Love, Love, Loveby Eva Pasco 
A Romance/Women's Fiction novelist, "love" is an integral part of my
repertoire. Since merely eighteen years of age by 1969, it is safe to say
I fathomed Einstein's Theory of Relativity better than the depths of romance. The
Beatles spearheaded the British Invasion by wanting to hold our hand, loving us yeah yeah
yeah, and assuring us all we need is love. However, a honey-toned,
Brazilian chanteuse named Astrud Gilberto who made her professional singing debut with "The
Girl from Ipanema" in 1963, bossa novaed love in the proper perspective as the daring decade of
the Sixties emerged. Her quavery voice subtely and realistically bemoaned the complexity of love
hitherto hushed behind closed bedroom doors of the conservative fifties.
Astrud Gilberto's wistfulness resonates through lyrics
conveying naivety, vulnerability, melancholia, betrayal, resignation, and fatalism. Take "A
Certain Sadness":
Darling tell me now
Have I done wrong somehow That you won't look at me
Before the Sixties rocked 'n rolled as a hotbed of social protest, before
Hippies shredded our mod fashions into tatters, before the Woodstock
Unconvention, before women's libbers burned their bras, and before the sexual
revolution became the shot heard round the world...there was herringbone. And...the
likes of Bridgitte Bardot and Jean Seberg, beehived hairdos, eyes darkly shadowed and rimmed
with heavy black eyeliner. The silhouettes of notably award
winning films grappled with the complexity of love and life before we Baby Boomers
rounded the bend to the Far Side of the Sixties where the scales tipped in favor
of casual sex and free love.
1961 - In Breakfast at Tiffany's, a country gal attempts to achieve independence
and reinvention as the madcap, free-spirited, social climber Holly Golightly who distances
herself from Super Rats. While earning a living by dating male escorts and providing
courier service to an ex-mobster in prison, she falls in love with a kept writer.
Love unravels Ms. Golightly's glamorous facade, painfully exposing
her neuroses and vulnerabilities.
1963 - The lush photography of French film A Man and a Woman is
the backdrop for this reel of realism drawing out feelings of guilt between a widow and
widower who meet and fall in love shortly after the death of their spouses.
1965 - The corruption of love evolving into an illicit passionate
affair between a Bohemian painter and conservative married minister surges along the
rugged Big Sur coastline in The Sandpiper. In my opinion, Astrud Gilberto superbly laments love's transient tides in her
rendition of "The Shadow of Your Smile," the movie's love theme.
Lyrics to Astrud Gilberto's memorable songs, and imagery in
unforgettable films of the decade offer a glimpse into the stirring of love in
the Sixties through realism. The cavalier attitude of the sexual revolution may
have promoted casual encounters without conscience. However, love is not free, exacting
its own toll and imparting a certain sadness...
Now the rain has gone * I have forwarded my article to Ms. Gilberto. |
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