2008 July 16  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Björn Berg's (1923 - 2008) recent death allows me to introduce Astrid Lindgren's short story My Nightingale Is Singing, read it and weep. Other tales in this collection are equally strong, the whole collection of bleaker short stories by Lindgren is one of the best items of cult fiction of the 20th century. My Nightingale Is Singing is cult fiction item #7.

I watched the 1999 film adaptation of Breakfast of Champions yesterday evening. I decided to check this film - after having read the delightful novel in Spain a week ago - because I considered the novel unfilmable. Unfilmable because of the book's tone, which hovers perfectly between the surreal and the very mundane. Unfilmable also because it is an illustrated novel (with crude illustrations by Vonnegut himself, the anus illustration at the beginning sets the tone) and because the novel features many matter-of-fact explanations (what is a cow?, what is earth?, etc.).

The film was written and directed by minor American director Alan Rudolph and stars Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, Nick Nolte and Barbara Hershey. The film was widely panned by critics. It is indeed painful to watch.

Some feebly redeeming elements include the score by Martin Denny, revisiting Barbara Hershey, Glenne Headly in lingerie and the over-the-top cross-dressing scene by Nick Nolte towards the end.

The only way to adapt this unfilmable novel would have been to add at least a third person omniscient voice-over, instead of trying to hide its novelish antecedents.

This [1] unidentified excerpt - from a Vonnegut documentary I presume - is exactly what I have in mind.

Update 15/6/24: The unidentified excerpt on Vonnegut seems to be from The Creative Edge on Public Broadcasting