Blog Of An Interior Decorator Calum Marsh

Last week I watched Woody Allen's 'Interiors', a remarkable film about a mentally unstable mother's relationship with her three troubled daughters. It's Woody Allen's first major drama, and it's usually known as Allen's 'Bergman movie', meaning it's very similar to the films of Swedish filmmaking Ingmar Bergman. A few days later I was listening to Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlaticism at work, and something peculiar struck me: the lyrics of the song 'Death Of An Interior Decorator' sounded conspicuously like the events of 'Interiors'. Here are the lyrics: You were the mother of three girls so sweet Who stormed through your turnstile And climbed to the street But after conception your body lay cold And withered through autumn and you found yourself old Can you tell me why you have been so sad? He took a lover on a far away beach While you arranged flowers and chose color schemes Can you tell me why you have been so sad? (x2) The girls were all there, they traded their vows The youngest one glared with furrowed brows They tenderly kissed then cut the cake The bride then tripped and broke the vase The one you thought would last the years So perfectly placed below the mirror Arriving late, you cleared the debris And walked into an angry sea It felt just like falling in love again (x2) Can you tell me why you have been so sad? Can you tell me why you have been so... The mother character in the film is indeed an interior decorator - the metaphor of carefully arranging and designing interiors regardless of the cost being pretty central to the movie's impact - and the mother's husband, who she is quite desperately attached to, leaves her and marries someone else. The last third of the film takes place at the family's old home on the beach; the father and his new love are wed, and the tension mounts as the after-party rolls on. The Death Cab song pays careful attention to a key moment here: while dancing and having a good time, the father's new wife (who is oblivious to the familial distress) knocks an expensive vase from a table and completely destroys it. It's a small detail in the film that has large symbolic consequence: this is a vase that, as Death Cab puts it, was "so perfectly placed below the mirror"; it's an extension of the carefully designed interiors, which this new woman has obliterated. I won't spoil the film by describing the stunning final act (fortunately Death Cab avoids doing so too), but I urge you to see it for yourself. Turns out Death Cab's Ben Gibbard wanted to pay homage to his favourite movie with 'Death Of An Interior Decorator'. It's a fantastic movie that is largely (and mysteriously) overlooked. What's most surprising is that though Woody Allen was mimicking Ingmar Bergman's style, it doesn't feel like the poor man's Berman - amazingly, it stands beside Bergman's best films, not under them. Maybe people aren't interested in watching a Woody Allen movie that isn't funny, or maybe it's just been out of the spotlight for too long. Whatever the reason, it's a shame that people aren't talking more about this movie. Good thing we have Gibbard to tell us what to watch. Download: Death Cab For Cutie - Earth Angel Buy: Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlaticism