69. Bloasmuziek &...

Lyrics

Ich had al twee maedjes gezeen mit achter op allebei unne saxofoon
Witte bloes, blauw boks mit gael bieze en pas gepoetste sjoon
Nog boete 't dörp heurde ich al 't geretteketet van 'n trompet
Genog gewanjeld, hiej drinke veur os get
In de eerste sjtraot rook 't van wiet weg en ich realiseerde mich verrek
hiej trek nag emus sondigse soep
Det leeg geträöt van die trombones trokke os nao veure euver de sjtoep
Biej de kerk waare natuurlik weer twee cafe's en 'n plein
En sjpeelde 'n fanfaar heel fijn:

Blaosmeziek op eine sjone zóndigmorge
Blaosmeziek bleust mich ómver
Mit toeters en bellen 'n sjoon verhaol vertelle
Zondigmorge blaosmuziek blaos mich riek

Gaef mich eine esbas veur 'n sjtevig fundament
Gaef mich sjuve en die saxe veur de moere van dees muziektent
't Vergulde kaopere daak waert door de bugels en trómpette gemaak
En dan heurs se:

Blaosmuziek op eine sjone zóndigmorge
Blaosmuziek bleust mich ómver
Mit toeters en belle 'n sjoon verhaol vertelle
Zóndigmorge blaosmuziek blaos mich riek
Blaosmuziek op eine sjone zóndigmorge
Blaosmuziek bleust mich nao hoes
Mit toeters en belle 'n pracht verhaol vertelle
Zóndigmorge blaosmuziek blaos mich riek


This song is obviously not in English, but it is neither in Dutch, so I am not going to translate it. It is in the accent of the Dutch province of Limburg. It's a celebration of the Limburgian brass bands and the fanfares they play in every sunday morning. The song basically explains how they are part of the Limburgian lifestyle and identity. One reason Limburg is famous in the Netherlands is for its coal pits, so the movie I linked this song to is about coal pits and brass bands. It doesn't take place in Limburg though (and isn't even a Dutch movie).

The Movie: Brassed Off (Mark Herman, 1996)

I like these contempopary British movies about working class people struggling in the British society. They are pretty bleak, but they vividly present an interesting view of a society that seems to be in decline in any way possible. The small towns in these movies seem to undergo a complete social and cultural breakdown. This breakdown is only sadder because the movies hint that life used to be better. But contemporary British filmmakers also have mastered the genre of the typically British romantic comedy with lovable losers and sharp dialogue. Brassed Off is a combination of these two genres, but it surprised me that it is much more focused on the first genre. This is indeed first and foremost a movie about the brass band of a local coal mine who tries to win the national brass band championship, but the movie gives a very bleak look at life in the local town where the coal mine is about to close. And the coal mine is basically the lifeline of this town, which already seems to be on the brink of death. It shows how poverty wrecks lives and families and the humor in the movie arises from the bleakness and despair of these people. And while the ending is a bit too sugarcoated, up until then this is a very good movie that knows how to combine drama and humor in a very effective way. While it rightfully blames conservative politics for the living conditions in the town the movie proably als takes a too simplistically socialist stance regarding the closing of the pits

The whole movie is basically summarized in an astonishingly good sequence just at the beginning, which the movie never comes close to topping for the rest of its running time. We see the all male brass band preparing for what may be one of their last training sessions. The pit is about to close, and without a pit there is no need for a brass band according to the members. Some wonder whether they still have to pay contribution for the brass band. They feel they can use the money in better ways. Still, for the band leader Danny (a wonderful Pete Postlethwaite) there is nothing in the world more important than the brass band. And while he is a bit too selfish and too oblivious to the worries of his band members he has a point. The band is the only way that the miners can be heard and that their legacy can be somehow preserved. Working in the mines is mostly anonymous and most of it will be forgotten by the public once the mine closes. That Danny is thinking about his legacy is not surprising. He probably doesn't have much longer to live, as he is coping with coal in his lungs.

Due to the worries of the miners though this session is not going very well. They can't concentrate on their music and Danny's son is so poor that his trumpet is falling apart and he can't buy a new one. But then a young woman named Gloria arrives. She is a flugelhorn player and the granddaughter of Danny's best friend, who passed away a long time ago. After some grumbling and sexist remarks the other band members agree that she can play with them. They play a tune called Concierto de Aranjuez, which the band members usually call the orange juice tune. It is a very beauiful composition and while we hear the music Herman croscutss between the band members playing and a meeting between the miners union and management arguing about what to do with the pit.  As we will find out a bit later on in the movie, Gloria herself is management too, but she is there to save the pit. She wants to show that the pit is still profitable. It doesn't matter much as the authorities have already decided two years ago that the pit should be closed. All the negotiations are just for show.  

What this Concerto de Aranjuez sequence shows above all is why the brass band matters so much for the miners. Their town is a pretty shitty place and they'll probably never get out of it. The music they make is one of the few beautiful things they have, that can make them forget their troubles and give them some joy. The Concerto de Aranjuez is also basically the closest thing they have to going on vaction to Spain. But the sequence also wonderfully shows how meaningless the brass band is in the grand scheme of things and how helpless its members are. While the decisions about the pit are made all they can do is play music. Their music won't help at all in keeping their mine open. And this notion is prevalent throughout the whole movie. Despite it being a film about a brass band, the movie dares to question what point the brass band has and whether it might not have a negative effect of the life of its citizens. It is quite clear that the families (and especially the wives) of the band members suffer from the insistence of the men to play in the brass band and that their playing in it may be quite selfish and financially unrewarding to say the least. Having said that, it never states that the problems of the town are caused by the brass band. It's quite clear that the movie blames the awful Thatcherian politics of those in power for much of the miserable life in town.

Lastky there is a romantic subplot involving Gloria and Andy, one of the youngest band members.  They are played by Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor in one of his first roles. The plot is quite predictable, but it is charming and sweet with some nice dialogue (Andy: "You're fucking management" Gloria: "I believe that's what you are doing"). An important reason the plot works are McGregor and Fitzgerald, who are both second-billed in the movie. It seems like McGregor and Fitzgerald in 1996 had about the same stature in the filmworld. Fitzgerald even played the romantic interest of Hugh Grant around that time and was in some other relatively relevant movies. Obviously McGregor is now a pretty major actor in Hollywood, while Fitzgerald is pretty much forgotten. That's a shame, because she is really good here.
 

68. Everybody Hurts &...

Lyrics

When your day is long and the night 
The night is yours alone
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on
Don't let yourself go 
Everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong 
Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on

Everybody hurts 
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts
Don't throw your hand Oh, no
Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life 
The days and nights are long
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries
And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes
So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on 
Hold on, hold on 
(Hold on, hold on)

Everybody hurts 
You are not alone


This is a good song by REM, though I don't consider it to be amongst their best. The lyrics are well meant, but kind of dull. I think the video is pretty brilliant though, and it reminded me of the opening scene of Joel Schumacher's Falling Down. So I was going to write about that movie, until I found out that the opening scene of Falling Down was actually a reference/hommage to a Fellini classic I had not seen before. So that's the movie I watched. Incidentally I found out that that movie actually inspired REM to create this video. It is not very surprising. The first two REM songs in this list, were linked by me to a Bergman movie and to a Fellini movie. It is a coincidence, but REM is the kind of band that would very much like to be associated with Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini.

The Movie: 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963)

The French director Francois Truffaut once said that he was only interested in movies that were about the agony of making movies, or about the ecstasy of making movies. He probably loved 8 1/2 which is in the most literal way possible about the agony and ecstasy of making movies. And it is about nothing else really. I liked it a lot, but this is the first movie of Fellini I've seen. Once I have seen more of his movies I'd probably like it more, as this is mostly a movie about Fellini's inner life and about the way he makes movies. It is his most self-absorbed movie. How do I know it's his most self-absorbed if I haven't seen his other movies? Well, it seems damn near impossible to make a movie that's more self-absorbed than this one. It is also audacious and marvelously surrealistic. That said, I will probably never completely love the movie. Sometimes it feels a bit too devoid of content. I understand that's often part of the point of the movie, which at times plays like a rather wonderful self-parody, but still. You sometimes get the feeling that you are watching the most artistic and playfull making of/behind the scenes featurette ever. Only you haven't seen the movie it's about and aren't even sure if the movie exists.

That is sometimes a bit frustrating, but it is admittedly also what makes this film so brilliant. Now every DVD of a movie seems to come with a making of featurette. It's a shame DVD's didn't exist in 1963, because it seems Fellini could have had some great fun with it. Perhaps if you would have chosen to watch the making of featurette of 8 1/2 you would just see the movie again. Only the director wouldn't have been named Guido Anselmi and been played by Marcello Mastroianni, but he would have been played by Federico Fellini. Because 8 1/2 is in essence a movie about the making of itself. Besides Truffaut, i assume that Charlie Kaufman would be a fan too. The trickery of Adaptation is peanuts compared to 8 1/2, though I think for now that Adaptation is slightly better.

Fellini's fun starts already with the movie's title. The movie's called 8 1/2, because it's Fellini's 8 1/2th film. He had directed seven films of his own and was a co-director on one other before he made this, so he had made 7 1/2 films. In 8 1/2 we follow famous Italian director Guido Anselmi as he has trouble making his movie, while the cast, the crew and his financial backers all hound him. The boundaries between the movie Guido is making and Fellini's 'real' movie are blurring. So do the boundaries between fantasy and reality. But to talk about the boundaries between these things is actually irrelevant in this case. You could with just a little bit of effort determine which scenes are real and which are fantastic, but is beside the point. Basically all of this is is a reflection of Fellini's mind. All of it is the 'reality' of the movie. It is funny how there are constantly characters criticizing the movie Guido is making, while Fellini does exactly does same things in his movie that Guido is guilty off. And it is never clear what movie Guido is making exactly, but it is understandable that he has trouble making it. He wants to say something about Italian catholicism, but there is also something involving a spaceship. In the end it doesn't really matter what Guido's movie will be about, as we only basically see what happens behind the scenes of his movie. He fights with his actresses, one of whom is not happy with the fact that Guido will only use her in about 5 scenes in his movie. We only see her in about 5 scenes. As Guido says he wants to make a movie about everything, without inhibitions. He will cast a tap dancing farmer if he feels necessary. So he makes a farmer tap dance to see if he fits for the role. We don't know whether he cast him, but of course Fellini has now shown us a tap dancing farmer. Nearly every single scene in this movie works like this. And the movie gets perhaps even more warped when Guido watches the audition tapes for actresses that may get a role in his movie. And then an actress called Claudia arrives, who may or may not be Claudia Cardinale, but is played by her. She discusses what function she will serve for Guido's movie, and may or may not serve the same function for the movie we are watching.

In the end, it doesn't matter much what you think of this movie. There has never been anything like it, it is completely audacious and rarely has a filmmaker made himself so vulnerable as Fellini here does.




 

67. Het Regent Zonnestralen &...

Lyrics

Op een terras ergens in Frankrijk in de zon

(In a cafe, somwhere in the French sun)
Zit een man die het tot gisteren nooit won

(Sits a man who until yesterday never won anything)
Maar zijn auto vloog hier vlakbij uit de bocht

(But somwhere near here his car crashed)
Zonder hem, zonder Herman,
(Without him, without Herman)

Want die had hem net verkocht 

(Cause he just sold it)

Herman in de zon op het terras

(Herman in the sunny cafe)
Leest in 't AD dat 'ie niet meer in leven was

(Reads in the paper that he is not alive anymore)
Zijn auto was volledig afgebrand

(His car had burned out completely)
En die man die hem gekocht had,

(And the man who bought it)
Stond onder zijn naam in de krant

(Was filed as Herman in the paper) 

O, o, o,
Even rustig ademhalen

(Take a breath)
O, o, o,
Het lijkt alsof het regent als altijd

(It seems like it is raining as always)
Maar het regent en het regent zonnestralen

(But it is raining and it is raining sunrays)

Nog geen week terug, in een park in Amsterdam

(Just a week ago in a park in Amsterdam)
Had hij zijn leven overzien en schrok zich lam

(He reflected on his life en scared himself shitless)
Hij was een man wiens leven nu al was bepaald

(He was a man whose life was already decided)
En van al zijn jongensdromen

(And of all his dreams of youth)
Was alleen het oud worden gehaald
(He only succeeded in getting old)

O, o, o,
Even rustig ademhalen

(Take a breath)
O, o, o,
Want het lijkt alsof het regent als altijd

( Cause it seems like it is raining as always)
Maar het regent en het regent zonnestralen

(But it is raining and it is raining sunrays)

Op een bankje in het park kwam het besluit

(At a stool in the park the decision came)
Noem het dapper, noem het vluchten maar ik knijp er tussenuit

(Call it brave, call it fleeing, but I am leaving)
Nu een week geleden en hier zat hij dan maar weer

(That was a week ago and now he's sitting here)
Met meer vrijheid dan hem lief was en nu wist hij het niet meer

(With more freedom than he can handle and now he doesn't know what to do anymore)
Herman leest wel honderd keer de krant

(Herman reads the paper a hunderd times)
Het staat er echt, pagina achttien, zwartomrand

(It's really written, on page 18, black rimmed)
Hield 'ie vroeger al zijn meningen

(He used to keep al his opinions)
En al zijn dromen stil

(And all his dreams silent)
Nu was 'ie niks niet niemand nergens meer

(Now he was nothing not nobody nowhere anymore)
Kan dus gaan waar 'ie maar wil

(So he can go wherever he wants)

Herman rekent af en staat dan op

(Herman pays the bill and leaves)
Hij heeft eindelijk de wind weer in zijn kop

(He has finally the wind in his hair)
'Ik heb een tweede kans gekregen

('I've gotten a second chance)
En da's meer dan ik verdien

(And that's more than I deserve)
Maar als dit het is, is dit het,

(But if this is it, this is it)
als dit het is, is dit het, 

(If this is it, this is it)
als dit het is, is dit het

(If this is it, this is it)
En we zullen het wel zien'

(And we'll see what happens next)'

O, o, o,
Even rustig ademhalen

(Take a breath)
O, o, o,
Het lijkt alsof het regent als altijd

(It seems like it is raining as always)
Maar het regent en het regent zonnestralen

(But it is raining and it is raining sunrays)


Musically this is a pretty average song, even for Dutch standards. But I love the lyrics of it, written by Acda & De Munnik, often considered among the best modern Dutch songwriters. They combine regret and humor very well in the song and pay some wonderful attention to detail. And they tell a rather original story. The movie I combined this song with is an American classic that deals with many of the same themes explored in this song.

The Movie: Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)

A couple of posts ago I discussed Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, which is now one of my favorite movies. Considering that Seconds is considered Frankenheimer's best movie my expectations for it were high. Well, Seconds doesn't reach the highs of The Manchurian Candidate, but it is still a very good movie. Above all it shows that you don't need solemn filmmaking to present a bleak worldview, which is unfortunately something way too many movies these days do. Frankenheimer shows in Seconds again that he is a vibrant, energetic filmmaker who clearly has fun making movies. And he knows how to combine different filmmaking aesthetics in a great way. In the brilliant opening scene alone the movie combines the style of documentary filmmaking with surrealism to create a deeply eerie mood. And sometimes it even uses documentary aesthethics to create a surrealistic effect. But the greatness of the movie starts even before the opening scene, with the opening credits While we get the usual information about the movie, we see a body being distorted and we are shown weird close-ups of the interiors of the face, the nostrils and eardrums. Thus within 5 minutes the movie has managed to create a rather haunting mood.  

The images we see in the opening credits are fitting. This is a movie about a company that fakes the deaths of depressed middle-aged men and then using plastic surgery changes their identity, thereby giving them a new life, or as they call it a second chance. When the film opens Arthur Hamilton (John Randoplh) is contemplating whether to undergo such a procedure. The night before he has heard from a friend he thought dead, about the possibilities offered by this company. Obviously it is through word of mouth that this company gets its clients. As one of its employers says they can't just advertise on the street. In any case Arthur has doubts about whether he should do it. He is married after all, has a decent job as a banker and a daughter. But it's clear he doesn't feel comfortable anymore. He and his wife 'get along', but they do sleep in two separate beds, he is constantly sweating, is unhappy with his job and rarely sees his daughter. So he takes the chance and goes to the company. There they basically extort him so he is forced to undergo the procedure. After undergoing the procedure he comes out as Tony Wilson and is now played by Rock Hudson. He now has the complete freedom to do whatever he wants, but never does feel comfortable in his new skin. He tries to get used to his new life, fails and asks the company for a third chance. He does not get that. It is an understatement to say that this is not a very optimistic movie.

It is, as I said, very good though, although it has some small problems. It sometimes makes its themes too literal for example. In the opening 10/20 minutes Frankenheimer basically gives a masterclass in how to portray the discontent of a man in a mid-life crisis. It's not that Arthur doesn't have what he wants. It's that he doesn't know what he wants and whether he really has any desire for anything. Frankenheimer, together with the great screenplay and John Randolph expertly manages to create an atmosphere of dread and anxiety. So it is kind of unfortunate and unnecessary that once he gets to the corporation, the movie rehashes this through some on-the-nose dialogue. And after the procedure the movie has a bit too many scenes showing us that Tony is unhappy with his life and that he doesn't feel comfortable in his own skin. Still, there are much more incerdibly original and intelligent scenes, that work both on an absurdist and tragic level. And that also work as merely great filmmaking. There is for example a masterful scene when Tony visits his former wife. And there is the moment we find out how much Tony is controlled by the company. And the final scene, together with the revelation of what happens in a weird waiting room in the company. 

In The Manchurian Candidate Frankenheimer showed he didn't have a high opinion of communism. Here he shows he doesn't have a high opinion of capitalism either. This may be one of the most anti-corporate American movies I have ever seen. It shows the corporation as utterly uninterested in doing good, or even providing a reliable product. It is only interested in making a profit. In fact, I've seen this movie only once now, but as I interpreted it, the corporation here only can continue its work if it doesn't provide a good product. And human lives are both the means of production and objects of consumption. Sure there is an idea behind the product they are selling, but that's just used as a marketing pitch.We don't actually see any evidence that there are people who succesfully start their lives over, quite the contrary in fact. 

66. Africa &...

Lyrics

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation
She's coming in 12:30 flight
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation
I stopped an old man along the way
Hoping to find some long forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you"

Chorus:
It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become

Chorus

Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa 
I bless the rains down in Africa, I bless the rains down in Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

This song by Toto has become a bit of a cliché, but it still pretty awesome. Obviously Africa is here presented, using some stereotypes about the continent that are prevalent in the western world. I don't think that's really problematic in this case. The same things happen though in the movie I linked this song too. And there it is quite problematic.

The Movie: Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985)

During my Media & Culture studies, I had to read a lot of essays on the representation of black people in cinema. I also read a lot about how western culture presents Africa and Asia as an 'Other'.These representations can be pretty racist, as the African (or Asian) peoples are presented as uncivilized and uneducated, among other things. And they are presented in a romantic way. It is often implied that they are somehow closer to nature. The western world then used this ideas to present itself as better than their colonies, and to justify their colonization. Non-western characters are presented in such a way in quite a lot of Hollywood movies. I don't think that this makes these movies automatically bad or immoral. Nor is it always hugely problematic. Most movies have to tell a story in 90 - 120 minutes and to expect them to give an entirely objective and fair portrayal of everything is not really fair or sensible. But I did find Out of Africa to be really problematic, mostly because it wants to say something serious about Africa. And I have rarely seen a movie that's so unnuanced in its portrayal of the 'Other.'

But I will come back to that later. First I want to note that even if I hadn't studied all this things I would not have liked this movie. I suppose the movie wants us to swoon over the tragic romance between Denys (Robert Redford) and Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep). Tragic, because while Karen is a staunch realist, Denys is a hopeless romantic. And in the end that keeps them apart. The problem was that I didn't find their characters believable and their behavior depended very much on the whims of the screenwriter. The movie to me didn't make it believable that they would fall for each other. And once they had fallen in love with each other, I found the misunderstandings that caused their eventually break up to be unbelievable too. Having said that, I can understand why other people would love it. If you connect to these characters, this can be a pretty great romance. Furthermore, I haven't read anything by Karen Blixen, but I understand she was a great writer, once even considered for a Nobel Prize. Yet, based on this movie, whose narration and some of the dialogue is based on her books, I don't find her writing all that interesting. Meryl Streep gives a pretty dull perfomance, that's only distinctive because of her Danish accent. I am no fan of Robert Redford (as an actor, I am a big fan of the movies he has directed), but he actually livens up the movie here. The movie's MVP is Michael Kitchen, who plays Denys' best friend Berkeley and brings much needed energy to the movie. What I liked most about the movie was actually the relationship between Karen and Bror (Klaus Maria Brandauer). They have married for purely pragmatic reasons and do not care to pretend otherwise. Yet they don't hate each other and are quite blasé and realistic when their marriage ends. Afterwards they don't see each other very often anymore, but the interactions between them are utterly normal. Most movies would handle this relationship in a completely different way, and I thought this approach was pretty refreshing. 

Now, let's come back to the representation of Africa here. It's pretty awful. I have never seen a mainstream American movie which deals so unproblematically with the European colonialisation of Africa, basically celebrating the good old times when the whites could do anything they want on the continent. Every single white person here lives a luxurious life and has African servants working for them. And this lifestyle is pretty much celebrated. And it is presented as being good for the Africans. Every single one of this servants is grateful and happy that he/she is able to serve for a white person. And according to this movie the Africans would remain completely uneducated if it weren't for Karen and her friends. There is a scene in which a black boy has a serious wound on his leg that may cause an awful infection. It is Karen who forces him to go to the doctor, saying that she will reward him if he does so. And how does she reward him? By letting him work for her. That would mean he'd get more money than as a farmer. Wasn't there anyone working on this film who thought that this scene, presented as uncritically as it is here, would not be considered at least slightly problematic. Denys does sometimes object to the insistence of the whites to educate the Africans. But he does so not because he believes that  Africans can educate themselves, but because he believes things like math and languages are useless to these people. They are basically noble savages according to him, who live closer to nature and don't need civilization. Admittedly the movie does show that Denys is a hopeless romantic and that his romantic ideas will eventually lead to his death. So it does not neccessarily agree with his ideas, but it certainly does have a lot of sympathy for them. And, yes the movie also has sympathy for Denys' idea that Africa will be ruined by the white folks. But he is mostly concerned that the white people will ruin it for the white people living there instead of for the Africans. The movie almost makes it seem as if the colonization of Africa is bad, because Africa will be exploited for econmic reasons, instead of for romantic reasons. 

I understand that the movie is (partly) a homage to Karen Blixen and her stories. And she lived in different times, when the western world had a much different view of Africa. Great writers such as Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling also wrote some stories around that period we now consider racist, but weren't considered so back then. That's not fully their fault, as that's how they were shaped by the society they were part of. But still, this movie was made in 1985 and it could have provided a more critical view of Blixen's writing, while still showing the greatness of it. That it doesn't do that is quite unfortunate and quite surprising. Some of the scenes here are so obviously problematic and racist that I don't understand how people like Meryl Streep, Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford didn't see that. Because, to make one thing clear, I do not think that they are in any way racists. 

65. Liefs Uit Londen &...

Lyrics

Van de wereld weet ik niets

(I know nothing of the world)
Niets dan wat ik hoor en zie, 

(Nothing but what I hear and see)
niets dan wat ik lees

(Nothing but what I read)
Ik ken geen andere landen, zelfs al

(I don't know other nations, even if)
ben ik er geweest

(I've been there)
Grote steden ken ik niet

(I don't know big cities)
Behalve uit de boeken, 

(Except from the books)
behalve van T.V.

(Except from TV)
Ik ken geen andere stad dan de stad

(I don't know another city)
waarin ik leef 

(Except the city in which I live)

Zij stuurt me kaarten uit Madrid

(She sends me cards from Madrid)
En uit Moskou komt een brief

(And from Moscow arrives a letter)
Met de prachtigste verhalen

(With the greatest stories)
En God, wat is ze lief

(My God, she is so sweet)
Gisteren uit Lissabon "ik mis je" en een zoen

(Yesterday from Lisbon, "I miss you" and a kiss
Vandaag uit Praag een kattebel, 

(Today from Prague, a small letter)
want er is zoveel te doen

(Because there is so much to do)
En morgen, als de postbode mijn huis

(And tomorrow, when the mailman)
weer heeft gevonden

(Has found my house again)
Dan stort ze mijn hart vol met al het

(She'll fill my heart) 
liefs uit Londen 
(With al the love from London)

Van de wereld weet ik niets
(I know nothing of the world)

Niets dan wat ik hoor en zie, 

(Nothing but what I hear and see)
niets dan wat ik voel

(Nothing but what I feel)
Ik leef van dag tot dag, zonder vrees

(I live from day to day, without fear)
en zonder doel

(And without a goal)
Verre landen ken ik niet

(I don't know faraway nations)
Behalve uit mijn atlas, die droom ik elke nacht

(Except from my atlas, I dream about those every night)
Maar ik droom alleen de landen waar

(But I only dream about the nations)
ze ooit aan me dacht 

(In which she once thought of me)
Als een mooi en groot geloof

(Like a beautiful and big faith)
Aan de muur van mijn gedachten

(On the wall of my thoughts)
Hangt een wereldkaart te wachten

(A world map is hanging, waiting)
Tot ze terugkomt

(Until she comes back)
Met haar reizen in mijn hoofd

(With her trips in my head)
Steek ik vlaggen in de aarde

(I stick flags in the earth)
Dezelfde kleur, dezelfde waarde

(Same color, same value) 

Maar zij stuurt me kaarten uit Madrid

(But she sends me cards from Madrid)
En uit Moskou komt een brief

(And from Moscow arrives a letter)
Met de prachtigste verhalen

(With the greatest stories)
En God, wat is ze lief

(My God, she is so sweet)
Gisteren uit Lissabon "ik mis je" en een zoen

(Yesterday from Lisbon, "I miss you" and a kiss
Vandaag uit Praag een kattebel, 

(Today from Prague, a small letter)
want er is zoveel te doen

(Because there is so much to do)
En morgen, als de postbode mijn huis

(And tomorrow, when the mailman)
weer heeft gevonden

(Has found my house again)
Dan stort ze mijn hart vol met al het

(She'll fill my heart) 
liefs uit Londen 
(With al the love from London)

Blof is one of the most popular Dutch bands, and they make pretty pleasant music that has no place on a list of the best songs ever made. While they are musically quite good, their lyrics are often awful. Some of the sentences I translated above don't make sense, not because I translated them badly, but because the Dutch original simply doesn't make sense. In any case, to choose a movie, I decided to focus on the line of the song claiming that the singer only knows the world because of his television.

The Movie: Being There (Hal Ashby, 1979)

Hal Ashby is considered to be one of the greatest American directors of the 70's, perhaps the golden age of American cinema. His story is quite interesting. He was born to mormon parents and as a kid was a bit of a hopeless wanderer untill he moved to California and stumbled in the film industry. He began as an editor, and even got an Oscar for his editing on In The Heat of The Night (1967). In 1970 he made his first film as a director, The Landlord and from 1970 to 1979 he made 8 films, every one of which is considered among the best and most nteresting movies of the 1970's. After that he got serious drug problems, and suddenly couldn't make a good movie anymore, before he died in 1988, at the age of 59. 

Being There is his last 'great' movie and often considered to be his best. It's the second movie of his I've seen, after Coming Home. I've liked both movies quite a lot (Being There more than Coming Home), but I don't find them really great. Still, I look forward to seeing more of his movies. His filmmaking style is quite pleasant from what I've seen. He doesn't seem to rush anything, and in two movies I haven't seen an ugly shot yet. His movies are simply enjoyable to watch, and besides that he knows how to use music well. 

Being There is a very good comedy that sometimes very much wants to be a very profound good comedy. And when it reaches for profundity, it doesn't really work to me. The premise is quite interesting. Chance (A great Peter Sellers) is a mentally retarded gardener who has worked his whole lfe for a, possibly rich, old man. He has never been out of the house, and all he knows about the world, he knows from television. He basically thinks television is reality. He speaks the way he hears people speak on television and he makes gestures the way he sees people making gestures on television. One day though the old man dies, Chance has to leave the house and ends up wandering on the streets of New York. There the car of a rich bussinessman's wife (Shirley MacLaine) bumps against his leg, hurting him. She insists to help him and drives him to their large, rich manor where there are doctors abound, because her husband is dying. This bussinessman turns out to be a 'kingmaker.' His support for politicians can have enormous influence on their political career. Unsurprisingly he is now the main, secret, advisor of the American president. Nobody in the house realizes that Chance is retarded and mistake his quite simple statements about gardening as profound statements about the American economy and political system. Soon he advises the presidents and appears on serious talk shows talking about the president and politics. 

Being There is basically one of those Frasier episodes in which everyone misunderstands each other and hears what he (or she) wants to hear, set to feature length. It leads to some very funny scenes, but it has nothing to do with realism. That is no problem at all, but the movie also wants to be a satire on American politics and say something important about human nature. It mostly works as a satire, but it doesn't really say much about human nature. It begins pretty great. The opening scenes are set exclusively inside the beautiful house of the old man. It seems to be a house of someone of great importance living in some rich, sophisticated neighbourhood. When Chance has to leave the house we find out though that the house is situated in an inner city neighbourhood, filled with poverty. When Chance is threathened by a group of black kids, he tries to zap them away with his remote control. Of course it doesn't work. All of this is played for comedy and it works. While the movie uses this concept to criticize the American political elite, it is not really interested in condemning television. Although you could wonder whether Chance was born retarded
or whether television watching has made him retarded.

In any case the satire really kicks in once Chance has started living with the rich bussinessman. The movie shows these politicians as a bunch of narcisistic fools. No one seems to realize that Chance basically repeats everything they say to him. They basically project all their opinions and ideals on him and he agrees with everything. That's not just the case with the American politicians. The Russian ambassador behaves the same way. But these people never really had a chance to realize Chance's idiocy. He has watched them on TV and around them behaves in the same way they do. These are just two examples, but the movie really does present American politics in a pretty damning view. And it would have been pretty great if the movie didn't occasionally strive for even more profundity, wanting to say something about life. Rather, the problem isn't that the movie wants that, but that it doesn't really achieve it. Another problem is also the character of Shirley MacLaine. Her Eve is at the movie's convenience presented as either dumb or smart. This leads to a rather terrible subplot in which she falls in love with Chance, eventually masturbating in front of him.

The famous last scene in the movie is perhaps the best example of the problems with profundity the movie has. After the funeral of the rich bussinessman Chance goes out for a walk, and stumbles across a large body of water. He walks on the water, and the movie explcitly shows that the water is too deep. So of course the connection to Jesus Christ is made. But there is nothing in the movie to support this connection, either at a metaphorical or literal level. The shot works best to me if it is interpreted as a visualization of the saying 'Ignorance is bliss', which does fit Chance's behavior in the movie. It also fits with the last, famous, quote of the movie: "Life is a state of mind." You could also provide this connection though via a shot that doesn't nonsensically evoke Jesus. Still, all of this shouldn't take away form the fact that Being There is a really good, often very funny movie.