I noticed something today. With the rise of personal music devices, people are walking to customized soundtracks to their lives.  30 years ago this wasn’t the case, simply because strapping a 20 pound record player to your hip was out of the question.

Think about it.   Many of us walk, bike,  ride public transit and wait in lines with headphones in our ears.  Out of these little speakers comes the music that, for the most part, embodies who we are. The sounds that enhance the atmosphere that is surrounding us.

Over the years the soundtrack will change, but songs will be repeated, resurfaced and rediscovered. Those songs are the ones that make the soundtrack.

These 10 tracks are the audio clips laid out on the narrow strip of film that is the soundtrack of my life.

People Turn Around – Delta Spirit: What story is yet to be told? “The song that needs singin, has already been sung before.”

Mama’s Eyes – Justin Townes Earle: Stripped down folk music at its finest. “Sure it hurts, but it should hurt sometimes.”

Tentative – System of a Down: Plain and simple, “We’re going down, in a spiral to the ground, no one, no ones gonna save us now.”

Twilight – Elliott Smith: “Haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. Better stop now before I start cryin’.”

Family System – Chevelle: Dirtiest metal riff I have ever heard. “What a man’s got, he’ll learn to hate.”

No One’s Aware – Jack Savoretti: “Being alone doesn’t mean that you’re free, so come with me.”

Old Man – Neil Young: Success is only a title. “Doesn’t mean that much to me to mean that much to you.”

You Never Even Called Me By My Name – David Allan Coe: Those who know this one, just know. “You never even called me by my name.”

Glory Bound – Martin Sexton: “I’m taking a chance on the wind, I’m packin’ up all my bags.”

Good People – Kyle MacKenzie: You know who you are. “You, my friends, are good people.”

What’s your soundtrack? I would love to hear it…

Sloan—Pretty Together
Murderecords, 2001

Maybe it’s the fact that they are Canadian and American audiences just can’t stomach them, maybe their songwriting is just too saccharine for most American tastes—who knows. Whatever the reason, Sloan will never get what they deserve from America. The press will never acknowledge them (although their 2006 album Never Hear The End Of It did chart on CMJ’s Heatseekers list), the radio won’t play them, and their audience here will always be limited to whoever has the brains to listen to a college radio station every once in awhile. In truth, that’s okay for two reasons: One, it doesn’t make Sloan any less awesome; two, they are HUGE in their home country, so America can just go bugger off, already. Hasn’t everyone already figured out that Canada is a way cooler country than America anyway? They get free health care, their Jagermeister has opiates in it, and one of the best power pop bands of all time is commercially successful there. Seriously, America, take a hint! About the album, though…Pretty Together is one of Sloan’s best, and features all four of the group’s songwriters in top form. Unlike most Sloan records, this one finds the other members giving bassist Chris Murphy a dash for his songwriting cash. Drummer Andrew Scott’s “In the Movies” and “The Great Wall” just might be the two best tunes in his repertoire, and guitarist Patrick Pentland’s “If It Feels Good Do It” has become one of rock’s great morally ambiguous anthems. But most noticeably, guitarist Jay Ferguson really comes into his own on Pretty Together, offering up what is easily one its biggest standouts, the knockout power ballad “Dreaming of You”. Sloan may have reached their plateau with 1999’s Between the Bridges, but Pretty Together was created while they were still hanging around up there.

Super Furry Animals—Rings Around the World
Epic, 2001

This album really scared a lot of rock purists when it came out. When those of us who lived by the 90’s rock credo heard “Sidewalk Serfer Girl” for the first time, it became pretty apparent that everything was about to change. Actually, everything already had changed by that point; we were all just too stubborn to accept it. Rings Around the World helped us to accept it. After the initial scoffing and guffawing wore off, it was impossible to ignore how great this album was—not just how great it was, but how hard to dislike it was. Like a few of the records on this list, it is virtually perfect, though the varied styles of the album make that pretty arguable. One thing is for sure—Rings won’t really sink in until it is viewed on DVD, a rock and roll experience as close to phenomenal as one is likely to get. At the time, it was so phenomenal that SFA decided it had been a little too much, and toned it down halfway to nil for their next release. But, think of it hypothetically—your band makes an album that is revered as a potential “top 5 of the decade” type of record, and in a couple years, you have to follow it up with another? You try it.

Elliott Smith—From a Basement on the Hill
Anti-, 2004

To be straightforward, if ANY other Elliott Smith album had come out between the years of 2000 and 2009, it would have been on the list in place of this one. But, Basement should still be recognized and adored as an imperfect gem that, while unfinished, still retains the feeling of a true entry in the Elliott Smith progression. During sessions for the album, Smith was supposedly teaching himself how to record on the computer, the only recording medium he had yet to master. Aside from the album being compiled posthumously by Smith’s producer and his ex-girlfriend, it’s this wonder-boy-amateur approach that gives Basement its dusty, pastiche-like feel. The acoustic songs are classic nods to Smith’s early years, but the big rock numbers are something else entirely—specifically “Shooting Star”, which teams proggy guitar licks with a gigantic chorus of stumbling drums. Seriously, there have to be at least three drum sets going on at once in there (listen closely). This feeling of extreme density permeates the louder songs, most successfully on the totally junked out “Strung Out Again” and “King’s Crossing”, a wrenching ode to desperation. It might be somewhere behind Brian Wilson’s SMiLE on the aforementioned, forthcoming list of Could-Have-Beens, but Basement is still Elliott Smith, and Elliott Smith still rules.

I THINK I AM GOING TO PUKE ALL OVER MY CPU SCREEN~ I AM SO DISGUSTED WITH WHAT THE BIGGEST MUSIC SITES HAVE BECOME. THEY USED TO ALL ACTUALLY TELL IT LIKE IT WAS AND GAVE THEIR OPINIONS WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT WHAT THE OTHERS WERE GOING TO DO OR WHAT WAS “HIP” OR “COOL” ~ IT’S NOT EVEN ABOUT THE MUSIC ANYMORE, IT’S LIKE THE DAMN MUSIC INDUSTRY (ESPECIALLY THE SUCCESSFUL INDIE CROWD) IS A HIGH SCHOOL PROM AND NOBODY’S SOULS OR HEARTS MATTER, JUST THEIR DRESSES AND WHO THEY ARE BRING WITH THEM TO THE BIG DANCE AND HOW THEY ARE GETTING THERE. I’M GOING TO DO EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO GET THIS BLOG ONTO THE RIGHT PEOPLE’S COMPUTER SCREENS IN THEIR HOUSES OR APARTMENTS! THERE HAS TO BE PEOPLE WHO FEEL THE WAY THAT I DO. WE MUST RISE AND CREATE A NEW GENRE OF MUSIC IN ALL FACETS OF THE THEORY! IT WON’T BE INDIE, IT WON’T BE ALTERNATIVE, IT WILL HAVE TO BE CALLED “OTHER(TWICE)”

I WROTE THIS ON STEREOGUM AFTER READING THE 4TH LIST FROM PITCHFORK WHICH WAS ONLY 20 INSTEAD OF 50 AND THEY WERE BY FAR THE BEST, THEY GOT MORE GOOD ALBUMS IN 20 PICKS THAN THE OTHERS DID IN 50!!!

HERE IS MY RANT: What if the greatest album ever created comes out next month?! Anyways, Out of all the 4 lists from the Top Guns, Pitchfork got more right in 20 than any of the others did in 50!!!!!!!  They are the only ones to include a Modest Mouse Album, I know everyone thinks that Lonesome Crowded West was their Holy Grail & then they sold out, but as a Musician or even a massive fan of music, I think that what Isaac Brock did on The Moon & Antarctica (3 People), Good News For People Who Love Bad News & Even The Johnny Marr Included We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank  <— All 3 of them would be in My Top 50 Along With Ugly Cassanova! Silverchair – Diorama One Billion Percent Belongs In Every List~ It just infuriates me that all of these main music sites have to make sure they are still hip in their decision~ I mean, M.I.A is Beyond Amazing, But I don’t think that Arular is even half the album that Kala is and of course that is because she brought in Big Time Producers and all that, but M.I.A as a Singer/Rapper/Producer/Programmer <— She learned and got better at all of those things over the years in between those albums, but NOT ONE LIST HAD KALA, Just Arular Because It Is Cooler & More Hip To Say So & I Think Modest Mouse Made No Lists Because Of The Same Thing.. It’s Just Ridiculous. I am going to start a Music Blog & I am going to put the time, dedication and money behind it to get it into peoples heads and I will not bow down to what others think I should think. It is really getting pathetic at this point. HE DREAMS AWAKE Better Be In The Top 10 Of The Next Decade’s Lists~ If they want weird, unique, completely different in shape/sound/structure – That is where HDAWAKE Prevails by Landslides~

I MAY BE INSANE, BUT IT IS A BEAUTIFUL & BRILLIANT INSANITY.. AT LEAST THAT’S WHAT I TELL MYSELF WHEN I’M TRYING TO FALL ASLEEP ;P

HERE IS THE PITCHFORK TOP 20 OF THE LAST DECADE

Top Album Of The Decade

PASTE’S 50 BEST ALBUMS OF THE DECADE

NME’S 50 GREATEST OF THE LAST 10 YEARS

UNCUT’S TOP 20 ALBUMS OF THE ’00s

I HAD ACTUALLY LET UNCUT SLIP PAST ME & THEIR TOP 20 IS BETTER THAN HORRIBLE~ I WOULD TAKE THE TWO TOP 20’s OVER BOTH TOP 50 LISTS COMBINED TO A DESERTED ISLAND FOR THE REST OF MY OWN ETERNITY, NOT SAYING THAT WOULD BE EVEN DECENT, BUT IT WOULD DEFINITELY BE…… BETTER THAN NOTHING (i think)~

LET’S HOPE NOSTRADAMUS WAS WRONG ABOUT 2012 ALONG WITH THAT GROUP OF HARDCORE CHRISTIANS!!

ONE LAST THING.. ONE BIG ASS QUESTION: WHERE THE F#@K IS ELLIOTT SMITH’S FROM A BASEMENT ON A HILL??!!!!!!!!!  IT DIDN’T MAKE ONE SINGLE LIST AND IT HAS A FEW OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONGS EVER WRITTEN AND HE IS TALKING ABOUT PURE PAIN AND FRUSTRATION BECAUSE HE STUCK A F#@KING KNIFE IN HIS HEART BEFORE HE EVEN RELEASED IT. IT WAS A DOUBLE ALBUM AND IT BELONGS ON ALL 4 OF THOSE LISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT THE F#CK EVER~

Well, NME are near the Top of the BEST MUSIC WEBSITES for a reason and have once again given us a glimpse into their minds with their(DUH DUH DUH!!!!!)

LIST OF THE 50 GREATEST ALBUMS OF THE DECADE~ I hate to say it, but I am going to make my first Proclamation as a Music Blogger = This is THE LIST THAT MISSED!!

I Don’t Know If I Agree With The TOP 10 & I am going to check out the #1 Pick again to make sure that I completely disagree~

This Is About YOU THOUGH, SO GO AHEAD & CH-CH-CH-CHECK IT OUT —–>  Stereogum’s 50 Greatest Albums Of The ’00s

If Nothing Else, There Should Have Been AT LEAST ONE ALBUM BY A CERTAIN BAND WHO I BELIEVE IS THE GREATEST AMERICAN ROCK BAND OF THE LAST 13 YEARS

(Funny Number I Know, But That Is How Long They Have Been Putting Out Albums)  – I mean, even if you are part of the crowd that believes they “Sold Out,” Their 3rd Album & The First Of The Thousands SHOULD BE IN THERE, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. I will write more soon enough, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet and I know how pi$$ed I can get if there is a Massive Spoiler in something I am reading about something that I am about to Hear, Watch, See or Read  (Does that make sense?! Just think about it 

Woo Hoo!!  My 2nd PoST~!!

Respect~

Cheers~

xo

KNiFA

Elliott Smit no Bandejão!

Hoje a programação foi feita por Raphael De Angeli que começou com músicas mais calminhas até chegar no terceiro bloco onde, com exclusividade, foi apresentada a nova música do NOFX, lançada na última quarta-feira em um EP homônimo. E no Bandejão Receita teve muito samba de qualidade com João Nogueira! Curta a playlist:

1 Bloco

Los Hermanos – Mais uma canção

Bright Eyes – First Day of my life

Elliot Smith – Angeles

The Fratellis – Vince the loveable stoner

Cursive – From the Hips

Sondre Lerche – My hands are shaking

The Strokes – Last Night

2 Bloco

Monsters of Folk – Say Please

Vampire Weekend – A-punk

White Stripes – Fell in love with a girl

Wilco – I´m a wheel

Pavement – Date with Ikea

Garotas Suecas – Difícil de domar

3 Bloco

NOFX – Cokie the Clown

Rancid – Last One to die

Bad religion – New Dark Ages

Misfits – Last Caress

Blink 182 – Dumpweed

Dropkick Murphys – I´m Shipping out to Boston

Dead Fish – Contra Todos

Raimundos – I saw you saying

4 Bloco – Bandejão Receita João Nogueira

O bamba João Nogueira.

O Receita de hoje foi em homenagem ao carioca, compositor e sambista João Nogueira. Um dos mais ilustres integrantes da Portela criou também o Clube do Samba, um grupo voltado para preservar o carnaval de rua carioca e os sambistas que apareciam na época. As preciosidades abaixo:

Pimenta do vatapá

Malandro do JB

Espelho

Súplica

Enganadora

Nó na madeira

Poder da Criação

Mineira

Editor’s Note: “Underground Nashville” covers artists, authors, musicians, poets, political figures, and other compelling people and happenings not typically covered by the mainstream Nashville media. It also presents reflections and commentary from an underground/indie perspective. As I told ‘The Tennessean’ in 2008, “since moving to Nashville twenty-five years ago, I have met people whose lives do not remotely reflect the caricature of what many outside our city presume to be a Nashvillian” or the Nashville experience. “Underground Nashville” thus explores the soul of the city, not its surface—offering “thoughts from the shadows of a great American city.”

Dave Carew

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As we move toward Thanksgiving, please do not forget those less fortunate than you. The Nashville Rescue Mission just released a statement declaring “about 5,000 people will find their way here on Thanksgiving Day alone.” To make sure they receive love, friendship, and a comforting meal, please call (615) 255-2475 or visit Nashvillerescuemission.org.  Thank you.

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Lightning 100 gets it exactly right . . . except . . .

by Dave Carew

So my friend and I are hunched over a cup of coffee at Fido, and he suddenly looks up, as if the entire weight of the world were on him.

“Anything wrong?” I say.

“No . . . it’s just that I don’t get it.”

“Get . . . ?”

“This thing about Lightning 100,” he says. “I mean, here’s a station that’s EASILY one of the best in the country. I should know. I’ve lived a lot of places, right? Heard a lot of pretty cool rock radio. And I’ve never heard anything that TOUCHES this station. I mean, before I came here, I had this very distorted view of Nashville. Very skewed view, based on TV and movies and what-not. And I come here and…it’s totally different. And I remember—very clearly—the first time I heard Lightning 100 I was like…man, this is way cool. It was, like, my intro to the real Nashville.”

“So what’s bothering you?”

“Basically….how can the coolest station on the planet NOT play tracks by the best singer/songwriter of the last decade, Elliott Smith?”

David M. (Dave) Carew is editor of “Underground Nashville” and the author of the novels “Everything Means Nothing to Me: A Novel of Underground Nashville” and “Voice from the Gutter.”

A: I had tender feelings that you made hard / But it’s your heart, not mine, that’s scarred / So when I go home, I’ll be happy to go / You’re just somebody that I used to know

A’: You don’t need my help anymore / It’s all now to you, there ain’t no before / Now that you’re big enough to run your own show / You’re just somebody that I used to know

A”: I watched you deal in a dying day / And throw a living past away / So you can be sure that you’re in control / You’re just somebody that I used to know

A”’: I know you don’t think you did me wrong / And I can’t stay this mad for long / Keeping a hold of what you just let go / You’re just somebody that I used to know

[note: a line of text is considered a phrase up until the backslash in the lyrics above...]

Great, Dylanesque (you KNEW I was going to say that) little song with a purely C major diatonic melody (i.e. doesn’t stray outside the pitch collection or scale of the key, not even for a single not) that has some cool chord changes. The first 8-bar phase (“I had tender feelings that you made hard,” for example, but each subsequent verse as well) in each 32-bar section is abbreviated by two bars, while the third phrase of each section (i.e. “now that you’re big enough to run your show” in the first section) picks up those extra two bars. It adds a bit of formal interest to an otherwise straightforward song. That little melodic twist at the end of each second phrase (i.e. “scarred,” “before,” “away” in the second phrases of each section), A-B-A-G, and the way he delivers it, is alone worth the price of admission. Check out the arpeggiated diminished triad in each third phrase: the bass hits F – A-flat – B before stepping up to C and down to G (V7). It’s Dylanesque lyrically as well, kind of in a “It Ain’t Me Babe” or “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” way. Anyway, just listen.

Album info: Figure 8 (2000)

You broke your own because you can’t finish what you start
Nobody broke your heart
If you’re alone it must be you that wants to be apart

Elliott Smith – Alameda (Either/Or, 1997)

1) Adoro os barulhos feitos com o teclado e os sintetizadores

2) Adoro a voz do Jason Lytle e seu “sotaque paulista” quando canta “You don’t have to be alone anymorrrrrrrrrre”

3) Adoro quando eles no meio do álbum dão a louca e tocam punk rock descompromissado e sem regras.

4) Adoro eles não terem estilo definido. Caminham por diversas vertentes.

5) Adoro o fato deles terem feito turnê com o Elliott Smith em 2000. =P

Só tem uma coisa que eu odeio neles: Eles acabaram com a banda em 2006. Detalhe que eu escrevi no plural, mas o Jason Lytle é o líder da banda e provável responsável pela maior parte do trabalho. Não é a toa que seu álbum solo é tão bom quanto os álbuns do Grandaddy. Banda mais subestimada dos anos 2000! Entraram pra minha seleta lista das queridinhas.

I’ve had this song in my head all freakin’ day! All because I watched Good Will Hunting a couple of nights ago, which truly fantastic film by the way! This video isn’t the greatest quality, but I really like the arrangement so I figured I’d share!

The passing of Elliott Smith still makes me sad to this day. His music is an inspiration, and he seemed like such an incredible person who I would have loved to have been able to meet.

.

“I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that seems more important than something designed to raise money to keep something going that keeps IV drug users from dying.”
Elliott Smith

Check out the Yellow Bird Project tee designed by Rilo Kiley. All profits go to another charity Elliott Smith always wanted to create- one to help heal children who are abused through the arts called Free Arts for Abused Children

hello!

Here is the second of two covers we planned for this year; our version of the unreleased Elliott Smith tune “Let’s Turn The Record Over.” To say that Elliott is one of our musical heroes would be an understatement. It was great fun to work on this cover.

The original version of the song can be heard here.

And here’s our version:
Let’s Turn The Record Over (Elliott Smith Cover)

Saturday was my first day at the races.  It was the Breeder’s Cup, which I’m told is the biggest day at the races, worldwide.  All those fantastic feathered hats I’ve refused myself over the years finally would have proved useful.  Or, one of them would have.  I bet approximately 5% of the face value of my exorbitant (gifted) ticket and lost every penny.  Betting by alliteration is as bad a strategy as it sounds.  (Unfortunately, you bet by horse number, so my exacta box on Courageous Cat and Cowboy Cal was a private joy.)  In race 5, I bet on Radiohead to win, obvs.  Then for the big purse I bet against the undefeated mare Zenyatta, favored for a historic win in a field of boys.  I deserved to lose, on behalf of women of all species.

After a Maker’s Mark (a necessary nod to the Derby) and some number of glasses of champagne, I weaseled out of my Saturday night plans, crashed before 10pm and slept 11 hours.

Sunday I met my book club in Barnsdall Park where a closing event for the Silver Lake Art Crawl was underway.  The food trucks had gathered, but Coolhaus was not serving its roasted pear ice cream.  Midway through our discussion, I saw lostandgone in the distance, with a woman I recognized from behind only from his Facebook.  (Damn you, social networking!)  She seems like someone I’d like, not that it matters.  “Did you see someone you used to know?,” I heard, fearing I’d blanched, but it was a book-related comment twisted by my distracted mind.

That cosmic DJ thing happened on my drive home when Anne Litt played a cover of Hank Williams’ “Wedding Bells” followed by the Rolling Stones’ “Angie.”  It was the only logical thing to load Elliott Smith’s XO and listen to “Pitseleh” half a dozen times.

I got home, returned lostandgone’s call, and told him that I didn’t want to hang out again.  I hoped for protest, explication, plea but settled for the usual “ok” and an indication that I’m not the only casualty of his retreat.

I marked the event by barhopping alone.  Last night I gave out a card, got an e-mail address, and received a text message that said, “Next time I really want to kiss you.”  This morning I told my friend I must be sending off vibes that I’m lostandgone-free.  She said they are “Fuck you, lostandgone!” vibes.  Well, good.  Fuck you!  (And I wish I could reach you!  Still.)

And of course lostandgone found me in the coffee shop, moments after I’d saved the above.  Awkward convo across a chasm, but liberating.  Zenyatta came from the back of the pack on Saturday, cut inside, found a hole, and burst out the front.  A role model.  I have cut loose and am sailing ahead.

WORD

actuate [ak-choo-eyt] v. 1. to incite or move to action; impel; motivate: actuated by selfish motives 2. to put into action; start a process; turn on: to actuate a machine

BIRTHDAY

Benjamin Banneker (1731), Elijah P. Lovejoy (1802), Ed Wynn (1886), Hedy Lamarr (1914), Sargent Shriver (1915), Choi Hong Hi (1918), Spiro Agnew (1918), Dorothy Dandridge (1923), Carl Sagan (1934), Lou Ferrigno (1951), Sandra “Pepa” Denton (1964), Scarface (1970), David Duval (1971), Big Punisher (1971), Nick Lachey (1973), Joe C. (1974), Sisqó (1978)

STANDPOINT

Man. It’s been a while so I’ve got copious notes on shit I need to unleash on. Where to start?

In the spirit of getting myself readjusted to this blog at the proper rate, I’ll only offer this today.

A few weeks ago, comedian Louis CK went on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and, in a little over four minutes, explained the root of what’s wrong with most everything.

Watch the video. Think to yourself, “Is he talking about me?”

If you think he may be describing you, the answer is probably, “Yes.”

If you think he is definitely not describing you, the answer is assuredly, “Yes.”

Now, I know it is just a guy sitting on a couch, venting in an attempt to entertain, but he’s summed it up, people. Whether you realize it or not.

The Age of Entitlement is most definitely upon us. It is evident in absolutely everything everyone of us thinks, says and does every minute of every day.

“Everything is so amazing and no one is happy.” True Story.

QUOTATION

You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. → Jim Bouton

TUNE

All of us, at one point or another in our lives, will come to a place that truly sucks. It’s inevitable. Some songs can lessen the pain, if you truly want it to. “Wash Away (Reprise)” by Joe Purdy has, from time to time, been one of those songs for me. Use it at your own discretion. And enjoy.

GALLIMAUFRY

→ For those of you on Facebook who are among the group graced enough to call themselves childless, you’ll probably get a kick out STFU, Parents. Most of you parents will probably like it, too. After all, not all of you are bat-shit crazy. But there are more than a few/dozen of you.

→ To the girl at the bar a few nights back who told me Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman was “awful,” I’m happy to report you’re wrong. Which I pretty much assumed was the case after your 15-minute tirade detailing the Elliott Smith-Ben Folds conspiracy I’m sure only exists in the recesses of the crazy-ass world in your head.  

→ Lastly, I’d like to thank all of you who’ve sent me emails, asking me to restart this blog. I really appreciate it. I sincerely missed doing it. Also, if this post appears clumsy, I promise you, I’ll get back in the swing of it. After the long break, it was difficult deciding what to include. I’ll work it out. Come back tomorrow for some more.

* * * Buena * * *

Año: 2007
Idiomas: Inglés
Director: Gus Van Sant
Género: Drama
La ví en: Paraninfo UJI

Avance:

Yo:

Algunas escenas son muy largas, rayadas, y no involucran al espectador. Me recordó de mala manera a Elephant. Creo que Gus la fuerza mucho a veces con la longitud de ciertas escenas.

Me gustó el orden no lineal y la mayoría de las escenas en cámara lenta, sobretodo la de las manos en el autobús. También me gustó el personaje principal. Creo que su inexpresividad era completamente intencional.

La banda sonora es variada. Tengo que recordarme de dedicarle un tiempo al material de Elliott Smitt

Recursos:

es.wikipedia en.wikipedia IMDB Rottentomatoes Metacritic Allmovie

Though I’ve lived in London for a decade, it was only this year that I finally joined the BFI and made an effort to attend the London Film Festival. Even when a colleague saw the original cut of Miike’s Ichii The Killer (which he maintains is far superior to the really quite tedious UK cut included on this DVD), I was not compelled to try. If the giddy joy I experienced this year is anything to go by, mark me down as a fool for not trying earlier. I’ve not been this excited about a cultural event since 2000, when Scott Walker’s Meltdown festival on London’s Southbank featured Smog, Jim O’Rourke, Elliott Smith, Jarvis Cocker, and the unforgettable Fuckhead, all in the same week.

Perhaps I’m most excited as the movies I saw were, for the most part, extremely good, not to mention impossible to see in the UK any time soon. Enter The Void, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Les regrets, White Material, Extract, Metropia and Valhalla Rising don’t have release dates yet, and some of the others are coming out slowly. The Men Who Stare At Goats is out now, with The Informant!, Un prophète, We Live in Public, and Up In The Air rolling out over the next couple of months. Getting a jump on some of these was essential, as I plan to spend the rest of the year catching up with as many movies as possible before the traditional end of year Shades of Caruso Listmania! event happens. At the moment I think I have my top ten sorted, though there are still a couple of yet-to-be-released films that could crack the list. We shall see.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Jacques Audiard’s Un prophète is on my list. Newcomer Tahar Rahim — in one of the performances of the year — plays Malik El Djebena, an Arabic youth with a troubled past who is sent to prison for six years after assaulting a police officer. Though he is intent on keeping his head down, Malik’s stay is complicated by the arrival of an Arab prisoner (Reyeb – Hichem Yacoubi) who is to testify against Corsican gangster César Luciani (played like a kind of corpulent and manipulative spider/crook hybrid by the amazing Niels Arestrup). The Godfather-esque crime boss cannot approach Reyeb, who is surrounded by Arab prisoners, and so enlists Malik upon pain of death. The young boy has no choice but to kill Reyeb, leading to his estrangement from his brethren. Even worse, he is treated like a servant by the Corsican gang. Humiliated, powerless, and haunted by the murder he has committed, Malik begins to plan his revenge, but first he must better himself, consolidating allies and resources during his six year sentence.

After I stumbled from the screening, my jaw scraping along the floor like a broken fender, I found it impossible not to compare Un prophète to De Palma’s Scarface, but please don’t take that as a comment on the quality of Audiard’s film. Even as a fan of early career De Palma, the appeal of Scarface has baffled me for decades — it has struck me as one of his most misjudged films, half deathly serious cautionary tale, half gaudy semi-parodic nonsense. The one or two good setpieces are surrounded by kitsch, madness, and a horribly pitched central performance from some kind of demon who resembles mid-80s Al Pacino but can’t possibly be him because that kind of roaring caricature didn’t show up in his filmography until the 90s. If it was a demon taking Al Pacino’s place in Scarface, I reckon the name of the demon is Hooahhh, and is a distant relative of Pazuzu.

Nevertheless, the similarities are there. Tony Montana and Malik El Djebena are immigrants who fall foul of the law and find their calling while in “prison” (actual for Malik, symbolic for Montana, who is kept in a camp for Cuban immigrants with criminal backgrounds in Florida). They both kill to get out of their tough situation, and undergo baptisms of blood (Montana in the notorious chainsaw scene, Malik in the soon-to-be-notorious razorblade seduction scene). They start off as enforcers but climb their way to the top using ruthlessness, opportunism, and pluck. There is even a straight homage later in the film, as Malik and his colleague Ryad are given the job of eliminating an associate of Luciani, a job which begins to go wrong almost immediately and ends with Malik taking matters into his own hands. Compare this to a similar scene in Scarface as Montana resists killing a Bolivian anti-government activist with a bomb. Despite being shot in similar styles, there are deviations. Malik’s decisions don’t doom him the way they do Montana, and both films have very different endings: there is no “Say hello to my leetle fren!” craziness in Un prophète. The most dramatic and satisfying moment in the final act is played out silently, and manages to be even more emotionally resonant than Montana’s final stand.

Audiard’s style couldn’t be further from De Palma’s, yet he generates far more cumulative power and tension through careful use of pace and composition. His only concession to stylistic excess comes with Malik’s dreams/hallucinations, as he is visited and advised by the ghost of Reyeb, who gives him glimpses of the future that, at least once, save his life. The fantastical touches are scattered so lightly through the film that they barely register. Compare that to De Palma’s near-insane overkill, all long takes, flashy Hitchcock references, and crash-zooming. In many of his other movies that’s just fine, but Scarface always looked like a red-tinged mess, and now — when compared to the spartan aesthetic of Audiard’s instant classic — it looks even sillier.

Plus, while De Palma and writer Oliver Stone liked to play up Scarface’s depiction of the American Dream gone awry in an attempt to add inject profundity into what would be more acceptable as an out-and-out exploitation flick, Audiard and his co-screenwriters (Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri and Nicolas Peufaillit) touch on enough uncomfortable aspects of modern French life that — as Dafri explained prior to the screening — many politicians have used the movie to score points against their opponents. French prisons are notoriously overcrowded, and relations between French natives and Islamic immigrants are fractious, so a movie which deals so frankly with both issues is bound to be explosive. No matter how much Audiard protests that his movie has no message, the backdrop of his crime drama is portrayed vividly enough that it’s hard not to take the film as an indictment of the system as it stands. Scarface’s message about the corrupting effect of greed on the human soul was crushed under tons of tacky sludge, and amounts to little. Here, Audiard tells the story of one young man bettering himself (at the expense of others, sadly), and speaks volumes about contemporary racial and economic politics in Europe. Everyone who adores De Palma’s movie should do everything they can to check out Un prophète, because this is how it’s done.

Attending so many movies in such a short space of time left me greatly fatigued and mildly ill. Like some kind of Vitamin B injection, Audiard’s crime thriller gave me a burst of energy that lasted until I saw Cédric Kahn’s Les regrets. Kahn was responsible for L’ennui, one of my favourite films about sexual obsession. Adapted from a novel by Alberto Moravio, L’ennui depicts a philosophy teacher (Charles Berling) who falls for a young woman (Sophie Guillemin) to such an extent that his life falls apart as he pursues her, oblivious to her dark past. His efforts to stalk her and keep her interested in him become frantic, though as the object of his desire seems utterly unmoved by his devotion, there is a poignancy there too. It’s a memorable portrait of a man made into a fool by his desire.

Sadly, Les regrets feels like a retread of the same themes. Whereas the earlier film is an adaptation, here Kahn directs his own screenplay. Architect Mathieu (Yvan Attal) returns to his childhood home while visiting his dying mother, and accidentally encounters the former love of his life, Maya, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (who spookily resembles Virginia Madsen). Though married to another architect with whom he owns a small company, Mathieu is compelled to sleep with Maya in an attempt to make right what once went wrong. At first Mathieu seems to be fighting against his urges, but it’s not long before his desire for Maya takes control of him, and he jeopardises his marriage and his career. Maya is similarly afflicted, unable to resist her attraction to her former lover, until eventually she realises that Mathieu’s obsession will destroy both of their lives. Though she recovers a little, Mathieu is too far gone, and his actions doom him.

Les regrets is not without its pleasures. The three leads — Attal, Bruni Tedeschi, and Arly Jover as Mathieu’s neglected wife Lisa — are all wonderful, balancing on a line between absurdity and pathos with skill. Several scenes are simultaneously farcical and gutwrenching, with Mathieu and Maya racing around France to grab brief moments together, their desperate lovemaking becoming more passionate but less intimate. Late in the film Mathieu finally meets Maya’s daughter — a figure who has been mentioned but never seen — and yet this sobering collision does nothing to stop him, so determined is he to reclaim Maya’s love. Those regrets, those lost years, drive both characters to self-destructive lengths, and every so often Kahn captures a moment of panic or lust that perfectly reflects that experience and our own desire to turn back the clock and make things right with those we once loved, all while satirising the awful selfishness of these middle-class idiots who only occasionally give a damn about anyone else in their lives. The final ambiguous scene is especially damning.

Nevertheless, this feels more like a variation on a theme than a movie on its own, and as I’ve only seen once of Kahn’s movies it was especially disappointing. Perhaps if I had seen one of his thrillers (Roberto Succo or Feux rouges) this similarity would have seemed less bothersome, and certainly the stakes aren’t as high as in L’ennui, but the scenes of Attal and Bruni Tedeschi racing around to arrange one of their trysts were too familiar. Plus, I’m sure Kahn intended to make his protagonists so unlikeable, but for much of the movie the tone wavers between romantic tragedy and satire. Daisyhellcakes is convinced the movie is making fun of French erotic cinema, right down to the stolen moments of passion, the agonising and sub-poetic exhortations of love, and the overheated final act with characters passing out from stress and exploding with erotic rage. It certainly has its share of funny moments, but as a cultural visitor and heathen with only a passing knowledge of French cinema, I can’t help but feel that I was laughing at the tragedy and feeling empathy during the comedy.

These reservations are, of course, entirely subjective. Consider Les regrets recommended, especially if you’ve not yet seen L’ennui, though I’d say that’s still the superior movie. Of course, similarity to other films isn’t really a killing blow. There was one other film we saw that was heavily indebted to another, but this film was inspired enough to add iguanas, abuse of the elderly, and an uncanny — and entirely random —  impression of Ed Sullivan. More to follow…

Haven’t laughed this hard in a long time
I better stop now before I start crying
Go off to sleep in the sunshine
I don’t want to see the day when it’s dying
She’s a sight to see (sight to see)
She’s good to me (good to me)
But I’m already somebody’s baby
She’s a pretty thing
And she knows everything
But I’m already somebody’s baby
You don’t deserve to be lonely
But those drugs you’ve got won’t make you feel better
Pretty soon you’ll find it’s the only
Little part of your life you’re keeping together
I’m nice to you
I could make it through
But you’re already somebody’s baby
I could make you smile
If you stayed a while
But how long will you stay with me, baby?
Because your candle burns too bright
Well I almost forgot it was twilight
Even if I think that you are right
Well I’m tired of being down, I got no fight
You’re wonderful
And it’s beautiful
But I’m already somebody’s baby
And if I went with you
I’d disappoint you too
Well I’m already somebody’s baby
Already somebody’s baby

I saw him play at First Avenue back in the day. He was an open wound.

[shorties]

Just a few impressions.

I took the Pictures while walkin’ around with my knees nearly touching the ground. Must have been looking funny.

So, now have a nice day, or listen to Mr. Elliott Smith.

I proudly present Mr Elliott Smith. God bless him.

Schinkem.