Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles: The Cage Door is Always Open, dir. Daniel Young, 2012, Switzerland, 87 min. 
Monday, June 24, 11:00 am @ Castro

Jane Auer and Paul Bowles
©2012 HesseGreutert Film, from
Cecil Beaton Archive, Sotheby’s

Paul Bowles was a composer and author before World War II, part of Gertrude Stein’s coterie of artists in pre-war Paris, friend of Aaron Copland, Christopher Isherwood, Orson Welles, Tennessee Williams, translator of Jean-Paul Sartre and of traditional Moroccan folk tales and songs, precursor of the Beat poets, and author of The Sheltering Sky, a celebrated novel about an American couple traveling in North Africa. He spent most of his adult life living in Tangier, Morocco, returning only reluctantly to New York City. He married Jane Auer, also a novelist, but the two were more friends than lovers; each had same-sex companions. Paul Bowles: The Cage Door is Always Open explores the many facets of Bowles’ life and works. I’m hard pressed to put in words the ripples of Bowles’ talents through the culture of the 20th century, but luckily there is an excellent film to relieve me of that burden. Highly recommended, a Must See.

• IMDb page • Paul Bowles’ official website