Dreams Of Things In Between

1. Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride (4:26)
2. Manish Boys – Take My Tip (2:15)
3. The Bees – One Glass Of Water (2:40)
4. Johnny Kidd & The Pirates – Castin’ My Spell (2:22)
5. Irma Thomas – I Need Your Love So Bad (3:14)
6. Dusty Springfield – So Much Love (3:28 )
7. Roszetta Johnson – To Love Somebody (3:08 )
8. The Beatles – Do You Want To Know a Secret (1:59)
9. Roy Orbison – Yo Te Amo Maria (3:16)
10. Andy Iona – Naughty Hula Eyes (3:07)
11. Leon Payne – I Love You Because (2:44)
12. Free Design – Don’t Turn Away (3:54)
13. Tim Buckley – Happy Time (3:17)
14. Howard Tate – Get It While You Can (2:47)
15. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich – Here’s A Heart (3:30)
16. Music is teh SeXXorz (0:07)
17. The Mindbenders – Groovey Kind Of Love (2:00)
18. Fun & Games – The Way She Smiles (2:15)
19. Spanky & our Gang – 06 Anything You Choose/And She’s Mine (5:30)
20. The Monkees – Calico Girlfriend Samba (2:33)
21. The Zombies – I Love You (3:25)
22. The Peppermint Rainbow – Green Tamborine (2:23)
23. Harpers Bizarre – Green Apple Tree (2:22)
24. Joni Mitchell – All I Want (3:34)
25. Madeleine Peyroux & William Galison – J’Ai Deux Amours (3:17)
26. Edith Piaff – Chanson d’Amour (2:49)
27. Chantal Goya – Tu m’as trop menti (1:48 )
28. Feist – 1 2 3 4 (3:03)
29. Smokey Robinson – Cruisin’ (5:54)
30. Bedouin Soundclash – Rebel Rouser (6:46)
31. Madonna & Massive Attack – I Want You (6:23)

Directed by Jacques Rivette, 1974, France.

I remembered as a kid there was an old house that I would pass by. The windows were always dark, and I saw no one coming in or out of the house. If I let my imagination run wild, I might have thought the house was haunted. In Celine
and Julie Go Boating there is also an old house. But unlike me as a kid, Julie and Céline get to enter that old house, and from there a mystery unfolds.

Rivette’s film, about a shy librarian (Julie) and a cabaret performer (Celine), can be very confounding. Its circular narrative, use of repetition, and lack of exposition, can leave many heads scratching. But it all eventually comes together in a startlingly fantastic way.

The film is very much concerned with magic, memory and make-up (or masks) and how they are things of illusions, or trickery. Furthermore, the cinematic form is also a form of trickery – as well as a play, and a book, since they are a narrative constructs.

Also, the narrative form is essentially having unrelated things scattered about and picking them up and collecting them together (like when Julie picks up Celine’s dropped things in the opening chase). It’s also what Celine and Julie does when they encounter the mystery within the old house, by putting the fragments of what they encountered inside in order to get to the bottom of things. And that is also what the audience is asked to do when watching Celine and Julie Go Boating. The film is very meta-textual this way. And that’s what makes it brilliant.

Alas, the film isn’t without its flaws. Rivette sometimes employ improvisation, and I thought it was the weakest aspect of the film, since it was clearly evident to me when the actors were improvising. Involving the actors to be part of the writing of the film is great, but not when stops moving the story along, and detracts from the meta-textuality of the film, which I thought it did. Nevertheless the film’s strength lies in its inventiveness. It is a cinematic sleight of hand.

A toy-maker made a toy wife and a toy child. He made a toy house

and some toy years.

He made a getting-old toy, and he made a dying toy.

The toy-maker made a toy heaven and a toy god.

But, best of all, he liked making toy shit.

- by Russell Edson

Where do you find hope in a world where there is none? In The Road, hope is found in that of a child. And so it is that the child keeps the man struggling to survive—struggling for a piece of what’s left of the world that isn’t turned to ash the way everything else seems to be in this world of his. Everything that is good is in the child. His child.

The world has become a nightmare worse than any sleep could imagine. Like the world vomited within itself. It is a world where the sun can hardly be seen, where civilization has vanquished in the dark, and danger lies in that of roaming cannibals.

The man leads the child down a road. But it is the child that leads the man to live. There is nothing else in the world that matters. The child’s life, is that of his.

The Road is a fine book, but simple. A man and his child traveling down a road is much of what concerns the story, set in a post-apocalyptic setting. But it is that intimacy of father and son that sets the story apart. How they talk to each other, how the father best tries to take care of the last good thing in his life. Although sparse, the story is full of startling and often poetic imagery, conjuring up a lasting impression. It is exceptional that way.

1. T.Rex – Lady (2:13)
2. Cloud Cult – Pretty Eyes (3:38 )
3. Herbalizer – Song For Mary (5:16)
4. The Twilight Sad – That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy (4:48 )
5. +/- – This Is All (I Have Left) (3:27)
6. Miracle Fortress – Maybe Lately (3:13)
7. Arctic Monkeys – You Know I’m No Good (Amy Winehouse cover) (3:40)
8. The Bees – Listening Man (4:47)
9. Roy Orbison – Girl Like Mine (2:16)
10. Mike James Kirkland – Baby I Need Your Loving (The Four Tops cover) (3:34)
11. Music is teh SeXXorz (0:07)
12. Class – We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off (Jermaine Stewart cover) (3:56)
13. Dr. Dog – Heart It Races (Architecture in Helsinki cover) (3:53)
14. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Breathless (3:13)
15. Feist – I Feel It All (3:39)
16. Andrew Rodriguez – The Man Who Never Knows (4:14)
17. The Bicycles – I Will Appear for You (3:10)
18. Nellie McKay – Ding Dong (3:10)
19. Madeleine Peyroux – Dance Me To The End of Love (Leonard Cohen cover) (3:57)
20. Ray Charles – Hallelujah I Love Her So (2:33)
21. Bob Dylan – If Not For You (2:41)
22. Big Star – Nightime (2:52)
23. Bruce Springsteen – Reason To Believe (4:08 )
24. Jeremy Fisher – Jolene (3:08 )
25. Arcade Fire – Born On A Train (Live On KCRW, Magnetic Fields cover) (4:12)
26. The Concretes – Simple Song (4:05)

2006, directed by Michel Gondry

I am asleep. No, I am awake. This is how Stephane Miroux, the protagonist of The Science of Sleep, feels like. Not knowing if he’s in his dream world, or his waking life.

In his waking life, he moves to France and back to his old house with his mother. He even sleeps in the same bed as when he was a kid. He moves back because his mother has told him that she has a job lined up for him, which he later finds out it isn’t a creative job, which he finds boring and hates.

In his dreams, Stephane has a television show (called Stephane TV of course), he overthrows his boss at work, and writes a successful book among other things.
But this blurring of fantasy and reality isn’t without major consequences, as it has affected Stephane’s development as an adult. And this really reveals itself upon meeting, and subsequently falling in love with, his next-door neighbour, Stephanie.

Stephanie’s sense of play, with her collection of found and hand made toys, is the thing that attracts Stephane to her. But when the time comes for Stephane to behave like an adult so that the relationship can grow, he isn’t able to be that, and that’s what becomes destructive to Stephane and his relationship with Stephanie. Stephane’s childishness, while charming and humorous, is also immature, and a little pathetic at times. But because Gael Garcia Bernal, a likeable actor, plays Stephane, there wasn’t a point where I was turned off by Stephane’s antics. And I found myself relating to him, which may say a few things about my own maturity level.

But Stephane isn’t unaware of his childish behaviour, and actually does try to behave more adult, taking advice from his co-worker friend, but when he doesn’t succeed at it, it only hurts him more.

Ultimately what the film says, I think, is that when you seek freedom in your dreams, reality becomes more and more difficult. And it is sad when a dreamer can’t overcome that.

As you can see I made changes to the look of the blog as well as the title (formerly Good Night View). Why? I was a bit bored of the old look, and had intended to make changes earlier, but didn’t get around to it. The layout looks more cleaner now, plain and simple. It’s not much to look at, I know. No fancy banner like I had before, but it’s all about the content anyways, right? But if you miss the old banner, here is a cropped version of it.

1. Crustation – Purple (4:27)
2. Monsters Are Waiting – Ha Ha (3:33)
3. Aloha – Weekend (3:15)
4. The Little Ones – Lovers Who Uncover (4:12)
5. Pilate – Into Your Hideout (3:54)
6. The Bees – Hourglass (4:46)
7. Architecture In Helsinki – Do the Whirlwind (4:41)
8. Pretenders – Don’t Get Me Wrong (3:48 )
9. Feist – Lovers Spit (Black Session) (5:06)
10. Dogs Die In Hot Cars – Somewhat Off The Way (3:43)
11. U2 – Promenade (2:34)
12. Young Galaxy – The Golden Coin (3:42)
13. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues (3:58 )
14. The Smashing Pumpkins – Stand Inside Your Love (4:13)
15. Music is teh SeXXorz (0:07)
16. Alec Bathgate – Sad Eyed Lady (3:24)
17. The Fruit Bats – When U Love Somebody (4:31)
18. Built To Spill – I Try (Macy Gray cover) (5:35)
19. Clearlake – It’s Getting Light Outside (3:45)
20. Russian Futurists – Telegram From the Future (3:45)
21. Woodpigeon – If Only I Were a Painter, I’d Paint for You the Moon (3:04)
22. Bell X1 – West of Her Spine (3:19)
23. The Constantines – Soon Enough (Live) (3:53)
24. Jeff Tweedy – True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston cover) (4:36)

Directed by Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000, Thailand

Tears of the Black Tiger is seemingly influenced by many things: Spaghetti Westerns, romantic melodramas, and action movies, as well as Thailand’s own film and theatre tradition. And the film really is an homage, as well as parody of those genres, with a high camp value.

But the first thing that really got my attention was the film’s aesthetic. The film has a spectacular look to it, with its over- saturated colours and painted sets. And this is what ultimately elevates the story, which although entertaining, is very much rooted in its genre influence, which makes the story rather conventional.

Also the soundtrack, with its blend of Western type music, and Thai pop songs, really adds to the tone of the film, and its mix of genre elements. All in all, the movie is a pleasure to watch.

1. T. Rex - Mambo Sun (3:41)
2. The Motivations - I Love You (2:40)
3. The 1900s - When I Say Go (3:19)
4. Fontella Bass - Since I Fell For You (3:27)
5. Elk City - Los Cruzados (4:17)
6. Basia Bulat - Before I Knew (1:12)
7. The Ballet - In My Head (3:38 )
8. Velour - If You Really Want Me (4:08 )
9. Rilo Kiley - Such Great Heights (Live 2004) (5:04)
10. Billy Preston - She Belongs to Me (4:09)
11. Music is teh SeXXorz (0:07)
12. Lorraine Ellison - Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) (2:58 )
13. Ventures - Let There Be Drums (2:14)
14. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Save Me (3:21)
15. Irma Thomas - I Need Your Love So Bad (3:14)
16. Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You (2:32)
17. Daniel Johnston - Honey I Sure Miss You (3:22)
18. Blue Fringe - Do You Realize?? (Flaming Lips cover) (3:43)
19. The Beach Boys - Don't Worry Baby (2:49)
20. Miracle Fortress - Have You Seen In Your Dreams (3:01)
21. Panda Bear - Comfy In Nautica (4:04)
22. Let's Go Sailing - Sideways (4:19)
23. Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World (3:00)
24. The High Dials - Diamonds in the Dark (3:10)
25. The Unicorns - I Was Born (A Unicorn) (2:45)
26. Wolf Parade - Gonna Love You Like I Do (3:38 )
27. Felix and Me - Love It (2:59)
28. Jolie Holland - The Future (3:50)
29. Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark (3:09)
30. New Buffalo - Cheer Me Up Thank You (3:12)
31. My Morning Jacket - Golden (4:39)
32. Galaxie 500 - It's Getting Late (3:30)
33. The Broken West - Baby On My Arm (4:03)