Stephin Merritt and irony is one of my pet subjects to think about, mainly because he used to be ironic for the sake of making an emotional point […] and nowadays mostly just uses irony for irony’s sake. I don’t think I quite got at the point I was trying to make, but at least it’s out of my system until Love at the Bottom of the Sea comes out in March, at which point I’ll be back to pressing hypothetical copies of Get Lost into theoretical hands and crying about how The Magnetic Fields used to mean something, man.
Sally writes about writing about “Take Ecstasy With Me” for One Week // One Band. I love that people exist in this world that think about these things.
“Fantasy” by DyE
“How Are You Doing” by Living Sisters
Couldn’t love this any more, except it’s directed by Michel Gondry so yes I could.
Forever-crush Shirley MacLaine
THE APARTMENT is one of the all-time great Hollywood films, and I like to watch it each December partially because it takes place around the holidays—beginning on November 1st, 1959 and ending on January 1st, 1960—but also because it’s such a joyful ride that it helps me get into whatever spirit people are supposed to be in this time of year.
Jack Lemmon is in prime form as C.C. Baxter, a lonely insurance adjuster that gets mixed up in his supervisors’ sexcapades in an effort to climb the corporate ladder. Lemmon always had an everyman quality about him: goofy and charming with a touch of desperation. Here his talents are on full display as he brings life and physicality to every moment, whether it’s moving his desk to a new office or making spaghetti with a tennis racket.
But while Baxter is the film’s protagonist, the emotional centerpiece of the story is elevator operator Fran Kubelik, played by the delightful Shirley MacLaine in her breakout role. Kubelik is representative of the modern women that were emerging at the tail end of the 50s: bold and savvy, she’s the best operator in the building but works as a subordinate to men that she mostly resents.
For an ostensibly light comedy, the relationships between the characters are quite complex: Kubelik inadvertently breaks Baxter’s heart after failing to mend her own, and by accepting her flaws Baxter shows that he cares for Kubelik beyond mere infatuation. It’s a fascinating film that’s perpetually re-watchable thanks to sharp dialogue, a fantastic cast (including Fred MacMurray as the smarmy Personnel director, Mr. Sheldrake) and a story that covers a wide spectrum of emotions.
In a season full of celebrations, this one is my favorite, tradition-wise.
“I Look To You” by Miami Horror (featuring Kimbra)
“You never seem to be waiting for me, but we kept meeting at every turn of the paths. Behind every bush, at the foot of each statue, near every pond. It is as if it had been only you and I in all that garden.”
I saw SHAME last night and it’s equal parts devastating and beautiful; one of my favorite films of the year along with MEEK’S CUTOFF, TAKE SHELTER and ANOTHER EARTH. It has a singular tone that presents the world of the film in an honest and unflinching way without being exploitative—director Steve McQueen simply allows his characters to exist, examining them in long takes beneath the swell of music, inviting the audience to pass their own judgment on people who are mentally, emotionally and physically broken.
The character of Brandon Sullivan (played by Michael Fassbender) reminds me of Daniel Plainview from THERE WILL BE BLOOD or Patrick Bateman from AMERICAN PSYCHO: driven by the dark impulses of his nature, increasingly aware of his own slow descent, but incapable of stopping himself. The difference is that SHAME’s ambiguous ending leaves Brandon’s future open for interpretation (a device that’s used in the other three films I mentioned above), a possible glimmer of hope in an otherwise unsatisfying life.
