The Morning After

[djross]

The ever-expanding compendium that is Wikipedia has an entry listing songs based on movies, the reliability of which I am not in a position to judge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_based_on_a_film.

There is a song missing from this list, however, and it is an unusual example in that I have a strong feeling that it is based on not one but two movies, and possibly three, and in some way splices these films together.

This is the song: https://youtu.be/53-OmVU9EpA

And here are the lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/faithnomore/themorningafter.html

In all of the movies, the key thematic moment occurs when the protagonist awakes, and at least two of the movies, I think, are understandable as some kind of tragedy animated by the competing tendencies of awakening and going to sleep (in all senses of these words, waking and sleeping).

The first movie is Siesta (1987), the directorial debut of Mary Lambert (who made the Pet Sematary movies and a bunch of Madonna videos). In fact I have not seen Siesta, which I think sunk almost without trace, despite a cast that included Ellen Barkin, Martin Sheen, Gabriel Byrne, Isabella Rossellini, Jodie Foster, Grace Jones, Julian Sands and Alexei Sayle, as well as a very interesting, melancholy soundtrack by Miles Davis (you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0EdDBgTt8M)! The word "siesta" appears in Faith No More's song, and from what I gather the twist of the film's narrative, which I won't spoil even though it seems to have very few interested viewers, could well be understood as being conveyed by the lyrics. The trailer looks bad but I'm kind of curious to check it out.

The second movie is The Fly (1986), the great, tragic sci-fi/horror/romance directed by David Cronenberg and starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. In relation to this second influence -- which seems indubitable, given that the rather unusual lyric "splice us together" is a direct quotation taken from Brundlefly -- the odd thing is that I have never found a single reference to this connection anywhere on the internet. Yet the song seems to capture in some detail the real theme of the movie, both in terms of the ambiguous status of memories and existence for Brundlefly (given that, recreated in the second pod, he is the not the same being who was dematerialised in the first pod), and in terms of the fact that it is not just that Brundlefly is a spliced-together being, but that his plan for being rescued from his deteriorating state is to be deliberately spliced together with Ronnie, his love.

The third movie is, perhaps unsurprisingly, The Morning After (1986), directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges, which like Siesta seems to have made little impact. But the plot begins with a woman who wakes up with a hangover and no memory of how she came to find herself in bed with a dead man. So indeed, there is good reason to see the song of the same title as also, in some perhaps more rudimentary way, influenced by this film.

So it really seems as though this song's genetic make-up may be the result of some strange, three-way cross-pollination of eighties movies. It must be almost 25 years since I first became aware of the fact that "The Morning After" was inspired by The Fly (the album on which the song was included was released in 1989). My discovery that there may be a second and a third cinematic influence is much more recent.

[paulofilmo]

It reads like someone who's been bitten by a vampire.
So, with the title: the confusion, shame, disorientation of a morning after a fling.
I guess this might be more pronounced/common with a touring band. Groupies, etc.

My stars, Siesta would have made a delightful Criticker MOM 'B movie'.

Sorry if I'm not being helpful. I've only seen The Fly (which I should rewatch because Cronenberg has grown on me so much since). I should also read The Metamorphosis because it keeps coming up on TasteKid; and Edward Watson was so good with the ROH -- he is 90% calf muscle.

[djross]

Having picked up a DVD of Siesta for $2, I can say for sure that the song refers both to The Fly and to this strange movie.

[djross]

By the way, the film Siesta was written by Patricia Louisianna Knop, who was the wife of Zalman King. The screenplay was an adaptation of a novel by Patrice Chaplin, who was married to Charlie Chaplin's son Michael. Patrice apparently hung out in earlier decades with people like Sartre, de Beauvoir, Dali and Cocteau (appearing in one of his films). The Gabriel Byrne character in Siesta is perhaps based on her lover José Tarres. Patrice is a strange woman very interested in the Holy Grail, secret societies, portals to other dimensions, and so on, as was Tarres, and seems to believe in all these things and think of herself as a clairvoyant. Etcetera. The director Mary Lambert, whose first film it was, made many music videos, including a lot of the main early Madonna videos. Madonna seems to have considered taking the lead role played by Ellen Barkin, but turned it down because of the nudity, which at that time she thought would have caused too much of a fuss. And of course Madonna, like Patrice Chaplin, is a well known Kabbalist, although it is unclear if this connection is related to her consideration of the role.

It is one of those unusual films for which any score seems defensible.

[paulofilmo]

i just watched siesta. for not completely known reasons.

There's something to the hysteria. And the cutting. And blue and red (going to Lynch).

https://mubi.com/lists/hysterical-in-a-floral-dress

ultimately i think spanish gabriel byrne can do better than a star pupil.