Out Tangoing Tango
Monday, May 05, 2014
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| Left Photograph by Helmut Newton, Right Dirk Bogarde Estate |
Dirk Bogarde 'The Look'
I remember being surprised, and showing it
rather obviously, when Luchino Visconti, reading through the cast of a film
which I had just agreed to make with him, said’…and finally I will use the
English girl Charlotte Rampling for the young wife who is sent to the
concentration camp…’
‘Rampling! But why?’ I remember saying
tactlessly. Visconti placed the forefinger and thumb of each hand around his
eyes, framing them. ‘For this,’he said. ‘For the Look.’
…Rampling keeps her own sensuality well
banked down, but one is constantly aware of the fire below in the lithe walk,
the measured tread, the slender length of leg, the curve of the neck and throat
and perhaps, most of all, in the meaning and the suggestions which lie behind
the Look. Those alone can still a breath. It seems all that is necessary.
Dirk Bogarde, Paris 23.2.87
The above is in the introduction to
Charlotte Rampling’s book With Compliments – Charlotte Rampling.
Some who may read this blog every once in a
while might know that I have been married since 1968 to the same woman, my
Rosemary. But I have often told her that should I get any offer from Rampling I
would leave her on the spot. Perhaps I only say this in jest.
The fact is that sometime in 1988 I
traveled to Toronto
to show my portfolio to magazine art directors. In a remainder bookstore on Yonge Street I found
the Rampling book for which I paid something less than $10. It is in my list of
my most valuable books with a first edition of The Old Man and the Sea and a
British first of Neuromancer. Most serious book collectors would certainly not
approve of Rampling being in that list. To hell with them!
For three years now I have vowed not to buy
any more books and I order my reading material on my on-line Vancouver Public
Library. I direct the VPL to send the books to my local Oakridge branch. My Oakridge
branch has one of the most remarkable book/withdrawal/rejects shelf (on
wheels). My latest purchase is the Bogarde book for which I paid $1.50. It is
in excellent shape and it may have been read once. Novels go for $1.00.
As soon as I got home with my purchase I
went to the index and looked up Rampling, Charlotte. Here is what I found:
In a letter to Bee Gilbert (Photographer,
screenwriter and producer. She met Dirk for The Fixer (1969) when she was
living with Ian Holm.):
…Honestly…during my fifth simulated orgasm
on the film with Cavani [she directed The Night Porter] in Rome…I suddenly wondered what the hell I was
doing at 53 with my back on the floor, my flies undone, being straddled by
beloved Miss Rampling..with an entire Italian Crew watching and eating pizza. Nothing
I had ever done in Rank prepared me for that …and it also hurt my elbows
most damnably. So I have decided not to do anything else until I REALLY feel so
dotty about it i cant resist. But the shit of it all…the hotel rooms, early
calls, hanging about, arguing about continuity, avoiding Press…faking Fucks…BASTA!
We have apparently out Tangoed ‘Tango’…I cant say that makes me happy…but it
might make some lolly. I ADORED Miss Cavani…I used to hit her so that she would
cry..so thatI could cuddle her. Kinky? Betcha…Love end of page. D.
OOOO(Hugs for Ian.) For you XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
and two OO’s
