`Here and Now, by Julian Higgins

Julian Higgins is a Los Angeles-based writer and director. His graduate thesis film from the American Film Institute, THIEF, won the 2011 Student Academy Award, and he went on to make his television directing debut with one of the final episodes of HOUSE. In his Project Imaginat10n film, HERE AND NOW, a young married couple contemplates the future of their strained relationship, reflecting back on the times when they were most in love.

Many years ago, before we were married, Karen and I were friends with John and Madeleine.  We may have met in T'ai Chi class, John having been my student, I believe.  One time, at their apartment in Rogers Park in Chicago, John played a poignant piano piece that, I swear, I had heard before.  But I couldn't place it.  I never knew the title or composer, as I somehow never felt inclined to ask John.  I just listened to it, turned inward, and that was that.  Some years later, I heard that piece again, and by then I had two layers of evocative memory at my disposal.

It was Gymnopédie no. 1, by Erik Satie.  

Julian Higgins anchors his film on this piece, and if it were music or poetry, it would be the volta.  In her reminiscence, she and her husband are making love in the tight bed quarters of a trailer, and this piece is playing in the background.  She may have been dreaming, while asleep lightly, and remembering at the same time.  But she wakes up, and hears it in their house.  So it isn't just a dream, because her husband is actually playing it in the living room.  Their relationship remains quite strained, but this volta is the pained beginning of their romantic rekindling.

Higgins is not a celebrity, so he wasn't endowed with a big budget to make the film and there isn't any behind-the-scenes video.  But no matter.  Here's a blog that captures the under story: Abigail Spencer Lights Up Award-Winner.