(I've met absolutely no one else who does--and the critics hated it. Still, 7+ million hits on youTube for the complete song, Way Back into Love, show I am in the company of many others, probably all girls under sixteen, which is not such a bad thing. The vocals on the full song are by Grant and Haley Bennett; but it's not the pop song I like, it's the relationship between the composer and the lyricist.)
[Note: The original video I'd posted here was removed from youTube because of copyright mumbo-jumbo--this version dubbed in French (sounds like its the actors themselves?) got past the filter--they still sing in English though.]
This is one of my favorite movie scenes, right up there with Erich von Stronheim cutting his geranium in honor of Jean Gabin in "Grand Illusion," though entirely different. [I'm exagerating, but it does give me a lot of delight.]
This movie blew me away when I rented it (for $1 from the Red Box at my local McDonald's) last summer, because it's about what I consider the most erotic relationship between people: not pure sexual attraction (nothing against that, of course) but the generative charge that comes from working in depth on something you love with someone else who loves it.
And that makes "Music and Lyrics" really unusual in the chick-flick Hollywood genre in which it is firmly planted.
(It's more normally depicted as the kind of nonsexual but intensely romantic "buddy love" between guys who, say, work as soldiers or policemen together. Like, "I would die for you, but don't tell anyone about that time in the trenches..." Come to think of it, I think slash is all about that one time in the trenches.)
In the movie, Alex (Grant) and Sophie (Barrymore) aren't attracted to each other at first: he thinks she's a space cadet (she is); and she thinks he's a has-been pop star (he is). They only fall in love after they are thrown into working together--she writes the lyrics and he writes the music in one 3-day rush for Shakira-esque Cora (Bennet), Alex's one chance at a comeback and her chance to redeem her failed writing career.
I was thinking about this kind of love as I was putting together the clips of all the girls Kirk ever kissed for my latest vid: Kirk: "To His Mistress...".
The only woman Kirk [in full possession of his right mind, anyway] seems to love as a person is Edith (Joan Collins!), the social reformer he meets when he (with Spock) travels back in time to Earth in the 1930s, in "The City on the Edge of Forever."
And I suggest he loves her because she DOES something, she works at something he too believes in: the peace of the world, (which supposedly will be achieved by Kirk's time).
Kirk is a sensualist who would never turn down any physical experience, but what all those slashfans are picking up on is that the person he truly loves is the person he shares his work with: Spock. Whether or not that's a sexual relationship, there's no doubt it's an erotic one (in the sense of containing a ton of generative potential).
And it is Spock with whom Kirk comes forward again in time, not Edith, for whom he is not willing to make the ultimate sacrifice (as he later will for Spock). Which is why I chose the still of Kirk & Spock jumping through the time portal to illustrate the "two perfect loves" line of the Marvell poem--it's also currently my blog-profile photo.
Much as I love "Moonstruck" [post below], it's not for the central romance. I predict that once Ronny (Nicholas Cage) and Loretta (Cher) have been married a while and finished fucking their brains out, they will be in for a really crabby lifetime together. Just think about their personalities--would YOU want to be married to either one? Yeah, they are crazy mad for each other, and it's sexy and romantic, but I don't think they're going to work together. They should have an affair, not a wedding.
Naw, I love that movie for the theology.
Am I middle-aged, or what?
I guess what puts me in the company of the 15-year-olds is that while Alex and Sophie are colleagues, they are super cute movie stars (well, she is anyway!) who have the hots for each other and write an endearing sugar pop song.
