Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Artemesia Gentileschi

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“Until I came along all the leading men were handsome, but luckily they wrote a lot of stories about the fellow next door.”
—Gary Cooper

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Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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Mia Farrow on the set of Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir. Roman Polanski)

“I appeared in every single scene of the film [Rosemary’s Baby], except when, during [the impregnated with Satan’s spawn sequence] a body double was used in my place. But I didn’t entirely miss out on the scene—one day I found myself—me from convent school, who prayed with outstretched arms in the predawn light – tied to the four corners of a bed, ringed by elderly, chanting witches, while a perfect stranger with bad skin and vertical pupils was grinding away on top of me. I didn’t dare think. After finishing that scene the actor climbed off me and said politely, in all seriousness, ‘Miss Farrow, I just want to say, it’s a real pleasure to have worked with you.’“
—excerpted from Mia Farrow’s What Falls Away

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Scenes From Movies I’d Like To Write

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“Escaping Criticism” 1874, by Pere Borrel del Caso (1835 -1910). A masterful and witty example of trompe-l’oeil where the artist tries to trick our eye by creating a convincing optical illusion. Here we have a boy dressed in rags escaping the confines the frame, his world, perhaps seeking a better life by stepping into the viewer's world.
“Escaping Criticism” 1874, by Pere Borrel del Caso (1835 -1910). A masterful and witty example of trompe-l’oeil where the artist tricks our eye by creating a convincing optical illusion. Here, a barefoot boy is escaping the confines of the frame—his world—perhaps seeking a better life by stepping into the viewer’s universe. Think of this painting as a scene from a time travel movie.

When our children were little, one of our favorite Shabbat activities was leafing through art books. I’d sink into a comfortable chair. One of the children would plop into my lap. We’d look at reproductions of art, and make up stories about various paintings.

The best paintings are like scenes from movies never produced. The characters feel real. They think. They feel. We care about them. We want to know them. Most of all, we yearn to know what happens next.

Here are a few paintings that never failed to capture our imaginations.

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