A brief short film for you before this week's Deep Hurting Project (which should come tomorrow):
It's a fascinating little piece based on a true story. I like the shades of Jodorowsky in it, but the one thing that's disappointing about this short is the liberties it takes about the actual event:
The traditional celebration for a widow's remarriage at that time was a ball, with people getting blind stinking drunk, and what would be called a Charivari. Drunken parading with lots of loud, discordant, music. As part of this, King Charles and some friends decided to dress as "wild men," hairy savages claimed (in fiction or fact, I'm not too sure) to be living in the woods. To simulate this hair, they put flax soaked in resin on linen rags, which were sewn onto them. Flax, it should be noted, is really fucking flammable. Knowing this, at this point, torches were banished from the hall. For a few minutes, they "capered and howled "like wolves", spat obscenities and invited the audience to guess their identities while dancing in a "diabolical" frenzy." And then, his brother, the Duke of Orleans, entered, incredibly loaded and carrying a torch. And, of course, it became la Bal des Ardents, the ball of the burning men. Four of the six "Wild Men" burned to death. One chronicler said "four men were burned alive, their flaming genitals dropping to the floor ... releasing a stream of blood" and fucking Hell is that Metal imagery. Two of them survived. One of them had the sense to jump into an open vat of wine and stayed there until the flames were extinguished. The King was the other one who survived, and this time, it was because he was far away from the other dancers, and his aunt (who was 9 years younger than him, oddly,) managed to smother the flames with her massive dress.
Of course, remember that, before this, King Charles was in a very fragile state mentally. The fuck do you think that seeing several of his friends burned alive before his eyes would do to him? He had some severe attacks of insanity for the rest of his life. Later that year, he had a break severe enough that he forgot his own name, the fact that he was king, and who his wife was. The nature of the madness kept evolving. A few years later, he was convinced he was St. George and again forgot his own wife and children (but not his court). He was known to run wildly throughout his palaces and it was common for his servants to close up the entrances so he couldn't leave. Eventually, he even had a period where he was convinced he was made of glass and had to have iron rods sewn into his clothes to make sure other people didn't break him.
And how fascinating a film about this would be!
It's a fascinating little piece based on a true story. I like the shades of Jodorowsky in it, but the one thing that's disappointing about this short is the liberties it takes about the actual event:
- This was not the king's 14th birthday. He was more like 24 at that point. This ball was actually the celebration of the queen's lady-in-waiting's third marriage.
- The king's brother was not so much evil (at least, not on this occasion) as blind stinking drunk. Apparently, he came in carrying a torch and really wanting to get a good look at one of the wild men, whose costume caught fire when a spark hit the wildly flammable costume.
The traditional celebration for a widow's remarriage at that time was a ball, with people getting blind stinking drunk, and what would be called a Charivari. Drunken parading with lots of loud, discordant, music. As part of this, King Charles and some friends decided to dress as "wild men," hairy savages claimed (in fiction or fact, I'm not too sure) to be living in the woods. To simulate this hair, they put flax soaked in resin on linen rags, which were sewn onto them. Flax, it should be noted, is really fucking flammable. Knowing this, at this point, torches were banished from the hall. For a few minutes, they "capered and howled "like wolves", spat obscenities and invited the audience to guess their identities while dancing in a "diabolical" frenzy." And then, his brother, the Duke of Orleans, entered, incredibly loaded and carrying a torch. And, of course, it became la Bal des Ardents, the ball of the burning men. Four of the six "Wild Men" burned to death. One chronicler said "four men were burned alive, their flaming genitals dropping to the floor ... releasing a stream of blood" and fucking Hell is that Metal imagery. Two of them survived. One of them had the sense to jump into an open vat of wine and stayed there until the flames were extinguished. The King was the other one who survived, and this time, it was because he was far away from the other dancers, and his aunt (who was 9 years younger than him, oddly,) managed to smother the flames with her massive dress.
Of course, remember that, before this, King Charles was in a very fragile state mentally. The fuck do you think that seeing several of his friends burned alive before his eyes would do to him? He had some severe attacks of insanity for the rest of his life. Later that year, he had a break severe enough that he forgot his own name, the fact that he was king, and who his wife was. The nature of the madness kept evolving. A few years later, he was convinced he was St. George and again forgot his own wife and children (but not his court). He was known to run wildly throughout his palaces and it was common for his servants to close up the entrances so he couldn't leave. Eventually, he even had a period where he was convinced he was made of glass and had to have iron rods sewn into his clothes to make sure other people didn't break him.
And how fascinating a film about this would be!
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
![[Image: harmlesskitchen.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/yxR97P23/harmlesskitchen.png)
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
