Sinister: Possibilities. . .

[PKHINTZ at xxx.com]

	With the talk of Truffaut's _The 400 Blows_ on the list, it occurred to me
that there is a certain scene in Truffaut's film _Jules and Jim_, aruably his
best and arguably the best film ever made, that would fit the band.  First,
someone mentioned that this talk of French New Wave was "retro" and not
appropriate in association with this "modern" band.  Movements and ideas carry
across time, to be "reborn".  The French New Wave is perceived as a rebirth of
aesthetics and filmmaking, a fresh approach to the staid movies that it was a
reaction against.  It shows an innocence to a dreadful world; young Antoine
Doinel is living a rough life that never resorts to self-pity, only to
possibility of where the next day will lead.  It was something beginning, a
piecing together of parts of history in a scrapbook, to be used, or discarded,
at will.  Belle and Sebastian can be considered the French New Wave's artistic
heirs because the band is also reconstructing history into their own fashion,
for their own purposes.  Instead of using tradition as a stopping point, Belle
and Sebastian take tradition and use it as a means--to avoid, to play with the
notion of, to better.  The songs are often about horrible subjects, yet with a
bright unending-day quality; any fey innocence in the songs is merely masking
the ills of living.   _Breathless_:  a movie with rough editing, mostly
dialogue--those are not the ways movies were supposed to be made.  (It may not
be so shocking now, because those techniques have already been appropriated
into the film canon).  Belle and Sebastian:  a band of eight members, released
three singles after two albums, no interviews--those are not the ways bands
proceed.  Belle and Sebastian play the game by their own rules.  It often
seems that we do not even play by their rules; we are merely observing.  I am
not writing that this is a French New Wave band; I am writing that there are
more similarities than seen with a casual glance.  Time is a feeble boundary.
This is about possibilities.

	In _Jules and Jim_, Jules, Jim, and Catherine go to the seashore on a whim.
On a hillside Catherine offers that the three should "search for the last
traces of civilsation".  They wander--finding cans, wrappers, pieces of
china--personal treasures:  each and every one.  In the moments of the day
that I lose myself into myself, I imagine Belle and Sebastian on a similar
hill, finding what has been left behind from the world, and what they will do
with the pieces.  This too is about possibilities.  

	Living and loving
		Matthew

	 
	
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