CMT Blog: Archive

Over the weekend I saw the gorgeous film, Let's Get Lost, a 1988 documentary about the renowned jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. I don't know much about jazz, and virtually nothing about Baker, but the movie pulled me in almost immediately. The world kind of dropped away when he started to play, and he was irresistibly photogenic too. No wonder so many women were seduced by him.

Baker gets plenty of camera time to share his story, but I am more inclined to trust the perspective of the ex-wives and ex-lovers that told the camera just how shady he was, and without much prodding. At one point, one of the ladies said something like, "As long as you knew that you couldn't rely on Chet, you could pull through." Not exactly the recipe for long-lasting love.

A few days earlier, I saw The Band's Visit, about an Egyptian police band who accepts an invitation to play a cultural event in Israel, but accidentally ends up in a remote town with a similar name. Since the last bus has gone for the day, the locals invite the band members to stay in their homes for the night, because there's nowhere else to go.

It's not a wild and crazy film, yet I haven't laughed that hard in a theater in a good long while. Isn't it amazing how two cultures can seem so different, and yet the people are so similar? Even on the other side of the world, everyday people struggle with the same emotions - frustration, regret, anticipation, lust. In fact, the handsome musician in the band is fond of asking, "Do you like Chet Baker?" Maybe I need to start using that line, but I'm not convinced that he's the guy I want to emulate in my romantic life.