Movies you may not have seen #6
I'm so full up of anger right now, and I hate everyone so, so much, that I have to write about something I like or my head will 'splode if I don't. So I decided to talk about a movie that blipped on very few radars, more's the pity (feochadn, this one's for you): a little indie from 2000 called Songcatcher.
I've seen a lot of people talk about roots music lately, and I wish more people who had an interest in Americana, or whose only exposure to music that's come "down from the mountain" is the soundtrack(s) to O Brother, would see this lovely, gentle film. It's about a musicologist in the early part of the last century who is denied a position at the University where she teaches (because, mostly, she's a woman, and therefore unworthy of a position a man could have). She takes off to visit her sister in rural Appalachia, who runs a small school with a lady friend, to lick her wounds and figure out what she wants to do. While there, she hears a young woman singing (played by a very young Emmy Rossum, so Phantom phans should take note) a variety of Scots-Irish songs that had been previously thought lost. She is stunned by this discovery, and sets out to get to know the locals that she had earlier shied away from so that she can record their songs and recover this nearly extinct history. Along the way she falls in love with a rough-edged, somewhat dangerous war veteran, played by Aidan Quinn, and discovers the truth about her sister and her lady friend.
The music is gorgeous and wonderful and so real it lifts your heart. I'm sure there are people who would classify that kind of music as caterwauling (my parents would have, I'm certain), but I find it gorgeous to listen to. The songs that Lily discovers have been passed down from generation to generation, preserved in the hills because of the lack of contact from outsiders. Most of the locals are happy to sing them for her, but Quinn's character confronts her with accusations that she is no better than the other outsiders who come there to exploit the people and the land for money, such as the mine owners. Emmy Rossum has such a beautiful voice and natural presence on the screen, it's hard to remember how young she is. At first, she's only too happy to sing all the songs she knows, but grows weary the longer Lily does her research.
For a lot of the people Lily encounters in this society, music is the only thing they really have that provides any happiness or relief from a life of astounding hardship and poverty. At first, she has trouble grasping that, but as she begins to grow more enchanted with the locals, and to understand her sister's desire to help them, she takes up their cause in her own way, hoping that by making the recordings available to the public, people will see what the mountain culture has to offer -- that these people are more than stupid hillbillies. But the road to this plan isn't smooth. Along the way, the bumps she encounters are pretty hard, including the discovery that her sister is a lesbian -- and not long after she discovers that, so do a few other pretty nasty people, and the consequences are harsh.
Ultimately, though, it's an incredibly uplifting movie, and one that does what its lead character wanted so badly to do: share this classic, lost music with a wider audience. It's also got one of the most sensitively portrayed lesbian love storylines I've ever seen, not to mention heterosexual love storylines. It shows the ugly and pure sides of love with equal tenderness and understanding, and even the villains don't come across as pure evil simply because we are allowed to see where their fears and anger come from.
If you love the traditional American music that evolved out of what immigrants brought here and developed over time, this is a movie to treasure. If you love quiet, gentle stories that respect their characters for both strengths and weaknesses, this is a movie to treasure. And if you enjoy romantic yet grounded love stories ... well, you get the idea. Just all the way around, this movie is a quiet little jewel.
I've seen a lot of people talk about roots music lately, and I wish more people who had an interest in Americana, or whose only exposure to music that's come "down from the mountain" is the soundtrack(s) to O Brother, would see this lovely, gentle film. It's about a musicologist in the early part of the last century who is denied a position at the University where she teaches (because, mostly, she's a woman, and therefore unworthy of a position a man could have). She takes off to visit her sister in rural Appalachia, who runs a small school with a lady friend, to lick her wounds and figure out what she wants to do. While there, she hears a young woman singing (played by a very young Emmy Rossum, so Phantom phans should take note) a variety of Scots-Irish songs that had been previously thought lost. She is stunned by this discovery, and sets out to get to know the locals that she had earlier shied away from so that she can record their songs and recover this nearly extinct history. Along the way she falls in love with a rough-edged, somewhat dangerous war veteran, played by Aidan Quinn, and discovers the truth about her sister and her lady friend.
The music is gorgeous and wonderful and so real it lifts your heart. I'm sure there are people who would classify that kind of music as caterwauling (my parents would have, I'm certain), but I find it gorgeous to listen to. The songs that Lily discovers have been passed down from generation to generation, preserved in the hills because of the lack of contact from outsiders. Most of the locals are happy to sing them for her, but Quinn's character confronts her with accusations that she is no better than the other outsiders who come there to exploit the people and the land for money, such as the mine owners. Emmy Rossum has such a beautiful voice and natural presence on the screen, it's hard to remember how young she is. At first, she's only too happy to sing all the songs she knows, but grows weary the longer Lily does her research.
For a lot of the people Lily encounters in this society, music is the only thing they really have that provides any happiness or relief from a life of astounding hardship and poverty. At first, she has trouble grasping that, but as she begins to grow more enchanted with the locals, and to understand her sister's desire to help them, she takes up their cause in her own way, hoping that by making the recordings available to the public, people will see what the mountain culture has to offer -- that these people are more than stupid hillbillies. But the road to this plan isn't smooth. Along the way, the bumps she encounters are pretty hard, including the discovery that her sister is a lesbian -- and not long after she discovers that, so do a few other pretty nasty people, and the consequences are harsh.
Ultimately, though, it's an incredibly uplifting movie, and one that does what its lead character wanted so badly to do: share this classic, lost music with a wider audience. It's also got one of the most sensitively portrayed lesbian love storylines I've ever seen, not to mention heterosexual love storylines. It shows the ugly and pure sides of love with equal tenderness and understanding, and even the villains don't come across as pure evil simply because we are allowed to see where their fears and anger come from.
If you love the traditional American music that evolved out of what immigrants brought here and developed over time, this is a movie to treasure. If you love quiet, gentle stories that respect their characters for both strengths and weaknesses, this is a movie to treasure. And if you enjoy romantic yet grounded love stories ... well, you get the idea. Just all the way around, this movie is a quiet little jewel.