79. Year of the Cat &...

Lyrics

On a morning from a Bogart movie 
In a country where they turn back time 
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre 
Contemplating a crime 

She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running 
Like a watercolor in the rain 
Don't bother asking for explanations 
She'll just tell you that she came 

In the year of the cat 

She doesn't give you time for questions 
As she locks up your arm in hers 
And you follow till your sense of which direction 
Completely disappears 

By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls 
There's a hidden door she leads you to 
These days, she says, "I feel my life 
Just like a river running through" 

The year of the cat 

Why she looks at you so coolly? 
And her eyes shine like the moon in the sea 
She comes in incense and patchouli 
So you take her, to find what's waiting inside 

The year of the cat 

Well morning comes and you're still with her 
And the bus and the tourists are gone 
And you've thrown away your choice and lost your ticket 
So you have to stay on 

But the drumbeat strains of the night remain 
In the rhythm of the new-born day 
You know sometime you're bound to leave her 
But for now you're going to stay 

In the year of the cat 
Year of the cat


I hardly know anything about Al Stewart. Yet he has made two pretty good songs. This is one of them. Vincent is another. His voice and lyrics create a very evocative, melancholic mood. The movie I linked this song to has its main protagonist imagining himself being in a Bogart movie and talking to Bogart, like Stewart does in first verse of this song.

The Movie: Play it Again, Sam (Herbert Ross, 1972)

This blog could just as easily have been called Allen and the Doors. I didn't choose that, because it sounds awful, but Woody Allen's movies have been equally important to me as Tarantino's. Annie Hall was one of those movies that changed the way I view the medium. It was one of the first movies that showed that you could use comedy to explore pretty serious ideas and that comedy could be great art. Apart from that it was (and still is) one of the most inventive movies I had ever seen. I saw the movie before I studied media and culture and knew only vaguely who Marshall McLuhan was. But what Allen did with him in the famous scene still blew my mind, simply because he did what he did. Annie Hall probably had an even bigger effect because I think I saw the movie the same day I saw The Big Lebowski for the first time (and because Annie Hall reminded me of a girl I liked in high school). In any case since then I saw many more Woody Allen movies, and as I grew older I also realized how affecting they can be, and how they are very humanist and compassionate. I think Scoop is the only Woody Allen movie I dislike. Most of them I think are great or at least enjoyable.

Play it Again, Sam is one of the decently enjoyable ones. It shows how great a director Woody Allen was, because here he is 'just'' the leading actor and the screenwriter. Herbert Ross directs this film in the most banal way possible. I haven't seen any other movie by Ross yet, but he doesn't have a really great reputation. To be fair though, Woody Allen's screenplay isn't all that great either. It mostly works as a series of individually enjoyable series of scenes with some fun dialogue, than as a coherent story. Allen plays Allan, a film critic fascinated by Bogart movies, and especially Casablanca. He gets dumped by his wife at the beginning of the movie, and with the help of a friendly couple played by Diane Keaton and Tony Roberts tries to get a new girlfriend. He also imagines he is getting love advice from Humphrey Bogart (Jerry Lacy), which makes for some nice, slightly absurd scenes. A large part of the movie just consists of Allan failing to make an impression on his dates and making a complete idiot out of himself. These scenes show how really great Woody Allen was/is at physical comedy. There is one scene in his appartment wherein, because of his anxiety he keeps bumping into stuff while his date (and Keaton and Roberts) are seating there, only to get more nervous because of that, and thus even clumsier. It's probably the funniest scene in the movie. What this movie also shows is that even though Allen's jokes (not always rightfully, or intelligently) scorn other people, it is always Allen himself who is the butt of the joke. The problem here is that his character is a bit over the top, even for the standards of Woody Allen. He is a bit clumsier than usual, a little bit more of an idiot, so it is not an easily identifiable character for whom we have much sympathy. Also I hoped the movie would do a bit more with Allen's profession as a film critic and have some funny/serious observations about movies. 

Still, this is a very funny movie, and the best (running) joke doesn't actually even involve Allen directly. It's also a joke that would not be possible today. In fact I didn't even get the joke the first time it was made in the movie. (Tony Roberts) calls up someone and tells him the following:  I'll be at 362-9296 for a while; then I'll be at 648-0024 for about fifteen minutes; then I'll be at 752-0420; and then I'll be home, at 621-4598. Yeah, right George, bye-bye. I only realized the second time this joke was made that Dick is talking about at what phone numbers he should be called. The movie plays with the cliche of the busy businessman, who has to always be on touch. The joke is being repeated several times in the movie and it becomes gradually funnier and more preposterous. At one point Dick calls George from a night club. Obviously Dick is a busy man, who neglects his wife Linda (Diane Keaton), who naturally starts falling in love with Allan and vice versa. These are probably the best scenes in the movie, and the ones that remind most how good Allen is at mixing comedy, romance and drama. This is the first movie Allen and Keaton did together and it is immediately clear their partnership works. And that's because Keaton is Allen's equal at all times. She is just as much a genius of comic timing as he, and is just as much a master of Allen's rapid-fire dialogue. In every single one of their movies together Keaton completely holds her own against Allen. I think Allen's movies with Mia Farrow are overall better than his movies with Keaton, but Keaton is a better actress. Proof of that is also the fact that in 1972 she also played Kay Corleone in The Godfather. 

Soon I will discuss a film with Mia Farrow and Woody Allen on this blog. In that post I'll also talk more about the fact that Allen himself is not a very good person, to say the least. If he were, this movie would probably immediately get remade with the protagonist getting advice from Woody Allen, instead of from Humphrey Bogart. And Woody Allen could have even played himself. It would not even be a very unnecessary remake. The 'gettting advice from a fictional Bogart' part of this movie isn't explored in a really interesting way here, until the ending. Linda and Allan both realize that Linda should be with Dick, and Dick himself realizes that he has been neglecting Linda too much. This all leads to an ending which explicitly references (or basically copies) the ending of Casablanca, which Allan makes explicit. Allan tells Linda the famous final words Bogart told Ingrid Bergman in that movie, and is the happiest we've seen them. The fact that he lost the girl doesn't matter to him. The fact that he could finally emulate a real movie star is what matters to him. It's a bit too little too late. It's the only time the movie really explores how movies and fictional romantic narratives have an effect on our real life, on the way we see ourselves and on the way we think about our love life. And how it works the other way around too. The way we think about love in real life affects the romantic narratives that are being told. Allen has of course explored these ideas in other movies. I think he wanted to that here too (the Bogart conceit doesn't add much else to the movie), but he didn't yet really know how to combine it with his romantic comedy, and thus mostly failed at that level. Though he wasn't probably helped much by director Herbert Ross.





    

78. Welterusten Mijnheer de President &...

Lyrics

Meneer de president, welterusten

(Mister president, good night)
Slaap maar lekker in je mooie witte huis

(Sleep nicely in your beautiful white house)
Denk maar niet teveel aan al die verre kusten

(Don't think too much of all those faraway coasts)
Waar uw jongens zitten eenzaam ver van huis

(Where your boys are being lonely away from home)

Denk vooral niet aan die 46 doden

(Don't especially think about those 46 casualties)
Die vergissing laatst met dat bombardement

(That mistake the other day with the bombing)
En vergeet het vierde van die 10 geboden

(And forget the fourth of those ten commandments)
Die u als goed Christen zeker kent

(That you being a good Christian certainly must know)

Denk maar niet aan al die jonge frontsoldaten

(Don't think of all those young front line soldiers)
Eenzaam stervend in de verre tropennacht

(Dying lonely in the faraway tropical night)
Laat die bleke pacifistenkliek maar praten

(Let that weak pacifist clique talk)
Meneer de president, slaap zacht

(Mister president, sleep well)

Droom maar van de overwinning, en de zege

(Dream on about the victory)
Droom maar van uw mooie vredesideaal

(Dream on about your beautiful ideals of peace)
Dat nog nooit door bloedig moorden is verkregen

(That have never been achieved by bloody killings)
Droom maar dat het u wel lukken zal ditmaal

(Dream on that this time it'll succeed)

Kijk maar niet naar al die mensen die verrekken

(Don't look at all those people living)
Hoeveel vrouwen, hoeveel kind'ren zijn vermoord
(How many women and children have been murdered)

Droom maar dat u aan het langste eind zult trekken

(Dream on that you'll win)
En geloof van al die tegenstand geen woord

(And just don't believe anything your oppnents say)

Bajonetten met bloedige gevesten

(Bayonets with bloody hilts)
Houden ver van hier op uw bevel de wacht

(Far away from here they keep watch at your command)
Voor de glorie en de eer van 't vrije westen

(For the glory and honor of the free west)
Meneer de president, slaap zacht

(Mister president sleep nice)

Schrik maar niet te erg, wanneer u in uw dromen

(Don't wake up in terror, when in your dreams)
Al die schuldeloze slachtoffers ziet staan

(You see all these guiltless victims)
Die daarginds bij het gevecht zijn omgekomen
(Who were killed figthing over there)

En uw vragen hoelang dit nog zo moet gaan
(And who ask you how much longer this is supposed to last)

En u zult toch ook zo langzaamaan wel weten

(And you should now by now)
Dat er mensen zijn die ziek zijn van 't geweld

(That there are people sick of violence)
Die het bloed en de ellende niet vergeten

(Who have not forgotten the blood and the misery)
En voor wie nog steeds een mensenleven telt
(And for whom human lives still count)

Droom maar niet teveel van al die dooie mensen

(Don't dream too much of all these dead people)
Droom maar fijn van overwinning en van macht

(Dream nicely of victory and power)
Denk maar niet aan al die vredeswensen

(Don't think of all those wishes for peace)
Meneer de president, slaap zacht!

(Mister president, sleep nice)

This is a bit of a presumptuous song. I mean Boudewijn de Groot is right too criticize the Vietnam War, but this direct address to the American president is kind of tacky, considering he'll never hear it. It's a bit of a shame even. De Groot is one of the most intelligent Dutch songwriters, but here does come off as a bit of a poseur. Although to be fair, many leftist artists all over the world sang similar songs against the war during that time. The president addressed here is Lyndon Johnson. Unfortunately there aren't really any movies about him. There are about Richard Nixon though, and many of the lyrics in this song could just as well be applied to him. In fact the fury over the Vietnam War only increased with Nixon as president.

The Movie: Nixon (Oliver Stone, 1995)

Even though America wants to present itself (and is often presented as such in the West) as a great country, and the leader of the free world, it (like any other nation) has many flaws and problems. Especially the ways in which America is sometimes presented as the opposite of the 'evil' Islam/Russia/The Soviet Union/'the Orient in general, etc. Still, it can't be denied that there are aspects which really do distinguish America positively from some of these nations (just as there are probably aspects of those nations that distinguish them positively from America). A couple years ago for example the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to New York to give a lecture at some university. That probably caused some protest among deeply conservative Americans who believed that this contributed to the Islamization of America and other such bullshit. But that doesn't really matter. Ahmadinejad came, gave his lecture and went back to Iran. Now, Iran is not nearly as savage a nation as it is often presented in the American/western media, but you won't see Obama anytime soon give a lecture at a university in Tehran. And not because he doesn't want to.

Oliver Stone's Nixon is another example of this. I really believe that there are very few nations (even in the western world) where this movie could get made, much less be made in the mainstream. One part of it is that this is a ridiculously and insanely ambitious movie. It's title is Nixon, but that heavily under-represents what this movie is about. But, you know, you can't title a movie 'Nixon: A Critical History of the American Politics and Society from 1960-1973.' The most important word of that title is 'critical.' Oliver Stone doesn't have a very high regard for Nixon here, but he does have sympathy for him. For Stone Nixon is just a product of the American political system. And that system, of which Americans are so proud, is presented here as rotten to its very core ideals. This according to Stone has a negative effect on many aspects of American society and culture. But he also posits that many aspects of this society and culture, and many American values, are also the cause for the rottenness of the system. I hardly know any works of art which are so scathingly critical of (the core values upon which) their own nation (is build). Yet, at the same time it can be argued that a nation that can allow such a movie to get made and such ideas to foster is a very healthy nation. I certainly don't know of a Dutch work of art which is nearly as critical of the Netherlands as Nixon is of America.

Though I was familiar with many of the events in Nixon's life depicted in the movie, I am not a Nixon scholar. I am sure though that a historian specialized in Nixon or in the American politics of the 20th century will find many flaws in Stone's ideas here. That doesn't really matter though, because Stone, I think, gives a lot of room for interpretation. He does not present his interpretation of this history as the only right one. In fact he directly invites us to give our own interpretation of history. Stone shows us here many of the important moments of Nixon's life, like his childhood in a deeply religious family, his loss to JFK, and of course the Watergate scandal. And throughout the movie he constantly returns to this moments, putting them constantly in a different context and making us think differently about their meanings, causes and effects. Thus he makes us constantly rethink these events and our interpretations of them. And it can be argued that Stone is even more ambitious than this. Obviously JFK and Vietnam play an important role in this movie. Of course before making Nixon, Stone made movies about the Vietnam War and about JFK. Some of the themes he discussed therein also return in this movie in a different context, and are seen from a different point of view.

Basically at times the movie plays like a feature length version of the great training sequence in The Parallax View That is quite an extraordinary achievement, as there are way too few historic movies which even attempt to do this. It also means that the movie is not only about the history of American politics during Nixon's life in power, but also that it is a movie about the ways in which we study and engage with history. And it is this more than anything that makes this a great movie. The movie also at times plays like a horror movie. The American political system is presented here as an unstoppable, uncontrollable, nearly mysterious force. Nobody ever seems to have a full idea of what's going on. There are politicians assassinated by people, and for reasons, not even the president is aware of. Why was Robert Kennedy assassinated for example? Nobody in the movie seems to know. There is the suggestion, that sometime in the past, perhaps even before Nixon's ascent to power, certain mysterious events happened that triggered a domino effect leading to Robert Kennedy's death. But what those events were, and what those fallen dominoes were, nobody knows.

The movie is not perfect. In the last 20-30 minutes the movie becomes an all too conventional depiction of the downfall of a great, but troubled man, like we've seen in many other similar movies. It also doesn't help that Stone depicts this downfall with smug moralism. But that's pretty forgivable, considering all the great things that happened before. This is one of the greatest films of the 90's and it's not even Stone's best movie. That's Born on the Fourth of July. I am not a fan of Platoon, as I discussed in an earlier post, and Savages is an absolutely awful film. It's actually hard to believe that the guy who made Nixon also made that movie. So Stone is a pretty uneven director, but when he is on fire, he is one of the most interesting American directors. There isn't anyone with who is as intelligent and as completely bonkers as him and also has his talent for making films. Lastly is worth noting that Anthony Hopkins gives his best performance here as Richard Nixon. The rest of the very famous cast does well too, although their characters are a bit too one-dimensional. I was a little irritated by Paul Sorvino who plays Henry Kissinger as a caricature of Henry Kissinger. But it's probably impossible to play Kissinger in any other way.