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cri de coeur: original soundtrack

by Kenny Nowell

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1.
go go boots 03:32
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2.
sex under a bare bulb 01:48
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3.
keep going 02:46
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4.
taxi to brooklyn 01:42
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5.
flatbush avenue 02:18
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6.
no elevator 02:10
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7.
kiss me 04:36
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8.
perfume 02:30
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9.
back across the bridge 03:14
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10.
east village sunrise 03:03
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about

“Ah, yes, the anachronistic thing,” underground film director Jean Michon lights a cigarette and sighs as though he has been asked about this aspect of his film “Cri de Coeur” too many times. With the opening scene in the Ludlow Street bar in the mid-1990s, he evokes the eternal cool of the swinging 60s (“go go boots”). “The anachronistic thing grew out of the process,” he says, growing more animated. “I wanted these two strangers to meet with a kind of Saturday Night Fever type of dance pyro techniques. You know, ‘I’m your equal as a dancer, baby.’ But the cool music of those days wasn’t working so much. You know, so they couldn’t be both downtown cool and really, you know, DANCE. So we came up with this grunge go-go vibe.”

He takes a big drag. “Or whatever.”

Michon was also sure that he wanted the film to be a visual ballet. No word of dialogue is spoken until the unnamed man helps the unnamed woman off the sink after their quick and dirty sex. “Thanks!” she says as she takes out her lipstick.

Michon laughs.

“The funny thing, we thought of the band at the other club (“keep going”) as maybe the one making all of the other music. We filmed that in the old Coney Island High. For me, it’s an homage to The Yardbirds in ‘Blow Up.’ Except no one smashes the guitar.”

He laughs harder.

He shrugs his reluctant agreement to my observation that the soundtrack gets more “funky” as the strangers head to Brooklyn. “A bit obvious, I’m afraid.” Then he adds: “And what’s really embarrassing,” he puts a hand over his face, “we gave that a Henry Mancini twist when they sneak into the old boyfriend’s place to get her necklace (“no elevator”). I wanted it to become a heist film for a few minutes or something.”

Michon has said many times that “Cri de Coeur” is mainly a love note to New York. “Like when he’s heading back to Manhattan in the taxi, he’s exhausted. Running around the city all night. Wild sex. But he’s still plugged in.”

I mention the appropriated Max Roach music for Unnamed Man’s walk home at sunrise.

“Yes, don’t you know that feeling? The only way to end your night is with a sort of disintegration. Right?”

I know exactly what he means.

credits

released December 29, 2023

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Kenny Nowell Brooklyn, New York

Kenny Nowell was born and raised in Mississippi and resides in Brooklyn.

He recorded for the legendary Factory Records sister label Les Disques Du Crepuscules with his band Great Big Buildings. Melody Maker said the songs offer “hair-fine cracks through which you glimpse a private place.”

The NY Times said his "technique is ... a kind of Cubist sculpturing of consciousness." ... more

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