All about Rain Dogs:

Let me preface by explaining that this a playlist to accompany the writing of my screenplay, Rain Dogs. I've been developing, plotting, and researching the story for a little over a year now, and after working on an outline and scribbling out scenes and bits of dialogue, I have now begun to finally write it.

Over that year, the story has changed, characters were created and discarded, but the one constant is the relationship between the two central characters, Aviva Crémieux and Manfried Herz.

The title, Rain Dogs, I must first clarify, is from the title track of the Tom Waits album. As he had explained, rain dogs are the dogs left wandering after a storm, as all of their territory has been washed clean and they have nowhere to go. I decided upon this title when the song popped up one day on my itunes when I was researching. Everything about the song, especially the lyrics, is fitting for my characters and their story.

So what exactly is Rain Dogs about?

The story takes place in July 1945, in post WWII Paris, France.

Aviva Crémieux, a French Jewish woman and proprietor of an inn, Le Rossignol, reunites seemingly by chance with her former lover, a once German soldier, Manfried Herz, when he arrives at her inn under an assumed identity seeking shelter.

The two had met and formed an unlikely bond previously in 1941 when he was stationed in Paris and housed with her neighbors. A concert violinist at the time, Aviva had moved to Paris a couple years earlier, leaving her family back home in Nevers. Similarly, Manfried, who had lost his father to WWI, has only his mother back home in Berlin, Germany.

Come July 1942 and the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, they were separated. Aviva narrowly escaped with her life and went on to join the Resistance. Manfried went to fight on the Eastern Front.

In all that time, neither stopped feeling for one another.

With their reunion, both confront their pasts and their possible future together.

Meanwhile, Aviva's inn, which served as a front for Resistance activity during the war, now holds meetings for her former group members to discuss - and deal with - so-called collaborators that remain in the city.

The whole story is narrated by Aviva, and if you're interested, I wrote a journal entry from her point of view for getyourwordsout that you can read [here]

Note: The last name Crémieux is from Adolphe Crémieux, a French Jewish lawyer, statesman, and a staunch defender of the human rights of the Jews of France. When researching the last name of Crémieux, I had also come to learn that Crémieux is considered to be a mystery of a name, as though it is Jewish and it is French, it has no city of origin to trace it back to.

The playlist:

01. Rain Dogs - Tom Waits

Oh, how we danced and you whispered to me
You'll never be going back home

02. Brittle - Loscil

Instrumental

03. Last Year's Man - Leonard Cohen

And though I wear a uniform I was not born to fight;
all these wounded boys you lie beside,
goodnight, my friends, goodnight.

04. Hidden Place - Björk

In a hidden place
We'll stay in a hidden place

05. Glass: Violin Concerto - 3. Quarter Note = 150 Ca. - Robert McDuffie; Christoph Eschenbach: Houston Symphony Orchestra

Instrumental

06. Glow - Unkle

I find reasons and stop wondering
The different ways in which we feel the same
Give too much to what-if imagery
Now the second time means more to me

07. Metamorphosis: Metamorphosis Two - Philip Glass

Instrumental

08. Yesterday Is Here - Tom Waits

If you want to go
where the rainbows end
you'll have to say goodbye
all our dreams come true

09. Trouble Man - Rickie Lee Jones

I'm ready to make it
Don't care what the weather
Don't care 'bout no trouble
Got myself together

10. Memories Of Green - Vangelis

Instrumental

11. Burn That Broken Bed - Calexico & Iron And Wine

When are you coming back?
Bird on a branch will come back home to sing
When are you coming back?
Bringing it back and singing what you bring

12. Die Gedanken sind frei - Night Bird

Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand mir wehren,
es bleibet dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei!

13. Your Heart Is So Loud - Colleen Et Les Boîtes À Musique

Instrumental

14. The Ghosts You Draw On My Back - Múm

I hope tonight
You will touch my hair
And draw ghosts on my back

15. Organic - Philip Glass

Instrumental

16. Sweetheart Come - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

It seems we can be happy now
It's late but it ain't never

17. La Vie En Rose - Louis Armstrong

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose

18. String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): Mishima/Closing - Kronos Quartet

Instrumental

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