Unfortunately I have not had time to read
any comments in this forum about this.
But I have finally seen the video.
And my first impression of it is this:
That, -to discuss this video, -one would have to be
obnubilated.
Therefore I pause to take mental inventory ....
...
...ok
Yes!
I am obnuilated!
I can therefore proceed to discuss the video.
(-after this brief quote:
"Oh, how fine it is to know a thing or two."
-Moliere
)
In the video, the significance of the round window
is that it represents records or CDs,
- the medium through which most people know
of Leonard Cohen. (The girls are always in
front of the CDs. LC and Anjani appear
on either side, since they create these
particular CDs, and since, once created,
the CD become objective things to them as well.)
And the significance of the bouncing girls is that
this is the particular "naked way" that "teeny-boppers",
or "co-eds", as we used to call them, (ie, "hoes",)
have always reacted to "good-time" music.
You see, each musicians makes the music that he must,
according to his lights.
But all musicians hope that it will be theirs that bounces
the girls the highest.
Here:
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/2.jpg
in the lower scenes, in semi-lotus position,
sitting on the floor in the girl's room in
the dorm, LC drops his hat like a school-boy
hoping the girls will react to his music that way,
- the way they did to Frankie Lane's, and the
Beatle's, and Marilyn Manson's, etc.
But in the upper scenes, contemporary reality
intrudes, and, (the meaning of word "cinema-verite"),
in mid verse he stops mouthing the lyrics and
falls silent.
The tragedy, the irony, manifest in Lorca's video,
is that LC's music never did get this bouncing-girls reaction.
Those that react positively to LC's music, "bed-sit".
They do not bed-bounce.
(
The reason for this is well known.
LC's music is subtle.
Subtle music can not be played loudly without
destroying ("masking" or "washing out") the
inner harmonics on which it depends.
Given that pleasurable sensations of self-motion
are widely sought after by more normal means of
vestibular stimulation, it is suggested that
acoustically evoked sensations of self-motion may
account for the compulsion to exposure to loud
music. Given further the similarity between the
thresholds found, and the intensities and
frequency distributions that are typical in rock
concerts and dance clubs, it is also suggested
that this response may be a physiological basis
for the minimum loudness necessary for rock and
dance music to work - the "rock and roll threshold"
http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet ... s&gifs=yes
)
But reasons are one thing.
Feelings are something else.
The impression Linda had is the correct one:
... Leonard's and Anjani's parts were mature
and quite lovely. ... - the 'bouncing, giggling'
girls are in his past. They do not figure prominently
as Anjani does. They are in silhouette. ...
These are the most poignant sceens (-esp the empty chairs,
from before "he got it" ) -supporting the theses:
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/3.jpg
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/5.jpg
The song is about LC coming to realize that he
will never bounce the girls as he once hoped to.
Or, for that matter, -as they once hoped he would.
They did try to bounce.
They put up a bold front.
But in the end they were defeated:
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/4.jpg
Notice the girl in the foetal position
in the last frame. It appears while
LC is singing "Like a baby that is shivering".
It is the girls who are shivering, -not LC.
"Now come on down [from the CD] and do what you gotta do..."
Don't Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston
------------------------------------------
Um-hm-hm... aah ah ah...
Don't leave me this way
I can't survive, can't stay alive
Without your love, oh baby
Don't leave me this way, no
I can't exist, I'll surely miss your tender kiss
Don't leave me this way
(A broken man with empty hands
Oh baby please, don't leave me this way)
Aaah baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
Now come on down and do what you gotta do
(Now come on girl and do what you gotta do)
You started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
Come on (now) satisfy the need in me
Only your good lovin' can set me free... hey
Don't, don't you leave me this way, no
Don't you understand I'm at your command
Oh baby please, please don't leave me this way
Aaah baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
Now come on down and do what you gotta do
(Now come on girl and do what you gotta do)
You started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
Come on (now) satisfy the need in me
Only your good lovin' can set me free... hey
Need your lovin' baby, need need your love right now...
Your love is so important to me... got to have it...
('Cause it would be wrong
To string me along a love so true)
The phallic symbols in the video -
(all of which a mature Dr Freud would spot
instantly with his eyes tied behind his back)
- are a running commentary on such hopes
raised and dashed:
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/1.jpg
( The erect thumb in the very 2nd scene of the video
(1st frame in the jpg) is immediately followed by
a hands in pockets 3rd scene (2nd frame)
- with the curtain moving behind, causing, in effect,
his semi-transparent tie (phallic) to quietly disappear.
The scenes with the girls behind LC
generally show him with flaccid thumb
or hands behind his back.
More interesting is the scene with him
next to an empty chair, where his index
finger points to the cup, and the last
scene in this jpg, where what may be
an erect pen is bathed in light next
to flowers. Just as there are different kinds
of love, there are different kinds of errection.)
As for the dog barking, it seems to me that
there are exactly 4 places where such sounds are added:
http://relay.twoshakesofalambstail.com/added.mp3
And each one is very appropriately placed in the lines:
"look at me Leonard, one last time",
Moreover, 3 of the 4 cases are clearly echoed
by something very specific in the original song:
1
Leonard's "look at me one last time"
- is repeated in dog barks,
- which are then echoed in the xylophone
2
"and they say" (laughs) "look at me Leonard"
3
"one last time",
- here the laughs are precisely echoed in Adjani's "ah ah Ahhh",
(giving meaning to what would otherwise be decoration)
4
here the laughs are echoed in Adjani's "oo oo Ooooo"
---------------------------
Altogether a finely wrought video
.
