Love, Love, Love
by 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
It is pointed out
Can't keep my wits about
When 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
But something lingers on
There's certain sadness here
Now that the sky is clear
* I have forwarded my article to Ms.
Gilberto.
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