Recently Viewed: Intermezzo: A Love Story. (1939). This is the English language remake of the 1936 Swedish film also starring Ingrid Bergman. A low-key melodrama about a concert violinist (Leslie Howard) who falls for his daughter's piano teacher (Bergman), though her love turns out to be a mere "intermezzo" in his life. Yes, a little sappy and dated (the camera even turns away from the first extra-marital smooch) but it first introduced Bergman to English speaking audiences and lets us tear-up at the sight of the soulful Leslie Howard as he skulks in the shadows of the house where he once enjoyed a domestic bliss (it always amazes and delights me that folks of yesteryear thought Howard a romantic lead). The cinematographer was the outstanding Gregg Toland, he of Citizen Kane fame, and his skills are on full display, earning him an Oscar nomination. The music by Louis Forbes was also Oscar nominated. My favorite scenes: Howard and Bergman dueting for the first time at a private party--shot, at one point, from behind the piano, so that the open top forms a triangle framing the two soon-to-be lovers; the "goodbye" scene between Howard and Bergman, shot from behind them as they look into the window of a bric-a-brac shop: she tells him to not turn around and then slips away into the dark streets behind him--an unexpected and astonishingly powerful moment. Now I must see the Swedish version and offer a comparison. (I'm stopping the letter grading system I've used for films up to now--it just seems unsavory and school-marmish--and going with a five star system): ***1/2 ~
Now Spinning: Pete Townshend Live: A Benefit for Maryville Academy (1999). I'm just now exploring a lot of what PT did in in the late 80's, 90's, and oughts. I had an intense love-affair with PT and the Who all through high school and on into the mid 80's that was effectively killed with the one-two-three punch of the wretched album It's Hard, a shamefully overblown "farewell" concert tour which I saw at Seattle's Kingdome in, I think, 1982 or '83, and the arrival of R.E.M. in my world. From then on I followed at a distance what PT and the band were doing--always taking a look, but seldom buying the records. The last PT stuff I can say I really enjoyed were All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes and his Scoop records (which I think are really marvelous). This little live album, already nine years old, is hit and miss for me. It's fine to hear the big hits, but does he really need to do "Magic Bus" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" again? This recording even gives us a "bonus disc" that features "Magic Bus" a second time, and with Eddie Vedder on board...I mean, really, enough already. So here are five things I especially like about the album (and since I bought it for only five bucks, each one's worth a dollar): (1) The opening cover of Canned Heat's "On the Road Again" (which, when I saw the title, I thought would be Willie Nelson's song! That might have been interesting too)--it's a really cool cover; I love it when a band pulls a cover out of the blue and suprises you with it. (2) PT's duet with Eddie Vedder on "Heart to Hang Onto": A great song from a great album ("Rough Mix"). Ronnie Lane is dead and gone, but EV sings well with Pete. I like EV when he sings softly--you can hear that power being restrained--it adds to the song's poignancy. And PT sings with a lot of raw emotion as well. (3) The Empty Glass hits "Let My Love Open the Door" and "A Little is Enough"--two great heart-warming eighties numbers. (4) The two Quadrophenia numbers "Drowned" and "I'm One"--some of the best writing on that album. (5) The slicey-diceyness if it all. Okay, what I mean is, I like it that PT is not afraid to rearrange and tinker with approaches to the songs in his catalogue. For instance, his update of "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" is fun and interesting--with its softer rhythm guitar and bluesy harmonica coloring, it sounds more like a Rough Mix number than the mod, punk song that it is--and I like that. It's ballsy. Why continue to pretend to be the street tough you never were? He even added a lyric in the midst of the pop-art-noise-jam session: "This is what we used to believe. We thought we'd live forever." It takes nothing away from the original and gives us, really, a whole new aesthetic experience. Likewise, though I whined about the inclusion of "Won't Get Fooled Again," I do like the playful synthesizer intro--giving the audience just enough of the iconic sound to make them wonder if WGFA is underway or not. It's a fun move--it's what the Who and PT always did best in live performance, unfixing the songs from the records and giving them a new life.
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Who's this old geezer?
Adios,
JBF
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