Somehow this morning a song got stuck in my head. I don’t
know why, because I haven’t heard it in a long time. It’s La Vie en Rose, a standard, originally written (of course, it’s controversial) and performed by
Edith Piaf in French, and then covered by a lot of
other people, including Louis Armstrong and Jo Stafford - one of my favorite
singers from the standards era. The song I was hearing in my head, though, was
by no one near as famous, but a young actress named Cristin Milioti. She was
the “mother” on How I Met Your Mother,
which has been for the past few years one of my favorite shows.
Maybe it
was the last episode of the second to last season when she actually first
appeared on the show and sang La Vie en
Rose on the balcony of her room at the hotel at which she was supposed to
perform at a wedding. Soon afterwards she meets Ted, sort of the show’s focus and her future hubby. Little did she know that he was pouting on the next balcony just on
the other side of the wall while she sang, as the woman he loved was the bride
at whose reception she would be performing (and the camera cuts to all the
gang, each in their own doldrums). In narration later in the future, he tells their
kids that though he has heard their mother sing that song over a million times,
that was his favorite. If you want to listen to her sing this slow and haunting
melody, accompanied by her ukulele, here it is. It’s less than 2 minutes, so
don’t panic.
Anyway, while I was thinking about the song, particularly
her version, I got a little misty. I realized that this is not the first time
that has happened. I teared up when I first heard it, when I saw the episode
re-run and whenever (rarely) I hear it. Now I was brimming when I wasn’t even
hearing it - just thinking about it. Why? It’s a great song, but it’s not my favorite, nor even my
favorite Louis Armstrong song, though it makes my top ten for him. Nor is it sad. It’s kind of a sweet and hopeful love song. Whatever the reason, it chokes me up a bit. Maybe it was
the connection to the story line and the slow, longing
way she performed it, but nothing on that show ever made me feel like that
before. It’s a very silly comedy, with only an occasional poignant moment.
So, I youtube’d it, and listened again, and sure enough, got
all verklempt. I then listened to a few other versions I hadn’t heard
before. I even discovered an artist I had never heard of, who is one of
those newfangled youtube stars with millions of listeners, but I’m not sure
has actually released an album yet. Her name is Daniela Andrade, a young
Canadian, who I think only records acoustical guitar covers of famous songs
in her bedroom(?) and sometimes next to her dog. Try her La Vie en Rose (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ba_WoSZXvw),
which is probably more technically perfect than Milioti’s, or her Christmas Time is Here (Cutest Dog in
the Galaxy)(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ba_WoSZXvw). However, I noticed,
as beautiful as her version is, she doesn’t make me cry. I guess it was the How I Met Your Mother context.
So, I started thinking, what other songs make me tear up?
What movies?
The first one that comes to mind is Into the West, which is the song that ends the last of the three Lord of the Rings movies, and they play during the credits. It’s sung by Annie Lennox, who had a string of hits in the
80s with The Eurythmics, the only two of which I remember being Here Comes the Rain Again and Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). I
think she’s really huge in Britain though.
Perhaps it is the quality of hauntedness, which I doubt is a word, that makes me wimpy because Into
the West certainly has a haunting sound. It’s about loss and the passage of
time and people and longing for what once was and other such melancholy things,
which pretty much sums up a major theme in The
Lord of the Rings too. Lennox wrote it with the movie's co-producer, Fran Walsh (aka,
Peter Jackson’s wife) and the composer Howard Shore, who wrote most of the
music for the trilogy.
I don’t think I can listen to it without being overcome and
I’ve listened dozens of times. It probably has a more powerful effect on me
than Milioti’s La Vie en Rose.
And, of course, because I’m human, Danny Boy. I mean, is it possible someone relatively normal could
listen to it and not drop a tear? In my
humble opinion, Kate Smith’s is by far the best version (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQD7XToP2Ag),
but I’m sure many people have other favorites. Danny Boy seems like it must be a centuries old song, but it's not. The melody is older, but the lyrics were written only about 100 ago (my grandparents were already alive) by
an Englishman named Frederic Weatherly, a name I looked up and have already
forgotten at the end of this sentence. It was based on an Irish tune, Londonderry
Airs, the origins of the melody being unknown. It is also unknown exactly
who is singing about whom in Danny Boy. I
don’t know if no one bothered to ask whatshisname or nobody thought of it until
he died. But, it’s a tearjerker all right, because somebody got up and left
Ireland, probably during the famine, and didn’t come back until someone who
loved him died. In my mind it’s a young man who came home to find his betrothed
in her grave. When it gets to the part when she hears his footsteps above him.
. . oh, boy, I just hope I’m alone (or at least my evalovin’ gf isn’t around –
because she’ll just mock me).
Many movies make me weepy at the end, even comedies, if
there is some poignant moment. There are three that stand out in my mind. The
first is probably no longer in my top ten movies, except for the ending scenes. The movie is Angels with
Dirty Faces, a 1938 drama with an unbelievable all-star cast – Jimmy
Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sheridan, Pat O’Brien, George
Bancroft and the ‘Dead End’ kids aka the Bowery Boys, including Leo Gorcey.
Here’s the set up. Cagney is a gangster, Rocky Sullivan. Pat
O’Brien, is a childhood friend, became a priest – Father Jerry. Cagney kills
Bogey and gets a death sentence. When he’s about to go, Father Jerry visits him.
He’s concerned about the young boys who idolize Rocky and wants to do
something about it. That leads to this dialogue, which makes me weepy just to
read it online:
Father Jerry: We haven't got a lot of time. And I want to ask you one last
favor.
Rocky Sullivan: There's not a lot left that I can do, kid.
Father Jerry: Yes, there is, Rocky. Perhaps more than you could do under any
other circumstances. If you have the courage for it, and I know you have.
Rocky Sullivan: You mean, walking in there? That's not gonna
take much.
Father Jerry: I know that, Rocky.
Rocky Sullivan: It's like a barber chair. And when they ask
me "you got anything to say?". I'll say, "sure, give me a
haircut, a shave, and a massage, with one of those nice new electric
massages".
Father Jerry: Are you afraid?
Rocky Sullivan: You know Jerry, I think in order to be
afraid, you've got to have a heart. I don't think I got one. I got it cut out
of me a long time ago.
Father Jerry: Suppose I asked you to have the heart, huh? To be scared.
Rocky Sullivan: What do you mean?
Father Jerry: Suppose the guards dragged you out of here screaming for
mercy. Suppose you went to the chair yellow.
Rocky Sullivan: Yellow? Say, what's the matter with you
Jerry?
Father Jerry: This is a different kind of courage, Rocky. The kind that's
well, that's born in heaven. Well, not the courage of heroics or bravado. The
kind that you and I and God know about.
Rocky Sullivan: I don't know what you mean.
Father Jerry: Look, Rocky, just before I came up here, the boys saw me off
on the train. Soapy and several of the others. You can well imagine what they
told me. "Father, tell Rocky to show the world what he's made of. Tell him
not to be afraid and to go out laughing."
Rocky Sullivan: Well, what do you want? I'm not gonna let
them down.
Father Jerry: I want you to let them down. You see, you've been a hero to
these kids, and hundreds of others, all through your life - and now you're
gonna be a glorified hero in death, and I want to prevent that, Rocky. They've
got to despise your memory. They've got to be ashamed of you.
Rocky Sullivan: You asking me to pull an act, turn yellow,
so those kids will think I'm no good. You're asking me to throw away the only
thing I got left that they can't take away. To give those newspapers a chance
to say, "Another rat turned yellow."
Father Jerry: You and I will know you're not.
Rocky Sullivan: You ask a nice little favor, Jerry. Asking
me to crawl on my belly the last thing I do.
Father Jerry: I know what I'm asking. The reason I'm asking is because being
kids together gave me the idea that you might like to join hands with me and
save some of those other boys from ending up here.
Rocky Sullivan: You're asking too much. You wanna help those
kids, figure out some other way.
Father Jerry: It's impossible to do it without your help. I can't reach all
of those boys. Thousands of hero-worshiping kids all over the country.
Rocky Sullivan: Don't give me that humanity stuff again. I
had enough in the courtroom. Told everything. Named names. Told the whole mess.
What more do you want?
Father Jerry: What I've always wanted, Rocky. Straighten yourself out with
God. Outside of that, I can't ask for anything else.
Of course, at the end, when Rocky walks into the death
chamber, he doesn’t ask for a massage. He mans up and does the bravest thing I’ve
ever seen in a movie, deliberately lets his reputation be destroyed for the
sake of some kids who idolize him:
“No! I don't want to die! Oh, please! I don't want to die!
Oh, please! Don't make me burn in hell. Oh, please let go of me! Please don't
kill me! Oh, don't kill me, please!”
And the tears well up just writing about it. I haven’t seen the movie in decades
and I am almost afraid to.
The next movie that makes me bawl is my favorite movie, Miracle on 34th Street. For
the millionth time in this blog I say – BUT only the
1947 version!!!!! It hits me three times. First, little Natalie Woods’
character, Susan, is standing on the side of Kris Kringle’s chair at Macy’s
watching him talk to the children who come up to sit on his lap and tell him
what they want for Christmas. A young woman comes up with a cute little girl, her foster child. The little girl is Dutch and apparently,
her parents
were killed, I presume in the war. She doesn’t speak a word of English and her foster mom tried to
explain it to her, but the little girl was sure Santa would understand her anyway.
Awww. And then Kris looks down and starts speaking Dutch to the little girl.
Cut to my waterworks while Susan does a double-take.
The second time is a little later. Kris Kringle is undergoing a
sanity hearing to determine if he needs to be committed for believing he is
Santa. Susan’s mother, Doris (Maureen O’Hara) likes Kris but doesn’t believe he
is Santa either (d’uh). Susan asks Doris if Kris was sad and Doris says I’m
afraid he is. Susan says she will write him a letter and she does. Doris reads
it and before she seals it she adds “I believe in you too.” I know. I’m such a
baby, but it gets me every time.
Third time – It’s the end of the movie. Kris is a free man.
On Christmas morning, Susan and Doris arrive at a party at the old folks’ home
where Kris is living. Susan can’t find the house she asked Kris for under the tree
(again, d’uh). Fred, Kris’s lawyer and Doris’s boyfriend, had been quarreling with
her because she didn’t believe in him when he represented Kris. He offers her a
ride home and Kris gives them special directions. They are driving through the
suburbs of Great Neck, New York, when Susan screams “Stop Uncle Fred, stop!” She darts out of the car and runs into a
house with Doris and Fred on her heels screaming for her. Susan tells them it is the
house that Kris promised her and it is up for sale. She tells Fred that her mom
told her that you have to believe in people, which was what Fred was trying to
get through to Doris. Now they are embracing and suddenly they stop and look into the
corner where they see - Kris’s cane. Okay, that was a long description, but it’s
really sweet and my eyes tear up like a grandmother’s at her grandchild’s first
recital. I swear to you it is happening right now.
Last movie, Love
Actually. It’s a romantic comedy, an ensemble piece, with a great
soundtrack that sweeps the story along and helps hold the 9 or whatever separate
stories almost seamlessly together. There are about 9 mini-climaxes to the
movie and you could get a little misty at all of them. I find I’m generally
more likely to get teary at a sentimental or happy moment in a movie than a sad
one. But, the one that gets me in Love
Actually is one of the two sad storylines. Emma Thompson (Karen) is
married to Alan Rickman (a brilliant actor – the best “bad guy” in contemporary
movie history) who plays the very British, but kind and kind of doofy Harry, the owner of a sizeable business. Karen is expecting a gold bracelet he bought (and she snuck a look at) for
Christmas, but gets a CD instead. She realizes the bracelet was for someone else (a
young woman who works for him who was slowly seducing him). She goes upstairs
and has a cry but rallies herself for the kids’ pageant. After it, she is
walking with Harry in the school and she lets him have it ever so subtly:
Karen: Tell me, if you were in my position,
what would you do?
Harry: What position is that?
Karen: Imagine your husband bought a gold
necklace, and come Christmas gave it to somebody else...
Harry: Oh, Karen...
Karen: Would you wait around to find out...
Parent: Good night!
Karen: Night, night. Happy Christmas!
[back to Harry]
Karen: Would you wait around to find out if
it's just a necklace, or if it's sex and a necklace, or if, worst of all, it's
a necklace and love? Would you stay, knowing life would always be a little bit
worse? Or would you cut and run?
Harry: Oh, God. I am so in the wrong. The
classic fool!
Karen: [voice breaking] Yes, but you've
also made a fool out of me, and you've made the life I lead foolish, too!
It’s great acting by the both of them – it was the most real moment of
the movie and neither raised their voice. But, when her voice broke, my wussy movie
watching heart broke a little too.
Sorry to see Alan Rickman go.....
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