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February 2004, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
"Sarah L. Higley" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 23 Feb 2004 22:25:52 -0500
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On Mon, 23 Feb 2004, Jesse Kalin wrote:

> I should think the explanation is rather more direct.  Maggie doesn't
> invite Seth to watch her operate or become fascinated with her, or
> "stalk" her in the hall way.  For her, at the beginning, he is an
> uninvited stranger.  Sung at the end, the song is kind of a return to
> the beginning of the affair and Maggie's voice from the grave, as it
> were.  Jesse Kalin

Interesting, Jesse.  I hadn't thought of his stalking her.  That's
perfect!  :)  She also rejects him when she finds out that he is inhuman.
But it doesn't really fit the mood of the movie's final moments, does it?
And according to the "theology" of the film, if you want to call it that,
people don't speak from the grave, do they?  She died saying "I would say
this was the best part of my life."  It would help to know if Morisette
wrote the song BEFORE it was included in the movie, or if she wrote it FOR
the movie.  My cynical answer to my own question is that the score was
meant to sell the soundtrack on CD, hence all the famous musicians,
rendering the ending a little incoherent.

If City of Angels intended any irony in the fact that "fallen angels" fall
from God's grace, as in the Book of Enoch and the angels who lust after
mortal women, it doesn't make that clear--in fact it circumvents that
question.  "You know better than that," says Cassio.

Interesting, this issue of songs sung during the credits.  Someone else
called my attention to _Bicentennial Man_, and of course there is Annie
Lennox's song at the end of the credits to _Bram Stoker's Dracula_, and I
already mentioned the weird song by tomandandy at the beginning of the
credits to _The Mothman Prophecies_.  Any others?

Sarah

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Sarah L. Higley                            [log in to unmask]
                                           [log in to unmask]
Associate Professor of English                office:  (585) 275-9261
The University of Rochester                   fax:     (585) 442-5769
Rochester NY, 14627
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Py dydwc glein / O erddygnawt vein?
"What brings a gem from a hard stone?"               Book of Taliesin
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