuclear family reunion in Hanoi. Our hotel room by the Marmara Sea has a balcony well-suited for tea, savory pastries, and a morning’s reading of the New York Review of Books.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I just came across this refreshingly candid, affectingly poignant biographical sketch of Maeve Brennan, which, like all things Maeve Brennan, I commend to your attention. www.dib.ie/biography/br...
dib.ie
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Reposted by Paul Coleman
António Costa @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu · 31/07/2026
I express my solidarity with Spain in the current situation of illegal migration in Ceuta.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
On the way home from Karlovy Vary, a visit with my high-school chum Christopher Cook, who lives in Prague, is always in order. Here, at our regular haunt, Andêlský pivovar, I direct Christopher’s gaze to the tripod-mounted camera while enumerating the quirks of its Soviet Helios 44-2 lens.
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
𝙈𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮 (Vladena Sandu, 2025), an engrossing masterpiece of cinema, laments the betrayal, on many levels, of the innocence, trust, and good faith of children. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
𝙁𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙩 𝙂𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 (Aung Phyoe, 2026), a window on Myanmar, tells of an asymmetrical emotional relationship. In keeping with something of a theme at this year’s festival, it is also a sensitive rendering of Proustian childhood memories. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙄𝙣𝙠-𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙏𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙗 (Yashasvi Juyal, 2026) is an obscure, glacially pensive take on reincarnation and the space-time continuum. It’s perhaps a bit too infatuated with its own (undeniably lovely) photography. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙝𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙗𝙤𝙡𝙩 (Cecil Holmes, 1952) is a western set in mid-19th C Australia. The bad guys are a sadistic cop, a corrupt judge, and an egomaniacal fat cat who grumbles about America having gone mad with DEI and wokeness under Lincoln. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Maybe 𝙇𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 (Rhayne Vermette, 2025) is a legend about a solar eclipse experienced by an astronomically naive society in a vaguely modern era. It’s hard to say. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
𝘽𝙞𝙧𝙙𝙨, 𝙊𝙧𝙥𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙨 (Juraj Jakubisko, 1969) is an anarchic, nihilistic, and ultimately tragic cry of “What have I got to lose?!” #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
𝘽𝙖𝙗𝙞́ 𝙡𝙚́𝙩𝙤/𝘼𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙢𝙣 𝙎𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 (Vladimir Michálek, 2001). A harmless romp about madcap old codgers who alternately mock death and rue its imminence. Well-played, with an interesting theatrical angle to it, but you know the routine. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
So I’m in the audience for 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 (Sandra Wollner, 2026), and just when I’m thinking Cannes is getting a little too generous in doling out its 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴, things go all Twilight Zone. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
𝙊𝙗𝙯̌𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙮́/𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙛𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙩 (Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, 1964) affirms the fragile durability of trust and practicality when confronted with power, opportunistic posturing, and perverse interpretations of ideology. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙒𝙝𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙉𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 (Kristina Grozeva and Peter Valchanov, 2026) suggests that assuming everybody’s on the take breeds a heady cynicism that might give you a rush, but eventually exacts a greater toll than the corruption itself. Oh, but be careful in picking your travel agent. #KVIFF60
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Paul Coleman @mondain.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
𝙈𝙮 𝙒𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 (Angela Schanelec, 2026) is like 𝙇𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙔𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙗𝙖𝙙, except it’s in color, and people are in workplaces, in city parks, riding bicycles, and in houses. #KVIFF60
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