To me this was the review where Kyle, and Brows Held High in general, turned from being kind of a look at the goofier side of the art house, into what it is today: honest and interesting looks into what makes the art house important in the first place. Sure, he's never lost the goofiness (nor was he ever truly lacking in knowledge about the subjects he talked about, even if it was a movie about fucking a pig), but this was the one I remember realizing there was more to this whole endeavor than what most were bringing to the TGWTG crowd at the time.
Agreed. I've been watching Brows Held High wince I was like 11 (Probably way too young lol), but I'm 19 now and the emotion of this movie as well as Kyle's excellent job of not coming off as pretentious is very apparent to me. In my opinion Kyle did more to respectfully and substantially critique and explain art than his contemporaries, especially Doug. Doug came off way more pretentious and condescending than Kyle ever did, which is very interesting to me. I always wondered how Kyle managed to make artsy and intimidating content so understandable for the common masses. Btw, that "The Gautama Buddha instructs me to walk away from illness. But he was never attached to a drip" line really hit me hard
As a TGWTG watcher way back then, this video was revelatory for me. I got tired of watching videos where the host invited me to mock someones work and trick me into feeling superior and wanted to actually expand my horizons...
They actually do lend something to the piece, rather than being a detraction...if nothing else, the eye gets some kind of respite from the unrelenting field.
I watched this movie in a class freshman year of college. Sitting in that lecture hall at 10 in the morning, half asleep, getting hypnotized by the dancing grain on the blue screen, getting more and more invested in Jarman was one of the most powerful viewing experiences of my entire life.
Here's a fun little fact. In every language ever written linguists discovered that the word "blue" was the last color to appear in that language's vocabulary. In fact. there are cultures alive to this day that have no word for the color "blue" and what makes this even more interesting is that when people from those cultures were shown something we would call "blue" they couldn't distinguish it from something that we would associate with another color.
"the last color to appear in that language's vocabulary" Just to clarify, you're referring to basic color terms, not all named colors in general, right?
Then a third film would get released called "Yellow: Requiem." It would retcon half of the franchise and critics would make smarmy, quotable remarks about it like "'Yellow: Requiem' will black-list all critics and blue-ball 'Blue' fans as it pisses on cinema till the piss turns red."
There actually is a French film trilogy where one film is named Blue, one is named Red and one is named White. Google Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Three Colors Trilogy".
Four years after Yellow: Requiem, Blue: Origins is released, kicking off the new cinematic universe, followed by Green, Blue 3: The Blueining, Purple, Orange, and Green 2, climaxing in Rainbow, the big crossover film.
Ever since I dropped acid this movie and this review have stuck out in my mind as what the inevitability of death entails. A serene, calm, tranquility at the void at which we can never perceive in our current form of consciousness. It has almost became meditative to me that at one point I too will be on this very journey. As Derek Jarman once enjoyed the clash of imagery, as do I, I am happy to know that at one point I will be able to reject imagery. I am glad that Jarman made this film. It has opened my eyes to the many possibilities of the world. Without it, I think I would be more lost than ever. Thank you for this review.
Love this review, hell, love anything that Kyle has done on Derrick Jarman. 9:58 gets me every time, just a total thud to the gut not just to learn the ultimate reasoning for this movie but to know that when one loses their vision, they don't see complete darkness or a brilliant white light but the most unnatural color in the natural world. Gives me shivers!
I found that this film is actually easier to watch on a phone than on a laptop or tv, since phone screens are designed to concentrate all of your focus on the screen without competing with the larger environment
At the start of this video: This is either gonna be stupid, really confusing, or a smart thing that challenges people to think about life and film, while sitting on the border line of confusing, what the knavery, philosophical media. At the end of this video: It was third option and wow its beyond words for it.
I rewatch this video every once in a while. You managed to pack so much information into a short amount of time that I feel like I am reminded of a cool fact every few minutes.
this video/review was not only my exposure to the movie Blue, but it was my first exposure to Welcome to Night Vale, and for that i am honestly grateful to you
I'm...afraid to ask this, because honestly if the answer to this question is yes I might just lost faith in all humanity, but...did you get any content claims on what you showed of the film "blue"?
If not then I will be the firs to complain: I can't believed Kyle showed such an insensitive thing. Now all I can see if orange after watching those clips from "Blue". I am offended that he would think to show something like this. Never mind a Serbian film or the pig fucking movie, this is the most offensive thing he has ever shown.
Chol .Yerlow Given how much of a niche figure Jarman is, even if someone wanted to do so, it would be unlikely that they would think it worth it, and I doubt anyone associated with the distribution or production of the film ever would.
This is my favorite thing you've done. Blue is my favorite color, but this is just such a well put together episode. I just can't get over all that you were able to pack into this episode. I also love the New Order you threw in there.
Anyone else find it curious that THIS is his definitive shade of blue? If I was to think of the truest most blue shade of blue, I'd probably think of a more royal blue.
One of the episodes of Netflix's Love Death + Robots was about an artist who specialized in a particular shade of Blue. Highly recommend, he brought the color blue to heights that would be unimaginable to most people.
Amongst the many insights this video brought to me, I want to thank you so much for exposing me to Welcome to Night Vale. It jettisoned me into the world of podcasts, where I have recently heard you talking about performative identity on The Shady Lady podcast. Full circle back to this video, from whence I came.
Patrick Wilson I actually got to meet the writers of Nightvale for work. They signed a newspaper for me but got my name wrong (My name is Tate but they thought I said Jake). I jokingly corrected them on my way out but then they called me back, took the paper out of my hand, scribbled it out, wrote my real name and then wrote me an apology on the paper.
This is one of the best reviews I have ever seen, it starts as skeptical as the audience of the conceit, and keeps gradually adding details of both the film, the filmmaker, and other factors until it all clicks. It puts all the layers of the film out there really clearly. I like it.
Kyle, you've been one of the cleverest, funniest, most humane online critics for a good while now. And this is a marvellous appreciation of a very odd film. Thank you.
So that's International Klein Blue. I thought it was Cobalt Blue, for the longest time. It's one of my favorite colors. It's also been one of the most popular nail polish colors for the last few years.
You make me excited to watch/read/see everything I haven't yet. A little frustrating because I tend to get overwhelmed by choice and just keep watching short video essays instead, but I just want to thank you for your passion and sincerity. It's rare that I come across a channel like yours and amazing when I do.
Christina Devany Patrick Wilson I actually got to meet the writers of Nightvale for work. They signed a newspaper for me but got my name wrong (My name is Tate but they thought I said Jake). I jokingly corrected them on my way out but then they called me back, took the paper out of my hand, scribbled it out, wrote my real name and then wrote me an apology on the paper.
Blue is like a audiobook or a asmr. The more you listen to it, the more you can imagine what your mind can create. It's neat how when someone who is only seeing blue can make something so interesting as this movie. It's a listen experience then a watching experience so respect what it is.
Still the best mid-roll break I've ever seen. Strategic, but not opportunistic, empathetic and tightly driven to the plot at hand. I would not have felt as much respect for learning of Jarman for the first time without such a powerful delivery of just why he created what he lived for. Had anyone tried to explain it to me in another way, I would have the same sympathies, but it wouldn't have hit as hard. I rewatch this at least once a month just for the etymology segment.
I have something to say on the topic of giving blue personality and character: i do the same thing with numbers. I always think of seven as a very agressive and manipulative being compared to the more passive 6 and 8. Does that mean i think 6 7 and 8 are actually living beings with hopes dreams hobbies and hates? of course not, but it's something the mind does.
I know this is from ages ago, but I should add that 'blue-blood' is not a link to indigo for wealth, but it was a boast by white Christian Spanish kings that they were "pure" Visigoth without any moorish blood in them, and it could be proved because you could see the blue veins under their skin - while a descendent of a moor would be too dark to see the veins. This was then borrowed into English without the racial undercurrent.
Crusader1089 I did a very tiny less than half an hour research that the racial divide turned into a upper class/lower class divide. I stated the time amount to give anyone reading this comment to be given handful of salt instead of a grain.
'I'm walking along the beach in a howling gale - Another year is passing In the roaring waters I hear the voices of dead friends Love is life that lasts forever. My hearts memory turns to you. David. Howard. Graham. Terry. Paul... David. Howard. Graham. Terry. Paul. Graham. Howard. David. Paul. Terry... Terry. Paul. Howard. Paul. David... My heart still beats to you.' I can't describe how important Derek Jarman's Blue is to me. My friends who adhore modern art joke to me that they could do the same but with yellow, or red. But regardless if they could, there's just something so, hypnotic to this film. I love the smokey washed out blue color; it feels like both an elegy and a celebration of life. I'm queer, like Jarman. A trans woman, and while I do not have AIDS, the complications of being queer and the issues of living while being judged and scorned. I get a lot of it. I've lost friends to AIDS as well, sucide along with homophobia. Its difficult; but it gets a bit better each day; but now and then there are rough days. And I feel like this film in a way, is a bit of a comfort thing to me. I know I sound really pretensious, but the film is very much a comfort thing for me. I watch it or listen to the (signed!) reccording. In a way, its a reminder that things will slowly get better, day by day. This is my favourite essay by you Kyle, lovely work. 'Ours is love that will last forever.'
I remember doing an after-school art curating program at the moma in my senior year of high school and we were presented with yves klein's work. We even had a peek at his blue formula that the curators used. At first we were pretty blaze about the whole thing because it seemed something normal for curators to work with. Until they told us how unbelievably hard it was to curate klein's works. Never mind the implications of what happens to those works over time. Should it require to be curated? To be kept as it was when it was made? What if the artist wants it to rot? Regardless, the curators shows us tens of slides of them attempting to recreate the exact shade of blue in order to curate the pieces and they were telling us mostly their failure at achieving that specific shade they needed. I thought it would be a nice piece of trivia for whoever read it :)
+Jaytheradical Yes... maybe. I think this is what Kyle meant in terms of the "mind filling in the blanks" aspect. There's NOTHING to look at on screen so our minds create something from nothing.
One should also remember that this was probably encoded using a h264 compression algorithm. A system that uses predictable movement between frames to make the file size smaller. But there are no intended visual forms in Blue. No motion to encode. So... The artefacts seen are what the encoder and later on the decoder thinks is moving in an unmoving field of a solid color. It is unconsciously inventing shapes and movement to compress... In many ways... We are witnessing the hallucinations of the h264 compression scheme... And that is strangely mind boggling.
One of my favorite of these videos. I had never heard of Derek Jarman before seeing this video and the Tempest review but have seen several now. Thank you for bringing attention to a director worth remembering!
You either get it or you don't , and if you don't get it that is fine. But if you do it is one of the most powerful and beautiful and moving films ever made. You end up hypnotised by the blue screen and the narration and the music and soundscape will take you on a journey. It's a wonderful requiem to all the people who died of Aids and to Jarman's life.
i saw part of this piece today at the museum of contemporary art in barcelona--thank you for this review, i wouldn't have appreciated it without having seen your analysis first : )
Color field paintings and abstract experimental art are very interesting. Unfortunately, my home country doesn't have exhibitions or collections of such names as Rothko, Newman and LeWitt.
On Japanese and Chinese blue, both of those characters mean something in Chinese. The Japanese character you showed in Chinese means blue or green while the Chinese character you showed is a formal way of saying the same, but has more of a connotation with jade. In modern Mandarin, there is a word for blue though (蓝色).
My god man. You sir are blowing my mind with every episode, seeking out films that I (and most people) would not have heard about otherwise. Thank you for your wonderful meditations. Keep up the great work! Also, please make a video on Aronofsky's The Fountain, I'd love to hear your take on it!
You know what's great about this show? It does an excellent job at making arthouse cinema accessible. I tend to be more cynical about arthouse films and modern art in general, especially something like this (see the Strawman in the video) However, having it explained to me makes it seem brilliant and amazing and...kind of makes me want to go check it out.
Rewatching this now, it kinda saddens me to see the section on Night Vale... That analysis on what makes it so brilliant is spot on, and now that the news about the TV show being in the making are going around and it's just... NO. But yeah, even over 3 years later I am kind of blown away how much there apparently is to say on the color blue.
hii thank you for ur vids they are cool i would like to ask you about that book there with the title ( SYMBOLS) what is it about and the author and thank you
I remember learning long ago that there's a particular order to the way color words are learned in a culture. Just about every culture gas two words for color: light and dark. Languages that have three include red, languages with four add green or yellow, and languages with 5 add whatever yellow or green was missed. Only advanced societies have words for blue, pink, and other such colors.
The Shona of Zimbabwe only have words for three colors: cipsuka (red and purple), cicena (yellow and yellow-green), and citema (blue-green and blue). Where you draw the lines between colors on the color spectrum influences how you see them.
I remember when discussing this with my family, my mom commented it would be convenient for her to watch. She frequently watches movies while doing filing or other organizing, so she's frequently multitasking while watching films, looking away from the screen much of the time.
I am honesty stumped if you are gay or not, although I somewhat doubt it only because I think you are so attractive. But I am deeply moved by how frequently you fearlessly connect art and the artist with the reality of AIDS. I often have felt that our broader culture either ignores or poorly connects AIDS and how it changed the world in honest and sincere ways. And if you wanted to you could have avoided all of this. Most people would probably not even notice or miss it. Which only underscores how important it is for you to inform or remind your audience that AIDS was real, it had an effect on culture and society that should be remembered and acknowledged as it provides us with a different perspective by which to approach art, and understand it. Thank you very much. Be well.
This is more of an audiobook released on VHS and in theaters. So this movie is so experimental that it is basically turns into a LESS experimental version of a different media. Oh, and a good way to explain the pure blue picture- for most of human history, that would basically be a huge canvas covered in pure gold. Which sounds more impressive. "canvas covered in pure gold" "statues covered in pure gold" "naked women covered in pure gold" "paintings painted with women covered in pure gold". Even if nothing particularly interesting is done with it, that at least sounds slightly impressive.
18:27 Would that include things like plants? I know that the Middle East was really advanced during the middle ages, but I'm curious about how they defined 'alive' *unpauses video* 18:47 Ah
+Jay Polk That's how it is with anesthetic, at least. Sight first, after feeling like you're falling down a tunnel. Everything gets distant. Touch fades away. Then, finally, hearing fades, as you slip away into unconsciousness.
Seriously though, this is my fourth time watching it. I love how you subvert typical review tropes and how it serves as a transition point between regular BHH and your current video essays. I also love color theory.
Update: Derek Jarman's Blue can now be found on Blu-Ray! It's part of the Derek Jarman Volume 2: 1987-1994 Blu-ray box set.
and now released separately from the boxset
VINDICATION!!!!
To me this was the review where Kyle, and Brows Held High in general, turned from being kind of a look at the goofier side of the art house, into what it is today: honest and interesting looks into what makes the art house important in the first place. Sure, he's never lost the goofiness (nor was he ever truly lacking in knowledge about the subjects he talked about, even if it was a movie about fucking a pig), but this was the one I remember realizing there was more to this whole endeavor than what most were bringing to the TGWTG crowd at the time.
Agreed. I've been watching Brows Held High wince I was like 11 (Probably way too young lol), but I'm 19 now and the emotion of this movie as well as Kyle's excellent job of not coming off as pretentious is very apparent to me. In my opinion Kyle did more to respectfully and substantially critique and explain art than his contemporaries, especially Doug. Doug came off way more pretentious and condescending than Kyle ever did, which is very interesting to me. I always wondered how Kyle managed to make artsy and intimidating content so understandable for the common masses. Btw, that "The Gautama Buddha instructs me to walk away from illness. But he was never attached to a drip" line really hit me hard
As a TGWTG watcher way back then, this video was revelatory for me. I got tired of watching videos where the host invited me to mock someones work and trick me into feeling superior and wanted to actually expand my horizons...
Blue, or how I learned to stop worrying and love compression artifacts
They actually do lend something to the piece, rather than being a detraction...if nothing else, the eye gets some kind of respite from the unrelenting field.
I watched this movie in a class freshman year of college. Sitting in that lecture hall at 10 in the morning, half asleep, getting hypnotized by the dancing grain on the blue screen, getting more and more invested in Jarman was one of the most powerful viewing experiences of my entire life.
d00mbot9000 Imagine what the experience was like for that one stoner two rows behind you.
I once watched Jarman's "Blue" on a portable black & white TV set. No, really.
Nelson: Ha ha!
Did you rename it "Grey"?
Womp womp.
What shade of grey was it?
me at the start of this video: wow this is stupid
me at the end of this video: wow
thechucknorrisofNSMB ...this is stupid
Couple years later and this must be addressed: did you use a screen grab or actual footage?
It has film grain!
Be warned, listening to this video will cause the word 'blue' to lose all meaning faster than you can say 'semantic satiation'.
Oh my god, *that's* what it's called!
I never knew what that was called. We learned something today!!!
Not saturation?
Here's a fun little fact. In every language ever written linguists discovered that the word "blue" was the last color to appear in that language's vocabulary. In fact. there are cultures alive to this day that have no word for the color "blue" and what makes this even more interesting is that when people from those cultures were shown something we would call "blue" they couldn't distinguish it from something that we would associate with another color.
"the last color to appear in that language's vocabulary"
Just to clarify, you're referring to basic color terms, not all named colors in general, right?
I'm Very Angry It's Not Butter As in "The sky is blue" appears in written records long after "The grass is green" or "the sun is yellow".
112steinway
So you do mean basic color terms.
@@112steinway But is the sky blue? See Through the Language Glass, by Guy Deutscher, for arguments that this is partially a cultural phenomenon.
If "Blue" was made today, it would get a big-budget sequel entitled "Red".
Then a third film would get released called "Yellow: Requiem." It would retcon half of the franchise and critics would make smarmy, quotable remarks about it like "'Yellow: Requiem' will black-list all critics and blue-ball 'Blue' fans as it pisses on cinema till the piss turns red."
There actually is a French film trilogy where one film is named Blue, one is named Red and one is named White. Google Krzysztof Kieślowski's "Three Colors Trilogy".
Four years after Yellow: Requiem, Blue: Origins is released, kicking off the new cinematic universe, followed by Green, Blue 3: The Blueining, Purple, Orange, and Green 2, climaxing in Rainbow, the big crossover film.
idk if this adds appeal to anyone but said trilogy has a really excellent soundtrack courtesy Zbigniew Preisner.
No, everyone knows Blue is followed by White and then Red.
You have to know Krzysztof Kieslowski fan to get that joke.
Ever since I dropped acid this movie and this review have stuck out in my mind as what the inevitability of death entails. A serene, calm, tranquility at the void at which we can never perceive in our current form of consciousness. It has almost became meditative to me that at one point I too will be on this very journey. As Derek Jarman once enjoyed the clash of imagery, as do I, I am happy to know that at one point I will be able to reject imagery. I am glad that Jarman made this film. It has opened my eyes to the many possibilities of the world. Without it, I think I would be more lost than ever. Thank you for this review.
I missed this episode. It's one of my favourites. :)
Love this review, hell, love anything that Kyle has done on Derrick Jarman. 9:58 gets me every time, just a total thud to the gut not just to learn the ultimate reasoning for this movie but to know that when one loses their vision, they don't see complete darkness or a brilliant white light but the most unnatural color in the natural world. Gives me shivers!
I found that this film is actually easier to watch on a phone than on a laptop or tv, since phone screens are designed to concentrate all of your focus on the screen without competing with the larger environment
At the start of this video:
This is either gonna be stupid, really confusing, or a smart thing that challenges people to think about life and film, while sitting on the border line of confusing, what the knavery, philosophical media.
At the end of this video:
It was third option and wow its beyond words for it.
I rewatch this video every once in a while. You managed to pack so much information into a short amount of time that I feel like I am reminded of a cool fact every few minutes.
Everything looks orange to me now.
All I can see is violet, but maybe that's because I'm in a little girl's room.
+The little red haired girl from across the street I hope you're a little girl.
Little red-head girl from across the street. Lemme hold a dollah
Cybermat47 A teenage girl who needs more posters.
this video/review was not only my exposure to the movie Blue, but it was my first exposure to Welcome to Night Vale, and for that i am honestly grateful to you
I'm...afraid to ask this, because honestly if the answer to this question is yes I might just lost faith in all humanity, but...did you get any content claims on what you showed of the film "blue"?
If not then I will be the firs to complain:
I can't believed Kyle showed such an insensitive thing. Now all I can see if orange after watching those clips from "Blue". I am offended that he would think to show something like this. Never mind a Serbian film or the pig fucking movie, this is the most offensive thing he has ever shown.
I'm waiting for people to take you seriously xD
Chol .Yerlow Given how much of a niche figure Jarman is, even if someone wanted to do so, it would be unlikely that they would think it worth it, and I doubt anyone associated with the distribution or production of the film ever would.
This is my favorite thing you've done. Blue is my favorite color, but this is just such a well put together episode. I just can't get over all that you were able to pack into this episode. I also love the New Order you threw in there.
Dear Kyle, please please please upload the "Angels in America" episode!
Anyone else find it curious that THIS is his definitive shade of blue? If I was to think of the truest most blue shade of blue, I'd probably think of a more royal blue.
One of the episodes of Netflix's Love Death + Robots was about an artist who specialized in a particular shade of Blue. Highly recommend, he brought the color blue to heights that would be unimaginable to most people.
Here comes one of my favorite reviews (and reviewer) on the internet!
Love the "Rhapsody in Blue" reference at the end
Amongst the many insights this video brought to me, I want to thank you so much for exposing me to Welcome to Night Vale. It jettisoned me into the world of podcasts, where I have recently heard you talking about performative identity on The Shady Lady podcast. Full circle back to this video, from whence I came.
Patrick Wilson I actually got to meet the writers of Nightvale for work. They signed a newspaper for me but got my name wrong (My name is Tate but they thought I said Jake). I jokingly corrected them on my way out but then they called me back, took the paper out of my hand, scribbled it out, wrote my real name and then wrote me an apology on the paper.
This is one of the best reviews I have ever seen, it starts as skeptical as the audience of the conceit, and keeps gradually adding details of both the film, the filmmaker, and other factors until it all clicks. It puts all the layers of the film out there really clearly. I like it.
♪I'm blue, da-buh-dee dah-buh-die♪
I WATCHED THIS FILM FOR A CRITICAL THEORY CLASS AND THAT'S THE SONG THAT WAS STUCK IN MY HEAD THE ENTIRE TIME
Kyle, you've been one of the cleverest, funniest, most humane online critics for a good while now. And this is a marvellous appreciation of a very odd film. Thank you.
So that's International Klein Blue. I thought it was Cobalt Blue, for the longest time. It's one of my favorite colors. It's also been one of the most popular nail polish colors for the last few years.
You make me excited to watch/read/see everything I haven't yet. A little frustrating because I tend to get overwhelmed by choice and just keep watching short video essays instead, but I just want to thank you for your passion and sincerity. It's rare that I come across a channel like yours and amazing when I do.
in case anybody seeks this out: it's actually at the tate britain, not the tate modern lol (also i think it's been replaced)
This video got me hooked on Welcome to Night Vale. Now, in 2017. Yes, I'm a bit late to the party. But I'll manage.
Thanx, Kyle.
Christina Devany Patrick Wilson I actually got to meet the writers of Nightvale for work. They signed a newspaper for me but got my name wrong (My name is Tate but they thought I said Jake). I jokingly corrected them on my way out but then they called me back, took the paper out of my hand, scribbled it out, wrote my real name and then wrote me an apology on the paper.
Blue is like a audiobook or a asmr. The more you listen to it, the more you can imagine what your mind can create. It's neat how when someone who is only seeing blue can make something so interesting as this movie. It's a listen experience then a watching experience so respect what it is.
Still the best mid-roll break I've ever seen. Strategic, but not opportunistic, empathetic and tightly driven to the plot at hand. I would not have felt as much respect for learning of Jarman for the first time without such a powerful delivery of just why he created what he lived for. Had anyone tried to explain it to me in another way, I would have the same sympathies, but it wouldn't have hit as hard. I rewatch this at least once a month just for the etymology segment.
I have something to say on the topic of giving blue personality and character: i do the same thing with numbers. I always think of seven as a very agressive and manipulative being compared to the more passive 6 and 8. Does that mean i think 6 7 and 8 are actually living beings with hopes dreams hobbies and hates? of course not, but it's something the mind does.
+Robert Pysh Do you consider 7 to be aggressive because of its well known criminal past, when 7 8 9?
demency actually mostly because I always found it a bitch to multiply or divide
Sigmund Fruit It’s also just a very sharp, angular number. It looks like a sickle.
Oh same i thought i was the only one who did this??? I always thought of 4 as being very uptight compared to 3.
7 looks like it wants to move and do something. No wonder its the magic number
I know this is from ages ago, but I should add that 'blue-blood' is not a link to indigo for wealth, but it was a boast by white Christian Spanish kings that they were "pure" Visigoth without any moorish blood in them, and it could be proved because you could see the blue veins under their skin - while a descendent of a moor would be too dark to see the veins.
This was then borrowed into English without the racial undercurrent.
Crusader1089 I did a very tiny less than half an hour research that the racial divide turned into a upper class/lower class divide. I stated the time amount to give anyone reading this comment to be given handful of salt instead of a grain.
Crusader1089 or with it
The royal families of Europe were all interrelated and inbred ... and haemophiliac.
nice soundtracking mate.
blue in green, from kind of blue.
10/10
'I'm walking along the beach in a howling gale -
Another year is passing
In the roaring waters
I hear the voices of dead friends
Love is life that lasts forever.
My hearts memory turns to you.
David. Howard. Graham. Terry. Paul...
David. Howard. Graham. Terry. Paul.
Graham. Howard. David. Paul. Terry...
Terry. Paul. Howard. Paul. David...
My heart still beats to you.'
I can't describe how important Derek Jarman's Blue is to me. My friends who adhore modern art joke to me that they could do the same but with yellow, or red. But regardless if they could, there's just something so, hypnotic to this film. I love the smokey washed out blue color; it feels like both an elegy and a celebration of life.
I'm queer, like Jarman. A trans woman, and while I do not have AIDS, the complications of being queer and the issues of living while being judged and scorned. I get a lot of it. I've lost friends to AIDS as well, sucide along with homophobia. Its difficult; but it gets a bit better each day; but now and then there are rough days. And I feel like this film in a way, is a bit of a comfort thing to me. I know I sound really pretensious, but the film is very much a comfort thing for me. I watch it or listen to the (signed!) reccording. In a way, its a reminder that things will slowly get better, day by day. This is my favourite essay by you Kyle, lovely work.
'Ours is love that will last forever.'
"The bluest blue that ever blued" never ceases to make me laugh.
I though this was going to be a video on Three Colors: Blue, but this was fascinating. (Also, I love the use of Rhapsody in Blue at the end.)
4:40 -- Blue Waltz is playing. Very cute :p
and blue monday later on!
Truly, blue is the warmest color 😂
Thank you for this. For reasons this episode is very special to me. You are one of the best reviewers on the internet right now.
I thought this was going to be on the Three Colors Trilogy movie.. Still, great video!
Me too.
So did I
It's because of this video that I got into WTNV. Coming back to it all this time later is so refreshing. Thank you, good sir.
almost ten years later and this is still my fave vid
The Blue Danube. Clever.
The only song he didn't include, but shouldn't?
All Blues by Miles Davis.
*should've
HellChuggapri1 That's because he used Blue in Green instead.
I had the same rection to Rhapsody in Blue at the end.
I remember doing an after-school art curating program at the moma in my senior year of high school and we were presented with yves klein's work. We even had a peek at his blue formula that the curators used. At first we were pretty blaze about the whole thing because it seemed something normal for curators to work with. Until they told us how unbelievably hard it was to curate klein's works. Never mind the implications of what happens to those works over time. Should it require to be curated? To be kept as it was when it was made? What if the artist wants it to rot? Regardless, the curators shows us tens of slides of them attempting to recreate the exact shade of blue in order to curate the pieces and they were telling us mostly their failure at achieving that specific shade they needed. I thought it would be a nice piece of trivia for whoever read it :)
Please do more experimental film. Twin Peaks and David Lynch!
So, is it an artifact of the video transfer, or is there really that cloudy, smokey, fabric-in-the-wind aspect to the blue?
Jaytheradical I think so.
+Jaytheradical Yes... maybe. I think this is what Kyle meant in terms of the "mind filling in the blanks" aspect. There's NOTHING to look at on screen so our minds create something from nothing.
One should also remember that this was probably encoded using a h264 compression algorithm. A system that uses predictable movement between frames to make the file size smaller. But there are no intended visual forms in Blue. No motion to encode. So... The artefacts seen are what the encoder and later on the decoder thinks is moving in an unmoving field of a solid color. It is unconsciously inventing shapes and movement to compress... In many ways... We are witnessing the hallucinations of the h264 compression scheme...
And that is strangely mind boggling.
This is definitively my all-time favourite video on youtube ever. Thanks you a lot.
One of my favorite of these videos. I had never heard of Derek Jarman before seeing this video and the Tempest review but have seen several now. Thank you for bringing attention to a director worth remembering!
I even psychologically associate this entire movie with my eyes closed with Blue. WTF. Everything about this movie just reeks of blue!
This is one of my all-time favorite videos of yours. I must've watched it a dozen times in my second year at art school.
You either get it or you don't , and if you don't get it that is fine. But if you do it is one of the most powerful and beautiful and moving films ever made. You end up hypnotised by the blue screen and the narration and the music and soundscape will take you on a journey. It's a wonderful requiem to all the people who died of Aids and to Jarman's life.
i saw part of this piece today at the museum of contemporary art in barcelona--thank you for this review, i wouldn't have appreciated it without having seen your analysis first : )
This is one of my favourite videos on your channel! I watch it every few months 💙
I actually might "watch" it sometime, it sounds like an interesting philosophical experience
This is an incredible video essay on one of my favorite films ever.
Did I ever tell you my favorite colour was Blue?
Let me guess. You read Sutter Kane.
Gola245 Obviously. In own my opinion yellow is far superior.
*screaming*
great video, tiny nitpick: the irish word for white has a long a sound and is pronounced something like bawn.
This is my favourite kyle kallgren video
In Hindi, Indigo (material) is called Neel, and blue(color) called Neela
Color field paintings and abstract experimental art are very interesting. Unfortunately, my home country doesn't have exhibitions or collections of such names as Rothko, Newman and LeWitt.
Dammit, now "blue" doesn't even seem like a real word anymore! Thanks Kyle!
I love this movie and the color.
Finished a paper on the last note of the video. Gershwin played a musical fanfare to my writing.
...yes!
On Japanese and Chinese blue, both of those characters mean something in Chinese. The Japanese character you showed in Chinese means blue or green while the Chinese character you showed is a formal way of saying the same, but has more of a connotation with jade. In modern Mandarin, there is a word for blue though (蓝色).
My god man. You sir are blowing my mind with every episode, seeking out films that I (and most people) would not have heard about otherwise. Thank you for your wonderful meditations. Keep up the great work!
Also, please make a video on Aronofsky's The Fountain, I'd love to hear your take on it!
Derek Jarman's "Blue" is to film as John Cage's "4'33"" is to music. Look it up.
I rewatch this video a lot. Still dope
Love the Miles Davis piece he plays, called “Blue In Green”.
You know what's great about this show? It does an excellent job at making arthouse cinema accessible. I tend to be more cynical about arthouse films and modern art in general, especially something like this (see the Strawman in the video) However, having it explained to me makes it seem brilliant and amazing and...kind of makes me want to go check it out.
7:58 point of order: Chinese has distinct words for blue and green. It's just that there's also a word for jade-colored, which is what you used.
I had forgotten about this review and this movie. Aaaah so good
you're missing your hot scientist boyfriend and your floating cat. then your cosplay shall be like that of carlos' hair. perfect.
Fantastic episode. Truly great analysis
this is tobias funke becomes an expiremental film director
How did I not see that outro music coming. Excellent ham-fisted references.
Wow. That's pretty deep. Very well articulated.
Using Rhapsody in Blue at the end was a nice touch.
Rewatching this now, it kinda saddens me to see the section on Night Vale... That analysis on what makes it so brilliant is spot on, and now that the news about the TV show being in the making are going around and it's just... NO.
But yeah, even over 3 years later I am kind of blown away how much there apparently is to say on the color blue.
hii thank you for ur vids they are cool
i would like to ask you about that book there with the title ( SYMBOLS) what is it about and the author and thank you
I remember learning long ago that there's a particular order to the way color words are learned in a culture. Just about every culture gas two words for color: light and dark. Languages that have three include red, languages with four add green or yellow, and languages with 5 add whatever yellow or green was missed. Only advanced societies have words for blue, pink, and other such colors.
this is so good this is such a good video
The Shona of Zimbabwe only have words for three colors: cipsuka (red and purple), cicena (yellow and yellow-green), and citema (blue-green and blue). Where you draw the lines between colors on the color spectrum influences how you see them.
All that talk about the cultural relevance and symbolism of the color blue, and no explanation of the origin of the phrase "blue balls"?
I remember when discussing this with my family, my mom commented it would be convenient for her to watch. She frequently watches movies while doing filing or other organizing, so she's frequently multitasking while watching films, looking away from the screen much of the time.
I am honesty stumped if you are gay or not, although I somewhat doubt it only because I think you are so attractive.
But I am deeply moved by how frequently you fearlessly connect art and the artist with the reality of AIDS.
I often have felt that our broader culture either ignores or poorly connects AIDS and how it changed the world in honest and sincere ways.
And if you wanted to you could have avoided all of this. Most people would probably not even notice or miss it.
Which only underscores how important it is for you to inform or remind your audience that AIDS was real, it had an effect on culture and society that should be remembered and acknowledged as it provides us with a different perspective by which to approach art, and understand it.
Thank you very much.
Be well.
This is .... bluetiful
i was straight up gonna tell you how much this reminded me of welcome to night vale, then you did it for me :)
You used a Welsh example!!!!
its on blu-ray in the UK. but I am waiting for the 4k for the superior dynamic range and edge sharpness.
If anyone was wondering or cared, the word 'Blue' is said 153 times in this video
Ending with Rhapsody in Blue. Well played. .
This is more of an audiobook released on VHS and in theaters.
So this movie is so experimental that it is basically turns into a LESS experimental version of a different media.
Oh, and a good way to explain the pure blue picture- for most of human history, that would basically be a huge canvas covered in pure gold. Which sounds more impressive. "canvas covered in pure gold" "statues covered in pure gold" "naked women covered in pure gold" "paintings painted with women covered in pure gold".
Even if nothing particularly interesting is done with it, that at least sounds slightly impressive.
18:27 Would that include things like plants? I know that the Middle East was really advanced during the middle ages, but I'm curious about how they defined 'alive'
*unpauses video*
18:47 Ah
Allegedly, the first sense to go during the last minutes of life is sight, and the last is hearing.
+Jay Polk That's how it is with anesthetic, at least. Sight first, after feeling like you're falling down a tunnel. Everything gets distant. Touch fades away. Then, finally, hearing fades, as you slip away into unconsciousness.
This is my favorite video of yours. If you were a cook and this was a plate you made, it would cause you to deserve the...cordon bleu.
Seriously though, this is my fourth time watching it. I love how you subvert typical review tropes and how it serves as a transition point between regular BHH and your current video essays. I also love color theory.