Crimson Peak notes @tumbleclub
So I took notes throughout my rewatch so under the cut is basically a live blog of my thoughts and feelings - spoilers for Crimson Peak throughout since I refer to what happens later in the movie from the start.
The main things I want to say about this movie though are 1. It's such a masterpiece of gothic horror. The aesthetic, the story, the characters, the relationships, the SYMBOLISM...all so on point that it almost feels TOO on the nose at times (except it doesn't because I love it. It's perfect, mwah). And 2. I love all the characters. They're all so compelling, they're all, in some ways, sympathetic (yes even Lucille...god forbid women do anything etc etc). I just love watching these fucked up (and less fucked up, shout-out to Alan, you the real MVP) relationships play out, it's so *chef kiss*
Anyway, here's my play by play thoughts. Warnings for incest, murder, horror and gore (although I don't actually talk about the gore much, it's a fairly gory movie when it comes to the murder/attempted murder and such though)
- 'a parasite with a title' go off Edith
- also she'd prefer to be Mary Shelley because she died a widow. She's so metal
- her relationship with her dad is so cute. Shame he dies
- Thomas coming in dressed in black from head to toe...
- also immediately clocking Edith and flirting with her...he knows what he's doing
- the red clay is fucking genius
- London... Edinburgh... Milan 👀
- her dad sees right through him from the start...we have to stan
- For being who are only trying to help Edith, they sure are scary
- LUCILLE!
- THE NOT QUITE LIP KISS
- He really is pushing all Edith's boundaries (and society's boundaries) from the very beginning huh
- "I don't want to close my eyes. I want to keep them open." is an interesting character quote for Edith
- Love Alan indulging her ghost obsession.. besties. But also him mentioning ghosts being minerals in the earth... very interesting..
- from my fiancée @judasisgayriot - "love that this is supposed to be a sunny day but the colour palette is so washed out and dull"
- Lucille ultimate goth queen. Feeding the butterfly to the ants... (Also just noticed that on the DVD cover a butterfly is sitting on Edith's hand...we love symbolism)
- "it's mine I want it back" about the ring. Because she took it from their mother when she killed her but also because SHE'S Thomas's wife
- Dad sees RIGHT through him
- "thoroughly break her heart" and then he comes for her writing. God. Yeah. Fuck him. But he clearly means it "perfection has no place in love" which makes it hurt all the more
- Love that the obvious way to kill him is to either use the razor or drown him in the sink, but no, Lucille fucking bashes his head in on the sink. Kind of badass ngl
- The thing about Edith is she really WANTS to be a protagonist in a ghost story, which is probably why she ignores alllll those red flags
- That said, I DO think she should have picked up on some of them, Jesus girl
- "you've been married a while" + one of the previous wife's dog as soon as they arrive...
- This house is a fucking wreck Thomas!! This would not pass health and safety regulations!! Girl run!
- He really has to stop himself from kissing Lucille. Then definitely smells her
- The bloody pipes... honestly you could be forgiven for thinking it's too on point. Not me though, I love it. The more obvious symbolism the better
- I love the fact that Thomas chose her BECAUSE he actually fell in love with her. Which Lucille CAN'T know (and TBF idk if Thomas even knows himself completely yet. He's playing a role but also he's not)
- GREEN GDT BATHROOM!! One of the jankiest ones, but it's still (crimson) peak!
- I love the bloody mist effect on the ghosts, like they're still bleeding but they're in gaseous form now so so is their blood
- Lucille creeping through the keyhole...
- Edith's fantasy of their childhood vs their Flowers in the Attic reality
- "I don't want her to miss a single thing we do" STAN LUCILLE
- Love her trying to get the lowdown on whether Edith and Thomas have fucked yet
- The huge moths thriving as opposed to the butterflies being eaten...
- Thomas like "You're not like other girls"
- Thomas's workshop and inventions are nice and make him more sympathetic. Definition of poor little miaow miaow. Terrible but also sad and pathetic
- Also these ghosts are fucked up, they definitely didn't just die of being poisoned or whatever.
- Surprised her father's ghost doesn't make an appearance...all the ghosts are women (except for Thomas right at the end)
- Edith: "Has anyone died in this house." Thomas: "Duh, it's a really old house. Americans 🙄"
- Oop...crimson peak mention...too late for poor Edith
- Ohhh shit she's coughing up blood (gdi Lucille giving her poisoned tea)
- I love that she tries to commune with the honestly pretty fucking scary ghosts. She's such a horror girlie
- Oh this one took a cleaver or something to the head
- I'd just stay in the post office and refuse to leave tbh. It looks cosy
- Love that Edith is a writer girlie too
- She's SOOOOOO fucking mad that she slept with him, she almost brains Edith with a fucking saucepan
- Ooooooh the bloody footprints from the clay
- Also Edith doing her little detective bit, stealing the keys
- The basement with the clay vats is so creepy. I mean so is the entire house but yeah. God. Perfect place to hide a body
- She's so mad that he wants Edith to see it
- Lucille DOES love to trauma dump on Edith lol
- Love that this is the first time Thomas explicitly acknowledged the poison tea and tells her not to drink it
- "We stay together. Never apart." "Never apart."
- "You couldn't leave me. You wouldn't." "I can't."
- ALANNN
- Also love that they're talking about the murders, sure, but also the incest. This is a conversation they've had multiple times. And in this one thing, Lucille sees it clearly. Thomas doesn't, or doesn't want to, wants to believe that he can make this work with all three of them, somehow (boy you're dreaming)
- Oop here we go with the sibling fucking!!
- Lucille is so possessive and victorious lmao
- Love that Edith immediately jumps to "you're not his sister" because incest does not compute
- Alan knows her so well so he knows what she means by her mother and crimson peak
- Yassss Thomas stab him non-fatally! King shit (lmao)
- Wow burning the book...cold
- "None of them ever fucked Thomas"
- Poor incest baby 👶
- THE HORROR WAS FOR LOVE
- This speech is everything to me.
- IT IS A MONSTROUS LOVE AND IT MAKES MONSTERS OF US
- "You should have seen him as a child. He was perfect." (Vs perfection has no place in love 👀👀)
- They're so sad honestly. I can't help but feel sorry for them. Even Lucille
- "you lied to me" "I did" "you poisoned me" "I did" "you told me you loved me" "I do" AGGHHHH SO GOOD
- The fact that he thinks they can all start a new life together. Oh honey.
- Interesting that ghost Thomas is white to match the snow instead of red or black like the other ghosts
- She literally heard you the first time Lucille! God! (Badass of her actually)
- Edith's speech with Lucille's ghost playing piano at the end...so good
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2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song Final
TAGGING (interested observers, non-participating observers, and participants): @addaellis, @birdsongvelvet; @cinemaocd, @cokwong, @doglvr, @emilylime5, @exlibrisneh, @halfwaythruthedark, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @machpowervisions, @maximiliani, @memetoilet, @metamatar, @monkeysmadeofcheese, @myluckyerror, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @rawberry101, @rosymeraki-blog, @shootingstarvenator, @stephdgray, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, and @yellanimal.
OPEN INVITES go out to (longtime followers and former participants who have not accepted/declined): @dog-of-ulthar, @introspectivemeltdown, @mehetibel, @noelevangilinecarson, @qteeclown, @shadesofhappy, @the-lilac-grove
Hello everybody,
A good day to you wherever you are reading this. Following the most dramatic preliminary round in Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS) history, it is now time for the final.
Might the final also have some surprises and razor-thin close calls in store? As many of you know, this is the eleventh edition of MOABOS (MOABOS XI) and the tenth with participation from family, friends, and tumblr followers. At the beginning of every year, I never know whether or not this admittedly strange competition will return for another year. That it has persisted all this time – and grown – has been a personal joy. And it is not possible without all of you.
I began record-keeping for MOABOS XI when I saw Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) on New Year's Day this year. From there, I kept a running shortlist until the preliminary began on American Thanksgiving weekend. That one song from GdT's Pinocchio has survived the entire year to get to the final. Over the rest of 2023, numerous songs from various movies filtered in and out on my master shortlist, culminating into this final round.
INTRODUCTION
For those who have never participated in this before, my classic movie blog traditionally ends the year by honoring some of the best achievements from movies that I saw for the first time that calendar year (the "Movie Odyssey", in which any rewatches do not count) with an Oscar-like ceremony. I choose all the nominees and winners from each category except for this, Best Original Song. Original Song is the only category which does not require you to watch the movies in their entirety. As always, MOABOS is considered a sort of cinematic-musical thank-you for your moral support in various ways over how long I've known you for. In addition, I think it's a fun, novel way to introduce to all of you films and music you may not have otherwise encountered or sought and to give everyone a little bit of film and music history.
However, MOABOS is but a foot-deep glimpse into my much larger Movie Odyssey for this last year. There are many films I saw this calendar year that I consider much better than the ones that appear here. But did they have any original songs? They did not!
WHAT'S IN THE FINAL
This final will be contested by fifteen songs.
In a preliminary round filled will thrills and spills, some popular titles have failed to make it this far. That includes Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand" from Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin in Top Gun (1986). But there's a Top Gun song in here, even more widely recognizable than both of these songs, that will be looking to assert its frontrunner status.
Snapping back from what was the first-ever monolingual MOABOS last year, the 2023 final sets the record for the most multilingual field ever with six languages represented – English, French, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese, and Vietnamese. This breaks the previous record held by MOABOS VI (2018), which featured five different languages. After three-year absences, both Hindi-language and Japanese-language songs have progressed to the final. A Portuguese-language song marks the language's (and Brazilian cinema's) first appearance in a MOABOS final.
Two films from 20th Century Fox's Golden Age will also be contending. The first film, Sun Valley Serenade (1941), has two entries by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. In addition to the appearance of Orchestra Wives (1941) in MOABOS IX (2021), this ensures that each song featuring Miller that has qualified for MOABOS has made the final. In addition, some big news as Shirley Temple – so often on the wrong end of the points totals in the preliminary round – finally sees a final round with Curly Top (1935).
Finally, in a round usually riddled with multiple entries for certain films, there's a distinct lack of films with two or more contenders for MOABOS this year. The only exceptions to that are, surprisingly, Sun Valley Serenade and Good Morning and Good Night (which I encountered for Viet Film Fest this year).
2023's winner will join this company (winners' playlist):
2012 (Special): To be contested
2013 (I): “The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re In the Money)”,Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
2014 (II): “Rainbow Connection”, The Muppet Movie (1979)
2015 (III): “Amhrán Na Farraige (Song of the Sea)”, Song of the Sea (2014)
2016 (IV): “Stayin’ Alive”, Saturday Night Fever (1977)
2017 (V): “Remember Me (Recuérdame)”, Coco (2017)
2018 (VI): “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
2019 (VII): “I Wish I Didn't Love You So”, The Perils of Pauline (1947)
2020 (VIII): “Can't Help Falling in Love” , Blue Hawaii (1961)
2021 (IX): “Lullaby in Ragtime”, The Five Pennies (1959)
2022 (X): “9 to 5”, Nine to Five (1980)
INSTRUCTIONS
Please rank (#1-15) your choices in order. The top ten songs will receive nominations; all others get "Honorable Mentions". There is no minimum or maximum amount of songs you can rank, but because of the nature of single transferable vote (the tabulation method described in the "read more"), it is highly recommended to rank as many songs as possible, rather than only one or two. Those who rank fewer songs run a greater risk of their ballots being discarded in the later rounds of tabulation. Since this rule change (first implemented in MOABOS VI in 2018), no participant who has only ranked one song has seen their choice win MOABOS. Again, this is all described in the "read more".
The tabulation method used in the preliminary round (10 points for 1st place, 9 points for 2nd, etc.) is being used for this round. However, it is used for the final only as the second tiebreaker (the tabulation method that will be used principally for the final – aka "single transferable vote" – is described in the "read more").
Please consider, to the best of your ability (these are only suggestions, not strict guidelines):
How musically interesting the song is (incl. and not limited to musical phrasing and orchestration);
Its lyrics (incl. and not limited to lyrical invention and flow);
Contextual use within the film (contextual blurbs provided for every entry for those who haven't seen the films);
Choreography/dance direction (if applicable; I know that almost none of us have a dancing background, but please do not dismiss this aspect entirely);
The song's cultural/sociopolitical impact and legacy/listenability outside the film's context (if applicable, and, in my opinion, least important factor)
Remember: you are not judging music videos.
A notice on audio/video quality and colorization of black-and-white film: Because it is sometimes difficult to find clean recordings of much of this music, imperfections in audio and video quality may not be used against any song while you are drawing up your rankings – you're on the honor system on this one. In addition, in respect to personal and blog policy, I will not provide colorized videos of films that were originally in black-and-white. You can call this snobby all you want. But to yours truly, film colorization of B&W is disrespectful to the artisans who plied their craft and made decisions based on the fact the film was shot in black-and-white. It is essentially redirecting a movie without consent.
You are encouraged to send in comments and reactions with your rankings - it makes the process more enjoyable for you and myself!
The deadline for submission is Wednesday, January 10 at 9 PM Pacific Time. That is7 PM Hawaii/Aleutian Time and 11 PM Central Time. That deadline is also Thursday, January 11 at Midnight Eastern Time / 5 AM GMT / 6 AM CET / 7 AM EET / 2 PM Korea Standard Time. This deadline – as it always seems to happen – will be pushed back if there are a large number of people who have not submitted in time. The deadline is later this year due to Christmas and New Year's being on Mondays this year.
All of the below songs can also be found in this YouTube playlist (but please note you may not judge the music video, but instead judge the song and how it is used in context).
Enjoy the music! Feel free to listen as many times as you need, and I hope you discover music and movies you may have never otherwise heard of that you find fascinating. The following is formatted... ("Song title", composer and lyricist, film title) and presented in alphabetical order (so feel free to shuffle the order!):
2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song Final (playlist)
“Animal Crackers in My Soup”, music by Ray Henderson, lyrics by Ted Koehler and Irving Caesar, Curly Top (1935)
Performed by Shirley Temple
6th in Group B
Young Elizabeth Blair (Temple) and her elder sister, Mary (Rochelle Hudson) are living in an orphanage and are the primary entertainers for their fellow orphan girls. This number occurs early in the film and is quoted multiple times in the film's score. For those of you who despised this song's placement in those Shirley Temple DVD infomercials, I have no apologies to offer you.
For those familiar with Over the Garden Wall, this number inspired "Potatoes and Molasses" and its respective episode.
Where Alice Faye (MOABOS X's "A Journey to a Star" from 1943's The Gang's All Here) and Betty Grable may have been the two primary musical adult actresses at 20th Century Fox, Shirley Temple eclipsed both. Her modestly-budgeted movies showcased her childhood innocence and spunk, endearing her to a moviegoing public faced with the Great Depression. She was the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood from 1934-1938, and moviegoers of the Lost, Greatest, and early Silent Generations credit Temple's movies as needed morale boosters.
“Barsaat mein hamse mile tum sajan (In the Rainy Season, We Met One Another)”, music by Shankarsingh Raghuwanshi and Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal, lyrics by Shailendra, Barsaat (1949, India)
(initial version) / (end-of-film reprise)
Performed by Nimmi (singing voice dubbed by Lata Mangeshkar)
Lyrics in Hindi (translations in the CC's in provided videos)
5th in Group A
Raj Kapoor was a major director/actor in the early decades of Bollywood. In one of his first directed movies, shortly after the Partition of India, we find Barsaat. This romance tells of two love stories of vacationing city men meeting women who live in Kashmir (a disputed region between India, Pakistan, and China). Later in the films, we will find Pran (Raj Kapoor) and Reshma (Nargis) quickly falling in love. But this song surrounds the womanizing Gopal (Prem Nath) and Neela (Nimmi), whose faithful love for Gopal goes largely unrequited. After much convincing from Neela, Gopal attends a local festival – and doesn't pay much attention to this Neela-led song-and-dance number.
In the reprise, Neela has died near the end of the film. Reformed, realizing too late how horrible he has been to Neela, Gopal carries her body to her funeral pyre as the monsoon rains – as hinted in this film's very title – finally arrive.
“Chattanooga Choo Choo”, music by Harry Warren, lyrics by Mack Gordon, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
Performed by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Tex Beneke, Paula Kelly, and The Modernaires; danced and sung by the Nicholas Brothers and Dorothy Dandridge
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song
Advanced directly to the final
Midway through this musical, the Phil Corey Orchestra (Glenn Miller and His Orchestra) are anxiously awaiting for their pianist (John Payne) before rehearsal for a Christmas concert in the ski resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho. He's been delayed by an unexpected detour while skiing down the slopes in pursuit of a young woman (Sonja Henie) who has been flirt-trolling him on the slopes. Phil is asked to "stall for time" by the band's manager (Milton Berle). But, quietly, Phil essentially says "screw it" and starts the rehearsal. As one of my tumblr followers put it, classic Hollywood's legacy of weird shenanigans at ski resorts continues.
Nicholas Brothers' and Dorothy Dandridge's segment feels separate from the rest of this number by design. White-owned theaters in the American South would refuse to show films with prominent roles with black actors, so 20th Century Fox structured Nicholas Brothers numbers in a way so that their dances could be easily cut for those theaters. MOABOS IX (2021) participants will recall that "I've Got a Gal (in Kalamazoo)" from Orchestra Wives (1942) and the reprise to the title song for Down Argentine Way (1940) were impacted similarly.
It's a brief, but memorable role for Dandridge in her early career. She would become one of the best African American actresses ever, thirteen years removed for her Best Actress nomination for Carmen Jones (1954).
This was the first of only two films made by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra while contracted to 20th Century Fox (RIP "Fox"). They were to make more, but then Miller decided to join the U.S. Army Air Forces (the predecessor of the Air Force) to lead its official band. Miller, an enormous musical figure of the swing jazz era, disappeared over the English Channel in December 1944. This was the first song ever to receive a gold record, and it was musically referenced across numerous Fox movies during the 1940s and '50s, becoming an unofficial studio anthem.
The city of Chattanooga and railways have and still embrace the song; localized Dutch, Finnish, German, and Italian versions of this song exist.
“Ciao Papa”, music by Alexandre Desplat, lyrics by Roeban Katz and Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
Performed by Gregory Mann
3rd in Group A
In this adaptation of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, director Guillermo del Toro injects the tale with his signature gothic touch – moving the narrative up in time to Fascist Italy and not shying away from the original book's grotesqueness and the title character's sociopathy. This song appears as part of a montage where Geppetto (David Bradley) goes in search of Pinocchio (Mann) after Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz) abducts the wooden son. Pinocchio is performing for Volpe in part to avoid conscription into Fascist Italy's military.
“Danger Zone”, music and lyrics by Giorgio Moroder and Tom Whitlock, Top Gun (1986)
Performed by Kenny Loggins
Advanced directly to the final
This song first appears in the film's opening credits, as a number of U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcats are about to lift off from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The Tomcats are being scrambled to address an incursion of what is heavily implied to be Soviet aircraft (and results in an exchange that should've immediately started WWIII, but the always-jingoistic Top Gun movies do not care about geopolitical consequences). The song is briefly played again for a similar scene later in the film.
“Esse Mundo é Meu (This World is Mine)”, music by Sérgio Ricardo, lyrics by Sérgio Ricardo and Ruy Guerra, Esse Mundo é Meu (1964, Brazil)
Originally performed a cappella by Antônio Pitanga; provided version performed by Marina Lutfi and Adriana Lutfi (lead vocals), Sérgio Ricardo (vocals), João Gurgel (vocal/guitar), Alexandre Caldi (winds), Marcelo Caldi (piano/accordion), Lui Coimbra (cello), Giordano Gasperin (bass), and Diego Zangado (percussion)
Lyrics in Portuguese (extremely rough translation... "Saravá ogum" is an Afro-Brazilian exclamation; I'm not sure what "Mandinga" means in the song's context, but it's an Afro-Brazilian word that either refers to an ethnic group or "magic")
2nd in Group A
In this film almost never screened outside Brazil, two separate romantic storylines – a white couple and a black couple – play out in a Rio de Janeiro favela. In the latter storyline, Antônio Pitanga plays a shoeshiner. One day, while setting up his shoeshining equipment along the beach, he sings this song – an optimistic number in hopes for a better tomorrow. Black Brazilian romance was and is rare in Brazilian cinema, and the inclusion of such a romance so prominently featured in this film makes it a landmark of the nation's film history, alongside the likes of Black Orpheus (1959; although Esse Mundo é Meu came from a filmmaking movement – Cinema Novo – that rejected the likes of Black Orpheus).
From the song's humble origins and use in the film, Sérgio Ricardo turned it into bossa nova. That's the late composer/film director himself in the provided video (the older man furthest to the left). The lead singers are his daughters.
“Hooked On Your Love”, music and lyrics by Curtis Mayfield, Sparkle (1976)
Performed by Lonette McKee, Irene Cara, and Dwan Smith
(use in film) / (soundtrack version with Aretha Franklin)
Advanced directly to the final
Loosely based on the history of the Supremes, the musical Sparkle is the story of the three Williams sisters (the late Cara as lead singer Sparkle, McKee as Sister, and Smith as Dolores). They decide to take their church singing experience to become a semi-professional group called the Hearts.
This song appears midway through the film, as the boys have dropped out to become managers and the girls have renamed the group Sister and the Sisters (I would've kept the original name). This is the debut performance of Sister and the Sisters. If you're wondering what's going on with the lighting here, that's because the cinematographer of Sparkle didn't know how to light non-white actors.
The film's original soundtrack does not contain any of the original performances. Instead, Aretha Franklin sings all the songs from the film in the soundtrack.
“I Know Why (And So Do You)”, music by Mack Gordon, lyrics by Harry Warren, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
(initial version) / (reprise)
Performed by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, Lynn Bari (dubbed by Pat Friday), The Modernaires, and John Payne; reprise by Payne and Sonja Henie
6th in Group A
This song's melody forms the backbone of the film's score throughout. In the opening minutes of this musical, we find the Phil Corey Orchestra (Glenn Miller and His Orchestra) rehearsing in preparation for a Christmas concert they will be headlining in the mountainous resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho. The first 48 seconds of the first video are an instrumental version of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade".
The reprise occurs near the end of the film as Norwegian refugee/figure skating extraordinaire Karen Benson (Sonja Henie, a 3x Olympic gold medalist in figure skating) and pianist Ted Scott (John Payne) find themselves stuck in a mountainside cabin. Karen, who has fled Norway due to the Nazi takeover there, has been pursuing Ted for almost all of the film, and Ted finally succumbs to her charms here – to the outrage of his girlfriend (Lynn Bari). Suffice it to say nobody should watch 20th Century Fox musicals for the plot (but refreshingly, they're not pretending to be any more than what they are).
What the heck is an Olympic figure skater doing and singing in a movie? Well, Henie was used in a handful of Fox musicals in musical numbers set to an elaborate figure skating sequence. These days, Henie's movies are largely out of print and hard to find. Her popularity was such that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) hired aspiring swimmer Esther Williams (unable to compete at the canceled 1940 Summer Olympics) as response to Fox's Sonja Henie movies.
“I’m Just Ken”, music and lyrics by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie (2023)
Performed by Ryan Gosling and company
3rd in Group B
The Kens of Barbieland have taken over power from the Barbies after Ken (Ryan Gosling) learns about patriarchy in our real world. In response, the Barbies, Allan, and Mattel employee Gloria and her daughter Sasha have manipulated the Kens into fighting each other (or, in the Kens' parlance, "beaching off") while they attempt to reestablish control. According to director Greta Gerwig, the dance segment seen here was influenced by "Lullaby of Broadway" from Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935; see the warm-up playlist I sent to many of you) and "The Broadway Melody" from Singin' in the Rain (1952).
The production design and overall look of Barbie was meant to have a sort of plastic toy aesthetic. Gerwig wanted to achieve an "authentic artificiality", injecting a sense of child's play into the filmmaking, and spiritually inspired by the production design of The Red Shoes (1948) – especially its 15-minute ballet sequence.
“Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)”, music by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton, lyrics by Quincy Jones, Rod Temperton, and Lionel Richie, The Color Purple (1985)
Performed by Margaret Avery (singing voice dubbed by Táta Vega)
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song
1st in Group A
Based on the book of the same name by Alice Walker, The Color Purple stars Whoopi Goldberg as Celie Harris in her breakthrough role. Celie, forcibly married off to Albert "Mister" Johnson (Danny Glover) as a teenager, has grown resigned after a lifetime of parental and spousal abuse. Mister has a mistress named Shug Avery (Margaret Avery), who works as a showgirl in Memphis. After one stormy evening, a sickly Shug appears at Mister's homestead for the first time and, over a few weeks, Celie nurses her back to health. The two grow attached and, as tribute, Shug performs this song at the local riverside juke joint.
In the book, the romantic relationship between Celie and Shug after this moment is more explicit. Director Steven Spielberg's greatest regret over this film was not making more of this romantic relationship. Given that the movie was released at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and in an environment where LGBTQ+ themes were verboten to the major movie studios, I don't believe much more could've been done in 1985.
“Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour? (What Do We Do with Love?)”, music and lyrics by Vincent Courtois, Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (2022, France)
Performed by Pomme
Lyrics in French (rough translation)
1st in Group B
This song appears at the top of the end credits of this sequel to 2012's Ernest & Celestine, which was nominated (against the odds) for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The original was, as I wrote back in 2014, "cinematic friendship at its most rewarding and profoundly beautiful." In this sequel for our dynamic mouse and bear duo, Celestine (the mouse) accidentally breaks Ernest's (the bear) precious Stradibearius violin. It leads the unlikely friends to search for an old violin maker acquaintance of Ernest's back in his homeland of Gibberitia ("Charabïe" in the original title, a name derived from "charabia", the French word for "gibberish").
A further shameless plug for all of you reading this to seek out animation that is not from the major American and Japanese studios.
“Return to Sender”, music and lyrics by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
Performed by Elvis Presley
5th in Group B
The eleventh of Elvis' 31 movies (if MOABOS returns for future editions, let's just say there's a lot more Elvis to come) and the second shot in Hawai'i after 1961's Blue Hawaii, Girls! Girls! Girls! is a misnomer as there are only two girls vying for Elvis' affections (it would be an appropriate title for many other Elvis movies). My sister thinks this film should've been titled Girls? Girls. Girls!
Here, Ross Carpenter (Elvis) is a fisherman who spends his evenings as a nightclub singer. Fellow nightclub singer Robin Gantner (Stella Stevens) and the secretly wealthy Laurel Dodge (Laurel Goodwin) are very much attracted to him. This number occurs after Ross starts seeing Laurel, inflaming Robin's suspicions, and resulting in a spat at the bar that immediately preceded the song.
“Suzume”, music and lyrics by RADWIMPS, Suzume (2022, Japan)
Performed by RADWIMPS and Toaka
Lyrics in Japanese (extremely rough translation)
2nd in Group B
This song's melody (especially the eighteen-note vocalized motif) appears throughout the film. But this version, with lyrics, only appears as the second song in the end credits. In this film, 17-year-old Suzume and a young man named Souta must journey across Japan to close a series of mystical doors. Mysterious phenomena are passing through these once-locked into our world, and are causing natural disasters.
Makoto Shinkai's latest, unadjusted for inflation, is the fourth-highest grossing Japanese film of all time. MOABOS regulars will recall previous entries from Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019) – all RADWIMPS compositions. Suzume directly addresses a trauma that Your Name and Weathering with You danced around: the 3/11/11 earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
“Tiền”, music and lyrics by Trần Khắc Trí, Good Morning and Good Night (2019, Vietnam)
Performed by Trần Lê Thúy Vy, Hà Quốc Hoàng, and company
Lyrics in Vietnamese (translation in provided video)
4th in Group B
In this romantic musical influenced heavily by Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, indie musician Tâm (Hà Quốc Hoàng) unexpectedly forms a deep connection with Thanh (Trần Lê Thúy Vy), a rideshare driver who challenges his view of life, love, and art over a full day traversing Saigon. This song appears about a third of the way through, after a conversation about money ("tiền" means "money" in Vietnamese). Most of the numbers in this film are composed in a style suited to Vietnamese indie music.
“Trời Sáng Rồi, Ta Ngủ Đi Thôi (Good Morning and Good Night)”, music by Phạm Hải Âu, lyrics by Phạm Hải Âu and Chung Chí Công, Good Morning and Good Night (2019, Vietnam)
Performed by Hà Quốc Hoàng and Trần Lê Thúy Vy
Lyrics in Vietnamese (translation in provided video)
4th in Group A
In this romantic musical influenced heavily by Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, indie musician Tâm (Hà Quốc Hoàng) unexpectedly forms a deep connection with Thanh (Trần Lê Thúy Vy), a rideshare driver who challenges his view of life, love, and art over a full day traversing Saigon. This song appears at the top of the end credits. Most of the numbers in this film are composed in a style suited to Vietnamese indie music.
Have a question or comment about MOABOS's processes? Maybe you would like to know something more about a song or a movie featured in this year's competition? I'm the one to ask! If you are having difficulty accessing any of the songs (especially if region-locked) or if there are any errors in the links above or the playlist, please let me know as soon as possible.
Once more to all, my thanks all for your support for the Movie Odyssey, the blog, and for me personally over this last calendar year and beyond. However long you've known me – it has been and is a distinct privilege and a pleasure to share all this music and (at least excerpts of) these movies with you. It's my hope you find this entertaining and enlightening about cinema and the music that goes along with it. Do not worry too much about this if you cannot participate, although I will be checking in as the deadlines get close. Happy listening, and I hope you have fun!
A happy holiday season to you and yours!
PS: TABULATION
The winner is determined by a process distinct from the preliminary round. For the final, the winner is chosen by the process known as single transferable vote (the Academy Awards uses this method to choose a Best Picture winner, visually explained here):
All #1 picks from all voters are tabulated. A song needs more than half of all aggregate votes to win (50% of all votes plus one… i.e. if there are thirty respondents, sixteen #1 votes are needed to win on the first count).
If there is no winner after the first count (as is most likely), the song(s) with the fewest #1 votes or points is/are eliminated. Placement will be determined by the tiebreakers described below. Then, we look at the ballots of those who voted for the most recently-eliminated song(s). Their votes then go to the highest remaining non-eliminated song on their ballot.
The process described in step #2 repeats until one song has secured 50% plus one of all votes. We keep eliminating nominees and transfer votes to the highest-ranked, non-eliminated song on each ballot. A song is declared the winner when it reaches more than fifty percent of all #1 and re-distributed votes.
NOTE: It is possible after several rounds of counting that respondents who did not entirely fill in their ballots will have wasted their votes at the end of the process. For example, if a person voted the second-to-last place song as their #1, ranked no other songs, and the count has exceeded two rounds, their ballot is discarded (lowering the vote threshold needed to win), and they have no say in which song ultimately is the winner. No one who has ranked only one or two songs on their rankings and nothing more has succeeded since this tabulation method was implemented. I highly discourage, but do not forbid, these practices.
Tiebreakers: 1) first song to receive 50% plus one of all #1 and transferred votes; 2) total points earned (the preliminary round's primary tabulation method); 3) total #1 votes; 4) average placement on my ballot and my sister’s ballot; 5) tie declared
For reference:
2013 final
2014 final (input from family and friends began this year)
2015 final
2016 prelim / final
2017 prelim / final
2018 prelim / final
2019 prelim / final
2020 prelim / final
2021 prelim/ final
2022 prelim / final
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