SONG TO SONG
US, 2017, 130 minutes, Colour.
Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchet, Holly Hunter, Berenice Marlohe, Linda Emond, Tom Sturridge, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, John Lydon.
Directed by Terrence Malick.
Fragments, jigsaw pieces, snippets…
Jigsaw pieces mean that there can be a whole and coherent picture. Fragments, not – diverse, disparate, a partial picture. Snippets offer quick glimpses that come and go, may be connected, unconnected, disconnected.
Song to Song. Songs, Austin, Texas, music scene, producers, musicians, the enormous range in the music credits list, but how much noted and noticed over 130 minutes? The great range of singers playing themselves, Patti Smith, different bands. Chants, hymns and St Francis Peace Prayer.
Reality, fantasy, surreality.
Rooney Mara, soft voice-over, “am I walking in a dream?�. Is she waking in a dream? “I drift.� Michael Fassbender, macho, romantic, playful, exploitative, love or lust? Contrasting Ryan Gosling, younger, playful, more love than lust?
Scripted, improvised, director in control.
Snippets can mean narrative, contributing to a story: beginning, middle, end, but not necessarily in that order. In the end is the beginning.
Threesome, love, joy, play. Fidelity forever. Human nature – suggesting not, rather, betrayal.
Suddenly, Natalie Portman, luminous, love, fidelity, hopes. That’s Holly Hunter as her mother.
Mexico, peasants, music, the contrast with the American metropolis, affluence, ordinariness, academic auditoria, concert arenas. Performance, backstage, Val Kilmer and wild hair.
Who is that from Paris? The lesbian relationship. Rooney Mara, did she, could she?
130 minutes of handheld camera, motion, variety of angles, framing, editing cuts (three editors in the final credits), speed, cause and effect, juxtapositions – to what purpose?
And Cate Blanchett? Divorce, children, Ryan Gosling? Connections? Children, playing, parents, ageing and dying.
Clips from old movies. Scenes of cosmic beauty (this is, after all, Terrence Malick), days of heaven.
Is this Malick’s visual poem, thematic dream, extended visual installation?
And the reviewer in the audience watching, listening, experiencing, much to appreciate, much to endure, but how much to comprehend? And does it matter? For a lover of story, yes!
1. This film in Terence Malick’s canon? Impact? The fans? For those not fans?
2. His style, eight hours of footage, cutting room floor, characters and cast deleted? The remaining plot, the remaining cast?
3. The setting in Austin, Texas? Streets, parks, homes, concert arena, academic auditorium? The Mexico sequences, the village? The atmosphere?
4. The musical score, the range, contributing to the plot, the title and the songs, performance, recordings, piano playing, the bands in the arena? The range of music in the credits?
5. The visual style, handheld camera, framing, editing, cuts, speed and pace?
6. Fragments, jigsaw pieces, connections or not? Unconnected, disconnected? Visual poem, installation?
7. The cast, performance, how much improvising, how much control by the director?
8. The possibility for constructing a linear plot development and synopsis?
9. Relationships, love, lust, fidelity, betrayal?
10. Moral perspective, religious perspective, St Francis Peace Prayer, churches, chants? Patti Smith and the story of her marriage, her dead husband, the ring?
11. The focus on Cook, Michael Fassbender, his age, recording profession, Faye as his receptionist? His relationship with her, exercising power, macho? Love, domination,
playfulness? Meeting Rhonda, the waitress? The development of the relationship, the outings with her, stronger than his relationship with Faye? The change over time, Rhonda and her observations, ageing?
12. Ryan Gosling as BV, younger than Cook, the background of his family, his brother, his ailing father, love for Faye, the lyrical sequences of their friendship, in nature, in the city? Sharing with cook? The change, reuniting with Faye? Her asking for mercy and forgiveness?
13. Faye, young, Cook’s receptionist, ambitions, music, her appearance, love? Joyful, with both Cook and BV? Her being used? The arrival of the woman from Paris, the attraction, the seduction, the affair, the effect? The sequences with her mother, discussions with her mother, time passing, her changing, mercy and forgiveness? The scene of her mother’s collapse in the parking lot?
14. Rhonda, teacher, waitress, her personality, vivacious, liking children?
15. The woman from Paris, her manner, appearance, seductive behaviour, the affair, Faye and the woman together?
16. Faye’s mother, support, the parting, her collapse?
17. The auditorium, the concert, Val Kilmer backstage, the range of actual performers?
18. Amanda, her divorce, with her mother, her children? Amanda and BV? The lyrical times together? The restaurant, the dinner, her walking out, talking with BV, leaving him? The mother and her confronting BV?
19. BV, his dying father? Going to the drilling site, hard work?
20. The ending, Faye and BV – reality or memories?
21. The overall effect, the work of art? Indulgence? Both?
