If There Is Much In The Window There Should Be More In The Room

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Moulin Rouge - El Tango de Roxanne



 




This is a song from the 2001 Baz Luhrman musical tragic comedy "Moulin Rouge", a fantastic movie about truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, love. With much of its content and its execution, it obviously belongs in pop-culture but it is also, quite a literary film, inasmuch as many of the ideas that shape it have a long literary history, something that probably goes overlooked by most of Hollywood. Perhaps the juxtaposition of unconventional style, techniques, objectives, etc. with such a conventional story, is that which frees the audience’s attention to focus on these other things, as well as the other levels in the film.

 



This one starts off with a classical guitar picked by Jose Feliciano himself, builds in trembling violins, a faintly massaged piano, and a section of strings being picked. 

The rhythm of the tango is clear from the first, but when Jacek Koman, playing the narcoleptic Argentinian, stops his muttering and sings--practically growls--that first line like a grizzly baritone possessed by Lucifer, it is clear: this is not The Police you're listening to, and Sting is not making an appearance. Ewan McGregor also gets a chance to show off his pipes, hitting beautifully high notes that accent the top of his range. 

Just when you thought you'd heard it all, everyone comes in together, a chorus overlaying Ewan McGregor's passionate wide-open high notes, and Jacek Koman's rumbling voice driving underneath it. A bass drum reminiscent of When the Levee Breaks pounds furiously, bringing the song to a anxious conclusion--though all the characters have poured out their souls, nothing is resolved, and that is as it should be.



 


The tango sequence also serves as the film’s emotional climax, bringing together all the elements of the story and holding them in stark contrast to each other.  Satine’s world has been turned gray reflecting the emptiness she feels with the duke.  Christian’s world is full of reds and blacks showing his burning love tainted by jealousy.  The Argentine tells the real story, his gritty voice singing the theme, “With no trust there can be no love, jealousy will drive you mad.”

 
While this sequence serves to advance the plot as well, its main purpose is to express feeling and emotion, and to draw parallels with the sub-textual triangle of art, sex, and commerce.










*everything2
*myliteraryquest
* Geocities 





Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Dante's Inferno Test - Impurity, Sin, and Damnation

http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv

Dante's Inferno Hell Test is based on Dante's Divine Comedy, written in the early 1300s by Dante Alighieri






A heavy thunder breaks the deep lethargy within your head....

...causing you to upstart suddenly, like a person who by force is awakened. Before you stands an enormous gate with an inscription that reads:





"Through me the way into the suffering city,

Through me the way to the eternal pain,

Through me the way that runs among the lost.

Justice urged on my high artificer;

My maker was divine authority,

The highest wisdom, and the primal love.

Before me nothing but eternal things were made,

And I endure eternally.

Abandon every hope, ye who enter here."







Welcome to the Dante's Inferno Hell Test. This test, sponsored by the 4degreez.com community, is based on the description of Hell found in Dante's Divine Comedy. Answer the questions below as honestly as you can and discover your fate. Based on your answers, your purity will be judged and you will be banished to the appropriate level of hell. Abandon all hope.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Philip Glass - Escape (The Hours OST)






Philip Glass - Escape! (The Hours OST)







It is impossible to imagine this movie without the music, and the music without the movie.

The music of Philip Glass has the emotional depth and honesty; the sadness and enlightenment it provides is truly revolutionary.

The Hours is the original soundtrack album, on the Elektra/Nonesuch label, of the 2002 Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning film The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman (who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as "Virginia Woolf" in this film), Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. The original score were composed by Philip Glass.

The album won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (lost to the score of the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers).

Piano by Branka Parlic
5th of july 2005. synagogue, novi sad