Dame Sitwell was very candid. I loved this interview because the interviewer asked such interesting questions that Ms.Sitwell answered honestly. Refreshing in our era of banal interviews with celebrities.
The Sitwell’s are brilliant! Dame Edith with her mad style and looks - she was a descendent of the Plantagenets, blessed with the prominent facial features of her famous ancestors. I love her no nonsense personality, her down to earth, witty and most homely nature. In her latter years she converted to the Roman Catholic Church, God be good to her.
Thanks for posting this. So grand to see a reference to Eve Disher. I have a painting of hers that a friend bought at the Bloomsbury Workshop and gave me as a gift....It's my one (though distant) connection to the Bloomsbury group.
ascenbach1 yes, i think it's quite hard to take a new path and follow it through, such as Edith Sitwell's experiments with language and music. and posting this video encouraged me to revisit these famous eccentrics - i watched a small interview recently with Sacheverell Sitwell in which he talks about his experiences with the Ballets Russes.
@@JohnRaymondHall it's not a conventional biography. Rather an imaginative image of the events from before her birth to becoming queen. Interesting but l prefer biographies to keep to the facts. Written in the 1940's so of its time.
@@rolymier8659 that's interesting - i like biographies in the traditional form - telling family background to birth and so on. i read Hermoine Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf and it was thematically rather than temporarily organised - i thought i would like the challenge of a new form but didn't
Sima Raft "I like people who know how to be snobs but aren't" - this catches the thing exactly - the group and Eve were elite in their belief in their refined tastes but these tastes were in opposition to those of the establishment - Sir Arthur collected industrial art, for example and Eve had that perhaps calculated characteristic of asking about you rather than broadcast about herself.
Sima Raft i was 18 and i told her about not following (at that time) my parents wish for me to go to university - i had decided to travel the world - which i did for a bit under five years (i then went back to Australia to university as it was too expensive as a foreigner in the UK) - i think the rebelliousness of this act may have appealed to her, being the kind of person she was.
Sima Raft absolutely - the best thing i could have done at that time of my life. i was very shy and with no sense of what might be interesting to me outside the literature and art which dominated my early reading. i was incredibly unworldly and unsure of myself - so arriving in London cold and having to find an apartment, fit it out and do all the things needed to begin a new like made me grow up exponentially quickly. i gobbled up concerts, and ballet and opera performances - going usually 4-5 nights a week and more. museums were for the day. i quite quickly had a new way of looking at things and a point of view. Eve Disher confirmed in me an anti-establishment angle on things - for which i am forever grateful - i hate to think what, with all my new-found interests, a dull cultural cringing kind of dull fellow i could have become otherwise!
Walton was a scrounger and lived off the Sitwells for 15 years in an attic in Carlisle Square. The Sitwells were nutcases, but the more friendly term ‘eccentric’ is retrospectively applied. They were snobs, and were given knighthoods for writing poetry. It is fascinating how in the 1920’s’s and 30’s how society in London seemed to be captivated by these people. They were nothing more than human leeches and had no talent.
passionballet.topf.ru totally, unmistakable, firmly ... i must say i have a double take on the upper classes in Britain - both attracted and the opposite. i must say, being a bit eccentric myself, i like some of Edith Sitwell's going on - and i liked the experimental 'Facade' - which is now very dated and strange - though it was received as such at the first live performance. i suspect this upload will not be among my most popular! LOL
passionballet.topf.ru 'Facade' was first performed in 1923 - poems by herself and music by William Walton, Constant Lambert conducting - i understand there is no film of any of these performances but a recording was made in 1929 using the original cast. ua-cam.com/video/vAEFAU9P8Do/v-deo.html When Ashton mounted 'Facade' in 1931, Sitwell did not want her poetry included.
Dame Edith is a fascinating blend of imperiousness and vulnerability. Sad really. I expect you know 'Unicorn among the lions' by Victoria Glendinning. Incidentally as a small girl my mother was allowed to play in the deserted gardens of Renishaw (Sir George in Italy). Great vid!
yes, i agree about that curious mix of imperiousness and vulnerability - in a way it makes her a bit more approachable, don't you think? interesting you mention Victoria Glendinning - i've just been re-reading her Leonard Woolf, 2006
I know Leonard had an unexpectedly interesting early life - I'll take your prompt and order the biog. I do think some aristos were/are monstrous to their children. Poor Dame Edith...
yes 'imperiousness' - the Bloomsbury Group and people like the Sitwell's saw themselves as an alternative aristocracy, with some connected to the conventional upper classes. you get a real sense of Edith from this extended-ish interview, don't you?
It is rumoured that Edith Sitwell owned a crucifix which had once belonged to Cagliostro. It can be seen in Wyndham Lewis's portrait of Edith from 1923.
English Eccentrics.....really.....In my opinion it is English attention seekers.....awful personalities. They are really saying with these awful personalities "please give me your attention....." they are socially and professional failures...for the most part.
Some were awful, some brilliant. I think many were reacting to the casual menace of Victorian child rearing and schooling. Let's face it, Edith was never going to compete in the season.
Sad that these great eccentrics are no longer alive. Infinitely greater than "celebrities " of today!!!
When standards drop, mediocrity rises to the top.
Dame Sitwell was very candid. I loved this interview because the interviewer asked such interesting questions that Ms.Sitwell answered honestly. Refreshing in our era of banal interviews with celebrities.
Dame Edith, not Dame Sitwell or Ms. Sitwell. You must be American.
@@JamesVaughan Whoops, sorry. I am an American but educable. DAME Sitwell. Got it.
Madeleine Dame EDITH, not “Dame Sitwell”
@@JamesVaughan DAME EDITH....but I hardly know her, so it does seem a tad forward of me.
@@madeleine8977 Don't worry, I don't think she's going to visit you in the middle of the night from beyond the grave LOL
I love her honesty, unlike all of the phony celebrities today.
How are they phony?
@@Sam-qc6sz maybe just stupid with crap taste like Taylor Swift
The Sitwell’s are brilliant! Dame Edith with her mad style and looks - she was a descendent of the Plantagenets, blessed with the prominent facial features of her famous ancestors. I love her no nonsense personality, her down to earth, witty and most homely nature. In her latter years she converted to the Roman Catholic Church, God be good to her.
i love that she had a distinctive original point of view - which is not that common
this is why ive always loved England: grace,education,style wit and a little eccentricity
gol keeper sadly,not anymore
a lovely balance of characteristics
Thanks for posting this. So grand to see a reference to Eve Disher. I have a painting of hers that a friend bought at the Bloomsbury Workshop and gave me as a gift....It's my one (though distant) connection to the Bloomsbury group.
What a great lady !
Thank you so much for this fascinating video. Watching this makes me want to delve deeper into the Sitwells.
ascenbach1 yes, i think it's quite hard to take a new path and follow it through, such as Edith Sitwell's experiments with language and music.
and posting this video encouraged me to revisit these famous eccentrics - i watched a small interview recently with Sacheverell Sitwell in which he talks about his experiences with the Ballets Russes.
She was a real looker when she was young. Great figure, gorgeous almond eyes and a super-strong nose, bob hair cut. Very beautiful.
@@suzannesands7330She cut an impressive figure in her old age, too.
shes like first rapper
She was spot on about Monroe.
wasn't she!
The Sitwells should never be forgotten, especially Dame Edith.
Dame Edith Sitwell was a great lady.
yes, lucky there is film of her being interviewed
Watched the interview with Dame Edith some months back. Then found her book, Fanfare for Elizabeth in a second hand shop so currently reading it.
is it a good read?
@@JohnRaymondHall it's not a conventional biography. Rather an imaginative image of the events from before her birth to becoming queen. Interesting but l prefer biographies to keep to the facts. Written in the 1940's so of its time.
@@rolymier8659 that's interesting - i like biographies in the traditional form - telling family background to birth and so on. i read Hermoine Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf and it was thematically rather than temporarily organised - i thought i would like the challenge of a new form but didn't
Fabulous people. I like people who know how to be snobs but aren't. And I love the reminiscings too.
Sima Raft
"I like people who know how to be snobs but aren't" - this catches the thing exactly - the group and Eve were elite in their belief in their refined tastes but these tastes were in opposition to those of the establishment - Sir Arthur collected industrial art, for example
and Eve had that perhaps calculated characteristic of asking about you rather than broadcast about herself.
John Hall And what did you tell her about yourself?!
Sima Raft
i was 18 and i told her about not following (at that time) my parents wish for me to go to university - i had decided to travel the world - which i did for a bit under five years (i then went back to Australia to university as it was too expensive as a foreigner in the UK) - i think the rebelliousness of this act may have appealed to her, being the kind of person she was.
John Hall Yes I imagine she appreciated a bit of imagination. And BTW I wonder if that five year abstinence ended up making you a professor for life!
Sima Raft
absolutely - the best thing i could have done at that time of my life. i was very shy and with no sense of what might be interesting to me outside the literature and art which dominated my early reading. i was incredibly unworldly and unsure of myself - so arriving in London cold and having to find an apartment, fit it out and do all the things needed to begin a new like made me grow up exponentially quickly. i gobbled up concerts, and ballet and opera performances - going usually 4-5 nights a week and more. museums were for the day. i quite quickly had a new way of looking at things and a point of view. Eve Disher confirmed in me an anti-establishment angle on things - for which i am forever grateful - i hate to think what, with all my new-found interests, a dull cultural cringing kind of dull fellow i could have become otherwise!
je suis enchantée
Walton was a scrounger and lived off the Sitwells for 15 years in an attic in Carlisle Square. The Sitwells were nutcases, but the more friendly term ‘eccentric’ is retrospectively applied. They were snobs, and were given knighthoods for writing poetry. It is fascinating how in the 1920’s’s and 30’s how society in London seemed to be captivated by these people. They were nothing more than human leeches and had no talent.
Sure moron...I bet you will never make anything on the level of "Facade" I know dumb is intrinsic to you but stop
How very British!
passionballet.topf.ru
totally, unmistakable, firmly ... i must say i have a double take on the upper classes in Britain - both attracted and the opposite.
i must say, being a bit eccentric myself, i like some of Edith Sitwell's going on - and i liked the experimental 'Facade' - which is now very dated and strange - though it was received as such at the first live performance.
i suspect this upload will not be among my most popular! LOL
John Hall Where is "Facade"?
passionballet.topf.ru
'Facade' was first performed in 1923 - poems by herself and music by William Walton, Constant Lambert conducting - i understand there is no film of any of these performances but a recording was made in 1929 using the original cast.
ua-cam.com/video/vAEFAU9P8Do/v-deo.html
When Ashton mounted 'Facade' in 1931, Sitwell did not want her poetry included.
English
Dame Edith is a fascinating blend of imperiousness and vulnerability. Sad really. I expect you know 'Unicorn among the lions' by Victoria Glendinning. Incidentally as a small girl my mother was allowed to play in the deserted gardens of Renishaw (Sir George in Italy). Great vid!
yes, i agree about that curious mix of imperiousness and vulnerability - in a way it makes her a bit more approachable, don't you think? interesting you mention Victoria Glendinning - i've just been re-reading her Leonard Woolf, 2006
I know Leonard had an unexpectedly interesting early life - I'll take your prompt and order the biog. I do think some aristos were/are monstrous to their children. Poor Dame Edith...
yes 'imperiousness' - the Bloomsbury Group and people like the Sitwell's saw themselves as an alternative aristocracy, with some connected to the conventional upper classes. you get a real sense of Edith from this extended-ish interview, don't you?
What a fascinating woman to listen to
isn't she - a very unique way of delivering verse
Sitwell wrote a book on eccentrics ofcourse......!! It takes one to know one!
+Robert Searle it does indeed - and he worked so hard, as did his siblings, at being eccentric!
Thanks for that!
Noel Coward described the Sitwells as "Two wiseacres and a cow. "
The 3 Sitwells have prominent noses.
SD - i hadn't heard that - that's interesting
I think she is fabulous------lovely lady.
i do too
@@JohnRaymondHall Pleased you do.
Hi John, love this video. Can you remember where the footage of Sacheverell Sitwell came from?
Thanks
Chris
hi Chris. the Sacheverell Sitwell footage came from a documentary 'Diaghilev - The Years In Exile' (1968)
The difference between eccentric and crazy is - eccentrics have money.
LOL - well put!
Dame Edith was quite a woman.
a unique individual!
It is rumoured that Edith Sitwell owned a crucifix which had once belonged to Cagliostro. It can be seen in Wyndham Lewis's portrait of Edith from 1923.
can not see a crucifix in that painting
The full version of this interview with Edith Sitwell is the "Face to Face' ua-cam.com/video/Q5l3UPlO60M/v-deo.html
thanks :) i've seen the full interview in fact
Never heard of this woman.
known at the time in the Bloomsbury Group - quite forgotten in most circles today
Great to see but if you are brought up privileged you have opportunities availed to you that the average citizen never had.
terribily british
pediatrapaola
terribly terribly + the stiffest of upper class lips!
Lol, terribly, terribly!
English.
English Eccentrics.....really.....In my opinion it is English attention seekers.....awful personalities. They are really saying with these awful personalities "please give me your attention....." they are socially and professional failures...for the most part.
Some were awful, some brilliant. I think many were reacting to the casual menace of Victorian child rearing and schooling. Let's face it, Edith was never going to compete in the season.
Don't be ridiculous!
most certainly they were attention seekers!
What's the reason you are so stupid? Is it your DNA?