Anywhere I Lay My Head

An Interurban Musical Tour

The beautiful actress of Danish origin, Scarlett Johansson makes another striking move and sings Tom Waits songs accompanied by David Bowie in back vocals… The album, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’, was released on May 20.

This fame is something like a jelly, I guess. Once you are involved in it, you never get better of it. The singers become actresses, football players become singers; beautiful models become both singers and actresses. Some gums up the work, depressing us and herself/himself, while some become one spoon of a delicious dessert that is always to be remembered.
Albeit wealthy by birth, Paris Hilton, who is tempted by everything she sees or hears with a foolish arriviste is one of the most suitable and popular examples of gumming up the work. However, there are celebrities that can make anything they touch of gold even though their number is less then a few.
Well, how about Scarlett Johansson, one of the recent beauties of the silver screen, who has got a baby face with green eyes? This was the question on the minds when the successful actress, who hinted to the press two years ago that she would make record, finally released it.

Zombies out of Their Vaults
‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ is an actual cover album. In this album, the Danish-origin actress sings 10 songs by Tom Waits, the living legend of Indie music, and an original composition.
Tom Waits has got an inimitable and legendary voice, granted by very few artists on the planet. His songs are sometimes like a rite and sometimes like a zombie attack coming from their vaults. Sometimes like a thunder, sometimes like a wildly babbling river; it sometimes gives peace like the affectionate arms of a father. In short, Johansson is swimming in dark waters for a debut album.
Rather than the solo album of Scarlett Johansson, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ is more a project realized by Dave Sitek, the album producer. The songs are relatively colder than the originals, and sometimes even harsher, as they are transmitted to the audience from a further distance. And the beautiful actress comes round like a revue artist rather than a signer. She jumps from one role to another throughout the album. In a child dreaming childish dreams and out a coquette dame who has been through the mill...

Reflections of the Train Window
The album starts with an instrumental song called “Fawn”, borrowed from Tom Waits’s 2002 album “Alice”. The piano that occasionally accompanies a lyrical violin in the original version is replaced by an organ and a polyphonic, complex, and disordered comment including battery, guitar, and plenty of instruments in the cover version. ‘Town with no cheer’ coming after “Fawn” starts with all of the instruments heard throughout the album at the same time just like a sound check. Evidently, this sound check is a prelude needed to put the album artists on airs.
We are inside a train pulled by a locomotive, heading from Melbourne to Adelaide, the capital of Australia. While wandering the desert accompanied by the misty voice of Scarlett, we are passing through a ghost town once the trains used to have a break, hosting the passengers in its canteen. But the new trains with buffet cars do not stop here anymore. The sorrow, a reminiscent of the Victorian Era, and wronged by the modern age, is making our heath bleed. Sipping from our ice bourbon, we are listening to the next song.
‘Falling Down’ attracts attention as one of its heroines is called Scarlett. And of course, with the surprising contribution of another music legend – David Bowie accompanies Johannson in ‘Falling Down’ and ‘Fannin’ Street’.

An Interurban Tour
One of the songs offending the eye in the album is ‘Green Grass’, selected from Waits’s album called ‘Real Gone’ which was produced in 2004. The song, wrapped in a gay structure thanks to the percussions, is replaced by a deep blue again while moving along slowly.
As for ‘I wish I was in New Orleans’, which was borrowed from ‘Small Change’ album in 1976, is like a lullaby. As if we are swaddled in a bed and watching the toys rounding above us and listening to the melody coming out of it. Scarlett’s voice falls into a dreamy air just like a small child living in such a moony dream...
‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ may not consist of the best songs of Tom Waits but it manages to perpetuate Waits’s spirit in covers. During this tour, which lasts for 45 minutes and includes 11 songs, we sometimes happen to find ourselves in a small room, sometimes in a cemetery, sometimes in the urban streets, sometimes in the middle of a green field. We are having breaks in Melbourne, Adolaide, St. Petersburg, London, Houston throughout this interurban tour.
Although it did not get a bare pass from prestigious magazines such as Rolling Stone and Uncut, you are holding an album in your hands, which was met with honor by so many critics. Leaning on Tom Waits spectacularly and without retreating from her actual profession, that is acting, there is a beautiful actress before us, who becomes a narrator. It is unknown whether the same actress will turn out to be a real singer, but it is a real fact that she proves her acting talents this time before the microphone.

Burçin Tuncer

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’ is the story of the little Mario, who has to leave his parents at a very young age and cherishes all his hopes for the football during their absence. The film takes the unsteady Brazil of 1970s as background to recount a big world from a child’s eyes.

Directed by Cao Hamburger, ‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’ (O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias) tells a warm story taking Brazil, which is smashed by the military junta of the 1970s, and the 1970 FIFA World Cup Mexico 70 as the background.
Bia and Daniel, who have been wanted by the police as political criminals decide to go for an exile. Telling their little son Mauro that they are going on vacation, they take him to his grandfather in São Paolo. However, the grandfather is a religious Jew, who does not talk to his son, so they leave Mauro in front of the apartment flat of his grandfather. While his family goes away with their blue Volkswagen Beetle, there is a surprise for Mauro – his grandfather, whom he has not seen since ages, has died just a few minutes ago.

Leaning on the Football
Mauro starts to live alone in his grandfather’s flat in a Jewish quarter, looking forward the day his parents will come back. His father had promised Mauro that they would return until the first match of Brazil in the World Cup. Mauro leans on football, his biggest passion in the world, during his parents’ absence.
His first friend in this new life, the rules of which remains puzzling for him, is an old Jewish man, called Shlomo, the next door of his late grandfather. For Mauro, Shlomo is quite boring because of his over-principled life-style; whereas, for Schlomo, Mauro is too resourceful and independent. However, soon a grandchild and grandfather relationship is about to spring between them.
Meanwhile, Hana appears. This smart young lady will come along with new hopes in his little world. His acquaintance with Irene, the popular girl of the street, is actually the first sexual experience of our little hero. Edgar, the black boyfriend of Irene, is a successful goalkeeper and soon he becomes a hero for Mauro. Ítalo, a militant college boy, is no different from a lost father’s shadow...
The biggest passion of Mauro in life is the love of football, inspired from his father. Football for Mauro, in this stage of his life, is of special importance both as a shelter against the distress he is in, and as symbolic of his parents’ arrival. As World Cup Mexico 70 draws near, Mauro’s excitement accordingly increases everyday.

A Sad Story
‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’ tells a turbulent period from the point of view of an innocent child. Although this is a theme very much explored by many films before, the aesthetic and narrative structure of the movie are praiseworthy. The film succeeds in giving us the littlest details about the relationships, tensions between little children and adults, adults and the old, women and men, Jews and Christians without offending the eye of the audience. What is more, it presents a spectacular visual quality and cinematography.
Even though the main tension of the film is Mauro’s reunion with his parents, this tension becomes partially less important in the middle of the film. The sub-tales and characters, the football conversations in particular, manage to enrich the film without rambling it.
‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’, which has comedy and drama in patches, but is never trapped in clichés and melodrama; has traces of autobiography. Just like in the film, the director Cao Hamburger’s parents, academics in São Paulo College, were arrested by the soldiers in 1970. In this period, little Cao and his four siblings had to stay with their grandmothers, one of them was Jewish, and the other a Catholic Italian. The most important reason why the film is so real and earnest is maybe the proximity of it to the story of the director...
In June, we are going to take a lively interest in football once again thanks to the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship. If you want to diminish the absence of Brazil in 2008 UEFA European Football Championship or if you are still determined to spend your time on football, you should see ‘The Year My Parents Went on Vacation’. But let me put it straight, you do not need any excuses to see a good film.

Burçin Tuncer

The Other Boleyn Girl

Passion, Power, Revenge and Blood

‘Other Boleyn Girl’ takes the crossroads of Britain history as background and depicts the tragedy of a family trying to get involved in the court of Henry VIII. As the male members of the Boleyn family are stimulated by a greed for power, the Boleyn women are propelled towards notoriety and damnation.

“You think you know the story but you only know the end. To get to the heart of the story, you have to go to the beginning.”

The popular TV series of last season, ‘The Tudors’ started with these lines. Indeed, in order to better read today’s Britain, one should go back and understand the reign of Henry VIII, which holds a special place in the history of Britain.
Tudor Dynasty stayed in power from 1485 to 1603. They came to power with the glorified victory of Henry VII over Richard III, which put an end to the War of Roses. The son of Henry VII – later to be crowned as Henry VIII, married his elder brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon, aunt to the King of Spain.
Perhaps the biggest ambition of Henry in life was to have an heir to his throne, who will continue his blood and take over his kingdom. Unluckily, Catherine could give Henry only one child – a daughter, who is to be remembered in history as the Bloody Mary. Many other babies of Catherine and Henry arrived stillborn. Henry, at this point, would sleep with other women hoping to produce an heir. In the larger picture, we had a Europe in the 1500s tainted by wars between Portugal, Spain, and France.
Justin Chadwick’s first feature-length film, ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, takes this picture as background and focuses on the ambivalent relationship between two sisters - Anne (Natalie Portman) and Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson). The film’s narration mainly grounds of Anne’s perspective, as the title suggests, but it fails to position itself accurately, and therefore cannot establish a balance between what is told and untold.
The story evolves around the plans to get Anne into the King’s bed – a relationship which would get Thomas Boleyn (the father), and Thomas Howard (the uncle) a place in the court and some authority.
Although Anne is initially given the task to charm the King during his visit to their estate, she unexpectedly fails to attract the King’s attention. Moreover, she causes an accident during a hunting ride, as a result of which the King returns home wounded. To everyone’s surprise, the King is enchanted by Mary, the younger sister, who is sent to the King’s room to take care of him. The dilemma is that Mary is a newly-wed. However, her fresh marriage could hardly be an obstacle on the way to the court, now open wide for her father, uncle, and husband. From now on the sisters’ relationship will get tainted by the rivalry for the court, and above all, for King.
There is a huge amount of literature – novels, plays, films, etc. – inspired from this period of Britain’s history marked by love, revenge, passion, and blood. Some of them depicted Henry VIII as a womaniser, some as a pitiful creature lacking self-confidence; some as a reputation-driven King afraid of being overshadowed by the accomplishments of his father... ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, however, apparently focuses more on the tragedy of the Boleyn family rather than Henry himself.
‘The Other Boleyn Girl’, however, features a rich number of characters, immensely varied, as they are driven by various interests. Mistress Boleyn, the mother, for instance, fails – or not even tries(?) – to restrain her husband’s greed for power. Thomas Boleyn, the father, on the other hand, forces his daughters to adultery for the sake of power. The uncle is a corrupt man enough to “use” anyone to gain his position in the court back. Anne and Mary’s brother is happy-go-lucky for his popularity, which is a result of his sisters’ adultery. And the Boleyn sisters – Mary, and Anne. The former is a young girl who is taken away from her husband’s arms and thrust to King’s bed only later to fall in love with him desparately. The latter “the other” Boleyn girl, namely Anne Boleyn, is not discouraged by her sister’s pregnancy and deep love for the King in her merciless fight to “get” him to her bed....
If you do not know already how the story ends, here it is: Henry divorces Catherine of Aragon to carve the way to Anne Boleyn’s bed. However, a devoted Catholic, Catherine does not collaborate for a divorce; instead, she tries every way to prevent this from taking place. Not surprisingly the Pope does not approve the divorce. But this hardly puts an end to Henry’s strife. Dazzling everyone, Henry goes as far as to break up from the Catholic Church and establishes the Church of England, which favours the newly rising protestant values over the Catholic ones. This rupture changes the path Britain meant to take, and a new era begins. The war is not yet over, though. Catherine’s daughter Mary tries to restore Catholicism by massacring thousands – hence, Bloody Mary. However, the golden age of Britain comes with Anne Boleyn’s daughter Elisabeth, who is crowned as Elisabeth I, who restores Anglicanism, and triggers the unimpeded rise of England as an independent kingdom.
The film is powerful with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, two talented and beautiful actresses. Although the film is a fest to the eyes with costumes and art direction, it fails to entertain the audiance with a quality plot. Yet if you find this period of British history appealing, or if you are curious about what might have come out of the duo – Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson –, we recommend you to watch ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’.

Burçin Tuncer

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Lazarus, go back to your ‘Cave’

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds once again salutes their worldwide fanbase with their 14th studio album “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”. The Australian “prince of darkness” and his musician friends “Bad Seeds”, who went to a beauty sleep with their 2004 album "Abattoir Blues", have woken up with Lazarus.

The musical journey of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds began in 1984 with their "From Her to Eternity" album. The band reached the zenith of their career with “Henry’s Dream” (1992), “Let Love In" (1994), "Murder Ballads" (1996) and "The Boatman's Call" (1997) and then decided to chill out with “No More Shall We Part” (2001) as the piano began to overshadow the guitars.
Nevertheless, the new album, which takes its name after the story of the resurrection of Lazarus told in the Bible, witnesses the return of the hard rock sound which was de-emphasized by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in recent years. Built on a strong rock infrastructure, the album is full of screeching, weird and suspensful melodies.

Lazarus, I want you to dig
Cave, who loves telling gothic and crime stories in his songs, frequently refers to such dark themes as sin, revenge, repent, and guilt, often inspired by Biblical stories. It is therefore safe to say that “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”, the song which gave the album its title, is a typical Nick Cave song.
The resurrection of Lazarus is one of the most interesting Biblical stories. According to the Gospel of John, Lazarus had been dead and in the tomb for four days, but was resurrected by Jesus who had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bade Lazarus to come out.
"The resurrection of Lazarus" deeply affected Nick Cave: “Ever since I can remember hearing the Lazarus story, when I was a kid, you know, back in church, I was disturbed and worried by it. Traumatized, actually. We are all, of course, in awe of the greatest of Christ's miracles - raising a man from the dead - but I couldn't help but wonder how Lazarus felt about it. As a child it gave me the creeps, to be honest. I've taken Lazarus and stuck him in New York City, in order to give the song, a hip, contemporary feel.”
The song rolls on with the chorus “Laz’rus dig yourself” accompanied by guitar riffs that sounds like asphalt diggers digging into our brains.

In praise of loneliness
The song alludes to the fact that we do not know what awaits us after death. The high tempo of the first song carries us to "Today's Lesson" in which Mr. Sandman, the starring actor of naive children tales, is given by Cave a nasty role in a gothic sexual fantasy.
With “Moonland”, we slow down and wander in a snowy and starry night accompanied by drums. After this blues song obviously written in praise of loneliness, we once again enter a mysterious world: “Night of the Lotus Eaters”. Performed along the fine line between “disturbing” and “peaceful”, the bass guitar and the echoing sound of an electric guitar make us feel in our bones the mystery of this song.
“Albert Goes West” brings us into the already conquered territory of punk and we feel relieved. This song feels like a simulacrum of Moonland. Snow is replaced with sun, but the praise of loneliness remains with a single difference. This is not a melancholic blues song, but a fervent punk song.

How to write a love song?
In “We Call Upon the Author to Explain” the dark poet of Australia greets the underdog. Cave gives us two examples: Charles Bukowski and John Berryman. Out of these two alcoholic poets, Cave prefers Berryman who followed his father’s example and committed suicide. Cave also cannot help but mention another suicidal man, the famous American writer Hemingway.
With “Hold On to Yourself”, Cave explores the terrain of love ballad the rules of which he knows by heart. We are talking about a poet who gave a lecture on “How to write a long song?” at Vienna Poem Festival. Yet Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds immediately disrupts the melancholy of this ballad by a powerful antidote: “Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)", a song that tells a story about the ebb and flow of love. The screeching guitar is accompanied by deceivingly comforting piano tunes, and that familiar voice reflects on the hopeful dream of mending a broken love.
After this booming song comes another love ballad powered by violin and piano: “Jesus of the Moon”. The sorrow that emanates from the St. James Hotel enfolds wherever this song is played. In this song, another familiar hero of Nick Cave songs fears that his life will stay the same for ever and escapes. "People often talk about being scared of change / But for me I'm more afraid of things staying the same / 'Cause the game is never won / By standing in any one place / For too long”…
“Midnight Man”, filled with tambourine and complicated, irregular organ tunes, tells the story of a secret heroine who looks for the eternal love of her life in a series of one night stands...

More News From Nowhere...
The final song of the album, "More News From Nowhere" takes its name after an utopic socialist novel written in 1890 by William Morris. In this novel, Morris claimed that socialism must abolish not only private property, but also the division between daily life, work, and art. Nick Cave reconstructs this utopian world of Morris in order to settle old scores with his own past.
The old loves of Nick Cave parade through the song, two of which being well-known figures: Polly Jean Harvey and Deanna.
Cave psychoanalyzes himself through the women of his life and explain his feelings with these lines: “And don't it make you feel so sad / Don't the blood rush to your feet / To think that everything you do today / Tomorrow is obsolete / Technology and women / And little children too / Don't it make you feel blue?”
And calmly, “Well I gotta say / Yeah I gotta say / Goodbye / Goodbye / Goodbye”, says Nick Cave, after 53 minutes 35 seconds of great music... Does he say goodbye to us, to his women, or to a regretful past? We do not know... Thanks to him we can curse this wearisome world that did not even leave Lazarus alone in his tomb...

Burçin Tuncer

Juno

A fairy tale come true

"Juno", the latest success of the American independent cinema, is a very entertaining and passionate movie. Combining the aesthetics of comics with cinematic language, it is the product of creative art directorship and a powerful screenplay. It is no surprise that “Juno” was rewarded the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay.

An absurd teen movie
Written by Diablo Cody, directed by Jason Reitman, this is a small budget film that contains both comic and tragic elements and tells an absurd story of youth which fortunately does not fall prey to the cliches of the genre. The ordinary moviegoer knows Jason Reitman from his first long film “Thank You for Smoking” of 2005 which he directed like the devil’s advocate. It was an above average movie, though not as remarkable as “Juno, that was once again inspired by the aesthetics of comics. “Juno” clearly shows that Reitman is on the right track...
The plot of the movie is as follows: As many of her peers update their profiles on Facebook or march up and down the shopping centres, Juno (Ellen Page), an intelligent girl from Minnesota, is living her life according to her own principles. During a usual, boring afternoon, she decides to have sex with her boyfriend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Juno gets pregnant, decides to have the baby and makes a plan for the child’s adoption. She meets the couple Mark and Vannessa Loring who want to have a child. After learning that their daughter had sex with Bleeker, Juno’s parents are briefly shocked, but then they start doing their best to help her...

The aesthetics of comics
Juno’s costumes represent a visual richness, reminding the viewer of the Wes Anderson movie "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” which was one of the leading examples of the aesthetics of comics within the American independent cinematic tradition. Especially Bleeker who never removes his training clothes is a good representative of the movie's aesthetic approach.
The aesthetics of comics inside the movie is not simply due to the costumes and the colourful shooting techniques, but also because of the story-telling technique. Juno’s antiheroism is emphasized through the story of a pregnant superhero in a Japanese magna.
Juno, portrayed as a typical “Gemini” adolescent with narcissist and even nihilist characteristics, is trying to deal with the problems of an unborn child, getting the best out of her stepmother and father, and, most absurd of it all, having a child whose father is an insecure and clumsy adolescent frequently eating candies.

Music is just great
Behind this surrealist touch in the story-telling approach lies a harsh critique of the lifestyle represented by the American higher middle class. The colourful, messy, sincere and “real” nature of Juno’s middle class suburban home is contrasted with the pale, snow white regularity, fragility and artificiality of the home of the Loring couple. The wearisome smile on Vanessa Loring's face is a concrete example of this fake happiness.
This world is so fake that it does not deserve a real pregnancy and a real, living baby. Nevertheless, this fake picture gets smashed when Mark Loring, (probably yesterday’s hippie and today’s yuppie) who earns his livelihood by selling his dreams and freedom to advertisement jingles, breaks up with his wife.
Juno gets rid of her burden, a physical excess in her body and a symbol of her approaching adulthood, by giving the baby to Vanessa, whereas the audience happily gets carried with the surrealist vision and great soundtrack of a 96 minute long fairy tale come true...

Burçin Tuncer

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - 2005
This is a science-fiction comedy based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is an absurd, funny, extraordinary and fantastic comedy telling a story about the meaning of life. One morning, a British man named Arthur Dent awakes and find his house is going to be demolished. But for Arthur, the demolition of his house is only the beginning, Arthur's friend eccentric Ford Prefect reveals that he is an alien and saves Arthur when Earth is wiped out to make way for an intergalactic motorway. And an adventure involving a paranoid android, an spaceship called “Heart of Gold”, and a two-headed former president of the galaxy begins... This is a must see for all those people who suddenly finds the meaning of life only to immediately lose it...

La Battaglia di Algeri

The Battle of Algiers - 1966

A must see for cinema lovers, a re-release of Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece “The Battle of Algiers” has just hit the market. Rewarded with a Golden Bear at the Venice Film Festival, this is a docudrama about the Algerian struggle for independence against French colonialism. Pontecorvo's film was banned in France until 2004 and it was supposedly screen at the Pentagon in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq. Shot on location in grainy black and white, “The Battle of Algiers” shows how greatly talented in making documentaries Pontecorvo is. Cinematographer Marcello Gatti's pioneering use of a hand-held camera for the crowd scenes makes it seem as if events are being documented as they happen. “The Battle of Algiers” is not simply a good docudrama, but also an honest means of showing the ugly face of war.