53. Voor Haar &...

Lyrics

Zij verstaat de kunst van bij me horen 

(She understands the art of belonging with me)
In mijn lichaam heeft ze plaats gemaakt voor twee 

(In my body, she's made room for two)
In mijn ogen woont ze, in mijn oren 

(She lives in my eyes, in my ears)
Ze hoort en ziet mijn hele leven met me mee 

(She hears and sees my whole life, together with me)
Soms begint ze in mijn hart te zingen

(Sometimes she starts singing in my heart) 
Waar het nacht wordt heeft ze lichtjes aangedaan

(She has put the lights on, there where the night falls) 
En door haar weet ik dan door te dringen 

(And through her I manage to reach)
Tot de onvermoede schat van ons bestaan 

(To the unguarded treasure of our existence)
Zo alleen maar wil ik verder leven 

(Only like this do I want to go on livinh)
Schuilend bij elkaar 

(Sheltering together)
En als ik oud moet worden, dan alleen met haar 

(And if I have to get old, than only with her)

Zij kent al mijn dromen en mijn wanen 

(She knows all my dreams and delusions)
Al mijn haast en al mijn honger en mijn spijt 

(All my haste, and all my hunger and regret)
Als ik lach kent zij alleen de tranen

(When I smile, only she knows the tears) 
Die daar achter liggen in de tijd

(That lay there, back in time) 
Zo alleen maar wil ik verder leven 

(Only like this do I want to go on livinh)
Schuilend bij elkaar 

(Sheltering together)
En als ik oud moet worden, dan alleen met haar 

(And if I have to get old, than only with her)

Zij is meer dan deze woorden zeggen 

(She is more, than these words say)
In mijn lichaam heeft ze plaats gemaakt voor twee 

(In my body she's made room for two)
Maar wie weet een wonder uit te leggen 

(But who knows how to explain a miracle)
En een wonder draag ik met me mee

(And it's a miracle that I carry with me)

I can understand the popularity of this song, but this kind of songs just aren't for me. It was a bit hard to find a movie to link this song too. I only knew it had to be about a man who's obsessed by a woman. So eventually I chose a movie, mostly because it was made by a great director of whom I had not seen a single movie yet and was eager to. 

The Movie: That Obscure Object of Desire (Cet Obscur Objet du Desir) (Luis Bunuel, 1977)

The art of painting is probably the art form I know and care the least about. But if you were to ask me about what my favorites are, I think the surrealists would surely be among them. More specifically, I mean Salvador Dali of course. I found him interesting even before I cared much about movies, and it was probably because of him that I first heard about Luis Bunuel, who was a frequent collaborator of Dali. I really became conscious of their collaborations when in high school we were being shown some clips of Un Chien Andalou. Considering that this is one of the most famous short movies ever made, it should come as no surprise that we had to see this movie in a class in college. I liked its completely freewheeling absurdism a lot and thought Luis Bunuel was a very interesting director. After reading more on him, and realizing that many of his movies were made in the same spirit as Un Chien Andalou, my interest in him was spiked. For some reason though I had not seen a movie by him until now. While this movie wasn't as great as I expected i still liked it quite a lot and it has made me even more curious about Bunuel's other work.

It all begins when Mathieu (Fernando Rey) boards a train from Sevilla to Madrid. Mathieu is a man who wants to project that he is reasonable, respectable man of class. A woman follows him on the train and he trows a bucket of water over her. Naturally the passengers sitting in the wagon with Mathieu are curious why he did such a thing. He says that she was the most awful woman he had ever known. And proceeds to tell the story his experiences with this woman, named Conchita. The rest of the movie is the story of Conchita and Mathieu, told in flashback by Mathieu. One of the most wonderful things about it is the fact that Mathieu tells the story to compatriots in order to show them that he is indeed a classy, reasonable and respectable man. The only thing he really makes clear though is that he certainly isn't any of those things, least of all reasonable. Sure, Conchita is an infuriating woman who is either terribly naive and sexually immature or the world's greatest con artist. Bunuel wisely never offers us a definite explanation. In any case, it should be clear to an ostensibly reasonable man like Mathieu that pursuing her so wildly is not a wise idea. It comes at great expense of both his happiness and his wealth. As for being a respectable man of class? Well, that too is suspect, as his wooing mostly consists of trying to (almost literally) buy her (off).

While Bunuel has a lot of fun with the behavior of Mathieu and Conchita (The interactions between Mathieu and his butler are especially of a wonderful oddness) he makes two choices that make lift the film even more into the realm of absurdity/surrealism. First of all Conchita is played by two different actresses. Bunuel could have done this in order to symbolize the split personality of Conchita (She sometimes loves Mathieu, sometimes despises him), or he could have done it to show how Mathieu is completely oblivious to the fact that she is tricking him constantly, so oblivious that he doesn't even realize she often looks differently. Or it could just be that Bunuel thought it would a fun trick to have Conchita be played by two different actresses. Again Bunuel doesn't offer a definitive conclusion and that's a good thing. Besides it doesn't matter much why she's played by two different actresses. What matters is that this is a fun, entertaining choice and leaves us thinking about his intentions. His second absurdist choice is to set this story in a world that's constantly under threat of anarchist, terrorist groups. There are constantly explosions and violent killings and robberies. And while these are really unpleasant to the characters, there is no big deal made out of it. They just happen in a ordinary world, that functions normally apart from an explosion here and there. And it's not like the characters don't notice this, but they almost shrug them off, treating them like an ordinary unpleasantness. There is no political motivation behind these actions. In fact we hear on the radio that extreme-right and extreme-left groups are collaborating together. Bunuel has a lot of fun with this, naming for example one group the Revolutionary Army of the Baby Jesus. And there doesn't seem to be a reason for this scenes of social anarchy to be in the movie, except the fact that Bunuel finds them fun. And is there a better reason than that?  

52. Over de Muur &...

Lyrics

Oost-Berlijn, unter den Linden: 

(East Berlin, unter den Linden)
Er wandelen mensen langs vlaggen en vaandels. 

(People are walking along flags and banners)
Waar Lenin en Marx nog steeds op een voetstuk staan. 

(Where Lenin and Marx are still on a pedestal)

En iedereen werkt, hamers en sikkels, 

(And everybody works, hammers and sickles)
Terwijl in parade-pas de wacht wordt gewisseld. 

(While the changing of the guard is happenning)
40 Jaar socialisme er is in die tijd veel bereikt... 

(40 years of socialism, much has been accomplished in all this time)

Maar wat is nou die heilstaat, 

(But what is this utopia)
Als er muren omheen staan? 

(If it is surrounded by walls)
Als je bang en voorzichtig met je mening moet omgaan? 

(If you have to handle your opinion with fear and care)
Ach, wat is nou die heilstaat, zeg mij wat is ie waard,

(What is this utopia, tell me how much it is worth) 
Wanneer iemand die afwijkt voor gek wordt verklaard? 

(When someone who deviates is declared to be insane)

En alleen de vogels vliegen van Oost- naar West-Berlijn.

(And only the birds fly from East to West Berlin) 
Worden niet teruggefloten, ook niet neergeschoten. 

(They don't get stopped, nor shot)
Over de muur, over het IJzeren Gordijn, 

(Over the wall, over the Iron Curtain)
Omdat ze soms in het westen soms ook in het oosten willen zijn. 

(Because they sometimes want to be in the west and sometimes in the east)
Omdat ze soms in het westen soms ook in het oosten willen zijn. 
(Because they sometimes want to be in the west and sometimes in the east)

West-Berlijn: de Kurfurstendamm! 

(West Berlin: The Kurfurstendamm)
Er wandelen mensen langs porno en peepshow. 

(People are walking along porn and peepshows)
Waar Mercedes en Cola, nog steeds op een voetstuk staan. 

(Where Mercedes and Cola are still on a pedestal

En de neonreclames, die glitterend lokken: 

(And the neon sings, that lure glitteringly)
Kom dansen! Kom eten! Kom zuipen! Kom gokken! 

(Come to dance! Come to eat! Come to booze! Come to gamble)
Dat is nou 40 jaar vrijheid, er is in die tijd veel bereikt... 
(That is 40 years of freedom, much has been accomplished in all this time)

Maar wat is nou die vrijheid, zonder huis, zonder baan? 

(But what is that freedom, without a house, without a job)
Zoveel Turken in Kreutzberg die amper kunnen bestaan. 

(So many Turks in Kreutzberg who can hardly exist)
Goed... je mag demonstreren, maar met je rug tegen de muur 

(Ok, you can protest, but with your back against the wall)
En alleen als je geld hebt, dan is de vrijheid niet duur. 

(And only with money is the freedom not expensive)

En de vogels vliegen van West- naar Oost-Berlijn.

(And the birds fly from West to East Berlin) 
Worden niet teruggefloten, ook niet neergeschoten. 

(They don't get stopped, nor shot)
Over de muur, over het IJzeren Gordijn, 

(Over the wall, over the Iron Curtain)
Omdat ze soms in het westen soms ook in het oosten willen zijn. 

(Because they sometimes want to be in the west and sometimes in the east)
Omdat er brood ligt soms bij de Gedachtniskirche, soms op het Alexanderplein!

(Because sometimes there is bread at the Gedachtniskirche and sometimes on Alexanderplatz)

This song about the tragedy and absurdity of the Berlin Wall is justly this high on the list. It is one of the greatest Dutch songs. Its appurtenant movie deals with the same subject and is set in 1989, exactly forty years since the birth of West and East Germany 

The Movie: Goodbye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker, 2003)

It is October 1989 when Alex Kerner participates in what is supposed to be a peaceful demonstration against the East German government. Soon the police comes though, starting to beat up the demonstrators including Alex. This is accidentally seen by his mother who promptly gets a severe heart attack and ends up in a coma, only to wake up 8 months later. This is great news of course for Alex and his sister, but it's not like their mother is healthy. As the doctors say, any shock can kill her. That's kind of a problem, considering the events that transpired in Germany in November 1989. Even more so, because Mrs. Kerner was a proud member of the East German communist party, who very much believed in and cared about her nation and the system. So Alex and his sister have to find ways to convince their mother that everything is still the way it used to be. What follows is a great, gentle drama with some nice comic touches that is one of the best European movies of this century. It is about what the unification of Germany means for its people and how they deal with this after being separated for so long. But is also about perception and about family relations and many more things really. I have seen it three times now, and I think it only gets better.

No matter what you think of communism or capitalism, or West and East Germany, the facts remain that there were many East Germans who lived a decent life in their country. It's a fact that they weren't exactly free, but it's also a fact that many of them had jobs and could make a decent living. And when Germany reunited and became a free capitalist state, many people lost their jobs and couldn't make a decent living anymore. While this movie sees it as a good thing that East Germany ceased to exist, it also fully understands those East Germans who mourn for the loss of their nation. Especially those who are now considered useless and jobless. It also understands that the fall of East Germany meant that a whole generation of people had to change their whole way of living and thinking in the blink of an eye. That's not an easy thing to do, even if your life is better now. Only after watching this movie now, did I realize that Alex' charade isn't just meant for his mother. It is also meant for himself. Of course, he doesn't really believe in his charade. Nor does he believe that East Germany will ever come back, but his charade does help him cope with the new reality.

As I wrote earlier, even though the movie has sympathy for those who mourn East Germany it sees it's downfall as sad, but inevitable. It understands that a reason why many East Germans, like Mrs. Kerner, put up with their country, wasn't so much because of the situation the state was in. But because of the situation they believed their state could be in. As we learn late in the film, Mrs. Kerner wasn't naive. She knew her life was hindered by the fact that she lived in East Germany. She put up with it, partly out of fear. But also partly because she believed in the dream of a communist utopia. She believed that things were better now in West Germany, but she also sincerely believed that in an ideal situation life in East Germany would be better. It sis clear that this thinking has influenced her son. And that's what makes his charade so interesting. In trying to recreate East Germany for his mother he creates the utopian nation that never existed. And that now never will exist. This is a nation to which millions of West Germans flee to seek a better life. A nation that is the true inventor of Coca-Cola. And a nation in which Sigmund Jahn, the great, heroic astronaut, is now the president of the republic, not a fairly anonymous taxi driver.

Because of all this it is certainly possible to read the ending as cynical. Sure there is a party at the end due to the birthday of unified Germany. And Alex seems happy, but his actions seem to contradict this. He may believe that his life is better now Germany is unified. But he certainly seems/seemed to believe in the dream of a utopian East Germany in which life would/could be better than in West/unified Germany (that's a bit too many slashes in one sentence, but they were necessary). That dream is definitely dead now. And he realizes this. And there is for him no new dream to replace it. He does not seem to believe in a German capitalist utopia.

Lasrly, for me as a media student, it was certainly interesting to see that the movie had a pretty good understanding of the media and its products. It knows that the current media revolution, due to which more and more people are able to create their own content started in the 70's and 80's. Film equipment became cheaper and smaller, which meant that more and more people were able to make smaller, or larger films. Alex wouldn't have been able to so successfully con, without his friend Dennis, an amateur filmmaker. But the movie (consciously or unconsciously) makes a larger point with this. The development of film equipment is just another reason why the fall of East Germany was becoming more and more inevitable. If more and more people are able to make their own films and videos, that people are less and less dependent on content by authorities. People can create their own narratives more easily, their information will come from more and more sources, etc. This is of course deadly for a authoritative state like East Germany, that needs and wants to control the media as much as possible.

That doesn't mean though that the state doesn't have any control over the media anymore. This too is understood by the movie. The movie uses the example of the football world championship in 1990, taking place in Italy. As the qualifications for the tournament happened before the unification of Germany, it was now West Germany that was officially taking part in the tournament. The movie shows though that the media treated that team as if it represented whole Germany. And it presented each victory of that team as a victory for whole Germany. It also presented that team as underdogs to win it all. (Though of course, as we in The Netherlands know, Germany is never an underdog in football) That did not just create extra sympathy for the team and thus for whole Germany, it also meant that when (West?) Germany eventually did become world champion their victory could be seen as a metaphor for how the new German state could overcome all it's problems. Thus is should come as no surprise that the movie shows Alex and other former East Germans erupting with joy when the final ends.

51. Halo of Flies &...

Lyrics

I've got the answers
To all of your questions
If you've got the money
To pay me in gold

I will be living
In old Monte Carlo
And you will be reading
The secrets I sold

Daggers and contacts
And bright shiny limos
I've got a watch
That turns into a lifeboat

Glimmering nightgowns
And poisonous cobras
Silencer under the heel of my shoe

The elegance of China
They sent her to lie here on her back
But as she deeply moves me
She'd rather shoot me in my tracks

She was a Malaysian lady
She really came as no surprise
But I still did destroy her
And I will smash
Halo of flies

I crossed the ocean
Where no one could see
And I put a time-bomb
In your submarine
Goodbye to old friends
The secret's in hand
With phony note papers
And counterfeit plans
You never will understand


What an awesome song! I don't know much about Alice Cooper and though I must have heard this song before I couldn't remember it. But it feels as if Cooper wanted to put everything he thought was musically interesting in one song. The song is completely incoherent, but also utterly surprising and unique. The lyrics don't make much sense either, but they do bring Bond movies/villains to mind. So I linked this song to a James Bond film set mostly in Asia and involving gold.

The Movie: The Man With the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton, 1974)

I have always liked Bond movies, though it's not like I am a huge fan of them. I am a fan of all four major actors (Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig) who played Bond, but I do prefer Moore and Connery.  While Skyfall and especially Casino Royale are splendid movies, I did miss the silliness and the extravaganza of the early Bonds. It is quite unfortunate that even Bond movies have adapted to two unfortunate tendencies of modern blockbusters. First of all they have become rather dark movies with a gloomy atmosphere and secondly they insist on being 'realistic.' Which just makes the Bond movies unnecessarily problematic. It is undeniable that Bond movies are rather Orientalist and sexist. I don't think that this is such a big problem when the movies are so tongue-in-cheek. It does become a problem when they insist that they (and their worldview) should be taken seriously, because they make some grand statement about the world. I may someday write more about how Skyfall, which is actually a very good movie and one I like a lot, suffers from this. For now it's sufficient to say that I hope to never see a Bond movie ever again include a scene in which we seriously watch a meeting of a realistic parliamentary commission having a serious discussion about British national security. Leave that to other movies. Which brings me to The Man With the Golden Gun. I hope they will continue to make better Bond movies than this one (though it's certainly not bad). But I also hope they will return to making the Bond movies in the style of this one. That unfortunately won't happen any time soon. Daniel Craig is just not suited for comedy and silliness and the current style of blockbuster filmmaking does seem to still be very popular.

You know from the start what kind of (Bond) movie The Man With the Golden Gun is going to be. We open with a shot of a dwarf and sexy woman on an exotic island. It turns out they work for the main villain of this picture, Scaramanga, played by Christopher Lee. The opening sequence is a very fun one full of odd lighting, odd camera positions and booby traps. We see Scaramanga exercising for a potential duel with James Bond on his island. It is probably the best sequence in the movie, followed by what may be the most lackluster Bond opening credits ever. The title song is also pretty forgettable. After this sequence we finally meet Bond being briefed about the potential danger of Scaramanga. And so the plot kicks in. For the first half or so, this is a superior Bond movie. During the first half this is more an old-fashioned detective movie with Bond following clues about Scaramanga's whereabouts and his plans. And the movie really invites us to think with him. In the second half the movie becomes a rather boring, overlong and not very inspired action movie. It is also overlong. Though there is a great car chase across the streets of Hong Kong that culminates with one of the best movie stunts I've ever seen.

Never does the movie cease being interesting though. And the main reason for that are the wonderful characters and actors. Roger Moore is perfectly suited to play a more laid back, humorous Bond. He clearly enjoys delivering the many fun quips Bond has to say here. Therefore it is even more odd that the filmmakers decided to make Bond, at occasions, a much meaner character than ever. He mercilessly hurts women physically and he rather nastily throws a child of a boat during a boat chase in Hong Kong channels. His relationship with Bond girls Ms. Goodnight on the other hand is much more charmingly depicted than usually. Ms. Goodnight plays a sort of assistant of James Bond and is oddly presented as a recurring character, though this is the only Bond movie she appears in. In any case, Roger Moore and Britt Ekland act with much chemistry around each other. They make very well clear that there is a history of flirtation between their two characters and that Bond and Ms. Goodnight genuinely like each other. It is quite unfortunate that Ms. Goodnight only appeared in this movie. The last great character is of course Scaramanga. Christopher Lee clearly enjoys his role a lot, but he plays Scaramanga with great seriousness.

50. Piano Man &...

Lyrics

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin

He says, "Son, can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes."

la la la, di da da
La la, di di da da dum

Chorus:
Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us all feelin' all right

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he's quick with a joke and he'll light up your smoke
But there's some place that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As his smile ran away from his face
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place"

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Now Paul is a real estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife
And he's talkin' with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the businessman slowly gets stoned
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it's better than drinkin' alone

Chorus
sing us a song you're the piano man
sing us a song tonight
well we're all in the mood for a melody
and you got us all feeling alright

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been comin' to see
To forget about their life for a while
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival
And the microphone smells like a beer
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Chorus:
sing us a song you're the piano man
sing us a song tonight
well we're all in the mood for a melody
and you got us all feeling alright


Having not seen the video clip made for this song in a long time, I was actually surprised to see it was in color. I remembered it being in black and white. Which would have been appropriate considering the melancholy and depressive nature of this song. It is in fact a bit too melancholy and depressive. That doesn't mean I don't like the song. But I like it a lot less than I used to. Surprisingly I really liked the movie I've linked this song to though.

The Movie: The Fabulous Baker Boys (Steve Kloves, 1989)

The Fabolous Baker Boys is a downright pleasant and relaxed movie. That's even more remarkable because it is about disillusionment and regret. There is hardly a moment in this movie in which one of the characters doesn't seem to be profoundly dissatisfied with her or his life. Jeff Bridges is one of the main reasons why the movie is still such a joy to watch. He is Jack Baker, a pianist who together with his brother Frank (Beau Bridges, Jeff Bridges'  real life brother) plays the piano in small clubs and restaurants. They do this for fifteen years, playing nice, classy, but not very complicated tunes. Not very complicated, because Frank is much less talented than his brother. Frank is mostly important because he takes care of the money and the schedule. Jack Baker can be best described as a piano-playing Dr. House. He is a cynic curmudgeon who doesn't seem to experience much fun and seems sick and tired of playing the same old tunes with his brother. Although he doesn't have much better things to do. He lives alone in a loft with his old dog, only being accompanied sometimes by a girl whose single mom is constantly sleeping with different guys. Naturally, more and more clubs start to reject the two brothers and they decide to refresh their act by bringing in a female singer. In a quite funny scene they audition some horrific singers, only to be saved by Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer). She comes in one and a half hour late and is a prostitute. But she can sing!

As you  can see there is nothing really groundbreaking about this plot. But, not unsurprisingly, Jeff and Beau Bridges have really great chemistry together and are very believable as hardworking pianists. It is made very clear that neither brother thinks that what they are doing is great art. It is simply work and they have to approach it in a pragmatic way. And the movie fully supports this. There are a lot of American movies about great mavericks who aspire to do great things. It is nice to see a movie once in a while about simple pragmatists who just want to make a decent living. knowing that they'll probably never be big-time musicians. This is made even clearer when Susie eventually leaves them. She, a great singer, doesn't do this to make a great career as a singer, but to sing silly songs in commercials about vegetables. This leads to the great line, near the end of the film, when she says that she only sings about the unimportant vegetables. The relaxed mood of the film is also enhanced by the great cinematography. There is hardly an ugly shot in the movie and we see everything in very 'warm' colors. The editing is also very relaxed. There are slightly longer takes than usual, making the movie seem completely un-rushed.

But it all wouldn't work without the actors here. Although they are very much helped by the sharp and snappy dialogue, filled with quite some humor. American movies (and TV-shows) are very good at giving cynic curmudgeons wonderful things to say, and this one is no different. And Jeff Bridges sure knows his way around such dialogue. He may be playing a disillusioned, unhappy character (with a good heart of course!), but he plays his character as someone who is slightly amused by his own unhappiness and the dullness of his job, and by his brother who seems to take everything way too seriously. He never makes Jack Baker a depressing character. And I don't think he could do it. There are few actors who seem to enjoy themselves so much while acting and who seem to be so relaxed to doing it. It's no surprise he plays The Dude in The Big Lebowski. These qualities make us care much more about him when near the end of the movie he does finally snap a couple of times and gets really angry at both his brother and Susie. But the real star of the movie is Michelle Pfeiffer. Her role basically consists of being sexy and flirting with Jack. She got an Oscar nomination for it and it is absolutely earned. She is damn good at being sexy and flirting with Jack. Her performance culminates with one of the most sexy scenes I have ever seen. It is pointless to write about it. Just watch this scene.   

http://vimeo.com/47799871

   

49. Let It Be &...

Lyrics

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness she is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

And when the night is cloudy there is still a light that shines on me
Shine until tomorrow, let it be
I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
There will be an answer, let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, yeah, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be


One of the better Beatles songs. I like this one quite a bit. The Beatles are actually the rare band whose 'sadder', calmer songs I like more than their happy, joyful ones. I didn't know much what to do with the lyrics, so I focused on the on the Mother Mary part and chose a movie about Jesus. 

The Movie: The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988)

Watching The Last Temptation of Christ made me truly realize how important the idea of Jesus is for Scorsese. Of course I've often read about how his faith is one of the main keys to understanding his movies. But as an atheist I've never really watched his movies through the prism of his (catholic) faith and still have loved pretty much everything I've seen by him. In any case, while watching this movie I found it quite interesting that Scorsese followed this up with Goodfellas. In that movie Henry Hill was tempted to live a life of crime, believing that would bring him great fortunes and glory. He certainly did not want to live life as an ordinary family man. For a while his choice of crime, proved to be exactly what he wanted. At the end though all of it came crashing down and he was forced to live a normal family life in a witness protection program. In the the Last Temptation of Christ, it is exactly that kind of normal family life that Satan tempts Jesus with. While Jesus is on the cross Satan 'sends' him a hallucination, making Jesus see how life would be if he rejected God's plan for him and went on to live a normal life. It is only when Jesus rejects this hallucination that he dies on the cross and accomplishes his mission. 

And it is very much possible to see Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle as a sort of delusional messiah, who thinks it is his duty and calling to not only be Jodie Foster's savior, but of whole New York. In the end, he actually does this in sacrificial manner. Scorsese's Jesus here is basically the opposite of Bickle. Jesus is actually the messiah, but he himself has doubts whether it's surely God's voice he hears or whether he is delusional. And even if it is truly God's voice, Jesus has doubts whether following him is the right thing to do. Willem Dafoe who plays Jesus manages to show very well how confused and even surprised Jesus is by all the miracles he performs and the words God says through him. It is why the temptations of a normal life (can) bother him. He and Mary Magdalene love each other. He can abandon God's mission and form a family with Mary Magdalene and live a perfectly happy life as Satan shows him. 

Scorsese has been criticized by religious fundamentalists for not portraying Jesus as a saint. For portraying Jesus as someone who doubts his mission and his believes and contemplates living a life as a normal man, a life of sin in other words. Mostly Scorsese was criticized because during Jesus'hallucination on the cross, he is portrayed having sex with Mary Magdalene. This criticism misses the point in many ways. First of all Scorsese has written a title card at the beginning stating explicitly that this is not a story based on the gospels, but on a book by Nikos Kazantsakis. While we are shown many familiar episodes of Jesus' life ('He who is without sin may cast the first stone' for example) the story explicitly doesn't follow the Bible in many other cases. Judas remains Jesus best friend until the end here. He only 'betrays' him because Jesus asks him to. Secondly Scorsese tells this story of Jesus with great respect for his protagonist. This may be Scorsese's most restrained movie. The style is fully in the service of portraying Jesus' life as clearly and respectfully as possible. There is a cameo by David Bowie as Pontius Pilate and even he is restrained. 

But the most important reason why this criticism of Scorsese is so stupid is because it completely misunderstands that Scorsese, by not portraying Jesus as a saint, actually makes Jesus' (alleged) achievements greater.  As I've written in the first post on this blog, on Paradise Now, it is not courageous to do things for/in the name of God, if you are certain you'll be rewarded for it. The fact that Jesus did not have any certainty in what would happen to him if he committed to his mission, and the fact that he could have chosen to live another life just as easily, makes his achievements greater and shows even better the importance of him and his mission. By providing us with a doubting, questioning Jesus, Scorsese makes the case for engaging in serious debates on religion. People should be able to make up their own mind about how and whether they believe in anything. Only like that can religion be truly valuable for believers and non-believers. 

48. Stil in Mij &...

Lyrics

Kom bij me zitten

(Come sit next to me)
Sla je arm om me heen en houd me stevig vast

(Put your arm around me and hold me tight)
Al die gezichten, bekend maar beleefd of ik een vreemde was

(All these faces, familiar, but polite, as if I were a stranger)
En vanavond, toont het leven z'n ware gezicht

(And tonight life shows its true face)

Kom bij me liggen

(Come lie next to me)
Sla je lijf om me heen, ik heb het koud gehad

(Put your body around mine, I was feeling cold)
We moeten winnen, de schijn is gemeen het wordt van ons verwacht

(We must win, the semblance is mean, it is expected of us)
En Vanavond, toont de liefde haar ware gezicht

(And tonight life shows its true face)

En het is zo stil in mij

(And it is so silent inside of me)
Ik heb nergens woorden voor

(I have no words for anything)
Het is zo stil in mij

(It is so silent inside of me)
En de wereld draait maar door

(And the world keeps turning)
Het is zo stil in mij

(It is so silent inside of me)
Ik heb nergens woorden voor

(I have no words for anything)
Het is zo stil in mij

(It is so silent inside of me)

Kom bij me zitten

(Come sit next to me)
Sla je arm om me heen en houd me stevig vast

(Put your arm around me and hold me tight)
Al die gezichten en jij alleen zoals je gister was

(All these faces and only you like you were yesterday)
En vanavond, toonde jij je ware gezicht

(And tonight you showed your true face)

Kom bij me liggen

(Come lie next to me)
Sla je lijf om me heen, ik heb het koud gehad

(Put your body around mine, I was feeling cold)
Je hoeft niets meer te zeggen, de waarheid spreekt al uit ons oogcontact

(You don't need to speak anymore, the truth speaks trough our eyes)
En vanavond, tonen wij ons ware gezicht

(And tonight, we show our true face)

En het is zo stil in mij

(And it is so silent inside of me)
Ik heb nergens woorden voor

(I have no words for anything)
Het is zo stil in mij

(It is so silent inside of me)
En de wereld draait maar door

(And the world keeps turning)
Het is zo stil in mij

(It is so silent inside of me)
Ik heb nergens woorden voor

(I have no words for anything)
Het is zo stil in mij

(It is so silent inside of me)

Iedereen kijkt, maar niemand zegt wat hij denkt

(Everybody's watching, but nobody says what he thinks)
Iedereen lijkt, maar niemand is wie je denkt

(Everybody appears, but nobody is who you think)

Stil in mij,

(Silent inside of me)
Zo stil in mij (x5)

(So silent inside of me)

I find it perfectly normal that there is some bias towards Dutch songs in this list. While artists like Boudewijn de Groot would never be placed on such a list in any other country, I completely understand his (high) placements here. I don't understand though what this song, by Van Dik Hout, is doing here. I can't see anything special about it. It is pretty dull. Anyway, considering it's name and lyrics in the chorus, and considering the fact that it is a love song, I chose to link it to a (rather famous) romance movie involving a deaf-mute person.

The Movie: Children of A Lesser God (Randa Haines, 1986)  

There are scenes in Children of A Lesser God that are small masterpieces. There are also scenes which are unbelievable misfires. I liked it quite a bit, but I am not really sure what to think of it. I think the movie is very kindhearted and even quite ambitious for what is at essence a relatively straightforward romantic drama. It has quite some interesting ideas about deafness, but it doesn't seem to know how to fully express them. It may also be that it doesn't have the guts to fully follow them. But even if that's true the movie does succeed in other areas. It creates a lot of likable characters and makes us care about them, especially the two romantic leads. And there are times when its energy and unexpected humor are contagious. 

But the movie is kind of odd from the start. We see James Leeds (William Hurt) applying for a job as a speech teacher at a school for the deaf. His references are great and he has worked in many great school, so the school's director is quite surprised that James chose to work for them, a school for which he is clearly overqualified. This is the setup of many movies. What follows in those movies thought, is that we usually find out some (dark) secret from the protagonist's past. And that by doing this job for which he/she is overqualified our protagonists hopes to get away from or amend for his past. So from the start of this movie we are waiting for the reveal of James' secret. Which never comes. The movie never makes clear why James sought a job at this particular school. This is not a big problem, but it makes those opening scenes unnecessary (and unnecessarily weird) in hindsight. Anyway, we do see that James really is a great teacher. The deaf-mute children make great progress under him and in an astonishingly great scene we see them performing a song in front of an audience. Not only does that scene manage elate us with its energy and the obvious happiness and progress of the students, it also manages to make clear exactly how it is possible for them to perform this song. If that's not enough, director Haines also manages to perfectly fit in one of the funniest moments of the film in this scene. And lastly the scene, without needing to provide stupid expository dialogue, manages to deepen the conflict between James and his lover. Which actually is the core of the movie.

I usually don't really have problems with dumb expository dialogue, but this movie overdoes it so much that it nearly undermines itself and becomes parodist. James' lover is the amazingly beautiful Sarah Norman (Marlee Matlin). She is born deaf-mute and refuses to learn to speak or to read lips, preferring to only communicate through sign language. She is a very intelligent woman and her first contact with James is because he wants to teach her speaking and lip-reading. She refuses (and keeps on refusing) but they gradually fall in love, and James adapts to her sign language, though he remains frustrated that she refuses to learn to speak. Obviously if two people talk in sign language most of the people wouldn't understand it. The logical thing to do would be to subtitle the sign language. The movie doesn't do this, but it lets James repeat out loud nearly everything Sarah signs to him. And he repeats out loud everything he signs to Sarah. There comes a point when this becomes ridiculous. Sure, James states that he likes to hear himself talk, but come on. The movie basically breaks the fourth wall, accidentally. This device not only pulls us out of this movie therefore, it also makes James seem like a stupid and condescending character. When it is pretty clear he is not.


The ending is perhaps where the movie falters the most though. Throughout the film, the filmmakers seem to argue that, with a lot of effort, deaf-mute people can become able to hear or at least discern sounds and also to speak (perhaps not perfectly, but still it's better than nothing). And not only can deaf people do this, they also should. I don't know how scientifically reliable these views are. But if they are, the movie's assertion that deaf people should put in this effort, isn't very unreasonable. It''s unfortunate that the movie doesn't (dare?) follow on these convictions in the portrayal of James and Sarah's romance. This romance follows pretty much the cliched pattern of many film romances. James and Sarah love each other, they enter in a relationship, then they break up for some reason (in this case the fact that Sarah only wants to communicate through signing) and than they find common ground and reconcile. I expected that they would reconcile here because Sarah would agree to learn to at least read lips. That doesn't happen here. They reconcile because James finally learns to accept Sarah on her own terms. This is a bit odd when throughout the movie, the case is being made that James is right.