3. Avond &...

Lyrics

Nu hoef je nooit je jas meer aan te trekken
(You don't have to put your coat on any more)
en te hopen dat je licht het doet.
(and hope that your light is working)
laat buiten de stormwind nu maar razen in het donker
(Let the storm rage in in the darkness outside)
want binnen is het warm en licht en goed
(Because inside it is warm and light and good)

hand in hand naar buiten kijkend waar de regen valt
(Holding hands, while watching how outside the rain is falling)
ik zie het vuur van hoop en twijfel in je ogen
(I see the fire of hope and doubt in your eyes)
en ik ken je diepste angst
(And I know your deepest fear)

Want je kunt niets zeker weten en alles gaat voorbij
(Because you can't be certain of anything and everything will end)
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
(But I believe, I believe in you and me)

En als je 's morgens opstaat ben ik bij je
(And when you wake up in the morning I am with you)
en misschien heb ik al thee gezet
(And I might have made some thee)

En als de zon schijnt buiten gaan we lopen door de duinen
(And when outside the sun is shining, we'll walk through the dunes)
en als het regent gaan we t'rug in bed
(And when it rains, we'll go back to bed)

Uren langzaam wakker worden, zwevend door de tijd
(We'll take hours to slowly wake up, floating through time)
Ik zie het licht door de gordijnen
(I see the light through the curtains)
en ik weet, t'verleden geeft geen zekerheid
(And I know, the past gives no certainty)

Want je kunt niets zeker weten en alles gaat voorbij
(Because you can't be certain of anything and everything will end)
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
(But I believe, I believe in you and me)

Ik doe de lichten uit en de kamer wordt nu donker,
(I turn the lights off and now the room becomes dark)
een straatlantaarn buiten geeft wat licht,
(A street lantern outside gives some light)

En de dingen in de kamer worden vrienden die gaan slapen,
(And the things in the room become friends that go to sleep)
de stoelen staan te wachten op 't ontbijt
(The chairs are waiting for breakfast)

En morgen wordt ik wakker met de geur van brood en honing.
(And tomorrow I wake up with the smell of bread and honey)
De glans van gouden zonlicht in je haar
(De glow of golden sunshine in your hair)

En de dingen in de kamer, ik zeg ze welterusten
(And the things in the room, I wish them goodnight)
vanavond gaan we slapen en morgen zien we wel
(Tonight we'll sleep and we'll see about tomorrow)

Maar de dingen in de kamer zouden levenloze dingen zijn, zonder jou
(But the things in the room would be lifeless things without you)

En je kunt niets zeker weten en alles gaat voorbij
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
En je kunt niets zeker weten want alles gaat voorbij
Maar ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof, ik geloof in jou en mij
(And you can't now anything for certain and everything will end,
But I believe, Ibelieve in you and me)

Yeah, I will translate songs that are not in English. Obviously this song should by no means be the third best song of all time. I don't think it's even the best Dutch song of all time, but it's certainly not a bad song. This is not a glamorous love song. We get the feeling this is quite an ordinary, realistic, slightly old couple. They don't need many romantic fantasies for their love. They love each other because of the mundane and ordinary things they do together in their life. There aren't many songs that take such a realistic approach to love and there aren't that many movies either. I found it pretty hard to find a movie to fit this song, but eventually I decided on a very recent one, about which I read that it presents us with a very ordinary realistic old couple. And when I watched it, I found it was a better fit than I even thought.

The movie: Another Year (Mike Leigh, 2010)

Mike Leigh is a rather unique director. He doesn't write a screenplay for his movies. Instead he gets an idea for what could be an interesting movie and with his often recurring cast and crew improvises the movie scene by scene. He wants his movies to be a reflection of reality and he obviously thinks that the way he works is the best way to achieve that. Up until now I hadn't seen a movie by him, but it is obvious his method has success. He is on of the most critically acclaimed modern British directors and he has 7 Oscar nominations. Ironically some of them are for Best Original Screenplay. And Another Year is a great movie indeed. For three quarters of its running time it is one of the best representations of ordinary life I've ever seen at the movies.

It's about a couple in their in their 50's, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen) and their interactions with their friends and family. We see them doing things any ordinary people do. They have jobs, they cook, they work at home and in their garden, talk about banalities, make bad jokes with their friends. What Leigh shows is that most of the time in life big things don't happen to us. Our mood depends mostly on the details. Buying a small car, going to have nice dinner with friends, a stupid joke, an annoying patient, a broken car, these are the kinds of things that most of the time make us happy, sad or annoyed. The title of the movie is actually perfect. The movie is divided into section called spring, summer, autumn and winter. What we see may not be the most interesting things that have happened to Tom and Gerri all year, but that's the point. It are the things that could happen any other year to them. It's a movie about the daily life of ordinary people. It works brilliantly until the section in winter. It opens with the funeral of the wife of Tom's brother. I thought that was a mistake. Like I said up until then the movie was interested in how our life is shaped by mundane, ordinary things. I found it rather unfortunate that Leigh now suddenly felt the need to dramatize things with something important like a funeral. On top of this in the scenes involving this funeral, the cinematography was suddenly darkened. Up until then the mood in the film was set by the behavior of the characters. Now the behavior of the characters was set by the mood of the film. There are, of course, brilliant movies for which this works. Not for this movie though, whose biggest strength was in its feeling of naturalness. By so obviously darkening the cinematography he made this scenes feel unnecessarily artificial. And the problems didn't stop here. He also introduced the long lost son of the deceased, who was such an obnoxious and idiotic character, it felt like he came from another movie. When later on Gerri mentioned that her son would come home with his girlfriend I feared that the movie would end with a cliche marriage. Luckily that didn't happen. And despite these winter scenes the movie is still incredibly good.

After watching this, I thought of Sam Mendes' American Beauty. That is also a very good movie, but Another Year feels like the opposite of that one. This movie claims that there is nothing wrong with living an ordinary and, sometimes, a bit dull life. There can be much virtue found in that. Tom and Gerri had a great time when they were young. They had fun at rock concerts and traveled around the world. But most people can not live that sort of life forever. We eventually have to settle down. And that sort of life can be good to if we have a nice a family and good friends with whom we can talk with fond memories about our youth. And the jobs they have may not be glamorous; Gerri is a psychologist, Tom is a geological engineer. But they help people with it, even if they might not always see the end result of their labor.

2. Hotel California &...

Lyrics:

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel California
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

This is a great song with some of the most debated lyrics of all time. The Eagles themselves have claimed that the lyrics are some sort of metaphor for living in California in 1976 and the dying of the American Dream. But if you take them literally they are about a hotel that has a strange, eerie effect on a person. And when it comes to hotels that have weird effects on people, there is one movie you really can't ignore.

The Movie: The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

I have now seen three movies by Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. And based on this movies alone I can say that Kubricks reputation as a great director is absolutely earned. But what surprised me was that his movies aren't at all inaccessible. I've read and heard that he was a cold, intellectual filmmaker whose films are mostly about (abstract) ideas. Well, that is partly true. If you want to truly appreciate his movies you'll have to see them more then once. You have to give the movie a close reading and think about it and the ideas that are expressed in it. You have to watch for details. There may not be an American filmmaker for whom small details matter more than Kubrick. But his movies can also be enjoyed as simple entertainment. Dr. Strangelove is basically a slapstick movie. And The Shining is essentially an incredibly well made thriller/horror full of iconic scenes.

There has probably never been a thriller made with a better and longer setup. The movie basically begins with around 40 minutes of exposition. But it's so masterfully filmed and acted that it is never boring. In long takes we get to see how awe-inspiring this Overlook Hotel is. We really get the feeling that living here alone for 6 months can be quite an ordeal for a family of 3 even if nothing significantly abnormal happens. And this is obviously not a very healthy family. Danny is having some weird imaginary friends and has the tendency to get lost in his own world. Father Jack has a history of alcoholism and is played by Jack Nicholson, so we kind of expect that he won't stay calm. Shelley Duvall is brilliantly cast as Wendy, Jacks wife. If you just see her on the street, you'll think that she might have a nervous breakdown soon. There is not a single moment wasted in this setup. Every single thing we see or hear will become important later on in the film. And due to this brilliant setup the movie will become full of almost unbearable tension, without Kubrick having to actually do much for it. Simple scenes become disturbing. Like Jack throwing a tennis ball against the walls in an otherwise empty room. Or Danny riding his tricycle across the hotel. All this tension is released in the last 10 minutes when Jack finally loses it completely.

Usually I will have to say more about the movie I discuss, especially if it is such a rich movie like The Shining. But I've seen this movie only once and I have nothing more interesting to say than what is already said on this site: http://kubrickfilms.tripod.com/id4.html.