MOVIES LAST SEEN
Drive (2011): 7.5
Beginners (2011): 7.0
The Hurt Locker (2008): 8.0
The Collector (1965): 8.5
Midnight in Paris (2011): 7.0
The House of Mirth (2000): 8.5
Sid and Nancy (1986): 7.0
Cyrus (2010): 6.5
Cool Hand Luke (1967): 7.5
Rabbit Hole (2010): 7.0
The Ides of March (2011): 8.0
Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011): 7.0
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Simply Red - Money's Too Tight to Mention (1985)
It is part of rock history that almost all the people who attended the legendary two concerts of Sex Pistols in Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall in 1976 formed lated a band. Amongst them in the audience were Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner of Joy Division/New Order; members of Buzzcocks; Morrissey; The Fall's Mark E. Smith; and red-haired Mick Hucknall who would later form Simply Red.
Despite the fact that Simply Red went on to become a MOR/blue-eyed soul mainstream hit machine, their debut album Picture Book is definitely a recession by-product of its era.
The white funk groove a la Talking Heads of "No Direction" belies the dark themes of the lyrics: "Why are we liable to die for survival? why is our nation divided?" or "In the poverty stakes see just what it means; when welfare decimates you'd better care about your fellow people".
In "Holding Back the Years", Hucknall poignantly croons about the long lost years: "Holding back the tears cause nothing here has grown". This majestic soul ballad in the vein of Stax Records and Al Green would suffice to make Picture Book a classic. But the album's highlight and pinnacle of Simply Red's career is "Money's Too Tight to Mention".
Accompanied by a great video, it's a song that simply refuses to age. Stabs of keyboards provide the main melody while a muted choppy guitar emphasises the rhythm. Lyrically, it's a scathing attack on capitalism, on capitalist governmental policies, and their catastrophic consequences in people.
The song is narrated in first person enhancing its impact. The lyrics paint a dark picture from the opening line: "I've been laid off work, my rent is due, my kids need brand new shoes". The protagonist seeks help in the next verses, only to find it nowhere: banks, the pillars of capitalism, refuse to help him; his family is unable to support him, facing their own financial straits themselves. In the chorus, the confession is devastating: "Money's too tight to mention, I can't even qualify for my pension". The future does not get bleaker than this.
Then comes the middle eight, where the music turns strangely into major tonality as if to alleviate the darkness of the topic, with the enemy finally named: "We're talking about Reaganomics! Down in the congress they're passing all kind of bills".
In the song's fade-out outro, Hucknall repeats sarcastically, "Did the earth move for you Nancy?", a direct nod to Donald Reagan's wife.
Simply Red never bettered "Money's Too Tight to Mention"; it is amazing how well the song resonates today.
Despite the fact that Simply Red went on to become a MOR/blue-eyed soul mainstream hit machine, their debut album Picture Book is definitely a recession by-product of its era.
The white funk groove a la Talking Heads of "No Direction" belies the dark themes of the lyrics: "Why are we liable to die for survival? why is our nation divided?" or "In the poverty stakes see just what it means; when welfare decimates you'd better care about your fellow people".
In "Holding Back the Years", Hucknall poignantly croons about the long lost years: "Holding back the tears cause nothing here has grown". This majestic soul ballad in the vein of Stax Records and Al Green would suffice to make Picture Book a classic. But the album's highlight and pinnacle of Simply Red's career is "Money's Too Tight to Mention".
Accompanied by a great video, it's a song that simply refuses to age. Stabs of keyboards provide the main melody while a muted choppy guitar emphasises the rhythm. Lyrically, it's a scathing attack on capitalism, on capitalist governmental policies, and their catastrophic consequences in people.
The song is narrated in first person enhancing its impact. The lyrics paint a dark picture from the opening line: "I've been laid off work, my rent is due, my kids need brand new shoes". The protagonist seeks help in the next verses, only to find it nowhere: banks, the pillars of capitalism, refuse to help him; his family is unable to support him, facing their own financial straits themselves. In the chorus, the confession is devastating: "Money's too tight to mention, I can't even qualify for my pension". The future does not get bleaker than this.
Then comes the middle eight, where the music turns strangely into major tonality as if to alleviate the darkness of the topic, with the enemy finally named: "We're talking about Reaganomics! Down in the congress they're passing all kind of bills".
In the song's fade-out outro, Hucknall repeats sarcastically, "Did the earth move for you Nancy?", a direct nod to Donald Reagan's wife.
Simply Red never bettered "Money's Too Tight to Mention"; it is amazing how well the song resonates today.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The Smiths - Still Ill (1984)
It's no surprise three of the four "Recession Years" songs so far come from debut albums and young musicians. Youths are angry; and they are the ones usually most affected by recession. The Smiths were angry, but in a different way than The Clash or The Jam. They also had in Morrissey arguably the greatest lyricist in rock history; certainly the most literate.
"Still Ill" is probably both a relationships song and a comment on employment and life at the time in England. It starts with a straigthforward statement: "I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving". The line doubles as a critique of both Thatcher's government but of current social values as well. The government is only collecting and not providing for the poor; but English people are also trapped in a consumerism world, not caring for anyone else than themselves. "England is mine and it owes me a living" Morrissey continues; and the heating wouldn't work.
Work and employment - the 9-to-5 daily routine - were considered by Morrissey as a sheer mind- and soul-crushing experience which must be avoided at all costs. For him, staying on the dole was a conscious choice. Nowhere this is clearer than in "You've Got Everything Now" from their debut album, where he explicitly states "I never had a job because I never wanted one". In "Still Ill", he similarly suggests "If you must go to work tomorrow, well, if I were you I really wouldn't bother, for there are brighter sides in life". The message again here is double: he makes us clear of his beliefs about work in general; but he also implies that the type of jobs existing is not worth the effort.
Morrissey expresses with the line "We cannot cling to the old dreams anymore" a deep longing of the past, of a time where things were better. In that sense, he shares this view with other fellow recession songwriters: in "Ghost Town" The Specials asked "Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?"; in "Town Called Malice" Paul Weller noted "those rosey days are few''.
The rest of "Still Ill" is an exercise in ambiguity: what is the illness that Morrissey suffers from throughtout the song ("Am I still ill?")? Is he lovesick, is he mentally troubled, or literally ill? It is never actually revealed. In another verse he continues thinking loudly, pondering "Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body? I don't know...", one of his finest lyrics.
The song's textbook rock rhythm does not do quite justice to Johnny Marr's beautiful arpeggio work which accentuates the sad and nostalgic aura of Morrissey's vocals and words.
"Still Ill" has been performed by Morrissey during his recent solo tours (where he often changed the lyric from "England is mine" to "England is a swine").
"Still Ill" is probably both a relationships song and a comment on employment and life at the time in England. It starts with a straigthforward statement: "I decree today that life is simply taking and not giving". The line doubles as a critique of both Thatcher's government but of current social values as well. The government is only collecting and not providing for the poor; but English people are also trapped in a consumerism world, not caring for anyone else than themselves. "England is mine and it owes me a living" Morrissey continues; and the heating wouldn't work.
Work and employment - the 9-to-5 daily routine - were considered by Morrissey as a sheer mind- and soul-crushing experience which must be avoided at all costs. For him, staying on the dole was a conscious choice. Nowhere this is clearer than in "You've Got Everything Now" from their debut album, where he explicitly states "I never had a job because I never wanted one". In "Still Ill", he similarly suggests "If you must go to work tomorrow, well, if I were you I really wouldn't bother, for there are brighter sides in life". The message again here is double: he makes us clear of his beliefs about work in general; but he also implies that the type of jobs existing is not worth the effort.
Morrissey expresses with the line "We cannot cling to the old dreams anymore" a deep longing of the past, of a time where things were better. In that sense, he shares this view with other fellow recession songwriters: in "Ghost Town" The Specials asked "Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?"; in "Town Called Malice" Paul Weller noted "those rosey days are few''.
The rest of "Still Ill" is an exercise in ambiguity: what is the illness that Morrissey suffers from throughtout the song ("Am I still ill?")? Is he lovesick, is he mentally troubled, or literally ill? It is never actually revealed. In another verse he continues thinking loudly, pondering "Does the body rule the mind or does the mind rule the body? I don't know...", one of his finest lyrics.
The song's textbook rock rhythm does not do quite justice to Johnny Marr's beautiful arpeggio work which accentuates the sad and nostalgic aura of Morrissey's vocals and words.
"Still Ill" has been performed by Morrissey during his recent solo tours (where he often changed the lyric from "England is mine" to "England is a swine").
Sunday, December 4, 2011
The Jam - Town Called Malice (1982)
With a succession of perfect singles, The Jam became the prominent social commentator of the era alongside The Clash. Toghether with a few other artists like Billy Bragg, they formed the "Red Wedge" movement against the Thatcher policy and the nationalist National Front Party - whose popularity was worriyngly increasing.
"Town Called Malice" is a showcase for Paul Weller's extraordinary gift for storytelling. Inspired by events in his hometown Woking, the lyrics paint the picture of a society on the verge of collapse. Weller manages to compress in under three minutes descriptions of various depressing images of city life.
"Better stop dreaming about the quiet life cause it's the one we'll never know" is of course the famous opening line and one of the all-time greatest in pop history. The story is developed brilliantly: the first verse provides the overall picture, a general view. Then, on the next verses, the lyrics come down to the personal level, giving insight into details of the everyday life. Weller spits his venom and anger like bullets from a machine gun. There are households severely hit by poverty, so they have "To either cut down on beer or the kids' new gear"; there are lonely housewives who "clutch empty milk bottles from their hearts"; bottom line, it's "Struggle after struggle, year after year, I'm almost stone cold dead in this town called malice". Thankfully, Weller urges "stop apologising for the things you've never done, it's up to us to change this town", and wakes up in order to "put some joy back in this town", thus providing some necessary hope amidst this "Malice in Wonderland" grim tale.
Despite their punk credentials, The Jam were distinguished from their contemporaries due to their apt musicianship: they were a tight, powerful trio and became notorious for their explosive live performances. Fuelled by a propelling beat and a sizzling organ, "Town Called Malice" is bursting with punk energy but carries the aura of classic songwriting like all The Jam's best singles. It is also a clear proof of Weller's love of 60's music: British R'n'B from bands like The Who and Small Faces; and classic Motown soul. The song remains until today the highlight of his solo performances.
"Town Called Malice" is a showcase for Paul Weller's extraordinary gift for storytelling. Inspired by events in his hometown Woking, the lyrics paint the picture of a society on the verge of collapse. Weller manages to compress in under three minutes descriptions of various depressing images of city life.
"Better stop dreaming about the quiet life cause it's the one we'll never know" is of course the famous opening line and one of the all-time greatest in pop history. The story is developed brilliantly: the first verse provides the overall picture, a general view. Then, on the next verses, the lyrics come down to the personal level, giving insight into details of the everyday life. Weller spits his venom and anger like bullets from a machine gun. There are households severely hit by poverty, so they have "To either cut down on beer or the kids' new gear"; there are lonely housewives who "clutch empty milk bottles from their hearts"; bottom line, it's "Struggle after struggle, year after year, I'm almost stone cold dead in this town called malice". Thankfully, Weller urges "stop apologising for the things you've never done, it's up to us to change this town", and wakes up in order to "put some joy back in this town", thus providing some necessary hope amidst this "Malice in Wonderland" grim tale.
Despite their punk credentials, The Jam were distinguished from their contemporaries due to their apt musicianship: they were a tight, powerful trio and became notorious for their explosive live performances. Fuelled by a propelling beat and a sizzling organ, "Town Called Malice" is bursting with punk energy but carries the aura of classic songwriting like all The Jam's best singles. It is also a clear proof of Weller's love of 60's music: British R'n'B from bands like The Who and Small Faces; and classic Motown soul. The song remains until today the highlight of his solo performances.
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Specials - Ghost Town (1981)
"Ghost Town" remains perhaps the bleakest aural portrayal of a recession-stricken town. It became frighteningly prophetic when serious riots erupted in various English cities during 1981, whilst at the same time the song was making its way on the charts. Race-related violence, police harassment, hunger strike in Northern Ireland, escalating unemployment (in their hometown Coventry and all over Britain): this was the environment when The Specials released their epochal masterpiece. The band had a strong anti-racism stance from their very beginning and included two West Indian vocalists. They headlined the final Rock Against Racism tour in 1981.
According to the song's writer and Specials' bandleader Jerry Dammers, "Ghost Town" was meant to convey impending doom. And it succeeds masterfully. "This town is coming like a ghost town" is the song's central theme, sung by four members as a chant. "Why the youth fight against themselves?" they wonder, before they lament: "Government leaving the youth on the shelf; no job to be found on this country".
Musically, it is one of the most peculiar and unconventional songs to become number one, shunning the traditional verse-chorus-verse structure. Ominous wind sounds open the song. Weird descending seventh chords played in keyboards follow, signalling our descent into the ghost town.The famous ska beat then comes in, along with a simple but instantly memorable eastern-tinged keyboard riff. There are voices like laughing ghosts suddenly fade in and out; plus a middle eight ("Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?") where the song brilliantly shifts to major tonality. All these carefully placed elements add up to create a uniquely eerie atmosphere. The song ends as it opened, with the wind blowing as if we're leaving behind the deserted town.
Shortly after this artistic and commercial peak, all three vocalists left the band. The Specials officially split the same year with all members following other side projects. Bandleader Jerry Dammers pursued political activism. He was not part of the 2009-2010 reunion tour of the Specials.
A few months ago, thirty years later after 1981, England was swept again from violent riots.
According to the song's writer and Specials' bandleader Jerry Dammers, "Ghost Town" was meant to convey impending doom. And it succeeds masterfully. "This town is coming like a ghost town" is the song's central theme, sung by four members as a chant. "Why the youth fight against themselves?" they wonder, before they lament: "Government leaving the youth on the shelf; no job to be found on this country".
Musically, it is one of the most peculiar and unconventional songs to become number one, shunning the traditional verse-chorus-verse structure. Ominous wind sounds open the song. Weird descending seventh chords played in keyboards follow, signalling our descent into the ghost town.The famous ska beat then comes in, along with a simple but instantly memorable eastern-tinged keyboard riff. There are voices like laughing ghosts suddenly fade in and out; plus a middle eight ("Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?") where the song brilliantly shifts to major tonality. All these carefully placed elements add up to create a uniquely eerie atmosphere. The song ends as it opened, with the wind blowing as if we're leaving behind the deserted town.
Shortly after this artistic and commercial peak, all three vocalists left the band. The Specials officially split the same year with all members following other side projects. Bandleader Jerry Dammers pursued political activism. He was not part of the 2009-2010 reunion tour of the Specials.
A few months ago, thirty years later after 1981, England was swept again from violent riots.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The Clash - Career Opportunities (1977)
The Clash's debut album is still impressive in the ferocity of its attack and arguably unparalleled in its polemic. A wall of cacophonous sound from punk guitars provides the backdrop for the great, late Joe Strummer's lyrics. The music's rawness and cheapness (metaphorically and literally: the album cost just 4000 pounds to make) only enhances the album's lyrical content. The Clash can very well be the quintessential punk rock record - even more than Never Mind the Bollocks - and its influence is immeasureable.
Strummer left nothing untackled: boredom and television-induced apathy in "London's Burning"; the americanisation of UK culture in "I'm So Bored with the USA"; the anesthetised white British youth (as opposed to the rebellious black youth) in the rallying cry that is "White Riot"; and the lack of jobs - or the grimness of those available - in "Career Opportunities".
"They offered me the office, they offered me the shop. They said I'd better take anything they got" Strummer sings in the latter. He then starts counting the possible career opportunities: "Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?" or "Do you really wanna be a cop?" asks Strummer angrily, before shouting "I hate the army and I hate the RAF". Career prospects: not looking good at all.
Strummer left nothing untackled: boredom and television-induced apathy in "London's Burning"; the americanisation of UK culture in "I'm So Bored with the USA"; the anesthetised white British youth (as opposed to the rebellious black youth) in the rallying cry that is "White Riot"; and the lack of jobs - or the grimness of those available - in "Career Opportunities".
"They offered me the office, they offered me the shop. They said I'd better take anything they got" Strummer sings in the latter. He then starts counting the possible career opportunities: "Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?" or "Do you really wanna be a cop?" asks Strummer angrily, before shouting "I hate the army and I hate the RAF". Career prospects: not looking good at all.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Recession Years: a soundtrack
The current recession in Greece is likely to bring back lots of bad memories to a part of the British public, since Britain suffered similarly from a hard recession during the 70s and the 80s.
In the mid-70s, the atmosphere in Britain was grim and grimey. Urban development plans for the war-stricken cities created grey concrete futuristic fortresses where once were rows of Victorian houses; the cities' architectural character was forever altered and the sense of community was lost. Furthermore, the plight of British industry resulted in steadfastly rising unemployment throughout the country. And finally, the Labour government was collapsing, making way for the Torys and their Iron Lady.
The economic policy of the Thatcher government (a close relative of what became known as Reaganomics in the U.S.) aimed primarily to reduce the inflation and the public spending. In doing so, many inefficient industries were forced to close down, the social services had to endure significant reductions, and taxation was increased. As a result, unemployment rate exploded; manufacturing output plummeted; trade unions were crushed; education and the welfare state were faced with unprecedented cutbacks of funds. The recession left deep scars into the fabrics of the British society for years. The musicians of the punk and post-punk era of the late 70's and early 80's responded with some of the greatest examples of unabashed and uncompromising sociopolitical songwriting ever recorded.
The songs that will be presented the next days are thus sadly topical and provide a bitter soundtrack to what us Greeks are going through now. As one of the featured songwriters wrote, it's "struggle after struggle, year after year". These are the recession years.
In the mid-70s, the atmosphere in Britain was grim and grimey. Urban development plans for the war-stricken cities created grey concrete futuristic fortresses where once were rows of Victorian houses; the cities' architectural character was forever altered and the sense of community was lost. Furthermore, the plight of British industry resulted in steadfastly rising unemployment throughout the country. And finally, the Labour government was collapsing, making way for the Torys and their Iron Lady.
The economic policy of the Thatcher government (a close relative of what became known as Reaganomics in the U.S.) aimed primarily to reduce the inflation and the public spending. In doing so, many inefficient industries were forced to close down, the social services had to endure significant reductions, and taxation was increased. As a result, unemployment rate exploded; manufacturing output plummeted; trade unions were crushed; education and the welfare state were faced with unprecedented cutbacks of funds. The recession left deep scars into the fabrics of the British society for years. The musicians of the punk and post-punk era of the late 70's and early 80's responded with some of the greatest examples of unabashed and uncompromising sociopolitical songwriting ever recorded.
The songs that will be presented the next days are thus sadly topical and provide a bitter soundtrack to what us Greeks are going through now. As one of the featured songwriters wrote, it's "struggle after struggle, year after year". These are the recession years.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Istanbul highlights
- Emptying two bottles of white "Narince" wine with Tonia and Sinem in the "Anjelique" bar in the Ortakoy area, marveling at the sight of the Bosphorus and the spectacularly lit Bosphorus Bridge.
- Doing a full tour of the Buyukada (the biggest of the Princes Islands in the Marmara archipelago) in a two-horse carriage, surrounded by pine trees and amazing houses.
- Watching and listening Tonia and Sinem reminiscing about their college years in Skidmore College: the sweet nostalgia of carefree youth.
- Looking outside my room's wall-sized window in the 19th floor of the Sheraton Atakoy Hotel to see the Marmara archipelago; looking down from the same window to see tiny figures of people swimming at the hotel's inviting pool.
- The Agia Sophia: a towering achievement of humankind, a symbol of glory for past empires, an engineering and architectural marvel, a landmark of religious faith throughout the centuries.
- Patiently walking along with other tourists around the observation deck of the Galata Kulesi ("Galata Tower") at 51 meters, to enjoy a 360-degrees daylight view of the enormous city spreading in front of me.
- Lying on the grass under a tree and looking at the clear blue sky in the wonderful gardens of the magnificent Topkapi Sarayι, whilst Tonia and Sinem were calmly chatting and sipping their coffees in the cafe.
- The restaurants where Sinem took us for dinner. All of them. Let me count: "Leb-i Deya", at the Istiklal Avenue at the Beyoglu area; "Faros", at the Sultanahmet area; the traditional, only-a-local-could-know-this kebap restaurant nearby Sinem's house; and the "360", which is absolutely worth of a separate mention.
- All of us being amazed every single time when stumbling upon a common word in the Greek and the Turkish language.
- The towering Sultanahmet Camii ("Blue Mosque") and the exquisite Dolmabahce Sarayι, two spectacular showcases of Ottoman art and its influence from Byzantine and Western architecture respectively.
- The swirling dervishes and the accompanying Sufi live music group.
- The "360" bar-restaurants: the one at the penthouse of an old building at Istiklal Avenue at the Beyoglu area, with its breathtaking view and its colourful menu, an art object in itself; and the one at the artificial Galatasaray Island in the middle of Bosphorus, with its golden blue pool and the direct close view of the Bosphorus Bridge.
- Boating the Bosphorus, sailing in between two continents.
- Seeing the signs "Welcome to Asia" and "Welcome to Europe" whilst crossing with a taxi back and forth the Bosphorus Bridge, and realising there and then the cross and exchange of different civilisations and cultures that has taken place in this wondrous city with the passing of aeons due to its geopolitical place in history.
- Taking photos with Tonia, Sinem and Onur at the penthouse restaurant of the Marmara Hotel in Taksim Square, with the city lights in the background. A perfect ending.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Teenage Rebellion in Cinema
Inspired by the current showing of the classic 60's British film If... in Athens cinemas (and of course a general social upheaval in my city...), I present below a list of favourite movies which explore a sensitive subject: the rebel attitude of youth, stemming from frustration, alienation and sense of displacement in the world they live in. And because no action comes without reaction, what are the consequences of those rebellious and disobedient behaviours into the individual and into society as a whole. More films of course could be added, feel free to add comments and suggestions.
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
The movie that started it all. Director Nicholas Ray presented here the first clear and deep insight into youth. James Dean in his instant-classic debut reincarnated all the troubles teenagers deal with: the oppression from family values, school rules and peer pressure, the confusion of sexual awakening. Ray stated bravely that such a sensitive and tender personality as a teenager's cannot stand this avalanche of emotions and is bound to -one way or another-explode either inwardly or outwardly. This dipole is the fundamental outcome of any of the other teenage films that followed on Rebel Without a Cause's path.
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
Truffaut's debut put him and his fellow French Nouvelle Vague colleagues into the world map of cinema. 15-year-old Jean-Pierre Leaud played Truffaut's alter ego Antoine Doinel, and he reprised his role in four more films under Truffaut's direction. In The 400 Blows, Leaud gave simply the greatest performance by a child actor in cinema. He may be the epitome of juvenile delinquent, but Antoine's behaviour is clearly shown to originate from his parents' total neglection of him. The plot is basically a sequence of unlucky or accidental events whose end result is always the punishment of the boy from a cruel, unforgiving institution (the school teacher, the unloving parents, the police). Antoine is consequently driven further and further to an emotional distance from this unjust world he lives in. The classic end shot is one of the most unforgettable single images in cinema. The boy runs to the sea; suddenly he stops, his face is framed in a stop-motion close-up and his piercing blue eyes gaze us through the camera. The blame is on us.
If... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
If... takes place in what can be the most unfriendly and authoritative of institutions: an English private boarding school (or public schools as they call them in the UK). There is formal hierarchy even amongst the students; there are strict rules to be followed; and there is severe physical punishment following any disobedient or divergent behaviours and actions. However, this time a small, non-conformist group of students will refuse to obey to orders and decide to take control. Well... do they?
If.... is a masterpiece where surrealism, absurdity, laugh, shock and reality are blended. This is one of those rare film jewels constantly generating discussions; full of messages and ideas which the viewer has to find and interpret in their own way. The final chapter with its unexpected twist is everyone speaks about and it must be seen to be believed. The photography is a true highlight, shifting at random scenes between vivid colour and cold, grey hues of black and white. This shift initially baffles the viewer but works subversively, as it enhances the strange Brechtian effect of alienation from the depicted events the film creates.
More than a satire of the private school system, If... is a not-so-hidden plea for revolt against forms of establishment, power and authority. It's still surprising that it was a critical and commercial success at the time, and is widely considered one of the all-time greatest British films. Malcolm McDowell, in his unforgettable debut, impressed Kubrick so much that he chose to cast him as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange on the strength of his performance on If... alone. Τrivia: the movie was partly shot in director's Lindsay Anderson actual school.
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
It's impossible to avoid placing the two Malcolm McDowell films side-by-side: they were made within three years from each other, the main characters in both bear striking similarities in their (mis)behaviour (careless, reckless teenagers with a violent streak), and both films come across as quintessentially British. The message though in A Clockwork Orange is much more pessimistic and profoundly disturbing, placing the movie into the "dystopian sci-fi" subgenre. The rebellious youth must, and will, be reformed; the individual must, and will, be shaped according to acceptable norms of social behaviour; the state will continue to pull the strings. Kubrick said that his film was a study in violence: when observed under the "teenage rebellion" viewpoint though, A Clockwork Orange stands as deeply political.
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
It's part of film history that a group of school pupils in 1980 sent a letter to Coppola saying that their favourite book was Suzan Hinton's Outsiders and it should be transferred to cinema, but only by him. Coppola went finally to film two Hinton's books in the same year, Outsiders and Rumble Fish, of which I prefer the latter. Shot in black and white (except for the title's fish), the film is a showcase for the great acting talent of Mickey Rourke, who as Motorcycle Boy gives a performance to match Dean's legend.
Motorcycle Boy is a legend in his small town, a symbol of the great 60's generation who suddenly left behind family and friends and disappeared. Matt Dillon plays Rourke's younger brother who follows his brother's steps as an up-and-coming hoodlum; however, he is always eclipsed when compared to Motorcycle Boy, living forever on his shadow. The big brother will unexpectedly return home, battered and resigned as he has seen his idealism is pointless on this world; his return will trigger a series of events which will change his younger brother's life.
Coppola's superb move -accentuating the movie's sad, pessimistic viewpoint- was to cast Dennis Hopper as the boys' father: Hopper was of course the uncompromising embodiment of personal freedom in Easy Rider and James Dean's friend in Rebel Without a Cause.
"There is no place in the world for the young", Coppola said in 1984 in Premiere magazine. "The film's message is that in order to become adult, someone has to forever deny something or someone they love. The world is full of obstacles for the young and that's the reason they rebel. They're like the rumble fish: they would not kill each other if we let them free in the river".
A complete failure commercially and critically (even booed when it was showed at the New York Film Festival), Coppola never stopped to defend Rumble Fish, which now stands both as a prized small gem in his filmography and -Apocalypse Now! excluded- his most personal film to date.
The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)
The late John Hughes scored a perfect double whammy in 1986 as he presented teenage angst under a different viewpoint than the other films listed here. Once regarded as light teenage comedies, his films are now classics of the highest cinematic value, thanks to their sincere and realistic portrayal of teenage life.
The Breakfast Club focuses on how teens are stereotyped and how accordingly certain behaviours and life choices are expected from them based on that stereotype. A complete, unified system of parents, schoolteachers and other fellow teens conspires and operates in order to place teenagers under those norms and prejudices. When five of these teens -who represent five different teen stereotypes- are brought together in a class in Saturday's morning detention, a strong clash with that oppresive system but with their own self-beliefs as well will follow; and it will be shockingly relevatory to all of them. In the end, this day will change their lives and they will come out winners, as personified by Judd Nelson's clenched fist thrusting up in the air.
The film covers a vast array of topics: father/son issues, class/social status differences between schoolmates, career path expectations from parents, prejudice and discrimination from teachers. It is exciting how freshly and sincerely the topics are presented and how relevant they still remain today; this is The Breakfast Club's main success.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is more on the comedy side; however, the film's eponymous protagonist is as unconventional a rebel as it can get. Ferris Bueller (a perfectly cast Matthew Broderick) is a good student, a clean-cut kid who simply decides to have some fun before he embarks onto the next step of his life (college - i.e. adulthood). The film's immortal line encapsulates Ferris' mindset: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." On this adventure, he will drag his best friend Cameron along with him; Cameron though is unfortunately too stiff and too worried thinking about his parents and the repercussions of his actions to enjoy their newfound freedom. That is up until the breaking point, where he is finally enlightened: "My old man pushes me around. I never say anything! Well he's not the problem, I'm the problem. I gotta stand against him...I'm just tired of being afraid". In the film's crowning moment next, Cameron will turn his father's prized Ferrari convertible into scrap metal.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off most valuable lesson is that we adults could significantly improve our lives if we could manage to disregard some rules and expected normal behaviours imposed to us by society at large. This is a risk worth taking, Ferris is secretly telling us: it is not anarchy that would follow rebellion, it is personal bliss.
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
Like The Specials' "Ghost Town" and The Clash's "London Calling", La Haine will sadly be forever topical. After the 2005 Paris suburbs riots, the events depicted in the movie became shockingly prescient. In If..., the oppresive force is school; in La Haine, it is the police. Its brutal, violent tactics of law enforcement will push two of the three protagonists (all from ethnic minorities) to take drastic action. Kassovitz does not shy away from choosing side, but his film never becomes didactic or mere agitprop: surprisingly, its impact is enhanced because of the subtlety of the direction and the performances, although the film's theme theoretically should call for the opposite. Shot in a stark black and white (a truly outstanding cinematography) and boasting an inventive direction from newcomer Kassovitz, La Haine is a landmark of inspired and inspiring cinema.
Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003)
In Elephant, director Gus Van Sant offers nothing to help us. No motivations explain the actions of the protagonists; no background stories or subplots exist; no psychological or sociological threads run clearly. Michel Houellebecq wrote in his book The Elementary Particles that young kids are inherently the most evil creatures in the whole world. Elephant could be viewed simplistically like this: teenagers doing mean things to each other, with no apparent reason whatsoever, well because there is no reason.
The film follows two teenagers in their school. Their life is presented in a sequence of events. Strangely, there is absolutely no effort from the director's point of view to involve the viewer in any emotional way. This directing style follows the aloof, unsentimental way the two teenagers act throughout the movie. There is a cold, unsettling, unusual detachment to everything we see which makes the final sequence even more tragic and surreal.
Elephant won the Palme d'Or and Van Sant received the Best Director award at the 2003 Cannes festival. Unusually slow pace, long takes, and little dialogue: Elephant is demanding for everyone but rewarding for the very few.
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
The movie that started it all. Director Nicholas Ray presented here the first clear and deep insight into youth. James Dean in his instant-classic debut reincarnated all the troubles teenagers deal with: the oppression from family values, school rules and peer pressure, the confusion of sexual awakening. Ray stated bravely that such a sensitive and tender personality as a teenager's cannot stand this avalanche of emotions and is bound to -one way or another-explode either inwardly or outwardly. This dipole is the fundamental outcome of any of the other teenage films that followed on Rebel Without a Cause's path.
The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)
Truffaut's debut put him and his fellow French Nouvelle Vague colleagues into the world map of cinema. 15-year-old Jean-Pierre Leaud played Truffaut's alter ego Antoine Doinel, and he reprised his role in four more films under Truffaut's direction. In The 400 Blows, Leaud gave simply the greatest performance by a child actor in cinema. He may be the epitome of juvenile delinquent, but Antoine's behaviour is clearly shown to originate from his parents' total neglection of him. The plot is basically a sequence of unlucky or accidental events whose end result is always the punishment of the boy from a cruel, unforgiving institution (the school teacher, the unloving parents, the police). Antoine is consequently driven further and further to an emotional distance from this unjust world he lives in. The classic end shot is one of the most unforgettable single images in cinema. The boy runs to the sea; suddenly he stops, his face is framed in a stop-motion close-up and his piercing blue eyes gaze us through the camera. The blame is on us.
If... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)
If... takes place in what can be the most unfriendly and authoritative of institutions: an English private boarding school (or public schools as they call them in the UK). There is formal hierarchy even amongst the students; there are strict rules to be followed; and there is severe physical punishment following any disobedient or divergent behaviours and actions. However, this time a small, non-conformist group of students will refuse to obey to orders and decide to take control. Well... do they?
If.... is a masterpiece where surrealism, absurdity, laugh, shock and reality are blended. This is one of those rare film jewels constantly generating discussions; full of messages and ideas which the viewer has to find and interpret in their own way. The final chapter with its unexpected twist is everyone speaks about and it must be seen to be believed. The photography is a true highlight, shifting at random scenes between vivid colour and cold, grey hues of black and white. This shift initially baffles the viewer but works subversively, as it enhances the strange Brechtian effect of alienation from the depicted events the film creates.
More than a satire of the private school system, If... is a not-so-hidden plea for revolt against forms of establishment, power and authority. It's still surprising that it was a critical and commercial success at the time, and is widely considered one of the all-time greatest British films. Malcolm McDowell, in his unforgettable debut, impressed Kubrick so much that he chose to cast him as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange on the strength of his performance on If... alone. Τrivia: the movie was partly shot in director's Lindsay Anderson actual school.
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
It's impossible to avoid placing the two Malcolm McDowell films side-by-side: they were made within three years from each other, the main characters in both bear striking similarities in their (mis)behaviour (careless, reckless teenagers with a violent streak), and both films come across as quintessentially British. The message though in A Clockwork Orange is much more pessimistic and profoundly disturbing, placing the movie into the "dystopian sci-fi" subgenre. The rebellious youth must, and will, be reformed; the individual must, and will, be shaped according to acceptable norms of social behaviour; the state will continue to pull the strings. Kubrick said that his film was a study in violence: when observed under the "teenage rebellion" viewpoint though, A Clockwork Orange stands as deeply political.
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)
It's part of film history that a group of school pupils in 1980 sent a letter to Coppola saying that their favourite book was Suzan Hinton's Outsiders and it should be transferred to cinema, but only by him. Coppola went finally to film two Hinton's books in the same year, Outsiders and Rumble Fish, of which I prefer the latter. Shot in black and white (except for the title's fish), the film is a showcase for the great acting talent of Mickey Rourke, who as Motorcycle Boy gives a performance to match Dean's legend.
Motorcycle Boy is a legend in his small town, a symbol of the great 60's generation who suddenly left behind family and friends and disappeared. Matt Dillon plays Rourke's younger brother who follows his brother's steps as an up-and-coming hoodlum; however, he is always eclipsed when compared to Motorcycle Boy, living forever on his shadow. The big brother will unexpectedly return home, battered and resigned as he has seen his idealism is pointless on this world; his return will trigger a series of events which will change his younger brother's life.
Coppola's superb move -accentuating the movie's sad, pessimistic viewpoint- was to cast Dennis Hopper as the boys' father: Hopper was of course the uncompromising embodiment of personal freedom in Easy Rider and James Dean's friend in Rebel Without a Cause.
"There is no place in the world for the young", Coppola said in 1984 in Premiere magazine. "The film's message is that in order to become adult, someone has to forever deny something or someone they love. The world is full of obstacles for the young and that's the reason they rebel. They're like the rumble fish: they would not kill each other if we let them free in the river".
A complete failure commercially and critically (even booed when it was showed at the New York Film Festival), Coppola never stopped to defend Rumble Fish, which now stands both as a prized small gem in his filmography and -Apocalypse Now! excluded- his most personal film to date.
The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (John Hughes, 1986)
The late John Hughes scored a perfect double whammy in 1986 as he presented teenage angst under a different viewpoint than the other films listed here. Once regarded as light teenage comedies, his films are now classics of the highest cinematic value, thanks to their sincere and realistic portrayal of teenage life.
The Breakfast Club focuses on how teens are stereotyped and how accordingly certain behaviours and life choices are expected from them based on that stereotype. A complete, unified system of parents, schoolteachers and other fellow teens conspires and operates in order to place teenagers under those norms and prejudices. When five of these teens -who represent five different teen stereotypes- are brought together in a class in Saturday's morning detention, a strong clash with that oppresive system but with their own self-beliefs as well will follow; and it will be shockingly relevatory to all of them. In the end, this day will change their lives and they will come out winners, as personified by Judd Nelson's clenched fist thrusting up in the air.
The film covers a vast array of topics: father/son issues, class/social status differences between schoolmates, career path expectations from parents, prejudice and discrimination from teachers. It is exciting how freshly and sincerely the topics are presented and how relevant they still remain today; this is The Breakfast Club's main success.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is more on the comedy side; however, the film's eponymous protagonist is as unconventional a rebel as it can get. Ferris Bueller (a perfectly cast Matthew Broderick) is a good student, a clean-cut kid who simply decides to have some fun before he embarks onto the next step of his life (college - i.e. adulthood). The film's immortal line encapsulates Ferris' mindset: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." On this adventure, he will drag his best friend Cameron along with him; Cameron though is unfortunately too stiff and too worried thinking about his parents and the repercussions of his actions to enjoy their newfound freedom. That is up until the breaking point, where he is finally enlightened: "My old man pushes me around. I never say anything! Well he's not the problem, I'm the problem. I gotta stand against him...I'm just tired of being afraid". In the film's crowning moment next, Cameron will turn his father's prized Ferrari convertible into scrap metal.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off most valuable lesson is that we adults could significantly improve our lives if we could manage to disregard some rules and expected normal behaviours imposed to us by society at large. This is a risk worth taking, Ferris is secretly telling us: it is not anarchy that would follow rebellion, it is personal bliss.
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995)
Like The Specials' "Ghost Town" and The Clash's "London Calling", La Haine will sadly be forever topical. After the 2005 Paris suburbs riots, the events depicted in the movie became shockingly prescient. In If..., the oppresive force is school; in La Haine, it is the police. Its brutal, violent tactics of law enforcement will push two of the three protagonists (all from ethnic minorities) to take drastic action. Kassovitz does not shy away from choosing side, but his film never becomes didactic or mere agitprop: surprisingly, its impact is enhanced because of the subtlety of the direction and the performances, although the film's theme theoretically should call for the opposite. Shot in a stark black and white (a truly outstanding cinematography) and boasting an inventive direction from newcomer Kassovitz, La Haine is a landmark of inspired and inspiring cinema.
Elephant (Gus Van Sant, 2003)
In Elephant, director Gus Van Sant offers nothing to help us. No motivations explain the actions of the protagonists; no background stories or subplots exist; no psychological or sociological threads run clearly. Michel Houellebecq wrote in his book The Elementary Particles that young kids are inherently the most evil creatures in the whole world. Elephant could be viewed simplistically like this: teenagers doing mean things to each other, with no apparent reason whatsoever, well because there is no reason.
The film follows two teenagers in their school. Their life is presented in a sequence of events. Strangely, there is absolutely no effort from the director's point of view to involve the viewer in any emotional way. This directing style follows the aloof, unsentimental way the two teenagers act throughout the movie. There is a cold, unsettling, unusual detachment to everything we see which makes the final sequence even more tragic and surreal.
Elephant won the Palme d'Or and Van Sant received the Best Director award at the 2003 Cannes festival. Unusually slow pace, long takes, and little dialogue: Elephant is demanding for everyone but rewarding for the very few.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
BOOKS LAST READ
Douglas Keesey - Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir from Chinatown to The Dark Knight (2010)
David Toop - Ocean of Sound (1995)
Haruki Murakami - The Elephant Vanishes and other Stories (2007)
Nick Cave - The Death of Bunny Munro (2009)
Ken Garner - The Peel Sessions (2007)
Noam Chomsky - Chomsky on Anarchism (2005)
Douglas Keesey - Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir from Chinatown to The Dark Knight (2010)
David Toop - Ocean of Sound (1995)
Haruki Murakami - The Elephant Vanishes and other Stories (2007)
Nick Cave - The Death of Bunny Munro (2009)
Ken Garner - The Peel Sessions (2007)
Noam Chomsky - Chomsky on Anarchism (2005)
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Sidney Lumet R.I.P
Legendary filmmaker Sidney Lumet passed away a few days ago, on April 9 2011. He was 86. As it usually happens after such sad events, plenty of articles have been written in memoriam, celebrating and analysing his work and its importance and impact on American cinema. His first feature came out in 1957 (the all-time classic masterpiece 12 Angry Men), and his last came out in 2007 (the superb, underrated Before the Devil Knows You're Dead); his filmography spans fifty years.
Instead of writing generally about those of his movies that I have seen, I preferred to focus on what I consider Lumet's greatest skill as a director: his masterful capability to draw amazing perfromances from actors of the highest caliber, with great dialogue-driven scripts as the source material. As a proof, he guided seventeen actors and actressses in a total of fourteen Oscar nominations and four wins. Network still holds the record for most Oscar-nominated performances from a single movie (five) and the most Oscar-winning performances (three - tied with Α Streetcar Named Desire). A common feature on those performances -which probably had as its origin Lumet's work as a theatre director prior to his film career- was a scene-stealing monologue. Below I present some of those scenes which are now part of film history and set the example as acting performance at its best. WARNING: spoilers might appear.
Credits:
Network: written by Paddy Chayefsky. Dog Day Afternoon: written by Frank Pierson. 12 Angry Men: written by Reginald Rose. Serpico: written by Walso Salt and Norman Wexler, based on the book by Peter Maas.
Peter Finch in Network (1976)
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"
Network is one of the most socially potent films of all time. Peter Finch won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as the "Mad Prophet" TV presenter Howard Beale; he remained the only posthumous recipient in Oscars' acting categories, until the late Heath Ledger won one for 2008's The Dark Knight.
Ned Beatty in Network (1976)
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature Mr Beale, and I won't have it.There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no East. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!"
The great character actor Ned Beatty was nominated for a Supporting Actor Academy Award for Network. This is the famous "Corporate Cosmology" scene, some minutes before the movie's end; it is Beatty's only scene in the film. A terrifiyngly visionary and sadly prescient speech.
Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982)
"...I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims - and we become victims. We become weak; we doubt ourselves; we doubt our beliefs; we doubt our institutions; and we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court... If we are to have faith in justice we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts."
Newman delivered one of his most heartfelt performances in this great underrated courtroom drama. He plays a cynic, stubborn, uncompromising, dispirited, heavy-drinking lawyer, who agrees to take over a quixotic case, as a last chance to save both his miserable life and dwindling career. His face expression on the verdict announcement is one to truly treasure forever.
Instead of writing generally about those of his movies that I have seen, I preferred to focus on what I consider Lumet's greatest skill as a director: his masterful capability to draw amazing perfromances from actors of the highest caliber, with great dialogue-driven scripts as the source material. As a proof, he guided seventeen actors and actressses in a total of fourteen Oscar nominations and four wins. Network still holds the record for most Oscar-nominated performances from a single movie (five) and the most Oscar-winning performances (three - tied with Α Streetcar Named Desire). A common feature on those performances -which probably had as its origin Lumet's work as a theatre director prior to his film career- was a scene-stealing monologue. Below I present some of those scenes which are now part of film history and set the example as acting performance at its best. WARNING: spoilers might appear.
Credits:
Network: written by Paddy Chayefsky. Dog Day Afternoon: written by Frank Pierson. 12 Angry Men: written by Reginald Rose. Serpico: written by Walso Salt and Norman Wexler, based on the book by Peter Maas.
Peter Finch in Network (1976)
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"
Network is one of the most socially potent films of all time. Peter Finch won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as the "Mad Prophet" TV presenter Howard Beale; he remained the only posthumous recipient in Oscars' acting categories, until the late Heath Ledger won one for 2008's The Dark Knight.
Ned Beatty in Network (1976)
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature Mr Beale, and I won't have it.There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no East. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!"
The great character actor Ned Beatty was nominated for a Supporting Actor Academy Award for Network. This is the famous "Corporate Cosmology" scene, some minutes before the movie's end; it is Beatty's only scene in the film. A terrifiyngly visionary and sadly prescient speech.
Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982)
"...I mean there is no justice. The rich win; the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time we become dead, a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims - and we become victims. We become weak; we doubt ourselves; we doubt our beliefs; we doubt our institutions; and we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You are the law, not some book, not the lawyers, not a marble statue, or the trappings of the court... If we are to have faith in justice we need only to believe in ourselves and act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts."
Newman delivered one of his most heartfelt performances in this great underrated courtroom drama. He plays a cynic, stubborn, uncompromising, dispirited, heavy-drinking lawyer, who agrees to take over a quixotic case, as a last chance to save both his miserable life and dwindling career. His face expression on the verdict announcement is one to truly treasure forever.
Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
"Attica! Attica!"
In this classic real-life story of a bank robbery gone wrong, Pacino, at the height of his powers, gives one of the all-time best performances in cinema. The scene above is probably the most famous of the movie; however, my favourite one is Pacino's improvised lengthy monologue on the phone with Chris Sarandon. It is a heart-wrecking, emotionally naked display of method acting. Famously, Pacino, always the method actor, was physically and mentally exhausted after the shoot of that scene. He almost collapsed when he heard Sidney Lumet telling him "That was perfect Al, we need to do this once more".
Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men (1957)
"I have a proposition to make to all of you. I'm going to call for another vote. I want you eleven men to vote by secret written ballot."
In this pivotal scene in 12 Angry Men, Fonda turned the tables in his favour. The film is the definition of ensemble acting and was Lumet's debut feature. It was shot almost completely in the "jury room"; still, thanks to Lumet's direction, it never drags or becomes too theatrical. This is one of the best films of all time: as with many of Lumet's films, its ideals and messages will always come across.
Beatrice Straight in Network (1975)
"This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that what's left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion, and I get the dotage? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some penitent drunk? I'm your wife, damn it! And, if you can't work up a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance!"
See the clip here
This is the shortest performance to ever win an Oscar. Beatrice Straight had only three scenes in the film; the most famous being the breakup scene with William Holden. Here, she brings to life all the anger, pain, and sadness a cheated woman suffers.
Faye Dunaway in Network (1975)
"Now, I don't want to play butch boss with you people. But when I took over this department, it had the worst programming record in television history. This network hasn't one show in the top twenty. This network is an industry joke... I want ideas from you people, that's what you're paid for. And, by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around, you all better read it, or I'll sack the fucking lot of you, is that clear?"
See the clip here
Dunaway won her only Oscar for her performance of an ambitious, heartless TV executive.
William Holden in Network (1975)
"You're television incarnate, Diana: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You're madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you. But not me. Not as long as I can feel pleasure, and pain... and love."
See the clip here
Holden, in his last great performance, plays the idealist, old-school executive who refuses to sacrifice his identity and his integrity. He finds the inner balance by breaking up with both women in his life. But there is price to pay for independence and freedom: he ends up alone in order to remain true to his heart and his beliefs. On the film's first breakup scene, Beatrice Straight's emotional outburst steals the show; in this scene, Holden's acidic verbal attack on the cold, emotionless Dunaway is even more impressive, delivering his speech with a downplayed, subtle acting style.
Al Pacino in Serpico (1973)
"What's this for? for being an honest cop? or for being stupid enough to get shot in the face?"
I decided to close the post with the words of the late great Sidney Lumet himself: in this video, he talks about Pacino's superb performance of real-time New York policeman Serpico, who tried to expose the deep police corruption inside the New York Police Department. "It's my life you fuck!".
Saturday, April 2, 2011
MOVIES LAST SEEN
Somewhere (2010): 4.0
Moon (2009): 7.5
Scott Pilgrim vs.the World (2010): 6.0
The King's Speech (2010): 8.0
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): 7.0
Fearless (1993): 7.0
True Grit (2010): 7.5
A Room with a View (1986): 8.0
Notorious (1946): 9.0
The Usual Suspects (1995): 8.5
The Painted Veil (2006): 7.5
In a Lonely Place (1950): 7.5
There Will Be Blood (2007): 9.0
Network (1976): 10.0
All or Nothing (2002): 7.0
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008): 5.5
Ali (2001): 7.0
Le Samurai (1967): 8.5
JFK (1991): 8.0
Somewhere (2010): 4.0
Moon (2009): 7.5
Scott Pilgrim vs.the World (2010): 6.0
The King's Speech (2010): 8.0
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969): 7.0
Fearless (1993): 7.0
True Grit (2010): 7.5
A Room with a View (1986): 8.0
Notorious (1946): 9.0
The Usual Suspects (1995): 8.5
The Painted Veil (2006): 7.5
In a Lonely Place (1950): 7.5
There Will Be Blood (2007): 9.0
Network (1976): 10.0
All or Nothing (2002): 7.0
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008): 5.5
Ali (2001): 7.0
Le Samurai (1967): 8.5
JFK (1991): 8.0
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
CD Compilation: In an Alternative Country
Country music can get badly stereotyped amongst indie music fans. To make justice, I propose below a small selection of ballads from indie bands, which -either the band, the song, or both- fall under the "Alternative Country" tag. This is a music subgenre (also often mentioned "Americana") which could be loosely described as the meeting point of indie and country; Alternative Country artists operate outside the traditional mainstream country, follow the indie aesthetics, and successfully incorporate into their music other music styles and influences beyond country.
I have consciously avoided all the ancestors of Alternative Country such as Neil Young, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers. I have also chosen to include into the compilation only artists whose music I have followed and feel quite familiar with to write about it; obviously there is tons of great stuff out there. Hopefully this list will urge you to discover it.
1. The Gun Club - Idiot Waltz (1993)
The late Jeffrey Lee Pierce was the founder, leader and songwriter of The Gun Club, a great band who was sadly ignored at its time. They were a significant part of the 80's US alternative scene. Two of their albums were produced by Blondie's Chris Stein and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie; they toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (guitarist Kid Congo Powers was a founding member of The Gun Club before joining The Bad Seeds). Still, they never reached the popularity of their peers.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a true bluesman down to his heart, but he enriched the blues idiom with raw punk energy, rockabilly rhythms and even country touches. The best testament of Gun Club's sound remains their now-classic debut Fire of Love (supposedly recorded within two days), best exemplified in titles such as "She's Like Heroin to Me", "Ghost on the Highway", and "Sex Beat". I preferred to include in the compilation the haunting country-tinged ballad "Idiot Waltz" from their swansong Lucky Jim, where Pierce sounds more devastated and resigned than ever: gone is the sexual lust and full force of their debut, now replaced with Pierce singing "Turn on the headlights for the Idiot Waltz, turn on the lights, watch us fall", or the line "Your body don't get me off no more, it takes a lot of smack to do that", openly pointing at his addiction.
Pierce sadly passed away at 38 from post-surgery brain hemorrhage, after a stroke caused by a blood clot sent him to coma, but his music legacy remains intact.
2. Tarnation - Halfway to Madness (1995)
Paula Frazer is one of my favourite female singers. She is the founder, leader and songwriter of Tarnation, a band who is the primary reason I started to search more about Alternative Country. She was singing traditional American music from an early age, namely religious hymns and gospels, in the process training and stretching her vocal cords. Her exquisite voice is as light as a feather, but incredibly emotive; her range is truly impressive and when she employs her otherwordly yodelling it sounds like nothing else in indie music.
Tarnation's short career contains only two albums, Gentle Creatures and Mirador, released during the 90's in the famous 4AD label. Their music was aptly described by Mojo magazine as "Judy Garland romanticism in a world inhabited by Reservoir Dogs."
I honestly could not decide which song to include in this compilation, but finally I opted for "Halfway to Madness" from Gentle Creatures, a touchstone album for Alternative Country. Its songs are full of dark, romantic imagery, an ever-present lurking atmosphere of despair and sorrow, and with the aching lap-steel guitar in a prominent role. But it's Frazer's vocals that will haunt you forever: in "Halfway to Madness", her yodelling comes in to close each chorus and finally the song (a pattern Tarnation often employ).
The opening trio of "Game of Broken Hearts", "Halfway to Madness" and "The Well" sets the tone perfectly from the start: "There's nothing you give that's not dangerous or cold. Is that there is to a game of broken hearts?" , or "When I met you halfway to a place we call madness, with a rock in my heart, I sank in despair" or "So long, good-bye, to that great moaning sky and I'll cast my heart down the well". Frazer obviously has issues of the heart.
Mirador released two years later featured lots of surf, heavily-reverbed guitar clearly influenced from spaghetti Western soundtracks, thereby expanding their sound and making it more electric - although one has to listen this album in order to understand what "electric" means in Tarnation's case.This album contains the undisputed highlight of their career (and their most famous song) "Your Thoughts and Mine", with its Mexican Mariachi horns, a Spanish guitar solo, a great chorus and a powerful crescendo for finale with -again- Frazer's unforgettable yodelling on top.
I didn't miss the chance to see her solo performance -just her and her acoustic guitar- in Athens' small Rodeo Club in 2009: there, a total of around 150 people were not only obviously enchanted by her unique, amazing voice, but also from Paula Frazer herself, such a calm, down-to-earth, slightly shy but so lovely person.
3. Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy (1993)
This 90's L.A band had a moderate hit in indie world with this song from their debut. In Grant Lee Phillips they had a great frontman and songwriter and their live performances gave them an edge over other country-and-folk influenced bands at the time. Their sound was centered around Phillips's twelve-string electric-acoustic guitar and his powerful, resonant voice. The chorus of "Fuzzy" remains one of the best moments of 90's music, still as original and impressive as the first time you heard it. You have to listen to the live version of the song though to fully appreciate its power: Phillips sings no words, just the song's main melodic line in a spectacular falsetto, while at the same time his guitar plays the same riff with a heavily distorted sound in a high octave; no difference to the album's version here. But it's Paul Kimble's bass that totally blows your mind, as it turns into a monster with the use of a distortion pedal. This is an explosion similar -and dare I say equal- to the chorus of Radiohead's "Creep", no less. Grant Lee Buffalo never reached that early peak again, but "Fuzzy" remains unforgettable.
4. The Walkabouts - Long Time Here (1993)
These guys from Seattle have a long career behind them. They were almost completely ignored in their country where their albums couldn't even get released, but on the contrary so loved across the Atlantic that somewhere in the mid-90's they were even in regular airplay in MTV Europe (remember "The Light Will Stay On"). However, they never reached the commercial success levels of the famous Seattle grunge bands, primarily because their sound was never in- or out-of date: Walkabouts' music covers a vast area of what is loosely called "Americana", as they play a mix of alternative rock, country and folk.
Walkabouts' principal songwriter Chris Eckman shared vocal duties with his partner Carla Torgerson (apparently they were met when both were working in a salmon canning factory in Alaska!), usually alternating the main vocals song after song in their albums. Interestingly, their voices couldn't be further apart: Eckman's is low, darker, unrefined, "like pouring honey over gravel" as Melody Maker wrote in its review of Setting the Woods on Fire in 1994; Carla's voice is lighter, folky, much more melodic.
Within two years in 1993 and 1994, The Walkabouts released their masterpieces: New West Motel, the covers album Satisfied Mind and Setting the Woods on Fire.
New West Motel is the album where the band's dichotomy is best showcased. One one hand you get grungey rock anthems with the Neil-Young-ish gritty overdriven guitar tone which Chris Eckman prefers, such as "Sundowner" with its catchy fiddle riff, "Sweet Revenge", and their classic single "Jack Candy". On the other hand, you get plaintive folk/country ballads enriched with piano, accordion or mandolin, such as "Wondertown", and my choice for this compilation "Long Time Here", with Carla Torgerson's yearning lead vocal: "But your hell is hotter than the typical thirst and in Vegas the ice is not cheap".
7. Lambchop - Soaky in the Pooper (1994)
This group from Nashville is a collective of musicians, with singer and songwriter Kurt Wagner its de facto leader and only permanent member. The band once counted 17 musicians as members. Lambchop started as an alternative country band but they have incorporated many other music styles ever since, with the classic 70's soul being a major influence, as evidenced in their 2000 masterpiece Nixon. Their first two albums though are the ones to listen to for sheer country pleasure. "Soaky in the Pooper" is from their debut I Hope You're Sitting Down. The song is funnily titled, but Wagner actually narrates a fatal drug overdose taking place in a bathroom. All of Lambchop's eclectic attributes are present: acoustic guitar arpeggios, gentle strings and brass arrangements a la Tindersticks, and Wagner's instantly recognizable mumbled baritone (Tindersticks' Stuart Staples -again- is a close reference).
Lambchop are still active and continue to record new albums; after 15 years it's fairly safe to say their prime is long gone, but their stamp in US indie scene has been secured.
11. Calexico - Across the Wire (2003)
Named after the Californian bordertown (itself a portmanteau of the words California and Mexico), it was obvious this band would borrow heavily from two different musical traditions: the Mexican-Latin sounds such as mariachi, as well as the American country and folk music. They have also delved into classic jazz, even post-rock. Consequently, this duet has the most diverse sound of all the artists of the compilation. Feast of Wire is probably their best album, where they collect successfully all their eclectic influences into various well-crafted songs and finally serve a unified undistinguished package, the Calexico sound.
"Across the Wire" is a good example of their approach, mixing mariachi horns with straight-from-the desert lap steel guitar, the Mexican with the American. It also makes a nice upbeat closure for the compilation.
I have consciously avoided all the ancestors of Alternative Country such as Neil Young, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers. I have also chosen to include into the compilation only artists whose music I have followed and feel quite familiar with to write about it; obviously there is tons of great stuff out there. Hopefully this list will urge you to discover it.
1. The Gun Club - Idiot Waltz (1993)
The late Jeffrey Lee Pierce was the founder, leader and songwriter of The Gun Club, a great band who was sadly ignored at its time. They were a significant part of the 80's US alternative scene. Two of their albums were produced by Blondie's Chris Stein and Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie; they toured with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (guitarist Kid Congo Powers was a founding member of The Gun Club before joining The Bad Seeds). Still, they never reached the popularity of their peers.
Jeffrey Lee Pierce was a true bluesman down to his heart, but he enriched the blues idiom with raw punk energy, rockabilly rhythms and even country touches. The best testament of Gun Club's sound remains their now-classic debut Fire of Love (supposedly recorded within two days), best exemplified in titles such as "She's Like Heroin to Me", "Ghost on the Highway", and "Sex Beat". I preferred to include in the compilation the haunting country-tinged ballad "Idiot Waltz" from their swansong Lucky Jim, where Pierce sounds more devastated and resigned than ever: gone is the sexual lust and full force of their debut, now replaced with Pierce singing "Turn on the headlights for the Idiot Waltz, turn on the lights, watch us fall", or the line "Your body don't get me off no more, it takes a lot of smack to do that", openly pointing at his addiction.
Pierce sadly passed away at 38 from post-surgery brain hemorrhage, after a stroke caused by a blood clot sent him to coma, but his music legacy remains intact.
2. Tarnation - Halfway to Madness (1995)
Paula Frazer is one of my favourite female singers. She is the founder, leader and songwriter of Tarnation, a band who is the primary reason I started to search more about Alternative Country. She was singing traditional American music from an early age, namely religious hymns and gospels, in the process training and stretching her vocal cords. Her exquisite voice is as light as a feather, but incredibly emotive; her range is truly impressive and when she employs her otherwordly yodelling it sounds like nothing else in indie music.
Tarnation's short career contains only two albums, Gentle Creatures and Mirador, released during the 90's in the famous 4AD label. Their music was aptly described by Mojo magazine as "Judy Garland romanticism in a world inhabited by Reservoir Dogs."
I honestly could not decide which song to include in this compilation, but finally I opted for "Halfway to Madness" from Gentle Creatures, a touchstone album for Alternative Country. Its songs are full of dark, romantic imagery, an ever-present lurking atmosphere of despair and sorrow, and with the aching lap-steel guitar in a prominent role. But it's Frazer's vocals that will haunt you forever: in "Halfway to Madness", her yodelling comes in to close each chorus and finally the song (a pattern Tarnation often employ).
The opening trio of "Game of Broken Hearts", "Halfway to Madness" and "The Well" sets the tone perfectly from the start: "There's nothing you give that's not dangerous or cold. Is that there is to a game of broken hearts?" , or "When I met you halfway to a place we call madness, with a rock in my heart, I sank in despair" or "So long, good-bye, to that great moaning sky and I'll cast my heart down the well". Frazer obviously has issues of the heart.
Mirador released two years later featured lots of surf, heavily-reverbed guitar clearly influenced from spaghetti Western soundtracks, thereby expanding their sound and making it more electric - although one has to listen this album in order to understand what "electric" means in Tarnation's case.This album contains the undisputed highlight of their career (and their most famous song) "Your Thoughts and Mine", with its Mexican Mariachi horns, a Spanish guitar solo, a great chorus and a powerful crescendo for finale with -again- Frazer's unforgettable yodelling on top.
I didn't miss the chance to see her solo performance -just her and her acoustic guitar- in Athens' small Rodeo Club in 2009: there, a total of around 150 people were not only obviously enchanted by her unique, amazing voice, but also from Paula Frazer herself, such a calm, down-to-earth, slightly shy but so lovely person.
3. Grant Lee Buffalo - Fuzzy (1993)
This 90's L.A band had a moderate hit in indie world with this song from their debut. In Grant Lee Phillips they had a great frontman and songwriter and their live performances gave them an edge over other country-and-folk influenced bands at the time. Their sound was centered around Phillips's twelve-string electric-acoustic guitar and his powerful, resonant voice. The chorus of "Fuzzy" remains one of the best moments of 90's music, still as original and impressive as the first time you heard it. You have to listen to the live version of the song though to fully appreciate its power: Phillips sings no words, just the song's main melodic line in a spectacular falsetto, while at the same time his guitar plays the same riff with a heavily distorted sound in a high octave; no difference to the album's version here. But it's Paul Kimble's bass that totally blows your mind, as it turns into a monster with the use of a distortion pedal. This is an explosion similar -and dare I say equal- to the chorus of Radiohead's "Creep", no less. Grant Lee Buffalo never reached that early peak again, but "Fuzzy" remains unforgettable.
4. The Walkabouts - Long Time Here (1993)
These guys from Seattle have a long career behind them. They were almost completely ignored in their country where their albums couldn't even get released, but on the contrary so loved across the Atlantic that somewhere in the mid-90's they were even in regular airplay in MTV Europe (remember "The Light Will Stay On"). However, they never reached the commercial success levels of the famous Seattle grunge bands, primarily because their sound was never in- or out-of date: Walkabouts' music covers a vast area of what is loosely called "Americana", as they play a mix of alternative rock, country and folk.
Walkabouts' principal songwriter Chris Eckman shared vocal duties with his partner Carla Torgerson (apparently they were met when both were working in a salmon canning factory in Alaska!), usually alternating the main vocals song after song in their albums. Interestingly, their voices couldn't be further apart: Eckman's is low, darker, unrefined, "like pouring honey over gravel" as Melody Maker wrote in its review of Setting the Woods on Fire in 1994; Carla's voice is lighter, folky, much more melodic.
Within two years in 1993 and 1994, The Walkabouts released their masterpieces: New West Motel, the covers album Satisfied Mind and Setting the Woods on Fire.
New West Motel is the album where the band's dichotomy is best showcased. One one hand you get grungey rock anthems with the Neil-Young-ish gritty overdriven guitar tone which Chris Eckman prefers, such as "Sundowner" with its catchy fiddle riff, "Sweet Revenge", and their classic single "Jack Candy". On the other hand, you get plaintive folk/country ballads enriched with piano, accordion or mandolin, such as "Wondertown", and my choice for this compilation "Long Time Here", with Carla Torgerson's yearning lead vocal: "But your hell is hotter than the typical thirst and in Vegas the ice is not cheap".
Unfortunately I never saw The Walkabouts live, even though they came many times in Greece as they were always popular here; however, I did saw Chris and Carla (their acoustic side-project) in a tiny Athens cafe-bar called "Hartes" around ten years ago, where they played a mindblowing ten-minute version of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer".
5. Richmond Fontaine - Western Skyline (2002)
The Portland-based alternative country band is the first on the list that is still active. Their frontman Villy Vlautin is an acclaimed fiction writer, a fact explaining the often narrative style and vivid imagery of their songs: their album The Fitzgerald for example was written after Vlautin stayed for two weeks in the Fitzgerald Casino Hotel in Reno (he was actually born and lived in Reno until his mid-twenties before moving to Portland). Vlautin's heroes are drunks, gamblers, murderers, a fascinating tableau of characters remindful of writers such as Charles Bukowski and Raymond Carver. No wonder then that Vlautin cites as his principal music influences Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen, whose songwriting has also being compared to fiction writing.
"Western Skyline" is the closing song on Richmond Fontaine's 2002 album Winnemucca and is the first song of theirs I heard. In an interview on the "Comes with a Smile" website Vlautin said for the song:
"I wrote that song for my uncle Bill. He died in a hunting accident in 1968. He was 18. He fell on his gun and it went off. His friend held him in his arms until he died. I used to fish the Truckee river all the time, and where I'd go was right by where he died. And every time I'd be there he'd appear in my mind. For years. He was supposedly a great kid. I was named after him, he was my godfather. I used to sit there and think about the poor kid who had to hold him. What would you say to your dying friend, how would you say it? So I'd go around and around
about it, and in the end I felt I'd tell him a drunkard's dream. That where he was going there was a golden light, that there were women who were gentle and kind, and everything had a nice light to it, and we'd be walking downtown having a good time."
The song's tragic storyline is hidden behind a deceptively beautiful melody while the pedal steel guitar punctuates the longing and desolation in Vlautin's voice. This is one of the undiscovered gems of Alternative Country.
6. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You (1993)
Undoubtedly this is the most famous song on the compilation. It has soundtracked scenes in CSI, House M.D., The O.C, Alias and other series; it was recently included in Pitchfork's Top 20 Songs of the 90's; even more prestigiously, it was included in John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty for the celebration of the millenium in 2000. My guess is Mazzy Star hadn't planned it this way since it has eclipsed everything they attempted ever since; but it didn't do them any harm either.
The song's defining characteristics are easy to spot. There's simplicity: just a three chord variation and a steady country-waltz rhythm repeating throughout the song; there are the strategically placed small details in the arrangement: the piano embellishments, the slide guitar riff and the tambourine; but in the end Mazzy Star's appeal always comes down to Hope Sandoval's uniquely coloured voice. No wonder she always has been in-demand for various collaborations: since 1994 her vocals have adorned -and actually define- songs by The Chemical Brothers, Air, and Death In Vegas among others. I will just pinpoint three of Hope Sandoval's performances: The Jesus and Mary Chain's "Sometimes Always", a wonderful duet with Jim Reid (Sandoval was also dating William Reid at the time); the freak-folk gem "Angels' Share" from Vetiver's 2004 debut; and her most recent guest appearance, the lead vocal on Massive Attack's "Paradise Circus", the definite highlight of their latest album Heligoland.
In "Fade Into You", Hope Sandoval is constantly slightly off-key or at least appears to be: it's as if she doesn't care to sing technically perfect, she is resigned. Her sexy, seductive low croon is also misleading; the song has been described as a love ballad, but the lyrics are actually quite hard to decipher: "I look to you and I see nothing, I look to you to see the truth", or "Some kind of night into your darkness colors your eyes with what's not there".
It was tempting to not choose "Fade Into You" for the compilation, merely for the sake of controversy; just to avoid taking the soft option. Other choices could be "Rhymes of an Hour", which soundtracked the saucy scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's film Stealing Beauty where Liv Tyler has sex for the first time; or Mazzy Star's great cover of Green On Red's "Hair and Skin". It's just that sometimes the easy option happens to be the best too.
7. Lambchop - Soaky in the Pooper (1994)
This group from Nashville is a collective of musicians, with singer and songwriter Kurt Wagner its de facto leader and only permanent member. The band once counted 17 musicians as members. Lambchop started as an alternative country band but they have incorporated many other music styles ever since, with the classic 70's soul being a major influence, as evidenced in their 2000 masterpiece Nixon. Their first two albums though are the ones to listen to for sheer country pleasure. "Soaky in the Pooper" is from their debut I Hope You're Sitting Down. The song is funnily titled, but Wagner actually narrates a fatal drug overdose taking place in a bathroom. All of Lambchop's eclectic attributes are present: acoustic guitar arpeggios, gentle strings and brass arrangements a la Tindersticks, and Wagner's instantly recognizable mumbled baritone (Tindersticks' Stuart Staples -again- is a close reference).
Lambchop are still active and continue to record new albums; after 15 years it's fairly safe to say their prime is long gone, but their stamp in US indie scene has been secured.
8. Sixteen Horsepower - Haw (1995)
Sixteen Horsepower will be forever revered by everyone who dared to delve into their fascinating soundworld: a distinctive mixture of blues, country, rock, and Appalachian folk. Their leader was David Eugene Edwards, a man of strong religious beliefs; his grandfather was a preacher who used to take young David with him in his travels within Colorado, visiting and spending time in small desolate towns. This experience obviously shaped Edwards' personality, as he he told in an interview in pennyblackmusic.co.uk. Edwards grew up to be a devoted Christian; however, as it is very often the case with artists, he was also struggling with the cosmic aspects of his life and how these can come to terms with religion. No wonder then his lyrics deal with religion, faith and redemption.
Their debut album Sackcloth 'n' Ashes (a biblical term) is one of the masterpieces of the last twenty years waiting to be discovered. In this album, Edwards fully captured his music vision. Each song is performed by three instruments only: bass and drums, played by the band's rhythm section; and the lead instrument, alternating in each song between banjo, bandoneon and lap steel guitar, all played by Edwards. The results are stunning. The album is a Gothic monolith, with Edwards' theatrical performance and lyrical imagery resembling Nick Cave. Almost all songs are written in minor key; this is definitely not a pop album, we're talking heavy, serious stuff here. Joy Division were another big influence on Sixteen Horsepower - look out for their great cover of "Day of the Lords".
Sackcloth 'n' Ashes is full of highlights. Ι could easily include in this compilation "Black Soul Choir" with its skipping beat and the jangly banjo riff, or the devastating "Harm's Way".
"Haw" manages to have about seven or eight minor and no major chords; an impressive feat. It features Edwards' excellent lap steel guitar work and his typical theatrical storytelling (listen how he sings "lady" in the line "roll over little lady" in 1:52, or how he stretches "bleed" in the next line "you're gonna bleed to get away").
Open wide your eyes and ears and convert yourselves to Sixteen Horsepower's majesty.
9. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Loom of the Land (1992)
Cave is no stranger to country and his appearance in the compilation should not look strange. Testaments to this are aplenty: Johnny Cash and Hank Williams were among his heroes; his 1985 album The Firstborn Is Dead is considered one of the early landmarks of Alternative Country; and, as a final seal of approval, "Loom of the Land" was covered by The Walkabouts in their great covers-only album Satisfied Mind.
I consider the album Henry's Dream to be Nick Cave's stronger effort. That means I hail it as an absolute masterpiece. Unjustly, it's seldom mentioned amongst his best. Even himself has supposedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the albums production (i.e. not raw enough). But a more beautiful song than "Loom of the Land" I doubt he has ever written.
The song apears to be a love story. A poetic lyric introduces us to a picturesque romantic scene: "It was the dirty end of winter along the loom of the land, when I walked with sweet Sally hand upon hand". Still, my sense is the unfolding story is darker than it appears; there is a strangely sinister feeling lurking underneath the chorus lyric "keep your little hand upon my shoulder, now go to sleep". Truthful my suspicion or not, Cave finally unleashed his ultimate statement on that field four years later, the death-fixated but funny-as-hell too Murder Ballads.
10. Cowboy Junkies- Misguided Angel (1988)
The secret in the intimacy, warmth and beauty suffusing the Canadians' classic album The Trinity Session lies in the story behind its recording. The practically unknown-at-the-time band gathered into the Church of the Holy Trinity of their hometown Toronto, placed a single microphone in the middle, pressed the record button on a DAT recorder, and recorded the album straight to tape within an one-night session, with no overdubs or fills.
The Trinity Session is clearly an album where the recording environment has defined the final result (Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral also springs to mind). The natural reverb and ambience of the church fills up every song; the drums are mostly played with brushes, as if not to disturb the serene atmosphere throughout; the guitars are strummed lazily; and the songs move to a funereal pace. Sometimes they do not seem to move at all: they just stay still. And on top of it all, there are Margo Timmins' soft, leisured, wonderful vocals. She does not possess a technically gifted voice, but she manages to colour each song with an unpretentious beauty. Her diction is her primary asset: though she almost whispers most of the time, every sung word is clear, every line cuts through the mix.
In the album's opening song, "Mining for Gold", Timmins provides a wonderful a cappella performance of a traditional country ballad. In "Misguided Angel" the arrangement is sparse, the song is almost bare: a guitar plays the basic chords, an accordion here or a harmonica there adds some touches, and Timmins' soothing voice covers everything like a warm, well-used blanket.
The band along with its own compositions chose to include in the album a significant number of covers of songs by some of their favourite artists, including Hank Williams's all-time classic country standard "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", and, most notably, The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane", which became their most famous song. Cowboy Junkies created with The Trinity Session a timeless album of country and blues Americana. As Pitchfork wrote, it still sounds great in the dark.
11. Calexico - Across the Wire (2003)
Named after the Californian bordertown (itself a portmanteau of the words California and Mexico), it was obvious this band would borrow heavily from two different musical traditions: the Mexican-Latin sounds such as mariachi, as well as the American country and folk music. They have also delved into classic jazz, even post-rock. Consequently, this duet has the most diverse sound of all the artists of the compilation. Feast of Wire is probably their best album, where they collect successfully all their eclectic influences into various well-crafted songs and finally serve a unified undistinguished package, the Calexico sound.
"Across the Wire" is a good example of their approach, mixing mariachi horns with straight-from-the desert lap steel guitar, the Mexican with the American. It also makes a nice upbeat closure for the compilation.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Poll: the best Neo-Noir films
Ολοκληρώθηκε η διαδικτυακή ψηφοφορία για τις καλύτερες Neo-Noir ταινίες. Στην κατάρτιση της αρχικής shortlist βασίστηκα στις επιλογές του ενδιαφέροντος βιβλίου του Douglas Keesey "Neo-Noir: Contemporary Film Noir, from Chinatown to The Dark Knight". Να ευχαριστήσω για τις ψήφους τους: Nick M., Kostas K., Popi "Pops" T., Panagiotis "Tarasque" G., Elpidiou "Sister Bliss", Marianne A., Takis "Tax" T., George Ouz., Chris "Murdock" P., Tonia "Nea" R., George "GthePoet" C., George "Simon", Dimitris "Katsiou" K., Stathis "Mr Lubitel" D., Chris St. και Dimitris "Ippokampos" Ts. Ακολουθεί η τελική λίστα. Τα λέμε στο επόμενο poll...
25 - Body Heat (1981)
24 - Vanilla Sky (2001)
23 - The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
22 - L.A Confidential (1997)
21 - The French Connection (1971)
20 - The Dark Knight (2008)
19 - Collateral (2004)
18 - Blood Simple (1984)
17 - The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
16 - Sin City (2005)
15 - Fargo (1996)
14 - Memento (2000)
13 - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
12 - Lost Highway (1997)
11 - The Matrix (1999)
10 - Blue Velvet (1986)
09 - The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
08 - Mulholland Dr. (2001)
07 - Pulp Fiction (1994)
06 - Blade Runner (1982)
05 - Old Boy (2003)
04 - Chinatown (1974)
03 - Taxi Driver (1976)
02 - Se7en (1995)
01 - The Usual Suspects (1995)
25 - Body Heat (1981)
24 - Vanilla Sky (2001)
23 - The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
22 - L.A Confidential (1997)
21 - The French Connection (1971)
20 - The Dark Knight (2008)
19 - Collateral (2004)
18 - Blood Simple (1984)
17 - The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
16 - Sin City (2005)
15 - Fargo (1996)
14 - Memento (2000)
13 - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
12 - Lost Highway (1997)
11 - The Matrix (1999)
10 - Blue Velvet (1986)
09 - The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
08 - Mulholland Dr. (2001)
07 - Pulp Fiction (1994)
06 - Blade Runner (1982)
05 - Old Boy (2003)
04 - Chinatown (1974)
03 - Taxi Driver (1976)
02 - Se7en (1995)
01 - The Usual Suspects (1995)
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