Love Affair with Toulouse Lautrec

While on my trip in awhile back, I stopped at the home office in the States for a few days. On the radio some company or other was using Fat Boy Slim’s “Because We Can” from Moulin Rouge in an advertisement. I don’t even remember what the product was; I was reminded how much I liked the movie, though. My loved one rented it for me, as he knew I had been wanting to see it for some time. I don’t think he was all that interested in it himself (not being so enamored of “chick flicks”), but I watched it three times before we returned the DVD.

The movie overwhelms your senses, kind of like Saving Private Ryan, but in a good way (remind me to tell you about my reaction to Saving Private Ryan someday). Besides the absolutely splendid sets and the wonderful music – it is a story of tragic love. I was hooked. I couldn’t get the song “Your Song” out of my head for weeks – “how wonderful life is, now you’re in the world.” It sure struck a chord (Thanks, DCT, for the wonderful pun!). It is every human’s dream (whether they will admit it or not) to love like that and be loved like that in return. It is the way I feel about my husband every day.

Needless to say, when I heard that commercial, I was reminded of the movie and “Your Song” popped right back into my head. I hit the Borders in DC and bought the soundtrack. I pretty much like all of the songs on it, but I think I have a new favorite – “Complainte de la Butte” by Rufus Wainwright. Parts of it are in French. There is something surreal about listening to that slightly sad, nostalgic song in French as I wind my car carefully through the busy, crowded streets of Sagami Hara – children, dogs, bicycles, produce stands everywhere.

I don’t know much French, but the song makes me think of a lonely, young person, very much in love, standing on a bridge in a park, gazing into the water and remembering walking hand in hand there with a lover. The song fills me with tesknota – it’s a Polish word for a sad but slightly happy little sort of nostalgia, tinged with melancholy, but that you cling to your heart and wouldn’t give up for the world.

I know, intellectually, that it is Rufus Wainwright singing that song, but in my mind it is Toulouse Lautrec. He has come up in conversations with my loved one several times over the years. I, personally, never cared too much about him one way or another. But now, it is as if he is singing that song for me as I wait for my beloved to come home. It is a vocal shoulder for me to lean on. The stubby little artist is now a dear friend.

Hope you have a great day!!