28. Yesterday &...

Lyrics

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
I'm not half the man I used to be,
There's a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go
I don't know she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong,
Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why'd she had to go
I don't know she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong,
Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Mm mm mm mm mm mm mm.


In my previous post on The Beatles I wrote about how I am not really a fan of their music. Well, that statement is a bit dated now. I recently played a Beatles-themed Guitar Hero (or something like it) game. And I found out they had made some truly spectacular songs, about which I didn't really know much. Songs like Come Together, I am The Walrus, Helter Skelter and I Want You are truly great. Listening to them, it was the first time I truly got why The Beatles were considered trailblazers. Radio 2's top 2000 is often criticized to be too conservative and it is quite telling that of the four songs I've mentioned only I am The Walrus is on this list (I am glad it's pretty low on the list, because I currently have no idea how to link that one to a movie). Anyway, despite all this I still find Yesterday to be a fairly boring song. It is a song in which the protagonist is looking backward at much happier times. I chose to link it to a movie which looks backward (at much happier times) in the most literal way possible. Its story is told backwards.

The Movie: Betrayal (David Hugh Jones, 1983)

Betrayal is about the extramarital affair of Jerry and Emma. This affair is even more complicated because Emma's husband Robert is Jerry's best and oldest friend. This is not groundbreaking material, but it is made more interesting due to the fact that the story is told backwards. And I don't mean that it's told in flashbacks. The film has a straightforward chronology, only it's reversed. After the first scenes we go back in time, instead of forward. In the first scenes we see Jerry and Emma meet. It's clear that they haven't seen each other in a long time and that their affair is long over. We also learn that Emma is going to divorce Robert and that Robert knew for four years already about Emma and Jerry's affair, something Jerry didn't know.  After these scenes, a new scene starts with a title card saying 'two years earlier'. We now see how Emma and Jerry ended their affair. The next scene starts with the title card 'one year earlier'.

The movie is written by the famous British playwright Harold Pinter, who also wrote the play from which the film is adapted. The play was written in the same backwards chronology as the film and was therefore considered groundbreaking and original. I am quite surprised it hadn't, and still hasn't, been done more often. Not only is it a simple (and quite obvious) way to make a simple, straightforward story (seem) more interesting and original, it also really does work in making us care more about the characters. We (the audience) almost always know more than the characters in the movie. In Betrayal for example we know that the affair between Emma and Jerry won't end happily, so the scenes when they are happy have an added poignancy to them. Even more poignant are the scenes in which Jerry and Robert are still friends. Especially the scenes taking place during the period when Robert knows that his wife and Jerry are having an affair. Due to its structure (and due to the dialogue and Ben Kingsley's brilliant acting) the movie creates enormous sympathy for Robert. He loves both his wife and Jerry and tries his best to control himself in order to retain both his marriage and his good friendship with the unsuspecting Jerry. The backwards structure also enables us to focus more on the characters. After all, we don't have to focus much on thinking about what's going to happen next. We already know that. We can focus on how the characters' behavior led them to their misery. Lastly through it's backwards structure, the movie manages to create incredible suspense in one scene. We know that four years before the 'now' Robert found out about Emma's affair. So when the scene that takes place four years before now starts, we immediately sense that something interesting might happen. That's further enhanced by the fact that, during Robert and Emma's holiday in Venice, we see a rather odd behaving Robert. When he starts telling her about some letter that's arrived for her from Jerry, we now her secret will be out. We just don't know how and when it'll happen and what Robert's reaction to it will be. Thus the tension in this scene is pretty enormous, also because we know Robert loves his wife and Jerry, and that he is not always able to control his fury.

Some final notes: Dr. House would've absolutely loved this movie. Not only does everybody lie here, they almost turn lying into a form of art. They are such experts at lying, that one actually hopes that they will continue doing so. It is extremely enjoyable to watch them do it. This is also helped by the tremendous actors, having enormous fun saying Pinters dialogue and acting deplorably. It must be said though that Patrica Hodge who plays Emma isn't on the same level as Ben Kinglsey and Jeremy Irons. She is sometimes a bit flat and never really manages to convince that these two men can be so smitten by her.
Lastly, while I really liked this movie, the Seinfeld episode The Betrayal remains the best version of Pinter's play I've seen. Even though it's a parody.

27. The Rose &...

Lyrics

Some say love it is a river
That drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
That leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love it is a hunger
An endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
And you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
Lies the seed
That with the sun's love
In the spring
Becomes the rose


Besides Goldie Hawn, there is no actress I dislike more than Bette Midler. Any time I see her she seems to play her (often annoying and irritating) character in the most irritatingly possible way. Her songs are slightly more tolerable and this song could have been way worse. Still, I am quite surprised that this song, sung by Bette Midler for the 1979 movie The Rose (link between movie and song is obvious here), is placed so incredibly high on this list. 'Quite surprised' is actually an understatement. There are of course (lots of) far better songs, but then there are also lots of far better songs than, say, Angels. But I am aware that in the Netherlands there a lot of people who are fans of Robbie Williams, and more specifically of Angels. And even outside of the Netherlands that song is sometimes considered a classic. In this case, I've never actually heard any Bette Midler song on the (Dutch) radio, The Rose is not usually considered as a classic song and as far as I know Bette Midler is not a very popular actress here. And I don't think that, since I live here, the movie The Rose has ever actually been broadcast on Dutch TV.

The Movie: The Rose (Mark Rydell, 1979)

I believe that our present time is the best time to live if you are a music fan (or a film fan, but I'll get to that in some other post). I won't argue that there was much better music made in the 60's and 70's than now, but we have more access to that great music now than ever before. And there still are modern bands like The Black Keys who make great music. Yet, sometimes when I see concert footage (real or fake) from the 60's and 70's I do wish to have been able to live in those times. To feel the amazing electricity that seemed to be bursting out of everything and everyone during such concerts and to have the feeling that you are watching something truly special and unique. The scenes in The Rose in which Midler is singing, either in concert venues or in bars, had this effect on me. Those scenes also show that Bette Midler could have easily been a greater and more interesting performer than she is now. She didn't need to be a singer of sappy, melodramatic love songs or an actress who seems to have specialized in whining characters. She could've been a fantastic rock singer and an energetic actress. Through these scenes the movie also manages to chillingly convey that this bizarrely and incredibly energetic atmosphere is at least partly only possible because of the fucked up lives these performers are having. They are, for various reasons, so frustrated with  'ordinary' life and have so many bottled up emotions, that they need a place where they can let all of this rage and frustration go and the stage is such a place. The movie thus suggests that when we see some great performer doing his/her thing on stage, we are not only witnessing greatness, but also someone who is tragically and often unsuccessfully fighting his/her inner demons. Unfortunately this is the only interesting thing the movie manages to say/convey about its subject. Even more unfortunately, there aren't that many singing scenes and the rest of the movie is not only unentertaining, but also pretty crap.

Somehow this is already the second movie by the relatively unknown and unacclaimed Mark Rydell, I am discussing here. I also wrote pretty negatively about his previous one, The River. But that one is a masterpiece compared to this one. That at least had characters one could care about and often had some wonderful shots. This movie is shot in a very banal and uninteresting way. And while it must be admitted that Midler gives it her all in the concert scenes, she also gives it her all in the dramatic scenes. Which means that we get a lot of irritating and melodramatic screaming and crying. And I really mean a lot. The plot concerns the last tour of The Rose, which is the stage name of Midler's character. During this tour The Rose very often screws up either her manager or her boyfriend. She then fights with them, while screaming a lot. After such a fight we see her crying and regretting her behavior and running away, only to come back in tears and restart the whole process. I can almost always feel sympathy/empathy for movie characters whose lives have gone off the rails (either through their own fault or not) and who therefore do nasty, hurtful or idiotic things to themselves and to others. But usually there is the suggestion that the troubled character can be a good or at least interesting person. We have for that person to change because we feel that he can have a good life if he does. There are no such suggestions here. I felt that if her life was better The Rose would be just as much a malcontent as she is now. There are also many scenes that have no logic in relation to the plot and the characters and seem only added because the filmmakers felt they needed more drama. Many films are guilty of this, but I don't think I've ever seen it done as shamelessly as here. In the middle of the film there is a short period during which The Rose is actually happy with her boyfriend. Suddenly the movie introduces a character from The Rose's past, Sarah, played by a horrible actress, who after washing Midler's hair starts passionately kissing her. During this kissing The Rose's boyfriend suddenly walks in on them and naturally drama ensues. This Sarah is only seen in this one scene, she is never mentioned again and never before or after that does the movie hint that The Rose might be bisexual or that she had had a bisexual relationship.

I could write more, but there is nothing interesting to say anymore about this movie. Besides I have enough of it. This is one of the most unpleasant and stupid movies I've ever seen.

26. A Whiter Shade of Pale &...

Lyrics

We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
And the waiter brought a tray

And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale

She said, "There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see."
But I wandered through my playing cards
And they would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open wide
They might have just as well been closed

And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale


This is such an odd song on so many levels. The clip is quite strange. It feels like a  home video full of odd, slightly absurd shots. The band members also seem a bit detached from reality. And where did this band come from anyway? This is universally one of the most popular songs, but it's basically the only really well-known song of Procol Harum (and what does that name mean?). For a group who has made such a famous song Procol Harum is relatively obscure? How many people have heard of Gary Brooker, who is apparently the lead singer? Lastly the music doesn't really fit its vague and mysterious lyrics. It was pretty hard to link a movie to it and eventually I chose a movie by Kubrick. I realize that this is already the third Kubrick film in 26 entries, but, I promise!, this will the last Kubrick in a long time. And it's not a very illogical choice. The lyrics make it seem as if the singer is at some mysterious, slightly dangerous, orgy-like party. Besides the lyrics  'And although my eyes were open wide They might have just as well been closed' are a long-winded way to say 'my eyes were wide shut' which is close to the title of a Kubrick film that coincidentally features a famous scene involving an orgy. The scene is so famous in fact that although I had not seen the film before, I knew that there was an orgy scene in it.
 
The Movie: Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

1999 was quite an interesting year for American movies. Many great, or at least interesting, movies came out that were very original and quite unconventional in form and/or content. Many of these movies also shared certain thematic elements. In 1999, due to many important developments in the 20th century that was now coming to an end, the lives of many people in the western world had been better than ever. There was relative economic prosperity and the people in the 'west' weren't much affected by war. Sometimes the biggest problem facing the western world seemed to be the possible millennium bug, which turned out to be much ado about nothing. In other words people in the west lived tidy, peaceful, decent lives. Many of these 1999 movies examined these lives critically. They claimed that these lives that, at the surface seemed to be so perfect, were not completely unproblematic. Their protagonists felt numbed by the monotony of their ordinary life, they felt unable to express their (true) emotions and their individuality, they wanted to have adventures and to be able to give in to their most basic desires. They wanted to live another life, sometimes even literally.  

So in Best Picture winner of that year, American Beauty we see Kevin Spacey quitting his job and divorcing his wife in order to whatever he wants and to pursue an affair with a female friend of his daughter. In Fight Club Edward Norton starts fight clubs where men can go and beat each other up. The men in Fight Club feel useless in this modern world with Ikea-furniture and without Great Wars and hope these fight clubs will get their manliness back. In Magnolia Tom Cruise plays a man who has success teaching men how to assert control over their wives and thus fuck them whenever they want. And in general most characters in Magnolia are discontent with their not so bad lives. In Being John Malkovich a portal to John Malkovich's head enables people to experience life as John Malkovich for 15 minutes. Naturally these portal becomes a success and despite the fact that it causes much misery to the main protagonists they still want to go through it. In The Matrix (to me the best film of that year) it is even posited that this current world of ours is run by machines who manipulate us and that we aren't really free Many others who at least touch on these themes include Arlington Road, Dogma, Boys Don't Cry, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Sixth Sense, Office Space, and obviously Eyes Wide Shut (This whole text is not for nothing!).

One could argue that in Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick goes even further than in the rest of those films. The discontent protagonists in the films I've mentioned previously are ordinary citizens. They are office workers, insurance agents or failed puppeteers. In Eyes Wide Shut it is the New York elite that organizes elaborate, secret orgies in order to fulfill their desires and escape their dreary lives. And while the orgy scene is the most absurd, and downright bonkers, scene of Kubrick I've yet seen, even before that scene Kubrick presents the New York elite as a sex-obsessed bunch. The film begins with a his Christmas party at some rich New Yorker named Victor Ziegler. It's not exactly known, or at least I can't remember, what he does, but he is obviously someone of relative importance. He lives in a lavish house with multiple floors, a ball room and for his party he has hired a pianist to play live classical piano music. While the party goes on in the ball room, Victor is upstairs having sex and using drugs with some prostitute who nearly overdoses. Luckily for Victor one of his invitees is our main protagonist Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) who helps her. While Bill is upstairs, downstairs in the ball room his wife Alice (Nikole Kidman) is dancing with a Hungarian millionaire who shamelessly flirts with her. While she doesn't give in to him, it's obvious she is enjoying it. And when Bill is on his way upstairs to Victor, he is waylaid by two women who very obviously want to have sex with him. This will turn out to be quite a common occurrence for Bill. Almost everyone he meets in this film is sexually aroused by Bill. Back home, Bill and Alice discuss (some of) their weird adventures at Victor's party when their conversation turns to sexual fantasies, Alice confesses one of her sexual fantasies to Bill. Unfortunately for him, Alice's fantasy does not involve Bill. This confession shocks him so much that it leads him on a nightly walk across the sexually charged streets of New York. His wandering leads him to various odd characters and the famous orgy.

While this is not one of Kubrick's most famous and critically lauded films, it is now my favorite film of his. This is basically a very dark, provocative, comedy. And Kubrick knows it's provocative and has fun with it. Besides the hilariously shocking orgy scene, I very much enjoyed the scene where Alice confesses her sexual fantasy to Bill. Before doing various plastic surgeries, Nicole Kidman was incredibly sexy and beautiful. In her confession scene she is also dressed in a very sexy way. Not only is she dressed just in her underwear, the underwear isn't very concealing. On top of this she is making all kinds of sexy movements during her talking. Tom Cruise is also dressed pretty scarcely and seems to be in great shape. I can imagine that this is a movie many couples went to see together.That's probably something Kubrick expected too. I really believe that part of the purpose of this scene is to provoke (the couples in) the audience to have sexual fantasies about Cruise and Kidman, or at least make them think about it. It is hard not to be at least a bit sexually attracted to Kidman in that scene. More importantly, even if you aren't sexually attracted to her, it is an objective fact that what she is doing in that scene is in our society considered to be conventionally sexually attractive for people who are sexually attracted to women. It is something both men and women know. The same can be said of Cruise, but for people who are sexually attracted to men. Which can be quite awkward for the couple watching the movie. And considering the marital problems caused by Alice's confession of sexual attraction to another man, it might even be extra hard for the couple in the audience to talk honestly and to believe each other about their possible sexual attraction to Cruise or Kidman.

That's just one example of what Kubrick wants to do in his movie. He wants to challenge the norms of our society, involving (sexual) behavior in relationships. He wants to show that while these norms are logical, they are arbitrary constructs. They are not natural, but they are constructed by human beings. There is no natural reason why they couldn't be different. Why, for example, does our partner accept that we dance with another woman and not that we kiss her? And what's the exact border between acceptable and unacceptable behavior? Lastly Kubrick also touches on the idea that many people see their partner as their one true love and put him/her on a pedestal. Whatever I can say about this, won't be as eloquent as what the great comedian Tim Minchin says in his great song If I Didn't Have You. This may be the best love song ever, precisely because of its honesty and because he presents his wife as a normal human being and not as some sort of infallible honesty. If you think it's arrogant, it is important to note that Minchin, now in his late 30's is together with his wife since they were 17