Pretty in pink and other tales

And who would be in them?

For starters how about Rod the Mod's, Maggie May and You wear it well.

There was a story a few years ago that Shane Meadows was going to do a 1 hour BBC film based on B&S's'The Stars of Track and Field' - but nothing seems to have come of it (he's made a lousy pastiche 'western' instead). I think it could have been a terrific film - the lyric provides enough weird compelling detail (the honey with a following of innocent boys, the boy who's throwing discus for Liverpool and Widnes, the terry underwear, the blue velour and silk) to suggest a strong, idiosyncratic story. I also like the idea of Murdoch, who has borrowed so much from a certain type of film himself (ie 'Gregory's Girl', Hal Hartley), in turn inspiring a film.

Actually, though, I suspect that the song might be too detailed for its own good - it doesn't give the film-maker much room to manouevre. Maybe in the same way that mediocre books can make the best films (ie The Godfather), maybe non-specific songs (such as PiP), which suggest a mood rather than a locale and plot, allow more room for a film to stand on its own.

Blockbuster:
"Girlfriend in a Coma."

Starring Owen Wilson and Sandra Bullock. Grumpy father played by Kurtwood Smith.

'Girlfriend in a Coma' = Almodovar's 'Talk to Her'!

Haven't seen it... but I'm thinking that it would be a zany, feel-good comedy. Maybe Tom Green is the wacky brother.

It would be kind of a "Weekend at Bernie's", only it's Sandra Bullock, and she's not dead.

Jerry I think that film might well have been apalling - too many Do-You-See moments.

'Do you see moments'? No more so than a movie adaptation of a book, a video game or an old movie, surely?

(And I kind of made that point already in my second paragraph.)

No, because the song is considerably shorter (in terms of time-taken-to-experience) than any of those things so there's only so much to work with, and as you say that song in particular relies on a lot of very specific details, many of them visual, rather than a broader narrative. So the potential for awfulness along the lines of look-there-is-the-terry-underwear and "What event are you competing in? Oh, discus!" would be high.

(Yes you did, but I think song adaptations are different from book ones anyway)

Whitehouse, "Try and Be Grateful"

Hmmm - I think the way some people (ie me) listen to songs such as 'TSoTaF' is to create little Bill Forsyth movies in our head anyway - I think to actually make one of those films would be an interesting experiment at the very least. Perhaps the main reason I'm interested in the prospect of this lost film, though, is that it was due to be written and directed by Shane Meadows who I don't think is capable of anything as crass as you've suggested.

I think the awfulness (as with a lot of cult films) perhaps wouldn't be provided by the director but by the viewers.

Whatever can you mean?!

Basehead - Better Days [somehow staring Sandra Bullock and Jay Z]

This question kept buzzing through my head (like a bee lost in the fields of winter) while I was supposed to be paying attention in my Editorial Board meeting this afternoon. Some points that occurred to me, when I should have been concentrating on market-testing and fulfillment, were:

1) I think comic book and video-game adaptations both have that DOYOUSEE element that Tom mentions - perhaps to a greater extent. I don't think there's ever been a good computergame film (though no doubt plenty of people will disagree), but even the "DO YOU SEE? THIS IS A RADIOACTIVE SPIDER!" or the other key well-know plot elements of 'Spider-Man' stopped it being my favourite mainstream Hollywood film of the last 2 years.

2) Hollywood is rapacious in its vampirism towards other media - which is why so many remakes/cartoon/comic/game adaptations, and interesting directors should maybe be encouraged towards interesting pop song versions. It strikes me that pop songs may actually have a tendency to suggest more interesting films... Compared with these aforementioned media which are generally overwhelmingly linear, a good pop song is more elliptical in its treatment of narrative. It works through sharp detail, stray scenes, tone of voice... offering more gaps through which a story might be picked up, explored, invented. In fact it occurred to me that, in his best writing (the Staggerlee and Mystery Train sections of 'Mystery Train', the whole of 'Invisible Republic') this is actually Greil Marcus's critical method: inhabiting, investigating, plumbing and projecting a song via the cinemascope of the imagination. (It's also Steve Erickson's method in writing novels, I think). In this case, filmic versions of songs might be the ultimate form of pop criticism.

3) Did anyone (Dave Q?) see that Sean Penn film based on Springsteen's 'Highway Patrolman'? Was it any good?

spectre vs rector!!

Sean Penn's "Indian Runner" is ace. He lets his brother flee in the end - Canadian border, you know... I like both David Morse and Viggo Mortensen (anyone seen The Reflecting Skin? Definitely worth it!) as the two brothers, and Charles Bronson is strangely moving.

Nick Cave's "John Finn's Wife" is very visual and a thrilling story. Could be terrific: "the cops were all out on the town but it dont look like no trouble there... So they hit the bar in their lumpy suits.."

Does anyone recall hearing around '88 or so plans to make a tv series where each episode was based around a Beatles song (MJ was developing it of course). It would have been awful - too bad they didn't make it.

Common People. Nuff said.

"Girlfriend in a Coma." = execrable Douglas Coupland book.

Also, I always thought the Furs' song was about a drag queen. That part got cut out of the John Hughes movie.

I enjoyed Velvet Goldmine, but many don't.

James: There was that episode of the Powerpuff Girls where every line was a Beatles lyric.

Couple of obvious ones...

Velvet Underground - "The Gift"
Marty Robbins - "El Paso"

Surely "The State That I Am In" would be a better B&S song to be turned into a film? Starring Ethan Hawke as Stuart Murdoch, Hilary Swank as the crippled friend, Thora Birch as his child bride, and Gene Hackman as the priest.

I think you described Wes Anderson's new film.