This afternoon I saw Fukasaku’s Black Rose Mansion, (’69), the disappointing follow-up to the absolutely outrageous Black Lizard, one of my all-time favorite camp extravaganzas from Japan (with transvestite actor Akihiro Maruyama as the infamous jewel thief Black Lizard, and featuring Yukio Mishima as one of her human dolls!). Maruyama again starred, but this time as a shadowy chanteuse at an exclusive men’s club. She’s almost Medusa-like in the effect she has on the poor men who gaze upon her and fall instantly in love with her, and are thus doomed.
Last night Big Chrissy and I went to Sarah’s in Atherton for our bridge club. Sarah lives in this really fabulous house with a topiary maze and a Modigliani. She and her husband have a very interesting and quirky art collection, with several major pieces by Nam Jun Paik, Odd Nerdrum, Frank Lobdell, Dale Chihuly, and Alan Rath. There’s a door in one of the downstairs closets that leads to an underground swimming pool. Sarah is a very interesting artist, and I invited her last night to submit some work to the Marjorie Wood Gallery. She served a delicious meal of lamb shanks and white bean soup, and after helping her taste wines for a fundraiser that she’s involved in, we were all a little distracted and a little lit.