0492 Saul (Ireland), Religion: St Patrick’s Day marks his death on this day, according to legend. The first St Patrick’s Day parade was held in New York City by soldiers of an Irish regiment in the British army in 1765. We saw the green river once in Chicago.
1521 Manila, History: Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines in a worldwide search for envelopes.
1845 A Bristol man, baker Henry Jones, patented self-raising flour. Its success within a year led to his appointment as purveyor to Queen Victoria. He had developed it as an alternative to the hardtack issued to British sailors, and spent years trying to convince the Admiralty to try it. Only when Florence Nightingale took up the cause did the Admiralty relent, and fresh bread became available on Royal Navy Ships.
1901 Paris, Art: After his death seventy paintings by Vincent Van Gogh were exhibited and caused a sensation with their electric energy. His brother Theo had organised the display. A few examples of his work had been exhibited before in the Salon des Independents, but had hardly been noticed. Noticed they were this time. We saw a splendid and informative display of a few of his paintings in Chicago a time ago.
1960 Paris, Cinema: ‘À bout de souffle’ (‘Breathless’) directed by Jean-Luc Godard opened. The title refers to the final moments of the last scene.* It was the first of the Nouvelle Vague films and caused a sensation with its attractive nihilism. The dean of more reviewers Roger Ebert included it in his “Great Movies” list in 2003, writing that, “No debut film since Citizen Kane in 1942 has been as influential,” calling revolutionary its “headlong pacing, its cool detachment, its dismissal of authority, and the way its narcissistic young heroes are obsessed with themselves and oblivious to the larger society.” The film itself is obsessed with films and contains references to ‘Forty Guns,’ ‘Pushover,’ ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’, ‘Whirlpool,’ ‘Bonjour Tristesse,’ ‘Maltese Falcon,’ ‘The Glass Key,’ and ‘The Harder They Fall.’ In its turn it has influenced innumerable subsequent movies.
*Belmando last line has driven cinemistas into frenzies of interpretation since. The translations are many and all I have seen miss the point, something that must have amused Godard since he was sure all critics were idiots. Jean-Paul Belmondo comments on the absurdity of life at the end, not on Jean Seaberg’s betrayal. That was to be expected. That’s my take on it.
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