Marianne Faithfull, RIP
02/03/2025
I heard a story many years ago that Mick Jagger objected to the popular impression that he had corrupted the angelic-looking young Marianne Faithfull. He claimed it was the other way around. Whether that story is true or not, she was certainly a very enthusiastic drug user for some large part of her life (at least), and just generally a mess. And as a singer and a person she became something very, very different from the teenager who sang "As Tears Go By" (which as you probably know is a rather uncharacteristic Rolling Stones song).
For years in the 1970s she was apparently lost to heroin, other drugs, and general breakdown. You can read an overview at her Wikipedia entry, and I'm sure there is no lack of obituaries online giving more details. She came back in 1979 with a dark, bitter album called Broken English which I heard once at the time--a friend brought it over, saying "you're not going to believe this"--and never since. For reasons which I don't remember and which now puzzle me, I read her autobiography, Faithfull, when it appeared in the 1990s. Most likely I saw it on the new book shelf at the library and picked it up out of curiosity; I certainly didn't buy it. It is not an enjoyable read.
She became a sort of cabaret-style singer, with a world-weary decadent vibe and a fondness for German songs by Kurt Weill and others, as on her 1996 (?) album 20th Century Blues, which I like, but not as much as I like Strange Weather, from 1987, which includes several gloomy and sometimes ironic takes on various folk and Tin Pan Alley songs. The title song is by Tom Waits, or rather I should say Tom Waits and his wife, Kathleen Brennan. Taking out the LP yesterday and listening to it for the first time in some years, I was struck by the names of the other people involved: for instance, the jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, a name I probably didn't know at the time but who can now be fairly described as "revered." It was an all-star production--other names are Garth Hudson (also recently deceased) and Mac Rebennack ("Dr. John"). It includes a revisiting of "As Tears Go By." RIP.
1967:
1987:
***
Perhaps it seems a little odd that I've marked Marianne Faithfull's passing but not that of David Lynch, who died a couple of weeks ago and is much more significant to me. That's mainly because there is so much that I might say about Lynch that a quick and brief note seemed impossible. There was a bit of discussion on the occasion in comments on this post from 2022, about the passing of Julee Cruise.
I still have not seen several of Lynch's most famous works, including Blue Velvet, because of their reputed violence and perversity. That doesn't really make sense, because I don't think they're worse than Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, or for that matter Twin Peaks: The Return. The fact that both Lynch and Faithfull were only two years older than me suggests that if I'm going to watch these others I'd better not keep putting them off.
But then Twin Peaks--the whole package, including the music--really is David Lynch for me. I can't remember whether I've posted this picture before: in 2019 I actually visited the Double-R Diner in North Bend, Washington. The waterfall (Snoqualmie Falls) and the lodge are not far away. You could call it a pilgrimage, I guess.
Goodbye, Agent Cooper.
I have been to the lodge, and Snoqualmie Falls, but somehow did not make it to the diner. Darn! As for Marianne Faithfull, she is someone who I've always know about and that there was a connection to Mick Jagger and the Stones, but I'm pretty sure I have never heard any music by. I'll need to listen to these videos.
Posted by: Stu | 02/04/2025 at 10:20 AM
If her post-'70s voice doesn't put you off too much, you would probably like Strange Weather.
Posted by: Mac | 02/04/2025 at 10:32 AM
I've listened to some of Faithfull's later work but, as you say, I could never get past her voice.
I'm with you on Twin Peaks *being* Lynch for me. Even though Mulholland Dr. is a top all-time film of mine, it was TP that set the tone and the artistic conditions for me to enjoy a movie like that in the first place. I'm always amazed by younger people who claim to be David Lynch fans but have never watched TP and know him only from his movies.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/06/2025 at 05:29 AM
I know network pressure damaged (at least) the second season of TP, but I suspect it also helped the entire project, because the limits of the permissible on tv restrained some of Lynch's darker and more puzzling tendencies, which maybe made room for the humor and whimsical things which are such a big part of TP's appeal. I also suspect that may be part of the reason that The Return is, to my taste, not as successful. Not as lovable, anyway. Lynch didn't have the same constraints
Posted by: Mac | 02/06/2025 at 10:42 AM
Yes, I think you're right. Network restraints probably helped the first season, but it/they got far more involved in the second and that caused some problems. The Return... is much closer in tone and style to Fire Walk With Me than it is to the series, and maybe that's what he had in mind.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/06/2025 at 07:48 PM
I meant to point out that connection between Fire Walk and The Return, which does make one suspect that the darker aspect (to say the least) of both is closer to The Real Lynch.
Posted by: Mac | 02/06/2025 at 11:07 PM
You should really watch Blue Velvet and Eraserhead, Mac!
I pretty much agree with both of you, but the darker elements are as fun as the comedic ones.
To bring another director into this discussion that I think you both like a lot....one of the reasons I really can't get onto the Denis Villeneuve bandwagon too much is the guy has zero humor in his films.
Posted by: Stu | 02/07/2025 at 09:02 AM
I've rented BV but for various reasons have not yet watched it. I think I still have 10 days before the rental expires so I better get to it pretty soon.
I seem to remember, re The Return, that you liked the goofy idiot version of Cooper (can't remember what he was called), and I thought that it was overdone or went on too long, or something.
I don't know if I can say I like Villeneuve a lot--I just like Arrival a lot. Though I only saw it once. Don't know if I've seen anything else. I haven't watched the second installment of Dune, in part because I wasn't especially taken by the first one and so am not that interested.
Posted by: Mac | 02/07/2025 at 10:39 AM
"the darker elements are as fun as the comedic ones"
I agree in general; it's just that sometimes I find them too dark, in the same way that some of the comedy can be too silly.
I've seen six of Villeneuve's eleven films, and have liked them all. Never noticed a lack of humor, which strikes me as a somewhat odd concern. He makes serious films, so I'd expect any humor that was present to be "natural," something just taken in stride, and thus not particularly noticeable.
Two somewhat Lynchian films you guys may like are 'Nocturnal Animals' (2016) and 'Hanna' (2011). The director of the latter, Joe Wright, said that one of the things he had in mind when directing it was the question, "What if David Lynch had decided to make an action movie?" I like both of these movies a lot, not least because of their Lynchian echoes.
Villeneuve himself did a somewhat Lynchian film called 'Enemy'. I liked it, but found it almost unbearably creepy, partly (but not completely) because it's got a recurring spider theme amidst the surrealism, and I'm more than a little arachnophobic.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/08/2025 at 06:24 AM
I watched Blue Velvet, and found it somewhat disappointing. It seemed a sort of not entirely successful effort at what Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive would later be. Just didn't seem as well executed as those, though there were some great moments. It seems redundant to complain that "Frank" was over the top--obviously he was meant to be--but it didn't really work for me. I was well enough prepared for the violence, and also more inured to it than I was in 1986, that it didn't really bother me. Kyle Maclachlan and Laura Dern were really good, especially Dern--she really had that genuine sweetness that the character was supposed to have.
I had forgotten that Villeneuve directed Blade Runner 2049, which I didn't think was that good. I only saw it the one time--maybe I'd like it better if I saw it again.
Those Joe Wright films sound interesting.
Posted by: Mac | 02/09/2025 at 12:46 PM
I didn't really dislike Blade Runner 2049, but I found it disappointing in some ways. I keep wanting to read Do Electric Sheep ... but all this time I thought I was going to have in my 70s has not yet presented itself to me.
I thought Mulholland Drive was, objectively, a really good movie, but it creeped me out so badly that I won't ever watch it again. I think that is pretty much my reaction to Lynch, the rabbits somehow being the worst.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 02/10/2025 at 09:36 AM
I remember when I saw Blue Velvet in the theater long ago (I was 20) my initial reaction was that one part was weirdly Mayberry-esque juxtaposed with the other half that was just very dark and weird. That and Frank Booth yelling about Pabst Blue Ribbon being superior to Heineken were my two takeaways. I saw The Elephant Man, then Dune, before seeing Blue Velvet, but probably was not aware who the director was until a few years later when Twin Peaks hit the airwaves.
When Mulholland Dr came out I was living in rural New Mexico and drove 200 miles to Tucson AZ to see it. After the final scene the lights came up and me and the rest of the theater-goers were all looking at each other like "What the hell was that!" LOL
I have watched Blade Runner 2049 twice, and I enjoy it. I don't think Villeneuve is a very good director though, in that he doesn't appear able to direct the actors. If you have established actors like Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling that helps things out. When you have Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya (Dune) it makes things more difficult. At least this is my opinion. Visually, of course, Villeneuve is outstanding!
Posted by: Stu | 02/10/2025 at 02:00 PM
I can only imagine what it would have been like to see Mulholland Drive without knowing what you were getting into. Though if you went to so much trouble to get there you knew enough about Lynch to expect something weird.
I did laugh when Frank started yelling about PBR. Wonder what that scene would be like now, after the craft beer revolution, which has seen PBR come full circle to trendiness, with a touch of irony, precisely because it's lowbrow. I've wondered why it and not the other old standard brands has gotten that treatment. Maybe it's all because of Frank, or rather of David Lynch.
"my initial reaction was that one part was weirdly Mayberry-esque juxtaposed with the other half that was just very dark and weird." Well, that's exactly the case.
Posted by: Mac | 02/10/2025 at 02:10 PM
Janet: "I didn't really dislike Blade Runner 2049, but I found it disappointing in some ways." Yeah, that's pretty much the same thing I mean by "didn't think it was that good."
I did read PKD's Electric Sheep, sometime after I'd seen Blade Runner, and was pretty baffled by the fact that the latter was in some way based on the former. I didn't see that much in common but then I also felt like I wasn't really understanding the book, whereas the movie was clear enough, in both plot and theme. I also read Man in the High Castle and didn't see all that much connection between the book and the tv series except the basic premise of Germany and Japan winning WWII.
I was only somewhat creeped out by Mulholland Drive. :-) I (and my wife) actually watched it twice within a week or so, back when Netflix was DVDs by mail. More fascinated...and moved...than creeped out.
Posted by: Mac | 02/10/2025 at 02:16 PM
Yes. I had that same reaction to Electric Sheep when I tried to read it years ago. I am currently rereading and discussing That Hideous Strength in the CSL group. Every time I read it, the more horrible things become more real. It made me think of Blade Runner, and more if an episode of Electric Dreams.
Mulholland got to me more than that Bergman movie where the woman pulls her face off.
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 02/10/2025 at 03:47 PM
Hmm...I can't remember that. You'd think I would. Hour of the Wolf maybe? It's got some creepy stuff.
Posted by: Mac | 02/10/2025 at 06:26 PM
I can see why watching B.V. in retrospect after T.P. and M.D. would create that impression, but for a lot of people seeing it for the first time back in 1986 it was quite the experience. I still think it's really well done, I just find the sexual element too disturbing.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/11/2025 at 05:41 AM
Btw, Joe Wright only directed 'Hanna.' The director of 'Nocturnal Animals' is Tom Ford.
Janet, if you found Mulholland Dr. too creepy don't watch Inland Empire! I sat in the theater with both hands clenching the armrest almost the entire time. Love the movie though, and have watched it a couple times since, with less tension because I know what to expect and when.
The first Villeneuve movie I saw is Prisoners (2013) with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. I thought it was very good and I've been following his work ever since. I haven't watched Dune, so can't speak to the acting, but Villeneuve did work with established actors in almost all his previous movies.
Posted by: Rob G | 02/11/2025 at 05:58 AM
I saw Mulholland Dr. in December of 2001 in a freezing cold theater (the heat was broken) which closed the following week for repairs. I liked it so much I went back the next night and watched it again, and took a friend (I warned him about the heat ahead of time). The place closed for good the following summer.
In retrospect it was somewhat fitting that that was the last movie I ever saw there. When I was a kid it was our go-to for Saturday afternoon monster movies, and my mom often took my sister and me there for kid's movies. It was a big old-style neighborhood theater, but at some point in the 70's it got "updated" and split into a two-screen cinema.
https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/16581
Posted by: Rob G | 02/11/2025 at 06:16 AM
Alas for the old-time movie theater. I have fond memories of a couple. And I remember when the movie theater a few blocks from my university campus was divided into two. Seemed a very weird thing. Little did I know that the multiplex was coming.
I don't remember being creeped out by Inland Empire. Just puzzled. And probably somewhat bored. Haven't had any particular desire to see it again.
Posted by: Mac | 02/11/2025 at 10:03 AM
We have a great little theater in Senatobia called Tobie Cinema. There are four screens, but all the theaters are small. Admission for Seniors is $7.00. The food is a good bit cheaper than other theaters, too. Even if you don't want to watch a movie, you can go in and buy popcorn.
The first movie I saw there was "The Passion of the Christ." They were giving away free popcorn. I couldn't understand how anybody could eat popcorn while watching that movie
AMDG
Posted by: Janet | 02/11/2025 at 04:04 PM
Nor can I! Sounds like a great place. And so inexpensive.
Posted by: Mac | 02/11/2025 at 04:40 PM
Watched 'Hanna' last night -- hadn't seen it for at least ten years or so. It doesn't strike me as strongly Lynchian in tone, but does have some Lynch-like visuals and motifs and a sort of warped fairy-tale aspect that calls some of his work to mind. And some of the strange humor too.
I remember seeing it when it first came out and thinking it was really good, but a bit strange as an action movie (a friend who had already seen it had recommended it). It had these surreal bits and this weird humor that I liked but found odd (there are moments that are laugh-out-loud funny, some of them coming out of nowhere). At the time I didn't know that Joe Wright was a Lynch fan. But now, seeing it again with that fact in mind, it makes a certain amount of sense. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was the reviewers who liked the oddness that gave it good reviews, while those that didn't tended to pan it. Generally speaking, I don't care much for action movies, but I do like this one, mostly because it's odd.
Posted by: Rob G | 03/02/2025 at 07:37 AM
Looks interesting. I enjoy well-done action movies/tv, including "halfway plausible" in the general description "well-done." Sounds like this one could be worthwhile.
Posted by: Mac | 03/02/2025 at 01:33 PM