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Post by HollyH on Aug 19, 2012 12:50:59 GMT -5
I find Soap Opera a very personal work for Ray -- dealing with his own conflicts about stardom and creativity and still being "a man of the people" (not that he ever was that very much!) -- I connect it for some reason with "Sitting in My Hotel," which is one of my favorite Kinks songs ever. There's a deep loneliness to the Starmaker character, that sense of being cut off from normal human relationships (also like the narrator in "Waterloo Sunset") that I feel is very autobiographical to Ray.
And it's almost like an Ingmar Bergman film in the confusion of identity -- is Starmaker a fantasy of Norman's, or is Norman a tempting alter ego for Starmaker? The "ordinary people" begin as figures of fun, but the longer the Starmaker lives in their world, the more he gets into it. "Nine to Five" is actually very heartfelt, I think -- a cry from the heart of every cubicle worker ever.
So whereas Arthur and Preservation and Schoolboys are important social critiques, Soap Opera holds a closer place in my heart.
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Post by sleepwalker24 on Aug 19, 2012 16:01:46 GMT -5
I like your analysis of Soap Opera, Holly ..'' is Starmaker a fantasy of Norman's, or is Norman a tempting alter ego for Starmaker?'' - That's what I thought after watching it for the first time.
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Post by Iñakink on Aug 21, 2012 6:40:36 GMT -5
I also like it a lot. I agree about Nine To Five, I only wish it would last a bit longer. How can the "Rush Hour Blues" be four minutes and a half and "Nine To Five" less than two?
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