Night-blooming Jasmine

One of the reasons I studied Communication (Journalism if you like) was because it was the closest I could be from a career in cinema: I could write about the Seventh Art! Taking into account my abilities, it seems I took the right decision back then. My sensibilities are in both places though...
 

My college years, like for everyone I think, were a time for discovery. And as strange as this may sound, Woody Allen is something like a mystery to me since then. He is one of those directors you couldn't get to know at home (at least not in mine, since he was considered this neurotic little man who told the same stories over and over again). I had my Allen's marathons in college, but there were a lot of movies I didn't get to see. They were always taken in the faculty film library! Today I still think of those ones I missed as a gap in my cinema education.

Last week, I went to see Blue Jasmine, that was screened in the Mermaid Arts Centre (Bray). I was happy to see the place was absolutely packed. First, because I find comforting people still go to see movies with good acting. Even I, as ignorant as I am about Allen's career, know I am going to see actors in a moment of brilliance, with the obvious exceptions. Second, because, does this full house mean he is becoming mainstream?

I can't talk much about the movie without spoiling the story, but I can tell you this: you should see Cate Blanchett as Jasmine. Some people have the opinion she is a cold looking woman. I would always would prefer to describe her as ethereal (Galadriel's fault, I guess). Blanchett’s Jasmine is ridiculous, shallow, but vulnerable and afraid of being alone too. Woody Allen’s special talent is writing character defining dialog, and through it we learn to love and detest Jasmine.

Jasmine is one of those anti-heroes the screens are overpopulated with these last few years (Breaking Bad, Justified, Dexter, to name just a few). When she starts telling her story, we find difficult to feel sympathy for her. The way she talks about her past life in Manhattan, the Hamptons, St. Tropez…, makes you despise this creature that is from that other side of the world. But, at times, you may feel like forgiving her sins and pitying her, especially when you sense she is about to collapse.

Jasmine has been invented by Jeanette (Blanchett's character's real name) the same way she has invented a fictional happy marriage and a not so fictional careless life. She is this delicate and classy lady, who speaks like a character out of Casablanca. Describing the way she meets her husband, wrapping the moment in a romantic veil, in which Blue Moon was playing and “he swept her off her feet”. During her life with Hal (her “very, very rich" husband), she is “scaling the dizzy heights of high society” and shares a fate not far from who inspired A Lady Of A Certain Age by The Divine Comedy.

The property bubble and financial malpractises cause the chain of events that will bring Jasmine to feel like fish out of water, and will destroy lives of many around her. Woody Allen does not offer an analysis of this chain of events, but delivers a satirical speech against the authors of those events efficiently, through a dialog that spares no punches.

Homage Is The Word You Are Looking For

It is not the first year I have this feeling of anticipation about all the movies released just before the Oscars (in this impossible race before the nominees are announced). The last few years, all the releases are squeezed into a few weeks, to leave us with nothing else to watch for the rest of the year. I am happy to live with this high season of cinema, if what comes to the screens is going to impress me and leave me with a good taste in my mouth for the next few months.

I went to see Silver Linings Playbook in the cinema last year (and recently again, in the First Fortnight Festival). I really enjoyed the movie both times. I thought Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence (Golden Globe for her role last year) delivered better than fine performances. Their acting and chemistry are some of the best things about the movie, which eventually falls into a happy/easy end. But we can forgive that, we do want those two characters to have a second chance in life, don’t we?

I always thought David O’Russell movies had a weird logic to them. I also thought that logic got in the way of people caring about his characters; at least I remember feeling that way with I Heart Huckabees, and this same thing I have confirmed with American Hustle. I believe O’Russell is also an amazing actors’ director. But I find his original stories do not make you fall in love with the people in them, but make you conscious, all the time, they are just characters.

As one of the favourite pictures for the Oscars, and also in the Golden Globes, I wanted to like American Hustle. I wished to find a well written movie I could appreciate and enjoy. The cast performances are impeccable, from the more discussed roles of Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence, to Amy Adams or Jeremy Renner, although I thought of Bradley Cooper to be too histrionic this time. I did find most of them quite authentic as an ensemble in this charade, as part of this homage to the late 1970's and Scorsese.

I did appreciate the art of camouflage that most actors practised successfully in the film. The disguising into a con man, a British femme fatale, an arsonist housewife or the New Jersey’s Mayor is convincing. The story they are involved in, not so much. And I am almost sure this is not because of an improbable plot, but more due to the fact the movie lacks narrative rhythm. The pace in which the story develops did not engage me as a viewer.

The soundtrack however did at times, as it offers some musical treasures of all time: the disco, but not outdated, Donna Summer’s I feel love; the popular Delilah by Tom Jones or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, to name some of my favourites. So, I guess you could say American Hustle is a fantastic fancy dress party, where the music helps in creating evocative scenes and some of the best atmospheric moments in the cinema of 2013.

Frozen

First of all, let me apologise, I am definitely not an authority on Disney princesses and I still resist to watch some of the movies which have a princess as the main character. This stubbornness is due to a couple of reasons: I had terrible aversion to the colour pink and princesses since early age, thanks to the spoiled girl I used to play with after school (she was obsessed about clothing in pink and thought she was a princess).  

My second reason is more of a story telling preservation instinct. I, as a child, had read The Beauty and the Beast, the traditional French fairy tale. When I was about ten years old, most girls in my school went crazy about the Disney film, but I could never get that interested. The characters of the original story looked nothing like the ones in the Disney version of this tale, and they almost certainly didn't sing, at least not in my head.

I believe is just fair I mention this background before I go on talking about Frozen, since these facts do not dispose me to like the movie or even give me a strong reason to watch it. I confess the fact that Kirsten Bell was putting voice to the princess convinced me to give it a go. I am a helpless Veronica Mars fan, so I was hoping for a witty princess, which I though it could be a refreshing feature. However, I found some other fresh ideas thrown in to this story.

I heard there was no villain for this one, but I don’t agree, as I think Elsa's power is the villain. That power and the ignorance built around it that makes her a lonesome human being. I thought of those as wonderful starting points to write a story about tolerance, a value so needed no matter what century we are in.

The Snow Queen story is not a familiar one to me, but it’s needless to say this is a very free interpretation of Andersen’s tale. Perhaps we can forgive Disney if the story is less of a princess being saved by the prince, and more of an adventure led by the princess to protect what she loves the most.

Frozen is a musical and that part I did not enjoy as much as I should have (not a fan of musicals either, what can I say!), but for those who like the genre the soundtrack includes some catchy songs and beautifully sang melodies.

What I liked the most is that the prince does not save the day. The not very beautiful creatures, the trolls Kristoff has become friends with, are wise and helpful. Romantic love is not what this movie revolves around, although Disney didn’t go as far as Pixar with Brave and Princess Anna does have a love interest (or two!). And there are some pretty decent jokes on it such as Olaf’s preferences in life. 

What Music Does

I came to Ireland seven years ago, in pleasant weather like the one we are enjoying these last few days. No point in using an umbrella, almost no way to keep safe from the rain and certainly not from the wind. But…I was welcomed kindly. I had a dear friend living in Dublin at the time, in whose company I spend many dark afternoons. She introduced me to other people and I started my life in a country not so different to my one, well, except for the grey, I admit. At the time I wanted to immerse myself in the Irish culture, get to know people from here. I was interested in music, seeing bands live, to go out and see for myself that city everyone had talked to me about. The best place to live in when abroad (at least in an English speaking country).

I recently started to do a playlist, in my still underused Spotify, of the bands and singers I was told about when I arrived. Some of them are still on my favourite bands list. Some artists’ careers froze at that particular time. Some of them reoriented their trajectory to become essential names in the Irish scene years after and to the present. My playlist is named Kimmage, a very clichéd place to live in if you are Spanish and come to Ireland “to improve your English”… which was my case.

My immersion in this music was such I almost forgot what I listened to before that time. I believe this happened because, one: the music from this side of the world has been always my soft spot and now I could understand every word (or so I thought!). I will never forget “Pepe Jeans honey” most commonly known as She Moves In Her Own Way (Inside In/Inside Out, 2006) by The Kooks. The second reason was: I could see all those bands live! I made my business to attend all the gigs I could and visited the venues I still consider the best non-traditional Irish culture immersion places ever. To name a few: Vicar St, Temple Bar Music Centre (now The Button Factory), Crawdaddy, The Olympia Theatre, some outdoor like Marley Park or Malahide Castle and Electric Picnic, of course.

The albums I listened to belonged to a scene that was fading away at the time, as I learned recently. Bands like The Frames, Bell X1, Damien Rice (a band formed by the very talented Vyvienne Long, Tom Osander or Lisa Hannigan, as well as Rice), the disappeared Mic Christopher, Gemma Hayes to name some of the ones that still would be part of my playlists. At the time, I was given The Cake Sale (2006), an Oxfam charity album which combined some of the best talent of that scene. The album was done with the collaboration of two Canadian usual suspects at Irish venues back then: Emm Gryner and Josh Ritter.

Emm Gryner, who recently did the backing vocals for the Space Oditty covered by the most popular astronaut in YouTube, played in Crawdaddy in 2007, where I had the chance to see her. I absolutely adore Shining Light (Ash's song cover) included in her Songs of Love and Death (2005). I honestly think I can’t choose between the original and her cover. Gryner lent Black Winged Bird to The Cake Sale, one of my favourite tunes in the album, perhaps because it is performed by Nina Persson (The Cardigans) another of my soft spots musically speaking. I would like to know how that happened!

Josh Ritter, as our second Canadian, has always enjoyed of some popularity in Dublin. So much, he even released a live album in 2007 recorded in one of our favourite venues and called In The Dark: Live At Vicar St. His contribution to The Cake Sale was singing Vapour Trail. Some Surprise is that one song that strikes your chords, or at least mine. In the album it was sung by Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol) and Lisa Hannigan, although it was written by Paul Noonan (Bell X1). I had the luck of listening to it live in one of Hannigan's solo gigs, singing duet with Noonan, in Vicar St! What else can you ask for!

I reserve a special place in my heart for the songs I included in the playlist and some others not available on Spotify... Some of them remind me of my beginnings in this country, like Underglass (Burn The Maps, 2004) by The Frames, terribly overplayed in the clothing store that first hired me. It was part of the monthly compilation to be played at all times in the shop floor, over and over again. Birdtalk EP(2006), full of songs that I loved instantly as much as Vyvienne Long, such a lovely girl! The EP made me laugh, at loud, He wants to move, cover of the NERD’s song She wants to move is absolutely priceless. Vyvienne Long can also play Seven Nation Army like no one, with Jack Whites’ permission, and only armed with her cello.  Then, there is Flame, by Bell X1, that I must have listened to about a million times. First, due to my obsessive playing on repeat of songs I really like. Second, to my lunch times spent in Jervis Centre (if the weather was too miserable to get out of the mall when on break); where it was overplayed especially around Christmas time in 2006.

I learned to love and appreciate the talent of the Bellies, Gemma Hayes or Lisa Hannigan. Bell X1 became one of my favourite bands and, although I tried my best, their fantastic Music in Mouth (2004) or Flock(2005) were sadly never exported to my country of origin. I gathered all their albums until date and went to many, many of their gigs at the time. I was really happy when I eventually managed to get a copy of Field Recordings (2012) and Chop Chop (2013) and got to see them live in the concert Hall last June. Nobody Moves Me like they do. Since, apparently, they go through life thinking the way I do and struggling with the same things. I guess it’s a generational thing…

Gemma Hayes came up with an album, not long after, that is one of my favourite ones to listen to on full, The Hollow Of Morning (2008). As part of the tour to promote Let It Break (2011), she played in the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray (where I resided at the time). I had no doubt about attending the date, for two reasons: her very particular voice and her ability for loveless tunes to sound so disarming. She didn’t disappoint at all and the atmosphere turned very special during the gig, in which she was only accompanied by Ann Scott.

One of Lisa Hannigan’s first gig as solo artist in Whelan’s, was the first time I saw her live. I had seen Damien Rice in Marley Park by then and I was really looking forward to see her, as I heard her presence on stage was so captivating. The person who told me this is my husband today, who I blindly trust on these matters. Therefore, I was really curious about this girl that seemed to charm everybody... I wanted to listen to the female voice of Volcano (0, 2003), which I simply adored since the first time I listened to it. 0 was the only album of that wave that made it to Spain (at least to the South of Spain) before my arrival to Ireland. Lisa Hannigan has produced two fabulous albums in these past few years and I am really forward to the third one. Her shows are not to be missed! I have witnesses, as I convinced some of my friends to go and see her, here and in Spain. I did also buy her albums for my friends and family back home until I found out her second album eventually made it to Radio 3 (the indie music station, something like Phantom 105.2, but with coverage nationwide) Yay!

Those bands and their songs, some of them anthems, made me feel welcome. That's what music does.