Johnny
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n660xoYQc0Q&feature=related
shareThis is my favorite scene in the entire film. Kazan frames it so beautifully. Katie almost, at last, understanding Johnny's deep love for her and the family, even if he can only express it in his music.
When she starts to tell him how beautiful the song is to her, his immediate repeat of the verse shows, I think, that he doesn't believe that Katie really loves him anymore and the time for praise is long past. Look how Francie reacts -- she too is stunned by this moving song and also by Johnny's apparent rebuff of Katie's attempt to reach out to him.
That about sums up how I previously viewed the scene. This time while watching, for some reason I looked at it in a different context: Johnny had just been told little Flossie died. He expressed how important it was that she had all those nice dresses while she was alive and Katie disputed him, saying how the money should've been saved for Flossie's funeral, so she would be buried in a place better than Potter's Field. When Johnny is told about the piano, he's still visibly shaken over the discussion about Flossie.
While listening to Johnny's song, I felt like it was a dedication to Flossie. When Katie complimented him on the song, he seemed defiant to continue playing, because his song dedication to Flossie was as crucial as the nice dresses she had.
It was powerful to view it that way, however, it puts Katie in a less flattering light when she starts hammering the can to the floor the same moment the song ends.
Mag, Darling, you're being a bore.
Yes, absolutely and the "dedication to Flossie" is meant for all the "Flossies" in Johnny's life, in those tenements---as far as Johnny could travel and see. When he approaches her on the stairs earlier she (Flossie) is never shown face first, there is no close up. I think Kazan there is formalizing "Flossie" to represent all the children graveled in poverty. Johnny would never discriminate.
share