BP!
Sharon and Stephen and I were at the Film Forum on Houston the other night to see Todd Haynes amazing new film, I’m Not There: the fact-based but still highly-impressionistic Bob Dylan biopic starring Richard Gere, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and the recently departed Heath Ledger, among others. I’m guessing that Blanchett’s Golden Globe Award-winning/Academy Award nominated performance, augmented by rampant, fresh sentimentality over Ledger’s passing, helped to pack the tiny theater to capacity.
Beyond that, of course, I’m Not There is fucking excellent and deserves all the awards and praises that it’s earned. Some of my favorite parts of the film were those with actress Julianne Moore playing a character heavily based on Joan Baez. Because Joan Baez is awesome.
Anyway, after the film Sharon and I made a pit stop in the ladies room and who should walk in right behind us but the sensational Bernadette Peters! You know, what’s amazing about Bernadette Peters is how she manages to look like she’s still in her thirties, when I just looked her bio up on the Wikipedia, where it says she’ll be (wait for it) sixty years old on February 28th! Holy cow! She’s obviously had some work done on her face but someone needs to give her surgeon’s phone number to plastic surgery disasters like Joan Rivers because, damn, she’s done a nice job!
Bernadette,
People are searching for the kind of love that
we possess.
Some go on searching their whole life through
And never find the love I’ve found in you.
And when I speak of you, I see envy in other
men’s eyes.
And I’m well aware of what’s on their minds.
They pretend to be my friend when all the time
they long to persuade you from my side.
They’d give the world and all they own for
just one moment we have known.
Bernadette
They want you because of the pride that it
gives.
But Bernadette,
I want you because I need you to live.
But while I live only to hold you,
Some other men, they long to control you.
But how can they control you
Bernadette
When they can not control themselves
Bernadette
From wanting you, needing you, but darling
You belong to me, I’ll tell the world.
You belong to me, I’ll tell the world.
You’re the soul of me, I’ll tell the world,
You’re a part of me.
Bernadette.
In your arms I find the kind of peace of mind the world is
Searching for.
But you, you give me the joy this heart of
mine has always been longing for.
In you I have what other men long for.
All men need someone to worship and adore.
That’s why I treasure you and place you high
above.
For the only joy in life is to be loved.
So whatever you do, Bernadette.
Keep on loving me, Bernadette.
Keep on needing me, Bernadette.
Bernadette,
You’re the soul of me, more than a dream.
You are planned to me.
And Bernadette,
You mean more to me than a woman was ever
meant to be
Bernadette,
My darling, Bernadette.
— “Bernadette”, The 4 Tops (1966)