Song to Song - Terence Malick (2017)

What is the difference between need and desire and how can you tell when you have switched from one to the other? There is an early part of the relationship when you want to be with someone. Then, with no warning, turns them into someone you can not live without?

Terence Malick's "Song to Song" is a film about love, (well, more desire than love) rejection, betrayal and other ugly creatures we've all had in the pits of our stomachs at one time or another. It is set against the backdrop of the Austin music scene.


The first thing we hear in "Song to Song" is Faye (Rooney Mara) telling us how she associates sex with violence. What does that say right off the bat about our heroine? Faye is the kind of person who will look anywhere, fly as high as she needs to, to find her place in life. The problem is she does not know what her place looks like.

From the start, her relationship with Cook (Michael Fassbender) is doubtful. Cook is presented as a chaser and an opportunist. A man who goes after pleasure, higher and higher without regard to the people around him. He is also wealthy as hell, so so he can search out pleasure to no end. As the movie progresses, we see how riches can sabotage what could have been romance, or at least friendship.

Cook is a sharp contrast to BV, (Ryan Gosling) a man clearly out to fulfill his wishes, but with self-awareness and complexity. Like Faye, he has an infatuation with Cook. He believes the man has the key to starting his music career for him. Meanwhile, Faye just sees Cook as an opportunity for love.

As the three of them spend time together, we get the idea that Faye and BV could be very happy together were it not for Cook's influence.

This is the first love triangle we're introduced to.

Now, as we work our way through the movie, the study of desire slowly turns to a story about obsession.

Then, there is betrayal, both in romance and in other, far more personal forms. And at one point, it comes down to simple jealousy.

Next, Cook encounters Rhonda, (Natalie Portman) a shy, young out-of-work kindergarten teacher.

After that, I have no idea what happened because this movie is such a chore to watch that I could not finish it.

My God what a terrible, terrible mess.

I mean, you get to see Iggy, Patti Smith and Lykke Li, but it is not worth it.

I do not even have to the energy left to tell you how bad.

I apologize for making you read all of the above, but I had already gone through the tedious chore of writing it and I did not want it to go to waste.

But if you're a fan of Malick, prepare to be very disappointed.

Very.

Lorna’s Silence – Dardenne Brothers (2008)

The latest film from the Dardenne Brothers is an understated study of alienation that reminded me a lot of Remains of the Day and Casablanca. (Not to give this film delusions of grandeur.)





"Lorna's Silence" starts with our heroine, Lorna, who is a profoundly unhappy woman. We don't know what her situation is, but she exudes miser in every frame she appears in.


Lorna has married a Belgian junkie for a green-card and the plan, as it's slowly revealed through the course of the film, involves killing the junkie with an overdose and side-stepping the whole mess of a divorce.

The plot is incidental, though. In fact, we’re not ever fully sure what the story is. We know the plot involves a green-card and a Russian who for some reason needs to establish residency in Belgium.

He's a very ominous figure. We only hear to him referred to as "The Russian."

The focus of the film is the isolation of Lorna.

Slowly, she finds herself attached to Claudy, her junkie fake-husband and gets to work on a plan to save his life. Of course, she can not tell him why she is doing all of this.

She doesn’t want Claudy to know his life is in danger and she stays silent.

Lorna is so stoic that it’s near impossible to tell just how deep her feelings for Claudy go or how they’re progressing until finally, one night, her actions leave no room for misunderstanding.

This is the first spark of happiness or even humanity we have seen in Lorna. This junkie has actually brought her to life.

There is an unspeakably beautiful moment that you’ll miss if you blink. It has no significance and only last a second or two, but it’s so tremendously effective.

Lorna and Claudy, her recovering, junkie, fake-husband, have just left a locksmith/pawnshop.

She is off to work and he is going to ride his bike all day to keep his mind off his withdrawal.

They split up and he starts to ride away.

Lorna, who’s been pretty cold to Claudy so far and showed no emotion at all, until the previous night, and is now falling for him, spontaneously turns and chases after him for a few yards.

It is a desperately joyous little moment as she runs after him for two seconds before turning to walk her own way.

It last three or four seconds, but it says so much about the transformation of her feelings toward this man she just met and had thought of, only days before as expendable.

And the way that The Dardenne Brothers cut from this burst of unexpected joy to the aftermath of heartbreak reminds me of what sets these filmmakers apart from others and why I loved Rosetta so much.

(I’ll be re-watching that very soon, I think.)





Of course, people who build up walls around themselves do so for defensive purposes and once those come down, Lorna is incredibly vulnerable.

Her strength was in the fact that nobody knew her.

The film ends ambiguously, but if you ask yourself, ‘What’s likely to be the next thing to happen to Lorna?’ you probably won’t come up with a happy answer.

Isolation, that front that makes people think you don't need anybody else, might make you look strong, but it's a lie.

In reality, it just makes you lonely and weak.

That is what the Dardenne Brothers are saying here and the message comes across beautifully and breaks your heart.