40. Pastorale &...

Lyrics

Mijn hemel blauw met gouden harp      

(My blue heaven with golden harp)              
Mijn wolkentorens, ijskristallen

(My cloudy towers, ice crystals)
Kometen, manen en planeten, aah alles draait om mij

(Comets, moons and planets, everything revolves around me)
En door de witte wolkenpoort tot diep onder de golven

(And from the gates of white clouds to underneath the waves)

Boort mijn vuur, mijn liefde, zich in de aarde

(My fire, my love, pierces into the earth)
En bij het water speelt een kind

(And a child is playing near the water)
En alle schelpen die het vindt gaan blinken als ik lach
(And all the shells it finds will glow when I smile)

 'k Hou van je warmte op mijn gezicht

(I love your warmth on my face)
Ik hou van de koperen kleur van je licht

(I love the color of copper in your light)
Ik geef je water in mijn hand

(I give you water in my hand)
En schelpen uit het zoute zand

(And shells from the salty sand)
Ik heb je lief, zo lief
(I like you, I like you so much)

Ik scheur de rotsen met mijn stralen

(I rip the rocks with my beams)
Verhoog de meren in de dalen en

(Increase the lakes in the valleys and)
Onweersluchten doe ik vluchten, aah als de regen valt

(Make stormy skies flee, when the rain falls)
Verberg je ogen in een hand

(Hide your eyes in a hand)
Voordat m'n glimlach ze verbrandt

(Before my smile burns them)
M'n vuur, m'n liefde, mijn gouden ogen

(My fire, my love, my golden eyes)
't Is beter als je nog wat wacht

(It is better if you wait some more)
Want even later komt de nacht en schijnt de koele maan

(Because a bit later, the night will come and the cold moon will shine)

De nacht is te koud, de maan te grijs

(The night is too cold, the moon too grey)
Toe neem me toch mee naar je hemelpaleis

(Please take me to your heavenly palace)
Daar wil ik zijn alleen met jou

(I want to be there just with you)
En stralen in het hemelblauw

(And shine in the heavenly blue)
Ik heb je lief, zo lief

(I like you, I like you so much)

Als ik de aarde ga verwarmen

(When I'll warm the earth)
Laat ik haar leven in m'n armen

(I'll let her live in my arms)
Van sterren weefde ik het verre, aah het noorderlicht

(Out of stars, I weaved the far northern light)
Maar soms ben ik als kolkend lood

(But sometimes I am like swirling lead)
Ik ben het leven en de dood

(I am life and death)
In vuur, in liefde, in alle tijden

(In fire, in love, at all times)
M'n kind ik troost je, kijk omhoog

(I comfort you my child, look up)
Vandaag span ik mijn regenboog

(Today I draw my rainbow)
Die is alleen voor jou

(That one is just for you)

Nee nooit sta ik een seconde stil

(No, not for a second do I ever stand still)
'k Wil liever branden neem me mee

(I'd prefer to burn, take me with you)
Geen mens kan mij dwingen wanneer ik niet wil

(No person can force me when I don't want to)
Wanneer je vanavond gaat slapen in zee

(When tonight you'll go sleep in the sea)
Geen leven dat ik niet begon

(No life that I didn't start)
En vliegen langs jouw hemelbaan

(And to to fly across your sky line)
Je kunt niet houden van de zon

(You can't love the sun)
Ik wil niet meer bij jou vandaan

(I don't want to leave you anymore)

Ik heb je lief, zo lief
Ik heb je lief, zo lief
Ik heb je lief, zo lief
Ik heb je lief, zo lief
Ik heb je lief, zo lief

(I like you, I like you so much)

Only after seeing this clip did I realize that famous Ducth singer Ramses Shaffy is literally portraying the sun here. And, thus, that Liesbeth List is worshiping the sun. Was that the idea? Or did they use the metaphor very clumsily? And if it was the idea, why did they choose to do this? How did they think that the Dutch audience would be so affected by a song about sun worshiping? Why is the Dutch audience so affected by this song anyway? This song and its high placement in the top 2000 is is leaving me a bit flabbergasted. In any case it wasn't easy to find a movie to accompany it. It turns out there aren't movies about sun worshiping. Who would've thought?! So I searched for movies about Louis XIV, the sun king. I actually was surprised that there aren't really many movies about him, even less romantic ones. Eventually I found a slightly romantic movie about him that was described in its IMDB reviews as a decadent, overblown, kitschy potboiler soap opera. Exactly the kind of words I would use to describe Pastorale. 

The Movie: The King is Dancing (Le roi danse) (Gerard Corbiau, 2000)

I always hate it when historical movies are criticised for not giving a historically accurate portrayal of the time they are set in or the subject they are about, This criticism implies that there are historic movies that do present a historically accurate portrayal of whatever it is they are presenting. By mere logic alone we must realize that you can't cram the complete history of (for example) hundred years into a movie of about two hours. Movies, by their very nature, must often skip or change certain events to make them more dramtically interesting. All of this doesn't mean that historical movies shouldn't be made. They can offer a lot of other valuable insights and create compelling drama. I am a fan of many of them. Historical movies therefore shouldn't be criticized if they misrepresent a historical subject or period, but if they present their historical portrayal as a right one.That's why movies that are solely interested in presenting a historical subject or time are not very interesting and simply wrong. In fact, three of the most intelligent historical movies to come out recently are Inglourious Basterds, Anonymous and Midnight in Paris. All of these movies are completely uninterested in providing an accurate portrayal of the historical period and subjects they are depicting. Yet they have more intelligent things to say about history in general and the respective periods they are set in than many other historical movies which may stick to the facts more.

I doubt that The King is Dancing gives a very accurate portayal of Louis XIV, or of Jean-Baptiste Lully, the royal composer. Or of the time it depicts. Yet it is a quite intelligent movie (though not nearly as good as Anonymous, let alone Midnight in Paris or Inglourious Basterds. The King is Dancing uses the story of Louis XIV and Lully to explore the relationship between (popular) arts/culture and nation-building.

It won't surprise you that according to this movie Louis XIV loved to dance. He especially loved to dance in plays written and composed by Jean-Baptiste Lully. He loved Lully's music so much that even his fever dissapeared when Lully played on his violin. The plays were also important for Louis, because through them he could represent his greatness. And, considering that he was seen as the embodiment of France, the plays therefore represented the greatness of France. The movie gets the importance of cultural objects in creating a national character. It was only in the 19th century that nations as we mostly know them today were created. Their creation probably would not have been possible without nationalistic poets and writers, who wrote books and poems about the greatness of their nationality. And how there were certain values that bonded all French (or Germans or Italians, etc). But it wasn't enough that they glorified their nation. They also explained in their writings that the other nationalities were different and lesser than them and had other values.

All of this can be seen in The King is Dancing. It is important for Louis that the plays reflect good values, because he and France might look bad if they don't. And not only the plays. Lully, the playwright himself should watch his behavior. But not everybody agrees what good values are. A conservative section of Louis' court sees God and the Christian religion as inseparable from the French nation. This is why when Lully and Moliere write a play that satirizes God and the Christians they are very unhappy. This could mean that France and its people will denounce religion. God will be mad. And if you though that things aren't hard enough for Lully, he is a born Italian. That alone makes people in Louis' court suspicious of him. But Lully wants to stay so much in France that he acts as a Frenchman even more than the original French. He is horrified when he learns that Moliere wants to write a French opera. Even if the opera is nationalistic and represents French values, it is not just about the content. The artform itself can be seen a defining national characteristic. And opera is seen as an inherently Italian artform for weak men such as the Italians. For real men such as the French dance is the national artform. Opera's shouldn't be performed by French and certainly not be made by him. He might be seen as an Italian! Though when Louis convinces his court that a French opera could very well reflect the French values and be seen as a new national artform, Lully is more then willing to double cross Moliere and claim Moliere's plays as his own. He is quite an opportunist.

I liked the film because of all this. But I am very interested in such things. During my study I have mostly focused on writing about how nations and the idea of the nation is presented in media/cultural objects. If you aren't interested in such things there is not really a reason to see the movie. The movie is not very interesting or compelling and even these ideas about nations aren't really presented in a very compelling way. Louis XIV is a very bland, not very interesting character  Part of the reason for this is that the young actor portraying him isn't very convincing. Forunately Lully is an interesting character though, a selfish cowardly opportunist. The movie also tries to be so much different things. A romantic potboilerish soap opera, a movie on nation-building, a movie about Lully and a movie about Louis. It fails to make a coherent whole out if at all. The scenes in which it is about one thing too often seem to come from a completely different movie than the scenes in which it is about an other thing. So many of the scenes seem to be completely randomly thrown in. There is for example a scene in which we see a play ridiculing the Bulgarian ambassador (and thus Bulgaria), because he inaulted Louis. I again found this scene interesting, because it shows quite well how foreign nations are portrayed as a mysterious, evil, dangerous 'Other'. But the scene comes from nowhere. Not only haven't we seen Louis dealing with Bulgaria or it's ambassador before that scene, we haven't seen him deal with any ambassador. And we don't see him doing it afterwards. Another example of this is the beginning and end of the movie. It begins and ends with a completely redundant flash forward of Lully which doesn't have much to do with his character as it is portrayed. And it is even less important for the rest of the movie.