Musical Mondays Week 60 True Stories

[Cameron H. 23786]

“I forgot what these peppers represent.”

We watched:

[Cameron H. 23786]

I'm not gonna lie, I loved this movie. It was quirky and fun and says so much without saying too much. Plus, David Byrne is so fun to watch with all his anti-charisma!

I think one of my favorite bits is when The Narrator and Louis are walking through the mall, and Louis is bitching about not being able to find a good woman. The Narrator then points out two groups of women with a single nod - a group of old, white women in the background and a group of young, black women in the foreground - and asks, "What about them?" He never specifies who he's nodding toward, but Louis automatically answers him with something like, "No, they're too old" - completely ignoring the black women! He doesn't even say they're too young or anything. It's like, for Louis, who's apparently desperate for love, they don't even exist. He looks straight through them.  

Again, it's saying a lot without really saying anything. 

[tomspanks 9039]

13 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I'm not gonna lie, I loved this movie. It was quirky and fun and says so much without saying too much. Plus, David Byrne is so fun to watch with all his anti-charisma!

I think one of my favorite bits is when The Narrator and Louis are walking through the mall, and Louis is bitching about not being able to find a good woman. The Narrator then points out two groups of women with a single nod - a group of old, white women in the background and a group of young, black women in the foreground - and asks, "What about them?" He never specifies who he's nodding toward, but Louis automatically answers him with something like, "No, they're too old" - completely ignoring the black women! He doesn't even say they're too young or anything. It's like, for Louis, who's apparently desperate for love, they don't even exist. He looks straight through them.  

Again, it's saying a lot without really saying anything. 

Wow that totally went over my head. I totally thought the movie was implying Louis was a total creeper for saying that those young women weren’t young enough. 

[Cameron H. 23786]

29 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

Wow that totally went over my head. I totally thought the movie was implying Louis was a total creeper for saying that those young women weren’t young enough. 

That's definitely an interpretation too. It's like the Narrator says: "When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is" I feel like their are multiple layers running through the movie. Some are nothing and some have meaning. It's all about our own perceptions.

Like, depending on who you are, you might view Louis as a creeper, but to others, he might seem like a hopeless romantic. (Personally, I think he's a creeper.)

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

By the way, my favorite line - or at least the one that gave me the biggest chuckle - has to be : 'I'm 6'3", and maintain a very consistent panda bear shape."

[Cam Bert 8145]

I will echo a bit of what my fellow Cameron said. I love this movie and I think it is because of its voice. 

Many directors will just make a movie and unless you read the credits there is nothing in there that screams that there was a person behind it making all the decisions. The view point or voice is muddled or just not there in some cases. Then you have film makers who after just seeing five minutes of their movies you know who did it. Even if the movie isn't good I appreciate and like that a film has a voice and not just some generic time suck. To me that's where this movie really excels. It has a strong and unique voice. The dialogue is so specific and odd. Yet even the odd wording when you stop and think about it says so much. The fashion choices are all on purpose. They are unique and odd but say so much about these characters without having to directly say anything. Their houses and and the decorations within also are all specifically chosen. Every little throwaway thing tells or shows something. 

[Cam Bert 8145]

1 minute ago, Cameron H. said:

By the way, my favorite line - or at least the one that gave me the biggest chuckle - has to be : 'I'm 6'3", and maintain a very consistent panda bear shape."

I have described myself in almost the exact same words.

For me my biggest laugh always comes from David Byrne's fake driving.

[Cam Bert 8145]

8 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

That's definitely an interpretation too. It's like the Narrator says: "When I first come to a place, I notice all the little details. I notice the way the sky looks. The color of white paper. The way people walk. Doorknobs. Everything. Then I get used to the place and I don't notice those things anymore. So only by forgetting can I see the place again as it really is" I feel like their are multiple layers running through the movie. Some are nothing and some have meaning. It's all about our own perceptions.

Like, depending on who you are, you might view Louis as a creeper, but to others, he might seem like a hopeless romantic. (Personally, I think he's a creeper.)

 

I go with option C and that Louis is very sad. We know he likes sad songs because they make him feel like laying of the floor. If you look at his quest not for love but for marriage and just wanting to be heard, I think he's just very sad. He's looking for these normal things that will validate him or make him feel better about himself. When he goes to get the blessing he says it's to find love but when the priest talks about it he says happiness or what he wants.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I also loved this, just the overall feel of it. I did sense maybe it would reward multiple viewings and perhaps my rating will easily climb if I do, being able to make more connections and little ideas and visuals.  It's sort of a shame Byrne never wrote any other movies!  Also there's SOO many Talking Heads songs that absolutely fit this movie's message / style / imagery.

[tomspanks 9039]

50 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

By the way, my favorite line - or at least the one that gave me the biggest chuckle - has to be : 'I'm 6'3", and maintain a very consistent panda bear shape."

I liked that line too.  I also liked when Louis was showing off his sneakers and when he goes on his toes they squeak twice.  

Also liked "did you fart" "ooh a kissin cookie" and "we meow meow meow meow"

[Cameron H. 23786]

18 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I also loved this, just the overall feel of it. I did sense maybe it would reward multiple viewings and perhaps my rating will easily climb if I do, being able to make more connections and little ideas and visuals.  It's sort of a shame Byrne never wrote any other movies!  Also there's SOO many Talking Heads songs that absolutely fit this movie's message / style / imagery.

Did you all see that the phenomenal Stephen Tobolowsky was a co-writer?

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Did you all see that the phenomenal Stephen Tobolowsky was a co-writer?

Yea tho apparently Byrne rewrote almost all of his work on it.  I think the story is, Tobolowsky and his wife came up with the 'sesquicentennial' idea and a few other things, but basically Byrne rewrote it all, but wanted to leave their names on it so it wasn't just a 'vanity project'.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Yea tho apparently Byrne rewrote almost all of his work on it.  I think the story is, Tobolowsky and his wife came up with the 'sesquicentennial' idea and a few other things, but basically Byrne rewrote it all, but wanted to leave their names on it so it wasn't just a 'vanity project'.

That makes complete sense.

[tomspanks 9039]

Why does the film open and close with the little girl in the white dress dancing on a dirt road?

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

Yeah, if anyone is familiar with the Tobolowsky Files or his appearances on other podcasts, he does get into stories about how he was able to "read" people's "tones" and have psychic phenomena occur around him or predict things. They are legitimately weird and interesting tales, whatever your opinion on such phenomena might be. Regardless, those stories are the origin for the tone-reading scenes and stories in True Stories.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

12 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Did you all see that the phenomenal Stephen Tobolowsky was a co-writer?

I didn't remember that but he sure as heck-fire remembered me.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

28 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Also there's SOO many Talking Heads songs that absolutely fit this movie's message / style / imagery.

TOTALLY, I kept thinking, "they have an album called 'More Songs about Buildings and Food.' David Byrne has some major auteur goals that he is achieving here!" I dunno, I just loved this movie! I am down for the mise-en-scène of David Byrne's brain!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

“I forgot what these peppers represent.”

We watched:

I don't remember the two bottom stories on the right.  "Six Easier Ways to be Luckier" - maybe that's the Voodoo priest?  Where was "Woman Dies of Joy!"?

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

re: Louis's character..., I am inclined to agree with what @Cam Bertand conclude that he is mostly very sad. He feels lost and in need of validation from the normal standards of adulthood put upon him (get a job, get married). But at the same time, he is profoundly touched by emotional connections, not only with people, but with music, which is why he is so profoundly affected by sad songs. I found that incredibly moving, because not only is he affected by music more than anyone else he meets besides his friend Ramon and other musicians, but that music is out of step with the women he attempts at courting. He loves country, but not "Hollywood country," the kind most popular with America, especially at the time. He feels old fashioned, not just in what he is looking for in a partner, but in his artistic passions. It is the society he is living in, obsessed with convenience and aesthetics, that prevents him from finding a woman with similar long-term relationship goals as he does. I mean, it's fucking ludicrous to think he can't find someone to date who isn't looking for mere casual connections in rural Texas, but the way the town is constructed, centering on corporate interests and fashion shows and the like, prevents him from seeing that. As emotional as he is, he is also blind to what is in front of him (as @Cameron H.so elegantly observed about his interaction with Byrne at the mall).  None of these people are wrong in their goals of shopping or owning a home or having clean, neat relationships. The parking IS convenient, the mall IS bright and friendly, the air conditioning IS lovely in the Texas summer. It's just, as we see with Louis, many of us need something more.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

27 minutes ago, Quasar Sniffer said:

TOTALLY, I kept thinking, "they have an album called 'More Songs about Buildings and Food.' David Byrne has some major auteur goals that he is achieving here!" I dunno, I just loved this movie! I am down for the mise-en-scène of David Byrne's brain!

I almost made my Letterboxd review "another film about buildings and food"

[Cameron H. 23786]

2 hours ago, tomspanks said:

Why does the film open and close with the little girl in the white dress dancing on a dirt road?

My interpretation is that she represents potential. She’s dancing in this empty field, kind of like the one where Culver takes the Narrator and tells him to imagine all the houses that could go there (“Here's a field... take a look out. Picture a house... Picture a lot of houses. What else is a field good for but building houses?”). Basically, potential isn’t inherently a good or bad thing, it just is. A thing doesn’t become good or bad until it becomes whatever it becomes, and even then, it’s still subjective - if that makes sense.   (“Some people say 'Freeways are the Cathedrals of our time'. Not me.”)

 

 

 

[Cam Bert 8145]

Fun weird connection for this movie. 

Spalding Gray who played the civic leader is a famous monologist and is probably most famous for his one man show Swimming to Cambodia. Swimming to Cambodia was made into a concert film and was directed by Jonathan Demme. Aside from directing Silence of the Lambs Jonathan Demme also directed another very famous concert film, Stop Making Sense, which was a The Talking Heads concert.

[grudlian. 4725]

35 minutes ago, Cam Bert said:

which was a The Talking Heads concert.

The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads.

Sorry, but I had to do it.

[tomspanks 9039]

So, I watched this earlier today, but I'm really not sure how to rate it.  It felt like a bunch of music videos loosely tied together sometimes.  However, I'm glad I watched it and was introduced to the soundtrack.  I bought it already and I think I'll be listening to it more often than revisit the movie itself.  Like I wasn't feeling the beginning when David Byrne goes into the history of the world, but the background music was fantastic.  It has this flute hook - and I'm a sucker for a good flute hook - and then wind instruments get added on like the clarinet/bass clarinet and basoon and oboe.  And towards the end when there are more notes, you can hear the keys of the instruments.  I love that they left that in there.  

My favorite song was Dream Operator.  It's a lovely 3/4 time and the singer's voice is so sweet with a hint of raspy.  I love the lyrics from t-to-b, and i love the bit where she goes "shake-it-up dream, hi-di-ho dream."

I also like the last song City of Dreams.  It reminds me of Shallow so much!  Sometimes I'll sing sha-ha-sha-ha-shallow over it.

[Cameron H. 23786]

7 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

So, I watched this earlier today, but I'm really not sure how to rate it.  It felt like a bunch of music videos loosely tied together sometimes.  However, I'm glad I watched it and was introduced to the soundtrack.  I bought it already and I think I'll be listening to it more often than revisit the movie itself.  Like I wasn't feeling the beginning when David Byrne goes into the history of the world, but the background music was fantastic.  It has this flute hook - and I'm a sucker for a good flute hook - and then wind instruments get added on like the clarinet/bass clarinet and basoon and oboe.  And towards the end when there are more notes, you can hear the keys of the instruments.  I love that they left that in there.  

My favorite song was Dream Operator.  It's a lovely 3/4 time and the singer's voice is so sweet with a hint of raspy.  I love the lyrics from t-to-b, and i love the bit where she goes "shake-it-up dream, hi-di-ho dream."

I also like the last song City of Dreams.  It reminds me of Shallow so much!  Sometimes I'll sing sha-ha-sha-ha-shallow over it.

OMG! I was going to buy it, but I just realized there are two different versions! One is David Byrne singing all the songs and one is the more complete version (it looks like that’s the one you got). Now I’m conflicted! Like, I kind of prefer “Puzzlin’ Evidence” and “People Like Us” with just The Talking Heads, but I want all that other stuff too. Decisions, decisions...