Pophistory: music, movies, history, and life.
This new video from Slate illustrates how a movie director can dramatize a monologue through the use of camera movement. In the video, Alisha Harris narrates several examples, including clips from movies such as Citizen Kane (1941), Night of the Hunter (1955), and Forrest Gump (1994).
[2024 Update: Unfortunately, Slate’s video is not presently available.]
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(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
It is that time of year where schools feature ceremonies where older and wiser people come to talk to the graduating students to tell them about life. Some are boring, many are good, but few are great and memorable. Even fewer touch people who did not even attend the graduation. One such great address came from the late author David Foster Wallace.
On May 21, 2005 on a sunny warm day, Wallace gave the commencement address at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Some students had worked to help bring him to the school. But Wallace had been reluctant for several months about whether to accept the offer to speak.
Wallace had been anxious about speaking in front of a large crowd, referring to it as “the big scary ceremony.” He was still nervous on the day of his speech, but he ultimately gave one of the most memorable commencement addresses ever.
Not surprisingly, in his address, Wallace avoided inspirational platitudes. Instead, he used the opportunity to try to get down to the core of living life as an educated person. At the same time, he admitted he had no “Truths,” but his speech was inspiring nevertheless.
The speech has been called the “This is Water” address because Wallace begins with a story about two young fish who encounter an old fish who asks, “How’s the water?” One of the young fish asks the other, “What the hell is water?”
Wallace then used the story to explore how humans naturally are self-centered creatures. He then explained how we need to learn to see obvious things that are around us. For example,
“[I]f you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you want to consider.
“If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
“Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.”
Of course, Wallace is much better at explaining it than I am. So, the whole speech is worth reading or listening to below.
In retrospect, some of the speech is haunting, because Wallace at one point talked about suicide in the speech. He would kill himself a little more than three years later on September 12, 2008. He was 46.
Wallace was surprised when his words spread around the Internet, as he had not even given Kenyon a copy of his speech. But the speech was transcribed from recordings at least twice (by a Kenyon student and a student from a neighboring college) and sent around the Internet. The speech was eventually published as This is Water. The audio is also available. Check it out.
One thing I take from the speech is that Wallace is talking about learning empathy, although he does not use that term. It is true that education helps us perceive how others view the world and improves our ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. Despite Wallace’s own tragic end only about three years later in September 2008, his speech is inspiring and uplifting.
Of course, we learn empathy from a number of sources, including novels, memoirs, movies, and music. When you watch a great movie, think about whether it is enlightening you about empathy, and I suspect that you will find that many great films like Casablanca (1942) and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) do just that.
You may also think of songs that provide similar lessons in much shorter doses. Pretty much any blues song fits in this category. More recently, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams touched on a similar theme in “When I Look at the World.”
Williams’s song that starts out with the singer taking a view of the world from her own perspective, as Wallace discusses. Then, she changes her perspective when she looks at the world.
Below, Williams performs “When I Look at the World” from her excellent album Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone (2014) at KXT Live Sessions.
Next time you think about yourself, take a look at the world and think about what lessons you can take from the writers, books, friends, movies, and music that surrounds you. “I look at the world / And it’s a different story each time I look at the world.”
What do you think of David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” commencement address? Leave your two cents in the comments. Fish photo via pubic domain at pdpics.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
In the new movie Love & Mercy (2015), director Bill Pohlad takes the unusual approach to use two different actors to convey the complexity of the genius of Beach Boys singer-songwriter Brian Wilson. And surprisingly, it works very well.
Of course, the technique can only work if the actors are up to the task, and both Paul Dano and John Cusack give outstanding career performances in Love & Mercy. Dano has always been good of portraying some level of madness, but his portrayal of Wilson is much more subtle than Dano’s over-the-top craziness in There Will Be Blood (2007). It also was surprising how much Dano looks like a young Brian Wilson given the right hair. While John Cusack does not really look like Brian Wilson, his performance is surprising in his portrayal of vulnerability without his usual “I-know-more-than-everyone-else” winking. The supporting cast is also outstanding, including Elizabeth Banks in one of her best performances and the always wonderful Paul Giamatti.
Love & Mercy features two story arcs intertwined, tracing Wilson’s descent into drugs and mental illness through Dano in one story while also telling the ascent of Wilson’s recovery and escape from the control of Dr. Eugene Landy (Giamatti) through Cusack’s Wilson. Through the stories, we also see Wilson’s torment from an abusive father and an abusive therapist. But his tragedy and triumph are also about the music, and some of the most interesting parts of the film show Wilson in the studio, creating the brilliant Beach Boys album Pet Sounds and struggling to create the follow-up album Smile.
Conclusion? If you are interested in the history of rock music or in movies about tortured genius, you may find that Love & Mercy is one of the best rock biopics in recent years. If you do not trust me, Rotten Tomatoes has an 88% critics rating and a 96% audience rating for the film.
Bonus Trivia: The title of the film is taken from the song “Love & Mercy” from Wilson’s 1988 self-titled solo album
Since Brian Wilson is still alive, one may wonder how difficult it must be for him to watch a movie about his struggles. If you are interested in what he thinks, in a recent NPR interview, Wilson discussed the movie and how some parts are difficult for him to watch. He also talked about his new album No Pier Pressure and his favorite Beach Boy song, which also happens to be my favorite, “God Only Knows.”
What did you think of Love & Mercy? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
Cinemash recently re-imagined the upcoming Batman versus Superman movie as being made with an old-school Superman (Christopher Reeve) and Batman (Adam West). While like everyone else I am eagerly anticipating Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) with Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck, it would be pretty cool to see the full movie version of this trailer too.
It is also interesting to contemplate how dark our superhero movies have become in the recent decade and why. Seeing this trailer really highlights the differences from an earlier time. Check out the trailer for Batman v Superman (Retro Version).
If you like spoilers, for a recently revealed synopsis of the real Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, head over to Collider.
Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)
I have long been a fan of the work of singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne (as well as that of her sister Allison Moorer). So, today’s song of the day is Lynne’s “Down Here” from Lynne’s latest album, I Can’t Imagine (2015). In the bluesy song, Lynne channels her childhood growing up in Alabama where she felt a bit different.
In “Down Here,” the singer recounts how in her “dark Dixie closet” it is difficult to live with a secret that others might not accept. The song implicitly tackles subjects like discrimination and homophobia. Lynne explained to Rolling Stone that the goal of the song is to reach out to kids who may be facing such discrimination, telling them that they are not alone.
In the video below, Lynne performs “Down Here” from I Can’t Imagine
What do you think of “Down Here”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)