"Dream A Little Dream" by The Beautiful South

I'm about half-way through "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" on Netflix....and I'm loving it, naturally. Episode 5 is about a demon who tortures people by trapping them in their worst nightmares. Throughout the episode, various versions of "Dream a Little Dream" play in the background. It happens to be one of my favorite songs to sing because it's one of the songs I know I sing well. It's the tune I pulled out if I was peer pressured to sing at karaoke. It's the song I sing when I need to calm down my son or lull him to sleep. As a mezzo soprano, I feel like my voice is better  suited to songs from the Jazz Age and the Big Band era, rather than modern pop songs. It seems like all the popular songs are sung in such a ridiculously high, breathy fashion - you can't really judge someone's singing ability in that range, in my opinion. Most popstars have to sing in falsetto to reach those notes, anyway....or use autotune. That's why most pop songs don't sound as good live as on the radio.

A version of this song in French - also performed by The Beautiful South - is on the soundtrack to "French Kiss." Aside from being one of my favorite Meg Ryan movies, "French Kiss" is essentially the reason I fell in love with the culture, language and music of France. My parents had this soundtrack and I'd listen to it on repeat. The movie came out in 1995 - imagine me, a 7-year-old girl, belting out her best interpretation of the French lyrics for this song. Around this time, I also stole one of my dad's Berlitz "Teach Yourself French" books (my dad was a linguist - he had several of these books in various languages) and dedicated myself to the language. Fast forward about 15 years and several "How to be a French Girl" books later, I ended up taking up French as one of my majors at university. I've probably forgotten everything though - I don't always have time to do my Rosetta stone lessons so I'm a bit rusty. Still, you never forget the feeling. Maybe I'll run away to Paris, one day - rent an apartment in Montmartre, write in a cafe all day, and then laze about the Quartier Latin until sunset. That actually sounds pretty nice. One day, one day.

So, "French Kiss" - Meg Ryan plays a woman (Kate) whose fiance ran off with a beautiful French model. Determined to win him back, she flies to Paris. While on the flight, she meets Luc, a scruffy yet lovable rapscallion who wants to start his own vineyard and has no qualms about breaking the law to do it. Luc becomes Kate's guide and gives her advice on how to win her fiance, Charlie, back. Essentially, he's giving her lessons on being a French girl - be aloof, mysterious, non-committal. Things Kate isn't, naturally, because she wears her heart on her sleeve and she's open about how she feels. However, when she follows Luc's advice, she does get Charlie's attention but just as they're about to have sex, she realizes that she doesn't want a guy who is only interested in her when she's pretending to be someone else. Meanwhile, Luc - as a favor to help Kate - volunteers to seduce the French girlfriend, Juliette, but fucks up by calling her "Kate" in the heat of the moment. Awkward! As you can guess, Kate and Luc realize they have fallen in love in the end. Luc boards Kate's plane back to the USA and confesses his love. And there's your grand romantic gesture. 

Stars shining bright above you

Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"

Birds singing in the sycamore trees

Dream a little dream of me

Say nighty-night and kiss me

Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me

While I'm alone and blue as can be

Dream a little dream of me

What strikes me most about romantic comedies is how quickly everything happens. The events of "French Kiss" happen over - at most - a week. Even Charlie, the (shitty) fiance, falls in love with his "French goddess" over the short time that he's in Paris for a conference. Why the rush? These people are making major life decisions after feeling something for complete stranger - Kate decides to move to France and start a vineyard at the end of the movie, for chrissakes! That sounds like a terrible idea....she even knows that Luc has a sketchy past. I wonder what happens after the "happily ever after" we see at the end of romantic comedies - do they stay together? Or does it fizzle out as quickly as it started? Do they end up fighting all the time? Considering how neurotic some of these characters, it seems like that's inevitable. Yep, these movies are unrealistic bullshit....but I still like them. Something about watching a good romantic comedy makes me want to believe in happily ever afters. That probably makes me stupid - but I'm happier when I'm stupid.

Here's the official video of the song. You can see short little clips from the movie in it. It really is kind of ridiculous.

"Dream A Little Dream" Video