Books by Douglas Messerli
1001 Great Stories: Volume 1 (Green Integer, 1)
Beginning in 2005, Messerli inaugurates a series of two volumes each season of 10 stories each and will continue these volumes until he reaches 1,001 tales. The first of these volumes—appealing to the average reader and perfect for use in the classroom—will contain international stories from the nineteenth century to 1987. Authors include Nikolai Gogol, José Maria Eça de Queiroz, Valery Larbaud, Yuri Olesha, Mario Benedetti, Virgilio Piñera, Tommaso Landolfi, Dino Buzzati, J. Rodolfo Wilcox and Can Xue.
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Bow Down (Littoral/Ml&Nlf)
by Douglas Messerli, John Baldessari
Poetry. Art. Translation. Dedicated to Italian poet Amelia Rosselli, who committed suicide in 1997, BOW DOWN is in part a response to art by Los Angeles artist John Baldessari, whose collage methods are not unlike those that the author uses in his poetry. Several of these poems are a direct response to Baldessari's art, responding to and addressing issues in the visual work. The book contains Messerli's poems in the original English as well as in Italian translation by Manuela Bruschini. Also featured in the book are twelve black and white images of Baldessari's artwork. "On the contrary/the obscure is vast at a distance/confused as a single/act of flight/just as it arrives/in the night sky/to be engulfed/ in light..."--from "Unto Us."
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Reading Films: My International Cinema
Encompassing two hundred international movies, Douglas Messerli's Reading Films is a highly personal but profound discussion of some of the most important cinematic achievements from the earliest of film historyincluding numerous silent filmsto current movies in theaters at the time of this book's publication.
As Messerli reveals in his insightful essay, "Reading Films," his approach is not a mere evaluation of the films he has seen nor a passive appreciation or dismissal, but a deeper look into the structures of the works, the films' significance in society, and their directors' and actors' personal relationship to the created works. Messerli not only "sees" the movies on which writes, but watches them over and over again, finally "reading" them as works of poetry and fiction, evaluating and comparing them in terms of other works of art.
Yet there is nothing "academic" about Messerli's readings, written from 2000 to the present. His short essays are filled with passionate prejudices and concerns that sometimes take him on tangents other reviewers would not have dared. The author elucidates the contradictions and the sometimes subtle problems these films create that might have gone unnoticed even by their creators themselves.
Writing in a lively, sometimes colloquial, occasionally idiosyncratic language, Messerli lays his heart on his sleeve, demonstrating his loves and dislikes in the art of filmmaking. Reading Films is a work any film loverwhether populist or admirer of art house faremust read.
Douglas Messerli is the author numerous books of poetry, fiction, drama and prose, including the annual My Year series.
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Dark (Green Integer)
This, Douglas Messerli's tenth book of poetry, can be said to be part of a "dark" series of works, beginning with the poetry in his previous book, First Words. Dark explores a shadow terrain of the mind.
Publisher of Green Integer, Douglas Messerli is also the author of the ongoing cultural memoir My Life ____.
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