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Effortless (SH)

from Sylvan Hour by Allison Crowe

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“Cinema changed him and he changed cinema,” Agnès Varda, the great Ixelles (Brussels)-born French photographer and film director, says of cultural confrère, French-Swiss director/screenwriter/critic, Jean-Luc Godard.

JLG’s short “Une femme coquette” is filmed in Geneva with credits to Hans Lucas (a nom de guerre the ground-breaking iconoclast used also for writings in ‘Cahier du Cinéma’). It’s rarely exhibited and seen until its recent sharing online with the world by Australian cinéaste and critic Dave Hesler. (Gracias, Nina, for flagging the original now available in full via YouTube @ www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzpFi0uBmzs and elsewhere.)

This early (1955) creation of Godard, as excerpted here, finds its images meeting new sound – from Canadian musician Allison Crowe. “Effortless” is recorded by Ryan Adams in a log-home of Crowe’s friends on Salt Spring Island, BC. “Trying not to try so hard” is the puzzle.

lyrics

Effortless

Words & Music by Allison Crowe

I'm trying not to try so hard,
Makes me wonder if it's really effortless,
Or if I'm fooling myself?
'Cause if I have to put so much of me
Into trying not to care,
Where am I then?
I'm lying.

And do you see the way I walk away?
I never really know what I should say,
So it comes out wrong,
If it comes out at all.

So I straighten myself out,
I bring me back down,
"Don't be ridiculous,
You are so wrong."
But then I'm drifting,
On a wave of thought.
I get lost in the tides,
And I can barely recognize myself.

I don't mind,
'Cause do you see the way I walk away?
I never really know what I should say,
So it comes out wrong,
If it comes out at all.

So I try to act the way I would
If I was someone that wasn't me.
But you wipe that away, don't you?
And I am falling down,
I am tripping on words,
I am out of my mind.
You know, this is not like me.
I'm not usually happy, I swear.

And do you see the way I walk away?
I never really know what I should say
So it comes out wrong.

And I turn my back
And I don't look back.
I am unafraid...

...but really I'm just kidding.

I'm terrified,
And I think I like it.

And I don't care if I look ridiculous,
Trying to be effortless.

credits

from Sylvan Hour, released May 5, 2015

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Allison Crowe Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador

"Why music?" "Why breathing?"

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