The Explosives Expert

DSCF0031
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

We'd read about him in the newspapers. He was the man they couldn't catch, photographed the scenes of his crimes and then sent to the newspapers snaps of himself grinning in front of these images. Nobody knew where he came from, but we knew who he worked for.

The family who lived next door were in hiding. We didn't know that at the time; we found out later. We found out after he visited their home with his 'expertise'. I was in the garden at the time; I heard the explosion, and then I hid. I hid in the best place I could find, and saw him leave the site of the crime.

The Explosives Expert

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Originally uploaded by paullewis.

The damage behind him, the danger abated, he took a bite from the apple he was holding in his hands. He was not ashamed; he was simply hungry: hungry for destruction.

I didn't know where to turn, what to do. Had he seen me? Had he spotted my hideaway? I sat still and waited, my heart pounding, my breath heavy.

The Explosives Expert

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Originally uploaded by paullewis.

He walked away from the scene of the crime, a threatening scowl on his face. 'You could be next', he whispered to me.

That was six years ago. I've been watching my back ever since. I was a witness; my life was in danger.

He could still be out there, waiting, watching....

I'm Your (Apple-Eating) Man

I'm Your (Apple-Eating) Man
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

This is a photo of me taken by one of my students. It's not a particularly good photo, but I guess that's why they call them students!!! (Just kidding, Claire.)

The image started out as a pastiche of the cover from Leonard Cohen's album 'I'm Your Man': Cohen, looking very serious, eating a banana. But I didn't have a banana and could only find an apple. Ah, well.

Original images for this day's posts ©Heidi Louise Hodgkiss, Claire Stephens, Michael Patrick, 2005

The Attack (Still 1)

Attack 1 sepia
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

I thought I'd escaped. I thought I'd got out. I'd been out for fifteen years, working as a salesman. I thought I had disappeared: they couldn't find me now. No-one could. Not even my wife. I'd left everything behind... my home, my former life, my name, my children. I couldn't be 'got'; I couldn't be 'had'; I couldn't be reached. They couldn't find me. They couldn't...

The Attack (Still 2)

Attack 2 sepia
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

Then one day I was reached. I was found. I was had. And I was got. They sent one of their heavies. Liked killing people with his bare hands, I'd been told. Never thought those bare hands would squeeze the life out of me. Hubris, I guess. I'd been arrogant. I'd been stupid. I'd been full of pride. Then it all came tumbling down.

The Attack (Still 3)

Attack 3 sepia
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

His name was Sam. He knocked at the door to my office. I opened it. I didn't expect them to send a killer after me: after all, I'd been 'under' for more than a decade. But they had, and he found me.

He was a son-of-a-bitch. I couldn't fight him. I was done for. There was no way out; no defence; no hope. This was the end of me, and I knew it. I knew it so well it made my teeth hurt. The blood pumped through my veins, and I felt my eyes throb. Everything went hazy for a moment, and then...

The Attack (Still 4)

Attack 4 sepia
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

He came at me. He didn't swing. He didn't rain blows on me. He was poised. It took one strike. He was grinning, I remember that. Grinning at my death. A true sadist, he enjoyed inflicting injury.

He raised his fist. Then I was out. I was out forever. Remember me. Remember me when I am gone away into that dark and silent land.

The Attack (Still 5)

Attack 5 sepia
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

'Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more, day by day,
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.'
-Christina Rosetti: 'Remember Me'

Original images ©Paul A J Lewis, 2005
Model: my good friend SupaSam
The company 'Cavalier' does not endorse this project and/or blog, and has no association with the author of these images.

In the Spirit of the Blog: A Statement of Intent

In the Spirit of the Blog
Originally uploaded by paullewis.

Here's a photo taken in the spirit of the movies to which this blog is dedicated. Now if only I could figure out a way to insert it below the title....

Once a fortnight, I plan to recreate and post an iconic image from 1970s action cinema, using this blog as a forum for exhibiting these images.

(By the way, it's a toy gun!!!!)

Original images ©Paul A J Lewis, 2005

(Past) The First Post

Musings on Annie Hall, Masculinity and 70s Action Cinema, Revolver and Vito Cipriani, Oliver Reed

Well, this is my first post. I'm reeling from watching Annie Hall. For a comedy, that movie sure is depressing. For the first time, I'm struck by how well-observed the character of Alvy (played by Woody Allen) is: I hate to say it, but in Alvy I recognise an exaggerated version of the 'tics' that have plagued my own dealings with the 'fairer sex'--hesitancy, insecurity, a fear of the vulnerability that accompanies revealing our emotions.

Yes, Alvy is a shorter version of a 'guy's guy': his whimpering persona is a hyperbolic representation of the flaws that govern mens behaviour.

As stated above, the name for this blog comes from the movie Blood in the Streets (also known as Revolver and In the Name of Love): Vito Cipriani is a character played by Oliver Reed. In the early 70s, Reed played a number of no-nonsense action characters, in movies like Sitting Target (directed by Douglas Hickox)--a classic that needs to be released on DVD right this minute (do ya hear me?)--and Don Medford's The Hunting Party (another of my favourite movies).

In Blood in the Streets Reed plays a prison warden whose wife is kidnapped. I should point out that Reed's wife is played by the astoundingly gorgeous Agostina Belli: if only I could meet a woman like that.

Reed is forced by the kidnappers to release a prisoner, a petty thief played by Fabio Testi. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Reed's wife has been kidnapped by some French politicos who had arranged the assassination of another French politician/businessman, who had turned against his 'class' and threatened to expose some corruptions at the heart of the government. The politicos want Testi dead because he is the only man who knows that the man the politicos had accused of the murder (Testi's friend) was dead before the assassination took place. At the end of the movie, Reed is offered a choice: kill Testi and get his wife back, or let Testi live (and reveal the conspiracy) and suffer the consequences (Reed's wife to be accused of the murder of a musician, and Reed's career to be destroyed). As Reed is told by one of the politicos, 'Society has many means of protecting itself: bureaucracy, red tape... and the revolver'.

Reed makes the choice: he kills Testi, and his wife is returned to him. However, in the closing shot his wife realises what has happened and backs away from Reed: Reed has fought hard, but has ultimately alienated the wife he loves and for whom he has struggled.

Reed is brilliant in this movie: tough, tender and desperate in all the right places. And it's this 'old school' idea of masculinity and its treatment in popular culture that I want to celebrate and examine in this blog.

Okay, now that long-winded introduction is over, let the good times roll.

Agostina Belli

Agostina Belli (as promised)

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Ahhh, Agostina Belli. Now, there's a sight for sore eyes.

A Greeting

Welcome, strangers. My dog licks you. Consider yourself... one of the family.



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