‘Blue Moon’ and the desire to be loved

Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon Photo provided by Sony Pictures Classics Nobody ever loved me that much This according to Lorenz Hart Ethan Hawke is the best line in Casablanca At the beginning of Richard Linklater s Blue Moon Larry a diminutive walking cigar swirls into Sardi s where the afterparty for the premiere of the musical Oklahoma will take place First he talks Casablanca Later he starts ragging on the show Lyricist Lorenz Hart was one half of the songwriting duo Rodgers and Hart the other half made up by composer Richard Rodgers You supposedly know him better as one half of the songwriting duo Rodgers and Hammerstein the the greater part famous band in musical theater history But before Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hart dominated the musical scene for years giving us songs like My Funny Valentine Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered and Blue Moon Blue Moon stars Hawke as Larry on the worst night of his life March the night of the premiere of Oklahoma Oklahoma was Rodgers and Hammerstein s first work together and at the time the biggest hit in musical history Hart who struggled with depression and alcoholism would die just seven months later at the age of In Blue Moon Larry s affection for that line from Casablanca might as well stand in as the thesis of the film The script written by Robert Kaplow beautifully captures the contradictions of the artist Lorenz Hart was a man plagued by self-loathing and hubris in equal measure a man whose propensity for drink tended to overshadow his talent for humor rhythm and rhyme Within Lorenz Hart Kaplow finds the innate tension of the human condition our self-destructiveness our complexity and our desire to be loved When Larry enters Sardi s the bar without delay becomes the setting of The Larry Show He acts out a scene from Casablanca with the bartender Eddie Bobby Canavale before discussing the finer points of the film s script He waxes poetic about a -year-old college participant Elizabeth Margaret Qualley who is coming to the premiere party and with whom he s fallen in love He invites the attractive delivery boy to a party at his place later that evening he then tells Eddie that he considers himself ambisexual He also starts to rag on Oklahoma admitting he s bitter but certain in his conviction that it s hokey Americana nonsense As Larry talks and talks and talks and talks you begin to see both his appeal and his folly His stories are full of funny turns of phrase references galore and poetry He understands art on an intrinsic level the way limited people do and he values beautiful captivating things that bring him pleasure above all else people included But his insecurities often rear their ugly heads in both small and large methods He is certain that Richard Andrew Scott selected Oscar Hammerstein II Simon Delaney as a writing partner because he is very tall and Richard knew that would make Larry mad He admits that he understands why Elizabeth never asks him about his own life he s far less captivating than her why should she care He s also a man unable to see past his vices The shot on the table in front of him will invariably call to him more than anything else beautiful things that bring him pleasure you see Hawke plays these two competing souls dextrously his expressive face constantly betraying just a hint of the self-loathing that lies beneath Whether you re a fan of Oklahoma or not there is something undeniable about its construction and its wartime appeal While you could argue Show Boat did a similar thing almost years earlier Oklahoma is considered the first musical to utterly integrate song and dance into the story using them not just as showstopping moments but as solutions to further plot and character evolution For all its limitations and its hokiness and Larry s not wrong it is hokey it does not shy away from its character s darker moments in songs like Pore Jud is Daid for all of Larry s talk about optimism it s pretty radically bleak to have your protagonist sing a song where he essentially tries to convince another character to commit suicide Despite this darkness everyone in Oklahoma ends up happy though the optimism of the musical s ending has since been reinterpreted and reevaluated Larry is unable to see past what he views as an overflow of sentiment Larry holds a terrible disdain for sentimentality and maintains this division between he and Richard is what drove them to split on Oklahoma Richard might say it was Larry s constant binge drinking and lack of work ethic but to each their own In Blue Moon that disdain stems from a deep-rooted fear that Larry will never be appreciated and loved the way that he appreciates and loves This fear becomes true in his relationship with Elizabeth While it s clear she holds a deep well of love for Larry and as revealed in one of the film s best scenes sees a lot of herself in his desperation to be loved Elizabeth does not love him in that way This is a phrase he s heard before but it never gets easier to stomach When Richard lightly berates him about not being able to imagine a world where the guy gets the girl at the end Larry remarks that it s too easy This puts Richard on the defensive Scott is wonderful throughout carrying both frustration and affection in spades But in his defensiveness he misses Larry s lie imagining a world where two people totally fall in love and that s that is the hardest thing in the world for him Larry is a motormouth but as good as Hawke is at talking his best moment in the film is one where he s silent He s just finished lying to everyone about how much he loves Oklahoma although the lie is apparent to anyone who cares to look When the piano participant Jonah Lees leaves him alone in the bathroom cutting him off mid-story Larry is stuck alone with his thoughts It all comes flooding up Have I been too callous Should I apologize Does everyone hate me Will anyone ever love a work of mine this much Will anyone ever love me this much Larry s biggest flaw beyond the drinking beyond the depression is his inability to see that people do love him Just not in the way he deems enough It all comes back to Casablanca Nobody ever loved me that much The post Blue Moon and the desire to be loved appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta