|
THE BEAUTY SECRETS OF MARGARITA MOROZOVA : about
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
I met Miss Firunts one day in 2003 for drinks at a Russian tea room in
Los Angeles. We sat at a table with a red brocade tablecloth sampling Bird's Nest pastries
and passing the sugar. She wore a little black dress and was the epitome of the femme fatale. If she had stepped directly from the screen of
a silent movie melodrama I would not have been surprised (or more delighted). Subsequently, we attended a Molière play together
and went on to other delights, including an event where a volcano
erupted, spilling hot cocoa and hyacinths in an art gallery. At a party in the hills we swam in a cold swimming pool overlooking the lavender-hued glittering night sky of Hollywood. These opportunities could not be resisted - and with Mariam, everything we did took on a special allure, whether it was shopping for dresses at musty boutiques in Burbank or nibbling piroshkis while watching Russian soap operas in her living room. In early
2005, Miss Firunts issued an exquisitely hand-bound limited edition of her debut novella,
The Beauty Secrets of Margarita Morozova. I much admired it, and pitied that its readership
would be limited to the few who were lucky to get their grubby gloves on the original edition.
Thus, persephassa brings you the re-issue of this scintillating novel, with the additions
of an introduction by the incomparable filmmaker Guy Maddin, and an illustration by the wickedly talented Xanthippe Svanström.
REVIEWS
Last night I started reading The Beauty Secrets Of Margarita Morozova.
It's marvelous, a heady, hyperbolic dime-store gothic that's equal parts Angela Carter and
Anais Nin. The introduction, by my favorite filmmaking lunatic Guy Maddin, is equally
wonderful. Somewhere in the middle of reading it, I had the minor (and terrifically
obvious) revelation that Mr. Maddin probably knows Lolita backwards and forwards.
Why am I not surprised?
- Andrea Feldman
BIOGRAPHIES
MARIAM FIRUNTS
THE CINEMATHEQUE .ORG
Born 1987 in the Soviet Union, currently residing in Los Angeles.
People claim I look like Anna Akhmatova, but I think Alla Nazimova is
the spider's stilettos. Four winters ago I discovered curious
parallels between Alla Nazimova's life and my own - set eighty years
apart - and from
that time I have been interested in photographic and literary pieces that disrupt the
notion of linear time. Most of my photographs are self portraits but it often appears
that several are
also portraits of her. I'm eightteen years old and I want to know what
remains over time; movie reels, deco compacts, silent film
personalities, language, tomes of Silver Age Soviet literature. Like
Mae West, I am primarily interested in lifting the hemline of the
unknown.
GUY MADDIN
Winnipeg-born filmmaker Guy Maddin's surreal, dreamlike works are often cited for their striking visuals and obscure sensibilities.
XANTHIPPE SVANSTROM
IMPLEMENT 13 .COM
Lives in Portland, Oregon, and is the author of the illustrated novel, The Angel and the Reaper.
<<<<< BACK
|
